Monthly Archives: April 2009

Matthew 9:35-38
35 And Jesus went throughout all the cities and villages, teaching in their synagogues and proclaiming the gospel of the kingdom and healing every disease and every affliction. 36 When he saw the crowds, he had compassion for them, because they were harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd. 37 Then he said to his disciples, “The harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few; 38therefore pray earnestly to the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into his harvest.”

What does it mean to be like Jesus? There are many ways that question can be answered. Usually we think of compassion, holiness, sacrifice. And we should, for that is part of what it means to be conformed to the image of Christ.

There is a subset of compassion that we see in Christ that is important to consider as we think about what it means to be like Jesus. Pain. Pain for others. In Matthew 9:36-38 we read about Jesus looking at a group of people who He sees as “harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd”.

What do we see when we look at the people who share our city, our neighbourhoods, apartment buildings..? What do we see when we see multitudes of people who believe that they can earn favour with God? What do we see when we see girls barely out of middle school pushing their babies in strollers? What do we see when we encounter people who lie to us in order to get a handout of food? What do we see when we see people with a grade four education pontificating about what needs to be done to improve the economy? What do we see when we see people with their nails chewed down to the quick, their hair matted and unkempt, their voices hoarse from tobacco and drink and their faces too wrinkled and potted for their age?

We need to see people who have believed a lie, who have developed amazing survival skills that will ultimately fail them, who know not half of what they think, and who have learned to survive in the midst of great horrors. We need to see people who have been harassed and helpless who really are sheep without a shepherd and do not know it. We need to see us. It should lead us to pray.

Psalm 66:1-4
1 Shout for joy to God, all the earth;
2sing the glory of his name;
give to him glorious praise!
3Say to God, “How awesome are your deeds!
So great is your power that your enemies come cringing to you.
4 All the earth worships you
and sings praises to you;
they sing praises to your name.”

The whole earth is called upon to shout for joy to God. How easy it is to lose sight of the wonders of God. And how gracious He is to keep reminding us through the Scriptures that His wonders are everywhere to be found and should strike us with awe.

Every call to worship, every command to give God glory, every memory of the greatness of His power, His works, His favour, are all reminders of how prone we are to turn inward and live as if we were the centre of the universe.

And they are the words of God to us that He remembers that we are dust and need to be constantly brought back out of ourselves into the glories that He is. But even in examining the wonders of God there is the temptation to become self centered.

We are right to see the glories of creation as being there for us to enjoy. But we are very wrong to believe that all God gave great wonders for was us to have enjoyment. The great wonders of nature exist to be enjoyed for the praise of God’s glory. Christians are people who see a great God behind every wonder of nature.

Why are we repeatedly told throughout the Scriptures to give God praise? Because we are so prone not to. Because we gravitate to idolatry. Because we value the gifts of God more than God who gives them to us.

We need to see the commands of God as something that grace has enabled us to do and which is far better than whatever else we were going to do and far better than looking down. Worship is a gift from God and it is a shameful thing that we miss the grace in the command to worship.

O Lord, thank you for allowing us, enabling us, reminding us and getting us back to that which if far better than what we would design for ourselves. What great grace we miss when we do not get into the Scriptures to find the grace that permeates every page.

Proverbs 13:1
1A wise son hears his father’s instruction,
but a scoffer does not listen to rebuke.

The smarter someone thinks he is the less likely he is to listen to advice, correction, counsel. There are some glorious exceptions to this and for that we can be very thankful. But it is a general truth that the smarter we think we are, the more we think that we know more than others, the more likely we are to resent being told what to do. We use the intelligence God gave us to deny that we need Him at all.

The irony in this is that the Bible is clear that the mark of real wisdom is the willingness to accept instruction. Those who think they are too wise, too savvy, too smart to be instructed, are giving testimony that they are very stupid. There is no one so smart, so experienced, so well read that he cannot benefit from the input of others.

This is supremely the case for Christians. We live by the instruction of a Book. To refuse to consult it is the grandest sin of all – it is to claim that one does not need God, thank you very much.

“A wise son listens to his father’s instruction” this verse says. This addresses the most difficult teaching learning situation there can be – a father to his son. Fathers sin in two ways here. Some are over anxious to instruct and never give their sons any room to develop in their thinking or behaviour. Other fathers neglect to instruct their sons properly and young men enter the world unprepared because dad was silent. This was David’s problem (I Kings 1:5f). One wonders if the author of the Proverb remembers his father David’s poor fathering and has learned from the mistakes he was forced to be raised under.

In any case, fathers are to realize that God has given them a great responsibility and no matter how difficult, they are to find ways to teach their sons in real wisdom. The souls of their sons and the flourishing of the church hangs in the balance. Fathers need to raise their sons in such a way that they earn the right to be heard by their sons and have raised sons who want to be taught.

This is God’s doing and it is a great work of grace. Fathers, pray to be the teacher that your sons dearly need and, yes, want.

Galatians 2:15-16
15We ourselves are Jews by birth and not Gentile sinners; 16yet we know that a person is not justified by works of the law but through faith in Jesus Christ, so we also have believed in Christ Jesus, in order to be justified by faith in Christ and not by works of the law, because by works of the law no one will be justified.

The point Paul clearly makes in these two verses is that regardless of whether you are Jew or Gentile, there is only one way to be saved – faith in Jesus Christ. “… a person is not justified by works of the law but through faith in Jesus Christ.” The error that maintains that some can be saved through the law is still with us. It is a denial of the Gospel and falls under the condemnation of Galatians 1:8-9.

All who do not have Jesus Christ are lost and need to be saved. No one who has died without Jesus Christ gets a second chance. There are many who claim to be Christians who will conclude that people are granted entrance into eternal life based on their response to the light they had. They teach that if someone who never heard the Gospel is faithful to the religious beliefs that he was taught, then God will count that as good enough to merit eternal salvation.

The New Testament specifically contradicts this. Romans 1:18-32, Romans 10:5-17 in particular tell us that salvation comes only through conscious faith toward Jesus Christ. To teach otherwise is to condemn a vast host of humanity to a Christless eternity.

The great missionary movements of history and current missionary efforts in the world are not wasting their time. They are needed, because people are dying outside of Jesus Christ and they need to be told the Gospel so that they will trust Jesus to save them from their sins.

Pray for people to hear and believe the Gospel. And be a part of the answer to you prayer – give the biblical Gospel to whoever God grants you opportunity.

Psalm 34:1-3
1I will bless the LORD at all times;
his praise shall continually be in my mouth.
2My soul makes its boast in the LORD;
let the humble hear and be glad.
3Oh, magnify the LORD with me,
and let us exalt his name together!

“I will bless the Lord at all times” – How much can be said about this little phrase?
At all times:
No matter how badly things are going. The list of bad things would be endless. Let’s not get into specifics.
No matter how well I do and people are praising me
No matter how badly I do and things are genuinely my fault
No matter how well I do and people do not recognize it and criticise me for jobs well done.
When God disciplines me for sin
Because there is no one and nothing else that can be properly praised ALL the time.
When I am ignorant and do not know what to do
When I know what to do but cannot get it done

“I will bless the Lord” – I will acknowledge that He knows what He is doing, that this is part of all things for my good.
- I will not let anything interfere with my worship of God. The evil one’s purpose in this is to make me forsake my God. God’s purpose in this is to make me hold tighter to Him. I will bless the Lord at all times and demonstrate the manifold wisdom of God to the evil one. What a cosmic loser he is!
- “I will bless the Lord” does not necessarily mean that I will bless all the things that are happening to me, or bless the circumstances that led to them. I can seek to avoid further hardship, seek to escape from persecutors, pray for the problems to end … and still bless the Lord in them all.
Sit and meditate on this concept of praising God at all times. It is a mind warping study.

Psalm 33: 10-11
10The LORD brings the counsel of the nations to nothing;
he frustrates the plans of the peoples.
11 The counsel of the LORD stands forever,
the plans of his heart to all generations.

The machinations that go on in the corridors of power, for more power, more money, more influence. The dealings that take place to consolidate support. The anger, hatred, envy, intransigence that marks those who scramble for more money, more comfort, to be left alone .. . While all that is going on it remains true that the Lord brings the counsel of the nations to nothing.

What a glory it is to know that no matter how evil men’s hearts are, no matter how much power they consolidate. No matter how much lying and cheating and scheming goes on to orchestrate one’s own way – God is still in charge. He brings His will to pass through their sin and He will ultimately shut them down. Psalm 2 should frighten the leaders of the world but of course, it does not. That does not make it less true. But it does give the believer hope and encouragement to keep on doing what God says is right, no matter what the temporal consequences may be. For God will not be thwarted and the rulers of the world cannot help but be. What a God.

We have just finished celebrating the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ, what has become known as Easter. This truth of God’s sovereign control even when great evil is at work, is very prominent in the events surrounding the death and resurrection of Christ. One comment in a sermon by the Apostle Peter captures it.

Acts 2: 22-24 22″Men of Israel, hear these words: Jesus of Nazareth, a man attested to you by God with mighty works and wonders and signs that God did through him in your midst, as you yourselves know- 23this Jesus, delivered up according to the definite plan and foreknowledge of God, you crucified and killed by the hands of lawless men. 24 God raised him up, loosing the pangs of death, because it was not possible for him to be held by it.

There it is. While men are doing horribly evil things against the very Son of God, God is accomplishing a plan that was forged long before they made their plans to kill Jesus.

The Lord brings the counsel of the nations to nothing. What a great encouragement to those who seek to live faithfully when it appears that evil is getting the upper hand.

Live in obedience today. You serve a great King.