31 October 2013

Psalm 50; Neh. 1-1:11; Rev. 5:11-6:11; Matt. 13:18-23

Nehemiah reminds me of so many people I met in Rwanda in years past.  The genocide actually began there in the late 1950's with many going into exile from their own country over the next thirty years and then when the killing ended in 1994 these exiles began returning to rebuild their country.  Some I met had never been to Rwanda until 1994 as they were children of exile, whose parents had kept alive in them the dream of their own country and the hope it would one day be the place where they returned.  Nehemiah is a child of exile, this is now seventy years later from the time of Jeremiah and he would never have known the city in either its glory or its disaster.  When he meets a fellow countryman he is cupbearer to the king, a trusted and respected position in the kingdom.  What he hears of the condition of Jerusalem causes him to fast, weep and mourn many days and cry out to the Lord in the same fashion the slaves in Egypt had done centuries before.  He asks the Lord to see and hear, just as he had done so long ago.  He prays well and truthfully, the situation now is because of sin and not "their" sin but his and his family's sin as well.  His request is not based in fairness and justice because they do not deserve those things, it is based in the Word and promises of God to those who repent, His faithful lovingkindness He proclaimed Himself.  Nehemiah is resolved to take the matter also to the king and asks for favor.  He believes that his God is God also over the pagan king he serves and can dispose the heart of the king favorably towards him.

Jesus explains the parable of the sower to the disciples.  Again, He doesn't tell them to be careful where they sow, only that some will fail, some will flourish for a time and some will produce more abundantly than you can imagine.  No planning is necessary for sowing in the kingdom, we are simply to sow.  God has changed the soil in many lives from completely unproductive to remarkably productive by tending and tilling it through trials and other means.  What today is unreceptive and stony may one day be the most fertile soil imaginable.  For that reason we should never stint on sowing because God is still working on soil.

After the heavenly host worships the Lamb, an amazing thing to turn from the throne to the Lamb and offer the same praise and worship, He then takes the scroll and begins to open the seals.  It doesn't take long to see that these are the very judgments of God on the earth, famine, pestilence, death and plague.  Like Nehemiah we can only plead for mercy because we are responsible for sin and these judgments are a consequence of sin.  These trials can be God's way of preparing some to receive the Good News of salvation and eternal life, they can be used by Him to convict of sin, righteousness and judgment just as Jesus said in John 16.  In this time we need to be sowing into the lives of all we know in order that when He has prepared the ground they will not only receive but they will remember what was already sown.  Identification with sin and sinners in such times is required, not separation and Pharisaism.

30 October 2013

Psalm 119:49-72; Ezra 6:1-22; Rev. 5:1-10; Matt. 13:10-17

You have to believe that Tattenai, the governor of the province Beyond the River, Shethar-bozenai, and their associates were shocked at the response of the king.  Not only did he find the original authorization to rebuild the temple from Cyrus he also noted that in it the expense of rebuilding was to be borne by the royal treasury.  Darius, therefore, ordered the governor to pay for the costs of rebuilding plus provide for all the sacrificial animals necessary to give worship to the God of heaven.  Notice that He is not said to be God of heaven and earth, and that He has simply caused His Name to dwell in Jerusalem.  He is more than Darius knows but for whatever reason he may have had for doing so, he pays homage to this God of whom he knows little.  What a celebration that Passover must have been when the temple had been rebuild, sacrifices could again be made and they were in the city of God once again.  The Lord had indeed been good to His people once again and had brought them back from yet another exile in a new exodus from Babylon.  Just as before, He had also used a foreign nation under whose rule they had been to provide all that was necessary to build His house of worship.

The Lord reveals Himself to whom He wills.  Darius had an incomplete knowledge of the Lord and what he did know should have caused him to seek to know more.  If He was indeed God of heaven, wouldn't that mean He was the great God of gods?  If that were the case wouldn't it them seem reasonable to believe that He was superior to them and they, then, subordinate to Him?  Jesus spoke the truth in parables and why did the people not ask Him to explain?  We have information provided to us about God all day, beginning with our waking in the morning, the sun continuing to do what we expect, rain, snow, etc.  We see in all of creation that which should cause us to be thankful and to wonder how it all came to be and why it continues to be as it is, why not have some incredible change in things from time to time.  We were made to ask such questions and to seek out information, not to take things for granted.  We have enough information to form questions and attempt to find answers and we also have the ability to ask for further information and explanation.  Let us not allow our hearts to grow dull and to cease to wonder and in our wondering to find Him.

We just heard the proclamation that God was worthy and now we see Him sitting on the throne holding a sealed scroll and all of heaven is looking for one who is worthy to take it and open it.  None was found in the search and then John is told it is okay, the Lion of the tribe of Judah has just finished His work of conquest and then John sees, standing there before the throne, not a lion but a lamb looking like it was slain but it had the same seven spirits that God had in chapter four.  The lamb approaches the throne, surely a moment that caught some breaths, and takes the scroll.  Only then, when the one on the throne has given over the scroll, does heaven breathe and when it does it explodes not in relief but in worship, ascribing the same sort of praise and worship to the Lamb as it had the one on the throne.  They also proclaim that His work has made it possible for God's people to reign on the earth, His kingdom knows no geographic or temporal boundaries.  Thanks be to God that He is willing to get His hands dirty and bloody in order to tell us that this life matters both now and in eternity.  He does not watch us from a distance, He is God of heaven and earth.

29 October 2013

Psalm 45; Ezra 5:1-17; Rev. 4:1-11; Matt. 13:1-9

There is a perceived threat in the rebuilding of the temple.  The governor and his associates demand to know who gave the authority to rebuild and who are the men who are doing the rebuilding and the Jews tell him that Cyrus gave the original authority to rebuild and the men themselves are nothing more than servants of the Lord of heaven and earth, no names are recorded in the letter.  The governor does, however, note that their work is done to restore that which was built by some former king of theirs whose name is apparently meaningless to him.  He also notes that the work is progressing rapidly, orderly and with some skill.  The original mandate has been given to another and the governor asks that the king, Darius, make a search to determine whether there was such a grant.  In addition the letter asks the king to "send us his pleasure in this matter."  Cyrus may well have made such a decree but that isn't necessarily binding on the present king, he still may deny permission.  That was the point of the entire letter, either they are doing this illegally or the king may want to stop this construction project before it gets too far along, for these men describe themselves as " the servants of the God of heaven and earth" and not of the king or the king's god.

It seems that the point of the parable is indiscriminate sowing.  The sower casts his seed wherever in a willy-nilly fashion and some dries out and produces nothing, other produces something for a season until weeds overtake it and other produces a bumper crop.  Would anyone farm that way?  How does the parable square with the idea of not casting pearls before swine?  Jesus, who alone knew who would respond to His message and offer of grace, preached to all and sundry, whoever came to Him.  That should be our marching order as well, we have no idea where the seed will be sown so as to produce a crop.  Who are we to determine who is "swine"?  There were times in my life when it would certainly have looked foolish to believe that the Gospel would find profitable ground.  The call is simply to tell the Good News to anyone and everyone, anywhere and everywhere and leave the result to Him who is the preparer of the soil of men's hearts.

Praise, as opposed to thanksgiving, sounds just like verse 11, “Worthy are you, our Lord and God, to receive glory and honor and power, for you created all things, and by your will they existed and were created.”  He is worthy of praise for what He has done which reveals His power and might as well as His love and His creative imagination.  Creation should send us to the throne in praise.  What we see and the fact that we have our senses to perceive that glory should inspire us each day to praise Him and to ponder Him.  A God who can create in such beauty and in such incomprehensible scope and scale deserves to be pondered don't you think?  Further, that He sought relationship with us and elevates us in this glorious and incomprehensible creation should cause us to praise Him and submit to Him.  It is a glorious privilege to be His servant, not a burden.

28 October 2013

Psalm 41, 52; Zech. 1:7-17; Rev. 1:4-20; Matt. 12:43-50

Zechariah sees a vision of a man who he soon knows to be an angel, on a red horse in a forest of myrtle trees along with three others on horses.  What he finds is that they are the angels who watch over the earth and they have completed their mission for the day and are reporting back to the Lord concerning the state of the earth.  What they have found is that the whole earth is at rest this night.  The prophet is outraged at this situation.  His anger is based in the reality that for seventy years the people of God have not been at rest, they are suffering and the yet the people of the remainder of the earth, the people not of God, are at rest.  Where is the Lord in that situation?  How can this be good in the eyes of God that everyone but His people rest and prosper and His city and the temple where He lived are now in ruins?  The Lord answers that the time has come when He will reverse the situation.  He, too, is angry that the people of earth have delighted in the misfortune of His people and in fact have made it worse.  Now is the announcement that these seventy years have ended and He will restore the city, the temple, and the people.

Jesus teaches on discipleship.  Maybe you missed that but what He was saying is that when the work of redemption or salvation is done, when a person confesses Him as Lord and Savior, that which formerly was lord of that person's life is driven out.  Afterwards those demonic lords roam like the angels that Zechariah saw looking for another place to inhabit.  Unless discipleship happens and the convert's life is filled with the Word and the Spirit then all that is done is that the former habitation is now prepared to be filled again.  We do the same when we gain victory over some sin in our life, we need to fill that empty space left behind with some new practice, some discipline.  Remarkably, Jesus says of His own mother and family that those who are hungry for the Word and the knowledge of God are more important than even blood ties.  We, like Zechariah and Jesus, have to fully identify with God's people in this way.

John, like Zechariah, is startled by a vision.  He is "in the Spirit" on the Lord's day on the island of Patmos where he, too, is in exile.  He sees not a man on a horse (yet) among the myrtle trees but one like a son of man among golden lampstands, a far more glorious vision and setting.  His reaction to this one is less blasé than Zechariah's reaction to seeing the angel, John falls to his knees in fear of this man.  Try and conjure up the image in your mind and heart that John describes in verses 12-16 and see if you think you could stand in His presence.  This is an important vision, the Lord comes in person, not an angel, what comes next must be listened to and obeyed.  You can be sure John gave it his complete attention.

27 October 2013

Psalm 63, 98; Haggai 1:1-2:9; Acts 18:24-19:7; Luke 10:25-37

Haggai speaks to the community who have returned to Jerusalem to rebuild the city and they were spectacularly successful in rebuilding the walls under Nehemiah, accomplishing the task of re-fortifying the city in less than two months.  Now, they have gone about the business of re-establishing it as a city, beginning with their businesses and houses and the Lord speaks to them through the prophet and asks them a simple question, "Why do you focus on yourselves rather than me and my house?"  Apparently they have an order in mind for how this work should go and it begins with meeting their own needs and desires.  Once that work is complete they can then see to the house of the Lord, exactly as David had done.  He, however, says that they are finding that they are not prospering in their work but if they will reverse the order, building His house first and their own later, this will all change, He will prosper them as they make much of Him.  His encouragement to the work is great and they begin to listen and obey.

Does Jesus answer the man's question, "Who is my neighbor?"  At the end of the parable He asks a question of His own, "Which of these three, do you think, proved to be a neighbor to the man who fell among the robbers?”  The answer to the man's question is found in Jesus' question, whoever needs me to be their neighbor is my neighbor.  The man wanted to justify himself, feel good that he had discharged his duty to love his neighbor by limiting the class of neighbor to either Jews or even a smaller subset of that class, perhaps other lawyers.  In the parable Jesus gives no clue to the identity of the man who was robbed and beaten, he could be a Jew or he might not be but either way, a duty was owed by those who saw his plight.  That duty, Jesus said, superseded even service in the temple.  What would happen if I called this morning and said I wasn't going to be able to be at church to preach and celebrate communion because I was tending to the needs of one I met on the way there?  How would you feel about that?

Apparently Apollos was a great speaker but there was something lacking in his knowledge base, knowledge of the fullness of what Jesus had done.  He was a great logician and apologist but he knew nothing of the Holy Spirit baptism.  Because of that lack, his people were lacking in their discipleship, they were missing a key ingredient.  Leaders can only take the flock as far as they have gone and so long as we aren't growing neither will the people the Lord has entrusted to our care.  Paul immediately upon meeting these disciples knew something was missing.  Too often in the church we rely on human cleverness and methodology rather than the Holy Spirit and when we do we lack the power the church should have.  We become an academic institution and the world isn't searching for an education they need an encounter with something more, the God of all creation, Lord of heaven and earth.  It is safer to be an educational institution than the church that God wants.