JOHN 21:20\u201322<\/b><\/p>\n
Jesus said to him, \u201cIf I will that he remain till I come, what is that to you? You follow Me\u201d<\/i><\/p>\n
(John 21:22)<\/i>.<\/p>\n
Having completed our brief study of evangelism and missions, we now return to John\u2019s final entry in his gospel account. Jesus had just finished restoring Peter to the office of an apostle and giving him the charge to minister to His church and to follow Him, even in death. Peter, having accepted his Lord\u2019s call, turns and notices that John (the disciple \u201cwhom Jesus loved\u201d) was following close behind. It is not strange that John was following Peter; the two were often together. They were together when Jesus was taken before Caiaphas, and they were together at the empty tomb.<\/p>\n
Being an intimate friend, Peter naturally would be deeply concerned about John\u2019s future. Just a moment earlier, Jesus had predicted how Peter would die in his Lord\u2019s footsteps. Would the same thing happen to John? Would his friend be with him in that death? Peter wanted to know.<\/p>\n
While Peter\u2019s concern is commendable, Jesus knew what Peter really needed to hear. The impulsive apostle needed to stay focused. He could not let curiosity about John\u2019s future distract or take away from his own obedience to the Lord\u2019s all-important command to follow Him and feed His sheep. Peter was tempted to do what most of us have done at one point or another; he was tempted to be more interested in God\u2019s secret will (concerning John) than in God\u2019s revealed will (concerning Peter).<\/p>\n
Too often we become distracted by concerns that are none of our business. We want to know God\u2019s will in this matter or that, in things that He has not revealed to us. We tend to pay less attention to what God has actually revealed, to what has been clearly manifest in His Word, and more attention to those things that remain hidden. One example of this might be found in our excuse of not telling someone the Gospel because we don\u2019t know if God has chosen that person to be saved. We want to pry open the secret things of God regarding election before we obey His direct command to preach the Gospel to all nations.<\/p>\n
Let us always remember that the secret things belong to the Lord. We are simply to obey what He has commanded and leave the rest to Him.<\/p>\n
CORAM DEO<\/b><\/p>\n
Nahum<\/p>\n
Revelation 13<\/p>\n
Are you ever guilty of failing to do what you should do, or at least putting it off, because you want to know God\u2019s secret will in a matter? Meditate on the verses below, especially Deuteronomy 29:29. Think about how they apply to you personally. Beginning today, commit to leaving the secret things to God.<\/p>\n
For further study: Deut. 29:29 \u2022 John 7:16\u201324 \u2022 Rom. 12:1\u20132<\/i><\/p>\n
tuesday<\/p>\n
december<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
JOHN 21:20\u201322 Jesus said to him, \u201cIf I will that he remain till I come, what is that to you? You follow Me\u201d (John 21:22). Having completed our brief study of evangelism and missions, we now return to John\u2019s final entry in his gospel account. Jesus had just finished restoring Peter to the office of … Continue reading “THE SECRET THINGS OF GOD”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-13135","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-sermons"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13135","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=13135"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13135\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=13135"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=13135"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=13135"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}