Monthly Archives: November 2010

[135:1] Praise the LORD!

Praise the name of the LORD,

give praise, O servants of the LORD,

[2] who stand in the house of the LORD,

in the courts of the house of our God!

A word from God to those who serve in the temple to praise God. This is what verse 2 indicates. The Psalmist almost certainly addresses the priests whose work is to serve in the temple. And what does God say to those who know the Word better, whose business it is to mediate between God and the people, who study the law and interpret it for the people so that they will know God and how to do His will? He commands them to “praise the LORD.” He says it to them three times in the first two verses. In the last two he tells them to praise or bless the LORD five times. Is this poetic repetition? Is this just a grammatical form to emphasize a point or fit a rhyme scheme? Not at all.

Those who serve in the temple and handle the sacred things of God are more prone to go through mere actions of worship without their hearts and minds engaged in real worship, than other people. This is still true today for those who pastor and counsel and preach and evangelize and work as missionaries. They are so busy with finding out what to give others from the Word of God that they neglect to feed themselves. They fall unknowingly into treating the Bible as a text book or as a manual for them to use for the good of others, much the same way a doctor consults a medical journal. They are particularly tempted to think that their lives are OK and their call is simply to tell others how they should live and how the Scriptures apply to their people.

But it is not just a matter of commanding these leaders to praise God. We need to consider what they are being told in order to bring them to praise. The Psalmist recites the greatness of God (verses 5 – 7), the protection of God for His people (verses 8 – 14), the reality of God (verses 15-18). No deep secrets there are there? The leaders of Israel to whom this Psalm was particularly addressed, are not being told anything new. In fact, everything the Psalmist mentions is very well known. Every Israelite knew these things from a child. Shouldn’t a priest be able to handle greater and deeper stuff than the sovereignty, compassion and truthfulness of God? Of course, but that is not what they needed to sustain them when they are tempted to unfaithfulness and heartlessness in their work. When they are tempted to simply go through the routine of offering sacrifice without real passion and amazement and love for God and the people they were serving, what they need is to remember the basics.

Like the ancient priests, we too are tempted to forsake God for other things and what it will take to keep us from falling away is well know truths about God and the Gospel. All believers, pastor-elders, leaders, followers, behind the scenes types – it does not matter. What we need is to be constantly keeping the basic truths of our faith before us. The Bible is God’s infallible message to mankind. God is sovereign. We are sinners and God has sent His Son into the world to save sinners. Jesus Christ is the eternal God and a real man at the same time. He lived a sinless life. He died on the cross as the only sufficient punishment for sins which He did not commit. He rose from the dead and ascended to His Father in heaven and will return to finally end evil and return everything back to the way it was meant to be in the first place. These are things that we teach our children in Sunday School and they are what we still need to remain strong in the faith.

We will never grow beyond the Gospel. And when we feel ourselves drifting away from God or are just going through the routines of faith without our hearts engaged, what we need to do is rehearse that simple Gospel to ourselves. We need to get into the Bible and read it and pray over it and rejoice in it.

Today, remember to pray for the leaders of your church that they will never depart from the most glorious thing of all – the Gospel of Jesus Christ. And pray it for yourself as well. It was what the ancient priests needed and it is what we need.

Psalm[133:1] Behold, how good and pleasant it is

when brothers dwell in unity!

[2] It is like the precious oil on the head,

running down on the beard,

on the beard of Aaron,

running down on the collar of his robes!

[3] It is like the dew of Hermon,

which falls on the mountains of Zion!

For there the LORD has commanded the blessing,

life forevermore.

I once asked my father what he would most like to see in his church as an indication of God working in his people so that they were revived. His answer was not complicated and by man’s standards, it was not in any sense earth shattering. But I think it was very profound and intensely biblical and a fascinating testimony that he knew what life really is all about as we seek to live for the glory of God and with each other at the same time. He said “I would like people to reach across the aisle and hold the hands of the people sitting across from them.”

When we think of what it means to be a good church or a “significant” church or even a God pleasing church, we often do not think of something as simple as a group of people who would reach across the aisle to each other in a demonstration of unity. We, just like the rest of the world when it dreams of the future, quite often think big – big buildings, big budgets, big names, big reputations.

We are quick to talk about three thousand souls saved on Pentecost as recorded in Acts 2 but hardly any of us are familiar with the phrase at the end of the Book of Acts regarding Paul’s results while in his house imprisonment in Rome – “…some were convinced by what he said while others disbelieved” (Acts 28:24). And how many of us dream of a group of people, large or small, who truly love each other and demonstrate it through care and prayer and real empathy?

It is a very striking thing how much emphasis the New Testament puts on unity. After three chapters of deep doctrine to the Ephesian church (and others) the Apostle Paul applies the deep doctrines he has been teaching by saying this:

[4:1] I therefore, a prisoner for the Lord, urge you to walk in a manner worthy of the calling to which you have been called, [2] with all humility and gentleness, with patience, bearing with one another in love, [3] eager to maintain the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace.

That’s all Paul can come up with after teaching about predestination, redemption by Him who works out everything after the counsel of His own will? After telling us about the Holy Spirit who is given us as a guarantee of our inheritance? After demonstrating what the mystery of the Gospel is, that the Gospel is for Jew and Gentile? After praying that they “be filled with all the fullness of God” (3:19)?

How we underestimate the power of unity. Christian unity that grows out of a genuine love for others is a powerful thing. It is the inevitable outcome of the Gospel that really works in His children. It is what we are called to. And as this Psalm tells us, it is to be compared to the calling of the priests of ancient Israel as they were consecrated to offer sacrifice to God and intercede before God on behalf of the people.

Unity is our calling. It has taken the death of the Son of God to get us to experience and express it. It shows the world that we are the disciples of Christ. It is the result of what is greater than even faith and hope (I Corinthians 13:13). Reaching out to hold hands with those sitting across the aisle in church is a great goal for us to have for ourselves in our churches.

And as Paul tells us just before he calls upon the Ephesians to be united:

[20] Now to him who is able to do far more abundantly than all that we ask or think, according to the power at work within us, [21] to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, forever and ever. Amen.

God is so powerful, that he can enable believers to get along.

Luke 6:[24] “But woe to you who are rich, for you have received your consolation.

[25] “Woe to you who are full now, for you shall be hungry.

“Woe to you who laugh now, for you shall mourn and weep.

[26] “Woe to you, when all people speak well of you, for so their fathers did to the false prophets.

This from the Financial Post on Tuesday regarding the happiness of Canadians:

“New analysis from the Centre for the Study of Living Standards paints Canadians as a happy bunch. But the group found household income way down the list on variables that make us happy.”

Nice to see the rest of the world catching up with Jesus. Just as He pronounces blessings upon those who suffer and are persecuted because of their faith in Him, so He pronounces woes upon those who are comfortable and have chosen comfort over endurance for Jesus. Rich people have problems like everyone else, but none of them are due to lack of money. Money brings many comforts that others cannot have. It is hard to live without the necessary funds for living and it makes life very hard to be in a constant state of juggling books and wondering which bill to pay this month. The rich have the comfort of knowing that they never have to worry about paying for what they want and need. Their choices are never, “Can I buy this?” or “How do I get the creditors off my back?” “That” says Jesus, “is all the consolation you are going to get”. And that is not a blessing.

The same is true for the well fed and the happy and the popular. They have their reward. Their reward is getting the things that they wanted. They desired money, satisfaction, happiness and popularity – and they got those things. “Too bad for you” says Jesus. “Because that is all the reward you will ever get”.

The rich are not to be envied. They are to be pitied. They have traded eternal happiness for the temporary. They have chosen a fleeting moment over eternity. They have focussed on what can be seen and felt and tasted and weighed. And they are wrong. They will regret it for a very long time.

The lessons to us are several. 1)We should not envy those who look to their current comforts as the only ones they will ever receive. 2) Faith in Jesus means not depending on the things that the ungodly can get outside of Jesus Christ. This means that comfortable Christians should hold on to their possessions very loosely. The test of this will be their willingness to live on what they need and use their surplus for the good of others instead of houses, cars, vacations and entertainment. Give it away (Ephesians 4:28).  (God does bless some very godly people with a lot of money. But if you set your heart on being rich, then your godliness is already being threatened. Your goal is not wealth. It is Him. Set your heart on Christ.) 3) Look up, not around. 4) Do not measure happiness by the size of the bank account or the number of creature comforts. 5) Find your happiness in what God has given you, what God has promised you, and what God is doing for you now, even if it is not money, health, friends and stuff. 6) Real happiness does not lie in the things that one possesses.

We need to hear the blessings and woes of Jesus and we need to believe them and we need to act accordingly so that we do not rob ourselves of the best for the sake of what should be counted as rubbish (Philippians 3:8).

Luke 6:[20] And he lifted up his eyes on his disciples, and said:

“Blessed are you who are poor, for yours is the kingdom of God.

[21] “Blessed are you who are hungry now, for you shall be satisfied.

“Blessed are you who weep now, for you shall laugh.

[22] “Blessed are you when people hate you and when they exclude you and revile you and spurn your name as evil, on account of the Son of Man! [23] Rejoice in that day, and leap for joy, for behold, your reward is great in heaven; for so their fathers did to the prophets.

Do you really believe that there is a reward awaiting the faithful? Do you, in your heart of hearts, where no one else can ever go or see or experience what is going on in there, believe that Jesus is returning and that those who have been faithful to Jesus Christ will be rewarded and that the reward will be far greater than anything that we could imagine? I do not think that I would believe someone if they told me that they never doubted the truths of the Gospel regarding rewards in heaven that make this life all worthwhile. John the Baptist himself doubted when things started going south for him and Jesus didn’t appear very messianic.

In the heat of the battle, when we are tempted to think that it really does not matter if we obey or not, it can become very attractive for us to do what is convenient, easy, pleasant and affirming rather than that which will gain us opposition, ridicule, pain and loneliness. When we do give in and go the way that God says not to, it is because at that moment we really do not believe that there is a great reward awaiting us, or that Jesus is really going to hold this sin against us in some way that effects our rewards in heaven.

Sometimes when we are tempted we do the right thing but not with a great deal of joy, or perhaps without any joy at all. We reason that this act of obedience is the right thing to do and we do it willingly and faithfully but not always joyfully. This too, is its own act of disobedience.

In the text we are considering Jesus says that people are going to hate you and exclude you and revile you and spurn your name as evil. Then He says “Rejoice in that day …”. I have no difficulty rejoicing later. I can rejoice after the pressure is off and I can look back with gratitude that I didn’t give in. I can rejoice in glory later on when all the hardships have disappeared. But Jesus does not say any of that. He says – rejoice in that day.

We are to have such an assurance that God is going to reward us later that it gives us joy, in the midst of suffering – now. The Christian life is not the hope of joy someday. It is the presence of joy now because of the sure knowledge that our hope is guaranteed. It is joy now even if no one appreciates us and even if we are opposed and persecuted and forgotten.

The sad reality in this is that such joy in western Christianity seems to be very rare. We make a very big deal out of believers who are able to remain joyful in the midst of suffering for the cause of the Gospel. We elevate them to places of heroes and regard them as giants of faith. Jesus is not talking about giants of the faith here. He is talking about possessors of faith. He is simply telling us how ordinary everyday believers are called by God to react to opposition. This is Christianity 101 and it does not often seem that we are doing well at exam time.

It is a great grace that enables us to rejoice in the day that we are opposed and rejected and ridiculed. And such a great grace is ours. Do I show that I have such grace? Do you?

O Lord, thank you that you provide us with the ability to rejoice even when things are hard. Forgive us for not using it and help us to do better from now on.

Luke 6:[12] In these days he went out to the mountain to pray, and all night he continued in prayer to God. [13] And when day came, he called his disciples and chose from them twelve, whom he named apostles: [14] Simon, whom he named Peter, and Andrew his brother, and James and John, and Philip, and Bartholomew, [15] and Matthew, and Thomas, and James the son of Alphaeus, and Simon who was called the Zealot, [16] and Judas the son of James, and Judas Iscariot, who became a traitor.“And when day came, he called his disciples and chose from them twelve, whom he named apostles: …”

We are not told how many disciples Jesus had at this point. He has performed several miracles and been involved in making the dreaded Pharisees look a little foolish. There may indeed be quite a number of disciples.

The Greek word for disciple means “learner” or “follower”. Jesus has attracted a following of people who attend to His teachings and who followed where He went. Out of that number He is going to choose twelve whom He will label “Apostles”.

“Apostle” means “one who is sent”, “messenger”. So, out of those who are followers He chooses twelve to be senders. He is picking out future leaders, who will teach others, who will pass on the things that He will teach them over the next three years. We see this begin to come to pass in Acts 1 when the Holy Spirit is given and the first church is formed and the Twelve are the recognized heads of that group of people.

We see their authority in texts such as Acts 2:42, Acts 6, Ephesians 2 and I Corinthians 12. It is hinted at in Matthew 16:15-20 and there is an incredibly strong statement about them in Revelation 21:9-21. These men, minus Judas, will become the most important human instruments in the hands of God that the world will ever see. They will be unmatched throughout the whole period between the two comings of Christ. When we read our New Testaments we are reading the Apostles and committing ourselves to the Apostles’ doctrine (Acts 2:42). These men will become unique in the history of the church and the world.

But they sure did not start out that way. They are ordinary men like us. They are plain, ignorant, stupid, arrogant, brash, head strong, doubting, proud, fearful, cowardly … . This is the universal message of the Bible. People are not chosen for what they are. They are chosen because God loves them and He who can make a creature in His image out of dirt can make leaders out of this sorry band of misfits. And He did.

For three years Jesus showed them what it meant to follow God. He demonstrated real power and then He let them get in on it themselves and then He sent them out to do it without Him present and then He left altogether and gave them the Holy Spirit. This little band of snivelling cowards became a force that turned the world upside down.

We will never be Apostles. But we can do whatever God calls us to do no matter what it is. Our job is to know what His call upon us is and commit ourselves to Apostolic doctrine and watch God make a church. If He could do it with this original bunch, then He can do it with us. We are no better or worse than they were when they were called. We are not chosen because of anything in us. No one is. The Twelve are testimony to that. We are chosen because we are loved (Ephesians 1:3-5). God does not look at what we are. He looks at what He can do in us who are nothing.

If we think we have something valuable to give to the world He will set us straight (I hope He does – for your sake and the church’s). Were there more talented, more strong, more humble people in that band of disciples from whom Jesus chose the Twelve? I suspect there were. But Jesus wasn’t looking for those who have it all together. He was looking for little nobodies whom He would change into something spectacular. And that is what He did. And that is what He is still doing.

I am so glad that He took this little nobody and set Him on the road to being something some day. And He will take what I offer Him in gratitude and obedience by the power of the Holy Spirit and do things far beyond what I can ask or think. There is nothing more driving me to obedience than this. What a great Saviour.

Luke 6:[12] In these days he went out to the mountain to pray, and all night he continued in prayer to God. [13] And when day came, he called his disciples and chose from them twelve, whom he named apostles: [14] Simon, whom he named Peter, and Andrew his brother, and James and John, and Philip, and Bartholomew, [15] and Matthew, and Thomas, and James the son of Alphaeus, and Simon who was called the Zealot, [16] and Judas the son of James, and Judas Iscariot, who became a traitor.

Luke records the final selection of the twelve. It is not to be skimmed over that he twelve were finally selected after Jesus spent a whole night in prayer. An important decision. So Jesus spends the night with God talking to Him about it. Did Jesus agonize over the selection of Judas? We are not told. We are simply told that He prayed all night before making the choice.

A few thoughts:

1) Praying meant that Jesus didn’t worry. He wasn’t up all night wondering who to pick, hoping that He would get exactly the right guys for the job. He wasn’t worrying about how in the world He could survive three years of Judas’ deceptions, Peter’s idiocy, Thomas’ lack of faith, John’s pride and the desertion of virtually the whole bunch when things will get real tough. No. But what He did do was pray. Pray and worry are mutually exclusive. Instead of worrying, Jesus prayed. We see this disconnect between worry and prayer in Philippians 4:6-9.

2) Jesus entrusted this important matter to His Father. Without Him we can do nothing and the degree to which we believe that is the degree to which we shall pray.

3) Jesus prayed and then He did something. Prayer is not a substitute for the work. It is not something some do while others get going and do the real work. Prayer is part of the work and it is what very busy people with very busy schedules have as an integral part of their lives because without prayer we will accomplish nothing. We will not pray and then sit still. We will pray and then continue in our work.

[107:1] Oh give thanks to the LORD, for he is good,

for his steadfast love endures forever!

[2] Let the redeemed of the LORD say so,

whom he has redeemed from trouble

[3] and gathered in from the lands,

from the east and from the west,

from the north and from the south.

[4] Some wandered in desert wastes,

finding no way to a city to dwell in;

[5] hungry and thirsty,

their soul fainted within them.

[6] Then they cried to the LORD in their trouble,

and he delivered them from their distress.

[7] He led them by a straight way

till they reached a city to dwell in.

[8] Let them thank the LORD for his steadfast love,

for his wondrous works to the children of man!

[9] For he satisfies the longing soul,

and the hungry soul he fills with good things.

He satisfies the longing soul.

What a comment. How the souls of men do long. They long for companionship. They long for significance. They long to be home, to be welcome, to be loved. One could summarize human existence as longing souls seeking satisfaction. And God is the satisfier of the longing soul. The problem is, not every one thinks that God is the One who can satisfy the soul that longs. So substitutes are chased after. Power, influence, money, sex. There is no end to the things that men will chase after to satisfy their souls. And like an addictive substance the more the longing is not satisfied, the more that bigger and bigger doses of it are chased after. And also like a drug, the more one chases after it the less likely a person is to see the entrapment of it and the lack of satisfaction it will bring. The things we chase after, no matter how they fail to satisfy, just keep appearing more and more desirable. The truth of this reality is suppressed (Romans 1:18) and what kills them is what they chase after the wrong things all the more voraciously.

An intervention is needed and that is what God has called the church to do – intervene in the lives of people who will give it audience and try to help them find that which really satisfies the longing soul. And so we try to give the Gospel to those who are hurting themselves, denying reality, running away from God and shaking their fists in the face of Him who is Holy. It is a great tragedy and anyone who tries to witness the Gospel with any sort of consistency will experience the frustration that dealing with addicts brings.

But every now and then, someone gets it and all the times that we tried and failed become worth it. When someone leaves off chasing after the unsatisfactory and embraces the Gospel and the God for whom we were made, all the effort becomes more than worth it. This is the reward of Gospel work – not some crown that awaits in the distant future, but the sense that one has been used by God to bring back a wandering child and helped him find that God satisfies the longing soul. Thank you Lord for allowing us to be part of this great work. Bring more to be satisfied through the work we do in obedience to your call, we pray.

Luke 6:22 – [22] “Blessed are you when people hate you and when they exclude you and revile you and spurn your name as evil, on account of the Son of Man! [23] Rejoice in that day, and leap for joy, for behold, your reward is great in heaven; for so their fathers did to the prophets.

Jesus says that those who are hated and excluded and reviled are “blessed”. They have a deep happiness that not even those events that have assaulted them can erase. They are in a state of such happiness because their suffering is the direct result of serving and believing in Jesus Christ. There is no great blessing to being poor or hated or excluded. But when those things happen because of our relationship with Jesus Christ there is a special blessing from God upon us because of it.

This may be what the Apostle Paul was getting at in Colossians 1:24 when he said “I am filling up what is lacking in Christ’s afflictions …” When we suffer Jesus Christ Himself suffers. Jesus said to Paul on the Road to Damascus, “Why do you persecute me?” When the church of Jesus Christ is persecuted and tormented and opposed and denied the necessities of life – so is the eternal Son of God. Jesus warned us that since the world hated Him it would hate those who followed Him (John 15:18).

But we should remember that the opposition the children of God receive is directly related to faithfulness to Christ. The world is full of suffering. One does not need to be a believer in Jesus Christ to know persecution, hatred, injustice etc. The special blessing Jesus refers to here is the blessing that comes as a direct result of faithfulness to Christ.

Peter warns those he writes that if they are going to suffer they should make sure it is not because they deserve to (I Peter 4:14-15). If they suffer it should not be because they are murderers, or thieves, evildoers or meddlers. Such people deserve to suffer and if you do such things you deserve to suffer too. So, what kind of suffering is it that should make us rejoice? Suffering that is unjust, undeserved and for the cause of the Gospel at work in and through us.

But this is the exact opposite of how we think. If we do wrong and get caught we generally understand that we are getting what we deserve and so we do not complain. But if we suffer unjustly then we get angry. We threaten law suits, human rights tribunals and complain about how unfair people are behaving. Got fired because you refused to skip church to go to work? Sue. Got in trouble at work because your honesty with the auditors got the accountant in trouble? Take revenge. This is the exact opposite of what Peter says our reaction should be. It is unjust suffering for the sake of Christ that should cause us to rejoice. It should result in us glorifying God (I Peter 4:16). To be opposed and insulted and reviled is part of our calling. And our response is to bless those who hurt us.

Luke 6:[24] “But woe to you who are rich, for you have received your consolation.

[25] “Woe to you who are full now, for you shall be hungry.

“Woe to you who laugh now, for you shall mourn and weep.

[26] “Woe to you, when all people speak well of you, for so their fathers did to the false prophets.

Following the blessings upon the poor, the hungry, the sad and the persecuted, Jesus turns to those who are wealthy, full , happy and popular and pronounces woes upon them. It needs to be pointed out from the very beginning that Jesus is not teaching that poverty and hunger and persecution and tears are tickets to heaven. We must not take one passage of Scripture and use it to destroy other teachings in the Bible. What Jesus is saying is that the faithful may suffer now in many ways but that does not mean that they are worse off than those with no faith who are spared the hardships of life because of their money, their power, their ease or their laughter.

How the Christian life is meant to turn the world on its head! And how tragic that so many believers do not seem to understand that the life lived for Christ is the polar opposite to how the non believing world lives and what it values. We can be like the Psalmist in Psalm 73 when he speaks of envying the wicked because of their comforts. Near the end of that Psalm he says “I went into the sanctuary of God; then I discerned their end”. The rich and well fed and laughing popular people of the world are not to be envied. They are to be pitied.

The “woes” pronounced by Jesus on these people is because they are in great danger. But what do we see when we look at such people? We see their money and laughter and comfort and possessions. Just check out the lottery ads. We complain and grumble and sometimes even charge God with neglect or dishonesty. We are far too short sighted.

The reason the rich are to be pitied is because they have all the good they are ever going to have. They shall enter eternity having received all the consolation that they will ever receive. Believers, on the other hand will receive a consolation that lasts forever and makes this life seem pretty small and brief – because it is.

Which is better? Hunger now for seventy years and an eternity of no want, or seventy years of plenty and an eternity of nothing? It’s a no brainer. How sad that so many, so often get this mixed up, even among those who claim to know Jesus Christ.

It is better to have nothing of the world’s goods with Christ than to have all the comforts that the world has to offer without Him. We need to believe this and we need to reflect that we believe it by not chasing after what the world does, not hungering for what the world hungers for and not thinking that once we get the comforts that all is well.

Consider the following song. It is a recording of a poor man in London England. Someone recorded him and added the orchestration. The world will claim that he is certifiably insane. Of course Jesus has failed him. Anyone can see that he He has. But the old guy has it right. And when he dies, if he has not already, he will enter into the bliss of the glory of God – forever. And those who mocked him and thought him crazy will enter eternity alone and without God and without hope. Now – who is insane?