10 Pentecost - Sunday
Posted
July 20, 2008
1 Kings 3:5-12 (13-14) -- Prayer for Understanding;
Psalm 119:129-136 -- God's Word Imparts
Understanding;
Romans 8:28-30 -- God's Purpose;
Matthew
13:44-52 -- Parables of the Kingdom;
1
Kings:
Gibeon was the priestly city where the tabernacle was
located at this period, until Solomon built the temple in Jerusalem.
Solomon had succeeded his father, David, to the throne of Israel.
Solomon had gone to Gibeon to offer sacrifices to God.
During
the night God spoke to Solomon in a dream, and asked Solomon what he
wanted God to do for him. Solomon replied that God had given David
great steadfast love, because David lived according to God's will in
faithfulness and righteousness (doing what is good, right and true in
God's judgment). Solomon acknowledged that God had blessed David by
giving him a son to reign on David's throne. God had made Solomon
king of Israel, although Solomon was like a small child in his
ability to assume the responsibility. Solomon seemed so inexperienced
that it was as if he didn't even know "how to go out or come in"
(1 Kings 3:7b). Solomon was to reign as God's representative over
God's chosen people, so vast that they were beyond counting. So
Solomon asked God to give him understanding so that Solomon could
discern good and evil, and govern God's people wisely.
God was
pleased that Solomon had asked for wisdom to govern God's people,
rather than asking selfishly for wealth, long life, or vengeance upon
Solomon's enemies. So God promised that he would give Solomon wisdom
beyond any human before or since, and God also promised to give
Solomon wealth and honor above any other worldly king during
Solomon's reign. In addition, God promised that if Solomon trusted
and obeyed God's Word, as David had, God would give Solomon long
life.
Psalm:
The
psalmist testified that he was happy to trust and obey God's Word
because he had found that God's Word is wonderful, and imparts
enlightenment and understanding. He longed to know God's Word like
one who pants for air when "out-of-breath" because of
strenuous exertion.
The Lord
is attentive and gracious to those who love the Lord's name. The Lord
has promised to keep them from stumbling and from domination by sin.
The Lord will redeem his people from human oppression so that they
can obey God's Word. The Lord will look with favor upon his servants
and teach them his commandments. God's servants mourn for those who
do not know and obey God's Word.
Romans:
"Born-again"
(John 3:3, 5-8) disciples of Jesus Christ have come to know (by
experience; John 6:68-69 RSV) that, in everything, God is working for
good; and those who love him, who have responded to his call
according to God's eternal purpose are cooperating and joining with
him in working for what is eternally good in accordance with God's
Word. God's eternal purpose has always been to conform his "chosen"
people to the likeness of his Son, Jesus Christ, who is the
"firstborn" of many children of God's family.
God
knew each of us before we were born, and his will has always been for
us to accept his call to be his children, to be justified (judged not
guilty in God's judgment) and to share in the eternal glory of Jesus
Christ.
Matthew:
Jesus taught his disciples about the
kingdom of heaven with several parables (stories of everyday
experience to impart spiritual truth). The kingdom of heaven is like
a field in which a man found buried treasure. He covered it back up
and then went and sold all his possessions and bought the
field.
Similarly, the kingdom of heaven is like a merchant
seeking fine rare pearls. Finding one of extraordinary value, he sold
all his possessions so that he could buy that pearl.
The
kingdom of heaven is also like a fishing net, cast into the water,
which gathered a large number of fish. Then the fishermen hauled the
net in and sorted the fish, keeping the good, and discarding the bad.
Jesus warned his disciples that this parable illustrates the
Day of Judgment at the end of this temporal age. Angels will gather
all those who have ever lived on earth, and will separate the
righteous from the wicked. The righteous will enter God's eternal
heavenly kingdom, and the wicked will be cast into the eternal fiery
furnace of hell, where people "weep and gnash their teeth"
in eternal torment.
Jesus asked his disciples if they
understood what Jesus had told them and they said they did. Then
Jesus said that every scribe (those educated in the Bible scriptures)
who has been fully trained for the kingdom of heaven will be like a
householder who treasures among his possessions both what is old and
what is new.
Commentary:
God's
purpose has always been, from the very beginning of Creation, to
establish an eternal kingdom of his people who willingly choose to
trust and obey God. God has created this temporal world to allow us
to have freedom to choose whether to trust and obey God or not, and
to learn by "trial and error." God knew that, given
freedom, we would all choose to do our own will rather than God's
will.
Disobedience of God's Word (God's will) is sin. This
world is designed to allow the possibility of sin and disobedience of
God's Word, but this Creation and we individually are limited by
time. God is not willing to allow sin and disobedience forever, nor
allow it in his eternal kingdom. Otherwise it would not be "heaven."
God has designed this world so that we have all sinned
(Romans 3:23; 1 John 1:8-10), and the penalty for sin is (eternal)
death (Romans 6:23). God doesn't want us to perish eternally (Romans
5:8, John 3:16-17). God has designed a Savior, Jesus Christ, into
this Creation (John 1:1-5; 14). Jesus is God's only provision for
forgiveness of our sin, salvation from eternal condemnation and
destruction, and restoration to fellowship with God which was broken
by sin (Acts 4:12; John 14:6; see God's Plan of Salvation).
God
has been progressively revealing himself and his purpose for
Creation, first through Creation itself, then through the Bible, then
through Jesus, and ultimately through the infilling of the indwelling
Holy Spirit.
Jesus came into the world to show us what God is
like, and to demonstrate how to live in obedient trust in God's Word.
Jesus' resurrection demonstrates the reality of existence after
physical death, and the possibility of eternal life for those who
trust and obey God's Word.
God "anointed" Solomon to
succeed Solomon's father, David, as king of Israel. God manifested
himself to Solomon in a dream and asked Solomon what Solomon wanted
God to do for him. Solomon asked for (divine) wisdom so he
could carry out the responsibility God had given him.
God
always provides the resources we need to accomplish what he calls us
to do. If we realize that we lack (divine) wisdom we can ask him and
trust that he will give it generously without criticism (James 1:5).
Jesus promises that if we will seek first the kingdom of God
and God's righteousness (doing what is right, good and true in accord
with God's Word and judgment) we will have the worldly material
resources as well. But if we first try to accumulate worldly security
we will never attain it, because ultimately there is no security
apart from the kingdom of God and God's Word, and we will never get
around to seeking the kingdom of God (Matthew 6:33).
God's
(divine) wisdom is unlike what the world falsely calls "wisdom"
(1 Corinthians 1:17-25; 2:1-8). Worldly wisdom changes, and
ultimately fails and disappoints; God's wisdom is eternal and
unchanging, and can be utterly relied upon.
God also promised
Solomon that if Solomon trusted and obeyed God's Word as his father,
David, had, God would give him long (eternal) life. That same promise
applies to us through faith (obedient trust) in Jesus, who is the
fulfillment, embodiment and example of God's Word, lived in this
world, in human flesh (John 1:1-5, 14).
The Bible is the Word
of God through which God imparts spiritual enlightenment and
understanding, as the psalmist testified. God will reveal his Word to
those who truly desire to know it in order to do it. The Holy Spirit,
the Spirit of God, the Spirit of Christ (Romans 8:9) opens the minds
of Jesus' disciples to understand the Bible scriptures (Luke
24:45). Those who trust and obey God's Word will find that it is
absolutely true and trustworthy, and that God's will for us is better
than anything we would choose for ourselves, because we really don't
know what we want and what will truly satisfy us.
God is
attentive and gracious to those who love God's name (his whole person
and character; Jesus is the name of the Lord; Colossians 2:8-9; John
20:28) and know, trust and obey God's Word. God is God whether we
acknowledge him or not, but God is not obligated to be all that an
almighty, loving and merciful God implies, to people who don't know
and obey his Word (Isaiah 42:5e, John 14:23-24).
Just adding
Jesus' name to the end of our prayers doesn't obligate God to answer
them. There are conditions for praying prayers God is willing to hear
and answer (see Conditions for Answered Prayer, sidebar, top right).
Praying for God to give us divine wisdom is not going to be answered
if we haven't bothered to read God's Word and haven't committed to
trust and obey it.
Christians are "born-again"
(John 3:3, 5-8) disciples (students; Acts 11:26c) of Jesus Christ who
have begun to trust and obey Jesus and have received the "baptism"
("anointing;" "gift") of the indwelling Holy
Spirit, which only Jesus gives (John 1:31-34), only to his disciples
who trust and obey Jesus (John 14:15-17). We have learned from
experience that in everything God is working for good; and his people
work with him, by the guidance and empowerment of the Holy
Spirit.
In a sense we are all God's "chosen" people;
but we have the free will to choose whether to respond to God's call
in obedient trust or not. God has had a purpose for Creation from the
beginning, but we are not "predestined;" not forced to go
along with God's purpose. We are revealed to be God's people by our
choosing to trust and obey God's Word and Jesus' example and
teaching.
Eternal life in uncontaminated paradise in God's
kingdom in heaven is of priceless, inestimable value. Even by selling
all our material possessions we could never afford it, but Jesus has
paid the price on our behalf, and offers it to us as a free gift, to
be received by faith (obedient trust) in Jesus.
To some the
kingdom of heaven is just a worthless vacant lot, but to those who
know the hidden treasure it contains it is precious beyond
calculation. It will cost us everything we possess, but it far
exceeds the cost in eternal value.
This lifetime is our only
opportunity to seek and come to know our Creator (Acts 17:26-27), and
to be spiritually reborn to eternal life. There is a Day of Judgment
coming when we will each be accountable for what we have done
individually with God's Word in our lifetimes. Have we sought divine
eternal wisdom, or have we accepted worldly wisdom? Have we sought to
know and do God's will, or have we lived to please ourselves?
This
lifetime is our opportunity to train for life in God's eternal
kingdom in heaven. The Bible is the Word of God. It contains both
wonderful promises and ominous warnings. We will either accept the
free gift of Salvation through faith (obedient trust) in Jesus
Christ, or we will be condemned to eternal destruction and eternal
death in hell by God's Law and Judgment.
Is Jesus your Lord?
Are you Jesus’ disciple? Are you trusting and obeying Jesus? Have
you received the indwelling Holy Spirit since you first truly
believed (Acts 19:2)? Are you making disciples of Jesus Christ and
teaching them to obey all that Jesus commands (Matthew 28:18-20)? Do
you know with certainty where you will spend eternity (1 John
5:11-13; Ephesians 1:13-14)?
10
Pentecost - Monday
Posted July 21, 2008
Psalm 104:25-31 -- God our Provider;
Consider the great, wide, ocean, full
of creatures beyond counting, both great and small. The sea is like a
vast untamable monster, and yet man ventures forth in ships upon it,
depending on the Lord to keep it subdued.
All creatures in
this world depend on the Lord to give them their food as needed. When
the Lord gives them their food they gather it up. They are filled
with good things when the Lord opens his hand. When the Lord turns
away from them they are dismayed, and when the Lord takes away their
breath they die and return to the dust from which they were created.
When the Lord sends forth his Spirit they are created, and the Lord
renews the face of the earth.
"May the Glory of the Lord
endure forever. May the Lord rejoice in his works" (Psalm
104:31).
Commentary:
God
is the Creator and ruler of the Universe. Every creature in this
world is dependent upon the Lord for life and every necessity.
Creation is vast and complex beyond human comprehension, and
the forces of nature are powerful beyond human control. Yet
everything is under the Lord's control and works according to the
Lord's design.
Humans try, and imagine that they have
succeeded in subduing the forces of nature, until the "monster"
of storm and flood breaks loose. We imagine that we can supply our
own food and store it up as security against the "monster"
and we can, until the Lord hides his face. We imagine that we can
extend our lives with medical care, and we can, as long as the Lord
allows.
The Lord has given us the breath of physical life. God
has designed and intends this physical lifetime to be our opportunity
to receive the "breath" of spiritual, eternal life. This is
only possible through faith (obedient trust) in Jesus Christ, whom
God designed into Creation from the very beginning (John 1:1-5, 14).
Jesus is is God's one and only provision for our salvation from
spiritual eternal death (Acts 4:12; John 14:6; see God's Plan of
Salvation, sidebar, top right).
Jesus warns that we must be
spiritually "born-again" (John 3:3, 5-8) in order to have
eternal life in God's heavenly kingdom. This is only possible through
the gift of the indwelling Holy Spirit, which only Jesus gives (John
1:31-34), only to his disciples who trust and obey Jesus (John
14:15-17; Isaiah 42:5e). When the Lord sends forth his Spirit, the
Spirit of God, the Spirit of Christ (Romans 8:9), to fill us and
dwell within us, we are created anew; we are renewed to eternal life
which God intended, but which we all lost because of sin
(disobedience of God's Word; Romans 3:23; 1 John 1:8-10).
The
Holy Spirit is the seal and guarantee that one is in Christ and has
eternal life (2 Corinthians 1:22; Ephesians 1:13-14; Romans 8:9b, 11,
15-16). The infilling of the Holy Spirit is a discernible, ongoing
event which each of us can experience and know with certainty for
ourselves (Acts 19:2). Anyone who isn't sure should ask themselves,
"Why not?"
Is Jesus your Lord? Are you Jesus’
disciple? Are you trusting and obeying Jesus? Have you received the
indwelling Holy Spirit since you first truly believed (Acts 19:2)?
Are you making disciples of Jesus Christ and teaching them to obey
all that Jesus commands (Matthew 28:18-20)? Do you know with
certainty where you will spend eternity (1 John 5:11-13; Ephesians
1:13-14)?
10 Pentecost - Tuesday
Posted July 22, 2008;
Isaiah 55:1-5 -- Spiritual Sustenance;
Come all who
thirst spiritually and those who are spiritually poor. Come and
obtain wine and milk without cost.
Why do you spend
hard-earned money for that which is not bread and labor for what will
not satisfy? Listen to the Lord and eat what is good; take pleasure
in wholesome food.
Come to the Lord and listen to him, so
that your soul will live, and the Lord will make an everlasting
covenant with you; the promise of his steadfast love, as he had for
David. Notice that the Lord made David a witness to all people. He
made David a leader and commander over the people.
Watch and
see; God's people will call nations that never heard of you,
and they will come to you, "because of the Lord your God, the
Holy One of Israel, for he has glorified you" (Isaiah 55:5b).
Commentary:
All who realize their spiritual neediness are
invited to come to the Lord and receive spiritual milk and wine
without cost. Spiritual milk is the Word of God which enables
new-born Christians to grow to spiritual maturity (1 Peter 2:2). The
wine of the sacrament of Holy Communion (Eucharist; The Lord's
Supper) is the blood of Christ, the supernatural drink which
satisfies the spiritual thirst and nurtures and strengthens the Holy
Spirit within us.
Jews were forbidden to drink the blood of
animals or eat meat with its blood because the blood was believed to
contain the spirit of the animal. Jesus told his disciples to drink
his blood in the wine of the Lord's Supper, so that they would
sustain and strengthen the indwelling Holy Spirit of Christ with in
them.
We know that we need physical food and drink to sustain
our physical bodies, but we have even more need of spiritual food and
drink, and yet we often don't recognize our spiritual need. We feed
our bodies but starve our souls. Our bodies are temporal; they will
wear out and die, regardless of what we do to sustain and preserve
them, but our souls are eternal. If we have made no provision for our
souls in this temporal lifetime, there will be no place and no way
for us live in eternity; we will spend eternity in eternal death and
destruction in Hell.
Heed (hear and obey) God's Word and
partake of the spiritual food and drink which is eternally wholesome
and eternally satisfying. Trust and obey God's Word so that your soul
will live.
David was the shepherd boy whom God made king of
Israel. David is an example of God's blessing and empowerment of
those who trust and obey the Lord. David is the forerunner and
illustration of Jesus Christ.
Jesus is the ultimate,
perfectly sinless, eternal king of God's people. Jesus is the
fulfillment of God's everlasting covenant of steadfast love to David
(2 Samuel 7:5-13; Psalm 89:20-29). Jesus is the Son of David (Matthew
21:9), the heir to the eternal throne of David.
God, our
Creator, has revealed himself through Israel, by his Word, recorded
in the Bible, and fulfilled, embodied and exemplified in Jesus
Christ, the "living Word" (John 1:1-5, 14). The true Church
of Jesus Christ is the "New Israel," the New People of God.
The Church calls all people to receive free spiritual food and drink,
through Jesus Christ, and all nations will come in order to obtain
true, spiritual, eternal life.
Jesus is God's one and only
provision for our salvation from eternal condemnation and death, for
reconciliation and fellowship with God which was broken by sin
(disobedience of God's Word), and for spiritual "rebirth"
(John 3:3, 5-8) to eternal life (Acts 4:12; John 14:6; see God's Plan
of Salvation, sidebar, top right). Only Jesus gives the gift
("baptism;" "anointing") of the indwelling Holy
Spirit (John 1:31-34), only to his disciples who trust and obey Jesus
(John 14:15-17). The Holy Spirit is the seal and guarantee that one
is in Christ and has eternal life (2 Corinthians 1:22; Ephesians
1:13-14; Romans 8:9b, 11, 15-16).
Is Jesus your Lord? Are you
Jesus’ disciple? Are you trusting and obeying Jesus? Have you
received the indwelling Holy Spirit since you first truly believed
(Acts 19:2)? Are you making disciples of Jesus Christ and teaching
them to obey all that Jesus commands (Matthew 28:18-20)? Do you know
with certainty where you will spend eternity (1 John 5:11-13;
Ephesians 1:13-14)?
10
Pentecost - Wednesday
Posted July 23, 2008
Romans
8:35-39 -- Assurance of God's Love;
No one and nothing can
separate us from Jesus' love; not tribulation, distress, persecution,
famine, nakedness, peril or sword. The prophecy of Psalm 44:22 is
being fulfilled, that believers are continually being killed for
their faith. They are being slaughtered like sheep. But in all these
things they are more than triumphant through the Lord's love for us.
Nothing, whether we live or die, not even supernatural beings,
whether good or evil, nor the heights of heaven or the depths of the
grave, or any other thing in creation can separate us from the love
of God in Jesus Christ our Lord.
Commentary:
In the
first-century Church there was real physical danger and persecution
for believers. There is still great physical danger and persecution
of Christians in parts of the world today. All Christians also can
expect to face opposition from worldly people wherever they
live.
The gift of the indwelling Holy Spirit is the assurance
of the love of God within us. By his power we can endure and prevail
in any circumstance we face.
Through the indwelling Holy
Spirit we experience the love of God for us in Jesus Christ. In every
difficulty the indwelling Holy Spirit comforts, sustains and
encourages us, and we have the certainty within us that even our
physical death cannot defeat us (Hebrews 2:14-15). We need not fear
any human, or even supernatural beings or powers, because the Holy
Spirit within us is the Spirit of God, the Spirit of Christ (Romans
8:9), who is above all powers and authorities in all of
Creation.
Only Jesus gives the gift ("baptism;"
"anointing") of the indwelling Holy Spirit (John 1:31-34),
only to his disciples who trust and obey Jesus (John 14:15-17). The
Holy Spirit is the seal and guarantee that one is in Christ and has
eternal life (2 Corinthians 1:22; Ephesians 1:13-14; Romans 8:9b, 11,
15-16). The infilling of the Holy Spirit is a discernible, ongoing
experience which we can know with certainty for ourselves (Acts
19:2).
Is Jesus your Lord? Are you Jesus’ disciple? Are you
trusting and obeying Jesus? Have you received the indwelling Holy
Spirit since you first truly believed (Acts 19:2)? Are you making
disciples of Jesus Christ and teaching them to obey all that Jesus
commands (Matthew 28:18-20)? Do you know with certainty where you
will spend eternity (1 John 5:11-13; Ephesians 1:13-14)?
10 Pentecost - Thursday
Posted July
24, 2008
Matthew 14:13-21 -- Feeding the Five
Thousand;
After Jesus heard that John the Baptizer had been
executed Jesus took his disciples to a secluded place by boat. The
crowds following Jesus anticipated where he was going and went by
foot and met him as the boat landed. Jesus had compassion on them and
healed the sick.
At the end of the day his disciples told
Jesus to send the crowd away to buy food in the towns nearby. But
Jesus told his disciples to feed the crowd. They only had five loaves
and two fish, but Jesus told them to bring them to him. Jesus told
the crowd to sit down on the grass, and he took the bread and fish
and blessed and broke them into pieces. Then he had his disciples
distribute them, and the crowd ate and were satisfied. The disciples
collected twelve baskets of leftovers. About five thousand people had
been fed.
Jesus' mission was to offer spiritual healing and
feeding to a spiritually sick and hungry world. His miracles of
physical healing and feeding were intended to reveal who Jesus is,
and that he can heal and feed spiritually.
Many of the people
who came to Jesus were interested only in what Jesus could do for
them physically. They received physical healing, but unless they
accepted Jesus as the Messiah and became his disciples, they missed
the spiritual healing and feeding only Jesus can provide (see John
6:25-35).
Jesus is the source of the spiritual bread of
(eternal) life (John 6:35, 48-51). On the night Jesus was arrested he
celebrated the Passover feast with his disciples, and Jesus
instituted the feast of the New Covenant, the Lord's Supper; (the
Eucharist; Holy Communion; see Matthew 26:26-29). Jesus offered his
body on the cross as a sacrifice for the forgiveness of our sins
(disobedience of God's Word). Communion is the spiritual New Passover
feast. Believers participate in the body and blood of Jesus'
sacrifice through the elements of bread and wine, through which we
are nurtured and sustained unto eternal life.
Jesus'
salvation is for all who are willing to receive it in obedient trust.
Jesus is able to take a small amount of physical resources and extend
them to provide nurture and sustenance for all to be filled and
satisfied. It doesn't require great resources from us; just the
simple "yes" of faith (obedient trust). As we bring our
"yes" to Jesus, he will cause our faith to grow abundantly
to meet our need so that we are filled and satisfied.
The
image of Jesus sharing a simple meal with his followers is an
illustration of the spiritual fellowship we can have with Jesus, now,
by the gift of his indwelling Holy Spirit (John 14:15-17, 21, 23;
Revelation 3:20), and a foretaste of the fellowship we will have with
him in his eternal kingdom.
Is Jesus your Lord? Are you Jesus’
disciple? Are you trusting and obeying Jesus? Have you received the
indwelling Holy Spirit since you first truly believed (Acts 19:2)?
Are you making disciples of Jesus Christ and teaching them to obey
all that Jesus commands (Matthew 28:18-20)? Do you know with
certainty where you will spend eternity (1 John 5:11-13; Ephesians
1:13-14)?
10 Pentecost - Friday
Posted
July 25, 2008
Jeremiah 7:1-7 -- The Temple
Sermon;
The Lord told Jeremiah to stand at the gate of the
temple and preach to the people entering the temple, warning them to
change their ways and their deeds if they expected God to honor his
promise to allow them to dwell in the land he gave their fathers. He
said three times, for emphasis, not to think that going into the
temple of the Lord guaranteed the Lord's favor and protection.
God
expected his people to change their ways and deeds to conform to
God's Word, to provide justice for all, not to oppress aliens,
orphans, or widows, not to shed innocent blood, and not to follow
false gods. Doing such things would damage themselves and the Lord
would withdraw the promise of the inheritance of the land which
he gave to their fathers.
Jeremiah was the prophet of the Lord
to Judah and Jerusalem in the period immediately preceding the
destruction of Jerusalem and the temple, and the exile of the people
to Babylon by Nebuchadnezzar. The Southern Kingdom of Judah was
the remnant of Israel after the destruction of the Northern Kingdom
by the Assyrians when Samaria was conquered in 721 B.C.. Judah had
not learned from the example of the Northern Kingdom, and did not
heed Jeremiah's warning to return to obedient trust in God's Word and
to refrain from idolatry, so they ultimately were conquered and
deported to Babylon for seventy years from 587 to 517 B.C. as
Jeremiah had prophesied (Jeremiah 25:11-12).
Notice that
seventy years is a life-sentence for all who were adults at the time
of the deportation. God fulfilled his promise to bring them back from
Babylon to the Promised Land, but it was a renewed people, who had
learned to trust and obey the Lord during their captivity.
The
Lord brought them back from Babylon and they rebuilt Jerusalem and
the temple, but the people forgot what they had learned in exile, and
were unprepared for the coming of the Messiah, Jesus Christ. As a
result Jerusalem and the temple were again destroyed in 70 A.D., by
the Romans. Israel ceased to exist as a nation. The people were
scattered throughout the world, until they began to return and
reestablish the nation following World War II. The temple has never
been rebuilt.
Judaism effectively ended at the crucifixion of
Jesus Christ. At the moment of his death, the curtain separating the
holy-of-holies from the people was supernaturally torn in two from
top to bottom (Matthew 27:51a), symbolizing that Jesus has become the
new and better way into the presence of God. Jesus had become the one
and only sacrifice acceptable to God for the forgiveness of our sins
(disobedience of God's Word; Acts 4:21; John 14:6; see God's Plan of
Salvation, sidebar, top right). There is no further need of the
Jewish temple and priests.
One of the reasons the Jews gave
for crucifying Jesus was because they feared that the Romans
might destroy their nation and temple in retaliation for Jesus'
"insurrection." They accused Jesus of saying that he would
destroy the temple, but Jesus was referring to his physical body
(John 2:19-21). Their rejection of Jesus as their Messiah
precipitated the end of Judaism.
At the time of Jesus' coming,
the religious leaders were running Judaism as if it were their
personal empire, instead of seeking to know and do God's will. They
were running the religion for their own personal benefit. They did
not recognize Jesus because they didn't know God or understand God's
Word.
In too many instances, the nominal "Church,"
particularly in America, is in a similar situation today . Ministry
is too often a "career choice;" a means of making a living
and a position of social status ("peddlers of God's Word;"
2 Corinthians 2:17 RSV). Many Church leaders have been formally
trained to know a lot "about" God, but don't have a
personal relationship with the Lord. Many are not "born-again"
(John 3:3, 5-8) and it takes "born-again" disciples to make
"born-again" disciples.
The Church is supposed to
be a "disciple-making" organization, but many congregations
are failing to make disciples, and settle for making "church
members." Too many "churches" are teaching "Cheap
Grace;"* Salvation by grace (unmerited favor; free gift) without
the requirement of discipleship and obedient trust in Jesus Christ
(see False Teachings, sidebar, top right).
Many people think
that they can manipulate God in their favor by going to church. They
think that calling Jesus "Lord" makes them Christians
(Matthew 7:21-27; Luke 6:46). God is not obligated to be all that an
almighty, loving and merciful God implies if we are not willing to be
his obedient, trusting people (Jeremiah 7:23; Ezekiel 11:20;
Leviticus 26:3; Leviticus 26:12; see also Jeremiah 11:4c-5). God is
not obligated to answer our prayers just because we add the name of
Jesus to the end (see Conditions for Answered Prayer, sidebar, top
right).
Jesus has promised to return on the Day of Judgment
(Matthew 25:31-46) to judge the living and the dead, in both the
physical and spiritual senses (1 Peter 4:5; John 5:28-29). That day
is not far off; it will come for each of us within our lifetime, and
none of us can be sure we'll live to see tomorrow. When we die our
eternal destiny is fixed and unalterable. Today is the day of
Salvation (2 Corinthians 6:2). Will we be any more ready for Jesus'
return than the Jews were for his first coming?
Is Jesus your
Lord? Are you Jesus’ disciple? Are you trusting and obeying Jesus?
Have you received the indwelling Holy Spirit since you first truly
believed (Acts 19:2)? Are you making disciples of Jesus Christ and
teaching them to obey all that Jesus commands (Matthew 28:18-20)? Do
you know with certainty where you will spend eternity (1 John
5:11-13; Ephesians 1:13-14)?
*See: The Cost of Discipleship, Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Collier Books, Macmillan Publishing Co., NY 1963 ISBN 0-02-083850-6
10 Pentecost - Saturday
First posted 07/29/05
Hebrews 3:7-15 -- Warning Against Rebellion and
Unbelief;
Matthew 11:16-24 -- Warning Against Unrepentance;
Hebrews:
The author of Hebrews quotes Psalm 95:8, which was
inspired by the Holy Spirit, warning God's people that today (from
now on) when they hear God's Word, not to rebel against it, and not
to test God. During the forty years in the wilderness, Israel had
experienced the faithful providence of God, and still did not trust
and obey God's Word. Their hearts were set on disobedience and
rebellion. So God swore in anger not to allow that generation to
enter God's rest (in the Promised Land).
So we must take care
not to allow evil and disobedience to take root in our hearts, so
that we not fall away from the living God. We should exhort one
another every day not to become hardened "by the deceitfulness
of sin" (Hebrews 3:13b). For we share in the inheritance we have
in Christ only if we hold onto the faith (obedient trust) we had in
him when we first believed, until the end.
Matthew:
Jesus compared the people at the time of Jesus'
ministry, to children who want others to play according to their
rules and expectations. They called John the Baptizer crazy, because
John lived on food scavenged in the wilderness, instead of feasting
and drunkenness. Then they criticized Jesus as a glutton and drunkard
because he didn't fast, and he ate with tax collectors and sinners.
Jesus began to rebuke the cities where he had done most of
his miracles, saying, "Woe to Chorazin (near Capernaum) and
Bethsaida (near Gennesaret on the northwestern shore of the Sea of
Galilee). Jesus said that Tyre and Sidon (Philistine cities on the
coast of the Mediterranean Sea) would surely have repented if Jesus
had done the miracles there that he had done in Chorazin and
Bethsaida. Jesus warned that on the Day of Judgment Tyre and Sidon
will fare better than Chorazin and Bethsaida. Of Capernaum (Jesus'
headquarters), Jesus warned that Sodom and Gomorrah would have
repented and not been destroyed by God if they had seen the miracles
Jesus did in Capernaum. Capernaum will fare worse in the Day of
Judgment than Sodom and Gomorrah did.
Commentary:
Israel had to wander for forty years in the
wilderness because, after seeing their miraculous delivery from
slavery in Egypt, by the ten plagues, and the parting of the Red Sea,
and experiencing the revelation of God to them at Mt. Horeb (Sinai)
they did not trust and obey God's command to enter and possess the
Promised Land. So God removed his favor from them so that the were
unable to enter the Promised Land on their own, and were forced to
wander in the wilderness. God didn't allow them to enter again until
the generation of those who had rebelled against God had died in the
wilderness (except for Joshua and Caleb who had urged Israel to trust
and obey God's command to enter and possess the land).
Early
in their wilderness exile the Israelites complained to Moses about
the lack of water, and God instructed Moses to bring forth water from
the rock (Exodus 17:1-7). So they called the place Meribah and
Massah, which mean "rebellion" and "testing,"
because the people rebelled against the Lord and demanded that the
Lord provide water, to prove to the people that he was still with
them.
Rebellion and disobedience were a continual problem of
Israel after they entered the Promised Land, regardless of the many
experiences of God's faithfulness and providence, recorded in the
Jewish Bible (the Old Testament). At Jesus first coming, the Jews
experienced God's presence and great works among them through Jesus
Christ, just as they had in the wilderness, and yet they refused to
repent and trust and obey God's Word
First-century Christians
were exhorted to remember and learn from the experiences of Israel,
to avoid rebellion and disobedience of God's Word, so that they would
not be deceived by sin and fall away from true faith (obedient trust)
in the Lord. Salvation is conditional upon our continued obedient
trust in Jesus Christ, and we share the same nature and tendency of
Israel to rebel and disobey.
Israel had the experience, the
Biblical record of the fulfillment of God's Word, and the examples of
the consequences of rebellion and disobedience; yet when Jesus came,
in fulfillment of God's Word, they wanted Jesus to conform to their
society, instead of repenting and conforming to God's Word.
Jesus
was Israel's promised Messiah and eternal king, but the Gentiles were
more ready and willing to accept Jesus than the Jews. Sodom and
Gomorrah were notoriously wicked and ungodly, but the cities of
Galilee where Jesus preached and performed miracles will be more
accountable to the Lord on the Day of Judgment, because they had the
knowledge of God, the Scriptures, and the fulfillment of the Messiah
in their midst and refused to repent and return to the Lord in
obedient trust.
Today our culture and our "nominal"
Churches are in the same situation as were Israel and Judaism at the
time of Christ's first coming. Our society wants God to play by our
rules. It wants God to hear and answer our prayers, without making
the effort to know, trust and obey God's Word. It wants God to do our
will, instead of learning to do God's will.
The history of
Israel recorded in the Bible is also intended to be a "parable,"
a metaphor for life in this world. In a sense we are all God's people
because he is our Creator, whether we acknowledge him or not. We are
all wandering in the "wilderness" during our lifetime, and
we will learn to trust and obey God's Word, fulfilled, embodied and
exemplified in Jesus Christ (John 1:1-5, 14), the "New Moses,"
or we will die eternally in the "wilderness"
There
is a Day of Judgment coming soon within our lifetimes, when Jesus is
going to return to judge "the living and the dead" (1 Peter
4:5), in both the physical an spiritual senses. Everyone who has ever
lived on earth will be accountable to the Lord for what they have
done in this lifetime (John 5:28-29). Those who have accepted Jesus
as Lord and Savior, and have trusted and obeyed Jesus will receive
eternal life in God's eternal paradise in heaven; those who have
rejected and refused or failed to trust and obey Jesus will receive
eternal destruction in hell with all evil (Matthew 25:31-46; 2
Thessalonians 1:5-10).
At the moment we die, our eternal
destiny is fixed and unchangeable. After physical death comes
Judgment, not "nothingness," and not reincarnation (Hebrews
9:27). Jesus is God's one and only provision for forgiveness for our
sin (disobedience of God's Word) and salvation from eternal death and
destruction in hell (Acts 4:12; John 14:6; see God's Plan of
Salvation, sidebar, top right).
Is Jesus your Lord? Are you Jesus’ disciple? Are you
trusting and obeying Jesus? Have you received the indwelling Holy
Spirit since you first truly believed (Acts 19:2)? Are you making
disciples of Jesus Christ and teaching them to obey all that Jesus
commands (Matthew 28:18-20)? Do you know with certainty where you
will spend eternity (1 John 5:11-13; Ephesians 1:13-14)?