Month: March 2018

39. Bound and Loosed in Heaven

 Matthew 16:19 And I will give unto thee the keys of the kingdom of heaven: and whatsoever thou shalt bind on earth shall be bound in heaven: and whatsoever thou shalt loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven.

Matthew 18:18 Whatsoever ye shall bind on earth shall be bound in heaven: and whatsoever ye shall loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven.

 This fantastic promise is given to the church on earth: you have keys that effectively open and shut the kingdom of God; you have the power to tie up or lock anything on earth or to untie or set free anything on earth, and it shall be so bound or loosed in heaven. God declares done what you have declared. When you forgive the sins of anyone they are forgiven by God. When you do not forgive sins they are not forgiven by God, instead the person is still bound in chains of sin. It is awesome to think that God would stoop to limit His working of the forgiveness of sins to the actions of humans on earth.

God could and indeed does forgive sins directly to the heart of the penitent believer alone in his closet, but His preferred means is to use human voices to speak out loud what God Himself would speak. Thus He uses His people to speak, announce and declare the Gospel of forgiveness of sins to other people. There is something to be said for “hearing” the Word of Christ, for so faith cometh.

God has given the church (the believers in Christ) to authority to speak and declare words of Grace and loosening of chains; however, these humans do not have the authority to decide finally whether one’s sins are forgiven or unforgiven. That choice is only God’s. But church people do have the authority to declare what God has revealed in His Word. They are able to declare with the authority of Scripture that the Lord forgives the sins of the penitent believer and does not forgive the sins of the unrepentant unbeliever since he cannot receive the free gift. Humans are not capable of knowing the hearts of others, whether faith to receive is present or not, and so could be mistaken in their pronouncements.

Therefore, God has lifted up some spiritually mature, Biblically literate, persons to study to know how to rightly divide the Word of God, distinguishing and rightly applying Law and Gospel, repentance and faith according to the Word. The human church is given the authority to announce and declare the forgiveness of sins, but not the authority to make a personal decision to apply or deny forgiveness.

That being said, it does not diminish the power and reality of speaking out loud and hearing by the ears the Absolution. Neither does it prevent one from taking seriously the denial of forgiveness, or excommunication. Either way it leads to genuine repentance and faith in Christ. The comfort is meant for the Hearer. It is he who receives the promise.

38.Build my church

Matthew 16:18 Thou art Peter, and upon this rock I will build my church; and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it.

 Jesus promises that He will build his church. The rock solid foundation for the church is the confession of faith, “Jesus is the Christ, the Son of the living God.” Once the Holy Spirit, through the Gospel, works that faith and confession in a person he becomes a member of the body of Christ, the Church. One by one, the Church is built on each individual member brought into it by faith.

Humans, no matter how much they believe, pray, work and witness do not build the church. We cannot create faith by ourselves, forgive sins when we choose, give eternal life, or make anyone a church member. Our job, whether a pastor or member of the church, is to preach the Gospel, announce repentance and forgiveness of sins, make disciples, baptize and acknowledge what the Spirit has worked in a person who is able to say, “Jesus is Lord.”

Pastors and workers in the Church need this promise so that they do not make church growth happen by their own power and strength. They need this promise so that they will faithfully preach, teach, baptize and witness while trusting the Lord to do the inner work of conversion and faith. They also need this promise so that they believe the power of the Gospel to convert and save; thus they will preach and teach and share the Gospel instead of the Law to everyone.

Not only will He build the Church but He will also make it strong enough to crumble the gates of hell when resistance to the Gospel crops up; those who are built into the Church by faith will be able to walk into the gates of hell and stand strong and maintain the confession, “Jesus is Lord.”

37. Shine Forth

 Matthew 13:43 Then shall the righteous shine forth as the sun in the kingdom of their Father.

 This promise is for the righteous, that is, those who are declared righteous by grace through faith because of Christ. The righteous are the believers in Christ. They will shine forth like the sun in the kingdom of God. The invisible reign of God in the hearts and lives of believers here on earth is the church on earth. Within that church the believers are like suns shining forth with light and good works in the midst of a darkened and sin-infested world. When this light is noticed people glorify God. Usually it is not noticed, but the light is still there pushing back the darkness; the world does not understand why some families, some communities, some areas seem spiritually dark and some appear brighter. The difference is explained by the amount of light that shines forth from the righteous persons living in the kingdom but affecting the kingdoms of the world.

Jesus says, “You are the light of the world,” in Matthew 5, but in John 8 he says, “I am the light of the world.” Both are true for He it is that shines through us from the kingdom within into the world around. We shine as lights in the world, but He is the light shining from our hearts through our eyes and faces and mouths.

In this context in Matthew 13, however, the time of shining is the close of the age when the angels reap the wheat and the weeds. Then the righteous will shine like the sun. After all cause of sin and law-breakers are thrown into the fiery furnace (the lake of fire), then the righteous will shine. The righteous are indeed shining already, but the suns will be obviously seen when the evil and sin, and darkness and deception, and cloud and fog is removed from our eternal presence. There will be no sin to hide and distort the shining light within each saved person. Everyone will see and notice the light shining like the sun. We do not see the righteous shining in the here and now, and we do not yet see the revelation at the future Harvest Day. For this reason we have the Scriptures to give us these promises so that we can see and believe. The promises are real; what is seen is not.

36. Bear Fruit and bring forth

 Matthew 13:23 But he that received seed into good ground is he that heareth the word, and understandeth it; which also beareth fruit, and bringeth forth, some an hundredfold, some sixty, some thirty.

Mark 4:20 And these are they which are sown on good ground; such as hear the word, and receive it, and bring forth fruit, some thirtyfold, some sixty, and some an hundred.

Luke 8:15 But that on the good ground are they, which in an honest and good heart, having heard the word, keep it, and bring forth fruit with patience.

 The conditional, wonderful promise is: If you hear the Word in an honest and good heart, understand it, and keep it, then you will bear fruit and bring forth the intended harvest in your life many times over. You will show forth and experience personally love, joy, peace, patience, goodness, kindness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. Your life will be bristling with beauty and good works. You will live a spiritually prosperous, useful and purposeful life. In other words, you will bear much fruit many times multiplied from one single seed sown. Think what the field will look like when the whole field is filled with thousands of seeds multiplied.

We cannot even see ourselves well enough to know how beautiful our life looks with all the beautiful fruit that has grown up. Since we do not see ourselves clearly and because God prevents us from seeing our own inner beauty to prevent pride, we need to be told by God what He sees and how it really is. We really do produce and grow fruit and abundant crops in our lives much more than we will ever see. We cannot see what God sees when He looks at me: He sees no sin, but only good works, very much inner and outer fruit. If we could see ourselves as God does pride would take it away and bring ugliness back again.

Jesus tells the parable so that we may place our focus on the right place and let the promise be fulfilled on its own. We are not to try to produce fruit and do good works by our own efforts; that would be futile. The fruit will grow automatically when the Word of God is heard, received and believed in an honest heart. Practically speaking, that means “go to church,” “read the Bible,” “attend Bible study.” Give yourself every opportunity to hear the Word (believe the Gospel). Get something out of going to church by preparing your heart to receive the Gospel weekly. (Go to a church that preaches the Gospel.) Let your heart listen to that Gospel in daily repentance, prayer and Bible reading.

Believe the promise will be fulfilled in your life. Let God speak to you in love and forgiveness as often and sincerely as possible, and that Word of Gospel will grow much fruit and many good works.

35. Blessed eyes and ears

 Matthew 13:16 But blessed are your eyes, for they see: and your ears, for they hear.

 The promise of blessed eyes and blessed ears means we can perceive and understand. We are ready to admit that we, and all men, are ignorant of God and the things of God; ignorant does not mean dumb as opposed to smart, it means to not even be aware of as something that is not on the radar screen at all. It is not that I didn’t understand it; I never even heard of it. We are born blind, dead and enemies of God; we have no sensory receptors to take in information and knowledge about spiritual life and the life of God.

Since we cannot know, God must choose to reveal Himself and cause us in the spirit to see and hear. He does this through the Word of the Gospel, which the Holy Spirit uses to convince our hearts of the truth of God. And now we understand for God has blessed our eyes and ears. The very announcement and proclamation of the Gospel cause our hearts to be opened to the love of God and to be filled with God’s life.

This blessing of revelation and understanding is a privilege that God has given to those who see and hear. This blessing is a pure act of God, 100% His doing, with nothing at all done or said or believed on my part. Why am I privileged? I don’t know: it’s grace. Why are some others not so privileged? I don’t know: it’s their choice to reject the Gospel; and so no understanding comes.

How do I know my eyes and ears are blessed? I know because I believe in Jesus Christ as my Lord and Savior. Without the Holy Spirit opening my eyes and ears I could not believe and confess Jesus. With the Spirit I do perceive and understand the invisible meaning behind a visible parable; indeed, He blesses my eyes and ears to see and hear many more invisible things of God through the visible things in the Scriptures. This is truly a blessing and a promise.

34. Know the Mysteries of Kingdom

Matthew 13:11, 12 Because it is given unto you to know the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven. For whosoever hath, to him shall be given, and he shall have more abundance.

Mark 4:11 Unto you it is given to know the mystery of the kingdom of God.

Luke 8:10 Unto you it is given to know the mysteries of the kingdom of God.

 There are many mysteries surrounding God, the kingdom of God, and the ways of God. Some are the “deep things of God,” some are theological complexities, some are personal and practical, like why and how God does things in my life; most mysteries of the kingdom are simply incomprehensible to the limited human mind. Much about God is beyond our thinking or imagining powers.

There are a few very limited things we can know about God from the created universe in which we live: God is intelligent, powerful, beautiful and such. But we cannot know who He is, what He thinks, how He feels about us, and how He interacts with human beings unless He chooses to reveal it to us.

Some of the mysteries of the kingdom of God He has chosen to make known to us. He reveals these mysteries in His Word. We have a responsibility to know and understand what God has chosen to reveal; we have no permission to know or try to understand the mysteries of God that He has not revealed; and we do have the responsibility to know the difference. We study the Word to know what God wants to reveal to us and what He does not.

A mystery is something we cannot know; but it is given by God to know some mysteries; these mysteries remain mysteries to those to whom it is not given. In addition, the understanding of mysteries continues to grow and multiply, one built upon another, until one will have more abundance. God, the Holy Spirit, reveals more and more of the things of God from His Word the more we listen to it. This promise encourages us to read, study, listen and learn the Word of God because God promises a reward for doing so: we will know more mysteries of the kingdom of God.

33. Brother, Sister, Mother

 Matthew 12:50 For whosoever shall do the will of my Father which is in heaven, the same is my brother, and sister, and mother.

Mark 3:35 For whosoever shall do the will of God, the same is my brother, and my sister, and mother.

 Jesus is obviously referring to the spiritual family of God promising that believers will be His brother, sister, and mother. He is contrasting this family to His earthly family by contrasting true believers with His physical brothers, who are looking for him. Jesus often turns earthly incidents into an opportunity to reveal a spiritual truth. That we are brothers and sisters of Jesus Christ is not something that we could know by sight or feeling on this earth; therefore, the invisible must be revealed to us. Jesus uses a universal human experience: family. This is quite a promise to be considered a part of the very family of God and to be brothers of Christ.

The condition for entering the family is “doing the will of my Father.” Jesus answers this question: “What is the will of the Father?” Answer: to believe in Christ. Identifying with Jesus by faith is “doing the will of the Father.” Christ has pleased God the Father completely and finished the will of God; He did that for us. Now we who believe have the complete performance of the will of God. That makes us members of the family. We have the same spiritual DNA as Jesus, the Son of God.

A surprising aspect of this promise is that we shall be “mother.” What can that mean? How can that be? It means intimate love. It is hard to imagine a closer relationship between two people than that between mother and child. We are in fact closer to Jesus Christ than we can ever become to any other person on earth. The ideal relationship between mother and child is one of unconditional, total love. This family metaphor is set alongside the Biblical picture of the intimate relationship between husband and wife (bride and Lamb). The Bible gives us both of these pictures so that there could be no doubt, ever, at all, that Jesus Love Me.

32. Rest

Matthew 11:28, 29 Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me; for I am meek and lowly in heart; and ye shall find rest unto your souls.

Jesus promises rest for those who labor and toil and are weighed down with heavy loads. The metaphor of physical labor and physical burden is used for spiritual struggle and spiritual burdens like guilt and shame and fear and doubt and worry and anxiety and stress. The reference Jesus makes is to the Curse on mankind after The Fall of Adam (Genesis 3): “You will toil and work hard in the sweat of your brow struggling with thorns and thistles and poor yields for hard labor.” All the earth will live under this curse until redeemed by the Offspring of the woman. Then Rest will come and be given to believers in this promise. Jesus is here declaring that He is the fulfillment of this Gospel promise in Genesis 3:15.

“Labor and heavy laden” are physical terms describing the curse on the earth. Science, technology and labor saving machines have alleviated some of the physical curse of toil and hard work. But the effects of the Curse linger on unabated for it applies to the soul (the mind and emotions and will): these are the stresses and strains, worries and anxieties, doubts and fears that afflict the mind and emotions. Despite attempts of modern psychology and religion very little is actually done to alleviate stress. “You will find rest unto your souls.”

Rest is a present lightening and a lifting of our soul’s burden; Rest is also a future and eternal rest promised to the people of God: this is called the Sabbath Rest. Every week God has set one day aside for rest, relaxation, restoration and rejuvenation. The purpose of the once a week rest day is to remind us of the Promised Rest of eternity with God. “And they shall rest from their labors.” Weekly rest and eternal rest both imply a week and a lifetime of work. Work is good; rest is good. Too much of one or the other is not good.

Jesus has come to fulfill the promises of God: He is our Rest today; come to Him now. He is our Eternal Rest: take His yoke and learn of Him. The promise is for those who will come to Him and learn of Him = believe in Jesus. Enjoy the Rest.

31. Blessed

 Matthew 11:6 And blessed is he, whosoever shall not be offended in me.

Luke 7:23 And blessed is he, whosoever shall not be offended in me.

 The promise of blessedness covers many areas of life; God blesses indeed every aspect of living. Salvation and a wonderful life is certainly included in the blessing. “Blessed is the man who…” adds the many different kinds of conditions. The condition for the fulfillment of blessing here is the one who is “not offended” in Jesus. The simple straightforward meaning of “not offended” is “believe.” Being offended by Jesus is to disbelieve, ignore, set aside, reject.

With Jesus there is no middle ground of neutrality. One is either for or against. Whenever a person hears the Gospel of Christ He will be moved by the Holy Spirit, who creates faith in his heart, or he will choose to refuse the gift of salvation, that is, he will be offended by Jesus. The natural man as a sinful human being will always tend to spurn the love of God and reject the free gift out of pride, stubbornness and rebellion. This resistance will be overcome by the power of the Holy Spirit through the hearing of the Gospel: this is the man who is not offended in Him, and he is blessed. This is the promise.

However, on the other hand, the one who hears the Gospel and resists the Holy Spirit is offended in Christ, or does not believe in Him. This resistance, this being offended, this disbelieving is not a passive but an active power pushing against the Holy Spirit’s moving and prompting. This is the blasphemy against the Holy Spirit and since forgiveness is spurned it is not received. If this “blasphemy” is continued it will result in damnation with no hope of redemption.

This kind of offense is not always felt in the emotion nor is it always conscious in the mind, but in the spiritual world it is real and powerful. It is active. One may perceive the working of the Spirit in response to the Gospel when the heart and attitude is softened, crushed and shaped, but it will not always be felt. Whether experienced in the mind or emotions or not the Gospel is powerful and active and effects real change: the person is not offended. Offense to Jesus will not usually be violent, but in the spiritual world it is just as powerful: “Almost thou persuadest me to be a Christian” is the same as rejection and being offended in Jesus; “We will hear you again about this (the resurrection)” is likewise a violent offense. See Acts 26:28 and Acts 17:32. It may not sound like it, but this kind of response it being offended in Jesus. Praise God that you are not offended in Him: You are Blessed!

30. Reward

Matthew 10:41, 42

He that receiveth a prophet in the name of a prophet shall receive a prophet’s reward; and he that receiveth a righteous man in the name of a righteous man shall receive a righteous man’s reward.

And whosoever shall give to drink unto one of these little ones a cup of cold water only in the name of a disciple, verily I say unto you he shall in no wise lose his reward.

 There are rewards in heaven. There are also rewards on earth, but earthly rewards are consequences of behavior since every word and deed has consequences. Heavenly rewards, however, are not consequences but rewards for good works done on earth; these rewards are way above and beyond the deed and are so out of line that there will not seem to be any correlation between the deed and reward. This “momentary light affliction is preparing an eternal weight of glory.” Eternal life in the new heaven and new earth is lived on such a higher plane than on this earth that the same earthly joys become unfamiliar. We shall be enjoying heavenly rewards for eternity, but we will not make the connection between a good work and its reward; it will just be life, absolutely wonderful life.

We cannot now, and we will not later, make the connections. It is enough to believe the Word and know that every good work done out of faith has a reward. We do not and we cannot pay attention to the rewards; we just know they are coming. And we are definitely not counting; we never do a good work to earn a reward (or it would not be a good work). These rewards are rewards of grace; they are not based on merit, for we have no merit of our own; we are only recipients of grace. A true good work is something that is said or done by the Holy Spirit through us, although it feels to us like we are doing the thinking, deciding, choosing and then saying and doing something good. We know that we cannot take any credit or earn any merit by a good deed done, because it is God who does it; thus it is grace. But here’s the kicker: we get the reward for the good work done even though we don’t get credit for doing it. Is that grace, or what?

God keeps track and records every good word and deed that He does through us, and He is storing up rewards in heaven to make our life with God fantastic. There are rewards for prophets and rewards for righteous men and even for those who receive them. A prophet is one who proclaims the words of God. A righteous man is one who often, of course not always, does the right thing for the right reason with the right motivation.

Jesus chooses a very simple example to show that every hospitable and kind act has a reward attached to it, even giving a cup of cold water. This example makes it clear that no act of kindness goes unnoticed and the rewards are prepared and kept for us in heaven. Think of it: after a long life lived in the kingdom the eternal rewards are truly numerous. This kind of promise lets us know that a small act of kindness is eternally worth it; and even if we do not see it we believe it. We do not need to know that there are rewards in order to be motivated to do good things, since it happens naturally; but it is nice to reflect on the truth that God is good and He has created good works for us to walk in; and each of those works that He does in us has a reward, and it will not be lost. It will be worth it all!