WOMAN, HERE IS YOUR SON

This week I am returning to my blogs on Quiet Things in The Gospels. I want to write about something that is difficult to understand. It is something Jesus said on the cross. A little over a year ago I was troubled by this passage and I memorised it. That is a crucial way to come to understand Scripture. To be honest, there are some things I still don't understand about these words. But again and again, God has ministered to me through this passage. I cannot read it without sensing God's embrace.It is found in John 19:25-27.

“Standing by the cross of Jesus were his mother and his mother's sister, Mary the wife of Clopas, and Mary Magdalene. When Jesus saw his mother and the disciple whom he loved standing nearby, he said to his mother, “Woman, behold, your son!” Then he said to the disciple, “Behold, your mother!” And from that hour the disciple took her to his own home.”

Let me briefly share some of my questions about this event. Children caring for their aging parents is a biblical principle. Jesus emphasized this in Mark 7 when He castigated the Pharisees for saying what they would have used to care for their parents was Corban, or given to God. Mary had other children. In Matthew 13:55 the people of His home town said,

“Is not this the carpenter's son? Is not his mother called Mary? And are not his brothers James and Joseph and Simon and Judas?”

It is true that the brothers of Jesus were not yet believers. But I suspect that Jesus knew they would become believers after His resurrection. His brother James was a leader in the Book of Acts. Both James and Jude were inspired by the Holy Spirit to write part of The New Testament. Why were they not charged to care for their mother? And does it not seem harsh for Jesus to call Mary, “woman” in this passage? This is not the only time he addressed her impersonally. At the wedding in Cana of Galilee He said, “Woman. . . I have told you my hour has not yet come.” I still don't have good answers for these. But I can point out some truths in this passage.

1. First Jesus is in charge.

He is Lord of our lives. And He will give you clear instructions to obey. I am aware that some may read what I write that abuse this concept. A well known minister of the gospel declared that God led him to the woman he left the mother of his children to marry. You can know God is not telling you to do evil. You will need to struggle in prayer over such directions. But if you are not motivated by sin, you can trust God to lead you in matters like this. You can discern His will.

2. The bond of the Spirit is more important than blood ties.

Remember that in Mark 10:29-30 Jesus said,

“Truly, I say to you, there is no one who has left house or brothers or sisters or mother or children or lands, for my sake and for the gospel, who will not receive a hundredfold now in this time, houses and brothers and sisters and mothers and children and lands, with persecutions, and in the age to come eternal life.”

I have known many people who had much closer bonds with Christian brothers and sisters than they did with their own families. In many cultures, to accept Christ means to be dead as far as your family is concerned. I believe this was as much of a ministry to John as it was to His mother. I imagine they grew to depend upon one another in many ways. I suspect they shared the embrace of the Son of God that they had experienced.

3. Sometimes, we need the Lord to speak roughly to us for our own sakes.

Mary needed Jesus to sever natural ties with her. And then she needed to be embraced by John in His name.

4. Possibly the most important lesson for me is that I am not in charge.

The Scriptures offend every culture and every person at some point. And it is fitting that I am uncomfortable here. When I decide I am the one to judge Scripture, I have ceased to submit to the judgment of God in His word.

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TAKING NOTES

Do you take notes when you listen to sermons? Many people do. And it is a spiritually healthy practice. For those of you who do, and for those who would like to start taking notes on sermons, let me suggest some guidelines.

• Soak Up The Pictures.

When your pastor tells a story about the Bluetick Coonhound that his grandfather had as a boy, don't try to write that down. That is good preaching. Jesus taught and preached with stories. In fact, you will remember that anyway. I used to ask people in our Wednesday night services what I preached Sunday. More often than not, someone would remember a story I told. Sometimes it was a joke that I told to keep their attention. 

• Set down the principles.

I don't recommend that you try to write down everything your pastor says in a sermon. If you try to do this you will probably miss the next crucial thing he has to say because you are trying to write out the last thing his said. But you need to make notes of principles that will transform your life. If your pastor has points, and most of us do try to write out his major points.

• Seal In The Prophecy.

We often have a very unbiblical notion of prophecy. When we hear or read the word, we think of something like crystal balls which come out of witchcraft. While biblical prophecy includes prediction, prophets in the Bible usually preached against sin. The word means to proclaim. When it is used in scripture, it refers to God speaking through someone. And you need to be aware that God will speak to you through a sermon. And while some preachers are more gifted than others, God is not limited by how good of a speaker he is.

I highly recommend that you get alone that same day to recap what God is saying to you. This may simply be a new truth. 1 Corinthians 2:14 says the things of God are "spiritually discerned." If you understand any spiritual truth, it is because the Spirit of God spoke personally to you.

This may not even be a new truth that He wants you to see. This morning in my quiet time God spoke to me through John 12:27,28. In it Jesus said,

“Now is my soul troubled. And what shall I say? ‘Father, save me from this hour’? But for this purpose I have come to this hour. Father, glorify your name.” Then a voice came from heaven: “I have glorified it, and I will glorify it again.”

God reminded me that there is a purpose to difficult things that I face. And I can pray for Him to be glorified through my failures, embarrassment, and heartache. But this is not a new truth to me. I pray over this passage every day. But it is important for me to hold on to it today.

I suggested that you do this alone. And I believe that is important. But you can also benefit by talking to someone else about what God may have been saying to you. My wife takes much better sermon notes than I. She often shares them with me. Last week our pastor preached on the Magi from Matthew. She mentioned that the oral tradition of the Kurds says they were the Magi. She told me that the translation of the Bible into their language was recently completed. By the time she was finished sharing with me, we were both stirred to pray for the Kurds to come seeking Jesus again.

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PRAYING IN A WORSHIP SERVICE

     

Last week I shared a prayer that I invited people to pray every Sunday when we come together. "Lord, let me hear your voice." I actually began that by suggesting that people pray, "God, speak to me." Then I realized that God always speaks when His word is read and preached. That would be like asking Jesus to be present in a worship service. He told us in Matthew 18:20, that He is aready there.

"Where two or three are gathered in my name, there am I among them.”

But many things can keep us from experiencing Him. And we may be prevented from hearing His voice. So I encouraged people to pray for their hearts to be opened.

I also urged people to pray the same prayer for persons on either side of them. I would sometimes say, "You may know that person so well that you don't know where to start. But God knows. You may even be seated near someone you don't know at all. Begin by asking God to speak to them. He knows just what they need.

I challenged people make sure we had prayed for everyone in the building. I think this was our best way of welcoming others. People sensed the love of God as those around them prayed for them.

I also tried to teach people that we need to pray throughout a worship service. In Isaiah 56:7 God said,

"My house shall be called a house of prayer."

Jesus re-emphasized this in the New Testament. And the Holy Spirit recorded those words in Matthew, Mark, and Luke. I believe He was applying this to the gathering of the church every bit as much as He was the Temple.

In 1 Thessalonians 5:17 we are commanded to pray without ceasing. I do not come close to doing that. But praying throughout a worship service stretches me closer to that kind of prayerfulness.

Let me suggest two facets of prayer that will bless a worship service.

THE WORSHIP OF PRAYER
Praise is an important facet of prayer. We are so blessed to sing worship songs that praise and glorify God. Ephesians 5:18 calls us to be filled with the Spirit. Ephesians 5:19 gives us one application of that by saying we are to "make melody in our hearts to the Lord."

THE WITNESS OF PRAISE
Worship is also a means of bearing witness to those around us. The first part of Ephesians 5:19 continues the command to be filled with the Spirit,

"Addressing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs."

When you worship, especially with music, you encourage everyone around you to glorify God. Some of them may never have sensed His presence.




Next week I want to give you a practical guide for listening to the voice of God in a sermon. I have not written it out yet, but I intend for it to be brief and easy to share and teach people in your church.

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PRAYING IN A SERMON

There are, of course, two sides to preaching. It is like a dance where the preacher and the people come together in the music of the Scripture and stirring of the Holy Spirit.

Up to now in this series on preaching, I have only addressed the preacher. But I would like to write several blogs in the next few weeks on receiving what God has for you in a sermon. A pastor needs to teach and encourage some, if not all of what I write.

It is crucial for preachers to understand that they are joining God in a work that is beyond them. It is also important for members of the congregation to understand that God is at work in the entire gathered body when your pastor preaches. This begins and ends with prayer.

Even before you leave home, pray for God to remove the distractions and barriers in your heart and life. If you are part of a family pray for God to prepare the hearts of your spouse and children. When you arrive at the place of worship, pray that you will not miss what God is doing in the entire service.

For many years as a pastor, I encouraged people to pray something like, "God, let me hear your voice today." I would also tell them, "It will not offend God for you to pray, 'God, if you are real, let me hear your voice,' or 'God, if you are really here, open my heart to you.'"

I did not just encourage guests to pray such a prayer. I asked everyone to do it. And I always prayed something similar for myself.

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KEYS TO PREACHING WITHOUT

It has been some time since I have written a blog on preaching. In fact, you will have to scroll down past 10 blogs to May 9, in Thinking In The Spirit to find my last entry in this series. You have to scroll down 5 more to find the first of them. But I recently heard a sermon that made me long to emphasize keys to preaching without notes. The sermon I heard was taken from Colossians 3 & 4. And it contained vital truths for our lives. The preacher’s text began at Colossians 3:12 and reached down to 4:6. Earlier someone else read the entire passage. And he did not read its entirety in the sermon. This worked well. The preacher began by noting verse 16 of chapter 3 which begins,

“Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly.”

And he correctly pointed out that the the gospel informs every area of our lives. I thought his introduction was good. He related the word of God dwelling in us richly, to a feast. If I were only preaching on this verse, I would have noted thatthe gospel dwelling in us means it makes itself at home in our lives.

But from here he wandered through the verses bringing out some good truths. This is the Bible after all. But he could hardly remember what came next, with long pauses to find where he was in his notes. By the time he finished, the rest of us were as confused as he was.

1. The first thing I would have suggested to him would have been to ORGANIZE POINTS to Clarify His Thoughts.
If your thoughts are not clear, you will not remember them. And neither will anyone else. A great way to do this is to develop a sentence out of the central idea of his sermon, so he could state each of his points with a slight word change in that sentence. The central idea of his text would have been, “The gospel drives everything in our lives.” He could have begun his sentence, “The gospel drives. .”

The first point would be,

“The Gospel Drives Our Worship.”

Verse 16 continues,

“teaching and admonishing one another in all wisdom, singing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, with thankfulness in your hearts to God.”

I would point out that teaching and encouraging one another are part of worship. This thought is continued in verse 7. But worship does include music. And our singing must be driven by the gospel. You may preach to people who feel like our musical worship should be driven by our emotions. But our emotions should be stirred by what we sing. Can you worship when you are in a bad mood? Of course. Grace is still amazing when you feel down. And when worship focuses on God’s love or His grace, they lift your emotions by the gospel.

The next point would be,

“The Gospel Drives Our Relationships, or maybe Family Relationships.”

Verse 18 reads,

“Wives, submit to your husbands, as is fitting in the Lord.” 

Verse 19,

“Husbands, love your wives, and do not be harsh with them.” 

Verse 20 says,

“Children, obey your parents in everything, for this pleases the Lord.” 

Verse 21,

“Fathers, do not provoke your children, lest they become discouraged.” 

You might include the next verses in relationships, or you might make it a new point.

“The Gospel Drives Our Work Life.”

The next five verses from 3:22 through 4:1 deal with this subject.

“Bondservants, obey in everything those who are your earthly masters, not by way of eye-service, as people-pleasers, but with sincerity of heart, fearing the Lord. Whatever you do, work heartily, as for the Lord and not for men, knowing that from the Lord you will receive the inheritance as your reward. You are serving the Lord Christ. For the wrongdoer will be paid back for the wrong he has done, and there is no partiality. Masters, treat your bondservants justly and fairly, knowing that you also have a Master in heaven.”

The next point would be,

“The Gospel Drives Our Prayer Life.”

Verse 2 of chapter 4 reads,

“Continue steadfastly in prayer, being watchful in it with thanksgiving.”

This point could easily be the last. But as the sermon I heard treated the passage, it would have another point

“The Gospel Drives Our Passion For Missions.”

4:3,4 read,

“At the same time, pray also for us, that God may open to us a door for the word, to declare the mystery of Christ, on account of which I am in prison—that I may make it clear, which is how I ought to speak.”

2. My next suggestion for preaching without notes is BREVITY.

I need to admit that my primary reason for thinking preaching should be shorter than the current trend is not so you can remember what you want to say. My main reason is that people will get more if you do not overwhelm them with material. If you take several weeks to preach through a subject, they will remember more. They will even have opportunity to put some of what you tell them into practice This should be encouraged as an important part of learning. But I don’t believe this is the law of the Meads and Persians. I just heard the testimony of Becket Cook as Eric Metaxis interviewed him. He said after he was saved, his pastor preached hour long sermons, and he just couldn’t get enough. I also found that preaching in many places overseas needs to be longer. There I preached as many as three sermons at once. Or even better, we had three or four preachers.

I don’t disagree with preachers who say, “We should be willing to listen longer to spiritual things.” But I am convinced that people retain more, if we break what God gives us to say into several sermons. I know people can watch a three hour movie, or binge watch an entire TV series in a week. But those are different mediums. You have heard the phrase, “Cut to the chase.” Motion pictures are more action than intellectual content. I have said, “If I were approached by someone who wanted to turn one of my novels into a motion picture, I would be reluctant. That is because, with a few exceptions, movies don’t deliver spiritual depth very well. Your sermon needs some excitement. But even your stories are illustrations of deeper points.

And, yes, if your sermons are not quite so long, you will be less likely to need notes.

3. Finally, one of the most important factors in preaching without notes is PREPARATION.
I always composed my sermons out loud. But when I had time, I would still preach them over, usually several times. If your sermon is haphazardly organized, this won’t help as much. You would have to memorize every word. I know preachers who do this effectively. But I honestly don’t know how they do it. But if your points fit together, you can go over them when you drive or mow the lawn.

I appreciate all the feedback I got on the earlier blogs on this subject. One of the men who commented on a Facebook page where I posted them said, “This wouldn’t work for me.” He may have been right. But he may have been saying, “That is out of my comfort zone.” Communicating the gospel is important enough that it is worth stretching yourself to see if it makes your sermons better. I am convinced that it will, even if you do not adopt my methods in the long run.

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FOOTNOTES IN THE BIBLE

Do you ever follow out the footnotes in your Bible? We don't read or write footnotes much in these days? We are conditioned to read as fast as possible. I need to be honest here. I am a slow reader, so I might have a tendency to justify my weakness. But taking the time to follow out a footnote broadens understanding and enjoyment.

Most English Bibles have three kinds of footnotes. They usually have different markings that you may have to read the introduction to your edition to discern.

First there are notes for Clarification.

These often explain the broader use of a word in the original language. They may point out differences in some early manuscripts.

Some are interpretive Comments. Your Bible may have only a few, if any of these. If you have a Study Bible, these will make up most of the comments. They may be explanations, or arguments for a certain point of view. These notes should not be taken as Scripture, but they can be very helpful. And as a writer of books on the Scriptures, I have to admit that you probably get better insights by reading notes right in your Bible. When you read something in a book, you may say, "I understand that." When you read a note in your Bible, you might say, "I understand that the Bible says this."

Most of your footnotes will be Cross References. Some Bibles have so many of these they need a center column. I think these may be the most valuable notes in your Bible, even though following them out takes time. For most of my adult life I tried to read the Bible through every year in my daily devotional time. That was good for me. But once you have done it several times, I think it is much more beneficial to read less, and go deeper. And following the cross references is a good way to do that.

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Talitha Cumi טְלִיחָא קוּמִי

The Gospels were written in Greek. But in all of them certain Aramaic or Hebrew words are included and are usually translated.

One of the reasons for this is that the writer was present when striking Hebrew words were spoken. They were so vivid in Mark's mind, that he quoted them. I believe that is true when Matthew and Mark quote Jesus on the cross saying, “Eloi, Eloi, lema sabachthani," "My God, my God, Why have you forsaken me!" Although this is also a quote from the 22nd Psalm.

One particular case of this is found in the raising of the daughter of Jairus. Jesus had entered the home of Jairus the Synagogue Ruler whose daughter had died. Jesus allowed no one to go with Him into the girl's room, but her mother and father, Peter, James, and John. There Jesus raised the child from the dead. Mark 5:41-42 reads,

"Taking her by the hand he said to her, “Talitha cumi,” which means, “Little girl, I say to you, arise.” And immediately the girl got up and began walking (for she was twelve years of age), and they were immediately overcome with amazement."

But we know Mark was not there to hear those words spoken by Jesus. Jesus only allowed the child's parents, and three Disciples into that room. However, what is considered to be reliable tradition tells us that Mark was the protege of Simon Peter. I suspect Peter's description of this event was so vivid that Mark couldn't help repeating it. And we see several things from this.

First we have an eye witness reflection of the tenderness of Jesus. "Talitha" was an Aramaic endearment for a little girl. I cannot read this story from Mark without melting at our Master's tender voice. I would like my voice to reflect His love as I tell His story.

We have here an eye witness reflection of the authority of Jesus. The authority of Jesus is reflected in who people were saying He was. People were perplexed about who Jesus really was. He didn't just heal a person here and there. When He entered a town or region, hundreds of sick people were brought to Him and He healed them all. But this healing was different. The little girl was dead. And while Jesus charged them not to tell anyone, those in the room witnessed His authority over life and death. I want to know and share the One with that authority.

Finally, we have an eye witness reflection of the reality of the event. The use of the very words of Jesus brings us into that room as well. I think it is interesting that Mark tells us that she got up and walked because she was 12 years old. Have you ever addressed a 12 year old as a little child? If so, you did not please the child. Of course it was fitting for Jesus to call her talitha in the aftermath of the tragedy. But Mark explains that she was nearly grown. Luke also records this event. He tells us Jesus told the parents to give her something to eat. They were evidently too overcome with joy and amazement to think about what they needed to do for her. That would have been a detail too mundane for a myth. This is evidence of the reality of the event.


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GLORY IN THE CROSS

Mostly because of medical treatments, I don’t preach much any more. But from time to time, God still encourages me with a sermon idea. And at least with this one, I decided to publish a brief of the sermon in this blog.

Glory In The Cross

(C.I.T.: Paul wanted to avoid glorying in anything but the cross of Jesus.
Focus: Glorying
PEOPLE:
PURPOSE: Consecrative; I want my hearers to desire to glory in the cross.
THRUST: We need to glory in the cross alone.
PICTURE: "Well done good and faithful servant. Enter into the joy of your master.")

Please look with me at Galatians 6:14

"But far be it from me to boast except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by which the world has been crucified to me, and I to the world."

Many years ago I was pastor of a church that built a new worship center. And I got to pick the pulpit. I had seen one that was shaped like a cross. I told the builder what I wanted, and he found one for me. When it was installed, I went to a store that made plaques and got a small brass plaque and mounted it permanently to the pulpit where anyone who stood behind it could see. It read, "God forbid that I should glory. . ."

The translation of Scripture that I read from used the word boast. But the word in the original language is, "glory." This is a problem because we never use the word glory as a verb in modern English. The Classic Amplified Bible expands this verse to express its meaning.

"But far be it from me to glory [in anything or anyone] except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ (the Messiah) through Whom the world has been crucified to me, and I to the world!"

Let me connect this verse with its context by reading chapter 5, verse 26.

"Let us not become conceited, provoking one another, envying one another."

But just as the word boast gives evidence of a struggle to translate 6:14 from the original language to modern English, the word conceit does not quite get the meaning in 5:26. The Greek word here is a compound word made up of the word glory and the word for vanity. So the Classic Amplified Bible read,

"Let us not become vainglorious and self-conceited, competitive and challenging and provoking and irritating to one another, envying and being jealous of one another."

We are tempted to come at one another in competition, seeking our glory from or instead of them. My wife recently gave me a copy of C.S. Lewis's book, The Weight of Glory. In the introduction, Lewis' secretary, Walter Hooper, said he and Lewis once discussed Mallory's Morte d' Arthur. At one point Lancelot said with his selfless acts, he was "winning worship," that is increase his reputation. They agreed that statement was inherited from paganism. But Hooper asked if Lewis was aware that, however unintentionally, he was "winning worship" through his marvellous books.

Lewis responded in a low still voice, and with the deepest and most complete humility Hooper had ever seen in anyone, "One cannot be too careful not to think of it." But you cannot simply avoid vainglory. You must focus on higher glory.

This relates to a deep need in our lives. Jesus painted a picture of the ultimate fulfillment of this truth. In the Parable of The Talents in Matthew 25 He said the master would say to those who invested and increased what had been entrusted to them, "Well done, good and faithful servant. You have been faithful over a little; I will set you over much. Enter into the joy of your master." We all desperately need to hear God's words, "Well done." That is our glory. No other glory will satisfy our need.

Our true glory comes to us through the gospel. Our glory is the cross. It begins by calling us to admit we are nothing. Galatians 6:3 keys on this in the fellowship as Paul seeks to bind the church family together.

"For if anyone thinks he is something, when he is nothing, he deceives himself."

But Jesus died for us to give us His glory. That is the glory of the cross. Let me give you six applications of the glory of the cross in our lives. I promise I will not preach to you for an hour on each of these points. But I earnestly desire for you to grasp each of these applications of your glory of the gospel of Jesus Christ.

Recognizing The Glory of The Cross

As long as the cross is merely the beginning point of your faith, you have not grasped much of its meaning.


Receiving The Glory of The Cross

John 1:12 says,

"But to all who did receive him, who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God."

To receive Christ is to put your faith in Him and in what He did for you on the cross.


Reveling In The Glory of The Cross

To grasp the depth of what Jesus did for you at the cross, you must meditate on it. Think about it and soak up its reality in your life.


Rejoicing In The Glory of The Cross

And meditating on the wonder of it, should cause you to rejoice in all that God has done for you. If you cannot rejoice over what God has done for you, you have an intellectual disconnect. You just don’t get it.

Boasting About The Glory of The Cross

We ought to desire that God be glorified because of the cross. It is certainly worth telling others about.


Sharing The Glory of The Cross

And we should be prepared to help people come to know the glory of the cross for themselves.

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FEAR AND GREAT JOY

In Matthew 28:8, we read,

"So they departed quickly from the tomb with fear and great joy."

Fear and joy do not always go together. And many translations emphasize the difference with something like “They departed with great joy, even though they were afraid.” However, this differentiation does not reflect the wording of this passage in the original language of The New Testament. In this verse it simply lays them out together. And when we come into the presence of the Son of God, fear and great joy can become corresponding emotions.

I am reminded of the woman who was healed of her issue of blood as she snuck up behind Jesus and touched the hem of His robe. When Jesus looked around asking, "Who touched me", she knew she was discovered. And she came forward with "fear and trembling." I also think of the disciples being terrified because Jesus calmed the storm on the sea.

One thing joy and fear have in common is their intensity of emotion. There is nothing casual about drawing near the Creator of the universe.

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SOME DOUBTED

When I first thought about writing this series, I was primarily thinking of positive things God shows us through quiet things in the Gospel accounts. But the implications of some of them are negative. One of them accompanies the Great Commission.

Look with me at Matthew 28:16-17.

"Now the eleven disciples went to Galilee, to the mountain to which Jesus had directed them. And when they saw him, they worshiped him, but some doubted."

How do you explain doubt in those who met and even embraced the risen Christ? Humans seem to have an infinite capacity to doubt. There is no situation where you could not be tempted to doubt what God is up to. They were experiencing living evidence of the ultimate miracle, the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead. But some of them still doubted.

The word translated "doubted" is, "distazo." Which means wavering between two stances. But how could any of those who met him in Galilee have questioned who he was or whom they would follow?

These doubters were all believers. This passage only mentions the eleven. But just a few verses earlier Jesus charged the women leaving the tomb to go tell His brothers. We have evidence that they came to believe after His resurrection. I suspect disciples like Cleopas and his wife were also there. And what about Mary Magdalene, His mother, and the other women who followed Him? In 1 Corinthians 15 Paul mentions over 500 people who saw Him at one time after His resurrection. Could these have been there? I think they must have been.

Jesus specifically chose these people to be witnesses of His resurrection, and to take the gospel to the rest of the world. And the enemy will tempt you to doubt when God gives you a crucial task.

Jesus scolded His disciples for not believing when the women told them they had seen Him alive. But here, we are at least not told that He castigated them. As far as we know, His only remedy for their doubts was fellowship with Him.

Are you being tempted to doubt what God has said, or what God is doing? If you are not, you will yet be so tempted. And one of the most effective cures for doubt is spending time in His presence.

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THE AUTHORITY OF FRIENDSHIP

In John 15:15 Jesus said something I don't think I have ever heard emphasized.

"No longer do I call you servants, for the servant does not know what his master is doing; but I have called you friends."

The Great Commission actually begins with Jesus saying, “All Authority in Heaven and Earth has been given to me.” In a sense He is saying, “Listen, I'm in charge." We speak of the laws of nature reflecting God's Authority. And we understand that these laws are absolute. For instance, we know that the law of gravity cannot be broken. If you were to jump from the top of the Empire State Building, you would not break the law of gravity. You would prove it. And about the authority of Christ, Luke 20:17-18 refers to the words of the psalmist.

"He is the stone that the builders rejected. Everyone who falls on that stone will be broken to pieces, and when it falls on anyone, it will crush him.”

But if we think of authority like that of a dictator or a Drill Sergeant, we do not fully understand His authority. Look with me at the passage I referred to about friendship, John 15:12-15.

“This is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you. Greater love has no one than this, that someone lay down his life for his friends. You are my friends if you do what I command you. No longer do I call you servants, for the servant does not know what his master is doing; but I have called you friends, for all that I have heard from my Father I have made known to you.”

Jesus is saying that we serve Him and one another as friends. In this passage Jesus links two of the words for love in the original language of the New Testament, agape and philos. Of course He had to accurately define agape love for us. He told us to love one another as He loves us. That stretches love to the ultimate sacrifice of the cross.

And He uses Philos, calling us His friends. Here Jesus stretches friendship beyond anything we can imagine. We are His friends because Jesus gave His life for us. We show that we are His friends when we do what He commands. In His grace, Jesus shows us the authority of divine friendship.

First, we see The Authority of Devotion.

We are to obey Him because we love Him. And we love Him and one another because He loves us. When you come to realize the magnitude of the love of God who gave His only Son for you, your heart will overflow with love that will do anything for Him.

And in this passage Jesus brings out The Authority of Purpose.

He said He no longer calls us servants, because a servant does not know what His master is doing. We know what Paul declared in 2 Corinthians 5:19, that in Christ God is reconciling the world to Himself. In verse 18 he says God has given us the ministry of reconciliation.

Most of you are familiar with Rick Warren's book The Purpose Driven Life. In that study Rick points out that our lives need to be driven by the purposes of God.

Finally, in speaking of His friendship, Jesus points out The Authority of Understanding.

He says, "All that I have heard from my Father I have made known to you." Our serving God depends upon our understanding the things of God. And the more we grow in our understanding, the more faithful we will be to Him.

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WITH THE WILD ANIMALS

The Gospel of Mark begins like thunder, with the prophecy of Isaiah and the ministry of John the Baptist. In rapid succession Mark runs through the events leading up to the temptation of Jesus in the wilderness. Then Mark rushes on without giving us the details of His temptation found in Matthew and Luke. But he gives a quiet detail not found in the other Gospels. Look with me at Mark 1:13

“And he was in the wilderness forty days, being tempted by Satan. And he was with the wild animals, and the angels were ministering to him”

What does it mean that Jesus was with the wild animals? I think we can see some implications of this. And in bringing these out I need to admit that these are only implied. They may not be completely accurate. But they are worth thinking about.

First, this implied courage. Wild animals are dangerous. Wolves and wild dogs ran in packs in Israel in those days. Syrian Brown Bears were still in the area, as were many kinds of poisonous serpents. Weakness was a major part of our Lord's incarnation. And His vulnerability was at the heart of His temptation in the wilderness. To automatically assume that God would have protected Him would be very like the Muslim reason for not believing Jesus died on the cross. They say God would not have allowed His prophet to die in such a shameful way.

You also have to assume that Jesus was quiet. One important difference between humans and animals in the wild is quiet. Both predators and prey make very little noise. I suspect some of the temptation of Jesus in the wilderness was agonizing. But Matthew 12 quotes from Isaiah 42.

“He will not quarrel or cry aloud,

nor will anyone hear his voice in the streets;

a bruised reed he will not break,

and a smouldering wick he will not quench,

until he brings justice to victory.”

If He was not quiet, Jesus wouldn't have seen wild animals.

And we have to assume Jesus could be still. I have a nephew who could coax animals to come to him when he was a child. I saw a black squirrel climb up his leg as he sat on a bench in a park in Vancouver, BC. They wouldn't come within 40 feet of other people. He was not old enough to start school when, on a visit with us, he caught a mouse in his hand. The mouse did bite him. But I couldn't have caught the mouse with a net. And whatever characteristics went into his unusual ability, the most obvious was persistent stillness. Jesus must have been very still as well.

Jesus must also have been at peace. Animals can sense when humans around them are disturbed. And they respond appropriately. Jesus had to have been somewhat disturbed by temptation. But at least between times of trial, He must have had an underlying peace that the animals could sense.

And of course He must have shown great tenderness toward the animals. Few things demonstrate the depravity of man as clearly as cruelty to animals.

I believe all this gives evidence of our Lord's authority over nature. There is not a great deal of difference in-kind here, from His ability to walk on water, calm a storm, or heal the sick. But if we think of His authority, as we sometimes think of human authority, overpowering those to whom it is applied, I believe we are thinking wrong. In Matthew 11 Jesus called to us with the same authority, that He said at the end of Matthew's Gospel had been given Him over Heaven and Earth. But in Matthew 11:28-30 He invites us.

“Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.”

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QUIET THINGS IN THE GOSPELS

Over the entire course of my ministry I have been drawn to thunderous things in the Bible. I love Elijah's prayer as he called fire from heaven, and the day the sun stood still for Joshua, Isaiah's seeing the Lord in Isaiah 6, the angels at the birth of Jesus, the voice from heaven at His baptism, the mount of transfiguration, the earthquake at the cross, the angel rolling the stone from the tomb, and hundreds more.

But lately God has been drawing me to quiet things, especially in the life of Jesus. These are things like Jesus reaching out to touch a leper who had not felt a human touch for years, or His giving His mother to John from the cross. There are quite a few of these as well. They are not usually the foundations of major doctrines, but the Holy Spirit can give amazing insights from them. Some of these are difficult to understand. And we have to think about them before they begin to make sense. Many of them are recorded in the Gospels simply because they happened. I want to share some of them with you because God often touches my heart with His peace through them. And I am convinced that He will bless you as we look at them together.

These may be the foundation of a book that I will yet write. I have been praying for God to give me time to write a book on peace. My granddaughter Olivia’s name was particularly chosen in connection with God's Olive Branch to and through us. And she occasionally reminds me of that, and half a promise that I will write such a book. And I pray God's peace will touch your heart through these scriptures.

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LISTENING

Listening is one of the most powerful tools you can employ to improve your preaching. Of course, we primarily need to listen to God. In Isaiah 55:3 God calls us to do just that.

“Give ear and come to me. Hear me that your soul may live.”

You can listen to God in your reading. First, read the Scriptures. Every Pastor needs a regular system of reading God's word that is separate from you sermon studies. You will have trouble encouraging your people to open their lives to Scripture, if you do not regularly saturate yourself in God's word. I once heard a younger friend of T.B. Maston, who wrote Biblical Ethics, and other books, tell about Dr. Maston's reading habits. He liked to read in the library. And before he would read anything else, he would read the Bible for several hours, covering multiple books of the Bible in a sitting.

I also think every preacher should memorize Scripture. And it seems to me that if I will meditate on memorized Scripture, God inevitably touches my heart. From time to time I have benefited greatly by simply listening to recorded Scripture. Recordings of the Bible are readily available through Bible Gateway and other programs.

In addition to the Bible, you can read books in which God will personally engage your heart and mind. I am a slow reader. And this has been a problem for me all my life. But I still read several books at once. Ideally for my preaching I should read different kinds of books. One might be on biblical backgrounds, another historical fiction, and a third, poetry, or even a murder mystery. For many of us listening to a book is a helpful experience. In fact, if I read a really good book, fiction or nonfiction, I will often try to find it recorded and listen to it as well. Different things strike me while I am listening, than when I am reading.

Possibly the most important thing you can do to improve your preaching is to listen to sermons by other preachers. Do you have favorite preachers that you listen to? I had a friend in college who had met one of the best-known preachers of that day. And he took the opportunity to ask him what he did to prepare his messages. He said, “I get most of my messages as God speaks to me when I'm listening to other preachers.”

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STORYTELLING

When I was a boy, our pastor was Dr. Max Stanfield. That may not mean anything to you if you are not from Oklahoma, and now, if you are not really old. Dr. Max died in the dark ages when I was 13. But he was a marvellous preacher, and a wonderful pastor. He had been a college football player, and a collegiate champion debater. Above all else, I remember Max as a consummate storyteller. He used to tell the character stories in our two week Vacation Bible School. And he held hundreds of kids spellbound as he told the stories. In those days our church was growing rapidly. And Max was a very busy man. So it was not uncommon for Max to be called away when he was supposed to tell the story. And we were always terribly disappointed when someone else had to tell it. They just couldn't make a story come alive like Max.
As I said, Max died when I was 13. And yet the full length of my pastoral ministry, nearly 50 years, I told stories that I remember Max using in his sermons.” I am tempted to tell one or two of them to you now. But I believe Max would agree with me, that the most important stories you can tell in your preaching are directly from the Bible.
Telling Bible stories is a marvellous way of conveying truth. There is a biblical principle here. If I were to ask which parables of Jesus you remember, I would not be surprised if some of you could remember all of them. And I suspect, some of you could tell 20 or more Old Testament stories off the top of your head. Why is that? It is because good stories stick in your heart and mind.
I once heard Dr. Clyde Fant, Preaching Professor at Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary, tell about developing and cultivating storytelling skills for preaching, by telling stories to his children and grandchildren. Teaching children may be a mark of Christ-like ministry. And you can always find children who will listen to stories.
You may be aware that one of the greatest breakthroughs in missions in the past 30 years has been what is called Orality. Many of the yet unreached people groups in the world do not have a written language, or do not have the Bible translated for them to read. And many people do not read well, for one reason or another, even in America. Groups like Wycliffe Bible Translators are making great progress in translating scripture into new languages. But while they are learning the languages and cultures, they tell them Bible stories, and train new believers to tell the stories to others.
Frankly, I believe some of you would do well in your situation, to simply tell Bible stories for most or all of your sermons. This is actually a type of Expository Preaching. Have you ever heard R.G. Lee’s Payday Someday? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_BZepT-czgU When I preached story sermons, I would do the background work I wrote about in a previous blog.
Tim Ahlen, (http://fmbcdallas.church/speaker/877/) Pastor of Forest Meadow Baptist Church in Dallas Texas, may be the ultimate practitioner of this method, although I know many people who know much more about it than I. I have heard Tim tell a Bible story twice for the same sermon, taking a few minutes in between to emphasize the main truths of the story. When I did this, and I did it quite a bit, I would explain to my people that I was telling the story twice to help fix it in their minds. And I would encourage them to tell the story to someone else that week.
Another friend of mine, J.O. Terry, (https://www.google.com/search?q=j.o.+terry&rlz=1C1CHBF_enUS729US731&oq=J.O.+TErry&aqs=chrome.0.35i39.9404j0j4&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8) has developed Orality Networks across the world, and taught orality at Southwestern Seminary. He has done orality training in many countries with The International Mission Board, and through connections with other missions agencies. He teaches people to use groups of stories that relate to certain themes. In a recent email he wrote, “We are not necessarily trying to teach a single story, the use of longer story clusters helps to fix a story, it helps to increase the intensity or feeling about a story, and it tells the consequences or rewards of a key story.” Storytellers use his methods in many countries overseas. And they apply to the human condition everywhere.
I know of no better source for Bible Story Training for missions, and for preaching, than books J.O. has written. They include,
BASIC BIBLE STORYING,
GRIEF STORIES, good news for those with stories of misfortune and grief,
WATER STORIES FROM THE BIBLE: Stories leading to the living water and the invitation in the Bible for all to come and drink,
THE EBENEZER STORIES: discipleship stories for women,
HOPE STORIES FROM THE BIBLE,
STORYTELLING FOR CHURCH PLANTERS,
BIBLE STORYING, drawing the net, and others.
These are all available on Amazon.com.
Whether you use the stories as your entire sermon, or simply tell several good stories in every sermon, a good preacher will learn to be a great storyteller.

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3.WALKING YOUR SERMON

Every week when I was a pastor, I did what I called walking my sermons. Although this depends on the Biblical foundations I wrote about last week, I believe it is the most valuable advice I can give preachers.
The sermon is an oral event. It is what Marshall McLuhan called a hot medium of communication. I would argue that you should not write out a sermon, and then try to memorize it, trying to translate from writing, a cool medium, to the heat.
After I had read my text aloud many times, some before a mirror, and worded my points, I was ready to compose my sermon. I would literally go outside and walk, rain, snow, or shine. As I walked I would preach over everything that came to mind about each point. Several times over the years I had deacons or leadership kid me about this practice. But they admitted they liked the results. As far as I know, others in the church didn't know about it. In fact, I think people thought my sermons just came to me out of the blue, and they were made uncomfortable, when I talked about the process.
Although I was doing this long before I had heard about Prayer-Walking, what I did was similar. One big difference came when I saw people. In Prayer-Walking I would walk toward people praying for them as I drew near. In walking my sermons I usually prayed briefly for people I saw. But I would walk the other direction. God has called some of you to large enough cities that avoiding people is impossible. But there, they will ignore you, if you are not too loud or acrobatic.
As I walked, I would preach everything that came into my mind on each point. I would sometimes preach up to an hour on a point, although it usually didn't take so long to preach a single point. You might think that would make my sermons too long. But it had the opposite effect. I would automatically know what fit the sermon, and what did not. I held the conviction that if I could say the same thing in less time, I had said it better. Brevity is force.
Preaching everything that came to mind also seemed to add a depth to what I preached. It settled a broader understanding in my mind.
After I had preached the entire sermon over, I would usually know how to frame my introduction in a way that would grip the attention of my people, and lead into the rest of the sermon. My introduction usually came from something I knew connected with the entire sermon. And at least for my Sunday morning sermon, I would preach the shortened version over at least one more time.
But what about notes? First, notes are a cooling factor in your sermon. Worse, if you stumble, it is often over your notes. I would mark scriptures in my Bible that I would rather read than quote. And on rare occasions I would take quotations into the pulpit. With this method you only need to go into the pulpit with your introduction and points in mind. Your illustrations and applications will simply come as ways of making each point.
Some of you, possibly very few of you these days, may know that I regularly published sermon material in PROCLAIM and other magazines over the years. But I did not write out sermons, or even illustrations, until I had preached them to my people. In this way I hoped to keep the fire of the sermon as I translated into print.
So, will this method work for you? I am convinced that it will. But you will not know if you can do this until you have tried. If you have difficulty, you can contact me, daveswatch@gmail.com. I will check this account at least once a week. If you wish to talk to me, I will give you contact information.

However you do it, Preach The Word!

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2 THE FOUNDATIONS OF BIBLICAL PREACHING

What I am teaching in these blog posts is expository or direct Biblical preaching. I believe there is a place for topical preaching and apologetic, or subject teaching. But I believe you will find great power in sharing what God has to say to people in His word.

THE SPIRITUAL CONNECTION

AND

BIBLICAL BEDROCK

OF THE SERMON

"Do you not believe that I am in the Father and the Father is in me? The words that I say to you I do not speak on my own authority, but the Father who dwells in me does his works."

John 14:10

In preaching God must strike the hearts of people with the lightning of His presence. The first important factor in connecting to that is your own relationship with God, ultimately, consistently and immediately.

"Let the prophet who has a dream tell the dream, but let him who has my word speak my word faithfully. What has straw in common with wheat? declares the Lord."

Jeremiah 23:28

The sermon must be anchored on the bedrock of God’s word.

"I charge you in the presence of God and of Christ Jesus, who is to judge the living and the dead, and by his appearing and his kingdom: preach the word; be ready in season out of season; reprove, rebuke, and exhort, with complete patience and teaching."

2 Timothy 4:1,2

I actually think these 5 things are essential to sermon preparation.

Get yourself right.

Read yourself full.

Think yourself clear.

Pray yourself hot.

Preach yourself out.

This is not necessarily a sequence. God can give seeds of sermon ideas in any order.

What I have below is a good general order for laying a solid foundation for your sermon. I call it Serback for sermon background thinking.

SERBACK

TEXT:
Determine the specific Bible text you are going to preach. It can be long or short.

C.I.T.:
(Central idea of the text) A simple sentence that states the heart of the passage. This generally needs to be in the past tense. It states what the passage said to the people who first heard it.

FOCUS:
You can focus on a specifics in a passage. For instance a sermon on John 3:16 may focus on the love of God, the gift of God, the Son of God, believing in God, not perishing, or eternal life.

PEOPLE:
You need a clear picture of the people you are addressing. The first distinction is Believers or Unbelievers. And you may know other things about the people who will hear you.

Felt Need:
I have noted 11 basic human needs. You need to think about this yourself. I suspect many of you will come up with more needs.

PHYSICAL NEEDS
Sustenance
Security
EMOTIONAL NEEDS
Comfort
Wonder
Truth
Righteousness
Forgiveness
Divine Connection
Significance
Purpose
Ultimate security

PURPOSE OF THIS SERMON:
There are at least 6 major biblical purposes for a sermon. These are followed by a specific purpose which is stated as a simple sentence beginning with, “I want my hearers to . . .” You need to determine the major and specific purpose of each sermon.

Doctrinal; “I want my hearers to know…” or “understand…”

Devotional; “Praise God for. . .”

Evangelistic; “I want my hearers to give their lives to Christ.”

Consecrative/Actional; “I want my hearers to commit to…” or “I want my hearers to (do)…”

Supportive; “I want my hearers to be comforted.”

Promotional; (This is a type of consecrative sermon promoting a specific cause or program.)

If you do not know how you want your hearers to respond they will not know when you are finished.


THRUST:
This will be a simple sentence corresponding to your specific purpose statement, such as “Accept Christ as Savior and Lord.” This is not unlike the thesis of an essay.

PICTURE:
You need to find a visualization of what you are saying. Jesus did this with the parables. “Behold, a sower went out to sow.”

Emotion:
Your picture will always draw certain emotions. It will help you to think about what emotion you wish to strike. Some legitimate emotions are joy, humility, sorrow, fear, anger, conviction, and submission. To some extent the emotion you strike in your visualization will apply to the entire sermon, although each element, possibly each sentence may strike a separate emotion. (One of my favorite preachers did not think this was helpful to him. He thought deciding ahead of time what emotion to strike would be contrived.)

Reason:
Any emotion can be misused. I think it is valuable to note the reason you want to elicit a certain emotion.

URGENCY:
Determine why this sermon is urgent for people to hear. You will find that settling this will be crucial to stirring the hearts of people. There are several reasons for urgency that sermons may touch.
Truth
Danger
Value
Necessity
Imminence

CONNECTION TO THE GOSPEL:
Every sermon needs to connect the the gospel of Jesus Christ. You will often need to think about a Scripture passage for some time, before you see how its truth links to the gospel.

CHARISMATA:
I think it is worth noting which spiritual gifts you are asking God to give you in the sermon. Of course, you want to be open to whatever He decides to give. Several of the listed gifts are obviously part of preaching.
1. Prophesy
The word prophecy does not primarily speak of prediction in Scripture, although it can. It is a word for speaking from and for God.
2. Evangelism
3. Teaching
4. Encouragement
5. Leadership
6. Spiritual Discernment
7. Mercy
8. Tongue
In Acts 2 each person heard in their own dialect. Everyone has their own heart language. Especially when I have preached through an interpreter, I prayed for that miracle. I believe it is more often needed than we think even when everyone speaks your language.

POINTS:
Charles Swindoll calls these principles emphasizing the importance of what you are saying.
It is good to think your points out so that they can all be drawn out of a single sentence.
Here are some examples.

YOU HAVE BEEN GIVEN A TRUST. 

Matthew 25:14-30

“A Trust Includes The Responsibility of Faithfulness.”

“A Trust Includes The Risk of Faithfulness.”

“A Trust Includes The Reward of Faithfulness.”

DO YOU BELIEVE THIS

John 11:17-27

“Do You Believe This Ultimately?”

“Do You Believe This Immediately?”

“Do You Believe This Intimately?”

Linking points in a single sentence can be more effective than using parallelism like rhymes or alliteration in giving people something to remember.

When you have finished these foundations, you can compose your sermon.

Next week I will suggest a most unusual means of preparing a sermon that I believe will unleash the power of God in your preaching.

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BIBLICAL PREACHING

INTRODUCTION

Paul's admonition to Timothy is still appropriate.

“I charge you in the presence of God and of Christ Jesus, who is to judge the living and the dead, and by his appearing and his kingdom: preach the word; be ready in season and out of season; reprove, rebuke, and exhort, with complete patience and teaching.”

In my next few blogs I want to share with you with you some foundations, preparations, and suggestions for improving biblical preaching.

I am including them here in my Thinking In The Spirit blog because I don't want to start a new Blog for something that will be short term. I believe I have some things to share with you. And I pray that God will bless your ministry through them.

FOUNDATION

The first thing you need to settle is why you are preaching. You need to ask yourself several questions here. It may benefit you greatly to ask yourself these questions even if you have your sermon together for this Sunday.

Have you been born again? In John 3:3 Jesus said you cannot even see the kingdom of God if you have not been born again. A call to preach must be linked in your mind to the calling to be a child of God.

Do you have a vital relationship with Jesus Christ? If you are not in tune with Him, you will not touch lives. In Matthew 23:8-10 Jesus said.

“But you are not to be called rabbi, for you have one teacher, and you are all brothers. And call no man your father on earth, for you have one Father, who is in heaven. Neither be called instructors, for you have one instructor, the Christ.” 

We have one teacher. If He does not speak through you, you are wasting your t

Is God telling you to preach? I remember God calling me to preach my freshman year in college. His call was as clear to me as Isaiah's call in Isaiah 6. Proclaiming God's word is my life calling. And it may be yours. But I believe God tells others of us to preach in different ways. Some of you may have been asked by your church or your pastor to preach, not necessarily as a life calling. Others may have been led to start a home church. And you have to fill the needs of those who have gathered with you. But you need to settle this issue.

Do you care about the people you preach to? My pastor when I was in high school once told me, “David, you cannot preach to people that you don't love.” Many years ago I was in a preaching slump. I talked to an experienced preacher about it. He suggested something that proved to be powerful for me. He said, “In the early part of the worship service, look into the eyes of individuals in the congregation.” It is amazing what you will see, when you really look at people. I found myself understanding and connecting with them. This will not keep you from worshipping. In fact, you can pray for each of them while you praise God.

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THE SERIOUSNESS OF HYPOCRACY

It is interesting how we rank sins. My nephew has noted that different Christian denominations rank sins differently. He said divorce is about at the top in the denomination we belong to. But he told me a story of a similar church in a different denomination that was considering making someone he knew a deacon. They never questioned his divorce, but they would not ordain him, if he couldn't quit smoking.
I don't mean to minimize these or any other practices God's people treat as serious. But we often overlook hypocrisy, which is the sin Jesus condemned most severely. Jesus spoke so much about hypocrisy that I will not attempt to draw out everything He said about it. That might be a worthwhile subject for future blogs. But looking at one passage we can see some crucial reasons it is such a plague on our spiritual lives.
In Matthew 23:25-26 Jesus condemns the Pharisees because of their hypocrisy.

“Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you clean the outside of the cup and the plate, but inside they are full of greed and self-indulgence. You blind Pharisee! First clean the inside of the cup and the plate, that the outside also may be clean.”

Hypocrisy is devastating because of
The Seriousness Of Whom You Impress.

I am too horrified at the ways I have been a phony in my life to share them with you here. But I can tell you, I often catch myself trying to impress other people. I want others to think I am smart, or honest, or manly, or good. Trying, even wanting, to impress people makes them into false gods. God sees into your heart. He is not pleased with what impresses other people.

Hypocrisy is dangerous because of
The Seriousness Of Whom You Deceive.

You know that being a fake doesn't fool God. You may deceive other people some. Probably the more people you deceive, the worse the cancer in your soul. But the person you deceive most is yourself. The Pharisees were blind to the fact that appearing to be good, or close to God, didn't make it so.

And hypocrisy kills because of
The Seriousness Of What You Miss.

Pretending to be smart may not always keep you from learning. Pretending to be strong may not always make you week. Pretending to be rich, may not always make you poor. But pretending to be holy always offends God. Trying to appear good to people will cause you to overlook the corruption in your heart. Hypocrisy will make you miss God's forgiveness. And there is nothing worse in this life or the next than missing a relationship with God. And even as a child of God, a fake spiritual life will corrupt your relationship with Him and stunt spiritual growth.

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TO YOU

Several months ago I wrote a blog post that was primarily on Jeremiah 29:11. I was reacting to something I heard said from the pulpit. The preacher said we could not take this as a promise if we were not Israelites being sent into exile. I took exception to this in my blog, showing that this verse has universal application. But in this post I want to apply this truth to Scripture as a whole. Look with me at something Jesus said in Matthew 22:31-32

And as for the resurrection of the dead, have you not read what was said to you by God: ‘I am the God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob’? He is not God of the dead, but of the living.”

Jesus addresses the Sadducees in these verses. But he quotes the words spoken to Moses at the burning bush in Exodus 3. Jesus asks them, “Have you not read what was said to you by God.”
It is crucial to understand that God speaks to you in His word. Paul wrote in 1 Corinthians 10:11 that,

“These things happened to them as an example, but they were written down for our instruction, on whom the end of the ages has come.”

Some of you are rightly thinking, “But we need to approach Scripture with spiritual discernment.” Most of us know examples of misusing Scripture. The old joke tells of someone opening the Bible for direction and blindly stabbing his finger in and landing on, “Judas went out and hanged himself.” This startled him enough that he thought he had better look for another. So he stabbed his finger again. This time he landed on, “Go thou and do likewise.”

But God's people can discern. We are enlightened by the Spirit of God. 1 Corinthians 2:14-16 reads,

“The natural person does not accept the things of the Spirit of God, for they are folly to him, and he is not able to understand them because they are spiritually discerned. The spiritual person judges all things, but is himself to be judged by no one. ‘For who has understood the mind of the Lord so as to instruct him?’ But we have the mind of Christ.”

That is a powerful statement. “We have the mind of Christ.” Let me point out how these verses say God speaks. Verse 14 concludes that the things of God are, “spiritually discerned.” Let me suggest what this means. Spiritual discernment is only given by the Holy Spirit. It means the Spirit of God speaks to us personally and as gathered believers in the church. This does not mean we will never misunderstand Scripture. But it does mean He will speak to me in His word correcting my thinking.

You might ask, why then do we have so many denominations? I don't think I am qualified to answer that comprehensively. But let me tell you an experience I have had. Many years ago our church participated in a National Day of Prayer gathering and another pastor invited me to join a pastors’ prayer meeting. I started meeting with them weekly. The group had two Episcopalian pastors. There were some Congregationalists. There were a few more Presbyterians from several Presbyterian groups. There was a Lutheran pastor. And in those early days, I was the only Baptist. I prayed regularly with those men for over ten years. A week never went by when we did not quote or read aloud some scripture. And my impression was that we never disagreed on how to apply a verse in our lives. That was because God speaks through His word.

More than 40 years ago I was leading a group of adults in my church to memorize Scripture in our mid-week services. One week I was helping them memorize Acts 27:25.

“Wherefore sirs, be of good cheer: for I believe God that it will be even as he has told me.”

A lady in the group shook her head saying, “What does it mean?”

I answered, “God has said some things to you, too.” And this truth immediately dawned on her. God will speak to you in His word. And you can confidently apply it to your life.

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THE WEDDING GARMENT

What is the wedding garment in the parable in Matthew 22:12? In the parable recorded in the first verses of Matthew 22, when those who would not come to the king's wedding feast were destroyed, the servants were sent out to bring anyone they found, good or bad, to the wedding feast. But when the king came in to see his guests he found one without a wedding garment. “Friend,” he said, “how did you get in here without a wedding garment?” And there was nothing the man could answer. The king commanded his servants to bind him hand and foot and send him out into the outer darkness where there would be weeping and gnashing of teeth. Jesus consistently uses this phrase for those who will be excluded from the kingdom of God. I believe it has to describe hell.

I think the wedding garment represents three things in our lives.

I believe it must represent intimacy with Jesus Christ. In Matthew 7:23 Jesus said the problem with many who preached and healed and did miracles in His name was that He had never known them. I am told by reliable sources that the wedding garments may well have been supplied by the king himself. You did not get one because you were born into a wealthy family, or because you knew the best tailor in town. You could only get one from the King. Salvation is not simply affirming a creed or even mouthing a prayer. It is a relationship where in we know Him because He knows us intimately.

I believe the wedding garment must also represent the transformation of life that intimacy with Jesus produces in us. Romans 12:2 calls us to be transformed by the renewal of our minds. And new birth must include such life transformation.

Finally, I believe it represents the fruit of the Spirit produced in and through us. In Matthew 7:16-20 Jesus said we would know false prophets, and I assume true disciples, by their fruit. I believe this begins with love, joy, peace, and such in us. But it also includes such fruit in those we influence by the Holy Spirit of God.

Jesus applies this parable by saying, “for many are called but few are chosen.” I don't believe it is consistent with the gospel to say that those who are chosen are chosen because of their good works. In that parable we would assume that there were bad people who had a wedding garment. And we are not told that this man was better or worse than others at the table. I rather think Jesus is saying we will know those who are truly chosen by God from the fruit His personal intervention produces in our lives.

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YOUR ANGELS SEE HIS FACE

God has been showing me something in scripture this week that I just have to share with you. In Matthew 18 the disciples asked Jesus about greatness.

“At that time the disciples came to Jesus, saying, ‘Who is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven?’ And calling to him a child, he put him in the midst of them and said, ‘Truly, I say to you, unless you turn and become like children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven. Whoever humbles himself like this child is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven. Whoever receives one such child in my name receives me.’”

Jesus answered by saying that we cannot even enter the kingdom of heaven unless we repent and become like little children. And He said whoever humbles himself like this child is the greatest in the Kingdom of Heaven.

Now let me point out the humility that is like the child Jesus stood before them. Even a newborn baby is not innocent. He is selfish to the core. But he is absolutely dependent. And we must humble ourselves to become dependent upon God to enter the kingdom of heaven. Our salvation, and everything in our lives depends upon Him.

When Jesus says, “Whoever receives one such child in my name receives me,” who is he speaking about? I believe Jesus must first be referring to literal children, especially those who have already accepted Him as Savior. But I also believe Jesus is speaking of those of us who have entered the kingdom in childlike dependence. When people receive us as we go to them with the gospel, they receive Him.

Now look just a little further down the passage to verse 10

“See that you do not despise one of these little ones. For I tell you that in heaven their angels always see the face of my Father who is in heaven.”

Again, who is Jesus talking about? I believe He is telling us that children have guardian angels who always see our Heavenly Father's face.

We do not yet see Him face to face. 1 John 3:2 says we will be made like Jesus when we see His face. But could it also be that as we become children of God, we too are surrounded by Heavenly angels who continually see His face?” And of course Jesus Himself is always interceding for us before the Father. You are well-represented before the throne.

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