Good to be together. I’m really glad and rejoicing to be able to be together alive, so to speak, instead of virtually this morning. Praise the Lord for His mercies toward us, even at times like this.
Lord, we are grateful. Lord, as we go through times like these, we become more and more aware of how precious it is to have the privilege to gather together physically.
Lord, we’re thankful that we’ve been able to use Zoom to still fellowship together. But, Lord, I have to say, there’s nothing like being together. Lord, we worship Thee today for this step that we’re taking back toward being able to fully gather together in Your name.
So, Lord, we ask You: bless this day. We ask You to bless us today as we share. Lord, I certainly pray that the Holy Spirit would anoint; otherwise, Lord, we’re just mouthing words.
Lord, we come to You. We ask that all of our hearts would be open to hear from You—not from Jerry Amon, but from You this morning, Lord, through the power of Your Holy Spirit. We pray in Jesus’ name.
So this morning, my opening verse that really came to me was from Esther 4:14:
For if thou altogether holdest thy peace at this time, then shall there enlargement and deliverance arise to the Jews from another place;
but thou and thy father’s house shall perish:
and who knoweth whether thou art come to the kingdom for such a time as this?
And this is the key part of this verse: “For such a time as this.” A time such as this—that’s what’s on my heart this morning.
This was a critical time in the history of Israel. Some of the Israelites—about four percent—had returned to rebuild Jerusalem. But back in the capital, they were still captives, and the ones who had remained behind were now in great danger through Haman, who was trying to manipulate the king so that he would order all the Jews to be destroyed.
They were in imminent danger, and Mordecai became aware of what was going on. He appealed to Esther that it was time to take action. It was time to move and have the Lord provide a way of deliverance.
Now, I thank the Lord that our sister responded to this admonition, and the Jews indeed were spared. They called for a day of prayer among the Jews, and in response to Esther’s actions and the prayers of the people of God, they were delivered.
In fact, Haman, the enemy—all of his actions and deceitful ways to try to have Israel destroyed—were actually turned on his own head. The hangman’s noose that was meant for Mordecai, he ended up hanging on himself.
So praise the Lord. These were strange times in the nation of Israel.
I’d also like to read some verses from 1 Peter, because Peter addresses the strangers scattered throughout Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia, and Bithynia. Let me begin with 1 Peter 1:1-2:
Peter, an apostle of Jesus Christ, to the elect who are sojourners of the Dispersion in Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia, and Bithynia,
according to the foreknowledge of God the Father, in sanctification of the Spirit, unto obedience and sprinkling of the blood of Jesus Christ:
Grace to you and peace be multiplied.
And he also encourages us, beloved, in 1 Peter 4:12-13:
Beloved, think it not strange concerning the fiery trial among you, which cometh upon you to prove you, as though a strange thing happened unto you:
but insomuch as ye are partakers of Christ’s sufferings, rejoice;
that at the revelation of His glory also ye may rejoice with exceeding joy.
Then, in 1 Peter 2:5:
Ye also, as living stones, are built up a spiritual house, to be a holy priesthood,
to offer up spiritual sacrifices, acceptable to God through Jesus Christ.
Times such as these. Once again, the people of God were persecuted, this time through Nero. You’ll remember how he burned the city. He was a crazy, violent man—no doubt possessed by the enemy—and he was trying to destroy the Jews. They were fleeing from Jerusalem into these other areas, and it looked like death and destruction. That’s all that could be seen.
And yet God was using this so that the gospel might go out through the known world of that time. This gospel was spreading to Rome, the center of the known world. God used these dire circumstances to actually advance His own purpose—to advance the gospel of Jesus Christ, to advance His church, and to build His church.
It was at times of persecution, brothers and sisters, that the church was strengthened the most. In fact, it’s been said that the church is built on the blood of the martyrs, and that’s very true. It was these ones who gave up their lives, just as our Lord Jesus had, for the sake of the gospel and for the sake of the Lord’s kingdom to come.
This matter of suffering, this matter of trials—to the world, it’s just condemnation. To the world, it’s just suffering. To the world, it is just chaos. But, brothers and sisters, there’s another thing in view. What is in view is God’s kingdom, God’s end, and God’s purpose.
So He is able to even use the evil of Nero for His own purposes, brothers and sisters. It’s amazing what God is able to do.
And I believe that we have come to this hour for a time such as this. I believe it is a time to challenge all of our hearts for the time in which we live, right before the Lord’s return.
We know about the pandemic. It brought the world kind of to its knee, anyway. We know that the economies of the world, if it continued on, could actually be destroyed and put into chaos. As we see in this nation, I think there had gotten to be about thirty million that were out of jobs.
Brothers and sisters, these are intense times. And it’s intense because the Lord said it was going to get intense toward the end, before His return. Everything was going to intensify.
We’ve noticed this in the weather. The world is saying, “Well, it’s warming up, and this is creating storms.” No doubt, that’s probably true. But the Lord told us two thousand years ago that these things would intensify as a sign of the times, as a sign that His time of return was near.
That’s why we’ve been encouraged, even in recent messages, to look up, for our redemption draweth nigh. This is the time in which we live—a time in which the enemy is trying desperately to destroy Christianity, to lash out in this world, and to stir it up with all the murder, all the killings, and all the chaos that we see going around.
We see the misuse of authority, the abuse of authority. That’s terrible. What has happened is tragic. That’s what misguided authority does, brothers and sisters.
And in the end, it is the spirit of the Antichrist. He is going to be in authority—a misguided authority, an evil authority, abusive authority. That is what this world stage is being set up for.
But we also see the resulting chaos and anarchy. Brothers and sisters, it’s all out of the spirit of the Antichrist.
So we live in times like these. Brothers and sisters, we were born for a time like this. The Lord has brought you into relationship with Him, into His church, the body of Christ.
And what has He instructed us? He said:
Whatsoever thou shalt bind on earth shall be bound in heaven:
and whatsoever thou shalt loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven.
In other words, it is a time to be spiritually militant, if I can put it that way without offending anyone. We need to be spiritually militant, and that is done in prayer.
If you want to bind and loose things, it’s not done with guns and weapons; it is done in prayer. That’s what we are called to do. I believe it is a time to be spiritually militant.
That’s why I would encourage us to really be a part of our Wednesday night prayer. Brothers and sisters, I think it’s a time. I think the Lord is saying, “It’s time to pray. It’s time to lay hold of these things.”
What we see on earth is the result of all the stirrings that are going on in the heavenlies. You know, there are evil angels in the heavens. There are good angels in the heavens. Christ is seated in the heavenlies, and He says, “You need to be seated with Me and look at things from My viewpoint, not the world’s viewpoint. It is My view that matters.”
When we are in fellowship with Him in the heavenlies, brothers and sisters, we can bind and loose. This morning, the prayer for New York was that these things would be bound. Do we believe that we can bind these things through prayer? Do we really believe it?
I would suggest that we should believe it and stand in faith that the Lord will bind up what needs to be bound in these evil things. And what can be loosed? That out of this, the power of God can be loosed to bring many hearts to Him.
The power of God can be loosed so that the church will be matured. That’s you and me—that it will be a call to you and me to respond to the Lord.
Our brother this morning shared, “Return to the Lord.” It’s a matter of love—first love. Return to that first love. Return to Him.
The Lord is doing that through this. He doesn’t want us to be passive in our individual life, nor in our church life—our corporate spiritual life. We cannot afford to be passive at this time.
Esther was afraid. Esther pulled back, but Mordecai encouraged her. He said, “If you don’t rise up, the Lord will raise somebody else up.”
I’m sorry—I said Haman. Yeah, that was wrong. Scratch that. Mordecai, thank you. That’s why we need brothers and sisters, particularly when Jerry Amon is speaking.
Anyway, it’s a time such as this. You’ve been raised up for a time such as this. The fellowship in Richmond has been raised up for a time such as this. The fellowships all over the world—His church all over the world—have been raised up for times such as this because we are preparing for His soon return.
Brothers and sisters, we need to be aware. If you read the book of Revelation, there’s a lot of unbelievable things that are going to be taking place on this earth—pestilence that we have not yet seen.
We know that right now the locusts are just eating up all the crops in Northern Africa and Pakistan. Brothers and sisters, that is nothing compared to what is going to occur.
It talks about a third of the fresh waters being contaminated, a third of the ocean turning to blood, a third of the forest and trees being burned, and a third of men being killed on earth. It’s an awful, tragic time.
And the Lord encourages all to draw to Him, that we might be spared from this time ourselves. Brothers and sisters, the world stage is being set for the Antichrist. Believe me.
The pandemic, I think, just shows us how quickly, how easily, a nation can be brought to its knees through this one disease. Now, some have even believed that China purposely released this in order to do exactly what it’s doing to America. We see the economic problems, and we also see the chaos that has developed out of it.
Now, whether that’s true, I don’t know. But I know it is the work of the enemy. I do know that. So it is a time for the church, a day such as this, a time such as this, for us to be, I believe, spiritually militant.
Peter was trying to encourage those who had been dispersed, those who were running from Nero and from his death squads. Brothers and sisters, he wanted to encourage them that they were still in the fight, that they were still the Lord’s, and that they needed to keep the Lord’s purpose in view.
What was on the Lord’s heart? The Lord’s kingdom. Not all that was going on and all that was happening to them—the persecution was not the issue. Peter was trying to redirect their hearts and minds back to the Lord.
So he called them strangers scattered. Strangers. They were strangers to the world. That’s why he called them strangers. They weren’t like the rest of the world.
The rest of the world was chaotic and evil. But he says, “You’re not that way. You don’t think the way of the world thinks as a Christian. You have to look at God’s heart, God’s purpose, what His will is. You have to see the Lord’s view of things.”
The world just can’t do that, brothers and sisters. It has no way to sense what’s on the Lord’s heart. So he was trying to encourage them. He actually calls them strangers—strangers in this world.
We are strangers to the way the world thinks and the way the world does things, brothers and sisters. Our way is through the Lord Jesus Christ, going to Him.
Well, that being said, they were scattered. They had been scattered because of the persecution. He’s trying to say, “Look, during this shaking that’s going on, you’ve got to keep your eyes on Jesus. You’ve got to keep your eyes on the Lord.”
Yes, you can see all that’s going around you, but that cannot cause fear in your heart, because fear is from the enemy, and we know that. So, brothers and sisters, we’re encouraged to look off unto Jesus.
They were strangers and scattered. In a sense, I was thinking about this: we’ve been fellowshipping on Zoom. I think it is a provision from the Lord—don’t get me wrong. It is an emergency measure, but it’s not God’s real heart, I can tell you that.
God’s heart is for us to assemble together. He says, “Forsake not the assembling of yourselves together.” “Where two or three are gathered together in My name, I am in the midst.” His heart is for us to be together.
I remember in the Garden of Eden, He didn’t set up a Zoom meeting with Adam and Eve, did He? No, He went down there and met right with them.
And in the end, in the book of Revelation, what does He say? There’s this great announcement about the New Jerusalem coming down, and it says:
Behold, the tabernacle of God is with men,
and He shall dwell with them.
That’s God’s heart: to be with us—personal, up close and personal. Right now, we don’t see the Lord face to face, but in that day, we will. There’s a difference about being face to face.
It’s a time to stand in prayer, brothers and sisters, that we can do the Lord’s will even during this pandemic. When I look at the Zoom thing, it has scattered us in a way. But the one thing that has encouraged me, and I hope will encourage you, is that even though we’re using Zoom and we’re not able to be together in the way that we would like, we’re still one.
Have you noticed that? Even when we go to Zoom and we’re fellowshipping, even this morning, you can sense the oneness in Jesus Christ.
That’s because of the Spirit of obedience and the sprinkling of blood. It’s because we’re all of the same bloodline, brothers and sisters. There’s something about the bloodline of Jesus that is a pure bloodline, unstained by sin, unstained by prejudice. It’s the bloodline of Christ that we have within us, and that makes us one.
You know, the Lord Jesus said, “The life is in the blood.” And that’s very true. You lose your blood, you lose your life. The life is in the blood.
We share one life, still together, even with those on Zoom. It’s one life. We sense that one Spirit, and we can fellowship. We’re one family. We have one Father.
We can recognize that Spirit when a brother or sister prays. I think we notice that. There’s something that’s alive. They may be, in some cases, three thousand miles away, but we still sense the life of the Lord Jesus.
That is what we have available as Christians. And I want to say one thing to encourage us all: we still belong. We belong to one another. We are family.
Even if we have to take these extraordinary measures, it doesn’t change the fact that we’re one family—one blood, one life. That’s amazing. The world does not have this, brothers and sisters. They just don’t have it.
We’re able to communicate this life to one another because we have the Spirit—one Spirit. Have you ever woken up in the middle of the night and had somebody on your heart, and you said, “I need to pray for them. I have the urging in my heart to pray for them”?
That’s because the Spirit is not deterred by distance. It can go through walls. It can go through this atmosphere. It can travel all around this world. The Spirit—we have that Spirit.
So we’re still able to communicate in spirit. Outwardly, we may seem a bit scattered at this point, but I want to say, by the Spirit, we’re together. We’re still one. We still need to be aware of one another during this time.
And I want to say it again: to the world, this is impossible. Do you realize we have something that those who don’t know Christ don’t have? They just don’t have it. It’s impossible.
We have something so precious. That’s what I wanted to remind us of this morning. We have something extremely precious through the blood of Christ, through the Spirit, and through the power of the Spirit.
Well, Paul—I mean Peter—help me out when I go wrong. Peter, I think it’s interesting: he knows they are being persecuted. He knows what’s going on, and he’s trying to encourage them.
In 1 Peter 2:5, he reminds them of something. He says, “You are living stones being built together.” They’re in dispersion. They’re being persecuted. I’m not even sure they’re thinking about being built together.
But he said, “Look, in all the chaos, do not lose the perspective that has been given to you. God’s purpose must be kept in view.”
Peter reminds them: you are being built up—a church for God’s purposes, a bride for the Lord Jesus Himself. He said, “Don’t lose sight of God’s purpose in all of this. Keep God’s view in view. You are living stones being built together, where He desires to dwell in the midst.”
I’ve already mentioned it. I think it’s amazing: with Adam and Eve, He wanted to be with them. And in the end, it says that we will reign and rule with Him in the kingdom. He wants to be in the midst of us, brothers and sisters.
He says, “You need to keep this in view. Don’t let this disperse you to the point that you can’t be built together, because it is extremely important to be built together.”
The other night, as we were praying, the thought came to me: it’s like stones out in a field. They have the potential to be a house, but until they are brought together and actually built together—not just piled on one another—they do not build a habitation for God.
It is so important that we not lose perspective during this day. I just want to encourage us all. I think Peter was trying to do that: the church is precious in the Lord’s eyes. The church is precious in His heart.
All that’s going on, He is aware of. But He is also aware of what’s going on in our hearts. He doesn’t want us to lose perspective or become passive.
The Lord loves the church, and He’s going to bring her to glory. What does that mean? One thing I can tell you: when glory happens, God is satisfied. God is pleased.
For us individually and personally, to come to glory in your life means that you’ve come to fullness in Christ. It means that you have been perfected in Christ. That is being done now, even through adverse circumstances.
The Lord wants to use all of this in our hearts to reconsider our relationship with Him, just as our brother encouraged us at the Lord’s table—to really reconsider where we are in the Lord, because He’s coming soon. This should tell us it’s around the corner, and the corner is not far away.
He’s looking for that precious bride—without spot or wrinkle. Do you believe that one day you will be without any spot or wrinkle? We will still be human, but there will be no more evil flesh in us, no more sin. That’s going to be an amazing time.
He’s bringing us to that fullness. He loves His church. The Lord Jesus gave His life for the church. It’s very clear in Ephesians 5:25:
Christ also loved the church, and gave Himself up for it.
He left glory. He left heaven to come and be with us, brothers and sisters. He gave up His rights as God. Even though He was still God, He gave up the rights that He had, and He came and submitted Himself totally under the Father to do His will.
He became one by becoming human. Humanity has been joined to the Lord Himself—not our corrupt humanity, but the humanity that God has always desired.
He came. He suffered on the cross. He walked this earth like we walk it, in the same shoes. He was a carpenter. He had to work for a living and take care of His family, just like we do.
But, brothers and sisters, He became the Lamb of God, the One who ransomed Himself for us. He loves the church. That’s what I want you to remember this morning.
I couldn’t help but remember Matthew 13. The Lord shared a parable with His disciples, and He is sharing this parable with us today. I believe it’s the pearl merchant.
Remember, there was a pearl merchant. He was only interested in pearls, but he was interested in finding the pearl—the one that was so magnificent that he would have to have it. Finally, he finds it, and it says that he sold all that he had.
Our Lord Jesus sold all of His life that He might have this pearl, the church. That’s how much He loves us. I just pray that the Lord will open our eyes—and my own—to see how precious the church is to the Lord, to see how much He loves it.
He loves you and me. I think we all here are probably convinced of that. But He loves the church. He died for the church.
John the apostle gave us a glimpse of the glory of the church in Revelation. What did he see when he saw the New Jerusalem, the heavenly Jerusalem, coming down? It was the church. It was the bride for Christ.
It was a precious metal. He said it was like fine gold everywhere—transparent gold, perfectly pure, with no impurities in it. Brothers and sisters, the life of Christ—that was what was reflected in what John saw.
He said there was no blemish. And I love this: he says it was clear as crystal. You know what the real beauty of a crystal is? It doesn’t have much beauty until you shine light on it, does it? It’s the light upon the crystal.
Do you realize that that’s what the church is? It’s supposed to be like this crystal. In itself, it’s kind of plain-looking, but the light of Christ is the light of the city, and it shines through the crystal. All the magnificence of Christ, the glory of Christ, is revealed by the light shining upon the crystal.
It talks of stones—precious stones, not rocks. He doesn’t call them rocks. He says precious stones. We are the precious stones, or we will be the precious stones. We’re precious to Him now.
But, brothers and sisters, these precious stones come out of thousands of years of pressure and heat down in the earth. It’s pressure, it’s heat, it’s trials often that purify and make a precious stone—a rock into a precious stone.
You know, a diamond is really just mostly coal, a lump of coal. But through the pressures and fire of the earth, it’s turned into a diamond. That’s what the Lord is doing in our lives.
But, brothers and sisters, more than that, the precious stone shows the character of Christ. The character of Christ will be displayed in all these precious stones.
Then there’s the pearl. We know a pearl is formed from suffering in the oyster. It gets that grain of sand or grit, or some kind of irritation in there, and it starts secreting this fluid that turns into a pearl.
So the pearl is representative of life coming out of suffering—beauty coming out of suffering.
And then there’s life. There’s the tree of life. It’s on both sides of the river. How that happens, I don’t know, but there’s a tree of life on both sides, and it’s the river of life that runs through the city. Hallelujah. It’s living. It’s vibrant. It’s full of life.
Resurrection life—not the life that will perish like we now have, but resurrection life that we have as Christians and are yet to experience in fullness. Well, I shouldn’t say it that way: we do experience that resurrection life even now. We can experience it—resurrection life, full of life.
And there is fruit. Out of that life comes fruit. Isn’t that amazing? Twelve kinds of fruit every month of the year.
When it talks about fruit, it’s in the context of John saying there is no more curse. Thorns are aborted fruit. I didn’t know that, but thorns are aborted fruit. So, no more thorns—just good fruit.
Brothers and sisters, we know that we get fruit most of the time in the summer, right? Well, this is all the time. It’s continuous fruit. Out of that life that is flowing comes continuous fruit. The leaves are even useful for the healing of the nations.
In other words, this whole city speaks of Christ. Oh, by the way, that river flows from the throne of God—from the throne. In other words, this is authority that is pure, authority that is God’s, authority that gives power to this life. It comes from the throne.
So the city is full of glory. That is what lies ahead for us as Christians.
So I would just encourage us all: in times such as these, keep your eye on the prize. Keep your eyes on the Lord. Keep your eyes on what lies ahead.
Yes, you will see all the tragedy, all the turmoil, the pestilence, the death. You know, I got exhausted watching TV. Almost every hour, they were reporting how many deaths we had.
It reminded me of back in the war, when every day they would report how many soldiers had died. But that’s the world. That’s the world’s view. That’s all that they can see. I think that’s so tragic.
But the Lord can open our eyes to see Him, to see His full purpose, and to see that we’re to be a part of it. So let’s close in prayer.
Lord, we are thankful today. We praise and worship You. You are the Lord of glory. You intend to see glory. You intend to have glory.
Lord Jesus, out of all the chaos, all of the tragedy, Lord, all the shaking, what will remain is Christ, and we’re thankful for that.
But, Lord, You’ve also encouraged us to look up in these days and to keep our eyes fixed upon the prize. Lord, we pray also that we will be spiritually militant in these days, standing for the will of God on earth in the midst of all this chaos.
Lord, we’ve already prayed for it, but Lord, we do, in the name of Jesus Christ, want to bind up this chaos that is going on right now, where evil has been unleashed all over this nation. Lord, the hatred of men is pouring out.
Lord, we just want to bind that up, but we also, at the same time, want to loose the revelation of our Lord Jesus Christ—the One who, as Peter said, gives grace and peace unto us.
We pray in Jesus’ name. Amen.