6 June 2014

Psalm 102; Jer. 31:27-34; Eph. 5:1-20; Matt. 9:9-17

The new covenant brings a spiritual change.  It is a covenant that does not require new tablets on which the Lord will write a new law but on new people, on the tablets of whose hearts will be written the Law of God.  This new covenant requires new people, those whose desire it is to keep the Law as though it were part of their being rather than something external to them.  The interpretations of the Law were many and filled many volumes and there were a variety of interpretations depending on the rabbinic school to which one subscribed.  Rabbis were necessary to guide the laity in the proper way.  In the new covenant there is still a place for teachers but the people can also have direct access to the very spirit of God that He might bring enlightenment and understanding.  God can speak to us directly on issues of ethics and morality and we can learn from one another.  We know because He teaches us by the indwelling Spirit.

The Pharisees had to be completely puzzled by Jesus' words, "I came not to call the righteous but sinners."  Before He said that, though, He told them to go and learn what it means that God desires mercy and not sacrifice.  Certainly, that was a well-known truth from the prophets and it seems quite arrogant of Jesus to tell scholars of the Bible to go and learn what that means.  Clearly, He is saying to them that they have failed to comprehend it by asking their questions of the disciples concerning His presence among tax collectors and sinners.  Their knowledge was forensic and scholarly but it had taught them nothing about the heart of God, they knew the Law apart from the law giver.  John's disciples have not fully comprehended even John's message, they have not come to follow Jesus, they are still looking for the coming of the kingdom.  They haven't realized how new things really are.

Paul says we are to be imitators of God.  That was always the intention.  The Jews were to extend mercy to others as He had shown mercy to them.  The words that begin the commandments are, "I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery."  From the start, the Law was predicated on God's love and mercy shown to the nation.  His own self-declaration to Moses on the mountain was that He was merciful and loving and forgiving, and that was after the episode of the golden calf!  Mercy and love were the only reasons they were still in covenant after all their apostasy and whoring after other gods.  We begin at the cross, beholding to fullness of the love and mercy of God and we are never meant to forget just how amazing grace is.  The new covenant is written in Jesus' blood on our hearts.

5 June 2014

Psalm 105:1-22; Zech. 4:1-14; Eph. 4:17-32; Matt. 9:1-8

Zechariah sees two lampstands, two bowls for the oil to keep them lit and then two olive trees, one on each side, providing a perpetual source of fuel.  There will come a time when there is no shortage of God's spirit, the same vision Joel saw when the Spirit would be poured out on all flesh.  Zechariah saw, without really knowing what he was seeing, the outpouring of the Spirit we know as Pentecost. The promise was that neither by might nor power but by my Spirit.  What would be done in that way?  In context it would mean that Zerubbabel, the governor who oversaw the rebuilding of the temple when the exiles returned to Jerusalem in the days of Cyrus, king of Persia, would indeed complete this work.  At the time it looked like a task too formidable for those who had returned from Babylon, a day of small things.  The sons of oil refer either to Zerubbabel and the high priest Joshua or to Zechariah and Haggai, the two prophets of this period who, like Aaron and Hur, who held up the hands of Moses in the nation's first military victory against the Amalekites, would encourage and build up those who worked to rebuild the temple.  We need spiritual strength to do spiritual work.  We are building the kingdom without a temple, without walls, an eternal kingdom, a spiritual kingdom and that needs spiritual resources.

As you likely are aware I believe that this paralysis was a result of sin in this man's life.  This is the only place where Jesus forgave sins prior to healing someone and for that reason I believe the healing required forgiveness first.  Sometimes our infirmities are due to sin either directly or indirectly and the deeper need is forgiveness.  Jesus didn't proclaim this for the simple provocation of the leaders, He did that which was necessary.  He truly extended forgiveness to the man, forgiveness from God.  As with the healing of the leper from earlier this week Jesus added something to the healing that wasn't apparently necessary.  With the leper it was touch, that which was denied a leper, and here it is forgiveness.  We can take forgiveness for granted sometimes, forgetting how wonderful it is to receive it and not receiving the healing of our souls it brings.  Spiritual healing comes from forgiveness of sins and that is the greater healing.  God alone can forgive sins, just as they suggest by saying Jesus was blaspheming, but the physical healing confirmed that Jesus had the spiritual power to proclaim forgiveness.  He was connected to the source.

Jesus is the light of the world.  Paul implores the Ephesians to not be like the Gentiles, an odd term to use, meaning nothing more than, others, those without Christ in this context.  Paul says they are in darkness and reminds the Ephesians and us that we are have understanding because we have Christ so our lives are to be different, we have been made new, like the paralytic.  We received forgiveness of sin but we also received His Spirit.  Abiding in Him looks like the vision Zechariah saw, connected to the source of power and light.  Sin cuts us off from the flow of oil, the Spirit, and when we are cut off we have no power. 

4 June 2014

Psalm 101, 109; Isa. 4:2-6; Eph. 4:1-16; Matt. 8:28-34

This is the new Jerusalem John saw in the Revelation isn't it?  Those who are recorded for life in the new Jerusalem are holy.  All will not live in that new city of God.  We tend to have a warped sense of eternity, cherubs and angels on clouds floating in the ether when the Bible tells a very different story of what that looks like.  Isaiah here seems to be seeing the long future not the near term.  In that future he sees also the past.  That past includes the wilderness experience of the pillar of cloud by day and the pillar of fire by night and now that experience is localized in Jerusalem where the presence of God is continually.  That is exactly what John said was the case in eternity, that there is no temple there, no night either, for the presence of God is always there in the city giving in light.  A new people and a new city.

The power of God comes to pagans.  Jesus comes to the land of the Gadarenes, a country that Jews thought to be completely pagan and filled with demonic influence.  Jesus is immediately met by two men who would have confirmed the worst suspicions of the disciples who were Jewish men.  These were so bad, however, that even the people of that country would not pass by or having anything to do with them, they were terrorizing the land.  The demons asked if Jesus were coming to torment them "before the time." What time are they talking about and how do they know there will be a time of torment?  In the end, we know they go into the pigs at Jesus' command and run over the cliff.  The people of the country come to see Jesus and then beg Him to leave them.  Their fear of the men has now been overcome by the power of this man who overcame the demonic spirits in the men, they knew His power and their response was nothing more than fear.  The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom but it isn't the end, we aren't intended to stay there.  These were not ready for the next step.

Paul sees a beatific vision just as Isaiah did.  Paul's beatific vision, however, is not the end of things but rather the now of things.  His vision is for the church, the body of Christ.  The world should see in the body the wisdom of Solomon and the power of Jesus.  There should be what Rudolf Otto called the numinous (from the Latin numen, “spirit”) in which the Other (i.e., the transcendent) appears as a mysterium tremendum et fascinans—that is, a mystery before which man both trembles and is fascinated, is both repelled and attracted.  The church should be the safest place in the world for Christians yet a place which the world should have some fear of for its power and truth.  This is possible only to the extent that the church understands its purpose and all the members are fulfilling their role in the body.  We are too often weak because we honestly don't understand our own power or purpose and because we either don't allow members to take their rightful and designed place or because the members won't offer their gifts as they are intended to.  It causes me to ask if we aren't a bit too fearful to be the church Paul envisions and God intends.  Until the church moves beyond fear of the unknown we will never be the force the Lord wanted the world to contend with, the expression of God's presence on earth.

3 June 2014

Psalm 97, 99, 100; 1 Sam. 16:1-13a; Eph. 3:14-21; Matt. 8:18-27

Have you ever been overlooked?  You know how David must have felt that he was only an afterthought in his father's mind when Samuel came with the news that one of Jesse's boys was going to be the next king.  Jesse didn't even bother to bring David to the lineup for Samuel to consider.  Samuel wanted to anoint the others but God said no to all the above.  Samuel finally had to inquire whether this was all the boys before Jesse said, oh yeah, there is one more but he keeps the sheep.  God saw the heart, saw what wasn't obvious to anyone and said, this is the one.  Even afterwards David was treated badly by his brothers when they were arrayed with the rest of Saul's army against the Philistines and their champion Goliath.  It is hard to be the one always overlooked but take heart, the Lord knows you're there and He has a plan for you.  The harder question to answer here is who are you overlooking?  We tend to look out for our own interests quite well, we tend to know the slights of others in overlooking us but there is little or no chance that we aren't sinning against someone or, likely more than one someone, by overlooking them because they don't meet our standards.  The way to get past that one is to stop looking at yourself and ask God to help you see what He sees.

Following Jesus means not only leaving everything you know behind you, it means also leaving everything you have hoped for behind you.  The first person who offers to follow wherever Jesus goes is told, "Foxes have holes, birds have nests, but the Son of Man has no place to lay His head."  Did this man assume what the disciples seemed to have assumed, that Jesus was bound to a throne and therefore the man was willing to follow Jesus because at the end he would find fulfillment of his dreams?  The response certainly disabused him of any such idea, kings certainly have a place to lay their heads.  We live in a time when preachers teach exactly the opposite, if you want your best life, to have your dreams realized, follow Jesus.  The second, who wanted to bury his father, is told that we can't let anything stand in the way of our following Jesus, no matter how near and dear, no matter what it would mean for our reputation among men to walk away from that prior commitment.  Even honoring your father and mother has to come second to honoring Jesus.  The disciples got a little glimpse into who was this man when He, like the God who spoke and caused all things in creation to obey Him, calmed the storm with a word.

Most often when I hear this verse about God being able to do more than we can ask or imagine I hear it quoted in a way that has to do with prosperity.  In context, is that really what it is saying?  I think it has much more to do with the power of God in us, bringing us to knowledge and fullness in Him.  We tend to overestimate ourselves in some ways and underestimate God it seems.  We think we are overlooked because we esteem our natural gifting and talents and Samuel did the same with respect to David's brothers, but God sees the heart.  Where we have any effective use for the kingdom is at the heart and spiritual gift level.  Our usefulness comes from the work of God in us and through us, not from our talents in only their natural state.  We need to be more yielded in all our being to Him for this verse to be realized.

2 June 2014

Psalm 89:1-18; Joshua 1:1-9; Eph. 3:1-13; Matt. 8:5-17

I used to wonder why God thought it necessary to encourage Joshua, of all people, to be strong and courageous so many times.  Joshua was one of two men sent to spy out the land who actually had the strength and courage to believe that they should enter the land in spite of the fearsomeness of the people there.  This isn't even the first time Joshua was encouraged to be strong and courageous.  Back in Deuteronomy when Moses chose and commissioned Joshua to lead the people after Moses' death, he told him the same thing in public and private.  Why did anyone have reason to doubt Joshua would continue to be strong and courageous when he had always been that guy?  It all changes when you are the leader.  It is easier to be a strong, bold, courageous risk-taker when the weight of leadership falls on someone else.  When you have responsibility for the consequences of your actions there is a tendency to be tentative and indecisive when failure is an option.  Joshua, like all God's leaders, needs to be counseled to be strong and courageous because God is with them if they are chosen by Him.  Strength and courage comes not from within but from Him.  The time for strength and courage is when you are being careful to do all He commands and calls.

The centurion explains that he sees Jesus as a commander over the illness of his child.  He uses a military analogy that says when a commander gives an order it must be obeyed, his faith is in the authority of the one who gives the order.  A soldier must do as he is commanded by a superior officer.  In just this way, he expects that whatever Jesus commands regarding this illness will be done, an amazing idea.  Jesus then commands the man exactly as the man suggests, "Go."  The promise attached to the going was the healing as he asked.  Sometimes we have to walk in the faith we profess in order to see it as true.  True faith was revealed in going at Jesus' command, it wasn't just talk.  Strength and courage was in faith.

Paul was a man who was under orders, just as Joshua and the centurion were.  He was given orders and also told what he must suffer for the sake of the Gospel (see Acts 9).  Because he expected to suffer according to the word God gave him, he suffered well.  He had no illusions about a life of ease and prosperity in service to the Lord.  Part of the problem in our time is that we don't have a place for suffering in the Gospel that is anchored in the suffering of Jesus.  We have the mistaken and harmful belief in the west that belief in Jesus is our ticket to the good life, a life of protection from harm.  Paul, and the other disciples, had no such belief because they listened to Jesus' words concerning the matter.  They knew that they, like Joshua, had to be strong and courageous but they had the same promise that the Lord would be with them always so long as they walked in the commission He had given them.  So do we.  Be strong, courageous and obedient today and see how it works out.