Prayer based on Exodus 38

Father God, Your Son gave himself on Your holy altar, not the Old Testament altar in the old temple where bulls and goats were consumed, but a better altar, where our sins were atoned for. We come into Your heavenly courts through Him. We have been washed in the waters of baptism. We are clean because of the blood of Jesus Christ, and the purifying water of the Holy Spirit. We long for Your courts, O Lord. We are already with You in Christ, and yet we are not yet with You, and so we long for You. All Your Son’s work is skillfully done. Our destiny is secure and sure because of His great resurrection. Blessed be Your Name, O Lord. You are God. Jesus is Lord. The Lord is the Spirit. The Spirit is God. There is only One God. Blessed be Your One Name, the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit!

Prayer based on Jeremiah 32

Father God, Your plan for Your people is sure and wonderful. Despite the troubles that come upon us, You give us news of a great future. We are citizens of a better land, and we long for the day when we can take full possession of the good things that You have for Your children. Give us strength to persevere through the current age until the promise comes to us in full. O Lord God, we trust You. You can bring about that great day. Even now You can help us as we cry out to You. You see our weakness, but nothing is too difficult for You. We would not have anything had You not determined long ago to give good gifts to Your children. Show us today Your power and Your love. Preserve us through whatever means You see fit. Though the city be burned with fire, and though You would come in anger against Your unfaithful people, You are still fully able to carry us through the worst trials. We turn away from our sins, O Lord. We will worship You according to Your Word with a full heart of obedience. Sanctify us, Lord God, that we might dwell in safety in Your presence. Remember Your own covenant love, and help us in the time of trouble that is too much for us to bear. Do Your great work within the troubled souls of those who call upon Your Name.

Living with grief, walking in grace...

Here are fifteen thoughts on this topic that form something of an outline:

Living with grief

1. Acknowledge your grief.

2. Receive the sympathy and help of others who want to love you in your grief.

3. Worship God in the midst of your grief.

4. Purify your grief of remaining sin.

5. Use your purified grief as a surprising ally in your battle against the sins that have troubled you all your life.

6. Thank God in the midst of a grief that you acknowledge to be somehow from Him, and admit that you will never fully understand.

7. Embrace grief as a fact of life here and now; ask God for daily strength, wisdom, and grace; and serve others in a world of loss.

Walking in grace

8. Hear and believe the story of sin, misery, despair, and death.

9. Hear and believe the story of the glory and greatness of the eternal triune God.

10. Hear and believe the story of God’s plan for the fullest display of both His justice and His mercy.

11. Hear and believe the story of the person of Jesus Christ as fully God and fully Man.

12. Hear and believe the story of the humiliation and exaltation of Jesus Christ, especially His cross and resurrection.

13. Hear and believe the story of the Holy Spirit and the church.

14. Hear and believe the story of the present heaven and the coming resurrection age.

Conclusion

15. Receive Jesus Christ as the holy center of both your grief and His grace, and embrace the gospel as one who is both living with grief and walking in grace.

Is there peace beyond Christmas?

"The Word Became Flesh"

(John 1:14-18, Preaching: Pastor Stephen Magee, December 24, 2008)

John 1:14-18 ¹⁴ And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth. ¹⁵ (John bore witness about him, and cried out, "This was he of whom I said, 'He who comes after me ranks before me, because he was before me.'") ¹⁶ And from his fullness we have all received, grace upon grace. ¹⁷ For the law was given through Moses; grace and truth came through Jesus Christ. ¹⁸ No one has ever seen God; the only God, who is at the Father's side, he has made him known.

Introduction – Dangerous Expectations

As I walked through Wal-mart the other day, there was a Christmas song playing quietly. The words of one of the less-frequently sung stanzas of "Santa Claus is Comin' to Town" got me chuckling. It was something like this: "So let's give thanks to the Lord above, 'cause Santa Claus is comin' tonight." It was just one of those combinations of Christ and culture that make me laugh.

Holiday times make for good memories at certain phases of life, but it is a fact that many people have expectations of holiday blessings that are too high. Christ will not disappoint you, but Christmas definitely may. Many people put more emotional weight on the celebration of Christmas than any holiday can actually bear. Sometimes those expectations seem to be met. My niece sent us a link to a video of her little girl singing "The Twelve Days of Christmas" in front of the family Christmas tree that was exceptionally cute. There is something that is frankly adorable about things like that. I know that I have many great memories of my childhood when we all went out Christmas caroling with Dad. Mom always stayed behind and brought us the happy news that a red-faced overweight visitor had come bearing gifts while we were out, and they were all in front of the tree. It was all a wonderful surprise every year. We also have great memories of giving our children different presents, though they told us years later that some of their wonderful reactions were practiced dramas, since they had searched out things days before and did some serious peaking. All of it was fun. Nonetheless, Christmas comes and goes, and people grow up and even move away, sometimes far away. There may be some peace and joy for you at Christmas, but I have to say that this kind of peace is not permanent. The question we need an answer to is this: Is there peace beyond Christmas? Is there something better than joys that are, frankly, temporary?

The miracle of the God/Man (14)

The Word became flesh. We had heard about Him from the Prophets. Then He came in person, and tabernacled or tented among us, and that has made all the difference. We heard about Him when Abraham was commanded to take his son, his only son, and offer him up as a burnt offering to the Lord. Of course, Isaac did not have to die. God provided a ram to take his place, and we heard about Jesus. We heard about Him when Samson was announced by an angel, announced to his parents before his birth, and even when this warrior died as a surprising hint of a Savior to come. We heard about Him when David was told that He would have a Son who would reign on His throne forever, and we wondered how that could be. We heard about Him through prophets like Isaiah who spoke of the Servant of the Lord who would be born to a virgin and who would be "Immanuel," God with us. He would suffer for our sins and somehow be victorious beyond death. At around the same time, another prophet, Micah, told us the detail that this baby would be born in Bethlehem.

If this all sounds more serious than the Wal-mart song, it is because it is very serious. The odd thing is this: All the light-hearted things can leave us strangely disappointed. But the heavy miracle of the God/Man who came to die for us actually satisfies. We had heard of Him, but now He has come. Mary and Joseph got to see Him. So did the shepherds, and later some wise men came from afar. Herod wanted to see Him, because he wanted to kill Him. There were large crowds that seemed to be amazed by His power and His teaching. They saw Him, and they rejected Him. Especially many important spiritual leaders were deeply troubled by Him and envious of Him, and they wanted to kill Him too.

When John says here that Jesus dwelt among us, He is especially speaking about the chosen group of disciples. They were witnesses of the transfiguration of Jesus, when his face was shining like the sun, and his clothes became white as light. They saw Him after His resurrection, when they were behind locked doors for fear of the Jews, and Jesus came and stood among them and spoke peace to them and showed them His hands and His side. They were glad. They had seen His glory. They knew that He was the only Son from the Father. They heard a voice from heaven at His baptism saying, "This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased." They were witnesses of large numbers of amazing miracles, and even saw Him ascend into heaven on clouds of divine glory.

These disciples knew that He was full of grace and truth. Grace means hope for the guilty. It is more than a pardon. It means sonship for abandoned orphans. It means being heirs of heaven for the formerly hell-bound. It means reigning with the Lord of glory for those who were once prisoners of sin and death. Jesus is full of that grace, and this grace is not mythological, because He is also full of truth. The peace that He brings is for you personally, but it is also for a society of His redeemed, and it is eternal. We have been brought into a true land of everlasting peace.

John and the Messiah (15)

Beyond the witness of the disciples who beheld His resurrection glory, there was one additional witness mentioned here, John the Baptist, who had the particular role of pointing to the Messiah. The former prophets like Jeremiah, Daniel, and Ezekiel wrote of the Messiah. John went further than them. He was able to see Him, and to touch Him. He was able to accurately testify to the fact of Him, the amazing Him of Christmas. The Him who, even though His ministry began after John's, the fact is that He Himself was before John. This Him is the Word, the eternal God. Of course He ranks before John, because He was way before John. He is the I Am. Later in His ministry there were those listening to Him who were beginning to wonder whether He was somehow claiming to be greater than the patriarch Abraham who live two millennia before the birth of Jesus. His answer to the skeptics: "Before Abraham was, I Am."

Grace upon grace (16-17)

Note to self: Is the reason why I have so little peace because I am trying to gain peace through Law?

This great Jesus Christ is the One who brings us every blessed thing from His abundant eternal divine fullness. From His fullness we are told that we have all received. Just think of those words: "from His fullness." What do you suppose that Jesus has stored for you right now in all His fullness? And by the way, He really is coming to town at just the right time. Until that day, while there are things that we must suffer, we don't have to do it without peace, and we don't have to do it without grace. In fact He has growth in peace for us, and growth in grace for us, and the suffering fits into that growth somehow in ways that we may get a glimpse of, but which are hard for us to see when everyone seems happier than we feel at a holiday party.

So why is it that you may not have the peace that you would like to have at Christmas. I want to leave you with two thoughts. First, your lack of contentment could be perfectly reasonable. It could be that your past memories are better than your present moments, and you don't see how that will ever change, and maybe you are feeling a little sorry for yourself. That's fine too, and it may just have to be that way for a little while. But don't forget that He is there to add peace to your peace, and to give grace to your grace, so that even now you can grow in grace and peace, not through Christmas, but through Christ.

But there is one more thing that could be the problem, and this is the second thought of the two I just mentioned. You may be trying to get peace through some system of law, or some way of trying to win the praise and admiration of people. Remember this: The Law came through Moses, and it cannot bring anyone peace, because we have violated the Law, and that is the whole reason that Christ had to suffer. If we were Law-Keepers then we would not have needed someone to die on a cross for us. But we did need the cross. From the Law came, not peace, but the knowledge of sin (Romans 3:20). But grace and truth have come to us through Jesus Christ.

Peace with God through knowing God (18)

This Jesus is the only God, because there is only one God. It's just that He exists eternally in three persons. We see some of that complexity very clearly in our final verse. Verse 18 speaks plainly about the Father and the Son, indicating that they are both God, and also affirming that there is only one God. John has not forgotten the Holy Spirit either, but that is a story that will become very clear in later chapters. For now, let's just rejoice in the wonder of these facts of the One Godhead: The invisible Father is God. There is a God who is at the side of God the Father, and that God is the Son of God. This God the Son is the only God, just as surely as God the Father is the only God, because there is only one Godhead. This is not simple, but it is also not irrational or simple wishful thinking.

One more thing: The Son of God has made God known to us. If God has grace and truth for us consistent with the fullest, most wonderful, and lasting peace, what better person to make that grace and peace known to us than Jesus, God the Son. Is there someone who knew God better than Jesus? Jesus has made the unseen God known. Because of that fact we have not only the birth of Christ, and the resurrection of Christ, and the miracles of Christ. We actually have Christ. He is our grace. He is our truth. He is our peace. And so we have peace with God, through Jesus Christ our Lord. Is there peace beyond Christmas? Most definitely, for there is Christ beyond Christmas.

Questions for meditation and discussion:

1. "The Word became flesh." What is the significance of this phrase for our faith?

2. In what ways were glory, grace, and truth made manifest to the disciples of Jesus Christ?

3. "From His goodness we have all received, grace upon grace." What does this tell us about the Christian life?

4. What should our expectation be concerning the benefits of Law? What more is ours through the grace of Christ?

Matthew 13

Jesus taught using parables. He was not the first to do so. We find examples of parables in the Old Testament prophets. What was unique about the way that our Lord used parables was that He did not explain their meaning to the crowds, but only to His apostles.

The Lord had attracted great crowds because of His amazing healing ministry. He was displaying truths about the kingdom of heaven through great acts of mercy. But when the time came to speak about the kingdom, His method of teaching was often in a certain kind of judgment speech, a way of teaching that concealed as much as it revealed. He began by telling a story about a farmer planting seed in four different soils, but He only explained the story to His disciples later in the passage. The crowds were left without any real understanding of the story.

It should not surprise us that the Lord's disciples were puzzled by this teaching ministry. They asked Him why He taught in parables. His answer, quoting the prophet Isaiah, was very clear and forthright, yet we still find it puzzling because we have trouble agreeing with it. We cannot fathom why the Lord would teach in such a way that would leave so many without real understanding. He told His disciples that He taught this way because it had not been given generally to the crowds to understand the message of the kingdom. To get the message was a gift, and only the disciples had been given that gift. In fulfillment of Isaiah, this teaching was a part of the Lord's plan of judgment against His Old Covenant people. It was not God's intention to continue the Old Covenant way of life. It was not His intention to heal their nation at that time. Thus He intentionally taught them in such a way that would leave many confused.

He did explain the parable of the sower and the soils to His disciples. The story was about hearing God's Word. Not everyone who would hear the Word of the kingdom clearly proclaimed would receive it in the same way or with the same fruitfulness. Four responses were contained in the story. The first group did not understand the message. The evil one snatched away the Word from the consideration of the hearer before it could have any fruit. In the next two cases the Word was heard, but there was no lasting yield. In one case, trouble and persecution came, and the person fell away. In the other case, the cares of the world and the deceitfulness of riches crowded out the Word before there was any real good that came from it. It was only in the final case of the good soil that the Word had its way. The yield would still vary in that case, but there would be a yield. In all cases the Word was the same, but only in the final case was there any lasting kingdom fruit.

Other parables were also recorded in Matthew 13. The Lord talked about wheat and weeds, about a mustard plant where birds found a home, about a woman hiding leaven in a flour container, and about many other things. In teaching in this way, Christ was speaking great truths that had been hidden since the foundation of the world, but He was doing it in such a way that was consistent with the sovereignty of God, revealing His truth to those whom he had chosen. In a way this was very much like the prophets. These stories, like so much prophetic material, were given largely for our benefit. These were things that would be much more fully understood once the kingdom had more fully come, after the events of the cross, the resurrection, and the pouring out of the Holy Spirit upon the church. The meaning of these parables of the kingdom became more obvious after years of preaching the gospel, just as many prophetic texts were also easier to consider after much progress of the Lord's kingdom throughout the world. The parables still teach us truths about the church, truths concerning matters that would have been very difficult for anyone to understand until the church had more fully arrived.

Now we do see some very important principles of kingdom life in these verses. We know that within the baptized church there will be some who are not elect. This matter will certainly be corrected when the Lord returns at the final resurrection, when He comes with His angels in judgment and salvation. Until that day, we have been forewarned that the devil will be working much mischief right within the church. We are told of the great worth of the kingdom, despite its small beginnings. We learn that the kingdom plans of the Lord will be overwhelmingly successful, and that we would be wise to give up everything that we have for the prize of the heaven and the great resurrection age to come.

The disciples claimed to understand many of these things when there were privately instructed, yet the time would eventually come when this great Teacher of parables would be abandoned, even by them. It was then that the most important kingdom seed would be planted through the willing gift of the Lord of the kingdom for our salvation.

The message of the kingdom, and of the great events necessary for our redemption, was wonderfully displayed and concealed in the Lord's parables, just as it was in the entirety of the Old Testament Scriptures. We have the privilege now of considering these truths in the light of the cross, the resurrection, and even centuries of gospel proclamation. We are blessed to be able to use these good words, both new and old, for the glory of God. What was once a matter that was largely concealed, can now be all the more wonderfully revealed through the preaching of the Word and the gathering and perfecting of the elect who are being brought into the kingdom of heaven.

Matthew 12

Earlier in this gospel, our Lord gave us a very helpful exposition of the moral law as part of the Sermon on the Mount. In that message it was obvious that Jesus was not casual about the requirements of the Law of God. It was plain from his treatment of several of the Ten Commandments that He believed that the requirements of the Law were more substantial and far-reaching than most observers considered. He did not come to abolish the Law, but to fulfill it. How is it, then, that Jesus is made to look as if He were light on law when compared to the Pharisees?

The case before us at the beginning of Matthew 13 provides us with a helpful display of the difference between Jesus and His detractors on this point. Both of them claimed to believe in the fourth commandment, "Remember the Sabbath day and keep it holy." This law goes on to command six days of labor per week, and a seventh day of a special spiritual and restorative resting. The Pharisees had become very specific about this and many other divine commands in an effort to make the Law more clearly keepable. In doing this they had taken from the tradition of commentary from rabbis over the generations, and had begun to treat these words as if they were from God Himself. Therefore, they considered the casual plucking of grain for the relief of hunger to be harvesting, and therefore working, and therefore prohibited.

The Lord's response to this challenge was to direct them back to the Scriptures and then to His own person. David, when he was being harassed by Saul, had recognized that feeding His men took precedence over the matter of restricting the eating of holy bread to the priests. Also, the priests needed to work in the temple on the Sabbath, so everyone would have to acknowledge that the prohibition of work on the Sabbath was not intended by God to be absolute. The temple was more important than Sabbath in a sense. The needs of the temple had to be met, even if that meant working on the Sabbath. Before them now was Temple, Priest, and King. His disciples were an extension of Him, just as David's companions were an extension of him. Even if one granted the idea that this plucking of grain was working, it was wrong for the Pharisees to miss the duties of mercy, duties that were above the ceremonial requirements of sacrifice. The disciples were guiltless. The Pharisees were guilty for condemning them. This was the word of the Man who knew Himself to be Lord of the Sabbath, an amazing, if subtle, claim of divinity.

He went on to fulfill the Sabbath through His great acts of heavenly restoration. The Pharisees were so far from appreciating the kingdom of heaven that they could not grasp the wonder of what Jesus was doing in restoring the health of the weak. Our Lord did not back down from the truth and beauty of the Law of God for even a moment. Those who were so sure that they were keeping the Law rightly became increasingly determined to kill an innocent man who was bringing true Sabbath wholeness to the oppressed. He was the fulfillment of prophetic Messianic expectations. He was the true Servant of the Lord, who would bring justice and peace even to the Gentiles. A bruised reed He would not break. The true Son of David and His apostolic team would move forward to resurrection victory.

The Pharisees became increasingly desperate concerning Jesus, anticipating what would be the major religious conflict in the Jewish world after the ascension of Christ, the conflict between Pharisaic Judaism and Christian Judaism. These two movements had a very different understanding of the identity of Jesus of Nazareth, and very different opinions concerning the definition, interpretation, and right use of divine Law. In their desperation they once again claimed that Jesus was an emissary of Satan who was casting out demons by the power of the Lord of demons. The silliness of this kind of thinking was easily exposed. It was the Pharisees that were showing their dedication to evil in their careless and foolish words.

Standing before them was One who would show who He was through His resurrection, referred to here cryptically as the sign of Jonah. Christ would come forth from the grave as Jonah came forth from the belly of a great fish. He would go to the grave as a result of His work as our propitiatory sacrifice. Yet the grave would not be able to hold Him. Here was one greater than Jonah, and greater than Solomon. This evil generation and her leaders would have to answer to God for their rejection of the only Savior for sinners.

Jesus was displaying Himself to be the Word of God, coming from the perfection of the Father's heart of love and justice. Out of the abundance of His heart God had spoken, and the Word was the Lord Jesus. The Pharisees were a very different word, coming from a lawless source.

The choice between these two movements could not be clearer. The answer for any who would follow God must always be to truly hear and obey His Word. Those who will be moving toward safety are the ones who will do this. There must finally come a time for all of us when we will decide whether we will try to condemn the Lord with His enemies, or whether we will obey Him with His friends. May His mercy so rule in our lives that we will yield to the One who is the glorious and final Word.

Prayer based on Jeremiah 31

Sovereign Lord, Your plan shall surely be accomplished. Your church shall be perfectly adorned with the righteousness of Christ. You bring forth shouts of joy from the voices of Your people. You will bring us to the place of Your presence. You will gather Your flock and give to Your people a New Covenant. Built on the Rock, which is Christ, Your church will be blessed according to Your promise. Restore us again, O God. Let us not be put to shame. We will return to You from the land of unbelief. We will follow our great Redeemer. The answer for us has come in the Child of a woman. He watches over us for our good. Build and plant, O Lord, for Your ways are marvelous. We have broken Your Law, but Your Son has obeyed every commandment. We look with joyful expectation to the coming day when we shall no longer disobey Your commandments. Your love for us is both strong and sure. Your Kingdom will be built up, and Your Son shall reign forever.

Numbers

The Story of Numbers

1-10 Preparation to Enter the Land

God established a tribal structure among His people. The men of war age twenty and older were organized according to these tribes for their travel through the wilderness anticipating the coming conquest of Canaan. The Levites were to be different from the rest because of their responsibilities concerning the Tabernacle, in order to prevent the breaking out of the wrath of God in the camp.

The Levites, and the priests from within the tribe of Levi, had a special role of ministering to the Lord, according to His commandment. If any outsider attempted to usurp this special role, he was to be put to death. Because of the deliverance of the people as a result of the Passover, the Lord had a special claim upon the firstborn of the Israelites, a claim that was fulfilled by the Lord's special use of the tribe of Levi. These Levites were organized by their three groups of clans, each with its special duties.

The task in front of the people of God was substantial. They would need great blessing from God, and purification from sin. They would need to attend to the ceremonies and regulations that the Lord established for His nation. By the Lord's special presence among them, God was leading His people through the wilderness.

11-21 The Failure of the First Generation

But they began to complain about the Lord's great provision for them. They wept and spoke of their desire to return to Egypt. Their impatience and murmuring was a rejection of the Lord who was among them, and was extremely dangerous for Israel. It is within this story of disappointing disobedience that Moses expressed a longing for a day when the Spirit of God would be upon all the people of the Lord in a powerful way.

During this time, many brought great trouble upon themselves, and upon the whole nation. Those who are noted as disobedient include Miriam, Aaron, the spies who were sent into Canaan and who brought back a bad report, the people who listened to that faithless report, Korah, some of the Reubenites, the entire first generation, and even Moses.

Despite their many failures, and despite the fact that so many would die in the wilderness, the Lord continued to show tokens of His grace in the midst of the discipline of His people. On one occasion He gave His people forgiveness and healing through the provision of a bronze serpent raised high on a pole, so that the people might look to it and live. He fed them, gave them water, provided special laws, the prayers of His mediator, victory over oppressors from foreign lands, special signs of direction concerning the approved leaders over the people and the right way to go. But none of these people over the age of twenty would see the Promised Land except Caleb and Joshua.

22-25 A Most Unlikely Blessing

In between the very disappointing account of the faithless first generation and the second census of the new generation that the Lord would bring into Canaan, there is a very surprising account that seems to lead us out of the mire of our own sin into the treasures of God's saving grace. God shows His great power over all men and His certain determination to bless His people even through the words of an enemy that intended harm against the Lord's people.

Though it had appeared that God had cursed His people according to their horrible disobedience, through this most unlikely prophet came words of sure blessing in these four oracles. In these messages we are told that Israel is not cursed, but blessed. We are told that God is with them. Words similar to the Lord's blessing of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob are renewed. Somehow Israel will be a blessing beyond her borders. He speaks of latter days, when a star shall come out of Jacob, and one from Jacob who shall exercise amazing dominion over the nations. These wonderful words of God's intentions of great blessing upon His people are given despite the fact that the immorality and faithlessness of the people of God are all too obvious.

26-36 The Preparation for the Second Generation to Enter the Land

With a renewed awareness of the Lord's intentions to fulfill His great plan of grace, we hear of a second census, now of the new generation who have grown up in the wilderness. Their parents and some of the famous leaders of the Lord's people will not be going into the Promised Land. That former generation stands as an illustration of our sinful failure, while their children will be an illustration of the Lord's victorious decree and His glorious plans.

Life will continue. There will be questions to be answered concerning distributions of the inheritance coming to God's people. Joshua will succeed Moses. The offerings that the Lord has commanded are to be given according to the laws and calendar that He has already established. There will be solemn promises to God that must be kept, and sworn enemies of Israel that must be destroyed as an expression of the Lord's vengeance. There are details concerning the settlement of certain tribes east of the Jordan, and boundaries for the other tribes to the west of the Jordan will also be established. Cities for the Levites and cities of refuge will be set aside according to God's purposes. As after the fall of Adam, there will yet be life, because God has determined to bring life to an Israel of the nations yet to be revealed, through a descendant of Jacob, whose birth will be marked through the coming of an extraordinary star.

Numbers and the Story of the Bible

The book of Numbers tells us the familiar story of our sin and of God's glorious victory. Numbers gives us very memorable accounts within a framework of the human journey. We who were slaves in the Egypt of sin and death have been delivered by the Lord's mighty hand. We have been given a road that we must travel. This pathway takes us through the wilderness of this life to the glories of a Promised Land to come. Here we now have an opportunity to express faith in God in the midst of a challenging world full of much temptation and trouble. Along the way we must confront enemies of all kinds. Above all, we are to move ahead in faith as the Lord leads us into His Promised Land.

This book tells us the undeniable story of our own sin and of the Lord's grace. How can these two stories be reconciled? The first calls for our death in a plague of our own depravity and of God's righteous judgment. The second calls for our vindication as the beloved people of God chosen by Him for everlasting glory. The solution comes to us only in the provision of One who we are to look to, that we might live. This is the Serpent who was raised up on a pole. As Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, the Son of Man, Jesus Christ, needed to be lifted up on the cross, that whoever believes in him may have eternal life.

Matthew 11

Our Lord indicates in His actions and in His words that He came, not only to display great signs of miraculous kingdom power, but also to preach and teach regarding the kingdom. Despite all of His preaching and teaching it appears that very few people were able to understand either the kingdom that He was representing, or His own unique role in that kingdom as both the King and the Sacrifice by which the subjects of the kingdom would themselves be counted as sons of God.

While we might have expected that there would be many people who would not have seemed to understand the Old Testament testimony regarding the coming Messiah, if we had to pick one of Jesus' contemporaries who we would have guessed to be the most aware of what the Lord was doing, it would have been John the Baptist. He clearly knew that Jesus of Nazareth was to be highly exalted as one far superior to himself, and he also was very aware that Jesus would be the real sacrificial lamb. Despite his awareness of these very important facts, John sent messengers from his prison cell to the disciples of Jesus to ask this important question: "Are you the one who is to come, or shall we look for another?" What was His confusion? John seems to have anticipated an almost immediate judgment and the full establishment of the kingdom of God. Instead he hears of great deeds of mercy being performed by the Messiah, and he wonders…

Our Lord sends a reassuring message back to John, who is about to be beheaded. He points to the actions that are being fulfilled through His ministry as was prophesied in Isaiah concerning the coming Messiah. The God who was to come in vengeance, the God whom John expected, according to Isaiah 35:5-6 would demonstrate who He was by fulfilling these words, "Then the eyes of the blind shall be opened, and the ears of the deaf unstopped; then shall the lame man leap like a deer, and the tongue of the mute sing for joy." This is what Jesus was doing. The timing of His vengeance would be in accord with the will of God. It would be the duty of all who would be His followers to trust Him on these matters, rather than to be offended that He had not yet destroyed the ungodly.

Though this John may have had some points of confusion concerning the matter of the timing of kingdom judgment, our Lord indicated publicly that this great prophet had fulfilled his ministry well. He was not meant to be a pampered prince, or a spokesman for God that tried to figure out what everyone wanted to hear. He was a bold representative for the Almighty, the expected Elijah, who would prepare the way for the coming of the God-Man Messiah. This made Him superior to all the prophets who came before Him, yet inferior to those who would have the privilege of greater clarity concerning the coming kingdom throughout the Age of the Gospel after the pouring out of the Holy Spirit. It was time now for those who would hear the word of truth to take heaven by the force of godly prayer and holy living, even if they would have to suffer at the hands of evil men.

Though there would be many who would want to criticize John for being too much of an ascetic, and others who might want to criticize Jesus for doing too much celebrating, it is a fact that those who were being called to a new life of kingdom wisdom would be able to receive John's ministry as one of preparation characterized by heartfelt repentance, and Jesus' ministry as the coming of a new age of glorious life. Many rejected both men, even those who saw dramatic miraculous signs and who were unwilling to respond with true repentance and faith. They would have to answer on the Day of Judgment for their rejection of the Word of God spoken by both of these extraordinary men.

Yes, many great people would miss the facts of the kingdom entirely. Some were unwilling to let the Age of the Law come to a perfect fulfillment in the obedience of Christ and His death on the cross as the longed-for holy Lamb of God. Others were filled with great knowledge of philosophical thoughts circulating among the intelligent, but had no place in their minds for a powerful Savior who would display His greatness in the weakness of the cross. Yet to those who were known and loved by the Father and the Son, the Son would be revealed as the only Savior of Sinners; as Jesus, the wisdom and power of God, and the true Lord of heaven and earth.

It is still the wisest thing for all sorts of people to come to this one Savior. It is in Him alone that we can find rest for our souls. If we would work our way to the afterlife with imagined good deeds and the approval of men, we will live a life that is an unworkably heavy burden. We will be crushed by the weight of our own intentions, and more importantly by the true burden of the Law of God that we must keep if we are to have fellowship with the Almighty. Yet Christ provides a far better way of peace and rest. The One who is gentle and lowly in heart knows our weakness, and He has a plan for us that will yield the fullest rest for our tired souls. His yoke is easy, and His burden is light. It is ours simply to believe in Him and to follow. He is present with us to strengthen and to forgive.

Matthew 10

It is one of the amazing facts of the Lord's plan of redemption that He has chosen to work through the agency of men. This fact is all the more surprising when we consider that there is no absolute necessity for God to work through any means at all. He is the One who created the heavens and the earth from nothing. If He wanted to use means for the proclamation of His truth, it is still a wonder that He would use sinful men when He has holy, wise, powerful, and impressive angels who will do His bidding. Yet it has generally been the Lord's plan to announce salvation through the lives and words of men.

This surprising choice is reflected in the Lord's use of twelve disciples to be agents of His kingdom power throughout Israel. These men, including the one who would betray Him, are given authority to cast out demons, and to heal every disease and affliction among men. We have seen the Lord do these things Himself over the last two chapters in this gospel. Will He now work wonders through a group of twelve weak men?

These twelve are sent only to the lost sheep of Israel. This is not yet the New Testament gospel mission which will come after pouring out of the special gift of the Holy Spirit upon the church. That later ministry will also use the work of men, but the apostles and others who will follow after them will then be told to go to the nations, and not just to Israel. The Matthew 10 mission is a final Old Testament era announcement of the coming of a resurrection kingdom, a kingdom where, not only will the sick be healed, but the dead will be raised imperishable.

The present work of these original disciples is not to be scoffed at or ignored. The kingdom of heaven is at hand. Here we find a true taste of Judgment Day. There is blessing for those who receive the emissaries of the Lord and curse for all who would oppose them.

The Lord uses the context of this mission to Israel to teach His disciples some things that especially relate to that later gospel work of the church, the work of going to all the nations. He teaches these men that the proclamation of the kingdom of heaven will entail much danger, yet there will also be a great provision of the Spirit of God for this important enterprise.

If they have called the King Beelzebul, we should not be surprised when the ambassadors of the kingdom are treated the same way. This is not to suggest in any way that the church is to cower in fear before the powers of the world. We are to be bold, even though we know that those who are against us in some places and times may indeed kill the body. It is some comfort for us to know that these enemies of the gospel do not have the authority to cast body and soul into hell. God does have that power. Therefore our safety comes in following Him. He considers us to be a precious possession, redeemed through the incomparable cost of the blood of His Son. He cares for us in every detail of our lives. To deny Him would be a horrendous act of foolishness. To speak of Him boldly is an enormous privilege, attendant with even heavenly acknowledgements and blessings.

This coming gospel age mission of the New Testament church will be one that teaches men about the only way of peace with God through the cross of Jesus Christ. Despite that message of peace, the preaching of the kingdom itself will often be an occasion of the most intense conflict, even dividing members of households against one another.

Because of this kind of strain and severe testing, it is important for each person who would belong to the kingdom of heaven to consider seriously the message he is preaching. If it is a Christian message, it is a story of hope through a cross. It is a message that demands that we embrace the suffering love of the Son of God in such a way that we consider all other human relationships to be less than this one sustaining bond.

In this cross of Christ we have found our eternal life, and we are unwilling to give up either the message of the cross or the man who died there for us. The Lord promises us that we will be truly blessed forever because of our support of this one great Man, His message, and His people. We simply must not turn away from Him.

Prayer based on Exodus 37

Lord God, how wonderful is the Ark of the Covenant, the place of Your special presence! To think that it was a seat of mercy! You are holy, O God. You have determined to have mercy on us. How could we ever turn away from You? Please forgive us, for we have sinned against You. Grant us Your great mercy again through Jesus Christ. We are His body. Your glorious lampstand is shining in the world, for Your Son is the light of the world, and in Him we are to be a light in a dark place. Make us to be a unified mountain of the finest gold, taking away from us every defect and impurity. Father, one day we will have no remaining trace of sin among us. You will purify Your church. Fill us even now with the holy oil of Your Spirit, that we might worship and serve You forever.

Prayer based on Jeremiah 30

O Lord, God of Israel, when will You restore the fortunes of Your church? We live in fear and distress, yet You will save us out of every trouble. If we are far away, You will draw us back. If we are near in body, but far away in spirit, You are able to bring us home. If we face the strongest enemies, You will still restore us to the place of Your compassion. There is no enemy who can destroy us. We thank You for the Ruler of the Church, for He is our strength. He will accomplish all the intentions of His heart.

Matthew 9

When we considered the healings that Christ performed recorded for us in Matthew 8, we made the connection between the physical trouble that people face and the spiritual problem of sin. Is this idea of physical predicaments as metaphors for spiritual troubles too speculative? Does Jesus make the connection between His merciful acts that relieve physical difficulties, and His role as the One who saves His people from their sins? In the opening of this ninth chapter we have a very memorable account that makes just that connection. Some friends of a paralytic brought the ailing man to the Savior so that the man could be physically healed. They were hoping that Jesus could make the man walk. I wonder if they were disappointed when the Lord said to him, "Take heart, my son; your sins are forgiven."

There were others, some of the scribes who were there at the time, that were very alarmed by what the Lord said, but for a different reason. They thought that it was blasphemous. They considered Him to be making an inappropriate claim to be God, thinking that only God could forgive sin. Jesus knew what was in their hearts, and went ahead then to do what the man himself surely wanted. He said, "Rise, pick up your bed and go home," and the man did! But before He said these words, He explicitly connected this miracle to the fact that He had the authority to forgive sins.

The next story that Matthew records takes us away from the metaphors of physical healing, and moves us to the root issue of sinners finding a place in the Lord's kingdom. The sinner in view was Matthew, the author of this gospel. We know nothing of any ailment he had, or of any demonic attack that was affecting him. All we know is that he belonged to the class of men that were considered traitors to their people, and abusive of the poor, the tax collectors. Matthew was a Jewish agent of Roman interests who made his money enforcing the taxation system on his own people, a nation that was under the subjugation of the Roman Empire. This man would have been considered utterly corrupted by Gentile contact, and was certainly morally suspect. Yet Jesus called Him to be one of His disciples with the simple words, "Follow me." Not only did Matthew listen as an individual; we hear that many tax collectors and others who were considered outside of the purity of covenant life were soon eating with Jesus.

Once again, there were those who were puzzled by the Lord's actions. The Pharisees needed to accept the concept that the Messiah would come to call and to save sinful people, rather than simply vindicating those who were very convinced of their own righteousness before God. Even the disciples of John the Baptist wondered about the behavior of the one that John had referred to as the Lamb of God. Jesus told them that He was right to celebrate with His disciples, since He had come as the Bridegroom, as the loving Messiah of a new world of resurrection celebration. Of course there would be changes from the way of life under the Age of the Law, when the people were awaiting the coming of the King. Now the King was here, and He referred to His holy love of His people using the language of a Husband with His betrothed bride.

Whether healing a woman who secretly touched the fringe of His garment, or even raising a little girl from the dead, or giving sight to two blind men, there can be no doubt that there was something very new, powerful, and wonderful in the works of Jesus Christ. The report about Him could not possibly have been contained. This had to be the Son of David, but the people seemed to be largely unaware of the Scriptures that Christ was fulfilling in these great actions of healing and deliverance. Here was a very amazing man, but who was He? Could He actually be the long-expected one who would sit on David's throne? Would this man take over Jerusalem? Why was He doing the things He was doing? Why was He saying the things He was saying? Why was He upsetting the people He was upsetting? More fundamentally, if He was the Messiah, why was He so humble, and why was He so good?

The Pharisees simply could not accept Him as their Messiah. This Man was a challenge to their position. The disdain and secret envy that they had for Jesus of Nazareth was very hard for them to entirely hide or contain. As the empty tomb would one day demand an answer that they could not really admit to, the resurrection-age glimpses shining forth in His ministry of divine healing demanded some kind of explanation. When He healed a mute man by casting out a demon from him, they suggested that His power to cast out demons came from the prince of demons. This was the biggest lie that could be told, but it does display that something obviously was happening in the ministry of Jesus, and that they did not have any better answer than this that they could come up with to explain what seemed to them to be unexplainable.

This powerful opposition to the work of the Messiah could in no way stop the far more powerful demonstration of the kingdom in the life of the King. This kingdom was moving forward in the Lord's amazing teaching, and in the way that he healed every disease and affliction. Eventually the kingdom would move forward through the agency of men who would preach a message as laborers for the Lord's harvest. The ultimate gathering of the Lord's good fruit of elect people would eventually call for the compassionate work of multitudes in His church over many centuries. But something even more powerful than these healing miracles of Christ and the preaching miracles of His church needed to take place in between these two miracles. The Son of God needed to deal with our sin through His own death as the Lamb of God. This dying and rising of Jesus is the powerful hinge between His miracles of healing and His use of His church in gathering sinners. This cross and resurrection, and the God-Man who accomplished them, is our only hope in our every need. He has forgiven our sins. We shall truly rise up from the grave and live forever in our eternal home.

Matthew 8

Leprosy is a horrible disease caused by massive numbers of microorganisms that destroy nerve function in their human host. It is this loss of nerve function that results in collateral damage that is associated with the disease, as the patient faces injury and infection without having the adequate sensory capabilities in the extremities to care for the body in a normal way. The result is the disfiguring effects that can be readily seen, but the underlying problem comes from the microorganisms that cannot be seen by the casual observer. As a disease, it is a powerful metaphor for the problem of sin in our lives. We have a corruption within us that often is a secret matter, but it will eventually lead to choices that often have horrible consequences.

Jesus Christ was able to heal lepers. Consider the kind of miracle-working power that overturns not only the obvious external effects of the disease, but also removes the internal trouble at the root of the problem. Even more amazing, God sent His Son into the world to heal sin, a tremendous display of not only divine love, but also of divine power. The reason Jesus healed lepers was to show to us the kind of world He would bring when He has fully taken away all of the root and fruit of sin that has caused so much trouble all over a creation that was once declared to be very good. Jesus can fix this if He wants to. He says, "I will. Be clean."

Jesus sent the Jewish leper, now healed, to the priest to fulfill the appropriate provisions of the Law of Moses in such a situation. But did Jesus come to heal Jews only, or did His plans extend to the healing of the world. We hear of His help for the servant of a centurion who was lying at home paralyzed. The centurion was conscious of His unworthiness as a Gentile to have the Jewish Messiah within his gates. Yet this Gentile soldier approached Jesus with great faith, more faith than Jesus had seen from the Jews. The Gentile man knew that Jesus had such authority over all things that His Word would make things so. And it did. If God has plans for Jews and Gentiles in the kingdom of heaven, He is surely able to bring these about. A small down-payment of this unusual mercy is shown in the healing of this paralyzed man. A bigger victory is pictured in this metaphor as well, for one day when the world is healed, many who have been bound in sin and misery will be set free from that paralysis that currently gives them so much trouble, and they will be truly and wonderfully free.

Even now, we are being freed in our spirits, as we are made alive in Christ. What do people do when they have been freed by God? When Peter's mother-in-law was relieved of a fever by the touch of Jesus, she rose and began to serve him. Another metaphor… This world so oppressed by demonic wickedness is bound in some crazed darkness. But when He takes our trouble upon Himself, then we shall be fully healed, and we will all serve the One we should rightly love, the One who has carried our sorrows.

It is our great privilege to follow the Son of God. We may be momentarily confused by our attachments to the things that are precious to us now, but there is no doubt that the joy of serving Him is worth everything that we have. When He came to win our heaven for us, He did at the cost of His comfort. He came as one who had almost nothing in earthly comforts, and who eventually would face pain, torment, and the wrath of His Father against our sin. This love tells us something about the One who created the world and sustains us. This God is a God of justice and of love. He is great in all that He does, and the glory and blessing of the victory that He won for us at the cost of His beloved Son must be so very wonderful as to rightly justify the price that He was willing to pay in order to bring it all to pass.

Nonetheless, we are infected with horrible doubts, worries, and rebellion. We find it hard to trust the One who calmed the seas with a simple command. Can't we believe Him when He assures us that faith in Him will not be misplaced? What are we like in this state of foolish frenzy? One more metaphor… We are like desperate, crazy, dangerous men living around a cemetery, men who do not even have the sense to ask for the help that we need. But one word from our Savior King, and we can be delivered.

The Messiah who can do such things is displaying the greatness of His glorious plans for His children. He has already paid the price for the glory that is waiting to be revealed at the last day. There is nothing left for us to pay, no remaining debt that we need to hang on to. Yet many who think of themselves as sensible people, people who suppose that they are in their right minds would refuse His entreaties, and would ask Him earnestly to leave their region. Such hard-hearted spiritual deadness is the worst kind of disease with which people can be afflicted. May God deliver many, even now, from the foolishness of stubborn unbelief.

Matthew 7

We do flatter ourselves. We imagine that we are great imitators of Jesus Christ. When I consider some of the sentiments of holiness, concern, humility, and generosity that I have professed, I am no longer sure how true they actually were. Do we really wish that we could take away the physical, emotional, and relational pain of others by having it fall on us? Are we really as content with things in our lives as we say we are? Is it possible that we really don't think of others as better than ourselves, and that we may have falsely convinced ourselves that we forgive those who have done us wrong wishing them only the very best? We know the Christian answers to some degree, but it is not clear that we fully live up to our own words.

It is quite a thing to consider that our Savior actually was faithful, not only to all of His own words, but to all of the great demands of God's Law. Because of this, He is surely the one who is capable of righteous judgment. The rest of us would do well to avoid premature pronouncements of personal victory in our battles against sin, and especially that we would be careful in our judgments against others. Too often it may be the case that in the very area where we would judge another, we may find ourselves just as guilty of that same offense. The answer is not for us to simply settle on lawlessness, but to actually turn away from sin, to avoid hasty assessments of our own Christ-likeness, to be extremely careful concerning our thoughts and words against others, and to be very appreciative that our great Messiah not only claimed to love and serve His Father with a full heart. He actually did it. It is a good thing for us to take the speck out of someone else's life, provided that we have taken the log out of our own.

All of this is enough to make those who have teaching duties within the church simply stop speaking. (Well, maybe not.) The fact is there are many occasions when it would be best for us to say nothing at all. Then we will not only be following our Lord's advice, we will also be doing what He Himself did in certain situations where speaking would have done more harm than good. It is not wise to throw pearls at animals that don't have a taste for fine jewelry.

The problem with all of this is that there actually are times when we simply must speak the truth in love, even though we may find ourselves in the dangerous situation that Stephen faced in Acts 7. What this means is that we need wisdom from above in order to discern those times when we should speak, and those times when speaking the truth may be immoral speech, unwise to blurt out and perhaps even callous defiling of the truth that works against the One who is the Truth. We need not only courage from God; we also need His gifts of wisdom if we are to speak the truth seasonably. For this and for all the gifts that would enable us to be truly more like Christ, we need to ask the right being, seek the right path, and knock on the right door. God will give us good things. He is a Father who truly loves His children.

We live in a very challenging age since the resurrection of Christ. The things that we desire are not always holy, and we actually know this, though we do not like to admit the truth. The ways that we would walk are often laced with secret sin, and may lead to a trap that will be hard for us to get out of. When our conscience keeps on bothering us about something that looks outwardly holy but we inwardly suspect it to be less than holy, it may help to look at the matter from another angle. Is the thing that we want to say or do in accord with what we would like others to say or do to us if we were in their shoes? Jesus says this kind of thinking really is the Law and the prophets, rather than just an outward display of superficial holiness.

The kind of living that Christ shows to us in Matthew 5-7 is kingdom living, even resurrection living. It is the real way, and only our Savior has done it in the way that it needs to be done. That does not excuse us from loving this beautiful way of life and truly seeking this righteousness as we should. There is a sense that the gate of true perfection is so narrow that only one Man could enter through it. Yet because our King has successfully gone through the gate of the Law and the Prophets, and because we are united to Him, we are counted as righteous, and are given powerful help from on high to live in this way of righteousness. There may be few that travel that road, particularly in times of what societal disintegration, but the rightness of any path has never been based on the number of people travelling it.

True godly living has always been challenging, especially for those who would speak for God as His ambassadors. There have been many false prophets throughout history, just as there are many false teachers in our day. It is a wonderful thing to consider that there is one genuinely solid Cornerstone on which The Lord's church has been built. He is solid in His righteousness and gentle and merciful in His regard for those whom He has called. Not only has He provided us all the holiness necessary for our right standing with His Father, He has also taken away the weighty debt caused by all our hypocrisy and lawlessness through His death on the cross. His resurrection insists that He has not only journeyed into harm's way for us; He has actually come out on the other side of that ordeal victorious and alive. We would do very well to receive Him, to truly hear His words, and to follow them by the grace that He supplies.

Matthew 6

In one generation after the resurrection of Jesus Christ, the religious sanctuary atop Mount Zion was destroyed by Roman armies. With the end of temple life in Jerusalem came an eclipsing of the Sadducees as a powerful religious group. There remained two very important Jewish groups. One of these, the Pharisees, was especially identified with synagogues scattered all over the Mediterranean world. The other group were the Jewish followers of Jesus Christ, increasingly joined by large numbers of Gentiles who learned that they did not need to follow the Old Testament ceremonial laws in order to have peace with God, but that their righteous standing before God was due entirely to the merit of Christ their Redeemer, and had been received through faith alone.

This doctrine of justification by faith put the Christians at great odds with the Pharisees, who pursued their particular version of Law as if they could secure their standing with God through the performance of works. The true facts are that Jews and Gentiles can only have peace with God because of the works of the Lord. We trust in Him and are justified. Yet those who truly do trust in Him are moved from death to life and are called upon to perform good works.

While we are not saved by works, good works of humble service are an important display of the grace that is ours as those who have a living faith in the Messiah. Those works are something that God has prepared for us. They are best performed in as humble a way as possible to give all glory to God, and not to draw attention unnecessarily to ourselves. Showiness was unfortunately a big problem in the Pharisaic world. It is safe for us to add that it is not only Pharisees who are tempted to practice acts of righteousness in front of other people in order to be seen by them. The Lord assures us that there is no heavenly reward for those who are only seeking the applause of men.

It is a fact that giving to the needing, praying, and fasting are things that are good for us to do, but not if our goal is to look religious, or generous to others. We should remain unimpressed with ourselves concerning the good things that we are privileged to be able to do. These things are best done in secret, for the eyes of the One who knows the secrets of our hearts and is not impressed with the showiness of hypocrites.

Concerning our prayers toward God, the Lord instructs us that kingdom prayer should not be loaded with empty phrases and useless words. The Lord gives His disciples a simple pattern of prayer that has informed the Christian church for centuries. This prayer begins with the glory of His name, the coming of His great kingdom, and the seeking of His will above our own. Then the matters of our daily provision, forgiveness for our sins, and our protection from evil are brought to the Lord as a secondary matter. There is a particular emphasis on forgiveness, for Christ has come to deal with our sins at great cost to Himself. It is unseemly when His people are pushy with their own ideas, or even worse, are unwilling to forgive others when Christ has paid such a heavy price in His life and death to secure our eternal blessedness.

Our Lord also addresses the issue of money and the place of riches and financial security in our daily lives. Once again, the view of the kingdom on these matters was in strong contrast to the problem of secret greed among the Pharisees. Greed is corrosive to the soul. It is not merely a weakness for those who are fearful. It is a display of idolatry, showing that we prefer the temporary medium of exchange in this passing world to the One who is Lord not only of this earth, but also of heaven. A greedy eye will blind us to the life of resurrection glory. As we grasp more and more for things that perish, the matters of eternal worth seem of smaller and smaller consequence to our hearts. This way of living leads to darkness, not to light. We should use our wealth to express before God our love for His Word and His kingdom.

There is a way of life that is so common among men in every society that we can lose track of how wrong and harmful it is. I speak here of the life of worry. This world is a place of scarcity, and many people would have us give ourselves over to fear. When we do this we miss some of the obvious lessons of the Lord's providence all around us. He feeds the birds, and He cares even for the flowers. Don't we know that He will take care of us too? When our time comes to leave this world and to go to higher realms where angels dwell, are we not aware of the fact that He will take care of us in that place even more wonderfully than He takes care of us now?

All of this worry does nothing good for us. We are not able to keep our bodies alive even one extra hour by worrying. In fact, it is very obvious that unnecessary fears take years off of our life expectancy, and give us nothing but grief in return. This kind of anxiety betrays a lack of trust in the Lord. Through that way of life we display an undue attachment to the things of this creation, rather than an overwhelming affection for the Lord and His heaven.

There is a better way to live. It is that life that is lived moment by moment in the awareness that God is real, that He has captivated us with the love of Christ, and that whatever miseries me may face in this age cannot follow us beyond the grave if we are in Jesus Christ. This is the way that our Savior lived. He was the One who was always seeking first God's kingdom, and God's good definition of all righteousness. He was able to sleep well in the stern of a boat when the disciples were overwhelmed by the possibility of drowning. If we know that there is something good waiting for us beyond this life, we can greet the unnatural fact of death, though an enemy, as yet a foe who unwittingly takes us to the home of our greatest and most powerful friend. Christ suffered for us, but He put away all anxiety after His solemn request to His Father in the Garden of Gethsemane. There was no other way than the cross. He went there with no sinful worries. He willingly suffered for the glory that was set before Him. It was a day of great trouble for Him, yet by it He won for us a great weight of surpassing glory. Such a Savior can be fully trusted.

Matthew 5

As we begin the Sermon on the Mount, we enter into the most famous statement of the teaching ministry of the Messiah, one of several large discourses in this gospel. It is not as if the few phrases that we have received from the Lord's mouth in the prior chapters of this gospel have been insignificant. In chapter three He indicated that it was necessary for Him to fulfill all righteousness. In chapter four we have His words against the devil in His settled determination to establish the kingdom God's way. Towards the end of that chapter we read the powerful summary of His preaching in a call to repentance and an announcement of the kingdom of heaven. He also tells Simon and Andrew to follow Him, promising to make them fishers of men. Each of these little statements is a weighty springboard for the display of the whole counsel of God. Yet in the extended message that begins in this chapter we have more than a few powerful phrases. We have three chapters full of the words of Christ to us helping us to understand the life of the gospel age for those who would be a part of the kingdom of heaven.

The first thing recorded in this message is about the present suffering in this age and the future reward that will be ours in the age to come. There is a glory to this, not only in the future part, but in the present trials, because of the certainty of faith. Isn't it true that if God the Son says something is a certain way, then it is that way? He is explaining to us what the gospel age will be like. We should not be surprised if we feel weak and poor, if we mourn and are lowly, if we are longing for a better day of greater righteousness, if we face the challenge of seeking purity and peace in a world where these may seem rare, if we face the physical and emotional turmoil of being persecuted or just ignored. Jesus tells us that this kind of life should not only be our expectation, we should also consider ourselves blessed when things like this happen to us and to those we love. The reason that He gives, is that there is another age coming. In that age, we shall be in the kingdom of heaven. There we will be comforted. At the resurrection we will inherit the earth. We shall be satisfied with the richness of God's provision in the age to come. Even now we experience the Lord's mercy, and we are able to know God. But in that coming day, we shall see God, and we will be openly acknowledged to be the sons of God. Our reward will be great even in the present heaven. How wonderful will it be when we are living in the glory of the resurrection age when Christ returns?

Until that day we are to be much more interested in being imitators of our Savior than being just like the perishing world all around us. We are here now in order to be different in a good way. This holiness of life and desire for the truth and mercy of God will be good not only for us, but also for the places where we live. Though only Christ could bear the burden of our sin, He does not call us to a life of continuing in sin, but to a life of radical holiness and blessedness. He who has fulfilled the Law and the Prophets is in perfect continuity with the life of godliness summarized in the Ten Commandments. This makes Him very different from the religious leaders of His day, and we must follow in this way, or we will never enter the kingdom of heaven.

If we are using our knowledge of the grace of God as an excuse to denigrate the Law of God, then we do not understand the heart of Christ at all. Far from minimizing the common understanding of obedience to the Ten Commandments, our Lord makes it very clear that the Pharisaic way was not really a way of law-keeping, but a minimization of the true and weighty matters of the Law. Jesus was not about to overturn eternal commandments against murder, adultery, and false witness. Instead, He instructs His hearers in the fact that the Law is far more extensive and demanding upon them then they had considered. God was never impressed with perfunctory outward displays of obedience, but expected the holy motions of renewed hearts from those whom He would count to be His sons.

Not only are we required to keep the whole moral law of God summarized in the Ten Commandments, the duty of love that we have is far beyond the simple words of any statute. He is the way that we are to live. He is what makes the command to love a "new commandment." Does the world hate you? Love them in return. Do they slap you? They slapped Him first. Turn the other cheek. Do they make you walk a mile? They made Him carry a cross, a cross that He came willingly to bear. He says, "Follow me." Don't just love your friends. That is not the way of the kingdom. The King came to love us when we were His enemies.

What our Savior reveals here is that our God expects and demands from us nothing less than perfection. It is therefore a tremendous comfort for us to reflect on the fact that ultimately what God demands, God will certainly get. We first see the pleasure of God in the obedience of His Son, with whom He is well-pleased. When such a One dies a sinner's death, we know that this death cannot be for the One who knew no sin. He must be the Lamb of God, the One who saves His people from their sins. Further, we know that the place where we are destined to go is in no way a place of sin. In that place we will truly obey in the fullest way all of the holy commandments that our Lord reveals. We will do His will by the fullness of a new power at work within us. This perfection that the Lord seeks, He will surely bring about, and we will be greatly blessed in that day when the meek in Jesus Christ shall inherit the earth.

More talk with God regarding Galatians

1 The resurrection of Your Son after He gave Himself for our sins is a central fact of the eternal gospel that we have received. This gospel is of such greater worth than the approval of men. Your Son has been revealed to us through the Word. This preaching of Christ, the cross, and the resurrection is the faith, once for all time, given to us.

2 We do not yield even for a moment to those who suggest that we can have justification through the Law. Grace has been given to us. If anyone insists on a different gospel, it is our privilege to oppose such a person to his face. We are not justified by works of the Law, but through faith in Christ Jesus. By works of the Law no one will be justified. We have been crucified with Christ, and live by faith in Christ. If righteousness were through the Law, then Christ died for no purpose.

3 If we move from this truth, we have been bewitched. If we have begun by the Spirit, by hearing with faith, will we be perfected through obedience to the way of the Law? Certainly not. Those who rely on works of the Law are under a curse. The righteous shall live by faith. Christ became a curse for us so that we might receive the promised Spirit by faith. The Law came after the promise to Abraham, and did not annul the Promise. The Age of the Law was temporary until the coming of the One through whom the Promise would be given to us. We are Abraham’s offspring, heirs according to the Promise. Is that why Abraham is so central in the story of Lazarus and the rich man? Our participation in Paradise is on account of our being found in the covenantal arrangement of the Promise, the Covenant of Grace.

4 We are Your sons. The fullness of time has come. The Age of the Law is over, and we are no longer slaves. We are heirs, and have already received the down-payment of the resurrection in the earnest of Your Spirit. We must be careful concerning any religious authorities who seek to put us under the bondage of some system of law. This is not the way for us to enjoy the freedom of Your promises. We are not children of any Jerusalem below, but of the Jerusalem that is above, and we are free. That free city above is our mother, and not anything here below.

5 Christ has set us free so that we will live in freedom, not so that we would return to the yoke of the Old Testament Law. If we would seek to be justified by the Law, then we are running away from grace. We were called to freedom, in order to freely serve one another in love. We are not led by the Spirit in order to pursue the deeds of the flesh. That is not the life of those who will inherit the kingdom. The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. These things are not against the Law, but we do not receive them through the Law, but through the Spirit of Resurrection. Those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires. We live by the Spirit, Therefore we should walk by the Spirit.

6 This does not mean that we will never sin. We may sin very badly, and yet be truly Your children. Yet we should not mock You with a fleshly life of sin. We should be sowing the good seed of holy spiritual living as those who know that we will reap from Your Spirit the blessings of eternal life in Your coming kingdom. Grant that we will not grow weary of doing good, for we know that in due season we will reap, if we do not give up. As we have opportunity, we should do good to everyone, and especially to those who are of the household of faith. Our boast is not in our flesh, but in the cross of Christ. The only thing that counts for anything is the new creation of true spiritual life now and resurrection glory to come. It is certainly worth suffering now for the future blessings of that glorious life.

Prayer based on Exodus 36

Great God, You are building a holy sanctuary. Your Son is a Master Builder with the greatest skill. Your work is beautiful, O Lord. You have bountiful resources for all that You have planned. To think that we are a part of this glorious sanctuary! We thank You that the place of Your presence has not been limited to one nation. Your tabernacle has been expanded to include all Your elect. O Lord, how marvelous are Your holy plans. Even now we see the progress of Your work throughout the history of Your church. What a beautiful place You are building! Not only are people there, but even angels. We long to see the finished work, as we are eager for You and for the revealing of the sons of God.

Prayer based on Jeremiah 29

Father God, there is so much that we cannot comprehend. There is much trouble all around us. Who can understand the glory of Your plan? You have sent us into a particular place, and we are to seek the welfare of the place where we live. There will be an end to every act of divine discipline. Your plans for us are good. We will seek You and we will find You, for You have sought us first and have found us. Have mercy on us, O God. We have not paid attention to Your Word as we ought to. Help us to distinguish lies from the truth. Grant this discernment not only to the elders of Your church, but to all who have the joy of hearing Your Word. False shepherds would lead the sheep away, but we will do what You have commanded. Help us to reject all lies, despite the strange appeal of the false claims of men.

Prayers based on Matthew 1-4

Matthew 1
Lord God, grant that we would see Jesus Christ rightly in Your Word. He is the fulfillment of Your every promise. You have granted many kings to reign over Your people, but Jesus is far above them all. We thank You for the wonder of His two natures, for He is both human and divine. In His one person He has fully saved us from our sins. He is not only the Son of Mary. He is God with us. In Him we have been given a most excellent and secure heritage.

Matthew 2
Father, why have men hated Your Son even before He was known by them? What kind of spirit causes a Herod to pretend to be a worshipper of the one that he seeks to destroy? Yet this Jesus is the hope of even Gentiles who were seeking the coming of the Holy One as they looked to the skies. You have protected Your Son from powerful and evil men who hated His coming. Yet He was born to die according to Your own plan of salvation. Grant us more life in Him even now, for though He died, yet He lives forever.

Matthew 3
Sovereign Lord, there is so much for us to learn from Your Word. It is there plainly for us to hear and receive, but what will the condition of our hearts be when we hear the truth preached to us? Will we be willing to repent of our sin? Your Son had a complete commitment to fulfill all righteousness in the depths of His being. Grant to us this same Spirit, that we might be eager to hear and obey Your Word. Our Savior is fully pleasing to You. In Him we are Your beloved children.

Matthew 4
Glorious Lord, we do not understand the minds of men. How can we fathom the thoughts and actions of angels? Yet men and angels are all perfectly known by You. By Your Word Your Son resisted the temptations of Satan. He would not be distracted from His mission. Thank You for the light that has dawned upon us in the life and work of our King. We have been granted eyes to see Him as our hearts have been made alive by Your Spirit. When He called us to follow Him, we were given the grace to leave the world behind, and to serve our Messiah. Remind us day by day of the greatness of the One we serve, lest we foolishly return to the way that leads to death.

Matthew 4

The great Son of God identified with us in our sin through His death on the cross in order to bring us eternal salvation. In His life of suffering He identified with us in all our troubles and He also fulfilled all righteousness. It was necessary for Him as the second Adam to listen to the voice of His Father above all else. For that reason He faced a horrible challenge at the outset of His public ministry as a necessary step in accomplishing all His holy purposes. Jesus came to crush the head of the serpent. To accomplish this would eventually mean the bruising of His own heel in His death on the cross. Jesus did not merely wander into the wilderness and happen across evil and danger. He was led there by the Spirit for our salvation.

The environment of temptation for Jesus was very different than that faced by the first Adam. Adam was in a beautiful garden with his wonderful wife and everything necessary for joyful living. Jesus was in a desert land. There he fasted for forty days and forty nights and He was hungry. Adam faced his test before sin entered the world. Jesus was tempted in a world of people already full of sin and misery. Yet Adam sinned, and Jesus successfully resisted temptation. The result was good news for even Adam. Adam believed God after his fall. He believed that there would come an offspring of the woman who would win a very powerfully victory over Satan, over evil, over sin, and over death. This Adam named his wife Eve, the mother of all the living, thus acting upon the faith that He had been granted by the Father. This was his "Amen" to God's promise. By this same faith we have been justified. Our faith is in this second Adam, Jesus Christ, who accomplished our salvation by His obedience and by His death.

The victory of our Lord in this first battle after His baptism is displayed to us in three parts, all involving the Scriptures. The tempter begins his address to the eternal Son of God, our Immanuel King, with the word, "if." Would this fallen angel attempt to sow the seed of doubt and unbelief in the very heart of the second person of the Godhead, now made man to suffer the death that was necessary for our redemption? Jesus displays His strength not through anything that looks like a miracle, but through the way that any of His followers could respond to the enticements of the world and the flesh. He quotes from the Scriptures. The Israel of the Lord had faced testing in the wilderness before. When Moses reflected on their failure, he spoke these words recorded in Deuteronomy 8:3, "Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God." Jesus quotes this verse after the simple words, "It is written." Here is the source of authority for us, and it is spoken by the Word of God Himself.

In the second place Matthew tells of the devil's misuse of the Scriptures. Taking our Lord somehow to the hotspot of God's presence in the Old Testament world, the temple in Jerusalem, our Lord is brought to a place of precarious danger, as His adversary quotes Psalm 91:12. This seems to be an attempt to lure Jesus into proving Himself on Satan's terms, but it may also be a more subtle temptation to lunge into an untimely fight of some kind against the plan of the Father. The reason for such a suspicion is that the devil has quoted a passage with a very provocative context. The next verse contains these words, "The serpent you will trample underfoot." The response of our Lord puts the focus back on God in a wonderfully measured response from Deuteronomy 6:16, "You shall not put the Lord your God to the test."

The third temptation listed by Matthew appears to be an overreach of evil. Is it not a fact that evil men and empires throughout history have often brought about their own early demise by overreaching? Isn't it also a fact that wicked nations cannot be counted on for honesty in their negotiations with others? Does the devil now offer the world to the One through whom it was made, and through whose divine power it is sustained moment by moment. He is sent off with another word from Deuteronomy 6, "You shall worship the Lord your God and him only shall you serve." The serpent of old will be soon be kept bound so that he will not be able to utterly deceive the nations during the gospel age. Jesus will have the world, but He will have it heaven's way, through the gathering of the elect, and the coming of the present heaven to the present earth at the time of the great resurrection age.

It is time now for God's work. The gospel age has its beginnings in the preaching of the great King of the Kingdom. The people who were far-off from God in all the nations of the world will soon begin to see a new light in the Word of the Messiah, preached through the agency of men, as the church that the Lord will establish will go forth to baptize and to teach. The great light of that church will be Jesus Christ, presented with a demand of surrender contained in the word "repent" and with a promise of glory contained in the phrase "the kingdom of heaven."

The Lord of glory would bring the message of the land of angels to men, not directly through the ministry of angels, but through the agency of simple men called to preach the truth of Christ and the resurrection. They would be fishers of men. Instead of being caught in the net of God's judgment, they would find themselves to be vessels of His mercy for eternal life.

Jesus Himself began this ministry in the land of Galilee. There He proclaimed the gospel of the kingdom and healed every disease and every affliction among the people. He spent three years with men that He called to be with Him for this great purpose. They saw tokens of His resurrection power as He healed those oppressed by demons, epileptics, paralytics, and all kinds of other people touched by the sin and misery that came into the world through one man.

At the end of those three years the disciples that He called to Himself would be scattered. One would betray Him, another would deny Him, and the crowds would yell for His death. The victory of the kingdom would move forward through the death and a resurrection of the King. Then the promise of the Father would be poured out upon the nations, and centuries of suffering love would be offered up by the Lord's faithful ones, until the Morningstar from on high would appear in all the greatness of His eternal glory. This was the Father's plan for the Kingdom. It has always been far superior to the temptations of the world, the flesh, and the devil.