Blog Archives - WELCOME TO THE JOY OF TROY

March 21, 2021

3/21/2021

The Astonishing Jesus

        And when Jesus finished these sayings, the crowds were astonished at his teaching, for he taught them as one who had authority, and not as their scribes. Matt. 7:28, 29, RSV.

    Jesus is now ready for the next stage of His ministry. He has been filled with the Spirit at His baptism, has set His boundaries with Satan in the wilderness for the contest to come, has called His disciples, and now has finished preaching His inaugural sermon, in which He set forth in no uncertain terms the principles of His kingdom. Thus He is ready to move into a wider ministry. But before examining His more extensive work we should note that "the crowds were astonished at his teaching."

    And why shouldn't they be? They knew Him as an unlearned carpenter from a little village called Nazareth in Galilee. He was not a scribe or a Pharisee, but a commoner, a laborer. Jesus had not sat at the feet of Gamaliel or any other learned teacher. Rather, He was nothing but a rustic and lowly carpenter. But suddenly He bursts upon the scene claiming the most astounding things from the beginning of His ministry. His arrival is a shock to the Jewish body politic.

    Look at His audacity in the manner of His teaching. Unlike the scribes, He did not recite long lists of quotations to make a point. To the contrary, He claimed to be The Authority. "I say unto you" was His style rather than "so-and-so has said."

    And did you hear some of His claims? He says, "I am come," not "I was born." And where, His hearers are left to wonder, did He come from? Obviously from the One He so very personally calls "My Father."

    But perhaps the most profound statement of the Sermon on the Mount regarding His personal sense of identity appears in Matthew 7:22, in which He says, "On that day many will say to me, 'Lord, Lord" (RSV). He does not hesitate to declare that people will address Him as Lord, as a divine person. It is little wonder that the words of Jesus astounded the Jews. Not only did He teach in an authoritative manner, but by assuming the prerogatives of God He was claiming to be God.

    They were stunned. And we should be, too. The problem is that He is not new to us. In the Western world He is like a piece of familiar furniture. We need to see Him with fresh eyes that we might also be amazed by our wonderful Lord.

March 20, 2021

3/20/2021

March 20                                "That Day"

        Many will say to me in that day, Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in thy name? and in thy name have cast out devils? and in thy name done many wonderful works? And then will I profess unto them, I never knew you: depart from me, ye that work iniquity. Matt. 7:22, 23.

    "That day" is the day of judgment, the time when all accounts get settled and God hands out rewards and punishments.

    A story tells of a young boy given the task of planting string beans in his mother's garden. The job started out quite well as he carefully broke up the clods and planted each seed every two inches down the rows. But the sun was getting hotter and his friends passed him, waving happily as they headed toward the swimming hole. Soon the job became less and less attractive. "Whoever," he asked himself, "would want so many string beans? What a waste of a summer day." Such thoughts put an end to his faithfulness. He had done enough, he concluded, and dumped the rest of the seeds in a hole partway down a row. His mother was pleased, though. All looked well. But then "that day" arrived. In his case it was when the seeds sprouted. It was plain to all what had happened. The day of reckoning had come.

    "That day," Jesus tells us, will eventually happen for the entire world. Then our relationship to God's will will be evident to all. How we have lived our lives will make a difference. Our present is a part of our future. According to Jesus, it will determine our future. That is His teaching in Matthew 7:21-23.

    The judgment decision of Jesus, "depart from me," "I never knew you," will be the hardest He will ever have to say. Some people have the idea that the final judgment is so that God can weed out as many people as possible. But that is Satan's interpretation, not God's intent.

    The opposite position is the one in which the truth lies. God and Christ want to see as many people in heaven as possible. The judgment is not to keep them out, but to get them in. It certifies before all the universe that they have indeed accepted the sacrifice of Jesus on the cross as the atonement for their sins, and that they have allowed God to fill them with the principle of His love.

    God and Christ have done Their part in this drama. The only question is, "Have we?" Have we allowed the Holy Spirit into our hearts to infuse God's loving principles? Have we allowed Him to live out those principles in our daily lives?

March 19, 2021

3/19/2021

A Sobering Verse

        Not every one who says to me, "Lord, Lord," shall enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. Matt. 7:21, RSV.

    Today's verse is one of the most frightening in the New Testament. It flatly states that I can be lost while claiming Jesus as my Savior; that I can be deceived; that I can think that all is well with my religious life when everything is actually wrong.

    Matthew 7:21 is also one of the most serious passages in all of God's Word. Jesus is not playing games. He has spent a large portion of His inaugural sermon telling us how the scribes and Pharisees had deceived themselves. Now He is pointing at me and you. We can be just as confused and misled as those Jewish leaders unless we pay heed to His words. There is nothing more serious in all the teaching of the words of Jesus than His proclamation in Matthew 7:21-23. Our Savior is speaking to us with all the earnestness of His soul. It behooves us to listen carefully.

    Not all who claim to be believers in Jesus as Lord and Savior will be saved according to verse 21. That is an amazing thought, given the fact that so many say that the totality of salvation is claiming Jesus as Savior. Here Jesus is warning us that being saved involves more than merely making such claims.

    And what more is needed? Jesus answers that question in the same verse, when He states that we must be doers and not mere hearers of His Father's will. John reinforces that point when he writes that "we may be sure that we know him," if we keep His commandments and walk as Jesus did (1 John 2:3-6, RSV).

    That's good news. It's true assurance of salvation. We can know! Praise God!

    But what is "doing the Father's will"? Here we must remember that the context of Matthew 7:21-23 is the entire Sermon on the Mount. Jesus has just spent Matthew 5-7 setting forth God's will for His people. Doing God's will is living the Beatitudes; it means being salt and light as we witness; it means living out the height and depth of His law of love in our community; it is loving even our enemies and thus being like God; it is doing God's will in our prayer life and stewardship; it means having our priorities right and trusting Him in terms of our daily needs rather than being focused on material things; and it means refusing to judge others, while at the same time treating them as we would like them to treat us.

    Doing God's will means being like Jesus.

March 18, 2021

3/18/2021

Christians Are Fruit Inspectors

        Beware of false prophets, who come to you in sheep's clothing but inwardly are ravenous wolves. You will know them by their fruits....Every sound tree bears good fruit, but the bad trees bears evil fruit. Matt. 7:15-17, RSV.

    Jesus had both eyes open. He knew that His church would have problems, that there would be leaders who looked impressive and could preach captivatingly well, but who would take advantage of the naïve and gullible.

    As a result, near the close of His inaugural sermon on kingdom principles He supplied us with two forceful illustrations of the need to keep both of our eyes open. In the process, He tells us that we will actually need to judge others in terms of the fruit of their work.

    All the way through the Bible we find both true and false prophets, true and false teachers and preachers. The lesson for us is that not all who claim to be from God with a message from Him are actually what they pretend to be. Some religious teachers, Jesus notes, actually look like sheep on the outside, but inwardly are like ravenous wolves who desire to feed upon the flock of God.

    The two creatures make a nice contrast. Sheep are among the most harmless of animals, whereas wolves have the reputation of being ruthless and bloodthirsty. Now, it is not difficult to distinguish a wolf from a sheep. But that's not the problem. The situation Jesus is describing is one in which the wolves arrive at church masquerading as sheep. That is, while they claim to speak for Jesus, they are actually under the employ of the devil.

    Here is a problem that arises because of the subtlety of the situation. They are inwardly wolves. To all outward appearances, such men and women are God's servants. And where accepted as such, they prey upon the souls and pocketbooks of the believers.

    That brings us to Jesus' second illustration, the one about trees and fruit. A law in nature tells us that you don't get coconuts off of poison ivy plants. Nature is consistent and predictable. So are people. If you give them enough time and space, their true character will show through in the fruits of their lives and teachings--either for good or evil. Jesus' point is that we need to keep our eyes open.

    Help us, Father, to have a spirit of discernment as we seek to hear Your voice.

March 17, 2021

3/17/2021

The Core Principle of Christ's Kingdom

        So whatever you wish that others would do to you, do also to them, for this is the Law and the Prophets. Matt. 7:12, ESV.

    I don't like that verse because it interferes with the way I run my life. And that's irritating.

    Behind our distaste for the golden rule is our dislike of God's law, which plainly states that love to God and others is what true living is all about. And behind our hostility toward the law is an aversion to the God who gave it. Why doesn't He just mind His business and let us do our thing?

    That question brings us to the real root of the issue. The reason we don't like the golden rule, the law, and even God, is that they interfere with the natural course of our self life, our sinful life outside of Christ. We must never forget that love of self is the center of sin. The sinful nature is entirely self-centered, whereas the golden rule and the law and God are other-centered. Those things interfere with our self-centered life. And that puts us at enmity with them.

    The self-centered life says that if you like something, take it; if you desire someone else's spouse, use them; if it serves your purpose, lie to get what you want. Then along comes Jesus and God and Their meddlesome law and rule to frustrate our natural selves. It makes us feel downright hateful at times. That's what Jesus wants to put an end to. He wants to transform our hearts and minds so that we will be in harmony with God, His law, and His rule. He seeks to write the principles of His kingdom on our hearts. Then we will love the golden rule of Matthew 7:12.

    With that rule, with its claim that doing the loving thing to others "is the Law and the Prophets," the Sermon of the Mount has come full circle from Matthew 5:17: "Think not that I am come to destroy the law, or the prophets: I am not come to destroy [them], but to fulfill [them]."

    Both Matthew 5:17 and 7:12 highlight the law and the prophets. Those texts bracket the central core of Christ's inaugural sermon. As a result, we must view the golden rule as a summary of Christ's interpretation of the meaning of the law and the prophets (the Old Testament), with Matthew 5:21-7:11 being His expansion of filling out of several principles inherent in that one-verse summary.

    Both in the summary and in the commentary we discover that God's law is a way of living and thinking rather than a list of do's and don'ts.

March 16, 2021

3/16/2021

The Blank Checkness of Prayer

        Ask, and it shall be given you; seek, and ye shall find; knock, and it shall be opened unto you; For every one that asketh receiveth; and he that seeketh findeth; and to him that knocketh it shall be opened. Matt. 7:7, 8.

    Is that really true? Is prayer a blank check upon which we merely inscribe our requests? Does God always give believers everything they ask for?

    Be careful here. We get into a great deal of trouble by proof-texting, by taking statements out of context and then generalizing them in irresponsible ways to fit our personal desires.

    Let's also be honest here. Has God given you everything you have asked for? Why not? How has it affected your faith?

    To be sure, Jesus' statement on prayer is in itself an absolute promise of what God will do for us, but it has a very definite context of judgment--a theme that runs throughout Matthew 7. The first six verses of the chapter have dealt with the problem of judging other people and thinking of them more harshly than we do ourselves. In the process, Jesus tells us that we will get unjust judgment back in full measure. Realizing our weakness, we cry out, "Who is sufficient for these things" How can I live up to God's standard?" Christ's answer is that He will give us what we need if we ask, seek, and knock.

    What is true of Matthew 7:1-6 is also true of the entire Sermon on the Mount. We feel hopeless when we see the demands of true righteousness. It is in the context of those requirements that Jesus offers us His grace to forgive and overcome so that we can live the Christian life.

    We need to see our earthly life as a school in which we build a character like Christ's for the life beyond. God is preparing us for eternal life. Thus He is willing to give us everything we need for well-rounded Christian development. In that context the message of our Lord is "Ask, and it shall be given you; seek, and ye shall find; knock, and it shall be opened to you."

    We do indeed have a blank check in Matthew 7:7, 8--for God's grace. A reading of the Sermon on the Mount in the light of our fractured lives helps us see how impossibly mixed up we are. Those who take seriously the terrifying demands of the Sermon must always take seriously God's willingness to assist them. God always answers our prayers for forgiveness, grace, love for others, and strength to make it through the day.

March 15, 2021

3/15/2021

Practical Advice for Me

        Judge not, that you be not judged....Why do you see the speck that is in your brother's eye, but do not notice the log that is in your own eye?...You hypocrite, first take the log of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to take the speck out of your brother's eye. Matt. 7:1-5, RSV.

    No one can accuse Jesus of not having a sense of humor as He looked out at His disciples and the rest of His "church" or audience, He knows them just as He does us. And He recognized that some of His followers would possess a critical spirit and would be perpetually seeking to expound upon the sawdust specks in the eyes of other church members, all the while running around with a two-by-four hanging out of their eye socket.

    Why is it that those who seem to have such obvious problems in their own lives have such a burden to straighten out others? It happens in families, in churches, and all other areas of life.

    Once again in His inaugural sermon Jesus sets forth important principles on how to live in His kingdom. Now, however, He has shifted the focus to a Christian's relationship to others.

    Here we see Jesus at His practical, down-to-earth best in dealing with us as human beings in our everyday life. His illustrations are not only powerful and memorable but also true to life. Who hasn't had the dubious "privilege" of receiving advice from some person who has the problem 10 times worse?

    When all is said and done about and logs, it is important to note that we really do have a responsibility to others with their genuine specks (rather than those based upon our biased thinking).

    But never forget that we are not commanded to be speck removers until after we have become successful beam extractors. In other words, we need to seek the Lord to help us see ourselves clearly and to aid us in caring for our own issues before we humbly attempt to help others. Thoughts From the Mount of Blessing puts it nicely: "You cannot exert an influence that will transform others until your own heart has been humbled and refined and made tender by the grace of Christ. When this change has been wrought in you, it will be as natural for you to live to bless others as it is for the rosebush to yield the fragrant bloom or the vine its purple clusters" (p. 127).

    Lord, I need help with my logs, beams, and two-by-fours.

March 14, 2021

3/14/2021

Strategies for Overcoming Worry

        Seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you. Take therefore no thought for the morrow: for the morrow shall take thought for the things of itself. Sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof. Matt. 6:33, 34

    Jesus meets His followers where they are on the track of life. He realizes that we really don't have our acts together, that we might not be headed in the right direction in our Christian lives, that we are messed up.

    With that realistic understanding, He counsels His followers not to worry about material things, because it is both useless (Matt. 6:28-30) and pagan, in the sense of acting as if they did not have a heavenly Father who cares for them (verses 31, 32).

    But Jesus' primary aim was not to discuss our problems but to point to their solution. Along that line, He set forth two strategies. One is to seek God's kingdom first. Most of our worries stem from the fact that we are headed in the wrong direction. We desire and worry about material things, when what Jesus is really telling us is that we must be concerned about something, it needs to be about our relationship to God. Get that straight, and all else will fall into perspective in the lives of those who trust in faith.

    Living one day at a time is Jesus' second suggestion for defeating worry. "Do not be anxious about tomorrow; tomorrow will look after itself. Each day has troubles enough of its own" (Matt. 6:34, NEB).

    In 1871 a worried young medical student read 21 words that changed his life: "Our main business is not to see what lies dimly in the distance, but to do what lies clearly at hand." Putting those words into action daily made Sir William Osler one of the most honored physicians of his generation.

    Each of us stands at the edge of two vast eternities--the past and the future. We dwell, however, only in the present. If we are going to live successfully in the present, then we must handle each moment and each day as it arrives. That is not to denigrate the value of intelligent planning for the future, but it does suggest the futility of worrying about events not under our control. Another way of putting Jesus' message is not to fret about crossing the possibly flooded rivers of our life until we get to them.

    Thank You, Lord, that You are not only concerned about our spiritual life, but that You care enough to help us live the life of faith in the realm of this world.

March 13, 2021

3/13/2021

Whose Slave Are We?

        No man can serve two masters: for either he will hate the one, and love the other; or else he will hold to the one, and despise the other. Ye cannot serve God and mammon. Matt. 6:24.

    That verse was undoubtedly more forceful in the ancient world than it is to us. The verb translated as "serve" is from doulos, the word for "slave." The Greek word behind "master" is kurios, denoting absolute ownership and nearly always rendered as "lord" in the New Testament. Thus the idea of Matthew 6:24 is that no one can be enslaved to two owners or lords at the same time.

    To catch the full impact of this statement we need to realize that the ancient world did not regard a slave as a person but as a living tool. Slaves had no rights of their own. They were completely under the control of their masters, who could do with them as they wanted. Masters could sell slaves, beat them, throw them out, or even kill them.

    A second thing to note is that in the ancient world slaves had no time of their own. All of it belonged to their master. In modern culture each worker has time off for personal needs. During that time they can have hobbies or even hold a second job. But that was not so in the ancient world of slavery. A slave's time belonged wholly to the master.

    Jesus is saying that Christians must let God be the undisputed master of their lives. Paul makes the same point in Romans 6:16, in which he says we are slaves to either sin or righteousness, Satan or Christ.

    Thus Christians, being enslaved to Jesus, always take God's will into consideration in all they do. They daily ask themselves, "What does God wish me to do?" Every moment of their time they live for Him. God has no part-time devotees who largely serve Him but them moonlight for some other master in their time off.

    When Jesus said no person can serve two masters, He meant it.

    Still, some of us try anyway, in spite of the impossibility. But in that attempt, whether we recognize it or not, we have really opted for Satan. "He who does not give himself wholly to God is under the control of another power, listening to another voice....Half-and-half service places the human agent on the side of the enemy as a successful ally of the host of darkness" (Thoughts From the Mount of Blessing, p. 94).

March 12, 2021

3/12/2021

A Goal Survey

        Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal; but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys and where thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also. Matt. 6:19-21, NKJV.

    With these verses in Christ's inaugural sermon on the principles of His kingdom the action shifts from strictly religious matters to a Christian's attitudes toward the things of our world.

    Jesus first treats the negative side of the issue, noting that earthly things lack permanence. The plain fact of the matter is that earthly wealth at its best is transitory. Moths, rust, worms, rats, mice, stock-market crashes, currency fluctuation, inflation, and a host of other things whittle away at it. Then there are thieves, individual and corporate. And in the end you lose it all at death. When I comes right down to it, there isn't any solid reason to trust earthly wealth.

    In the second part of today's verses our Lord begins to focus on the positive--laying up our treasures in heaven. And He puts forth the general principle that "where your treasure is, there will your heart be also."

    In examining this teaching it is helpful to go back to the first commandment, which reads, "Thou shalt have no other gods before me" (Ex. 20:3). That command is basic to the Old Testament. It not only shaped the history of the Jews, but also that of the life of Jesus' followers.

    When applied to Matthew 6:19-21, we might helpfully paraphrase it as "thou shalt have no other goals before me." Then, suggests F. D. Brunner, we can paraphrase the intent of Matthew 6:19-21 to be: "Where your goal is, there will you heart be also."

    Here is a crucial insight, because our goals determine our actions as well as everything else in our life. Thus where our heart is, or that on which we have set our heart, is all-important. Whatever it is will determine both how we live our lives and where we will spend eternity.

    What is it that I love? What truly captivates my imagination, my spare time, my highest allegiance? Such questions can help me determine both the location of my heart and the shape of my goals. They are questions that we ought to meditate upon today.

    Today Jesus is offering me a choice. Today He is appealing to my heart. What is my response? How shall I answer Him this day.