Three Powerful Prescriptions from Jude

 

Jude 20-21, NLT - But you, dear friends, must build each other up in your most holy faith, pray in the power of the Holy Spirit, and await the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ, who will bring you eternal life. In this way, you will keep yourselves safe in God’s love.

 

Right before Jude’s famous benediction (our reflection for next time) we have some succinct prescriptions for staying true to the faith that is Christianity. 

1)      Build each other up

2)      Pray in the power of the Holy Spirit

3)      Wait for God’s mercy

The first key to staying true to faith in Jesus is to NOT try to do it alone.  This seems obvious, but it is even more powerful than many realize.  Of course, it’s easier (most of the time) to do something if you have good help.  This is certainly true of living the Christian faith.  Seeing others doing what I’m trying to do makes what I’m trying to do more accessible and attainable.  Having others encourage me and pick me up when I fail makes it easier to get back on the right track.  Knowing others are watching me adds accountability to my actions.  But when I commit to actively help others live their faith, my faith is strengthened in a way that it can’t be any other way.  This is why Jesus was less interested in attracting crowds than investing in his small group of twelve disciples.  Of course, Jesus helped them, but by them helping Jesus, they became strong in ways they never could by simply being a part of the crowd.  Faith in community is God’s purposeful design.

Next, Jude talks about prayer in a specific way.  Pray in the power of the Holy Spirit.  Sometimes, we get the idea that prayer is simply us talking to God.  While that is certainly part of it, what is happening is much more expansive than that.  In many places in scripture, we are reminded that God resides within us.  Far too often though, we live as if that were not true.  More to the point, we pray as if we are asking a God in a far-off place to come help us with our struggles.  To pray in that way is to neglect the truth that God is literally in the breath we use to speak our prayers.  When Jude tells us to pray in the power of the Holy Spirit, he is reminding us that when we are praying, the idea is to connect with the power that God has already placed within us. 

Finally, Jude asks us to “wait for God’s mercy, who will bring you eternal life.”  I believe several interpretations of this prescription are possible, but I receive it as a call to humility.  Humans seek affirmation in many things, but ultimately we are affirmed by the God who created us, is redeeming us, and will sustain us forever.  Seeking ultimate justification and affirmation from other sources can lead us to pursue things that our unworthy of our divine creator, redeemer, and sustainer.  Living with the conviction that, no matter what anyone else may say or think about us, only God’s valuation of us truly matters in the end.  To the extent that we can live with this assurance, we are free to simply live out what God has called us to do, not being influenced by the pull of other sources of importance, prestige, or position. 

 

Question:  Which of Jude’s prescriptions did you most need to hear today?  What will you do about what you have heard?

 

Prayer:  God, thank you for the power of community, prayer, and humility.  Help us see these powers already at work in us.  Convince us of the steps we can take right now to more fully cooperate with Your power in our lives.  Amen.

 

Prayer Focus:  Pray for God to lead you to someone you can help today.

 

Song:  No Matter What – Ryan Stevenson

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=It_xQ4NYtDQ

One of the Things I Wish Jesus Hadn’t Said

Mark 3:20-35 - Then Jesus entered a house, and again a crowd gathered, so that he and his disciples were not even able to eat.  When his family heard about this, they went to take charge of him, for they said, “He is out of his mind.”

And the teachers of the law who came down from Jerusalem said, “He is possessed by Beelzebul! By the prince of demons he is driving out demons.”

So Jesus called them over to him and began to speak to them in parables: “How can Satan drive out Satan?  If a kingdom is divided against itself, that kingdom cannot stand.  If a house is divided against itself, that house cannot stand.  And if Satan opposes himself and is divided, he cannot stand; his end has come.  In fact, no one can enter a strong man’s house without first tying him up. Then he can plunder the strong man’s house.  Truly I tell you, people can be forgiven all their sins and every slander they utter, but whoever blasphemes against the Holy Spirit will never be forgiven; they are guilty of an eternal sin.”

He said this because they were saying, “He has an impure spirit.”

Then Jesus’ mother and brothers arrived. Standing outside, they sent someone in to call him.  A crowd was sitting around him, and they told him, “Your mother and brothers are outside looking for you.”

“Who are my mother and my brothers?” he asked.

Then he looked at those seated in a circle around him and said, “Here are my mother and my brothers!  Whoever does God’s will is my brother and sister and mother.”

 

Mark has “buried the lead” here.  The story he tells here about Jesus’s family trying to “take charge of him” because they believe He might have gone off the deep end.  But in the middle of the account, Jesus drops a bombshell on the scribes that has caused problems for would-be Jesus followers ever since:

“…but whoever blasphemes against the Holy Spirit will never be forgiven; they are guilty of an eternal sin.”

This statement is honestly something I wish Jesus had not said.  I have encountered so many people over the course of three decades of ministry that get tripped up by this saying of Jesus.  Some have, with anguish, shared that they feared that they had committed this unforgivable sin.  My answer has come to be the following: “if you have any real fear that you might have committed this sin, then you haven’t.  

Remember who Jesus is addressing here.  The scribes/pharisees have already been exposed as seeking a justifiable reason to kill Jesus.  In previous reflections on earlier passages in Mark, we saw how these religious leaders were using the holy law given by God to actually kill Jesus.  They have accused Jesus of blasphemy (speaking against the ways of God), but Jesus warns that the leaders are the ones in danger of being blasphemers here.  They are calling the work of Jesus the work of the prince of demons.   They are so consumed by their own agenda, they are willing to blatantly and publicly lie about what they know to be the work of God with no fear that God will hold them accountable.  Jesus identifies this as the point of no return.  So, if you have any fear that you might be offending God in an unforgivable way, then you haven’t done so.

But before we go, let’s return to Mark’s main story here about Jesus’s family coming to collect him for fear that He is crazy.  This is important because it provides Jesus the opportunity to teach a very important truth.  When Jesus is told that His mother and brothers are waiting, he asks a question that He Himself answers; “Who are my mother and my brothers?”

Looking at the people around Him that have been following Him, he says, ““Here are my mother and my brothers!  Whoever does God’s will is my brother and sister and mother.”

Jesus expands the definition of family beyond biology.  Following God creates a family connection with those who are doing the same.  I have experienced this truth throughout my life.  My connection to God’s community has blessed me with several women who have functioned as additional mothers to me beyond the one that gave me birth.  I have additional father figures in my life as well.  I even affectionately call some of these people “Mom” and “Dad.”  Likewise, I have four biological children, but many more who I consider to be my “adopted children” because of my strong connection to them.  And of course, I have many more brothers and sisters than biology has afforded me.  All of these people are not “like family” to me.  They ARE family to me along with my biological family.  The same Love that created my biological family is creates a much bigger family to which we can all choose to belong.

 

Question:  Who are your mothers, fathers, sisters, and brothers beyond biology?

 

Prayer:  Holy Spirit, we acknowledge Your work among us.  Today, we especially thank you for knitting us together as a family of those who acknowledge Your work.  Strengthen our connection to You and to each other.  Amen.

 

Prayer Focus:  Pray for members of your church today as their names come to mind.

 

Song:  The Family of God – Newsboys

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V6kOkIJV-0M

Matthew 12:30-37 - The Unforgivable Sin?

 

Daily Devo w/ Pastor Eric October 25, 2021

The Unforgivable Sin?

 

Matthew 12:30-37, NIV - “Whoever is not with me is against me, and whoever does not gather with me scatters.  And so I tell you, every kind of sin and slander can be forgiven, but blasphemy against the Spirit will not be forgiven.  Anyone who speaks a word against the Son of Man will be forgiven, but anyone who speaks against the Holy Spirit will not be forgiven, either in this age or in the age to come. “Make a tree good and its fruit will be good, or make a tree bad and its fruit will be bad, for a tree is recognized by its fruit.  You brood of vipers, how can you who are evil say anything good? For the mouth speaks what the heart is full of.  A good man brings good things out of the good stored up in him, and an evil man brings evil things out of the evil stored up in him.  But I tell you that everyone will have to give account on the day of judgment for every empty word they have spoken.  For by your words you will be acquitted, and by your words you will be condemned.”

 

As a pastor, I’ve gotten more questions about the “unforgivable sin” than anything else.  Of course, we would naturally worry about something we could do to cause God to “write us off” permanently.  So it is important to gain some clarity about what Jesus is suggesting here is unforgivable.

  The first thing we need to note is who Jesus is talking to here – the murderous pharisees.  As we talked about last time, the pharisees are so angry at Jesus that they have begun to look at everything He says and does as a possible reason to have Him killed.  He has just cast out a demon and healed a man and the pharisees make the ridiculous accusation that Jesus has cast out a demon by the power of demons.  Jesus rightly points out that the pharisees have witnessed demon exorcisms before and they never attributed such miracles to demonic power before – He is exposing their accusations as being motivated by something other than truth.  And then he utters a very pointed warning that has caused untold millions to wonder about the unforgivable sin:

“Anyone who speaks a word against the Son of Man will be forgiven, but anyone who speaks against the Holy Spirit will not be forgiven, either in this age or in the age to come.” (v. 32)

It is crucial to note here that Jesus is issuing a warning here, not an indictment.  Jesus doesn’t say that the religious teachers have committed the unpardonable sin, but he is alerting Holy Spirtiuthem that they are right on the edge.  They can hate on Jesus all they want, but when they let their anger carry them away so far that they begin attributing the work of the Holy Spirit to the Prince of Demons, they will have gone too far.  It not so much that God has turned away from such offenders as the offenders have permanently turned their back on God.  To receive God’s forgiveness, one has to want it in the first place.  Jesus is teaching us here that people who attribute God’s power to the Devil don’t want forgiveness and further, God will not forgive someone against their wishes.  

                If you are one who even cares in the slightest that there is something God will not forgive, you are, by definition, NOT someone who could commit that which is unforgiveable.  What I would suggest we take away from this exchange between Jesus and the pharisees is not the unforgivable sin, but the larger point that Jesus is making.  Jesus states this point plainly at the end of the exchange:

“Make a tree good and its fruit will be good, or make a tree bad and its fruit will be bad, for a tree is recognized by its fruit.  You brood of vipers, how can you who are evil say anything good? For the mouth speaks what the heart is full of.  A good man brings good things out of the good stored up in him, and an evil man brings evil things out of the evil stored up in him.” (v. 33-35)

When you focus your life on bad things (like looking for a pretext to kill someone), the eventual result of such a focus makes you a “bad tree.”  When you focus on producing good things, the opposite happens; a “good tree” is the result.  When you store up anger and rage, you literally ruin yourself from the inside out; the resulting toxicity can’t help but come out.  When you store away goodness in your soul, it too will be borne out in your actions. 

Question:  When you “take inventory” of your soul, what have you been storing up?

 

Prayer:  Show us the true motivations of my heart O, God.  Shine light into my darkness that I might turn and focus on your light.  Plant in me the things that make for a “good tree” that produces good fruit.  Amen.

 

Prayer Focus:   Pray for God to show you one new source of goodness today from which you could begin to focus on. 

 

Song:   Whatever is True – Vineyard Music

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lgC1hWKMBUo