30 April 2015

Psalm 50; Wisdom 5:9-23; Col. 2:8-23; Luke 6:39-49

The first six verses are certainly depressing aren’t they?  We don’t matter, don’t make a difference in the world, don’t leave a trace behind that we really existed.  It sounds an awful lot like the philosophy of Ecclesiastes, that all this stuff we consider of ultimate importance is actually meaningless, even our lives.  Verse 15 changes everything, “But the righteous live forever…”  The conclusions of this passage and book and Eccelsiastes are very similar.  So long as we focus our lives and attention on things of earth, the things that aren’t material in the sense that they aren’t eternal, we ourselves are immaterial in the same way.  Ecclesiastes calls us to look to those things “above the sun” as of ultimacy and this passage tells us that if we do, we find immortality in ourselves because the more we value God and the things of God He finds and assigns value to us.  The Beatitudes are Jesus’ restatement of that truth in very simple and concise terms.

Jesus’ admonition here is to focus our attention on ourselves rather than the flaws of others.  He is telling the disciples how to become like Him, the goal of disciple-making by the rabbis in ancient Israel.  He says clearly, “everyone when he is fully trained will be like his teacher.”  What does it mean to be “like” the teacher?  In context, it meant that the disciple would literally think, walk, talk and teach like his teacher.  The goal was to be like the teacher in every way.  Only in this way could the tradition be passed accurately.  The disciple would themselves become a teacher and take the understanding of his teacher forward, not by repetition and rote but by thinking further on what was passed on to him, accepting the guard rails of thought that had been passed on through the teaching of their rabbi.  One generation builds on the one before without throwing out the past.  We build on Jesus, who affirmed the entire law and taught its proper interpretation.

The passage begins with a warning that I wonder if we can completely heed.  “See to it that no one takes you captive by philosophy and empty deceit, according to human tradition…”  The problem is that we come to Christ and the Bible with a lot of preconceived ideas.  We come with a worldview that doesn’t include Him and then we layer Him on top of that worldview.  Paul told the Romans that transformation begins with the renewing of the mind and so it does.  We need always to try and hear the Word speaking against what we hold dear that it might re-shape us in its image.  That old way of thinking is what got us into sin and death and we have been re-born with Christ in baptism.  Paul’s arguments against new moons and festivals is not that they are per se wrong, but that they are mere shadows that were fulfilled in Jesus who is the fullness of these things.  Reversion to the shadows would be preference to the light of Christ.  Those things built to Him and now we know the full truth.  He is the key to understanding all things.

29 April 2015

Psalm 119:49-72; Wisdom 4:16-5:8; Col. 1:24-2:7; Luke 6:27-38

As I write this blog, we are a couple of days away from the massacre of nearly 150 students at a university in Kenya.  These students were Christians, they were separated from Muslim students on that basis alone and murdered by “militants.”  Such things are happening with increasing frequency and at home, we see our culture becoming increasingly secular and writers for newspapers such as the NY Times suggesting that Christians should be “made to take homosexuality off the sin list.” Jesus said we would be hated for believing.  Here, the writer takes for granted that the unrighteous will exult in triumph over the defeat and death of the righteous.  What is our attitude to be towards this?  Yesterday, the Beatitudes answered that question.  We are to weep and mourn over the world.  Here, we are given the promise that ultimately righteousness will prevail, judgment will come.  The cross says none are righteous, and Jesus’ prayer was, “Father, forgive them.”  He had compassion on His tormentors because He knew they were ignorant, under the sway of a delusion from hell.  We should be glad when unrighteousness is judged but loving towards the unrighteous.

Without the cross, we would all hate this teaching, “Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, bless those who curse you, pray for those who abuse you. To one who strikes you on the cheek, offer the other also, and from one who takes away your cloak do not withhold your tunic either.”  Truth be told, we mostly don’t like it now, it is not natural to us because we live in a sinful world and we participate too deeply in the fall, the sin nature is strong.  It is human and natural to want to see those who hate and hurt us get “what they deserve” and to judge others while failing to judge ourselves.  There is enough to deal with in my life without bothering judging others.  We are called to compassion for both ourselves and others in loving them as we love ourselves.  If we judged ourselves as harshly as we judge others would we have a better understanding of grace? 

The Jews didn’t appreciate Paul’s ministry to bring the Gentiles into the covenant through the blood of Jesus and faith alone.  They wanted to add to the cross, they wanted to add circumcision and the Law.  Jesus came to fulfill the Law and Paul’s preaching of the cross with nothing added to it as sufficient for inclusion into the covenant community was a bridge too far.  Jesus exposed the best attempts of the Pharisees at righteousness as misguided and incomplete, lacking in the critical respect of love.  If Christ in me is the hope of glory, then my hope isn’t found in external observances to any written law but obedience to the law written on my heart.  The law that begins with loving your enemies, doing good to those who hate you, blessing those who curse you and praying for those who abuse you.  If they think the written law is tough, try Jesus’ way.

28 April 2015

Psalm 45; Wisdom 3:1-9; Col 1:15-23; Luke 6:12-26

Wisdom comes from knowing Jesus, knowing about eternal life, the resurrection from the dead.  The writer here contrasts those who know such things with those who do not “In the eyes of the foolish they (the righteous) seemed to have died, and their departure was thought to be a disaster, and their going from us to be their destruction…”  Those who know and believe in the resurrection from the dead can take a long view of life, we know that this life isn’t all there is, it is actually the brief part of our lives.  If we set our sights on eternity we find that this world takes on a different cast, we see things as they really are, passing away and we attach our hearts to things eternal.  We are willing to risk all for the sake of the kingdom of God, including our lives.  We are willing to be persecuted here for the reward which comes after physical death.  Our lives are important so long as they give us opportunity to glorify Him, remembering that it was in His death that Jesus most glorified the Father but that all that went before was part of that glorification as well.

 Jesus prayed all night prior to choosing the disciples.  Is that how churches generally choose leaders?  Too often we make it nothing more than a popularity contest and ask people to vote for leaders.  What that betrays is that we don’t know the proper role of leaders in the church.  We need leaders who are disciples, leaders with wisdom, leaders who are people of prayer.  The Sermon on the Mount begins with Jesus imparting wisdom to the disciples, telling them His own attitude towards life.  Luke tells us that Jesus lifted up His eyes on His disciples prior to speaking.  He is telling them how to understand and relate to the world around them in these beatitudes.  It is a radical departure for most, blessed are the poor, the hungry, those who weep, the hated and despised.  In what worldview is that true other than Jesus’?  Maybe we all need to pray so that we might come into alignment with Jesus here, we tend to forget these truths.

We aren’t far removed from Good Friday so it might be worth thinking from the world’s perspective for a minute about the events of that day.  Does that look like someone making peace and reconciliation?  Reconciliation and peace actually do often require people to lay down their claims to innocence in order to see their relationship restored.  Jesus was innocent of all sin but He laid down the claim to righteousness in order to identify with sinners and rebels.  If He had refused to go to the cross, refused to allow Himself to be beaten, mocked and crucified, we would have no hope in the world of reconciliation with God, we were committing the ultimate act of rejection and rebellion.  If He can lay that aside for love, can we not do the same in our interpersonal relationships when we know in our hearts that we are rarely, if ever, completely innocent in the breach?  Real righteousness seeks peace and reconciliation.

27 April 2015

Psalm 41, 52; Wisdom 1:16-2:11,21-24; Col. 1:1-14; Luke 6:1-11

As an example of reasoning unsoundly, our author says the ungodly reason, “For we were born by mere chance…”  That is the spirit of our age.  In philosophy and science today anything like teleology, that anything has a “purpose” is ruled out and studied only for its existence.  The world doesn’t have a purpose, it just is, you don’t have a purpose, you simply are.  If we rule out the idea that we have a purpose and that the cosmos has a purpose, we fail to live in wonder and expectation.  Meaning is individually constructed but can be changed at any time.  The Bible tells a different story, doesn’t it?  It tells us that we were created purposefully and lovingly and for a purpose.  It tells us in the incarnation that we have meaning.  The Westminster Shorter Catechism says that the chief end of man is to glorify God and enjoy Him forever.  This author says, “God created us for incorruption, and made us in the image of his own eternity, but through the devil’s envy death entered the world, and those who belong to his company experience it.”  Take your pick.

Jesus teaches regarding the Sabbath in both scenes in our Gospel reading.  In the first, His disciples are simply reaching out, taking grain from the heads of the stalks and rubbing it in their hands to extract the edible portion.  This, however, is defined as work, grinding grain, however it is done.  The Pharisees confront Jesus and His first offense is to compare this to David and his men on the run from Saul and eating the bread from the temple, which was only to be eaten by the priests.  The second was to say that the Son of Man was lord of the Sabbath.  Lord of the Sabbath would indicate that He predated the Sabbath.  There was only one lord of the Sabbath and it was the Father.  The second statement regarding the Sabbath was in the healing of the man with the withered hand.  It was indeed allowable to do good on Sabbath to beasts of burden and other animals.  Jesus makes the obvious statement that if you can help these, how much more a man?  There was no doubt these things would infuriate the legalists.

Paul prays that the Colossians “may be filled with the knowledge of his will in all spiritual wisdom and understanding, so as to walk in a manner worthy of the Lord.”  Meaning and purpose are bound up in the knowledge of God’s will.  If we know this, we know something of how to get there, how to walk worthy.  His will is for us to be like His Son, to think like Him and to live like Him.  There is great freedom in the Son, the freedom from legalism Jesus demonstrated in the Gospels.  The way is narrow but it isn’t restrictive in the sense that we are walking a tightrope through life.  What seems narrow to those who take the broad path becomes remarkable in its freedom when you understand the boundaries.  Our purpose doesn’t change but we have great liberty in expression.

26 April 2015

Psalm 63, 98; Wisdom 1:1-15; 1 Pet. 5:1-11; Matt. 7:15-29

“Love righteousness, you rulers of the earth, think of the Lord in goodness and seek him with sincerity of heart; because he is found by those who do not put him to the test, and manifests himself to those who do not distrust him.”  When you think of the encounters Jesus had with various people in the Gospels, you see the truth of this statement.  Those who came in faith went away whole and filled with faith while those who, like the scribes, Sadducees and Pharisees, came with doubts, attempting to test Him, went away with nothing, just as Mary had said in her prayer, “he has filled the hungry with good things, and the rich he has sent away empty.”  When we approach the Lord, we should do so with humility and faith, with a desire to know Him on His terms, not our own.  Too many scholars today go on a quest of their own devising, bringing their skepticism and preconceptions to their work rather than an honest and earnest desire to believe and know.

“Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven.”  That is a frightening idea because we have told people, “if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved”, exactly what Paul wrote in Romans 10.  Jesus, however, adds a condition to the speaking, doing the will of the Father.  Paul would say exactly the same thing and in exactly the same order.  Confession leads to action.  You are saved by faith but faith necessarily brings forth fruit in keeping with faith.  There are those who are workers of lawlessness while simultaneously using the Name of Jesus as a mantra to build up themselves.  Humility and a desire to please and exalt Jesus are the hallmarks of faith.

Leaders, shepherds, are to exercise their offices not as ones under compulsion, doing the work simply because it is their job.  They are not to do so for shameful gain, in order to get something, money or prestige in the community.  They are also not to do so in a domineering fashion, as authorities who care not for others except as factors of production or those who increase their numbers.  All are to be clothed with humility towards one another and towards God.  Too often in our day we see haughty and arrogant leadership who care little for those under their care and it sometimes goes the other way around, the shepherds are treated with scorn as employees of the church rather than servants of the Lord who are accountable first to Him for their leadership.

25 April 2015

Psalm 30, 32; Dan. 6:16-28; 3 John 1-15; Luke 5:27-39

Even though the king was responsible both directly and indirectly for Daniel being in the lion’s den, he prayed on Daniel’s behalf, “May your God, whom you serve continually, deliver you!”  I can understand the “your God” at this point at some level.  The king obviously thought highly of Daniel, fasting on his behalf and losing sleep over the issue. Why not commute the sentence?  He couldn’t do it and maintain his own belief and that of his subjects, in his infallibility.  In the king’s haste early in the morning to get to Daniel can you feel a similarity to the women going to the tomb of Jesus?  Payback was swift for those officials who tricked the king into this arrogant decree and in the end, the king commanded the people to tremble in fear before the God of Daniel, finishing with words very closely resembling the words of the Babylonian king before him in Chapter 4.  Daniel’s exile caused two separate kings, one Babylonian and one Persian, to give glory to God.  Is your exile going as well?

The call of Matthew puts the disciples into uncomfortable situations.  Matthew wants to introduce his old friends to his new friends, the tax collectors to the one he believes to be Messiah.  That gathering and feast with these men was scandalous and the Pharisees asked the question that must have been on the disciples’ minds, what in the world are you doing here with these people?  Jesus makes no excuses for His presence here, these are the sick ones, and He is the healer, so where else would He be?  His reference to calling sinners to repentance reminds them that a convenient way to change the subject is to refer to the other one who has recently called for repentance of sinners, John, and to compare their ministries, one feasting and the other fasting.  Jesus, in calling Himself the bridegroom, certainly was offensive, I am the one you’ve been waiting for is the implication.  Like Daniel, Jesus makes no pretense of bowing to authority other than the Father.

As a pastor and as a father, I understand John’s words, “I have no greater joy than to hear that my children are walking in the truth.”  It is indeed a wonderful thing to know that those in your care are walking in the truth.  Apparently Gaius was a man of peace, a man of hospitality, who gave aid to and welcomed traveling evangelists, those who went out “for the sake of the name.”  There was, however, a problem, a man in the local church called Diotrephes (fantastic sermon on this man by John McArthur here) “who likes to put himself first, does not acknowledge our authority.”  This man didn’t acknowledge the authority of the apostle John.  Think about that one for a minute.  John wrote a Gospel, was exiled for his faith, and was the beloved disciple and this man, Diotrephes, refused to accept John’s authority. The same thing happens today in some churches which fail to believe the Word of God.  The same thing happens every day in our lives when we refuse to accept the authority of God in aspects of our lives.  The cross happened for that very reason.  John is clear, don’t be like Diotrephes.  Who’s the authority in your life, yourself, some other person, or Jesus?

24 April 2015

Psalm 105:1-22; Dan. 6:1-15; 2 John 1-13; Luke 5:12-26

The Medes and Persians believed in some form of a doctrine of infallibility in their kings and leaders.  If a law were on the books, it was incontrovertible, sacrosanct.  The other leaders in the kingdom were jealous of this exile, Daniel’s, rise to power in their world.  They found a way to trick the king into issuing a decree that would do one of two things, it would force Daniel to recognize the king as supreme and his laws as inviolable or it would force the king to enforce the law by putting Daniel into the lion’s den for his failure to recognize the king as the supreme law giver.  It was a play to the king’s vanity and it worked the way they knew it would.  They knew Daniel wouldn’t obey it, the first possibility was a null possibility because they knew Daniel was a faithful man to his God.  They also knew the king would enforce the law because of the same vanity that caused him to issue it.  If he failed to enforce the law, it was an admission of fallibility; a Catch-22 situation unless the king was willing to bow his knee before Daniel’s God.

These two stories have something in common beyond the healing of hopeless cases.  What they have in common is that Jesus did something in both that seemed unnecessary and yet was the most important part of the healing.  In the first instance we are told that this man who was “full of leprosy” approached Jesus, which was absolutely forbidden for a leper to do.  He would have been required to warn anyone coming his way that he was a leper and to therefore stay well clear of him because of the potential for contagion and therefore ritual impurity.  Jesus, however, not only allowed this breach without rebuke, He stretched out His hand and touched the man as part of the healing.  Touch was something denied this person so long as he showed any signs of leprosy, it was an act of pure love, identifying with the leper and his leprosy while at the same time communicating the purity of God to this man in healing him.  The same as the cross and the taking away of sin.  In the second healing, Jesus offered forgiveness first and healing second.  There seemed to be no reason other than provocation for this based on the reaction of the scribes and Pharisees, but we cannot believe Jesus did this for only that reason.  Sin must have been somehow connected with this paralysis and must have spoken deeply to the man’s soul, it would have only been a partial healing if his mobility had been restored without the forgiveness of sin.

John writes to this community, “the elect lady and her children”, for two purposes, to encourage those who know the truth to walk in the truth, obedient to the commandment to love one another, and also to warn concerning antichrists, not to receive them.  His particular concern is those who deny that Jesus came “in the flesh.”  We’ve seen that this was apparently a major concern in the region in which John ministered.  Docetism, the idea that Jesus just seemed to be in the flesh, is a problem in that if He didn’t take on flesh then did He redeem it?  Does the flesh matter at all or is only the soul of importance?  John knew that the flesh was important, we are created in the image of God not simply enfleshed souls, important enough that those who deny this were not considered to be in the truth and must be treated as lepers, kept at a distance, for the safety of the church. 

23 April 2015

Psalm 37:1-18; Dan. 5:13-30; 1 John 5:13-21; Luke 5:1-11

Daniel knew that he had overcome the world.  He not only knew it, he lived in to it.  He spoke without fear to the king of one of the greatest nations on the earth.  The king, Daniel said, had not humbled his heart even though he knew full well the story of his predecessor who, when he became proud and lifted up, was humbled by the Lord for seven years when he was literally out of his mind, acting like a beast of the field.  The king offered Daniel gifts and honor if he could and would interpret the words written by the hand on the wall but Daniel said to the king, keep your gifts and honor, I am not seeking anything at all from you, I am here because of a greater king than you.  His interpretation was that the king was going to lose his kingdom and it seems certain that the king believed he would simply lose the kingdom, not guessing that he would, this night, lose his life, the text says he was killed, we don’t know exactly what happened.  He gave honor to Daniel but should have given honor to Daniel’s God.

Peter is willing to allow the rabbi to get in his boat and teach a bit but wasn’t prepared to go fishing again.  He had already cleaned his nets from the night prior when they caught nothing, they were prepared for the next night and he was probably looking forward to getting some sleep.  He was willing, nonetheless, to push out, drop the nets and try again, which meant he would also have to clean the nets again afterwards, because Jesus said to.  He was rewarded with a catch so large that he needed help from his friends to bring it in.  Peter saw this as a sign that Jesus was more than a teacher, he was more than “master”, he was “Lord.”  The sign was incredibly personal, something only a fisherman would appreciate.  It was enough that all four men left everything and followed Him.  In John 4, the Samaritan woman at the well left her water jar behind because of Jesus, here, the fishermen left their catch which would have been quite valuable, and followed Jesus.

John uses the word “know” multiple times in these few verses.  He writes to those who believe that they may know they have eternal life.  That knowing then means that we have confidence that He hears our prayers and that those prayed in accord with His will have been fulfilled.  We also know that a person who has truly been born of God does not keep on sinning, a change has happened in that person’s life, they have received the Holy Spirit and new birth.  We know that we are “from God” and that the whole world lies in the power of the evil one.  That is a powerful piece of knowledge and I wonder if we honestly “know” it.  Knowing that should give us the same compassion and mercy towards others that Jesus showed those who crucified Him, understanding they are people who believe a lie about this world and about God.  The final knowing tells us how we should then live in the world, “And we know that the Son of God has come and has given us understanding, so that we may know him who is true; and we are in him who is true, in his Son Jesus Christ. He is the true God and eternal life. Little children, keep yourselves from idols.”  What is idolatry?  The exaltation of anything under the sun and ascribing it ultimacy in our lives in any shape, form or fashion.  What does the way you spend your time and money reveal about your “knowing” and understanding the world?

22 April 2015

Psalm 38; Dan. 5:1-12; 1 John 5:1-12; Luke 4:38-44

The events of this chapter occurred during the year that Babylon fell to the Persians whose king, Cyrus, would allow the exiles to return to Israel.  Nebuchadnezzar wasn’t strictly the father of Belshazzar but rather his predecessor as the footnote states.  His arrogance and disregard for the things of God would be extremely offensive to the Jewish exile community in taking the vessels from the temple for this party.  Praising then the “gods” of the vessels themselves, gold and silver, bronze, iron, wood, and stone would multiply the sinfulness.  The fingers of a human hand then appeared and wrote on the plaster and while the king could not read the writing he recognized immediately that this wasn’t good news and greatly feared.  Once again, like in Egypt, the magicians and wise men of Babylon could not read this writing but the queen remembered a man who must now have been quite old for the times, who had proven himself the greatest of all the wise men in the land and, once again, after a long period of not being in the spotlight, the man Daniel was summoned.

After a long period of time when there were no prophets in Israel, a period of waiting and divine silence that had lasted four hundred years, an angel appeared to Zechariah, a child was born to he and his wife, and that child began prophesying about the kingdom of God coming.  Now, the one to whom John pointed begins to minister in power and authority and the people don’t know what to make of Him but the demons do.  They want to keep Jesus right here, for themselves, but He says the mission for which He was sent requires Him to move on, proclaim the kingdom in all places in Israel.  That proclamation was accompanied by powerful demonstrations of healing and exorcism which pointed to not its imminent arrival but that it was a present reality in Jesus. 

John makes a powerful statement here: “For everyone who has been born of God overcomes the world. And this is the victory that has overcome the world—our faith.”  Our faith has overcome the world?  It certainly doesn’t look like our faith has overcome the world.  In many places Christians are persecuted and killed, like in Iraq and in other parts of the Middle East.  In the United States and other places in the west the secularization of societies is leading to businesses owned by Christians being sued into bankruptcy for failing to get in line with the secular agenda.  What is the basis of our faith?  It is the cross, hardly a symbol of victory, a man dying there in futility, powerlessness to the world that opposed Him.  The resurrection gives power to the cross, it is the power that exposes the illusion of worldly power.  The illusion now has no power because we know it is coming to a close, that there is the power of life that the world can neither give nor take away.  We can live by the same power, the power of faith that this isn’t all there is, there is a greater power than any king, no matter how desperate and hopeless it seems to us at the moment.  Lift up your heads to the coming King, bow before Him and adore Him, sing, sing!

21 April 2015

Psalm 26, 28; Dan. 4:28-37; 1 John 4:7-21; Luke 4:31-37

A year or so ago there was a ruckus in the conservative community in America over a remark the president made about businesses that included the idea, “you didn’t build that.”  Here, Nebuchadnezzar says of the royal palace that it is something, “I have built by my mighty power as a royal residence and for the glory of my majesty”.  For this, the failure to give credit to God and for his motive, the glory of his own majesty, the king is brought low like a beast.  Not until he recognized the Lord were his senses and his kingdom restored to him, and added to even more than before.  In that little hymn of praise here we hear the echo of the first words of this chapter concerning the Lord’s kingdom.  His praise, however, does not extend to monotheism, only the recognition that this is the Most High who rules from heaven.  He does not recognize Yahweh as the one God. In this respect we see two similarities with the book of Jonah.  The king cries out like Jonah and is delivered and his praise is like that of the men on the ship with Jonah who see something of Yahweh and give Him praise and like the Babylonians of a later time who repent but do not turn to Him as their God.  Many today recognize Jesus as a great teacher or some other way but do not turn to Him alone.

The demon in the man in the synagogue cried out, “What have you to do with us, Jesus of Nazareth? Have you come to destroy us? I know who you are—the Holy One of God.”  At this confession Jesus rebuked the demon, commanding it to be silent.  He did not need demonic testimony to Himself and naming is a way of controlling.  Jesus was in command of the situation and this demon was attempting to make a scene of conflict.  The mixed confession, Jesus of Nazareth and Holy One of God was a ruse to confuse the situation.  Which one is He?  The allusion to Nazareth would have thrown off the people as it did Nathanael in John 1, “Can anything good come from Nazareth?”  Perhaps the demon didn’t know the truth but it seems more likely it did and lied.  One way or another, the truth about Jesus is a matter of faith and belief, not based in demonic witness.

“Whoever confesses that Jesus is the Son of God, God abides in him, and he in God.”  The confession seems simple but it is a profound statement.  That Jesus is the Son of God looks like something nearly anyone could affirm but there are two separate affirmations that make it difficult.  God is in the details.  The details are specificity.  The definite article “the” before Son of God and the singular “God” are the details that trip people up in their belief.  The exclusivity claims to be the only way cause us to balk, we like choices too much and the claims of Jesus on our lives, that they are no longer our own, cause us problems.  We recognize that love has conditions and limits and we prefer love without these so we let Him have some part in the pantheon but not the only role. 

20 April 2015

Psalm 25; Dan.4:19-27; 1 John 3:19-4:6; Luke 4:14-30

Daniel is troubled by the interpretation of the dream.  He seems less troubled by what the king might do to him than dismayed by its truth about the king.  The interpretation is that the king’s dominion is great, to the heavens and across the earth but the king does not recognize the ultimate King of kings and thinks himself to be that one.  Because of his arrogance and refusal to see the truth and acknowledge it, he will indeed be out of his mind for seven years, until he sees clearly and ascribes praise to the Lord.  The opening sentences of this chapter, if you recall, were the ascription of greatness to the Most High God whose kingdom is everlasting.  Daniel begs the king to repent of his sins and practice righteousness and mercy that his prosperity may be lengthened.  Daniel believes this dream will surely come to pass, now or later, the word is sure and will not be averted.  Our failure to ascribe Him the honor due His Name can indeed stand between us and blessing.  He is not our helper, that was Eve’s attitude towards the birth of Cain and that attitude carried on in that line.  He is the source of all things.

Amazing isn’t it how quickly Jesus went from being glorified by all to the idea that the people of Nazareth would have the idea to throw Him off a cliff?  What did Jesus do?  He made His claim to be Messiah in the synagogue that morning.  He said that He was the fulfillment of the messianic prophecy and invited them to reflect on what He had done in Capernaum.  It seems Jesus was reading minds, sorting out and vocalizing their objections that He hadn’t shown them anything.  They knew what they knew, this was Joseph’s son, how could he now claim to be Messiah, no matter what they had heard about Him.  His retort was to point back to the ministry of the greatest prophet, Elijah, and his ministry to a Gentile, and the ministry of Elisha who healed the Gentile leper from Syria, Naaman.  These two had faith while those closest to the prophet apparently did not.  Jesus compounded His sin of claiming to be Messiah by comparing Himself and His ministry to Elijah and Elisha.  Little could anyone know, but He was far greater than either of these men.

It is important for John that the people understand that the particular confession you make about Jesus matters.  For this congregation, it is important that the confession be that Jesus came “in the flesh.”  There were those among them, either gnostics or docetists, who confessed Jesus but not that He came in the flesh.  They said that He came in the form of a man but not as an actual man, that a spirit inhabited a body.  We are not dualists with regards spirit and matter, we are a single unit comprised of spirit and body which need to be taught how to work together as one.  The Holy Spirit should be the controller of the body such that they are one like mind and body.  Your confession of Jesus needs to be true in order to be efficacious for salvation, truth matters. 

19 April 2015

Psalm 148, 149, 150; Dan. 4:1-18; 1 Pet. 4:7-11; John 21:15-25

Nebuchadnezzar has seen plenty to know the Most High God who is the God of Daniel and his three friends and so puts out a statement praising this God.  The praise is for the signs and wonders the king has seen and declares that God’s kingdom is everlasting in a way that man’s kingdoms, even Nebuchadnezzar’s are not.  The passage seems to be something written by the king, both the first few verses praising God and then the passage following concerning the dream.  The first part of the vision is a beatific vision of the spreading kingdom of Babylon, a kingdom that was good and beneficial and then a watcher, a holy one from heaven, came down and declared an end to the vision and the tree that represented the king.  The watcher (an angel) says that the king’s mind will be changed to the mind of a beast for a season of time and the dream ends.  Clearly, there was reason for the king to be troubled.

Peter, having last seen Jesus at the trial at the high priest’s home, and having then denied him three times just as Jesus had said he would, now is restored by being asked three times if he loves Jesus.  At the third query, Peter is grieved and responds, “Lord, you know everything; you know that I love you.”  That first phrase confesses that nothing is hidden from Jesus, He knows what Peter did that night, just as Jesus had prophesied.  Indeed, Peter does love Jesus and that love will be tested in later life, “you will stretch out your hands, and another will dress you and carry you where you do not want to go.”  Finally, Jesus says those words Peter first heard, “Follow me”, but now he knows at some level what those words entail.  Peter wants to know, however, that not only he will suffer, asking “What about John?”  Peter, like all of us, doesn’t want to suffer alone, but Jesus’ call is individual and particular.  We walk the walk we are given, ultimately obedience isn’t dependent on companionship with others, only with Him.

Peter’s admonition is based in the belief that the end is nigh.  Two thousand years later we might look back and smile that he seems to have been quite wrong about that prediction.  In spite of that, he was exactly right about the prescription for our behavior.  In the parables Jesus told about the end times, the wealthy man went away and left behind the servants who were entrusted with something and were expected to focus their attention on that something and make something of it, just as Adam and Eve were entrusted with the earth.  We were given a trust, the Great Commission, and a commandment, to love God and those created in His image.  Those two things are closely related to one another.  Love, Peter says, extends itself without grumbling and serves others.  Self-seeking is the enemy of love.  Both the king in our first reading and Peter in the Gospel, lost something for a time because they put themselves first.  

18 April 2015

Psalm 20, 21; Dan. 3:19-30; 1 John 3:11-18; Luke 4:1-13

Do you ever read something in the Bible and suddenly realize why people have a hard time believing it?  The men who took up Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego are burned just by putting them into the furnace.  Can you imagine the size of this thing?  These men are bound, fully clothed, even with hats, and fall into the furnace.  A short time later the king can see into the furnace and sees them walking in the midst of the fire with a fourth man whom the king says looks like one of the sons of the gods, whatever that means.  He calls them out and not only are they unharmed, they don’t even have the smell of smoke on them.  Do you see why that makes belief in the Bible difficult for some?  Belief in the truth of this story is second nature to me but I do see why some just cannot believe such stories.  The Holy Spirit is necessary, not optional.  Is there anything impossible for God?  It all begins with that question.  If He is the God we say He is then we have to say even this is possible.

The first temptation is based on Jesus’ hunger. Will He take matters into His own hands and satisfy it according to satans proposition.  There is a familiar idea at work here from Genesis 3 (surprise!).  In both instances, the temptation is based in simply being reasonable.  There, the food was a delight to the eyes, good to eat and desirable to make one wise, so from a lower animal’s perspective, why not do it?  Desire isn’t bad, so why would the fulfillment of the desire be bad?  We are expected to live at a higher level than simply satisfaction of desire, hence, Jesus’ fast.  Desires are meant, in our case, to be mastered, not rulers.  Jesus says no, I’m not risking it all for a little food.  Second, the temptation to power, all the kingdoms of the earth are yours if you’ll just worship me.  Jesus will rule over all but His worship is reserved for the Father alone and the road to that power is through Gethsemane and then the power is forever.  Finally, the temptation to doubt.  Doubt says, “Prove it!”  Faith says, “I believe without proof, what has come before is proof enough and this life ain’t all anyway.”  He will submit Himself to an even greater test at the cross but of that, satan knows nothing.

Cain was told, “if you do not do well, sin is crouching at the door. Its desire is for you, but you must rule over it.”  Loving one another is a wonderful thing but there are many obstacles to loving even our brothers and sisters in Christ.  Cain, for instance, was jealous that God praised Abel and didn’t regard his sacrifice.  His jealousy caused him to hate his brother and, remember, Jesus says that hatred of others is tantamount to murder.  Killing isn’t the only form of murder.  We can make it so that the other essentially doesn’t exist to us.  We are called to the high standard of not only loving our brothers and sisters but to loving our enemies.  It takes faith to love your enemies, faith that justice will be done, even if it waits for eternity.  Love requires us to actively seek to meet the needs of others, to think and act for their sake.  Unfortunately, even my prayer life is more about me than others.  Fortunately, today is a new day.  Thank you Lord for another chance to get it right. 

17 April 2015

Psalm 16, 17; Dan 3:1-18; 1 John 3:1-10; Luke 3:15-22

Why did Nebuchadnezzar set up this golden image?  Why did he require it to be worshipped?  Isn’t it amazing that the people who complained that Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego didn’t worship the image were “certain Chaldeans”?  None of these would have been alive if it hadn’t been for Daniel.  They would all have been put to death.  Perhaps they knew better than to say anything about him but were jealous of his countrymen’s positions in the kingdom.  The men prove they have faith in God alone, no matter the outcome of the fiery furnace.  They will not bend the knee to another god as there is only one.  Were they thinking of and counting on resurrection?  We may be in a situation where we have to make choices and I only pray that we will have the faith of these three men when we do.

John was a man full of the faith of Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego.  Herod was a Jew by birth and his marriage to Herodias was a violation of Jewish law.  Herodias was a social climber who divorced her husband to marry this Herod.  John spoke truth to power not to antagonize but in keeping with his mission of preparing a people.  Herod was in sin, sin that needed repentance if he were to survive the judgment John thought coming.  It was an act not of rebellion but of love to speak this truth, to call the king out of sin and back to righteousness.  Such is our own mission to the world.  Speaking of sin these days is frowned upon as a means of evangelism but if we are to reach the world with grace we must also proclaim truth.  John’s mission was to Jews, he was attempting to turn them back, to prepare them for judgment.  When we speak to brothers and sisters in sin, we begin with truth.  Faith calls us to truth in communication no matter the consequences.  Eternal life is at stake.

John gives two tests for the children of God: they practice righteousness and they love their brothers.  The Pharisees practiced righteousness but they didn’t love their brothers.  We are to practice righteousness in that we are to keep ourselves from sin.  The practice of righteousness is partly knowing what to say “no” to but it certainly isn’t all.  The ten commandments were partly negative statements about conduct, “don’t do this”, but there were always ethical obligations like not gleaning the fields, not reaping the edges, laws about treatment of slaves, the Sabbath and Jubilee years and certainly the commandments regarding justice and mercy that were part of the definition of righteousness.  The Sermon on the Mount and the statements John made in yesterday’s Gospel reading tell us about righteousness as well as parables like the Good Samaritan.  The commandment to love is the highest command regarding righteousness.  

16 April 2015

Psalm 18:1-20; Dan. 2:31-49; 1 John 2:18-29; Luke 3:1-14

Don’t you wish that Daniel’s interpretation was more specific?  Don’t you wish it told the exact kings and kingdoms that would come prior to the establishment of God’s “kingdom that shall never be destroyed, nor shall the kingdom be left to another people. It shall break in pieces all these kingdoms and bring them to an end, and it shall stand forever”?  We want to know these things, huge numbers of books have been written on the topic of the end times and attempts are constantly being made to predict when it will occur, pointing to the signs of the times as fulfillment of the prophetic words, but such beliefs have been a part of the church from its beginnings.  If God thought it were necessary for us to know, He would have made that clear.  Did Nebuchadnezzar believe Daniel’s interpretation of the dream because he could also tell accurately what the dream had been or did he have a witness of the Holy Spirit that the interpretation was true?  We can’t know, but we do know that Daniel remembered his friends when he received honor and sought to bless them as well.

As unspecific as Daniel was about the kingdoms that would follow Nebuchadnezzar, Luke couldn’t have been more specific about the timing of John’s ministry, “In the fifteenth year of the reign of Tiberius Caesar, Pontius Pilate being governor of Judea, and Herod being tetrarch of Galilee, and his brother Philip tetrarch of the region of Ituraea and Trachonitis, and Lysanias tetrarch of Abilene, during the high priesthood of Annas and Caiaphas…”  The order, from a worldly perspective, is from greatest to least important.  Luke tells us that John was in the wilderness and the word of God came to him and then he began to preach repentance and baptism for forgiveness.  It is interesting that when John begins to preach thus, the people respond to it not with protestation but with the same question asked on the day of Pentecost, “What then shall we do?”  That day, Peter told them to repent and be baptized, the same message John gave but this baptism was more specific than John’s, it was in the name of Jesus.  John also knew that repentance and baptism were only the beginning, life change was necessary afterwards.  The instruction, love and treat others as you would wish to be treated.

John believed it was the last hour and warned his people that they needed to be alert for antichrists.  Clearly he is speaking about those who taught that Jesus had not come “in the flesh” as he mentioned earlier in the epistle.  These must have been gnostics who claim special knowledge and John reassures the readers that they know Jesus, this special knowledge is not from God.  John can say this because he was with Jesus, he knows first-hand from experience not some special revelation in contradiction to the experience.  It wasn’t and isn’t important for us to know the end time, it was and is important that we abide in Him.  Knowing Him is more important knowledge than anything.  All we are to be doing is the work He has given us to do.

15 April 2015

Psalm 119:1-24; Dan. 2:17-30; 1 John 2:12-17; John 17:20-26

Daniel did two really smart things right away.  He went and asked his friends to pray and when he received his answer he praised the One who revealed it to him.  In addition, did you notice the last two lines of his prayer?  He says, “(You) have now made known to me what we asked of you, for you have made known to us the king's matter.”  He acknowledged his friends effort in prayer on his behalf and he didn’t take all the credit.  When he appeared before the king he also did two things that were important.  He pleaded for the lives of the Chaldeans, asking Arioch, who had been appointed to kill them, not to carry out the order.  He cared about the Babylonian magicians and prophets even though they were part of the leadership of the nation that had enslaved his people.  Remember that Jeremiah said they were to seek the prosperity of the nation among whom they were in exile?  The second thing he did was to give credit to Yahweh, the only one who could reveal the dreams and therefore the thoughts of the king’s mind.

Jesus could have left the disciples behind quite easily.  They were going to abandon Him soon and the knowledge of that could have embittered Him against them but instead He prays that those who will soon forsake Him will be where He is going.  He is praying for their eternal salvation in spite of what He knows.  That is true love.  We can love others as they love us and as they stand with us but we are called to the kind of love that Jesus displays here, seeking the best for those who betray us and loving them not begrudgingly but wholeheartedly.  That kind of love is incredibly rare. He could have perfect, uninterrupted fellowship and love with the Father without us but chose instead to widen the circle and bring us in on His coattails.  That He continues to this day to forgive us and intercede on behalf of us rebels and sinners is amazing grace and mercy.  Lord, teach us to love in this way.

How often do we let love of the world get in the way of loving God and others?  Love of the world can take so many forms.  It can keep us working all the time and from friends and family.  It can keep us seeking pleasure in one form or another and keep us from friends and family as well.  Love of the world can keep us from loving the creator of the world.  As long as we have our hearts set on things “under the sun” as the writer of Ecclesiastes puts it, they are set on the wrong things altogether.  CS Lewis certainly put it better than I can in a letter to a friend – “To love you as I should, I must worship God as Creator. When I have learnt to love God better than my earthly dearest, I shall love my earthly dearest better than I do now. In so far as I learn to love my earthly dearest at the expense of God and instead of God, I shall be moving towards the state in which I shall not love my earthly dearest at all. When first things are put first, second things are not suppressed but increased.” Let us never allow our love of the world to get in the way of first things.

14 April 2015

Psalm 5, 6; Dan. 2:1-16; 1 John 2:1-11; John 17:12-19

Nebuchadnezzar is testing his prophets to the utmost, “if you do not make known to me the dream and its interpretation, you shall be torn limb from limb, and your houses shall be laid in ruins.”  It isn’t good enough to interpret the dream he has had, he requires them to also tell him the dream and the interpretation.  They are certain that this can’t be done, “no one can show it to the king except the gods, whose dwelling is not with flesh.”  As Daniel and his companions were among the Chaldeans, their failure was also their failure.  All the “wise men” of Babylon were to be executed.  Daniel was a bit surprised at this edict to say the least and stepped up to say, I will give the interpretation.  How did he know he would be given the truth?  Daniel knew he was called to a work and that work was making known that his God was greater than the gods of Babylon and that his God dwelt among men He had chosen.  Even here in a foreign land Daniel believed the Lord was with him as He had been with Joseph in the land of Egypt.  The exile was a chance for the Lord to reveal Himself to a foreign king and his nation.

In this prayer for the disciples, Jesus makes it plain that this world is not our home and it is not our friend.  We are, like the Israelites in Babylon, a people in exile in a foreign land.  While we are here, we are to make Him known because He has promised to make His dwelling not simply among us but within us.  It is His desire to make Himself known through us in the same ways He did through Daniel.  Do we trust Him as Daniel did in this matter?  Jesus promised to be with us even to the end of the age not just in the form of the written word but in Spirit as well.  We have the promise of God in this, should we not have the confidence of Daniel?

Knowing Jesus is proven by keeping His commandments.  That is part of the Great Commission, the part that we tend to focus on least. There are four parts to the Commission: go into the world, make disciples, baptize them, teach them to obey all Jesus commanded.  We have done two of those with gusto.  We have gone and we have baptized.  The making of disciples is something we are trying to focus on now but we have become so enamored of grace that we forget that last part of the commission lest anyone think we are saved by works.  John, however, teaches that the keeping of the commandments of Jesus reveals that we indeed know Him.  Discipleship is the process of learning and applying our learning in such a way that we become more and more like our mentor, or in this case, like our savior, who has shown us the way to be truly human.  We need not fear standing before the king unprepared like the Chaldeans in that first lesson, we have already been delivered from the death sentence over our lives.  Now we can get about the business of restoring the image of God that has been broken by our sin. 

13 April 2015

Psalm 1, 2, 3; Dan. 1:1-21; 1 John 1:1-10; John 17:1-11

Nebuchadnezzar’s plan seemed sound.  Bring some of the best of Israel and educate them according to the Babylonian way and treat them like sons of the king for three years and use them as models for all the other Israelites to see that accommodating themselves to this way of life actually is superior to their culture.  Unfortunately for the king, he chose four men who were convinced that their way and their God was superior and weren’t willing to compromise their beliefs.  Daniel proposed a test to the man over them, a controlled experiment, don’t give us what you give the others, give us only vegetables to eat and water to drink and see for yourself whether we fare better than the other group who eat from the king’s table and drink his wine.  The results convinced the steward to allow them to continue.  While they were educated by the best that Babylon had to offer, we are told that the Lord gave them wisdom and understanding that surpassed the rest as well.  Why are we so intimidated by the wisdom and understanding of the world and so afraid to trust Him in these things?

Jesus prays for His own glorification, that He might be glorified with the same glory He had before the world existed. Why does He pray that?  Is Jesus seeking to vindicate Himself?  No, He tells us why He prays this, for the same reason Daniel and the others chose to abstain from what was offered and to trust the Lord for all wisdom and understanding, “glorify your Son that the Son may glorify you.”  Daniel wasn’t seeking to make himself known, he trusted the Lord always in all things and Jesus’ motive is that in His own glorification He will make the Father’s glory known.  The cross, the love of God in sending His only Son into the world to die for the sins of the world, glorified both the Father and the Son.  The cross makes possible the further glorification of the Father in the raising of that Son to life again.  We have to die to self and die to the world in order to truly glorify Him.  He is either our God or simply another god in our lives.  Which do you think He should be?

Just as Jesus prayed for the completion of the joy of His disciples, so now John says that his joy will be complete in the faith of those to whom he writes.  The fellowship of believers is intended to be a joyful thing and too often we worry about all the peripheral things and allow those to divide us and to steal our joy.  We find differences in worship style, whether musical or liturgy, and we focus our attention on those things rather than our common faith and fellowship with the Father through the Son.  We come to worship and if something isn’t to our taste or liking we break fellowship and we allow that to keep us from worshipping Him.  All those things are sin and works of darkness.  Let us ask Him to restore our joy in fellowship with God and one another and never again allow non-essentials to steal it.  Let Him be God and all else be secondary.

12 April 2015

Psalm 146, 147; Isa. 43:8-13; 1 Pet. 2:2-10; John 14:1-7

In context here, what does it mean to be a witness?  Isaiah is speaking to those who have seen and tasted that the Lord is good.  The witnesses are those who have seen these things, either by the testimony of scripture which is the testimony of their fathers who came out of Egypt and into the Promised Land, or for what they have literally seen for themselves in the goodness of the Lord.  The Passover is the celebration of what has occurred but it is more than that.  It is either the present enjoyment of the fruits of the exodus or the prayerful anticipation of the return to the Land.  It is also the future expectation of the fulfillment of the permanent establishment of the kingdom of God on earth.  Those who are witnesses are those who believe in the truths of the Biblical story.  They are the ones who believe in the God the Bible reveals, the one who can do anything and will do all He promises.  They are the ones who stand in awe of what He has done, is doing, and will do.

Is it sufficiently clear in this passage that Jesus is speaking propositionally?  “If it were not so, would I have told you that I go to prepare a place for you?...I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.”  There is a metaphor in that first question of course. What does it mean to “prepare a place for you.” Preparing a place for another is something a Jewish bridegroom did for his beloved; he added a room onto his parents home where the newlyweds would move and the wedding didn’t happen until that was ready.  Jesus has prepared that place in the Father’s house yet the time has not yet come for those who will dwell there to be complete.  The disciples have entered that place of rest as they await the fullness of time.  Jesus is very clear and we need to be as well about the truth, that He is the only way.  If we make some other assertion we fail to tell the biblical truth and we run the risk of misleading others to believe to their own damnation.  It isn’t a mistake I am interested in being responsible for in the end.

What has happened to the “chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his own possession, that you may proclaim the excellencies of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light” that is the church?  Some parts of the church no longer understand what the Lord has done for us in Jesus and have gone to proclaiming other ways to God.  Who has called us out of darkness and into His marvelous light other than the one who, alone, was raised from the dead, Jesus.  If we proclaim other ways, we have clearly not only underappreciated Jesus, we have rejected His way.  He is either the living stone or a stumbling stone.  If the rest of the church has grown tired of Jesus, let us be those who know, once we were not a people, but now we are God's people; once we had not received mercy, but now we have received mercy, and all this only because of what Jesus has done, is doing, and will do.

11 April 2015

Psalm 145; Isa. 25:1-9; Acts 4:13-31; John 16:16-33

Isaiah sees the day of judgment, the day that Jerusalem is established, in the way the Lord sees it, as a plan from of old.  The promise is sure and steadfast, no matter what today might look like.  All that He has done for the nation in the past, beginning with Abraham, continuing through Isaac, Jacob and Joseph and, gloriously, in the exodus, is enough for the prophet to see that all the promises of God will be fulfilled.  In the end, not only is the city glorious and safe, there will be a feast for all peoples, this is not a nationalistic vision of eternity, it is the vision of true prophets to see those from every nation gathered under the lordship of Yahweh, the vision that Jesus shared with the apostles when He said they would be His witnesses “to the end of the earth.”  Death has been swallowed up forever though we still see death in this life, it has no final authority, the resurrection laid that to rest.

“So also you have sorrow now, but I will see you again, and your hearts will rejoice, and no one will take your joy from you.”  Why is it that no one will take away the joy of the disciples?  Simply because they know death has been conquered, that they will see Him again, death is not the final word on life.  Resurrection proves that there is life after death and Jesus’ promise here assures the disciples that they will see Him again, not only for the remaining years of their lives, but forever.  Joy that cannot be taken away must be eternal, not just to see us through this life.  That Jesus has overcome the world is the source of the joy we have in spite of the fact that we have tribulation in this world.  Unfortunately, most of the questions we get from unbelievers relate to this world and not the next.  How do we so easily forget that the answers to such questions is that this world is a temporary thing and not the world He created, but that He has overcome the world.  When they ask theodicy questions, our answer should be to point to the beatitudes and say, “you’re on the right path” in grieving over the state of things, you’re just affixing blame in the wrong place.

The leaders saw two things, that Peter and John were common men who had been with Jesus and the man who had been healed.  The reconciliation of these two things is simple isn’t it?  The healing has nothing to do with educational levels, it has to do with the Spirit of God.  When confronted with the reality of the healing, and the fact that it had happened through the agency of these two men, it seems ludicrous to believe that these who cannot heal would demand the disciples cease using the name of Jesus, but what other options did they have but to believe themselves?  When you’ve already ruled out the obvious answer, you come up with silly alternatives like this.  Unsurprisingly, the disciples knew now they had nothing to fear and spoke with boldness then prayed with the others for even more boldness.  Power was now in their hands, no matter what they may have looked like to the world.

10 April 2015

Psalm 136; Dan. 12:1-4,13; Acts 4:1-12; John 16:1-15

Judgment of the people is clear, all shall awake, some shall awake, “some to everlasting life, and some to shame and everlasting contempt.”  When Michael arises, the time of the end has come and the promise is that “there shall be a time of trouble, such as never has been since there was a nation till that time.”  For a nation that has seen as much trouble, even when Daniel wrote, as any nation on earth and survived, much less the troubles the Jewish people have faced in the 2500ish years since, that is some terrible promise.  What is called for in order to arise to life rather than contempt, is perseverance in truth and righteousness.  That last verse essentially says, just keep on doing what you’re doing and you’ll be fine.  Could He say that to you?  We know that ultimately we’re judged on belief but our works are also important, He will ask for an accounting and they do reveal the quality of our faith.

Jesus tells the disciples that it’s going to get bad.  They will put you out of the synagogues and they will kill you.  How could they have imagined all these things after seeing the reception Jesus received only a few days ago and hearing the people acclaim Him as Son of David?  They couldn’t possibly have imagined that in only a very short time, minutes or hours, things were going to spin completely out of control.  There was much more to tell them, the mission of preparation was not complete but, Jesus says, don’t worry about what you don’t know, the Spirit of truth will come and lead you into all truth.  The promise of the Spirit is essential to the survival of the group but also central to who we are today.  We maintain the truth of the apostolic teaching and message and adapt the methods of sharing it.  The teaching itself carried our nation for a very long time and no one doubted its veracity because it also created a certain civic order that was found pleasing.  Now, the teaching itself is problematic in our society.  We need to hear the words of Jesus in warning and we need to pay close attention to the Spirit of truth rather than the spirit of the age.

Notice who is missing in the group that was annoyed and arrested Peter and John?  The Pharisees.  Why is that?  Those who were annoyed were those who didn’t want them teaching about the resurrection.  They didn’t believe in resurrection remember.  It wasn’t about the healing itself that was the problem, it was the brute fact of the resurrection of Jesus, it disproved their entire belief system, attacked the way they understood the world and God.  Daniel wrote clearly about resurrection didn’t he?  They were materialists anyway because it allowed them to pile up riches here because there was no there, there.  The cornerstone of the apostolic message was the resurrection and it was a sign to the Sadducees and those who denied the resurrection of the dead to re-evaluate their way of thinking and therefore their way of life.  What does it say to you today?

9 April 2015

Psalm 146, 147; Ezek. 37:1-14; Acts 3:11-26; John 15:12-27   

Do you know the song, “dem bones, dem bones, dem dry bones”? It surely brings a smile to your face if you know it but isn’t this also one of the most poignant and beautiful images in all of scripture?  Ezekiel is taken up in the Spirit to see a valley of dry bones, not just dry in fact, very dry.  Ezekiel is asked if these dry bones can live and he answers appropriately, you know.  He is willing to admit the possibility that they can live but only God knows for certain and his faith is rewarded by seeing an incredible sight of those bones being knit back together, sinews and flesh covering them and finally, the breath of life coming in to form an exceedingly great army.  The people have lost their hope, they are cut off from the land and, seemingly, the covenant promises and yet the Lord gives hope to dry bones and the hopeless that He has not forgotten either them or His promises to them.  His words are meant to begin the process of restoration for these people.

Jesus says two very interesting things here.  First, “If I had not come and spoken to them, they would not have been guilty of sin, but now they have no excuse for their sin.”  Then, “If I had not done among them the works that no one else did, they would not be guilty of sin, but now they have seen and hated both me and my Father.”  Does that mean that it would be better for all concerned if He had not come?  If they are only guilty of sin because He came and spoke to them and because He did among them the works no one else did, why did He come?  Isn’t it better to be innocent of sin?  Knowing I am guilty of sin means I have no hope in the world so unless He does something to take away that sin I have no hope.  He exposed sin that He might glorify the Father by revealing His love for sinners.  If we sin but have no guilt in sin, the world continues in rebellion and continues its slide.  If He exposes sin and also deals with it, He is loving the world by exposing sin that we might change.  If He then gives us His Spirit to enable that change, that is truly an act of love for us and the world around us.  Unfortunately, the world will hate us and reject our message.  We need to pray for the outpouring of the Spirit that Ezekiel saw.

Peter echoes Jesus here by pointing out what God, their God, the God of Abraham and Isaac, the God of their fathers, did in front of their eyes but who they denied, even when Pilate had determined to release Jesus.  In that little phrase, Peter is saying, you can’t blame Pilate for this, no blame shifting here, you are responsible because Pilate was ready to end the trial and release Jesus but you insisted and forced his hand.  They are guilty of rejecting and denying Messiah and it couldn’t be worse for a Jewish person than that.  That this man was healed by faith in the Name of Jesus means the Lord has not rejected His people as they have rejected Him, they have another chance, even now.  Peter’s message is more hopeful than anyone could have imagined, all they have to do is repent and believe, God hasn’t quit loving them, they are still His people, in spite of their rejection of the Messiah.

8 April 2015

Psalm 97, 99; Micah 7:7-15; Acts 3:1-10; John 15:1-11   

Like Jonah, Micah knows from whence salvation comes, “I will look to the Lord; I will wait for the God of my salvation; my God will hear me.”  He is confident like Job that God will come, there will be a redeemer, He hears and responds.  Unlike Jonah, Micah knows why he is in this situation, “I will bear the indignation of the Lord because I have sinned against him..”  He knows, however, the Lord is gracious and merciful and that this sin will not be held against the nation, the Lord will execute justice for His repentant people.  He sees from afar that the situation will be redeemed and restored, God’s judgment will come against those who persecute the nation, those who sin against the Lord.  He may use them as instruments of judgment in the short term but His purpose is good, it is to bring His people to repentance that He might be gracious and forgiving and show them mercy.

Jesus says that the key to life is to abide in Him as He abides in the Father.  How does He abide, “If you keep my commandments, you will abide in my love, just as I have kept my Father's commandments and abide in his love.”  Abiding is an active life of love for God and others.  Love is extending and sacrificing yourself on behalf of the kingdom to others created in the image of God.  We love God and show our love for Him in part by loving others.  Worship is central to abiding, private and corporate worship are important parts of this process of abiding in Him.  Abiding is for our safety and salvation but it is also that we bear fruit.  Those who are in Him are pruned to bear more fruit, those who do not abide are thrown onto the fire and burned.  Abiding is for those who know that the Lord is their salvation, their refuge and their hope.

The man just wanted alms from those who were coming to worship.  Peter and John were going up to the temple to worship the Lord.  The meeting of these men became an extraordinary thing.  The man expected to receive money but Peter knew that God was going to do so much more and the result was glorious, a man, lame from birth, who had been carried to this place, fully restored, walking and leaping and praising God.  Grace would have been giving alms, mercy is healing.  It was all a witness to the Holy Spirit working in and through these men who had been with Jesus, doing the same things He did by the same Spirit.  They were going to worship the Lord and He gave them an opportunity to work with Him in loving others to bring glory to Himself.  How many opportunities do we miss when we fail to abide?

7 April 2015

Psalm 103; Isa. 30:18-21; Acts 2:26-47; John 14:15-31   

“Therefore the Lord waits to be gracious to you, and therefore he exalts himself to show mercy to you.”  Graciousness is forgiveness of sin and mercy is lifting you out of misery caused by sin, either your sin or sin against you.  He has self-disclosed that He is merciful and gracious but we have to turn to Him to receive those things from Him.  Grace and mercy are for repentant petitioners, not generically given.  In giving mercy to ones such as us He is exalted, His greatness is in His condescension and love towards us, not aloofness.  He waits to be gracious and what does Isaiah say He is waiting on, “He will surely be gracious to you at the sound of your cry. As soon as he hears it, he answers you.”  If you knew that someone you have wronged was simply waiting for you to come to them in order to be gracious, not only forgiving but passionately desiring reconciliation and restoration of relationship wouldn’t you be quick to acknowledge your sin against them?  That is the Lord’s attitude towards us.  All we have to do is run to His arms and say, “I was wrong, I am sorry.”  What are you waiting on?

Keeping the commandments is a sign that we love Jesus.  He seems to imply a chain of causation here at the beginning of the reading.  If you love, then you will keep the commandments and I will ask for the Helper.  Loving Him begets a desire to obey Him and therefore please Him and when we do He prays for us for the Holy Spirit.  If we walk in obedience to what we know there will be more made known to us and walking in that obedience means we will have greater intimacy with Him.  It begins with love, ensues in obedience and results in union. Justification is step one, we accept Christ’s sacrifice and exchange our sin for His righteousness which causes us to love the one who died for us.  We are then pleasing so we obey not to gain acceptance but because we are accepted and we want to please him.  We work from love, not to gain it.  Works never save us, never cause Him to love us more, but they do make us fit for more of Him.  Grace was God’s motive for sending His Son, mercy His response to our obedience.

Peter is trying to make sense of what the people have come to see, this great sound of rushing wind and the people speaking in tongues.  He sees that this, what they are seeing and hearing, is none other than the promised Holy Spirit.  None of them had ever seen this or experienced such things until this hour and, oh my, what in the world does it mean.  Will this always be how things are or is it all getting ready to come to the grand conclusion?  There was only one question on their lips.  If all you say about Jesus is true, what do we do?  The answer is simple, repent and be baptized in the name of Jesus and you will receive this same Spirit.  The part from verse 42 to the end is what you do after you’re baptized.  Work it out, study, love and community.  Once you’ve received grace and mercy you should be obsessed with knowing more, doing more and receiving more.

6 April 2015

Psalm 93, 98; Jonah 2:1-9; Acts 2:14,22-32; John 14:1-14   

Interesting isn’t it that Jonah leaves out a little detail in his story embedded in his prayer, “you cast me into the deep, into the heart of the seas, and the flood surrounded me; all your waves and your billows passed over me.”  That little detail is why the Lord cast him into the deep.  What saved him?  In Jonah’s telling. the catalyst for the Lord’s actions was Jonah’s faith, “Then I said, ‘I am driven away from your sight; yet I shall again look upon your holy temple.”  He sees that there is no hope and then he remembers the Lord and promises to pay his vow if the Lord rescues him and then declares, “Salvation belongs to the Lord!”  Lo and behold, this causes the fish to spit or vomit him up on land and indeed he sets a course for Nineveh.  Jonah’s situation was hopeless, in the belly of the fish for three days and then, salvation.  Sound familiar?  In Jonah’s case it was his sin that was the cause of his dilemma, in Jesus’ case, as we sing,

“It was my sin that held Him there

Until it was accomplished

His dying breath has brought me life

I know that it is finished

I will not boast in anything

No gifts, no power, no wisdom

But I will boast in Jesus Christ

His death and resurrection.”

The declaration, “I am the way, the truth and the life” couldn’t be clearer could it?  To us, that is.  We live after the resurrection, after the amazing revelation that Jesus has life in Him and that life cannot be taken away.  He can lay it down but no one can take it from Him.  Whereas Jonah was in the belly of the fish for three days because of his sin of disobedience and his desire to see the Lord judge and destroy the Ninevites, his complete lack of love for sinners, Jesus was in the tomb those three days because of his love for sinners.  The way to the Father is Jesus.  He is the truth about the love of God and also the truth about sin.  He is the life of all who believe and follow.  He is our salvation from sin and death.

Now, in retrospect, Peter sees something very important, “this Jesus, delivered up according to the definite plan and foreknowledge of God…”  What felt like complete chaos in those hours between the arrest of Jesus to His death on the cross were actually completely under the control of God.  Peter appeals to David’s words of prophecy concerning one who will come whose soul will not be abandoned to Hades, who will not see corruption.  Peter says it cannot be David himself of whom he wrote, his body is still in a tomb, corrupted by death.  This one, this Jesus, who was resurrected to life is the one of whom David wrote.  The resurrection changes everything about all that is before it and all that is after it.  The hope of the world is sure and certain because of the resurrection of Jesus.  We don’t live in a world defined and bounded by death.

5 April 2015

Psalm 148, 149, 150; Exod. 12:1-14; John 1:1-18

The Jews are instructed to do some very simple things to avoid the disaster that will befall the Egyptians.  They are asked to take a young “lamb”, either a sheep or a goat, a male, a year old and keep it in their home for four days and then they are all to slaughter those lambs at twilight.  Can you imagine the bleating of the lambs as they are simultaneously killed?  That sound would mimic the sound of the wailing coming from Egypt later that same night.  When they killed the lambs, they were to take the blood and smear it on the doorposts and lintels of their homes and then were to eat the lambs roasted, in toto, nothing remaining.  They were to do this all in an attitude of haste and preparedness to flee.  That’s it.  The only real thing required was obedience and faith.  Certainly, much more came to be involved in the Passover meal once they entered the land to the present day, but this night was only a night of expectant waiting and the death of the first born of all the Egyptians, a bit of payback for Pharaoh’s determination to kill the Hebrew babies, would be their salvation from slavery.

John’s joy and wonder at the incarnation and resurrection are apparent in this prologue.  He is enraptured still with the idea that he was so privileged to be a disciple of Jesus and to see His glory.  Jesus said that when He was with them again, after the crucifixion, their joy would be complete and it would be a joy that the world could never take away and John’s opening to the Gospel proves that in spite of his exile and the loss of all his friends and fellow disicples cum apostles, he never lost the joy he had this Easter morning when he peeked inside that tomb and saw it empty, just as the women had said.  His life would never be the same and he didn’t want it to be, hope was restored and whole.  The salvation of the world had come back from the dead, all that he and they had believed was gloriously, improbably true! 

4 April 2015

Psalm 88; Job 19:21-27a; Heb. 4:1-16; Rom. 8:1-11

Job can’t sort out the present but he does accurately see the future.  His life is a misery and there is no explanation for it.  We’ve been told at the outset that he was a righteous man and yet all the calamity that can befall a man has happened to Job.  His friends have now come to make it worse by accusing him of sin, unconfessed, hidden sin, that brought this on.  He knows that no one on earth will take his part and make his plea before the Lord but in his pain he cries out that he knows that his redeemer lives.  One day, even after Job’s own death, the case will be made and he will have his vindication before the Lord.  Job is thinking also of resurrection, he says that in his flesh he will see God, even after “my skin has been destroyed.”  Justice will ultimately prevail, even if it seems to be delayed beyond hope.

Paul says the body, the flesh, is dead because of sin.  We who have the Spirit, however, have life in us because the Spirit is life and gives life.  It gives not only spiritual kind of life, though, the Spirit dwelling in us gives life even to these mortal bodies.  We are not dualists, our bodies and souls are a unit.  There is a battle for control within us though between the body and the soul.  We must be attentive and obedient to the Spirit’s leadership but our bodies need to be disciplined by us in order to bring their affections and desires in line with the Spirit’s leading.  Paul says later that physical training is of some use to us, and inveighs against those who would argue that the body doesn’t matter.  What is the witness of your body?  Does it tell that you are living by faith or fear?  Does it say that you believe the body is a temple of God or a slave to your appetites? 

While this day may have been the Sabbath and the disciples did no work on this day, it is unlikely that any of them rested.  Their entire world had been turned upside down yesterday.  Everything they had come to believe was wrong.  It was quite likely that they would have to get out of town, maybe not able to even go back to Galilee.  At best, they would be pariahs, people to be ridiculed because they had believed a lie.  Some would pity them, most would laugh at them, some would hate them and want them killed as well.  They couldn’t go back to the synagogue, would never be at home again.  Who could have imagined the blazing joy that awaited them?  Rest, it’s what we can do today because of the resurrection.