Month: September 2015

Jesus’ Example & Call to Prayer

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After three years of teaching and ministry, Jesus begins the final preparations for the ultimate stage of his life and ministry: his death on the cross. This week we are looking at two evenings that lead up to cross, for these are significant turns in the story.

The focus here, though, will be on Jesus’ interaction with Peter in Matthew 26:30-46.

In the first six verses of this passage, Jesus once again explains what is about to happen: He is going to die and they are going to scatter for a time. But Peter in all his audacity declares, “I will never fall away.”

Unfortunately, Jesus gives Peter a harsh reality check when he explains that Peter will deny Him three times before the night is over.

Peter would have none of it. He adamantly responds, “I will not deny you!”

Jesus knew differently, but he continued with his disciples to Gethsemane where an important moment happens that gives us great insight into why Peter fell to the pressure of the hour as well.

Jesus invites Peter and two others to pray with him in the garden, but instead, they fall asleep. Jesus exhorts the disciples to “Watch and pray that you may not enter into temptation. The spirit indeed is willing; but the flesh is weak.”

Coming on the heels of the previous conversation with Peter, Jesus is clearly pointing to the Peter’s one hope of actually remaining true to Christ through the upcoming trials: prayer.

Jesus recognizes Peters passionate desire to be faithful to his Lord, but He also recognizes the immense power of the flesh. While he knows Peter won’t embrace the gift of prayer at this moment, He offers him this gracious gift anyway and shows him a perfect example of what this kind of prayer looks like. In doing so, He points us all to how we can prepare for sufferings, trials, and persecutions.

We are all going to face many of the same kinds of temptations to abandon our Lord. Whether it’s due to persecution from outside of us or desires from within, we will be faced with the temptation to place Christ aside. Apart from his grace and a constant dependence upon him in prayer, we will fall just as Peter did. Thankfully, just as Peter was joyfully welcomed back, we can be confident that Jesus will do the same for us as well. Though we may let go of Him, He will never let go of us!

May we pursue faithfulness at all times by being a people who rely upon the Spirit of God through prayer.

Jesus’ Stories

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I really love a good story, and I’d venture to guess that you do, too. Whether it’s on Netflix or Youtube, our culture loves to binge watch stories. Long before the digital age, Jesus was the master storyteller. He told tons of stories called parables in order to teach his followers about himself, his Father, and the kingdom of heaven. A focus on Jesus’ teaching would not be complete without at least a short look at his parables.

We’re going to focus on one parable today: The Parable of the Sower – Matthew 13:1-23.

In this story, Jesus helps us visualize a farmer that is throwing seed out on his field. This guys field isn’t the best, and so there are lots of different kinds of soil that the seeds are falling on. Some land on the path the farmer is walking on, others on rocks, still some land in the midst of thorns and weeds, but some do end up falling on good, tilled soil.

So why does a story about a farmer have anything relevant for us today?

Jesus explains that the seed is like God’s Word, and the soils like our hearts as we are receiving it. The results of the seed on the first three soils aren’t so great, but the fruit of the final soil is massive. So Jesus is teaching us not only why some people don’t receive the Gospel, but also ways in which we allow obstacles to get in the way of embracing God’s Word and experiencing the blessings He longs to produce within us.

Three specific obstacles to receiving God’s Word:

1. Confusion or Hardness of Heart (v. 19)

The first unfruitful soil is connected to a lack of understanding that Satan takes advantage of. This could certainly come from poor teaching, but it also comes from a hardness of heart and mind resulting from sin. Paul explains that this is a consequence of sin in Romans 1, so we should not be surprised that our sin can get in the way of us receiving the Word of God.

2. Persecution (v. 21)

The second unfruitful soil is connected to persecution. The one who hears the Word initially enjoys it and embraces it, but they have not counted the cost and have not grounded themselves in God’s Word deeply enough to be able to overcome the fear of man that so many of us struggle with.

3. The Distractions & Allure of the World (v. 22)

Finally, lacking long term fruitfulness is directly connected to the distractions and allure of the world around us. Jesus says that the things around us that are constantly calling for our time and desires will “choke the word.” Living in a world full of distractions, we must be careful to cultivate focus and desire upon the things God’s Word points us to.

Let’s fight to avoid these obstacles and allow God’s Word to take deep root in our lives, for the results will be beyond our wildest imaginations.

The Beatitudes: Promises Received & Experienced in Christ

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Last week, Jesus kicked off his ministry in Matthew 4, and in Matthew 5 we find his most famous teaching: the Sermon on the Mount. We’ll be checking out the promises of blessing that Jesus gives in the first section of that sermon.

Seeing the crowds, he went up on the mountain, and when he sat down, his disciples came to him. And he opened his mouth and taught them, saying:
Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted.
Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth.
Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be satisfied.
Blessed are the merciful, for they shall receive mercy.
Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God.
Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called sons of God.
Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness’ sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
Blessed are you when others revile you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely on my account. Rejoice and be glad, for your reward is great in heaven, for so they persecuted the prophets who were before you.
-Matthew 5:1-12

The Beatitudes, maybe the most famous of all of Jesus’ teachings, are eight incredible promises. Anyone who reads this text longs for these to be true in his life. Yet, simultaneously, we get the gut-wrenching feeling that we don’t measure up to most, if not all, of these. I don’t know about you, but I’m certainly not pure in heart, more often than not I’m not hungering for righteousness, and humility and meekness are often hard to come by. I’m certainly not the poster child for these things, and I’d venture to guess that neither are you.

Even the one that is a bit more passive—those who mourn shall be comforted—I have a hard time believing at times. I’ve mourned a good bit in my lifetime, but sometimes comfort is hard to come by.

So what’s the deal with these promises?

First, these promises are fulfilled in Jesus.

Jesus is perfectly humble, meek, pure, and merciful. He embodies each of these promises and has fully experienced their fulfillment through his death, resurrection, and ascension. He did what we couldn’t do so that we might experience these blessings that he longs to give us. He has inherited the kingdom of heaven and the entire earth. He now reigns over all. He alone can see God because of his own holiness, and it’s truly an amazing grace that he invites us to experience these things through faith in Him.

Thus the second point: we experience these promises through Jesus.

One day we will be perfect and complete in Christ, and it’s at that moment that we will finally experience the fullness of these promises. But we can experience the fruit of these promises now as we grow in Christlikeness.

These promises are ours now and forever. The question is: will we cultivate these characteristics of Christ in our lives or will we avoid these things that the world often scoffs at?

So how do we cultivate Christlikeness?

We look at Christ over and over and over again. We do this through reading His Word to see who He is, hearing His Word preached, taking the Lord’s Supper, and living in close community with the Church and recognizing Christ in one another. Each of these shapes us little by little into the image of Christ. We need them all.

May the promises in the Beatitudes spur us on to pursue Christlikeness in this way.

Jesus’ Ministry & Our Call to Follow

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After preparing for ministry through his baptism and time in the desert being tempted, Jesus begins his ministry.

In Matthew 4:12-25, He prioritizes three things in his ministry that should be present in ours and we learn what it looks like to follow him in that.

1. Jesus preached the Gospel (12-17)

Jesus verbally proclaimed the good news of the Gospel. That’s not all He did, but it was an essential part of His ministry from the very beginning. He didn’t simply expect people to view His life and be transformed. Certainly, if anyone had a life that exhibited what true love was, it was Jesus. But He knew that showing others true love required the powerful, life transforming words of the Gospel. We should learn from Jesus’ example that our lives must include sharing the message of the Gospel, for even the one with the perfect life still proclaimed a clear message to be received.

2. Jesus made disciples (18-22)

Jesus intentionally poured into others that they might follow in His way. Though He had a ministry that engaged the crowds, had a wide, inclusive audience, and certainly made a significant impact, Jesus focused his time and attention on a few select relationships that he might reproduce himself in their lives. Are we satisfied with a scatter shot approach that may or may not have a significant impact on particular individual lives, or are we intentionally making disciples of specific people? Let’s follow Jesus’ example that we might not allow our lives and ministries end with us.

3. Jesus cared for the sick and oppressed (23-25)

While Jesus knew words were required, he also exhibited that true holistic ministry involved tangible acts of love that manifest the love and grace of the Gospel message. They cannot be divorced from one another. We should be careful to minister the Gospel in both Word and Deed rather than swinging to either extreme of Word only or Deed only (Let’s be real, we’ve all been on one end of that pendulum or the other at some point in our lives.).

**Following Him Involved Immediate & Drastic Priority Change**

The reaction of the disciples in this passage always hits home for me. Their immediate response to follow Jesus humbles me as I recognize the slowness of my heart to heed Jesus’ call on me. Jesus is calling every single one of us in specific ways to follow him, to emulate his ministry, to show and share His love and message with others, and to multiply disciples. Are we responding immediately? Are we realigning our priorities with His that we see in the passage above? Or are we holding onto our current, comfortable, and safe status quo?

Jesus wants to use each one of us in significant ways. The question is: will we follow Him?