November 30, 2015

Genesis 13:14-17

(All scripture is from the New King James Version unless otherwise indicated.)

After Abram (his name before God changed it to Abraham in Genesis 17:5) graciously separated from his nephew Lot because “…the land was not able to support them, that they might dwell together…,” the older man heard from God.  You see, Abram, being older, should have been given first choice of lands for his family and herds.  But he told His nephew, “If you take the left, then I will go to the right; or, if you go to the right, then I will go to the left.” (Genesis 13:9).  It then says in verse 11, “…Lot chose for himself all the plain of the Jordan…,” the area of Sodom and Gomorrah!  You know what happened to Sodom and Gomorrah, don’t you?  Those inhabitants were so wicked that God destroyed that whole region! (See Genesis 19:1-29).  That entire area is now under the waters of the Dead Sea – the most uninhabitable place for life on earth!

Since he had graciously deferred to his younger nephew, God told Abram this in Genesis 13:14 through 17:

      And the LORD said to Abram, after Lot had separated from him:  Lift
      your eyes now and look from the place where you are — northward,
      southward, eastward, and westward; for all the land which you see I
      give to you and your descendants forever.  And I will make your des-
      cendants as the dust of the earth; so that if a man could number the
      dust of the earth, then your descendants also could be numbered. 
      Arise, walk in the land through its length and its width, for I give it to
      you.

God gave Abram all the Promised Land – the center of the LORD’S activity for the next 2,000 years!  But there was a condition:  “Arise, walk in the land through its length and its width, for I give it to you.”  Abram had to put the land under his feet!

What’s Under Your Feet?  God has given us so many promises in His precious Word, but have you claimed them?  Have you ‘walked’ through the length and width of the Bible to claim those promises?  Here are some examples of what He has promised us:

•      Isaiah 40:31 – “But those who wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings like eagles, they shall run and not be weary, they shall walk and not faint.”  God does not want us to be weighed down under the problems of life!  He wants us to rise above them, flying as high as an eagle!  But we have to wait upon the Lord in order to do this.  Do you take time to wait upon the Lord, in His Word, in prayer and obedience to fly high with wings like eagles?

•      Galatians 5:22 and 23 (Lexham English Bible) – “But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self control.”  These nine qualities of life are readily available to us!  But in order to experience them, we must “…be filled with the [Holy] Spirit…” (Ephesians 5:18).  If we compare Ephesians 5:18 through 21 with Colossians 3:16 through 18, we find that being filled with the Spirit is the same thing as “Let[ting] the Word of Christ dwell in you richly…” (See the blog from March 19, 2013 – Be Filled With What?).  Are you richly in the Word?

•      Philippians 4:19 – “And my God shall supply all your need according to His riches in glory by Christ Jesus.”  All your need ! Are all your needs being supplied?

•      Hebrews 13:5; Matthew 28:20 – Jesus said, “I will never leave you nor forsake you….I am with you always, even to the end of the age.”  Do you realize and depend on His presence at all times?

By the way, there is one more thing promised to be Under Your Feet in which I rejoice!  It is found in Romans 16:20:  “And the God of peace will crush Satan under your feet shortly.”  Wow!  What a promise!  We know God told the serpent in the Garden of Eden, “And I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your seed and her Seed; He shall bruise your head, and you shall bruise His heel.” (Genesis 3:15).  Satan did bruise His heel in the crucifixion – the only method of capital punishment known to bruise a heel – when the feet of the victim are nailed to the cross.  But in that event, Jesus dealt a crushing blow to the head of the devil!  The Lord totally guaranteed Satan’s defeat when He died and rose again!  No wonder Paul exclaimed in I Corinthians 15:17, “…thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.”  And that victory will be realized completely and absolutely when I Corinthians 15:26 is fulfilled:  “…the last enemy that shall be destroyed is death.”  In the meantime, we can experience crush[ing] Satan under…our feet by what it says in James 4:7, “Resist the devil and he will flee from you.”  So use God’s Word to resist the devil as Jesus did in Matthew 4:3 through 10, and he will flee from you!

What’s Under Your Feet?  It is quite a loaded question, isn’t it?  If you answer this question by careful observation of your life and the study of God’s Word, you will start living more of a victorious life of faith – as Abram did!

November 27, 2015Matthew 16:13-26

(All scripture is from the New King James Version unless otherwise indicated.)

We’ve seen in the first 11 verses of our scripture and over the last six blogs what the unsaved world thinks about Jesus, Peter’s great confession, the work to which we are called as confessors of Jesus Christ, growing in the knowledge of our Christian faith, and the believer falling back into Satan’s ways.  Now, in Matthew 16:24 through 26 let’s examine the secret Jesus shared with His disciple about how to live our Christian life victoriously and consistently!

      Then Jesus said to His disciples, “If anyone desires to come after Me, let
      him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow Me.  For whoever
      desires to save his life will lose it, and whoever loses his life for My sake
      will find it.  For what is a man profited if he gains the whole world, and
      loses his own soul?  Or what will a man give in exchange for his soul?”

Let’s take the last question first, because what the Lord is telling us to do is a life-changing thing!

How valuable is your soul to you?  Perhaps the question should be asked this way:  Where do you want to spend eternity?  Now you might be saying, “It really doesn’t matter.  You just die, and that’s it – that’s the end!”  Look, no matter what you think, it does not change the truth, even if that truth stands against what you might think it to be!  Jesus told us Himself in John 14:6, “I am the way, the truth, and the life.  No one comes to the Father except through Me.”  He – being the truth – will always speak the truth!  And, according to Him, there is a heaven (see Matthew 7:21; 18:3), and there is a hell (see Luke 12:5; 16:3)!  And both are forever!  And what you are focusing on in this life determines where you will forever be!  So where do you want to spend eternity?

The answer is obvious (although some may joke about it!)  I want to enjoy the bliss of heaven where it says in Revelation 21:4, “…God will wipe away every tear from their eyes; there shall be no more death, nor sorrow, nor crying; and there will be no more pain, for the former things have passed away.” (See also Isaiah 25:8, 9; John 14:2, 3; Revelation 7:16, 17; 22:3-6).  Compare that to the description of hell in Revelation 21:8 (Today’s New International Version):

       But the cowardly, the unbelieving, the vile, the murderers, the sexually
      immoral, those who practice magic arts, the idolaters and all liars–they
      will be consigned to the fiery lake of burning sulfur.  This is the second
      death. (See also Matthew 13:50; Mark 9:43; II Thessalonians 1:9; Jude
      1:7; Revelation 14:10, 11; 19:20).

How valuable is your soul?  In Psalm 49:6 through 8 (God’s Word to the Nations) it is written:  “They trust their riches and brag about their abundant wealth.  No one can ever buy back another person or pay God a ransom for his life.  The price to be paid for his soul is too costly.”  It is so costly that only God could pay for it!  And He did!  Jesus Christ laid down His own perfect life for us, that we might have eternal life in Him!

So if all this is true – and it is! – then anything we are told to do to gain it is worth the cost!  What are we told to do?  “If anyone desires to come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow Me.” (Matthew 16:24).  The cross is an instrument of death!  We are told to go out and die with Jesus Christ – even “die daily” (I Corinthians 15:31 – see Luke 9:23).  We are to put to death our own desires, wants and wishes – our own future, and let Him call all the shots!  What does that look like?  Paul wrote in Romans 6:11 through 14:

      Likewise, you also, reckon yourselves to be dead indeed to sin, but alive
      to God in Christ Jesus our Lord.  Therefore do not let sin reign in your
      mortal body, that you should obey it in its lusts.  And do not present your
      members as instruments of unrighteousness to sin, but present yourselves
      to God as being alive from the dead, and your members as instruments
      of righteousness to God.  For sin shall not have dominion over you….

What will happen if we obey the Lord – if we take up our cross and follow Him?  Romans 6:8 and 5:

      Now if we died with Christ, we believe that we shall also live with Him….
      if we have been united together in the likeness of His death, certainly we
      also shall be in the likeness of His resurrection….

And after the resurrection, Jesus, who had been mistreated, beaten, whipped, and crucified, came out of the tomb perfect, whole and vibrant – never to die again!  He was perfectly adapted to eternal spiritual living – and I want to be like Him!

If all this sounds confusing, let’s boil it down to just one thing we have to do!  I mentioned this one thing in our last blog, and here it is again:  Luke 22:42: “…nevertheless not My will, but Yours, be done.” (See April 29, 2013 blog – The Most Important Prayer A Christian Can Pray).  If we do this in every situation we face, we will be dying to our own desires, wants and wishes, and living for the Lord!

This is the secret Jesus shared with His disciple – and shares with us – about how to live our Christian lives victoriously and consistently for God’s glory!

November 25, 2015

Matthew 16:13-26

(All scripture is from the New King James Version unless otherwise indicated.)

Now that we’ve looked at:

•      Matthew 16:13 and 14 – what the unsaved world thinks about Jesus,

•      Matthew 16:15 and 16 – Peter’s great confession,

•      Matthew 16:18 and 19 – the work to which we are called as confessors of Jesus Christ,

•      Matthew 16:20 – growing in the knowledge of our Christian faith…

…we are going to consider Matthew 16:21 through 23 – an anomaly in An Overview Of Life.  And this anomaly is present too often in the experience of every Christian!

      From that time Jesus began to show to His disciples that He must go to
      Jerusalem, and suffer many things from the elders and chief priests and
      scribes, and be killed, and be raised again on the third day.  Then Peter
      took Him aside and began to rebuke Him, saying, “Far be it from You,
      Lord! This shall not happen to You.”  But He turned and said to Peter,
      “Get behind Me, Satan!  You are an offense to Me, for you are not mind-
      ful of the things of God, but the things of men.”

An anomaly is something that is out of place, that does not seem belong in the scheme of things.  What happened to Peter seems out of place considering he just confessed Jesus as “…the Christ, the Son of God…” (Matthew 16:16); and that Jesus pronounced him happy – blessed – because he was the recipient of the Father’s special revelation as well as the privilege of unlocking the kingdom of heaven (Matthew 16:17 through 19).  But just moments later, Peter tried to stand in the way of the Lord’s divine mission, and was rebuked by Jesus as if he was Satan himself!

But what seems anomalous at first is really too often a very common occurrence in the life of a believer.  In one moment Peter was openly connected to the mind of God – so much so that what he spoke forth came directly from the Father!  But in the next moment he was relying on his own mind and will which, as we see, was in complete opposition to God’s mind and will!  The mind and will of a person is best described in ancient Jewish thought as the heart.  In Proverbs 23:7 it is written concerning man:  “…as…[a man] thinks in his heart, so is he.”  The Lord confirmed this and expanded on the idea in Matthew 12:34 and 35:

      …a tree is known by its fruit….For out of the abundance of the heart the
      mouth speaks.  A good man out of the good treasure of the heart brings
      forth good things, and an evil man out of the evil treasure brings forth
      evil things.

“… out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks…,” the hands move, the feet walk, the body follow orders!  And according to Jeremiah 17:9:  “The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked; who can know it? ”  So it should be no surprise that Peter – simply regressing back to rely on his own mind and will – would rebuke the Lord by telling Him, “Far be it from You, Lord!  This shall not happen to You.”  After all, Jesus had just told His disciples that within a very few days He would suffer and die at the hands of those who were opposing Him!  Peter did not want to lose his beloved Leader!  And wasn’t He supposed to defeat the hated Romans and bring in the promised kingdom?  So he did the natural thing – he tried to stand in the way of his Master’s defeat!  And by standing in the way of the Master, he was doing what the devil wanted – to keep Jesus from the cross and from redeeming mankind!

The natural thing to do – Paul wrote in I Corinthians 2:14:  “…the natural man does not receive the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him; nor can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned.”  And in Romans 8:6 through 8 (Contemporary English Version) Paul tells us:

      If our minds are ruled by our desires, we will die.  But if our minds are
      ruled by the Spirit, we will have life and peace.  Our desires fight against
      God, because they do not and cannot obey God’s laws.  If we follow our
      desires, we cannot please God.

The natural man, operating out of his natural mind and will cannot please God!  Only the spiritual man – born again and seeking God’s mind and will – can do that!

This is why it is so crucial to continually pray what Jesus modeled for us in the Garden of Gethsemane in Luke 22:42:  “…nevertheless not My will, but Yours, be done.” (See April 29, 2013 blog – The Most Important Prayer A Christian Can Pray).  Only by relying on Jesus at all times can we avoid going from speaking by God’s inspiration one moment to being controlled by Satan the next!

November 23, 2015

Matthew 16:13-26

(All scripture is from the New King James Version unless otherwise indicated.)

We’ve looked at three different major things concerning An Overview Of Life:

•      Matthew 16:13 and 14 – What the unsaved world thinks about Jesus.  “Some say John the Baptist, some Elijah, and others Jeremiah or one of the prophets.”  In other words, at best he was a great man, a teacher, an example, even one who was such an idealist that he was willing to die for his ideals.  Notice I did not capitalize the pronouns identifying Jesus, because the world does not look at Him as God come in the flesh!

•      Matthew 16:15 and 16 – Peter’s great confession, “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.”  A similar confession is the start of every Christian life!  As Paul wrote in Romans 10:9, “…if you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in your heart that God has raised Him from the dead, you will be saved.”

•      Matthew 16:18 and 19 – Jesus laid out for His followers the work to which we are called as confessors of Jesus Christ!  It is this:  we are called to build the Church by His direction!  We do that by proclaiming the gospel.  And the gospel is “…the keys of the kingdom of heaven…,” unlocking forgiveness and eternal life for all who believe!

But we are not just to proceed in building the church, that is, bringing people to the Lord as our only Christian activity.  We are told in II Peter 3:18, “…grow in the grace, and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.”  And growing in knowledge is what Jesus is addressing in Matthew 16:19:

      From that time Jesus began to show to His disciples that He must go to
      Jerusalem, and suffer many things from the elders and chief priests and
      scribes, and be killed, and be raised again the third day.

You see, the disciples held a common misconception about the Messiah’s mission that most Jews had.  There are many prophecies in the Old Testament that speak of God’s chosen and sent One who will lead Israel out of being subjected to cruel overlords, and into military and political dominance that will be a great blessing to everyone on earth! (See Psalm 2:6-12; Isaiah 9:6, 7; 11:1-16; Zechariah 9:9, 10).  Too often the disciples’ chief concern was “Who…is greatest in the kingdom of heaven? ” (Matthew 18:1 – see also Mark 9:33, 34; Luke 9:46).  Consider how joyfully they joined in with the general crowd at the Triumphal Entry – Luke 19:37 and 38:

      …the whole multitude of the disciples began to rejoice and praise God with
      a loud voice for all the mighty works they had seen, saying, “Blessed is the
      King who comes in the name of the LORD!  Peace in heaven and glory in
      the highest!” (See also Matthew 21:1-9; Mark 11:1-10; John 12:12-19).

Even at the very end of Jesus’ earthly ministry – just before He ascended to heaven – their question was, “Lord, will you at this time restore the kingdom to Israel? ” (Acts 1:6).

In our Scripture of Matthew 16:21, Jesus was correcting His disciples’ flawed understanding of prophecy. They had to learn of the suffering Messiah, not just the glorious King!  He was teaching them that through His passion and death, they would be prepared from the inside out – their sins forgiven and God’s righteousness implanted!  If they wanted to be part of the kingdom of heaven, they had to be made fit for the kingdom by God’s sacrifice of His own Son!

These truths are basics of the gospel – “…the keys of the kingdom of heaven….”  And their increasing understanding of that gospel would help them to better share it with sinners who needed it so desperately!

Yes, even the brand new believer – the baby Christian – can share the good news with others.  There is the story of the young man who was gloriously saved just the night before at a revival meeting.  That next afternoon, there he was in his college dorm common room, standing on a table with a crowd of his friends around him.  And he was preaching up a storm!  “You should have been there and seen Noah leading the Israelites two by two out of Egypt and into the ark!”

It says in Ephesians 4:11 through 15 (English Standard Version), Jesus…

      …gave…apostles…prophets…evangelists…shepherds and teachers, to
      equip the saints for the work of ministry, for building up the body of
      Christ, until we all attain to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge
      of the Son of God, to mature manhood, to the measure of the stature
      of the fullness of Christ, so that we may no longer be children, tossed
      to and fro by the waves and carried about by every wind of doctrine, by
      human cunning, by craftiness in deceitful schemes.  Rather, speaking
      the truth in love, we are to grow up in every way into Him who is the
      Head, into Christ….

Confessing that “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God…,” is just the start.  Then we are to study, to learn, and to grow up into Christ.  Then we can better share the gospel with others!

November 20, 2015

Matthew 16:13-26

(All scripture is from the New King James Version unless otherwise indicated.)

After examining in Wednesday’s blog Peter’s great confession in Matthew 16:16:  “You are the Christ, the Son of the Living God…,” today we are going to investigate To what work are we called as confessors of Jesus Christ?  Let’s look at Matthew 16:18 and 19:

      And I say also to you that you are Peter, and on this rock I will build
      My church, and the gates of hades shall not prevail against it.  And I
      will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven, and whatever you bind
      on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will
      be loosed in heaven.

Back on May 1st, 4th and 6th of this year I wrote three blogs entitled I Will Build My Church.  These three delve into a more complete explanation of our two featured verses, so I won’t repeat it all here.  But what I will emphasize is that the Church is built on Jesus Christ, not on Peter!  The Greek word for Peter is petros – a stone.  But while it may be a large stone, it is something that can be moved from place to place!  Peter demonstrated such movement (unstableness) when he denied his Lord three times (see Mark 14:66-72).  While he proved to be increasingly steadfast as he matured in his faith, Peter was not the stable rock upon which Jesus could found His Church!

But when the Lord said, “…on this rock I will build My church…,” He used the word petra for rock.  Petra means a large immovable rock, bedrock.  Jesus Christ is the solid immovable bedrock! (See I Corinthians 10:4).  In I Corinthians 3:11 it says this:  “For no other foundation can anyone lay than that which is laid, which is Jesus Christ.”  Nothing else but Christ can serve as the solid foundation of the Church!

Further, it must be said that He owns the Church and He builds it!  “…I will build My church….”  It would go a long way toward the Church being what God designed it to be if we realized we do not own it, we are not in charge of it, nor do we ultimately build it by our will and plans!

So how does this tie in with our sub-theme today:  To what work are we called as confessors of Jesus Christ?  We are called to build the Church of Jesus Christ!  And, no, this does not fly in the face of two statements made above – “He builds it,” and “…we do not ultimately build it…”  We are only called to build the Church under the direction of our Lord!  How do we do that?

The plan is actually shown if verse 19 of our scripture:  “…I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven, and whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven.”  “The keys of the kingdom of heaven” – that which opens (or shuts up) heaven is the gospel and a person’s response to it!  Think about it:

•      Jesus said in Matthew 7:21, “Not everyone who says to Me, ‘Lord, Lord’ shall enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of My Father in heaven.” And what is God’s will?  It is called “His [God’s] commandment ” in I John 3:23:  “And this is His commandment:  that we should believe on the name of His Son Jesus Christ and love one another, as He gave us commandment.”  Paul gave us the saving basics of what we are to believe – the gospel – in I Corinthians 15:3 and 4:  “…Christ died for out sins according to the Scriptures…He was buried, and…rose again the third day according to the Scriptures….”

•      Our desired response to the gospel is summed up (also by Paul) in Romans 10:9:  “…that if you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved.”  It is that belief in (response to) the gospel – or lack of it – that opens the way to the kingdom of heaven – or shuts it up tight!  And Christians are given the privilege of not only declaring that gospel, but also telling our listeners what the result of their response will be!

As said before, all this must be done under the direct leadership of Jesus Christ by the Holy Spirit within us!  We cannot go off half-cocked and do it ourselves!  Nor can we sit idly at home when God is telling us to go!

If we obey, we will be fulfilling that to which we are called:  to build the Church under the direction of our Lord!

November 18, 2015

Matthew 16:13-26

(All scripture is from the New King James Version unless otherwise indicated.)

We started in our last blog by looking at Peter’s great confession of Jesus in Matthew 16:15 through 17:

      He said to them, “But who do you say that I am?”  And Simon Peter
      answered and said, “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.”
      Jesus answered and said to him, “Blessed are you, Simon Bar-Jona,
      for flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but My Father who
      is in heaven.”

•      Matthew 16:16 – “You are the Christ, the Son of the Living God.”  In unpacking this, we looked at what might have been in Peter’s and the other disciples’ minds at this time.  It would have included what they knew of Old Testament prophecy (which would have been considerable by our standards.  For even Jewish boys of peasant families had solid Scriptural and Jewish historical training!).

But we know from later Scripture that, while this was a great and divinely inspired confession (Matthew 16:17 – “…flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but My Father who is in heaven.”), the disciples still had a long way to go to understand God’s purpose for Christ’s first advent!  They more than once argued about their position in a militarily established kingdom led by ‘General Jesus’, as if the appearance of that kingdom was going to happen immediately! (See Matthew 18:1; 20:20, 21; Luke 22:24).  Even after the resurrection, they were anticipating the immediate arrival of the kingdom (see Acts 1:6).

What was Jesus’ purpose for His first advent?  It was to die for the sins of mankind (see I Corinthians 15:3; I John 2:2), to make possible the transfer of His own righteousness to our account (see I Corinthians 5:21), to reconcile us back to God (see Romans 5:10; II Corinthians 5:18; Colossians 1:21), and – by ministry of the indwelling Holy Spirit – to prepare us over the course of our mortal lives (see Romans 8:29; II Corinthians 3:18) to become proper citizens of His kingdom! (See I Thessalonians 2:12; II Thessalonians 1:5).

•      What about the Lord’s question in Matthew 16:15 that led to Peter’s confession?  “He said to them, ‘But who do you say that I am?’ ”  Do you realize that your answer to some form of this question is the determining factor of where you spend eternity – either heaven or hell?  Paul said plainly in Romans 10:9, “…if you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in your heart that God has raised Him for the dead, you will be saved.”  And Jesus told us in Matthew 12:33 through 37:

      Either make the tree good and its fruit good, or else make the tree bad
      and its fruit bad; for a tree is known by its fruit.  Brood of vipers!  How
      can you, being evil, speak good things?  For out of the abundance of the
      heart the mouth speaks.  A good man out of the good treasure of the
      heart brings forth good things, and an evil man out of the evil treasure
      brings forth evil things.  But I say to you that for every idle word that
      men may speak, they will give account of it in the day of judgment.  For
      by your words you will be justified, and by your words you will be con-
      demned.

So what you confess will determine your eternal destiny!  And that confession had better be in some form similar to Peter’s confession in our featured Scripture!  One more thing – continue to hold that confession throughout your Christian life!  For, again, you will live out what is in your heart, and so by what comes out of your mouth!

•      Did you notice an important result of such a confession?  Jesus said in Matthew 16:17, “Blessed are you, Simon Bar-Jona….”  Blessed, according to Strong’s Dictionary Of The Greek New Testamant, means “…supremely blest; by extension fortunate, well off….”  It is also translated in the New Testament happy (five times) and happier (once).  The implication I draw from this is that if you want to be happy, make sure your confession of Jesus Christ is right according to the Bible!

By the way, “Simon Bar-Jona” means “Simon son of Jonah” (Jubilee Bible – from the Scriptures of the Reformation).  Simon was Peter’s Hebrew name.  But according to John 1:41 and 42, upon their first meeting, “…when Jesus looked at…Simon…He said, ‘You are Simon the son of Jonah.  You shall be called Cephas’ (which is translated, A Stone).”  Strong says that Cephas is “Of Chaldean origin” and is the “surname of Peter….”

Ok, enough on these two verses!  In Friday’s blog we will look at the next aspect of An Overview Of Life from Matthew 16:18 through 20 – To what work are we called as confessors of Jesus Christ?

November 16, 2015

Matthew 16:13-26

(All scripture is from the New King James Version unless otherwise indicated.)

In Friday’s blog we looked at the first two verses – Matthew 16:13 and 14 – of our featured scripture.  In those verses, we learned how the unsaved world views the Lord Jesus Christ.  “Some say John the Baptist, some Elijah, and others Jeremiah or one of the prophets.”  As I wrote on Friday, to the unsaved world…

      He is a good person, a teacher, an example, an inspiration.  But He is not
      the very God of the universe come in the flesh – the One upon whom we 
      must totally depend for forgiveness of our sins and right standing before
      the Father.  He is not the Lord of all – the One whom we are called to
      obey whole-heartedly!

But let’s look at what the believer says of Him – Matthew 16:15 through 17:

      He said to them, “But who do you say that I am?”  And Simon Peter
      answered and said, “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.”
      Jesus answered and said to him, “Blessed are you, Simon Bar-Jona,
      for flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but My Father who
      is in heaven.”

It was a bold statement that Peter made – “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.”  And there is a lot in those few words in verse 15:

•      “You are the Christ….”  By this time in His ministry, the disciples had seen the Lord perform many healings and other miracles.  And Jesus had been opening their understanding of Himself as the Messiah.  That is what Christ means – it is Greek for the Hebrew word Messiah.  Perhaps the best Old Testament understanding of who the Messiah would be and what He would do comes from Isaiah 9:6 and 7 – a passage of which the disciples readily knew:

      For unto us a Child is born, unto us a Son is given; and the government
      will be upon His shoulder.  And His name will be called Wonderful, Coun-
      selor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.  Of the increase of
      His government and peace there will be no end, upon the throne of David
      and over His kingdom, to order it, and to establish it with judgment and
      justice from that time forward even forever.  The zeal of the LORD of hosts
      will perform this.

But still, this statement was not of human understanding!  As Jesus said in verse 16 of our scripture:  “Blessed are you, Simon Bar-Jona, for flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but My Father who is in heaven.”  And this goes along with what Paul wrote in Romans 3:11:  “There is none who understands; there is none who seeks after God.”  People, in their natural sinful state, are blind and deaf to the things of God! – as implied in Matthew 13:13 and John 9:41.  More than that, they are spiritually “…dead in trespasses and sins…” (Ephesians 2:1).  This means that God has to resurrect a person to new life and cure both blindness and deafness before that one even has the capacity to seek God!

But it also says in Revelation 22:17, “…let him who hears say, ‘Come!’  And let him who is athirst come.  And whoever desires, let him take the water of life freely.”  Whoever implies that we choose to come when and if we want!

Now how do these two ideas fit together – man’s responsibility (human choice involving our free will) and God’s sovereignty (His sovereign will)?  I confess that I have never been able to completely wrap my mind around this enigma!  And I don’t know of anyone who can – except God!  The Bible seems to teach both ideas, but in our minds they just don’t seem to fit!  But God’s mind is a lot bigger, and He’s got it down pat!  In the meantime, I believe in God’s sovereignty, but I share Christ with others as if they have free choice – inviting them to come to Jesus!

•      “…the Son of the Living God.”  My question concerning this statement is, “Had the disciples heard Jesus and/or others testify to this truth before Peter gave his confession?”  The answer is yes. Twice Jesus had stated this very fact – first to Nicodemus in John 3:18 and again in John 5:25 in His own defense when He had healed the paralytic man on the Sabbath at the Pool of Bethesda.  The Jews became so irate that it says they “…persecuted…and sought to kill Him…” (John 5:16)

Also, the disciples had heard demons confess this truth as they were driven out of their human victims by the Lord’s command (see Matthew 8:29; Mark 3:11; Luke 4:41; 8:28).  And the disciples themselves confessed, “Truly You are the Son of God.” (Matthew 14:33) after Jesus walked across the Sea of Galilee to their ship.  But the first disciple recorded uttering this truth was Nathaniel in John 1:49 when he told the Lord upon meeting Him, “You are the Son of God! You are the King of Israel! ”

Even if they had heard it from various sources – and even from the lips of the Lord Jesus Christ Himself – as said above, this statement was not of human understanding!  For Jesus, in verse 16 plainly said, “Blessed are you, Simon Bar-Jona, for flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but My Father who is in heaven.”

More on Peter’s confession in the next blog.

November 13, 2015

Matthew 16:13-26

(All scripture is from the New King James Version unless otherwise indicated.)

This is a long selection of Scripture that shows An Overview Of Life, so I will break it down into smaller sections over the course of the next several blogs.  But I find it interesting how this blog idea came to be.  I am familiar with the incidents recorded in these fourteen verses, having read them and studied them many times.  But a week ago yesterday, I was leading a Bible study with my wife and neighbor in attendance – a man who recently accepted the Lord as Savior – and I didn’t know on what in Scripture to discuss.  Flipping through the Bible, I came across this same incident in Mark, and started to teach.  As I taught, I suddenly saw a connection I hadn’t ever noticed before – that these incidents recorded here in these 14 verses form An Overview Of Life, a very logical progression from unbeliever to mature Christian.

Today I want to look at the first two verses, Matthew 16:13 and 14, and see how the unsaved world views the Lord Jesus Christ:

      When Jesus came into the region of Caesarea Philippi, He asked His disci-
      ples, saying, “Who do men say that I, the Son of Man, am?”  So they said,
      “Some say John the Baptist, some Elijah, and others Jeremiah or one of
      the prophets.”

Caesarea Philippi was located north of the Sea of Galilee at the southwestern foot of Mount Hermon, near the source of the Jordan River.  It was named by Philip, the tetrarch, in honor of Roman Emperor Augustus Caesar – Caesarea.  And to differentiate it from the other Caesarea, on the Mediterranean coast, Philip added Philippi – of Philip.  Caesarea Philippi was in an area with a more Gentile population, yet with many Jews living there also.  It is where Jesus “…asked His disciples, ‘Who do men say that I, the Son of Man, am?’ ”

By the time the Lord asked this question, it was nearing the end of His earthly ministry.  He had been preaching, teaching, and working great miracles and healings for over three years.  And people all over the land – both Jews and Gentiles – had opinions of who He was!

•      “Some say John the Baptist….”  Why John the Baptist?  For one thing, King Herod Antipas, Herod the Great’s son, was spreading this rumor. He had beheaded John when the Baptist had challenged the king, saying, “It is not lawful for you to have your brother’s wife.” (Mark 6:18).  Herod had ‘stolen’ his brother Philip’s wife, Herodias, and married her.  But now Herod – apparently, his conscience greatly bothering him for having killed John – was saying, “John the Baptist is risen from the dead, and therefore these powers are at work in him.” (Mark 6:14).  By Luke’s account, even before Herod, “…it was said by some that John had risen from the dead.” (Luke 9:7).

But there is something else at work here to lend credence in peoples’ minds that Jesus was John the Baptist.  According to Joel 2:28 through 32, “the day of the LORD” would come with great signs and wonders!  But before “the day of the LORD,” Elijah was to appear! (See Isaiah 40:3-5; Malachi 4:5, 6).  Also it is said of John the Baptist in Luke 1:17, that “…he will…go before [Jesus]…in the spirit and power of Elijah….”  And the Lord told His disciples in Matthew 17:11 and 12:  “Elijah truly is coming first and will restore all things.  But I say to you that Elijah has come already, and they did not know him but did to him whatever they wished.”  It then says in Matthew 17:13, “…the disciples understood that He spoke to them of John the Baptist.”

So, although it is a bit complicated, perhaps you can see why some people were saying that Jesus was “John the Baptist.”

•      “Some say…Elijah….”  The explanation above helps to understand why people were thinking that the prophet Elijah had reappeared on the earth – to herald in “the day of the LORD”!  After all, Elijah had never died!  It is recorded in II Kings 2:11 that the prophet was bodily taken “…up by a whirlwind into heaven…[in] a chariot…with horses of fire….”

•      “Some say…Jeremiah or one of the prophets.”  The book of Jeremiah is first of the prophets in the Jewish canon of Scripture.  So he may be mentioned as representative of all the prophets.  Also, in Deuteronomy 18:15, Moses told the Israelites, “The LORD your God will raise up for you a Prophet like me from your midst, from your brethren. Him you shall hear….”  This ultimately was a prophecy that pointed to Jesus Christ.  But according to John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible, “…in their [the Jews’] very ancient writings, a parallel is run between Moses and Jeremy [Jeremiah].”  Jesus, obviously a prophet in the minds of many (see Matthew 21:11; John 9:17), was associated with Jeremiah.

So Matthew 16:13 and 14 is representative of what the unsaved world thinks about Jesus Christ:

•      He is an important personage influencing our present society.

•      He is a great prophet of old.

•      He is a good person, a teacher, an example, an inspiration!

                                                  But…

•      He is not the very God of the universe come in the flesh – the One upon whom we must totally depend for forgiveness of our sins and right standing before the Father.

•      He is not the Lord of all – the One whom we are called to obey whole-heartedly!

What is He to you?

November 11, 2015

Revelation 7:11, 12

(All scripture is from the New King James Version unless otherwise indicated.)

You cannot read through the Psalms without being struck by either all the praise given to God, or by the multiple injunctions for His people to praise Him!  Here are just a few examples:

•      Psalm 7:17 – “I will praise the LORD according to His righteousness, and will sing praise to the name of the LORD Most High.”

•      Psalm 33:1 – “Rejoice in the LORD, O you righteous!  For praise from the upright is beautiful.”

•      Psalm 50:23 – “Whoever offers praise glorifies Me; and to him who orders his conduct aright I will show the salvation of God.”

•      Psalm 111:1 – “Praise the LORD! I will praise the LORD with my whole heart, in the assembly of the upright, and in the congregation.”

•      Psalm 135:1-3 – “Praise the LORD! Praise the name of the LORD; praise Him, O you servants of the LORD!  You who stand in the house of the LORD, in the courts of the house of our God, Praise the LORD, for the LORD is good; sing praises to His name, for it is pleasant.”

And it is not just the Psalms where praise is featured.  But in this one book of 150 chapters, in 158 verses the word praise or its derivatives are found 189 times!

From experience with my own prayers, and hearing the prayers and prayer requests of others, most of our prayers tend to be in some form of “Bless me, and mine – us four and no more!”  How do we learn to praise God as we should?  I can’t think of a better textbook than the book of Revelation!  In chapters 4 through 7 of Revelation there are increasing examples of praise!

•      Revelation 4:8 – “…the four living creatures…rest not day or night, saying, ‘Holy, holy, holy, Lord God Almighty, who was and is and is to come!’ ”

•      Revelation 4:10, 11 – “…the twenty-four elders…worship Him…saying, ‘You are worthy, O Lord, to receive glory and honor and power, for You created all things, and by Your will they exist and were created.’ ”

•      Revelation 5:8-10 – “…the twenty-four elders…sang a new song, saying:  ‘You are worthy to take the scroll, and open its seals; for You were slain, and have redeemed us to God by Your blood out of every tribe and tongue and people and nation, and have made us kings and priests to our God; and we shall reign on earth.’ ”

And, while in Revelation praise does not end in the opening chapters, praise to God seems to reach its height in two more examples – Revelation chapters 5 and 7, verses 11 and 12 in each:

•      Revelation 5:11, 12 – “…I heard the voice of many angels around the throne, the living creatures, and the elders…saying with a loud voice, ‘Worthy is the Lamb who was slain to receive power and riches and wisdom, and strength and honor and glory and blessing!’ ”

•      Revelation 7:11, 12 – “And all the angels stood around the throne and the elders and the four living creatures, and fell on their faces before the throne, and worshiped God, saying, ‘Amen!  Blessing and glory and wisdom, thanksgiving and honor and power and might, be to our God forever and ever. Amen.’ ”

Why do I say these examples are the epitome of praise?  Each passage has seven areas of praise to God.  And seven is the number of perfection in Biblical numerology!  Aside from numerology, these two passages seem to cover just about all the areas in which God is worthy to be praised – power, riches, wisdom, strength, honor, glory, blessing, thanksgiving and might !  Nine areas in which to praise God!

I imagine you might think of more as you begin to regularly praise God in your prayer time.  He surely deserves such praise – and a lot more!  But these nine areas are a good place to start!  So if you are in the habit of NOT praising God as you kneel before Him, then you cannot do better than to follow the scriptural examples found in the book of Revelation!

November 9, 2015

John 13:1-5

(All scripture is from the New King James Version unless otherwise indicated.)

      Now before the feast of the Passover, when Jesus knew that His hour had
      come that He should depart from this world to the Father, having loved
      His own who were in the world, He loved them to the end.  And supper
      being ended, the devil having already put into the heart of Judas Iscariot,
      Simon’s son, to betray Him, Jesus, knowing that the Father had given all
      things into His hands, and that He had come from God and was going to
      God….

The first three verses of our scripture – John 13:1 through 5 – have built up through seven phrases to a great climax – so one might think!  But instead, it leads to a great anticlimax!  As stated in Friday’s blog, you might expect Jesus to manifest His glory for all to see!  He did so on the mountain in Matthew 17:2 before the eyes of Peter, James and John:  “And [He] was transfigured before them.  His face shone like the sun, and His clothes became as white as the light.”

But what did Jesus – the Lord of all – do?  It says in John 13:4 and 5:

      He…rose from supper and laid aside His garments, took a towel and girded
      Himself.  After that, He poured water into a basin and began to wash the
      disciples’ feet, and to wipe them with the towel with which He was girded.

This was the job of a lowly house servant!  Back in Bible times, walking the dusty roads meant dirty feet.  When one came into a house, he would sit and call for the servant who was ready with a basin of water and a towel to come and wash the dust and dirt off his feet.  Such an act was beneath any homeowner if he was wealthy enough to have servants!  Jesus Christ – The Son of God, God the Son, Diety manifested in the flesh, destined to be “KING OF KINGS AND LORD OF LORDS” (Revelation 19:16) – was humbly taking the position of a house servant!  Why?

It was more than teaching humility to His disciples, although they needed to learn to be humble.  Remember in Luke 22:24, “…there was also rivalry among them, as to which of them should be considered the greatest.”  What was Jesus’ answer?  Luke 22:26:  “…he who is greatest among you, let him be as the younger, and he who governs as he who serves.”  Apparently, this was an ongoing problem among the disciple! (See Matthew 18:1; Mark 9:33, 34; Luke 9:46).  And Jesus told them plainly in John 13:14, “If I then, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you ought to wash one another’s feet.”

But what the Lord was further portraying is also evident from His interaction with Peter in John 13:6 through 10:

      Then He came to Simon Peter.  And Peter said to Him, “Lord, are You
      washing my feet?”  Jesus answered and said to him, “What I am doing
      you do not understand now, but you will know after this.”  Peter said to
      Him, “You shall never wash my feet!”  Jesus answered him, “If I do not
      wash you, you have no part with Me.”  Simon Peter said to Him, “Lord,
      not my feet only, but also my hands and my head!”  Jesus said to him,
      “He who is bathed needs only to wash his feet, but is completely clean….”

The idea is that we are cleansed totally by the blood of Christ when we come to Him initially in faith believing. (See Psalm 103:12; Isaiah 1:18; I John 1:7).  But as we ‘walk’ through this old world, we get our feet ‘dirty’ by the daily sins we fall into.  That’s why we need to continually practice what it says in I John 1:9:  “If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.”

Take this idea back to what Jesus said in John 13:14, mentioned above:  “If I then, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you ought to wash one another’s feet.”  We are to help keep one another’s feet clean!  We are to encourage each other to confess our sins – in some cases to each other, as it says in James 5:16.  This is also part of our instruction implied in Hebrews 10:24 and 25:

      And let us consider one another in order to stir up love and to good
      works, not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together, as is the
      manner of some, but exhorting one another, and so much the more
      as you see the Day approaching.

It is included too in what Paul is writing in Galatians 6:1 and 2:

      Brethren, if a man is overtaken in any trespass, you who are spiritual,
      restore such a one in the spirit of gentleness, considering yourself lest
      you also be tempted.  Bear one another’s burdens, and so fulfill the law
      of Christ.  For if anyone thinks himself to be something, when he is
      nothing, he deceives himself.

Yes, we are called to be our “brother’s keeper” (Genesis 4:9).  We are to heed Jesus’ example – A Humbling Example – and serve one another, helping to keep each other clean!