When You’re at Odds w/ God

Mark 8:29-33, The Message - He then asked, “And you—what are you saying about me? Who am I?”

Peter gave the answer: “You are the Christ, the Messiah.”

Jesus warned them to keep it quiet, not to breathe a word of it to anyone. He then began explaining things to them: “It is necessary that the Son of Man proceed to an ordeal of suffering, be tried and found guilty by the elders, high priests, and religion scholars, be killed, and after three days rise up alive.” He said this simply and clearly so they couldn’t miss it.

But Peter grabbed him in protest. Turning and seeing his disciples wavering, wondering what to believe, Jesus confronted Peter. “Peter, get out of my way! Satan, get lost! You have no idea how God works.”

 

                The text from the last bit of the passage from the last reflection is included here to remind us of what we noticed yesterday.  The disciples’ confession that Jesus is the Messiah (which is the main message of the entire gospel of Mark) marks a critical shift in tone.  It’s been mostly miracles and healings up until this point, but things are about to get hard.  Jesus tries to prepare his apprentices for this by sharing with them what is about to happen.  Jesus will increasingly be opposed, eventually tried, and then be killed.  Three days later, He will be resurrected.  Peter, most likely speaking what the others are thinking, is having none of it.  He tries to get Jesus back “on message.”

                I’ve read this passage dozens of times, so I know Peter is about to be called Satan by Jesus.  Still, I can’t help but empathize with Peter.  I think of half a dozen times in my life where God’s direction and the direction that I think is right diverge.  Things seem to be going well.  Positive things are happening.  Forward motion is gaining momentum.  Then unexplainably, I’m pointed in a different direction.  Peter has a reputation for being a bit impetuous, but that’s not me.  If anything, I’m too passive.  But I have to say, in those moments where the direction suddenly changed, I was “take Jesus aside” angry.  I believe my prayers in those moments probably sounded a bit like what I imagine Peter saying to Jesus in private.  I was not happy about not being consulted about the change and I let God know about it (as if God didn’t already know exactly how I felt).  My conviction is that being completely honest with God about our negative feelings is better than trying to pretend that negativity in us doesn’t exist.  You might as well “get it off your chest” because God already knows what’s in your heart.

                Back to Satan thing.  When we in the 21^st century hear the name “Satan” we hear something completely different than Peter did when Jesus used that word.  What Peter heard would be likened to what we would hear someone say, “get out of my way Adversary.”  Jesus was not calling Peter the Devil.  Jesus was warning Peter that he was now moving in the opposite direction from God, a position with which I am all-too-familiar.  It isn’t fun.  But if we are going to be free to be honest with God, than we ought to be willing for God to be honest with us.  I’d rather be corrected by God than left out of what God is doing.  Peter evidently felt that way too, because Peter takes the correction and moves on.  He will eventually be the central leader of the Jesus movement and He is still revered by Catholics as the first pope.  But that only happens because Peter is willing to admit he is wrong and take correction.  In order to be a leader, one must first be a follower.

                But it’s not easy to let go of what we think is right, even if it is God who is telling us so.  It takes a sense of humility and submission.  To the extent that we are able to empathize with Peter’s resistance, we should also be willing to follow Peter’s example of obedience. 

 

Questions:  Are you able to be called out and corrected when it is necessary?  Can you admit that even on important things, you could be wrong?

 

Prayer:  Lord, give us a teachable spirit.  May we correctable when we are headed in the wrong direction.  May we always hear Your voice and obey, even when it’s hard.  Amen.

 

Prayer Focus:  Pray for missionaries all over the world today.

 

Song:  I Will Follow – Chris Tomlin

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1ohvhmGSfxI

The Day the Mood Shifted

Mark 8:27-30, NIV - Jesus and his disciples went on to the villages around Caesarea Philippi. On the way he asked them, “Who do people say I am?”

They replied, “Some say John the Baptist; others say Elijah; and still others, one of the prophets.”

“But what about you?” he asked. “Who do you say I am?”

Peter answered, “You are the Messiah.”

Jesus warned them not to tell anyone about him.

 

                When Jesus asks, “who do you say I am?” he is asking for more than who the disciples SAY He is.  Jesus is asking them who they believe He is.  If I believe the man in the cockpit is really a fully credentialed pilot, I will get on the plane to fly to my destination.  If I believe that the woman diagnosing my health is a licensed and competent medical doctor, I will submit to the treatment plan she offers.  You can say anything you want about a person, but what you do based on who you believe them to be is what really matters. 

                At this point in the book of Mark, it’s been mostly miracles and healing since the disciples began their journey with Jesus.  The mood is about the change as we’ll see in the next several reflections.  The question put to the disciples by Jesus in today’s reading signals this shift in tone and brings what they really believe about Jesus into focus.  It is also Marks’s way of putting the same question to us today.  Who do we say Jesus is?   And just like Jesus’s first disciples, our answer makes all the difference.

                There are many ideas even today about who Jesus is/was.  If He’s a great teacher, then we will try to learn from Him.  If He’s simply a miracle worker and healer, we might ask for a miracle or healing for ourselves.  If He’s a prophet, we might want to check His prophecies against what has happened since.  But if Jesus is all this AND He’s the Messiah, than we will submit our lives to Him.  The way we live our life each day will be different if Jesus is our Savior and Lord.  So today (or any day) is a good day to ask ourselves the same question and spend some time reflecting on whether or not our everyday lives reflect our belief about Jesus.

 

Question:  Who do we believe Jesus is?  How are the decisions we make each day affected by this belief?

 

Prayer:  Jesus, show us what we believe about you.  May there be integrity between what we say about you and the way that we live.  Amen.

 

Prayer Focus:  Pray for people you know whose belief system is different than yours.

 

Song:   Who Do You Say I Am? – David Phelps

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lc0ZWBHIIfI

Matthew 16:13-20 - Who Do You Say That I Am?

 

Who Do You Say That I Am” - November 22, 2021

 

Matthew 16:13-20, NIV - When Jesus came to the region of Caesarea Philippi, he asked his disciples, “Who do people say the Son of Man is?”

They replied, “Some say John the Baptist; others say Elijah; and still others, Jeremiah or one of the prophets.”

“But what about you?” he asked. “Who do you say I am?”

Simon Peter answered, “You are the Messiah, the Son of the living God.”

Jesus replied, “Blessed are you, Simon son of Jonah, for this was not revealed to you by flesh and blood, but by my Father in heaven.  And I tell you that you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of Hades will not overcome it.  I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven; whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven.”  Then he ordered his disciples not to tell anyone that he was the Messiah.

 

                Years ago, I visited the now abandoned town of Caesarea Phillipi, where the above conversation took place.  It was a Roman city built as a tribute to the Roman God Pan.  I remember gathering with the group I was traveling with at the bottom of a cliff where, carved into the mountain, were images and monuments created to honor Roman deities.  We read the passage above where Jesus asks His disciples, “who do people say that I am?”  We envisioned this question being asked in the shadows of carvings depicting pagan Gods and the question took on even more impact.  And yet today, amidst all the “gods” that vie for our attention and devotion, it seems just as impactful.  Who do people say that Jesus is?

                Even people who aren’t “churchy people” often have an opinion about who Jesus is.  Some say He is a great moral teacher, but nothing more than that.  Others say he was a good man whose wisdom still has relevance, but He was sadly deluded about being “the Savior of the world.”  Still others do believe Jesus was who He said He was, but their belief about Jesus never translates into living any differently than they would have if they had never heard of Jesus. 

                Chances are that, if you’re reading this, you are among people who would answer the way Peter did when Jesus asks, “yes, but who do YOU say that I am?”  Jesus is the Messiah and Son of God.   This confession of Jesus’s identity has formed the basis for the Church’s witness since the time of Peter.  Jesus is more than just a good man or wise teacher.  He is greater than any Prophet, even John the Baptist.  Jesus is God incarnate. He is Emmanuel, God with us.  He is the Lord of Lords, King of kings, the Alpha and the Omega.  Jesus is everything! 

                This conviction in Jesus identity that we hold two thousand years later is grounded in Peter’s confession in Caesarea.  Peter, as Jesus prophesies over him, does become the foundation for the church Jesus will build.  Peter is the first of apostles that carry on the ministry of Jesus after His death and resurrection.  And from the beginning in the first century until now, “Jesus is Lord,” is still the foundational confession of our faith.  But from time to time, I have to ask myself an important question.  Today I also ask you that some question:   

 

Questions:  “What difference does that confession make in my daily life?  How is the way I live different because I believe Jesus is Lord of all?          

 

Prayer:  Lord Jesus, after Peter confesses that you are the Messiah, you tell the others not to tell anyone until after your resurrection.  Perhaps it not until we realize that your death and resurrection is actually what makes you our Messiah that we can begin to understand who you really are.  Help us experience who you are for us so that our living may ever more reflect the truth about who you are.  Amen.

 

Prayer Focus:  Pray for people you know who do not know Jesus.

 

Song:  “Who Do Say That I Am?” – David Phelps

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

Matthew 12:22-30 - The "Runaway Train" of Anger

 

Daily Devo w/ Pastor Eric October 22, 2021

The “Runaway Train” of Anger

 

Matthew 12:22-30, NLT - Then a demon-possessed man, who was blind and couldn’t speak, was brought to Jesus. He healed the man so that he could both speak and see.  The crowd was amazed and asked, “Could it be that Jesus is the Son of David, the Messiah?”

But when the Pharisees heard about the miracle, they said, “No wonder he can cast out demons. He gets his power from Satan, the prince of demons.”

Jesus knew their thoughts and replied, “Any kingdom divided by civil war is doomed. A town or family splintered by feuding will fall apart.  And if Satan is casting out Satan, he is divided and fighting against himself. His own kingdom will not survive.  And if I am empowered by Satan, what about your own exorcists? They cast out demons, too, so they will condemn you for what you have said.  But if I am casting out demons by the Spirit of God, then the Kingdom of God has arrived among you.  For who is powerful enough to enter the house of a strong man and plunder his goods? Only someone even stronger—someone who could tie him up and then plunder his house.

“Anyone who isn’t with me opposes me, and anyone who isn’t working with me is actually working against me.

 

Today’s passage is part of a larger section that extends to verse 12:37, but we are going to take two days to talk about it because there is much to see.  In this first part, we see yet another demon-possessed man exorcised and healed by Jesus.  I’d invite you to read the text above one more time remembering what has been happening.  Since Matthew 3 when Jesus was baptized, there is a growing division between the religious leaders (pharisees) and Jesus.  Earlier in chapter 12, we see that this conflict has reached a point where the Pharisees are plotting to kill Jesus.  A real and explosive resentment is growing in their heart for Jesus.

Think about a time when you have been in similar situations.  Something happened between you and another person that has caused hurt and resentment to begin building in your heart.  Then, that person persists in doing things that stir up even more resentment.  Over time, you begin to see everything they do in a negative light.  The offender might even be doing things that others you know do and you feel no offense, but when this wretched offender does it, you are incensed.  The resentment in you can become an unstoppable runaway train.  This is what is happening for the Pharisees.  Their resentment for Jesus has them seeing everything He does in a negative light, even exorcising and healing a poor tortured man.  Their animosity for Jesus has reached a point where they see this compassionate act as one done by the power of evil.  Read the text above again and see if you can see this runaway train.  I’ll wait until you get back 😊

                Can you feel the pharisees’ white-hot anger?  To the extent that we can, we can gain some deep insight into Jesus’s response.  Anger can blind people to things that are obvious to others.  Jesus is trying to point this out to the Pharisees.  The others present for this miracle are so moved by the exorcism that they begin asking, “Could it be that Jesus is the Son of David, the Messiah?” It is obvious to most present that they have witnessed something done in the power of God, not Satan.  But the pharisees are so consumed by acrimony towards Jesus, they honestly are convinced they are seeing the work of the Devil.  Jesus asks a poignant, but common-sense question to expose the ridiculous nature of what the Pharisees were thinking; “…if I am empowered by Satan, what about your own exorcists?”  Jesus’s question assumes that the pharisees had seen exorcisms before and never attributed such miracles to anyone but God. Jesus’s query is an invitation to the Pharisees to “sober up” and see the obvious that everyone else present sees and they themselves could see if they were only thinking clearly; “the Kingdom of God has arrived among you.”

                We will talk more about this next time, but for today, I want us to see the danger of runaway anger and resentment.  It causes us to see things that are clearly not reality.  It causes us to see others motives as evil when nothing could be further from the truth.  And as will see next time, it puts us in danger of getting to a place where we are so cut off from God that nothing can be done.  Anger itself is not always a bad thing, but nurturing resentments towards others (and God) is toxic to our souls.  Jesus not only wants the pharisees to see this; He wants us to see it as well.

 

Question: Do you harbor any resentments towards others that cause you to see all that they do in a negative light?

 

Prayer:  Lord, help us to see the places in our hearts where unhealthy resentments are residing.  Empower us to refuse to continue to nurture such resentments.  Heal our hearts and deliver our souls. Amen.

 

Prayer Focus:  Pray for the healing of the multitude of divisions in our country.

 

Song:  There is a Balm in Gilead

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q3e7AOWHyTM

Matthew 11:16-19 - Seeing the World As We Are

 

Daily Devo w/ Pastor Eric October 15, 2021

Seeing the World as We Are

 

Matthew 11:16-19, The Voice - What is this generation like? You are like children sitting in the marketplace and calling out, “When we played the flute, you did not dance; and when we sang a dirge, you did not mourn.”  What I mean is this: When John came, he dressed in the clothes of a prophet, and he did not eat and drink like others but lived on honey and wild locusts. And people wondered if he was crazy, if he had been possessed by a demon.  Then the Son of Man appeared—He didn’t fast, as John had, but ate with sinners and drank wine. And the people said, “This man is a glutton! He’s a drunk! And He hangs around with tax collectors and sinners, to boot.” Well, Wisdom will be vindicated by her actions—not by your opinions.

 

In the passage for today, Jesus is lamenting the resistance to God’s kingdom that he mentioned in his defense of John that we read yesterday.  John was labeled demon-possessed because he didn’t do what the people expected.  Jesus Himself was labeled a glutton and a drunk for eating and drinking with the wrong sorts of people.  This may sound like nothing more than Jesus venting about the hard time he and John have had as they have pursued their mission, but I invite us to see the deeper principle that he is describing because it is still being played out two thousand years later as God’s kingdom continues to unfold. 

                People naturally struggle with being called to a new way of living.  John called people to repent because the Kingdom of God was coming.  Some people did, but most continued as if nothing had happened.  Jesus announces that the Kingdom has arrived and the people repeatedly ran Him out of town.  As we’ll see in tomorrow’s passage, he performed miraculous works in multiple towns with barely any response.  Ultimately, we know that Jesus and His Kingdom were rejected forcefully when He was nailed to a cross.  When you call people to change the way they are living, even when embracing that change can help them, they often respond drastically to keep doing what they have been doing.

                I point this out as if it is only others that act this way; it is not.  I act this way too.  I often react badly when others, however lovingly, tried to point out an error in my thinking and/or doing.  When God first called me to be a pastor, I pursued at least three other vocations before I became open to what God was offering.  Almost always, when I am confronted with a truth that requires me to change my thinking or behavior, my first instinct is to fight it or go in the other direction.   Over the years, I’ve gotten better at recognizing when this instinctive reaction has been triggered and I sometimes am able to override it with some clear thinking and engaged faith.  But that first instinct to resist has never gone away in me.  And in my decades of observation of others, I know I’m not the only one with this issue.

                The Kingdom of God is still unfolding; the revolution that John announced and Jesus catalyzed is still calling us to live differently than we are now.  We’ll talk more about this tomorrow, but for today consider this question.

 

Question:  What is something you know God wants you to do differently but, as of this moment, the resistance instinct in you has won out?

 

Prayer:  Have mercy on us, Savior.  Help us confront the resistance to Your kingdom that persists in our spirit so that we may embrace the life that truly is life.  Amen

 

Prayer Focus:  Spend some time confessing your own personal struggles with doing what you know is right to God today.

 

Song:  Man in the Mirror – Michael Jackson

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PivWY9wn5ps&t=23s

Matthew 11:6-15 - If John Had Doubts About Jesus, What Chance Do I Have?

Daily Devo w/ Pastor Eric October 14, 2021

If John Had Doubts About Jesus, What Chance Do I Have?

 

Matthew 11:6-15, NIV – “Blessed is anyone who does not stumble on account of me.”  As John’s disciples were leaving, Jesus began to speak to the crowd about John: “What did you go out into the wilderness to see? A reed swayed by the wind?  If not, what did you go out to see? A man dressed in fine clothes? No, those who wear fine clothes are in kings’ palaces.  Then what did you go out to see? A prophet? Yes, I tell you, and more than a prophet.  This is the one about whom it is written:

“‘I will send my messenger ahead of you,

    who will prepare your way before you.’

Truly I tell you, among those born of women there has not risen anyone greater than John the Baptist; yet whoever is least in the kingdom of heaven is greater than he.  From the days of John the Baptist until now, the kingdom of heaven has been subjected to violence, and violent people have been raiding it.  For all the Prophets and the Law prophesied until John.  And if you are willing to accept it, he is the Elijah who was to come.  Whoever has ears, let them hear.

Yesterday, we talked about Jesus responding to John the Baptist’s question about whether Jesus was the Messiah.  John seemed to be wavering in his belief, and Jesus gives him some scriptural reassurance to reinforce his faith.  As he finishes giving John’s disciples the message to deliver to John who is in prison, he makes the statement at the beginning of our passage for today.

“Blessed is anyone who does not stumble on account of me.” (Mt 11:6)

This is a transitional statement that is for John and for the crowd that Jesus is now turning to address. The crowd has heard the exchange between John’s disciples and Jesus and will need some reassurance of their own.  If the great John the Baptist is having doubts about Jesus, then who wouldn’t have doubts? So Jesus talks to the crowd about John.

                The interesting thing about Jesus’s remarks to me is that Jesus does not even address John’s doubts (or the crowd’s for that matter).  He simply talks about the greatness of John and John’s ministry.  Though we (two thousand years later) may miss it, he is drawing a contrast between John (“among those born of women there has not risen anyone greater”) and the man that imprisoned John, the King Herod Antipas, whose public symbol was a reed (“a reed swayed by the wind”).  At some point though, you might expect Jesus to say something like, “John was great, but even the greats have doubts sometimes.”  Jesus does not make any such statement.  What he does with the crowd is similar to what he did with John/John’s disciples.  After affirming John’s greatness, Jesus quotes scripture. 

“This is the one about whom it is written:

‘I will send my messenger ahead of you,

    who will prepare your way before you.’”

The quote is from Malachi where Malachi talks about one who precedes the Messiah, an Elijah-like messenger.  By invoking this prophecy Jesus is simultaneously proclaiming that John is that Elijah figure AND that He (Jesus) is indeed the Messiah.  This is confirmed when at the end of our passage for today when Jesus says, “if you are willing to accept it, he is the Elijah who was to come.”

                The implicit message of Jesus here is not a prescription to get rid of doubts, but an invitation to believe in the midst of doubts.  In fact, that is the very root of real faith itself.  Believing is easy when there is no cause for doubt.  But Jesus acknowledges that there is great cause for doubt (“the kingdom of heaven has been subjected to violence, and violent people have been raiding it”).  Because of this, doubts will always be with us, but the invitation of the Kingdom is to keep on believing anyway.  The reasons for our doubts will fall away, but the Kingdom is forever.

                This sets up the last observation for today.  It concerns Jesus’s surprising statement, “whoever is least in the kingdom of heaven is greater than [John the Baptist].”  Why would anyone be “greater” than John, much less the “least in the kingdom?”  There is a lot that could be said here, but you’ve already endured a lot of explanation today, so I’ll keep it brief.  At this point in Matthew’s story, there is great confusion about the true nature of Jesus’s identity even among Jesus’s followers (and John the Baptist for that matter).  They hear Jesus proclaiming the Kingdom, but they aren’t ready for the “mind grenade” that it will come through Jesus’s death and resurrection.  They expect to see Jesus become an earthly king, not a crucified messiah.  There is no possible way for them to comprehend what even the most casual believer in Jesus embraces now – that the Kingdom that Jesus ushers in necessitated His death.  It is His death that makes the full expression of the Kingdom possible.  The “least in the Kingdom” now know something John the Baptist could have never known before.  You and I know that that too, “if we are willing to accept it.”

 

Question:  How do you choose to believe in Jesus and His Kingdom, in spite of doubts caused by all that is around us?

 

Prayer:  God, “we believe.  Help us in our unbelief”  (Mark 9:24) Amen.

 

Prayer Focus:  Choose a couple of specific people that you know that have not chosen to believe in Jesus yet.  Pray for them today.

 

Song:  Bill Gaither - I Believe, Help Thou My Unbelief

Note:  I have to confess.  I am not a huge fan of Bill Gaither fan (though my Mom adores him!), but this song deeply touches me and speaks to message for today.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z__h1uiSC6I

Matthew 11:1-6 - Seeing the Forest for the Trees: John the Baptist Edition

 

Daily Devo W/ Pastor Eric October 13, 2021

Seeing the Forest for the Trees - John the Baptist Edition

 

Matthew 11:1-5, NLT - When Jesus had finished giving these instructions to his twelve disciples, he went out to teach and preach in towns throughout the region.

John the Baptist, who was in prison, heard about all the things the Messiah was doing. So he sent his disciples to ask Jesus, “Are you the Messiah we’ve been expecting, or should we keep looking for someone else?”

Jesus told them, “Go back to John and tell him what you have heard and seen— the blind see, the lame walk, those with leprosy are cured, the deaf hear, the dead are raised to life, and the Good News is being preached to the poor.”  And he added, “God blesses those who do not fall away because of me.

 

Poor John is beginning to have his doubts.  The bold wilderness preacher has been keeping tabs on what Jesus is doing. He hears about the miracles, but he was expecting judgement. Remember back in chapter 3, just before Jesus’s baptism, John proclaims, “Even now the ax of God’s judgment is poised, ready to sever the roots of the trees.” (3:10)  What John is hearing about is not judgement.  Healing, resurrections, and the Word being preached are all well and good, but the Messiah is also supposed to bring judgement.  Are you the one to bring it or are we waiting for someone else?

Jesus’s message to John doesn’t seem to address the question because He simply tells John what John already knows – the miracles.  But Jesus is quoting prophecy in Isaiah:

“Blind eyes will be opened, deaf ears unstopped, lame men and women will leap like deer”  (Isaiah 35:5-6)

“He sent me to preach good news to the poor” (Isaiah 61:2)

John does already know these prophecies too, but we all need to reminded of things we already know when our heart seems to be set on something else.  John has been fighting with the authorities since he began his ministry and needs to know that those with whom he has been fighting are going to “get theirs.”  The reality is that the inbreaking of a new Kingdom does bring judgement on the old, but it does so by ushering in such good news that people begin to embrace the new with their whole hearts, dropping the old in the process.  Jesus’s message to John (and the crowd gathered) is that what John is hoping for is indeed happening, but maybe not in the way John imagined.   

                We all need that reminder sometimes.  We all get discouraged and long for vindication from time to time.  In those times, it can be easy to begin to fixate on our enemies being exposed for what they are.  But Jesus’s words here remind us that our focus should not be primarily on our enemies, but on what God is doing.  Good things are happening, but we will overlook them if all we are thinking about is what is not happening.  It was a good Word for John and it is a good Word for us as well.

 

Question:  Is it possible that you are missing something important that is happening right now because you are focused on something that is not happening?

 

Prayer:  Lord Jesus, help us not to confuse our expectations with Your Will.  Gently remind us today of the goodness in our lives to which we should be paying attention.  Amen.

 

Prayer Focus:  Pray for people in prison today

 

Song:  Accentuate the Positive – Dr. John

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tTMWNWrE3Uc