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EXCEPTional Bible Verses, Part 5

Published November 9, 2013 Uncategorized Leave a Comment
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Believing is Seeing

John 4:48

 

Jesus was traveling around and found Himself at Cana—the same Cana where He had turned the water into wine.  While he was there, a wealthy man approached Him.  We know he was wealthy because he was a government employee.  He had traveled some 25 miles on foot to ask Jesus to heal his ailing son.  To this question, Jesus responded:

Except ye see signs and wonders, ye will not believe.  (John 4:48  KJV)

His answer is our fifth EXCEPTional Bible verse.  It may be EXCEPTional, but it sure is a strange answer to serious question!  Put yourself in this wealthy man’s sandals; imagine traveling all this way to beg a well-known healer to heal your dying son, only to be given a answer like that.  The Living Bible paraphrases Jesus’ rebuff this way:

Won’t any of you believe in me unless I do more and more miracles?  (John 4:48  TLB)

Even Ken Taylor’s excellent paraphrase doesn’t help Jesus much!  Our Lord continues to come off sounding aloof and arrogant.  Now, we know Jesus wasn’t and isn’t like that; He was (and remains) loving and compassionate.  Therefore, something else is going on in this story behind, between, and around the words of verse 48.  Let’s take a look this truly EXCEPTional Bible verse, and we’ll learn something about our faith and our Lord.

1.  Setting the scene

At the end of the two days’ stay he went on into Galilee. Jesus used to say, “A prophet is honored everywhere except in his own country!”  (John 4:43, 44  TLB)

“His own country” is a bit  nebulous, but most scholars seem to think Jesus is referring to Judea.  He had not been very well received there, and especially in Jerusalem.  They did not receive His teachings and they certainly would have nothing to do with His Messianic claims.   The longer Jesus hung around Jerusalem, the greater risk He was exposing Himself to.  He was more or less forced to go elsewhere with His message.  In Galilee, we see an exact opposite reaction to the Lord.  Unlike the Judeans, the Galileans welcomed Him with open arms.  It’s a quirk of human nature, perhaps, that two people can see the same thing yet come to two totally different conclusions about what they just saw.  While Jesus was in Jerusalem, He performed many miracles that  had been witnessed by all kinds of Jews, yet only the Galileans were moved by them. 

In fact, Jesus had so much success in this area, His ministry there ran from late 27 to mid 29—almost a year and a half of Jesus’ earthly ministry was spent in Galilee. 

2.  Back to the beginning

In the course of his journey through Galilee he arrived at the town of Cana, where he had turned the water into wine.   (John 4:46a  TLB)

After His rocky experiences in Jerusalem, it’s no wonder Jesus wanted to return to a place where good things had happened.  Cana of Galilee was where it all began for our Lord.  It was here He turned the water into wine, something John points out.

Cana was also known for other things.  For example, it was the hometown of James and John, the sons of Zebedee.  And, it was also a major tax-collection center and quite possibly a Roman military post.  It’s funny that Jesus felt safer in a place like this than in Jerusalem, the very hub of His Jewish faith!

But there was another reason Jesus had to be in Cana.

While he was there, a man in the city of Capernaum, a government official, whose son was very sick, heard that Jesus had come from Judea and was traveling in Galilee. This man went over to Cana, found Jesus, and begged him to come to Capernaum with him and heal his son, who was now at death’s door.  (John 4:46b, 47  TLB)

This government official—a royal officer—probably worked for Herod Antipas, and was quite possibly a Jew.  He may have first encountered Jesus in Jerusalem during Passover and witnessed our Lord’s miracles.  No wonder, then, when Jesus came to town, this man wanted to talk to Him.  This man was a father whose son was deathly ill, and he sensed that Jesus was his son’s last hope for life.

The Living Bible uses the word “begging” and that’s quite accurate.  The Greek word is in the imperfect tense indicating a repeated and continual asking.  This father, in other words, was absolutely desperate; he asked and asked and asked Jesus to heal his son.  This father would NOT be dissuaded.

3.  A heartless response?

This brings us to our EXCEPTional Bible verse:

Then said Jesus unto him, except ye see signs and wonders, ye will not believe. (John 4:48  KJV)

The question that pops into our heads is this:  Why is  Jesus answering a question He wasn’t asked?  Nowhere in the story do we read of this man, or anybody else, asking for a sign.  This father is asking for a miracle of healing, which may be considered a sign, but he asked Jesus because he apparently believed.  Or did he really?  Just what did this man have faith in?

Let’s leave this man and his son alone for a moment and just consider verse 48 as a stand alone statement.  It’s actually a very deep, probing question that prompts other ones:  Do miracles—signs and wonders—produce faith or are they the result of faith?  Is the event—the miracle—the thing to be sought after alone, or is the miracle just the by-product of faith properly placed in God and His Word?  These questions are important to consider because their answers will influence, not only how you pray and when you pray, but also your view of God.   If, for example, you think God is sort of like a 911 operator whom you pray to when you are in desperate straits, in need of a miracle, then your relationship with Him will be built on a soft, unstable foundation to be sure.  Your God, to you, must seem fickle, indeed.  You think, based on a handful of verses, that all you have to do as ask God for a healing and, based solely on the merit of your faith, God will ante up the healing.   It must be very frustrating for you when, more often than not, the healing doesn’t come.

Or, maybe you think God simply stopped healing after the last apostle died; that miracles belong to a bygone era.  Hopefully you enjoy your intellectual relationship with God because to you, your God consists of doctrines sayings.  It’s as though your brain was saved but your heart—your emotions—were left behind.

You see, how you view the question of miracles is vitally important to your view of God.  Is He a big old Santa Clause or is He bearded, wizened old sage.  Is He really concerned with the details of your life or is He the great cosmic director and you the actor on the stage of life?

The fact is, Christians are to pray to God for healing; for divine provision; for needs to be met whatever they may be. But our faith must be in God and His Word—His character and His promises—not in the power of any faith we think we have.  Our faith must be objective and it must be directed in the right direction.  No amount of positive thinking or good thoughts will produce a miracle. And we must understand that God has a plan for every person; sometimes that plan involves healing, sometimes not.  We must have faith, not only in the power of God to  heal, but also in His will, and that means accepting the proposition that God is kind and compassionate and He, not we, knows what’s best for us.

Let’s get back to this father.  He was drawn to Jesus by an outward need not by the desire of his soul.  His interest in Jesus was in what Jesus could do for him, or specifically for his son.  We’re sympathetic with this man, but let’s be honest, he is like the passengers on an airplane in free fall; they may have never entertained a thought about our Lord until they needed something from Him.  Actually, that sounds a lot like many Christians who aren’t necessarily interested in building and maintaining a relationship with God, but only in making sure He’s nearby just in case He’s needed.  This man who came to Jesus in Cana seemed to have some faith in Jesus, but only in His presence, not in His Word; really it was a faith in the miraculous—in the event.  He didn’t really want Jesus; he didn’t want to have a relationship with Him; he wanted his son healed.  That may sound a little harsh because we can all relate to the love this father must have had for his son.  But Jesus sees the heart; He sees the motives behind the questions and prayers.

If we can keep this in mind, suddenly this EXCEPTional Bible verse makes sense.  Our Lord was primarily concerned with the state of this man’s eternal soul.  Yes, He knew all about the sick son back at home, but of primary concern was this father’s salvation.  This man needed to have faith in the living Word!  He needed to see Jesus as Someone who was far more than just a healer.  Jesus was trying to teach this man something:  His Word was just effectual as His presence.  Isn’t that, after all, what the Old Testament had taught for centuries:

He sent his word, and healed them, and delivered them from their destructions.  (Psalm 107:20  KJV)

4.  The healing

Verse 49 tells us this man had a one-track mind:

The official pled, “Sir, please come now before my child dies.”  (TLB)

He wasn’t interested in talking to Jesus further; in engaging our Lord in discussion.  All he wanted was what he could get out of Him.   But then Jesus speaks again and His statement is further test of this man’s faith:

Then Jesus told him, “Go back home. Your son is healed!”   (John 4:50a  TLB)

At this very moment, our Lord is healing the boy back home.  Of course, his father doesn’t know this, so this really is huge test of his faith.  Will the man go, or will he stay and beg some more?  His response, taking Jesus at His Word—shows that something our Lord said to the man struck a cord.  The words Jesus spoke were for this man, for this exact moment in time.  This man, who came to Jesus for the sole purpose of getting a miracle out of Him—He came to Jesus for the event—left without getting a thing from our Lord except His Word—His promise that the boy had been healed.   But that was enough because this man’s heart had been forever changed:

And the man believed Jesus and started home. (John 4:50b TLB)

In fact, it gets even better:

And the officer and his entire household believed that Jesus was the Messiah.  (John 4:53b  TLB)

Jesus was true to His Word!  What Jesus had promised this man, He fulfilled perfectly.  And He never set foot in the man’s house!  What started out as a belief in what Jesus could do turned into faith in Jesus as a Person.  This man’s faith, which started out as cold and impersonal, turned into a very personal faith in the character of Jesus.  It reminds us of something His mother had said sometime before; the last time Jesus was in Cana:

The wine supply ran out during the festivities, and Jesus’ mother came to him with the problem.  “I can’t help you now,” he said. “It isn’t yet my time for miracles.”

But his mother told the servants, “Do whatever he tells you to.”  (John 2:3—5  TLB)

You have to love the faith of a mother!   In spite of what Jesus said, she knew His character.  She knew her Son just couldn’t help Himself.  She just knew Jesus would do something.  So she gave the servants a heads up:  Do whatever he tells you to.

This is good advice for all of us:  Do whatever Jesus tells us to do.  Let’s have faith in His Word.  Let’s have faith in His character.  The better we get to know Jesus as  Person, the greater our faith in Him will be.  And our prayers will always be effective and never leave us disappointed or frustrated.

EXCEPTional Bible Verses, Part 4

Published October 29, 2013 Uncategorized Leave a Comment
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Convert, Don’t Revert!

Matthew 18:3

 

Verily I say unto you, Except ye be converted, and become as little children, ye shall not enter into the kingdom of heaven.

In the religious sense, what does it mean when somebody “converts”?  These days, “religious conversion” carries with it a very negative connotation.  According to TV dramas, a “religious conversion” is almost always a bad thing.  A normal American kid converts to radical Islam grows a beard, and straps a bomb to this chest.  Or worse, he converts to Christianity and becomes a racist, sexist, fascist, bigot, homophobe.  Rarely is Christian conversion ever portrayed as a good thing for the one who experienced the conversion.  The convert is portrayed as an extremist; he is a loner who has left his family behind; he wears cammo overalls and moose head ball cap, drives an old pick up painted green with a gun rack in the cab and the Confederate Battle Flag on the rear window.

While “religious conversions” are mocked and converts derided in our society today, Jesus thought it was of the utmost importance for sinners to be converted.  The word itself is so misunderstood, which doesn’t help matters, either.  The word “convert” does not mean “turn over a new leaf” or “make a New Year’s resolution” to do such-and-such a thing.  It’s actually a compound Latin word:

  • vert, meaning “to turn”, con, meaning “together”

Put together, “convert” means “to turn together.”  Nobody converts to Christ by themselves; they convert with Another.  There is a verse in Acts 3 that illustrates this perfectly:

And as soon as God had brought his servant to life again, he sent him first of all to you men of Israel, to bless you by turning you back from your sins.   (Acts 3:26  TLB)

This is what a real conversion is:  Jesus, with your consent, affecting a change in your life.  People don’t convert themselves; you don’t convert by joining a religion; a pastor doesn’t convert you; you don’t take “conversion” classes.  You allow Jesus, through the work of the Holy Spirit, to grab hold of the reigns of your life, take control of it, turn it around, and get you moving in the right direction.

1.  The setting

In order to fully understand and appreciate the power of our EXCEPTional verse, we need to look at it in context.  The incident is so important it is actually found in all three Synoptics (Mark 9, Luke 9) and Jesus’ main teaching point is humility.  Mark provides the setting:

And so they arrived at Capernaum. When they were settled in the house where they were to stay, he asked them, “What were you discussing out on the road?”  (Mark 9:33  TLB)

Jesus had been spending considerable time out of the limelight, teaching His disciples privately about matters related to the coming Kingdom.  Thinking the Kingdom’s coming was just around the corner, some of them were excited about their possible positions within that Kingdom—they were, in effect, no better than worldly politicians, vying with Jesus for the best position.

About that time the disciples came to Jesus to ask which of them would be greatest in the Kingdom of Heaven!  (Matthew 18:1  TLB)

This shows just how worldly-minded these hand-picked followers of Jesus really were.  Just a few verses before the disciples asked Jesus about the best available positions in the Kingdom, He told them this:

One day while they were still in Galilee, Jesus told them, “I am going to be betrayed into the power of those who will kill me, and on the third day afterwards I will be brought back to life again.” And the disciples’ hearts were filled with sorrow and dread.  (Matthew 17:22, 23  TLB)

Sure, their “hearts were filled with sorrow and dread” for about five minutes!  But then they wanted to know, not more about what Jesus had just told them about His death and resurrection, but about what was going to happen to them!  How quickly their sorrow turned to a quest for exaltation.  But these were the very men Jesus had picked and was soon going to die for.  This is a great picture of God’s amazing, redeeming grace!  It also shows how God’s mind works.

Notice among yourselves, dear brothers, that few of you who follow Christ have big names or power or wealth.  Instead, God has deliberately chosen to use ideas the world considers foolish and of little worth in order to shame those people considered by the world as wise and great.  (1 Corinthians 1:26, 27  TLB)

2.  Illustration of humility

Jesus called a small child over to him and set the little fellow down among them…  (Matthew 18:2  TLB)

This is a wonderful little verse that shows us something of the personality of Jesus.  Children were not afraid to come Him and Jesus knew the perfect illustration when He saw it! Our Lord had just mentioned “the Kingdom,” and now He is about to use this small child to prove a point.

And that is the set up to our EXCEPTional Bible verse:

Verily I say unto you, Except ye be converted, and become as little children, ye shall not enter into the kingdom of heaven.  (Matthew 18:3  KJV)

Some scholars think this was Peter’s son, since they were probably close to Peter’s house.  Regardless of who he was, this boy was key in Jesus’ teaching on the kind of humility a believer needs if he wants to live in the kingdom.  Remember, this teaching comes right on the heals of the disciples wondering which one of them was going to get the plumb position in the coming Kingdom.  In answer, Jesus is going to set these guys straight.

This verse is teaching conversion, not reversion.  In other words, Jesus is definitely NOT teaching that one has to revert back to their childhood; to forget a lifetime of learning or experience.  Jesus is not teaching that you have to become like a child in the sense of mental innocence or a surrender of intellectual acuity.  Jesus is not looking for immature, juvenile followers who are unable to think or reason for themselves.   In fact, this verse on becoming like a child is linked to another verse found in John’s Gospel:

Jesus replied, “With all the earnestness I possess I tell you this: Unless you are born again, you can never get into the Kingdom of God.”   (John 3:3  TLB)

What Jesus is getting at here is the new life:  unless one has experienced the new birth and living a new life, entrance into the Kingdom is impossible.  That’s why the word convert is so important and must be understood.  It is Jesus who does the converting; He enables the convert to change his course; to change his mind; to change his life’s direction.  And in a sense, that is like becoming like a child starting his life.  When you are converted; when you experience the new birth, regardless of your chronological age, your achievements in life, or any other factors, you are basically given a “do over!”  God gives you a second chance to get it right with the help of His Holy Spirit.  

It takes humility to accept this because nobody likes to be told they’ve been wrong their whole life; that they aren’t good enough; that they need a Savior.  It takes humility to let go of the steering wheel of your life and let Jesus take over.  It takes a special kind of humility to let go of your dreams and ambitions so that you can serve the Lord unfettered.  But this is what Jesus demands; this is what is wrapped up in the word convert.  No wonder people—Christians included—don’t like that word!

3.  Convert and enter

Once a person has converted, they are able to enter into the Kingdom.  This turning from self to God; from your old life to your new life, is essentially a turning from worldly ambitions, like wanting the best position in the Kingdom, to spiritual ones.  This has to be done with the help of God because no human being is able to do it on his own. 

Turn thou me, and I shall be turned; for thou art the Lord my God.  (Jeremiah 31:18b  KJV)

Only when that happens can a person enter the Kingdom.  The disciples, whom Jesus was teaching, needed to hear this; they needed to start thinking straight.  They, the very men Jesus picked to carry on His ministry, needed to convert—they needed to radically change their attitudes and way of thinking.

Finally, Jesus actually answers the burning question of the disciples’:

Therefore anyone who humbles himself as this little child is the greatest in the Kingdom of Heaven.

This verse is packed with meaning.  Christian greatness has nothing to do with ability, but everything to do with  humility.  Being a successful Christian has less to do with achievement and more to do with simply being humble.  It’s not an impressive performance that gets God’s nod of approval, it’s demonstrations of true humility.  This is not the normal way of thinking, is it?  But our way of thinking is not God’s way of thinking.  And that’s why we must convert!

“For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways,” declares the Lord.   (Isaiah 55:8  NIV)

Isaiah is right; God’s thoughts are NOT your thoughts, until you convert.  Christ’s way of life; His way of doing things is the complete opposite to the way of the world, but it needs to be the way of your world.

This is why a conversion is essential.  Jesus needs His followers to let go of their past and embrace their new future.  He wants them to look forward and open their minds to His way of thinking and doing things.  This requires a conversion.

Is it any wonder so many people wondered about Jesus’ sanity?  His teachings were truly revolutionary in His day, and guess what?  They are revolutionary today!  How strange it sounds: to become great, you must become little.  This runs completely contrary to way and thinking of the world.  And it’s the opposite to Satan’s way of thinking too!

For God knows that in the day you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.   (Genesis 3:5  NKJV)

The ambition of Satan is the ambition of the world:  to be like God.  But the ambition of true believers is to “become like a child.”  Satan thought the way to happiness was in becoming great; our Lord said the way to happiness—and greatness—is by become little.   Who was right?  As one Bible scholar has noted, “In striving to become God, Lucifer became the Devil.”  This was not the case with Jesus, though:

Jesus Christ, who, though he was God, did not demand and cling to his rights as God, but laid aside his mighty power and glory, taking the disguise of a slave and becoming like men.  And he humbled himself even further, going so far as actually to die a criminal’s death on a cross.

Yet it was because of this that God raised him up to the heights of heaven and gave him a name which is above every other name, that at the name of Jesus every knee shall bow in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue shall confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father. (Philippians 2:5b—11  TLB)

EXCEPTional Bible Verses, Part 3

Published October 23, 2013 Uncategorized Leave a Comment
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John 6:44

 

Jesus’ own words on the issue of following Him look like this:

No man can come to me, except the Father which hath sent me draw him…  (John 6:44  KJV)

This single statement makes plain that nobody comes to Jesus unless God draws them.  Put another way, nobody wakes up one day thinking, “Gee, I think I’ll get saved today.”  That person must be drawn by God to make that decision;  he cannot make it on his own.

Well, this proposition is fraught with difficulties for the thinking person.  Why bother with altar calls at all if it is God who does the drawing?  What’s the point in sending missionaries to the far-flung corners of the world if those lost people will come to God if He calls them anyway?  Why bother witnessing to the unsaved when they can’t get saved unless God calls them to?   Not to mention the great difficulty of reconciling the God of love and justice who will punish the unrepentant sinner for not doing something they could not possibly do in the first place!

These questions, and many others, have been asked forever by people who don’t have a firm understanding of Biblical theology.  Or who like to cause arguments.

So, what did Jesus mean when He spoke those words?  Let’s examine this EXCEPTional Bible verse in the context it was given.  You might be surprised by its meaning and its implications.

1.  Setting the scene

It all started with this verse:

Then the Jews began to murmur against him because he claimed to be the Bread from heaven.  (John 6:41  TLB)

The Jews that had heard Jesus teaching this day were getting madder by the moment.  What sparked their murmuring was this particular teaching:

They replied, “You must show us more miracles if you want us to believe you are the Messiah. Give us free bread every day, like our fathers had while they journeyed through the wilderness! As the Scriptures say, ‘Moses gave them bread from heaven.’ ”

Jesus said, “Moses didn’t give it to them. My Father did. And now he offers you true Bread from heaven. The true Bread is a Person—the one sent by God from heaven, and he gives life to the world.”

“Sir,” they said, “give us that bread every day of our lives!”

Jesus replied, “I am the Bread of Life. No one coming to me will ever be hungry again. Those believing in me will never thirst.”  (Luke 6:30—35  TLB)

But what really got them going was this:

Jesus replied, “The truth of the matter is that you want to be with me because I fed you, not because you believe in me.”  (John 6:26  TLB)

Jesus told them, “This is the will of God, that you believe in the one he has sent.”  They replied, “You must show us more miracles if you want us to believe you are the Messiah. Give us free bread every day, like our fathers had while they journeyed through the wilderness! As the Scriptures say, ‘Moses gave them bread from heaven.’ ”  (John 6:29—31  TLB)

That’s right.  This bunch had been following Jesus around for the free food!  They had been miraculously fed before, and now they wanted to be miraculously fed again.  When Jesus confronted them about this, He didn’t pull any punches and told them the way it was:  following Jesus for what you can get out of Him is the wrong reason to follow Him.   Our Lord encouraged the crowd not to expend so much energy chasing after such temporary things, but rather seek after spiritual, eternal things:

“But you shouldn’t be so concerned about perishable things like food. No, spend your energy seeking the eternal life that I, the Messiah, can give you. For God the Father has sent me for this very purpose.”  (John 6:27  TLB)

But these people were stubborn.  If they were going to follow Jesus for that right reason, then He had better get off the dime and prove to their satisfaction that He really is the Messiah.  As if being fed wasn’t enough, they wanted even more proof.  Here are people who can never be satisfied!  They wanted Jesus to feed them continually, like the Israelites had been fed during their desert wanderings by Moses.  No doubt they thought they were very clever quoting Scripture in an effort to get Jesus to do what they wanted Him to do.  But Jesus set them straight again:

“Moses didn’t give it to them. My Father did.  And now he offers you true Bread from heaven.  The true Bread is a Person—the one sent by God from heaven, and he gives life to the world.”  (John 6:32  TLB)

Jesus wasn’t about to be distracted from His purpose:  to show these people that He was the Messiah, and they needed Him.  They thought they needed breakfast, but what they needed was the salvation Jesus offered them.   Still, it seems they were not convinced and they “murmured.”

2.  The right kind of thinking

They wanted bread, but Jesus offered Himself to them as the “Bread of life,” come down from Heaven.  In spite of all the teachings, all the miracles, and the free food, these people just didn’t “get” Jesus at all.  Some did, but many did not.  This prompted Jesus to utter one of the most discussed verses in Bible colleges and seminaries:

But some will come to me—those the Father has given me—and I will never, never reject them.  (John 6:37  TLB)

Some scholars see free will in this verse, others see only election.  In truth, we see both man’s free will (some will come) and God’s election (those the Father has given) at work.  God the Father gives sinners to Christ for salvation, but these sinners have to come to Christ.  If we belong to Christ, we belong to Him, not because of anything we have done, but because God the Father determined to win us to Himself.

The “elect” are simply those who have come to Christ, and we have Christ’s Word that anybody who comes to Him will never be turned away!   That’s theologically “right thinking!”  Salvation is wholly a work of God, but man does bear the responsibility to “come.”  There is co-operation being taught in these verses:  the Father gives sinners to the Son, sinners come to the Son, and the Son welcomes them with open arms.  But God the Father is the great Prime Mover in this; salvation begins with Him.

…[God] is not willing that any should perish, and he is giving more time for sinners to repent.  (2 Peter 3:9b  TLB)

Of course, Peter is not teaching a kind of “universal salvation” in this verse.  God wants—desperately, to use a human word—all people to come to Jesus and be saved.  But the reality is, many will not.

For many are called, but few are chosen.  (Matthew 22:14 TLB)

The truly exciting part of John 6:37 is the last part:  Jesus rejects NO ONE who comes to Him!  How is that possible?  The answer is in the very next verse:

For I have come here from heaven to do the will of God who sent me, not to have my own way.  (John 6:38  TLB)

It’s simply God’s will to save all those who come to Jesus.  Period.  Whom God saves, Jesus keeps!  Jesus taught this in verse 39 but Jude also taught it in his letter:

…he is able to keep you from slipping and falling away…  (Jude verse 25  TLB)

But in a subtle way, Jesus is also teaching His Jewish listeners that when they murmur and question His authority or oppose His Work in any way they are really opposing the work and will of God the Father.

3.  Drag me to heaven!

Jesus said what He had to say, but the people remained unmoved.  They just couldn’t get passed what they could see with their own eyes.  This “man” who claimed to be the Bread of Life from Heaven was, as far as they knew, merely the son of a carpenter named Joseph, verse 42.  What these people really objected to was the “from heaven” part:  that is, His virgin birth.  Like so many people today, these people had no problem with God; they readily acknowledged God the Father.  They even “wondered” about Jesus, but what they refused to believe was His divinity.  This just went against their sensibilities.  People are like that today.  They talk about God (except on public land!) and have no issue acknowledging a “Higher Power,” but Jesus Christ is just plain offensive to them.

Such is the power of unbelief.  Man in his natural mind is incapable of believing in Jesus and in His Work.  And that leads us to our EXCEPTional Bible verse:

Jesus therefore answered and said unto them, Murmur not among yourselves.  No man can come to me, except the Father which hath sent me draw him: and I will raise him up at the last day.  (John 6:43, 44  KJV)

Here again we see man’s responsibility:  stop murmuring.  This is something only a man can do for himself.  God won’t stop you from murmuring; God won’t change your behavior.  God won’t force you to do or to stop something.  It’s up to you.  It’s your responsibility.  But then Jesus talks about something only God can do:  He draws the sinner to His Son.  In fact, it’s more than just “drawing.”  The Greek word really means “drag!”  It’s a strenuous word.  God actively and effectively influences the mind, the heart, the entire personality of the sinner to get him to come to Jesus.

As it is written in the Scriptures, ‘They shall all be taught of God.’ Those the Father speaks to, who learn the truth from him, will be attracted to me.  (John 6:45  TLB)

What is Jesus speaking of here?  Many times in the writings of the prophets we read things like this:

And all your citizens shall be taught by me, and their prosperity shall be great.  (Isaiah 54:13  TLB)

Darkness as black as night shall cover all the peoples of the earth, but the glory of the Lord will shine from you.  All nations will come to your light; mighty kings will come to see the glory of the Lord upon you.  (Isaiah 60:2, 3  TLB)

These are prophecies; statements of things that have yet to occur.  Jesus is telling these Jews that someday THEY will come to Him; they, the Jewish nation, will be fully restored.  Malachi 4:2—

But for you who fear my name, the Sun of Righteousness will rise with healing in his wings. And you will go free, leaping with joy like calves let out to pasture.  (TLB)

Jesus had spent considerable time trying to get through to these people that He was the Bread of Life; that He came down from Heaven; that His Father is God the Father.  God the Father wants everybody to be saved; so much so that He will actually work behind the scenes to get them to believe in Jesus, the only Way to heaven.  It’s God’s will!  It was foretold in the words of their very own prophets.

Every person, Jew and Gentile alike, that hears the Word of God concerning Jesus the Son will be drawn by God the Father.  It is God who draws before man comes.  It is God who speaks before man hears and obeys.  If God stands passively by and leaves man up to his own devices, no man will be saved.  This is why we say salvation is as work of God!  Every person who hears the Word and responds to God’s drawing will come to Jesus and be received by Him.  God’s grace always triumphs!

EXCEPTional Bible Verses, Part 1

Published September 26, 2013 Uncategorized Leave a Comment
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robe-of-righteousness

Righteousness

Matthew 5:20

 

The key verse of Jesus’ famous Sermon on the Mount is verse 20:

For I say unto you, That except your righteousness shall exceed the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees, ye shall in no case enter into the kingdom of heaven.   (Matthew 5:20, KJV)

If we were to put Jesus’ words in modern English, we might say something like this:  Unless you Christians are better people than the really good people of society; the cream of the crop of citizens, you will never get into heaven.

In Jesus’ day, the scribes and Pharisees were considered to be the best of the best:  the best behaved, best mannered, best educated, most ethical of citizens.  We, with the perspective of hindsight and history have come to believe that the scribes and Pharisees were a bunch of hypocrites, but 2,000 years ago that was not how most people saw them.  In fact, not all these men were hypocrites.  Many were not.  Nicodemus was a Pharisee whose heart was right and as we read the Gospels we note that many Pharisees either followed Jesus or were very sympathetic toward Him.

The scribes and Pharisees were great religious leaders and moral leaders, who were trying to keep the Jewish faith pure in the face of pagan Roman beliefs.  “Pharisee” means “separate,” and they did their best to live up that name, living separate from the Romans and even some Jews.  A good description of them is found in Luke 18—

The proud Pharisee ‘prayed’ this prayer: ‘Thank God, I am not a sinner like everyone else, especially like that tax collector over there! For I never cheat, I don’t commit adultery, I go without food twice a week, and I give to God a tenth of everything I earn.’  (Luke 18:11, 12  TLB)

Pride was the downfall of the Pharisee, but if we read their prayer, could any one of us quibble with it?  That prayer—pride notwithstanding—tells us that they were punctual in attending worship services, they believed in and practiced private prayer and fasting, they were temperate in food and drink, they gave generously, and did their best to live moral lives in a very immoral culture.  They cared very deeply about their faith.  These people—Pharisees—sound a lot like good Christians!  They have the same kind of characteristics we’d like to see in our own lives.  And yet, according to Jesus, there is NO hope for us unless we are better than they.

What was the problem with these men?  Outwardly you could not fault them at all.  Their problem was something other than their behavior.  Elsewhere in Scripture, we read something that sheds some light on what Jesus is getting at:

We are all infected and impure with sin. When we put on our prized robes of righteousness, we find they are but filthy rags. Like autumn leaves we fade, wither, and fall. And our sins, like the wind, sweep us away.  (Isaiah 64:6  TLB)

This was their problem.  In modern language, the problem with the scribes and Pharisees amounted to “lipstick on a pig.”  In God’s eyes—His pure eyes—even our very best is no better than old, filthy rags.  If that is God’s estimation of our best, what must He think of our worst?

Our first EXCEPTional verse serves to contrast man’s righteousness and God’s righteousness.

1.  Man’s righteousness is prospective, God’s righteousness is possessive

This verse actually sets the stage for what comes after it:  very specific examples of two types of righteousness.  For example, the rabbis taught the people “You shall not kill.”  But Jesus will teach what that really means, and what “You shall not kill” really means is not at all what the rabbis said it meant.  The religious leaders of Jesus’ day, and even the religious leaders of today, teach that doing righteous things makes a person righteous.  But Jesus taught that under grace, a person does righteous things because he’s righteous.  That’s a huge difference!

Man says:  Do this good thing and you will be righteous.  But God says:  Do this good thing because you are righteous.  Man hopes to win God’s favor by becoming righteous through his struggles to live right and do good.  Yet grace looks at the situation differently.  One who is living in grace lives right because of the grace he has experienced.  The Christian has already found favor in God’s eyes; he doesn’t have to do anything to get it.

Man is concerned with what he DOES, but God is concerned with who he IS.

2.  Man’s righteousness is external, God’s righteousness is both external and internal

This is further described by our Lord in Matthew 23:28—

You try to look like saintly men, but underneath those pious robes of yours are hearts besmirched with every sort of hypocrisy and sin.  (TLB)

Man’s righteousness is concerned with life that is seen by other people; life on the outside, but God’s righteousness is concerned with both life on the outside and on the inside.  In a sense, living a righteous life man’s way is easier because God expects so much more from us.  Anybody can be given a list of do’s and don’ts and be told to live in obedience to that list.  It takes no particular skill or thought to obey a list.  But God wants to engage the whole person; his actions and his mind.  God made us thinking, reasoning, and rational beings.  Grace, not legalism, exalts a man; sets a man free to live according to God’s will because he himself wills it and the Holy Spirit enables him to do it.

Martin Lloyd-Jones observed:

The trouble with the Pharisees was that they were interested in details rather than principles, that they were interested in actions rather than motives, and that they were interested in doing rather than being.

What Jesus taught was really revolutionary in His day.  He was far more concerned with the inner, spiritual, man than the outward man.  If a man be made righteous on the inside, he will be righteous on the outside.

How can we be righteous on the inside?  When we are born again, that inner righteousness in imputed to us!  Jesus pours His righteousness into our hearts.  And when we live and interact with the world around us, we take that imputed righteousness and impart it to others; we bless others with the righteousness of Christ in us.   That’s a radical thought!

3.  Man’s righteousness in ceremonial, God’s righteousness is spiritual

The scribes and Pharisees thought their ceremonies were the most important part of their faith; that they were the be-all and end-all of their relationship with God.   Not so, according to Jesus.  The righteousness demanded by God is nothing less than complete conformity to God’s holy law in all that person does and all that he is.  That demand goes way, way beyond any ceremonial observance or liturgy.  This radical righteousness is a matter of the heart, not of deeds.  This righteousness is spiritual because it is God-given.  True godliness is not a matter of creeds, confessions, or ceremonies.  It is an inward, spiritual reality.

4.  Man’s righteousness is one-sided, God’s righteousness is deep and wide.

Man’s righteousness benefits other men.  In other words, any human being regardless of his standing before God can perform righteous deeds that help other people.  An atheist can feed the hungry.  A generous Muslim can help a poor person.  But that kind of righteousness is NOT God-ward; it does not benefit Him in any way.  True righteousness—righteousness of the whole person—benefits both God and man.  True righteousness—the kind of righteousness God demands—is directed man-ward and God-ward at the same time.  That’s why Jesus said this to His disciples:

“And if, as my representatives, you give even a cup of cold water to a little child, you will surely be rewarded.”  (Matthew 10:42  TLB)

When an unbeliever gives a cup of cold water to a thirsty person, that thirsty person is blessed.  But when a believer does the same thing, not only is the thirsty person blessed, but God is blessed and glorified.  Why?  Because the believer has done a righteous thing with the righteousness of Christ at work in Him.

I have been crucified with Christ: and I myself no longer live, but Christ lives in me. And the real life I now have within this body is a result of my trusting in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.  (Galatians 2:20  TLB)

5.  Man’s righteousness is an “It”, God’s righteousness is a “He”.

This is the most important point, and it is driven home by the prophet Jeremiah:

And this is his name: The Lord Our Righteousness.  (Jeremiah 23:3  TLB)

Man apart from God is capable of doing great things, undoubtedly.  Man apart from God is capable of wondrous acts of kindness, compassion, and righteousness.  But all those “good deeds” don’t do a thing to change that man’s standing before God.  He is still apart from God.  He may possess good deeds, but he is not in possession Christ’s righteous, and that is the crux of the matter.  A Christian is one who possesses the righteousness of Christ because he himself is possessed by Christ.

When He becomes our righteousness, our righteous acts will far, far exceed those of the scribes, Pharisees, and all the good people around us.  It is the presence of Jesus that makes all the difference.

For He made Him who knew no sin to be sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.  (2 Corinthians 5:21  NKJV)

Jehovah Tsidkenu, “the Lord our righteousness.”  Is He yours today?  If you are relying on simply being a good person to get into heaven, you might as well give up.  Being a good person may help your reputation on earth among your fellow man, but it doesn’t do anything to improve your standing before God in Heaven.  Hell will, in fact, be overrun with good people.  You can’t be good enough to qualify for Heaven.  You need something more, and that “something more” is a Someone:  Jesus Christ.  Only He can do for you what you cannot do for yourself.

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