Matthew 24:15-24 Do You Love Pleasure?

Matthew 24:15-24  “So when you see standing in the holy place ‘the abomination that causes desolation,’ spoken of through the prophet Daniel—let the reader understand—then let those who are in Judea flee to the mountains.  Let no one on the housetop go down to take anything out of the house.  Let no one in the field go back to get their cloak.  How dreadful it will be in those days for pregnant women and nursing mothers!  Pray that your flight will not take place in winter or on the Sabbath.  For then there will be great distress, unequaled from the beginning of the world until now—and never to be equaled again.  “If those days had not been cut short, no one would survive, but for the sake of the elect those days will be shortened.  At that time if anyone says to you, ‘Look, here is the Messiah!’ or, ‘There he is!’ do not believe it.  For false messiahs and false prophets will appear and perform great signs and wonders to deceive, if possible, even the elect.  See, I have told you ahead of time.

After the Spirit fell upon the believers in Jerusalem, Peter proclaims, with the words of the prophet Joel, that the world is in its last days.  He quotes the prophet, In the last days, God says, I will pour out my Spirit on all people.  Your sons and daughters will prophesy, your young men will see visions, your old men will dream dreams.  Even on my servants, both men and women, I will pour out my Spirit in those days, and they will prophesy.  (Acts 2:17-18)  Jesus says in the days before He comes again, the world will be in great distress.  Many calamitous events will cause people to seek out Messiahs to explain what is happening in the world.  Many will come in my name, claiming, ‘I am the Messiah,’ and will deceive many.  (Matthew 24:5)  People will be aware of wars, battles and conflicts.  They will be cognizant of earthquakes, famines, and natural disasters happening around the world. These kinds of events have occurred from the beginning of time, but in our present world, people easily hear about the wars, battles, and conflicts that are taking place at any one time through the media.  Jesus says people will HEAR about these violent and disturbing events, and they will know that famines, earthquakes and natural disasters ARE HAPPENING.  In the last days, people will be very much aware of the difficulties and disasters that are striking the earth.  Humans have been living in the last days for centuries, for millenniums.  What Jesus prophesied is prevalent to mankind’s existence, but hearing about them and their meaning is not so common.  However, now we see Jesus talking about the very last days in a more precise way.  When you see standing in the holy place ‘the abomination that causes desolation,’ spoken of through the prophet Daniel—let the reader understand—then let those who are in Judea flee to the mountains.  Jesus began his prophetic words by talking about the destruction of the Temple.  This is shocking to the disciples so now their ears are opened to what He is saying.  He tells them the Temple will be desecrated.  The disciples might have already known that the Temple had been despoiled earlier by the Greeks.  Antiochus IV Epiphanies ascended to the throne and pursued a policy of Hellenization.  Religious observances of Sabbath and circumcision were outlawed.  A statue of Zeus was erected in the temple, and Jews were commanded to offer sacrifices to it.  But now Jesus is telling them about a different time, something that will happen in the future.  He tells them that the Temple will not only be destroyed, but there also will be another desecration of the Holy of Holies.  In 70 AD we find the Romans not only destroying the Temple, but piling up dead bodies around the altar.  Hundreds were killed in the Temple by the Legions of Rome.  Some believe they also sacrificed pigs on the altar; the boar was the Legions’ emblem on their shield and standards.   This may be speculation.  The people in the city of Jerusalem were killed by the hundreds of thousands.  If this is the time Jesus is talking about, it is true that the people should flee to the mountains: then let those who are in Judea flee to the mountains.  This revolt of the Jews was smashed.  Later in 135 AD, the Jews revolted again; then the Jews were forced to leave Jerusalem.  At this time the Romans scattered them throughout their kingdom as slaves.  Even though these events were horrendous, many people believe a future desecration of the next Temple will happen, under the reign of the Antichrist.  Regardless of our understanding of Jesus’ prophecy, we do know that we are as Peter stated in the last days.  

Much of what Jesus prophesies in Matthew 24 lines up well with nuclear war.  If we expand Jesus’ words to the end times for the whole world, we can easily see why people need to abandon the cities quickly.  Nuclear attacks would produce considerable devastation, making it difficult for humans to survive.  Jesus says that God will intervene to save his elect from being completely wiped out.  If those days had not been cut short, no one would survive, but for the sake of the elect those days will be shortened.  We can see such an event happening when we hear Jesus’ words, Immediately after the distress of those days the sun will be darkened, and the moon will not give its light; the stars will fall from the sky, and the heavenly bodies will be shaken.  (Matthew 24:29)  The amount of dust and particulates that would be thrown into the atmosphere would cause the sun to be darkened and the moon to disappear from view.  And the stars would seem to move.  Definitely, everything would be shaken.  Peter tells us that in the last days, disaster will hit the world beyond human belief.  But the day of the Lord will come like a thief.  The heavens will disappear with a roar; the elements will be destroyed by fire, and the earth and everything done in it will be laid bare.  (2 Peter 3:10)  Violence is so much a part of man’s makeup that nothing is beyond his willingness to destroy others.  Over the years since Jesus’ death, there have been at least one billion people killed by violence.  Wars, battles, and conflicts have always been part of man’s history.  In Europe alone since the Tenth Century there have been over 700 conflagrations.  Some of these wars lasting hundreds of years.  In our last century, millions have been killed in Europe.  Why select Europe only as an example of violence?  We look to Europe because the culture of Europe with its Christian influence is considered by many to be enlightened, supposedly more so than other cultures in the world.  However, even in the hearts of sophisticated societies, the demon of violence exists, the willingness to kill and destroy.  When we expand this condition of violence to all people, everywhere, the wars, battles and conflicts are too numerous to count.  In the deepest jungles, in the most desolated places on earth where humans live, destruction and hurt lie in the hearts of men.  When Jesus is talking about the end times, He speaks of man destroying man.  Such evil that God will shorten the days to keep men from destroying themselves.  But then and only then will the Son of Man appear.  He took on the form of a man, turning the world upside down, allowing himself to be the victim of man’s violent nature.  He paid the complete price for man’s redemption through the blood He shed for their sinful nature.  The Man of Peace and Justice brought his sinless nature to men so they could be born again through his redemptive sacrifice.

Paul experienced all kinds of violence and rejection.  People followed him from one community to the next, trying to kill him.  He was threatened in the cities and on his travel between the cities.  Paul knew violence; he  knew the nature of people.  When he taught the Good News, some ridiculed and mocked him.  They derided him for teaching what they considered drivel, the Good News that Jesus saves.  Paul gave his life to save some, even though many were his adversaries.  However, knowing people as they are, experiencing evil from the hands of men, Paul talks to Timothy about even a worse time coming.  There will be terrible times in the last days.  People will be lovers of themselves, lovers of money, boastful, proud, abusive, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, unholy, without love, unforgiving, slanderous, without self-control, brutal, not lovers of the good, treacherous, rash, conceited, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God—having a form of godliness but denying its power.  (2 Timothy 3:1-5)  Paul is talking about a clearer prediction of the last days than even Jesus’ prophecy.  Jesus’ word are more nebulous, harder to determine what they mean.  We speculated on what Jesus is referring to when he talks about the abomination that causes desolation.  Who really knows?  Who knows the when, who, and why of it?  No one really knows.  Most of what people say about Jesus’ words are speculations, assumptions.  But Paul’s words describe the condition of men’s hearts in the last days in precise language.  He describes the lack of love and caring for others that will exist in the souls of men and women.  Now even in intimate interactions people will be self-absorbed.  They will be self-willed, pursuing self-aggrandizement.  This kind of behavior can easily be seen in our day, for we have our computers to fulfill our dreams and fantasies.  Our interactions do not have to include any others than those we find supportive.  We have few in our lives to ameliorate the worst ideas that we carry in our minds.  We can delve into wickedness if we desire—no one will know.  Paul says, people will be lovers of themselves, orienting their lives exclusively for their own pleasure.  Parents, children, households find the computer central in their lives.  Each person is seeking his or her computer when he or she wakes up in the morning.  Paul describes well what happens when we separate ourselves from others, by taking deep dives into our computers.  We become partisan, we learn to hate, we learn to despise others who disagree with us.  We seek to gratify our lust, our need for pleasure.  We seek out games to play all day; we are lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God.  We believe we have found our elixir for life.  However, rather than freeing us for more positive interactions with the people closest to us, it separates us to our silos. The bondage of self-indulgence of self-awareness becomes our life.  We do not consider this time as terrible, but Paul says, these will not be good times in the last day.  People will love themselves instead of God.  They will seek money and boast in their pride as they become abusive, disobedient and sinful in other ways.  Finally they will have a form of godliness but no power.  As with Jonah who was running from God, we become entangled with the weeds of self.  Jesus said, the last days will be traumatic to all who live on the earth.  Paul tells us, the last days will be terrible because of the way people think and live, but we who are around this breakfast table look for and welcome the soon return of our Lord.  

 

Matthew 24:9-14 Stand Firm to the End!

Matthew 24:9-14  Then you will be handed over to be persecuted and put to death, and you will be hated by all nations because of me.  At that time many will turn away from the faith and will betray and hate each other, and many false prophets will appear and deceive many people.  Because of the increase of wickedness, the love of most will grow cold, but the one who stands firm to the end will be saved.  And this gospel of the kingdom will be preached in the whole world as a testimony to all nations, and then the end will come.  

In the above focus, Jesus reveals what will happen to the disciples after He is gone.  Until his departure, Jesus takes care of his disciples; He loses none of them except Judas.  Judas betrays Jesus to the Jewish leaders as was his mission.  Jesus knew the disciples would be hated because they were his followers.  To snuff out Jesus’ teaching and his claim as the Messiah, the elite knew the disciples had to be prohibited from teaching about Jesus, even if they had to kill them.  When the mob arrested Jesus in the olive grove, Jesus commanded Peter to put away his sword, saving his disciple from being captured or killed.  This command gave the disciples freedom to flee, which they did in fear.  One disciple, some believe John, fled in nakedness.  None of the disciples would be killed or harmed that night.  Nonetheless, Jesus prophesied a different, harrowing future for them than the safety they experienced with him.  They would no longer be admired for being close to the miracle worker; instead, they would be hated, considered enemies.  If the world hates you, keep in mind that it hated me first.  If you belonged to the world, it would love you as its own.  As it is, you do not belong to the world, but I have chosen you out of the world.  That is why the world hates you.  (John 15:18-19)  As committed followers of Jesus, they will consider the world immaterial to their quest to introduce Christ.  They will not love the world or anything in it.  The carnal atmosphere they live in is not their home.  They are just moving through, proclaiming the eternal salvation of the Lord.  For the unsaved to eat, drink and be merry is the essence of life.  But the disciples claimed that life held something more to it than enjoying the accouterments of the culture.  To know Jesus as Lord and Savior is the heart of living, not partying, cavorting and indulging the self.  This denial of the world’s lifestyle and of other religions brought great hatred against the disciples and other believers.  But the Good News was not an exclusive teaching, for Christians were commanded to love everyone, even those who hated them.  Jesus prepared these disciples to talk about God’s love to the people who would hate them.  All this I have told you so that you will not fall away.  They will put you out of the synagogue; in fact, the time is coming when anyone who kills you will think they are offering a service to God.  (John 16:1-2)  Jesus reveals to them that they are not going to win anything in this world by following him.  In fact, even religious people will believe that they are doing God’s will by killing believers.  The secular world will hate them for their belief in God.  Today, we realize that hatred of Christians has been part of the Christian experience for millenniums.  The Vatican News reported an average of 13 Christians are killed every day and nearly 400 Christians die every month.  This is only because they name the name of Jesus as their Lord.  In addition, 1 in 7 Christians in 2021 face persecution.  Stories of struggling Christians have been highlighted in various media.  Dr. Todd M. Johnson, professor at Gordon Conwell Theological Seminary, estimates that more than 70 million Christians have been martyred over the last two millennia, more than half of which died in the 20th century under fascist communist regimes.  He also estimates that one million Christians were killed between 2001 and 2010 and about 900,000 were killed from 2011 to 2020.  As Jesus prophesied, believers will be persecuted and killed in his time and in the future.  His followers will be hated in all nations.  His name would become a curse word by many, not a name to adore.    

After Jesus’ death and resurrection, the church immediately fell into great persecution.  The apostles were arrested in the temple.  The Jewish elite forbade the apostles to speak in the name of Jesus.  They were flogged.  After that we see the stoning of Stephen, the killing of James, and Peter put in jail.  The persecution in Jerusalem scattered the Christians to safer lands.  But even in other lands, people like Paul were chasing down Christians, bringing them back to Jerusalem to either recant their belief in Jesus or face execution.  Identifying yourself as a Christian in any land could cause great personal danger.  Paul encouraged his nascent churches to be firm in the face of persecution and harm.  He congratulated the Thessalonians for standing strong under duress.  You became imitators of us and of the Lord, for you welcomed the message in the midst of severe suffering with the joy given by the Holy Spirit.  (1 Thessalonians 1:6)  Peter talks to the church at large and tells them that persecution is part of the Christian walk.  Dear friends, do not be surprised at the fiery ordeal that has come on you to test you, as though something strange were happening to you.  But rejoice inasmuch as you participate in the sufferings of Christ, so that you may be overjoyed when his glory is revealed.  If you are insulted because of the name of Christ, you are blessed, for the Spirit of glory and of God rests on you.  If you suffer, it should not be as a murderer or thief or any other kind of criminal, or even as a meddler. However, if you suffer as a Christian, do not be ashamed, but praise God that you bear that name.  (1 Peter 4:12-16)  Jesus knew what would happen to his followers after He left.  He realized they would go under great stress for the world loves darkness rather than light.  This is the verdict: Light has come into the world, but people loved darkness instead of light because their deeds were evil.  Everyone who does evil hates the light, and will not come into the light for fear that their deeds will be exposed.  (John 3:19-20)  As Jesus said, his followers are lights in the world just as He was the Light, but people love darkness and reject lights for their deeds are evil.  They do not want lights in their world for lights reveal the world’s self-indulgence, lust, and lack of love.  As we read in our focus, even in the church, the world’s darkness sometimes infiltrates the believers.  At that time many will turn away from the faith and will betray and hate each other, and many false prophets will appear and deceive many people.  We see at the very end of time, many turning to false doctrines within the church, deceiving people.  False prophets will claim leadership of the flock, portraying themselves as having the real truth of the gospel.  Some of them will even claim special insight into God that only they possess.  Others will say they are Jesus Christ incarnated in their flesh.  Many will be led away by such foolish claims.  Paul warns the believers, I know that after I leave, savage wolves will come in among you and will not spare the flock.  Even from your own number men will arise and distort the truth in order to draw away disciples after them.  So be on your guard!  Remember that for three years I never stopped warning each of you night and day with tears.  (Acts 20:29-31)  These wolves are false teachers who care more about winning the world than feeding the sheep.  Their primary purpose for their deception is to reap the world’s benefits, to eat, drink and be merry in this world.  As with the false prophets of old, they use the flock for their own benefit.  Convincing the sheep that they can have all that is in the world and Christ too.  

In all ages, the church has been under the threat of persecution and murder.  The church has also been exposed to false teachers in every age who exploit even the widows and poor for their own benefit.  These errant teachers heap wealth upon themselves, in our day— fancy cars, elaborate houses, expensive jewels, and the like.  They do not love the sheep; they love the world and everything in it.  But there were also false prophets among the people, just as there will be false teachers among you.  They will secretly introduce destructive heresies, even denying the sovereign Lord who bought them—bringing swift destruction on themselves.  Many will follow their depraved conduct and will bring the way of truth into disrepute.  In their greed these teachers will exploit you with fabricated stories.  Their condemnation has long been hanging over them, and their destruction has not been sleeping.  (2 Peter 2: 1-3)  Jesus turned the world upside down when He came.  Those who want to be leaders are to be the servants of all.  Those who want to shepherd the Lord’s flock are to be shepherds who consider the sheep’s needs as being more important than their own needs.  By preferring others above their own lives, they will not run when the wolves come.  The sheep’s lives are considered as important as their own lives.  A true shepherd fulfills the second cardinal law: loving others as you love yourself.  They will die for their sheep.  A false prophet will consider himself or herself above others.  They accumulate much wealth and status from their sheep, but will abandon the sheep under any threat to their own existence.  They excommunicate others easily from their flock.  They want complete slavish obedience from their sheep.  Anyone who will not follow will be cut out from the flock.  Such false, cultish behavior will affect the love of many.  Because of the increase of wickedness, the love of most will grow cold, but the one who stands firm to the end will be saved.  Will faith be found in the last days?  Will the mocking and jeering of the world intimidate some, keeping them from following Christ?  Will the false prophets who tell their people you can have it all and Christ too, discourage some?  Will faith be found in this age of computers when once again the world will have one language as in the days of Babel?  If as one people speaking the same language they have begun to do this, then nothing they plan to do will be impossible for them.  Come, let us go down and confuse their language so they will not understand each other.  (Genesis 11:6-7)  Will man elevate himself with God, even discovering how to make life?  Who knows.  But we do know that the gospel will be told until the end of time, to all nations, to all people everywhere.  God will never give up on people.  The Good News will be preached to all and then the end will come.  Brothers and sisters, do not grow cold but stand firm to the end that you might be saved.        

Matthew 24:1-8 End of Time!

Matthew 24:1-8  Jesus left the temple and was walking away when his disciples came up to him to call his attention to its buildings.  “Do you see all these things?” he asked.  “Truly I tell you, not one stone here will be left on another; every one will be thrown down.”  As Jesus was sitting on the Mount of Olives, the disciples came to him privately.  “Tell us,” they said, “when will this happen, and what will be the sign of your coming and of the end of the age?”  Jesus answered: “Watch out that no one deceives you.  For many will come in my name, claiming, ‘I am the Messiah,’ and will deceive many.  You will hear of wars and rumors of wars, but see to it that you are not alarmed.  Such things must happen, but the end is still to come.  Nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom.  There will be famines and earthquakes in various places.  All these are the beginning of birth pains.

Even though the disciples had seen marvelous miracles, healings, and heard great teaching, they knew now after Jesus’ comments about the temple’s destruction, their hopes of a kingdom arriving soon would not happen.  “Tell us,” they said, “when will this happen, and what will be the sign of your coming and of the end of the age?”  Because of Jesus’ miraculous works that no man from the beginning of time had done, many in Israel were looking for him to restore Israel to a prominent position in the world.  They were anticipating that He would cast off the Roman yoke from their backs, freeing them from servitude to a foreign power.  In the minds of many, He was in the category of the great men of old that God called to rescue Israel; He would ascend to the throne of David, delivering Israel from its enemies, restoring their nation to a place of grandeur.  When he came near the place where the road goes down the Mount of Olives, the whole crowd of disciples began joyfully to praise God in loud voices for all the miracles they had seen: “Blessed is the king who comes in the name of the Lord!”  “Peace in heaven and glory in the highest!”  (Luke 19:37-38)  However, after Jesus was arrested and handed over to the hated Romans, the people’s view of Jesus as their beloved, future ruler turned to hatred.  They were then easily convinced by the leaders of their community to yell, “Crucify him!”  As the disciples now were learning about the end of the age, they knew Jesus the man of flesh would die, later coming back to them in another state of being.  The kingdom was not to be restored immediately; this reality would happen in the future.  They should be aware that others would come in Jesus’ name, announcing that they are the Messiah, many will come in my name, claiming, ‘I am the Messiah,’ and will deceive many.  Their deceptive acclamations of being the Anointed One would carry many, following them to their own sorrow.  To avoid this cultish behavior, Jesus tells them later to wait for him to send the Holy Spirit to them.  He, the Spirit, will testify only of Jesus being the Lord and Savior.  He will glorify the name of Jesus in them.  The disciples and Jesus’ followers will eventually take on the name Christians.   

After Jesus is crucified, we see the kingdom of God realized when the Holy Spirit falls on Jesus’ followers.  The Spirit of God fully infuses man’s spirit.  In reality, Jesus will be in the midst of them.  They will become the body of Christ.  Once, on being asked by the Pharisees when the kingdom of God would come, Jesus replied, “The coming of the kingdom of God is not something that can be observed, nor will people say, ‘Here it is,’ or ‘There it is,’ because the kingdom of God is in your midst.”  (Luke 17:20-21)  This kingdom will spread in the hearts of men.  Peter talks about this kingdom when he tells people what the baptism of the Holy Spirit announces to the world.  “These people are not drunk, as you suppose.  It’s only nine in the morning!  No, this is what was spoken by the prophet Joel: ‘In the last days, God says, I will pour out my Spirit on all people.  Your sons and daughters will prophesy, your young men will see visions, your old men will dream dreams.  Even on my servants, both men and women, I will pour out my Spirit in those days, and they will prophesy.  I will show wonders in the heavens above and signs on the earth below, blood and fire and billows of smoke.  The sun will be turned to darkness and the moon to blood before the coming of the great and glorious day of the Lord.  And everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.’”  (Acts 2:15-21)  In today’s scriptural focus, we see Jesus talking about the very end of time.  Peter in his sermon is talking about the last days, the days before the very end of time.  During this time, the kingdom will be established on earth as God will interweave himself in the redeemed through the Spirit’s indwelling.  The kingdom of God has come to earth.  Even though God is doing a new work on earth, for centuries people have heard about wars and experienced all kinds of conflicts.  Millions have been murdered.  The avarice, lust and greed in men and women will never be satiated.  God destroyed people in Noah’s time because of man’s innate desire to war and destroy.  This nature of Cain has always been alive and still is a major part of the human heart.  In this day of electronic media, people are even more aware of battles, conflicts, disturbances, and wars throughout the world.  However Jesus says, see to it that you are not alarmed.  Such things must happen, but the end is still to come.  In the last days, even after the Holy Spirit has fallen on men, mankind has not changed one bit.  People are still aggressive, willing to kill for the smallest of reasons.  The kingdom of Jesus’ earthly reign is still in the future. The Temple’s destruction is used by Jesus as a prophetic symbol of what will happen to Israel.  The Romans will destroy the Temple when they put down the Zealot’s rebellion to their rule.  This will happen in 70 AD.  At that time many Jews are slaughtered and chased from the country of Israel.  However, this is not the end of Jerusalem’s trouble.  Two more rebellions happen against the Rome rule.  Finally in 132 AD, Rome decides to permanently destroy the Jewish community, eliminating this thorn in its flesh.  The Jews are either killed or scattered throughout the surrounding countries, their time in Jerusalem ended.  The temple was gone; the Jews were gone.  A secular, pagan city replaced the holy Jerusalem.  Jesus’ prophecy of no temple stone upon another came to reality.

God dwells in a timeless existence.  We on earth record the number of days, moons, and seasons, marking this as time.  When Jesus talks about the very last days, He uses the destruction of the temple as the beginning of the end.  All these are the beginning of birth pains.  God alone will determine the very last day.  Neither man nor Jesus himself knows when God will decide to draw the curtain for the close of time.  Jesus’ coming will be quick, mostly undetected by the assumptions of men.  Men tend to expect Jesus’ return when things are especially trying on earth in their neighborhood.  But horrible events occur all the time and will continue to happen everywhere.  Holocausts, slavery, abuse, slaughter, and every kind of disturbance will continue to happen because all of those evil things reflect the nature of man.  There is always some group on earth that is being hunted down, persecuted, murdered.  But Paul paints another picture of the end times.  Now, brothers and sisters, about times and dates we do not need to write to you, for you know very well that the day of the Lord will come like a thief in the night.  While people are saying, “Peace and safety,” destruction will come on them suddenly, as labor pains on a pregnant woman, and they will not escape.  (1 Thessalonians 5:1-3)  People work very hard to have the peace they desire.  To have their supposed peace, they want freedom to do what they wish. They will destroy others readily for this kind of peace, conjuring up all kinds of excuses, defending their meanness to others.  As Paul says, they will cry peace:  we have the peace we want, the freedom to act according to our plans.  They will lie, distort, make excuses for themselves and others to achieve their self-interest.  But the peace they supposedly desire is founded on selfish purposes, often reflecting sexual immorality, impurity and debauchery; idolatry and witchcraft; hatred, discord, jealousy, fits of rage, selfish ambition, dissensions, factions and envy; drunkenness, orgies, and the like.  (Galatians 5:19-21)  All of this they will do for a life of satisfaction or self-gratification.  Then they will have what they want—a world made in their image, having the freedom to do what they crave.  But Paul says when they get what they want, God will cry for the angels to draw the age of humans to a close.  The trumpet will be blown.  And he will send his angels with a loud trumpet call, and they will gather his elect from the four winds, from one end of the heavens to the other.  (Matthew 24:31)  There will be no snickering about doing evil then.  For Christians, there will be no desire to continue not reflecting the Holy Spirit’s nature.  There will only be fear in the hearts of anyone who gloried in doing evil; there will be no escape.  The disciples wanted to know when Jesus would return.  They knew now He would die.  The kingdom of God, or even their desire for the kingdom of Israel to be restored, would not happen soon.  Jesus told them that his second return would only happen when the Father desires.  Until then, they should be watching, praying, seeking God’s will in their lives.  This is who we are breakfast companions.  We are not breaking down walls for a better life here; we are looking for the soon coming of our Lord, Jesus the Christ.  Amen!  If this world is too much with you; if your heart does not long to see the coming of the Lord; seek him now while He may be found.     

Matthew 23:37-39 Gather as a Hen Gathers Her Chicks

Matthew 23:37-39  Jerusalem, Jerusalem, you who kill the prophets and stone those sent to you, how often I have longed to gather your children together, as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, and you were not willing.  Look, your house is left to you desolate.  For I tell you, you will not see me again until you say, ‘Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord.’

Jerusalem, the city on earth to honor the God of all creation, the place of God’s temple, rejected Jesus as the Messiah.  The people soon would gather together, shouting for Jesus to be crucified.  They would choose Barabbas, a revolutionary, over Jesus, the man of peace.  Barabbas would escape death, Jesus would be crucified.  Jesus had been dishonored by the Roman legions.  He had been disgraced; He represented weakness.  At least Barabbas gave the people of Israel some optimism: he would fight the Romans; he would war against Caesar.  Jesus preached loving your enemies, doing good to those who persecute you.  What victory is there in that message?  Jesus had no answer for their self-interest.  CRUCIFY HIM was their answer to Jesus’ teaching.  Only Barabbas has the answer to life, not Jesus.  Their call for Jesus’ death was ill-informed, for Jesus not Barabbas loved them.  Jesus would die for them.  Barabbas would live for his own selfishness as all flesh, maybe for aggrandizement or wealth.  Jesus, as the Father God of all creation, loved Jerusalem, a place of death for the Anointed One.  As he approached Jerusalem and saw the city, he wept over it and said, “If you, even you, had only known on this day what would bring you peace—but now it is hidden from your eyes.  The days will come upon you when your enemies will build an embankment against you and encircle you and hem you in on every side.  They will dash you to the ground, you and the children within your walls.  They will not leave one stone on another, because you did not recognize the time of God’s coming to you.”  (Luke 19:41-44)  They rejected Jesus, chose not peace but violence.  True, eternal peace was hidden from their eyes, for Jesus had to go to the cross, murdered by the chosen people.  They chose faith in the laws and regulations over the grace and mercy of God.  They rejected peace when they killed Jesus.  They thought the peace they desired would not come through Jesus, the man who said you must be born again to have real peace.  No, they assumed peace would come only to those who would fight for it.  Warring for good, fighting against evil would accomplish what they wanted: peace.   But Jesus said, They will dash you to the ground, you and the children within your walls.  From generation to generation, you and your children will be slaughtered as helpless sheep.  Barabbus’ way will never deliver peace to you. And that is the story of the history of the Jews.  Jesus as He entered Jerusalem knew the consequences of rejecting him as the Messiah.  He knew the future of the people of Jerusalem for the future centuries; he wept over it (Jerusalem).  He had come to announce that He was the fulfillment of the law, that He, the Perfect One, would usher the chosen people into the kingdom of God.  But they would not hear him; their religious leaders did not want to lose their place of honor and deference in Israel, so they led the people away from Jesus, the Messiah.  They brought in the rejection of the Messiah, the only one who completely satisfied the law of Moses, making him the eternal gate to the kingdom of God.  

We see Jesus in mourning as we saw David in mourning over his son, Absalom.  Absalom would have been the king of Israel.  He needed only to wait for that wonderful day when he would inherit the throne of Israel.   But Absalom rebelled, attempting to take the throne before his time.  David mourned over the heart of his lovely son, Absalom.  The king was shaken.  He went up to the room over the gateway and wept.  As he went, he said: “O my son Absalom!  My son, my son Absalom!  If only I had died instead of you—O Absalom, my son, my son!  (2 Samuel 18:33)  He sorrowed over a son whose heart was not right with God, a son who would take his throne by force.  Jesus mourned over the hearts of the Jerusalem people who would kill him.  Jerusalem believed Jesus had no right to rule over them.  They saw a man of weakness, not a man like Saul who was head and shoulders above any other man in Israel.  They wanted a warrior king, not a man of peace.  Rome was a thorn in their flesh.  However, Jesus’ mission was always to them first.  His teaching and miracles exposed them explicitly to the truth of who He was, the Messiah.  Then he went up on a mountainside and sat down.  Great crowds came to him, bringing the lame, the blind, the crippled, the mute and many others, and laid them at his feet; and he healed them. The people were amazed when they saw the mute speaking, the crippled made well, the lame walking and the blind seeing.  And they praised the God of Israel.  (Matthew 15:29-31)  They were as Absalom, the son of the inheritance.  They were God’s first son, the one He delivered from the captivity of the Evil One.  This is what the Lord says: Israel is my firstborn son, and I told you,  “Let my son go, so he may worship me.”  But you refused to let him go; so I will kill your firstborn son.’”  (Exodus 22:21-23)  God delivered Israel out of Egypt by performing mighty miracles.  Jesus before the Israelites’ eyes performed mighty miracles, so many that no man from the beginning of time had done so many marvelous deeds.  However, the Israelites were blind to the reality of the Messiah being in their midst.  Barabbus and his violence would save them, so they killed the King of kings.  As with Absalom their hearts were wicked, with little or no allegiance to the Creator of all things, the One who delivered them from slavery to the evil one.  Again the Israelites did evil in the eyes of the Lord.  They served the Baals and the Ashtoreths, and the gods of Aram, the gods of Sidon, the gods of Moab, the gods of the Ammonites and the gods of the Philistines.  And because the Israelites forsook the Lord and no longer served him, he became angry with them.  (Judges 10:6-7)  Notice, they served every god, every authority, but the God who made them and who took care of them.  Their hearts were dark, unthankful; as the first son, they went their own way, gaining their inheritance by their own efforts.  

The Israelites in Jesus’ time were once again in a time of repentance.  John the Baptist and Jesus called their spiritual leaders vipers, hypocrites.  John was busy baptizing the people for repentance.  Jesus also was baptized, identifying with the people and the need to turn to God.  In that experience, God commissioned Jesus for a redemptive mission to the Israelites.  As the Son of God, He taught people that the kingdom of God was at hand.  Jesus was with them to usher in this kingdom.  He was focused on the Israelites like a laser beam.  His intentions were for the salvation of the children of Israel.  We also see him in a Gentile land, exclaiming to a Gentile woman that He has come for the first born of God.  Jesus withdrew to the region of Tyre and Sidon.  A Canaanite woman from that vicinity came to him, crying out, “Lord, Son of David, have mercy on me!  My daughter is demon-possessed and suffering terribly.”  Jesus did not answer a word.  So his disciples came to him and urged him, “Send her away, for she keeps crying out after us.”  He answered, “I was sent only to the lost sheep of Israel.”  (Matthew 15:21-24)  In this scene, Jesus affirms that he has come only for the chosen.  His mission was exclusively to the land of Israel, yet He is now in the region of Tyre and Sidon, a Gentile land.  Not surprisingly a Gentile woman who had heard of his great exploits in Israel comes to him to ask him to deliver her daughter from demon possession.  Jesus at first does not say a word to her.  Finally, the disciples step in, asking Jesus to send her away.  Her presence and the commotion she is causing by begging Jesus to heal her daughter is an embarrassment to them.  Then Jesus reacts to the Gentile woman coldly, I was sent only to the lost sheep of Israel, the chosen by my Father God.  “It is not right to take the children’s bread and toss it to the dogs.” (26)  This statement does not deter the woman.  She reacts to his words by saying, maybe that is true, but the dogs eat the crumbs that fall from the  table.  Of course, Jesus is referring to himself as being the bread of life.  The Jews would be given the chance first to eat of this bread.  They, even though they failed miserably many times, still lived by a modicum of faith, attempting to obey the law, sacrificing animals and birds to God.  They had the right to sit at the table.  Jesus came to them to show a more excellent way to God.  Jesus, the bread of life, was sent to be given to them first.  Then the Gentile woman speaks a truism about the bread of life, even the crumbs have life in them.  The dogs are revived by these crumbs.  Jesus looks at her and says, your faith is great; your child has been delivered from the evil one.  Her continued begging, her belief in Jesus as the bread of life, caused her to receive her request.  This story reveals the love of God for the world.  Jesus is now in a Gentile world.  He is ministering to a Gentile woman.  He spends only a short time in this Gentile area, but his purpose was God ordained.  As with Lazarus, going belatedly to Lazarus after he died, his hesitancy to respond quickly to the Gentile woman was to elevate faith in God.  He wanted to show that God will answer the needs of those who seek him, even in a Gentile world.  Jesus met the need.  By accentuating the Gentile’s faith, her persistence, Jesus highlighted the faithfulness of God to Jew and Gentile alike.  In both situations, a miracle of great proportions happened: a man dead raised, a Gentile dead to God’s blessing receives her answer.  In this healing of a Gentile, God was revealing He would work in the land of the lost Gentiles if they would place their faith in God’s firstborn from death, Jesus Christ.  Belatedly or not, Jesus’ intentions were to heal this woman’s daughter.  Today as we struggle with faith, the bread of life has been given to us, Jew and Gentile alike.  The crumbs are powerful, but we are not dogs, seeking crumbs.  Jesus revealed his plan in the Last Supper, freely breaking bread for each one of us and for the whole world.  He breaks the bread of life and holds it out to each of us, “Partake of this and you will have life forevermore.”  Sadly, Jerusalem would not partake of that bread of life that was freely given to them.  Today, receive the bread and share with those you meet.  Amen!    

     

Matthew 23:29-36 Justice, Mercy, Faithfulness!

Matthew 23:29-36  Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites!   You build tombs for the prophets and decorate the graves of the righteous.  And you say, ‘If we had lived in the days of our ancestors, we would not have taken part with them in shedding the blood of the prophets.’  So you testify against yourselves that you are the descendants of those who murdered the prophets.  Go ahead, then, and complete what your ancestors started!  “You snakes!  You brood of vipers!  How will you escape being condemned to hell?  Therefore I am sending you prophets and sages and teachers.  Some of them you will kill and crucify; others you will flog in your synagogues and pursue from town to town.  And so upon you will come all the righteous blood that has been shed on earth, from the blood of righteous Abel to the blood of Zechariah son of Berekiah, whom you murdered between the temple and the altar.  Truly I tell you, all this will come on this generation.

We see in the above verses Jesus adding yet another woe to the teachers of the law and the Pharisees.  These people are the leaders of the religious community of the Jews.  As leaders of Judaism, their lives and teachings ought to have revealed God to the people, what it is like to be close to God.  They were supposedly the epitome of righteousness and truth.  But instead of that reality, Jesus said they are the opposite of truth and righteousness; they are wolves in sheep’s clothing.  (See Matthew 7:15)  These leaders represented aggrandizing of self over honoring the God of Israel.  Jesus’ anger was great against them.  How will you escape being condemned to hell?  As with the angels that rebelled against God, these people of corrupt hearts are destined to eternal damnation.  The angels who did not keep their positions of authority but abandoned their proper dwelling—these he has kept in darkness, bound with everlasting chains for judgment on the great Day.  (Jude 6)  Their hypocrisy, their willingness to live lives of deception, was so evil that Jesus called them a brood of vipers.  John the Baptist also called them vipers, toxic snakes that bring death, not life.  But when he saw many of the Pharisees and Sadducees coming to where he was baptizing, he said to them: “You brood of vipers!  Who warned you to flee from the coming wrath?”  (Matthew 3:7)  Jesus’ anger was hot against these religious leaders.  They were hell-bound, hypocrites, wearing clothes depicting righteousness but inside were dead bones, rotten flesh.  They portrayed that they were of God, but in reality they were full of evil.  They wanted to destroy God’s anointed one, Jesus Christ.  The content of their hearts was the same as their forefathers who killed righteous, godly people in the past.  Now, they wanted to kill Jesus, but they claimed they were different from those in the past who killed and persecuted the righteous.  To accentuate their hearts were different from their ancestors, they paid homage to the prophets of old by building tombs for them and decorating their graves.  Illustrating by their acts of respect for the old prophets that if they had lived in those former times, they would not have done evil to these messengers of God.  However, Jesus recognized their hypocrisy, for He knew they had the same irreparable gene of murder in their hearts as their forefathers.  They intended to kill Jesus, God’s righteous One who lives in their generation.  Therefore, Jesus proclaims the judgment of God on them, upon you will come all the righteous blood that has been shed on earth, from the blood of righteous Abel to the blood of Zechariah son of Berekiah, whom you murdered between the temple and the altar.  No matter what their pretensions were of honoring former holy people, God is going to judge them harshly for their attempt to thwart God’s salvation plan as was their ancestors’ purposes in killing and persecuting the prophets.  However, inadvertently, they will be doing God’s work by killing Jesus. 

Jesus said this wicked work of the devil will continue even after the cross.  Sadly, the instruments in this evil work of the devil are the religious leaders.  They will not be satisfied in killing Jesus, they will want to destroy his followers too.  So Jesus said to them, Go ahead, then, and complete what your ancestors started!  To reveal just how wicked you are and why you are destined for hell, I am sending you prophets and sages and teachers.  Some of them you will kill and crucify; others you will flog in your synagogues and pursue from town to town.  We see Jesus’ prophecy being fulfilled in Acts.  Starting with Stephen being stoned to death, we see the religious leaders as vicious hounds chasing God’s people from town to town.  Stephen in his stoning castigates these leaders in his last moments on earth.  You stiff-necked people!  Your hearts and ears are still uncircumcised.  You are just like your ancestors: You always resist the Holy Spirit!  Was there ever a prophet your ancestors did not persecute?  They even killed those who predicted the coming of the Righteous One.  And now you have betrayed and murdered him—you who have received the law that was given through angels but have not obeyed it.  (Acts 7:51-53)  Paul stands by during this stoning wishing to do likewise to Jesus’ followers.  Later he is given a commission by the Jewish leaders to chase down the Christians from town to town.  He has murder in his heart, just as his forefathers had to thwart God’s plan of salvation.  He desired to kill every last one of them that carried the salvation plan in their hearts.  Meanwhile, Saul was still breathing out murderous threats against the Lord’s disciples.  He went to the high priest and asked him for letters to the synagogues in Damascus, so that if he found any there who belonged to the Way, whether men or women, he might take them as prisoners to Jerusalem.  (Acts 9:1-2)  As we see with his fellow Pharisees and with the teachers of the law, Paul was on his way to hell.  He was fighting against God’s plan of redemption for mankind.  He was a leader in this devilish work; fulfilling Jesus' prediction that his followers would be persecuted and put to death, and you will be hated by all nations because of me.  (Matthew 24:9)  Paul, the point man in this wicked work, opposed God, the Creator of all things, who stopped Paul on the road to Damascus.  Jesus confronts him there, but not with condemnation as He had done with the religious leaders in Jerusalem.  He merely asked Paul, “Saul, Saul, why do you persecute me?”  (Acts 9:4)  Jesus now uses the zealousness of the Pharisees, their willingness to tithe their spices for the work of God.  He chooses a Pharisee bound for destruction and turned him around to work for the Good News.  Paul does not work for God to accrue honor and respect as was the case for the Jerusalem religious leaders.  He works for God as a lowly slave, willing to be put into any situation for God’s glory.  I have worked much harder, been in prison more frequently, been flogged more severely, and been exposed to death again and again.  Five times I received from the Jews the forty lashes minus one.  Three times I was beaten with rods, once I was pelted with stones.  (2 Corinthians 11:23-25)  No longer would he be the persecutor, the killer.  From the time of Damascus he would be the hunted; he would receive the persecution; and he would hear death threats from the people he was trying to reach for God.  Paul would no longer carry on the work of his forefathers and his religious order.  He would now, as a member of the kingdom of God, work for the redemption of all mankind.

The fulfillment of Jesus’ prophecy of judgment on these religious leaders came about quickly.  Truly I tell you, all this will come on this generation.  Not many years after Jesus’ death, Rome put down a rebellion in Israel, destroying the Temple and putting to death the priesthood in Jerusalem.  God fulfilled Jesus’ words, the Temple was ransacked and destroyed completely, not a stone left upon a stone.  The glory of Israel was destroyed; the worship of God in the temple was gone.  Israel, the carrier of Good News, was lost in the rubble.  But the Good news carried on through people who were scattered all over the world.  The Pharisees and their worship ceased, but God’s true message of redemption through Jesus Christ through the Jewish and Gentile believers invaded every land and was found in many people of different ethnic and racial groups.  The Jews, God’s people chosen to carry the redemption seed, had completed their mission.  A new birth has come to all who repent of their sins and accept the Good News that Christ paid for the sins of all people.  The Pharisees and the teachers of the law could see no reason for any other plan than obedience to the law; the law they did not obey completely, for they could not live up to the cumbersome burdens they placed on the backs of the people.  They were hypocrites, deceivers, making God’s goodness opaque to the people: God’s justice, mercy and faithfulness.  (Matthew 23:23)  As with John the Baptist, Jesus saw them as vipers, killing the correct view of God, causing death for the Jewish people.  Without knowing it, they were trying to hinder the seed of promise by their opposition to Jesus, but in reality, they were furthering God’s plan of redemption for all people, for the cross was Jesus’ destination.  Their blindness to Jesus as the Redeemer birthed eternal life through the cross.  Their existence would end, but the Good News would flourish in the hearts of finite men and bring eternal life to them.  As Paul writes in 1 Corinthians 15, our earthly bodies are planted in the ground in death, just as a seed.  But they will flourish, be raised forever.  Our bodies are buried in brokenness, but they will be raised in glory.  We are buried as natural humans, but we will be raised as spiritual beings.  The first man Adam was a living person just as all species are living, but the last man, Jesus, is a life-giving spirit.  The first man, Adam, could only produce living creatures from his loins, but the second man, Jesus, produces living creatures for eternity.  We who are born again unto a new life that is forever ours praise God for his wonderful redemption plan.  The Pharisees and the teachers of the law could not envision such a wonderful plan.  Their hearts were wrapped in the things of this world.  They valued the dust of this world more than the holy things of God, wrapped eternally in the Messiah, Jesus Christ.  Praise God today that you have been saved by the blood of the Lamb!     

Matthew 23:23-28 Faith Through Love!

Matthew 23:23-28  Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites!  You give a tenth of your spices—mint, dill and cumin.  But you have neglected the more important matters of the law—justice, mercy and faithfulness.  You should have practiced the latter, without neglecting the former.  You blind guides!  You strain out a gnat but swallow a camel.  “Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites!  You clean the outside of the cup and dish, but inside they are full of greed and self-indulgence.  Blind Pharisee!  First clean the inside of the cup and dish, and then the outside also will be clean.  “Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites!  You are like whitewashed tombs, which look beautiful on the outside but on the inside are full of the bones of the dead and everything unclean.  In the same way, on the outside you appear to people as righteous but on the inside you are full of hypocrisy and wickedness.

The Pharisees and the teachers of the law put on a good show for the people.  They seemed to be righteous, dedicated, consecrated to God and his will.  Humans tend to judge on the outside appearance, what appears to be right or good.  But God knows the heart of a man; He rightly judges what a man really is; his goodness, his evilness, his willingness to deceive or be upright.  God knows the intentions of men, their thoughts, their hopes, their secrets.  When Samuel the prophet chose the first king of Israel, Saul, he thought he had God’s man, for Saul was a half head taller than all the other Israelites.  He stood out in a crowd of men.  Surely, he was the man that should lead Israel.  Saul’s physical attributes made him the warrior king desired by the Israelites.  Saul had a humble heart when chosen as the king of Israel.  But sadly humility gave way to a self-willed attitude revealed in his defeat of the Amalekites.  He failed God by not completely destroying all the Amalekites and their animals.  He spared the king of the Amalekites and some of the better animals.  He lied to Samuel when he told him that he spared the better animals to sacrifice to God.  Samuel rejected this lie and judged Saul immediately.  You have rejected the word of the Lord, and the Lord has rejected you as king over Israel!  (1 Samuel 15:26)  Saul’s self-will, his words and ideas over God’s everlasting word brought judgement upon him.  God’s word should never be secondary in a person’s life: God’s words should take preeminence over everything man thinks or does.  King Saul made two seemingly innocuous decisions in this situation, but both violated God’s irrevocable word, causing him to lose his right to rule Israel.  King Saul’s heart was not right with God.  Therefore, God told Samuel to ordain another man as the ruler of Israel.  He told Samuel the outward appearance of a man does not matter—only his heart matters.  The Lord does not look at the things people look at.  People look at the outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart.”  (1 Samuel 16:7)  David the shepherd boy was selected as the next King of Israel.  In telling the history of Israel, Paul says David, was a man after God’s own heart; he will do everything God wants him to do.  (Acts 13:22)  David would follow God’s will in his leadership role, although human weaknesses would get him in trouble with God.  The priests that Jesus confronted were not faithful in their leadership role.  In fact their hearts were so contaminated that they were called vipers who were lethal to the people they ruled.  They were making decisions in their lives that were important to God such as tithing: You give a tenth of your spices—mint, dill and cumin, but they neglected what was more important to God.  In their regulations and law bound attitude, they lost the heart and purpose of serving God.  

God chose the Israelites out of all the people of the world to show his justice, mercy and faithfulness.  The capstone of the law was to love others as you want to be loved, for that reflects how God loves people.  The religious leaders presented themselves as clean vessels, looking good on the outside.  You clean the outside of the cup and dish.  They received much praise and deference from the people for their outward lifestyle, but Jesus knew their hearts as God knew King Saul’s heart.  Inside they violated God’s nature; Jesus knew they are full of greed and self-indulgence.  They were vipers, hypocrites, living a lie, lacking integrity, not truthful to the people.  They championed self-will over God’s will.  They loved the world and the things of the world more than God.  They loved the praises of men, the places of honor, and money.  They were as all men, seeking lives centered on self-will, not God’s will.  The heart is deceitful above all things and beyond cure.  Who can understand it?  “I the Lord search the heart and examine the mind, to reward each person according to their conduct, according to what their deeds deserve.”  (Jeremiah 17:9-10)  The deeds of the leading priests and the teachers of the law were deceptive and evil.  They were out to kill Jesus and eventually they got the Romans to hang Jesus on a cross.  Jesus discerned their nature very accurately when he said, You are like whitewashed tombs, which look beautiful on the outside but on the inside are full of the bones of the dead and everything unclean.  In the same way, on the outside you appear to people as righteous but on the inside you are full of hypocrisy and wickedness.  Their wickedness was so great that they were constantly seeking to kill Jesus.  Finally they succeeded in murdering him.  Rather than being leaders, serving the God of love; they served hate, divisiveness and murder.  They were Adam’s children, not God’s children.  They were of Cain the murderer, not Abel who pleased God with his gift to God.  As with king Saul, their failure to serve with integrity and obedience to God’s will brought them rejection.  Jesus rejected their leadership role and called them hypocrites, vipers.  His negative view of them caused Jesus to assail them with a list of three woes that led to his rejection of their outward form of godliness and inward evil inclinations.

These religious leaders claimed to know God, to be pleasing to him.  They looked good in their flowing robes and broad phylacteries on their arms and foreheads.  They looked the epitome of spirituality.  But they did not know the God of creation, for had they known God, they would have revealed him as the God of love and mercy to the people.  Instead, they emulated the secular world that sin had produced.  Inside of them as with all men who are in a sinful state, they were full of the bones of the dead and everything unclean.  Not a very complimentary picture for sure.  Paul talks about the state of men born of Adam by saying, “There is no one righteous, not even one; there is no one who understands; there is no one who seeks God.  All have turned away, they have together become worthless; there is no one who does good, not even one.”  “Their throats are open graves; their tongues practice deceit.”  “The poison of vipers is on their lips.”  (Romans 3:10-15)  Jesus knew the nature of all men, but He loved them.  He knew they would turn on him as He went to the cross.  But Jesus loved people, and He expected the Jewish religious leaders to love the people, to treat them as a good shepherd would treat his sheep.  The sheep needed guidance, good pasture, and clean water; but the religious leaders were as hired hands.  They would only be guides of the people if the leaders received their just respect and praise.  He knew they would flee if they felt threatened.  Jesus threatened their leadership role, so they fled to the Romans to do away with Jesus.  Their hearts were as all men: self-serving, self-motivated, selfish in spirit.  In sinful men, God’s will and words do not motivate them, inspire them; only their will and their fleeting words are of importance to them.  All have turned away, no one is righteous, not even one.  But this desperate situation is not the closure to the story of men.  For Christ has come to set us free from the yoke of sin, the inherited sickness of Adam.  We are not under the burden of the law and regulations to please God.  The Pharisees and the teachers of the law placed the obligations of the law heavily upon the backs of the people.   Peter said to the church leaders, which one of us has kept the law perfectly?  God demands perfection.  The religious leaders were living lives of hypocrisy and lies, but Jesus, the Lamb of God, would set people free from hypocrisy and lies.  He gave his life for our freedom.  It is for freedom that Christ has set us free.  Stand firm, then, and do not let yourselves be burdened again by a yoke of slavery. …  For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision nor uncircumcision has any value.  The only thing that counts is faith expressing itself through love.   (Galatians 5:1-6)  We are no longer bound by the law and its regulations.  We have one who fulfilled the law completely.  He is our perfection if we have placed our trust IN HIM, and not in our own works.  God desires us to be his children, and to be his children, we must come to him in perfection.  Our Adam’s DNA had to be changed to Jesus’ DNA.  As children of our parents, we carry their DNA.  To be children of God, we must be like him with his nature.  Jesus is God, God in the flesh.  We who are IN HIM have his nature.  The Pharisees and the teachers of the law had only the nature of the law and its regulations.  They did tithe, they did carry out the law to the best of their intentions, but they failed to have the law written on their hearts.  Justice, mercy and faithfulness escaped their lifestyle.  The only thing that really counts in a Christian’s life is faith expressing itself through love.  Christ has completed the work of perfection.  His plan for you is to prosper you in love, not to harm you, but to give you hope and a future with him.  He will listen to you today.  He has given you a voice to speak, words to say.  Jeremiah chapter 29 says God will be found by you if you seek him with all your heart.  Reject the woes of the Pharisees and walk in the joy of the Lord today. 

Matthew 23:15-22 Keep In Step!

Matthew 23:15-22  Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites!  You travel over land and sea to win a single convert, and when you have succeeded, you make them twice as much a child of hell as you are.  “Woe to you, blind guides!  You say, ‘If anyone swears by the temple, it means nothing; but anyone who swears by the gold of the temple is bound by that oath.’  You blind fools!  Which is greater: the gold, or the temple that makes the gold sacred?  You also say, ‘If anyone swears by the altar, it means nothing; but anyone who swears by the gift on the altar is bound by that oath.’  You blind men!  Which is greater: the gift, or the altar that makes the gift sacred?  Therefore, anyone who swears by the altar swears by it and by everything on it.  And anyone who swears by the temple swears by it and by the one who dwells in it.  And anyone who swears by heaven swears by God’s throne and by the one who sits on it.

In the above focus we see evidence of the blindness of the teachers of the law and the Pharisees.  They claimed that the things they could see of this world were more important than the God they could not see.  Gold, gifts, materials in the temple and on the altar are counted as more important that the temple itself where God dwells and of more value than the consecrated altar where gifts on the altar were made acceptable to God.  They believed if a person swears by these earthly things, he is more bound to keep his oath than one who swears by the holiness of the temple and altar.  The temple and the altar were initially consecrated to God by sacrifices and prayers; they were made holy by these acts of the people.  The priests and the teachers of the law had elevated the gold and silver of the temple and the items on the altar above the things that were consecrated to God.  The temple was God’s dwelling place; He made it holy because of his presence.  The priests and the teachers of the law contaminated that fact by making things of this earth more important than God’s dwelling place.  The religious elite should have recognized that the temple was a holy place, a revered place because God’s Spirit was there.  Anyone who swears by the temple swears by it and by the one who dwells in it.  Confirming an oath or statement by supporting the truth of it by swearing on the existence of God or on the reality of the temple, his dwelling place, was very serious.  You have placed God as supporting your oath.  When God’s name is involved in a swearing, you are placing your words before God, words that will never be forgotten. Without God involved, with an oath based on the backing of gold and gifts, the statements are transitory and will fade in importance as soon as the words are released from the lips of the speaker.  When Jesus spoke about the permanency of the law, He related how serious something is when God is involved, when He affirms it.  The Law and the Prophets were proclaimed until John.  Since that time, the good news of the kingdom of God is being preached, and everyone is forcing their way into it.  It is easier for heaven and earth to disappear than for the least stroke of a pen to drop out of the Law.  (Luke 16:16-17)  In other words, the law and its merits will exist forever.  None of it will be forgotten by God.  The words of the law will abide forever in God’s domain, for what God says or supports will be in existence forever.  Consequently, any oath stated by man and supported by God will remain forever, never to cease.  That is why the oath at a marriage ceremony is so important.  Anyone who swears by heaven swears by God’s throne and by the one who sits on it.  This oath does not fade out of existence; just as the law does not fade, neither does an oath that carries God’s unchanging will drop out of existence.  Jesus says something difficult for us to accept when He says not one part of the law will disappear from God’s awareness.  Because of the eternal marriage oaths, Jesus concludes that, Anyone who divorces his wife and marries another woman commits adultery, and the man who marries a divorced woman commits adultery.  (Luke 16:18)  Now as with the Law, no man completely satisfies every jot and tittle of the Law.  Therefore, we place our faith in Christ’s perfection not ours.  Jesus is our perfection.  He died as a man in the flesh and rose as the first of the redeemed.  We died with him and our imperfections of following the law died there too. This work is complete.  What about the waywardness in a marriage, violating God’s permanency of our oath?  Grace also covers that, for we exist IN CHRIST as new creatures.  Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new.  (2 Corinthians 5:17 KJV)  Our fleshly imperfections are covered by God’s redeeming work IN CHRIST.  The priests and the teachers of the law could not conceive of this way to God.  They were not spiritual; they were tied to the gold and silver of this world.

Jesus castigates the religious leaders as blind guides!  They were recklessly ignorant of the important things of spiritual life.  They were blind leaders leading the blind.  Sadly, they were making their followers more devilish than themselves by considering the things of this world more important than serving God from the heart.  We see John the Baptist calling all Israelites to repentance.  Israel needed a revival, for the religious leaders had led the people astray.  Considering what to swear upon in the temple, revealed the wickedness of their hearts.  What is more important: gold or gifts?  They were focused on the things of the world, not on God.  These people honor me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me.  They worship me in vain; their teachings are merely human rules.  Jesus called the crowd to him and said, “Listen and understand.  What goes into someone’s mouth does not defile them, but what comes out of their mouth, that is what defiles them.”  (Matthew 15:8-11)  The priests were accentuating rules and regulations to please God, but their hearts were steeped in blindness.  Worldly possessions and wealth were important to them, more important than God’s ways and his desires.  Jesus knew their hearts, so He tells them, No one can serve two masters.  Either you will hate the one and love the other, or you will be devoted to the one and despise the other.  You cannot serve both God and money.  (Luke16:13)  They should not consider the gold of the temple and gifts on the altar more important than the consecrated temple and altar.  These artifacts are made holy by God himself.  With the wrong perspective of what is holy and what is not, they were serving their fleshly desires. They were serving the wrong master.  They should have known they had strayed from God’s perfection.  Jesus knew their hearts were far from God, fixated on the world.  He intimated that they were serving another master, not God.  This made the Pharisees angry.  The Pharisees, who loved money, heard all this and were sneering at Jesus.  He said to them, “You are the ones who justify yourselves in the eyes of others, but God knows your hearts.  What people value highly is detestable in God’s sight.  (Luke 16:13-15)  The wealth of this world is what people value very highly above God’s will, but for the priests to value these worldly things made them hypocrites!  For the wealth of this world and the love of the things in this world were detestable in God’s sight.

        

Because God’s promises are eternal and always before him, these priests were being blessed as children of Abraham according to God’s will.  When God made his promise to Abraham, since there was no one greater for him to swear by, he swore by himself, saying, “I will surely bless you and give you many descendants.”  And so after waiting patiently, Abraham received what was promised.  People swear by someone greater than themselves, and the oath confirms what is said and puts an end to all argument.  (Hebrew 6:13-16)  God could swear by nothing higher than himself.  His existence is conclusive, final, and forever.  In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.  (John 1:1)  Jesus, the Word, God himself in the flesh, gave himself up to die on the cross, satisfying the wrath of God on sin.  He took our place and paid the price for our sins.  The redeemed who know Jesus the Christ as their Savior no longer swear on anything higher than themselves, for the Holy Spirit, God himself, dwells in each of us.  We cannot and do not seek anything greater than God in us to confirm what we desire, what we want to do with our lives.  We no longer swear on things that are greater than we are, such as the altar, the temple or even the throne of God.  We do not have to swear on such things for the Holy Spirit exists in us; his purposes and laws are written on our hearts.  His words are even at our mouths, and we need nothing more.  Consequently as ambassadors of his will, his words, we should be careful of how we live and speak.  We do not swear, asking God to confirm our desires in our lives or our promises to others.  We do as James instructed us to do.  Above all, my brothers and sisters, do not swear—not by heaven or by earth or by anything else.  All you need to say is a simple “Yes” or “No.” Otherwise you will be condemned.   (James 5:12)  Do not say an oath such as, In God’s name, I will do this or that.  God hears those words and as Christians will hold us to them.  But because of the indwelling Holy Spirit, we should be led by his words in us not by our own fleshly desires.   But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control.  Against such things there is no law.  Those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires.  Since we live by the Spirit, let us keep in step with the Spirit.  (Galatians 5:22-25)  We do not need to make an oath so people will believe our words or intentions.  We do not need to claim God’s authority in all we do.  No, we are free in the Lord, but our fleshly desires should not be for the world and its things, such as the teachers of the law and the Pharisees desired.  Instead, we are people of yes or no, all under the guidance of the Holy Spirit, true servants of the living Lord.  Brothers and sisters in the Lord, let us keep in step with the Spirit today and every day as we proclaim the Good News.  May we declare: Yes, we are going forward; and No, we will not turn back!