What Does It Mean for the Meek to Inherit the Earth?

What does the Bible mean when it says the meek will inherit the earth? That's just one of the questions we'll be answering on today's edition of Core Christianity.

Well, hi there. This is Bill Meyer, along with Pastor Adriel Sanchez, and this is the radio program where we answer your questions about the Bible and the Christian life every day. You can call us right now with your question at 833-THE-CORE. You can also post your question on our Facebook, Instagram, or Twitter accounts. You can watch Adriel in the studio right now on YouTube, and you can message him that way. And of course, you can always email us your question at questionsatcorechristianity.com.

First up today, let's go to a voicemail we received from one of our listeners earlier this week. My question to this is, do you have to have the Holy Ghost in order to get into heaven? I've been going to a church, and they've been, like, praying that I get the Holy Ghost. Now, I've been baptized, and I just recently got baptized a couple years ago, and I've been praying to receive the Holy Ghost, but I'm not able to speak in tongues or anything in that neighborhood. Do I already have the Holy Ghost once I get baptized, or how does that happen?

Candace, I hope that I can clear this up for you. First, yes, apart from the presence of the Holy Spirit in our lives, we're not even born again. The Spirit of God is the one who regenerates us, who makes us the children of God by faith in Jesus Christ, and so no one can say that Jesus is Lord except by the Holy Spirit, so we can't even see, if you will, with the eyes of faith apart from the work of the Holy Spirit, so we desperately need the Holy Spirit in the Christian life. But if you believe in Jesus Christ, if you do confess that Jesus is Lord in sincerity and in truth, well, that's a sign of the fact that the Spirit of God is at work in your life, and it sounds to me like this church is telling you, you need an extra work of grace. You need an extra work of the Holy Spirit. You need to be baptized in the Holy Spirit, and you know you are baptized in the Holy Spirit when you speak in tongues or when you demonstrate these miraculous sign gifts, that kind of thing.

Well, I just think that that's not true at all. People take this idea from the book of Acts, which records the early history of the Christian church, and it gives descriptions of these amazing events, like the description of what took place on the day of Pentecost in Acts chapter 2, but oftentimes Christians read those and think, okay, this needs to be the normative Christian experience for us today, and so they read it as prescriptive instead of simply descriptive. And in the book of Acts, Luke was describing for us what the Spirit of God was doing in the first century church, in particular when Jesus sent the Spirit on the whole church on the day of Pentecost and Jesus was working in and through the apostles at that time. And so no, you don't need an extra work of God's grace. You are already saved by faith in Jesus Christ, and that means that you have the Holy Spirit. Ephesians chapter 1 says we're sealed with the Holy Spirit.

Paul in 1 Corinthians chapter 12 verse 13 says, For in one spirit we were all baptized into one body, Jews or Greeks, slaves or free, and all were made to drink of one spirit. And so, sister, by faith in Jesus Christ you have the Holy Spirit. Now we are called continually to be filled with the Spirit, and that happens, according to Paul in the book of Colossians, as the word of Christ dwells in you richly. As you meditate on scripture, as you pray, as you draw near to the Lord, we're filled with the Spirit. But just because you're filled with the Spirit doesn't mean that you're going to speak with tongues. I mean, that's a whole other question, but Paul makes it absolutely clear later in 1 Corinthians chapter 12 that not every Christian has the same spiritual gift. Not every Christian speaks in tongues, and so ministries and pastors that say, Hey, you're not filled with the Spirit unless you speak in tongues, are just wrong, and that's a burden that you don't need to carry on yourself. Again, if you believe in Jesus, you have the Holy Spirit, and now you're called to walk in the Spirit, and that looks like the fruit of the Spirit, which Paul describes in Galatians chapter 5. May the Lord bless you.

Okay, Adriel, here's a tough question for you. If a person is going to a church where they are told, If you don't speak in tongues, you don't have the Holy Spirit, do you stay at that church? Yeah, well, I mean, obviously, that's a sign that there's, I think, some serious misunderstandings of Scripture, and if there are serious misunderstandings of Scripture there, then I wonder, you know, what are the other misunderstandings? What are the other things that are maybe not properly being parsed in this church in terms of theology and what the Bible teaches? And so, yeah, I would say, look, if you're in a church where they're telling you you're probably not a Christian because you don't speak in tongues, I would say they're confusing what the Gospel is. The Gospel is not, you have the Holy Spirit when you speak in tongues. The Gospel is by faith in Jesus Christ.

We are the children of God, and the Spirit of God lives in us, and so I would say, yeah, probably time to find a new church. Great counsel. This is Core Christianity with Pastor Adriel Sanchez. If you have a question about the Bible or the Christian life, hop on your phone right now. You can reach us for the next 15 minutes or so at 833-THE-CORE.

That's 1-833-843-2673. Let's go to Dan in Wichita, Kansas. Dan, what's your question for Pastor Adriel? Hey, thanks for doing this ministry, Joe.

I appreciate it. Here's my question. I've heard people pray to Jesus, and I've heard people pray to Father God. When I pray, sometimes I do both, but it feels weird. So are we supposed to pray to Father God, like Jesus said when he gave us that example with the Lord's Prayer, or are we supposed to pray to Jesus, who said to be the in-between for us, between Father God and us?

Yeah, Dan, thank you for that question. So is it okay for us to pray directly to Jesus, or do we pray to the Father only and not to Jesus? Well, one, the Holy Trinity, God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit, it is okay for us to pray to the members of the Holy Trinity. There's nothing wrong with praying to Jesus specifically, or praying to the Holy Spirit even, or praying to the Father. Ordinarily, in scripture, prayer is offered to the Father in the Son, in Jesus Christ, and through the power of the Holy Spirit. So we approach God the Father with Jesus as our mediator, but again, that doesn't mean that we can't pray directly to Jesus.

In fact, Jesus himself, speaking to his disciples in John chapter 14, in verse 14, he said, If you ask me anything in my name, I will do it. And of course, there he is about to go to the cross first, and rise again, and then ascend into heaven. And he's talking about how he's going to send the Holy Spirit to the disciples, and yet there's still this communion that they're going to have directly with him by the power of the Holy Spirit. And so there's nothing wrong with praying directly to Jesus. And in fact, you see this throughout the New Testament.

I think in the book of Acts, in Acts chapter 1, you have the record of the disciples there leading up to the day of Pentecost. And they're seeking the Lord. They're praying about who should take Judas' place among the apostles.

And they say in Acts chapter 1, verse 24, they prayed and said, You, Lord, who know the hearts of all, show which one of these two You have chosen to take the place in this ministry and the apostleship from which Judas turned aside to his own place. They're, again, praying directly to the Lord Jesus. And so, brother, I don't think you need to feel weird about praying to Jesus or praying to the Father. I think the key is know that when you go to God the Father, you come through Jesus the Son. That's why we can come boldly to the throne of grace, as the author of the Hebrews says. And so keep that in mind every time you come before God in prayer.

This is Core Christianity with Pastor Adrian Sanchez. School is starting up for a lot of kids very soon. In fact, in some areas of the country, it's already started up. And to coincide with that, we have a free resource we'd like to offer parents and grandparents today. Yeah. It's a resource that really we've been offering now for some time.

We were offering it earlier in the summer, and they just sort of flew off the shelf. People really are enjoying this resource. It's called How Do We Know That Christianity Is Really True? And I think one of the reasons this is one of our more popular resources is because a lot of parents and grandparents are concerned to encourage their children, their grandchildren in the faith. Especially in the world that we live in today, it's so important that we're helping our children understand what they believe and why they believe it, and that's what this book will do.

How Do We Know That Christianity Is Really True? It's written for ages 9 to 13, and we hope that you'll get ahold of this resource and share it with someone you know. That's available to you for a gift of any amount at our website. Just go to corechristianity.com forward slash offers. That's corechristianity.com forward slash offers to find that particular book. Well, let's go to a voicemail we received from one of our callers.

This is actually from Alexis, who called in from Oklahoma City. My question is from psalm 3711. It says, but the meek shall inherit the earth and shall delight themselves in the abundance of peace. Help me understand what that means. And does meek mean submissive?

Thank you. Hey, thank you for that question. Well, in the context of Psalm 37, I mean, Psalm 37, a psalm of David begins in verse 1, fret not yourself because of evildoers. Be not envious of wrongdoers. It's a sort of contrast between the righteous and the wicked, and of course, the wicked oftentimes, it seems like everything is going well for them, like they're blessed, like they're the ones who are really taking over the world. In fact, later in the Psalms, Psalm 73, the psalmist Asaph, he had this very question.

He was wrestling with God, trying to figure this out. It seems like the wicked prosper while the righteous struggle. And yet here, again, you have this reminder, a reminder to the people of God that it is not the wicked who are going to take over and inherit the world.

And of course, at a time like this, you think of the takeover that recently just took place in Afghanistan. People can get really discouraged. But listen to what the word of God says. It is the meek, the children of God, that is, who shall inherit the land and delight themselves in abundant peace. It's a hope of the world that God is bringing about, the new creation ultimately, but it's a hope that God's people have always had. And what I think is so wonderful about this, sisters, Jesus himself refers to this in the Sermon on the Mount, in the book of Matthew, in Matthew 5, the Beatitudes.

Remember what our Lord Jesus said. He opened his mouth and taught them, verse three, blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted. Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth. The earth, the new creation, belongs to the children of God. We're not just going to die and go to heaven.

We're going to die, go to heaven if we're in Christ, and then the whole world is going to be restored on the last day at the resurrection of the dead and the life of the world to come. It is the meek who are going to inherit that world, that new creation. And when we think about that word meek, I think the best way to define it is by looking at Jesus himself. Because actually, that word that I just quoted from in Matthew chapter five, in verse five, is used to describe Jesus himself on a couple of occasions in the Gospel of Matthew.

So for example, in Matthew chapter 11, verse 29, do you remember what Jesus said there? It's in the context of a prayer. He says, take my yoke upon you. He had just prayed to the Father, and then he says this, take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. He uses that word meek again.

It's this gentleness, this humility. And then actually, later in the Gospel of Matthew, quoting a prophecy in Matthew chapter 21, verse five, listen again to what it says about Jesus the Messiah. Say to the daughter of Zion, behold, your king is coming to you, humble and mounted on a donkey, on a colt, the foal of a beast of burden.

So I don't know that I would say we're thinking in particular of submission. We're thinking here of godly humility, of meekness. In that prophecy there, that's quoted in Matthew 21, you think of one who brings peace, and of course that's a part also of the Beatitudes. Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called the sons of God. And so these are the characteristics of God's kingdom people, if you will, what he calls his people to. And ultimately, Jesus himself is the one who fulfills these things. He is the meek one who says, come to me, all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. And so this is a great hope that we have as believers in Jesus Christ, that the world that we look at around us, which is oftentimes plagued by war and sickness, is going to be restored by God himself, and that the righteous, the meek, are going to inherit that restored world. What a great promise to look forward to.

This is Core Christianity with Pastor Adrian Sanchez. Just a reminder that some of the radio stations that air our program actually air it on a tape-delayed basis. So if you're hearing the show later in the afternoon or in the evening, we want to let you know here's the time to call into the studio live. You want to do that at 11 30 a.m. Pacific time, or 12 30 Mountain, 1 30 Central, 2 30 Eastern time. That's the time we actually answer the calls in the studio live. Or you can always leave us a voicemail anytime, 24 hours a day, on our phone number, and that is 833-THE-CORE.

Let's go to Youks calling in from New York City. Youks, what's your question for Pastor Adrian? Hello there. My question is this. How are we to know that the very last book in the Bible, the Book of Revelations, is actually divinely inspired by the Holy Spirit? And this question, you know, comes from the fact that we understand that John of Patmos had, he went into a cave by himself a whole lot like Joseph Smith found two rocks by himself and came out with a message about the end of the world. And there's a lot of speculation about this, but Jesus himself in the Bible straight out of the Son of God's mouth says that he, when he comes at the very end, he only says two things. One, the world will be as if it'll be in the antediluvian times, and he will come as a bolt of lightning from the west to the east. And so when Jesus speaks about what it'll be like at the end, it's almost like a flash, like, you know, a quick end. But in the Book of Revelation, he's on earth for a thousand years, and there's a whole bunch of, you know, events that take place. And, you know, like, so why can, you know, how can we make these two seemingly different ends meet? Hey, Eux, it sounds like you've thought a lot about that question, and I really appreciate it. By the way, let me just take this opportunity to plug our Bible study on the Book of Revelation that we recently printed, written by a friend of mine who was a professor actually that I had in seminary, Dr. Dennis Johnson, and that's going to go real deep into the Book of Revelation.

It's a ten-week study, a really helpful resource. And this is an important question, and of course there have been debates about the canonical books of the New Testament, you know, which ones are truly canonical. And there's a number of things that we look at, Eux, in terms of determining whether or not a book was inspired by the Holy Spirit. One of the big questions is, did the church receive it as such? Early on, did it have that antiquity?

Was it received? It's not that the church decided which books were canonical, it's that the Spirit of God inspired these individuals. We believe John wrote the Book of Revelation, and actually there's so much correlation between the Book of Revelation and John's Gospel, just in terms of the language, the Greek language, the way in which John writes, so there's a lot of similarity there, but then, you know, the Book of Revelation is also pulling from a lot of other places, in particular the Book of Daniel. And so it's not just like it sort of dropped out of thin air and it was produced in this cave and it's not related at all to the rest of the Bible. No, the same John who wrote the Gospel of John wrote the Book of Revelation, and Revelation is steeped in the language of the Old Testament as well, in terms of these prophetic visions, and that's exactly what the Book of Revelation is, it's visionary prophecy, it's apocalyptic literature. And so you do have a lot of imagery, these numbers, these signs, these pictures that are given to us, and I think that's why a lot of people are intimidated by the book, and that's why people have questions, you know, gosh, is this really scripture?

But we have to understand it according to its genre, and when we do, we realize that it's not just a bunch of speculation about things that would be happening a long time in the future. The Book of Revelation, Eux, was written for the suffering church in that day to comfort them and to encourage them to persevere in Jesus Christ. And one of the reasons that Christians throughout history have received this book as a part of the inspired Word of God is because of its close relationship to the apostle John. It has that apostolicity, we might say, which is one of the factors in determining which books were received, I think, by the church.

Catholicity, that word Catholic just means universal, it was embraced on a larger scale, not just by one group of people in one place, but by many Christians in many places. Antiquity, it's an ancient book, one of the old books of the Old Testament, there's debate about when exactly the Book of Revelation was written, but if people are giving it a later dating, even then it's still written very, very early. And so it has all of those things, it has all the markers, if you will, of a book that is inspired. And of course, I would just say when we read it, we think of what's said at the very beginning in verse 3. Blessed is the one who reads aloud the words of this prophecy and blessed are those who hear and who keep what is written in it, for the time is near. There's this blessing that's associated with it, and then there's even a curse that's given at the end of the Book of Revelation in terms of not taking away from what was written. And so, yeah, these are some of the reasons why we say with confidence, this is God's word to us. And let me just say, again, we need to read the Book of Revelation and meditate on it because it was written for suffering believers to comfort them, and I think it can be a huge comfort for believers today as they need comfort. Especially, you think of persecuted Christians in different parts of the world, like India and Africa, and even in Afghanistan. Books like the Book of Revelation are for the suffering church, and so we need it. We need this book. And I appreciate your question and just, again, want to encourage you to maybe pick up that Bible study on the Book of Revelation if you want to go deeper.

You were listening to Core Christianity with Pastor Adriel Sanchez. Earlier in the program, we mentioned a resource for parents and grandparents as kids go back to school. We have another one that's absolutely free you can find on our website. It's called Six Ways to Help Your Kids as They Go Back to School. It really helps parents think through how to give their kids courage as they face peer pressure, how to remind them of their standing before God when they're tempted to measure their worth by their, let's say, their performance or their looks. This is a great resource.

Six Ways to Help Your Kids as They Go Back to School. It's free on our website. Just go to corechristianity.com forward slash offers to look for that. Well, let's take another call. Let's go to Danielle in Silas, Missouri. Danielle, what's your question for Pastor Adriel?

Hi. My husband and I, our family are basically all Catholics. We're the only ones in the family who pretty much just identify ourselves as Christian. Our, I guess my question is, they really emphasize Mary a lot, being Catholic. And so they, you know, they talk about their rosary and praying the rosary a lot. And so my question is, what are your thoughts on the rosary? I have looked through the Bible and really cannot find anywhere in the Bible that it ever talks about the rosary or praying the rosary or anything about it.

Yeah. Well, you're not going to find anything about the rosary in the Bible or praying the rosary. And of course, this is one of the things that's distinct or that distinguishes, I think, Roman Catholics from many Protestants, is just this idea that Protestant Christians don't pray to the saints or don't ask for the saints to intercede on their behalf. Now, we talk to one another and we pray for each other here as the church militant on earth and say, hey, would you pray for me for the things that are going on in my life and so on and so forth. But you don't have examples in the Bible, in God's inspired word of believers of God's people asking for the church triumphant, we might say, for those who have gone before us to intercede on our behalf.

I don't think that we have that. You know, we were talking about prayer earlier in the broadcast and prayer is directed to God. We go directly to God and we can do that through Jesus. We go to the Father through the Son. And so, you know, maybe one of the concerns that I have is if we create all of these mediators that we need to go to in order to reach God, I wonder if we minimize the role that Jesus, the eternal Son of God, has as our perfect mediator. I mean, that's part of, you know, his role for the believer in the world today. He's our advocate.

He's our mediator. We go to the Father through the Son and that's what you see all over the place in the Scriptures, in the New Testament. In particular, I mentioned earlier the author of the Hebrews who says we can come boldly to the throne of grace to find mercy and get help in our time of need.

How come? How can we do that? Well, we can do that because we have a great high priest in heaven, Jesus. And so that's not to knock Mary or to minimize her role in the history of redemption, but you just don't see in Scripture where Christians are calling on the name of Mary to get some goodwill with God. No, we go directly to God. You can, Danielle, go directly to God through Jesus and what he's done for you. And that's one of the great hopes that we have as believers, that access that we have through the work of Jesus Christ. I hope you've been encouraged by this program and be sure to join us next time as we explore the truth of God's word together.