MAYBE FIXING EVERYTHING DOESN’T FIX EVERYTHING

On By Pastor TomIn Bible, Bible Teaching, Christianity, Faith, Jesus, Matthew, Podcast, Religion, SermonLeave a comment

perfect life

Jesus truly cares about our trials and struggles, and sometimes he does alleviate them. We should not be embarrassed or ashamed to ask him for help with earthly problems. Jesus should be the most significant factor in any situation for us. Even so, having our troubles “fixed” often leaves us unchanged, and that’s not always a good thing.

 

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Matthew #50 . Matthew 15:29-38

Greetings, dear friends. This week I will be writing about, among other things, how the presence of Jesus should be the most important factor to believers in all circumstances. In terms of energy, time, talent and finances it often seems like I am inadequate to the callings the Lord has for me. But just as the most important thing for the 4000 hungry people to know was that Jesus was among them, so it is with me, and you too, I might add.

For this reason, I invite you to pray with me for the ministry of Clear Bible.

Please pray that the Lord will provide every need to keeping making this ministry what He wants it to be. Pray it will continue to be a blessing to those who hear it. Ask God, if it is his will, to touch even more lives with these messages. Ask him to use this ministry in making disciples of Jesus Christ.

Please also pray for our finances. Pray for us to receive what we need. God really is our true provider, so please do pray for us in this way before you give anything. And then, as you pray, if the Lord leads you to give us a gift, please go ahead and do that. But if he doesn’t want you to give to us, that is absolutely fine. We don’t want you to feel bad about it. We want you to follow Jesus in this matter.

If the Lord does lead you to give, just use the Paypal Donate button on the right hand side of the page. You don’t have to have a Paypal account – you can use a credit card, if you prefer. You can also set up a recurring donation through Paypal. We can make this tax-deductible if you just mention that it want it to be so in the “note” part of the transaction.

You could also send a check to:

New Joy Fellowship

917 Canyon Creek Road

Lebanon, TN 37087

(this is a new address by the way. It is merely an administrative change).

Just put “Clear Bible” in the memo. Your check will be tax-deductible.

Thank for your prayers, and your support!

~

One of the arguments made by skeptics is that the Bible, as we have it today, was shaped and “redacted,” by early Christian communities. In other words, goes the theory, over the first few hundred years of Christianity, various Christian communities changed some of what was originally written, and made up other parts out of thin air. Of course, this theory is destroyed by the known facts of how the Bible came to be. With vast numbers of complete and partial manuscripts in various languages, with a few surviving portions of manuscripts dating back to the time of the apostles, and large numbers of surviving papyri dating to within one generation of the apostles, we know that early Christian communities changed nothing. If they had, we would find widely varying readings in the various surviving manuscripts, with significantly variant readings clearly centered in geographical areas. Instead, we find that by A.D. 250, virtually all Christians across the known world (at the time) were using essentially the same New Testament texts. This occurred while Christianity was still an illegal, persecuted religion, so no one got any wealth or power from what is written in the bible.

Matthew 15:29–38 is another one of those passages that would only be included if the Bible is in fact what it claims to be. In other words, if you were in an early Christian community deciding what the Bible was going to be, you would almost certainly leave this out. If you haven’t already, go ahead and read the text. Now, think about it. We already have the feeding of the 5000. In that story, Jesus healed a bunch of people, and then fed them all with a few fish and some pieces of bread. In this story, we have almost the same thing. Jesus heals a bunch of people, spends three days with them, and then feeds them all with a few fish and some pieces of bread. The main differences appear to be that the second crowd was with Jesus for three days (instead of just one), and there were 4000 men (plus women and children), instead of 5000 (plus women and children). We also have different numbers of bread and fish and of baskets of leftovers.

Why would we include this second story? We already have a story just like it. The answer is simple: the reason Matthew included this story is because it really happened. It wasn’t put in by an early Christian community because they had some sort of agenda; this story does not advance any agenda beyond that of the first mass-feeding. A made-up gospel would simply leave it out. No, the only reason to include this story is because this is what actually happened. By the way, Jesus and his disciples have a conversation in Matthew 16, in which they refer to both incidents.

We might ask, why then, did Jesus repeat this miracle? We can ask this in true faith; it is a reasonable question. Sometimes, however, I think we hyper spiritualize what we read in the Bible. Sometimes the answer is very simple and straightforward. I think the reason Jesus fed the 4000, even though he had previously fed the 5000, was because, at that particular time, he was with the 4000 and they were hungry. In other words, it wasn’t some sort of additional lesson, or spiritual parable. He wasn’t proving a point. He happened to be there with those people. They were in need, and so he healed them; they were hungry, and so he fed them. It was simply Jesus providing for needy people.

Now, I believe this is true, and I think it is the main reason we have this text. I also believe that the Holy Spirit can, and does, use every part of the Scripture, and so I also think that we can hear God speak to us through this text.

First, I want us to notice something about our desires and their fulfillments as we look at this passage. Matthew tells us that he’s only counting men (in a census, only men were counted, which was a good thing for the people when it came to war and taxes). Conservatively, if you assume only one woman and one child for every two men present, on this occasion, Jesus fed about 8,000 people. On the previous occasion it would have been 10,000. So, between the two incidents, Jesus miraculously fed 18,000 people (possibly many more). In addition, he healed many of those people. I am sure that many of them desperately wanted healing for themselves or their family members before they went to see Jesus. I’m sure that many of them were very tired and hungry before Jesus fed them. Well, they got what they wanted: they were healed and then fed. They came to the Lord, asking him to meet their needs, and he did. But what was the result?

Luke tells us that when the dust had all settled after the crucifixion and resurrection, there were about 120 people (men, women and children) who followed Jesus. We don’t know for sure who each one of those 120 people were, but we know that the twelve followed him before the feeding of the five or four thousands. We know also about many women who were already his followers before this, along with several people whom were not present when he fed the five thousand, or the four, but became followers later, in Jerusalem. What this means is that at most, out of 18,000 people who received miraculous healing and miraculous food, fewer than 100 ended up following Jesus. That’s about one half of 1%. It is possible, of course that not a single one of these 18,000 people were among the 120 disciples at the time of Jesus’ resurrection.

The reason I bring this up is because it speaks to the heart of a lie that we human beings tell ourselves so often. We think that if God would just show himself we would put our faith in him. We believe that if God would simply fix our difficult situation everything would change for us. There are many Christian circles where it is popular to say “you cannot minister to a person’s spiritual needs until you have ministered to her physical needs.” But all these ideas are destroyed by this fact: Jesus Christ himself ministered to the physical needs of more than 18,000 people, and virtually none of them followed him; virtually none of them were fundamentally or permanently changed.

Our true need is not for God to simply alleviate our suffering, for him to deal with the thing that we think is bothering us the most. Don’t get me wrong, I’m all for the alleviation of suffering, particularly my own. But I do not think it accomplishes as much as we suppose it does. In the lives of these 18,000 people, it did not accomplish much spiritually, it did not fundamentally change the lives, or eternal destinies, of very many of them.

When I have a friend who is not a believer, and is suffering in some way, I usually pray that the Lord would alleviate his suffering. In that situation, I also often tell my friend I am praying for him. I have this idea that if God will simply intervene, my friend will become a believer, surrender his life to Jesus, and be changed forever. But this business about the feeding of the thousands shows me that that is not necessarily the case. Perhaps (!) the Lord is wiser than me when he chooses not to intervene miraculously. Maybe fixing everything doesn’t actually fix everything.

Jesus addressed physical pain, and physical needs, because he loved people, and the Father allowed him to help them. And I think this is another important lesson to take from the passage: Jesus cares, and sometimes Jesus does something about suffering. If nothing else, this passage shows us that he has great compassion on those who suffer. He did his miracles of healing and feeding, not because it led to more people following him, not because through it, more people received his salvation, but simply because it broke his heart to see them in need.

He did not need to do this miracle to show the people something about who he was as the Messiah – he had already done that with the feeding of the 5000. But he cared about the fact that these people were also hungry. He had just provided physical healing for number of them, and he did not want to send them off on a long journey with nothing to sustain them; he did not want hunger to undo the physical healing he had already brought. He cared about their hunger, he cared about their need, and combining his compassion with power, he met that need. The book of Hebrews says “Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today and forever (Hebrews 13:8).” That means that Jesus is still like this today: he still cares about our physical needs, and he still meets them, perhaps even miraculously at times. Maybe you need to hear this word for you today: Jesus cares about you, about every single thing in your life.

I don’t think I’m contradicting my earlier point. I think we need to put our own struggles and sufferings in perspective. We need to realize that if Jesus were to miraculously solve all our problems, we would still have a deep need for him. We need to recognize that the resolution of all earthly obstacles does not actually accomplish very much for us in eternity. Even so, Jesus truly does care about our present, earthly trials and struggles, and sometimes he does alleviate them. We should not be embarrassed or ashamed to ask him for help with earthly problems.

There is another thing I find interesting here: the response of the disciples when Jesus suggested that they should provide food for the crowd. It’s easy to judge them; after all they were in this same situation, probably no more than a year or two before (Matthew does not tell us how much time has passed since the feeding of the 5000). To me, their response seems almost incredible, at least on the surface: “Where could we get enough bread in this desolate place to fill such a crowd?” Seriously? Did they learn nothing from the first time?

However, I think perhaps when we judge the disciples in this way we are not being entirely fair. First, it isn’t like Jesus is producing food out of thin air every day. From day-to-day, week to week, month-to-month they are eating with Jesus in the normal way. In fact, we know from Luke that they were generally dependent on help from others for their daily necessities (Luke 8:1-3). It is likely that they themselves had experienced times when they wondered whether or not they would get a meal. Clearly, Jesus did not miraculously provide food on every single occasion when there was a need.

Second, I find that when I am in a place of need, I still often doubt the Lord, even though he has so clearly provided in the past. I think this is human nature, and it may be one of the reasons why the Lord grants so very few Christians the dangerous position of financial security. We are meant to keep looking to him for all we need, and very few of us really do look to him until we are in need. There is something about our relationship with the Lord that keeps inviting us to trust, and in order to truly trust, doubt must be possible. In any case, I have to admit, I’m still sometimes not expecting Jesus to do anything, still sometimes surprised when he does. How often do I, like the disciples in this text, expect that Jesus will not really do anything?

This is a reminder to me to keep looking to him. Once again, I don’t think this a contradiction to anything I said earlier. I don’t think God’s provision turns people into disciples. However, for those of us who have already begun to follow Jesus, it is vital that we remember God as the most important factor in every situation. We have eight thousand hungry people, what shall we do? Look to Jesus. We have a bill we can’t pay, what shall we do? Look to Jesus. We have a broken relationship that we can’t fix, what shall we do? Look to Jesus. Maybe you are lonely, or dissatisfied with life, or overwhelmed. The presence and will of Jesus should be the deciding factor for us in all circumstances.

GRACE FROM HARSH WORDS

On By Pastor TomIn Bible, Bible Teaching, Christianity, Jesus, Matthew, Podcast, Religion, SermonLeave a comment

Canaanite Woman

When we recognize that we are sinners, that we are in desperate need of Jesus, but with no right to ask anything of him, then we can receive the only grace that will save us. I don’t mean that we should spend a lot of time feeling guilty. But the truth is, we cannot receive grace until we believe that we are in desperate need, and yet we deserve nothing. And in this situation, faith inspires us to ask anyway, assures us that there is grace for the humble and repentant.

 

To listen to the sermon, click the play button:

To download, right click on the link (or do whatever you do on a Mac) and save it to your computer: Download Matthew Part 49

 

 

Matthew #49 . Matthew 15:21-28

This is one of those places in scripture that is very troubling when you read it through quickly. It just doesn’t sound like Jesus, at least, not until we stop and consider it more carefully.

Jesus is in the region of Tyre and Sidon, the area, where long ago, Elijah healed the dead son of a Gentile woman, while the nation of Israel suffered under famine. A Gentile woman comes to Jesus, asking for help for her demon possessed daughter. Now, I would think this would be right up Jesus’ alley. He has delivered people from demons before and there is no question that he has the power to do what she asks. It is in the tradition of the great prophet, Elijah. In addition, demonization represents the one power that all Christians would call “the enemy.” It seems obvious that Jesus would want to strike a blow against this sort of thing. Not only that, but we have come to see Jesus as a person of great compassion, and this is an opportunity to combine that gracious mercy with a blow against the enemy.

And yet, when this Canaanite woman comes to Jesus, he flat-out ignores her. And when he finally does pay attention to her, his words are almost insulting, and appear to be designed to send her away in shame. But I do not think that what we see on the surface truly reflects the heart of Jesus. In fact, in this incident I believe, we have again an example of how he sees into the heart of each one, and endeavors to give each person what they truly need.

The woman continues her pleading until the disciples are so distracted that they ask Jesus to do something. Jesus’ reply, when it finally comes, sounds harsh: “I was sent only to the lost sheep of Israel.” Somehow, the woman gains admittance into Jesus’ presence and again she begs him to heal her daughter. Again Jesus’ reply is appears unsympathetic, quoting what some commentators believe was probably a common proverb. In any case, it certainly sounds severe. The woman replies, comparing herself with a dog licking the crumbs from the children’s table. Jesus, apparently satisfied, grants her request.

How shall we understand this incident? Is Jesus truly so uncaring? Why did he deal with woman as he did? Ole Hallesby offers some insightful words about this incident:

Every time Jesus sees that there is a possibility of giving us more than we know how to ask, He does so. And in order to do so He often has to deal with us in ways which are past our finding out……

Jesus had somewhat the same thing in mind with the Canaanitish woman when He delayed and postponed the answer to her prayer, first by remaining painfully silent and then by using some sharp, harsh words. he wanted to give her more than a healed daughter. He wanted to give her something for herself besides.

Jesus is seeing something here that we don’t initially see: the heart-need of the Canaanite woman. In his response, he is seeking to address that need. I’m not sure the woman herself was aware of the need in her heart until Jesus got her attention by responding so strangely.

She comes to him initially because she has an obvious external problem: her daughter is tormented by a demon. I think most sensible people understand her position. She has a problem. It’s a serious one; a spiritual one, and here is Jesus who has shown himself willing and able to deal with issues like this. That’s all she wants from him: to heal her daughter. To her (and, I suspect, to us) this seems fairly simple and straightforward.

But Jesus wants to do more than simply fix her problem. This is another aspect of something Jesus said earlier:

“Don’t collect for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal. But collect for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys, and where thieves don’t break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also. (Matt 6:19-21, HCSB)

The woman is looking at the here and now. What she wants is not bad, but it is not eternal. The healing of her daughter is not a treasure that would last forever; in fact, we know this for certain, because both the woman and her daughter are now dead. Jesus wants to give her something that will last forever, a treasure that will neither spoil nor fade.

Let’s look at the progression. I admit, I am reading between the lines a little bit here, but when we are done, I think you’ll agree that looking at the passage in this way gives us a satisfactory understanding of why Jesus would behave like this.

At first, the woman is upset about her daughter. Her mind is focused almost entirely on her daughter’s situation. When she comes to Jesus at first, she is not interested in him for his own sake; she simply wants her daughter to be healed.

When Jesus does not respond at all to her request, it creates tension for the woman. Now, for the first time, she is thinking about something besides her daughter’s condition. She is now also wondering why Jesus won’t even speak to her. In this way, by ignoring her, Jesus is beginning to get her attention. She was upset about her daughter; now she is also upset about Jesus. He has started the process of moving her focus away from her problem and toward himself.

As I believe Jesus had hoped, the woman does not give up, and keeps asking for help. I think, however, that now she was interested not only in the help of Jesus, but also in his behavior. The disciples appear to have less patience than Jesus, and finally they plead with him to respond to her, if for no other reason than to simply get her off their backs.

Jesus’ response, when it finally comes, must have been very unsatisfactory to the woman:

He replied, “I was sent only to the lost sheep of the house of Israel.”

However, this does not deter her. She kneels before him, and says simply, “Lord help me.” Again, this is reading between the lines, but this is not the same as her initial request. She does not mention her daughter this time. She simply asks him to help her. I think she is beginning to see that she has a bigger need than simply the healing of her daughter.

I think Jesus sees the change in her. However, he wants to make sure she really understands, so his response is still apparently very callous:

He answered, “It isn’t right to take the children’s bread and throw it to their dogs.”

Jesus is trying to help her understand grace. She has no more right to ask anything of him than the dogs have to the food of children. The first lesson of grace is that we desperately need it; the second lesson is that we do not deserve it, cannot demand it, and could never earn it. Her response shows that she gets it:

“Yes, Lord,” she said, “yet even the dogs eat the crumbs that fall from their masters’ table! ”

She understands that she has nowhere to turn but Jesus, and no hope apart from him. She understands also that Jesus owes her nothing, and she has no right to ask. The greatness of her faith is that with this understanding, she asks anyway.

When she acknowledged that she was indeed in the position of “the dogs” – completely dependent on the grace and favor of the Master – then she received the very unmerited grace and blessing that she desired. And because Jesus had brought her to this place by her harsh words, she received God’s grace not only in the healing of her daughter, but in the healing of her soul, as a helpless, needy sinner. Though his response seemed harsh, he succeeded in giving her not only what she wanted, but what her deepest need required.

This is one of the reasons it is so important for Christians to remember the seriousness of sin. If we do not recognize that we are sinners, that we are in desperate need of Jesus, but with no right to ask anything of him, then we cannot receive the only grace that will save us. I don’t mean that we should spend a lot of time trying to make people feel guilty. But the truth is, we cannot receive grace until we understand that we are in exactly the same position as that Canaanite woman: we are in desperate need, and yet we deserve nothing. And in this situation, faith inspires us to ask anyway, assures us that even though our Savior sometimes gets our attention with harsh words, there is grace for the humble and repentant.

There’s something else about this passage that I think is quite important. If we walk with Jesus long enough, sooner or later he will appear to us in the same way that he appeared to this Canaanite woman: unresponsive, distant, and even harsh. We might want something from him that appears to be simple, straightforward and like something he would obviously want to do for us. And yet, sometimes he doesn’t seem to respond at all, and at other times he appears to respond with a harsh or callous answer. When this happens, I want us to remember this Canaanite woman. From Jesus’ response she learned and acknowledged her true position of dependency upon grace; and yet her faith led her to keep seeking Jesus, in spite of the disappointment with how he was initially.

I think it may help for us to remember that sometimes Jesus has a vision that is bigger than our vision, that he often wants to give us much more than the small things that we ask for. The Canaanite woman was not looking for saving faith. She wasn’t looking for eternal life, even though that was so much better than the temporary healing she sought for her daughter. However, because she persisted in faith, she received both things. Sometimes, the Lord appears distant, or even harsh, because he is trying to get our attention. Our focus is so often on present things that will not last, while He wants to give us something eternal. He’s trying to get our eyes off of our problems and onto himself.

Will you allow him to do that in your life today? Allow him to remind you of your desperate need, and the fact that you deserve nothing from him. Allow the Scripture to strengthen your faith however that even when we have no standing, the Lord is gracious, and his heart goes out to those who seek him in humility and repentance.

Hallesby is a source of rich application for this text. How many times have we stormed heaven with an unanswered prayer request, crying out again and again, in distress, because the Lord says not a word to us? How often the Lord’s response to our prayers seems delayed so long, or harsh when it comes. Yet, we see in the way he dealt with the Syro-phoenician woman that his intent is always to give us more than what we ask for. He desires not only that are needs are met, but that we live in greater and closer reliance on Him and His promises. He wants us to see that we have no other hope.

Thanks again for making use of Clear Bible.

I want to remind you again that we are a listener-supported ministry, and that means, first and foremost, that we are supported by your prayers. We need and value your prayers for us.

Please pray that this ministry will continue to be a blessing to those who hear it. Ask God, if it is his will, to touch even more lives with these messages. Ask him to use this ministry in making disciples of Jesus Christ.

Please also pray for our finances. Pray for us to receive what we need. Please pray for us in this way before you give anything. And then, as you pray, if the Lord leads you to give us a gift, please go ahead and do that. But if he doesn’t want you to give to us, that is absolutely fine. We don’t want you to feel bad about it. We want you to follow Jesus in this matter. But do continue to pray for our finances.

If the Lord does lead you to give, just use the Paypal Donate button on the right hand side of the page. You don’t have to have a Paypal account – you can use a credit card, if you prefer. You can also set up a recurring donation through Paypal. We can make this tax-deductible if you just mention that it want it to be so in the “note” part of the transaction.

You could also send a check to:

New Joy Fellowship

625 Spring Creek Road

Lebanon, TN 37087

Just put “Clear Bible” in the memo. Your check will be tax-deductible.

Thank for your prayers, and your support!

THE COSTLY, FREE GIFT

On By Pastor TomIn Bible, Bible Teaching, Easter, Jesus, Podcast, Religion, Resurrection, Sermon1 Comment

marriage-proposal

God’s grace is free to us, but it was not free to Him. It was very costly. It is free in the same sense that a diamond is free to the girl who is getting engaged. It is freely given, but it cost the giver a great deal. And like the diamond engagement ring, it is offered not just as a trinket, but as an invitation into a lifelong relationship that will change the course of our future forever.

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EASTER 2015

LIFE FROM DEATH

 

On Good Friday, we remember the crucifixion of Jesus – how we was killed by torture on a Roman cross. On Easter Sunday, we celebrate his resurrection – the fact that he physically came alive again and appeared to many of his followers. But the truth is, the two go together. If we had a crucifixion with no resurrection, the result would be simply despair. It would mean that Jesus was not who he said he was, and there would be no hope for us for forgiveness or eternal life. But a resurrection without the crucifixion first would also be meaningless. Jesus wouldn’t be dead in the first place, so there would be no need for one. But if Jesus simply revealed his full glory, and then went back to heaven, it would be great for him, and everything he said would be proven true…but we would still have no way of receiving forgiveness or eternal life.

Mostly, each year on Easter Sunday, I preach on the resurrection. Go figure. But the resurrection is only one half of a two-part equation. So, in order to set the resurrection in its proper context, I want to spend most of my time this Easter, talking about Jesus’ death – the other, indispensable half of the story.

Jesus was killed by torture. There is really no other way to say it. It began with three beatings during the course of about eighteen hours. First, Jesus was taken to the high priest’s house – and you can bet they weren’t gentle in the taking. Most likely they pushed him and perhaps even struck him on their way there. Once there, he was surrounded by an angry mob, and beaten with fists (Matthew 26:67-68; Mark 14:65; Luke 22:63-64). At least some of the blows were to his head. This kind of beating alone would probably put most of us in the hospital, at least overnight. Picture an LA street gang finding the member of a rival gang alone, and deciding to teach him a lesson. You can imagine several people holding the poor man up, while others took turns punching him. It is possible that Jesus sustained a concussion from this, and certainly he received multiple bruises; possibly even broken ribs or teeth. Remember, there was no pain medication in those days.

After a mock trial from the Jewish religious leaders, they took him to the Roman governor, Pontius Pilate, who did not live in Jerusalem, but was there to try and keep the peace during the Passover festival. A standard Roman response to suspected trouble makers was to have them “scourged.” Pilate had this done to Jesus. In common language, this means he was whipped – not horse-whipped, but beaten with an instrument designed to inflict pain on human beings. Instead of one “tail” to the whip, it had several strips leather. At the end of each strip was fastened rocks or bits of glass or even pieces of lead. So each strike of the whip caused multiple gashes, laying open the flesh, and bruising the muscles as well. Most probably Jesus was given the 39 lashes, which had been known to kill people occasionally. Remember, Jesus had been beaten up by a mob, just hours earlier. In addition to his other injuries, Jesus certainly lost a lot of blood from the whipping, and perhaps sustained more broken ribs. Between these two beatings, the overall physical shock to his body was enormous. Coming so close together, there is no doubt that many men would have died from the combination of these two traumas.

After that, Jesus was turned over to the Roman cohort for crucifixion. Before they did their job, however, the entire cohort had fun mocking him. This involved about 600 brutal, hardened soldiers. They jammed a crown made of thorns on his head. They took a staff most likely made out of a cane stem (something like bamboo, but smaller in diameter) and gave it to him, and then took it away and used it to beat him over the head. This cane rod would probably not have created any serious injury, unless it was used to strike Jesus on the face, and thus open up cuts on his cheeks. Even so, they were likely hitting the crown of thorns, driving thorns into his head, and the direct blows themselves would have been very painful.

But all that stuff – physical punishment which could easily have killed many men – was only preliminary to the suffering which killed the Son of God. After these severe beatings, they strapped a big beam to his back and made him carry it a mile or two. The beam was likely equivalent to a 4”x4”, perhaps six or eight feet long. Considering what he had been through, it was no wonder he needed help. When they got to the place, they put metal spikes through his hands, into the crosspiece. Though tradition pictures these as going through the palms of the hands, it is more likely that they put the spikes through his wrists between the two bones of the forearm, so that the flesh would not tear away and drop him from the cross. Either way, that alone would have been painful beyond belief. His legs were slightly bent, and then they pressed his feet, one on top of the other, and drove a spike through them into the upright beam of the cross. Tradition pictures a kind of triangular piece of wood for his feet to rest on, but this is doubtful. Then they raised it up.

At this point, Jesus had two choices. He could let the weight of his body hang from his wrists, tearing away at the flesh, and rubbing on bare bone. Or he could straighten his legs, and push up against the spike driven through his feet, inflaming the wounds there, and grinding against broken metatarsals and tendons. Each movement probably drove splinters into his raw, lacerated back. If he had an itch, he couldn’t even scratch it. If he had to go to the bathroom, it would be right there in front of everyone.

Over time, victims of crucifixion spend more and more time hanging from their arms, since pushing up on the spike through the feet was intensely painful, and required effort. As Jesus’ body weight pulled on his arms, and kept them above shoulder-level, his lungs gradually began to fill with fluid, and breathing became difficult. The only relief for this came from thrusting against the spike in the feet. By pushing himself up this way, he could straighten his body and breathe more freely. But the pain was such that no one could endure this for long. It also required strength and energy. He was undoubtedly weakened by his beatings to start with, and as his body grew weaker through this torture, he got less and less air. In this position, fluid also collected around his heart, putting pressure on it. As a result the organs slowly got less blood and oxygen.

Incidentally, this was why, late in the day, they broke the legs of the other men who were crucified alongside Jesus. By breaking their legs, it became impossible for them to straighten up and get air, and so they died more rapidly.

Jesus was taken to the Roman governor early in the morning. He was put up on the cross before noon, possibly as early as eight or nine in the morning. He endured this suffering until it killed him, about eight hours later. It killed him, either by filling his lungs with fluid and suffocating him, or by the pressure of the fluids surrounding his heart, which could have caused it to stop.

This was actually a relatively short time for death by crucifixion. When we read the gospels, we find that Pilate was surprised when he heard that Jesus had died by late afternoon. But then, most people being crucified were not beaten three times within hours before they were put on the cross. Jesus’ suffering began not when he was put on the cross, but in the early hours of the morning, with the first beating.

But the suffering wasn’t only physical. He also went through emotional and spiritual agony.

First, he endured the anticipation of suffering. He knew, long before what happened, what was waiting for him. When I have some special event approaching in the future, anticipation is almost half the joy of it. I enjoy the feeling of looking forward to a good thing coming. But the reverse is also true. If you know about something you dread that is coming up, part of the negative experience is anticipating what you don’t want to go through. It is clear that Jesus knew about his approaching suffering, and that he dreaded it. That is why he said hours before he experienced any physical torment:

“My soul is overwhelmed with sorrow to the point of death. Stay here and keep watch with me.”

39 Going a little farther, he fell with his face to the ground and prayed, “My Father, if it is possible, may this cup be taken from me. Yet not as I will, but as you will.” (Matt 26:36-39)

He also experienced humiliation. He was the King of the Universe, the very One whom everyone around him professed to worship. And yet, in order to accomplish his purpose, he had to allow them to mock him, to spit on him, to humiliate him as if they were right and he was wrong. There was a physical aspect to the humiliation as well. It is a terrible experience to be a man, and be struck, and yet not be able to strike back. In addition, they almost certainly stripped him completely naked when the put him on the cross.

In addition, Jesus experienced abandonment. All his followers ran away and left him to his fate. His faithful lieutenant, Peter, denied him publicly. But even worse, he was abandoned by God. 2 Corinthians 5:20 says this:

God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.

God the Father abandoned Jesus the Son in a way that he has never abandoned any human being, ever, nor ever will. The bible teaches us that if we choose to reject God’s grace through Jesus, then ultimately God allows us to do that. In other words, God doesn’t reject us, but he gives us the freedom to reject Him. If we choose that, we will experience what it is like to be without God – but it will be our doing not His. He does not willingly forsake us. But in the case of Jesus on the cross, it was the opposite. Jesus never turned away from the Father. He followed him obediently, and perfectly to the end. But when the Father made Jesus into sin – for our sake – He turned away and abandoned him. He had to, if Jesus indeed took our sin on himself.

Now, I want us to consider something. When I think about the horrible suffering that Jesus experienced, it’s hard to contemplate. But there are many other things in this life that are hard to contemplate as well. For instance, it is hard to contemplate the horror of rape. It is hard to truly grasp the awfulness of murder. We don’t like to think this way, but even the sins which we think aren’t so bad are so far removed from God’s holiness that they are as fully horrific to God as the suffering Jesus experienced. The extremity of Jesus’ suffering shows us the extremity of our sin. All this is the depth of God’s love for us. This is picture of the true horror of our sin. This crucifixion is the gulf that would exist between us and God if Jesus had not taken our place.

The cross is also justice for sin. This is what makes forgiveness possible. We can’t just wave our hands and say “it doesn’t matter.” When we hurt others, it matters. When we offend God, it makes a difference. There are a lot of people who like to say, “It’s OK to do whatever you like, as long as you don’t hurt anyone.” But what if you hurt God? He has told us, in the bible what matters to Him, what drives a wedge between us and him. Why is it OK to hurt him, but not anyone else? A sin that is only against God is just as much a sin as something which hurts another person.

Jesus, by his suffering, has endured what sin deserves – all sin. I can forgive the person who did something horrible to me because there was punishment and suffering for the evil that was done. It was made right, and justice was done for that sin.

No other faith takes sin or forgiveness seriously enough. You can’t just wave your hand and say, “it doesn’t matter,” as Buddhism does. One reason Buddhist monks dedicate their lives to separation from the world and to meditation is that you have to concentrate very hard and remain very isolated to believe that the suffering caused by sin in this world doesn’t matter.

You can’t say, “You’ll make it up next time you’re re-incarnated,” as Hinduism does. Since nobody is perfect, all you would do is rack up more “karma-debt” with each new life. Even Islam and Judaism say “Well, you do your best, and God forgives the rest.” But why? On what basis can God allow un-holiness into his holy presence? If he could do such a thing, it means that God isn’t really holy, and therefore that moral standards are not actually real; in short, that anything goes. We like “anything goes” if it means we can do whatever we want, but it becomes intolerable when someone else can do whatever they like to us with no consequences. If there is no moral standard, we live a world of senseless brutality, and all kindness and love mean nothing. Even what think of as moral good is meaningless. If nothing is evil, nothing is good either.

That is why it was necessary for sin to be accounted for. Justice must be done. Sin must have consequences. If not, there is no such thing as goodness or grace. If not, we cannot survive in the presence of a holy God. It is only through this extreme suffering of Jesus that sin could be dealt with. The Lord has made a way to take away the power of sin, and still allow goodness and grace and love to flourish.

There is one more thing about the cross. Scripture tells us that there is a mysterious spiritual truth: when we trust that Jesus did this for us, it was not only he who died there. We too, died with Jesus to sin.

Or are you unaware that all of us who were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into His death? Therefore we were buried with Him by baptism into death, in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, so we too may walk in a new way of life. For if we have been joined with Him in the likeness of His death, we will certainly also be in the likeness of His resurrection. For we know that our old self was crucified with Him in order that sin’s dominion over the body may be abolished, so that we may no longer be enslaved to sin, since a person who has died is freed from sin’s claims. Now if we died with Christ, we believe that we will also live with Him, because we know that Christ, having been raised from the dead, will not die again. Death no longer rules over Him. For in light of the fact that He died, He died to sin once for all; but in light of the fact that He lives, He lives to God. So, you too consider yourselves dead to sin but alive to God in Christ Jesus. (Rom 6:3-11, HCSB)

This cross that killed Jesus also killed our sin. This is now also our death. This is why we can be free from guilt – our sins were punished with this severe and just punishment. Just last night I was speaking with a murderer. I mean it, this man was just released from prison after doing time for murder. He was marveling at the fact that he could be forgiven. It was this horrible crucifixion death that punished his terrible sin of murder, and he is putting his faith in Jesus that this is so. He doesn’t need to feel guilt anymore, because his murder was paid for – not by his ten years of prison time, but by the death of Jesus. I think when we feel guilt, it is usually because we have not considered how fully our sin was punished on the cross. The extreme suffering of the Perfect Man was enough for you, for me, for the world.

And now, the new resurrection life that Jesus has can also fill our spirits with eternal life. You see, sin had to die, yes. But what then? If our sin is dead, and we are dead, that takes care of the problem…except that we are dead.

But Jesus didn’t stay dead. And just as he invites us to place our sins on him, and die with him, so he invites us to put our faith in him, to live resurrection life with him.

Jesus’ resurrection proved that his suffering was not in vain. It means that it truly was all on our behalf, and not for his own sake. It means that death is no longer the end, or just the dark doorway into into an evil eternity of suffering or oblivion, but rather just a portal that we pass through into eternal life and joy. As the writer of Hebrews says:

Let us fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy set before him endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. (Hebrews 12:2)

As we consider all this, I want us to be very aware of one thing. God’s grace is free to us, but it was not free to Him. It was very costly. It is free in the same sense that a diamond is free to the girl who is getting engaged. It is freely given, but it cost the giver a great deal. And like the diamond engagement ring, it is offered not just as a trinket, but as an invitation into a lifelong relationship that will change the course of our future forever. A single woman doesn’t accept a diamond ring from the man she loves and then go on in her life without him, except for maybe occasionally remembering him fondly. No, the diamond is not just a gift – it is an invitation to a new life. When she accepts that gift, she also accepts that invitation, and enters a new relationship, a relationship that is strengthened and reaffirmed daily as they make their lives together. The acceptance of that gift is life-changing.

What Jesus did for us on the cross – the grace that God offer us – is far more precious than any diamond ring that ever has, or ever will, exist. It should not be received any less casually than a marriage proposal. To receive this gift is also to accept the invitation to a new life. It is to give your life to Jesus, to commit to Him for forever, to live in a daily relationship with him. It is life-transforming.

If you’ve never received that gift, never really accepted that invitation to a new life, now is the time. Pause and do it now. There are no special words, just your willingness and acceptance and surrender to God’s love.

Let us thank him for that gift today!

He is risen!

Thanks again for making use of Clear Bible.

I want to remind you again that we are a listener-supported ministry, and that means, first and foremost, that we are supported by your prayers. We need and value your prayers for us.

Please pray that this ministry will continue to be a blessing to those who hear it. Ask God, if it is his will, to touch even more lives with these messages. Ask him to use this ministry in making disciples of Jesus Christ.

Please also pray for our finances. Pray for us to receive what we need. Please pray for us in this way before you give anything. And then, as you pray, if the Lord leads you to give us a gift, please go ahead and do that. But if he doesn’t want you to give to us, that is absolutely fine. We don’t want you to feel bad about it. We want you to follow Jesus in this matter. But do continue to pray for our finances.

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Thank for your prayers, and your support!

WHAT DO YOU GET WHEN YOU FOLLOW YOUR HEART?

On By Pastor TomIn Bible, Bible Teaching, Christianity, House Church, Jesus, Matthew, ReligionLeave a comment

wickedheart

Jesus says our hearts are full of “evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, sexual immoralities, thefts, false testimonies and blasphemies.” Jeremiah calls the human heart “deceitful” and “desperately sick.”  If this is true, is it really a good idea to follow your heart?

All this is pointing towards one important thing. Jesus doesn’t say in these verses, but I read ahead, and it says that Jesus came to give us new hearts.

 

To listen to the sermon, click the play button:

To download, right click on the link (or do whatever you do on a Mac) and save it to your computer: Download Matthew Part 48

 

 

Matthew #48 . Matthew 15:1-20

Thanks for making use of Clear Bible. Messages like this one, about what Jesus has done for our hearts, are so very important for many people. This is why we deeply appreciate your prayers. We believe that prayer is the cutting edge of this ministry, that prayer is where it all begins. So we ask you to consider praying for us regularly. Your prayers help in preparing, preaching and promoting these messages.

Please pray that this ministry will continue to be a blessing to those who hear it. Ask God, if it is his will, to touch even more lives with these messages. Ask him to use this ministry in making disciples of Jesus Christ. Pray for Tom’s family and for his local church, New Joy Fellowship. Ask the Lord to keep them close to Him and each other. Pray for protection from evil, and for safety.

Please also pray for our finances. We operate week-to-week with this ministry. That is absolutely fine – the Lord has always provided; but we believe that your prayers are an important part of that provision. We value your prayers even more than your financial giving, because we believe that asking God for what we need is more effective than asking only people. So we’d love it if you would ask God to provide for us.

If, as you pray, the Lord leads you to give us a financial gift, please go ahead and do that. But if he doesn’t want you to give to us, that is absolutely fine. We don’t want you to feel bad about it. We want you to follow Jesus in this matter.

If the Lord does lead you to give, just use the Paypal Donate button on the right hand side of the page. You don’t have to have a Paypal account – you can use a credit card, if you prefer. You can also set up a recurring donation through Paypal. We can make this tax-deductible if you just mention that it want it to be so in the “note” part of the transaction.

You could also send a check to:

New Joy Fellowship

625 Spring Creek Road

Lebanon, TN 37087

Just put “Clear Bible” in the memo. Your check will be tax-deductible.

Thank you again for your prayers, and your support!

~

Now to the text. In order to understand Jesus’ words in Matthew chapter 15, we need to remember a few things about the Jewish religion at the time of Jesus. Let’s start by comparing it to Christianity. Properly speaking, Christianity is based upon understanding and applying the Bible to daily life. Many traditions have grown up during the history of Christianity, but these traditions do not carry the same sort of authority that Christians claim for the Bible alone. For instance, many Christians celebrate Ash Wednesday and the season of Lent. This can be a meaningful way for believers to reconnect with the need to live in humility and repentance. However, Ash Wednesday and Lent are entirely optional for true Christians; one can observe them and be a good Christian, or one can ignore them and still be a good Christian. This is because Ash Wednesday and Lent are neither commanded nor taught by the Bible. If they help us in following Jesus, that’s great, on the other hand, it is not necessary to observe them.

What is necessary for followers of Jesus is to learn what the Bible says and to learn how to apply it to our daily lives. So for instance, it says in Hebrews chapter 10

Let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith, with our hearts sprinkled clean from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water. Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering, for he who promised is faithful. And let us consider how to stir up one another to love and good works, not neglecting to meet together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another, and all the more as you see the Day drawing near. (Heb 10:22-25, ESV2011)

This teaches us to hold on to the truth we have learned about Jesus, and to continue to meet regularly with other believers for worship and encouragement. Reasonable interpretation leads us to conclude that it is talking about regular involvement in a church community. This is a passage directly from the New Testament, and it is something that all Christians should practice, and most Christians agree that according to the Bible we should be regularly involved in some sort of Christian church.

You see the difference? Ash Wednesday and Lent are traditions that may or may not be useful. They are optional. Regular meeting together with other Christians for the purpose of encouraging and equipping each other in faith is not a tradition, but a biblical command. Churches have not always been completely successful in distinguishing traditions from essential biblical teaching, but officially speaking, true Christianity is based upon Scripture alone.

The Jews in the days of Jesus were little bit different. Jews, of course, share common Scriptures with Christians: the Old Testament. But even by the time of Jesus, Jewish religion involved more than simply understanding and applying the Old Testament. Over time, various Jewish teachers had taught and written about different Old Testament texts, and various traditions had developed. In the time of Jesus, the Pharisees insisted that these traditions were just as important as the Old Testament itself.

So, when some Pharisees came from Jerusalem to see Jesus, they notice that he is not observing all of the traditions taught by rabbis. In this particular instance, they see that Jesus does not engage in the ceremonial hand washing that most Jews thought was proper.

It would be a little bit like someone coming to me and saying, “How can you call yourself a Christian? You don’t even celebrate Lent!” Now, don’t get me wrong, I’m not knocking Lent. It can be a very useful season for entering into true repentance and humility. In the same way, I don’t think Jesus was completely against ceremonial hand washing. But what did bother him was the fact that the Jews found such things more important than the essential truths of Scripture, and in fact, had replaced scripture with traditions.

To go back to our Lent analogy, it would be as if there were some people who felt like if you went to Ash Wednesday service and got smeared with ashes, and then avoided meat on Fridays, that’s all you had to do to be truly repentant and humble. You could act and think arrogantly, you could continue in a pattern of willful and deliberate sin, but as long as you observed Ash Wednesday and Lent, you were all good. That was more or less the attitude of the Pharisees – if you dipped your fingers in water in the proper ceremonial fashion, then it didn’t matter what happened in your heart. You were clean.

So, essentially, these Pharisees, who came from Jerusalem to check out Jesus, said, “Look, you and your disciples are not following the traditions, therefore you are not spiritually clean.”

One very important thing that we get from Jesus’ response is the understanding that the Bible trumps our own desires, as well as tradition. The Pharisees had a way of twisting biblical texts. Jesus points this out in the example of “honor your father and mother.” The Pharisees had found a “greater principle” in Scripture, namely, honoring God. And so they created a tradition that said if you are “honoring God,” you do not have to honor your father and mother. Jesus calls them hypocrites, whose hearts were far from God.

I think that this is very important for Christians today, because we have modern-day Pharisees who do the same thing, albeit with different topics. For instance, there are people who teach that the overall point of Jesus’ message was to love one another. Therefore, they say, you can do whatever you like in terms of sexual activity, as long as you are acting in a loving manner. In fact, some of these folks would say that anyone like me, (and also Jesus, truth be told) who repeats what the Bible says, that sex outside of marriage is a sin, is not acting in a loving manner, and therefore we are the ones who are sinning. In the same way as the Pharisees, these people are completely distorting the message of Scripture. They have replaced what the Scripture actually says with their own tradition, and their own desire. Jesus’ rebuke falls upon them just as surely as it did the Pharisees.

Jesus said something very important to his disciples:

But what comes out of the mouth comes from the heart, and this defiles a man. For from the heart come evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, sexual immoralities, thefts, false testimonies, blasphemies. These are the things that defile a man, but eating with unwashed hands does not defile a man.” (Matt 15:18-20, HCSB)

Part of my responsibility as a teacher of the bible is to point out and rebuke errors and false teachings. This is more important than ever in these days of the Internet when all kinds of false ideas about Jesus and his teachings are easily spread. I have read some theologians who use this verse to say that your external behavior does not matter – all that matters is what is in your heart. In other words, for example, you can commit sexual immorality as long as your heart is pure (!). You can lie or steal, as long as you do it for the right reason. They do not say it, but if they are right, it also means that you could commit murder without sinning, as long as you were not angry or hateful about it. But clearly, that is not what Jesus means here. Jesus is saying that the heart is the source of sinful actions, and fixing the outside won’t fix the heart. His point is not that external things do not matter; it is that external things come from the heart, and to deal with them we have to address the heart.

This may be surprising to some people. One of the persistent messages in our culture is “follow your heart.” I love how Rich Mullins captured this in a song:

They said boy you just follow your heart; But my heart just led me into my chest;

They said follow your nose, But the direction changed every time I went and turned my head.

And they said boy you just follow your dreams, But my dreams were only misty notions.

But the Father of hearts and the Maker of noses And the Giver of dreams He’s the one I have chosen

And I will follow Him.– Rich Mullins, “The Maker of Noses”

Jesus says here that your heart is the source of all kinds of sin; it is the center of your separation from God. Jeremiah wrote:

The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately sick; who can understand it? ​

“I the LORD search the heart and test the mind, to give every man according to his ways, according to the fruit of his deeds.” (Jer 17:9-10, ESV2011)

If your heart is deceitful and desperately sick, is it really a good idea to follow it? If our hearts are full of “evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, sexual immoralities, thefts, false testimonies and blasphemies,” then maybe we should not simply “follow our hearts.”

All this is pointing towards one important thing. Jesus doesn’t say in these verses, but I read ahead, and it says that Jesus came to give us new hearts. We can’t fix our hearts by washing our hands, like the Pharisees. We can’t fix our hearts by attending Ash Wednesday services, or giving up meat for Lent. We can’t make sin go away by creating new traditions that change what the Scripture says in order to make it easier on us. Not even open-heart surgery can help us – we need an entirely new heart – a transplant. Jesus came to kill our sinful hearts, to bury them. And in that same transaction, he replaces those old sin-filled hearts with new, redeemed, holy ones.

But it all starts with the understanding and acceptance that our old hearts are indeed filled with the things that Jesus says they are filled with, here in this passage. Without the work of Jesus, our hearts are full of sin; our hearts are the problem, they are deceitful and desperately sick. I can’t follow my heart, and I can’t even reform it. Instead, I have to let Jesus kill it.

Once we let Jesus crucify our old hearts, he replaces them with new ones, hearts like his. That heart trusts the Father, and obeys. With that heart, I can follow not myself, but Jesus.

For we know that our old self was crucified with Him in order that sin’s dominion over the body may be abolished, so that we may no longer be enslaved to sin, since a person who has died is freed from sin’s claims. Now if we died with Christ, we believe that we will also live with Him, because we know that Christ, having been raised from the dead, will not die again. Death no longer rules over Him. For in light of the fact that He died, He died to sin once for all; but in light of the fact that He lives, He lives to God. So, you too consider yourselves dead to sin but alive to God in Christ Jesus. (Rom 6:6-11, HCSB)

Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away, and look, new things have come. (2Cor 5:17, HCSB)

True purity starts in the heart. External behavior is important, but it starts with a new heart. There are several places to go with this. First, have you agreed with God that your natural heart is full of deceit, wickedness and rebellion against God? If not, that is where to begin. Next, have you asked Jesus to take that old heart and crucify it along with him? That’s the next step. Third, we need to agree with Jesus that we need a new heart, and receive the one he gives us. And with that new heart, we can (and should) trust the Lord, listen to him, and follow him.

Maybe you’ve been through the whole transaction with Jesus, but you feel like you are still full of sin and evil. To pursue the analogy, after we get our new hearts, we still have some blood left in our veins that is used to doing what the old heart wanted to do. Our bodies and minds are still sometimes influenced by the way we were with that old, wicked heart. We still sometimes fail to trust and obey. But our sins and failings are no longer central to who we are. We don’t have to live like that anymore. It is no longer who you are.

The bottom line? Jesus Christ came to clean us from the inside out. Actually, not just to clean, but to replace what was wrong. To receive it, we simply need to trust him, to believe it is true. Sometimes we have to believe in spite of what seems to be evidence to the contrary. In such cases, we make a deliberate choice to trust God’s word over our own experience. Over time, we will act more and more in accordance with what we believe.

Let the Holy Spirit speak to you right now.

WALKING ON WATER AND SINKING

On By Pastor TomIn Bible, Bible Teaching, Christianity, House Church, Jesus, Matthew, Podcast, Religion, SermonLeave a comment

Jesus-walking-on-water

…When things go well, that is not proof that we are doing what God wants; and when things go badly that is not proof that we are doing something wrong…

…Where do you see Jesus? Is there some way in which you want to be with Jesus, doing what he is doing, a way that looks crazy or impossible? I suggest that you say, like Peter, “Lord if it is you, call me to come to you in this context.”

To listen to the sermon, click the play button:

To download, right click on the link (or do whatever you do on a Mac) and save it to your computer: Download Matthew Part

 

Matthew #47. Matthew 14:22-36

Jesus was on a real roll for these few days. Just as the feeding of the five-thousand accomplished a number of important things, so did his next miracle.

After the big picnic, he knew that some people had the wrong idea, and wanted to make him king, wanted to follow him simply because he had fed them for free. So he dismissed the people, sent his disciples away and withdrew by himself to a remote place, where he talked to the Father. Finally, he had some time alone with the Father to process his grief over John, and to be strengthened through prayer. It was after this that Jesus came to the disciples who were in the middle of the lake in their boat.

As I read this Scripture I find myself asking, why did Jesus do this?

The first answer is ridiculously simple, and yet I think it is one reason for Jesus’ action. He did it because he wanted to catch up with his disciples, and he didn’t have his own boat, and walking is faster than swimming. That’s right: I think the first reason for this miracle is that Jesus found it the most practical way to rejoin his friends.

Second, I think it is obvious that he used the opportunity to show his disciples yet again that he is the promised Messiah.

Third, as with the feeding of the 5000, Jesus used this miracle as a chance to teach his disciples, and us, some important things. It is on this – what we can learn from this incident – that I want to focus.

First, I want us to notice something. Jesus explicitly told his disciples to get in the boat and start back across the lake, and when they did, the wind was against them. In those days, in that part of the world, they had not yet developed the type of sail which allows a boat to move forward close to the direction from which the wind is coming. In short, when the wind was behind them they could use the sail, but when it was coming from the general direction in which they wished to travel they had to row. Jesus knew the wind was against them and he sent them out anyway.

I think this demonstrates an important principle about following Jesus. I’m not sure where we get it, but a lot of Christians seem to think that if we are following Jesus our lives should be easy. In some ways I understand why we might think this way. When we surrender our lives to God and follow Jesus, we are starting to live the way our Creator intends us to live. This naturally makes certain things better in our lives. If we learn from Jesus how to love others sacrificially, our family life is likely to be happier and more peaceful that if we don’t obey Jesus in this way. If we obey what the Scripture says about not getting drunk we are likely to wake up with fewer headaches and fewer regrets. If we follow God’s plan for sexuality, our relationships will be more stable, our children will grow up in loving families and we will not contract sexually transmitted diseases. I could go on like this about any number of topics, but you get the idea.

On the other hand, there is no promise that everything will be easy if we simply follow Jesus, and in fact there is plenty of evidence to the contrary. This particular passage shows us that. The disciples were doing exactly what Jesus told them to, and it wasn’t going well. After hours of struggling they had only made it a mile away from shore. The truth is, it would have been much easier if they had turned around and let the wind blow them back to where they had started. If they wanted easy, they should have done exactly the opposite of what Jesus told them. This encourages me. When I am encountering difficulties, that doesn’t necessarily mean I have made a mistake; it doesn’t mean that I have messed up God’s plan for me. When things go well, that is not proof that we are doing what God wants; and when things go badly that is not proof that we are doing something wrong. This Scripture teaches us not to judge our actions and decisions based upon results.

There is another thing I want us to notice. When Jesus came to them, walking on the water, they were afraid. I imagine that the whole picture was surreal. The HCSB says that they cried out “it’s a ghost!” The Greek word used for ghost is phantasm. You have to remember, many of us have heard the story all of our lives, but none of the disciples had heard any such thing. They were the first ones to experience it. It wasn’t like they had the thought somewhere in the back of their consciousness, “Oh yeah, the Messiah is going to walk on water.” The Old Testament scriptures did not say the Messiah would do this (they don’t say he wouldn’t, either). Nothing whatsoever prepared them to see Jesus coming towards them in this way. This is another lesson for us. Jesus often approaches us in ways that we do not expect; ways that we do not recognize at first.

Now, there are limits to this. I don’t mean that Jesus will somehow suddenly reveal himself as Buddha; or that he will show you some secret knowledge which contradicts the Bible. Our faith is based in the understanding that the Bible is God’s word revealed to human beings. I have preached extensively in the past about why we can trust that the Bible is reliable. Once we go beyond the Bible or contradict it, our faith is meaningless; if we don’t trust that the Scripture is the word of God there is no reason to believe in Jesus in the first place. However, it is important to understand that while the Bible tells us what we need to know, it does not give us all knowledge in the universe. It is quite possible, likely even, that Jesus can surprise us even if we know and trust the Scriptures. Just as the Messiah walking on the water was not predicted by the Old Testament, it was not contradicted by it either.

On the one hand, it is perfectly acceptable for us to be surprised and even fearful when Jesus shows up in a way that we did not expect. As he sees their fear, he calls out to them, “It is I, do not be afraid!” He is comforting them and reassuring them that this new strange thing they are seeing is in fact himself. I think we can trust that Jesus will do the same for us.

Now let’s take a look at how Jesus and Peter interacted during this incident.

I have thought through how I might react in a similar situation, and have come to the conclusion that I am nothing like the apostle Peter. Here are some things I might have said: “Lord, if it is you then please do something about this wind.” Or, “Lord, if it is you, then hurry up and get into the boat.” Here’s another: “Lord, if it is you, will you please explain what you are doing and what is going on?”

But Peter’s response is something that I think is worth aspiring to. He had a little bit of faith, but he wanted more. One of the things that fascinates me about this whole incident is that Peter did not have to get out of the boat. It was Peter who said to Jesus, “call me to come.” It was not Jesus who insisted Peter get out of the boat. I believe this tells us something about Peter. He wanted everything he could possibly have with Jesus. He didn’t want to get to heaven and find out he could have walked on water, or raised the dead, or healed the sick or anything else he could have done. He wanted to push in to everything Jesus had for him. Now, Jesus did not rebuke the other eleven for staying in the boat, but I believe he laughed with delight when he heard Peter’s request. He was glad to show Peter the amazing things Peter could do with his (Jesus’) help. And we see the later fruit of Peter’s desires to apprehend by faith all that Jesus had for him. It was Peter who was the first of the apostles to heal a lame man. It was he who preached aloud in tongues and saw more than 3,000 people converted at one time. It was he who raised Dorcas from the dead, and who was the first to bring the gospel to non-Jews. It was he who walked out of Herod’s prison without a scratch, faithfully following the angel God sent, even though he was pretty sure it was just a dream, just as he had once thought Jesus on the water was a dream.

Now, if we look at this text carefully, Peter does not seem to be asking to walk on water just so that he can say he walked on water. He did not say, “Lord, if it is you, empower me to walk on water in general,” or “Lord, if it is you, tell me to run two laps around the boat.” What he said was, “Lord, tell me to come to you.” What Peter was after was being close to Jesus. He saw Jesus out there and it filled him with love and admiration and inspiration. Just as a child who wants to be like his dad, Peter wanted to be where Jesus was and do what Jesus did. For Peter, the point was not the miracle, but Jesus. He wanted to be where Jesus was, even when that place looked dangerous and uncertain. He wanted to know that the wind and the waves could not stop him from coming to Jesus.

At first, Peter’s faith holds up. He is actually walking on the water toward Jesus! Now, I would think this is even more difficult than we imagine. Forget about sinking: simply walking and keeping your balance on a moving surface that is going up and down underneath you has got to be very difficult. And then comes verse 30:

But when he saw the strength of the wind, he was afraid. And beginning to sink he cried out, “Lord, save me! ”

jesus-walks-on-waterPeter’s first impulse was inspired by Jesus. His heart and his mind were fixed on Jesus; his goal was Jesus. But then something happened: he looked around at his environment. He started paying attention to his circumstances rather than to Jesus. And when he quit looking at Jesus and started focusing on what was going on around him, he became afraid; and when he became afraid, he sank.

But it was all good! Jesus was there, and Jesus made sure he didn’t go under. Peter got soaking wet and probably cold; he had a good scare, but ultimately, everything came out okay.

It seems to me that we can find some obvious applications to our own lives here. First, it is worth aspiring to the kind of faith and focus on Jesus that Peter shows us. He wasn’t the kind of guy to cower in the boat, and because of that, the Holy Spirit was able to use him in wonderful ways later on.

Second, this whole thing reminds me of Hebrews chapter 12:

Therefore, since we also have such a large cloud of witnesses surrounding us, let us lay aside every weight and the sin that so easily ensnares us. Let us run with endurance the race that lies before us, keeping our eyes on Jesus, the source and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that lay before Him endured a cross and despised the shame and has sat down at the right hand of God’s throne. (Heb 12:1-2, HCSB)

Peter’s goal all along was Jesus, and when he kept his heart and attention focused on Jesus, he was able to walk on water. I have met people who would love to “walk on water” so to speak, but I wonder how much of their desire is about wanting to do amazing things as opposed to wanting to be like Jesus and to be close to him. There have been times in my own life when I was so excited about the idea of doing something amazing by faith that my focus was more on what I was trying to accomplish than it was on Jesus. But Peter’s focus, at least in the beginning, was all on Jesus. It shouldn’t be about the amazing things we want to do. Instead, it should be that we want to join Jesus where we see him at work, even if that place looks very strange and impossible.

With that foundation firmly in mind, where do you see Jesus? Where is it that you want him to invite you to join him? Jesus did not command any of the disciples to join him on the water, but Peter wanted to, even though it looked crazy. Is there some way in which you want to join with Jesus, a way that looks crazy or impossible? I suggest that you say, like Peter, “Lord if it is you, call me to come to you in this context.”

And then, no matter where we are in faith, one of the keys is keeping our eyes fixed on Jesus, and as much as possible, ignoring the wind and the waves around us. If we want to live by faith, we cannot find security in our circumstances. Our circumstances will often scare us; they may sink us. Like Peter, we are most safe when we keep her eyes fixed on Jesus.

The other thing I love about this, is that Peter was safe. What he tried to do was crazy. Through faith, he was able to do it for a while, but ultimately he failed. What I want to point out is that his failure was not fatal. “Peter” is just the word for “rock” in Greek. I wonder how much fun Jesus and the other disciples had talking about relative buoyancy of rocks. “Hey, Peter! You float like a rock!” Or, “Nice going…Rock!” Even so, Peter was the only one who even bothered to try, and he was no worse off for it. I think this should encourage us. When we step out in faith we may succeed, or we may fail. Either way, Jesus is there.

Be still for a few minutes now, and listen to what the Holy Spirit has to say to you today.

Are you looking at Jesus, or the wind and waves

Thanks again for making use of Clear Bible.

I want to remind you again that we are a listener-supported ministry, and that means, first and foremost, that we are supported by your prayers. We need and value your prayers for us.

Please pray that this ministry will continue to be a blessing to those who hear it. Ask God, if it is his will, to touch even more lives with these messages. Ask him to use this ministry in making disciples of Jesus Christ.

Please also pray for our finances. Pray for us to receive what we need. Please pray for us in this way before you give anything. And then, as you pray, if the Lord leads you to give us a gift, please go ahead and do that. But if he doesn’t want you to give to us, that is absolutely fine. We don’t want you to feel bad about it. We want you to follow Jesus in this matter. But do continue to pray for our finances.

If the Lord does lead you to give, just use the Paypal Donate button on the right hand side of the page. You don’t have to have a Paypal account – you can use a credit card, if you prefer. You can also set up a recurring donation through Paypal. We can make this tax-deductible if you just mention that it want it to be so in the “note” part of the transaction.

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Thank for your prayers, and your support!

WHAT DO YOU DO WHEN YOU DON’T HAVE ENOUGH?

On By Pastor TomIn Bible, Bible Teaching, Christianity, Jesus, Matthew, Podcast, Religion, SermonLeave a comment

 

feed5K

 

It isn’t what you bring that makes a difference. What makes the difference is that you bring it to Jesus. He can take the little you have and make it enough – more than enough.

 

To listen to the sermon, click the play button:

To download, right click on the link (or do whatever you do on a Mac) and save it to your computer: Download Matthew Part 46

 

 

Matthew #46 . Matthew 14:12-21

NOTE: THIS IS ANOTHER MESSAGE THAT WILL PROBABLY BE MORE MEANINGFUL IF YOU LISTEN TO THE AUDIO VERSION. IN THE AUDIO, I INVITE YOU TO LISTEN AND GET INTO IT WITH YOUR IMAGINATION.

I love this particular passage of scripture. In one elegant action, Jesus accomplishes so much. First, he shows his miraculous power once more. Second, he takes care of a bunch of hungry people. Third, he uses it as an extremely effective object lesson for his disciples.

Before we start into the “meat” of this scripture, however, let me address a very common, but ill-conceived idea about the feeding of the five-thousand. Many people read about this miracle and say, “Oh, I know what happened here. All the people actually had food with them, and Jesus simply got them to share. The real miracle is that Jesus got ordinary people to share with each other.” I have heard more than one person add something like, “To me, that’s a much bigger miracle than producing a bunch of food.”

To which, I say, politely, “That is a load of male-bovine defecation” (figure it out).

I say this for several reasons. First, the reason most people gravitate toward the idea that the miracle was “sharing” is because they believe in sharing, but they don’t really believe Jesus was capable of providing more food than was there to start with. In other words, it starts from a point of disbelief.

Second, the idea is in itself nonsensical. Everyone ate, and there was a significant amount left over. If there was no miraculous provision by Jesus, then obviously, everyone had more than enough to start with. In other words, in this scenario, sharing wasn’t even required. If that’s the case, the “miracle” is reduced to the fact that Jesus got a bunch of people to sit down and eat their supper. I could see the miraculous aspect of this if they were all three-year olds, but for adults, that is ridiculous.

Third, this was widely reported as a miracle, and it made a huge impression on the people. People don’t generally get excited and worked up just because they heard that some other people ate supper. They don’t usually see it as a messianic sign that one man can get five-thousand people to unpack their bagged lunches and eat them at dinner time. But clearly, the disciples, and the others who were there, took this event as a sign that Jesus was someone special. John records their reaction to the feeding of the five thousand.

When the people saw the sign He had done, they said, “This really is the Prophet who was to come into the world! ” Therefore, when Jesus knew that they were about to come and take Him by force to make Him king, He withdrew again to the mountain by Himself. (John 6:14-15, HCSB)

This response makes no sense if all Jesus did was to get them to eat the food they had already brought.

All right, now that we have settled that if anything happened here at all, it was miraculous, let’s get on with it. As we have sometimes done in the past, I want to invite you to put yourself into the middle of the situation with Jesus.

It’s been a difficult time. You just heard that John the Baptist died. You and some of the other disciples knew John pretty well – in fact, it was John who first told you about Jesus. But Jesus knew him even better than you did. The news of his execution has hit you all hard. Jesus wants to get away from it all for a while, and you agree whole-heartedly. You all climb into Simon-Peter’s boat and head across the lake. The trip is peaceful and healing, but not long after you put ashore, far from any town, people start showing up. Someone must have overheard where Jesus was going, and now they are all here, begging for him to heal their diseases and illnesses.

Jesus is tired and full of grief, but when he looks at the people, you can see his heart going out to them. He closes his eyes for a minute in silent prayer, and then starts going through crowd, healing those who need it, and then speaking about the kingdom of heaven. More and more people keep coming, until there are enough to populate a small town, and even more.

It’s been a long afternoon, and now evening is coming along. You start getting hungry, and then it hits you – what about all these people? You cut across the lake in the boat with Jesus, but these folks spent a good portion of the day walking, and if they make it home at all tonight, it will be very late.

“Jesus,” you say. “You better get these people going before it gets too late. They’re going to get hungry, and there is no place here to get food.”

But then it gets weird. Jesus says, “They don’t need to go. You give them something to eat.”

Now seriously, this isn’t fair. You didn’t want these people here in the first place. Jesus was the one who encouraged them to stay when they started showing up. He’s the one who got you into the situation, and now he tells you to figure it out? You look around the crowd. You would have to work for about nine months and save every single penny of it in order to buy enough bread for everyone to have a small bite. In truth, the cost represents more money than you expect to save in a lifetime. You ask around, after a while, what you come up with is five small loaves of barely bread and two dried fish, each one less than ½ a pound.

You take it to Jesus. Now, honestly, you do that more just to show him how impossible the situation is, than for any other reason. He looks at you with a big, slow smile.

“Perfect,” he says.

He starts by thanking the Father for the pathetic little meal. Then he breaks off some of the bread, and about half of one of the fish, and hands the food to Peter. “Go on and break off pieces, and give it to the people,” says Jesus. He breaks off more bread, and another piece of fish, and hands it James, with the same instruction. Next comes John, and then Judas, and then Philip. You sit down, because at this point, the food is all gone. But it isn’t. Jesus gives some to Nathaniel and then Thomas. He motions to you, and hands you a surprisingly large chunk of fish, and some bread. “Don’t skimp now,” he says, grinning. “Give people as much as they want.” He’s crazy. You know you will run out before you have fed four people.

You find a skinny old man who hasn’t yet been served by the others. He looks so hungry and thin, you don’t have the heart to deny him. You break off a big piece of fish, and tear your loaf of bread in half, and give it to him. Next is a young man, at the age where one is hungry all the time. You give him some, and he asks for more. You tear off some more, surprised there is any left. As you go through the crowd, it dawns on you. No matter how much you hand out, you still have plenty left to give the next person.

It keeps going like that, and once you are done serving, you sit down and eat until you are full. Afterwards, each of you grabs a fish-sorting basket from Peter’s boat, and you go around collecting what the people couldn’t eat.

Later, when you think about it, the whole thing reminds you of how the Lord dealt with your ancestors when they left Egypt. He led them to the desert, where they grew hungry, and then he fed them, to demonstrate that they could and should rely upon him for everything. You recall Deuteronomy 8:3

He humbled you by letting you go hungry; then He gave you manna to eat, which you and your fathers had not known, so that you might learn that man does not live on bread alone but on every word that comes from the mouth of the LORD. (Deut 8:3, HCSB)

All right, now, let’s make this practical in our own lives right now. First, of course, Jesus did this particular miracle in this way to show the people that he was the messiah. His actions are a very close parallel of how the Lord dealt with the people of Israel during the Exodus. They could hardly miss the significance of it all. He led them into the wilderness where they experienced their need, and then he satisfied that need.

Second, this is often exactly how Jesus deals with us. Jesus allowed a difficult situation to develop, and then left it to the disciples, to see what they would do. More than once, I have faithfully followed Jesus to the best of my ability, and I wind up, figuratively speaking, alone and hungry in the wilderness. Instead of great results from trying to be faithful to Jesus, I end up feeling like I’m worse off than I was before. And then comes the worst part. Like the disciples, I go to him with the problem and he says, “Look at your own resources. What have you got? What will you do?”

I’m sure the disciples first thought this was unfair. Jesus got them into this – why should they be the ones to figure a way out? But that wasn’t Jesus’ point, and it isn’t his point when he does this with us. His point is this: whatever resources you have – when you bring them to Him – are enough. Five loaves of bread split between five thousand people is one one-thousandth of a loaf of bread for everyone. It is pathetic, even laughable. We are supposed to look at our resources and see how hopeless it is without Jesus. But when we bring what we have to Jesus – even when it is as pathetic as five loaves and two fish among five thousand – Jesus can turn it into enough.

You probably aren’t reading this on a deserted hillside in Galilee with five-thousand hungry people. But you might be in the middle of another difficult situation, one that seems impossible. Perhaps you are in a very troubled place in one of your important relationships. Maybe you are in the midst of work or career difficulties. Maybe your struggle has to do with finances, or health. It might seem like you got into this mess in the first place by trying to follow Jesus. It might feel like he’s asking you to care of everything.

Take a moment right now, and bring to mind a situation that seem difficult or impossible for you. Stop reading for a bit, if you need to, and enter into that situation. Now picture Jesus. Let him ask you to give him your resources. It’s OK if your resources are pathetic. In fact, imagine him as he looks at the inadequacies you bring to this situation and smiles a big smile, and says “Perfect.”

You see, it isn’t what you bring that makes a difference. What makes the difference is that you bring it to Jesus. He can take the little you have, and make it enough – more than enough.

Now, Jesus did ask the disciples to trust him. He provided the food. He supplied the miracle. But he asked his disciples to trust him, and to act on that trust. They took what he gave, and went out the crowd and gave it away. So also, he asks you to trust him. He will provide. He will take your pathetic resources and make them more than enough. But he wants you to trust that, and act on that trust. Listen as he tells you what to do right now, and then obey.

Thanks again for making use of Clear Bible.

I want to remind you again that we are a listener-supported ministry, and that means, first and foremost, that we are supported by your prayers. We need and value your prayers for us.

Please pray that this ministry will continue to be a blessing to those who hear it. Ask God, if it is his will, to touch even more lives with these messages. Ask him to use this ministry in making disciples of Jesus Christ.

Please also pray for our finances. Pray for us to receive what we need. Please pray for us in this way before you give anything. And then, as you pray, if the Lord leads you to give us a gift, please go ahead and do that. But if he doesn’t want you to give to us, that is absolutely fine. We don’t want you to feel bad about it. We want you to follow Jesus in this matter. But do continue to pray for our finances.

If the Lord does lead you to give, just use the Paypal Donate button on the right hand side of the page. You don’t have to have a Paypal account – you can use a credit card, if you prefer. You can also set up a recurring donation through Paypal. We can make this tax-deductible if you just mention that it want it to be so in the “note” part of the transaction.

You could also send a check to:

New Joy Fellowship

625 Spring Creek Road

Lebanon, TN 37087

Just put “Clear Bible” in the memo. Your check will be tax-deductible.

Thank for your prayers, and your support!

SUFFERING, GRIEF AND HOPE

On By Pastor TomIn Bible, Bible Teaching, Christianity, Jesus, Matthew, Podcast, Religion, SermonLeave a comment

hope

The truth is earthly suffering is intolerable unless there is a glorious, loving, sorrow-free eternity. We Christians are a people of hope. But our hope is not primarily in this temporary life. Everyone dies, sooner or later. All hopes – for this life – come to an end. Jesus, as usual said it best: “You will have suffering in this world. Be courageous! I have conquered the world.”

To listen to the sermon, click the play button:

To download, right click on the link (or do whatever you do on a Mac) and save it to your computer: Download Matthew Part 45

 

 

Matthew #45 . Matthew 14:1-12

The first part of Matthew 14 relates the details of how John the Baptist was killed. It’s important for us to remember that the life and teachings of John the Baptist continued to influence a large number of Jews for at least a generation after he was killed. I think this is one reason Matthew describes this incident in detail – it would have been important to the readers he had in mind when he was writing.

Matthew has already told us that John was in prison. I want to spend a moment dwelling on the reason for that, and the thing that got him killed, because it may surprise us. The short version is, John was imprisoned, and then killed, for publicly supporting biblical sexual morality. He publicly said that Herod was wrong for having sexual relations with his brother’s wife, Herodias.

I point this out because I think it is very relevant today. Our culture is extremely intolerant of people who insist that sex has any moral significance in and of itself.

If you say that sex has intrinsic moral significance, then you set it within a larger moral framework and set limits to the legitimate use of sex. In doing so, you declare certain sexual acts illegitimate, something which is now considered hate speech…

By divesting sex of intrinsic moral significance [an activist] has helped to create a world where those who attempt to set limits to the legitimacy of sexual activity are seen as the moral equivalent of racists and the intellectual equivalent of flat-earthers: Irrational bigots who have no place in the public square. (Carl R Trueman, First Things, 2-23-15 http://www.firstthings.com/blogs/firstthoughts/2015/02/congratulating-wesleyan).

There are many people who call themselves Christians who either don’t know, or don’t believe what the bible says about sex. There are many more who don’t like it, and refuse to adhere to it. A lot of people think that it gives Christians a bad name if we go around saying what the bible says about sex. Even more suggest that sexual morality is a “secondary issue” and we Christians should stay out of it for the sake of the gospel.

But John the Baptist died for it.

He could have said, “Well what Herod does in his own bedroom is Herod’s own business.” It’s likely that he could have made a public apology to Herod and Herodias, and at least have been spared execution. But he didn’t. He insisted upon telling the truth, and doing so publicly, and not retracting it. It got him killed.

Someday, a sermon like this may lead to my own imprisonment. It is no longer a question of disagreement in our culture. The power-brokers in the media, academe and government, as well as millions of narrow-minded citizens, want people like John the Baptist to be silenced. They don’t want to hear something they disagree with.

We have not yet come to executions for saying that adultery is a sin. But our government is already considering laws that make it a hate-crime to say in a public speech that homosexual behavior is a sin. In October of 2014, the city of Houston demanded in a subpoena that pastors turn over any sermon or communication with their congregation that mentions homosexuality, the lesbian mayor or transgender issues. To refuse to turn over the sermons would have been contempt of court, punishable by imprisonment. The government’s position is that pastors were using their religious positions to campaign politically, since there was law on the ballot about gay and transgender issues. But the fact remains, when the pastors spoke about the law (if they did) they did so because the issues raised by it are of biblical concern, and it is manifest that the city government wanted to silence and punish them for it.

Now, please understand me clearly. I am not saying that we should go around investigating everyone’s sex life, looking for something to criticize. But I do think sometimes we Jesus-followers avoid the topic because we don’t like getting flack for calling sin “sin.” I simply want to point out that perhaps this passage shows us that the issue of sexual morality is more important than we want to think, and I do suspect that it is with that issue that the persecution of Christians will begin in the Western world. Lest we think it is a secondary issue, remember that John the Baptist died for speaking the truth about morality. I think we Christians should consider this very carefully before we decide to keep silent about it.

~

After John was killed, his disciples buried his body, and then they did something very important: they went to Jesus. There is no doubt that they were full of grief and sorrow. There is no doubt that some of them wondered why Jesus didn’t do anything to save John. But they went to him anyway.

Jesus’ reaction is also important:

When Jesus heard about it, He withdrew from there by boat to a remote place to be alone. (Matt 14:13)

Obviously, the news of John’s death had an impact on Jesus. He wanted to be alone to process it. Jesus and John were relatives, and they had known each other all their lives. John had worked hard to prepare people for the ministry of Jesus, and he had unfailingly pointed people toward him. In short, they were family, friends and ministry partners. And now John is gone. Jesus knew his eternal home was heaven. He knew he would see John there again. But that didn’t change the fact that just like us, Jesus experienced pain and suffering in the world, and it hit him hard at times.

I think it’s important for us to dwell on this for a minute. We human beings have a very difficult time with pain and suffering. How can a good and loving God let these things happen? The answers to this are only partial, and sometimes complex. But I take comfort from the example of Jesus here. On the one hand, he knows everything is going to be all right. In fact, he knows that in eternity, everything is better than all right. John’s suffering on earth is over. He himself will be with John again in just a few short years. On the other hand, in the present moment, he grieves.

The truth is earthly suffering is intolerable unless there is a glorious, loving, sorrow-free eternity. About a year ago, I spoke at the funeral of a twenty-one year old who died unexpectedly and tragically. I said then that of course it was good and right to grieve. I said that we Christians are also people of hope. But our hope is not primarily in this temporary life. Everyone dies, sooner or later. All hopes – for this life – come to an end. Paul writes:

If we have put our hope in Christ for this life only, we should be pitied more than anyone. But now Christ has been raised from the dead, the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep. For since death came through a man, the resurrection of the dead also comes through a man. For as in Adam all die, so also in Christ all will be made alive. But each in his own order: Christ, the firstfruits; afterward, at His coming, those who belong to Christ. (1Cor 15:19-23, HCSB)

Jesus shows us that it is good and appropriate to grieve the tragedies of this life. But he also gives us a better hope, an eternal hope. I am reminded of the old song, Wayfarin’ Stranger:

I’m just a poor, wayfarin’ stranger

Travelin’ through this world of woe

But there’s no sickness, no toil or danger

In that bright world to which I go.

 

I’m goin’ there to see my Father

I’m goin’ there no more to roam

I’m just a goin’ over Jordan

I’m just a goin’ over home.

Jesus, preparing his disciples for his own death, said this:

I have told you these things so that in Me you may have peace. You will have suffering in this world. Be courageous! I have conquered the world.” (John 16:33, HCSB)

We will have trouble and suffering in the world. Hope which cannot apply equally to the free man with the possibility of making his life better, and also the man doomed to suffer and die in prison, is not hope at all. Jesus offers us real hope, eternal hope. There is a time for grief, and Jesus himself grieved for his dear friend and cousin John. If this was the experience of Jesus, we should not think that we will be exempt from it. But even in grief, there is hope, hope not based on everything coming out right here and now, but on something greater and more lasting than anything in this life.

Like John’s disciples, and Jesus himself, it is often appropriate to mourn. But also like John’s disciples, let us bring our grief to Jesus, and receive from him the eternal hope we so desperately need.

Thanks again for making use of Clear Bible.

I want to remind you again that we are a listener-supported ministry, and that means, first and foremost, that we are supported by your prayers. We need and value your prayers for us.

Please pray that this ministry will continue to be a blessing to those who hear it. Ask God, if it is his will, to touch even more lives with these messages. Ask him to use this ministry in making disciples of Jesus Christ.

Please also pray for our finances. Pray for us to receive what we need. Please pray for us in this way before you give anything. And then, as you pray, if the Lord leads you to give us a gift, please go ahead and do that. But if he doesn’t want you to give to us, that is absolutely fine. We don’t want you to feel bad about it. We want you to follow Jesus in this matter. But do continue to pray for our finances.

If the Lord does lead you to give, just use the Paypal Donate button on the right hand side of the page. You don’t have to have a Paypal account – you can use a credit card, if you prefer. You can also set up a recurring donation through Paypal. We can make this tax-deductible if you just mention that it want it to be so in the “note” part of the transaction.

You could also send a check to:

New Joy Fellowship

625 Spring Creek Road

Lebanon, TN 37087

Just put “Clear Bible” in the memo. Your check will be tax-deductible.

Thank for your prayers, and your support!

THE KINGDOM OF HEAVEN: BETTER THAN ALL YOUR DREAMS?

On By Pastor TomIn UncategorizedLeave a comment

delicious food

 

The kingdom of heaven is worth far more than anything else we have, or could have. It beats winning the Superbowl. It is better than the best sex, or the most delicious food, the most powerful drug. Having the kingdom of heaven is worth more than being fabulously wealthy in this life. It’s better than being stunningly good-looking, incredibly healthy or amazingly talented. All these are things many of us want or aspire to. But Jesus paints a picture that says these are nothing compared to being in the kingdom of heaven. This is a challenge for all followers of Jesus. Do we believe it, or not?

 

To listen to the sermon, click the play button:

To download, right click on the link (or do whatever you do on a Mac) and save it to your computer: Download Matthew Part 44

 

Matthew #44. Matthew 13:31-58

This time we’ll try to cover four more parables, and finish Matthew chapter 13.

Remember that last time we observed how Matthew recorded three “sets” of parables, each one made up of two different stories. We covered one of those sets, which was The Wheat and the Weeds and the Two Kinds of Fish. The theme of both of those was good and evil mixed in the real world, with a promise that at the end, it will be sorted out and made right.

Another set from Matthew 13 is this one: The Yeast and The Mustard Seed. Both of these illustrations carry the same theme, so let’s look at them right now.

He presented another parable to them: “The kingdom of heaven is like a mustard seed that a man took and sowed in his field. It’s the smallest of all the seeds, but when grown, it’s taller than the vegetables and becomes a tree, so that the birds of the sky come and nest in its branches.” He told them another parable: “The kingdom of heaven is like yeast that a woman took and mixed into 50 pounds of flour until it spread through all of it.” (Matt 13:31-33, HCSB)

A mustard seed is about as thick as an uncooked grain of rice, but only about 1/3 as long. The mustard plant, when full grown, is not a tree exactly, but it is bush that grows up to twelve feet high. The idea is that something very tiny can have a disproportionate result. The parable of the yeast is similar. Jesus talks about a small amount of yeast spread through “fifty pounds” of flour. Our modern bread is typically one to two pounds per loaf, so we are talking about 25 to 50 loaves of bread. Again, the idea is that a small amount of yeast has an impact that is surprising considering its size. Jesus is saying “the kingdom of heaven is like these things.” What does he mean?

I think there are several possibilities, and perhaps all of them are intended by Jesus.

First, the influence exerted by the seed and the yeast are way out of proportion to their size. A tiny seed results in a big bush; a handful of yeast makes fifty loaves of bread. Another way to put this is that they are powerful. So maybe one way to state Jesus’ message is: a little bit of “kingdom of heaven” goes a long way.

Historically speaking, Jesus’ point here has been proven magnificently true. Jesus started with twelve peasants in the “boondocks” of the world, a tiny, no-account backwater part of a tiny, no-account backwater province of the Roman empire. His life and simple message were captured by Matthew in about thirty pages. Yet, the kingdom of heaven through Jesus has profoundly affected the entire course of world history.

Within forty years, the message of the kingdom had caused a noticeable stir in the Roman empire, exerting enough influence to draw persecution from Roman emperors. Within four-hundred years, this message with such a tiny, humble beginning dominated the Roman Empire, and continued to dominate the history of Europe for sixteen more centuries. It went out from there to all parts of the globe.

Set aside for a moment the spiritual things which Jesus has accomplished for us. These of course, are the main and most important thing. But to help us understand how huge the impact of Jesus and his message have been, let us look at it from a purely secular point of view. The kingdom of heaven brought by Jesus is responsible for modern universities. In fact, it is responsible for the foundation upon which most of the world’s learning is based. Modern hospitals and standards of patient care exist because of the “mustard seed” planted by Jesus. The idea of religious tolerance comes from the same mustard seed, as do most of our notions of human rights, and many of our laws. The very concept of democratic government, which has blessed countless millions and led to the preservation of many lives, comes from the “yeast” introduced by Jesus.

The art of Michelangelo, the music of Bach and the Mathematics of Sir Isaac Newton were all done in the name of Jesus for the glory of God. Some of the most awe-inspiring architecture in the world, the most profoundly moving literature were produced by Jesus followers because they were moved by his mustard-seed message. It would be difficult to overstate the influence that Jesus has had. Yet, in his own time and place, as we see at the end of Matthew chapter 13, he was seldom appreciated.

I think there is something here for our immediate encouragement also. Often, when we are a part of small and insignificant-seeming things, we are prone to be discouraged. I recently read the story of Dr. William and Clara Leslie, missionaries to the Congo from Chicago about a hundred years ago. They spent seventeen years at a mission station called Vanga, on the Kwilu river. Eventually, Dr. Leslie’s relationship with the village elders near Vanga deteriorated, and he was asked not to return to Africa. He left in 1929, considering his mission work a failure.

In 2010, some missionaries led by Eric Ramsey made an exploratory trip across the Kwilu river to the remote region past Vanga, to evangelize the Yansi people, who were believed to have no Christian churches. What they found, to their surprise was a network of vibrant, reproducing Christian churches, who traced their spiritual roots to Dr. William Leslie, a hundred years ago. Apparently, in addition to his ministry from Vanga, once each year Leslie traveled across the Kwilu river for about a month, trying to evangelize the people of that even more remote region. He died, not knowing that he had succeeded in starting something that would lead generations of people to Jesus. He planted a mustard seed. It didn’t look like much when he left, but it grew into a beautiful network of churches.

When I was going to primary school and high school, I noticed that most of the people who were world-famous and highly honored were also dead. It wasn’t until after their lives were over, sometimes long afterwards, that people could see the impact made by such individuals.

During my own lifetime, however, that has changed. The rise of 24-hour television and the internet have created a market for thousands of celebrities who are famous and hailed as great, long before their real contribution to society can be evaluated. President Obama was given a Nobel peace prize when his only accomplishment was to win a presidential election. History may view him a great president, or it may not. Regardless, the Nobel prize was given before he had actually done anything significant. This is merely a symptom of how our society views greatness. YouTube has created many overnight celebrities and successes. All this this has led to a situation where we are often discouraged when we don’t see immediate results and rewards from our efforts.

But God may use us to plant a mustard seed that we won’t see full-grown in our own lifetimes. Certainly Peter, John, Paul and the other apostles died long before the Christian faith became the incredible force in history that it is. They were neither widely famous nor well-respected before they died. They received no awards, prizes or great financial benefits. I think the mustard-seed idea should encourage us that God can use in ways beyond anything we might imagine.

What the mustard seed/yeast parables come down to is the long-term power of the word of God. Not everything with small and humble beginnings has power and influence and changes history. But what makes the yeast effective, what makes the seed grow, is God’s word.

For just as rain and snow fall from heaven and do not return there without saturating the earth and making it germinate and sprout, and providing seed to sow and food to eat, so My word that comes from My mouth will not return to Me empty, but it will accomplish what I please and will prosper in what I send it to do.” (Isa 55:10-11, HCSB)

Let’s us stand firm in our faith that God’s word is a mustard seed, or a little bit of yeast, with the power to work in us and through us in ways that might one day be absolutely mind-blowing.

~

There is one more set of parables in Matthew 13 left to discuss. The two stories in question are the Treasure in the Field and the Pearl of Great Price.

“The kingdom of heaven is like treasure, buried in a field, that a man found and reburied. Then in his joy he goes and sells everything he has and buys that field. Again, the kingdom of heaven is like a merchant in search of fine pearls. When he found one priceless pearl, he went and sold everything he had, and bought it. (Matt 13:44-46, HCSB)

The idea is pretty straightforward. You give up everything in order to get that which is greater than everything. A modern equivalent might be like a man who wants to buy a farm. He find out that one farm he is looking at is sitting on top of an oil well. Even if it is more money than he thought he could afford, he’ll find a way to buy it, because he knows it will pay him back many times more than what he invests. The treasure in the field was worth more than everything else the man had, put together. Likewise with the pearl.

I think Jesus is making two main points with these parables. The first is that the kingdom of heaven is worth far more than anything else we have, or could have. It beats Superbowl tickets. It beats winning the Superbowl. It is better than the best sex, or the most delicious food, the most powerful drug. Having the kingdom of heaven is worth more than being fabulously wealthy in this life. It’s better than being stunningly good-looking, incredibly healthy or amazingly talented. All these are things many of us want or aspire to. But Jesus paints a picture that says these are nothing compared to being in the kingdom of heaven. This is a challenge for all followers of Jesus. Do we believe it, or not?

That leads us to the second point Jesus is making. It is worth giving up anything to be in the kingdom. Paul knew this, and lived accordingly:

But everything that was a gain to me, I have considered to be a loss because of Christ. More than that, I also consider everything to be a loss in view of the surpassing value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. Because of Him I have suffered the loss of all things and consider them filth, so that I may gain Christ and be found in Him, not having a righteousness of my own from the law, but one that is through faith in Christ — the righteousness from God based on faith. My goal is to know Him and the power of His resurrection and the fellowship of His sufferings, being conformed to His death, assuming that I will somehow reach the resurrection from among the dead. Not that I have already reached the goal or am already fully mature, but I make every effort to take hold of it because I also have been taken hold of by Christ Jesus. Brothers, I do not consider myself to have taken hold of it. But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and reaching forward to what is ahead, I pursue as my goal the prize promised by God’s heavenly call in Christ Jesus. (Phil 3:7-14, HCSB)

Paul was not the only one. Just this past week twenty-one Egyptian Christians had a choice to renounce Jesus, or have their heads cut off by Islamic terrorists. They chose death. But what they really chose was Jesus, and therefore, abundant, eternally renewing LIFE. They knew that the kingdom of heaven was worth far more than anything that could be offered by this life. Christians throughout the ages have suffered and even died, holding fast to this truth. As missionary Jim Elliot wrote, a few years before he, too, was killed for his faith:

He is no fool who gives what he cannot keep to gain that which he cannot lose.

Matthew closes chapter thirteen with a reiteration of the truth of these parables in real life. Jesus asks his disciples:

“Have you understood all these things? ” “Yes,” they told Him. “Therefore,” He said to them, “every student of Scripture instructed in the kingdom of heaven is like a landowner who brings out of his storeroom what is new and what is old.” (Matt 13:51-52, HCSB)

I have mentioned this before. This is reiteration of the power of God’s word, the scriptures. Jesus is encouraging them to see that both the Old Testament, and his own teachings, have that mustard seed/yeast power.

After this,

He went to His hometown and began to teach them in their synagogue, so that they were astonished and said, “How did this wisdom and these miracles come to Him? Isn’t this the carpenter’s son? Isn’t His mother called Mary, and His brothers James, Joseph, Simon, and Judas? And His sisters, aren’t they all with us? So where does He get all these things? ” And they were offended by Him. But Jesus said to them, “A prophet is not without honor except in his hometown and in his household.” And He did not do many miracles there because of their unbelief. (Matt 13:54-58, HCSB)

Jesus’ own people did not recognize him at the time. He was like the hidden power of the yeast, the insignificant seed. They didn’t see what God was doing. In addition, they were offended at the idea of giving up their preconception and receiving the kingdom of heaven through Jesus. They were the opposite of the pearl merchant. They looked at the priceless pearl and said, “Nah. I like my own pearls better.”

So, what do we do with these messages? How do we let them become real in our own lives? Perhaps you need to be encouraged. What the Lord is doing in your life right now is only the size of a mustard seed – one third the size of a grain of rice. If you my age or older, you can’t even see it without reading glasses. So, let the scripture be your reading glasses. See that God uses tiny, insignificant things to great result.

Brothers, consider your calling: Not many are wise from a human perspective, not many powerful, not many of noble birth. Instead, God has chosen what is foolish in the world to shame the wise, and God has chosen what is weak in the world to shame the strong. God has chosen what is insignificant and despised in the world — what is viewed as nothing — to bring to nothing what is viewed as something, so that no one can boast in His presence. (1Cor 1:26-29, HCSB)

Perhaps you need to be reminded that kingdom of heaven is worth more than anything else you might be seeking. You might even need the reminder to be willing to give something up in order to take hold of that kingdom. I know that giving things up for God may be difficult sometimes, but I say again, with Jim Elliot, that it is clearly a good bargain to trade what you cannot keep (anything or anyone on this earth, including your own life) for something that can never be taken from you (the love of God in Jesus Christ, and the abundant, vibrant eternal life that comes with Him).

Let the Holy Spirit speak to you today!

Thanks again for making use of Clear Bible.

I want to remind you again that we are a listener-supported ministry, and that means, first and foremost, that we are supported by your prayers. We need and value your prayers for us.

Please pray that this ministry will continue to be a blessing to those who hear it. Ask God, if it is his will, to touch even more lives with these messages. Ask him to use this ministry in making disciples of Jesus Christ.

Please also pray for our finances. Pray for us to receive what we need. Please pray for us in this way before you give anything. And then, as you pray, if the Lord leads you to give us a gift, please go ahead and do that. But if he doesn’t want you to give to us, that is absolutely fine. We don’t want you to feel bad about it. We want you to follow Jesus in this matter. But do continue to pray for our finances.

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Good and Evil grow together in the Real world

On By Pastor TomIn Bible, Bible Teaching, Christianity, Jesus, Matthew, Podcast, Religion, Sermon2 Comments

 

wheatandweeds

We should be comforted by these words, knowing that it is okay to be honestly ignorant, and to ask Jesus for help understanding. We should be blessed in knowing that our real life experience of seeing good and evil jumbled together is normal. We should rejoice in the word promises that through Jesus we are made righteous and shall shine like the sun in our Father’s kingdom.

 

To listen to the sermon, click the play button:

To download, right click on the link (or do whatever you do on a Mac) and save it to your computer: Download Matthew Part 43

 

Matthew #43 . Matthew 13;24-58

24 He presented another parable to them: “The kingdom of heaven may be compared to a man who sowed good seed in his field. 25 But while people were sleeping, his enemy came, sowed weeds among the wheat, and left. 26 When the plants sprouted and produced grain, then the weeds also appeared. 27 The landowner’s slaves came to him and said, ‘Master, didn’t you sow good seed in your field? Then where did the weeds come from? ’

28 “ ‘An enemy did this! ’ he told them.

“ ‘So, do you want us to go and gather them up? ’ the slaves asked him.

29 “ ‘No,’ he said. ‘When you gather up the weeds, you might also uproot the wheat with them. 30 Let both grow together until the harvest. At harvest time I’ll tell the reapers: Gather the weeds first and tie them in bundles to burn them, but store the wheat in my barn.’ ”

At the beginning of Matthew 13, Jesus told a somewhat long parable, and then there is some discussion of why he spoke in parables, and after that, the parable is explained. This next section, Matthew 13:24-43 is similar in structure. Jesus tells one long parable and then two short ones, and then Matthew describes his manner of teaching as a fulfilment of prophecy. After that, the long parable is explained to the disciples. I’m not sure why Matthew took that approach, but obviously he did.

In fact there is something interesting about the entire section of Matthew 13:24-58. There are six parables in total in this passage. Two of them (the wheat and weeds, and the fishing net) appear to be about the idea that the visible kingdom of heaven here on earth is flawed; it contains many individuals who do not truly belong to God.

There is another set of two parables which seem to be related to each other. The illustration of the mustard seed, and also the story of the yeast seem to be about the same theme, which is that the kingdom of heaven starts small and often works secretly and unnoticed.

Finally a third pair of parables describes a third thing: the idea of the extreme value of the kingdom of God, and of sacrificing much in order to gain it.

Let’s begin with the first theme, as expressed in the parable of the wheat and weeds, and reiterated in the parable of the fishing net. Before we jump into this, I want us to notice something. Matthew has told us in several different ways in this chapter that Jesus spoke in parables because the people were hardhearted and did not want to understand. It could be that the parables were a way to keep them from understanding; but it might also be that he spoke in parables in order to try and help them see things from a different perspective so that they might become receptive to him. I know that some people in our groups were concerned about this, wondering if perhaps they themselves didn’t understand. But pay close attention to the disciples in verse 36. They didn’t understand. So what did they do? They asked Jesus. And Jesus was happy to explain it to them. The fact that we follow Jesus does not mean that we automatically understand everything he teaches. We are not in trouble if we don’t. I think we should be encouraged by the disciples here to admit it when we don’t get it, and to go to Jesus seeking wisdom. The only problem with lack of comprehension is when it occurs because our hearts are spiritually hardened against the Holy Spirit. In other words, some people don’t understand because, frankly, they don’t care. Their lack of understanding is a symptom of spiritual insensitivity. But there is another kind of ignorance, and that is an honest lack of comprehension. The Lord delights to help us when we come to him admitting our need for wisdom and instruction:

The LORD is good and upright; therefore He shows sinners the way. He leads the humble in what is right and teaches them His way. (Ps 25:8-9, HCSB)

Now if any of you lacks wisdom, he should ask God, who gives to all generously and without criticizing, and it will be given to him. (Jas 1:5, HCSB)

So the disciples asked Jesus about the meaning of the story of the wheat and weeds.

37 He replied: “The One who sows the good seed is the Son of Man; 38 the field is the world; and the good seed — these are the sons of the kingdom. The weeds are the sons of the evil one, 39 and the enemy who sowed them is the Devil. The harvest is the end of the age, and the harvesters are angels. 40 Therefore, just as the weeds are gathered and burned in the fire, so it will be at the end of the age. 41 The Son of Man will send out His angels, and they will gather from His kingdom everything that causes sin and those guilty of lawlessness. 42 They will throw them into the blazing furnace where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth. 43 Then the righteous will shine like the sun in their Father’s kingdom. Anyone who has ears should listen!

I find this parable tremendously comforting because it affirms my experience of being a Christian, and of being part of the kingdom of God on earth. In the real world, good and bad are often all jumbled together. Let me share a few examples:

  • In these days, there are famous television preachers who are clearly preaching things that are biblically incorrect. It is almost certain that they are leading some people astray; and yet at the same time it is almost certain that the Lord is using their ministries to bring some people closer to himself.
  • I personally know someone who has been used by the Lord to bring actual, physical healing to others; yet he also believes that he should be a preacher, and he preaches things that I would call heresy.
  • Kari and I have friends who were led to Jesus by a group that those same friends would now call a cult. Our friends affirm that this group is a cult, and they reject their cultish beliefs; but they also affirm that they were led to Jesus by those people.

It is obvious that there are many good people who call themselves Christians; it is equally obvious that there are many bad people who call themselves Christians. Our churches are full of both kinds.

In this parable, Jesus describes exactly this type of world, the real world that we encounter every day. Good and evil are growing together, sometimes even found in the same groups, the same individuals.

When we encounter this sort of thing, many times our reaction is to try and do something about it. Jesus included this idea in the parable: the servants wanted to uproot the weeds right away. I find myself often with the same attitude. But the master tells the servants: “No. You might destroy the good plants with the weeds. Instead, let them grow together until harvest, and the reapers will sort it out then.”

I think it is important for Christians to understand the difference between good and evil. The rest of the New Testament clearly affirms the idea that we should distinguish between false teaching and the true word of God.

Be on guard for yourselves and for all the flock that the Holy Spirit has appointed you to as overseers, to shepherd the church of God, which He purchased with His own blood. I know that after my departure savage wolves will come in among you, not sparing the flock. And men will rise up from your own number with deviant doctrines to lure the disciples into following them. Therefore be on the alert, remembering that night and day for three years I did not stop warning each one of you with tears. (Acts 20:28-31, HCSB)

To Timothy, my true son in the faith. Grace, mercy, and peace from God the Father and Christ Jesus our Lord. As I urged you when I went to Macedonia, remain in Ephesus so that you may instruct certain people not to teach different doctrine or to pay attention to myths and endless genealogies. These promote empty speculations rather than God’s plan, which operates by faith. Now the goal of our instruction is love that comes from a pure heart, a good conscience, and a sincere faith. (1Tim 1:2-5, HCSB)

Hold on to the pattern of sound teaching that you have heard from me, in the faith and love that are in Christ Jesus. Guard, through the Holy Spirit who lives in us, that good thing entrusted to you. (2Tim 1:13-14, HCSB)

Be diligent to present yourself approved to God, a worker who doesn’t need to be ashamed, correctly teaching the word of truth. (2Tim 2:15, HCSB)

I solemnly charge you before God and Christ Jesus, who is going to judge the living and the dead, and because of His appearing and His kingdom: Proclaim the message; persist in it whether convenient or not; rebuke, correct, and encourage with great patience and teaching. For the time will come when they will not tolerate sound doctrine, but according to their own desires, will multiply teachers for themselves because they have an itch to hear something new. They will turn away from hearing the truth and will turn aside to myths. (2Tim 4:1-4, HCSB)

But in another sense, it is not our job to sort it all out here and now. For instance, I think it is good and proper for me to point out the errors of what we call the “prosperity gospel.” It is part of my job as a teaching elder to keep those under my care from being led astray. But it is not my job to stop the prosperity preachers. I don’t know what to make of some their ministries. I suspect that it will go hard with them when Jesus returns. But I don’t have to sort it all out – that is the Lord’s job, on the last day.

I want to make a few more points, some of which are reiterated by the parable of the fish in the net:

47 “Again, the kingdom of heaven is like a large net thrown into the sea. It collected every kind of fish, 48 and when it was full, they dragged it ashore, sat down, and gathered the good fish into containers, but threw out the worthless ones. 49 So it will be at the end of the age. The angels will go out, separate the evil people from the righteous, 50 and throw them into the blazing furnace. In that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.

Both the parable of the net, and of the wheat and weeds describe a situation where good is mixed with evil until the end of time. But they both clearly also describe an “end time” when good will be separated from evil, and evil will be entirely destroyed, while good is preserved forever. This is important in several ways:

First, there are many people, some even claiming to be Christians, who say that there is no such place as hell, and all people go to heaven. However, clearly, Jesus did not think that was true. He teaches us right here that there will be a time when evil, and evil people, will be punished and cast away from his presence forever. You cannot claim to follow the teachings of Jesus, and that same time, believe that all people go to heaven. For many, this is one of the big negatives about Christianity. I understand why people think this is negative. But you might just as well say that falling is one of the big negatives about gravity. It is what it is. And if gravity were different, we wouldn’t exist. In the same way, the spiritual universe has absolute truths, and if they were different, we couldn’t exist.

Second, there is a positive side to the punishment of wickedness and evil. Most people can still recognize some things as evil. Beheading innocent women, children and men is evil. Making girls, boys and young women into sex-slaves is evil. Rape is evil. At least our culture still agrees with those statements. So do we want those kinds of evil to take place with no justice? What kind of universe would it be if the strong can do these things to the weak with no accountability, ever? Jesus, through these stories, tells us that there is justice. Evil cannot have its way forever. There will be accountability.

I do not want to close without pointing out the grace inherent in these things. We may be thinking, “well, yes, I can see that punishment for the wicked is a good thing, but what if that means me?” It does mean you. It means me, also. But it doesn’t have to. Jesus came precisely to save us from ourselves, from the eternal separation from God that we deserve because of our sins. Hear the end of Jesus’ explanation of the parable of the wheat and weeds:

Then the righteous will shine like the sun in their Father’s kingdom. Anyone who has ears should listen!

I know I’m not righteous. I know you aren’t, either. But Jesus is! And Jesus offers us his own righteousness. That’s one of the amazing things he accomplished in his death and resurrection. Our wickedness and evil were punished, and we were given his righteousness. If we simply trust that he has done this for us, we have the righteousness of Jesus. In this parable, those of us who trust Jesus are “the righteous.” We will shine like the sun in our Father’s kingdom. Jesus meant this to be a comfort to his disciples, and we are his disciples if we trust him and allow him to be ruler of our lives.

We should be comforted by these words, knowing that it is okay to be honestly ignorant, and to ask Jesus for help understanding. We should be blessed in knowing that our real life experience of seeing good and evil jumbled together is normal. We should rejoice in the word promises the righteous – those who trust and surrender to Jesus – shall shine like the sun in our Father’s kingdom.

Let the Holy Spirit speak to you today.

Thanks again for making use of Clear Bible.

I want to remind you again that we are a listener-supported ministry, and that means, first and foremost, that we are supported by your prayers. We need and value your prayers for us.

Please pray that this ministry will continue to be a blessing to those who hear it. Ask God, if it is his will, to touch even more lives with these messages. Ask him to use this ministry in making disciples of Jesus Christ.

Please also pray for our finances. Pray for us to receive what we need. Please pray for us in this way before you give anything. And then, as you pray, if the Lord leads you to give us a gift, please go ahead and do that. But if he doesn’t want you to give to us, that is absolutely fine. We don’t want you to feel bad about it. We want you to follow Jesus in this matter. But do continue to pray for our finances.

If the Lord does lead you to give, just use the Paypal Donate button on the right hand side of the page. You don’t have to have a Paypal account – you can use a credit card, if you prefer. You can also set up a recurring donation through Paypal. We can make this tax-deductible if you just mention that it want it to be so in the “note” part of the transaction.

You could also send a check to:

New Joy Fellowship

625 Spring Creek Road

Lebanon, TN 37087

Just put “Clear Bible” in the memo. Your check will be tax-deductible.

Thank for your prayers, and your support!

WHAT SORT OF SOIL IS IN YOUR SOUL?

On By Pastor TomIn Bible, Bible Teaching, Jesus, Matthew, Podcast, Religion, Sermon1 Comment

SoilInHandsGeneric_large

In America at least, there are a growing number of churches and preachers who are saying that faith is a means to get the riches and pleasures of this world. But Jesus calls those things a threat to the fruitfulness of God’s word in your life.You cannot pursue wealth without great spiritual danger.

To listen to the sermon, click the play button:

To download, right click on the link (or do whatever you do on a Mac) and save it to your computer: Download Matthew Part 42

Matthew #42 . Matthew 13:18-23

This week, we will look at the parable of the sower, primarily using Jesus’ explanation of it. I want to begin, however, with a few more words about parables. A parable is a story told to illustrate one or more basic points. A parable says “the truth I am telling you is like this…” The point is not usually the face-value of the story, but in explaining a different truth. For instance, in the parable of the sower, Jesus is not saying that the word of God is literally seeds, and people are actually soil. He is saying, “the concept is similar, in these particular ways, to what happens when a farmer plants seeds.”

In addition, it is important not to over-analyze parables. Not every little thing in a parable means something important. For instance, in the parable of the sowers, the birds come down and eat the seeds off the path. Jesus says this is an illustration of how the evil one snatches the word of God away from some people. But it would be wrong to say, “this means that birds are evil. They are agents of the devil.” That is putting too much on the parable. With this in mind, let’s look at how Jesus explains the parable of the sower:

“You, then, listen to the parable of the sower: When anyone hears the word about the kingdom and doesn’t understand it, the evil one comes and snatches away what was sown in his heart. This is the one sown along the path. And the one sown on rocky ground — this is one who hears the word and immediately receives it with joy. Yet he has no root in himself, but is short-lived. When pressure or persecution comes because of the word, immediately he stumbles. Now the one sown among the thorns — this is one who hears the word, but the worries of this age and the seduction of wealth choke the word, and it becomes unfruitful. But the one sown on the good ground — this is one who hears and understands the word, who does bear fruit and yields: some 100, some 60, some 30 times what was sown.” (Matt 13:18-23, HCSB)

Remember, the ongoing theme of this section of Matthew is spiritual receptivity. That is what this parable is all about. Jesus describes four kinds of people, four different responses when people hear the word of God. I have struggled a little bit with this parable, because I’m not sure if this is just the way it is, or if Jesus tells it because we may be able to change our level of spiritual receptivity. Jesus doesn’t really make that clear in this text. However, I think as we look at the entire Bible, it does become clear that when we encounter the word of God, the Holy Spirit enables us to say yes, and to receive it, and we have within us also the choice to reject it. In other words, I think our own choices do have a say in how spiritually receptive we are. I think the Holy Spirit gives us an opportunity to become “good soil.” The Lord also allows us freely to choose to reject him, because without that choice our love for him could never be real.

So first, it appears that the word “bounces off” some people. They don’t even really get it in the first place, and the devil snatches it away. You might say that their choice in this situation is to be basically uninterested. This allows the devil an opportunity to simply snatch it away.

Another group of people receives the word with joy, but develops no “roots.” As Bible commentator Matthew Henry writes:

They receive it with joy. Note, There are many that are very glad to hear a good sermon, that yet do not profit by it; they may be pleased with the word, and yet not changed and ruled by it; the heart may melt under the word, and yet not be melted down by the word, much less into it, as into a mould

We may find many people like this in various churches. They are happy enough to go along with Christianity as long as they are not challenged in their lifestyle or priorities, or as long as no sacrifice is required on their part. But when it gets hard to follow Jesus, when difficult choices have to be made, there is no real spiritual substance in them to stick to the word of God. These are the Christians who change their beliefs in order to fit in with the culture, even abandoning Christianity altogether if necessary. It may be helpful to remember that for a time at least, these people are actually calling themselves Christians. Many of them presumably go to church. Perhaps this is one reason the world gets so disillusioned with the church.

Next, Jesus describes a third group. These are people who also appeared to receive the word with joy. They may not bow to cultural pressures like the group that came before them, but other types of strains get in the way of truly receiving the word of God and letting it rule their lives. They find they’re too busy dealing with the stresses and cares of life. They don’t have time to let God’s word rule their lives. It isn’t practical. In addition, Jesus notes not only cares, but “the delight in riches” often chokes out the word. Luke’s version names the “cares, riches and pleasures” of this life as things that choke out the word of God.

I want to dwell on this one for just a minute, because I think these things are some of the biggest threats to true faith for those who live in developed countries around the world. In America at least, there are a growing number of churches and preachers who are even saying that faith is a means to get the riches and pleasures of this world. But Jesus calls those things a threat to the fruitfulness of God’s word in your life. Let’s look at some other bible passages about wealth and pleasures:

From these come envy, quarreling, slander, evil suspicions, and constant disagreement among people whose minds are depraved and deprived of the truth, who imagine that godliness is a way to material gain.

But godliness with contentment is a great gain. For we brought nothing into the world, and we can take nothing out. But if we have food and clothing, we will be content with these.

But those who want to be rich fall into temptation, a trap, and many foolish and harmful desires, which plunge people into ruin and destruction. For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil, and by craving it, some have wandered away from the faith and pierced themselves with many pains.

But you, man of God, run from these things, and pursue righteousness, godliness, faith, love, endurance, and gentleness. Fight the good fight for the faith; take hold of eternal life that you were called to and have made a good confession about in the presence of many witnesses. (1Tim 6:4-12, HCSB)

As for the rich in this present age, charge them not to be haughty, nor to set their hopes on the uncertainty of riches, but on God, who richly provides us with everything to enjoy. They are to do good, to be rich in good works, to be generous and ready to share, thus storing up treasure for themselves as a good foundation for the future, so that they may take hold of that which is truly life. (1Tim 6:17-19, ESV2011)

Don’t wear yourself out to get rich; stop giving your attention to it. As soon as your eyes fly to it, it disappears, for it makes wings for itself and flies like an eagle to the sky. (Prov 23:4-5, HCSB)

Two things I ask of You; don’t deny them to me before I die: Keep falsehood and deceitful words far from me. Give me neither poverty nor wealth; feed me with the food I need. Otherwise, I might have too much and deny You, saying, “Who is the LORD? ” or I might have nothing and steal, profaning the name of my God. (Prov 30:7-9, HCSB)

Better a little with the fear of the LORD than great treasure with turmoil. (Prov 15:16, HCSB)

Clear enough for you? Obviously, the scripture shows balance. While trusting God for everything, we should also work to support ourselves, if possible (2 Thessalonians 3:6-12). However, the desire for, and pursuit of, wealth beyond what we need is a great spiritual danger. It chokes out the word of God. That doesn’t mean that a wealthy person cannot be a Christian. But it does mean that we should not pursue wealth as a goal, and that if we are wealthy, we should use that wealth to share generously, do good works and to support the work of spreading God’s word. You cannot pursue wealth without great spiritual danger.

I want to also talk about cares. Jesus says that not only wealth, but “the cares of this life” choke out the word of God. In this context, I think he means anything that you give priority to above God. You get caught up in worries and stresses and trying to deal with them. But the Lord invites us to unload our cares upon him:

“Come to Me, all of you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. All of you, take up My yoke and learn from Me, because I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for yourselves. For My yoke is easy and My burden is light.” (Matt 11:28-30, HCSB)

Humble yourselves, therefore, under the mighty hand of God, so that He may exalt you at the proper time, casting all your care on Him, because He cares about you. (1Pet 5:6-7, HCSB)

Don’t worry about anything, but in everything, through prayer and petition with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God. And the peace of God, which surpasses every thought, will guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. (Phil 4:6-7, HCSB)

When we try to handle our burdens and cares own our own, it gets in the way of the work God wants to do in and through us. Instead, we are to give it all to him, trusting him with our cares, as we let his word become more important in our lives than dealing with burdens or the pursuit of riches.

There is an interesting thing I notice here. In this parable, three out of four types of people end up turning away from God. Now, again, we can’t take too much detail out of a parable, but there is something comforting for me in that. I get disappointed so often when non-Christians persist in rejecting Jesus. I am saddened by those who call themselves Christians but who compromise and go along with the culture, or choose their own sins over the painful path of repentance. I am disheartened by those who become distracted by wealth, the cares of this life, or both. I don’t know if we can say that three out of four people will do such things, but in any case, Jesus knew, thousands of years ago, that at least some people would reject his word in those ways. I am not happy about that, and I don’t imagine he is either, but it brings me comfort in two ways. First, when I feel all alone, as if no one else is following Jesus the way I am, I can see that such a feeling should probably be expected from time to time. Second, when I feel like my efforts to show the truth and love of Jesus to others are failing, it helps to remember that Jesus expected that; not everyone chooses to receive the word and let it take root.

There is a final group that Jesus names: those who receive the word of God, allow it to take root and grow, and produce fruit. This is what Jesus wants from his disciples – from us.

“I am the true vine, and My Father is the vineyard keeper. Every branch in Me that does not produce fruit He removes, and He prunes every branch that produces fruit so that it will produce more fruit. You are already clean because of the word I have spoken to you. Remain in Me, and I in you. Just as a branch is unable to produce fruit by itself unless it remains on the vine, so neither can you unless you remain in Me. “I am the vine; you are the branches. The one who remains in Me and I in him produces much fruit, because you can do nothing without Me. (John 15:1-5, HCSB)

Producing fruit isn’t the result of our striving or goodness, but of Jesus’ work and goodness, flowing through us. All we have to do is continue to trust him, continue to receive his word and submit to what he says. His word will be powerfully effective in and through our lives, if we let it.

Thanks again for making use of Clear Bible.

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