The Scripture had to be Fulfilled
Acts (EMPOWERED TO WITNESS) • Sermon • Submitted • Presented
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Then they returned to Jerusalem from the mount called Olivet, which is near Jerusalem, a Sabbath day’s journey away. And when they had entered, they went up to the upper room, where they were staying, Peter and John and James and Andrew, Philip and Thomas, Bartholomew and Matthew, James the son of Alphaeus and Simon the Zealot and Judas the son of James. All these with one accord were devoting themselves to prayer, together with the women and Mary the mother of Jesus, and his brothers.
In those days Peter stood up among the brothers (the company of persons was in all about 120) and said, “Brothers, the Scripture had to be fulfilled, which the Holy Spirit spoke beforehand by the mouth of David concerning Judas, who became a guide to those who arrested Jesus.
A man and a woman were both given the same piece of furniture to build and an hour to complete building it.
They separated and both went to work. When the hour had past they brought their completed projects before one another. When they had seen what the other had built they both said, “What is that,” because what they had built was so drastically different.
The woman said to the man, “did you even follow the directions,” to which he replied, “There were directions?”
I share that because I have lived some version of that so many times, and I know it is not unique to me alone.
We love to go our own way. We love being stubborn, and leaning into self confidence and pride much more than humility and acknowledging our need for direction. And I don’t think it’s any surprise that this can be a bigger problem for men than it is for women.
We can figure it out.
We can fix it.
We don’t need directions or written instructions.
And just like in our illustration we so often disregard what is written for our good in order to go our own way.
TRANSITION
In the ESV translation of the Holy Scriptures, the term “It is written,” is used 30 times in the New Testament with a third of those being said by Jesus himself. He said if you trust me, you will trust what is written in God’s word, but we see many throughout his earthly ministry disregard what was written for their good in order to go their own way.
Let’s pick on the Apostle Peter today.
This dude was always ready to go no matter what.
When so many deserted Jesus because his teachings were hard Peter said, “where else would we go, you have the words of eternal life.”
When Jesus walked on the water and told Peter to come, Peter jumped out of that boat and did just what he said.
When Jesus asked who the disciples thought he was, Peter said, “you are the Christ, the Son of the living God.”
Peter was ready. Always ready to respond. Always ready to go.
But that same confidence also got him in trouble more than once.
When Jesus said that he would have to suffer and die in order to fulfill the Scriptures, Peter told him, “Not on my watch!” To which Jesus said, “Get behind me Satan, you are trusting the worry of man, not the word of God.”
When Jesus was washing the disciples’ feet, Peter said, “You ain’t washing my feet, this is beneath you!” Jesus said whoever doesn’t let me wash them has no part with me.
And when the crowds said they knew that he had been with Jesus, Peter denied him three times. His confidence was tested and it ultimately failed him.
Peter’s greatest strength was also his greatest weakness.
This is the same for all of us by the way. Probably the areas where we shine, we also have the tendency to really hurt others.
But Jesus did not change Peter to be a less confident and bold individual. Just as Jesus will not take away your greatest strength, but he will redeem it. What the enemy uses for evil, God will use for good.
And that is what Jesus did for Peter, he redeemed this prideful and self confident man.
When they had finished breakfast, Jesus said to Simon Peter, “Simon, son of John, do you love me more than these?” He said to him, “Yes, Lord; you know that I love you.” He said to him, “Feed my lambs.” He said to him a second time, “Simon, son of John, do you love me?” He said to him, “Yes, Lord; you know that I love you.” He said to him, “Tend my sheep.” He said to him the third time, “Simon, son of John, do you love me?” Peter was grieved because he said to him the third time, “Do you love me?” and he said to him, “Lord, you know everything; you know that I love you.” Jesus said to him, “Feed my sheep. Truly, truly, I say to you, when you were young, you used to dress yourself and walk wherever you wanted, but when you are old, you will stretch out your hands, and another will dress you and carry you where you do not want to go.” (This he said to show by what kind of death he was to glorify God.) And after saying this he said to him, “Follow me.”
Jesus reorients Peter’s thinking. Telling him that the way he used to walk and act is not how he will walk and act anymore.
He literally said, when you were young you did this, but now that you are old, you do this.
Bringing to mind what Paul said in 1 Corinthians 13:11
When I was a child, I spoke like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I gave up childish ways.
And there are so many “men,” speaking like children, thinking like children, and reasoning like children. They have not given up their childish ways. Like the man in our illustration they refuse to trust what is written for their good, in order to go there own way.
And as a result, we have broken marriages, broken homes, and broken children. Yet we can figure it out. We can fix it. And our pride is keeping so many boys from becoming men.
The author John Steinbeck has this to say,
“A boy gets to be a man when a man is needed. Remember this thing. I have known boys forty years old because there was no need for a man.”
The world needs men. And as men, I encourage us to give up our childish ways beginning by trusting what is written for our good, in God’s Word.
And when we trust him, he will transform us, just as he does Peter.
TRANSITION
Remember the context of our passage today. Jesus had just been taken up to heaven. And the disciples were told to go to Jerusalem and wait for the Holy Spirit. They were surely frustrated and confused, but they listened. They did not just go back to Jerusalem to sit around and complain about how hard this new work was going to be. No, they all gathered together and began devoting themselves to prayer.
Then they returned to Jerusalem from the mount called Olivet, which is near Jerusalem, a Sabbath day’s journey away. And when they had entered, they went up to the upper room, where they were staying, Peter and John and James and Andrew, Philip and Thomas, Bartholomew and Matthew, James the son of Alphaeus and Simon the Zealot and Judas the son of James. All these with one accord were devoting themselves to prayer, together with the women and Mary the mother of Jesus, and his brothers.
They were devoting themselves to prayer. They had been walking with Jesus for three years, and this simple act demonstrates their loyalty to the word of Jesus.
Remember that Luke is the one who is writing this book, and in his gospel account he speaks of Jesus telling them to do this.
And he told them a parable to the effect that they ought always to pray and not lose heart.
To not lose heart means to not be discouraged even in the face of great adversity.
They are struggling. They are not in the best place emotionally, yet this devotion to prayer was an act of obedience to Christ. Instead of losing heart they trusted in the promise of the coming Holy Spirit, and they relied on asking God in prayer to guide them.
Church, we can be certain that it was because of their devotion to prayer that the Lord began to work through them to build his church. They trusted his word.
How I pray that we would trust his word, so faithfully. We will be dealing with adversity as Christians in this world, but we need not lose heart. We need to pray. Prayer is such a powerful declaration of our dependence on him and our unity with one another.
If we want unified churches, we need praying churches.
It’s only when our churches are spiritually unified in obedience to their King, that God’s glory becomes exceedingly evident.
This kind of unity in our churches displays the power of the gospel to the world around us.
God give us this confidence in you. Help us to turn to prayer and trust in who you are in community over complaining or gossiping that things are not going the way we want them to. Give us this kind of faith so that we can be unified and demonstrate your glory not our own.
TRANSITION
It is also worth mentioning Mary’s presence in the upper room. She wasn’t there just because she was Jesus’ mother, but because she was a faithful follower of Christ. She trusted her son as Savior. She believed in his death and resurrection, so she joined together with the disciples and other believers.
Also the mention of Jesus’ brothers being in this room is highly significant as well. Throughout the Gospels, his brothers oppose him and his ministry (Matthew 13:55; Mark 6:3).
In Mark 3:21 we see Jesus’ own family saying that he was “out of his mind.”
And when his family heard it, they went out to seize him, for they were saying, “He is out of his mind.”
And John 7:5 tells us that not even his brothers believed in him.
For not even his brothers believed in him.
Now his mother and his brothers are a part of a small band of believers gathered in this upper room.
This is why we need to have a long view of our neighbor, or our brother or our sister who do not believe.. This is why we do not need to ever give up praying for those who are far from the Lord. The gospel of Jesus Christ is capable of changing literally anyone at anytime. In the same way that Jesus’ brothers came to believe in him after denying his identity and straying from his teaching, so too can the greatest sinner come to Christ.
You know my story. It is a messy story, and I frankly get tired of bringing it up. But I am fully aware of how it allows you to see the power of God. And as people who trust the word of the Lord, we have the stories of countless others in Scripture who lived lives far from God and became some of the greatest evangelists in history.
TRANSITION
In
In those days Peter stood up among the brothers (the company of persons was in all about 120) and said, “Brothers, the Scripture had to be fulfilled, which the Holy Spirit spoke beforehand by the mouth of David concerning Judas, who became a guide to those who arrested Jesus.
And It is here in these moments that we get our first glimpse of Peter moving from a strong willed boy to a confident man. He tells us something that we need to be reminded of time and time again.
The Scripture had to be fulfilled.
This statement shows us that Peter’s confidence is no longer in himself, but it is in God’s Word.
He’s growing in trust. In this moment, he does not fully understand why Jesus had to go. He does not fully understand why they have to wait on the Holy Spirit. But he is growing in his ability to trust God’s Word whether he understands it or not.
God’s Word is the truth, but God’s Word is also prophetic, meaning it is supposed to help us see what we cannot currently see.
And as we do what it says, the Spirit actually confirms the truth of the word.
This is why Jesus tells us, “it is written,” and “the Scripture had to be fulfilled,” all the times that he does. He was showing us that it is not man’s knowledge or ability or understanding that brings salvation, but it is the prophetic Word of God empowered by the Holy Spirit of God at work through the people of God. So, when Scripture was written by men, it was not through their knowledge, or understanding, but it was the Holy Spirit illuminating or shining a light on what we could not see. And through trust in that Word, God will transform us. And God ultimately transforms us through the same Spirit that empowers his Word.
Later in Peter’s life he writes this truth to the churches that he helped plant. In
And we have the prophetic word more fully confirmed, to which you will do well to pay attention as to a lamp shining in a dark place, until the day dawns and the morning star rises in your hearts, knowing this first of all, that no prophecy of Scripture comes from someone’s own interpretation. For no prophecy was ever produced by the will of man, but men spoke from God as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit.
So Peter learned to follow what was written, not because he understood it better, but because he had gone his own way more than once, and seen the faultiness of his own intuition and confidence. It lead him to deny the savior, but he was met with grace. And because of this he was able to stand and say with that same redeemed confidence that the Scripture had to be fulfilled, because the mouth of the Lord has spoken. And when God speaks, things happen.
When he said, “Let there be light,” the universe appeared.
When he says, “Let it be written,” we know it must be fulfilled.
But how will we ever know what must be fulfilled, if we never even know what is written?
A.W. Tozer says that
“Satan’s greatest weapon is man’s ignorance to God’s Word.”
Yet so often we disregard what is written for our good in order to go our own way.
The world needs men to step up and lead. Lead your families. Lead your children. Lead men in your community. Lead them in the light of the Lord.
Read the word of God. Pray the Word of God. Ask the Spirit to illuminate the Word of God, so that you might more fully trust the word of God.
And that is what Peter is doing here. Not necessarily understanding the Word of God, but trusting it, because he knows God the Father, God the Son and God the Spirit to be reliable. He knows them to be faithful. Because they have not failed him yet. He is praying with the disciples and telling them that the Scripture must be fulfilled. So that is what they do. They go to the word in order to discover their next move. They go to the word in order to set their course. Because they know the word will shine a light in a light in a dark place.
May that be our posture as a church. May we look to these disciples, and not lose heart, in the midst of our own adversity and uncertainty. And may we be inspired to turn to the word of God for the season that is in front of us.
In
“For as the rain and the snow come down from heaven
and do not return there but water the earth,
making it bring forth and sprout,
giving seed to the sower and bread to the eater,
so shall my word be that goes out from my mouth;
it shall not return to me empty,
but it shall accomplish that which I purpose,
and shall succeed in the thing for which I sent it.
“For you shall go out in joy
and be led forth in peace;
the mountains and the hills before you
shall break forth into singing,
and all the trees of the field shall clap their hands.
Instead of the thorn shall come up the cypress;
instead of the brier shall come up the myrtle;
and it shall make a name for the Lord,
an everlasting sign that shall not be cut off.”
We are shown what happens when the word of God goes out from his mouth. It does not return void, but transforms harmful weeds into flourishing trees. That is the promise that we have as believers when we trust what is written. We don’t have to know it or understand it fully, but we must trust the one who spoke it, because he is faithful to do it.
LET’S PRAY.
Why is it important to trust what is written in the Bible?
What does the phrase 'the Scripture had to be fulfilled' imply about God's plan?
How can we encourage each other in our community to trust God's Word more?
Why is it important to pray together with others?
What steps can you take this week to deepen your prayer life?
Then they returned to Jerusalem from the mount called Olivet, which is near Jerusalem, a Sabbath day’s journey away. And when they had entered, they went up to the upper room, where they were staying, Peter and John and James and Andrew, Philip and Thomas, Bartholomew and Matthew, James the son of Alphaeus and Simon the Zealot and Judas the son of James. All these with one accord were devoting themselves to prayer, together with the women and Mary the mother of Jesus, and his brothers.
In those days Peter stood up among the brothers (the company of persons was in all about 120) and said, “Brothers, the Scripture had to be fulfilled, which the Holy Spirit spoke beforehand by the mouth of David concerning Judas, who became a guide to those who arrested Jesus.
INTRODUCTION
A man and a woman were both given the same piece of furniture to build and an hour to complete building it.
The man pulled out the materials and began building. While the woman pulled out the instructions and began reading
When the hour had past they brought their completed projects before one another. When they had seen what the other had built they both said, “What is that,” because what they had built was so drastically different from the other’s.
The woman said to the man, “did you even read the instructions,” to which he replied, “There were instructions?”
Now I don’t know about you, but I can certainly relate to this. I am a man who has always disregarded instructions in order to go my own way. And I know this is not unique to me alone.
God’s Word says that all have gone astray.
In some ways, we all elevate our pride more than acknowledge our need for instruction.
And it’s no surprise that this is often a bigger problem for men than it is for women.
We can figure it out.
We can fix it.
We don’t need directions or written instructions.
And just like the man in our illustration we so often disregard what is written for our good in order to go our own way.
But in our text today we see a man learning to trust that God’s word is more reliable than going his own way.
Remember last week we said that the kingdom of God has always spread through messy people who trust the word of the Lord, over the worry of the world.
Our thoughts, our fears, and our desires will always rule us until we learn to trust what is written.
TRANSITION
In the ESV translation of the Holy Scriptures, the term “It is written,” is used 30 times in the New Testament with a third of those being said by Jesus himself. So if we follow Jesus, we must trust what is written in God’s word, because it is the very thing leading him.
But so many throughout his earthly ministry disregard what was written for their good in order to go their own way.
Let’s look at the Apostle Peter.
This dude was always ready to go no matter what.
When so many deserted Jesus because his teachings were hard Peter said, “where else would we go, you have the words of eternal life?”
When Jesus walked on the water and told Peter to come, Peter jumped out of that boat and did just what he said.
When Jesus asked who the disciples thought he was, Peter said, “you are the Christ, the Son of the living God.”
Peter was ready. Always ready to respond. Always ready to go.
But that same confidence also got him in trouble more than once.
When Jesus said that he would have to suffer and die in order to fulfill the Scriptures, Peter told him, “Not on my watch!” To which Jesus said, “Get behind me Satan, you are trusting the worry of man, not the word of God.”
When Jesus was washing the disciples’ feet, Peter said, “You ain’t washing my feet, this is beneath you!” Jesus said whoever doesn’t let me wash them has no part with me.
And when the crowds said they knew that he had been with Jesus, Peter denied him three times. His confidence was tested and it ultimately failed him. And this was just a few weeks prior to our scene in Acts today.
Peter was always ready to go, no matter what, but he was either acting out of arrogance or anxiety, not trust.
Peter’s greatest strength was also his greatest weakness.
This is the same for all of us by the way. The areas where we shine, we also have the tendency to really hurt others.
But Jesus did not change Peter to be a less confident and bold individual. Just as Jesus will not take away your greatest strength, but he will redeem it as we learn to trust him.
What the enemy uses for evil, he will use for good.
And that is what Jesus did for Peter, he redeemed this prideful and self confident man.
When they had finished breakfast, Jesus said to Simon Peter, “Simon, son of John, do you love me more than these?” He said to him, “Yes, Lord; you know that I love you.” He said to him, “Feed my lambs.” He said to him a second time, “Simon, son of John, do you love me?” He said to him, “Yes, Lord; you know that I love you.” He said to him, “Tend my sheep.” He said to him the third time, “Simon, son of John, do you love me?” Peter was grieved because he said to him the third time, “Do you love me?” and he said to him, “Lord, you know everything; you know that I love you.” Jesus said to him, “Feed my sheep. Truly, truly, I say to you, when you were young, you used to dress yourself and walk wherever you wanted, but when you are old, you will stretch out your hands, and another will dress you and carry you where you do not want to go.” (This he said to show by what kind of death he was to glorify God.) And after saying this he said to him, “Follow me.”
Jesus reorients Peter’s thinking. Telling him that the way he used to walk and act is not how he will walk and act anymore.
He literally said, when you were young you did this, but now that you are old, you do this.
Bringing to mind what Paul said in 1 Corinthians 13:11
When I was a child, I spoke like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I gave up childish ways.
And we live in a world where there are so many “men,” speaking like children, thinking like children, and reasoning like children. They have not given up their childish ways. Like the man in our illustration they refuse to trust what is written for their good, in order to go their own way.
And as a result, we have broken marriages, broken homes, and broken children. Yet we keep lying to ourselves and to others saying that we can figure it out. We can fix it. And our pride is keeping so many boys from becoming men.
The author John Steinbeck has this to say,
“A boy gets to be a man when a man is needed. Remember this thing. I have known boys forty years old because there was no need for a man.”
The world needs men. And I don’t just mean angry dudes that are willing to fight about everything. But real men, shaped by patience and wisdom. And this begins by giving up our childish ways and trusting what is written for our good, in God’s Word.
But this is not only for men. All have fallen short of God’s glory.
But when we learn to trust his word, he will transform us, that is his promise, and that is just what he does for Peter.
TRANSITION
So with that, remember the context of our passage. Jesus had just been taken up to heaven. And the disciples were told to go to Jerusalem and wait for the Holy Spirit. They were surely frustrated and confused, but they listened. They did not just go back to Jerusalem to sit around and complain about how hard this new work was going to be. No, they all gathered together and began devoting themselves to prayer.
Then they returned to Jerusalem from the mount called Olivet, which is near Jerusalem, a Sabbath day’s journey away. And when they had entered, they went up to the upper room, where they were staying, Peter and John and James and Andrew, Philip and Thomas, Bartholomew and Matthew, James the son of Alphaeus and Simon the Zealot and Judas the son of James. All these with one accord were devoting themselves to prayer, together with the women and Mary the mother of Jesus, and his brothers.
They were devoting themselves to prayer. They had been walking with Jesus for three years, and this simple act demonstrates their loyalty to the word of Jesus.
Luke is the one writing the book of Acts, and in his gospel account he speaks of Jesus telling them to do this.
And he told them a parable to the effect that they ought always to pray and not lose heart.
To not lose heart means to not be discouraged even in the face of great adversity.
They are struggling. They are not in the best place emotionally, yet this devotion to prayer was an act of obedience to Christ. Instead of losing heart they trusted in the promise of the coming Holy Spirit, and they relied on asking God in prayer to guide them.
The Lord began to work through them to build his church, beginning with their trust in his word and devotion to prayer.
How I pray that we will demonstrate such faithfulness at the Garden.
We will surely be dealing with adversity as Christians in this world, but we need not lose heart. We need to pray.
Prayer is such a powerful declaration of our dependence on him and our unity with one another.
If we want unified churches, we need praying churches.
This kind of unity displays the power of the gospel to the world around us.
TRANSITION
It is also worth mentioning Mary’s presence in the upper room. She wasn’t there just because she was Jesus’ mother, but because she was a faithful follower of Christ. She trusted her son as Savior. She believed in his death and resurrection, so she joined together with the disciples and other believers.
Also the mention of Jesus’ brothers being in this room is highly significant as well. Throughout the Gospels, his brothers oppose him and his ministry.
In Mark 3:21 we see Jesus’ own family saying that he was “out of his mind.”
And when his family heard it, they went out to seize him, for they were saying, “He is out of his mind.”
And John 7:5 tells us that not even his brothers believed in him.
For not even his brothers believed in him.
Now his mother and his brothers are a part of a small band of believers gathered in this upper room.
His brother James went on to lead the Jerusalem council and write the book of James.
His brother Jude went on to write the book of Jude.
This is why we need to have a long view of our neighbor, or our family who do not currently believe.
This is why we do not need to ever give up praying for those who are far from the Lord.
The gospel of Jesus Christ is capable of changing anyone at anytime by the power of the Holy Spirit.
You know my story. It is a messy story, and I frankly get tired of bringing it up. But I am fully aware of how it allows you to see the power of God.
Jesus’ family came to believe in him after they publicly denied him. I came to believe in him after I publicly denied him. As so many others have come to believe in him after they publicly denied him and have gone on to become some of the greatest evangelists in history.
I urged you last week to begin praying for someone who is far from the Lord. Pray for the power of the Holy Spirit to show them the beauty of Jesus. Pray that God will do what he has always done. Seek and save the lost. He will answer your prayer.
TRANSITION
Moving along in our text
In those days Peter stood up among the brothers (the company of persons was in all about 120) and said, “Brothers, the Scripture had to be fulfilled, which the Holy Spirit spoke beforehand by the mouth of David concerning Judas, who became a guide to those who arrested Jesus.
It is in this moment that we get our first glimpse of Peter moving from a strong willed boy to a confident man.
Surely he is afraid and uncertain. Jesus left them. And Judas betrayed them and then killed himself. But in this moment Peter does not act out of arrogance or anxiety. But out of trust. He tells us something that we need to be reminded of time and time again.
The Scripture had to be fulfilled.
Peter’s confidence is no longer in himself, but in God’s Word.
He does not fully understand why Jesus had to go. He does not fully understand why Judas did what he did. He does not fully understand why they have to wait on the Holy Spirit. But he is growing in his ability to trust God’s Word whether he understands it or not.
All of us will have to get to this point before we can ever go where we are called.
God’s Word is the truth, but God’s Word is also prophetic, meaning it is supposed to help us see what we cannot currently see.
And as we do what it says, the Spirit actually confirms the truth of the word.
This is why Jesus tells us, “it is written,” and “the Scripture had to be fulfilled,” all the times that he does. He was showing us that it is not man’s knowledge or ability or understanding that brings salvation, but it is the prophetic Word of God empowered by the Holy Spirit of God at work through the people of God. So, when Scripture was written by men, it was not through their knowledge, or understanding, but it was the Holy Spirit illuminating or shining a light on what we could not see. And through trust in that Word, God transforms us. And he does this through the same Spirit that empowers his Word.
Later in Peter’s life he articulates this truth to the churches that he helped plant. In
And we have the prophetic word more fully confirmed, to which you will do well to pay attention as to a lamp shining in a dark place, until the day dawns and the morning star rises in your hearts, knowing this first of all, that no prophecy of Scripture comes from someone’s own interpretation. For no prophecy was ever produced by the will of man, but men spoke from God as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit.
So Peter learned to follow what was written, not because he understood it better, but because he had gone his own way more than once, and seen the faultiness of his own intuition and self confidence. It led him to deny the savior, but he was met with grace. And because of this he was able to stand and say with a redeemed confidence that the Scripture had to be fulfilled, because the mouth of the Lord has spoken. And when God speaks, things happen.
When he said, “Let there be light,” the universe appeared.
And he holds it together with a word of his mouth.
So when he says, “Let it be written,” we can confidently know it has to be fulfilled.
But how will we ever know what must be fulfilled, if we never even know what is written?
A.W. Tozer says that
“Satan’s greatest weapon is man’s ignorance to God’s Word.”
Yet so often we disregard what is written for our good in order to go our own way.
The world needs men to step up and lead. Lead your families. Lead your children. Lead men in your community. Lead them in the light of the Lord.
Read the word of God. Pray the Word of God. Ask the Spirit to illuminate the Word of God, so that you might more fully trust the word of God.
And that is what Peter is doing here. Not fully understanding the Word of God, but trusting it, because he knows the one who spoke it to be reliable. He knows them to be faithful. Because they have not failed him yet. He is praying with the disciples and telling them that the Scripture must be fulfilled. So that is what they do. They go to the word in order to discover their next move. They go to the word in order to set their course. Because they know the word will shine a light in a light in a dark place.
May that be our posture as a church. May we look to these disciples, and not lose heart, in the midst of our own adversity and uncertainty. And may we be inspired to turn to the word of God for the season that is in front of us.
In
“For as the rain and the snow come down from heaven
and do not return there but water the earth,
making it bring forth and sprout,
giving seed to the sower and bread to the eater,
so shall my word be that goes out from my mouth;
it shall not return to me empty,
but it shall accomplish that which I purpose,
and shall succeed in the thing for which I sent it.
“For you shall go out in joy
and be led forth in peace;
the mountains and the hills before you
shall break forth into singing,
and all the trees of the field shall clap their hands.
Instead of the thorn shall come up the cypress;
instead of the brier shall come up the myrtle;
and it shall make a name for the Lord,
an everlasting sign that shall not be cut off.”
We are shown what happens when the word of God goes out from his mouth. It does not return void, but transforms harmful wastelands into flourishing forests. That is the promise that we have as believers when we trust what is written. We don’t have to know it or understand it fully, but we must trust the one who spoke it, because he is faithful to do it.
LET’S PRAY.
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