Matthew 13:36 - Staying in Our Lane

 

November 3, 2021 - Staying in Our Lane

 

Matthew 13:36-43, NIV - Then he left the crowd and went into the house. His disciples came to him and said, “Explain to us the parable of the weeds in the field.”

He answered, “The one who sowed the good seed is the Son of Man.  The field is the world, and the good seed stands for the people of the kingdom. The weeds are the people of the evil one, and the enemy who sows them is the devil. The harvest is the end of the age, and the harvesters are angels.

“As the weeds are pulled up and burned in the fire, so it will be at the end of the age.  The Son of Man will send out his angels, and they will weed out of his kingdom everything that causes sin and all who do evil.  They will throw them into the blazing furnace, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth. Then the righteous will shine like the sun in the kingdom of their Father. Whoever has ears, let them hear.

 

Two days ago, we covered the parable of the weeds.  We talked about the importance of staying focused on the growth of good seeds even when there are weeds growing up along with those seeds (the work of an undefined enemy).  Trying to remove the weeds also uproots the good plants, so the advice is to wait until the harvest.  Making it plainer for us now, stay focused on doing good work and ignore the work of those who are working against us.  Today, in the passage above, Jesus talks about what will happen to the work of those enemies and those who do that work.

That answer is made very plain in the text.  A blazing furnace and weeping/gnashing of teeth – that’s what awaits the evil doers and their work.  But I want to stress a couple of things here.  First, it is not us who get to make decisions/pass judgement on what is good and what is evil.  It the Son of Man/Jesus and His angels that separate the good plants and the weeds.  Once again, it is NOT us who makes these decisions.  Whenever we hear anyone who is not Jesus make an eternal judgement about anyone else, we need to remind ourselves that the person speaking is not qualified to make that judgement.  Such people often claim to be speaking for Jesus, but in this passage, Jesus clearly says that He only delegates this authority to angels. 

Second, Jesus identifies the good seed as those in the kingdom, the “righteous” in verse 43.  Whenever we see the word “righteous,” we can think “right relationship.”  The good seed’s job is to grow into a flourishing good plant and that is accomplished by maintaining a healthy relationship with the Sower.  The growth of good plants depends on the Sower providing all that is needed for the growth. So our job is to cooperate with the growth process the Sower has begun and continues to sustain with all that we need.  That is our only responsibility.  We leave EVERYTHING else to Jesus.  We look forward to the day when we will “shine like the sun in the kingdom of [our] Father” 

“Whoever has ears, let them hear.”

 

Question:  Do I really trust God to handle the separating the good from the bad? Am I “staying in my lane?”

 

Prayer:  Thank you God for everything good in my life.  Help me stay focused on that goodness that You have provided and to trust you to do everything else.  Amen.

 

Prayer Focus:  Make a list of five good things that are happening in your life right now and then spend some time thanking God for those things and asking God to show you how you can build upon that goodness moving forward.

 

Song:  This is a live performance of worship song.  It is possible that there are “weeds” in the room – people not focused on God.  But their presence does not deter from the focus on the goodness of God.  It is a picture of the parable of the weeds being lived out. 

You are Good (Live) – Israel Houghton

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=708opj5poOc

Matthew 13:1-9, 18-23 - A Story About a “Foolish” Farmer

A Story About a “Foolish” Farmer

 

Matthew 13:1-9,18-23, NIV - That same day Jesus went out of the house and sat by the lake.  Such large crowds gathered around him that he got into a boat and sat in it, while all the people stood on the shore.  Then he told them many things in parables, saying: “A farmer went out to sow his seed.  As he was scattering the seed, some fell along the path, and the birds came and ate it up.  Some fell on rocky places, where it did not have much soil. It sprang up quickly, because the soil was shallow.  But when the sun came up, the plants were scorched, and they withered because they had no root.  Other seed fell among thorns, which grew up and choked the plants.  Still other seed fell on good soil, where it produced a crop—a hundred, sixty or thirty times what was sown.  Whoever has ears, let them hear.”

(v. 18) “Listen then to what the parable of the sower means:  When anyone hears the message about the kingdom and does not understand it, the evil one comes and snatches away what was sown in their heart. This is the seed sown along the path.  The seed falling on rocky ground refers to someone who hears the word and at once receives it with joy.  But since they have no root, they last only a short time. When trouble or persecution comes because of the word, they quickly fall away.  The seed falling among the thorns refers to someone who hears the word, but the worries of this life and the deceitfulness of wealth choke the word, making it unfruitful.  But the seed falling on good soil refers to someone who hears the word and understands it. This is the one who produces a crop, yielding a hundred, sixty or thirty times what was sown.”

 

                Long reading today but I’ll keep the comments short.  Today we encounter the first parable of Jesus in Matthew.  It is also one of the few parables that Jesus actually interprets.  We’ll talk more about that next time, but for now, go back and read the scripture one more time slowly.  Not a lot of modern day folks are farmers, but most of us have been able to observe how plants do well in some environments and don’t do well in others.  And because of this, we tend to focus on the environments, or as the parable talks about, the soil.  We ask ourselves, “what kind of soil/environment am I?” While that might be a fruitful(double meaning intended) question, it’s not what Jesus intends for us to get from this story.  If it was, in v.18, He would have said, “listen to what the parable of the soils means.”  But Jesus plainly states that this story is about the sower. 

                The original audience, who were much more familiar with farming than most modern-day people, would have honed in on this because the sower in this story is quite odd.  The actions of the sower would have seemed foolish to anyone who has ever planted seeds.   Seeds are a valuable and scarce commodity.  A good sower ONLY plants seeds in good soil – not on the road, rocky ground, shallow soil, or among thorns.  Because the sower in Jesus story is so haphazard with the seeds, Jesus’s audience would have known that this is the detail of the story Jesus wants them to notice. 

                God is the Sower and unlike a sower of plants, God is lavishly haphazard in where the message/seed is spread.  Whether you are “receptive soil” or not is not the point; God gives the opportunity for the Kingdom seeds to take root in you anyway.  And not just you, but everyone!  While we might think that foolish . . .  while we might not even like that, God gives everyone an opportunity.  That’s the kind of Sower God is and that’s Jesus’s point here.

 

Questions:  If you were in God’s place, would you give all an opportunity even if you knew in advance that most would not take advantage of that opportunity?

 

Prayer:  God of all creation, thank you for deeming us worthy of an opportunity to participate in the growing of Your Kingdom.  Amen.

 

Prayer Focus:  Pray for people who, in your estimation, will never take advantage of the opportunity God has offered them.  I know. I know. I know.  Pray for them anyway.

 

Song:  The Sower's Song - Andrew Peterson

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lIiKIR6mQOE

Matthew 12:38-45 - The Sign of Jonah

 

Daily Devo w/ Pastor Eric October 26, 2021

The “Sign of Jonah”

Matthew 12:38-45, NLT - One day some teachers of religious law and Pharisees came to Jesus and said, “Teacher, we want you to show us a miraculous sign to prove your authority.”

But Jesus replied, “Only an evil, adulterous generation would demand a miraculous sign; but the only sign I will give them is the sign of the prophet Jonah.  For as Jonah was in the belly of the great fish for three days and three nights, so will the Son of Man be in the heart of the earth for three days and three nights.

“The people of Nineveh will stand up against this generation on judgment day and condemn it, for they repented of their sins at the preaching of Jonah. Now someone greater than Jonah is here—but you refuse to repent.  The queen of Sheba will also stand up against this generation on judgment day and condemn it, for she came from a distant land to hear the wisdom of Solomon. Now someone greater than Solomon is here—but you refuse to listen.

“When an evil spirit leaves a person, it goes into the desert, seeking rest but finding none.  Then it says, ‘I will return to the person I came from.’ So it returns and finds its former home empty, swept, and in order.  Then the spirit finds seven other spirits more evil than itself, and they all enter the person and live there. And so that person is worse off than before. That will be the experience of this evil generation.”

 

We rejoin the spirted conversation between Jesus and the Pharisees/religious teachers.  After being warned by Jesus that they are teetering on the edge of sin that is unforgivable, the leaders ask Jesus for a sign to prove he has authority to say such harsh things to them.  Remember, they have witnessed several “signs” already, including demon-exorcisms, countless healings, and even a resurrection or two.  So Jesus, who isn’t a show-us-a-miracle traveling road show, refuses to perform on-demand for the leaders who will no more be swayed from their murderous intent than they have been up until now.  Instead, Jesus’s critique of them continues.

“Only an evil, adulterous generation would demand a miraculous sign; but the only sign I will give them is the sign of the prophet Jonah.”(v. 39)

Once again, Jesus stops short of actually calling the leaders evil and adulterous, but He might as well have.  But as I have encouraged us to do before, let’s not distance ourselves from the targets of Jesus’s polemic here.  We need to hear Jesus’s warnings to those who should know better, because the warnings are for us as well.  Don’t continue to demand proof as a basis for faith when all the proof necessary has already been given.  Only people who have already steeled themselves against such proof and betrayed the faith insist on signs being given.    

                Jesus is angry and one of the words he uses here helps us understand why – generation (“only and evil, adulterous generation…”).  Jesus is making a charge against specific individuals; he’s leveling an evaluation of an entire generation.  Implied here is the troubling thought that, not only have these leaders turned against the God they claim to serve, they are leading and will continue to lead others to do the same.  Jesus is not just calling out evil. He is calling out systemic evil.  When Nineveh was called out by Jonah, they repented.  When the Queen of Sheba heard about the wisdom of Solomon, she traveled across the world to hear it personally.  But now, God-in-the-flesh is standing before these leaders and they continue to demand proof and cast doubts into the hearts of their followers.  Shame, shame.

                This grave warning still calls out all who persist in setting themselves against obvious truth and leading others to do the same.  Jesus says that the only sign that will ever be given for such rebels is “the sign of Jonah.”  Jonah was willingly thrown into the sea by those in peril so that those in peril might be saved from the wrath all around them.  Long before He is crucified, Jesus alludes to his ultimate sign;  he will die at the hands of those who oppose Him, but their “victory” is actually their once-and-for-all defeat.  Truth will prevail in the end.  And the “generation” that fought against truth and brought others down with them will find themselves in a worse situation than they were in before.

                It’s extremely hard to resist the temptation to conclude that Jesus’s warning is not for us.  But every generation recorded in the Bible and all the generations since the last word of the Bible was scribbled down have struggled with embracing the obvious signs they have already been given in favor of looking for a sign that will never come.  I already have all the “proof” I will ever need that I should follow Jesus with all that I have.  You have that proof as well.  This leads to a very uncomfortable question.

 

Question:  Why do we continue to resist truth we already know deep in our hearts is right? 

 

Prayer:  Have mercy on us Lord when we refuse to receive the truth You offer – the truth that could set us free.  Help us let go of our resistance even when it is so hard to do so, lest we become part of a generation that stands on the wrong side of Your warning.  Amen.

 

Prayer Focus:  Pray for the healing of divisions within the worldwide church. 

 

Song:  Come Tear Down the Walls/I Surrender All - Revere

https://youtu.be/pJhvXhA2CxU?t=103

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

Matthew 12:1-14 - Pharisaical Tendencies

 

Daily Devo w/ Pastor Eric October 20, 2021

Pharisaical Tendencies

 

Matthew 12:1-14 - At that time Jesus went through the grainfields on the Sabbath. His disciples were hungry and began to pick some heads of grain and eat them. When the Pharisees saw this, they said to him, “Look! Your disciples are doing what is unlawful on the Sabbath.”

He answered, “Haven’t you read what David did when he and his companions were hungry?  He entered the house of God, and he and his companions ate the consecrated bread—which was not lawful for them to do, but only for the priests.  Or haven’t you read in the Law that the priests on Sabbath duty in the temple desecrate the Sabbath and yet are innocent?  I tell you that something greater than the temple is here.  If you had known what these words mean, ‘I desire mercy, not sacrifice,’ you would not have condemned the innocent.  For the Son of Man is Lord of the Sabbath.”

Going on from that place, he went into their synagogue, and a man with a shriveled hand was there. Looking for a reason to bring charges against Jesus, they asked him, “Is it lawful to heal on the Sabbath?”

He said to them, “If any of you has a sheep and it falls into a pit on the Sabbath, will you not take hold of it and lift it out? How much more valuable is a person than a sheep! Therefore it is lawful to do good on the Sabbath.”

Then he said to the man, “Stretch out your hand.” So he stretched it out and it was completely restored, just as sound as the other. But the Pharisees went out and plotted how they might kill Jesus.

 

This passage is obviously about keeping the Sabbath, but it is also about something much bigger than the Sabbath – legalism.  As soon as I say the word “legalism,” most of us consciously or unconsciously uncheck the imaginary box in our mind that this passage is speaking to us.  After all, who wants to admit that they are a legalist.  But I want to submit to you that we all have legalist tendencies. 

In the passage above, the Pharisees (the quintessential legalists of the gospels) are challenging Jesus on this disciples harvesting food for themselves on the sabbath.  That was forbidden on the Sabbath and the disciples had actually done what they charged.  They were guilty according to the law and so the Pharisees are not technically wrong to challenge what they did.  But Jesus finds them wrong nonetheless.  Why is this?

There are two ways in which they are wrong.  As interpreters of the law, Pharisees are charged with communicating and teaching the intention or “spirit” of the law.  Jesus points the intention of this particular law when he quotes Hosea 6:6, “I desire mercy, not sacrifice.”  The Pharisees would rather the disciples sacrifice by not eating than by eating and breaking the letter of the law.  Jesus points out that it is merciful to let them eat and that showing mercy is more important than keeping the letter of the law because mercy is the intent of sabbath laws.  In Mark’s version of this same encounter, Jesus says, ““The Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath” (Mark 2:27).    In other words, the Sabbath is supposed to be a merciful thing for people, not a sacrificial thing.

The second way in which the Pharisees are wrong here is related to the first, but is subtly different.  This plays out through the subsequent healing of the withered hand.  After Jesus has healed the man, the Pharisees are furious and begin to look for a way to kill Jesus.  Why would a healing provoke rage?  The answer lies in the fact that Jesus shows that the Pharisees were never interested in the intention of the law in the first place.  What they were interested in was USING the law to entrap Jesus and/or his disciples.  Jesus exposes this intention and embarrasses the Pharisees in front of others.  He is also challenging the very basis of their power which is being able to use the law for their own intentions. 

“Shame on those Pharisees” we like to say, but I would close today by making a bold claim.  All of us have pharisaical tendencies.  There are times when the “rules” are a convenient way to dismiss a difficult issue.  There are other times when we our use of the rules is not merciful.  Jesus reminds us today that when choose the rules over being merciful, we are not only choosing against mercy, we are choosing something He himself would not choose. 

 

Questions:  Do we ever use the “rules” to try and gain an advantage or avoid dealing with something difficult?  Do we use the technicality of the rules so we don’t have to deal with the intention behind the rules? 

 

Prayer:  For our own sake, Lord, show us our Pharisaical tendencies.  Amen

 

Prayer Focus:  Pray for the fourteen kidnapped missionaries (including children) in Haiti. 

 

Song:  Buddy Greene - Recovering Pharisee

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WMyplW33E7c

Matthew 11:20-26 - A Jesus That Makes Us Uncomfortble

 

Daily Devo w/ Pastor Eric October 18, 2021

A Jesus that Makes Us Uncomfortable

 

Matthew 11:20-26, CEV - In the towns where Jesus had worked most of his miracles, the people refused to turn to God. So Jesus was upset with them and said:

You people of Chorazin are in for trouble! You people of Bethsaida are in for trouble too! If the miracles that took place in your towns had happened in Tyre and Sidon, the people there would have turned to God long ago. They would have dressed in sackcloth and put ashes on their heads. I tell you that on the day of judgment the people of Tyre and Sidon will get off easier than you will.

People of Capernaum, do you think you will be honored in heaven? You will go down to hell! If the miracles that took place in your town had happened in Sodom, that town would still be standing.  So I tell you that on the day of judgment the people of Sodom will get off easier than you.

At that moment Jesus said:

My Father, Lord of heaven and earth, I am grateful that you hid all this from wise and educated people and showed it to ordinary people.  Yes, Father, that is what pleased you.

                 

When we began this study of Matthew, I initially thought that it we would take selected passages of Matthew and move at a steady pace through the Gospel.  You might have noticed (since we are only on Chapter 11 two and half months later) that I was led early on to deal with every passage and skip none.  My primary reason for making this decision was that I did indeed feel that God was leading me to do so.  Along with that though, was a recognition that I needed to resist a tendency I have to skip over passages that are hard to comment on and uncomfortable to hear.  The above passage for today is one of those.  Reading and hearing this particular passage is important because it speaks directly to the resistance in us that tends to only pay attention to Jesus when his words are comfortable to hear. 

As Jesus traveled the Galilean countryside preaching, teaching, healing, and performing other miracles, some places were very receptive to his ministry and they turned wholeheartedly toward Him and the Kingdom He proclaimed.  This turning toward also implies a turning away from the way things were – this simultaneous turning away from and turning toward is the core definition of repentance.  The people who embraced Jesus’s kingdom saw their lives transformed.  This was Jesus’s intention for them and, by the way, it is still Jesus intention for us. 

But there were other towns, like Chorazin, Bethsaida, and Capernaum, that may have enjoyed Jesus’s miracles, had their ears tickled by His teaching and may have even believed that Jesus was who He said He was, but there was no substantive change in their lives as a result.  They did NOT turn away from their old lives and they did NOT turn toward Jesus’s kingdom.  They may have enjoyed Jesus’s performance, but they were unchanged in any significant way. 

It's here where Jesus’s words get uncomfortable.  Judgement is coming for the those who do not turn away from their wickedness and lest we think that judgement is no big deal, Jesus recalls three cities whose terrible fates (Tyre, Sidon, and Sodom) will be better than the unrepentant cities he visited.  Tyre and Sidon were conquered and destroyed; Sodom was completely burned to the ground and wiped from the face of the earth.   All three cities were implored by the prophets to repent but did not prior to their destruction.   Like Chorazin, Bethsaida, and Capernaum, they were unchanged by God’s word and works towards them.  Jesus emphatically proclaims there are dire consequences for making that collective choice.

My pastoral instinct is to try and soften Jesus’s words here – to offer some explanation for this harshness from the mouth of our Savior.  But to do so would be an attempt to “domesticate” Jesus, to make Him and His message something less jarring.  But the truth is that Jesus intends for His message to be jarring.   People do not change their ways when they are perfectly comfortable with their present ways.  There is no repentance (a simultaneous turning away from what was and a turning toward what is coming) in people who like what was just fine. 

So instead, my invitation today is “sit with” the discomfort of Jesus’s words above (and elsewhere).  Let that discomfort permeate your defenses and unsettle that in you which needs to be unsettled – those things in you that need to change.  Because Jesus proclaimed these warnings to whole cities (large groups/systems of people), I also invite us to let Jesus’s words unsettle in our own groups/systems of people that which needs to be unsettled – those systemic changes that need to happen in order for our cities to be aligned with the Kingdom of God. 

Tomorrow, we will hear the Jesus we like to hear, a Jesus who is “humble and gentle at heart” and who offers to lighten our load.  But today, we need to sit with the Jesus expects us and our cities to be changed by His words and warns us of the dire consequences coming if that change/repentance never comes. 

 

Question: What is something that would have to change if you were to turn toward Jesus even more than you have at this point in your life?

 

Prayer:  Investigate my life, O God, find out everything about me, Cross-examine and test me, get a clear picture of what I’m about; See for yourself whether I’ve done anything wrong—then guide me on the road to eternal life. (Psalm 139:24-25, The Message) Amen.

 

Prayer Focus:  Pray for specific places/situations of injustice that you are aware of right now in our world.

 

Song:  Lord Have Mercy - Michael W. Smith ft. Amy Grant

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ID0Mpy6zfts

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

Matthew 10:40-42 - What is a "Prophet's Reward?"

Daily Devo w/ Pastor Eric October 12, 2021

What is the Prophet’s Reward?

 

Matthew 10:40-42, NIV - Anyone who welcomes you welcomes me, and anyone who welcomes me welcomes the one who sent me.  Whoever welcomes a prophet as a prophet will receive a prophet’s reward, and whoever welcomes a righteous person as a righteous person will receive a righteous person’s reward.  And if anyone gives even a cup of cold water to one of these little ones who is my disciple, truly I tell you, that person will certainly not lose their reward.”

 

                There’s a lot to unpack in these three verses, so let’s dive right in.  First, remember that this passage is part of Jesus’s instruction to the twelve as He sends them out on their first mission. Jesus has just told them pretty forcefully that they will encounter stiff resistance as they seek to represent Him to others.  But He ends these instructions with a positive; there will be people who will welcome them and welcome the message of Jesus.  And Jesus is trying to communicate what a beautiful thing that is.  He explains that welcoming the apostles is the same as welcoming Jesus and welcoming Jesus is welcoming God.  People who receive the messenger and the message receive God into their lives and that will become the greatest source of greatest blessing.  

                Jesus teaches that “whoever welcomes a prophet as a prophet will receive a prophet’s reward.”   It begs the question, “what is a prophet’s reward?”  The short answer is that it’s hard to pin down exactly what the prophet’s reward is.  Jesus doesn’t expound here or anywhere else that we know of.  However, there are some important things to notice about what Jesus does say.  Some scholars believe Jesus is alluding here to a story in 2 Kings 4 where the prophet Elisha encounters a Shunammite woman who shows him great hospitality.  The woman is childless and her hospitality to the prophet is rewarded with a her giving birth to a son.  The son dies suddenly at a young age, but is brought back to life by Elisha after the boy’s mother goes to get the prophet.  Two amazing miracles are experienced by this Shunammite because of her hospitality to God’s messenger.        

                Does this mean that whoever exhibits such hospitality will personally experience miracles.  From my experience, the answer is “not always.”  However, what I can say from experience is that, to the extent that you are open and welcoming of God into your life, you will be able to see God so miraculous things.  Every prophet in the Old Testament had a front row seat to see God’s activity – serving people on behalf of God puts one in proximity to God serving people through the one who serves.  In my two-plus decades of serving God’s people, I have seen dozens of miraculous things happen that I can only describe as God’s activity.  It is truly humbling when it happens and the blessing that I have experienced for just being present and open when it happens defies words. Being open to God and God’s message is a way of opening yourself to the wonders that God does among us. 

                I encourage you to notice one other thing about Jesus’s words about the “reward.”  The prophet, the one who receives the prophet, the righteous person, the one who receives the righteous person, the disciple (“these little ones”), and the one who so much as gives that disciple a cup of cold water ALL receive a blessing/reward for their openness.  I don’t think it’s as necessary to pin down exactly what that blessing/reward is as it is to recognize Who is offering it.  Whether you are a prophet, a righteous person, disciple, or just someone who is hospitable to a disciple, you will be rewarded/blessed for your openness to God and God’s message. 

 

Question:  Miraculous things happen all around us all the time.  Are we open enough to God’s message and activity to see them?

 

Prayer:  Open my eyes that I may see glimpses of truth thou hast for me.  Open my ears that I may hear

voices of truth thou sendest clear. Open my mouth and let me bear gladly the warm truth everywhere.  Open my heart and let me prepare love with thy children thus to share. Amen. (prayer from the lyrics to “Open My Eyes That I May See)

 

 

Prayer Focus:  Spend some time reflecting on and thanking God for the miraculous things you have been  blessed to experience over your lifetime.

 

Song:  Open My Eyes – Jesse Manibusan

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wI3tQLnD8yM  

Daily Devo w/ Pastor Eric October 12, 2021

What is the Prophet’s Reward?

 

Matthew 10:40-42, NIV - Anyone who welcomes you welcomes me, and anyone who welcomes me welcomes the one who sent me.  Whoever welcomes a prophet as a prophet will receive a prophet’s reward, and whoever welcomes a righteous person as a righteous person will receive a righteous person’s reward.  And if anyone gives even a cup of cold water to one of these little ones who is my disciple, truly I tell you, that person will certainly not lose their reward.”

 

                There’s a lot to unpack in these three verses, so let’s dive right in.  First, remember that this passage is part of Jesus’s instruction to the twelve as He sends them out on their first mission. Jesus has just told them pretty forcefully that they will encounter stiff resistance as they seek to represent Him to others.  But He ends these instructions with a positive; there will be people who will welcome them and welcome the message of Jesus.  And Jesus is trying to communicate what a beautiful thing that is.  He explains that welcoming the apostles is the same as welcoming Jesus and welcoming Jesus is welcoming God.  People who receive the messenger and the message receive God into their lives and that will become the greatest source of greatest blessing.  

                Jesus teaches that “whoever welcomes a prophet as a prophet will receive a prophet’s reward.”   It begs the question, “what is a prophet’s reward?”  The short answer is that it’s hard to pin down exactly what the prophet’s reward is.  Jesus doesn’t expound here or anywhere else that we know of.  However, there are some important things to notice about what Jesus does say.  Some scholars believe Jesus is alluding here to a story in 2 Kings 4 where the prophet Elisha encounters a Shunammite woman who shows him great hospitality.  The woman is childless and her hospitality to the prophet is rewarded with a her giving birth to a son.  The son dies suddenly at a young age, but is brought back to life by Elisha after the boy’s mother goes to get the prophet.  Two amazing miracles are experienced by this Shunammite because of her hospitality to God’s messenger.        

                Does this mean that whoever exhibits such hospitality will personally experience miracles.  From my experience, the answer is “not always.”  However, what I can say from experience is that, to the extent that you are open and welcoming of God into your life, you will be able to see God so miraculous things.  Every prophet in the Old Testament had a front row seat to see God’s activity – serving people on behalf of God puts one in proximity to God serving people through the one who serves.  In my two-plus decades of serving God’s people, I have seen dozens of miraculous things happen that I can only describe as God’s activity.  It is truly humbling when it happens and the blessing that I have experienced for just being present and open when it happens defies words. Being open to God and God’s message is a way of opening yourself to the wonders that God does among us. 

                I encourage you to notice one other thing about Jesus’s words about the “reward.”  The prophet, the one who receives the prophet, the righteous person, the one who receives the righteous person, the disciple (“these little ones”), and the one who so much as gives that disciple a cup of cold water ALL receive a blessing/reward for their openness.  I don’t think it’s as necessary to pin down exactly what that blessing/reward is as it is to recognize Who is offering it.  Whether you are a prophet, a righteous person, disciple, or just someone who is hospitable to a disciple, you will be rewarded/blessed for your openness to God and God’s message. 

 

Question:  Miraculous things happen all around us all the time.  Are we open enough to God’s message and activity to see them?

 

Prayer:  Open my eyes that I may see glimpses of truth thou hast for me.  Open my ears that I may hear

voices of truth thou sendest clear. Open my mouth and let me bear gladly the warm truth everywhere.  Open my heart and let me prepare love with thy children thus to share. Amen. (prayer from the lyrics to “Open My Eyes That I May See)

 

 

Prayer Focus:  Spend some time reflecting on and thanking God for the miraculous things you have been  blessed to experience over your lifetime.

 

Song:  Open My Eyes – Jesse Manibusan

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wI3tQLnD8yM  

Matthew 10:17-33 - Living Out Loud

Daily Devo w/ Pastor Eric October 8, 2021

Living Out Loud

 

Matthew 10:17-33, NIV -  Be on your guard; you will be handed over to the local councils and be flogged in the synagogues.  On my account you will be brought before governors and kings as witnesses to them and to the Gentiles.  But when they arrest you, do not worry about what to say or how to say it. At that time you will be given what to say, for it will not be you speaking, but the Spirit of your Father speaking through you. Brother will betray brother to death, and a father his child; children will rebel against their parents and have them put to death.  You will be hated by everyone because of me, but the one who stands firm to the end will be saved.  When you are persecuted in one place, flee to another. Truly I tell you, you will not finish going through the towns of Israel before the Son of Man comes.

“The student is not above the teacher, nor a servant above his master.  It is enough for students to be like their teachers, and servants like their masters. If the head of the house has been called Beelzebul, how much more the members of his household!

“So do not be afraid of them, for there is nothing concealed that will not be disclosed, or hidden that will not be made known.  What I tell you in the dark, speak in the daylight; what is whispered in your ear, proclaim from the roofs.  Do not be afraid of those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul. Rather, be afraid of the One who can destroy both soul and body in hell.  Are not two sparrows sold for a penny? Yet not one of them will fall to the ground outside your Father’s care. And even the very hairs of your head are all numbered.  So don’t be afraid; you are worth more than many sparrows.

“Whoever acknowledges me before others, I will also acknowledge before my Father in heaven. But whoever disowns me before others, I will disown before my Father in heaven.

 

                Yesterday’s message about sheep and wolves began a section of Jesus’s teaching that is difficult to hear because he warns his disciples that following Him will have unpleasant and sometimes even tragic consequences.  It was especially true for his first twelve disciples – all but maybe a couple met untimely deaths because of their proclamation of Jesus.  What Jesus told them would happen did happen, they were arrested and called before rulers.  They were jailed, exiled, and beaten.  It is a testimony to how convinced they were that Jesus was the Messiah and to give their life and safety to His cause was the greatest honor of their life.   

                For us in America in the 21^st century, we marvel at the sacrifice of these disciples who preceded us by two thousand years and for the most part, we see the danger of that hey faced down as ancient history.  But it’s important for us to remember that it is STILL very dangerous to be a Christian in many places in the world today.  Christians in North Korea can be executed for possessing even a torn-out page of the Bible.  Every month, an average of 312 Christians are killed, 214 churches and Christian properties are destroyed, and 772 forms of violence (beatings, kidnappings, rape, arrest, etc.) are committed against Christians.  Though our country is not immune to Christian persecution, it is much more the exception than the rule.  But our safety should not make us blind that others still face the dangers about which Jesus warned. 

                What is particularly striking to me about so many of the stories of modern-day Christian martyrdoms is how bold these martyrs are in standing up for their faith in the face of such obvious danger.  They refuse to deny their faith even when doing so would save their lives.  They tell people about their faith who could readily (and often do) turn them into authorities.  New believers are “declared dead” by their families because of their decision to follow Jesus and yet, these brave new Christians cling to faith nonetheless.  I’d like to believe that I’d be as courageous and steadfast as these modern-day martyrs, but I’m not sure I would be given the same circumstances.  I’m certain I’m not alone in that.

                Today, as we feel the discomfort of Jesus’s warnings and remind ourselves that these warnings are still relevant in most of the 21^st century world,  I encourage us to think about steps we can take exhibit a more courageous faith.  Let’s be brave enough to question some of the actions we’ve not taken out of fear of being unpopular or losing some Facebook friends.  Jesus has called us to live out “unsafe” faith with the promise that He is with us and has our back.  Let’s answer that call.

 

Question:  Does the way that you live out your faith ever put you at odds with others?

 

Prayer:  Jesus, help us know deep in our heart how precious each day of our life here is and help us to use these days to live out bold faith.  Help us confront our fears with the assurance our lives are ultimately “hidden away with you.”  Amen.

 

Prayer Focus:  Pray for people worldwide who are facing violence and even death because they follow Jesus.

 

Song:  Live Out Loud - Steven Curtis Chapman

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8rWpsilHe7U

Matthew 10:16 - It's Not Easy Being Sheep

It’s Not Easy Being Sheep

 

Matthew 10:16, NIV -  “I am sending you out like sheep among wolves. Therefore be as shrewd as snakes and as innocent as doves.”

Mattthew 10:16, The Message - “Stay alert. This is hazardous work I’m assigning you. You’re going to be like sheep running through a wolf pack, so don’t call attention to yourselves. Be as cunning as a snake, inoffensive as a dove.

 

The summer after my first year of college, I got a job on the landscaping crew at a local country club golf course.  All during high school, I had my own landscaping business, so this job was really my first experience of being on a crew whom I didn’t know beforehand.  It was a eye-opening experience.  The guys on this crew were a rough bunch.  There was rarely a day when there wasn’t some sort of altercation between my co-workers.  One day, one of them even took a swing at our boss.  I knew from talking with my crewmates that most of them went drinking most nights and the stories they’d have the next day were usually quite colorful.  I’ll leave it at that.  I didn’t think I had led a sheltered life until that summer. 

Those guys found out that I was a “church boy” (their term) and that led to some serious ridicule.  It was really my first time feeling like a sheep among wolves.  I knew the poking was aimed at getting a rise out of me and hopefully provoking a fight.  Wanting to avoid that, I would mostly just take their jabs and try to change the subject.  Over time though, their behavior started to change towards me.  Instead of barbs, they would look for an opportunity to ask me questions when others were not around.  They would ask me about my church or about what I thought about certain issues.  In the two months I was there I felt like they had begun to see me as one of the crew.  And I like to think I planted some seeds. 

But all of that could have gone another way.  There was one time when their ridicule had almost had me ready to fight. Truth be told, there probably would have been a fight had the boss not shown up.  I also felt quite tempted to begin to talk the way they did and to come up with some colorful stories of my own.  When you’re among wolves, the temptation is to act like a wolf.  I will confess that during high school, I had indeed made that choice several times.  But when I think of those times now, I shudder.  Why?  Because I know that I am one of the sheep. 

It can be hard to be a sheep, especially when you’re among wolves.  It requires you to be on your toes and think carefully about every move.  Wolves are generally really easily provoked, especially on social media.  But if you are a follower of the Great Shepherd Jesus, then by definition, you also are a sheep.  Furthermore, we are sheep sent to be among wolves in the hopes that those wolves will one day become sheep. 

 

Question:  What “wolves” do you find yourself among these days?  Take a moment to name them for yourself.  Then pray for them.  Then pray for yourself that you will not adopt wolflike ways.  Be a sheep but be smart about it.

 

Prayer:  God, show us the wolves you’ve sent us to be among and give us your love for them so that we might be part of their sheep transformation.

 

Prayer Focus:  Pray for the “wolves” in your life.  If you don’t have any wolves, pray for God to send you out among them.

 

Songs:  I Just Want to Be a Sheep – Another song that will stay in your head all day. . .you’re welcome.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I8GLj2Z7M6o