Category: Matthew

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Matthew Matthew 28

The one who is always with us

Matthew

We are rapidly coming to the end of the gospels. It certainly took a lot longer than I expected. I thought harmonizing the gospels would make things go a lot faster.

Maybe it has, but it’s still taken nearly 11 months to get through them. But it’s been fun, and I’ve really enjoyed it.

I wanted to talk about this in the last blog, but it was getting long as it was. After giving all his instructions to his disciples, Jesus encouraged them saying,

And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age. (Matthew 28:20)

Jesus was soon going to heaven. And after he left, the disciples would have a great work to do, to spread the kingdom of God.

While there would be great joy in that, Jesus also knew they would suffer persecution and hardship as well. Most of his disciples would die for their faith.

But the one thing Jesus promised them was that though they would no longer be able to see him with their eyes, he nevertheless would be with them.

He would not leave them as orphans, but send his Spirit to dwell within them and be with them. (John 14:16-20)

He makes the same promise to us. No matter where we go, no matter what we do, no matter what joys or hardships we go through, he will never leave us lonely. He is with us. And always will be.

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Matthew Matthew 28

Making disciples

Matthew

Somehow in 35 years of reading scripture, it never really occurred to me that the events in Matthew 28 and Acts 1 were two separate events. One happened in Galilee and the other on the Mount of Olives.

It was perhaps here in Galilee that Jesus appeared not only to the 11, but to 500 other followers of Jesus as well, as mentioned in 1 Corinthians 15:6.

It would also perhaps explain why “some doubted,” not the 11 disciples who had already seen him before, but the others who had come and who had yet to see the risen Lord.

Whatever the case may be, there was no doubt remaining once Jesus appeared and started speaking to them. He said,

All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me.

Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. (Matthew 28:18-20)

It’s significant to me that Jesus didn’t simply say to go out and preach the gospel, although they were to do that too.

He told them to make disciples. Not of themselves, but of Jesus.

How were they to do that?

They were to baptize new believers first, as a sign of their commitment to Jesus.

What is baptism? What does it mean? It basically identifies you with Christ.

It’s saying, “Just as Christ died and rose again, I am dying to my old way of life, and rising up as a new person. And one day, after I die here on this earth, I will rise up and be with Christ forever.”

I think it’s very interesting that here in Japan, in some sense, even the non-Christians have a stronger idea of the implications of baptism than believers in the States do.

I have heard many stories of how parents have told their (adult) children, “Well, you can go to church, but don’t get baptized.”

That’s one of the biggest struggles that young believers face here. Will I take that step of baptism at the risk of alienating my family?

I think for many of the Jews, they faced the same kind of pressure from their families.

But if we are going to become true disciples of Christ, we need to get to the point where Jesus is more important to us than anything else. And baptism is a very visual and public way of proclaiming that.

Jesus also told his disciples that they were to teach people everything that he had taught them. And not only that, to teach them to obey.

A lot of Christians feel uncomfortable with that idea. After all, doesn’t it smack of legalism? And aren’t we saved by grace?

Yes, we are saved by grace. And no, we shouldn’t be presenting Christianity as a series of dos and don’ts.

But what we should be doing is reminding people that God really does love us. That he desires the very best for us.

And if we trust him enough for our salvation, shouldn’t we also trust him enough to believe that his way is best and to follow that way?

More, if we truly love him, shouldn’t we do the things that we know will please him?

In short, we need to be teaching people to draw closer to God in a relationship where they learn to love and trust him more every day.

It is, unfortunately, an area that the church all too often fails at.

As a result, we have a bunch of baby Christians that never really grow up. Christians who though they say they love God, nevertheless never really learn to trust God.

And because of that, their lives remain an utter mess.

Let us not make that mistake.

Let us not just preach the gospel, but teach young believers to be disciples of Christ, so that they will become people who love, trust, and obey him, growing in the grace and knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ.

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John John 20 Luke Luke 24 Mark Mark 16 Matthew Matthew 28

The One who is always with us

The gospels

A couple of notes on the resurrection.

I think I will be cutting out Mark 16:9-20 from my commentary since it is considered by most scholars to not be in the original text.

It was apparently added on to Mark by someone, either because Mark died before it was completed or because the original ending was lost.

Second, there is some difficulty in harmonizing the events of the resurrection. What I give here in my blog is my best guess.

The thing to remember, though, is that all the essential facts are the same.

The tomb was empty when the women arrived there. Angels appeared to the women to tell them that Jesus had risen. Jesus appeared to Mary and the women. They all went to tell the disciples.

Lawyers today will tell you that in a court of law, any apparent discrepancies in the testimony of these four sources would not be able to overturn these essential points.

With that, a very quick summary as to what I believe happened.

The women went to the tomb and found it empty. When Mary entered the tomb and found the body gone, she immediately left to tell the disciples.

The other women lingered, however, and at that point, two angels appeared, with one giving them the good news that Jesus was alive. The women ran to tell the disciples talking to no one else along the way. (Matthew 28:5-8; Mark 16:1-8; Luke 24:1-10)

Meanwhile, Mary told the disciples that the body was gone. (John 20:2). And so Peter and John (probably) went to investigate, with Mary following after.

After they had left, the other women arrived with their tale of the angels. (Luke 24:9-11)

Peter and John then arrived at the tomb and found the body gone, and while John seems to have believed that Jesus rose from the dead, Peter wasn’t so sure. Perhaps discussing the situation, they then left. (Luke 24:12; John 20:3-9)

Mary, by this time had arrived at the tomb. Whether Peter and John were still there when she arrived is not clear, but it’s possible they had already gone.

Jesus then appeared for the first time and spoke to her. She then went to tell the disciples. (John 20:10-18)

As she was on her way, Jesus then appeared to the other women, perhaps as they were on their way back home, discouraged that the disciples had not believed them.

Encouraged once again, they returned and told the disciples what Jesus had told them, bolstered by Mary’s testimony. (Matthew 28:9-10)

I don’t know if that was the exact order of events, but it seems to be a reasonable harmonization to me.

At any rate, I want to focus on Mary for a moment.

The image that strikes me most was Mary in the garden, in the depths of sorrow and despair.

If the order of events were as I imagine, she had not heard the story of the other women. All she knew was that Jesus was gone.

She enters the tomb, and sees the two angels, but because she never heard the other women’s story, she doesn’t recognize the angels for what they are.

So when they ask her, “Why are you crying?” she simply says, “They’ve taken away my Lord, and I don’t know where they’ve put him.”

Perhaps the angels were about to tell Mary the truth when they saw Jesus appear behind her.

At first, through her tears, she couldn’t recognize him, but then he spoke her name, “Mary.”

And in an instant, all of her tears of sorrow were washed away by joy.

How often are we like Mary? We’re going through a tough time, and God seems far away. We pray but our prayers bounce off the ceiling. We seek him, but we can’t seem to find him. For all we know, he’s dead.

But the truth is, he is there. Like Mary, we can’t see him, but he is there. And at the proper time, he will reveal himself to us.

So don’t give up. We all go through times of sorrow. We all go through times when God seems distant.

But he is Immanuel. He is God with us. And through the same power that raised Jesus from the dead, he will change our sorrow into joy.

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Matthew Matthew 28

A people that will not be convinced

Matthew

The hardness of heart that the priests and Pharisees had is simply unbelievable to me. Despite all their efforts, the tomb was empty. That is one thing even they did not dispute.

They had the testimony of the guard who told them that there was an earthquake, and then an angel rolled away the stone.

More, they had to have heard of all the people that had died who were suddenly now living again. (Matthew 27:52-53)

But with all this evidence before them, they still didn’t believe Jesus was the Christ. Instead, they went out of their way to bribe the guards so that they would spread a false rumor that the disciples had stolen the body.

And these were people that prided themselves in keeping God’s law.

It just goes to prove what Jesus said in his story about Lazarus,

If [people] do not listen to Moses and the Prophets, they will not be convinced even if someone rises from the dead. (Luke 16:31)

Jesus rose from the dead and so did many others. But the Pharisees and priests refused to believe.

And there are many people like that today. You can throw out all the evidence there is for God; you can answer all their questions about the Bible and Jesus.

They may even see things they can’t explain, people healed of cancer or other terminal illnesses. Yet they still won’t believe.

Ultimately it comes down to the fact that there are people who simply will not believe. It’s not that they can’t believe. They choose not to. And apart from God’s grace, they never will.

So what am I saying? Pray. For only God can open the eyes of such people.

The apostle Paul tells us,

And even if our gospel is veiled, it is veiled to those who are perishing.

The god of this age has blinded the minds of unbelievers, so that they cannot see the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God. (2 Corinthians 4:3-4)

What do we pray? That God would make his light shine in their hearts to give them the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Christ. (2 Corinthians 4:6)

Indeed, that was what saved Paul. In his blindness and rejection of the truth, God shined his light upon Paul both literally and figuratively and it changed his life.

Are you discouraged by the hardness of heart in the people you love? You cannot change their hearts. No matter what you say or do, you don’t have the power to change a heart.

But God does. So don’t give up. Pray. Fervently.

And by his grace, God will bring his light of salvation to them.

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Matthew Matthew 27 Matthew 28

A God who cannot be thwarted

Matthew

This is perhaps one of the more humorous incidents in the Bible if you really think about it.

The Pharisees and chief priests were concerned that perhaps the disciples might come to steal the body and claim that Jesus had risen from the dead as he had prophesied. And so they asked Pilate to make the grave secure so that no one could come and steal the body.

Pilate assented, and gave them a guard (that is, a group of soldiers), to protect the tomb from any robbers.

But on the third day, there was an earthquake, and an angel rolled away the stone and sat on it. This so freaked out the guards that they fainted dead away.

Imagine the consternation of the priests and the Pharisees when they heard this.

They had to have been questioning themselves, “Why in the world did we set that guard? All we did is make it more inexplicable that the body has disappeared?”

But it all goes to prove one thing. People can make all their plans to achieve their purposes while denying God’s. But God is not someone who can be thwarted. And his purposes will stand.

Many people wonder about the tension between God’s sovereignty and our free will.

I certainly don’t have all the answers, but I think you catch a glimpse of the answer here. By their free will, the priests and Pharisees put out a guard to prevent Jesus from coming out from that grave.

God didn’t interfere with that choice at all. But after they made their choice, God made his. He raised Jesus from the dead, rolled away the stone, and scared the living daylights out of the guards in the process.

In the same way, we make our choices, and God lets us do so.

But then God makes his choices, and his purposes will not be thwarted. It wasn’t thwarted then back at the tomb. Nor will it be thwarted now nor into eternity.

So let us praise him and walk with confidence knowing that no matter what happens, God is in control, and his purposes will be accomplished.

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John John 19 Luke Luke 23 Mark Mark 15 Matthew Matthew 27

That scripture would be fulfilled

The gospels

One thing that becomes crystal clear as we look at these passages is that Christ’s death was no accident. It was no mistake on the part of God. Rather, he had planned it from the beginning of time for our salvation.

The irony was that when the chief priests asked for a sign from Jesus to prove that he was the Messiah, Jesus did give them a sign. They were just too blind and deaf to perceive it.

They demanded he come down from the cross. He pointed them to prophecy.

He couldn’t have been more clear when he cried out,

My God, my God, why have you forsaken me? (Matthew 27:46)

The priests thought he was calling for Elijah. But Jesus was actually pointing them to Psalm 22. Why? If they had only seen, they would have understood that Jesus was fulfilling many of the things that David had written.

He was scorned, despised, mocked, and insulted. In fact, the chief priests themselves used virtually the very words that David prophesied they would say.

He trusts in the LORD; let the LORD rescue him. Let him deliver him, since he delights in him. (Psalm 22:8)

He trusts in God. Let God rescue him now if he wants him, for he said, ‘I am the Son of God.’ (Matthew 27:43)

David also gave a graphic description of suffering on the cross. He said,

All my bones are out of joint. (Psalm 22:14a)

This disjointing of the bones is what often happened to people hanging on a cross.

David then said,

My heart has turned to wax; it has melted away within me. (Psalm 22:14b)

John records that when the soldiers pierced Jesus’ side, water and blood flowed out, which doctors today say is a sign that he had suffered heart failure.

David prophesied Jesus’ great thirst upon the cross, saying,

My tongue sticks to the roof of my mouth. (Psalm 22:15)

And he prophesied Jesus’ hands and feet being pierced. (Psalm 22:16).

More, a person hanging on a cross could probably see his ribs pressing against his flesh, thus David saying,

I can count all my bones. (Psalm 22:17)

And of course, David prophesied the casting of lots for Jesus’ clothing, saying,

They divide my garments among them and cast lots for my clothing. (Psalm 22:18)

All these pointed to Jesus as the Messiah, but the chief priests who knew the scripture, couldn’t see it.

John points to other scriptures, Psalm 34, Psalm 69, and Zechariah 12, all of which point to the cross.

And of course, Isaiah 53 describes even more.

Jesus being pierced for our sin and taking our punishment for us.

Being silent in front of his accusers.

Interceding for those who killed him.

Being originally assigned a grave with the wicked, but instead being buried in a rich man’s tomb.

And of course, being resurrected from the dead.

In short, again, this was no accident. It was planned and purposed by the Father for our salvation from the beginning of time.

So let us never take the cross for granted. Instead let us praise God with hearts full of thanksgiving for the price his Son paid for our salvation.

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John John 19 Luke Luke 23 Mark Mark 15 Matthew Matthew 27

Paid in full

The gospels

If there is one thing I hate to do, it’s pay taxes.

Every year, I have to go down to the tax office to declare my income, and then a month later, I collect my refund…only to have to give all of that refund back and more to pay my property taxes as well as my city and prefectural taxes.

Nowadays, I tend to pay these taxes all at once. We have the option to pay in installments, but it’s nice to get it all over with. And when I pay, my tax bill is stamped, to show that my tax debt is paid in full.

And that is exactly the picture Jesus invoked when saying his final words at the cross.

At around 12:00 p.m., the gospels tell us that it became dark, and that the sun did not shine its light.

I doubt that it was an eclipse because those last only a few minutes, and this darkness lasted 3 hours. But however God did it, a darkness fell on the land.

My guess is it was a picture of God placing all of our sin upon Jesus. That all the darkness in this world that comes from sin, was put on Jesus during that time.

Then at around 3 p.m. Jesus cried out,

My God, my God, why have you forsaken me? (Matthew 27:46)

At that moment, I believe that God the Father turned his face aside from Jesus because of the sin that had been placed upon him.

If so, it was the first time ever that the relationship between the two had ever been broken, and Jesus suffered what all of us deserve: separation from the Father.

Separation from he who is love. Separation from he who is joy. Separation from he who is life.

That’s what hell is. And so in that sense (and that sense alone), Jesus suffered hell. He took upon himself the punishment that we deserved.

And having suffered that, he looked up for the last time, and said,

“It is finished. Father, into your hands, I commit my spirit.” (Luke 23:46, John 19:30)

It is finished.

Those were the words that were often printed on the bill of those who paid their taxes in Jesus’ day. And they literally meant, “paid in full.”

And by Jesus’ death on the cross, he paid in full the debt we owed because of our sin.

What’s the result? We can have a new relationship with God.

God tore the curtain that hung between the Holy Place and the Most Holy Place. (Mark 15:38). And by doing so, he was telling us, “The barrier that stood between me and you is gone. You have now free access to me through my Son.”

We no longer have to stay at a distance from God as the Israelites once did. (Exodus 20:18-21)

We can draw near. So let us draw near.

As the writer of Hebrews exhorts us,

Therefore, brothers, since we have confidence to enter the Most Holy Place by the blood of Jesus, by a new and living way opened for us through the curtain, that is, his body, and since we have a great priest over the house of God, let us draw near to God with a sincere heart in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled to cleanse us from a guilty conscience and having our bodies washed with pure water. (Hebrews 10:19-22)

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John John 19 Luke Luke 23 Mark Mark 15 Matthew Matthew 27

Railing at God, humbling ourselves before him

The gospels

This is one of the most famous stories from the cross. Along with Jesus, two robbers were crucified by his side. And at first, both mocked him. In the ESV, it says,

One of the criminals who were hanged railed at him, saying, “Are you not the Christ? Save yourself and us!” (Luke 23:39)

Somehow, that word, “railed,” really strikes me. It makes me think about how many people rail at God when they face the consequences for their sin.

Here was this criminal who had done wrong and was being punished for it, but far from being repentant, it seems he felt that he was being wronged.

Perhaps he felt justified in the things that he had done, and so as he railed at Jesus, he said, “Are you really the Christ? Then save me from this! I don’t deserve this!”

Apparently, according to the other gospels, the second criminal joined in with the first in railing at Jesus, at least at first.

But perhaps as Jesus refused to answer, but instead only looked with pity upon his abusers, the second criminal started to quiet down.

He saw the dignity of Jesus in a situation where all dignity had seemingly been stripped away from him.

He saw the compassion, love, and forgiveness Jesus had for those who had crucified him.

And as he did, perhaps he remembered all the stories he had heard about Jesus. Perhaps, he had even gone to listen to Jesus at one time and seen him perform all those miracles.

As he considered all these things, perhaps he then looked at himself, and for the first time, admitted, “I was wrong. I made all these excuses for what I did. But ultimately, those were just excuses. I was wrong. I deserve this.”

And so after hearing again the railings of the man beside him, he said,

Don’t you fear God…since you are under the same sentence?

We are punished justly, for we are getting what our deeds deserve. But this man has done nothing wrong. (Luke 23:40-41)

Then he turned to Jesus, and pled with him,

Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom. (Luke 23:42)

I’m not sure, but perhaps for the first and only time on the cross, Jesus smiled. And he said,

I tell you the truth, today you will be with me in paradise. (Luke 23:43)

And in that moment, the man was saved. In death, he found life.

As I said, so many people are like the first man on the cross. They do wrong, but when they are caught in their sin and suffer for it, instead of admitting their wrong, they rail at God.

Sometimes, people wonder how God could allow eternal punishment.

I think part of it is because there is no repentance in hell. Rather, there is an eternal railing against God.

They rail that they were justified in their actions. And they rail that God would punish them for what they know deep in their heart is wrong.

And part of hell is the knowing they are wrong and are getting what they deserve but being too proud to admit it.

But for those who will only recognize their sin, humble themselves, and repent, as the second criminal did, there is forgiveness and there is life.

But that time is now. Because once you are dead, it is too late. As the apostle Paul wrote,

I tell you, now is the time of God’s favor, now is the day of salvation. (2 Corinthians 6:2)

How about you? Have you humbled yourself before Jesus? Have you received his salvation?

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John John 19 Luke Luke 23 Mark Mark 15 Matthew Matthew 27

What has been written

The gospels

The interaction between Pilate and the chief priests is very interesting. Pilate put up the “charge” against Jesus, calling him the “King of the Jews.”

The priests immediately went up to Pilate, asking him to change it to, “He claimed to be king of the Jews.” But Pilate simply replied, “What I have written, I have written.” (John 19:21-22)

It strikes me that many people take the same kind of attitude toward Jesus that the Jews did.

They don’t want to recognize Jesus as their king. They don’t want to admit that he’s God’s Son. They don’t want to admit he’s the only way of salvation.

So they complain to Christians saying, “He just claimed to be the king. He just claimed that he was God’s Son. He just claimed that he’s the only way. But don’t go telling us that he really is all these things. We don’t believe it.”

But unlike Pilate, we have a higher authority than ourselves to point to. And we simply have to say, “What God has written in his Word, he has written. You cannot change what he has said. Nor can you convince him to change his mind.

What he has said is fixed for all eternity. And all your unbelief will not change it.”

People won’t like to hear that. The chief priests certainly didn’t. But the question is not whether you like it or not. The question is whether it’s true.

And the question is whether you will bend your heart to that truth or attempt to bend the truth to what you want to believe.

But if you try to do the latter, it’s not the truth that will shatter, but you.

Jesus said of himself,

Have you never read in the Scriptures: ‘The stone (that is, Jesus) the builders (the chief priests and other religious leaders) rejected has become the capstone; the Lord has done this, and it is marvelous in our eyes’…

He who falls on this stone will be broken to pieces, but he on whom it falls will be crushed. (Matthew 21:42, 44)

The chief priests rejected Jesus, and as a result their whole world was shattered. Jerusalem was conquered, their temple destroyed, and worse, they will find themselves condemned before God on judgment day.

The same will happen to anyone who rejects Christ. What God has written is written.

The only question is, “What will you do with what he has said?”

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John John 19 Luke Luke 23 Mark Mark 15 Matthew Matthew 27

If we were forced to bear the cross Christ bore

The gospels

We know very little of this man of Cyrene, this Simon. It is conjectured that he is the father of the Rufus mentioned in Romans 16:13, the only other Rufus mentioned in the Bible.

In all probability, he was a pilgrim from Northern Africa, a Jew who had come to Jerusalem to celebrate the Passover, perhaps for the first time ever.

But when he arrived, he got more than he expected. He saw the true Passover lamb sacrificed for him. (I Corinthians 5:7).

For a time, though, Simon had to bear the cross Jesus was eventually crucified on.

As Jesus was going up the hill, the physical strain, the loss of blood, the scourging, the beating he had taken at the hands of the soldiers, and the emotional strain, of being betrayed and abandoned by those he loved most dearly, became too much and he fell under the weight of the cross. He could no longer bear it.

And so Simon had to carry it for him.

And it makes me think. What would have happened if Jesus had said to us at Calvary, “Enough. I can’t bear this anymore. You carry the cross. You die on that cross. You deserve it, after all, not me. I’ve never sinned. You have.”

In a sense, Simon had to experience that, if only for a short time. A cross that he should have been carrying anyway because of his sin, was put on him because Jesus simply couldn’t do it anymore.

Did he realize later, “I was doing Jesus no favor by taking up that cross for him. I was carrying the cross I deserved anyway.

It was he who was doing me the favor by trying to carry my cross up to Calvary. It was he who helped me, he who saved me by dying on that cross when I should have been the one hung there.

But what if he had chosen not to? What if he had simply felt like he could not bear it any longer? Where would I be now?”

The answer? Hell. Because that’s what we all deserve. Hell.

But Jesus did bear the cross. He loved us so much that he died there, and by doing so he took the punishment we deserved upon himself.

And now, because of what he did, our sins can be forgiven, and we can find life as we were meant to have it. A life in relationship with the God who loves us more than any other.

So let us never take the cross for granted. And when we look at it, may we look to the One who died there with hearts full of gratitude.

Jesus Christ,
Praise your name,
Lord, I sing
Without shame.

You bore the cross.
So much love.
All my life, all I need is you.
–James Gabriel

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Matthew Matthew 27

His blood upon us

Crucify! Crucify!
www.LumoProject.com

As I look at all the gospel accounts, the cries of the crowd shouting “Crucify! Crucify!” resonate with me.

How it must have broken the heart of Jesus to see the ones he loved reject him so.

Pilate, in his utter despair of the situation, finally washed his hands in front of them, and said,

I am innocent of this man’s blood…It is your responsibility! (Matthew 27:24)

To which the people responded,

Let his blood be on us and on our children! (Matthew 27:25)

Ultimately, that’s what happened. Because of their rejection of Christ, they and their children perished when Titus came to destroy Jerusalem in AD 70.

But as I reflect on Pilate’s words and the crowd’s, two things strike me.

First, it is our responsibility that Jesus died. It was because of us that he died.

Had we never rejected God, had we never sinned, Jesus would never have had to die. And so his blood is not only on the Jews of that time, it is on us as well.

Paul says,

For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. (Romans 3:23)

Because of this, there is no one who can say as Pilate tried to, “It is not my responsibility.”

We are all responsible.

But there’s another way to look at the phrase, “his blood be upon us,” and this is the second thing.

Certainly, the crowd meant that they were responsible when they said it. But the irony is, it is now his blood upon us that cleanses us from our sin.

When we put our faith in Jesus, his blood covers our sin and makes us righteous before him.

The writer of Hebrews tells us,

Jesus entered the Most Holy Place (in the heavenly tabernacle) once for all by his own blood, having obtained eternal redemption.

The blood of goats and bulls and the ashes of a heifer sprinkled on those who are ceremonially unclean sanctify them so that they are outwardly clean.

How much more, then, will the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself unblemished to God, cleanse our consciences from acts that lead to death, so that we may serve the living God! (Hebrews 9:12-14)

So let us cry out to the Savior, “Your blood is upon us. We are responsible for your death because of our sin. But now may your blood be upon us, and by your grace and mercy, cleanse us, forgive us, and make us whole.”

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John John 18 John 19 Luke Luke 23 Mark Mark 15 Matthew Matthew 27

When we have nothing to stand on

The gospels

I will start by saying that it’s a bit hard to harmonize these passages. Here’s how I see it, but I encourage you to look at it yourself, and come to your own conclusions.

  • The priests and council members bring Jesus in front of Pilate with their initial accusations. (Luke 23:1-2, John 18:29-31)
  • Pilate then talks to Jesus the first time. (John 18:33-38 gives us the most details of this conversation while the other gospels give the briefest of summaries).
  • Pilate proclaims Jesus innocent but after further accusations, decides to send him to Herod. (Mark 15:3-5; Luke 23:4-12)
  • Herod returns Jesus, and Pilate proclaims him innocent again. (Luke 23:13-17)
  • Pilate proposes releasing Jesus or Barabbas, and the crowd demands Barabbas. (All the gospels.)
  • Pilate releases Barabbas, but then proposes punishing Jesus instead of crucifying him. Ultimately, he has Jesus flogged. (Mark 15:16-20; Luke 23:21; John 19:1-7)
  • Pilate makes one last appeal, but ends up giving Jesus over to be crucified. (John 19:7-14)

With that background, over the next few days, I think I’ll go over the main characters in these events.

Today, I want to look at Pilate. You can read about Pilate in history, but I want to stay with what we see here. And what I see is someone who had nothing to stand on when it came to how he made decisions and how he lived his life.

When Pilate first called Jesus in for a private interrogation, his main concern was whether Jesus was truly an insurrectionist or not. So he asked point blank whether Jesus was a king or not.

When he found out that Jesus did claim to be a king, but that this kingdom was “not of this world,” and was certainly no threat to the Roman empire, that was all that mattered to Pilate. (John 18:36-37).

But Jesus would not let things rest there. Instead he challenged Pilate, by saying,

In fact, for this reason I was born, and for this I came into the world, to testify to the truth. Everyone on the side of truth listens to me. (John 18:37b)

Basically, Jesus was asking Pilate, “What about you? Are you on the side of truth? Are you a lover of truth? Are you willing to stand on truth? If you are, then you must listen to me and believe it.”

It’s the challenge that faces all of us. What do we base our lives on? Do we base it on truth? Do we believe that Jesus himself is truth?

Pilate faced that question in that moment. His response?

What is truth? (John 18:38)

I really wish that we could know the tone behind his words. Did he say this with the implication of, “Who do you think you are? You think you know better than everyone else?”

Or did he say it with a voice dripping with irony? “Truth? There is no truth. Truth is what people in power say it is.”

Or did he say it with despair. “Is there really any truth out there? Is it really possible to find?”

Whatever his feeling, his ultimate response was to reject the idea of absolute truth. Specifically he rejected Jesus as the source of truth. The result?

He had no foundation by which to make his decisions. Instead, he was tossed and blown by the winds of the words of others and the pressures they put upon him.

The pressure of facing a riot. (Matthew 27:24)

The pressure of being reported to Caesar. (John 19:12)

The pressure, ultimately, of his own fears. And because of this, he made a decision he knew was wrong.

The same will happen to us. If we refuse to make truth the foundation of our lives, if we refuse to make Jesus himself the foundation of our lives, then we will be blown and tossed by the opinions of others and by our own fears. And we’ll end up making decisions we know are wrong.

How about you? What do you rest your decisions on? What do you rest your life on?

Do you seek God’s counsel? And do you have the faith to believe that what he has said is true?

James tells us,

If any of you lacks wisdom, he should ask God, who gives generously to all without finding fault, and it will be given to him.

But when he asks, he must believe and not doubt, because he who doubts is like a wave of the sea, blown and tossed by the wind.

That man should not think he will receive anything from the Lord; he is a double-minded man, unstable in all he does. (James 1:5-8)

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Matthew Matthew 27

A sorrow that leads to death

Matthew

Here we see the end of Judas Iscariot’s life.

Upon seeing that Jesus had been condemned to death, he became remorseful, and went to the priests and elders saying,

I have sinned…for I have betrayed innocent blood. (Matthew 27:4)

He even tried to return the money, but when the priests and elders refused to take it, he threw it into the temple and went and hung himself.

The apostle Paul in 2 Corinthians 7 talks about two kinds of sorrow. Paul tells us,

Godly sorrow brings repentance that leads to salvation and leaves no regret. (2 Corinthians 7:10a)

This is the kind of sorrow that we eventually see in Peter. Devastated as he was by his failure in denying Jesus three times, he nevertheless repented, and was eventually restored.

Judas, on the other hand, never did repent.

Certainly he was sorry for the results of his actions. But instead of coming before God for forgiveness, he killed himself.

Paul calls this kind of sorrow, “a worldly sorrow that leads to death.” (2 Corinthians 7:10b)

Unfortunately, far too many people have Judas’ kind of sorrow.

They see the damage that they have done through their actions. But they see no hope for forgiveness. They think that what they’ve done is just too awful for even God to forgive.

The question is, what are we doing about it?

The people that should have helped Judas find the forgiveness of God, the priests, were of no help.

They basically said, “What’s your sorrow to us? If you think you’ve done something wrong, that’s your responsibility. Don’t come crying to us about it.”

The priests, of course, were too hardened by their own sin to be of any help. To have helped Judas would of course have meant recognizing their own sin. And they weren’t about to do that.

What’s so ironic is that they felt they couldn’t put the money back in the treasury from where it came because it was “blood money.”

Obviously, somewhere deep inside, they knew they were wrong.

But getting back to the point, as God’s priests, we should be helping people who are sorrowful for the mess they’ve made of their lives.

Are we doing that? Are we letting people know that God’s grace is there for them if they’ll just repent?

Or are we happy they are suffering? Are we saying, “That’s your responsibility. You’re reaping what you sowed. So don’t ask me to come help bail you out.”

Jesus had every right to do that to Peter. For that matter, he had every right to do that to each disciple that abandoned him.

Instead, he showed them grace. He showed them God’s forgiveness. That led to their repentance and completely changed their lives.

That’s what Jesus calls us to do for others. Are you?

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Luke Luke 22 Mark Mark 14 Matthew Matthew 26

The ultimate question

The gospels

The trial of Jesus was an atrocity on many levels.

Among them, the priests and Sanhedrin knew Jesus was innocent. Yet because of their jealousy and hatred of Jesus, they were desperate to find a reason to kill him.

Jewish law required that two witnesses agree before condemning a person, but time after time, the testimony was completely uncollaborated.

Finally, they seemed to find two people that could agree. Two witnesses came up and said that Jesus had threatened to destroy the temple and that he would build a new one.

This, though Jesus had meant, “Though you destroy this temple, I will raise it up,” and that he was referring to his death and resurrection, not the destroying of the Jewish temple. (John 2:19-21).

As a result, there were contradictions between what even the two witnesses said and in the end, their testimony became completely invalidated.

The high priest was so frustrated at that point, that he finally questioned Jesus directly, and when Jesus refused to answer, he said,

I charge you under oath by the living God: Tell us if you are the Christ, the Son of God. (Matthew 26:63)

And that is the ultimate question. Who is Jesus? Is he really the Christ? Is he really the Son of God? Because if he is, we owe him our lives. More than that, we are accountable to him.

Jesus warned them as such, saying,

But I say to all of you: In the future you will see the Son of Man sitting at the right hand of the Mighty One and coming on the clouds of heaven. (Matthew 26:64)

The reference is to Daniel 7, where all authority, glory, and power were given to the Messiah, and judgment would be pronounced on all who warred against him.

The reaction of the priests and Sanhedrin? Rejection. They refused to believe that Jesus was the Son of God. That he was their Messiah. Instead, they accused him of blasphemy and condemned him to death.

Many people do the same today.

They are exposed to the gospel. They are exposed to the claims of Christ. And they reject him. They trample underfoot the one who loved them enough to die for them.

As a result, the writer of Hebrews tells us they will be judged. (Hebrews 10:28-30)

But for all who believe in him and receive him, he gives the right to become children of God. (John 1:12)

The choice is yours. What will you choose? What will you do with Christ?

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John John 18 Luke Luke 22 Mark Mark 14 Matthew Matthew 26

Power and authority, mercy and grace

The gospels

In this passage, there are three things I see in Jesus.

1. His power and authority. Though surrounded by his enemies, he was in total command of the situation. Standing to face his enemies, he asked them, “Who are you looking for?”

And when they said, “Jesus of Nazareth,” he answered, “I am he.” (John 18:4-5)

At this, his enemies immediately fell to the ground at his use of the divine name. (Exodus 3:13-14; John 8:58)

What fear must have struck their hearts at that moment? Jesus then asked again, “Who are you looking for?” (John 18:6-7)

Completely shaken and with a lot less confidence in their voices, they answered, “Jesus of Nazareth,” and probably braced themselves to be knocked down again.

But instead, Jesus simply said,

I told you that I am he… If you are looking for me, then let these men go. (John 18:8)

And though they went up to arrest him, I don’t think there was any doubt in their minds who was truly in control of the situation.

2. His mercy. Jesus’ disciples, however, perhaps thought to take advantage of their enemies’ uncertainty, and one of them cried out,

Lord, should we strike with our swords? (Luke 22:49)

Not waiting for an answer, Peter dashed up and chopped the ear off of one of the men that had come to arrest Jesus.

(Either he had very good aim going for the ear and hitting it, or he was trying to slice the guy in two, and missed. I kind of think it was the latter).

But Jesus rebuked his followers, and told them,

Do you think I cannot call on my Father, and he will at once put at my disposal more than twelve legions of angels? (Matthew 26:53)

There’s an old song that says Jesus could have called 10,000 angels to destroy the world and set himself free.

Actually, the songwriter miscalculated. 12 legions would be more like 48,000 to 72,000 men. (Then again, maybe the songwriter just thought ten thousand sounded better).

Whatever the case, the point is Jesus could have destroyed them all. But he showed mercy to them. He spared their lives, and in fact, ultimately gave up his life for theirs.

3. His grace. While mercy is not giving a person the punishment he deserves, grace is the giving of something the person does not deserve.

And Malchus, the high priest’s servant, found Jesus’ grace as Jesus took Malchus’ severed ear and restored it. (Luke 22:51)

It was the last healing that Jesus ever performed here on earth. Physically, anyway.

For it was through the cross that Jesus brought spiritual healing. And by his grace, our sins are forgiven, and we can find eternal life. And he gives it to anyone who will believe.

Power and authority. Mercy and grace. Are there any better descriptions of our Lord?

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Luke Luke 22 Mark Mark 14 Matthew Matthew 26

When my will is not God’s will

Gethsemane

There are times in our lives when we go through trials and suffering. It may be an illness. It may be family troubles because of our Christian faith. It may be problems in our ministry. And so we pray for relief.

Sometimes God says yes, and we see him work in a powerful way to transform our situation.

But sometimes, God says no. And we see that in this passage.

Jesus asks three times that the Father would take away the cross from him. He says first,

My Father, if it is possible, may this cup be taken from me. Yet not as I will, but as you will. (Matthew 26:39)

This was no calm, serene prayer. So troubled was he that he fell to the ground praying to the Father. (Mark 14:35)

So stressed was he that he sweated blood. (Luke 22:44)

So often we think of Jesus as being perfectly calm and collected at all times. This was certainly not true at that moment.

God knew his feelings. God sympathized. God cared for and loved his Son. But God said no.

Knowing this, when Jesus started to pray again, he said,

My Father, if it is not possible for this cup to be taken away unless I drink it, may your will be done. (Matthew 26:42)

Still, I have to think that he continued to pray that God would provide another way.

But each time, God said no.

What can we get from this? I think there are several things.

There are people out there, Christian people, who claim that if you just have enough faith, God has to do what you ask.

But if we are going to claim that, then we have to say that Jesus didn’t have enough faith.

Are we going to condemn the Son of God for not having enough faith? I don’t think any rebuttal to that notion is needed.

The truth is that there are times when our will is not God’s will.

God is not a genie that we should make his will bend to ours. Rather, we need to bend our will to his. And that’s exactly what Jesus did.

Rather than insisting on his will, he conformed his will to the Father’s. We need to do the same.

And faced with his no, we need to do as Jesus did at the end of this story. Rise up, go, and do the Father’s will.

But when we make that decision, know that you are not alone. You don’t have to face your situation alone. Jesus didn’t.

In the midst of his struggle, in the midst of his agony in the garden, God sent an angel to comfort and strengthen him. God will do the same for you.

I actually think we can say more than that. Through his Holy Spirit, God himself will comfort us. That in fact, is one of the names of the Holy Spirit: the Comforter. (John 14:16—KJV)

And as I mentioned in an earlier blog, Paul tells us in Romans 8 that when we are weak, he intercedes for us in accordance with God’s will.

Because of that, we can have confidence that God will work out everything for our good. (Romans 8:26-28)

So what do we do when God says no?

Trust him. Trust that his way is better than your way. Trust that he will see you through whatever you’re going through.

Then rise up, go, and continue to do the things he has asked of you.

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John John 18 Luke Luke 22 Mark Mark 14 Matthew Matthew 26

Weak

The gospels

Nobody ever said Satan fights fair. And he doesn’t. When he sees us in our weakness, whether it be physically or emotionally, he will attack.

You see this in these passages. When Jesus and his disciples arrived at the Garden of Gethsemane, Jesus warned them,

Pray that you will not fall into temptation. (Luke 22:40)

The disciples had been through an emotional wringer.

They were still trying to make sense of all that Jesus had said, words about his betrayal, words about their betrayal of him, and the thoughts of him being taken from them.

Because of that, they were weakened, not just physically and emotionally (Luke 22:45), but spiritually.

So though Jesus asked them to stay with him and keep watch with him, they fell asleep. Not just once, not just twice, but three times. This despite all Jesus’ pleas and admonishments to keep watch and pray.

The result? When it came time to face Judas and all of Jesus’ enemies, they fled.

Jesus, on the other hand, faced even harsher realities. He was going to the cross, with all the sins of the earth upon him, and his Father’s face turned from him.

We see only a glimpse of his prayers here, but consider that they went on for at least an hour for the first prayer, and that he returned twice more to pray.

He prayed so hard, that drops of blood started to fall from his brow (a condition called hematidrosis—Luke 22:44)

Not only that, with his disciples sleeping, he had no emotional or spiritual support.

But in his weakness, God strengthened him, even sending an angel as support and comfort. (Luke 22:43)

Thus, when the time came for his arrest, he was calm, and fully prepared to face his final trials here on earth.

When I think about why Jesus could do this and his disciples could not, here’s the guess I would hazard.

Jesus throughout his life watched and prayed. Every morning he did so (Mark 1:35), and we can guess that he often did this at night too (Matthew 14:23)

So when the time came when he was weakest, he naturally responded the way he had trained himself.

His disciples, however, had not disciplined themselves that way, so in their weakness, they fell.

I remember reading about a famous football coach named Chuck Noll.

As he was watching film of a game with his team, he pointed out an opposing player who repeatedly made errors late in the game.

And he told his team (this is my paraphrase), “When he was practicing, he was probably lazy about working on his technique. He probably thought to himself, ‘Well, I don’t need to work so hard on this. I know what I need to do, and in the game, I’ll do it.’

“But when you’re tired and beat up late in the game, you don’t think, you react. And you react in the way that you trained yourself.”

The same is true in the spiritual world.

If you tell yourself, “Well, when I’m in trouble, I know what to do. I’ll pray,” but never make a daily practice of that, when you’re tired and beat up spiritually, you’ll find yourself unable to do even that.

And like the disciples, you’ll fall prey to your own weakness when your greatest hour of trial comes.

But if like Jesus you make a practice of seeking God, of watching and talking with him, when your hour of trial comes, you’ll find yourself able to do what you know you should. And you will stand.

How about you? Are you making a daily practice of watching and talking with God?

Watch and pray so that you will not fall into temptation. The spirit is willing, but the body is weak. (Mark 14:38)

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John John 13 Luke Luke 22 Mark Mark 14 Matthew Matthew 26

A God who knows our weakness and accepts us anyway

The gospels

When Jesus told the disciples that he was leaving for a place they could not follow, it must have really troubled them. He was their teacher, and they couldn’t imagine life without him.

As usual, it was Peter who spoke out, saying,

Lord, where are you going… why can’t I follow you now? I will lay down my life for you. (John 13:36-37)

Jesus then stunned Peter and the rest of the disciples by saying,

Will you really lay down your life for me? I tell you the truth, before the rooster crows, you will disown me three times! (John 13:38)

He then said,

Simon, Simon, Satan has asked to sift (all of) you as wheat.

But I have prayed for you, Simon, that your faith may not fail. And when you have turned back, strengthen your brothers. (Luke 22:31-32)

Again, Peter declared,

Lord, I am ready to go with you to prison and to death. (Luke 22:33)

But again Jesus replied,

I tell you, Peter, before the rooster crows today, you will deny three times that you know me. (Luke 22:34)

Perhaps, at that point, the other disciples thought that Peter was the betrayer that Jesus had talked about earlier. Perhaps even Peter was wondering.

So Jesus said,

You will all fall away… for it is written: ‘I will strike the shepherd, and the sheep will be scattered.’

But after I have risen, I will go ahead of you into Galilee. (Mark 14:27-28)

Still Peter continued to insist,

Even if all fall away on account of you, I never will. (Matthew 26:33).

So Jesus made his declaration even stronger and more specific saying,

I tell you the truth… today—yes, tonight—before the rooster crows twice you yourself will disown me three times. (Mark 14:30)

Even then, Peter refused to believe it, and insisted with all the other disciples that he would never do such a thing, even if it meant death. (Mark 14:31)

In the end, of course, they all did as Jesus had predicted. All of them ran away when Jesus was arrested, and Peter ended up denying Jesus three times.

What’s my point? Jesus knows us better than we know ourselves. He knows our weaknesses, even when we can’t see them ourselves. And yet, he accepts us.

That’s the amazing thing of all of this. He never condemned Peter.

Rather, he tried to encourage him saying, “I’ve been praying for you that your faith will not fail. You will fall, but you will get up again. And when you do, encourage the others.”

In the same way, Jesus knows our weakness. Yet he doesn’t condemn us.

Rather, he, as our great high priest, prays for us daily. He reaches out to pull us up when we fall down. And when we get up again, he tells us to have mercy on the others we see around us who have fallen as well.

So in our weakness, in our failures, let us always remember,

Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. (Romans 8:1)

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Luke Luke 22 Mark Mark 14 Matthew Matthew 26

Pictures of the cross

Matzah

The Old Testament is rich with pictures of Christ. And in this passage, we see the fulfillment of them in Christ.

The disciples were having the Passover meal, and after the first cup of wine, Jesus pulled out a piece of bread from a bag, a bread called matzah.

There were actually three pieces of bread in this bag, which were put into three different compartments.

Why three? Some people said it represented Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. Others said it represented the priests, Levites, and the people.

During the meal, the second piece was pulled out and broken. And for the first time in any Passover meal, Jesus gave his disciples the true meaning of the bread. He said,

This is my body given for you; do this in remembrance of me. (Luke 22:19)

Jewish Christians tell us now that they believe the three pieces of bread represent the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. But it was Jesus who came out and lived among us. And in the matzah, we see what he was like.

Matzah was made without yeast. In the Bible, yeast is always a picture of sin, and so the bread was a picture of Jesus’ sinless nature.

The bread was also pierced, so that the bread would stay unleavened during the cooking process. In the same way, Jesus was pierced for our sins.

And then the bread was broken, just as Jesus’ body was on the cross.

Then Jesus took the cup, and the cup he took was what the Jews called the “Cup of Redemption.”

It was a reminder of how God had bought the Jews out of slavery to Egypt and set them free.

But Jesus, instead of pointing back to the past, pointed to the future, saying,

This is my blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many for the forgiveness of sins. (Matthew 26:28)

Luke, in his gospel, adds the word “new” to covenant.

What did Jesus mean by new covenant? Well, when God brought the Jews out of Egypt, he gave them a covenant. An agreement. That if they would obey his laws, he would be their God and they would be his people.

But there was a problem. No one could keep those laws perfectly.

And so God promised in the book of Jeremiah that he would make a new covenant that would not depend on our effort.

He said,

I will put my law in their minds and write it on their hearts. I will be their God and they will be my people.

No longer will a man teach his neighbor or a man his brother saying, ‘Know the Lord,’ because they will all will know me from the least of them to the greatest.

For I will forgive their wickedness and remember their sins no more. (Jeremiah 31:33-34)

In this new covenant, God made several promises.

First, he would change us from the inside, changing our hearts and minds so that we can obey him.

Second, we would have a new relationship with him. We don’t need priests or pastors to stand between us and God. We can have a close intimate relationship with God himself.

And third, all our sins would be wiped away. He will remember our sins no more.

Now Jesus was saying, “The time for the new covenant has come. My blood will be poured out for you so that your sins may be forgiven and you may find new life.”

So because of Jesus and what he did for us,

Let us draw near to God with a sincere heart in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled to cleanse us from a guilty conscience and having our bodies washed with pure water.

Let us hold unswervingly to the hope we profess, for he who promised is faithful. (Hebrews 10:22-23)

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John John 13 Luke Luke 22 Mark Mark 14 Matthew Matthew 26

Betrayal

The gospels

As I’ve mentioned before, harmonizing these passages is a little tough.

One question is whether Judas participated in the first communion. Luke seems to imply so, while the other gospel writers seem to say Judas didn’t.

It’s just my opinion, but I believe Judas was there, and that the other writers, for whatever reason, didn’t keep things in chronological order.

At any rate, in these passages, Jesus dealt with his betrayer Judas.

There are some interesting things to note here.

While it was John who sat on one side of Jesus (assuming that he is “the one Jesus loved,” there seems to be a good chance that it was Judas that was on Jesus’ other side. It seems hard to believe that Jesus could say what he did to Judas without the others hearing unless this were so.

Unlike most pictures you see of the Last Supper, Jesus and his disciples did not sit in chairs. They sat on couches.

And when they reclined, they didn’t lean back, rather they leaned to the side, resting on their left elbow, right near the bosom of the person on their left.

Thus, it seems John was on Jesus’ right, and Judas on Jesus’ left.

Like I said before, to be seated next to Jesus at the table was an honor to the people there. And Jesus let Judas sit next to him. In short, he honored Judas.

Yet despite all of this, Jesus never fooled himself concerning Judas’ true nature. He told the disciples,

I tell you the truth, one of you is going to betray me. (John 13:21)

This of course, shocked all the disciples, and they started to ask Jesus one by one, “Is it I?” Judas himself asked “Surely not I, Rabbi?” (Matthew 26:25)

Perhaps Judas thought he had fooled Jesus. But Jesus whispered to him, “Yes, it is you.”

Imagine the look of shock that must have come on Judas’ face. He was totally exposed. Perhaps he was afraid that Jesus would now denounce him before his disciples and have him killed.

At about that time, Peter nudged John and said, “Ask Jesus who he’s talking about.” (John 13:24)

When John did, Jesus replied, “It is the one to whom I will give this piece of bread when I have dipped it in the dish.” (John 13:26)

He then (in the eyes of the other disciples watching) honored Judas once again by offering a morsel of bread to Judas.

To everyone except John, they must have been thinking, “Wow, Judas is more special than we thought!”

Judas himself must have been wondering at all this honor that Jesus was bestowing upon him. Maybe he thought he had misunderstood Jesus. Then Jesus told him,

What you are about to do, do quickly. (John 13:27)

And Judas quickly realized that Jesus knew exactly what was in his heart. And he went to betray Jesus.

What can we learn from this? Two things.

There are people that will betray us. That will hurt us. And it is easy to get bitter against them. To dishonor them as they have dishonored us.

But just as Jesus honored his betrayer, we are to show the same kind of honor and respect to them.

At the same time, however, we should know exactly what kind of person they are. We should not deceive ourselves about their nature. And we should protect ourselves from them.

When you look at the life of Jesus, he always did this. When people sought to kill him, he got out of there. The only time he didn’t was with Judas, and that was because it was his whole purpose to die. His time had finally come.

But God generally does not call us to submit to abuse from others if we don’t have to. Stay away. Keep your distance.

And if that’s not possible for some reason, keep your armor up around them. The chances of them hurting you deeply is much less if you have not fooled yourself concerning their character.

That said, we are called to forgive them. And even more, to treat them with respect and honor. As Peter wrote,

Do not repay evil with evil or insult with insult, but with blessing, because to this you were called so that you may inherit a blessing. (1 Peter 3:9)

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Luke Luke 22 Mark Mark 14 Matthew Matthew 26

Room for the master

The gospels

Jesus’ final public appearances (of his own volition, anyway) are now over. And he now knows that the time of his arrest and crucifixion is close at hand.

But before that happens, Jesus prepares to have one last meal with his disciples.

It’s kind of an unusual account that’s given concerning the preparations for the Passover meal.

Did Jesus supernaturally know that a man would be carrying a jar of water around (something only women generally did)?

Or had he worked out an arrangement and a special signal ahead of time with the parents of John Mark (the author of the book of Mark)?

Whatever the case, when the disciples entered the house, they found the upper room furnished and ready for them.

It’s very interesting to me that at the time of Jesus’ birth, there was no room for him. But now, just before his death, there was a room already prepared and ready for him.

How about your heart? Is it always prepared and ready for whatever Jesus wants to do in it?

Or is it so cluttered with sin or your own desires that it’s impossible for him to make use of it?

Lord, may there always be room in my heart for you. More, may my heart be cleared out from any clutter that would prevent you from doing what you want to accomplish in me and through me.

May my life always be used for your glory. In your name I pray, amen.

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John John 12 Mark Mark 14 Matthew Matthew 26

True love, false love

The gospels

Here we see a stark contrast in love. One person’s love came from the heart. The other’s came only for what profited him.

Jesus was in Bethany having dinner at the house of a man named Simon. Lazarus, Mary, and Martha were all there, as were Jesus’ disciples.

And at the meal, Mary took some expensive perfume and poured it on Jesus’ feet and on his head.

Judas’ reaction was immediate.

Why wasn’t this perfume sold and the money given to the poor? It was worth a year’s wages. (John 12:5)

And apparently, the other disciples chimed in with Judas.

John tells us, however, that Judas’ love and concern for the poor was not genuine. Instead,

He did not say this because he cared about the poor but because he was a thief; as keeper of the money bag, he used to help himself to what was put into it. (John 12:6)

But of Mary, Jesus said,

Leave her alone… Why are you bothering her? She has done a beautiful thing to me.

The poor you will always have with you, and you can help them any time you want. But you will not always have me.

She did what she could. She poured perfume on my body beforehand to prepare for my burial.

I tell you the truth, wherever the gospel is preached throughout the world, what she has done will also be told, in memory of her. (Mark 14:6-9)

Judas’ reaction? He went to the chief priests and betrayed Jesus for 30 pieces of silver.

We will always wonder why Judas decided to do this, but I don’t think it was simply because Jesus rebuked him in front of the disciples.

I think it went much deeper than that: His love for Jesus (and for others) apparently didn’t go much further than what it benefited him.

As treasurer among the disciples, he was happy to give to the poor as long as he could help himself to some of the money himself. And as a disciple, he was happy to follow Jesus as long as it seemed Jesus would become king.

But time and again, Jesus talked not about ruling as Messiah, but of his death. Perhaps frustrated and fed up with this, Judas thought, “Fine, if you want to die, die.”

And he went to betray him.

Mary’s love, on the other hand, came from her heart. And unlike Judas, who followed Jesus for what he could get, she loved Jesus enough to give him what was precious to her.

I love what John said about what happened when she opened the bottle of perfume. He said,

The house was filled with the fragrance of the perfume. (John 12:3)

And that’s what our love for Jesus and others should be like. It should permeate the world around us. It should be so evident, that no one can miss it. Some people, like Judas, will criticize us for it. But to Jesus, it’s a sweet-smelling aroma.

How about you? Is your love selfish, only interested in what you can gain? Or is it a sweet-smelling aroma to Jesus and the world around you?

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Matthew Matthew 25

Parable of the sheep and goats: How we treat others

Matthew

Jesus finishes his dialogue on the end times with this last story. And it talks about the final judgment following the tribulation.

At that time, God will judge the nations, separating the people as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats.

Considering the context, it seems God will specifically judge the nations for how they treat his people during the tribulation.

Some, who out of their love for God and faith in Jesus, work to help them in their time of need will be blessed and welcomed into the kingdom.

But those who participate in their persecution, or who simply turn a blind eye to them will be condemned.

But there’s a broader application that we can get from this. For as much as people will be judged for how they treat God’s people during that time, we will be judged for how we treat them in the here and now.

Jesus said,

The King will say to those on his right, ‘Come, you who are blessed by my Father; take your inheritance, the kingdom prepared for you since the creation of the world.

For I was hungry and you gave me something to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you invited me in, I needed clothes and you clothed me, I was sick and you looked after me, I was in prison and you came to visit me.’ (Matthew 25:34-36)

And when these people asked when they did such a thing for him, the King will reply,

I tell you the truth, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers of mine, you did for me. (Matthew 25:40)

But to those who did not help others in their time of need, he will say,

I tell you the truth, whatever you did not do for one of the least of these, you did not do for me. (Matthew 25:45)

When we see our brothers and sisters in Christ in need, how do we react? Do we reach out to them in the love of God? If we do, we do so to Christ.

But Jesus says that if we instead turn a blind eye to them, we are turning a blind eye to Christ and we will be held accountable for it.

John wrote,

This is how we know what love is: Jesus Christ laid down his life for us. And we ought to lay down our lives for our brothers.

If anyone has material possessions and sees his brother in need but has no pity on him, how can the love of God be in him?

Dear children, let us not love with words or tongue but with actions and in truth. (1 John 3:16-18)

Jesus has given us so much. He laid down his own life to give us life. How then can we not do the same for others?

Let us turn a blind eye to Jesus no longer, but reach out and touch the lives of those he loved enough to die for.

Categories
Matthew Matthew 25

Parable of the talents: Being faithful

Matthew

The second parable in this chapter goes to the point that Jesus brought up earlier. That we need to be faithful, doing the things that God has called us to do until he returns.

In this story, Jesus talks about a man who gave money to three different servants to invest.

To one, he gave five talents (a talent was a measure of weight for precious metals, usually 58-80 pounds) of silver, to another 2 talents, and to the last servant he gave one.

And it says that he gave to them, each according to their ability.

In the same way, God has given us different talents (not money, but abilities) and resources. He does not give them equally to us, but rather according to what we can handle.

And like the story, God requires us to use and invest what he has given us. If we are faithful, doing what he’s asked us to do until he returns, then like the master in the story, he will tell us,

Well done, good and faithful servant! You have been faithful with a few things; I will put you in charge of many things. Come and share your master’s happiness! (Matthew 25:21)

In the story, the master said this to two of his servants.

But there was a third servant, who instead of investing what his master had entrusted to him, buried it in the ground. And when his master returned, he had nothing to show for what he had been entrusted.

Why? Probably more than anything because he did not honor his master.

He saw his master as unfair, as a man who merely leached off the work of others. And he feared that his master would be unfair in judging him were he to try to invest, but instead lose everything.

Many people look at God the same way. They don’t truly honor him.

They see him as unfair. They see him as too harsh. They throw all kinds of criticisms his way. And they use these criticisms as an excuse to live for themselves, instead of investing what God gave them and living for him.

This will especially happen in the last days when everything is falling apart. Earthquakes, famines, wars, and plagues.

And people, even more than they do now, will throw criticisms God’s way, rather than turning from their sin and serving him.

But when Jesus comes back, they’ll find out that all their criticisms and excuses are empty.

They’ll realize that God is completely fair and just, and that it was they who were wrong. It was they who were selfish, wicked, and lazy. And they will be judged for that.

Part of faith is believing that God is good. That though there is evil in this world, it is not God who is evil. That though there is injustice in the world, it is not God who is unjust.

Rather it is we who have made a mess of things.

But as long as we fail to honor God and criticize him for the mess we made, we will make all kinds of excuses for why we need not be faithful with all he has given us.

How about you? How do you see God?

Do you honor him enough to honor him with your life? Do you honor him enough to be faithful and use what he’s given you to make a difference in this world as he has called you to?

Categories
Matthew Matthew 25

Parable of the ten virgins: Being ready

Matthew

In this chapter, we see two parables on what Jesus was just talking about, watching for his return and also doing the things he’s asked us to do until he comes.

In this first parable, I think it’s easy to try to over-interpret each facet of the parable, and I think we can get into trouble trying to do so.

The main point, again, is that we are to watch and be ready for when Jesus comes back, because he will come back when we don’t expect it.

That’s what happened with these bridesmaids.

The bridegroom had gone to the bride’s house and was due to return to his home for the wedding banquet, and so everyone was waiting for his return.

But for some reason, it took more time than they expected, and so when the bridegroom finally came, they were fast asleep.

Awakened from their slumber, the bridesmaids quickly realized that their lamps were going out and needed more oil.

Five of them were ready for such a situation and quickly refilled their lamps.

The other five, however, were not ready and as a result, had to go out and buy more oil and by the time they came back, the doors were shut, and they could not enter.

The point? Some thought they were ready and were not, while others were truly ready for the bridegroom’s return.

Those who were ready were able to join the banquet, while the rest were shut out.

Many Jews will be like this when Jesus finally returns. They have been yearning for the Messiah for so long. And some will be ready; they will have already acknowledged Jesus as Messiah, been filled with his Spirit, and be ready to enter the kingdom when Jesus comes.

But others, though they claim to be waiting for the Messiah, are not ready. And they will find that out when Jesus returns. That the Messiah they’d been waiting for had been Jesus all along.

But when they find out, it will be too late, and they will be locked out of his kingdom.

But the same can be said of the rest of us. Many people claim to be Christians but have never truly received him as Lord and Savior. Rather, they merely have the “form of godliness but deny its power.” (2 Timothy 3:5)

They claim to follow Christ, but in their hearts, merely live for themselves. And when Jesus returns, they’ll realize that they are not ready for his return, and will find themselves locked out of his kingdom.

How about you? Are you ready for when Jesus returns? There is only one way. The apostle Paul wrote,

If you confess with your mouth, “Jesus is Lord,” and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. (Romans 10:9)

Are you ready for our Lord’s return?

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Luke Luke 21 Mark Mark 13 Matthew Matthew 24

Being ready whenever

The gospels

There are a lot of people concerned about when Jesus will return. And over the years, many people have predicted when he will come back.

I remember back in my high school days, a book came out called, “88 reasons why the rapture will happen in 1988.”

Needless to say, it never happened. Not that it stopped the author from making more futile predictions.

For some reason, such people seem to ignore the words of Jesus who said,

No one knows about that day or hour, not even the angels in heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father. (Mark 13:32)

God has his plans, and he hasn’t chosen to reveal to us when Jesus will return. What he has given us is signs to look for, which we’ve already talked about.

And he’s given us an admonition that too few Christians follow today: watch, and be ready.

Jesus said,

Be on guard! Be alert! You do not know when that time will come.

It’s like a man going away: He leaves his house and puts his servants in charge, each with his assigned task, and tells the one at the door to keep watch.

Therefore keep watch because you do not know when the owner of the house will come back—whether in the evening, or at midnight, or when the rooster crows, or at dawn.

If he comes suddenly, do not let him find you sleeping.

What I say to you, I say to everyone: ‘Watch!’ (Mark 13:33-37)

I know I mentioned this yesterday, but considering that Jesus repeats the same admonition 4 times in the same passage, I figure it can’t hurt to repeat it again.

A lot of Christians argue about when Jesus will rapture the church. Will it be before the great tribulation? Will it be in the middle? Will it be after?

I’m not saying these things aren’t important. What I am saying is that it’s not so important when Jesus is coming, but to be ready whenever he comes. And if you are ready whenever he comes, you’ll never be caught by surprise.

That is the whole point of what Jesus is saying here.

So before you start arguing about pre-trib, mid-trib, or post-trib, or premillenial, postmillenial, or amillenial, ask yourself one question: If Jesus were to come today, am I ready?

Am I doing the things that he has asked me to do? If he were to come today, what would he say to me?

And if you have that question settled, everything else will work itself out.

So…are you ready?

Categories
Luke Luke 21 Mark Mark 13 Matthew Matthew 24

Until our Lord returns

The gospels

The Lord talks a lot about the events that will occur before he returns. And the thing that you get from all he says is that things will get worse before he returns. A lot worse.

There will be wars, earthquakes, and famines. And because of all these troubles, false prophets will arise, trying to bring hope, but instead deceiving many. And if that weren’t bad enough, Antichrist will appear.

The result? Persecution.

There will be a persecution of the Jews in particular, but also of any who follow Christ, leading to a great falling away from the faith.

You won’t see what you see today with many people claiming to be Christians, all the while living as they please.

And because of all the wickedness surrounding them, the love of most will grow cold.

Trust, I believe will be in short supply as well, as people will be turning on each other, especially on those who are following God.

And then celestial phenomena will start to occur that will further shake people’s hearts.

But just when things reach their worst, Jesus will appear and bring an end to these things, and his kingdom will finally come.

Having said all this, Jesus gives us warning and encouragement.

The first warning he gives is to be careful of false Christs.

When Christ comes, he’ll come from the sky and the whole world will see his coming. So don’t waste your time running after rumors.

And though people may come with great signs and wonders, if they claim to be Christ, don’t believe them. For that is exactly how the Antichrist will come, performing signs and wonders, deceiving many. (2 Thessalonians 2:3-9)

He then warns us and encourages not to lose hope through this time of trouble, but to be ever watchful doing what he has called us to do. He says first,

When these things begin to take place, stand up and lift up your heads, because your redemption is drawing near. (Luke 21:28)

In other words, don’t fret when these things happen. Don’t get discouraged. Don’t lose hope. Because all these things mean that Jesus is truly coming soon.

But then he says,

Be careful, or your hearts will be weighed down with dissipation, drunkenness and the anxieties of life, and that day will close on you unexpectedly like a trap. (Luke 21:34)

It will be so easy in those days to fall into discouragement and depression from all the evil you see around you. And so Jesus says to be careful not to let that happen to you.

He also warns us not to become jaded and cynical, and to start thinking that Jesus will never return because of all the evil we see.

Instead, we are to continue waiting in hope. Waiting in terms of watching for his return. But also waiting in terms of serving him and doing the things he has asked of us.

If we do, we’ll be rewarded. If we don’t, we will be punished. (Matthew 24:46-51)

I know that there are a lot of people thinking, “Well, this isn’t really for me. I’ll be raptured by then.”

I certainly hope you’re right. But if the day comes that you see the Antichrist, then know that these words are not only for the Jews. They are not only for those who become Christians at that time. They are for you.

And no matter what happens, no matter what trials we may go through, let us keep watching for our Lord, serving him faithfully until he returns.

Categories
Luke Luke 21 Mark Mark 13 Matthew Matthew 24

A sign of things to come

The gospels

I mentioned in my last blog that this is one of the more difficult passages in scripture, and part of the difficulty comes in the harmonizing of it.

Jesus had just told the disciples that the temple was going to be destroyed, and troubled by this revelation, the disciples asked when this would happen and what would be the sign of his coming and the end of the age.

I’m trying to think of this from their perspective.

At this point, it still had not sunk in that Jesus had to die and be raised to life. It had never even crossed their minds that Jesus would ascend to heaven and depart from them.

So when they asked about his coming, they weren’t asking when he would come back from heaven. They were probably asking when he would set up his kingdom.

They had heard all the prophesies of the “Day of the Lord” from the Old Testament. A day of judgment for the nations, and a time when Israel would be restored.

But now Jesus was saying that this temple would be destroyed. The Day of the Lord could not certainly happen before that.

And yet, that very week, they had heard the people in Jerusalem shouting “Blessed is the king who comes in the name of the Lord. Hosanna in the highest!”

As a result, they were understandably confused.

The truth is, I’m still working through all Jesus said in his answer. And as time has gone on, my perspective has changed on what it means from when I first wrote this particular article, and thus a slight revision has been made.

At any rate, in Luke’s account, Jesus talks about how in the future, there would be false Christs, wars, and disasters. But he warned the disciples that before these things happened, they would be persecuted and even be put to death.

All this happened in the book of Acts. We also see when they were put on trial, the Holy Spirit gave them the words to speak in such a way that their opponents couldn’t answer them, just as Jesus promised.

He then warned that when they saw armies surrounding Jerusalem, to get out of there because Jerusalem would be destroyed and the people taken captive. And he talked about how terrible it would be for those women who would be pregnant or nursing at that time.

All this happened in AD 70, and most if not all the Christians at that time took Jesus’ warning and were not there when Jerusalem was destroyed, while many other Jews stayed in Jerusalem thinking it was their only hope for safety.

In Matthew and Mark, we also see Jesus referring to an abomination that causes desolation standing in the temple.

The book of Daniel refers to this event, and it was originally fulfilled when Antiochus Epiphanes set up an idol of Zeus in the temple and then sacrificed a pig on the altar of God.

There was no such desecration of the altar when the temple fell in AD 70, but there are Bible scholars that feel (and I agree) that during the destruction of the temple, the Romans nevertheless defiled it, albeit in a different way from Antiochus, and that fulfilled Jesus’ prophesy.

And Jesus said of that time,

Those will be days of distress unequaled from the beginning, when God created the world, until now—and never to be equaled again. (Mark 13:19)

I originally felt that at this point, Jesus couldn’t be talking about Jerusalem’s destruction in AD 70, as I felt that the future tribulation to come would be much worse.

But when you look at history and all that actually happened in Jerusalem at that time, I’m not so sure anymore.

All that said, I still think the things that happened in Jerusalem in AD 70 were a sign for what will happen in the future. After all, we see some of those things happening now.

Even now, we see wars and rumors of wars. We see famines, earthquakes, and other natural disasters. We see false Christs popping up all over the place. We see persecution.

And all this will not end until Jesus comes again. And when he comes, all will know it because he will appear in the sky for all to see, and at that time he will call his elect to him.

I know that many people think that Jesus will rapture all Christians before Antichrist even comes. I certainly hope so. I’m willing to be convinced. But I wouldn’t count on it.

Whatever you believe, here’s the point I want you to remember: Jesus’ words concerning Jerusalem came true, exactly as he had said. We see his words coming true even today.

And so when he says he will come again, we can know it’s true. Because he said so. Jesus said,

Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will never pass away. (Luke 21:33)

So no matter what trouble we may suffer through, let us wait in hope, and be ready whenever he does come.

Categories
Luke Luke 21 Mark Mark 13 Matthew Matthew 24

When our temple becomes corrupt

The gospels

We now come to one of the more difficult passages in scripture.

I want to say straight off that if you’re hoping to get all the answers for what all this means, I don’t have them.

There are other people much more qualified to espouse their views on the matter of whether pre-trib, mid-trib, post-trib, are correct and all that goes with it.

More than anything, as I have through my blogs, I want to stay with what’s clear and what things mean practically for us.

(Although I’m sure all the pundits for the different positions will argue that the scriptures are clear about their positions).

Today, though, I want to look at what started this whole discourse.

After this final day of arguing with the Pharisees and teachers of the law, Jesus’ disciples said concerning the temple,

Look, Teacher! What massive stones! What magnificent buildings! (Mark 13:1)

And indeed from the outside, the temple was beautiful indeed. But Jesus quickly doused their enthusiasm by saying,

Do you see all these great buildings? Not one stone here will be left on another; every one will be thrown down. (Mark 13:2)

That was exactly what happened. When the temple was attacked in A.D. 70, a fire started, and the gold from the roof melted into the cracks of the walls of the temple.

As a result, the commander of the attack ordered that the temple be dismantled stone by stone so as to retrieve all of the gold.

Why did this happen? We saw the answer earlier.

While the temple looked beautiful on the outside, and though there were certainly some good things that happened on the inside, nevertheless, the corruption was so great that it could not stand.

There was greed (as seen in the cleansing of the temple), and even worse, a rejection of the very God they claimed to serve.

They couldn’t even recognize him when he stood right there among them. Rather, they were determined to kill him.

All of us as Christians are God’s temples. But how often have we seen high-profile Christians, particularly in ministry, fall because of corruption. And not just fall, but fall utterly, with “not one stone left on another.”

But before we start judging others, we need to look at our own temples. What is there? Is there any hint of corruption? Greed? Hypocrisy? Jealousy? Pride?

These things in particular were in the temple of Jerusalem. Are they in your temple?

What about other things that can corrupt a temple? Lust? Bitterness? Unforgiveness?

And are there things that should be in your temple, but aren’t? Things like love and mercy?

Our temples might look good to those who see us from the outside. We might seem to be shining examples of what a Christian should be.

But if our temples are corrupt, eventually, they will utterly collapse and be exposed for what they really are.

What’s in your temple?

Categories
Matthew Matthew 23

When we reject those sent to us

Matthew

Nobody likes to be rebuked. To be told you’re wrong. But how do you respond when you are?

The Pharisees followed the long line of their ancestors throughout Israel’s history. Instead of listening and repenting when rebuked, they turned on those sent to them.

They turned on Jesus, murdering him, and they turned on his disciples, all the while claiming that they would never have murdered the prophets that their ancestors murdered long before.

And so Jesus said,

You snakes! You brood of vipers! How will you escape being condemned to hell?

Therefore I am sending you prophets and wise men and teachers. Some of them you will kill and crucify; others you will flog in your synagogues and pursue from town to town.

And so upon you will come all the righteous blood that has been shed on earth, from the blood of righteous Abel to the blood of Zechariah son of Berekiah, whom you murdered between the temple and the altar.

I tell you the truth, all this will come upon this generation. (Matthew 23:33-36)

Jesus then wept, saying,

O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, you who kill the prophets and stone those sent to you, how often I have longed to gather your children together, as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, but you were not willing.

Look, your house is left to you desolate.

For I tell you, you will not see me again until you say, ‘Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord.’ (Matthew 23:37-39)

And that’s what happened. Within a generation of the people that murdered Christ, Israel fell, their beloved temple demolished until this very day.

What happens when we reject those God sends to us to rebuke us? Ultimately, our lives will fall apart. And we will be judged.

God takes no pleasure in this. He weeps over it. But there can be no life, there can be peace until we acknowledge him as Lord over all in our lives.

Solomon wrote,

Faithful are the wounds of a friend. (Proverbs 27:6, NASB)

The truth can hurt. It can be painful to hear. But if we take it to heart, it can bring healing.

What do you do when you are rebuked?

Categories
Matthew Matthew 23

Cleaning out the inside

Matthew

Jesus continues his scathing of the Pharisees and teachers of the law by saying,

Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You clean the outside of the cup and dish, but inside they are full of greed and self-indulgence.

Blind Pharisee! First clean the inside of the cup and dish, and then the outside also will be clean.

Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You are like whitewashed tombs, which look beautiful on the outside but on the inside are full of dead men’s bones and everything unclean.

In the same way, on the outside you appear to people as righteous but on the inside you are full of hypocrisy and wickedness. (Matthew 23:25-28)

Scathing indeed. The Pharisees and teachers of the law were held up as so righteous by the people. But Jesus exposes every filthy thing in their hearts, their greed, their self-indulgence, and their utter hypocrisy.

He called them whitewashed tombs which look so beautiful on the outside, but are filled with rotting bones on the inside.

How about you? What would Jesus say about you if he saw you? Would he call you a whitewashed tomb? A cup that is clean on the outside and filthy on the inside?

It is so easy to put up a front. In fact the word “hypocrite” originally came from the word for “actor.”

But God looks beyond your exterior to your heart. And when he does, what does he see?

For that matter, what do you see? Can you even see the areas in your heart that are ugly in the sight of God? Or are you so blind that while you can see everyone else’s sin, you can’t even see your own?

I suppose the real test is this: Do you feel compassion for those “sinners” around you because you know just how much mercy you yourself have received from God, and continue to receive day by day?

Or do you just feel utter contempt for them, thinking, “I would never do something like that!”

What is in your heart? What needs to be cleaned out from your cup?

Categories
Matthew Matthew 23

Remembering what’s important

Matthew

It’s really sad the reputation that a lot of Christians have in the world, particularly in the States.

Some of it is the natural response of the world to people who love the Lord. Jesus did say that there would be people who hate us because of him.

But I wonder sometimes how often Christians get a bad reputation, not because they are following Jesus, but because they’ve forgotten what’s important.

Many of these Christians go to church every Sunday, perhaps go to a Bible study during the week as well, they read their Bibles and pray daily, and they are very loud in their championing of Christian values.

There was a group very similar to that in Jesus’ time: The Pharisees and teachers of the law. Yet Jesus said of them,

Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You give a tenth of your spices—mint, dill and cummin.

But you have neglected the more important matters of the law—justice, mercy and faithfulness.

You should have practiced the latter, without neglecting the former.

You blind guides! You strain out a gnat but swallow a camel. (Matthew 23:23-24)

Jesus adds another thing they neglected in Luke 11:42, “the love of God.”

Jesus said in another passage that the world would know that we are his disciples by the love that we have for one another. (John 13:35).

I suppose the question I have, not just for you but for me, is this: “Is my life marked by the love and mercy of God?”

When people look at me, do they see these things flowing from me? Do they know that I truly do care for them? Do they see the compassion I have for them?

Or do they merely see a person who constantly condemns them and their lifestyle?

When people see me at work, do they see a person of integrity, a person who does what is right even when it hurts me?

Do they see a person who is faithful at what he does, or someone who slacks off whenever he can?

If people don’t see these things in our lives, the condemnation and criticism we receive from the world will be well deserved. And sadly, they may never come to Christ because of it.

And while God will hold them accountable for the decisions they made, we also will be held accountable for giving them the opportunity to blaspheme God and to hold him in contempt. (2 Samuel 12:14)

How about you? What’s coming out of your life? Love? Mercy? Justice? Faithfulness?

These are what is important to God.

Categories
Matthew Matthew 23

Loopholes

loopholes

I’ve mentioned before the different problems of legalism.

Here we see another problem. People who are legalistic tend to try to find loopholes. They may keep the letter of the law (as they see it), but try to find ways to avoid keeping its spirit.

The Pharisees and teachers of the law were masters of this, and we see an example here that Jesus brings up.

The law said that you were to keep oaths that you made to God. But these men made all kinds of rules of what that actually meant.

If you said, “I swear by the temple,” you weren’t bound by your oath, but if you said, “I swear by the gold of the temple,” you were required to keep it.

If you said, “I swear by God’s altar,” you weren’t bound by your oath, but if you said, “I swear by this gift on the altar,” you were.

And Jesus points out the utter fallacy of this way of thinking.

It is the temple that makes the gold holy, not the reverse.

It is not the gift that makes the altar holy; rather, it’s the altar that makes the gift holy.

Lest the Pharisees try to squirm out from under that concept, he goes on to say that if you swear by the temple, you’re swearing by God who dwells there.

And if you swear by heaven, you swear by God’s throne and by God himself.

What was Jesus’ point?

Just do what’s right.

When God said, “Keep your oaths that you have made to me,” the point wasn’t that it’s okay to break your oath if it isn’t made in God’s name.

While keeping your oaths is certainly important, the real point was that your word is important. If you say you’re going to do something, do it.

The Pharisees and teachers of the law focused on “oaths to God” rather than “keeping your oath.”

In so doing, they “strained the gnat,” in making rules on what “oaths to God” meant, and “swallowed the camel” by consistently breaking their other oaths. (Matthew 23:24)

How about you? Do you have a heart that truly wants to please God and do what’s right? Or do you have a heart that only does so grudgingly, and is always looking for loopholes?

You cannot please God by claiming to find loopholes and slipping through them in your daily life.

Let’s get rid of that kind of attitude.

Rather, let’s do what we know in our hearts God has told us to do.

Categories
Matthew Matthew 23

When those who teach are bad

Matthew

For some reason, one of the English teachers in the Japanese high school I teach at was showing Karate Kid 2 to his students yesterday.

I can’t say much for the film, but the one character I really like is Mr. Miyagi, the mentor to Daniel who was his karate student.

What does Karate Kid 2 have to do with this blog? Absolutely nothing. But the original Karate Kid does.

In the original (and much better film), Daniel asked Mr. Miyagi why the karate students who bullied him acted the way they did. Mr. Miyagi answered, “No such thing as bad student, only bad teacher.”

Now I don’t know that I completely agree with this statement, but there is some truth to it.

When a teacher is bad, then those who follow him or her will almost inevitably go down the same path.

That’s what you see in this passage. Jesus continues his scathing of the Pharisees and teachers of the law by saying,

Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You shut the kingdom of heaven in men’s faces. You yourselves do not enter, nor will you let those enter who are trying to…

Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You travel over land and sea to win a single convert, and when he becomes one, you make him twice as much a son of hell as you are. (Matthew 23:13-15)

These teachers of the law and Pharisees had a lot of problems. They were hypocritical, legalistic, and completely blind to what was truly important to God.

The result? All their students were the same way, and even worse. You see this in Saul of Tarsus before his conversion.

What can we learn from this?

First, as a teacher, what are you like? The apostle James wrote,

Not many of you should presume to be teachers, my brothers, because you know that we who teach will be judged more strictly. (James 3:1)

While James is primarily talking about what we teach, he is also talking about our lives. As teachers, we cannot be like the Pharisees and teachers of the law who did not practice what they preached. (Matthew 23:3)

So if you’re a teacher, are you living what you say? Or are you hypocritical?

And as you teach and live your life, do you always keep in mind what is most important to God? Justice. Mercy. And faithfulness.

For what we need to remember is that God will not only hold you responsible for what you teach and how you live, but to the degree that you are faithful to the position he put you in, he’ll hold you responsible for the kinds of students you produce as well.

The other question you need to ask is who is your teacher?

How is he living his life? What kinds of things is he teaching? Because if you are not wise in choosing your teacher, you’ll be going down the same road as they are, and that can be disastrous.

Who are you listening to at church? Who are you listening to on podcasts? Whose books are you reading?

Teachers are responsible for what they teach, but you are responsible for what you let in.

So as I’ve said before, I’ll say again,

Test everything. Hold on to the good. (1 Thessalonians 5:21)

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Luke Luke 20 Mark Mark 12 Matthew Matthew 23

A wrong view of leadership

The gospels

What is leadership? What is leadership not?

In a scathing criticism of the Pharisees and teachers of the law, Jesus gives us insight into what true leadership is about.

He first warned the disciples and the crowds,

The teachers of the law and the Pharisees sit in Moses’ seat. So you must obey them and do everything they tell you.

But do not do what they do, for they do not practice what they preach. (Matthew 23:1-2).

Here, Jesus tells the people that though they were to respect the offices of authority, nevertheless they were not to do what the teachers of the law and Pharisees did because they didn’t practice what they preached.

Oh, they kept all the minor details of the laws, as well as the traditions of the elders, but when it came down to what was most important, justice, mercy, and faithfulness, they failed miserably. And it showed in how they treated the people, and how they related to God.

It also showed in how they viewed leadership. They saw it merely as telling the people what to do, not serving them. Jesus said of them,

They tie up heavy loads and put them on men’s shoulders, but they themselves are not willing to lift a finger to move them. (Matthew 23:4).

These men poured out law upon law, rule upon rule on the people.

But when people started to crumble under the burden of guilt for not being able to keep all these things, they didn’t encourage them; they didn’t pray for them; they didn’t think how to help them. Rather, they condemned them.

They also saw it as a point of pride to be in that position.

Their phylacteries (boxes that held writings of scripture in them) were wide and their tassels which also had scriptures written on them were long so that all the world would be impressed by their spirituality.

They then abused their position for financial gain. Jesus said, “They devour widows’ houses,” probably meaning that they used the respect they gained from their position to get money from the widows.

They also gloried in being called “teacher” or “father” by those around them because it showed their high position among the people. But Jesus said,

But you are not to be called ‘Rabbi,’ for you have only one Master and you are all brothers.

And do not call anyone on earth ‘father,’ for you have one Father, and he is in heaven.

Nor are you to be called ‘teacher,’ for you have one Teacher, the Christ. (Matthew 23:8-10).

And that’s what a leader is to remember. Titles are nice to have, but in reality, all of us are equal, and God is the only one who is truly above all.

Yet even God came down to earth as a servant. He healed the sick, he brought good news to the poor and downtrodden, and then he died on a cross to take the punishment for all of our sins. And that is the attitude that leaders are to take.

Jesus said,

The greatest among you will be your servant. For whoever exalts himself will be humbled, and whoever humbles himself will be exalted. (Matthew 23:11-12).

True leaders are servants. They don’t look for what they can gain in terms of respect, pride, or money. Rather, they are willing to sacrifice all for the sake of the people around them.

What kind of leader are you?

Categories
Luke Luke 20 Mark Mark 12 Matthew Matthew 22

Son of David, Son of God

The gospels

Perhaps tiring of the hypocrisy of those questioning him, Jesus posed his own question to them that ultimately shut them up. He said,

What do you think about the Christ? Whose son is he? (Matthew 22:42a)

This was an easy question for the Pharisees and teachers of the law, and they immediately answered,

The son of David. (Matthew 22:42b)

Then Jesus challenged their thinking of who the Christ, the Messiah really was. He asked,

How is it then that David, speaking by the Spirit, calls him “Lord”?

For he says, “The Lord said to my Lord: ‘Sit at my right hand until I put your enemies under your feet.'”

If then David calls him “Lord,” how can he be his son? (Matthew 22:43-45)

The answer is simple. Jesus is not simply the Son of Man (namely David), he is also the Son of God. As a man, he was the son of David. But as the Son of God, he was also David’s Lord.

But this was something the Pharisees and teachers of the law could not see. Or perhaps did not want to see.

There are many people like that today. They are willing to see Jesus as the son of man. A good person. A great teacher even. But they are unwilling to acknowledge him as Son of God.

But Jesus is not simply a son of man. He is the Son of God. And as such, he is worthy of our honor, our trust, and obedience. More, he is the only way to the Father.

How about you? How do you see Jesus?

Categories
Mark Mark 12 Matthew Matthew 22

What we need to understand to enter the kingdom

The gospels

Of all the people that had come to question Jesus, there was one that seemed to be impressed with what Jesus had to say. And so he asked Jesus,

Of all the commandments, which is the most important? (Mark 12:28)

Jesus answered,

The most important one…is this: ‘Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is one.

Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.’

The second is this: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’

There is no commandment greater than these.

All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments. (Mark 12:29-31 and Matthew 22:40)

In other words, if you keep these two laws, to love God with everything you have and you love your neighbor as yourself, you will have kept all of the laws. All of the laws are summed up in those two commands.

The man questioning Jesus answered,

Well said, teacher…You are right in saying that God is one and there is no other but him.

To love him with all your heart, with all your understanding and with all your strength, and to love your neighbor as yourself is more important than all burnt offerings and sacrifices. (Mark 12:32-33)

This man was unique among the other Pharisees and teachers of the law in that he understood that it was not enough to be ritually clean.

He understood that to please God meant going beyond the letter of the law to the spirit beneath it, to love God and to love others. And if you don’t do these two things, all the “righteous” things you do are worthless.

When Jesus saw the man understood this, he said,

You are not far from the kingdom of God. (Mark 12:34)

Notice he didn’t say, “Good job. You are now part of the kingdom!”

Rather, he said, “You are not far from the kingdom of God.”

What was this man lacking? He was lacking one further insight. That none of us keep these two commandments perfectly. And because of that, we need a Savior.

Once this man realized that and put his faith in Jesus, then Jesus could say, “Welcome to the kingdom.”

And that’s what all of us need to realize. None of us are good enough to earn our way into heaven. Because no matter how hard we may try, all of us fail in loving God or loving others in one way or another.

That’s why Jesus came. He died on a cross to take the punishment for our sin. He then rose again three days later, and if we will put our faith in him, then and only then will we be saved.

Have you done that? If not, will you do it today?

Lord Jesus, I realize that I have sinned. I have not loved you with all my heart, soul, mind, and strength. And I haven’t loved my neighbor as myself. Instead, I have hurt you and others through my actions. Forgive me.

Thank you for dying on the cross for my sin and taking my punishment. Now come and be Lord of my life. In Jesus’ name, amen.

Categories
Luke Luke 20 Mark Mark 12 Matthew Matthew 22

When we fail to understand the scriptures and the power of God

The gospels

There’s a children’s song that humorously describes the Sadducees. It says, “I don’t wanna be a Sadducee, ’cause a Sadducee is ‘sad, you see?'”

Yes, I know, a very bad joke. 🙂

Nevertheless, they were a sad bunch of people because of one main thing. They had no hope for a resurrection. They thought this life was all we have.

And because of that, it shaped the way they saw God, the way they saw life, and the way they saw scripture.

They didn’t understand God’s power, nor his desire for a lasting relationship with us.

They didn’t understand that life goes beyond the grave, and so they were more interested in the power and influence they had on earth, as well as their wealth.

As a result of these things, it also affected the way they saw scripture. They only accepted the first five books of the Bible as scripture, and rejected everything else as divinely inspired.

They therefore came up to Jesus with a question that had apparently stumped the Pharisees who did believe in the resurrection of the dead.

It was essentially an asinine question, although it brought up a situation that was technically possible.

In Jewish culture, if a person’s brother died without having a son, they would have to marry that brother’s wife and have children through her so that their brother’s family line could continue.

So the Sadducees asked Jesus if a man had 7 brothers, and this happened 6 times because the woman failed to have a son, whose wife would she be in the resurrection?

Like I said, an asinine question, on the level of asking, “Can God make a rock so big that he can’t move it?”

Jesus answered the Sadducees,

You are in error because you do not know the Scriptures or the power of God.

At the resurrection people will neither marry nor be given in marriage; they will be like the angels in heaven. (Matthew 22:29-30)

Then he stuck the needle in by using a passage from the book of Exodus that they had never really thought through (and most people don’t to this day).

He said,

But about the resurrection of the dead—have you not read what God said to you, ‘I am the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob’?

He is not the God of the dead but of the living. (Matthew 22:31-32)

In other words, God could have said, “I was the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.”

But he purposely said, “I am the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. Even now, I am their God.”

Meaning, of course, that they were still alive, not dead, utterly destroying the Sadducees’ argument, using the only possible passage they would accept as scripture.

What does this mean for us? Let us not put God in a box that he has not put himself in.

In the Sadducees’ case, they had boxed him in as a God that could not raise the dead because they did not understand his power. And the reason they didn’t understand his power was because they did not understand scripture.

Let us not be like the Sadducees. Let us thoroughly study God’s word and seek to understand it.

And where it contradicts our ideas of God, let us not cast it aside as the Sadducees did. Rather, let it transform the way we think about God and cause us to draw closer to him.

Categories
Luke Luke 20 Mark Mark 12 Matthew Matthew 22

Giving to God what is his

The gospels

I hate paying taxes. When March rolls around (tax time in Japan), it’s not so bad in that I actually get money back (after the pain of filling out all the tax forms).

But when June rolls around, that’s when it really hurts because that’s when I have to pay property taxes as well as city and prefectural taxes.

Nobody likes paying taxes, but the Jews in Jesus’ day especially loathed it because they were paying it to their conquerors.

And so the Pharisees and Herodians thought they had come up with the perfect question to trap Jesus, saying,

Teacher, we know that you speak and teach what is right, and that you do not show partiality but teach the way of God in accordance with the truth.

Is it right for us to pay taxes to Caesar or not? (Luke 20:21-22)

If on one hand, Jesus said they shouldn’t pay taxes, the Herodians would have immediately reported Jesus to the Roman government accusing him of being an insurgent.

If on the other hand, Jesus said it was right to pay taxes, he would instantly lose popularity with the people.

Jesus, however, knew what they were trying to do. And once again, he answered a question with a question.

After having them pull out a coin that they would use to pay their taxes, he asked,

Whose portrait and inscription are on it? (Luke 20:24)

When they answered, “Caesar’s,” Jesus replied,

Then give to Caesar what is Caesar’s, and to God what is God’s. (Luke 20:25)

What was Jesus saying? First, “You are using Caesar’s money, aren’t you? If you are using Caesar’s money, then isn’t it really his? Give to him what belongs to him.”

But he didn’t stop there. He said, “But make sure you give to God what belongs to him.”

In one short sentence, he both tactfully attacked what Rome claimed, and taught the people a very important lesson.

The Romans claimed that Caesar was God, and such was written on the inscription of the coin the people showed Jesus.

But Jesus clearly draws a distinction between Caesar and God. “Give to Caesar, the man, what is his. But make sure you give the only true God what belongs to him.”

It is the second point Jesus was making, however, that I want to focus on.

Just as the Roman coins had Caesar’s image and inscription on it, so we too have God’s image and inscription upon us.

The Bible says we were made in the image of God. And in II Corinthians 3:3, Paul tells us,

You show that you are a letter from Christ, the result of our ministry, written not with ink but with the Spirit of the living God, not on tablets of stone but on tablets of human hearts. (2 Corinthians 3:3)

God has written his name upon our hearts, showing that we belong to him. And though his image upon us has been marred by our sin, nevertheless, through Christ,

We…are being transformed into his likeness with ever-increasing glory, which comes from the Lord, who is the Spirit. (2 Corinthians 3:18)

What am I saying? That we belong to him. And because we belong to him, we need to give to him what rightfully belongs to him. Not just our money. But our lives.

Are you giving to God what is rightfully his?

Categories
Matthew Matthew 22

Parable of the Wedding Feast: Entering God’s kingdom on his terms

Matthew

In this story, we see continued warnings from Jesus about rejecting him and the consequences of doing so.

He told the story of a king who invited people to his wedding banquet. But when all was ready, the would-be guests refused to come. Another translation puts it, “They were unwilling to come.”

And though time and again, the king sent messengers to plead with them to come, they “made light of it and went their ways.” (KJV).

More, they even turned violent, beating and killing those sent to them.

This was a picture of Israel as we’ve seen in the other parables, but it’s also a picture of how many respond to the gospel today.

God pleads with us to come into his kingdom. He himself makes all the preparations; all we have to do is come.

But many people make light of his invitation and go their own way. And some even abuse and persecute those who offer the invitation.

The result? Judgment and death.

The king then sent invitations to all, both good and bad. This is a picture of how after Israel rejected the gospel, the gospel was then taken to the whole world. And many who were invited responded and entered the kingdom.

But then we see a twist in the story.

As the king looked at those in the banquet, he noticed a person without wedding clothes. He was simply dressed as he wanted to be with no regard for the host’s requirements. The king went up to him and asked,

Friend…how did you get in here without wedding clothes? (Matthew 22:12)

The man had no answer and was cast out in the darkness, “where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.” (Matthew 22:13).

In the same way, many people today hear God’s invitation to the kingdom, and they try to enter. But they try to enter on their own terms with no regard for God’s requirements.

What is God’s requirement for entering the kingdom? John tells us,

God has given us eternal life, and this life is in his Son. He who has the Son has life; he who does not have the Son of God does not have life. (1 John 5:11-12)

In other words, in order to enter the kingdom of God, we must be clothed with Jesus Christ. Apart from him, there can be no entering the kingdom.

But many people do not want to enter on God’s terms. They want to enter on their own, spitting on the very invitation God has sent them and the price Jesus paid on the cross that they might come.

We cannot do that.

You can either go to heaven on God’s terms or to hell on your own. There is no in-between.

How about you? Are you coming to God on his terms? Or are you trying to come to him on your own?

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Luke Luke 20 Mark Mark 12 Matthew Matthew 21

Parable of the tenants: When we reject Jesus

The gospels

After nailing the leaders for their unbelief, he then told a parable warning them of what would happen if they didn’t repent.

And the start of it is very similar to Isaiah 5 in which God describes a vineyard that he planted, the vineyard representing Israel and Judah.

And in both cases, we see that the owner does not receive the fruit he deserves from the vineyard. The one difference is that Jesus places the blame specifically on the tenants who were put in charge of the vineyard.

The tenants, of course, were these very leaders that had rejected Jesus, and all those that had come before them.

They had been put in charge of the spiritual welfare of Israel that they might bear spiritual fruit for God. But instead, they became corrupted and failed in the charge they had been given.

Why? They failed to honor God, instead focusing on themselves. They focused on money, power, and the praise of man.

Is it any wonder that Israel failed to produce fruit when its very leaders failed in their responsibilities?

And so God sent his servants. Throughout Israel’s history, he sent prophet after prophet to warn and admonish the people. But time and again, the leaders of Israel rejected the prophets, beating and/or killing them.

Finally, God sent his Son. But now the leaders planned to kill the Son, hoping to take what rightfully belonged to him.

When Jesus asked the people what would happen to such people, the people replied,

[The owner] will bring those wretches to a wretched end…and he will rent the vineyard to other tenants, who will give him his share of the crop at harvest time. (Matthew 21:41)

Nevertheless, the people were astonished that such horrible people could exist, saying, “May this never be!” (Luke 20:16)

Jesus answered,

Have you never read in the Scriptures:

‘The stone the builders rejected has become the capstone; the Lord has done this, and it is marvelous in our eyes’?

Therefore I tell you that the kingdom of God will be taken away from you and given to a people who will produce its fruit.

He who falls on this stone will be broken to pieces, but he on whom it falls will be crushed. (Matthew 21:42-44)

What was Jesus saying? He was saying that he is the one on whom everything rests. He is the cornerstone (probably a better translation than “capstone” here) of everything.

The cornerstone was always laid down first when constructing a building, and everything was built around it.

In the same way, Jesus is the one we are to build our lives and his kingdom around.

But the Jewish leaders rejected him, and so the kingdom of God would be given to those the leaders despised, the tax collectors, prostitutes, and the Gentiles who would turn to Jesus and embrace him as Savior.

The leaders, meanwhile, would be judged and lose everything.

How about you? How are you building your life? Are you building it on money? Possessions? Power? The things of this world? Or are you building it around Jesus? Is he the chief cornerstone of your life?

God has given you your life. You and all you have ultimately belong to him, and he will demand that you produce fruit in your life for his kingdom.

But you cannot produce fruit if you are living for yourself. And if you reject him who is the cornerstone, you, like the Jewish leaders will lose everything and be judged.

Who are you living for?

Categories
Luke Luke 20 Mark Mark 11 Matthew Matthew 21

When you’re too proud to admit you’re wrong

The gospels

It’s hard to admit when we’re wrong. I know I struggle with it at times. The reason? Pride. It takes a great deal of humility to simply say, “I was wrong.”

But if we want relationships that last, relationships with others and with God, we need that kind of humility.

This was exactly what the religious leaders of Jesus’ day did not have. Time and again, Jesus clearly showed them they were wrong, and they simply could not bring themselves to admit it.

We see this several times over this last week of Jesus’ ministry before he went to the cross.

It starts here, however. The chief priests, the teachers of the law, and the elders all came up to Jesus asking by what authority he had come to the temple and cleared it out.

Jesus, as was typical, answered their question with a question.

John’s baptism—where did it come from? Was it from heaven, or of human origin? (Matthew 21:25)

Immediately, these men were in a quandary. If they said it was from heaven, then Jesus would say, “Why don’t you believe his words that I am the Messiah, then? If, however, you do accept them, then you know exactly where my authority comes from.”

On the other hand, they didn’t want to say it was from men because everyone else in Israel believed John was a prophet and would not stand for them denigrating him.

So, they answered, “We don’t know.”

And so Jesus said, “Fine. You don’t answer my question, I won’t answer yours.”

Then he told them a parable of two sons. One was asked by the father to do something, and he said “Sure,” but ended up doing nothing. The other refused his father’s request at first, but later changed his mind and obeyed.

This of course was a contrast between these leaders and the “sinners” Jesus ministered to.

Outwardly, these leaders were “righteous.” But in truth, they rebelled against God.

They saw John and immediately dismissed him as a kook.

But then they started to see the impact he was having, and all the lives that were changing because of John. They had to know in their hearts that he really was from God, but in their pride, they rejected him anyway.

Then they saw Jesus, they saw all his miracles and heard all his teaching. Despite all this, they rejected Jesus too.

Even when he shredded all their arguments and left them speechless, they still clung to their old way of thinking.

On the other hand, these “sinners” the leaders despised had outwardly rebelled against God, ripping people off and selling their bodies for sex.

But then John and Jesus came, and as a result they repented of their sins. They were humble enough to recognize their wrong, and so turned from their sins.

And so Jesus told these leaders,

Truly I tell you, the tax collectors and the prostitutes are entering the kingdom of God ahead of you. (Matthew 21:31)

How about you? Are you so proud that you can’t admit when you’re wrong?

It’s bad enough when that pride tears apart your relationships with others. It’s worse when it keeps you from a relationship with God.

So let us have hearts that are humble and soft to correction. That can admit when we are wrong.

Otherwise, we’ll find ourselves in the same position as these leaders. Separated from others and separated from God.

Categories
Mark Mark 11 Matthew Matthew 21

How much faith do I have?

The gospels

Faith. It’s something I must admit I struggle with, particularly in prayer. When I pray, do I pray in faith? And what does it mean?

When the tree Jesus cursed withered, the disciples were amazed and asked how it could wither so quickly. Jesus answered,

Have faith in God. (Mark 11:22)

Have faith in God. What does that mean? What are we believing about God?

We’re believing first that he is a good God. That he is a loving Father that only gives good gifts. That if we ask him for bread, he will not give us a stone. Or if we ask for a fish, he will not give us a serpent.

We’re believing that he hears us. That even the tiniest prayer we breathe, he hears. No matter how big, or how insignificant our problem may be, he sees and hears our cries.

We’re believing that he has the power to do what we ask. That no thing we ask is too big for him.

We’re believing that he wants to bless us. That he won’t withhold what is good from us for no good reason.

We believe that he has an overriding plan for our lives. And that plan is good.

With all this in mind, Jesus then says,

I tell you the truth, if anyone says to this mountain, ‘Go, throw yourself into the sea,’ and does not doubt in his heart but believes that what he says will happen, it will be done for him.

Therefore I tell you, whatever you ask for in prayer, believe that you have received it, and it will be yours. (Mark 11:23-24)

Some people take this verse to mean that whatever we ask God for, he must give it to us.

But sometimes we ask for something thinking it’s bread, thinking it’s fish, when in reality it is a stone or a serpent.

We pray, for example, to marry that girl or guy at school and ten years later, we are thanking God he didn’t give them to us.

Or sometimes we pray for something good, but God has something even better planned for us. For example, we pray for a certain job, only to have God give us an even better one.

So to just pray believing God will give us whatever we want does not guarantee we will get what we ask for.

My problem, however, is not believing God has to give me whatever I want. My problem a lot of times is believing that God might actually say yes.

I think about my current job that I just got back in April. It is in almost every way much better than my previous jobs over the past 8 years.

Yet because of all the difficulties I faced in getting the job, I was wracked with doubt as to whether God would give it to me. I suppose it didn’t help that I had applied for that very job a few years back and didn’t get it.

So many times I had prayed for things and was disappointed. I suppose it’s a testimony to the grace of God that I got the job anyway.

Another friend I know is facing terminal cancer. It looked hopeless. The doctors said it was hopeless. My friend asked for prayer.

I prayed, but with little hope. Certainly not praying, “believing I have received it.”

Do I believe that God has the power to heal? Certainly. I guess it’s just that I saw him choose not to heal another friend of cancer (she passed away a year ago) that makes me doubt. And yet, God does seem to be healing my friend now.

What am I trying to say? First, God certainly responds to faith, and is pleased by it, but he is not restricted by how strong our faith is.

But second, I should pray with more hope. With more confidence. Because God can and will answer prayer.

As one man once said, “Lord, I believe. Lord increase my faith.”

Categories
Luke Luke 19 Mark Mark 11 Matthew Matthew 21

Fruitless

The gospels

This is a story where it is a little hard to understand the actions of Jesus. Why would he curse a tree that wasn’t bearing fruit though it was not even the season for it?

There does tend to be disagreement on the answer.

One idea is that during the time of the Passover, fig trees in Palestine usually produced crops of small edible buds.

These buds were often eaten by local peasants, and it was perhaps this that Jesus was looking for. But if there were no buds growing at that time, it was a sign that there would be no fruit at all from the tree.

I don’t know if this is the answer, but it seems as reasonable as any other explanation I’ve heard.

At any rate, sandwiched around the cleansing of the temple as it is in Mark, it seems Jesus was making a point. That just as judgment came upon that fig tree for not bearing fruit, so judgment was coming upon Israel for not bearing spiritual fruit.

This was clearly seen in the temple and the people running it.

Early in his ministry, Jesus had cleansed the temple, casting out the merchants and money changers from the court of the Gentiles.

As I mentioned before, this was the only area where the foreigners could come and worship God within the temple courts.

But the priests had turned it into a market, and not only that, a “den of thieves” where people who came there were cheated of their money. And this was the temple. The very center of Israelite worship.

All of their religious acts, all of their zeal, was proven to be corrupt by what was happening in their temple. Particularly in the fact that they not only rejected Jesus as Messiah, but plotted to kill him.

And because of that, judgment came when Titus tore down the temple for the final time.

To this day, it has not been rebuilt. Why? Because for all the time and love God poured into Israel, ultimately, they proved to be fruitless.

But none of God’s actions are fruitless. Through the Jews’ rejection of Christ, the gospel spread to the world. And in time, the Jews too will come to Christ. (Romans 11)

The question we need to ask ourselves, however, is what fruit is coming out of our lives?

The Bible calls our lives the temple of God. As his temples, are we bearing fruit? Are we making a difference in the lives around us?

Or have we let ourselves become corrupted by the world? By a love of money as the priests had, or by other things?

If so, then we will stop bearing fruit and all that we “accomplish” or “achieve” will eventually be burned.

Let us not be fruitless, but fruitful. Filled with God’s Spirit, and touching the lives of all he puts in our path.

Categories
John John 12 Luke Luke 19 Mark Mark 11 Matthew Matthew 21

What would bring us peace

The gospels

Lots going on in these passages, and as you look at all four gospels, you really get an idea of the frenzy going on due to Jesus’ entrance in Jerusalem. People are shouting,

Hosanna to the Son of David!
Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord!
Hosanna in the highest heaven! (Matthew 21:9)

And,

Blessed is the coming kingdom of our father David! (Mark 11:10)

And again,

Peace in heaven and glory in the highest! (Luke 19:38)

And ultimately,

Blessed is the king of Israel! (John 12:13)

Because of the frenzy some people were asking, “What’s going on? Who is this guy?” And others replied, “This is Jesus, the prophet from Nazareth in Galilee.” (Matthew 21:11)

We see from John that one of the reasons for all this frenzy was that people were still talking about Jesus’ raising Lazarus from the dead. (John 12:17-18)

At first, the Pharisees tried to stop all of this, even trying to get Jesus to stop his disciples from crying out all these words of praise. But when Jesus refused, they muttered to themselves,

This is getting us nowhere. Look how the whole world has gone after him! (John 12:19)

But for all the frenzy surrounding Jesus’ coming the most poignant moment comes just before Jesus enters the city. In the midst of all the cries of joy from the people, Jesus wept when he saw Jerusalem, saying,

If you, even you, had only known on this day what would bring you peace—but now it is hidden from your eyes.

The days will come upon you when your enemies will build an embankment against you and encircle you and hem you in on every side.

They will dash you to the ground, you and the children within your walls.

They will not leave one stone on another, because you did not recognize the time of God’s coming to you. (Luke 19:42-44)

And that’s exactly what happened in AD 70 when Titus came and destroyed Jerusalem and its temple.

Why did this happen? Because they “did not recognize the time of God’s coming” to them.

And because of that, they missed the peace that could have been theirs. Peace within themselves. But more importantly, peace with God.

The same is true with us. God comes to each of us at some time in our lives.

According to Romans chapter 1, even the one who has never heard of God knows about him.

And when they gaze into the sky or see all the nature around them, I believe the Spirit speaks to them saying, “This cannot be an accident. This was designed. You were designed. Seek the Designer.”

For others, the call is much more direct. It comes at church or through a friend telling them about Christ.

And at that point people reach a crossroad. What will they do with this call? Will they listen and follow? Or will they reject it? To follow is to find peace with God and eternal life. To reject it means judgment and eternal death.

How about you? If you are reading this, God is calling you now. Now is the day of salvation. Won’t you receive him today?

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John John 12 Luke Luke 19 Mark Mark 11 Matthew Matthew 21

The Lord needs it

The gospels

We have now reached the home stretch of the life of Jesus, his final week.

As I read this passage, one phrase struck me. Jesus was instructing his disciples to do something very unusual, to go into the village, and just take a colt and donkey that they found there. And if anyone challenged them, they were to simply say, “The Lord needs it.”

The disciples did as they were told, and when the owners saw this, they immediately asked,

Why are you untying the colt? (Luke 19:33)

The disciples responded as Jesus had commanded, and immediately the owners acquiesced.

The question that came to my mind was, “When the Lord says to me of something, ‘I need this,’ how do I respond?”

If Jesus, for example, were to say, “I need you to give some money to this person. They are in need.” Would I immediately say, “Yes Lord?”

Or if I were headed somewhere, and I happen to run into someone, and Jesus were to say, “I need some of your time. Stop and talk to this person,” would I do so?

Or if God were to tell me, “It’s time to leave Nishinomiya. I need you elsewhere for another work,” would I say yes?

Or would I instead cling to what is mine?

Honestly, I don’t know, and probably too often, the Lord has told me, “I need this from you,” and for whatever reason, I said no.

“I’m too busy.”

Or,

“I need that money for other things.”

The disciples brought the colt to Jesus, set him on it, and honored him as king. And we need to do the same.

When Jesus says to us, “I need this,” we need to bring it to Jesus, setting him above it, and honoring him as our king over all.

Do I?

Do you?

Categories
Luke Luke 18 Mark Mark 10 Matthew Matthew 20

Looking beyond ourselves

The gospels

As I read the story of Bartimaeus and his friend, what strikes me is the incredible compassion and love Jesus had for people.

Here Jesus is, headed for the cross, and his closest friends, despite all he’s told him, still don’t understand what’s about to happen.

In that situation it would have been understandable for him to get lost in his own thoughts, frustrations, and anxieties. But as he is walking along, he hears a familiar cry.

Lord, Son of David, have mercy on us! (Matthew 20:30)

It would have been so easy to miss. And even easier to ignore, pretending that he didn’t hear these two men over the crowd. Particularly since the people around these men were telling them to shut up.

But instead, Jesus stopped, and said, “Call them.”

And when these two men came up to him, he asked, “What do you want me to do?”

They replied, “Lord, we want to see.”

And Matthew tells us that Jesus was filled with compassion for these two men, touched them, and healed them.

Instead of focusing on his own troubles and frustrations, Jesus saw beyond himself to the needs of those crying out for help.

I wonder. How often do we see beyond ourselves and see the needs of others as Jesus did.

How often do we instead only look at ourselves and our needs and frustrations? And because of that we either miss or ignore the opportunities we have to reach out with God’s love.

I found out yesterday that Robin Williams died, apparently from suicide. Here was a man that brought so much laughter and even comfort to others. And yet, he was also a man tortured by his own demons.

And I wonder, “Was there a Christian in his life that missed that chance to minister to him?”

Maybe there wasn’t. And if there was, I’m not saying that I’m condemning them for missing that chance. Because I have missed too many opportunities of my own. I’ve failed.

May we learn to be like our Savior. Looking beyond ourselves long enough to see the needs and hurts of those in our lives. And like our Savior, reaching out with the hand of God to bring healing in their lives.

Categories
Mark Mark 10 Matthew Matthew 20

A totally different attitude

The gospels

As I mentioned in my last blog, though Jesus had been as crystal clear with the disciples as he possibly could, they still didn’t get it. They still didn’t get why he was there, and what was facing them.

Because if they had, I can’t imagine that James and John would have asked Jesus what they did, prompted by their mother or not.

They said,

Let one of us sit at your right and the other at your left in your glory. (Mark 10:37)

One wonders how Jesus felt. Here he had just told them that he was going to die, and they were fighting for position in his kingdom. And so he said,

You don’t know what you are asking…Can you drink the cup I drink or be baptized with the baptism I am baptized with? (Mark 10:38)

In other words, “Haven’t you been listening to anything I’ve been saying? I’m going to die. You want to die on my right and left?”

That’s what he meant, but as usual, Jesus’ words went right over their heads, and they replied, “We can.”

Jesus then told them,

You will drink the cup I drink and be baptized with the baptism I am baptized with. (Mark 10:39)

And in time, both of them would suffer for Christ. James was beheaded, and John was forced into exile.

But Jesus also told them,

But to sit at my right or left is not for me to grant. These places belong to those for whom they have been prepared. (Mark 10:40)

When the other disciples heard about James’ and John’s request, they became indignant.

Why? Because James and John were so insensitive to Jesus’ plight? No, they were indignant because they hadn’t thought of asking Jesus first. And each of them thought they were more qualified than the others.

But Jesus pulled them together, and he told them,

You know that those who are regarded as rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them, and their high officials exercise authority over them.

Not so with you. Instead, whoever wants to become great among you must be your servant,
and whoever wants to be first must be slave of all.

For even the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many. (Mark 10:42-45)

Essentially what Jesus told them was, “Guys, you need a little attitude readjustment.

“All of you are so worried about your position in my kingdom, because you think that a high position means a cushy life. That it means ordering people around, and having them obey your every whim.

“But that’s not what greatness in my kingdom means. If you truly want to be great, you need to serve. And if you want to be at the very top, you need to be the slave of all.

“After all, I’m not here to have other people serve me. I’m here to serve and give my life for them.”

I’ve got to admit, I’m far from having this kind of attitude. And it’s a struggle sometimes, because it’s so easy to compete and compare myself with others.

But when we do ministry, the point is not to show ourselves better than others, it’s to serve them.

This is true not just in ministry, but in every aspect of life. At work, we need to be serving our customers and coworkers.

And in our homes, men especially need to have this kind of attitude as head of the household. An attitude of serving their wives and children.

And to be honest, I fail far too often in all three arenas.

And so I guess my prayer is the one that James and John offered in that old Christian musical “The Witness.” After hearing Jesus’ words, they prayed,

Lord make me like you. Please make me like you.
You are a servant. Make me one too.

O Lord I am willing.
Do what you must do to make me like you Lord.
Make me like you.

Whatever you do Lord, please make me like you.

Categories
Luke Luke 18 Mark Mark 10 Matthew Matthew 20

Failing to see what is clear

The gospels

As I look at this particular story, it is the last phrase in Luke’s account that strikes me.

The disciples did not understand any of this. Its meaning was hidden from them, and they did not know what he was talking about. (Luke 18:34)

“This” and “its” of course is referring to Jesus’ telling them that he would be betrayed and crucified, and then rise again from the dead.

Luke’s words strike me because Jesus spoke so plainly. I really don’t see how they could possibly misunderstand him. Yet, as clearly as Jesus spoke, they could not understand.

Why not?

Perhaps one reason was that they simply weren’t ready to understand. And that’s true with many of us as we look at scripture.

When we are young as Christians, some things are simply difficult to understand. But as we mature in our knowledge and our faith, we start to grasp the things God is telling us.

Perhaps there was some of this at work in the disciples, but I think there were other things as well.

For one thing, they didn’t want to understand. They didn’t want to believe that Jesus would die. And because they didn’t want to believe that he would die, any words concerning his death and resurrection went right past them.

For another, they were too focused on what they wanted, rather than what God’s will was. You only have to look at James’ and John’s request a few verses later to see that.

How often are we the same? We see something crystal clear in scripture, or God speaks to our heart so clearly that there should be no way that we can miss it, and yet we do.

Looking back, it should have been so clear to me that God was calling me to Japan. Time and again, people were telling me, “I can’t see you working at a regular desk job. I see you in ministry.”

Or sometimes they said outright, “I can see you being a missionary in Japan.”

But because I had no interest in ever leaving Hawaii, no less going to Japan, I couldn’t see it for a long time.

And whenever I read passages like, “Go and make disciples of all nations,” my thought was always, “Well, God isn’t calling ME to do that.”

It took several years, and a lot of work on God’s part to actually turn my heart, but when he did, I found the joy of following him and doing what he has said.

And so will you if you’ll soften your heart to him.

So the question is, “Where is your heart? Have you blinded yourself to what God is saying to you? Or have you opened your heart completely to what God is telling you?”

May our words to our Lord always be, “Speak Lord, for your servant is listening.”

Categories
Matthew Matthew 20

But it’s not fair!

Matthew

I believe this parable Jesus told was in direct response to Peter’s question of,

We have left everything to follow you! What then will there be for us? (Matthew 19:27)

And in telling this story, I think Jesus meant both to encourage Peter, but also to warn him.

Jesus told of a man who hired different workers throughout the day to work in his vineyard.

To the first crew he hired, he specifically negotiated an amount to pay them. (A denarius, which in those days was a typical salary for a full day’s work).

To the remaining crews he hired, no specific amount was negotiated. Instead, he simply said,

You also go and work in my vineyard, and I will pay you whatever is right. (Matthew 20:4)

At the end of the day, he paid the workers who started later first, and he paid each of them a denarius.

So when the people who had started from early in the morning walked up to get their pay, they obviously expected to get paid more.

Instead, they got one denarius as well. Because of this, they started to grumble. And rightfully so.

Some of the other workers only worked a single hour. And yet, they got paid the same as the ones who had worked all day.

But look at the landowner’s response.

I am not being unfair to you, friend. Didn’t you agree to work for a denarius? Take your pay and go. I want to give the one who was hired last the same as I gave you.

Don’t I have the right to do what I want with my own money? Or are you envious because I am generous? (Matthew 20:13-15).

In other words, the workers couldn’t complain that they had been cheated. They received the exact amount that they had negotiated for in the morning.

They weren’t angry because they were cheated, but because the landowner was generous with the others who had come later.

What was Jesus’ point to Peter?

“Don’t worry so much about ‘what you’ll get’ for following me. Don’t worry about getting ‘what you deserve.’

And don’t go comparing yourself to other people, concerning yourself with how much you’ve given up and how much they have given up. You will be rewarded.

But understand: God isn’t so much interested in giving people what they deserve. He is a God that delights in giving so much more.

That said, if you are too worried about getting ‘what you deserve,’ God may just give it to you…and nothing more.

But if you do what God asks, without worrying about what others are doing, or how much more you should be rewarded for what you’ve done, you’ll find that God is so much more generous than you can possibly imagine.”

How about you? Are you constantly comparing yourself to others? Are you always wondering why God seems to be blessing others more than you even though you are ‘doing more’?

Remember that grace has nothing to do with ‘what we deserve.’

Rather grace is all about God’s goodness to us though we deserve nothing.

Truth be told, the only thing we deserve from God is death, because all of us has sinned.

So let us not focus on what we deserve. Rather let us rejoice that in God’s grace, he gives us what we don’t deserve: Eternal life. Joy. Peace. Love.

And he gives to us abundantly.

Categories
Luke Luke 18 Mark Mark 10 Matthew Matthew 19

Is it worth it?

The gospels

Is it really worth it to follow Christ? That was the question the rich young ruler had to face. Unfortunately, he decided that it wasn’t.

Peter too asked himself the same question. “I’ve given up everything to follow after Jesus. But is it really worth it?” And so he said,

We have left everything to follow you! What then will there be for us? (Matthew 19:27)

Jesus replied,

Truly I tell you…no one who has left home or brothers or sisters or mother or father or children or fields for me and the gospel will fail to receive a hundred times as much in this present age: homes, brothers, sisters, mothers, children and fields—along with persecutions—and in the age to come eternal life.

But many who are first will be last, and the last first. (Mark 10:29-31)

A couple of things to note here.

First, Jesus says that we will be rewarded for following him. Not just in heaven, but here. And not just rewarded, but richly rewarded.

This is not to say that we will all be wealthy. But at the end of the day, when we look back on our lives, we will be able to say, “I have been blessed. It was all worth it to follow Christ.”

But there’s also one little note that Jesus added. It’s only found in Mark, but it really stands out when you read it.

Jesus talks about all the blessings you will receive, but then he also warns, “You will be persecuted. Persecutions will come for following after me.”

In other words, being a Christian is not all fun and games. Yes, it is a joy. Yes, there are multiple blessings upon blessings for following Jesus.

But there will be people who will dislike, and even hate us for it. Jesus was the perfect Son of God, and people still hated him.

How can we expect to be exempt from the same treatment that Jesus received? As Jesus said, “No servant is greater than his master.” (John 15:20).

So let us not be surprised when hardships come because we follow Christ. Instead, let us keep our eyes on the prize, and know that whatever we may suffer in this life because we follow Christ, in the end, it truly will be worth it all.

Categories
Luke Luke 18 Mark Mark 10 Matthew Matthew 19

The impossibility of salvation

The gospels

My religion professor in university brought up this story when talking about Christianity. His point? “If you want eternal life, you have to sell everything you have.”

Which shows the fallacy of not looking at a scripture in its context, because that was not Jesus’ point at all.

But we’re getting ahead of ourselves.

It’s interesting looking at the different accounts of this story, because through them, you get a composite view of this man who came to Jesus.

He was young (Matthew 19:22), rich (all the accounts), and a ruler (Luke 18:18)

And he asked Jesus, “Good teacher, what good thing must I do to inherit eternal life?”

Jesus answered, “Why do you call me good? And why do you ask me about what is good? No one is good except God alone.”

Here Jesus dispels one thing that many people say about Jesus. Namely, “Jesus was a good man, but he wasn’t God.”

Jesus told the young man and us, “You can call me God. Or you can call me just a man. But if you call me just a man, you cannot call me good, because only God is good.”

He then told the man, “You know the commandments. Do them, and you will find life.”

At first glance, it seems that Jesus is telling us that we can work our way into heaven. But look at what the young man said next.

All these I have kept…What do I still lack? (Matthew 19:20)

Here we see the problem of many people today. They do their best to follow God’s commands. To do what is right. Maybe, like this young man, they even think they have achieved it.

But deep in their soul, they know something is wrong. That something is lacking. Why?

Because though we may fool others and even ourselves, none of us meet God’s standard. The Bible says,

For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. (Romans 3:23)

And if we look deeply into ourselves, we’ll realize that.

Why then, did Jesus point to the commandments as the way to life? I think the apostle Paul gives us the answer.

No one will be declared righteous in his sight by observing the law (because no one can keep it); rather, through the law we become conscious of sin. (Romans 3:20).

The law cannot make us righteous any more than a mirror can clean our face. What the law can do is show us the sin that is there.

And through the law, we see our need for a Savior.

The problem is, sometimes the mirror can get a little blurred. Not that the law itself is blurry, but we make it blurry by our own conceptions of what it means.

And that was the problem with this young man. He was convinced that he had kept the law. So Jesus cleaned off the mirror so that the young man could see clearly. He said,

If you want to be perfect, go, sell your possessions and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come, follow me. (Matthew 19:21)

Why did Jesus say that? Because the young man was right. He was lacking something. He had put his money ahead of God. Money was most important to him.

And by this attitude, he broke the first commandment against putting anything ahead of God in his life.

The man now saw clearly. And sadly, instead of saying, “Jesus, help me. Have mercy on me a sinner,” he walked away. He walked away sadly. But he did walk away.

And Jesus said,

How hard it is for the rich to enter the kingdom of God! (Mark 10:23).

His disciples were stunned to hear this because they always had thought that people were rich because of God’s blessing. But Jesus said again,

Children, how hard it is to enter the kingdom of God!
It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God. (Mark 10:24-25).

Why? Because it is impossible to hold on to the things of God when you’re holding on to the things of this world. The rich have more things of this world to hold than most people. And more to let go of.

The disciples then asked,

Who then can be saved? (Mark 10:26).

And now we come to the key point of this entire passage. Jesus answered,

With man this is impossible, but not with God; all things are possible with God. (Mark 10:27).

Salvation apart from God is impossible. None of us can make it because none of us are perfect. That’s what Jesus wanted to make clear to the young man.

But because of Christ’s work on the cross, because of what God did, salvation is now possible. All we have to do is believe.

As John wrote,

For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. (John 3:16).

Won’t you accept God’s gift of salvation today?

Categories
Luke Luke 18 Mark Mark 10 Matthew Matthew 19

Like a child

The gospels

When Jesus rebuked his disciples for trying to chase the children away, he said to them,

Let the little children come to me, and do not hinder them, for the kingdom of God belongs to such as these.

I tell you the truth, anyone who will not receive the kingdom of God like a little child will never enter it. (Mark 10:14-15)

What does it mean to receive the kingdom like a child? What is a child like?

1. They are completely trusting. Until they are hardened by years of hurt, lies, and betrayal, they have a heart that is totally trusting and believes what it is told.

That’s the kind of heart that we need. Sin, at its base, is a lack of trust in God. It’s saying, “I don’t believe what you say. I don’t believe you want what’s best for me. So I’m going to do things my way.”

But as long as we hold that attitude, we will never enter God’s kingdom.

2. They are completely dependent, and they know it.

They can’t provide their own food. They can’t provide their own clothes or any of their needs. They are completely dependent on their parents to provide these things.

In the same way, we will never enter the kingdom of heaven until we come to the realization of how dependent we are on God. That there is nothing we can do to buy or earn our salvation.

Rather, we simply rely on his grace and the work Christ did on the Cross.

It’s so easy, it’s hard. People don’t want to believe it. They want to think their salvation is something they can work for and earn. They don’t want to admit that there is simply nothing they can do.

But it comes back to my first point. They need to learn to trust God completely. And Jesus said,

The work of God is this: to believe in the one he has sent. (John 6:29).

How about you? Are you coming to God with the heart of a child?

Categories
Luke Luke 18 Mark Mark 10 Matthew Matthew 19

The God of the “insignificant”

The gospels

As a father, I really love my daughter, but I have to admit there are times when she can be annoying. Particularly when I’m trying to do something, sometimes important, sometimes not, and she desperately wants my attention.

It’s so easy to just give her only part of my attention. To say, “Yes, yes, yes” to what she’s saying and quickly brush her off and return to what I’m doing. Or if I’m feeling particularly impatient, to simply say, “Later. I’m busy now.”

And that’s exactly what the disciples did in this passage.

Mothers were coming with their babies (some of them undoubtedly crying) or with their young children (most of them who were undoubtedly noisy and making a ruckus), and the disciples quickly got fed up with it, saying, “Get out of here. Jesus doesn’t have time for all these…kids.”

Jesus’ response was quick and sharp. It says in Mark,

When Jesus saw this, he was indignant. (Mark 10:14a)

Indignant. The dictionary defines it as showing anger at something that is unfair or wrong. And that was the response of Jesus when he saw his disciples shoving the children away.

He rebuked his disciples saying,

Let the little children come to me, and do not hinder them, for the kingdom of God belongs to such as these. (Mark 10:14b)

What can we get from this? That we don’t dare treat our children, or anyone for that matter, as the disciples did in this story. As insignificant. As unimportant. As not worth our time.

Because when we do, Jesus becomes indignant. They are his special creation. They are people that he loved so much that he died for them.

And so are you. Maybe you feel insignificant. Cast off. Rejected. But when Jesus sees you treated that way, he gets indignant. He has compassion on you. He loves you. And he would never cast you aside as so many others have.

So come to him. Draw near, knowing that in his eyes you are significant. You are precious. And that more than anything else, he wants a relationship with you.

Categories
Matthew Matthew 19

Jesus on marriage and divorce: Better to be single?

Matthew

The disciples’ response to Jesus’ teaching on marriage and divorce is very interesting. They said,

If this is the situation between a husband and wife, it is better not to marry. (Matthew 19:10)

Put another way, “Man, if marriage is really supposed to be for life, it’s better to stay single. Better to be single, than stuck in a miserable marriage.”

I agree with that in part. Certainly it is better to be single than to be stuck in a miserable marriage. But Jesus pointed out that not everyone is wired that way. He said,

Not everyone can accept this word (that it’s better to be single), but only those to whom it has been given.

For there are eunuchs who were born that way, and there are eunuchs who have been made eunuchs by others — and there are those who choose to live like eunuchs for the sake of the kingdom of heaven.

The one who can accept this should accept it. (Matthew 19:11-12)

In short, it takes a certain kind of person who can be content being single.

He said some are born that way. In other words, perhaps they have some physical defect that would make marriage a hardship.

Some, however, are made that way by others. In this case, Jesus was probably talking about being physically made a eunuch.

This is basically unheard of nowadays, but I think you could include people that have been emotionally scarred in such a way that they have no desire to get married.

Still others, though, choose to stay single so that they might serve God better as the apostle Paul did.

And Jesus says that if you can accept being single, that’s fine.

But the sad thing about the way the disciples thought is that they assumed that a lifelong marriage is ultimately destined to become a ball and chain.

Many people feel that way even today, for that matter. And for that reason, some are unwilling to commit themselves to another in marriage. But in doing so, they miss out on the lifelong joy of marriage that God intended for us.

Marriage can be a joy. It doesn’t have to be a miserable ball and chain. But the key comes down to what you and your spouse decide from the very beginning of your relationship.

Will you commit yourself to maintaining a soft heart to God first, and to your spouse second?

If you maintain a soft heart to God, you will find God often intervening in your fights and bringing peace. Usually by him telling you or your spouse, “Let it go. Give in.”

More, he starts showing you how to improve your marriage and make it stronger. He’ll show you your spouse’s needs and how to meet them. And he’ll show you how to love them better.

If you maintain a soft heart to your spouse, you start to understand them better. What makes them tick. What annoys them. What brings them joy.

If you commit yourself to understanding these things, to go out of your way, not only to avoid annoying them, but also to bringing them joy, you will often find them reciprocating.

And instead of a miserable marriage, you’ll find a fulfilling one in which you truly become one.

How do you see marriage? As a ball and chain? Or as the joy that God intended it to be?

Categories
Mark Mark 10 Matthew Matthew 19

Jesus on marriage and divorce: When our spouse’s heart is hardened

The gospels

I’ve mentioned before our need as a husband or wife to search our hearts. To see if there is any way in which we have hardened our hearts to God, or to our spouse.

This is important for any marriage, whether we think it’s healthy or not. Because if your heart is starting to harden to God or to your spouse, your marriage is in trouble, or very soon will be.

But what happens if our spouse’s heart has hardened against us? What do we do?

It’s a hard issue to deal with. And there are only two such cases that are specifically dealt with in scripture.

One is in the case where our partner is involved in adultery. And not only involved in adultery but is completely unrepentant.

Jesus specifically says in the Matthew passage, that divorcing that person and marrying another would not be considered adultery in the eyes of God.

Why is that?

Probably, because in the eyes of God, the other person has hardened their heart to the point that the bond has been completely broken. Your partner has become “one” with another.

The same can be said if you have been divorced, and your ex-partner has since remarried. In these cases, you are no longer bound to that person.

How about a one-time affair that your partner has repented of? That is less clear.

Trust broken at that level is difficult to restore. Not impossible, but very difficult.

That said, if your partner has repented, I do believe that it is God’s will that you stay with your spouse.

It won’t be easy. And you’ll definitely need the support of others on top of the grace of God. It will take time, probably much time to restore the trust. But it can be done.

And if your heart and the heart of your spouse is softened to Him, He can bring healing to your heart and to your marriage.

The apostle Paul brings up another situation in 1 Corinthians 7. Namely, abandonment. He says if your spouse is a non-believer, and they choose to walk away from you, you are not bound to stay married to that person.

These are the only reasons that Jesus and the apostles give for permitting divorce.

Many people today, however, wonder about domestic violence. Is divorce permissible in that situation? Jesus and the apostles were silent on the issue.

I don’t know why. It was a problem even in those days. Wives couldn’t divorce their husbands, but they could plead with the judges to force their husband to divorce them in cases of domestic abuse.

Because the Bible doesn’t address domestic violence, there are many pastors that think domestic violence is not a reason for divorce.

Here’s what I can say for sure: If you are in danger from your spouse, if they are abusing you and they refuse to get help, you are not bound in that situation to keep living with that person. Protect yourself and your children.

I think Jesus’ words to the Pharisees in Matthew 12:7 are very apropos here:

If you had known what this means, I desire mercy and not sacrifice, you would not have condemned the innocent. (Matthew 12:7)

I don’t think God requires the beating of and even killing of wives on the altar of preserving a marriage.

So does that mean divorce is okay in cases of domestic violence? I don’t know if that’s the right question.

So what is the right question?

Jesus said that in the days of Moses, God allowed for divorce because of the hardness of people’s hearts.

Question: Should those words ever describe the heart of a Christian?

No.

So in my opinion, God permits divorce only if your spouse’s heart is so hard, that to continue the marriage is no longer possible.

What does that mean for you if you’re contemplating divorce?

Whatever situation you may be facing, adultery, abandonment, domestic violence, or whatever else it may be, before you make any decision, search your heart.

And again, ask, “Is there any way in which I have hardened my heart to my spouse or to God?”

That is the most important question.

As long as the answer to that question is yes, I think you should put off ideas of divorce. Divorce should never be because of the hardness of your heart.

But in cases where you have totally opened your heart to God and to your spouse, and yet your spouse has completely hardened their heart to you and demands a divorce, or your life is at risk because of that person’s hardness of heart, I think divorce is permissible.

God doesn’t command it, but he understands, and it is permissible.

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Mark Mark 10 Matthew Matthew 19

Jesus on marriage and divorce: When our hearts are hardened

The gospels

It’s kind of interesting looking at the gospels and trying to harmonize them sometimes. I don’t know if I’m harmonizing Matthew and Mark well here, but it’s amusing to look at these passages this way.

Pharisees: “Is it lawful to divorce your wife for any reason?”

Jesus: “Don’t you know that when husband and wife get married, the two become one? What God has joined together, let no man separate.”

Pharisees: “Why then did Moses command that a man give his wife a certificate of divorce and send her away?”

Jesus: “Excuse me? What did Moses command you? He commanded you, ‘Thou shalt divorce your wife?'”

Pharisees: “Well, no. But he did permit a man to divorce his wife.”

Jesus: “That’s right. He permitted it, not commanded it. And the only reason he permitted it was because your hearts were hard. But it was not that way from the beginning.”

All humor aside, the issue is very serious. And in this passage, Jesus lays out why divorce is so common in our day and age. People harden their hearts against God, and they harden their hearts against their spouse.

How do people harden their hearts against God?

First, they harden their hearts against his teaching against marriage. That it is to be for life. That you are to be faithful to your spouse. That husbands are to love their wives as Christ loves the church. That wives are to submit to their husband as the church does to Christ.

Instead, they make all kinds of excuses as to why it’s impossible for them to do so.

“Well, she doesn’t submit to me, so why should I show that kind of love to her?”

“Well he doesn’t show love to me, so why should I submit to him?”

“You just never know about marriage. Maybe he really isn’t the one, so it’s best to keep your options open in case it doesn’t work out.”

Or during their arguments, God starts speaking to one or both of them saying, “Let it go. Give in. It’s not worth fighting about.”

But in their pride or anger, they refuse to heed his voice.

How do people harden their hearts against their spouses? They fail to listen to each other.

When husbands hear their wives complain they are working too much, they dismiss it without thought, saying, “But we need the money.”

When husbands complain about a lack of intimacy, the wives dismiss it because they are “too tired.”

When wives share with their husbands how their actions or words were hurtful, husbands dismiss their wives as being too sensitive.

This list could go on and on.

The end result? Divorce.

So many people wonder why their marriages fail. Some try two or three times, or even more, to get things right, and never do.

The reason? They’ve never dealt with their heart. They’ve never learned to soften their hearts to God’s voice and to their spouses.

Are you single? Are you seeking a spouse? Then start by searching your heart.

When God speaks to you about your actions now, when he convicts your heart about the way you live, are you listening?

Because when you get married, he will start speaking to you about how you treat your spouse.

But if you’re hardening your heart to God now when he speaks, you’ll take that attitude into your marriage, and if you do, your marriage won’t last long.

Are you married? Are you frustrated by your spouse? Start by taking your eyes off of them, and put them on you.

How have you hardened your heart to your spouse? Let God speak to your heart about the things that you need to do.

Are you divorced and looking for another spouse? Before you do, ask yourself, how did I harden my spouse in the past? How did I harden my heart to God?

Because until you address these issues, you are doomed to repeat the same mistakes you committed before.

And the first question you need to ask yourself is, “Am I hardening myself to God and my ex-spouse by not working to reconcile with my ex-spouse?”

What is the state of your heart?

Categories
Mark Mark 10 Matthew Matthew 19

Jesus on marriage and divorce: Why divorce hurts so much

The gospels

Divorce is one of those touchy topics that is difficult to deal with, if only because of the emotions and hurt that is often involved.

But considering the social climate we’re in, in which marriages fall apart at such a high rate, I think that it is vital for us to take a serious look at what Jesus said about marriage and divorce.

The Pharisees came up to Jesus, asking,

Is it lawful for a man to divorce his wife for any and every reason? (Matthew 19:3)

This was a hot topic of the time, much as it is today. And for some of the Pharisees, they did pretty much believe that it was lawful to get divorced for any reason.

For others, they held a much stricter view that there had to be some kind of sexual sin involved for a divorce to be lawful.

The truth is, many of the Pharisees did get divorced, and as I mentioned before, often times, it was with the intent of marrying another.

They had married, only to meet another woman they desired, but in order to “avoid” the sin of adultery, they simply divorced their wife and married the other woman.

I believe it was this situation that Jesus was specifically addressing in the Sermon on the Mount, and in these passages here.

He was telling the Pharisees and us, “Even if you don’t technically commit adultery by sleeping with a woman you’re not married to, if you divorce your wife because you’ve found another woman, you are still committing adultery in the eyes of God, whether you marry that second woman or not.”

But we’re getting ahead of ourselves.

In answer to the Pharisees’ question, Jesus replied,

Haven’t you read…that at the beginning the Creator ‘made them male and female,’ and said, ‘For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and the two will become one flesh’?

So they are no longer two, but one flesh. Therefore what God has joined together, let no one separate. (Matthew 19:4-6)

Jesus totally bypassed the arguments of the “experts” of the day, and went straight to scripture.

And by doing so, he tells us exactly what marriage was supposed to be: a union between a man and a woman where they are no longer two separate entities, but one. The two are “glued” together and become one flesh.

Sometimes people wonder why God says sex is only to be between husband and wife.

The main reason is that there is a joining that occurs during the sexual act. Not just a physical joining, but an emotional joining as well. It’s a joining in which the two are glued together as one.

Have you ever used super glue, and gotten your fingers stuck together? What happens if you forcibly try to pull them apart. Your skin rips off.

Divorce is the same. There is no clean break. Because of the oneness in body and emotion that occurred, it causes a tearing in the soul when two people divorce.

The same is true when two people become sexually intimate outside of marriage. When the relationship breaks up, there is a tearing of soul that occurs because of the oneness that was shared between them.

And that tearing becomes much more painful the longer the relationship goes on. All that they share, not just sexually, but all the experiences they go through together, both good and bad, pull a couple closer together and make them one.

Jesus is telling us the reason divorce is so bad is because it tears apart a part of our soul. What was meant to be one forever, a oneness in body, in heart, in soul, is torn apart.

And so he tells us, “What God has joined together, let no one separate.”

Am I saying there can be no healing from divorce? That there can be no forgiveness? No. But I think we need to understand two things.

First, marriage was meant to be forever. It was how God designed it.

And second, when we get away from God’s design, pain is inevitable.

Why then do so many people get divorced? We’ll get into that in the next blog.

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Luke Luke 9 Matthew Matthew 8

To follow Christ

The gospels

What does it mean to follow Christ?

That’s what three people found out, as they either approached Jesus or were called by him to be his disciples.

A teacher of the law came up to him first, and said,

Teacher, I will follow you wherever you go. (Matthew 8:19)

This is very interesting to me. Most of the teachers of the law opposed Jesus. But this one, despite the opposition of most of his peers, was nevertheless full of zeal to follow Jesus. Zeal is good.

But Jesus warned him,

Foxes have holes and birds of the air have nests, but the Son of Man has no place to lay his head. (Matthew 8:20)

In other words, “I’m not promising an easy life. Following me is not all fun and games. You’re going to be away from home a lot. You may never have a family of your own if you choose this life. Can you handle that?”

Jesus went to another man, and said, “Follow me.” The man replied,

Lord, first let me go and bury my father. (Luke 9:59)

What was the situation here? Most likely, the father wasn’t dead. I strongly doubt that Jesus had walked up to the funeral and said to the man, “Follow me.”

I suppose it’s possible that the father had a terminal illness. However, it’s also possible that his father was perfectly healthy, and the man simply wanted to wait until his father passed away, whenever that was, before he followed Jesus.

Perhaps his father was opposed to Jesus, and if he found out that his son was following Jesus, the man would be disowned.

But Jesus said,

Let the dead bury their own dead, but you go and proclaim the kingdom of God. (Luke 9:60)

In this case, I think Jesus is talking about the spiritually dead burying the spiritually dead.

I was reading a book about Japan, and it said that some Japanese don’t become Christians, because they don’t like the idea that their family will go to hell if they don’t believe in Jesus, and that there is no hope for those who have already passed away without Jesus.

But Jesus basically says that you can’t control that. Don’t let the spiritually dead determine your spiritual destiny. Either in terms of your salvation or in doing God’s work.

There may be other spiritually dead people who, if you would just go out and tell them about Jesus, would be saved.

But if you don’t go out because you’re afraid of what your family will say, not only will your family go to hell, but also those you never told.

One last man said to Jesus,

I will follow you, Lord; but first let me go back and say good-by to my family. (Luke 9:61)

But Jesus replied,

No one who puts his hand to the plow and looks back is fit for service in the kingdom of God. (Luke 9:62)

I don’t think there is anything inherently wrong in saying good-bye to your family.

But perhaps Jesus knew there was a deeper problem within this man’s heart. That there was a tie to this man’s family that would hold him back from completely following Jesus.

And if we’re constantly looking back at something we left behind, even something as good as family, it can hinder us as we try to follow Jesus. Jesus wants our whole heart, not just a part.

We have no idea how these three men responded. Perhaps the gospel writers meant to do it that way so that you would have to think about your response.

Are you willing to follow Jesus though it may be hard?

Are you willing to follow Jesus though your family and those you love won’t?

And are you willing to leave behind all that would hinder you from following Jesus?

In short, how will you respond when Jesus says to you, “Follow me?”

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Mark Mark 9 Matthew Matthew 18

Parable of the unforgiving servant: Seasoned with mercy? Or fire?

The gospels

It’s been interesting putting all the accounts of this one discourse into one place.

But let us go back once more to the start of it: an argument between the disciples about who was the greatest. And probably during the argument, there were a lot of words said and feelings hurt.

So after Jesus talked about what to do when a person offends you, Peter asked a question that was very real to him at the moment. One of the other disciples had hurt him.

It wasn’t the first time, and it probably wouldn’t be the last. The question was, how many times was he obligated to forgive?

Peter suggested seven, which at that time, was considered very magnanimous.

Rabbis at the time threw out the number three in forgiving a repeated offense. (Certainly this number is found nowhere in the Bible).

Jesus answered, “Not 7 times, but 77 times (or 70 times 7).”

One wonders if he was referencing the Old Testament, where a man named Lamech issued a curse in which if anyone hurt him, that he would be avenged 77 times. (Genesis 4:24)

But here, Jesus teaches that we are not to look to curse the person who hurts us, but to forgive.

Jesus, by the way, is not teaching that we should forgive up to 77 times or even 490 times. Rather, we are to always forgive.

He then tells the famous story of a king who forgives the huge debt of one of his servants.

The servant promptly goes out, sees another person that owes him money and demands it back. When the person begs for more time, the servant refuses, and has him thrown in prison.

The king, however, heard about it, and called the servant back in, saying,

You wicked servant,’ he said, ‘I canceled all that debt of yours because you begged me to.

Shouldn’t you have had mercy on your fellow servant just as I had on you? (Matthew 18:32-33)

He then had him thrown into jail to be tortured until he paid all that he owed. Jesus then said,

This is how my heavenly Father will treat each of you unless you forgive your brother from your heart. (Matthew 18:35)

Some points. To the servant who had his debt forgiven, the amount the other man owed him was huge. Basically it was about 4 months wages worth of debt.

But compared to the debt he had owed to the king, a debt worth millions and impossible to pay, there was no comparison at all.

Sometimes people hurt us, and to us, it is huge. We are hurt and scarred deeply. But what we need to realize is that our debt of sin that we owe to God is so much greater. Sure, our sins may be “smaller,” but what is small adds up.

If you sin 3 times a day, that’s nearly 1000 sins a year. Multiply that by your age and you start to get an idea of just how big your debt to God is. Yet God forgave you. Shouldn’t you forgive others?

If we don’t, what will happen? The servant in the story cast the man indebted to him away from himself to wallow in his guilt. And the man was guilty.

So often, we do the same. We refuse to forgive, and we cut that person off, hoping to make them wallow in their guilt.

But when the king found out, he cut that person off from his presence and handed him over to be tortured by the jailers.

I believe in the same way, when we refuse to forgive, God will hand us over to Satan to have at us. To make our lives miserable. To make us wallow in our bitterness and anger.

Why? Because God hates us? No. Because he loves us and wants us to repent.

I wonder about the order of all that Jesus said in these parallel passages. And I wonder if perhaps things weren’t said in the exact order that Mark places them. Because it fits perfectly here. Jesus said,

Everyone will be salted with fire. (Mark 9:49)

In other words, if you refuse God’s seasoning of grace and mercy, he will salt you with fire. He’ll make your life miserable until you repent.

Jesus then concludes,

Salt is good, but if it loses its saltiness, how can you make it salty again? (Mark 9:50a)

Jesus calls us the salt of the earth. To flavor the world around us with his grace and mercy. But if we hold on to bitterness and anger in our lives, we lose that saltiness. So Jesus told his disciples and us,

Have salt in yourselves, and be at peace with each other. (Mark 9:50b).

How about you? Are you salt to those who hurt you?

Categories
Matthew Matthew 18

Loosening God’s hand in those who hurt us

Matthew

This passage is similar to what we see in Matthew 16, and I have to admit, both are difficult to interpret within the context.

In Matthew 16, Jesus talks about binding and loosing. That whatever you bind on earth would be bound in heaven, but whatever you loose on earth would be loosed in heaven.

As I look back on Matthew 16, it seems the reference is to God’s kingdom and salvation.

Throughout the New Testament, it seems that God wants to use us to reach people, rather than appearing to them directly.

As Christ’s body, we are his mouth, hands, and feet to those around us. And if we are going out and preaching the gospel, sharing the keys to the kingdom to those around us, God’s hands will be completely loosened to work for their salvation.

But if we refuse to go out, if we refuse to tell others about Jesus, God’s hands will be tied to some extent. Not literally, of course. But most times, he will not work unless we do.

Peter “loosened” God’s hands in two ways.

One was by preaching the gospel. First he preached to the Jews, loosening God’s hand to work in their lives.

Yet by failing to go out to the Gentiles as Jesus commanded in the great commission, the disciples limited God’s work of salvation.

God then had to do what he prefers not to: direct intervention, first talking to Cornelius through an angel, and then through a vision to Peter. But throughout the rest of the New Testament, salvation came only as people preached to others.

Peter also loosened God’s work in the Gentiles’ lives by freeing them from the requirements of the Jewish law. By doing so, it made it so much easier for them to enter God’s kingdom.

In this passage, however, the context of these words are different. Again, Jesus says, “Whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven.” (Matthew 18:18)

What does Jesus mean in this context?

I think the idea is that when we’ve been hurt, and the other person refuses to repent, we are to pray for them, loosening God’s hand to work in their lives.

Too many times, we are bound by bitterness and anger toward the person that hurt us. Too many times, we are not praying for that person that hurt us, we are praying about that person.

“Lord, I am so hurt and angry. Look at what he did! I can’t believe it. Give him what he deserves!”

But when Jesus was on the cross, he didn’t pray about those who hurt him. He prayed for them.

“Father, forgive them; for they do not know what they are doing.” (Luke 23:34)

By praying for those who mistreated him, it allowed God to work in the lives of those who hated him. Indeed, it allowed God to work his work of salvation.

When we pray for those who hurt us, rather than simply pray about them, it loosens God’s hands so to speak, and allows him to work in their lives.

Not to say that God can’t work without our prayers, but most times, he only chooses to work because of them.

But if we hold on to bitterness, we stay the hand of God, both in our lives, and in the lives of the people who hurt us.

It’s not easy to let go. But that’s why God has given us brothers and sisters to support us. They can help us in reconciliation with those who hurt us. And they can help us in prayer.

Jesus said,

I tell you that if two of you on earth agree about anything you ask for, it will be done for you by my Father in heaven.

For where two or three come together in my name, there am I with them. (Matthew 18:19-20)

How about you? Are you binding the Father’s hand or are you loosening his hand in your life and in the lives of those who have hurt you?

Put another way, are you simply praying about those who have hurt you, or are you praying for them?

Categories
Matthew Matthew 18

Biblical principles: When people repeatedly hurt you

hurt

Dealing with hurt is difficult. Dealing with hurt from those you once trusted is even worse.

What do you do when someone continually hurts you? Do we just take it? What does Jesus say?

Fortunately, we don’t have to guess.

It seems that as the disciples were arguing among themselves about who was the greatest, they had wounded each other, resulting in cracks in their relationships. Jesus knew this, and that’s why he gave them the instruction we see in this passage.

He said,

If your brother sins against you, go and show him his fault, just between the two of you. If he listens to you, you have won your brother over. (Matthew 18:15)

Notice two things here. First, if someone hurts you, you are not to wait for that person to come to you and apologize to you. You are to go to them.

Often times we are so angry at the other person, that we demand that they come to us and apologize for what they did.

But that kind of attitude is not one of peace, but of pride. And God calls us to be peacemakers.

Remember that in the Beatitudes, Jesus said, “Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called sons of God.” (Matthew 5:9).

That doesn’t just mean bringing peace between others that you know. It means bringing peace in your own relationships.

But if there’s one thing that will prevent peace in a relationship, it’s pride.

Furthermore, there are many times when people hurt us, and they don’t know it. As a result, we could wait forever, and they’ll never come. So Jesus says, if someone hurts you, you go to them.

Second, notice that there’s no room for gossip or slander here. Jesus doesn’t say, “If your brother hurts you, go tell the world about it.” He says, “Go to the brother that hurt you and talk about it.”

And hopefully, when they understand the hurt they’ve caused you, they will apologize and your relationship will be restored.

A key point, by the way.

If someone confronts you like this, remember that what’s not important is if you feel your words or actions should have hurt them.

What’s important is that your words or actions did hurt them. And it’s on you not only to apologize, but to make sure you avoid such actions in the future. That’s also what it means to be a peacemaker.

But what if you confront a person who hurts you, and they refuse to acknowledge their wrong?

Then Jesus says bring one or two other people with you. Share with them what happened. Not to gossip or badmouth the other person. But with the hope that with their help, reconciliation will happen.

It’s entirely possible that with their counsel, you realize that you are simply misunderstanding the other person. Or perhaps with their help, the other person will come to understand they were wrong.

Either way, remember the goal of bringing in these people is peace.

If a person still refuses to hear you, then bring in the church. You don’t have to bring in the whole congregation. But perhaps bring in a pastor or another respected person of the church and have them try to mediate.

But if that fails, Jesus says,

Treat him as you would a pagan or a tax collector. (Matthew 18:17).

What does that mean?

Basically, it means to change your expectations of them. Don’t expect them to act like a brother or sister in Christ, because they are not acting that way. Treat them as an unbeliever who doesn’t know Christ.

We don’t expect unbelievers to act like believers, and if a person refuses to repent, we should stop expecting them to act like a believer.

Keep your guard up against them. Don’t fool yourself into thinking they’ve changed until they repent, and you see signs of that repentance.

And if at all possible, try to avoid them, much as people avoided tax collectors in those days.

Why?

Because you’re bitter?

Because you’re angry?

No. You need to let go of those feelings because they will bind you up.

Rather, avoid the other person because they are dangerous to you. As long as they can’t see their own wrong, you’re always in danger of being hurt by them. So avoid them.

How about you? How are you dealing with the people who have hurt you?

Categories
Mark Mark 9 Matthew Matthew 18

How God sees our children

The gospels

In his discourse on greatness in the kingdom of heaven, Jesus also makes it very clear how God feels about children.

First, he gives us a warning. “Don’t do things that would cause a child to sin.”

If that isn’t clear enough, he tells us,

But if anyone causes one of these little ones who believe in me to sin, it would be better for him to have a large millstone hung around his neck and to be drowned in the depths of the sea.

Woe to the world because of the things that cause people to sin! Such things must come, but woe to the man through whom they come! (Matthew 18:6-7)

He then goes on to say you’d be better off to maim yourself than to do something that would cause a child to sin.

Why is Jesus so vehement about this? Because children are impressionable. They learn from what they see us do.

If they see us losing our temper all the time, that’s what they’ll do.

If they see us taking our spouse for granted, they will learn to do the same when they get married.

And if we abuse them, they will tend to abuse their children when they become parents.

So be careful how you act around your children, because God will hold you accountable for it.

He also warns us, however,

See that you do not look down on one of these little ones. For I tell you that their angels in heaven always see the face of my Father in heaven. (Matthew 18:10)

God cares so much about children, that he assigns angels to them to watch over them. And if God so cares about them, how can we dare see them as any less valuable. To push them aside as unimportant or insignificant. To see them as anything less than the treasures God has entrusted us with.

He then compares them to sheep that are lost, and how God will do anything to save them. He concludes by saying,

In the same way your Father in heaven is not willing that any of these little ones should be lost. (Matthew 18:14)

A couple things here. I do believe there is an age of accountability. That there is a point when a child will be held responsible for their sin.

What that age is, I don’t know. My guess is that it would depend on the child. Whenever they become aware of their sin, and that it’s really wrong, that’s when they will be held accountable for it.

Second, just because it says that the Father is not willing that any of the little ones be lost does not mean that they cannot be lost.

It says in 2 Peter 3:9 that God is not willing that any should perish but that all would repent. But in that same passage, Peter makes clear that people will perish if they don’t repent. And so will children if they willfully reject God in their lives.

So let us treasure our children. Let us value them as God does. And let us preach the gospel clearly to them so that they may be saved too.

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Luke Luke 9 Mark Mark 9 Matthew Matthew 18

The greatest

The gospels

I think something that gives me hope as I look at how much I have yet to grow as a Christian, is to look at Jesus’ disciples, and how much patience Jesus had to have with them.

One day, as they were walking down to Capernaum, they started squabbling about who among them was the greatest. Jesus heard them, but kept on walking as perhaps their voices became louder and more heated.

But when they arrived at the house they were staying at, he asked them,

What were you arguing about on the road? (Mark 9:33)

A very embarrassed silence fell in the room, as none of them wanted to admit what they had been talking about. So Jesus told them,

If anyone wants to be first, he must be the very last, and the servant of all. (Mark 9:35)

Perhaps at that, his disciples traded confused looks with each other. And so to try to get a clearer answer, they asked, “Who is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven then?” (Matthew 18:1).

In other words, “Who among us is the greatest?”

At that point, Jesus took a child into his arms, perhaps the son or daughter of the person they were staying with. And he said,

I tell you the truth, unless you change and become like little children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven.

Therefore, whoever humbles himself like this child is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven. (Matthew 18:3-4)

What was Jesus saying? He was saying two things. First, no one can even enter the kingdom of heaven unless they become like a little child.

What is a little child like? They are humble. They don’t think they know it all. That’s why they’re always pestering their parents with questions. More than that, they are dependent on their parents for everything.

And if we are to enter the kingdom of heaven, we need to be the same way. We need to humble ourselves before God. To admit we don’t know everything and to seek God’s wisdom and his ways.

And we need to learn to rely on him. For our salvation, first of all, but then to rely on his wisdom and strength to live each day.

So often people don’t, however. They think they’re smart enough and strong enough to live life on their own. But as long as they think that way, they’ll never enter God’s kingdom.

Even after they become Christians, people often struggle with this. I know I do. Too often, I live on my own wisdom and strength. And even now, I’m realizing how inadequate I am, and just how much I need him.

But Jesus’ second point is that greatness in the kingdom of heaven is measured not by how many people serve you, but by how many people you serve. He said, “If you want to be great, you must become the servant of all.”

If you think about the great leaders in history, the people who didn’t force others to follow them, but were people that others wanted to follow. These leaders lived to serve.

Jesus told his disciples that meant even serving those who can’t give you any “benefit.”

He said,

Whoever welcomes one of these little children in my name welcomes me; and whoever welcomes me does not welcome me but the one who sent me. (Mark 9:37).

Let’s face it, serving children doesn’t bring much benefit in itself because children don’t have the power to give you much.

But Jesus says that when you serve them, you’re really serving Christ.

For that matter, whenever you serve anyone because you love Jesus, you really are serving Christ. And that’s the kind of person that Jesus considers great in his kingdom.

Are you looking to be great in God’s kingdom? Then be like a child. Humble. And willing to serve others, looking to their needs above your own, whoever they are, great or small.

Is that you?

Categories
Matthew Matthew 17

Needlessly offending people

Matthew

As Christians, with different values and ways of thinking from the world, it is unavoidable that we will come into conflict with others, simply because what we believe is different from what the world believes.

Simply by believing as we do, we will offend people.

Nevertheless, there is a difference between offending people because of what you believe, and going out of your way to offend people.

One is unavoidable. One is sinful.

In this story, Jesus was in Capernaum, and the tax-collectors for the temple came by and asked Peter, “Does your teacher pay the temple tax?”

Peter, probably flustered, blurted out, “Of course he does.”

Later Jesus asked Peter, “Who does a king exact taxes from? His children, or from others.”

Peter, of course, answered, “From others.”

So Jesus told him, “Then the children are exempt.”

In other words, as God’s Son, he wasn’t under obligation to pay the temple tax.

But then Jesus said,

But so that we may not offend them, go to the lake and throw out your line. Take the first fish you catch; open its mouth and you will find a four-drachma coin. Take it and give it to them for my tax and yours. (Matthew 17:27)

Jesus could have stood on his rights and said, “There’s no way that I’m going to pay the tax,” thus upsetting the tax collectors. But instead he paid the tax.

I think there are two applications we can make from this in terms of not offending people unnecessarily.

First, sometimes we need to give up our “rights” as Christians for the sake of others.

I remember when I was a high school or college student hanging out with other Christians at a camp, and some of the Christians were playing cards.

They weren’t gambling. They were just playing ordinary games. But it upset one of the Christians who felt any kind of card-playing was wrong.

We could have argued with her or ridiculed her beliefs. Or we could have simply ignored her, stood on our rights, and kept on playing.

But in order to avoid offending her, we stopped. To unnecessarily antagonize her would have hurt her, not to mention be sinful.

Second, though it may be inevitable that we offend unbelievers by what we believe, we can still show that we care for them.

I know of Christians that have made it clear to the gay community that they believe that lifestyle is sinful. But at the same time, they work compassionately to help the gays who have been infected by AIDS.

My pastor’s wife’s parents are not Christians. And when they got married, they could have said to her parents, “There is no way we’re having anything to do with Buddhist ceremonies, and if you don’t like it, that’s just too bad. Deal with it!”

But instead, they told her parents, “We’re not going to be involved in any Buddhist ceremonies, or offering incense, or anything like that. But we will help clean the house and serve food after the ceremonies are over.”

In both cases, we see Christians stating their beliefs clearly, and yet showing love.

Let us not confuse offending people because of what we believe, with going out of our way to be offensive.

We’ll offend enough people just by following Christ. We do not need to offend more by taking an offensive attitude on top of that.

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Luke Luke 9 Mark Mark 9 Matthew Matthew 17

Afraid to ask

The gospels

In this passage, we see the second time in which Jesus speaks plainly to his disciples about what was going to happen to him in Jerusalem. He couldn’t have been more clear.

He said, “Listen carefully to what I am about to tell you.” (Luke 9:44).

And he told them specifically that he would be betrayed, killed, and raised to life on the third day.

The way Luke records the disciples’ response strikes me.

But they did not understand what this meant. It was hidden from them, so that they did not grasp it, and they were afraid to ask him about it. (Luke 9:45)

Looking back as Christians, it’s very difficult for us to understand why the disciples would have trouble grasping this. It wasn’t like he was speaking in parables. He told them in a very straightforward manner, “This is what is going to happen.”

Why couldn’t they understand something that Jesus said so plainly? Luke says the reason was that it was hidden from them.

Why was it hidden from them? I think the main reason is they weren’t ready to hear the truth. They were still totally focused on the idea that he would be setting up his kingdom in Israel soon, setting the Jews free from Roman rule.

We’ll see this in a couple of blogs from now.

But because their minds were so focused on their way of thinking, they couldn’t understand the plain words of Jesus. What’s more, they were afraid to ask what Jesus meant.

Why were they afraid? I don’t think they were afraid of Jesus’ rebuke. I think they were afraid that he was speaking plainly.

And they were so focused on the negative parts, that he would be betrayed and die, that they couldn’t see the positive, that he would rise again.

What does this mean for us?

I think that sometimes, we get so set in our way of thinking, that we can’t see what Jesus is saying to us, even when he is speaking plainly.

What he says goes so contrary to the way we’re thinking or feeling, that we think, “He can’t really mean what I think he’s saying, can he?”

Yet we’re afraid to ask because if he tells us that he means what he says, it means we need to change. We need to change our way of thinking, our behavior, or both. And that can be scary.

For example, God says “Don’t be yoked with unbelievers.” (2 Corinthians 6:14)

In other words, we shouldn’t be in relationships where we are tied to people in such a way that they pull us away from God and his ways.

But when many Christians who date non-Christians, or are even engaged to non-Christians see this passage, it scares them.

“It doesn’t really mean what I think it’s saying, is it?”

And they are afraid to ask God, because it might mean they have to break up with that person, when they don’t want to.

Or when God says, “Flee sexual immorality.” (1 Corinthians 6:18), some people think, “Does this mean sleeping with a person before marriage is wrong?”

And they’re afraid to ask because they are sleeping with their partner.

Let’s be frank. Truth can be painful. And change can be excruciating. But sometimes we get so focused on the negative, that we forget the positive.

The same passage that says that we should not be unequally yoked, says that God will be a Father to us, and we his sons and daughters.

The same passage that says that we should flee sexual immorality says that Christ has given us his Holy Spirit to dwell in us. That we are his temples.

These are the things we should focus on.

So let us not be afraid to ask what a scripture means. Let’s embrace it. Let’s live it. And while there may be pain in the short run, in the long run, we will find blessing.

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Luke Luke 9 Mark Mark 9 Matthew Matthew 17

Where is our faith?

The gospels

Where is my faith?

That’s a question I have to ask myself far too often in the sense of, “Why don’t I trust God more?”

But it’s also a question I need to ask myself in terms of “Where am I putting my trust?”

We see both senses of this question in this passage.

Jesus and his 3 close disciples came down from the mountain, and ran into a huge argument between the rest of his disciples and the teachers of the law. What they were arguing about exactly, I’m not sure.

It could’ve been something like, “Your Jesus is not truly from God. Look, you tried to cast out this demon, and nothing happened.”

Or perhaps they were arguing about whether there was a demon at all in the boy that was brought to the disciples.

When Jesus asked what was going on, the boy’s father explained that a demon was in his son, causing him to go into seizures, and even trying to kill him at times. This father was obviously desperate, as this had been going on since his son was a child, and he pleaded with Jesus,

If you can do anything, take pity on us and help us. (Mark 9:22)

Jesus answered,

If you can? Everything is possible for him who believes. (Mark 9:23)

The man replied in a way that I identify with quite well.

I do believe…help me overcome my unbelief! (Mark 9:24)

How did he say that, I wonder? My guess is that he was so desperate that he said he believed just so that Jesus would try to help.

But then Jesus looked into his eyes questioningly, and at his gaze, the father broke down and said, “O Jesus. I want to believe, but this has been going on so long that I find it hard. But you’re my only hope. Help me overcome my unbelief!”

And Jesus healed the boy, casting out the demon.

I find hope in this for all the times that I struggle with unbelief. Because my trickle of belief so often gets overwhelmed by the tidal wave of my unbelief.

That’s how it was with this father. Yet, Jesus showed grace and mercy to this father despite his unbelief, and healed the boy.

I’ve seen this in my own life, at times even questioning God’s goodness. And yet when I cry out, he answers. He shows mercy and grace. And I remember again, he really is good.

Later the disciples asked why they couldn’t cast out the demon. Jesus gives them a lecture about faith, that if you have the faith of a mustard seed, you can do anything.

But then he said something very important,

This kind can come out only by prayer. (Mark 9:29)

Remember that up to this point, the disciples had been casting out demons in Jesus’ name. They had gone throughout the country doing so.

But perhaps as time went on, they had forgotten that it was not really them doing the work, but God. And they had stopped putting their faith in God, but put it in their own powers or formulas for casting out demons.

The result? They forgot to pray and were unable to cast out the demon.

And so the question again comes, “Where is my faith?” Is it in my own abilities? My own talents? My own wisdom? Or is it in God? If it’s in God, the faith of a mustard seed can accomplish much. Without God, I can do nothing.

These are things I struggle with every day. Perhaps you do too. If so, will you pray with me now.

Lord Jesus, where is my faith? Too many times, I look at my circumstances and they are beyond me. And I panic because I just can’t see how you could possibly help me.

Lord, forgive my unbelief. Help me to believe in you, to trust you in everything. And give me your peace and joy as you work in my heart and my circumstances.

Where is my faith? Too many times it’s in myself. And because of that I fail. Forgive my self-reliance. My self-trust. Help me to hear your voice. To trust you. To rely on you each day. In your name I pray, amen.

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Luke Luke 9 Mark Mark 9 Matthew Matthew 17

Listen to Him!

The gospels

This is one of the more interesting passages in the Gospels, and it comes at an interesting time.

Jesus has just shattered his disciples’ ideas of what Messiah is supposed to be, and they’re wondering what in the world does all this dying and being raised from the dead is all about.

For the most part, it seems, all the way until the cross, they kind of shoved it to the back of their minds and tried not to think about it.

Perhaps they convinced themselves they heard Jesus wrong. Or perhaps they thought he was speaking in some kind of parable.

Whatever they thought, they never really came to grips with what Jesus was telling them.

And so about a week later, Jesus tries to drive it home to three of his closest followers.

One quick note: Matthew and Mark say this event happens 6 days later, Luke says it happens about eight days later. Which is correct?

There are two explanations that I’ve seen. One is that the Greek expression “about eight days later” that Luke used was a common expression that meant “about a week later.”

The other is that Luke was counting partial days. He counted the day that Jesus spoke and the day of the transfiguration, while Matthew and Mark only counted the full days in between the events.

We’ll see more of this when we come to the resurrection.

Anyway, Jesus takes Peter, James, and John up to a high mountain, and while he’s praying, they either fell asleep or were on the verge of it. Because of that, they nearly missed what happened next.

Jesus suddenly shines in all his glory, and Moses and Elijah both appear. And as the disciples listen in to their conversation, they hear them talking to Jesus about his impending death and resurrection. (Luke 9:30-31)

By now, the disciples are fully awake, and as usual Peter speaks up first asking if they should build shelters for Jesus and his two visitors.

But at that point, a bright cloud surrounds them, and they hear a voice saying,

This is my Son, whom I love. Listen to him! (Mark 9:7)

Hearing this, they fell down on their faces in terror, but then they hear another voice, the voice of their beloved Master who tells them,

Get up…Don’t be afraid. (Matthew 17:7)

And when they look up, only Jesus is there, the glory that had been shining from him faded. And as they went down the mountain, Jesus warned them not to tell anyone what they saw until he had risen from the dead.

Why did Jesus show them all this? Again, I think one reason was to impress to them that his mission was to die.

But I think another reason was to impress to them that death was not the end. They had just seen Moses and Elijah. One had died, the other had been taken away in a chariot of fire, never seeing death. But both were still alive and talking to Jesus.

Even so, the disciples still didn’t understand. And as they continued down the mountain, they continued discussing among themselves what “being raised from the dead” was all about. (Mark 9:10)

But as I look back at this, the words that impress me most were the Words of the Father. “This is my Son whom I love. Listen to him.”

Sometimes, like the disciples, we don’t always fully understand the things that Jesus is trying to teach us.

Later, as with the disciples, we will understand. But though there may be some time between when we hear what Jesus says and when we understand everything completely, Jesus is our Lord, sent from the Father, and we are to hear him, follow him, and obey.

How about you? Inasmuch you understand the things he’s told you, will you trust Jesus enough that you’ll hear him, follow him, and obey him in everything he says?

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Luke Luke 9 Mark Mark 8 Mark 9 Matthew Matthew 16

What’s really important

The gospels

What are you living for? What are you seeking in life?

Comfort? Money? Things?

Here Jesus challenges us to really consider our priorities. He told his disciples and would-be disciples something really difficult.

If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me. (Luke 9:23)

The interesting thing to me is that Jesus asks us no less than what he did himself.

He denied himself.

He could have stayed in heaven. He could have let us all suffer in hell for all eternity. But he denied himself.

He gave up all he had in heaven, his glory, the worship of the angels, and he took on human flesh. While here on earth, he gave of himself, surrendering his own needs to meet the needs of others.

He took up his cross.

He suffered greatly, first having to carry his own cross to the place of his death, though he had already been beaten and was weak from the loss of blood. And then agonizing in pain while hanging on the cross. Why?

In order to follow his Father, and the plan he had set in motion for our salvation.

In the same way that Jesus denied himself, we too are to deny ourselves.

This doesn’t mean that we can’t enjoy life. Jesus certainly enjoyed his life here on earth. But there will be times when we need to sacrifice our needs and desires to fulfill the purpose God has for us.

Sometimes, it will require suffering. Our family rejects us because of our faith. We lose our jobs because we refuse to work on Sundays. Or we go through other kinds of persecution because we put Christ first in our lives.

But through it all, we need to keep following after Christ.

Why? Because in him, we find what’s most important. What’s most important? A relationship with him. And to fulfill the purpose for which he has created us.

Some people, however, sacrifice these things for what they want. And if following Christ will require them to let go of what they want, they let go of Christ instead. But Jesus tells them,

For whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for me will find it.

What good will it be for a man if he gains the whole world, yet forfeits his soul? Or what can a man give in exchange for his soul?

For the Son of Man is going to come in his Father’s glory with his angels, and then he will reward each person according to what he has done. (Matthew 16:25-27)

The bitter irony of letting go of Christ to hold on to the things we seek is that in the end, we’ll lose it all.

But if we let go of everything in order to follow Christ, that’s when we’ll find true satisfaction and peace. For when the day of judgment arrives, Christ will reward us.

And even before that, we’ll catch glimpses of the glory that is to come here on earth. Jesus indeed promised that to his disciples, saying,

I tell you the truth, some who are standing here will not taste death before they see the kingdom of God come with power. (Mark 9:1)

Though the disciples did go through suffering for the sake of Christ, nevertheless, they saw the kingdom of God come with power, as they saw miracles coming by their own hands, but more than that, the miracle of transformed lives as the gospel spread.

And though many died martyrs’ deaths, they did find reward as they stepped into God’s kingdom.

How about you? Are you willing to let go of what you have, in order to grasp what’s really important?

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Luke Luke 9 Mark Mark 8 Matthew Matthew 16

A stumbling block to Christ

The gospels

A lot of times we hear how we shouldn’t be stumbling blocks to other Christians. And of course, we often hear about how Christ is a stumbling block to those who reject him.

But how often are we stumbling blocks to Christ, and what he’s trying to accomplish? It’s the thought that came to me as I read this passage this morning.

Jesus told the disciples plainly that in order to accomplish God’s plan for him as Messiah, he must die.

All his disciples must have been shocked to hear this. They had never heard Jesus speak like this before, and they could not reconcile what they had just heard with their images of what a Messiah should be.

They thought he would be bringing down the Roman government and setting Israel free from their rule.

They thought that they would be his prime ministers in this new kingdom that Jesus would soon set up.

But how could all this happen if Jesus were dead?

All this must have been running through the disciples’ minds, but as usual, it was Peter who spoke up first, saying,

Never, Lord! This shall never happen to you! (Matthew 16:22)

I think I’ve mentioned this before, but if there are two words that should never go together, they are “No” and “Lord.”

If Jesus really is your Lord, how can you possibly say, “No” or “Never” to him?

Jesus’ rebuke was immediate, and quite harsh.

Get behind me, Satan! You are a stumbling block to me; you do not have in mind the things of God, but the things of men. (Matthew 16:23)

How would you like to be called Satan? That’s exactly what Jesus called Peter, for it was Satan’s words coming out of Peter’s mouth.

Jesus was set on the cross to die for our salvation. And Peter was dead set against it.

He kept that attitude all the way to the garden of Gethsemane when he tried to attack (quite clumsily) the people who were arresting Jesus.

But in taking that attitude, he was a stumbling block to Jesus and what Jesus was trying to accomplish. He wasn’t shaping his way of thinking to match Jesus’. Rather, he tried to shape Jesus’ thoughts to his.

How about you? As you live your life, do you have in mind the things of God, or the things of men?

Are you shaping your plans to match God’s? Or are you trying to shape God to match your plans?

Are you doing God’s will? Or are you doing your own will in God’s name?

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Matthew Matthew 16

The one on whom all stands

Matthew

This is truly a powerful passage and as such, it deserves another look.

After Peter declares Jesus to be the Messiah, Jesus praises him, saying,

Blessed are you, Simon son of Jonah, for this was not revealed to you by man, but by my Father in heaven.

And I tell you that you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of Hades will not overcome it.

I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven; whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven. (17-19)

That’s a mouthful. But what does it all mean? What can we get from all of this?

First, salvation comes as God reveals himself to people. Because God is invisible, we can only come to know him if he reveals himself and his truth to us. As such, salvation truly is by grace from first to last.

Lots is made by the Catholics of Peter’s name and how he is the rock on which Jesus would build his church. But that’s not what Jesus is saying here.

The word “Peter” basically means “little stone,” while the “rock” on which Jesus would build his church is a word for “bedrock.”

Peter himself refers to this in one of his letters as he said,

As you come to him, the living Stone — rejected by men but chosen by God and precious to him — you also, like living stones, are being built into a spiritual house to be a holy priesthood, offering spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ.

For in Scripture it says: “See, I lay a stone in Zion, a chosen and precious cornerstone, and the one who trusts in him will never be put to shame.” (1 Peter 2:4-6)

According to Peter, who was the stone on which all stands? It was and is Jesus.

What are we? We are living stones built into the church that God is creating. And through Christ, we have been made his priests. We don’t need other people to be our priests. We are priests who have direct access to God.

And because this church is built on Christ, all of Hades cannot stand against it. Though Satan has sought to wipe out the church from the very beginning, it still stands and will stand until the end of time when Jesus returns.

Was Jesus giving Peter any special authority in this passage?

To some degree, I believe so, although I doubt the disciples, and even Peter truly understood it at the time.

It was Peter who first opened up the gospel to the Jews by preaching to them in Acts 2.

And it was Peter again who first opened up the gospel to the Gentiles by preaching to them in Acts 10-11. In so doing, he used the keys of the kingdom to open the way to salvation for all people, both Jews and Gentiles.

It was also Peter that helped set the Gentiles free from following the law of Moses, loosing the requirements of the ceremonial and dietary laws, while still binding Christians to the moral laws as well as a few other things for the sake of peace between the Jewish and Gentile believers at the time. (Acts 15).

That said, I think it goes too far to say that he was the first pope and that this authority was to be passed on to his successors. Jesus never, ever said that.

To some degree, though, these things Jesus said to Peter apply to all Christians. As his priests, we have been given the keys to the kingdom, and by preaching the gospel to those around us, we open the way of salvation to all those who will listen and believe.

And we have been given authority to declare the forgiveness of sins through Jesus by grace, setting people free from trying to earn their salvation through their works.

So let us use the keys and authority we have been given by Jesus so that those around us may find the salvation we have been given.

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Luke Luke 9 Mark Mark 8 Matthew Matthew 16

The most important question

The gospels

By now, Jesus was about halfway through his ministry, and was starting to look toward the cross.

But as he did, he wanted his disciples to really think about who he was. Was he just a prophet? Was he just a good teacher? Who did they think he was?

And so after asking what the disciples had heard people say about him, he asked them,

But what about you? Who do you say I am? (Matthew 16:15)

This is the question of the ages. It is the question that he asks everyone, even today.

What about you? Who do you say I am?

Do you think he was a prophet? Well, certainly Jesus was a prophet. And through him, we heard the words of God.

Was he a good man? That goes without saying. He lived a perfectly sinless life.

But is he more?

Peter certainly thought so. He said,

You are the Christ, the Son of the living God. (Matthew 16:16)

The disciples and the Jews, at this point, still didn’t completely understand the concept of Messiah. It was something they still had to learn, and that’s part of the reason that Jesus told them not to tell anyone.

It’s hard to teach someone something that you don’t understand yourself.

They had no idea at this point that Messiah had to die for the forgiveness of sins. What they did know was that the Messiah would someday reign, and that’s where all their focus was.

How about you? Do you believe that Jesus is the Messiah? Do you believe that Jesus died on the cross so that your sins might be forgiven? More than that, is he your king? Have you surrendered your life to him?

You see, Jesus is not simply a good man or a prophet. He is God himself.

The Jews themselves recognized this. You could call yourself a child of God in the sense that God created you. But to call yourself uniquely the Son of God was to claim deity for yourself. That was their basis for crucifying him. (Matthew 26:63-66).

As God and king, Jesus is worthy of your worship and your service. But do you believe it? Have you come to the place where you can say as Peter did, “You are the Christ, the Son of the Living God?”

If you are, and you have never committed your life to him before, it starts with a simple prayer.

Lord Jesus, I believe that you are more than just a good man. More than a prophet. I believe that you are God. That you died on the cross for my sins, and that you rose again. Thank you.

Be my king. Be my Lord. I want to follow you from now on. Teach me what it means to follow you each day. In your name I pray, amen.

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Mark Mark 8 Matthew Matthew 15 Matthew 16

Legalism and worldliness

The gospels

I’ve mentioned more than once in this blog the need to test everything that we hear, whether it’s from the pulpit, from the radio or a podcast, from a book, or from wherever you hear people teaching the Word of God.

For that matter, you should be testing everything I say as well.

In these passages we see why.

We see in the first part of these accounts a near repeat of Jesus’ miracle of feeding the 5000. The details are different, however, in terms of the number of people fed, the amount of fish and bread used, as well as the amount of leftovers.

After this event, the Pharisees and Sadducees came to see Jesus.

(It’s not clear whether the Herodians were also there as a separate group, or the Herodians mentioned in Mark were the Sadducees, who were well known as collaborators with the Romans. I take it as the latter).

After arguing with them and rebuffing yet another request for a sign, he told his disciples, “Be careful…Be on your guard against the yeast of the Pharisees and Sadducees.” (Matthew 16:6).

(Again, it’s possible that when he referred to the leaven of Herod in Mark 8, he was talking about the Sadducees).

The disciples, as usual, were confused and were perhaps wondering if Jesus was forbidding them from getting actual bread from these two groups.

But Jesus quickly corrected them, saying, “Why are you worrying about bread? Don’t you remember how I provided for the 5000 and the 4000? I’m not talking about that at all.”

At which point, Matthew says,

“Then they understood that he was not telling them to guard against the yeast used in bread, but against the teaching of the Pharisees and Sadducees.” (Matthew 16:12)

What was the teaching of these two groups? For the Pharisees, it was a very devout legalism. They thought that they could earn their way to heaven by their works.

Because of this, they devoted themselves to studying God’s law and keeping it. There were a few problems, however.

First, they added things to God’s law that God never taught. And in doing so, they put burdens on the people that God never intended. What’s more, they criticized and looked down on anyone who didn’t keep those rules.

Furthermore, as we saw earlier, some of their rules based on tradition flat out contradicted God’s word.

In addition, in focusing on the minutia of the law, they missed its spirit completely, causing them to condemn people unjustly. They forgot things like justice and mercy in their pursuit of legalistic perfection.

All these things, we have already seen or will see in later passages.

The Sadducees, on the other hand, tended to be focused more on wealth and power, thus their collaboration with the Romans. They also didn’t believe in a resurrection, which made it easier for them to focus on the things of this earth, rather than on eternal things.

Thus Jesus warns against both legalistic religiosity and worldliness. Both of them, like leaven, can spread throughout a church, and make it useless to the kingdom of God.

Unfortunately, many people in Jesus’ day didn’t test what they were taught, and as a result, they either lived their lives feeling weighed down and condemned, or they put all their efforts into temporal things, rather than eternal ones.

How about you? Have you fallen into either of these traps?

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Mark Mark 7 Matthew Matthew 15

Bringing people to Jesus

The gospels

In these two passages, we see the great popularity of Jesus because of his healing ministry.

What strikes me as I read them is that most people didn’t come to Jesus on their own for healing. Rather, it was others that brought them to Jesus. And when people brought those who needed healing to Jesus, Jesus healed them.

Just as Jesus opened people’s physical eyes and ears back then, so he does now to those who are spiritually blind and deaf. Just as he healed those who were physically hurting, so he does now to those who are emotionally hurting.

I do believe in physical healing for today as well, but it is people’s souls and spirits that Jesus cares for most, even more than their bodies, as we saw in the case of the paralyzed man and his four friends. (Mark 2:1-12)

So in the same way that these people brought the sick and the hurting to Jesus, we too are called to bring those who are hurting spiritually and emotionally to Jesus.

We in ourselves don’t have the power to heal them, but Jesus can. And we need to go out and bring them to him, rather than just wait for them to come to him on their own.

That said, Jesus always asked the people he healed, “What do you want of me?” or “Do you desire to be healed?”

And only those who were open to his healing touch did he heal.

The same can be said of those we bring to Jesus. Once we’ve brought them face to face with Jesus, they have to make a choice. Do they desire healing or not? Do they desire what Jesus has to offer or not?

We can’t make that choice for them. They have to make it themselves.

How about you? Are you bringing people to Jesus?

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Mark Mark 7 Matthew Matthew 15

Persistence, humility, and faith

The gospels

One wonders exactly what Jesus was thinking throughout this conversation with this woman, and in what kind of tone did he speak to her.

Jesus, after his confrontation with the Jews, actually left the confines of Israel and went to the region of Tyre and Sidon which was north of Israel along the coast.

And while he tried to keep his presence there secret, people in the area heard about it, including this Greek woman born in that area.

Her daughter was demon-possessed, and she no doubt had heard about Jesus, and so she came to him, begging for help, saying,

Lord, Son of David, have mercy on me! My daughter is suffering terribly from demon-possession. (Matthew 15:22)

For all the compassion that Jesus generally showed people, he did not do so here, at least at first. Though he heard her cry, he ignored her.

Undiscouraged (and probably desperate), she continued to plead for his attention until his disciples finally said in short, “If you’re not going to help her, at least send her away. She’s bothering us.” (Matthew 15:23)

At which point, Jesus gave her what seems a very curt answer,

I was sent only to the lost sheep of Israel. (Matthew 15:24)

How did he say this, however? Did he say it as curtly as it sounds? Or did he say it almost with a tinge of regret that said, “I wish I could help. But I’m only here for the Jews.”

However, he said it, it only caused her to keep crying out, “Lord, help me,” as she fell at his feet.

Again, Jesus rebuffs her, with what seems to be very harsh words,

It is not right to take the children’s bread and toss it to their (little — YLT) dogs. (Matthew 15:26)

The word “dogs” were generally used in a pejorative sense in Israel, but Jesus softens it with the word, “little,” which was often used in a very affectionate way in their language.

Even so, to be compared to a dog, even in an affectionate way is not the way most people want to be referred to.

But instead of being offended, she turned Jesus own words in her favor, saying,

Yes, Lord…but even the (little) dogs eat the crumbs that fall from their masters’ table. (Matthew 15:27)

In other words, “I know that you came for the Jews. And I know that because of that they have priority. But can’t I at least have the crumbs they don’t want?”

At which point Jesus praises her like he praised few others.

Woman, you have great faith! (Matthew 15:28)

There is only one other person that he praises for their faith, and it was another Gentile, a Roman centurion.

And because of her faith, he healed her daughter.

What can we get from this?

Sometimes, we pray and it seems like God is silent. Like he is ignoring us. But as this woman, we should be persistent in our prayer.

This is not to say that we have the right to order Jesus to do something, as some people would have you believe.

But as with this woman, if we come with humility and keep believing that he can do what we ask, more often than not, he will reward that faith.

The key questions we need to ask ourselves are:

  1. Do we trust that he is good and that he truly cares for us?
  2. Do we trust his answers to be good, whether he says yes or no?
  3. Will we persist in prayer until he does answer?

How about you? Are you persistent in prayer? Do you truly trust in him? And are you humble enough to accept whatever answer he gives?

Categories
Mark Mark 7 Matthew Matthew 15

What is truly unclean

The gospels

I think a lot of times, when people look at the laws of Moses, they wonder about why the Jews had all these laws about what is clean and unclean.

For the most part, from a practical standpoint, they seemed to be for health and sanitary reasons.

But I think there was something beyond that which God wanted to make clear to the people: There are things that make you unclean.

And by fixing this idea of clean and unclean in their minds from the physical aspect, he was drawing a picture for them of what it meant to be clean and unclean from a spiritual aspect.

He was impressing the idea to them that they needed to be a people that were completely pure. Not just in body, but in spirit.

Unfortunately, the Jews put so much focus on the physical aspect of the law, that they missed the true point God was trying to get across to them.

And so when Jesus told the people that what goes into the mouth doesn’t make people unclean, it’s what comes out of the mouth that does, his disciples got confused.

All their lives, they had been told, “Don’t eat this. Don’t eat that. If you do, you’ll become unclean.”

And so basically they asked Jesus, “What do you mean? We always thought that certain foods would make us unclean.”

Jesus responded,

Are you so dull? Don’t you see that nothing that enters a man from the outside can make him ‘unclean’? For it doesn’t go into his heart but into his stomach, and then out of his body…

What comes out of a man is what makes him ‘unclean.’ For from within, out of men’s hearts, come evil thoughts, sexual immorality, theft, murder, adultery, greed, malice, deceit, lewdness, envy, slander, arrogance and folly.

All these evils come from inside and make a man ‘unclean.’ (Mark 7:18-23)

I think this passage is fairly self-explanatory, and doesn’t need any further commentary as to what Jesus meant.

The question then becomes, how about you? What is in your heart? Is it love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, and self-control? Then these things will flow out of your mouth and out of your life.

But if it’s evil thoughts, sexual immorality, and all the rest, those things too will flow out of your mouth and your life. These are the things that make you pure or impure.

As you examine your life today, what’s coming out of your mouth? What’s coming out of your life?

Categories
Mark Mark 7 Matthew Matthew 15

The standard for our lives

The gospels

On what do you base your values? This is an important question because your values will influence your decisions.

For the Pharisees, the Law of Moses and the words of the prophets were very important.

But for them, something else superseded even these, though they might not have admitted it. That thing was their tradition.

And in some cases, they completely let go of the commandments of God in order to follow their religious traditions, as we saw in the last blog. Jesus condemned them for this, saying,

You nullify the word of God for the sake of your tradition. (Matthew 15:6)

Unfortunately, there are a lot of Christians who live that way today. They let go of the commands of God in their lives in favor of something else.

For some people, it’s their culture and traditions.

I know of some Japanese Christians that still offer incense at the Buddhist altar. Some make the excuse, “Well, it’s just a cultural thing. It really doesn’t mean anything. It’s just something we Japanese do.”

But in doing so, they are letting go of the commands of God for the sake of tradition, much as the Pharisees did.

But culture can shape us in other ways.

Nowadays, we see a strong homosexual movement in the United States, where even people who say they believe in Christ say it’s okay.

What’s happened? They are bowing to a culture that is becoming more and more godless every day. They are conforming their values to meet the standards of the culture, and in doing so, they again let go of the commands of God.

Other people let go of the commands of God for their own personal opinions.

They know, for example, that God has said Christians should not marry unbelievers. But they think, “How bad can it be? I love this guy. I’m sure it will work out.”

But by marrying the unbeliever, they let go of the clear teaching of God.

How about you? What is the standard for your life? Culture? Traditions? Your own personal opinion?

There can only be one standard for our lives, and that is the Word of God. Cultures change. Traditions change. Opinions change. But God’s word never changes.

As Isaiah said,

The grass withers and the flowers fall, but the word of our God stands forever. (Isaiah 40:8)

So let us not base our values on things that change. Let us base our values on the word of God which never changes. And if we do, we will find blessing.

Categories
Mark Mark 7 Matthew Matthew 15

Leaving behind blind guides

The gospels

Here we see another confrontation between Jesus and the Pharisees.

Because Jesus’ disciples did not wash their hands in the ceremonial way prescribed by Jewish tradition, the Pharisees criticized them and Jesus as well for letting his disciples get away with such a “travesty.”

But Jesus tears into the Pharisees because they put their own traditions over God’s law.

He then gave them an example of this. The Pharisees taught that a person could say to his needy parents, “I’ve devoted this money to God, so I can’t help you out financially.”

But they taught this at the expense of breaking God’s law concerning honoring your parents.

He then applied Isaiah’s words to them when he said,

These people honor me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me.

They worship me in vain; their teachings are but rules taught by men. (Matthew 15:8-9)

When Jesus’s disciples noted that his words offended the Pharisees, Jesus replied,

Every plant that my heavenly Father has not planted will be pulled up by the roots.

Leave them; they are blind guides.

If a blind man leads a blind man, both will fall into a pit. (Matthew 15:13-14)

What can we get from all of this?

Be very careful about who you listen to. A lot of people sound good when they speak. They may sound very authoritative and speak with great power.

But if what they’re teaching contradicts God’s word, eventually their ministry will be exposed for what it truly is, and it will be pulled out. If not in this world, then come judgment day when God will burn all works whose foundation is faulty.

If they are Christians, they themselves will be saved, but all that they “accomplished” will be burned. (1 Corinthians 3:10-15)

So test everything you hear. From your pastor. From any Christian book that you read. From any speaker you hear on a podcast or on the radio.

If what they are teaching is consistent with God’s word, listen and obey. If it isn’t, don’t.

And if they consistently teach things contrary to the Word of God, walk away from them completely. Because if you don’t, you’ll walk straight into the pit they’re headed for.

Categories
John John 6 Mark Mark 6 Matthew Matthew 14

Doubting Jesus

The gospels

As I was looking through the three gospel accounts of this story, there are a lot of things that struck me.

First, the balance that Jesus kept in his life. That though he would often sacrifice his needs to meet the needs of others, he nevertheless always made time to get alone to be with his Father. If he needed to do that, how much more do we need to?

But as he was up on the mountain, he looked down and saw his disciples struggling out in the ocean. And yet, though he saw, he waited until 3 to 6 a.m. in the morning to go out to them.

In the same way, sometimes, Jesus will let us go through times of struggles. It doesn’t mean he has abandoned us. He’s still watching over us.

But he does allow us to go through times of testing, and I think the reason is to see just how much we trust him, even when we can’t see him.

Jesus had told his disciples, “I’ll see you on the other side.”

Yet how many of his disciples actually believed his words and thought they’d reach the other side when they were struggling out in the ocean?

And then Jesus goes out to them, walking on the water, and even acts as he is about to pass them by. When they see him they’re terrified thinking he is a ghost. But Jesus tells them, “Hey, don’t worry, it’s me.”

Then we have the famous story of Peter going out to Jesus on the water.

But as he looks at the wind and the waves, and starts to sink, so he cries, “Lord, save me!”

And Jesus, in his love and grace, does so, but asks, “Oh, Peter, why did you doubt?”

But at the end of the story, we see that Peter wasn’t the only one who had a problem with doubt. For as Jesus came into the boat, immediately the wind died down, and it says in Mark that the disciples were completely amazed. Why?

For they had not understood about the loaves; their hearts were hardened. (Mark 6:52)

And that last verse is what struck me the most. They had not understood about the loaves. What didn’t they understand about the loaves? Two things.

Number one, that Jesus cared deeply for them. He cared so much that he would take care of their needs.

Number two, that Jesus had the power to take care of their needs.

As Peter walked out onto that water, he was fine until he took his eyes off of Jesus and started looking at the wind and waves.

How often are we the same? We take our eyes off of Jesus, his love for us, and his power to deal with every situation, and we look only at our circumstances. As a result doubt creeps into our minds and we start to sink.

I’ve got to admit, despite all that I’ve seen God do in my life, doubt still creeps in my heart. So this is my prayer.

Lord, I’ve seen you do so much in my life. I’ve seen your goodness to me. I’ve seen your love. I’ve seen your power. Yet I still doubt, somehow.

It’s so stupid, I know. Lord, increase my faith. Soften my hardened heart. And help me to truly understand about the loaves. About your love. And about your power in my life, if I’ll just trust you. In your name I pray, amen.

Categories
Matthew Matthew 10

The “great” and the “small”

Matthew

It’s interesting to me how Jesus finishes this discourse. He tells the disciples that if people receive them, they are receiving him.

The reverse is also true. When people reject us because of the gospel, they aren’t merely rejecting us, they are rejecting Christ who is in us.

Basically, this means, don’t take their rejection personally. It may hurt, especially if they are people we care for. But ultimately, they’re not rejecting you because of who you are. They’re rejecting you because of who you represent.

But Jesus goes off on this to lay down a principle for the disciples to remember.

He says in the same way, if a person receives a prophet, they will receive a prophet’s reward. And if a person receives a righteous person, he will receive a righteous person’s reward.

Here, I think Jesus is specifically referring to people who provide room and board for others doing ministry, as people would do for the disciples on their mission trip.

Why did Jesus say this? I think he was reminding them that though their work was important, they were not to look down on others who were given other tasks by God to do.

He was telling them that the people who would provide for them were as worthy of as much honor as the disciples themselves.

The disciples may have been doing the “spiritual” work, but these others were taking care of the “practical” work that was needed for the ministry to go forward.

Too often, we look to the pastors, teachers, and worship leaders as the “great people of the church.”

But we fail to look at the other people who work behind the scenes. The ones who run the audio equipment or the ones who set up the room, for example.

These too are worthy of praise, and will be honored by God just as much as the person who is up front speaking or singing.

Since God honors them, we need to remember to honor them too.

But Jesus goes beyond that, saying,

And if anyone gives even a cup of cold water to one of these little ones because he is my disciple, I tell you the truth, he will certainly not lose his reward. (Matthew 10:42)

I wonder what Jesus is talking about here.

Did he happen to be holding a “little one,” that is a child, in his lap as he said this? Or was he referring to the disciples and prophets as “little ones?”

If he was talking about a little child, it’s a reminder to us that even caring for the needs of a child because he belongs to Christ is important to God.

If he’s talking about the prophets and disciples, it’s a reminder that they are “little ones” themselves. Certainly not people who should hold themselves over others because of the position they’d been given.

Are you in a “greater” position than others?

Remember that what others do for God’s kingdom, even if it’s “just” supporting your work, is just as important as what you do. So honor them as such.

Are you in a “lower” position? Remember that if you are faithful in what God calls you to do, he honors you just as much as the people in the “higher positions.”

Because when it’s all said and done, God considers us all valuable in his sight and will honor us if we are faithful.

Categories
Matthew Matthew 10

Jesus: A sword that divides?

Matthew

Jesus concludes his discourse on persecution by saying something a bit disturbing.

Do not suppose that I have come to bring peace to the earth. I did not come to bring peace, but a sword.

For I have come to turn “a man against his father, a daughter against her mother, a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law — a man’s enemies will be the members of his own household.” (Matthew 10:34-36)

Jesus is called the Prince of Peace. How can he then say that he didn’t come to bring peace, but a sword that would turn even a person’s own family against him (or her)?

The thing to remember is that while Jesus is the Prince of Peace, that peace will ultimately come when he returns and he reigns over all. That time, however, is not now.

And so he reiterates his earlier warning, that people from your own family may turn against you for following Christ.

Sadly, I’ve seen this happen in Japan more than once. I knew of a girl whose father threatened to disown her and kick her out of the house if she continued with her Christian faith.

Following Christ can lead to discord in a family. The question is, how will we respond?

Do we hide our faith, though continuing to believe? I’ve known people who have done just that…and got into big trouble when they were found out.

But more than that, Jesus said,

Whoever acknowledges me before men, I will also acknowledge him before my Father in heaven.

But whoever disowns me before men, I will disown him before my Father in heaven. (Matthew 10:32-33)

Can you really say that you love and follow Christ if you deny him before the very people that you love?

Can you deny him throughout your life, and still call yourself a Christian?

I’m not saying there may not be moments of weakness. Peter certainly had them. He denied knowing Jesus three times. But in the end, he went to the cross for his faith in Jesus.

Jesus then said,

Anyone who loves his father or mother more than me is not worthy of me; anyone who loves his son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me; and anyone who does not take his cross and follow me is not worthy of me.

Whoever finds his life will lose it, and whoever loses his life for my sake will find it. (Matthew 10:37-39)

In other words, Jesus needs to be more important to you than family, and you need to put him first, no matter what suffering you may go through.

Because if you try to hold on to your family at the expense of Christ, if you compromise your faith to keep family peace, you’ll eventually lose them all in hell.

But if you are willing to lose them, if you’re willing to break up family peace because of your faith in Christ, who knows if your family and those you love won’t turn around and come to follow Christ?

The words I’m saying are not easy. But know that even if you lose your all your blood relatives, you have another family to help you.

People that will love you. People that will support you. People that will help you through the hard times.

That’s what the church is all about. Not a building. But a family.

So let us not compromise our faith for the sake of “peace,” even among family. Rather let us always put Jesus first. Only in doing so will we ever find true peace.

Categories
Matthew Matthew 10

When persecution comes

Matthew

Persecution.

Not a pleasant word. And not something that I really want to go through. But one thing that the Bible warns us is that it will come. Paul warns us in 2 Timothy 3:12,

In fact, everyone who wants to live a godly life in Christ Jesus will be persecuted.

Not might be. Not possibly will be. Will.

Like I said in the last blog, if your goal is to be like your Teacher, some people will hate you for it. Persecution is just the next step beyond that.

Jesus knew that, so he warned his disciples about it. He called them (and us) sheep among wolves. (16)

What instructions does he give about facing persecution?

First, as I mentioned before, be on your guard. Watch out for the people that would hurt you because of your faith.

Jesus was talking about physical harm, of course, but we could extend it to emotional harm as well. There are some people with vile tongues that will try to hurt you because of your faith. Know who they are.

And if you’re in danger of getting hurt either physically or emotionally, Jesus says to flee. Don’t feel like you have to keep preaching to them once you’ve fulfilled your duty.

Rather, Jesus says that if they reject your message to,

Shake the dust off your feet when you leave [them]. (Matthew 10:14)

Jews used to do that when leaving foreign lands because they felt to take the dirt from those lands into Israel would be to make Israel unclean.

And so Jesus was telling his disciples, “Make it clear to these Jews who reject you that they are the ones who are unclean because they have rejected your message, and that their blood is now on their own heads, because you have warned them.”

In the same way, we should let people know, “I’ve done my duty, but you’ve rejected my message, and now you’re persecuting me because of it. I feel sorry for you and love you, but I can’t make you believe.

“You are now responsible before God for what you do with what I’ve told you.”

And then leave. Once you’ve fulfilled your duty, there is no need to expose yourself to further abuse.

It is easy, however, once we’ve been exposed to persecution to become afraid that it will happen again. And because of that, we become hesitant to speak again to others who have not heard the message.

But Jesus tells us,

Do not be afraid of them. There is nothing concealed that will not be disclosed or hidden that will not be made known.

What I tell you in the dark, speak in the daylight; what is whispered in your ear, proclaim from the roofs. (Matthew 10:26-27)

In other words, “My words that I have told to you in private will eventually get out. Nothing can stop it, not even persecution. So don’t be afraid. Keep proclaiming boldly what I’ve told you.”

He then warns us not to fear those who can kill their body, but the one that can destroy body and soul in hell. (28).

That’s not Satan. Satan is a victim of hell, not the ruler.

But we are to remember that people are dying and going to hell every day because they have rejected God. God has no choice but to send them there, because no impure thing can enter heaven.

That fear for those we hold dear should be more than enough to keep us proclaiming boldly the message of the gospel no matter what persecution we may face.

But then he gives us words of comfort,

Are not two sparrows sold for a penny? Yet not one of them will fall to the ground apart from the will of your Father.

And even the very hairs of your head are all numbered. So don’t be afraid; you are worth more than many sparrows. (29-31)

Jesus tells us that though persecution will come, God will not forget you. He will see you though.

And if the time comes when you must die for his sake (Jesus never says that the sparrow won’t die, only that it never happens apart from God’s will), even in that God will be with you and you will see him shortly on the other side.

So let us not fear persecution. Rather let us proclaim boldly the Word of Life that he has given us.

Categories
Matthew Matthew 10

Trying to be loved by all

Matthew

I was reading Matthew 10 with my wife last night, and I realized that I had meant to come back to this passage in a bit more detail and never did.

So before I move on, let’s go back a bit to the instructions Jesus gave to his disciples when they went out to minister to Israel.

There are many things that strike me here.

First, Jesus’ words in verses 7-8 where he instructs them to preach the kingdom, to heal, raise the dead, and drive out demons, after which he says,

Freely you have received, freely give. (Matthew 10:8b)

In other words, you have received the grace of God freely, so give freely of it. The kingdom of God is not for the purpose of making worldly profit.

This is not to say that people can’t be financially supported for their work, because he says in the next verse, that a worker is worth his keep.

But our goal in preaching the gospel should not be getting something from the other person. Rather, it is to pass on to them what we have received.

But the thing that strikes me most is that Jesus warns them that not everyone will accept them. Not everyone will love them for giving them God’s message and doing his work.

In fact, he specifically warns them that some people would reject them, and hate them for it. And so he warns them that they should be wary of the very people they minister to, even their own families.

Sounds paranoid? In this day and age, it probably is. But in that day and age it wasn’t.

Persecution became very great in the early part of the church, particularly in the time of Saul. And if you trusted everyone, you would be dead.

Even your own family members and friends would betray you, because like Saul, they thought they were doing God’s will.

So Jesus told them, be as wise as serpents. In short, think before you act. Think about who you’re dealing with. Can they be trusted?

But he also told them to be as innocent as doves. Don’t become so jaded to people because of betrayal that you become like them, hating and trying to hurt them back.

What can we get from this? Understand that if you follow Jesus, not everyone will love you for it. You may not have to worry about being killed because of your family and friends, but they may very well reject you.

Jesus told his disciples,

A student is not above his teacher, nor a servant above his master. It is enough for the student to be like his teacher, and the servant like his master.

If the head of the house has been called Beelzebub, how much more the members of his household! (24-25)

Jesus was perfect love. He was perfect in all his ways. And people still hated him. They called him the devil himself. And then they killed him.

If we follow Jesus, can we expect to be treated better than our teacher?

So don’t make it your goal to be loved by everyone. It won’t happen. Rather, simply make it your goal to be like your Teacher, the one who gave everything for you, even his own life.

Categories
John John 6 Luke Luke 9 Mark Mark 6 Matthew Matthew 14

Though we may have little…

The gospels

I have probably read or heard this passage a billion times, so it’s always exciting when God gives me a new way of looking at a passage.

Jesus’ disciples had just come back from their mission trip, and were probably exhausted. So after they reported back to Jesus, it says in Mark 6:31,

Then, because so many people were coming and going that they did not even have a chance to eat, he said to them, “Come with me by yourselves to a quiet place and get some rest.”

There was probably another reason, however, that Jesus wanted to get away with his disciples and we see it in Matthew.

When Jesus heard [that John the Baptist had been killed], he withdrew by boat privately to a solitary place. (Matthew 14:13)

According to Matthew, another reason Jesus went to be alone was that he had heard that John had been killed.

Now part of this withdrawing was probably for his own safety, as Herod apparently was looking for him. (Luke 9:9).

But why does the passage emphasize “privately?” Why did he only want to be with his disciples?

I think we forget sometimes that though Jesus was fully God, he was also fully human.

I don’t know how close Jesus was to John, but they were cousins. It’s possible they had played together as children.

John had baptized Jesus at the beginning of his ministry, and Jesus had encouraged John at a time when he was in deep depression.

So I don’t think Jesus just thought, “Oh, that’s okay. He’ll be with me in heaven soon enough.”

I think he wanted some time to mourn for John. Remember too, that at least two of his disciples had once been disciples of John as well. (John 1:37). They probably needed time to mourn too.

They didn’t have long to do so, however, because the crowds followed them, and they pressed their needs upon them, not knowing that Jesus and his disciples had needs of their own.

Now if it had been me, I might have gotten upset. I might have said, “I’m hurting, get lost!”

Or at the very least, “You know, I want to spend time with you, but could you come back another time. I need some time for myself today.”

But Jesus not only let them come, he welcomed them. (Luke 9:11). Not only did he welcome them, he spent the entire day with them.

Then evening came. His disciples came up to him, and said, “Hey it’s late. Why don’t you send everyone home so they can get something to eat.”

And Jesus had the perfect excuse to send thousands of people home. But he didn’t. Instead, he said, “You give them something to eat.”

“But Lord, we can’t possibly meet the needs of all these people.”

“What do you have?”

“We have only a little.”

“Give it to me.”

And Jesus took what they had, blessed it, and multiplied it, not only meeting the needs of the people, but of the disciples themselves. Not only were the disciples satisfied, they had much left over when it was all said and done.

The new thing I got from this passage?

Sometimes, we feel like we have little or nothing to give because we’re tired or even hurting. But if God is asking us to do something, not only will he give us enough to meet the needs of others, he’ll give us more than enough to meet our own needs as well.

I suppose the key phrase there is, “If God is asking us to do something…”

God does not ask us to meet everyone’s needs. If we try to do that, we will burn out.

So the question we need to ask is, “Is God giving me compassion to reach out to these people even though I don’t feel like I have much to give? And is God telling me to reach out to this person?”

Or am I simply feeling like ‘I have to reach out. It’s my duty.'”

If God is not giving you compassion, if you are not hearing him speak to your heart, you probably need to pass that person to another.

But if God gives you the compassion and the word to go, he will take what little you have, bless it, multiply it, and not only meet the needs of the other, but yours as well.

Categories
Luke Luke 9 Mark Mark 6 Matthew Matthew 14

I respect you, but…

The gospels

As I look at this passage, Herod is a puzzle to me.

He apparently wasn’t happy with John the Baptist when John condemned him for taking his (that is, Herod’s) brother’s wife and marrying her.

It’s possible, though, that he would never have done anything, even arrest John, if Herodias, his wife, hadn’t prodded him too. She actually wanted Herod to kill John, but even Herod refused to go that far, although he had apparently wanted to at first.

Part of his refusal was his fear of the people. (Matthew 14:5). But perhaps as time went on, he gained a respect for this prophet who was anything but a “yes-man” to the king.

It says in Mark that Herod had come to recognize that John was different, that he was a righteous and holy man. And for some reason, he liked listening to John.

You have to wonder why though, because John probably drilled him for his sin time and again. Whatever John said, it “perplexed him.”

Whether it was John and his courage to condemn the king to his face that perplexed Herod, or whether it was something else that John said, I don’t know. But one thing that never happened was that Herod never repented.

And the day came when, on his birthday, his daughter danced in front of him, probably a very lewd one, and he was so pleased that he promised her up to half the kingdom if she asked. On consultation with her mother, she asked for John’s head.

Her request “distressed” Herod, but out of his pride and unwillingness to look bad in front of his guests, he gave in to her request and killed John.

I don’t know if it happened, at a guess not, but I can just imagine his final conversation with John.

“Sorry about this. Nothing personal, you understand. I really do respect you, and I don’t want to do this, but my daughter asked for your head, so…”

It’s easy to condemn Herod for his actions, but how often do we take that same attitude with Christ. We hear his words. Something in them stirs our hearts.

But instead of following his words, we ultimately turn our back on them and Him. Rather, we put priority on our pride, our family, or other things in our lives.

What about you? Do you go to church and listen to the message, or do you read the words of this blog, and say, “There’s something there. Something about it feels strangely good even though it stings to hear it. I really respect this messenger. He really is someone to be admired.

“But….”

And ultimately turn your backs on what God is telling you?

It’s not enough to respect the messengers God sends you.

It’s not enough to admit they are (hopefully) godly men.

But insofar as they proclaim the words of God, you need to take action. To let those words penetrate your heart and cause repentance and change. Because God will hold you accountable for what you have heard and know.

What do you do with what you hear?

Categories
Luke Luke 9 Mark Mark 6 Matthew Matthew 10

Discipleship: The spiritual and the practical

The gospels

Happy Resurrection Sunday people west of Japan! 🙂 I hope you enjoy yours as much as I did mine. I’m now back blogging after a short one-day break.

Anyway, as I look at how Jesus discipled his men, he versed them in both the spiritual and the practical.

For a long time, he versed them in the spiritual. He gave them the Sermon on the Mount and on the Plain. He gave them the parables and explained them. And he gave them many other teachings as well.

But now as he was sending them out into the ministry, he gave them practical instruction as well as spiritual.

Among the practical, he told them to go to the Jews, not the Gentiles or Samaritans. Why?

Because the gospel was for the Jews first, as Paul mentions in Romans. The time to preach to the others had not fully come yet, although Jesus did do some ministry to the non-Jews as well.

In addition, he told them what to bring and not to bring. (Matthew 10:9-10)

He gave them instructions on accommodations. (Matthew 10:11-13)

And what to do in face of rejection and persecution. (Matthew 10:14, 23)

He was also fiercely practical in warning them not to trust everyone, and that they needed to be shrewd in dealing with people, while maintaining their innocence. (Matthew 10:16-17)

Among the spiritual reminders were to trust in God to provide for them and protect them, and that God loved them more than the sparrows which God cares for daily. (Matthew 10:9-10; 29-31)

He also reminded them that they needed to love him above all else, and that they were to take up their cross daily and follow him. That if they would try to save their life they would lose it, but if they lost it for his sake, they would gain it. (Matthew 10:37-39)

So what am I trying to say?

When we disciple people to do ministry, we need to teach them both the spiritual and the practical.

We of course need to teach them the spiritual principles that apply not just to their ministry but to their lives. But we also need to teach them practically how to do ministry.

Jesus himself let his disciples watch how he did things and then after a while, after giving them further instructions, sent them out.

And when they came back, we see that they reported to Jesus all that they had done, at which point, I’m sure Jesus gave them feedback. That’s what we should do with people we disciple in ministry.

Now this is not to say that people we train are to do carbon copies of our ministry. But we do need to teach them the basics, and then once they have that foundation down, let them build their ministry as God leads them.

The problem with many people that disciple others in the ministry is that they do one kind of training but not the other.

They may give the person spiritual training but not the practical, and as a result the person falls on their face simply because they were not trained practically on what is needed to make a ministry run smoothly.

On the other hand, other people focus exclusively on the practical, only to find that the person they trained falls because of pride, sin, or many of the other spiritual pitfalls ministers encounter. As a result, the “smoothly running” ministry collapses.

Let us not make that mistake as we train others in ministry. Let us be sure to teach both the spiritual and the practical. And as we do, we will see God’s kingdom grow on earth as he uses them and us.

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Luke Luke 9 Mark Mark 6 Matthew Matthew 10

A tare in the wheatfield

The gospels

As I look at this passage, for some reason, Judas sticks out to me.

Jesus called his 12 disciples to go out and minister to the people of Israel. Look at what he did. He gave them the authority to drive out demons, he gave them the ability to cure diseases, and he sent them out preaching the kingdom of God.

And as Matthew lists all the disciples, he notes last of all, “Judas Iscariot, who betrayed him.” (Matthew 12:4)

Judas drove out demons. Judas healed sick people. Judas went out and preached the kingdom of God. And yet, he would later betray Jesus.

How could that happen? It’s hard to fathom. But I think he is the perfect example of the tare in the wheatfield that Jesus talked about in Matthew 13.

The thing about tares is that they look very similar to wheat. So if a farmer were to try to pull out the tares from the wheat, many times he would end up pulling out the wheat by accident.

That’s why the farmer in the story said to leave them until harvest time, and at that time, he would separate the wheat from the tares.

Judas, like the tare, looked like a believer. He learned with the other disciples. He cast out demons like the others. He healed the sick like the other disciples. And he preached the kingdom like the others. But in his heart, he never truly gave his life to Jesus.

My guess is that he looked only for what a relationship with Jesus could give him. And when he saw that Jesus’ vision was different from his own, and that he would not get from Jesus what he sought, he turned on him and betrayed him.

Many people are like that today. They look like Christians. They sound like Christians. They may even be involved in ministry. But they’ve never truly given their hearts to Jesus.

How about you? Have you given your life to Jesus? Is your life truly his? Or are you like Judas, simply the tare in the wheatfield.

Don’t pretend. You can fool others, your pastor and the people at church. But you can’t fool God. And the day will come when you will be seen for what you really are.

Don’t be that tare. Truly give your life to him. To merely play the Christian will only leave you empty, and result in judgment and death.

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Matthew Matthew 9

Seeing the harvest

Planting seeds

Lots of things to see in this passage.

Jesus went. He went out to preach the good news, to touch, and to heal those who were hurting.

Jesus saw. So many times we see people, but we don’t really see them. Maybe we’re too wrapped up in our own thoughts, our own lives, or our own agendas. And so fail to really see the people we come into contact with.

Other times, we see them but only see the outside. How they look. How they act. But we fail to see the hurt and utter need in their hearts. But Jesus saw all these things.

Jesus had compassion. He not only went and saw, but his heart went out to them.

He had compassion on them as he saw all the chains that Satan had bound them with. He had compassion on them as he saw how Satan was constantly harassing them.

And as they wandered around completely lost, not knowing the path of life, his heart ached for them.

As disciples of Jesus, this is how we should be. Going out. Seeing. Showing compassion.

Jesus exhorted his disciples, pled with his disciples,

The harvest is plentiful but the workers are few.
Ask the Lord of the harvest, therefore, to send out workers into his harvest field. (Matthew 9:37-38)

There’s an old song I love from the Imperials (anyone still remember them?) that I always think of as I read this passage.

It says,

See the fields,
Ripe and white as snow,
Up from the seeds of faith we planted long ago.

So many the hearts in season,
With every prayer they’ve grown.
He has made them ready,
But we must bring them home.

Time like a free wind,
So quickly slips away.
Too soon today’s tomorrow,
Too soon a yesterday.

So little time for the reaping,
And laborers are few,
Lift your heads to the fields of white,
The work that we must do.

Lord of the Harvest,
Place your fire in me.
Servant you need now,
Servant I will be.

Give me the eyes of your Spirit,
Your heart of compassion to know,
Lord of the Harvest,
Show me where to go.

Wherever you may lead me,
Lord of the Harvest,
Lord of the Harvest, I’ll go.

–Paul Smith, James Newton Howard

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Mark Mark 6 Matthew Matthew 13

When people we love refuse our testimony

The gospels

I mentioned before that there were two times Jesus was amazed. The first time was when he saw a Roman centurion’s great faith. (Matthew 8:5-13)

The second time was here. Jesus, by this point, had become well known throughout the nation. This was, in fact, the second time we see him visit his hometown after he had started his ministry.

But though the people noted his miracles, and they noted his wisdom, they refused to believe.

Why? Perhaps it was because they had the picture of a carpenter in their heads. A person who put together their tables, and all the other wooden things in their houses.

All that time, they had never thought of him as anything special. He was just “the carpenter.”

Or perhaps they still thought of him as that little boy who lived down the street. The one who played with their children, and who had visited their houses and shared their food.

But because of these things, they could not imagine taking instruction from him. They could not imagine that they could learn anything from him. And so they took offense at him when he tried to teach them.

That’s why Jesus said,

Only in his hometown, among his relatives and in his own house is a prophet without honor. (Mark 6:4)

What can we take from this? I think there are two things.

First, God can speak to us through the most unexpected of people. But we can miss it if we’re too busy looking down on them.

Sometimes we look down on them because they are younger than us and less experienced. Maybe we look down on them because they are less educated.

Essentially, what it comes down to, whether we admit it or not, is that we look down on them because we don’t think God thinks much of them. And because we think that way, we do not receive the things that they say.

But God can use the old and the young, the educated and uneducated, to speak to us.

He can use the pastor you respect, and he can use the brother or sister or neighbor that annoyed you when you were a kid (and maybe still does annoy you).

If anyone has given their lives to the Lord, the Holy Spirit is living in them, and he can and will speak through them. The question is, do we have a heart that is humble enough to listen? A heart that can see beyond the person to the Spirit that is in them.

The second thing we can learn is that there will be some people that will reject your testimony simply for the reasons I mentioned above.

If it happened to Jesus, and he was perfect, how can you be surprised if it happens to you when you are far from perfect?

You can’t control that. You can’t make someone believe. All you can do is share what God has given you and done for you. And if they reject your testimony, pray for them.

Because there is only one person who can change the human heart, and that’s God.

So in short, don’t get discouraged when people reject your testimony. Stay humble. And always be on the watch for whenever God may be speaking to you. If you do, you’ll find that he speaks a lot more than you ever realized.

Categories
Matthew Matthew 9

What Jesus can do, and what he can’t

Matthew

I had to do a double-take here as I read through these two stories because they are so similar to two others.

One was another case in which Jesus cast out a demon that caused a man to be mute. (Matthew 12:22-37)

The other was the case with Bartimaeus (which we haven’t gotten to yet) and his companion who was also blind. (Matthew 20:29-34; Mark 10:46-52)

At any rate, as I look at these two stories, it strikes me what Jesus can do and what he can’t.

Jesus has the power to heal the blind and to give speech to the mute.

But what he can’t do, or at least, what he won’t do, is make someone believe.

One thing that he asked the two blind men was “Do you believe that I am able to do this?” (Matthew 9:28)

When they answered yes, he told them, “According to your faith will it be done to you,” the clear implication being that they wouldn’t be healed if they didn’t truly believe. (Matthew 9:29)

This is not to say that Jesus can’t heal apart from our faith. There were times when the person didn’t even know who Jesus was, much less put his trust in him, and yet Jesus healed him anyway. (See John 5:1-15)

But most times Jesus did require faith on the part of the people he healed.

As it was, these two men believed and received their sight.

But as you look at the second story, while many of the people looked in wonder at what Jesus had done for the mute man, it did nothing to shake the unbelief of the Pharisees.

They saw the miracle, but merely said, “It is by the prince of demons that he drives out demons.” (Matthew 9:34)

It didn’t matter what Jesus did, what miracles or signs he showed. The Pharisees refused to believe.

And much as he wanted them to believe, he would not make them believe in him, no more than he tried to make the blind men believe. They either did or they didn’t.

The same is true with us. Jesus has given us his word. He can point to all the things he’s done in your life and how he’s blessed you when you trusted and followed him.

But every day, the question you need to ask yourself is, “Do I trust him? Do I trust him enough to follow him and do things his way?”

If you do, you’ll find healing and blessing in your life.

But if you don’t, you’ll end up like the Pharisees, apart from the healing and blessing in God in your life.

What choice will you make?

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Luke Luke 8 Mark Mark 5 Matthew Matthew 9

The God who cleanses and raises the dead

The gospels

When you look throughout the Old Testament, particularly the law of Moses, you see the concept of “clean” and “unclean” a lot.

This referred to things that the Jews were to avoid and things they were allowed to come into contact with.

Women having their period were considered, “unclean,” as were dead bodies. And if you touched them, you yourself became “unclean.”

I’ve mentioned this before, but the remarkable thing about Jesus was that when he touched the “unclean,” he didn’t become unclean himself, rather he cleansed.

We see this in these two stories.

First, we see this woman who had suffered from a discharge of blood for 12 years.

It’s possible that this was a menstrual problem of some sort. But because of it, she was considered unclean all the time, not just once a month. And though she went to many doctors and tried many remedies, none worked.

So in her desperation, she reached out to touch Jesus’ garment, thinking that if she could only do so, she would be healed.

Why didn’t she ask Jesus directly? Perhaps she was ashamed of her condition. Perhaps she thought Jesus would reject her because of her unclean state.

But after her healing, Jesus immediately asked, “Who touched me?” And he would not let it go until she spoke up.

Why did he do this? I think there were a couple of reasons.

First, he wanted her to know for sure in her heart that she was healed. That this condition would not return.

Second, perhaps it was for the sake of the people who knew her that they could also be sure that she had been cleansed, because for 12 years, she had probably been ostracized by society because of her condition.

After this, he went to the house of a synagogue leader named Jairus, who had asked him to heal his daughter. But after he had healed the woman, messengers came to say it was too late for Jairus’ daughter. She was dead.

But Jesus told Jairus to not give up, but believe. And as he went up to the dead girl’s bed, he said with great tenderness, “Little girl, get up.”

And immediately she got up.

What can we get from this?

All of us are made unclean by our sin. Maybe we feel stained beyond cleansing. We feel it’s too late for God’s forgiveness to come.

Or maybe because of our sin, we feel that our hope is dead. Our marriage is falling apart. Our finances are a mess. Or we feel that we have no future.

But the God who cleansed the woman and raised the little girl to life is the same God who can cleanse us from our sin and give us new life. And he can do it with one word, one touch.

All we need to do is ask in faith, putting our trust in him and Christ’s work on the cross, and he will do it.

So as Paul prayed, so I pray for you now.

May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace as you trust in him, so that you may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit. (Romans 15:13)

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Luke Luke 8 Mark Mark 5 Matthew Matthew 8

Set free

The gospels

A very bizarre story to say the least. Here, Jesus and his disciples come to the other side of the lake following the storm, and when they do, they immediately come across two demon possessed men.

(One wonders why only one is mentioned in Mark and Luke. Perhaps only one of them came to a saving faith, but that is only speculation).

Perhaps as they first were drawing near the shore, they heard these strange howls and cries, and they wondered what in the world those howls were.

Then when they reach shore, these men come running out naked, and possibly with broken chains hanging from their hands and feet.

And when the disciples look more closely, they notice cuts up and down these men’s bodies, and they can see they’re self-inflicted.

How would you have felt? I would have been frightened out of my mind.

But Jesus commands the demons to leave.

At first, they resisted, shouting, “What do you want with me, Jesus, Son of the Most High God? Have you come here to torture us before the appointed time? Swear to God that you won’t torture me.” (Matthew 8:29; Mark 5:7)

But when Jesus continues to demand they leave, they ask permission to go into a herd of pigs, and when they do, the pigs jump off a steep bank and drown in the lake.

When the townspeople come out and see the men in their right minds, however, they are frightened out of their minds at the transformation and ask Jesus to leave.

What can we get from this?

I think the first thing is that demons are real, and are not to be trifled with.

Some people “play” with tarot cards and ouija boards thinking it’s just a game, but whenever you “play” with these things, you’re opening yourself up to a spiritual beings…and they are not from God.

One person put it this way. “There is a door to the spiritual world, and the doorknob is only on our side. But when we open that door, anything can come in.”

Note too that these demons do not mean us any good. Sometimes they disguise themselves as angels of light, but ultimately, they seek our destruction.

You can see that in their treatment of these men, but also in what happened to the pigs when they entered them. Tarot cards and ouija boards may seem fun, but the powers behind them are seeking to destroy you.

The good news is that we don’t have to be afraid of them. Because as powerful as demons are, Jesus clearly shows here that he has the authority over them.

That said, stay as far as possible from anything occultic. You may be forced to encounter demons, but that doesn’t mean you should go pursuing encounters with them.

Hopefully, you’ll never encounter demon possession, but there are other things I think we can get from this passage.

One thing is that while sin may seem fun, in the end, it controls you and will destroy you.

I don’t know how these men came to be demon possessed, but it didn’t come by seeking God. And while they may have opened the door to these demons, once they came in, they were no longer in control, the demons were.

In the same way, we may start out by choosing sin, but in the end, it controls us. Like the men in this story, a lot of the wounds we have are self-inflicted. And apart from repentance and God’s grace, sin will destroy us.

But as with Jesus and these demoniacs, Jesus has the power to set us free. If we will turn to him and repent, he will forgive our sins, and help us to overcome sin in our lives.

Not everyone will be happy with the change, however. The people from their hometown certainly weren’t. They asked Jesus to leave.

As bad and frightening as these men used to be, it seems the townspeople almost wished they had never changed. People may feel the same about you.

But Jesus calls us to minister to them. And like Jesus told these men, so he tells you,

Return home and tell how much God has done for you. (Luke 8:39)

Jesus has set you free. Won’t you share what God has done for you so that he can set free those you love too?

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Luke Luke 8 Mark Mark 4 Matthew Matthew 8

Our faith

The gospels

I look at Jesus’ words, “O you of little faith,” and I can’t help but think that if he were to see me now, he would say the same thing. “O Bruce, why do you have so little faith?”

Think for a bit about the circumstances the disciples faced. They’re taking the boat across the lake just as Jesus told them to.

At first, things are calm, but suddenly, as is often the case in that region, a sudden squall comes in. Now, waves are crashing in the boat, and row as they might against the wind and the waves, they’re not getting anywhere.

Suddenly the thought comes, “Why doesn’t Jesus do something?” They look down and find him fast asleep in the boat. Here they are about to die, and Jesus is sleeping?

So they wake him up and shout, “Master! Master! Save us! Don’t you care we’re about to drown?”

I wonder at that point, what exactly they expected Jesus to do? From their reaction at the end of the story, they certainly didn’t expect him to do what he did. So what then?

My guess, is they had no clue. They asked not truly believing that Jesus could do anything, but at the same time thinking that if there was anyone who could save them, it was him. A strange mixture of faith and unbelief.

How often are we the same?

We’re drowning in our circumstances. We’ve exhausted all efforts trying to keep our boat afloat, and now, we cry out to Jesus, not because we truly believe he can help us, but because we have no other options. We cry, not in faith, but in desperation.

In our panic, we even wonder if he’s asleep on the job. If he really cares.

Yet Jesus in his grace, brings us through the storm as he gently chides, “Why are you so afraid? Do you still have no faith?” (Mark 4:40)

Which brings me back to my original question. How often does Jesus ask that of me? Why would I doubt that he cares, and why would I doubt that he is in control when he has proven himself time and time again? And yet I do.

Would that I could completely trust him. To not let anxiety take over me when I lose control of a situation (as if I ever were in control?).

To ask of him not in panic or fear, but in faith, fully believing that he does care for me, and will meet my needs.

How about you? Is that your heart’s cry?

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Matthew Matthew 13

Sharing what we know

Matthew

What do we do with what we have received?

This is the question that will be asked of us when the day of judgment comes. And I think that’s partially, at least, what Jesus was telling his disciples here.

First, he asks, “Do you understand these things? Do you understand all I have said about God’s kingdom?”

When his disciples said yes, he told them,

Therefore every teacher of the law who has been instructed about the kingdom of heaven is like the owner of a house who brings out of his storeroom new treasures as well as old. (Matthew 13:52)

I take from this two things.

First, knowledge of the kingdom of heaven is a treasure. It is not to be taken lightly or treated with disdain.

Second, we are to bring these treasures out to meet the needs we face, not just in our own lives, but in the lives of those around us.

We have a treasure in the knowledge of the kingdom.

We have treasure in knowing that God sees each person as a valuable pearl of great price, so much so, that he gave up everything in order to purchase them.

We have a treasure in knowing that the evil that we see will not last. It will be purged, and all evil will be judged.

We have treasure in knowing that God is working in this world even now, and that though the seeds he has planted are small, and though we cannot totally understand how, they will inevitably grow and cannot be stopped.

And they will bring joy and peace to all who take shelter under the work he has done and is doing.

Some of these things will be old news to those who hear, but to some, it will be completely new.

But as we see the people in this world, a people crying for love, a people crying for purpose and meaning, let us bring out these treasures of the kingdom. For only in doing so will their spiritual hunger and thirst be satisfied.

Just as importantly, however, God will hold us accountable for the knowledge that he’s given us.

And he will ask you, “What have you done with what I’ve taught you? Have you shared it with those who are dying around you?”

What are you doing with the treasures God has given you?

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Matthew Matthew 13

Parable of the net: A coming judgment

Matthew

It has been said that Jesus spoke more on hell than he did about heaven. And here we see one of his teachings on the coming judgment.

As I’ve mentioned before, it can get frustrating to see all the evil in the world and wonder why God doesn’t do more about it.

But here, we see the day is coming when he will. All will be caught up and brought before him to be judged, both the living and the spirits of those who have died.

On that day, those who are evil will be weeded out from those who are righteous. While the righteous will be rewarded and go on to live with God forever, it is the wicked that Jesus focuses on here.

And he says of them,

The angels will come and separate the wicked from the righteous and throw them into the fiery furnace, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth. (Matthew 13:49-50)

Why does he tell us this? I think more than anything, it’s to give us hope. It’s to remind us that evil will not last forever, and that it will be dealt with for all eternity. And in a world full of evil, we need that hope.

But I think he also tells us this as a warning. That God’s patience will not last forever.

God does not desire that any should perish, but if they stubbornly reject him despite all his entreaties to them, he will let them have what they desire. A life without him forever.

Unfortunately, what they will find out is that a life without God is a life of despair. And that’s what they will have for all eternity.

So many people run from God because they think he’s trying to kill their joy. But the reality is that there is no joy apart from him.

So as you look at the evil around you, remember a day of judgment is coming. And ask yourself, “Am I ready?”

If you are, if you have received God’s salvation by faith, ask yourself the next question: “Are those I love ready?”

If they aren’t, are you doing everything you can to make sure that they are.

Hell is a reality. Jesus taught it. Do you believe it? Do you believe it enough that you are working for the salvation of those you love?

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Matthew Matthew 13

Parables of the Hidden Treasure and the Pearl: The joy of salvation

gold coins

I read a story recently of a couple in California that were walking through their garden and found a can sticking out from under their tree. When they took a careful look, they found a number of gold coins in it.

They then found other cans with coins in them dating back to the 1800s. In all, they are worth more than 10 million dollars. Imagine finding that in your garden!

That’s very similar to the picture Jesus gives in these two stories.

In the first, a man finds some buried treasure in a field, and when he does, he quickly covers it up and sells everything he has to buy the field (unlike this couple which already owned the property).

In the second, a pearl merchant is searching for pearls, and finds one for sale, but it was worth a great price. Because he didn’t have the money to buy it, he sold everything he had in order to get it.

Two things strike me. First the joy of the finder. Second, how much he was willing to purchase what he found.

A lot of people compare this story to the joy people have in coming to Christ.

In Christ, they find someone of great value, and so they give up everything for him. They give up their homes, their families, and all they possess in order to follow him. (Mark 10:29)

And though there may be pain in doing so, there is also a joy that overwhelms any feeling of sorrow or loss.

But there is another way to look at this parable. We can also see Jesus as the finder with we as the treasure or pearl.

Jesus sought long and hard for us who were lost and dead in our sins. And when he found us, with great joy, he gave up everything he had to purchase us.

He left heaven, giving up his prerogatives as God and his glory, and became one of us. He hungered, he thirsted, he grew tired, he suffered pain. And ultimately, he died a gruesome death on a cross.

Why? Because to him, we are a pearl of great value. We are a buried treasure, that though stained by rust and dirt, nevertheless are of immeasurable worth. And so he gave up everything in order to purchase us.

So how should we respond? The apostle Paul admonishes us,

You are not your own; you were bought at a price. Therefore honor God with your body. (1 Corinthians 6:19-20)

Let us therefore live every day honoring the Savior who valued us so much that he gave up everything in order to purchase us.

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Mark Mark 4 Matthew Matthew 13

The qualities of a good teacher: What made Jesus the master teacher

The gospels

I have been teaching English for the last 19 years, and have been teaching the Bible in some way, shape, or form for the last 27, going back to my high school days.

But as long as I have been teaching, I doubt I’ll ever match the greatness of Jesus as a teacher. He was the true master teacher.

What made him so great? It was the way he taught. How did he teach?

According to this passage, he taught through parables. Why did he use parables?

I’ve mentioned this before, but one reason was to see who really wanted to learn. Those who did asked questions. Those who didn’t may have been entertained, but remained blind to the truth.

But for those who asked, the stories were something that people could easily understand and remember, because Jesus took stories from everyday life and applied them to spiritual truths.

That’s one of the marks of a good teacher. They take a spiritual truth and put it in a way that anyone can understand.

Some teachers are more interested in impressing their audience with their education or spiritual knowledge and use a number of theological words that no one understands.

Or they introduce all these Greek or Hebrew words that no one has heard of before.

At the end of the day, people are indeed impressed, but they end up saying things like, “That was a very deep message. Very scholarly. I wish I knew what it meant.”

But Jesus kept his language simple and basic so that anyone could understand it.

Because of this, and because of the stories he told, he did something else important that a good teacher does. He kept his audience interested.

There are few things more painful in a classroom than a teacher that bores his students to tears. Jesus never did that.

Jesus also understood his audience’s level. It says in Mark that Jesus spoke the word to them as much as they could understand. (Mark 4:33)

He didn’t give them more than they could handle.

In short, as the writer of Hebrews put it, you can’t give solid food to babies. You give them milk until they can handle solid food. Then when they are mature enough, you give them more. (Hebrews 5:11-14)

Finally, he answered questions. Again in Mark, it says that when he was alone with his disciples, he explained everything in more detail. (Mark 4:34)

You see in other passages that he generally did this in response to their questions. Unlike Jesus, we may not have all the answers. But it gives us the opportunity for us ourselves to learn more when we allow people to ask us questions.

You may or may not be a teacher in the church. But all of us have teaching opportunities, with our children especially, but also with the people God brings into our path.

So let us all strive to be teachers like our Master.

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Luke 13 Matthew Matthew 13

Parable of the leaven: Transformed

The gospels

I’m not a baker, but Jesus gives an illustration about God’s kingdom that even non-bakers can understand.

When a baker makes bread, he puts a bit of yeast in the dough. What does the yeast do? Two things.

First, it spreads throughout the dough. Second it transforms the dough. It makes what would be flat, hard, unleavened bread, into a bread that is fluffy and tasty.

The kingdom of God works the same way.

When we plant the yeast of the gospel in people’s hearts and by faith people embrace it, it starts to spread throughout their entire being and transforms them into a whole new person.

Their way of thinking changes, their behavior starts to change, and everything becomes new.

Paul puts it this way,

Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come! (2 Corinthians 5:17)

The same happens with the kingdom of God at large. We are not going to transform this world by political means, by fighting for changes in rules and laws.

I’m not saying we shouldn’t pursue these things. Certainly, in a democracy, we should take advantage of the rights we have to fight for change in our society.

But we are kidding ourselves if we think that changing the laws are going to change human hearts.

Even if we were to outlaw homosexual marriage, it would not stop people from engaging in homosexual behavior. Even if we were to outlaw abortion, people would still find a way to end their pregnancies.

The kingdom of God comes one heart at a time. As God the Holy Spirit transforms hearts one by one, starting with us, and then the people that we touch, then and only then will we see his kingdom spread, transforming our nations.

The question is, what are we doing with the gospel? Are we letting it transform us from the inside out?

And are we sharing it with those around us that the Holy Spirit may start his work in them as well?

May our prayer always be,

Your kingdom come, your will be done on earth as it is in heaven. (Matthew 6:10)

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Luke Luke 13 Mark Mark 4 Matthew Matthew 13

Parable of the mustard seed: Starting small

The gospels

I love the vividness of the pictures Jesus paints as he tells stories.

As he talks about God’s kingdom, he talks about how the mustard seed, though it is extremely small, grows into a tree in which birds can find shade from the sun.

What is Jesus’ point? The kingdom of God doesn’t usually start with a bang, it usually starts with something small.

This is especially true in terms of the kinds of people that God uses for his kingdom. Think of Mary, a simple, poor, teenage girl. Think of Joseph, an ordinary carpenter.

And when Jesus came, he didn’t come as a great king surrounded by his armies. He, like Joseph, was a carpenter.

When Jesus chose his disciples, he chose ordinary fishermen, a hated tax collector, and a political radical.

When the Christian movement started, it started in a relatively insignificant city, at least compared to the other great cities of the world.

And yet, through these people in this insignificant city, the gospel spread to the very ends of the earth.

What can we get from this?

You may feel insignificant. Small. Useless to the kingdom of God.

Yet it is because of this very fact that God is so eager to use you. The kingdom of God is filled with such “insignificant” people that others are quick to look down on.

But it is through people like you and me that the kingdom spreads and touches the people around us.

Paul puts it this way,

Brothers, think of what you were when you were called.

Not many of you were wise by human standards; not many were influential; not many were of noble birth.

But God chose the foolish things of the world to shame the wise; God chose the weak things of the world to shame the strong.

He chose the lowly things of this world and the despised things — and the things that are not — to nullify the things that are, so that no one may boast before him. (1 Corinthians 1:26-29)

Never think that you are insignificant concerning God’s kingdom. It is through the small that God’s great work is accomplished.

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Matthew Matthew 13

Parable of the weeds: Why evil?

Matthew

The problem of evil is one that many people in this world struggle with. They wonder how a good God could allow evil in this world.

In this parable, we see at least part of the reason.

I think the first thing we should note is that God is not responsible for the evil in this world. God is holy. He never does anything wrong. All the seeds he sows are good seeds.

But there is an enemy. And Satan sows his seeds in the hearts of people as well, causing them to grow as weeds in this world, causing much damage to those around them.

God could pull them out, but Jesus says here that if he were to do so, it would be impossible to do so without wrecking havoc with those God has called to salvation.

How is that possible? I’m not sure. But there are, for example, some people that are so indifferent to God, that it takes something painful to shake them up and turn them to God.

It might be a natural disaster. It might be some hurt that another causes to them.

But through these things, they come to God. And God knows that if they never went through these experiences, they would never come to him. And so he allows the “weeds” to remain in the world.

In short, there are many things that God sees that we don’t. There are many things that God knows that we don’t.

But remember this. There will be a day of judgment. For the murderer or rapist. For everyone who rebels against God.

And on that day, people will see the difference between those who serve God and those who reject him.

So as I’ve said before, when you see the evil around you, don’t lose hope. Wait patiently, for the time is coming when all will be made right.

And on that day, God’s justice and wisdom will be known to all.

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Luke Luke 8 Mark Mark 4 Matthew Matthew 13

Parable of the sower: Planting the seed

The gospels

As I looked back on the last blog, there was one last point that occurred to me that I want to put here.

So often, I think of the farmer as Jesus. But I think it’s equally if not even more valid to think of the farmer as Christians.

Because while Jesus was here for a short time, planting the words of God in the hearts of people, it is we, here and now, who are planting the seeds in the hearts of people today.

Taken that way, I think there’s one more valuable lesson to take from this parable.

Sometimes, as we plant the word of God in people’s hearts, as we scatter the seed, some seeds fall on hardened hearts. People hear us, but they don’t understand, and Satan quickly snatches that seed away.

Other people hear it, and we’re encouraged because they get excited. Perhaps, they even make a profession of faith. But then trouble or persecution comes, they get discouraged, and they fall away.

In other cases, people receive the word and start to grow. But then work starts to get in the way of their relationship with God. Or they start getting too wrapped up in money or possessions.

Maybe they still go to church every Sunday, but they no longer grow. They bear no fruit.

But for other people, they hear the word of God, and in their lives, they produce the fruit of God, making an impact for his kingdom.

What’s my point? We are not responsible for the results. We cannot shape people’s hearts. What can we do?

Plant the seed. Water it. And then pray. Paul put it this way: one person plants, another person waters, but only God can make the seed grow. (1 Corinthians 3:6-7)

Do you get discouraged because the seeds you plant don’t seem to bear fruit? You can’t control that. All you can do is keep planting the seed. Keep watering it. And leave the rest to God.

How about you? Are you planting the seed in the hearts of the people around you?

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Luke Luke 8 Mark Mark 4 Matthew Matthew 13

Parable of the four soils: The state of our hearts

The gospels

This is the first full on parable we hear from Jesus, although he did give numerous illustrations to explain his points on previous occasions.

Here he gives a picture of a farmer scattering his seed along the ground. It wasn’t, perhaps, the most efficient way of doing things by modern standards, but it was how things were done in those days.

Some of the seed fell on hard ground, and Jesus said that these are the people that hear God’s word but don’t understand it. I think we can add another point here: they make no effort to understand it.

As I mentioned before, the parables distinguished the people who really wanted to learn from those who simply wanted to be entertained.

The ones who really wanted to learn, like Jesus’ disciples, asked questions. Those who didn’t, just went home.

Perhaps they enjoyed their time listening to Jesus, but because they didn’t understand the true message, nor did they try, Satan quickly took those seeds Jesus had planted and they forgot what they heard.

Others fell on rocky ground.

The picture here is not a bunch of rocks on the ground, rather it was a thin layer of dirt on limestone. Because the dirt was so shallow, the seeds quickly sprouted, but because there was no root, they died in the heat of the day.

Jesus said that these were people who heard his words and received them with great joy, even believing them for a short time, but when persecution or trouble came, they fell away.

Were these ever true Christians? Probably not, since they “had no root.”

It’s possible that all they had was an emotional experience. But when the emotion wore off, and trouble came because of their “faith,” they quickly fell away.

Still other seeds fell on thorny ground, and when they grew up, they were choked out by the thorns.

Jesus said these were those whose faith was choked out by the worries of life, and the desire for wealth, pleasure, and possessions.

Too many Christians are like this today. They are so in love with the world, they’ve forgotten their love for Jesus.

Finally, there are those who fell on the good ground, and produced great fruit.

Jesus says these are those who hear God’s word, understand it, accept it, and retain it. Such people bear great fruit for the kingdom of God.

What kind of heart do you have?

When you hear God’s word and don’t understand it, do you just leave it to the side, or do you seek to understand? Do you ask questions?

It’s through questions that we grow. But if we never ask, we never grow, and Satan takes away the seed God wants to plant in your heart.

When you go to church, are you just seeking an emotional experience?

Emotions come and go. They go up and down according to our circumstances. And if you try to build your faith on your emotions, it will not last. Are you instead building your faith on Christ and his Word?

What are you seeking in your life? Is God above all? Or are you so busy seeking money, pleasure, and things, that you don’t have time for God anymore? That you no longer seek his will in your life? That you no longer pursue his kingdom?

Or are you a person that hears God’s word and pursues understanding? Do you accept God’s word, trusting that it is true, and retain it in your heart and mind, bearing fruit as a result?

What is the state of your heart?

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Luke Luke 8 Mark Mark 4 Matthew Matthew 13

Parables of Jesus: Eyes to see, ears to hear

The gospels

One of Jesus’ favorite phrases was,

He who has ears to hear, let him hear. (Luke 8:8)

You see this admonition in the gospels, and you also see it in Revelation.

What did Jesus mean?

When Jesus told his parables, his disciples asked, “Why do you speak this way?” And Jesus answered,

The knowledge of the secrets of the kingdom of heaven has been given to you, but not to them.

Whoever has will be given more, and he will have an abundance. Whoever does not have, even what he has will be taken from him. This is why I speak to them in parables:

“Though seeing, they do not see; though hearing, they do not hear or understand.”

In them is fulfilled the prophecy of Isaiah: “You will be ever hearing but never understanding; you will be ever seeing but never perceiving.

For this people’s heart has become calloused; they hardly hear with their ears, and they have closed their eyes.

Otherwise they might see with their eyes, hear with their ears, understand with their hearts and turn, and I would heal them.” (Matthew 13:11-15)

It seems a bit unfair for Jesus to say, “I’m giving you the secrets of the kingdom, but not them.”

But here are some things to consider.

First, anyone who wanted to could hear the parables. And while Jesus says that the meanings of these stories were concealed from many, it was not meant to be so in perpetuity.

Rather, Jesus set out these stories to ultimately give light, not to hide the truth. And anything that was hidden from the people would eventually be disclosed and brought into the open. (Luke 8:16-17)

Therefore, whenever anyone asked him the explanations to his parables, he would give them, and the apostles eventually passed these teachings on to everyone they taught.

The question, however, is do people want to know the truth? Are they seeking answers? Or do they just want to be entertained?

That’s what the parables did. It separated those who really wanted to see and hear God’s truth from those who were just caught up in the popularity of Jesus.

The trouble with so many church-going people today is that they’re more interested in being entertained than in hearing God’s truth.

Therefore, though they hear the things the pastor preaches, and sing the songs, the words may “tickle their ears” but never penetrate their hearts.

And when something does strike their hearts and God speaks, they get uncomfortable and stop listening.

Unfortunately, as I’ve mentioned before, if they do this long enough, they’ll stop hearing God entirely, fulfilling Isaiah’s prophecy that Jesus quoted in Matthew.

They see but don’t really see. They hear, but don’t really hear. Rather, they close their eyes (and ears) to God’s truth.

So Jesus warns, “Consider carefully how you listen. Think carefully about what you hear from God.” (Mark 4:24; Luke 8:18).

If you listen carefully and act on it, God will give you more. But if you don’t, not only won’t you be able to hear God’s voice anymore, you’ll forget what things he’s already taught you.

But Jesus told his disciples,

But blessed are your eyes because they see, and your ears because they hear.

For I tell you the truth, many prophets and righteous men longed to see what you see but did not see it, and to hear what you hear but did not hear it. (Matthew 13:16-17)

How about you? Do you have eyes that see and ears that hear what God is teaching you?

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Luke Luke 11 Matthew Matthew 12

When we refuse to invite the Spirit in

The gospels

With Jesus condemning the Pharisees for saying that he was casting out demons by Satan’s power, the Pharisees then demanded a sign from heaven to prove he was doing it by God’s power.

Of course, even had he done so, they still wouldn’t have believed, so Jesus refused.

How do I know they wouldn’t have believed? Because while he refused to give them a sign right then and there, he did give them a sign to watch for, the sign of Jonah.

He told them just as Jonah was in the belly of the fish for three days and nights and came out, so would the Son of Man be in the heart of the earth, and come out.

This of course was referring to Jesus’ death and resurrection. But when Jesus rose from the dead, the Pharisees still hardened their hearts and refused to believe.

So again, Jesus condemned their hardness of heart.

He told them that the people of Nineveh and the queen of the South (the queen of Sheba) would stand in judgment over them because when they heard the message of Jonah and Solomon, they turned to God.

But now Jesus, who was greater than Jonah or Solomon, was here, and they refused to believe.

He then gave an illustration of what would happen if they refused to believe in him and rejected the gift of the Spirit that he would later give all believers.

When Jesus came to this earth, he overcame the powers of hell, and among other things cast out demons.

But he warned the Pharisees and all Israel, “Though I cast out demons and overcome the powers of hell, though I set all in order in preparation for the gift of the Spirit to come in, if you refuse him, then the powers of hell will return in force and your spiritual state will be worse than ever.”

Why? Because you’ve tasted the power of God in your life, you’ve come into contact with the only one who can save you, and you rejected him.

He then brings back an illustration from the Sermon on the Mount where he talks about how our eyes are the lamp of our body.

Here I think he’s talking as much of our spiritual eyes as our physical ones. And he’s saying, “Are you really seeing? When God speaks, can you see the truth he is giving? When you look at me, do you see me for who I am?”

If you do, Jesus says you will be full of light. But if not, you will be filled with darkness. So he warns,

See to it, then, that the light within you is not darkness. (Luke 11:35)

How about you? Have you put your faith in Jesus as your Lord and Savior? Have you invited the Spirit into your life?

If you harden your heart towards God, you leave yourself vulnerable to Satan’s destructive work in your life. But if you soften your heart and let the Spirit in, you’ll find life.

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Matthew Matthew 12

What comes out of our mouths

Matthew

It always bothers me when people swear. It especially bothers me when Christians swear. Because what we say shows what’s in our hearts. Our words show the state of our hearts.

When Jesus heard the Pharisees saying he was demon possessed, he told them,

“Make a tree good and its fruit will be good, or make a tree bad and its fruit will be bad, for a tree is recognized by its fruit.

You brood of vipers, how can you who are evil say anything good? For out of the overflow of the heart the mouth speaks.

The good man brings good things out of the good stored up in him, and the evil man brings evil things out of the evil stored up in him.

But I tell you that men will have to give account on the day of judgment for every careless word they have spoken.

For by your words you will be acquitted, and by your words you will be condemned.” (Matthew 12:33-37)

In other words, for such blasphemy to come out of their mouths, their hearts had to be utterly corrupt.

That’s why he says we’ll be judged for every word we speak, even the “careless” ones. Our words show exactly what’s in our hearts.

If our heart is full of good fruit, such words can’t help but flow out of our mouths. But if our heart is full of rot, such words will certainly flow out of our mouths as well.

It’s impossible for us to say, “Oops. How did that come out?”

It came out because that’s what’s in our hearts. And if that’s what’s in our hearts, we need to repent.

If vitriol is in our hearts, it will show in our speech. If bitterness is in our hearts, that’s what will come out. If perversion is in our hearts, that’s what will flow out from our mouths.

Are these things in your heart? What’s coming out of your mouth?

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Luke Luke 11 Mark Mark 3 Matthew Matthew 12

The danger of hardening our hearts

The gospels

In this passage, we see another confrontation between the Pharisees and Jesus. A blind and mute man was brought to Jesus, apparently because of demon possession. Jesus cast out the demon, and immediately, the man could talk and see.

Everyone was astonished, but the Pharisees immediately tried to discredit Jesus’ miracle by saying he did it by Beelzebub’s (i.e. Satan’s) power.

It’s interesting to note here, by the way, that the Pharisees (and all of Jesus’ other enemies) never denied Jesus performed miracles. They only said that it was done by Satan’s power.

It’s only people who lived thousands of years after the fact that ever deny it happened. It’s easy to deny something happened thousands of years after it occurs. It’s much more difficult to do when it happens right in front of you. And the Pharisees never did.

All of this brings us to the main point, and we saw this earlier: some people simply won’t believe, no matter what they see. Not because they can’t believe, but because they don’t want to believe.

And because they don’t want to believe, they harden their hearts to God, and try to explain away anything that God does to show he is really there.

The Pharisees tried to explain away Jesus by saying he had a demon and that he was casting out demons by the authority of Satan.

But Jesus countered that in two ways.

First, Satan’s kingdom wouldn’t be able to stand if he were fighting himself.

Second, by casting out the demon, Jesus was showing he wasn’t on Satan’s side. Rather, he was fighting Satan.

Satan was the enemy, so Jesus was coming against him and making him and his demons scatter. And in binding Satan up, Jesus set people free.

Then Jesus warns,

And so I tell you, every sin and blasphemy will be forgiven men, but the blasphemy against the Spirit will not be forgiven.

Anyone who speaks a word against the Son of Man will be forgiven, but anyone who speaks against the Holy Spirit will not be forgiven, either in this age or in the age to come. (Matthew 12:31-32)

Mark explains Jesus’ words, saying,

He said this because they were saying, “He has an evil spirit.” (Mark 3:30)

In other words, the Pharisees had so hardened their hearts to Jesus, they couldn’t even see what God was doing anymore. Not only that, they were crediting the Holy Spirit’s work to Satan.

And that’s the danger of hardening our hearts. If we do it long enough, there comes a point where we can no longer hear the Spirit’s voice, nor recognize his work even when we see it. When that happens, all hope of salvation is lost.

This is what Jesus calls “the unpardonable sin.” It’s unpardonable because there is no hope once we’ve hardened our hearts to that point. Pharaoh in the time of Moses was a perfect example of this, and it led to his destruction.

When does a person reach that point? Only God knows. There have been people that seemed to be hardened beyond redemption and yet were saved. The apostle Paul was such a man.

Some Christians worry that they’ve committed the unpardonable sin. But if you are worried about it, it’s almost certain you haven’t committed it.

If you can recognize the sin in your own life and your need for forgiveness, you have nothing to worry about so long as you keep a repentant heart.

It is only those who have hardened their hearts to God that are in danger of the unpardonable sin.

How do we keep our hearts from hardening? Keep a humble and repentant heart before God. And live each day in communion with him as Jesus did: seeking the Father’s will, and following it.

How about you? Is your heart soft or hardened toward God today?

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Matthew Matthew 11

Learning from Jesus

Matthew

I’ve got to admit, after graduating from university, I never had a real desire to go back to school and get my master’s degree or anything like that.

Looking back on it now, if I had to do it over again, I might do it.

But going to school can be tough. Homework, exams, and of course, tons of reading.

Yet, Jesus does call us as Christians to go to school. No, I’m not talking about going to seminary or Bible college, although God may very well call you to go there. But Jesus is calling us to enter his school.

He said,

Take my yoke upon you and learn from me. (Luke 11:29)

This was actually something that many rabbis said when calling students to study under them.

What do we learn in Jesus’ school? We learn who the Father is. Jesus said,

No one knows the Son except the Father, and no one knows the Father except the Son and those to whom the Son chooses to reveal him. (Matthew 11:27)

So many people want to know who God is, but don’t know how. How, after all, can you get to know an invisible God. It’s impossible…unless he is revealed to us.

And that’s what Jesus does. He teaches us what the Father is like. More than that, when we look at the life of Jesus, we see what the Father is like. As Jesus said,

Anyone who has seen me has seen the Father. (John 14:9)

When we see the character of Jesus, we see the Father’s character. When we hear the words of Jesus, we hear the Father’s words as well.

We also learn from Jesus how God intended us to live. And how God intends us to live goes far beyond obeying a list of dos and don’ts.

That’s what the Pharisees had. They lived by their lists of dos and don’ts. But so many people in trying to follow them, got weighed down by them.

Instead of finding God’s love and grace, they found condemnation. Instead of finding freedom, they found themselves bound up by all these rules that they couldn’t possibly keep.

But Jesus tells us,

Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest.

Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls.

For my yoke is easy and my burden is light. (Matthew 11:28-30)

Jesus isn’t about rules and regulations. He’s about drawing near to God. He’s about loving those around us.

And when we are weak, he strengthens us. When we lack wisdom, he gives it to us. When we fall, he picks us up. When we are discouraged, he helps us to keep on keeping on.

Because of this, his teaching is not burdensome. It sets us free.

What is the requirement for entering his school? A humble heart. A teachable heart. Things that the religious folks of Jesus’ day didn’t have, but Jesus’ disciples did.

That’s why Jesus said,

I praise you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, because you have hidden these things from the wise and learned, and revealed them to little children.

Yes, Father, for this is what you were pleased to do. (Matthew 11:25-26)

How about you? Are you ready to join Jesus’ school? Are you ready to learn from Jesus?

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Matthew Matthew 11

Can’t believe? Or won’t?

Matthew

There are a lot of people that say, “I just can’t believe in God.” And they’ll go on to list all the reasons for their unbelief.

But for the vast majority of such people, it’s not really a matter of “can’t believe,” but “won’t believe.”

They can see all the evidence for God in nature, in the lives of others, and at times, even in their own lives, but they don’t want to believe.

Why not? Because it means that their lives are no longer their own. That they can’t just live the way they want to anymore. That they are answerable to someone else besides themselves.

As a result, they keep asking for more evidence. And if it’s given to them, they’ll keep asking for more.

But one gets the impression that even if God himself were to appear to them, they would do their best to convince themselves it was just a hallucination or the result of drinking too much beer the night before.

That’s how the people in Israel were during the time of Jesus.

Though Jesus performed many miracles, though he healed the sick, and though he even raised the dead, still people would not believe.

Instead, they kept asking for more miracles and signs to the point where Jesus told them flat out, “I won’t do it.” (Mark 8:12).

But more than that, Jesus passed judgment on those who refused to believe, saying,

Woe to you, Chorazin! Woe to you, Bethsaida!

For if the miracles that were performed in you had been performed in Tyre and Sidon, they would have repented long ago in sackcloth and ashes.

But I tell you, it will be more bearable for Tyre and Sidon on the day of judgment than for you.

And you, Capernaum, will you be lifted to the heavens? No, you will go down to Hades.

For if the miracles that were performed in you had been performed in Sodom, it would have remained to this day.

But I tell you that it will be more bearable for Sodom on the day of judgment than for you. (Matthew 11:21-24)

What is Jesus saying here?

Basically, he’s saying that the more God shows you, the more God speaks to you, the more responsible you will be held if you continue to reject him.

In short, it’s dangerous to keep asking for more signs from God, if all you’re going to do is reject him regardless. And, of course, it’s just as dangerous to reject God despite all you’ve been given already.

The day will come when we will all stand before God. And on that day, he will strip away all our excuses for not believing him and reveal them for what they are. Not an inability to believe. But an unwillingness.

And when all is laid bare, judgment will come.

So lay aside your excuses. Lay aside your pride. Submit to Jesus as your Lord, and you will find blessing. In this life, and in the life to come.

As Peter said,

Humble yourselves, therefore, under God’s mighty hand, that he may lift you up in due time. (1 Peter 5:6)

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Luke Luke 7 Matthew Matthew 11

Trying to please everyone

The gospels

There is an old saying, “You can please some of the people some of the time, but you can’t please all of the people all of the time.”

This was true even for the Son of God. Jesus was perfect. He was perfect in all he did. He was love incarnate. And yet, he could not please everyone.

Nor did he try. Jesus pointed out the hypocrisy of his critics when he said,

To what can I compare this generation? They are like children sitting in the marketplaces and calling out to others: “We played the flute for you, and you did not dance; we sang a dirge, and you did not mourn.”

For John came neither eating nor drinking, and they say, “He has a demon.”

The Son of Man came eating and drinking, and they say, “Here is a glutton and a drunkard, a friend of tax collectors and ‘sinners.'” (Matthew 11:16-19)

In other words, when John the Baptist hit the scene with his ascetic ways, the Pharisees and others said, “Don’t listen to him. He’s a madman.”

But when Jesus came on the scene, eating and drinking, they said, “Don’t listen to him, he’s a glutton and a drunkard (though Jesus was far from either).”

In other words, the only reason why the Pharisees rejected Jesus and John was not because of their lifestyle, but because they could not accept their message.

And many people today are the same. When we preach the word of Christ, it makes people uncomfortable.

As a result, many people try to discredit the messenger in order to discredit the message. And in trying to discredit the messenger, they will nitpick every single thing they can, making it impossible to please them.

What’s my point? Don’t try.

The wise person won’t waste their time trying to please everyone. The wise person will spend their time trying to please the one person that counts. God. And if they do, they will bear fruit.

As Jesus said,

But wisdom is proved right by all her children. (Luke 7:35)

What did he mean? The actions you take and the fruit you bear from trying to please him will prove that you are right, no matter what criticisms people may throw your way.

So don’t worry about trying to please everyone. Jesus couldn’t. Neither can you. Rather let us focus on pleasing the one who called us.

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Luke Luke 7 Matthew Matthew 11

Rejecting God’s purpose for us

The gospels

We were made for a purpose. God’s purpose. What is that purpose?

First and foremost, a relationship with him.

Second, a relationship with those he has put around us. To touch them and to be touched by them.

And finally, to do his will with the gifts and talents he has given us.

Unfortunately, so many people wander around aimlessly in their lives.

Why? Because they have rejected God’s purpose for their lives and are living for themselves.

The Pharisees and teachers of the law were this way. Though Jesus in this passage validates all that John the Baptist did, Luke says of these people,

But the Pharisees and experts in the law rejected God’s purpose for themselves, because they had not been baptized by John. (Luke 7:30)

John’s message was twofold. First to repent, the sign of which was carried out through baptism. Second, to point the way to the Messiah.

But the Pharisees and experts in the law were so proud of their own “righteousness,” that they couldn’t see their need to repent.

And when God himself appeared in Jesus, they rejected him. More than that, they crucified him. Thus Matthew said,

From the days of John the Baptist until now, the kingdom of heaven has been forcefully advancing, and forceful men lay hold of it. (Matthew 11:12)

Though the kingdom of God made great strides during John’s ministry, indeed though the King himself appeared shortly thereafter, the Pharisees and experts of the law did their best to put an end to it, not even knowing what they were doing.

In doing so, however, they totally missed God’s purpose for their lives.

But Luke said of the other people listening,

All the people, even the tax collectors, when they heard Jesus’ words, acknowledged that God’s way was right, because they had been baptized by John. (Luke 7:29)

By humbling themselves, by acknowledging that God’s way was right and repenting of their sin, and ultimately accepting Jesus, they found their way into his kingdom, and a return to the purpose for which God created them.

How about you? Are you in step with God’s purpose for your life?

It starts with repentance. It starts with admitting that you don’t know what’s best and accepting God’s way in your life.

In particular, it means accepting Jesus as the way, the truth, and the life. In short, it means to make him Lord in your life. Is he?

It starts with a prayer.

Lord, I’ve been living my own way, and in doing so, I’ve totally missed the purpose for which you created me. Forgive me.

I believe you died on the cross to take the punishment for my sin, and that you rose again three days later.

Now, be my Lord. I want to do things your way. I want to do the things you want me to do.

Draw me closer to you each day, and show me what you want of me. Amen.

Categories
Luke Luke 7 Matthew Matthew 11

Struggling with doubt

The gospels

It’s nice to know that the “heroes” of the Bible had struggles too. That they had fears. That they had doubts.

I’m sure that’s exactly what John the Baptist was going through in prison. He had been doing a great work for God, calling the people to repentance, and preparing the way for Jesus. Then suddenly, it was over.

John was arrested by Herod for criticizing him for marrying his brother’s wife, and as a result was thrown into prison.

Perhaps at first, John still felt confident and triumphant. “The Messiah is here! He will save us from people such as this so-called king named Herod.”

But time passed. And while Jesus did many things, political change was not one of them. Herod was still on the throne. Rome was still in charge. And John was still in prison.

Day after day dragged by, and perhaps John’s words became less and less certain. Finally, they may have been completely stilled by his doubts.

“Is Jesus really the one? Have I made a mistake? Maybe I heard God wrong.”

Finally the day came when his disciples came and they told him of all Jesus had been doing.

Perhaps after a moment of silence, he told them, “Please pass him a message. Ask him, ‘Are you the one? Are you the one we’ve been hoping for? Or should we ask for another?'”

I wonder how John’s disciples felt as they came to Jesus. Had doubt crept into their hearts as well because of their master’s misery? But they asked.

How did Jesus respond? He didn’t get angry. He didn’t criticize John for his lack of faith.

Instead, he looked at John’s disciples. Then he looked around at all the hurting people around him. And he started to heal. The blind, the lame, the deaf, the lepers.

And having done all that, he turned to John’s disciples and said,

Go back and report to John what you hear and see: The blind receive sight, the lame walk, those who have leprosy are cleansed, the deaf hear, the dead are raised, and the good news is proclaimed to the poor.

Blessed is anyone who does not stumble on account of me. (Matthew 11:4-6)

Sometimes we, like John, struggle with doubts. We wonder if Jesus is really there.

We look at the world around us. We look at our own circumstances. And we wonder, “Is my faith in Jesus just a farce? Or is there real substance behind it? Have I been wasting my life following Jesus? Or is it really worth it?”

I think the nice thing is that Jesus doesn’t blast us for our doubts.

But he does remind us, “Look at what I’ve done. Look how I’ve helped you in the past. Look at the healing I’ve brought to your life. I’m still here. I’m still working.”

But beyond looking at these things, let us look to the cross. Look at what Jesus did there. Because in the cross, we have the ultimate proof of his love for us.

And in the resurrection, we have the ultimate proof that he has the power to help us right here, right now.

May we never stumble because of Jesus. Rather let us stand on him. For he is a sure foundation that will never crumble beneath us.

Categories
Luke Luke 7 Matthew Matthew 8

Grace and faith

The gospels

As I look at these two passages, there are distinct points that I gather from each account.

In the Lukan account, we find that when the Roman centurion asked for Jesus help, he got the support of the Jewish elders who said to Jesus,

This man deserves to have you do this, because he loves our nation and has built our synagogue. (Luke 7:4-5)

Yet though the elders called this man “deserving,” the centurion himself said,

I do not deserve to have you come under my roof. That is why I did not even consider myself worthy to come to you. (Luke 7:6-7)

Sometimes, we think that in order to be saved, or for that matter, to get anything from God, we have to be “deserving.”

But grace says the exact opposite. It says, “Though you are not deserving, though you are not worthy, nevertheless I will give you what you need, eternal life and more. All you need to do is ask.”

The question is, do we have the faith to ask.

Sometimes we get jaded in our faith. I know I do. We ask for something, and for whatever reason, God says no.

And because of that, we wonder, “Is it worth praying? Will God answer? Does he have the power to answer? Does he care enough to answer?”

But faith says, “I will continue to believe in God’s goodness. That he knows what is best for me. Not only that, he has the power to help me. And because of that, I will continue to ask.”

That’s the kind of faith the centurion had.

He thought, “I’m an outsider. A Roman. Jews generally hate Romans. And I am totally unworthy to get help from this Jesus. But I believe that he not only has the power to help me, but the desire. And so I’ll ask.”

And because he did, his servant was healed.

It is rare that you ever find Jesus astonished. You only find it twice in scripture.

One was in the face of unbelief of the very people he grew up with. (Mark 6:6) And the other was in the face of the incredible faith of this outsider, this Roman centurion.

Jesus said of him,

I tell you the truth, I have not found anyone in Israel with such great faith.

I say to you that many will come from the east and the west, and will take their places at the feast with Abraham, Isaac and Jacob in the kingdom of heaven.

But the subjects of the kingdom will be thrown outside, into the darkness, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth. (Matthew 8:10-12)

And that’s the other point I get from this. It is people like this centurion, who understand their need for grace, and who put their faith in Jesus that will enter God’s kingdom.

No one can inherit God’s kingdom through their bloodlines or by doing works that make themselves deserving.

Rather, we inherit God’s kingdom when we say, “Though I don’t deserve anything from you, nevertheless I believe in you. Save me.”

Paul put it this way,

For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith — and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God — not by works, so that no one can boast. (Ephesians 2:8-9)

Categories
Luke Luke 6 Matthew Matthew 7

Sermon on the Mount: What we build our lives on

The gospels

And so we come to the end of the Sermons on the Mount and the Plain.

Both end the same way, with a challenge. Essentially, Jesus sums it up by saying,

Why do you call me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ and do not do what I say? (Luke 6:46)

In other words, if you call me ‘Lord,’ but don’t do what I say, can you really say I am your Lord?

One person put it this way, “Either Jesus is Lord of all in your life, or he isn’t Lord at all.”

And it’s very true. Jesus is either Lord of your life, or he isn’t. There is no in-between.

Jesus then gives his very famous illustration of the house built on rock, and the house built on sand.

He tells us that if we hear his words and do them, we are like the person that digs down deep into the ground and lays their foundation on rock. And because we do so, because we have a stable foundation, when the storms of life come, our house will stand.

But if we hear his words and do not obey, we are building our lives on sand.

What is sand like? Always shifting. That’s what the thought patterns of this world are like. Always shifting.

Morals and values in this world are constantly changing. Things that were considered abominable 50 years ago are being celebrated as good. Things that were considered good are now considered passé.

But when we build our lives on shifting sand, our foundation is not stable, and when the storms of life come, our house will collapse.

How about you? Are you building your house on rock? Are you not only hearing the words of Jesus, but putting them into practice?

Or are you instead being conformed to the pattern of this world?

Are you building your house on rock, or on shifting sand?

In short, is Jesus truly your Lord?

Categories
Matthew Matthew 7

Sermon on the Mount: Testing those you listen to

Matthew

After Jesus tells us to go through the narrow gate that leads to salvation, he gives us a warning.

Watch out for false prophets. They come to you in sheep’s clothing, but inwardly they are ferocious wolves. (Matthew 7:15)

People often associate prophets as those who issue out predictions of the future. But true prophets of God did much more than that. They confronted people with the words of God.

You see this throughout the Old Testament. People like Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, and Daniel.

You also see in the Old Testament many of the types of people Jesus warns against here. People who looked good. Who sounded good. Who seemed spiritual. But who spoke words straight from hell, leading people down the broad road that leads to destruction.

Unfortunately, there are people like this in the church today. People who claim to speak the words of God but corrupt the very words he says.

The question then becomes, “How do we tell the true prophet from the false prophet when they look so alike.”

Jesus tells us the answer.

By their fruit you will recognize them. Do people pick grapes from thornbushes, or figs from thistles?

Likewise every good tree bears good fruit, but a bad tree bears bad fruit. A good tree cannot bear bad fruit, and a bad tree cannot bear good fruit.

Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire. Thus, by their fruit you will recognize them. (Matthew 7:17-20)

In short, we need to test the fruit that they produce. There are two types of fruit that prophets and teachers produce.

The fruit of their lives is one. Are they living the things they teach? Or are they mere hypocrites.

This is not to say that they must be perfect in order to teach. But they should be continually growing and maturing in their faith. And hopefully, as they speak, they are honest about what their areas of struggle are.

But there’s another kind of fruit. The fruit of what they teach. What is coming out of their mouths? Is it consistent with the Word of God? Or is it not?

As teachers, they are responsible to teach the Word accurately. To study to show themselves approved, workmen who don’t need to be ashamed, accurately interpreting the Word of truth. (2 Timothy 2:15)

But as hearers of the Word, we are to test what they teach.

That is what the Bereans did in the book of Acts. They did not simply listen to the words of Paul. They tested it by what scripture said when they went home.

And when they found that what Paul said matched up with scripture, they believed. (Acts 17:11-12)

We ought to do the same. Test what the teachers and pastors say. And if their teaching matches what scripture teaches, accept it, and obey. If not, reject it.

Many teachers today claim Jesus as their Lord. And most do. But some will come before Christ someday saying,

Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and in your name drive out demons and perform many miracles? (Matthew 7:22)

But Jesus will reply,

I never knew you. Away from me, you evildoers! (Matthew 7:23)

And unfortunately, those who blindly followed these teachers will be swept right along into hell with them.

Why? Because they never tested what they were taught.

How about you? Do you test what you hear? Do you test what you read? Or do you just blindly follow?

Categories
Matthew Matthew 7

Sermon on the Mount: When being broadminded is not such a good thing

Matthew

A common criticism the world has of the Christian is, “Why do you have to be so narrow minded? Why can you be more broadminded? Why does Jesus have to be the only way to heaven?”

But there are some things we simply can’t be broadminded about. We certainly can’t be broadminded when it comes to mathematics.

If a student takes a test, and says that 2+2=10, and the teacher marks it wrong, can the student argue with the teacher saying, “Come on, let’s be broadminded about this. 10, 4, it’s not so different.”

We also can’t be broadminded about medical procedures.

Imagine you have a bad kidney and it has to be removed. The doctor knocks you out and when you wake up, not only is your kidney still there, but one of your teeth is missing.

You ask the doctor, “What happened to my tooth? You were supposed to remove my kidney.”

The doctor says, “Oh, tooth, kidney, it’s all the same. You’ve got to be broadminded about these things.”

Well, if we can’t be broadminded about these things, how much less can we be broadminded when it comes to eternal life. Especially when Jesus says,

Enter through the narrow gate. For wide is the gate and broad is the road that leads to destruction, and many enter through it.

But small is the gate and narrow the road that leads to life, and only a few find it. (Matthew 7:13-14)

Jesus makes it clear that you cannot come to God on your own terms. You must come to him on his.

A person once put it this way: “You can either go to heaven God’s way or to hell your own.”

What is God’s way? Jesus tells us,

I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. (John 14:6)

Let’s put it another way.

If there were another way to heaven besides Jesus, would God have forced him to go to the cross? How can we spit on the cross of Christ by seeking another way to God? How can we spit on the gift of God this way?

Being broadminded can be a good thing. But not when it comes to eternal life.

How about you? Are you seeking eternal life on God’s terms? Or your own?

Categories
Luke Luke 6 Matthew Matthew 7

Sermon on the Mount: Doing good, not just avoiding evil

The gospels

I find the placement of the “Golden Rule” a little jarring in Matthew. It doesn’t seem to quite fit, particularly with the “Therefore” at the beginning of it.

I suppose it’s pointing back to the totality of Jesus’ message up to that point.

In Luke, the placement of this rule is much more seamless. It comes right after Jesus talks about loving your enemies, doing good to those who hate you, blessing those who curse you, praying for those who mistreat you, not responding to insult with insult, and being generous.

Jesus sums all of this up by saying,

Do to others as you would have them do to you. (Luke 6:31)

In other cultures, we see a similar rule. “Don’t do to others what you would not like them to do to you.”

What is the main difference between this rule and the one Jesus gave?

Jesus’ rule is much harder to do. It actually requires action. It’s relatively easy not to do evil to another. Just avoid them. If you never deal with them, there’s no way you can do evil to them.

But you can’t do good to another while avoiding all contact with them. You actually have to do something. To reach out. Even though they hate you. Even though they insult you. Even though they try to take advantage of you.

That’s hard. But that’s the kind of people God calls us to be.

As God’s child, it is not enough to just not do evil. God calls us to do good. To be a light, a city on a hill that cannot be hidden. To be salt that flavors the world around us.

And what better way is there to do that than to do good to those who don’t deserve it.

It’s the kind of love that this world finds hard to understand and almost impossible to do (if not impossible).

But a Christian who is plugged into Jesus can. Why? Because the love of Jesus is being poured into their lives to the point that it simply must overflow to those around them.

How about you? Are you simply avoiding doing evil? Or are you going out with the love Jesus has poured into your life and touching the people around you?

Categories
Luke Luke 11 Matthew Matthew 7

Sermon on the Mount: The Father who gives good gifts…generously

The gospels

In America, there are some Bible teachers that say that if you want something from God, just claim it in Jesus name, and he has to give it to you.

For a lot of these people, God is like their personal genie. But God is no genie. He doesn’t have to do anything he doesn’t want to do. And whether people believe it or not, he doesn’t always want to give you what you want.

One key phrase we see in Matthew is that God gives “good gifts to those who ask him.” (Matthew 7:11)

Sometimes, though, we ask for things, and God knows they are not good for us. We ask for something thinking it’s bread, but it’s really a stone. Will God give us that stone?

Other times, we’ll ask for a fish when it’s really a serpent. Will he give us that serpent? Of course not. He is a good Father. He would never do that to us.

With that in mind, we can be bold in asking things of God, knowing that if something is good for us, he will give it to us in his timing. But if something is bad for us, he will tell us no.

So Jesus tells us,

Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you.

For everyone who asks receives; he who seeks finds; and to him who knocks, the door will be opened. (Luke 11:9-10)

Too often, we don’t receive because we don’t ask. We worry, “Am I being selfish? Shouldn’t I be praying about other things? Surely there are more important things to pray for than what I want.”

I think there are two points to be made here.

Number one, God is more generous than we realize. He loves us and wants to give his children good gifts.

Jesus talks in Luke of a person who only drags himself out of bed because his neighbor keeps pounding on the door asking for some bread.

Far from saying that God has to be pestered consistently before he will answer, Jesus is contrasting God with the man in the story.

Jesus was saying, “If that man, though he is tired, will drag himself out of bed because his neighbor keeps pounding on the door, how much more will God gladly answer the prayers of those who come to his door?”

The second point is this: God wants us to know him better. To learn to trust him. To know his goodness towards us. And asking is part of that process.

As we ask, we start to find out more of what his will is for our lives. We start to understand from his answers just what is good and what is not so good for us.

And through the yeses and nos and the results that come from his answers, we learn to trust God’s judgment and wisdom.

But if we never ask, we’ll never learn these things.

So ask. Seek. Knock. More doors will be opened than you expect.

And more importantly, you’ll find yourself in a closer relationship with God as you understand him and his will more.

Categories
Matthew Matthew 7

Sermon on the Mount: Wasting your breath

Matthew

I mentioned in the last blog that while Jesus warns us against hypocritical judging, he does call us to rebuke people who are in sin.

But when we do so, we should keep something else in mind: who we’re rebuking.

Jesus says here,

Do not give dogs what is sacred; do not throw your pearls to pigs. If you do, they may trample them under their feet, and then turn and tear you to pieces. (Matthew 7:6)

What is Jesus saying here? He’s saying that there are some people you are just wasting your breath with if you try to rebuke them.

They simply don’t want to hear what God has to say, and if you try to tell them, they’ll rip you apart. So Jesus says, “Don’t bother.”

Solomon put it this way,

Do not rebuke a mocker or he will hate you; rebuke a wise man and he will love you. (Proverbs 9:8)

This is also true in sharing the gospel.

There are some people that you share the gospel with, and instead of being receptive or interested, they simply mock you. In that case, leave that person in the hands of God. You did your job.

The responsibility now lies with that person to do something with the Word you’ve given them. You are not required to keep tossing them the pearls of the gospel.

It can be hard to watch a person you love mock the gospel. Or harden their hearts to the word of God.

But once you’ve done your responsibility and shared his Word with them, if they reject it and make it clear that they don’t want to hear it, there’s nothing left to do but pray for them. Because at that point, only God can change their hearts, not you.

Who are you casting your pearls to?

Categories
Luke Luke 6 Matthew Matthew 7

Sermon on the Mount: Hypocritical judging

The gospels

One of my favorite comedy groups when I was growing up was Isaac Air Freight. (Does anyone still remember them?)

They did a lot of Christian comedy sketches, and one that’s always stuck with me was one called “Final Minutes” which was loosely based on “60 Minutes.”

In it, they interviewed a couple called “The Loggers.” They were Christians, who had a very “unique” characteristic. They literally had logs sticking out of their eyes.

Because of that, they were constantly knocking things down with them. And all the while, they’d criticize other people.

When the interviewer asked them about the logs in their eyes, they both asked innocently, “What logs?”

“Well,” the interviewer said, “There are these huge logs in your eyes. You’re constantly knocking things down with them.”

“Hmmm…they never seemed to bother us before.”

And that’s exactly how a lot of Christians are today. They are constantly criticizing others, while failing to see their own faults.

Jesus tells us, “You think you’re the one to help the blind by judging and criticizing them. But you can’t even see the problems in your own life. Their problems are but a speck compared to the logs in your own life.

You’re blind, and you don’t even know it. And if you who are blind try to lead others who are blind, you’ll both fall into the pit.

You think you’re a teacher for the ignorant. But your students will become like you, taking in all the faults that you don’t even know you have.” (Luke 6:39-40)

He caps it by saying,

You hypocrite, first take the plank out of your eye, and then you will see clearly to remove the speck from your brother’s eye. (Luke 6:42)

What is Jesus’ point? I think the main point is humility.

One of the biggest planks in people’s eyes is pride.

There are times when we need to confront our brothers and sisters about their sin. Jesus commands us to do that. (Matthew 18:15)

The apostles reiterate it in the epistles. (Galatians 6:1)

But with what attitude do we do it? With pride? With an attitude of, “I am better than you.”

Or with a humble and gentle spirit that realizes that you need God’s grace and mercy as much as they do.

So before you rebuke someone, ask God, “What sins are in my life? What logs are in my eyes? I can’t help others if I myself am blind.

Am I suffering from pride? Am I suffering from unforgiveness? Am I suffering from the very vices the person I’m criticizing is suffering from?”

And as God reveals these things to you, repent.

If you cannot come to a person in full humility at your own weaknesses and need for God’s mercy, you should probably put off confronting them until you can.

Because even if they learn from you to avoid the sin you criticize them for, they’ll also learn pride, hypocrisy, and every other sin you’re carrying with you.

As Jesus said,

A student is not above his teacher, but everyone who is fully trained will be like his teacher. (Luke 6:40)

What logs are in your eyes?

Categories
Luke Luke 6 Matthew Matthew 7

Sermon on the Mount: When we judge others

The gospels

It is so easy to judge others for their shortcomings. To rail on them for their character or their deeds. It’s especially easy to do so when they’ve hurt us.

I think it’s very interesting that in the Lukan account, Jesus puts this teaching right after talking about loving your enemies and showing mercy to those who curse you or mistreat you. He says concerning them,

Be merciful, just as your Father is merciful. (Luke 6:36)

Right after that, he talks about judging others, saying,

Do not judge, and you will not be judged. Do not condemn, and you will not be condemned. Forgive, and you will be forgiven. (Luke 6:37)

In other words, when people hurt you, don’t condemn them. It’s quite frankly, not your place. That’s God’s place. Instead, God says to forgive them.

Forgiveness, in a lot of ways, is more for you than it is for another person.

As I think I’ve mentioned before, when you hold on to unforgiveness in your life, it chains you to your past. It keeps you from moving into the future God desires for you.

So God says to let go of your hurt and forgive. That the other person would actually change because of your forgiveness would be a bonus but is not guaranteed.

(The Pharisees and Sadducees certainly didn’t change despite Jesus’ prayer for their forgiveness.)

And of course, this comes back to the Lord’s prayer where we say, “Forgive us as we forgive those who sin against us.”

Jesus then tells us exactly what will happen if we don’t. If instead we pour out judgment and condemnation on others for what they’ve done to us.

He said,

Give, and it will be given to you. A good measure, pressed down, shaken together and running over, will be poured into your lap.

For with the measure you use, it will be measured to you. (Luke 6:38)

A lot of people take this verse and use it in reference to giving offerings. But this is not what Jesus is talking about at all. The whole context of this passage is judging others and showing mercy.

The picture here is of a farmer pouring out grain into a bag to sell it.

It’s a little hard to picture for us nowadays, but think about trash bags. How do we fill them?

Well, first we put some trash in. When it starts getting full, what do we do? We shake it a bit to let the trash settle to the bottom, and then put in more trash.

When shaking no longer works, we push down the trash so that we can get more of it in. Of course the point comes where we can’t put in any more trash and it starts to overflow.

So what Jesus is saying is that if you pour out judgment and condemnation on others, it will be poured out on you.

It will be pressed down and shaken so that more judgment and condemnation can be poured out in your life to the point of overflow.

If, on the other hand, you pour out mercy and forgiveness on others, mercy and forgiveness will be pressed down, shaken, and overflow in your life.

What do you want poured into your life?

Categories
Luke Luke 12 Matthew Matthew 6

Sermon on the Mount: Worry

The gospels

This is one of those passages that I know in my head, but I don’t know if it has truly sunk into my heart. In fact, I’m pretty sure it hasn’t.

I know because I still worry about stuff, most recently about my job and my finances.

So when I read this, my mind says, “That makes sense. God takes care of the birds. He takes care of the flowers of the field. Surely he will take care of me.”

And yet, I still find myself worrying about things. How can I save more money? Will I be able to get a better job?

While some things I worry about are to a degree controllable, other things are, at least to some degree, not.

So again, my mind says, “You’ve done what you can. Now leave it in God’s hands. Be at peace.”

But my heart wars against it and continues to worry.

I can just hear Jesus speaking to me, “O you of little faith! The world runs after these things, but don’t you know that your Father cares about you? Don’t you know he’ll take care of your needs?

So take your eyes off these things and put it on him. If you do, if you seek him and his kingdom above all things, he will take care of you.”

To be honest, because I struggle with this so much, all I can think of to do is to pray. Please feel free to join me.

Father, you said that you love me. That you care for me. I do believe it. But Lord increase my faith. I have so little of it, and that’s why I worry so much.

But Lord, you have been faithful to me in the past. I have no real reason to doubt you. Why do I doubt you now?

Lord, help me to get my eyes off of my worries, and on to you, that “all things that surround [may] become shadows in the light of you.”

You are the only true reality. Help me to focus on you. And to trust. In Jesus name, amen.

Categories
Luke Luke 11 Matthew Matthew 6

Sermon on the Mount: Setting our sights

The gospels

I talked briefly yesterday about how if we set our sights on the sins we want to avoid, saying constantly to ourselves “I have to stay away from this,” we are actually more likely to fall to temptation.

A better way to fight temptation is to set our sights on God and follow him.

But this is true not only in temptation. It’s true in every aspect of our lives.

Jesus here talks about where we set our sights in everyday life, saying,

Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy, and where thieves break in and steal.

But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where moth and rust do not destroy, and where thieves do not break in and steal.

For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also. (Matthew 6:19-21)

He then says,

No one can serve two masters. Either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other.

You cannot serve both God and Money. (Matthew 6:24)

So the question is, “Where are we setting our sights?”

For many people, they set their sights on what is temporary; on money, on things.

But Jesus warns us that these things will not last. That we are to set our hearts on that which is eternal. What is eternal?

Only two things: Our relationship with God, and our relationships with those who put their faith in Jesus.

There is nothing else on this earth that we can take with us into heaven.

And so this is what we need to be setting our sights on here on earth: Developing our relationship with God. Sharing the gospel with those who don’t know Christ. And developing our relationships with our brothers and sisters in Christ.

By doing this, we earn for ourselves treasures in heaven. For what greater treasure is there than a relationship with the God who loves us and with those we love?

But so many people, even Christians, set their hearts on money. On the things of this world.

Jesus warns that we can’t do this. God doesn’t accept half-hearted service. Either we serve money or we serve him.

Jesus asks in this passage what kind of eyes we have. Do we have eyes that see things as they really are? Do we have eyes that see what’s truly important?

He says that if we do, our life will be filled with light. We’ll live a life worth living, the kind of life God intended for us. A life centered around relationships.

But if we don’t, our life will be filled with darkness.

We’ll be stumbling around unfulfilled and never knowing why. We’ll constantly be grasping for money and other things that ultimately leave us empty if we make them our life’s pursuit.

And he laments that if what we think is “light” is truly darkness, how great that darkness truly is. So he warns in Luke 11:35,

See to it, then, that the light within you is not darkness.

How about you? What are your eyes set on?

Categories
Luke Luke 11 Matthew Matthew 6

Sermon on the Mount: A daily spiritual battle

The gospels

Every day, we are fighting a spiritual battle. That’s why Jesus instructed us to pray,

And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one. (Matthew 6:13)

We’re living in an evil world, in which the prince of darkness dwells. And he is hostile to us. He will do anything to bring us down from within or without.

From within, he tries to get us to fall to our own sinful nature, to give into the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life.

And so we are to pray that God would lead us. That we would keep our eyes on him, following him, rather than our own sinful nature.

Everyone knows their weak points. And to some degree, it’s good to be aware of them. To avoid doing things that would bring you to the point of temptation.

But if we spend all our time focusing on what we shouldn’t be doing, chances are that the temptation will only grow.

If on the other hand, we keep our eyes on God, we’re much more likely to avoid temptation. It’s not enough to just avoid sin. We need to follow God.

But beyond temptations, Satan wants to hurt us. He will attack us, and many times he’ll use the broken people of this world to hurt us.

Other times, he’ll whisper his lies into our mind, saying things like, “You’re no good. God can’t love you. You messed up too badly this time. He can’t forgive you.”

So Jesus tells us to pray, “Deliver us from the evil one.”

We are in a war against an enemy that hates us. So let us remember the words of Peter, who said,

Be self-controlled and alert. Your enemy the devil prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour. (1 Peter 5:8)

And let us pray that God in his grace would limit his influence on our lives.

Categories
Luke Luke 11 Matthew Matthew 6

Sermon on the Mount: Not an option

The gospels

This is one of the hardest passages in scripture for many people to deal with. Jesus teaches us to pray,

Forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors…

For if you forgive men when they sin against you, your heavenly Father will also forgive you.

But if you do not forgive men their sins, your Father will not forgive your sins. (Matthew 6:12-15)

Very strong words, and ones that Jesus will expand upon in other passages.

But let’s start with the prayer. “Forgive us our debts as we also have forgiven our debtors.”

Many people pray this so often, that they don’t think about what they’re saying. But imagine praying this.

“I’m really angry at my sister. She said something really hurtful, and I can never forgive her. So Lord, please, please, in the same way that I refuse to forgive my sister, don’t forgive any of my sins either.”

That’s essentially what you’re praying when you pray the Lord’s prayer.

You’re saying, “God, inasmuch as I forgive others, forgive me. But if I don’t forgive others, please don’t forgive me.

Inasmuch as I pour out unforgiveness and ‘ungrace’ in the life of those around me, pour out your unforgiveness and ‘ungrace’ in my life.”

In God’s eyes, forgiveness is not an option. You cannot hold on to unforgiveness in your life and expect God’s grace and mercy in yours.

Why? Because God has forgiven you though you didn’t deserve it, and he paid a massive price in order to do it. It cost him the life of his Son.

You could do nothing to earn his forgiveness. You could do nothing to ‘pay back God’ for all the wrongs that you have done. And yet he extended his mercy to you.

Since God did that for us, how can we possibly withhold forgiveness and mercy from others?

To withhold forgiveness from others means that you truly don’t understand God’s forgiveness in your life. It’s to downplay your own sin and to say, “My sin wasn’t so bad; that’s why God could forgive me.”

Your sin was bad enough to separate you from God for all eternity in hell. Your sin was so bad, that it cost Jesus his life on the cross. How then can you say, “My sin wasn’t so bad?”

If you cannot forgive others their sins, then quite simply, you are taking your own sin too lightly.

No Christian who has a strong sense of just how bad his sin is, and how much God has forgiven them can possibly withhold forgiveness from another.

Two things to meditate on.

First, how seriously do you take sin in your life? Do you realize that it was and is serious enough to send you to hell?

Second, if God forgave you for such serious offenses, how can you not forgive those who have committed serious offenses against you?

Is it easy? No. Depending on the level of hurt you experienced, it’s difficult, if not impossible…in your own strength.

But the same mercy and grace that God poured in your life so that you could be forgiven is the same mercy and grace that he will pour in your life so that you can forgive others…if you’re willing to be changed.

Are you? It starts with a prayer.

Lord, I’ve been hurt, and right now, I don’t even have the desire to forgive. But you forgave me though I didn’t deserve it, and you paid a great price so that I could.

Help me to understand that more. Let it sink into my heart and my mind. And give me the desire to forgive. Change me. In Jesus’ name, amen.

Categories
Luke Luke 11 Matthew Matthew 6

Sermon on the Mount: Praying for our needs

The gospels

One of the most amazing things to me is that the God of this whole universe cares about me, even the simple and perhaps mundane things. Yet he does. And so Jesus tells us to pray,

Give us today our daily bread. (Matthew 6:11)

Jesus will talk about this in more detail later when he talks about anxiety, but God does care that we have what we need to live. Food. Clothes. A place to stay. Of course, all of these things require money. And to have money, we need a job.

So often we worry about these things. It is, I must admit, something that I’m thinking about constantly as I interview for a new job next week.

But God doesn’t call us to worry about these things. To let these things dominate our mind. Rather, he calls us to pray about them and leave them in his hands, knowing that our heavenly Father loves us and will meet our needs.

How often do we worry about things instead of praying? (I’m speaking to myself too, by the way).

I suppose the big question we need to ask is, “Do I really think my Father really cares about me? That he really will give me all I need?”

Because if we would just realize this, all our worries would shrink and disappear.

How about you? Are you worrying about the circumstances of your life, or are you praying?

Categories
Luke Luke 11 Matthew Matthew 6

Sermon on the Mount: His Kingdom, His Will

The gospels

I was in a quandary this morning. I was asked in for an interview for a job that would be higher paying and have better benefits than the one I have now. Whether I’ll get it or not, I don’t know.

My current company, however, seemed to be doing whatever they could to prevent me from going to the interview. They denied me a day off, for reasons that were not clear, and so I was trying to find a way to go to the interview without breaking conscience.

In the end, by God’s grace, everything worked out. With the vice-principal’s and head English teacher’s help (I work at a junior high school), I was able to convince my employer to give me a half-day off for which I’m truly grateful.

As for whether I’ll get the job or not, we’ll see.

What does this have to do with this blog? Well, we’re praying, “Your kingdom come. Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven.”

I’ll be honest. I was very stressed this morning. I felt like I was being treated “unfairly” as I mentioned several blogs ago. And as I said then, I couldn’t control my circumstances. All I could control was my attitude, and it was difficult.

But in the end, I had to say, “Lord, your will be done.”

I didn’t know what my current employer would say when I went to work this morning, and even now, I don’t know if I can even get this job I’m interviewing for.

But I’m praying, “Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Your will in heaven is perfectly done. I pray that it would be perfectly done on earth, and especially right now, in this situation.

If you want me to get this job, work everything out. If not, help me to accept your will.”

But another part of this prayer is “Your kingdom come.”

As important as getting this job is to me, my first priority needs to be his kingdom.

Honestly, I feel I can do more for God’s kingdom with this job. I’d have more time to do the things I think God wants me to do, to go along with the better pay and benefits.

I read further than this passage today, I will admit, because I was reading where Jesus was saying not to be anxious about this life.

And the thing that caught my eye was Matthew 6:33, where he says to seek God’s kingdom first. And if we do that, everything will fall in place.

Like I said, I don’t know how things will fall out. But as God gives me grace, my prayer is, “Your kingdom come, your will be done. In my life. And in the world around me.”

Lord, you know my stress. You know my worries. But you are Lord of all. Lord of my employer. More importantly, Lord of me.

Let your will be done. In my job situation. With my future. And let me always keep in focus your kingdom above all things. In Jesus’ name, amen.

Categories
Luke Luke 11 Matthew Matthew 6

Sermon on the Mount: Our Father

Father and child

I suppose I could breeze through the Lord’s prayer, but I just felt it might be good to take it a line at a time.

In these passages, Jesus teaches us how to address God. In Matthew, he says, “Our Father in heaven.”

In Luke, he simplifies it to “Father.”

Why did Jesus tell us to address God as Father?

I think the reason is because he wanted us to know it was okay to draw close to God.

It is by no means wrong to call God things like, “Sovereign Lord.” It is in fact appropriate, for that is what he is. Peter himself addressed God that way in the book of Acts. (Acts 4:24)

But to call God that does seem to put some distance between you and him. Certainly, a king and his servant have a relationship, but it almost never is a relationship where the servant can ask for the king’s attention at any time.

But a king’s child can. He has access that a mere servant doesn’t have. More than that, he has the confidence that his daddy loves him and delights in him.

Our Father is a great king. He rules in heaven and his dominion extends throughout the universe and beyond.

Yet he always has time for you because he is not simply your king; he is your Father.

The problem that many people have, however, is they can’t truly understand what it means to say God is our Father.

They can’t understand because their own earthly fathers were imperfect. They never listened. They never loved. They never cared. They never provided. They were never there. Or in some cases, were even abusive.

And we take all these negative images of our fathers here on earth and overlay them on God.

But God isn’t our earthly father. He is our Father in heaven. And all the things your earthly father isn’t or wasn’t, God is.

He cares. He listens. He loves. He provides. And he is always there.

What image do you have of God, when you hear “God is our Father?”

Hopefully you have a positive one that allows you to draw near.

But if you have a negative one, understand that God is different from the father you know.

Pray that God would heal you from the hurts your father caused you. Pray that you can forgive your father. And pray that God could reshape your view of what a father is so that you can truly understand who God is.

Categories
Matthew Matthew 6

Sermon on the Mount: Empty words

Matthew

Prayer is simple. And yet somehow, it is difficult.

At its base, prayer is simply talking to God, just as you would talk to any other person.

If that’s all prayer is, why is it so difficult sometimes then? I suppose it’s because we don’t get audible answers back. It would be so much easier if we could actually converse with God like Moses did.

But because we don’t, we often wonder, “Is God hearing me? Am I even doing this ‘prayer thing’ right?”

So instead of just talking, we often turn to formulas. We turn the Lord’s prayer found here in Matthew and in Luke 11 into our formula for prayer.

But prayer is not a mere formula nor was it ever meant to be.

When we look at the Lord’s prayer, it gives us an idea of what prayer should look like, and what kinds of things we should be praying about. But it’s not meant to be prayed as a magic formula to get God to hear you.

Too often, though, people take the Lord’s prayer and turn it into a formula. They think that just because they say the words, God will hear them. After all, that’s what Jesus told us to pray, right?

But Jesus tells us here in verses 7-8,

And when you pray, do not keep on babbling like pagans, for they think they will be heard because of their many words.

Do not be like them, for your Father knows what you need before you ask him. (Matthew 6:7-8)

In other words, when you talk to God, talk normally. You don’t need special words. You don’t need to pray using long, flowery speech. None of these things impress God. All he wants to hear from you is your heart.

Sometimes people ask, “If God already knows what I need, if he already knows my thoughts, why pray?”

The best reason I can give is he wants to engage with you.

Sure, he doesn’t have to hear our voice to know what we’re thinking. Sure, he could just give us our needs without our asking.

But by praying, we engage with the living God. And that’s what he wants more than anything else.

But it’s impossible to engage with him if we’re just mindlessly repeating words we’ve memorized.

It’s impossible to engage with him if we’re busy trying to figure out the right formula to get him to answer our prayers.

He hears. More than that he will speak if we will just listen.

So let’s stop the formulas and mindless prayers and simply engage with the living God by telling him our hearts and holding nothing back from him.

How about you? Are you truly engaging God in your prayers? Or are you just saying words?

Categories
Matthew Matthew 6

Sermon on the Mount: Why we do what we do

Matthew

The one thing that Jesus often points to throughout this sermon is our hearts. And in this passage, he makes it clear that God not only looks at our actions, but our motivations as well.

He said,

Be careful not to do your ‘acts of righteousness’ before men, to be seen by them. If you do, you will have no reward from your Father in heaven. (Matthew 6:1)

He then gives three examples. First, he talks about giving.

In those days, people would basically announce to the world when they were about to give some money to the poor. In full view of everyone, they would show their great “generosity” and “compassion” for the poor.

But Jesus said, “You won’t receive any reward from God for this. You have already received your reward: the admiration of others, and the pride that comes from it.”

Then he talked about prayer, how some people prayed these long, loud prayers, showing just how spiritual they were to those around.

I’m sure there have been times when you have heard prayers and you wondered just who the person was talking to.

Finally, he pointed out how many people look like they’ve been sucking on lemons for a week (loose translation) when they fast to show how spiritual they’ve been.

And Jesus makes it clear: God will not reward any of these things. Rather, he rewards the things done in secret. The things that only he knows about. The things not done for show, but out of our love for him.

It’s very easy to point at others and criticize them, but how about you?

Are you constantly concerned about what others think of you? Are you constantly concerned about how spiritual you appear to others?

Or are you genuine?

You may fool others (although I wouldn’t bet on it), but you can’t fool God. It is not enough to do the right thing. You need to have the right motivation.

What’s the right motivation? Again, your love for God. And your love for others. Nothing else matters.

Notice that both of these things are outwardly focused. When we become inwardly focused, constantly thinking about what others think of us, then all the things we do, no matter how good, become worthless in the eyes of God.

I have to admit: I struggle with this a lot. I constantly have to ask myself, “Who am I trying to please?”

When I speak at church, am I trying to impress people with my spirituality, or am I truly letting God speak through me?

Whenever I do anything for God, whose approval am I trying to win?”

Who are you trying to please? Why are you doing what you’re doing?

Categories
Luke Luke 6 Matthew Matthew 5

Sermon on the Mount: Perfect in love, perfect in mercy

The gospels

As Christians, we often come across verse 48 in Matthew 5 where Jesus says,

Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect.

The context of it is very interesting. Certainly we are to strive for holiness in our lives, but in this passage, it is specifically talking about perfection in one area in our lives. Love.

Sometimes, people take Jesus’, “But I say to you…” statements as him contradicting what God had said in the Old Testament.

This is not true. What he was doing was contradicting people’s wrong interpretation of God’s commands.

We saw this in the last passage. Jesus wasn’t contradicting Moses’ law on justice. He wasn’t saying, for example, it’s okay to kill someone who took your eye or tooth.

What he was saying was, “While it’s civil law that the punishment must match the crime, you’ve taken it to mean that it’s okay to take revenge in the name of justice or fairness.

But I say to you that though it is certainly your right to seek fairness and justice, you can be a greater light in this world, you can be more like your Father in heaven, if instead of demanding justice all the time, you show mercy and grace to those who wrong you.”

And Jesus lived that out in his own life. Had Jesus demanded justice for himself, he would have never gone to the cross.

In this passage, we see another misunderstanding the Jews had about what God commanded. You can easily find in the Old Testament where it says to love your neighbor. (Leviticus 19:18)

You will be hard pressed to find anywhere, however, where it says to hate your neighbor. It’s not there. The Jews added that to God’s command.

So Jesus corrected their way of thinking. He said to love our enemies, to pray for those who persecute us, to bless those who curse us, and to do good to those who mistreat us. Jesus himself did this on the cross.

When his enemies nailed him to the cross and were mocking him, he prayed for them. Note that he didn’t pray about them. He didn’t say “See what they’re doing Father? See how terrible they are?”

He prayed for them. “Father forgive them. They don’t know what they’re doing.”

Despite their actions, he loved and cared for them. And by dying, he gave them and us hope for forgiveness and eternal life.

Jesus then pointed out that anyone can love someone who loves them. Even the worst of people can do that. But it’s very difficult to love those who hate you.

Yet that’s what God does for us. Though we hated him, though we made light of him, though we turned our backs on him, yet he daily gives us blessings we never even credit him for, even the sun and rain.

But more than that, he sent his Son to save us from our sin.

And so he calls us to be like him. To be perfect in our love as he is perfect in love. To be rich in mercy, as he is rich in mercy.

How perfect are you in love and mercy to those around you?

Categories
Luke Luke 6 Matthew Matthew 5

Sermon on the Mount: But it’s not fair

The gospels

There is something in all of us, I think, that screams for fairness. And if something happens that we feel isn’t fair, we scream against it. But is that the best response?

These few verses go against every instinct we have.

Jesus said,

You have heard that it was said, ‘Eye for eye, and tooth for tooth.’

But I tell you, do not resist an evil person. If anyone slaps you on the right cheek, turn to them the other cheek also. (Matthew 5:38-39)

Verse 38 comes from the Mosaic law, and it was basically instructions to judges on how people were to be punished for wrongdoing.

The point here is not revenge, but telling the judges to match the punishment with the crime, and not go beyond. If someone cost another an eye or a tooth, for example, you were not to kill the offender for that action.

It should be pointed out, however, that this was never literally carried out. You didn’t actually take out another person’s eye or tooth if they cost you yours. Instead, there was usually some compensation that was paid.

The idea was justice, or put another way, fairness.

But Jesus here says, “Don’t be so concerned about fairness. Instead, be a light, even to those who abuse you.”

The first example he gives is a very interesting one. He says, “If someone strike you on your right cheek, turn the other cheek.”

Now, I’m a lefty (and proud of it). So it would be no problem for me to nail someone on their right cheek.

But for most people, they are right-handed. And the only way for them to lay any kind of forcible blow on the right cheek of another is to slap them with the back of their hand.

In other words, Jesus isn’t talking about someone bullying you; he’s talking about someone insulting you.

In Jewish culture, it was considered a graver insult to slap someone with the back of your hand, than with the palm of your hand.

So Jesus was saying, “If someone insults you, let them. Don’t feel like you have to insult them back.”

Is it fair to just take this abuse? No. But Jesus tells us, “Don’t worry about fairness. Show grace.”

He then says if someone wants to sue you and take your shirt, give them your cloak as well.

In Israel, everyone had many changes of shirts, but generally only had one cloak.

Most people slept in their cloak to keep them warm at night, and Moses’ law said that if you took that cloak as a pledge for a loan, you should give it back to that person before he goes to bed at night. (Deuteronomy 24:12-13)

But again, Jesus says that if someone sues you to take your shirt, don’t worry about fairness. Give them your cloak as well.

Romans could force any Jew to carry a burden one mile because the Jews were under their rule. The Jews balked at that, as would we if we were forced to do something we don’t want to.

But Jesus said, “If that happens, don’t just go the one mile, go one extra. Do more than you’re forced to.”

And finally, Jesus says to lend freely to those around you, not worrying about whether they will return what they borrowed from you.

You might ask, “Are you saying that I should just let people walk all over me?”

No. But if we are only worried about “fairness,” we’re fighting a losing battle because we live in an unfair world.

Life isn’t always fair. We can’t always control that. What can we control?

Our attitude. How we react when life, when people are unfair. We can scream. We can fight.

Or we can show grace. We can show mercy. And if you think about it, that’s what Jesus did for us.

It wasn’t fair that he went to the cross. He never did anything wrong. But he showed grace and mercy to us, and because of it, we can know forgiveness and eternal life.

If Jesus did that for us, shouldn’t we do that for others?

Categories
Matthew Matthew 5

Sermon on the Mount: Honesty

Matthew

Trust can be hard to come by. And in this broken world, people find it so hard to trust, we require oaths.

“I promise…”

“I swear…”

But Jesus says here that we are to be people of such integrity that God or others shouldn’t require such oaths from us.

He said,

Again, you have heard that it was said to the people long ago, ‘Do not break your oath, but keep the oaths you have made to the Lord.’

But I tell you, Do not swear at all: either by heaven, for it is God’s throne; or by the earth, for it is his footstool; or by Jerusalem, for it is the city of the Great King.

And do not swear by your head, for you cannot make even one hair white or black.

Simply let your ‘Yes’ be ‘Yes,’ and your ‘No,’ ‘No’; anything beyond this comes from the evil one. (Matthew 5:33-37)

Back in those days, swearing an oath in the name of God made it binding. But if you swore by heaven, earth, Jerusalem, or by your own head, it was less binding.

But Jesus said, “No, swearing by all these things are just as binding, because heaven, earth, and Jerusalem all belong to God and are reflections of his glory. So if you swear by them, you swear by him.

And even if you swear by your own head, that belongs to God too. You can’t even control when your hair turns white.”

In short, unlike what the Pharisees and teachers of the law taught, all oaths are binding.

But Jesus says, don’t swear at all. The only reason you’d need to swear an oath at all is because you think people might not believe you.

Why would they think that?

First, they might not know you. In that kind of situation, you may need to swear, such as in a court of law.

But second, they know you, and they know you’re not trustworthy, or they have doubts about you. In those cases, you may feel a need to swear.

There is nothing to be done about the first situation. As I said, we live in a world broken by sin. Lack of trust is the norm. Because of this, we may be required to swear oaths.

I don’t think Jesus is casting aside all oaths in this passage. Jesus himself spoke under oath when on trial. (Matthew 26:63-64)

But, the second situation is something you can control, at least to an extent, by proving yourself honest to the people around you. That when people hear you say you’ll do something, that’s all they need to hear.

Can people trust you? From the little things (being on time for a party with friends) to the large (faithfulness at work or in ministry)?

Jesus calls us to be light. And to be a person that can be completely trusted is shining that light brightly in a world where few can.

Categories
Matthew Matthew 5

Sermon on the Mount: Whatever it takes

Matthew

My favorite sports team is the Pittsburgh Steelers, and back in the 70s, their coach was a man named Chuck Noll.

Noll had a saying, “Whatever it takes.” In other words, “We do whatever necessary to win the game (within the rules, of course).”

Well here, we see that same kind of attitude. But it has nothing to do with winning games. It has to do with sin.

Jesus essentially tells us, “Do whatever it takes to get rid of sin in your life.”

He said,

If your right eye causes you to sin, gouge it out and throw it away. It is better for you to lose one part of your body than for your whole body to be thrown into hell.

And if your right hand causes you to sin, cut it off and throw it away. It is better for you to lose one part of your body than for your whole body to go into hell. (Matthew 5:29-30)

Although some people have taken this literally, Jesus does not mean this literally. He doesn’t want you to literally gouge out your eye or cut off your hand.

What he is saying is to take sin seriously. Too often, we don’t. We just say, “Well, it’s okay. God will forgive me.”

And unlike what Jesus taught in the Beatitudes, we don’t mourn over our sin. Instead, we continue on in our sin.

But Jesus reminds us here that sin is the reason that he went to the cross.

Sin causes people to go to hell. You were going to hell because of your sin before you met Jesus. How then can you take it lightly and continue on in your sin?

And so Jesus says do whatever it takes to get rid of sin in your life. What does that mean practically?

First, it means prayer. We do not have the ability to fight sin on our own. We need the power of God working in us to conquer sin.

Second, it means avoiding problem areas in your life. In other words, if you have a problem with alcoholism, stay away from bars or parties where alcohol is served and you’ll be tempted to drink.

If you have a problem with lust, stay away from anywhere that sells pornography. Cut these things off from your life.

Third, it means accountability. Share with someone you trust your struggles and have them check up on you regularly. Not only that, have them pray with you and for you.

James writes,

Therefore confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so that you may be healed.

The prayer of a righteous man is powerful and effective. (James 5:16)

But whatever you do, don’t take sin lightly. Jesus didn’t. He went to the cross because of it.

So do whatever it takes to be holy as he is holy.

Categories
Matthew Matthew 5

Sermon on the Mount: Adultery

Matthew

From murder, Jesus moves on to adultery. And in doing so, I think he really pushed a sensitive button in those who thought they were so religious.

As I’ve said, the Pharisees were very proud of how well they kept every minor detail of the law. But as I’ve also mentioned, by merely focusing on the letter of the law, they completely missed the spirit of it.

A perfect example is in the case of adultery. Among the Pharisees, there was a group disparagingly called “bruised Pharisees.”

These were people that were so worried about lust, that they would literally walk with their eyes closed if they were near a woman, and in doing so would actually walk into walls because they weren’t looking where they were going.

But you also had Pharisees that debated about divorce. Moses had written that a man could divorce his wife if he found any “indecency” in her. (Deuteronomy 24:1)

The argument was about what “indecency” meant. Some thought it was sexual immorality. Others thought you could divorce your wife if she was too loud or even just burned your dinner.

In my opinion, the main problem came, however, when a married Pharisee saw a woman that he lusted after.

He might bruise himself trying to avoid looking at her, but perhaps after dusting himself off, he caught a quick glance at her and then perhaps took another glance. Soon, he was thinking of her all the time.

But he was married. As a result, the thought would then come, “How can I get around this law against adultery? I know. I’ll divorce my wife and marry this other woman.”

They literally did this. The frequency of divorce among Pharisees was an open scandal in Israel.

And so Jesus made it very clear: You may be avoiding the act of sleeping around. But that doesn’t mean you’re innocent of adultery.

He said,

But I tell you that anyone who looks at a woman lustfully has already committed adultery with her in his heart. (Matthew 5:28)

That did not absolve any of the bruised Pharisees either, because they could go home, bruises and all, and still plot how to divorce their wife to marry this other woman.

So Jesus told them,

It has been said, ‘Anyone who divorces his wife must give her a certificate of divorce.’

But I tell you that anyone who divorces his wife, except for marital unfaithfulness, causes her to become an adulteress, and anyone who marries the divorced woman commits adultery. (Matthew 5:31-32)

Considering that he was comparing true righteousness with the “righteousness” of the Pharisees, I think it’s pretty clear what he was talking about.

If you divorce someone because there’s someone else you want to marry, you are committing adultery. It may not technically be adultery by the letter of the law, but in God’s eyes, it is.

How about you? Are you committing adultery in your heart?

Are you lusting after another to the point where you’re planning to get divorced? Or are you encouraging a married person to get divorced from their spouse so that you can marry them?

That’s adultery, and God condemns it.

You may not be sleeping with another person, but are you joined to your spouse, heart, body, soul, and mind?

Or is your heart being pulled to another person? That too is adultery in God’s eyes.

May we always have hearts faithful to the ones we have committed our lives to. Namely, to God, and to our spouse.

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Matthew Matthew 5

Sermon on the Mount: Making things right

Matthew

We read in the Beatitudes, “Blessed are the peacemakers.” Often times, we solely think of this in terms of bringing peace between two outside parties.

But there is another situation in which we are called to be peacemakers. We are called to be peacemakers when we are one of the parties involved, and this is what Jesus talks about here.

He says,

Therefore, if you are offering your gift at the altar and there remember that your brother has something against you, leave your gift there in front of the altar.

First go and be reconciled to your brother; then come and offer your gift. (Matthew 5:23-24)

I think there are two important things to note here.

First, he says, “If your brother has something against you.”

So often, there is a rift in our relationships, and we know that someone is upset at us, but we feel like we did nothing wrong. So we say, “It’s their problem, not mine.”

But when you do that, what you are essentially doing is devaluing them. You’re saying, “This person is not worth my time. If he has a problem, he should come to me.”

Or, “It’s his problem, not mine. He should deal with it.”

But Jesus doesn’t allow any room for this kind of thinking. He says that if someone has a problem with us, we are to do what we must to bring reconciliation.

Many times, it just means a simple apology.

“But I didn’t do anything wrong!”

Maybe you did, maybe you didn’t. Maybe the other person is being too sensitive. It doesn’t matter. You need to value them enough that you take their feelings into consideration. And if you have hurt them, you need to acknowledge that.

If nothing else, you should say, “I understand that when I said that or did that, I hurt you. I didn’t mean to. Will you forgive me?”

And from that point, you need to keep in mind just what you did to cause the problem, and for their sake, and for Christ’s who died for them, you need to avoid those actions or words in the future.

The second thing to note from this passage is that broken relationships with others affects our relationship with God.

God will not accept our gifts or offerings if we have not made every effort to bring reconciliation to our broken relationships.

Peter writes that God won’t even accept the prayers of husbands if they are not living with understanding with their wives. (I Peter 3:7)

Jesus then points out that if you really did something wrong, it’s especially important to get things right as soon as possible. He said,

Settle matters quickly with your adversary who is taking you to court.

Do it while you are still with him on the way, or he may hand you over to the judge, and the judge may hand you over to the officer, and you may be thrown into prison.

I tell you the truth, you will not get out until you have paid the last penny. (Matthew 5:25-26)

But whether you are truly at fault or not, Jesus tells us to do all we can to make things right.

That said, reconciliation is a two-way street. Some people don’t want reconciliation. You can’t control that.

What you can do is control your actions. To first pray for that person. To ask God what you can do to bring reconciliation. And then to do all God has told you to do.

After that, it’s up to the other person. And if they refuse to respond, then all you can do is leave it in God’s hands.

In short, follow the words of Paul who wrote,

If it is possible, as far as it depends on you, live at peace with everyone. (Romans 12:18)

Are you at peace with those around you?

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Matthew Matthew 5

Sermon on the Mount: When we despise people in our hearts

Matthew

Here we see one of the main problems Jesus had with the religious leaders’ interpretation of the law. It was strictly a matter of outward compliance, while totally ignoring what was going on in the heart.

In this passage, Jesus shows us what this means in terms of murder. He said,

You have heard that it was said to the people long ago, ‘Do not murder, and anyone who murders will be subject to judgment.’ (Matthew 5:21)

Many Pharisees and teachers of the law kept this commandment. They never murdered anyone (at least until they had Jesus crucified, anyway).

But Jesus told them,

But I tell you that anyone who is angry with his brother will be subject to judgment.

Again, anyone who says to his brother, ‘Raca,’ is answerable to the Sanhedrin. But anyone who says, ‘You fool!’ will be in danger of the fire of hell. (Matthew 5:22)

Jesus here goes beyond the outward crime of murder to the attitudes of the heart. Basically he says, “So you have never actually killed anyone? Great! But how about within your heart? Have you ever murdered someone in your heart?”

What does that mean, to murder someone in your heart?

What are you doing when you murder someone? You are basically devaluing that person. You are saying, “You have so little value, you are no longer fit to live.”

Well, what are we doing when we say to someone, “You idiot! You fool! You (fill in the blank)!”

We are devaluing them in our hearts. Essentially that’s what it means to despise someone. To look upon them as someone of little worth or value.

Murder is merely taking this attitude to an extreme. But if we hold on to this attitude in our hearts, it can actually lead to murder. We’ve seen this time and again in our society.

Anger is another problem that Jesus points to here. It is natural for us to get angry. We can’t control when we get angry. It’s an emotion. Something happens, and we get angry.

But we can control what we do with our anger. Do we hold on to it? Do we let it simmer in our hearts? Do we embrace that anger?

Anger undealt with takes us to the next level of murder. We either cut people off from our lives, or we actually take their lives.

And Jesus says that if we do so, we will be liable to God’s judgment, and apart from the grace of God, hell.

How about you? Is there someone in your life that you despise in your heart? That you have devalued?

Is there someone that you have cut off because of the anger you hold toward them in your heart? Then in God’s eyes you have murdered them.

John tells us,

Anyone who hates his brother is a murderer, and you know that no murderer has eternal life in him. (I John 3:15)

And again,

Anyone who claims to be in the light but hates his brother is still in the darkness…

Whoever hates his brother is in the darkness and walks around in the darkness; he does not know where he is going, because the darkness has blinded him. (I John 2:9,11)

So let us start seeing those around us, even those who have hurt us, as people of value. Because they are. And it was for that reason that Jesus gave his life for them…and us.

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Matthew Matthew 5

Sermon on the Mount: Fulfilling the law

Matthew

I think it’s significant that Jesus probably said these things after the controversies with the Pharisees over the Sabbath had begun (although you wouldn’t guess this by looking at the book of Matthew alone).

Jesus had probably already done multiple healings on the Sabbath earning the criticism of the Pharisees.

But Jesus makes it clear here that,

I have not come to abolish the Law or the Prophets but to fulfill them. (Matthew 5:17)

How did Jesus fulfill the law and the prophets? Primarily in three ways.

First, he fulfilled the prophesies of the Messiah to come.

Second, he was the only man to ever perfectly obey the law. Because of that, he was able to take the punishment for our sin on the cross.

As Paul wrote,

For what the law was powerless to do in that it was weakened by the sinful nature, God did by sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful man to be a sin offering.

And so he condemned sin in sinful man in order that the righteous requirements of the law might be fully met in us, who do not live according to the sinful nature but according to the Spirit. (Romans 8:3-4)

Third, he fulfilled in his death all the sacrifices that God had required of the Jews.

As the writer of Hebrews points out, while God required them, they in themselves could not cleanse us from our sins. What they did do was paint a picture of what Jesus would do for us on the cross.

Now in Jesus, all our sins have been cleansed, and so these sacrifices are no longer required. They are, as Jesus puts it, accomplished in him. (Hebrews 10:1-18)

But while some things in the law were accomplished in Jesus Christ, as was our justification before God, nevertheless, the law still points to the holiness of God and what kind of people God desires us to be.

And so each day, we are to strive to be holy as he is holy. Not in order to earn our salvation, but because now the Holy Spirit lives inside us to help us live it.

Before we were powerless to do what God commanded. But now God himself dwells in us and gives us the power to become the people he originally designed us to be.

And Jesus warns us,

I tell you that unless your righteousness surpasses that of the Pharisees and the teachers of the law, you will certainly not enter the kingdom of heaven. (Matthew 5:20)

That probably stunned the people who heard it because the Pharisees and teachers of the law were considered the strongest preservers of God’s law. They had made rule upon rule in order to make sure they kept God’s law.

But righteousness goes far beyond keeping the letter of the law. Righteousness is a thing of the heart. And if your heart is not right before God, nothing you do is right before Him.

Three points that Jesus would lambast the Pharisees and teachers of the law for were lack of justice, mercy, and faithfulness in their lives. (Matthew 23:23)

We’ll see more of what he means by that as we continue through his sermon.

For now, the question is, how is your heart? You may be doing all the right things, but is your heart right before God? What would he say about your heart today?

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Matthew Matthew 5

Sermon on the Mount: Salt and light

Matthew

It is very interesting to me the context in which Jesus talks about us being salt and light in the world.

What was the context? He had just finished talking about persecution. That we are blessed if we are persecuted for righteousness’ sake.

Right after that, he tells us we are the salt of the earth, and he warns us that if we lose our saltiness, we’re no good for anything except to be thrown out and trampled.

How can we lose our saltiness? By giving into pressure from our family, our friends, and the people around us to conform to them, rather than to Christ. To do so because we are afraid of what they will say or do to us.

When we are so focused on pleasing others that we forget that we need to please God above all others, we lose our saltiness.

We are meant to be salt in this world. Salt preserves. It keeps meat from rotting.

In the same way, Christians are to be people that keep our culture from rotting by showing people God’s ways.

Not just by telling them about God’s ways, mind you. But by showing them God’s ways by the way you live your life.

And by showing them God’s ways, they’ll see the contrast between a healthy, fulfilled life and a morally decrepit one.

Salt also flavors. It gives taste to food that has little or none. In the same way, we are to flavor the world around us with the love and touch of Christ.

But we can do neither of these things if we are simply blending in with the world.

God put us in this world to be light. A city on a hill that cannot be hidden. For what purpose? To show his glory to a lost, hurt, and dying world.

How can we then hide that light that God has lit in our lives by giving into the pressure of those around us?

How about you? Have you so conformed to this world that you’ve lost your saltiness? That your light can no longer be seen?

Who are you trying to please? God? Or the people around you?

May we obey the words of Jesus and let our lights shine before men, that they may see our good deeds and praise our Father in heaven. (Matthew 5:16)

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Matthew Matthew 5

Sermon on the Mount: A whole new way of thinking

Matthew

As we look at the Beatitudes one last time, it strikes me that it is an entirely different way of thinking from the way the world thinks.

Many think that it is the ultra-religious who are blessed by God. That you have to be on a special spiritual plane in order to be blessed by God.

But Jesus says, “Blessed are the poor in spirit.” That God looks with favor on those who are spiritually bankrupt.

More than that, he looks with favor on those who realize they are spiritually bankrupt. Because when we do, we realize our need for grace. And it is at that point, that we can be saved.

The world thinks that it’s those who find happiness in this life that are blessed. And so they subscribe the old axiom, “If it feels good, do it.”

But Jesus says that it is when we mourn over the sin in our lives, and over the pain that sin causes in this world that we find blessedness. Because only then can we find his transforming power in our lives and in the world around us.

The world teaches that it is those who take the bull by the horn, who take control of their own lives that are blessed.

But Jesus says, we are blessed when we submit our lives to God in everything, through the good and bad. To trust in his goodness and his judgment. And when we do, we’ll find a life that truly works.

The world says, “Blessed are those who can do whatever they want. Who do whatever they can to bring happiness into their lives.”

But Jesus said, “Blessed are those who hunger and thirst after what is right.”

It’s not always easy, nor is it always pleasurable. But only in doing so will we find true satisfaction.

The world proclaims, “Look out for number one. Step on whoever you have to in order to achieve your goals.”

But Jesus said, “Blessed are the merciful. Look to the needs of others above your own.”

This can especially be seen in forgiveness, where you stop focusing on yourself and the pain you’ve received, and you focus on the hurt and the needs of the person who hurt you.

And when we do that, we become like Jesus who prayed for his enemies saying, “Father, forgive them. They know not what they do.”

The world teaches that morals are relative. That we can’t judge another’s morals. That all moral codes are equal.

But Jesus said, “Blessed are the pure in heart. For it is only they who understand God’s holiness, who will see God.”

The world says, “Mind your own business. Don’t get involved. Live and let live. All roads lead to God.”

Jesus says, “It is those who go out as ambassadors and preach the gospel, who help bring peace between God and the people around them that are sons and daughters of God.

And it is those who help bring peace between others that prove themselves to be like their Heavenly Father who brought peace between himself and us.”

The world believes that if everyone likes you, you are blessed.

Jesus teaches that we can’t please everyone. That there is only one who is worth pleasing, and that is God. That’s who we need to seek to please.

The kingdom of God has a radically different way of thinking from the way the world thinks. But if we’ll embrace it, we’ll find what life truly is all about.

So as Paul encourages us,

Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind.

Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is — his good, pleasing and perfect will. (Romans 12:2)

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Luke Luke 6 Matthew Matthew 5

Sermon on the Mount: Under fire

The gospels

Nobody likes to be persecuted. Nobody likes to be disliked. In an ideal world, everyone would like you.

But this isn’t an ideal world. It’s a world that has been corrupted by sin. And because of that, people’s minds have been corrupted by sin to the point that they can’t distinguish good from evil. Even when they can, they often prefer evil.

John put it this way,

Light has come into the world (through Jesus), but men loved darkness instead of light because their deeds were evil. (John 3:19)

Because of this, Jesus warned his disciples,

If they persecuted me (and they did), they will persecute you also. (John 15:20)

Think about this. Jesus was perfect. He never did anything wrong. He was love incarnate. And yet people hated him and put him on a cross.

If Jesus was perfect and he was treated this way, what makes us think we’ll be treated any differently?

But Jesus tells us that if we are persecuted for doing what is right, if we are persecuted for following him, we are blessed.

That seems a strange thing to say. Being persecuted is a blessing? I don’t want to be persecuted.

But the blessing is not in the persecution itself. It’s in knowing that we are following in our Master’s footsteps. That we are being like him even to the point of being persecuted as he was.

And the blessing is in knowing that the persecution is not in vain. That God will ultimately reward us for our faithfulness under fire.

So let us not get discouraged when persecution comes our way. When we are rejected by our family or friends or others around us for Jesus’ sake.

As the old saying goes, you can’t please all the people all the time.

Jesus couldn’t. Neither can you.

So let us focus on pleasing just one person: God. And in doing so, we will find true blessing.

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Matthew Matthew 5

Sermon on the Mount: Reconcilers

Matthew

If there is one thing that God has called us as Christians to be is reconcilers. Why? Because Jesus himself was the great reconciler.

When there was a huge gap between God and us because of our sin, Jesus came down and died on a cross, taking the punishment for our sin. Now, because of what he has done, we have peace with God.

So when we can bring peace between two people who are at war, we prove ourselves to be “sons (and daughters) of God.”

God hates it when the children he loves are in conflict with each other. And so he calls us as his children to step in where we can to help bring peace.

This is not to say that we are to step into every conflict we see. Proverbs warns us against getting involved in conflicts that we have no connection with. (Proverbs 26:17)

But when you see people that you love fighting, you should do what you can to bring peace.

To be sure, you need to be careful about the timing, and also you will need God’s wisdom as to how do so.

Above all, you should have the love and respect of the people you’re dealing with. Without a relationship with the warring parties, you’re more likely to do harm than to do good.

But there’s an even more important way in which God calls us to be reconcilers. We are to be people that help bring reconciliation between God and those around us.

The apostle Paul wrote,

All this (i.e. salvation) is from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation: that God was reconciling the world to himself in Christ, not counting men’s sins against them.

And he has committed to us the message of reconciliation. (2 Corinthians 5:18-19)

What an awesome responsibility. Jesus did the work of salvation on the cross. But now God tells us, “I put it in your hands now. It’s your responsibility to reach out as my ambassadors.”

What message do we pass on?

We implore you on Christ’s behalf: Be reconciled to God.

God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God. (2 Corinthians 5:20-21)

It is, of course, not up to us to change people’s hearts. That can only be done by the Holy Spirit. But we are called to be reconcilers, people who help bring peace between God and the people he loves.

Jesus tells us,

Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called sons of God. (Matthew 5:9)

Are you a peacemaker?

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Matthew Matthew 5

Sermon on the Mount: To see God

Matthew

There are so many songs that express a desire to see God. Back when I was a kid, we had a song,

Open our eyes Lord,
We want to see Jesus.

To reach out and touch him.
To say that we love him.

Slightly more recently, there was another song,

Open the eyes of my heart Lord,
Open the eyes of my heart.

I want to see you.
I want to see you.

They’re both great songs, and I love them, but if we really want to see God in our lives, Jesus tells us,

Blessed are the pure in heart, for they will see God.

Why is purity so important? Because God is holy. When the angels sing at his throne, they don’t sing about his love, they sing about his holiness.

(Okay, maybe they sing about his love too, but we never see a song in scripture that says, “Love, love, love, is the Lord God Almighty.”)

God tells us in both the Old Testament and the New to be Holy as he is. (Leviticus 11:44-45; I Peter 1:16).

God hates sin and cannot be near it. And if we are covered in its muck, we will always find ourselves at a distance from God.

This is not to say that we’ll lose our salvation or that God will stop loving us, but we will never have the close relationship that he desires to have with us.

One time, I was talking with a friend in her garage, and her two-year old daughter wandered off.

When she came back, she had a sponge in her hand that her husband had used to clean grease off of their car. So now, the grease was all over her hands and her face, yet despite this, she reached out to my friend wanting to be picked up and hugged.

Needless to say, my friend did NOT want to do that, and so her daughter started to cry. So very gingerly, my friend picked her up from behind and took her into the house to get her cleaned up.

Many times, we wonder why we feel distant from God. We wonder why he doesn’t seem to hear our prayers, or why we never seem to sense his presence.

A good question to ask yourself is, “Am I covered with muck? Is my sin making God keep his distance from me?”

The writer of Hebrews tells us,

Without holiness no one will see the Lord. (Hebrews 12:14)

A couple of notes. First, remember that though we may struggle with sin, God promises that,

If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness. (1 John 1:9)

The key is that we always seek to keep a clear conscience before God. And to do that, daily repentance is essential.

The second thing is that just because God seems distant does not necessarily mean you are in sin. There may be other reasons (which is a topic for another blog).

But repentance is a starting point. Ask God, “Is there something between you and me?”

And if there is, God will let you know. I strongly doubt God will ever tell us, “Well, I’m not going to tell you what you did wrong because you should already know.”

So if he doesn’t point out any sin in your life, then know that there are probably other reasons for his silence. And in time, he’ll let you know what they are.

But every day, you should ask yourself, “Is my heart clean before God?”

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Matthew Matthew 5

Sermon on the Mount: Mercy

Matthew

I remember having a dream one night about being at some kind of ministry training seminar or something in China of all places (I’ve never been there), and during it, our teacher told us, “You all know your Bibles well, but are you living it?”

He then started to teach about mercy, and he quoted from the passage where Jesus said, “Go and learn what this means. I desire mercy, not sacrifice.” (Matthew 9:13)

At that point, I woke up kind of wondering what it all meant.

I was on vacation at the time, and that night, I visited my brother’s church. As I was waiting for service to start, I was reading over those passages on mercy.

Then when the message started, my brother (an assistant pastor) read from James, after which he started teaching on, of all things, mercy.

Later that week, I visited my home church and my pastor spoke about…mercy.

Which kind of gave me the idea that God wanted me to learn something. And that year, God started to teach me about mercy.

It’s a lesson I’m still learning. I wish I could say I am now a completely merciful person, but I’m not. It’s an area I still need to grow in.

Jesus says here,

Blessed are the merciful, for they will be shown mercy.

What does it mean to be merciful? One thing I learned that year was to stop putting people on a measuring stick. To constantly demand that they meet the standards of my expectations.

God gave me that lesson one day while teaching English to some Japanese students.

I was getting really frustrated with some of them because of their lack of improvement. I was feeling like, “You should know this already! You learned this! Why can’t you remember?”

But God told me, “Bruce stop putting them on the measuring stick you’re setting up. Yes, they probably should be at a higher level than they are. Yes, they should probably know this by now.

But they don’t. Stop criticizing them and accept them where they are. Look at what their needs are and do what you can to meet them.”

It was a lesson I never have forgotten. So many times, people don’t meet our expectations as friends, as coworkers, as children, as husbands, and as wives. As a result we become very critical of them.

But to be merciful means to stop criticizing and to instead start asking ourselves, “What is their need? How can I meet their need?”

That was a key difference between Jesus and the Pharisees, and you see it throughout the gospels.

Another meaning of being merciful is to forgive. People often don’t deserve our forgiveness. Some aren’t even sorry for the hurt they cause us. And because of that, resentment and bitterness start to build up in our hearts.

The word resent, means “to feel again.” And when we hold resentment in our heart, whenever we think of that person that hurt us, we “feel again” the pain they caused us.

Resentment and bitterness chains us to our past. And God doesn’t want that for us. He wants us to move on and find the purposes for which he created us. But we can’t do that if we keep holding on to our past.

More importantly than that, God showed mercy to us, even though we didn’t deserve it. And because of that, he calls us to show mercy to others and forgive them even when they don’t deserve it.

And Jesus tells us time and again that if we desire mercy from God, we need to be merciful to others. We see that in this passage, in the prayer he taught his disciples, and also in the parables he taught.

How about you? How merciful are you?

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Matthew Matthew 5

Sermon on the Mount: Hungering and thirsting for righteousness

Matthew

I suppose as you look at this passage, you can read it two ways, both equally valid in my mind.

First, Jesus could be talking about having a hunger for holiness in your life. To want to live a life that’s pure and pleasing to God out of your love for him.

Yet so often we struggle. Paul talked about that struggle in Romans 7. Yet in that struggle, we see his desire for righteousness in his life.

In short, he says, “I want to do what’s right, but somehow I can’t. I just keep falling time and again. What a total mess I am!”

I know I feel the same way. I desire holiness and purity, and yet so often I fall. And it’s easy to become discouraged. To just throw in the towel and say, “Forget it. Why keep fighting? I’m just going to fall anyway.”

But Jesus encourages us here to not give up. To keep on hungering and thirsting for righteousness. Because the day will come when those desires will be fulfilled.

Ultimately that will happen in heaven. But even here on earth, God is continuing to work in us, “to will and to act in order to fulfill his good purpose.” (Philippians 2:13)

And until that day when perfection comes, the grace of God reigns. For as Paul writes in those passages in Romans,

But where sin increased, grace increased all the more, so that, just as sin reigned in death, so also grace might reign through righteousness to bring eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord. (Romans 5:20-21)

Because of this,

Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. (Romans 8:1)

But I think there’s another sense in which our hunger and thirst for righteousness will be filled.

So often we look at the world around us, and we see all the injustice and sin that is so prevalent.

We see the failings of the court systems. The laws that are being passed by politicians that are contrary to the word of God. The way moral values are changing so that what was once considered detestable and wrong are considered right.

And we wonder, “When will righteousness and justice come to our land again? Are we beyond hope?”

To be honest, I don’t think things will get better. Paul gives a pretty bleak picture of what the last days will be like. (II Timothy 3:1-5). And I do believe we are in those last days.

I personally put no hope in the politicians, the justice system, or anything else we have set up in order to make things right.

Yet I have hope. Why? Because the day will come when every knee shall bow and every tongue confess that Jesus is Lord. (Philippians 2:10-11).

So I refuse to despair at all the evil I see. Justice and righteousness will come. Our hunger and thirst for these things will be satisfied.

So until that day, I will wait and hope, not on the things of this world or the governments and institutions people have set up, but on God.

May we never lose our hunger and thirst for righteousness in our lives or in the world around us. For Jesus promises that we will be satisfied.

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Matthew Matthew 5

Sermon on the Mount: Submitted to the Father

Matthew

I have to admit that whenever I read this, I’m always having to look up the word meek. What exactly does it mean to be meek?

I suppose it would be good to say what it doesn’t mean. It doesn’t mean weak. When you look at Moses and Jesus himself, both were described as meek, but you could hardly call either of them weak. They were both very strong men.

The word meek comes from the idea of an animal that has been tamed. A tamed animal has not lost any of its strength, but is submitted to its master, and is willing to be used for his purposes.

Defined this way, Moses and Jesus can definitely be called meek.

Moses, after originally trying to fight for the Israelites on his own strength, and then giving up completely when he was essentially exiled, put himself under God’s authority and went on to accomplish great things.

Jesus, of course, while never ceasing to be God, nevertheless submitted himself to his Father’s will, going to the cross, and accomplishing the purpose for which the Father sent him, our salvation.

Both went through trying times. Both went through times of weakness. But both persevered through those trials, and kept on going until they fulfilled the purpose the Father had for them.

That’s what it means to be meek.

How about you? Are you meek? Have you submitted yourself to the Father?

When times get hard, do you complain, and ask, “Why is this happening to me? I thought I was doing what You told me?”

Or do you humble yourself before him, and continue to do his will?

It is to those people that Jesus says, “They shall inherit the earth.”

We will not go unrewarded if we submit to the Father and follow his will every day.

The question is: Will we?

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Matthew Matthew 5

Sermon on the Mount: Those who mourn

Matthew

I have probably heard hundreds of messages on the beatitudes and seen numerous commentaries, and most of the time, they interpret this verse as meaning, “Blessed are those who mourn over their sin.”

I suppose it fits in well with the idea of being poor in spirit. We see just how spiritually bankrupt we are, and because of that we mourn.

Mourning over sin can be good or bad. Mourning over sin that results in repentance leads to life. But mourning that leads to despair leads to death.

You see that in Peter’s and Judas’ lives. One repented and found life. The other found despair and killed himself.

The key question to ask is where does our mourning take our focus? On God and his grace? Or on ourselves and our utter depravity?

When we focus on God and his grace, we find comfort. When we focus on ourselves and our utter depravity, it will lead to despair.

But I’m not so sure Jesus was totally focused on mourning because of our sin.

Sometimes we mourn not because of our sin per se, but because of the brokenness in this world because of sin.

We mourn because of the sickness and death we see around us. We mourn because of all the hurt that people cause each other.

And as I said, it’s easy to despair because of it. To wonder if there’s any hope.

But again I ask, where do we place our focus when we mourn? If we focus merely on ourselves, it will lead to despair. Because in ourselves, we don’t have the power to change all the awful things around us.

When we place our focus on God, however, it leads to hope because God is above all our circumstances, and he can take what is broken and restore it. More than that, he can take what is dead, and bring it to life.

Dead relationships. Dead marriages. Dead hopes. Dead souls.

Are you broken because of sin? Are you mourning because of all the hurt you see in your life and in those around you?

Take your eyes off of yourself and on the one who gives life to that which is dead. Because when you do, you will find comfort.

Categories
Matthew Matthew 5

Sermon on the Mount: Not for the “spiritual”

Poor in spirit
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We’re skipping back to Matthew 5 at this point, and we’ll be combining the two sermons on the Mount and the Plain, as they have very similar themes.

Jesus’ words here are slightly different from those we read in Luke. Instead of saying, “Blessed are the poor,” he says “Blessed are the poor in spirit.”

While in the former, he seems to be talking to those who were monetarily poor, in this passage, he seems to be saying something different.

There’s no doubt that some Pharisees, teachers of the law, and other religious folk in the crowd were listening to Jesus speak that day.

And when others looked at them, they thought that these people must be the specially favored of God. They were so spiritual. They knew the Bible so well. They lived such righteous lives.

And probably as people looked at themselves, they felt spiritually inferior.

Jesus’ 12 disciples must have especially felt that way. They had no religious training that could compare with the religious elite. They were just fishermen. One was a despised tax collector.

They were a short-tempered, proud, bickering group. A group that Jesus often chided for a lack of faith.

And yet, Jesus said to them, “Yes you are spiritually poor. But the kingdom of God is for people just like you.”

On the other hand, many of the people they considered spiritually rich would find themselves locked out of God’s kingdom when they came to heaven’s gate. Why?

Because the truth is, we are all spiritually poor. None of us have anything we can bring before God that allows us to say, “See, you have to let me in.”

More than spiritually poor, we are spiritually bankrupt.

The Bible says,

“For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.” (Romans 3:23)

In fact, all our righteous works are but filthy rags to God. (Isaiah 64:6)

Because of this, we all need Jesus. All of us need his forgiveness and grace, from the Pharisee to the tax collector, from the pastor to the prostitute. And without it, none of us will enter his kingdom.

Do you feel spiritually poor? Know that there is hope for you.

Even if you don’t have a seminary degree, even if you’re just an ordinary person with no special qualifications, and even if you have totally messed up your life, the kingdom of God is for you.

Why? Because whether you’re a pastor, an office worker, or a prostitute, we are all the same. Sinners in need of grace.

The kingdom of God is not for the “spiritual.” It’s for the sinner.

Do you feel you’re not good enough for the kingdom of God? Cheer up. None of us are.

But if you will humble yourself before God, ask his forgiveness for your sins, and if you will receive Jesus as Lord of your life, he promises you eternal life.

And no matter who you are, there are no second-class citizens in his kingdom.

Categories
Luke Luke 6 Mark Mark 3 Matthew Matthew 10

Called to be with him, called to go out

The gospels

In these passages, we see the increasing popularity of Jesus, and perhaps it was because of these increasingly great crowds and their needs that Jesus decided to choose 12 people as his trained disciples.

As a man, Jesus was limited to one place at one time. As a result, to minister more effectively, he needed people around him to share in his work.

It truly was a motley crew he chose.

You had fishermen, a former tax collector and collaborator of the Roman government, and a former zealot who was highly nationalistic.

You also had a variety of personalities. You had the brash and bold (Peter), the skeptical (Thomas and Nathanael), and the short-tempered (James and John).

They were all quite different people. But there were three things that Jesus wanted of them. It says in Mark 3:14-15,

He appointed twelve–designating them apostles–that they might be with him and that he might send them out to preach and to have authority to drive out demons.

First and foremost, Jesus wanted people that would be with him. People who would spend time with him, and to learn from him.

Jesus still desires that today. He desires that we share in his life. That we might know him. And that we might grow to be more like him.

Second, Jesus wanted people that would go out and share the message he had given them.

So often, people read their Bibles, and they grow in their relationship with God. But it’s not enough to just know the Word. God wants us to share that message with others so that they can share in what you have.

Third, Jesus wanted people who would fight spiritual warfare. You may or may not drive out demons from people as the disciples did, but you will have to fight the spiritual forces that are out there.

As Paul wrote,

For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms. (Ephesians 6:12)

Jesus calls us to fight. Not against people, but against Satan and his spiritual forces that would blind people and doom them to eternal hell. He calls us to fight for the souls of men and women everywhere.

Every day, people are dying and going to hell. But God doesn’t want that. He wants us to go and fight that they may be saved.

That’s what it means to be a disciple of Christ. To be with Jesus. To go out and share the good news with others. And to engage in spiritual warfare.

How about you? As Christ’s disciple, are you doing these things?

Categories
Luke Luke 5 Mark Mark1 Matthew Matthew 4

Called to follow

The gospels

I do have to back up in time a bit. I just noticed I missed some crucial passages, namely where Jesus first calls the fishermen to follow him. (I’m sure this won’t be the last time I skip something by mistake.)

At any rate, these passages are a little difficult to harmonize, namely Matthew and Mark with Luke.

Any harmonization is purely speculative, but it is my guess that the events in Luke happened first, and that the events in Matthew and Mark happened shortly thereafter, perhaps a day or two later.

One day Jesus was trying to teach, but was getting pressed all the way back to the water by the huge crowds that were surrounding him.

Seeing Peter and his friends washing their nets nearby, he got into one of their boats and asked them to go out from shore a bit, and he taught from the water.

I’m not sure how much Peter and his friends wanted to do that. They’d just had a fruitless night of fishing, were tired, and probably wanted to go home. But they did as Jesus asked.

After Jesus finished teaching, however, he told them to go out further into the water to catch some fish.

At that point, Peter reached his limit. He was tired, discouraged, and wanted to waste no more time fishing this day. He certainly didn’t want to take any advice on fishing from a carpenter.

So he said,

Master, we’ve worked hard all night and haven’t caught anything. (Luke 5:5a)

But Jesus never wavered and just looked at Peter until he finally mumbled,

But because you say so, I will let down the nets. (Luke 5:5b)

So Peter and his friends went out, probably totally embarrassed. After all, nobody went fishing at that time of day. There were simply no fish to be had, and their friends in the other boat were probably all laughing at them for following Jesus’ advice.

But when they let down the nets, there were so many fish, Peter soon called his friends in the other boat to come help them, and there were so many fish, both boats began to sink.

At first, Peter was probably exuberant. But then it sank down in his heart what had just happened. He realized that this Jesus was much more than just an ordinary teacher.

And so he fell to his knees, and said,

Go away from me, Lord; I am a sinful man! (Luke 5:8)

But Jesus answered,

Don’t be afraid; from now on you will catch men. (Luke 5:10)

Again this is pure speculation, but I’m guessing that Luke compressed what happened next.

I’m guessing that they all went home that night. It’s possible that Jesus wanted them to reflect on all that had happened and the words he had spoken to them.

And then, perhaps the next morning, or shortly thereafter, while Peter and Andrew were fishing, and while James and John were mending their nets, Jesus made his formal call to them saying,

Come, follow me, and I will make you fishers of men. (Matthew 4:19)

And when they heard it, they left everything to follow him.

What can we get from this?

First, Jesus’ grace extends to us and covers all our sins and failures, just like it covered Peter’s. He didn’t condemn Peter for his sin. Rather, he called Peter into a new life.

Second, you don’t need special qualifications to follow Jesus. You don’t need to go to seminary or Bible school. Peter and his friends were simple, uneducated fishermen. But Jesus called them anyway as his primary disciples.

Third, the most important thing for us to do is to trust him and to obey him. We don’t need to understand all the whys for the things Jesus asks us to do.

But we do need a heart that says, “But because you say so, I will.” We need a heart that is willing to let go of everything we hold dear in order to follow him.

Finally, as his followers, we are called to join in Jesus’ work. To bring others into the kingdom of God.

Will you be like Peter and his friends. Will you follow the Master’s call?

Categories
Luke Luke 6 Mark Mark 3 Matthew Matthew 12

What grieves Jesus

The gospels

This is one of those stories where each of the gospels gives us a little piece of the puzzle to what happened. Here’s my take on the whole story taking into account each of the stories.

Jesus was in the synagogue, and he sees a man there with a shriveled hand. But he also notices the scrutiny he’s getting from the Pharisees and teachers of the law, and he knows that they’re waiting to see if he will break their rules concerning the Sabbath and heal the man. (Mark 3:1-2)

So Jesus deliberately calls the man to come up, and as he does, the religious leaders ask,

Is it lawful to heal on the Sabbath? (Matthew 12:10)

Jesus, as he typically does, responds to the question with a question of his own.

I ask you, which is lawful on the Sabbath: to do good or to do evil, to save life or to destroy it? (Luke 6:9)

This was of course an unanswerable question for these leaders. They would have sounded stupid if they had said it was wrong to do good on the Sabbath or to save a life. How can you dishonor God on the Sabbath by doing good and saving lives?

But if they had said it was lawful, Jesus would have said, “You’ve just answered your own question,” and immediately healed the man.

On the other hand, there was no way they could say it was lawful to do evil or destroy life on the Sabbath.

So in the face of this unanswerable question, they remained silent. For as the old saying goes, “Better to remain silent and be thought a fool than to speak and to remove all doubt.”

Luke tells us that Jesus looked around the room for an answer, but Mark adds a bit more information in chapter 3 verse 5. He says,

He looked around at them in anger…deeply distressed at their stubborn hearts (NASB — “hardness of heart”).

So Jesus probes them further, saying,

If any of you has a sheep and it falls into a pit on the Sabbath, will you not take hold of it and lift it out?

How much more valuable is a man than a sheep! (Matthew 12:11-12a)

In other words, “You are willing to help your sheep if it falls into a pit on the Sabbath? Which is more important, a person or a sheep? And if people are more important, how can you accuse me of breaking the Sabbath when I heal a man?”

So Jesus concludes,

Therefore it is lawful to do good on the Sabbath. (Matthew 12:12b)

He then healed the man.

The irony of all this? Jesus had asked them, “Is it lawful on the Sabbath to save life or destroy it?”

And right after this event, on the Sabbath, the religious leaders started plotting to kill Jesus. (Mark 3:6)

But the verse that strikes me is Mark 3:5. That when Jesus saw these leaders’ hardened hearts, it grieved him.

They were so hardened by their legalism and by their traditions, God’s word and truth could not penetrate their hearts. Even when they had to know deep in their hearts they were wrong (as proven by their silence), they would not admit it.

How about you? You may not be as legalistic as the Pharisees, but are there areas in your life where you’ve hardened your heart to God?

You’re doing something wrong, or your way of thinking is wrong, and God has spoken to your heart and shown you your error and your sin, and you know you’re wrong. You know you need to change.

But instead, you cling to your old way of thinking. You cling to your sin. This kind of hardness of heart grieves God.

It grieves him because he wants so much better for you. It grieves him because by refusing to repent, you not only hurt him, but you hurt yourself, and those around you.

Let us have hearts softened to him. Receptive to his word. May we not bring grief to Jesus who died for us, but let us bring him joy.