Worship And Debt

(The next verses in this series, vs. 21-22, deal with consequences of certain charges, which I dealt with in my blog of June 28, 2015. Now we continue.)

Matthew 5:23-26

Therefore, if you bring your gift to the altar, and there you remember that your brother has aught against you; leave your gift there in front of the altar, and go to be reconciled to your brother, then come back and offer your gift. --

This means that if you have somehow offended your brother, or your brother has blamed you for something even if you don't think it's your fault, you need to first do whatever you need to do to make things right with your brother as much as you are able, before you come before God. 

This is the application of King David's understanding in Psalm 51:16-17: "For You do not desire sacrifice, or I would give it: You do not delight in burnt offering. The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit: a broken and a contrite heart, O God, You will not despise."

Settle matters quickly with your adversary who is taking you to court. Do it while you re still together on the way, or your adversary may hand you over to the judge, and the judge may hand you over to the officer, and you may be thrown into prison. I tell you the Truth, you will not get out until you have paid the last penny. --

We are never to run away from our debts. When we owe a creditor more than we think we can pay them, we are to contact them before they begin proceedings against us, to negotiate terms for repayment, even if it is only a fraction of the amount they are demanding. Good faith and faithfulness in doing what we have agreed to do go a long way in our financial dealings. 

If you find that you have debts that are beyond your ability to pay, there are good Christian financial advisers who can guide you back into financial freedom. Dave Ramsey's Financial Peace University has helped many people, couples and families out of financial drowning into prosperity.

It is said that a person's true priorities can be seen by looking at their calendar and their checkbook. Jesus talked about money more than any other subject.

Even so, come, Lord Jesus!

Jots And Tittles

(Jesus continues His sermon after the Beatitudes with the qualities of Salt and Light, which I covered in my February 22, 2016 blog entry.)

Matthew 5:17-20

Think not that I am come to destroy the Law, or the Prophets: I am not come to destroy, but to fulfill. For I tell you the Truth: Till Heaven and Earth pass away, not one jot or one tittle shall in no wise pass from the Law, till all be fulfilled.

A "jot" is a tiny dot, and a "tittle" is a small accent mark, the smallest strokes possible to be made by a pen. This means that not one detail of everything God promised, no matter how tiny or seemingly insignificant, will be overlooked or forgotten by God, but will come to pass, or has already happened.

Whosoever therefore shall break one of these least commandments, and shall teach others to do so, he shall be called the least in the Kingdom of Heaven; but whosoever shall do and teach them, the same shall be called great in the Kingdom of Heaven.

No matter if we think it's not important to follow even one of God's moral rules, and our example leads someone else to also disregard it, then we will suffer loss of reward and prestige in God's realm. But when we learn how to live by all of the principles, loving others as God has loved us, then our example and our words will encourage others to also honor God and themselves by honoring others, too, and this will bring great rewards and responsibilities in God's Kingdom.

For I say unto you, that except your righteousness shall exceed the righteousness of the Scribes and Pharisees, you shall in no case enter the Kingdom of Heaven.

The Scribes and the Pharisees Jesus was referring to here were "the Jews" that were the religious leaders and members of the ruling Council over the Jewish people, and they were very careful to publicly adhere to all the details of the laws. But they had no interest in the principles behind the laws, so they had no love for their fellow men, but only cared about their own power and authority and standing in the community.

The problem is, we have no righteousness in ourselves that God can accept, because even our highest intentioned actions are still polluted by our sin-nature that we inherited from our fathers, from Adam (see Isaiah 64:6). That's why Jesus told Nicodemus that he needed to be "born again" in a spiritual way, similar to his physical birth (see John 3:1-6). When this happens is when God places His Holy Spirit into our spirit, causing our dead spirit to be alive. Then in that power, that spiritual life, we can do the good things God planned ahead of time for us to do (see Ephesians 2:8-10), and He will reward us for them.

God is so good to love us so much, to have solved the problem of sin for us. Now He can meet all our needs in giving us His Spirit to live in us permanently and give us the desire and ability to love Him back, and to serve Him and one another. And then to reward us, too!

Even so, come, Lord Jesus!

The Beatitudes

Matthew 5:2-12

And He opened His mouth, and taught them, saying,

Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the Kingdom of Heaven. --

This first Principle, being "poor in spirit" refers to our realizing that we cannot control our tendency to do the wrong thing, and it corresponds to AA's Step One: "We admitted we were powerless over our addictions and compulsive behaviors, that our lives had become unmanageable.

Blessed are they that mourn, for they shall be comforted. --

Principle Two says that we believe that God exists, that we matter to Him, and that He is the One Who has the power and authority to change me, to help me recover and heal. This corresponds to Step Two: We came to believe that a Power greater than ourselves could restore us to sanity. (Insanity is defined as doing the same thing, expecting a different outcome. To make a change, we need to change.)

Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the Earth. --

Principle three has me deliberately choosing to give my life to Jesus, to commit all my life and will and desires to Christ's care and His control. Step Three states that: We made a decision to turn our lives and wills over to the care of our Higher Power.

Blessed are they which do hunger and thirst after righteousness, for they shall be filled. --

This is Principle Five, being willing to let God change me, and asking Him to do so, however He chooses. This corresponds to Step Six: We were entirely ready to have God remove all our defects of character; and Step Seven: We humbly asked Him to remove all our shortcomings.

Blessed are the merciful, for they shall obtain mercy. --

This is Part One of Principle Six, to evaluate all my relationships, and offer forgiveness to all who have hurt me or harmed me in any way. It corresponds to Step Eight: We made a list of all persons [who had harmed us, or] we had harmed, and become willing to [forgive and] make amends to them all.

Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God. --

This is Principle Four, to openly examine myself, and admit to myself, to God, and to someone else I trust, all my faults and shortcomings. Step Four says: We made a searching and fearless moral inventory of ourselves; and Step Five says: We admitted to God, to ourselves, and to another human being the exact nature of our wrongs.

Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called children of God. --

Part Two of Principle Six, Evaluate all my relationships, and make amends for harm I've done to others, except when it would cause more harm to bring it up openly. Step Nine says: We made direct amends to these people whenever possible, except when  to do so would injure them or others.

Blessed are they which are persecuted for righteousness' sake, for theirs is the Kingdom of Heaven. Blessed are you when men shall revile you, and persecute you, and shall say all manner of evil against you falsely, for My sake. Rejoice and be exceeding glad: for great is your reward in Heaven: for in the same way they persecuted the prophets which went before you. --

Principle Eight says to yield ourselves to God to be used by him to bring His Good News to others, both by my example and by my words. Often, and in many parts of the world today, to speak out boldly for God and His ways will bring opposition, or worse. Step Twelve says: Having had a spiritual experience as a result of these steps, we try to carry this message to others and to practice these principles in all our affairs.

Principle Seven is to have an appointment with God every day for self-examination, Bible reading and study, and prayer; in order to know God and His will for my life and to gain His power to follow His will. Step Ten says: We continued to take personal inventory, and when we were wrong, promptly admitted it; and Step Eleven is: We sought through prayer and meditation to improve our conscious contact with God, praying only for knowledge of His will for us and power to carry that out.

I left these in the order the Bible lists them, rather than the order of the Principles or Steps. The order of the Steps and Principles are a logical progression of the levels to master in order to attain spiritual, moral and psychological healing. I've found that to skip one to go on to the next will cause me to get "stuck" and stop making progress, and I had to go back to the one I skipped. And only one time through will get to all the surface issues; to go deeper for greater healing, I needed to repeat these steps several times.

If you want healing and cleansing, you can't do it by yourself. Find a Celebrate Recovery group in your neighborhood, and don't be afraid to go. "Those people" are all of us. Maybe you aren't addicted to drugs, or alcoholic, or relationship obsessed, but we all have been wounded, and have wounded others in our lives.

And Jesus is coming soon. Be prepared to see Him.

Even so, come, Lord Jesus!

How Jesus Begins To Serve

Luke 3:19-20

But when John rebuked Herod the tetrarch [of Galilee] because of his marriage to Herodias, his brother's wife, and all the other things he had done, Herod added this to them all: He locked John up in prison.

Mark 1:14-15

After John was put in prison, Jesus went into Galilee, proclaiming the good news of God. "The time has come," he said. "The Kingdom of God has come near. Repent and believe the good news." 

Jesus went to the very region where Herod was the tetrarch.

Matthew 4:12-17

Now when Jesus heard that John had been put in prison, He withdrew to Galilee. Leaving Nazareth, He went and lived in Capernaum, (see, He did move to Capernaum) which was by the lake in the area of Zebulun and Naphtali--to fulfill what was said through the prophet Isaiah: 

  "Land of Zebulun and land of Naphtali,
    The Way of the Sea, beyond the Jordan,
    Galilee of the Gentiles--
  The people living in darkness
    have seen a great light;
  On those living in the land of the shadow of death
    a light has dawned." (Isaiah 9:1-2)

Jesus fulfilled more than 400 Old Testament prophesies in His birth, life, death and resurrection, and He will fulfill all the rest of them when He returns.

From that time on Jesus began to preach, "Repent, for the Kingdom of Heaven has come near."

Jesus is now beginning His public ministry in earnest. He's walking by the Sea of Galilee calling fishermen to be His disciples, preaching in the synagogues, healing all manner of diseases; people are coming to Him from all the regions around and large multitudes are gathering (Matthew 4:18-25).

Matthew 5: 1-2

And when He saw the multitudes, He went up on the mountain and sat down. His disciples sat around Him, and He began to teach them.

What He is teaching them is called the "Sermon on the Mount." When Jesus began to draw crowds of people, He starts out by teaching them what God's Kingdom will look like on this Earth, and He begins with the Beatitudes (vs. 3-12).

These eight "Blessed are -- for" statements are the introduction to the realities of life in the Kingdom, and they fit very nicely into the same progression that Alcoholics Anonymous lays out in twelve steps; Celebrate Recovery is based on these eight principles, using the twelve steps, for healing our hurts, habits and hangups. 

This tells me that we all need healing before we can enter this Kingdom. God is making us into the very image of Jesus, healing and renewing us continually. And He will never give up on us, but will continue this process in the New Heaven and New Earth, for the leaves of the Tree of Life growing in New Jerusalem are for healing, also (see Revelation 22:2).

Tomorrow let's look at these Beatitudes.

Even so,come, Lord Jesus.

The Wedding Feast At Cana

John 2:1-12

On the third day a wedding took place in Cana in Galilee. Jesus' mother was there and Jesus and His disciples had also been invited to the wedding. When the wine was gone, Jesus' mother said to Him, "They have no wine."

Okay, Mary is already there, apparently responsible for certain aspects of this party, so she's the one who noticed that they were running out of wine.

Jesus, no doubt, had previously had the conversation with His mother arranging for His brothers to support the family now, because He was leaving the family business to preach. And John the Baptist has introduced Him and He's starting to gather some followers; now she's decided it would be a good time for Him to "come out of the closet" and help out with a bonafide miracle. That is why Jesus responded with:

"Woman, why do you involve Me? ... My time has not yet come."

But Mary still acts like she's in charge.

His mother said to the servants, "Do whatever He tells you."

Now the servants are all looking at Jesus, waiting for His instructions! [Sigh!] So He goes ahead (He would never disrespect His mother, considering the fifth commandment) and tells them to fill these six huge, 20-30 gallon jars with water, which He turns into the wine they've run short of, and it turns out to be the best drink of the whole party! (v. 10). 

This was the first miracle He ever performed, which miracles proved He was, and still is, Who He claimed to be: The Son of God, the Son of Man, the Great I AM of the Old Testament.

After this He went down to Capernaum with His mother and brothers and His disciples. There they stayed for a few days.

Jesus grew up in Nazareth in Galilee, and that's where He came from to be baptized by John. Now, after this party, He goes with His family and His followers to Capernaum for a few days. I think He's considering moving His family there, too, along with His ministry.

Stay tuned for the next episode of this gripping tale of super-natural concepts and feats.

Even so, come, Lord Jesus!

John's Introduction Of Jesus

The next we learn about Jesus is when He begins His public ministry. We aren't told any more about His growing up years.

Luke 3:1-18

In the fifteenth year of the reign of Tiberius Caesar--when Pontius Pilate was governor of Judea, Herod tetrarch of Galilee, his brother Philip tetrarch of Iturea and Trachonitus, and Lysanias tetrarch of Abilene--during the high-priesthood of Annas and Caiaphas, --

This is exactly when, what year, precisely.

the word of God came to John son of Zechariah in the wilderness. --

This is when John the Baptist began to baptize. He is the one who will introduce Jesus.

He says, "One Who is more powerful than I will come, the straps of His sandals I am not worthy to untie. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and with fire" ... and with many other words.

This is Jesus' introduction by John: "Ladies and gentlemen, we now present . . ."

Then:

Mark 1:9

At that time Jesus came from Nazareth in Galilee and was baptized by John in the Jordan.

Jesus comes on the scene publicly, with Heaven opening and the Spirit descending and lighting on Him like a dove, and the Father declaring Him to be His Son (see Matthew 3:3-7, Mark 1:10-11 and Luke 3:21-22). Wow, no one can  out-dramatize God!

Immediately the Spirit drove Him into the Wilderness where He fasted for forty days and was tested, tempted by the devil (see Matthew 4:1-11, Mark 1:12-13, and Luke 4:1-5).

While Jesus is in the Wilderness, John is still baptizing, and "the Jews," which were the leaders of the Jewish people, questioned John, asking him who he thought he was, anyway, if he was Messiah, Elijah or That Prophet (in the prophesies).

John 1:19-28

He answered, "I am not the Messiah," and "I'm not Elijah" (I'm only John), and I don't consider myself That Prophet; I'm just a voice calling out in the desert, "Make straight the way for the Lord" (see Isaiah 40:3-5).

John 1:29-31

Then, The next day (Day 1) John saw Jesus coming toward him [back from the Wilderness] and said, "Look, the Lamb of God, Who takes away the sin of the world! This is the One I meant when I said 'A man Who comes after me has surpassed me because He was before me.' I myself did not know Him, but the reason I came baptizing with water was that He might be revealed to Israel."

John knew Jesus, He was his cousin. But now he knows that Jesus is Messiah, and is introducing Him. The Greek word for "Lamb" here is specifically "lamb set aside for sacrifice," and He would not just "cover up" sin, as the Old Testament sacrifices did, but actually take it away.

John 1:35-37

The next day (Day 2) John was there again with two of his disciples. When he saw Jesus passing by, he said, "Look, the Lamb of God!" When the two disciples heard him say this, they followed Jesus.

This passage, the rest of this chapter, has Jesus beginning to gather His own disciples; He acquires at least five right here. 

John has given us a preview of the work Jesus completed by dying for us and rising from the dead. We are witnessing the very start of the public ministry of Jesus, presenting the Kingdom of God, that will be rejected by the Jewish leaders.

The third day is the Wedding in Cana. I will cover that tomorrow.

Even so, come Lord Jesus!

Jesus' Early Years

Jesus' early years teach us about His conception, birth and all that happened to show Who He really is.

The Angel announced to Mary that she would be the mother of the Messiah, and God would be His Father, not Joseph (Luke 1:26-38). When she told Joseph, he was about to break up with her for unfaithfulness, even though he loved her, but he just couldn't believe this fanciful story. Then the Angel told him in a dream that it was all true, and he didn't need to doubt her (Matthew 1:18-25).

The culture in that day gave engaged girls freedom to travel, and Mary visited her cousin Elizabeth. Here is where Mary's beautiful prayer, the Magnificat, is recorded, where she admits that God is her Savior. She stays with Elizabeth three months, long enough to learn first-hand about childbirth, the birth of John the Baptist (Luke 1:39-56).

About six months later, Caesar Augustus' decree had Joseph travel from Nazareth to Bethlehem, and he brought Mary with him at the most difficult time for her, so late in her pregnancy. We all know the Christmas story, with the stable, the manger and the shepherds, with God announcing to the shepherds by His angels that their Messiah was just born (Luke 2:1-20).

When Jesus is eight days old, He is circumcised and officially receives His name. Then when the rest of Mary's 40 days are finished for her purification (Leviticus 12:1-4), they go to the Temple in Jerusalem and both Simon and Anna prophesy about Jesus.

When Jesus is about two years old, they are still living in Bethlehem, but have moved into a house, and the Magi came to worship Him and present their gifts (Matthew 2:1-12). Joseph had another dream, and takes his little family all the way to Egypt to live, until the death of "those who were trying to take the Child's life." When they returned to Israel, they didn't stop in Bethlehem again, instead continuing all the way to Galilee, to their original town of Nazareth (Matthew 2:13-23).

By the time Jesus is twelve years old, his parents have apparently forgotten about His Divine origin, having focused on the every-day mundane living of life, and He reminds them of Who His Father really is (Luke 2:41-52).

We are told that Mary "treasured all these things in her heart," but that didn't mean that she was thinking about them all the time. 

I'm glad that God saw fit to share with us all these amazing things about Jesus' birth and childhood, that prove He was not just an ordinary boy. But He lived a very ordinary life as the son of a carpenter, learning that trade. 

Even the Lord of the Universe grew up as a normal boy, learning and relating in a family situation, like the rest of the human race. And He suffered the loss of His dad, Joseph, before He reached adulthood, so He probably was the family bread-winner with His carpentry until He began His public ministry.

So Jesus was God, having been conceived supernaturally, yet He was also now a genuine human Man, being born of a woman, the same as every other man. We'll see later in this series how both His genuine Divinity and His genuine humanity were both necessary for Him to redeem us.

Even so, come, Lord Jesus!