Alternate Plans
Bible Order: 1 Chron 1
Chronological Order: Psalm 102-104
Compelled By Love
Today’s reading reminds me of how popular Jesus really was. When we think of his followers we tend to think of the 12 disciples and when we think of those who wanted Jesus dead we think of a mob demanding He be crucified. The text shows us the opposite, that He had many followers and that His enemies could do nothing against Him openly because they were fewer in number.
As Jesus entered Jerusalem according to Old Testament prophecy, sitting on a colt, a large number of people cheered His arrival.
Luke 19:37 ESV
“As he was drawing near—already on the way down the Mount of Olives—the whole multitude of his disciples began to rejoice and praise God with a loud voice for all the mighty works that they had seen”
Did you catch that phrase “whole multitude of His disciples”? Those that sought Jesus’ death were the smaller number. We know this by the fact that they had to arrest Him in the dead of night. The small group of power elite wanted to be rid of Jesus but they couldn’t exercise their power because an overwhelming number of people loved Him and His teachings.
Luke 19:47-48 ESV
“And he was teaching daily in the temple. The chief priests and the scribes and the principal men of the people were seeking to destroy him, but they did not find anything they could do, for all the people were hanging on his words.”
It has always bothered me that evil men accuse “the Jews” of killing Jesus Christ. It was a group of corrupt Jewish politicians that demand His death, a corrupt Gentile politician that ordered His death, and brutal Gentile soldiers who nailed Him to the cross. Jesus died for all, but He also died because of all. There is no human being, and therefore no people group, who is innocent of the murder of Jesus Christ.
While a small group of Jews were involved in demanding the death of Christ, it is through the self-sacrificing efforts of a much larger group of Jews, that Jews and Gentiles the world over, and throughout history, have been saved. You see it was Jews who took the Gospel and shared it with a lost and dying world at first. If these faithful Jews had not gone out and suffered horribly for the lost, you and I wouldn’t be saved today. Our Lord Jesus Christ was a Jew. The twelve disciples were Jews. Paul was a Jew. All those who went out to share the Gospel were Jews. How can you condemn that entire people group on the one hand without giving them credit on the other?
Jesus was loved by a multitude of Jews and that love for Him compelled them to show love to others, Jew and Gentile. If you are a Christian you are because the love of Christ compelled someone to share the Gospel with you. What does the love of Christ compel you to do?
Have a blessed day!
Your brother and servant in Christ,
Bill
Dying to self, living to serve!
Alternate Plans
Bible Order: 1 Sam 21–24
Chronological Order: Judges 1-3
Whom Do You Serve?
Today we see another apostle called to follow Jesus and again he left everything to do so.
Luke 5:27-28 ESV
“After this he went out and saw a tax collector named Levi, sitting at the tax booth. And he said to him, “Follow me.” And leaving everything, he rose and followed him.”
For some reason, I’m reminded of Lot’s wife. If you remember the Old Testament story about Sodom and Gomorrah, Abraham pleaded with God not to destroy those twin cities and bargained Him down to 10 people; if 10 righteous people could be found God promised not to destroy them. Unfortunately those 10 did not exist. Still God sent angels to get Abrahams’ nephew and his family out of Sodom before it was destroyed. As the angels sent them out of the city they told them to not look back. For some reason Lot’s wife just couldn’t seem to leave Sodom behind her. She turned to take one last look at the sinful city and upon doing so she was turned to a pillar of salt.
Why is it so hard to leave the old sinful life behind? It really shouldn’t be; especially if we have come to Christ in brokenness for our sin. Still the pull of our old dead selves seems to keep us from completely grasping the new life we have in Christ. I’m also reminded of the Bible verse that says that a man cannot serve two masters. Brothers, you cannot serve two masters. You either belong to Christ or you belong to your past. Whom do you serve?
Have a blessed day!
Your brother and servant in Christ,
Bill
Dying to self, living to serve!
Alternate Plans
Bible Order: 1 Sam 1–3
Chronological Order: Josh 8–10
Who Jesus Really Is
Here in America we tend to think of people having a first name and a last name. Because this is our custom I fear some might think Jesus was His first name and Christ was His last name. Of course, things didn’t work that way in Jesus’ time. Today we read of Jesus being circumcised. From the time of Abraham and the first covenant his male descendants were circumcised on the eighth day of life. It was at this time that they were given their name. Jesus was taken to the temple in Jerusalem on the eighth day of His life to be circumcised and given His name – Jesus.
In today’s reading we hear of Simeon and Anna both acknowledging who Jesus was. We are told specifically that the Holy Spirit revealed Jesus’ identity to Simeon. That is how it still works today. The only reason you came to know Jesus is because the Holy Spirit called you to Him and revealed to you who He is. It may not have felt that way but that is exactly what happened.
Now Jesus is the Greek equivalent of the Hebrew Jeshua or Joshua which means “Yahweh saves”. Christ is not Jesus’ last name, it is the title of office. Paul sometimes calls Him Christ Jesus which would be similar to how we do things; for example “President Lincoln”. President is a title of office just like Christ. Now Christ is the Greek equivalent of the Hebrew “Messiah” which means “anointed” or “anointed one”. A messiah is one who has been consecrated to a high office by the ceremonial anointing of oil. In the Old Testament we saw kings and prophets being anointed by oil which signified that they had been chosen and prepared for a specific office.
Jesus, however, was not simply a messiah. He was The Messiah, The Anointed One. Whereas human kings were anointed by man and were imperfect and temporary in office, Jesus is The King, anointed by God and is perfect and eternal in His office. In fact Jesus testified to the fact that He was not anointed by man but by God for His office as Lord and Savior.
Luke 4:18 ESV
“The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim liberty to the captives and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty those who are oppressed,”
When Jesus said this, He was actually quoting the prophet Isaiah when he foretold of the coming Messiah. Jesus the Christ is Jeshua the Anointed One. I for one am thankful that He is The Messiah foretold of in the Old Testament. He is King of kings and Lord of lords. You and I like to dwell on another of His titles which is “Savior” but let us never forget that He is “Lord”. Have you responded to Him as Lord? Do you put His will first above your own? Do you obey Him? How? What specifically are you doing that shows the world that He is your Lord? Do you live your life any differently than those who do not acknowledge the Lordship of Jesus the Christ? Please don’t tell me that difference is going to church. Going to church for many is a self-centered exercise and Jesus did not say “thou shalt go to church”. He said to those who acknowledge His Lordship “go and make disciples of all nations”. Do you invite people to church or Sunday school? Do you share your faith in Christ with the lost? Do you live your life to please Him?
Brothers, these are hard and challenging questions and they are meant to be. I hope that as you contemplate who Jesus really is that you will examine your relationship with Him. Are you in right relationship with Him? If not, make a change.
Have a blessed day!
Your brother and servant in Christ,
Bill
Dying to self, living to serve!
Alternate Plans
Bible Order: Exod 5–7
Chronological Order: Gen 22–23
Fruitfulness Is Where It’s At!
In yesterday’s reading Jesus told the Parable of the Sower. In today’s reading Jesus explains the parable to His disciples. I’m glad to know that even those that were being personally trained by Jesus didn’t always understand what He was saying. In response to yesterday’s post Larry made a comment, and I’d like to encourage you to read it. From the Home page scroll down to yesterday’s post and click on “comments” to the right, under the title “Today’s Bible Reading:…” Larry really nailed the challenge most of us face when confronted with living a fruitful Christian life.
Did you know that Jesus wants you to be fruitful, not simply for His sake but for yours? In the Old Testament we read that children are to honor (I read that as obey) their parents, not for the parent’s or God’s well-being, but for the children’s well-being. God says honor your father and mother so that it will go well with you! Do you not understand that this applies to you and your relationship with your Heavenly Father? You need to be fruitful as a Christian so you can have the fullness of life, the joy, Jesus intended for you.
I want to break down Jesus’ explanation of this parable for you and please let me know if you disagree with my assessment. I’d love to hear your thoughts.
The seed sown along the path represents one who hears the Gospel but does not understand it because the Evil One has stolen it from them. Can you think of anyone who has heard the Gospel but utterly refused its truth? That is who Jesus is referring to here.
The seed sown on rocky ground is the one who thinks the Gospel message sounds good but they never really submitted their life to Christ. They are not true Christians. They have no real conviction that Jesus is Lord and so when they get bored, or people condemn them, or God doesn’t do what they want Him to do, they say “this thing isn’t real, I quit”. Do you know anyone that fits in this category?
I believe that the seed sown among the thorns is the person who truly submitted their life to Christ, but finds the hustle and bustle of life and the challenges of life distract them from what is truly important, and they become bogged down and discouraged by worldly things. These folks have their eyes pointed downward toward the dirt and the muck and have forgotten to lift their heads up so they can see the Sun/Son shining. A life focused on one’s earthly needs and desires is a fruitless and depressing life. That is not the life Jesus came to give us.
Brothers, I believe most of us fit in this category. We are saved, we belong to Christ, but we are unfruitful. This is not a tragedy for God; it is a tragedy for us! Don’t you want to have the fruitful life Christ died to give you? If so you need to be the one whose seed has found its way into good soil and becomes fruitful. What does it mean to be fruitful? How do you think Jesus would answer that question? Take a look at the three other groups of which you find yourself one. Could being fruitful have something to do with sowing seeds yourself? Could being fruitful have anything to do with encouraging others to be fruitful? I do know this, being fruitful includes being in right relationship with God. It is this relationship from which the nutrients we need flow. You can’t grow if you don’t have the water and nitrogen/bread you need to grow.
This water and bread can be found and digested by having daily quiet time with God in prayer and Bible study. These are the basics. The budding fruit of your Christian life is your selfless leadership of your wife and children. You need to be leading your family as Christ commands, in a selfless way. This is your first “ministry”. The maturing fruit of your Christian life is your active participation in the work of your local body of believers. You will grow as you actively go about the work God has given you to do. The ripe fruit of your Christian life is your active work in sharing the Gospel. This is where your fruitfulness gets that 30, 60, and 100 hundred fold production. At that point you have become a sower yourself. This is the life God intends for you.
Examine your life and your relationship with God. Ask Him to reveal to you what He would have you do and then go do it. No ifs, ands, or buts. Obey your Heavenly Father so it will go well with you!
Have a blessed day!
Your brother and servant in Christ,
Bill
Dying to self, living to serve!
Alternate Plans
Bible Order: Gen 42–44
Chronological Order: Job 39–42
Only Jesus Reveals The Father
Here in chapter 11 of Matthew Jesus makes it clear who He is and who John the Baptist is. The Old Testament told of one who would come before the Messiah to prepare the way before Him.
Malachi 3:1 ESV
“Behold, I send my messenger, and he will prepare the way before me. And the Lord whom you seek will suddenly come to his temple; and the messenger of the covenant in whom you delight, behold, he is coming, says the Lord of hosts.”
In fact, Malachi later says specifically who this messenger will be.
Malachi 4:5 ESV
“Behold, I will send you Elijah the prophet before the great and awesome day of the Lord comes.”
So Jesus is saying that John the Baptist is Elijah and He goes on to say, by claiming to be the “Son of Man”, that He is the Messiah. You know to this day, as Jews celebrate the Passover, they leave an empty place at the table and the door to their homes open in anticipation of Elijah’s return. They missed it. They missed the return of Elijah and they missed the return of the Lamb of God. Neither they nor we will miss the return of the Lion.
As Jesus continued He became rather explicit about who He is.
Matthew 11:27 ESV
“All things have been handed over to me by my Father, and no one knows the Son except the Father, and no one knows the Father except the Son and anyone to whom the Son chooses to reveal him.”
Did you catch that? God has turned everything over to Jesus so that no one knows God unless Jesus reveals Him to them. Have you heard the nonsense about there being “many paths to God”? Jesus is throwing down the gauntlet; He doesn’t give you the luxury of lumping Him in with other paths. The only ones who really know God are those whom Jesus has called. You may wish to reject this notion but to do so you must reject Jesus. Jesus can’t be some great moral teacher if He is lying or crazy. He can’t be sent by God if He is wrong.
I did nothing to deserve Jesus revealing Himself to me. I would be condemned to an eternity separated from God if Jesus hadn’t drawn me to Him. It is through Him that I have been able to return to God in right relationship. If you are reading this post and you are not a Christian, if you haven’t submitted complete control of your life to Him there is some good news for you. He is calling you. He wants you to know God the Father. Will you listen? Will you respond?
Have a blessed day!
Your brother and servant in Christ,
Bill
Dying to self, living to serve!
Alternate Plans
Chronological Order: Job 6–8
A Higher Standard
In yesterday’s post I included a picture of Jesus standing on a mountain surrounded by multitudes listening to Him preach. I got this picture from a software package I purchased which contained such images. The image was labeled “Sermon on the Mount” so the artist had this particular moment in mind when he created it. The funny thing is the Sermon on the Mount, as it is recorded here in the book of Matthew, appears to have been delivered not to a multitude but to His disciples. Take a look at a verse from yesterday’s reading:
Matthew 5:1
“Seeing the crowds, he went up on the mountain, and when he sat down, his disciples came to him.”
Remember that the Bible was not written as chapters and verses. Those designations came later so a new chapter doesn’t necessarily mean a new subject or change in direction. At the end of Matthew 4 we read that Jesus had begun His earthly ministry and had preached to multitudes, but here at the beginning of chapter 5 we read that seeing the crowds he went up on the mount and sat down with His disciples. He was getting away from the multitude.
Now, more than likely Jesus reiterated what He said in the Sermon on the Mount on other occasions and to larger crowds but here He is speaking to His disciples. I think that is significant. He wasn’t speaking to the lost; He was speaking to His followers. We Christians understand that we are under a new covenant, but we sometimes think that this means the old covenant, or Old Testament, no longer applies. Jesus clearly stated that this is a false understanding.
Matthew 5:17-20
“Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I have not come to abolish them but to fulfill them. For truly, I say to you, until heaven and earth pass away, not an iota, not a dot, will pass from the Law until all is accomplished. Therefore whoever relaxes one of the least of these commandments and teaches others to do the same will be called least in the kingdom of heaven, but whoever does them and teaches them will be called great in the kingdom of heaven. For I tell you, unless your righteousness exceeds that of the scribes and Pharisees, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven.”
Notice that He says that someone who relaxes the Old Testament commandments and teaches others to do the same will be called least in the Kingdom of Heaven. This means that we, as followers of Christ, are not held to a lesser standard than the Old Testament but to a higher standard. It also means that His followers will still be in Heaven even if they occasionally get their theology a little wrong. There are two things being communicated on top of that. First, we cannot fulfill the Law in our own power; we need a Savior. Once we have that Savior, His Holy Spirit will empower us to obey not only the old standard but the new higher standard. It also means that even when we fail at living up to this standard we still have our salvation; we may be least in the Kingdom of Heaven do to our failings, but in Heaven we still will be.
Right about now I can hear the amens coming from those that think that we should be observing the Sabbath, which is Saturday, rather than worshipping on Sunday or that we all need to be circumcised and so on. Sorry guys but you are missing the point. The new standard has to do with the heart rather than actions. Under the old covenant and Law people tried to perform right actions while their hearts were far from God which lead to individuals attempting to earn their salvation through their own actions. The point of the old covenant was to show us that we need a Savior, that we couldn’t perform up to a righteous standard on our own.
Jesus was often accused by the Pharisees of violating the old covenant. For example, He healed on the Sabbath. Jesus taught that the spirit of the Law was what was important. If we were to get our hearts right, our actions would follow our hearts, meaning that everything was in proper alignment. So as we consider Christ’s comments that not one iota or dot will pass from the Law until all is accomplished, keep in mind all that He said and did in order to get a more accurate understanding of the concept He is preaching.
Finally I suggest you take particular notice of the higher standard Jesus introduces in today’s verses. The old covenant stated that murder and adultery were wrong and punishable by death. The new covenant, as Jesus illustrates, holds that anger and lust are just as wrong. This is a much higher standard. Since you have accepted Christ, have you managed to remain anger and lust free? I haven’t guys. Does this mean I don’t belong to Christ, that I don’t have the Holy Spirit residing within me? No it does not. When I have been angry or lusted in my heart, God’s Holy Spirit has convicted me of my wrong doing. I have hurt for the wrong I did which caused me to fall down on my knees before God and ask for forgiveness. His grace is sufficient and I leave my time in prayer forgiven and determined to do better.
The new covenant does not release us from the lower standard of the old covenant but commits us to a higher standard. We have been given power to live toward this standard with forgiveness for our occasional failures, as long as they are occasional, accidental disobedience rather than habitual, intentional disobedience. Don’t get discouraged by this new standard. Be glad that God is helping you learn to live at such a level!
Have a blessed day!
Your brother and servant in Christ,
Bill
Dying to self, living to serve!
Luke 19:28–48
