Chaplain’s Corner –
January 24, 2012
Rev.
Rich Hines
Inmates That are Truly Seeking The Lord, are Special People!
This message is
primarily for those who call on the name of Jesus Christ as their own Lord and
Savior from sin, and serve as a Chaplain or a gospel minister in a jail, prison
or a follow-up ministry such as a rescue mission – in the
All Scripture
quotes are usually taken from the New King James Version (NKJV) of the Bible,
copyright 1979, 1980, 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved. When quoting a text, any deviation from the
NKJV text is placed within bracket signs [
]. These usually occur as direct
translations from the original languages, or as notes from the original setting
to help apply the text to today’s culture.
ALL CAPITAL
LETTERS are sometimes used to emphasize words in a text, or to make a comment
about a biblical text, or emphasize a statement.
Greetings
Christian Chaplains and volunteer gospel ministers. I pray that 2012 would be even better than
2011 was in terms of our walk with the Lord and our ministries for His great
name.
Lately,
I have again been studying the great Apostle, Paul. Every time he got into trouble for preaching
the gospel, he just kept on getting bolder.
He would not be deterred from what the Lord called him to do. I love how he said: “For I am ready not only
to be bound, but also to die at
8
Remember that Jesus Christ, of the seed of David, was raised from the
dead according to my gospel,
9
for which I suffer trouble as an evildoer, even to the point of chains;
but the word of God is not chained.
10
Therefore I ENDURE ALL THINGS FOR THE SAKE OF THE ELECT, that they also may
obtain the salvation which is in Christ Jesus with eternal glory.
You
know, some of the inmates you minister to are among the elect of God for
salvation! So, like Paul, endure
hardships to reach out to them with the life-transforming gospel of Jesus
Christ in 2012.
Now,
you may ask, “But, who are they? Who are
the elect of God?” Those are good
questions. God always knows who He is
going to save, but we don’t. From
Scripture we also know that the salvation of each soul that will ever be saved
BEGINS with God. He initiates their
salvation.
Jesus
said, “the Son of Man has come to seek and to save that which was lost” (Luke
19:10). He told the sinful Samaritan
woman in John 4:23, “the hour is coming, and now is, when the true worshipers
will worship the Father in spirit and truth; for the Father IS SEEKING such to
worship Him.” He also said to his
disciples in John 15:16 “You did not choose Me, but I chose you … ,”
While
God always initiates contact with a soul, at the same time, He also causes that
soul to be hungry and thirsty for Him.
He causes people to honestly and sincerely seek Him. That being true, I want to say to you,
INMATES THAT ARE TRULY SEEKING THE LORD ARE VERY SPECIAL PEOPLE! You need to pay special attention to them.
But,
how can we tell when an inmate, or a group of inmates are truly seeking the
Lord? Here are four good indicators:
sincere interest in the word of God, humility, honesty about their life, and a
willingness to repent.
1. Sincere interest in the word of God - the Bible
Look
out for the inmates that show a deep hunger to know and understand the
Bible. Look for the ones that ask good
questions about what the Bible says, so that they might change for the
better. A word of warning: there are
some inmates, who like to “look to mock” or are not sincere in their questions
about the Bible. You will generally know
which are which, by their attitude and actions.
Biblically I think we have some great examples of the sincere seekers of
God in Acts 17. They got serious about
the word and what it said TO THEM. Note
Acts 17:1-12.
1
Now when they had passed through Amphipolis and Apollonia, they came to
Thessalonica, where there was a synagogue of the Jews.
2
Then Paul, as his custom was, went in to them, and for three Sabbaths REASONED
WITH THEM FROM THE SCRIPTURES,
3
EXPLAINING and DEMONSTRATING that the Christ had to suffer and rise again from
the dead, and saying, “This Jesus whom I preach to you is the Christ.”
Note
three important action words in verses 2 and 3.
First, Paul REASONED with
them from the Bible. This word means he
went back and forth with thoughts from the Scripture to help them come to a
conclusion.
Secondly, He kept on
EXPLAINING (present tense verb) the word of God. He completely opened up everything the
Scripture said about the Christ’s sacrificial death and victorious
resurrection. Those facts are the heart
and center of gospel information.
Lastly, He also kept on
DEMONSTRATING (present tense verb) –
which is to say, he set the truth of Christ before them, applying it to
them. This would include the idea of
demanding they make a personal conclusion about the facts so set before them.
You
should always follow this example when teaching the Bible. Especially when you are giving the
gospel. Note the result in verse 4.
4
And SOME of them (this means some of the Jews of that synagogue) WERE
PERSUADED; (this word means they were obedient to believe) and a great
multitude of the devout Greeks, and not a few of the leading women, joined
(they also believed) Paul and Silas.
Now
this passage continues and tells about persecution from unbelievers in v. 5 and
following:
5
But the Jews who were not persuaded (in other words those Jews who were
disobedient to the word and rejected Jesus as the Christ), becoming envious
(or, jealous), took some of the evil men from the marketplace (they hired
rent-a-rioters), and gathering a mob, set all the city in an uproar (a riotous
atmosphere) and attacked the house of Jason, and sought to bring them out to
the people.
6
But when they did not find them (Paul and Silas - the main preachers), they
dragged Jason and some brethren to the rulers of the city, crying out, “These
who have turned the world upside down have come here too.
7
Jason has harbored them, and these are all acting contrary to the decrees of
Caesar, saying there is another king—Jesus.”
8
And they troubled (or, agitated and shook up) the crowd and the rulers of the
city when they heard these things.
9
So when they had taken security from Jason and the rest, they let them go.
10
Then the brethren immediately sent Paul and Silas away by night to
11
These (Jewish religious people) were more fair-minded than those (the
unbelieving Jews of the synagogue) in Thessalonica, in that they RECEIVED THE
WORD WITH ALL READINESS (this means they had an eager disposition of mind to
accept the word), and searched the Scriptures daily to find out whether
these things were so.
12
Therefore MANY OF THEM BELIEVED, and also not a few of the Greeks, prominent
women as well as men.
The
difference between the Jews of Thessalonica and the Jews of Berea was that only
“some” in Thessalonica believed (v.4), whereas “many” in
13
For this reason we also thank God without ceasing, because when you received
the word of God which you heard from us, you WELCOMED it not as
the word of men, but AS IT IS IN TRUTH, THE WORD OF GOD, which also effectively
works in you who believe.
The
word "welcomed" gives the idea of a warm receptiveness. That’s also a readiness of mind to receive
and do what God says in the Bible.
2. Humility
True
seekers of the Lord are also humble.
They know that they don’t know, and therefore come to be instructed,
rather than to show off how much they think they know.
Acts
8 has a great illustration of this. You
can read a fuller treatment of this text in the Sept. 2007, Chaplain’s Corner
message. But for now consider Acts
8:27-31
27
... behold, a man of Ethiopia, a eunuch of great authority under Candace the
queen of the Ethiopians, who had charge of all her treasury, and had come to
Jerusalem to worship,
28
was returning. And sitting in his
chariot, he was reading Isaiah the prophet.
29
Then the Spirit said to Philip, “Go near and overtake this chariot.”
30 So Philip ran to him, and heard him reading the prophet Isaiah, and said,
“Do you understand what you are reading?”
31
And he said, “How can I, unless someone guides me?” And he asked Philip to come up and sit with
him.
The
Ethiopian man of “great authority” or high rank, showed a humility in admitting
he needed help to understand what Isaiah the prophet wrote. Unlike the proud Jewish Pharisees that
opposed Jesus and thought they knew the word of God, this man humbly admitted
he did not. There are inmates that truly do have this humble teachable
attitude. Look for them!
Tell
them their humility should be coupled with a readiness to repent. James 4:6-10 shows this.
6
... Therefore He (the Holy Spirit) says: “ God resists the proud, But
gives grace to the HUMBLE.”
7 Therefore submit to God. Resist the
devil and he will flee from you.
8
Draw near to God and He will draw near to you.
Cleanse your hands, you sinners; and purify your
hearts, you double-minded.
9
Lament and mourn and weep! Let your laughter (over your sinful escapades is the
implication) BE TURNED to mourning and your joy to gloom.
10
HUMBLE YOURSELVES in the sight of the Lord, and He will lift you up.
All
the instructions given to sinners, on what they must do here: “submit,”
“Resist,” “draw near,” “Cleanse,” “purify” lament and mourn and weep” are
commands to the sinner to repent. But
the call to BE TURNED in James 4:9, is a verb form that means let yourself be
turned BY ANOTHER – and that other One is God, who helps the sinner to actually
repent.
3. Honesty
Look
for inmates that are willing to be open and honest and transparent about the
sins that they struggle with. In my
ministry to the incarcerated, I have always found some inmates like that. And when I have found them, something inside
of me pushes me, constrains me to want to give them more time and more of the
word and more prayer. I believe that
something is Someone, namely - the Holy Spirit.
Mark
9:23-24 is a wonderful text that shows the kind of honesty I’m talking
about. The context is about a man
seeking demonic deliverance for his son.
It says:
23
Jesus said to him, “If you can believe, all things are possible to him
who believes.”
24 Immediately the father of the child cried out and said with tears, “Lord, I
believe; HELP MY UNBELIEF!”
Also,
Proverbs 28:13 speaks about honesty coupled with repentance.
13
He who covers (or hides) his sins will not prosper, but whoever confesses (that
is the opposite of covering them up, so it is being honest) and forsakes them
will have mercy.
The
last thing to be on the lookout for in inmates is:
4. A willingness to repent
There
is a difference between knowing we are doing wrong and even knowing we need to
change AND actually being willing to submit to the Lord’s strength to DO IT
like James 4:9 described.
On
this issue of repentance, show God seeking inmates Acts 19:8-10 and then verses
17b-20. Those passages say:
8
And he (Paul) went into the synagogue (in
9
But when some were hardened and did not believe, but spoke evil of the Way
before the multitude, he departed from them and withdrew the disciples,
reasoning daily in the
10
And this continued for two years, so that all who dwelt in
Verses
11-17a describe “unusual miracles” and evidences of the power of God over
demons, so that together with the constant teaching of the gospel of Christ:
17
… the name of the Lord Jesus was magnified.
18
And MANY WHO HAD BELIEVED came confessing and telling their deeds. (That’s
honesty!)
19
Also, MANY of those who had practiced magic (sorcery) BROUGHT THEIR BOOKS
(their books with secret recipes of drugs and incantations to demons) TOGETHER
AND BURNED THEM IN THE SIGHT OF ALL. And
they counted up the value of them, and it totaled fifty thousand pieces
of silver. (That’s God wrought repentance!)
20
So the word of the Lord grew mightily and prevailed.
This
is similar to what the Scripture says of the people in ancient Thessalonica,
some Jews and a lot of Gentiles, whose repentance turned them “to God from
idols, to serve the living and true God, and to wait for His Son from heaven,”
(1 Thess. 1:9-10)
That’s
true repentance. Call inmates that seem
to truly be seeking the Lord, to -
“Seek
the LORD while He may be found, Call upon Him while He is near. Let the wicked forsake his way, and the
unrighteous man his thoughts; let him return to the LORD, and He will have
mercy on him; and (return) to our God, for He will abundantly pardon.” (Isaiah 55:6-7) That’s repentance.
May
our Lord lead you to those special inmates that seem to be truly seeking Him in
2012. Pour your time and energy and
biblical knowledge into them as if they were in truth God’s own sheep. Even sheep that you are responsible to tend -
for Him! That makes them special people.
Rich Hines
Minister to
Chaplains, Chaplain Help Ministry