7 July 2014

Psalm 1, 2, 3; Num. 32:1-6,16-27; Rom. 8:26-30; Matt. 23:1-12

It seems to me that the Reubenites and Gadites chose what they could see over what God promised.  They saw that the land of Jazer and Gilead was a good place for livestock and determined it wouldn't be any better than this in the promised land, over on the other side of the Jordan.  They rejected God's promise and provision because they didn't believe it would be better than what they were currently experiencing.  Moses certainly flares up against them in his initial response, "Shall your brothers go to the war while you sit here?"  The tribes agree that they will help the rest conquer and possess the land but first let us set up cities and build walls and houses for our wives and little ones.  Moses agrees that this will be a workable solution but they have to promise not to return until the conquest is complete.  Sometimes you have to let people do what they are determined to do, even if it means settling for less than God's best but I wonder how often we settle for less because we think we know what is best for us.

The scribes and Pharisees sit in Moses' seat.  What is Moses' seat?  They were teachers of the Law, experts in it the same way Moses was an expert.  Jesus affirms the teaching of their lips with respect to the Law.  He doesn't say they are false teachers but He does say they fail to keep what they teach so the people are to follow their teaching but not their lives.  Further, they are not to have rabbis, fathers, and instructors because it raises those people to a place of honor when all are brothers.  We are equally God's children, He doesn't have favorites who know things others cannot know and He doesn't recognize human places of honor.  I, as a pastor, am as accountable to the members of the church for my teaching and my life as anyone else is accountable.  If I go astray in some way it is proper to be corrected.  When we create a hierarchy we often lose sight of the reality that we are all sheep in the end.

All things work together for good or the good.  Seems simple and it is often repeated but is it really as simple as we make it.  The word good is the stumbling block in our interpretation.  We have opinions about what is good but do we really "know" what is good or are all our ideas about good contingent ideas.  What might be a good job situation today might actually be the worst thing that ever happens to me.  Good might be winning the lottery but it might ruin important relationships in my life as well.  Good means one thing, that something is exactly the way God intends it to be.  We settle for less when make our own value judgments about things.  Trusting in the sovereignty of God in all things is more important than my judgment on what is good.  

6 July 2014

Psalm 146, 147; Num. 27:12-23; Acts 19:11-20; Mark 1:14-20

Moses is told to go up on the mountain and look out at the Land because he is going to die soon and the Lord wanted him to see the Land even though he wouldn't be leading the people into it to possess it.  His final desire is that the Lord appoint someone to lead in his stead.  Joshua will be that man but here we see that Moses was distinct from Joshua in several ways.  Whereas Moses anointed Aaron and his sons, and was therefore God's leader over them, the priest Eleazar will now anoint Joshua as leader.  Moses went to the tent of meeting to speak directly with God as with a man, face to face.  Joshua will go to Eleazar who will consult the Urim in the breastplate of his vestments and give the word to Joshua who will then give it to the people.  There will not be a leader like Moses again for a very long time in the nation.  As Christians we know he is not irreplaceable.  We have one who leads as a shepherd who never failed to honor God as holy and who is without sin.  We have a leader who goes before us in resurrection and to the throne.

What is to be the reaction to the kingdom of God coming near?  Repentance and belief are what Jesus called for in Galilee.  We see the picture of what that looks like in the next verses, with the call of the fishermen.  Repentance means to turn away from the direction you were going and go in a different direction.  These men had life mapped out for themselves.  They would work with their fathers until the fathers couldn't work any longer and they would then take over the fishing business and pass it on to their own sons later.  Jesus changed their lives forever.  They knew that the kingdom was something that you forsake everything else to have.  The kingdom of God is not added to your existing life, it is your life or you misunderstood the call.  Does it mean you have no other job?  No, but everything else is secondary to the kingdom.  The luster of all else is now no more than fool's gold.

The power of God is seen in Ephesus when the Jewish exorcists, the sons of Sceva, get schooled by a demon.  They see the power of God in the invocation of the name of Jesus by Paul.  They have seen that even handkerchiefs and aprons he touched were given to the sick and they were healed.  They believe that this is the magical incantation to end all others and try using it to heal a demon-possessed man and end up fleeing bleeding and naked.  They weren't standing in the power of Jesus because they weren't in Him.  The people see that the power of God isn't in the word, Jesus, it is in the spirit possessed by those who know Jesus.  The books they bring out are worth a year's wages for 139 men, can you imagine that?  That is repentance and belief.

5 July 2014

Psalm 137, 144; Num. 24:12-25; Rom. 8:18-25; Matt. 22:23-40

Balaam couldn’t leave it at blessing Israel.  He had to finish by cursing his own king and the other nations round about.  Israel would triumph gloriously over all these kings, would decimate the nations and have the blessing of God.  Wouldn't you think then that Balaam would have a decent reputation and name in Israel?  He doesn't.  If you look forward to Numbers 31 you will see that he was somehow involved in a sad incident in Israel's history, inciting them to commit adultery with the Baal of Peor by sending Moabite women to marry them and lead them astray.  We see him killed in that same chapter.  He is also mentioned in 1 Peter, Jude and Revelation as a wicked prophet for hire who was despised by the nation.  Apparently his fear of the Lord didn't last much longer than this scene we have seen this week.

Both church "parties", the Sadducees and the Pharisees come to test Jesus in their own ways.  The Sadducees don't believe in the resurrection from the dead (to share a cringe-worthy pun, that's why they're so sad you see) so they pose the question regarding who is married to the woman in the resurrection when she was married to all these brothers in this life.  They have the resurrection wrong, this life isn't an analog for the next in every way.  We won't be given the command to be fruitful and multiply in that life so the issue of marriage is a moot point.  Further, to use the present tense of the verb and say that God is God of three men long dead is to be a complete literalist with respect to the Bible.  Jesus affirms even the verb tense as significant and also important to understanding the truth of the Word.  He has a higher view of Scripture than even the Pharisees whom Matthew tells us are astounded by Jesus' shutting up the Sadducees.  Their question is one that was normal at the time, attempting to reduce the 613 laws to their essence.  Jesus says we have two essential duties, love God with all your being, specifically with your heart, emotionally, with your soul, the essence of your being, and your mind, the intellect.  Also, whatever love you have remaining is to be expended in loving your neighbor as you love yourself, in other words, those created in the image of God.  All the rest of the laws hang on these two.

What will it look like when the earth is renewed and there is no sin, God's people are fully revealed in the glory He intended for us to have?  The earth itself, Paul says, groans in anticipation of that day.  The earth too participated in the fall because of human sin.  It no longer fully cooperates with our stewardship activities.  The planet has remarkable properties of recovery and yet I wonder how long it can continue to revive and regenerate itself with all the damage we do to it.  He loved not only those created in His image but also the world He created and gave it to us as a gift.  Do we long with all our hearts to see both God and those created in His image as well as the earth as He saw it that first day when He said it was all very good?  

4 July 2014

Psalm 140, 142; Num. 24:1-13; Rom. 8:12-17; Matt. 22:15-22

Balaam looks not for omens, but turns to the wilderness, the wilderness where the nation is encamped.  He sees, as he says, with eyes opened and ears hearing the words of God, as though he were hearing truly for the first time and seeing as the only man who can see.  What he sees and what he hears is that this nation he was called upon to curse is indeed blessed by God and the future of that nation is brighter than anything that has gone before.  His oracle of blessing is too much for Balak, king of Moab, to hear.  He is angry with the prophet for failing to do his bidding in cursing Israel.  Balaam's response is like Luther's at his trial, "… my conscience is captive to the Word of God. Thus I cannot and will not recant, because acting against one's conscience is neither safe nor sound. God help me. Amen."  The back story of this incident lets us know that Balaam knew that he had to get this right or die.  He knew he had to choose whom to fear, God or man.

Jesus affirms that taxes should be paid to Caesar, in recognition of his kingship.  Essentially what He says is that the money belongs to Caesar because it has his picture on it, as ours has pictures of dead Presidents.  What is more important is the second part of the saying, "(render) to God the things that are God's."  Where would we find God's inscription and likeness?  We are His likeness, and our lives are to be rendered to Him.  The part about the taxes is of far less significance than the call to recognize what is owed to the true King.  We may pay our taxes for fear of the IRS but do we recognize God's claim on our lives.  Do we fear Him?  Jesus' death on the cross does not diminish the holiness and the judgment of God, it enables us to overcome that fear to approach the throne of grace but it is also the throne of judgment.  To lose sight that He is a fearsome God to whom an accounting of our lives will ultimately be given is to lose something important.  It is to lose sight of the contingency of our existence, we exist because of His grace and love but we exist only because He wills it and allows it.  The sermon, Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God, isn't for non-believers only.

We have received the Spirit of God not that we would fall back into fear but that we would have the Spirit of adoption whereby we cry, "Abba, Father."  The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom.  Perfect love casts out fear.  How do we reconcile all these statements that are true?  The love of Christ on the cross has given us confidence to approach the throne, we know that God indeed loved and loves the world because of Jesus' sacrifice and because it was accepted.  We know that when we approach the judgment seat we do so in the knowledge that we have an advocate sitting on the judge's right hand who has done the work necessary to secure our pardon.  We are guilty but He has taken the punishment in our behalf.  Fear is replaced by love and we now live because of that love, seeking to please the one who has given us grace.  We need not fear judgment but that fearsomeness is real.  Now, we are to fear disappointing Him because He is our loving Father.  We, like Balaam, know judgment is real, and we should also choose to please Him as Balaam did.

3 July 2014

Psalm 131, 132; Num. 23:11-26; Rom. 8:1-11; Matt. 22:1-14

Always be suspicious when someone wants to limit your field of vision.  Your ability to make right judgments is always limited by the scope of the information you receive as input data.  Balak again has an outcome in mind, Balaam pronouncing a curse on Israel, and seeks, by allowing the prophet to see only a fraction of the army and people, to manipulate him to comply with his wishes.  Balaam isn't prophesying today based on the input of his eyes, they have already failed him once when he didn't see the Lord right in front of him.  This day's prophecy will be based on the words the Lord puts into his mouth and that will be blessing for Israel.  Balak has to decide if he will listen and heed the warning given.  Do the words of Balaam sound familiar to you?  "All that the Lord says, that I must do."  They are the same words the nation spoke to God in Exodus 19 when He offered them a chance to become His covenant people.  Why would Balaam say the same thing?

The parable of the wedding guest is obvious isn't it?  Early in His ministry Jesus told parables that confounded the people as well as the disciples, they required explanation.  As He approaches the end, the parables become incredibly clear to all.  In yesterday's parable the people knew the ending on their own and the leaders knew it was about them.  Today, it is equally clear that the wedding guests are the nation whom the Lord has invited to the feast but who can't be troubled to actually attend, they have taken Him for granted.   No one would act in such ways towards a king unless they had disdain for him.  His response is to be gracious to simply anyone passing by that his son's wedding feast be observed and celebrated.  When he arrives, he finds one of the guests has refused to don the wedding garments, has simply decided to dishonor the host.  Either we come to the feast God's way, covered in the blood of Jesus, or we will not remain. 

God is asking you to limit your field of vision.  Can you trust Him enough to know that if you comply with His request that you will make good judgments?  It is the same thing He has always asked of us, beginning in Genesis 3, continuing at Mt Sinai, and now in Jesus.  We are to set our minds fixedly and completely on the things of the spirit and not the flesh.  Most, if not all of us have spent a good bit of time fixing our gaze on the things of the flesh so we can make a decision to limit our attention to the things of the spirit knowing that we are making a wise decision.  We have to choose now what is truly good and evil.  In Jesus we have seen the only good man who has ever lived.  Can we set our eyes and ears on Him?  We, like the nation and like Balaam, need to decide if we will do all the Lord says.  Fixing our eyes and ears on Him alone is the best way to live into that commitment.

2 July 2014

Psalm 119:145-176; Num. 22:41-23:12; Rom. 7:13-25; Matt. 21:33-46

That first verse tells us that Balak was trying to manage the situation to his advantage.  He allowed Balaam to see a fraction of the people, not get a true picture of the adversary.  Balaam knows better now than to speak if the Lord has not spoken to him, it is literally a matter of life and death.  He goes apart to see what the Lord will show him, no mention of who is this Lord of whom the prophet speaks.  When the sacrifices are done by the king, Balaam comes and gives the word of the Lord concerning Israel, that now the nation is not a nation but that it will be and that this is the Lord's will.  It would be folly and dangerous to curse that which the Lord has blessed, greater folly still to come against the nation.  Why would the king want anything other than the truth?  He believed in the power of the spoken words of the prophet to create reality.  We live in a time when such nonsense is taught in the church in the "Word faith" movement.  Balaam knew that the truly prophetic was simply speaking the words God gave him based on the vision God gave.  He could accurately represent future reality to the extent God gave him vision and words for what would be.

The parable of the tenants is plain for all to see its meaning.  Jesus tells the parable and asks the crowd what will be the end of the story and without delay or doubt they know the answer, “He will put those wretches to a miserable death and let out the vineyard to other tenants who will give him the fruits in their seasons.”  The leaders knew immediately that this parable was about them.  Would Jesus tell this parable about the church today?  What would He say of the church?  We are certainly guilty of many of the same things in the west as the Pharisees were in Jesus' day.  We set up a celebrity pastor culture, raise barriers to entry into ministry, set our sights on particular segments of the culture to appeal to rather than attempting to reach all people with the Gospel, and I fear that we are failing to give Him glory in all this.  Are we keeping the main thing the main thing or not? 

Paul is clearly right, that I can delight in God's law while at the same time living completely in contradiction to it.  I can assent to the law, know it to be right, while at the same time doing entirely the opposite.  Can anyone argue that the world would be a better place if no one hated anyone else but loved them?  How about theft, adultery, no one bearing false witness or coveting what anyone else has?  If we all had one God, particularly the one revealed in the Bible, would there be a change in the way the world works?  If we all took one day each week and didn't work but instead contemplated and worshipped that God would we be better or worse for the experience?  It isn't likely to happen is it?  Everyone won't play.  The real question is whether we are willing to do so.  What would change if we committed to God's plan?  Our values and attitudes might change dramatically and then our lives would change to reflect the work of the Spirit.

1 July 2014

Psalm 121, 122, 123; Num. 22:21-38; Rom. 7:1-12; Matt. 21:23-32

In yesterday's reading the Lord told Balaam to go to the king and today we see that the Lord was angry because Balaam went.  Is this really bad editing?  Down the centuries surely this could have been fixed.  Look down to verse 32 of the passage and you will see that the Lord is angry because Balaam's intentions were perverse or reckless, not because he obeyed physically, but because in his heart he was not being obedient, he had his own agenda.  Nowhere along the way was he looking for the Lord or for his guidance, that is why he was more stubborn than the donkey in going his own way.  If he had been looking for the Lord to tell him what to say when he arrived he would have been more sensitive to the situation and would not have beaten his donkey, he would have seen the Lord.  The donkey makes a simple logical point, you have ridden me these many years and I have done nothing like this before, surely that should have caused you to think.  Balaam had in interesting day to say the least.

The leaders want to know who has given Jesus authority to teach in the temple and drive out the money changers.  The presumption is twofold: that such authority is required and that He didn't get it from them so He really shouldn't be doing these things.  They, like Balaam, can't see what is directly in front of them.  They have seen all they need to see to know who Jesus is but refuse to see at all.  Jesus responds by asking them to identify John's authority for his ministry and they know they cannot answer one way or another, there is a trap set for them both ways.  Their only option is to withdraw for the moment.  The little parable tells the tale of the leaders.  They make a good show of obedience in word but not in deed.  They, like Balaam, have no intention of doing other than their own agenda.

Paul's entire premise is based on the belief that we are new creations in the Spirit.  That is what makes all the difference, that we have the Spirit of God within us, nothing else.  Jesus died on the cross to set us free but gave the Spirit to complete the transaction.  His death sets us free from the penalty of the law but the giving of the Spirit gives us new life, the freedom within to live according to God's will and pursue Christ-likeness.  Do you have that freedom today?  The law had us hemmed in, we were sinners, no way forward that led anywhere other than death.  We didn't recognize that standing in our way was Jesus until He chose to make Himself known to us.  Now, we are to be like Balaam, knowing that we are on a mission and speaking only as He speaks to us, just as Jesus lived in the flesh.  We have been given freedom from the law to the extent that it is an external thing, now, we have the law written on our hearts that we might desire to do according to God's will.  Ask Him today to make Himself manifest to you that you might know the power within you to live as He intends.