Blog Archives - WELCOME TO THE JOY OF TROY

February 18, 2021

2/18/2021

Blessed or Happy?

        And he opened his mouth, and taught them saying, Blessed are the poor in spirit: for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Matt. 5:2, 3.

    In Matthew 5-7 we find the most famous sermon ever preached. The Sermon on the Mount begins with eight sayings that we have come to know as the Beatitudes. Each of them begins with the Greek word makarios, which we can translate in several ways, including "blessed" (NIV, KJV, RSV) and "happy" (Philips and TLB).

    But we have a problem if we render it "happy." After all, we all have our unhappy days in spite of our faith in Jesus. Of course, there is a sense in which believers are always happy and have a right to be so, because they are already members of God's kingdom. But even citizens of the kingdom still have some miserable days when "dumpy" is the only adequate way to describe their feelings.

    And "feelings" is the key word in that sentence. I would like to suggest that "happy" is an inadequate translation of makarios because most of us view happiness as a subjective state. That is, happiness is how we feel. We feel either sad or happy.

    But the Christian life is not based on a subjective feeling. I once had a young student come to my office saying that he was upset because he didn't feel happy. Those feelings had led to deep spiritual discouragement. After all, didn't Jesus repeatedly say that if people were Christians they would be happy? Therefore, since he wasn't happy he must not be a Christian. Something must be wrong with his life, but he couldn't figure out what it was. He had arrived at the pit of despair.

    I explained to him that he had it all wrong--that our acceptance with God does not rest on subjective feelings of happiness or sadness, but in the objective fact that Jesus died for our sins and that all who accept His sacrifice in faith have already been forgiven and become citizens of the kingdom of heaven. In other words, my student friend was blessed by God no matter how he felt.

    Thus even though I may not feel happy about being "persecuted for righteousness' sake" (Matt. 5:10), I can still have peace because I have been blessed by Jesus. That is a fact. And while there is a sense in which I can be happy about that peace of heart, blessedness is more than happiness. Blessedness is a reality that no dumpy day can take away from me.

February 17, 2021

2/17/2021

Jesus Announces the Principles of His Kingdom

        Seeing the crowds, he went up on the mountain, and when he sat down his disciples came to him. Matt. 5:1, RSV.

    Jesus knew that the time for His ministry to take a firmer, more visible form had come. John the Baptist had announced His arrival, at His baptism He had been filled in a fuller way by the Holy Spirit for ministry and blessed by the Father, and at the temptation in the wilderness He had met Satan face-to-face and set His boundaries.

    Subsequently He had begun His ministry in Galilee, announcing that the kingdom of heaven was at hand. Then came the calling of His students, understudies, disciples--those individuals who would eventually take over His mission. Jesus would spend much of His energy and time and patience during the next three years in preparing those young men for the task ahead of them.

    His early ministry in Galilee was one of "preaching the gospel [good news] of the kingdom and healing every disease and every infirmity among the people." As a result, "his fame spread....And great crowds followed him from Galilee and the Decapolis and Jerusalem and Judea and from beyond the Jordan" (Matt. 4:23-25, RSV). His ministry had become a sensation almost overnight as the people sensed that something great was happening.

    The time had come for this popular teacher, this healer of disease, this unique person in the history of Israel to announce the principles of His kingdom. He will do so in what would become the most well-known sermon in world history--the Sermon on the Mount (Matt. 5-7).

    In that inaugural sermon Jesus set forth the principles of His kingdom--He announced how its citizens were to think and live. It would cover every aspect of their lives.

    He began by highlighting the ideal character of the citizens of His kingdom in the Beatitudes (Matt. 5:3-12). Then He followed it with treatments on a Christian's influence (verses 13-16), their righteousness (verses 17-48), their piety (Matt. 6:1-18), their goals and priorities in relation to their daily needs and desires (verses 19-34), their relationships with others (Matt. 7:1-12), and their commitment to Him and the Father (verses 13-29). By the time He was finished He had set forth principles of His kingdom for every aspect of the lives of those who would follow Him.

    As a result, we need to listen carefully as the King speaks. His message is for me.

February 16, 2021

2/16/2021

Not All the Disciples Were "Vegetarians"

    Jesus summoned His twelve disciples and gave them authority over unclean spirits, to cast out, and to heal every kind of disease and every kind of sickness. Now the names of the twelve apostles are these: the first, Simon, who is called Peter, and Andrew his brother' and James to son of Zebedee, and John his brother; Philip and Bartholomew; Thomas and Matthew the tax collector; James the son of Alphaeus, and Thaddaeus; Simon the Zealot, and Judas Iscariot, the one who betrayed Him. Matt. 10:1-4, NASB.

    That is quite a list. Have you ever examined it carefully? Some of them actually have tags to their names. Such was the case of Judas, who would eventually betray Jesus to the authorities who put Him to death.

    But more interesting in some ways are the labels attached to Matthew and Simon. While the first is identified as a tax collector ("publican" in the King James Version), the second is labeled a Zealot. Neither is what we call middle of the road. Nor is either the kind of person that we would nominate for the ministry.

    Jewish tax collectors were generally far from upright in their business dealings. In fact, they served as puppets for the hated Roman government--Jews who collected taxes for the enemy. But worse than that, any "extra" money they managed to collect went into their oversized pockets. And they made sure they obtained plenty of the extra kind. If a person didn't want to pay, there was always the ever-present Roman army, which had mastered all the techniques of helping people to cooperate.

    At the other end of the political spectrum of the day was Simon the Zealot. The Zealots stood against Rome as terrorists in an effort to overthrow Israel's hated rulers. It was a good day for a Zealot when he could step into a crowd and leave a dagger in a Roman or a Roman collaborator, such as Matthew.

    The miracle of Jesus' small group is that it contained both a Zealot and a publican. But the greatest miracle is that the four Gospels record no contention between them, as they do among Peter, John, and some of the others.

    History demonstrates again and again that Christ's message truly changes people's hearts and lives. Genuine repentance brings conversion and a new life in Jesus, even among deadly enemies.

    A side lesson here is that you don't always have to agree with everybody in the church to work with them. In fact, the opposite is true. The more perspectives in the group, the more ways it will discover to reach out to a world in need.

February 15, 2021

2/15/2021

Calling Is a Process

        Again, the next day, John stood with two of his disciples. And looking at Jesus as He walked, he said, "Behold the Lamb of God!" The two disciples heard him speak, and they followed Jesus. John 1:35-37, NKJV.

    We often forget that some of Jesus' leading disciples had first been followers of John the Baptist. That was so of Andrew.

    Now there is an obscure disciple. A glimpse at my concordance indicates that the Bible mentions his name only 13 times, usually in lists of disciples or as Peter's brother--Andrew is that "other guy" who had the famous sibling.

    Yet it was the nearly invisible Andrew who led Peter to Christ. That resulted, of course, in Jesus immediately sizing Simon Peter up for special recognition. And here we find a point of note--Jesus never sees us merely as we are but as what we can become through His grace.

    Peter, along with James and John Zebedee, would turn into one of Christ's most important and visible followers. That never seemed to bother Andrew. He was apparently willing from the beginning to take second place as someone who introduced people to Jesus.

    The fourth Gospel does not indicate who the second disciple of the Baptist was who followed after Jesus with Andrew. But given his style, it was probably the author himself. John generally identifies himself as "that other disciple." Decades later the aged John has many memories of those early years. Writing the final Gospel, he seeks to fill in some of the blanks that Matthew, Mark, and Luke left out of the story. Some of those gaps had to do with the first calling of himself, Andrew, Peter, Philip, and Nathanael. Those events were so precious to the old man that he even remembered the exact words that took place and cited them in John 1:35-51. He will do so from time to time throughout his Gospel, thereby providing his readers down through the ages with intimate recollections that only a participant could have known.

    One of those recollections is that the calling of the disciples was a process rather than the all-at-once event suggested by Matthew, in which they seemingly give up all at their first meeting with Jesus.

    Not so, say John. First, some of them were disciples of the Baptist. Then some of those disciples questioned Jesus. Next they introduced other future disciples to Him. And only later did Jesus tell them to give up their business and follow him.

    The same is true in our day. Jesus still calls disciples step by step. My only question is what step He has in mind for me today.

February 14, 2021

2/14/2021

Jesus the Caller

        As he walked by the Sea of Galilee, he saw two brothers, Simon who is called Peter and Andrew his brother, casting a net into the sea; for they were fishermen. And he said to them, "Follow me, and I will make you fishers of men." Immediately they left their nets and followed him. Matt. 4:18-20, RSV.

    The day began with two fishermen casting their nets. It was hard work, but satisfying. Though they would never get rich, by the standards of the day they were quite a bit above average in their level of living. After all, they owned a boat and had a steady income. Comparing their relative social position to successful small business owners in our day, we could consider them upper middle class.

    And then that Man entered their lives and things would never be the same. "Follow me" were His words. And they did, putting their financial security behind them to accompany a homeless wanderer who claimed He would make them "fishers of men." They must have wondered what that meant.

    Why did they give it all up?

    People today face that same question. Why did some of my students abandon lucrative positions as practicing physicians or lawyers or business people with high earnings to go back to school to live on a modest minister's salary many times lower than what they had been used to? Why did others opt to teach children and thereby both remain out of the public eye and out of many of the "good things" a lucrative career brings? The questions go on. Why did some decide to serve in foreign missions? And why have countless millions of Christians in all walks of life suffered losses in order to maintain honesty and integrity in their business practices?

    The answer is found in the Man named Jesus and His powerful message. He still beckons individuals today. For some the call is immediate, like a flash of lightening in their lives. For others it takes place across weeks, months, and even years. Still the calling goes on as people make decisions to leave whatever kinds of nets they are casting.

    But like Peter and Andrew, they don't know where it will all lead. And that is probably good, since Peter ended up on a cross and his business partner James Zebedee would find death at the hands of one of the Herods in a few short years.

    Yet neither did those early disciples understand the bright side of the future--how they would change the world in their day and that every generation after them would be affected by their giving up their nets.

    Jesus is still calling, my friend. Today He still asks men and women to become "fishers of men."

February 13,2021

2/13/2021

Kingdom Arrival

        Then the devil left him, and behold, angels came and ministered to him....From that time Jesus began to preach, saying, "Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand."   Matt. 4:11-17, RSV.

    "The devil left him."

    Don't get your hopes up, though. Satan never quits. Luke tells us that "he departed from him until an opportune time" (Luke 4:13, RSV).

    The devil had lost this round with the very human Jesus. But time was on his side. He would return when Jesus was down and more vulnerable. Satan works the same way with us. When it looks as if the coast is clear and we are safe at last, we trip over him "hiding in the grass" waiting for an "opportune time." And that time will come, generally when we are least able to resist. How important then that we stay tuned to God in our daily walk.

    A second thing to note in today's verses is that "angels came and ministered to him." Actually, they had never left Him, but now their ministry is more visible.

    Here we have a crucial truth to remember in our daily lives. No matter how bad it gets, no matter how down we feel, God never forsakes us. Whether we are conscious of it or not, His angels are always at our side strengthening and encouraging us to face life's challenges.

    With Matthew 4:17 we come to the beginning of Jesus' formal ministry. He has passed the crucial test and is now ready to preach the kingdom of God on the Father's terms rather than on Satan's.

    His initial message, "Repent, for the kingdom of heaven has come near" (NIV) is identical with that of John the Baptist (Matt. 3:2). Like John, He urges people to turn away from their sins and toward God.

    When Jesus says that the kingdom is near, we wonder how near. After all, He spoke those words 2,000 years ago, and earthly kingdoms still roll on.

    But Jesus knew what He was talking about. There is a sense in which the arrival of King Jesus on earth ushered in the kingdom, and another sense in which its consummation is still future. The fullness of the kingdom will occur only at the second coming of Christ. The inauguration of the kingdom took place at the First Advent, but it does not exist in completeness until the Second.

    Thus it is that even in our day I enter the kingdom the very moment that I accept Jesus' Lordship in my life. He is already my King. Praise God! I am already a child of the King.

February 12, 2021

2/12/2021

Temptation Number 3: Sell Out or Preserve?

        Again, the devil took him to a very high mountain and showed him all the kingdoms of the world and their glory. And he said to him, "All these I will give you, if you will fall down and worship me." Then Jesus said to him, "Be gone, Satan! For it is written, 'You shall worship the Lord your God and him only shall you serve.' " Matt. 4:8-10, ESV.

    What is your price? At what point are you willing to sell out to the devil? Satan understands us one and all. He knows that some people will cave in if he offers them $5. For others it might be $500. But for others he needs to offer $5,000, or $5 million, or even $5 billion. After all, he suggests, you have to do it only once. And you can always repent later. "Why not?" our minds tell us. If you don't take the offer, someone else will.

    What is your cave-in point? What is your price? People spend a great deal of time discussing how Christ could be tempted just like we are. I would like to suggest that He was tempted far beyond what we will ever face. For one thing, we never feel the full impact of temptation, since when the devil reaches our price we fold up and sell out and opt for his bargain.

    But more important, Christ had capabilities way beyond ours. He was tempted far beyond what ordinary human beings can ever possibly be, since Jesus actually had the power of God in His fingertips rather than at them.

    In his final temptation for Jesus, the devil pulls out all the stops. He aims at the very purpose for which He came to the earth. He can become World Ruler if He will only bow down and worship Satan--now, and without the cross.

    But Jesus has made up His mind to worship and obey God alone. He will not feel the full force of temptation again until Gethsemane, when He will once again struggle to stay surrendered to the Father's will.

    Jesus went into the temptations with the tensions between the modes of conquering King and Suffering Servant ringing in His ears (Matt. 3:17). But He comes out of the experience with His mind made up. He will follow God's way of the Suffering Servant, the path that will eventually lead to a distasteful cross. Now He is ready to enter His formal ministry.

    On a far lower level, temptation takes the same course in our life that it did in Christ's. Temptation is not merely being enticed to this sin or that. No! At its bottom, temptation has to do with whom we will follow as the lord of our life.

February 11, 2021

2/11/2021

Temptation Number 2: Sensationalism or Faithfulness?

        Then the devil took Him up into the holy city, set Him on the pinnacle of the temple, and said to Him, "If You are the Son of God, throw Yourself down. For it is written: 'He shall give His angels charge over you,' and, 'In their hands they shall bear you up, lest you dash your foot against a stone.' " Jesus said to him, "It is written again, 'You shall not tempt the Lord your God.' " Matt. 4:5-7, NKJV.

    The devil can quote the Bible and sound impressive. Never forget that crucial fact. If Jesus' first temptation came at His greatest point of immediate weakness (hunger), the second aimed at His greatest point of strength--His familiarity with the Bible and God's promises.

    Quoting from Psalm 91:11, 12, Satan suggests that Jesus should jump to fame. Absurd as it may seem to us, that wasn't a bad idea. After all, weren't the Jews always looking for a "sign" (Matt. 12:38; 1 Cor. 1:22) by which to identify the Messiah when He arrived? Here is the perfect one. A jump from the top of the Temple, towering more than 400 feet above the Valley of Hinnon, would be impressive indeed. Malachi had predicted that "the Lord whom you seek will suddenly come to his temple" (Mal. 3:1, RSV), and certain rabbis had predicted that "when the king Messiah appears, he will come stand on the roof of the Temple."

    For the Jews, there was nothing like fulfilling a Bible prophecy. The people would easily line up behind that type of Messiah. They wanted a spectacular Messiah. To Jesus, that would be an easier way to win a following than a crucifixion. And its results would have been immediate.

    But He once again answered Satan from the Bible. This time He pits scripture against scripture ("It is also written," NIV), which is particularly appropriate in this instance, since Satan has misapplied the passage from Psalm 91.

    In His answer, Jesus teaches us that mere quotations from inspired writings are not enough. Those quotations must be accurately interpreted for meaning within their specific context and within the overall framework of the character of God. To run with quotations out of context may or may not make a person into a fanatic, but such a practice definitely cannot transform individuals into followers of Jesus.

    In Jesus' second temptation we have an important lesson for our lives. The devil has a thousand ways to lead us astray, even through the use of the Bible. With that in mind, how important it is that we become Bible students who read God's Word faithfully so that we will be protected from that Satan who pursues us like a "roaring lion" (1 Peter 5:8).

February 10,2021

2/10/2021

Temptation Number 1: God's Will or Mine?

        And he fasted forty days and forty nights, and afterwards he was hungry. And the tempter came and said to him, "If you are the Son of God, command these stones to become bread." But he answered, "It is written, 'Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God.' " Matt. 4:2-4, RSV.

    I have never been tempted to turn rocks into bread. Not even once in all of my life. In fact, that is no temptation for me at all for the simple fact that I can't do it. I could spend the next three years in the rock garden behind the church parking lot commanding stones to become bread and never have a single loaf to show for it.

    But Jesus could. As the agent of creation (John 1:3), He could make bread out of stones, or even out of nothing. To do so, however, He would have to "unempty" Himself and take up His divine power. The temptation to transform rocks into bread was a Messianic temptation, aimed at One who not only had the power to carry out the act but who also knows that He has it.

    While Jesus was undoubtedly hungry, and while the suggestion to produce bread from stones must have been attractive, we miss the point if we see the first temptation as merely one to satisfy His appetite. At its core, it was an attempt to get Jesus to use His divine power to satisfy His own needs, a course of action fatal to the plan of redemption in which He was to rely on God like other human beings.

    Even more central was its implications for avoiding the all-important cross. By creating bread out of stones, Jesus could have set up an immediate economic/political kingdom, and the Jews would have followed Him gladly.

    That is clear from John 6, when Jesus fed the 5,000. In that miracle the Jews saw the predicted prophet who would be like Moses (Deut. 18:18). After all, hadn't Jesus performed an equivalent to the manna miracle? The populace got so worked up that they sought to "make him king by force" (John 6:14, 15, NIV). Even the disciples got caught up in the move to make Jesus into a political Messiah at that time (Matt. 14:22).

    But Jesus rejected the initiative. He knew that the way of the cross would be infinitely more difficult in setting up His kingdom than feeding the poor in a hungry land. Also, He realized that the way of the cross was the only way to solve the sin problem.

    Lord, this day as I travel through life help me to seek Your will rather than the route of expediency.

February 9, 2021

2/9/2021

February 9                                The Core of Temptation

        Then Jesus was led up by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil. Matt. 4:1, NASB.

    Here for the first time the Gospels introduce us to Christ's major antagonist in the conflict between good and evil. Matthew calls him "the devil" in verse 1, "the tempter" in verse 3, and in verse 10 "Satan" (adversary)--his proper name since the Genesis fall. Prior to chapter 4, the devil has been active behind the scenes, as with Herod, but now he comes out in the open to the forefront.

    We should also recognize that neither God nor the Holy Spirit is the active agent in temptation. Matthew is quite careful in his wording: "Then Jesus as led up by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil." James plainly teaches us that God tempts no one (James 1:13). But God does allow His followers to encounter temptation for the strengthening and development of their characters. As a result, we should not feel that we are out of harmony with God when we find ourselves in difficult places. After all, Christ's temptations came right after His spiritual high at His baptism. God's followers are not exempt from the pressures of the world. Rather, they are given strength to resist those forces (1 Cor. 10:13). So it was with Jesus. He faced the common temptations of other humans. Yet He found victory (Heb. 4:15).

    With Christ's temptations we meet the essential nature of temptation itself. Earlier we noted that the incarnate Christ had "emptied Himself" when He came to earth (Phil. 2:5-8). That is, He voluntarily gave up His divine attributes and submitted to the conditions of life that we also face. While on earth, God the Son lived in dependence upon God the Father, just as we do (John 5:19, 30; 8:28; 14:10). He truly became one of us.

    Please note that His self-emptying was voluntary. No one forced Him to become human. He chose to do so. It is at the point of Christ's voluntary self-emptying that we find the focus and strength of His temptations. If the enemy had been able to get Jesus to "unempty" Himself one time and get Him to use His "hidden" power, the war would have been over, with Satan the victor. Ellen White points out that "it was as difficult for him to keep [to] the level of humanity as it is for men to rise above the low level of their depraved natures, and be partakers of the divine nature" (Review and Herald, Apr. 1, 1875).

    In Christ's temptations we find the center of ours also. The core of my personal temptation every day is to stop relying on God and to become self-sufficient, to be the god of my life.