Month: March 2018

29. Find Life

 Matthew 10:39 He that findeth his life shall lose it: and he that loseth his life for my sake shall find it.

Matthew 16:25 For whosoever will save his life shall lose it: and whosoever will lose his life for my sake shall find it.

Mark 8:35 For whosoever will save his life shall lose it; but whosoever shall lose his life for my sake and the gospel’s, the same shall save it.

Luke 9:24 For whosoever will save his life shall lose it: but whosoever will lose his life for my sake, the same shall save it.

A conditional promise: If you lose your life for Christ’s sake, then you will find it, or save it. This paradoxical promise seems contradictory, but when it clicks it makes sense. The “life” spoken of here is the soul, the flesh, or the self. Saving or finding the self means fixing, reforming, or improving the flesh by one’s own reason and effort. It cannot be done; you will only end up losing. You can tweak your behavior; you can read all the self-help books; you can take the 12-step courses: you cannot fundamentally change the self, fix the soul, or improve the flesh.

The only thing you can do with the flesh is crucify it, that is, die with Jesus on the cross by faith. The only thing you can do with the self is kill it, that is, die to yourself by repentance and faith. “Deny yourself and take up your cross.” This happens by remembering your baptism: drowning, dying and rising; this happens by daily repentance and faith in the Gospel; this happens by submitting to God (instead of complaining) in the midst of suffering, cross and dying; this happens when we look at the things that are not seen; this happens when we believe God works all things together for good. This means making the self nothing and making Jesus everything; God knows how to create something out of nothing. Repentance and faith means allowing God to reduce us to ashes, to humiliate the soul, to crucify the flesh and to allow the trials and sufferings of life to destroy self-will, selfish ambition and anything that exalts the self. Then by faith He replaces it with the life of God.

When there is nothing left in us (losing his life) Jesus Himself fills the inner man with everything of God (finding and saving life). One cannot humble one’s self but he must let God do it. We can only recognize what God is doing (humbling and wounding and killing, exalting and healing and resurrecting) by faith in His promise. One simple technique is to turn complaints and worries into prayers and praises. When the Holy Spirit reveals the depth of corruption and self-centeredness within we are willing to say, “Take my life.” He promises to save it.

28. Confess before Father

 Matthew 10:32

Whosoever therefore shall confess me before men, him will I confess also before my Father which is in heaven.

This is a conditional promise: if you confess me before men, then I will confess you before my Father. The promise of Jesus confessing me before God is significant for it means that Almighty God must accept me, grant me the riches of His grace, and welcome me into the eternal mansions and pleasant meadows of Paradise; for the Father will be absolutely certain to act on the Son’s recommendation. There is not now and never shall be anything greater than acceptance by my heavenly Father. Jesus will say: “My Father, I confess this person before you, that I died for him, he believes in me, he is forgiven eternally, and he has my life. Receive him.”

The condition of confessing Jesus before men is the outward evidence of inner faith worked by the Holy Spirit in the Gospel: he who believes is saved and he who believes confesses with his mouth that Jesus is Lord. In like manner, whoever denies Jesus before men Jesus will deny before the Father. Jesus Himself is the fulcrum, the knife’s edge, the division over which all men will fall on one side or the other; there is no middle ground or fence sitting; it is one or the other for all people: 1) Believe and confess and be saved, OR 2) Remain in unbelief and deny and stay under condemnation. Jesus could not be clearer.

Peter did deny Jesus before men, but then repented in shame and disgrace confessing Jesus as Lord and God; Jesus restored him. Judas also denied Jesus before men, but in his remorse did not repent and confess and believe. Judas suffered eternal death not because he betrayed Jesus but because he refused to repent and confess; thus he evidenced unbelief and so is condemned already.

This promise of Jesus makes us bold to publicly confess even in the face of rejection, ridicule, threat of pain and torture, or simple ignoring by the world. This promise makes us proud to boast in the cross of Christ, confessing our utter sinfulness and abject failure and at the same time confessing Christ’s complete righteousness and unmitigated success given to me. It is 100% by grace so that I have not a shred of nothing to boast of, but I confess, even boast in, the suffering and death of Christ on the cross. I remember my Baptism and fall into death trusting Jesus to raise me up and confess me before the Father in heaven.

27. Saved

 Matthew 10:22

And ye shall be hated of all men for my name’s sake: but he that endureth to the end shall be saved.

The conditional promise of salvation is dependent on enduring to the end. If you endure to the end, then you shall be saved. Enduring is not the cause of salvation, but it possible to lose salvation by giving up your faith in the face of hatred and persecution. The hatred of all men should not surprise the believer in Christ; expect it, for it shall come. Jesus says that “falling away” can happen, Matthew 13:21: “He has no root in himself but endures for a while, and when tribulation or persecution arises on account of the word, immediately he falls away.”

Tribulation or persecution will come to those in the kingdom of God, Jesus warns several times. This is sure; what is uncertain is whether the believer will hold on firmly to Christ in faith when it comes. The promise of salvation is certain for those who endure to the end. The promise assures us that the tribulations will be worth it in the end. Believe the promise! We need faith in the promise during this lifetime in order to endure to the end. When the end comes we will see God and His Love and understand everything about Him, and when we see we won’t need faith any longer. But until then we need faith, and for faith we need the promise; then we will endure. The promise is real; the hope is now; the faith is seeing. Promises like this keep us going, keep us enduring; nothing will snatch us out of the Father’s hand. The Holy Spirit keeps. He gives a promise; He creates faith; He gives strength to endure. Listen to that Gospel anew today.

26. What to Speak

 Matthew 10:19, 20

But when they deliver you up, take no thought how or what ye shall speak, for it shall be given you in that same hour what ye shall speak. For it is not ye that speak, but the Spirit of your Father which speaketh in you.

The promise specifically is that when the Christian is brought up before earthly judges and rulers it will be given to him by the Spirit what to say at the time. More generally, the promise is that the Spirit will give you what to speak in all situations that call for a witness. This does not mean that we should not plan and practice speeches and responses so that we will be prepared to answer. But the Spirit will bring up the words and thought out of your memory and place them in your mouth at the proper time and way that is appropriate to the moment.

Without this promise we are likely to avoid standing up for what we believe and to avoid confronting wrong when it springs up. We do not have to miss opportunities to witness to Jesus and to His Word of Law and Gospel because of fear of not knowing what to say. What Jesus says is: “Say something, open your mouth, I will fill it with words and meaning.

Sometimes it is harder to stand up and speak in front of friends and coworkers than before terrorists, but implicit in this promise is that the Lord will be with you in the strongest sense, granting wisdom and courage and words. The promise can be extrapolated out to all of life so that we live as though Jesus will be “with you always” whenever we make disciples of all nations. Promises like this make us bold to proclaim.

25. Laborers into Harvest

 Matthew 9:38

Pray ye therefore the Lord of the harvest, that he will send forth labourers into his harvest.

 If you pray for laborers, then God will send forth laborers into the harvest. This conditional promise for laborers is an answer to prayer that God Himself wants us to pray. God wants laborers and God wants us to pray for them; He promises to hear that prayer.

The harvest can apply to the physical harvest of the annual crops on the farm, or to any other project that needs harvesting, but it is most likely that Jesus is referring to the spiritual harvest of souls into the kingdom of God; for He speaks of the Lord of the harvest, implying the spiritual world and the harvest of souls.

These laborers are people who witness to Jesus and preach the Gospel announcing the forgiveness of sins. These laborers are sent forth, that is, commissioned by the Lord for a mission. In truth, the Lord commissions every believer and sends him forth as a laborer. God needs laborers, witnesses, and preachers since God has limited himself to the preaching of the word through believers. God needs these human beings of flesh and blood as well as these laborers need God to do the converting, saving and harvesting. God loves His children so much that He wants to involve them in His great work; He doesn’t do it Himself, but He works through people.

Therefore, Jesus commands and promises: He commands us to pray for laborers and He promises to answer our prayers by sending them forth. Sending starts it all off: God sends someone to preach so they can hear so they can believe so they can call upon Him so that they may be saved [Romans 10:13-15]. Without “sending” no one would hear and believe and be saved. Therefore, this promise of laborers is so vital to the life and growth of the kingdom of God. This promise incentivizes us to pray.

24. Call Sinners to Repentance

 Matthew 9:13

I am not come to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance.

Repentance should be seen as a promise, a beautiful promise given by a gracious God granting what human sinners cannot do by themselves. I need this promise since I cannot produce genuine repentance or the fruit of repentance of my own free will. Jesus came to earth to do for us what we could not do for ourselves; one of those things is to “repent.” Jesus announces the kingdom and calls people to repent and believe, neither of which we can do; therefore, His call comes with the power to actually make it happen: the Holy Spirit works through the Gospel.

Sinners, without help, do repent, but either it is ritualistic and empty or it is manipulative and coerced. Repetition is good and necessary and repentance must be repeated daily, but repeating the words without pausing in the mind for penetration where the Spirit can impress the meaning is empty ritual. Repentance becomes manipulative when we are “caught” (when we thought we could get away with it) and we try to “sorry” our way out of the guilt and shame; repentance in this way is used as a false “means of grace” to cause God to forgive when He sees how sorry we are.

Genuine repentance comes by the Word of God as the Spirit uses the Law to convict the heart of real sin against a Holy God: In front of God sin looks black and feels dark and smells foul. The Spirit through the Word makes us aware of our sinful condition and compels repentance and faith in the Gospel, which the heart is now eager to hear to receive forgiveness, cleansing and healing. This is the compelling call of Jesus to the sinner when he hears law and gospel.

The promise of repentance is gracious and wonderful: it is the power of God unto salvation and eternal life for everyone that believes. God grants repentance and faith through the Gospel call. This is truly a wonderful promise.

23. Sit down in the kingdom

 Matthew 8:11

And I say unto you, That many shall come from the east and west, and shall sit down with Abraham, and Isaac, and Jacob, in the kingdom of heaven.

Jesus promises that many will come and sit down in the kingdom of God. The many certainly includes the believers in Christ. These believers will come from all over the world (from east and west); everyone everywhere can know that they, too, can be included in God’s Promise and Blessing to Abraham. Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob are Patriarchs of the Jewish faith, and Jesus claims them as patriarchs of the Christian faith. They are called by God the Father to be founders of the kingdom of God, invisible on earth and visible in eternity.

When you sit down with someone it means you are joining together in table fellowship accepting each other as equals and peers. In many cultures eating together at the same table assumes acceptance into one’s social or family circle. We see the Patriarchs welcoming believers into an intimate relationship of love and mutual fellowship at the Messianic Banquet, the Feast of the Lamb in His Kingdom. Jesus’ “eating with” tax collectors and sinners practiced this kind of Table Fellowship. This kind of table fellowship and acceptance into the family of God in His inner court continues today in the celebrations of the Lord’s Supper in churches all over the world every week. Participation in Holy Communion is the ultimate enjoyment and guarantee of acceptance into the kingdom; it is the present day enjoyment of fellowship with God the Father and with His Son Jesus Christ. And the church’s Communion is a “foretaste of the feast to come.”

The promise of “sitting down” is being fulfilled regularly during our lifetime in hope during church worship; this hope is the substance of future reality. The promise of “sitting down” will be experienced in reality in the eternal kingdom of God in the Marriage Feast of the Lamb in His Kingdom. The anticipation of this wonderful reality comes back into our present time and gives hope, strength and encouragement.

22. Fall Not

 Matthew 7:24-25

Therefore whosoever heareth these sayings of mine, and doeth them, I will liken him unto a wise man, which built his house upon a rock. And the rain descended, and the floods came, and the winds blew, and beat upon that house, and it fell not, for it was founded upon a rock.

The conditional promise is that your house shall not fall. If you hear and do these sayings, then the house you build on that rock will not fall when storms beat against it. The house on the rock is contrasted to the house on the sand = the one who does these words is contrasted to the one who does not do them. Both are houses and both hear the words of Jesus. Only one does them. Keeping God’s Word and obeying the commandments are key conditions to standing strong through all the storms of life.

Of course, no person by himself can even come close to doing the sayings of Jesus recorded from the Sermon on the Mount in Matthew 5-7. Therefore, no one enjoys the promise of a house that doesn’t fall. When I realize that I am the one who is missing out on a stable life I repent of failure and receive forgiveness by faith in Christ who does these impossible sayings for me. Life according the Sermon on the Mount is ideal, idyllic and paradisiac; it is a lifestyle we can only dream about and only rarely get a glimpse of. Who can be that good and righteous? Only Jesus. The impossibility of living such a life does not diminish the strict requirements of holiness and perfection. But God has pity on us and sends His Son.

The “house” in this metaphor can refer to many things. House can mean: 1) our inner character, 2) our whole life, 3) our family, 4) any voluntary association grouped together for any purpose, 5) any local or national government or institution, or 6) a local Christian congregation. Just to take this promise and apply it to a strong and stable marriage and family is incentive enough for us to hear the Gospel and believe it.

21. Enter the Kingdom

 Matthew 7:21 Not every one that saith unto me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven, but he that doeth the will of my Father which is in heaven.

Many say, “Lord, Lord,” but not all those will enter the kingdom of God. Those who do the will of the Father will enter the kingdom of God. If you do the will of the Father, then you shall enter the kingdom of God. That’s a big IF. Who does the will of God, that is, perfectly obeys all the commandments? No one, except The One: Jesus did the will of the Father and entered into the kingdom of heaven. He did it for us. By faith in Christ we identify with Him and so have “done the will of His Father in heaven.” By faith we follow Christ right into the kingdom: we live now, today, in the invisible, spiritual kingdom within the hearts of believers; and we will live, after death, in the visible, eternal kingdom in the new heaven and new earth.

The person who “does the will of the Father” is the person whose heart has been changed by the love of God, the forgiveness of sin, eternal salvation, and the promise of eternal life: the very will and desire of the believer has been changed, for now he wants to do the will of God (obey His commandments). However, he is not able to do what he wants because of the sin that remains in the flesh. Therefore, he repents of his failure to perform the will of God and his failure to fulfill even his own desire (“the good that I would”); he receives forgiveness for Christ’s sake by faith in the Gospel; by the power of the Gospel he now does the will of God more and more. It is the Spirit of Jesus within that actually does the will of God and completes the good works the believer was created for.

Jesus Christ does it all for us and in us: the IF has been completely satisfied. Therefore, we have the promise: enter into the kingdom of heaven, now by faith, later by sight.

20. Good Things

 Matthew 7:11 If ye then, being evil, know how to give good gifts unto your children, how much more shall your Father which is in heaven give good things to them that ask him?

 Luke 11:12 If you then, who are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will the heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him!

It is universally acknowledged that parents love their children more than anything and even more than children love their parents. In this way God is our Father who loves us more than we love Him. Even evil parents on earth want to give good gifts to their children; how much more does a holy God want to give good things to those who ask. If you ask, then God will give good things. He is eager for us to ask. We ask because He is good and because He promises to give. There is no greater incentive to pray.

The “good things” in this context are spiritual blessings and spiritual gifts and the presence and activity of God Himself. In the context of Matthew 5-7 the “good things” are the ability and desire to actually do good things (doing unto others, bearing good fruit, loving enemies) and be kind. We need God’s help to do good works, for we can’t do them alone, without His doing. Jesus says, “Ask for it! You want to be good? Ask me for help.”

As if to explain “good things” even more Luke substitutes “Holy Spirit” in place of good things. Ask for the Holy Spirit: to do a good work when you don’t feel like it, to forgive the other when it hurts, to love the unlovable, and such like. Interestingly, Jesus shows how to pray in the Lord’s Prayer and the petitions of the prayer deal with spiritual, not earthly, things, except for “daily bread,” which includes all the support and wants of the body; otherwise, pray for spiritual good things. You can imagine how much a holy God wants to make you a good person (reflecting God and resembling Jesus). And He promises to do so; if you ask. What’s wrong with asking the Lord to make you a better person? He thought you’d never ask.