The Pious Pretender – Matthew 21:31-32

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“I tell you the truth, corrupt tax collectors and prostitutes will get into the Kingdom of God before you do. For John the Baptist came and showed you the right way to live, but you didn’t believe him, while tax collectors and prostitutes did. And even when you saw this happening, you refused to believe him and repent of your sins.”  (Matthew 21:31-32, NLT)

Jesus came to Jerusalem prior to his execution and taught in the Temple. The Jewish religious leaders rejected His teachings and plotted against Him.

Jesus told three parables in Matthew 21 and 22 to expose those who rejected Him and His teachings and these verses are the conclusion of the first of these three parables, the Parable of the Two Sons.

In this parable Jesus told about a father who asked one of his sons to go work in the vineyard and the son refused to go, but then later changed his mind and went and worked.

Then the father asked the other son to go work in the vineyard and he agreed to go but never actually went to work in the vineyard.

Jesus then asked which son obeyed his father and the people answered with the first son.

So tax collectors and prostitutes were like the first son who refused to obey but later changed his mind, They were repentant sinners. But the Jewish religious leaders were like the second son who agreed to obey but never did. They were pious pretenders!

And we call their bad behavior “giving lip service.”

Jesus said this pseudo-obedience is a very serious matter.

Pretension is the highest form of unbelief in the Kingdom of God because it presumes God doesn’t know your evil heart while leading people to believe your heart is pure and righteous.

The pretender professes to know God when he actually doesn’t know Him at all!

According to Jesus, people who are sinful and rebellious and then repent will get into the Kingdom of God before people who are sanctimonious.

Lip service may get you accolades from people but it gets you nowhere with God.

If you really know God, then you know that you can’t get anything past Him!
     God knows everything!
          He knows everything about you!
               He knows your intentions, your motives, and your desires!

So, we must be authentic in our relationship with God. God can redeem a repentant sinner and transform him into an obedient child of God. But a pious pretender remains lost in his disobedience!

A repentant sinner knows he has been disobedient and needs redemption, believes God for it, and receives God’s grace.

The pious pretender doesn’t think think he has been disobedient and needs redemption.
     The pious pretender thinks he’s already righteous.
          The pious pretender never asks and believes God to extend to him His saving grace…
               And, consequently, the pious pretender never receives God’s grace!

Threading Needles With Camels – Part 3 (Eliminating Competing Priorities) – Matthew 19

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(This is the third in a series of three meditations on the story of the rich young ruler in Matthew 19.)

“Everyone who has left houses, brothers or sisters, father or mother, children, or fields because of my name will receive 100 times more and will inherit eternal life. But many who are first will be last and the last first” (Matthew 19:29-30, HCSB).

Matthew 19:13-30 recounts the familiar story of the rich young ruler and his meeting with Jesus.

After His meeting with the rich young ruler, Jesus explained to His disciples why he advised the man to sell all his possessions. Jesus explained by declaring the well-known and often misinterpreted maxim that it is hard (or impossible) for a rich man to enter the Kingdom of Heaven, as difficult as trying to thread a needle with a camel (Matthew 19:23; Mark 10:23; Luke 18:24).

The rich young ruler had come to Jesus to ask what good things he must do to inherit eternal life. Jesus replied that only by obedience to God’s commandments does one obtain eternal life.

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Threading Needles with Camels – Part 2 (Knowing What’s Really Important) – Matthew 19

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(This is the second in a series of three meditations on the story of the rich young ruler in Matthew 19.)

“When the young man heard that command, he went away grieving, because he had many possessions” (Matthew 19:22, HCSB).

Matthew 19:13-30 relates the familiar story of the encounter of Jesus with a man traditionally identified as a rich young ruler. This passage describes the encounter between Jesus and the rich young ruler. In a debriefing with His disciples after the encounter, Jesus made the well-known camel-through-the-eye-of-a-needle analogy, depicting the difficulty confounding rich people entering into God’s Kingdom.

Now, the rich young ruler seemed to be a person who wanted to do the right thing.

He wanted to acknowledge God in his life and be faithful to Him so he could make it into heaven.

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Threading Needles with Camels – Part 1 (When Good Isn’t Good Enough) – Matthew 19

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(This is the first in a series of three meditations on the story of the rich young ruler in Matthew 19.)

“If you want to be perfect, Jesus said to him, go, sell your belongings and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come, follow Me” (Matthew 19:21, HCSB).

Matthew 19:13-30 relates the familiar story of the encounter of Jesus with a young man who is thought to be a person of some standing among the Jews. So, he is traditionally identified as a rich young ruler.

The passage in Matthew 19 first describes the encounter between Jesus and the rich young ruler, followed by a post-encounter discussion between Jesus and His disciples in which Jesus points out the spiritual disadvantages of affluence. His explanation to His disciples is highlighted by the ironic camel-through-the-eye-of-a-needle analogy depicting the difficulty that confounds rich people in making it to heaven.

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Who’s Looking Out For You? – Psalms 4:6-8

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“Many people say, Who will show us better times? Let your face smile on us, Lord. You have given me greater joy than those who have abundant harvests of grain and new wine. In peace I will lie down and sleep, for you alone, O Lord, will keep me safe” (Psalms 4:6-8, NLT).

Psalm 4 is actually a lament that includes a plea for rescue, a rebuke of the ungodly, some good advice for godliness, and then concludes with these verses, which are an expression of confidence in God.

In this psalm of David he observed that in times of trouble, people prayed to God to send His blessings and make things better for them.

But David found fulfillment in God Himself, not just His blessings.

In fact, God had given him greater joy than those who lived in prosperity.

He had happiness and joy always because God was looking out for him!

He was at peace and didn’t stay awake at night worrying because he knew that God had his back!

You can have joy when you find fulfillment in God,
     when you trust in Him and live for Him,
           then you can be confident that God is greater than your troubles,
                because God is looking out for you!

You can have joy and peace even in times of trouble by replacing your worry with expressions of confidence in God’s watchfulness over your life through praise and thanksgiving.

Who’s looking out for you? God is!

“The Lord keeps you from all harm and watches over your life” (Psalm 121:7, NLT)

Santa Claus Theology – Matthew 18:21-22

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“Then Peter came to him and asked, “Lord, how often should I forgive someone who sins against me? Seven times? No, not seven times, Jesus replied, but seventy times seven!” (Matthew 18:21-22, NLT)

In a series of stories and parables Jesus explained how His followers should get along with one another.

So Peter asked Jesus how many times he should forgive someone who sins against him.

Peter probably supposed with his suggestion of seven times he was being magnanimous. But Jesus’s recommendation of seventy times seven was astounding!

It was the same as saying always forgive someone who sins against you!

While it is quite ordinary behavior not to allow someone to mistreat you repeatedly, but it is most extraordinary behavior to forgive them if they do!

And Jesus constantly encouraged such radical behavior from those who followed Him.

But this radical behavior can’t be formulated into a list of do’s and dont’s. It’s a matter of the heart, a lifestyle!

Jesus’s intention was not to create good people out of His disciples, but to establish God’s righteousness in their hearts.

And forgiveness was a matter of the heart, a lifestyle, not a one-time, or seven-time, or seventy-time, or even seventy-times-seven behavior.

C.S. Lewis once said that improvement is not redemption. He said that being Jesus’s disciple was more than a matter of being a nice person, or even an extremely nice person!

Jesus is preparing us for eternity and so the real issue is not how many times your were nice to somebody but how your heart is. Not what your are, but what you are becoming!

Unfortunately, our understanding of what Jesus was teaching us about God’s righteousness is sometimes based on a sort of Santa Claus theology: “He sees you when you’re sleeping. He knows when you’re awake. He knows if you’ve been bad or good, so be good for goodness sake!”

And then we become like Peter in this story.

We perceive God as being up in heaven keeping a list of how many times we have been naughty or nice. And, if at the end of our lives we have more good behavior than bad behavior, then we make it into heaven.

But God is not keeping score to determine your eternal outcome.

And you couldn’t be good enough, even if He was. God knows that. That’s why He sent His Son, Jesus, to conquer sin and death for us!

Eternity starts now and how you choose to spend your eternal life is not a matter of being naughty or nice. It’s a matter of a transformed heart and a redeemed life, which occurs when God imputes His righteousness into your life by your faith in Jesus, God’s Son.

“If we love each other, God lives in us, and his love is brought to full expression in us,”(1 John 4:12, NLT

It Just Makes Sense to Follow Jesus – Matthew 16:24-25

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“If any of you wants to be my follower, you must turn from your selfish ways, take up your cross, and follow me. If you try to hang on to your life, you will lose it. But if you give up your life for my sake, you will save it”  (Matthew 16:24-25, NLT).

At first glance, Jesus’s invitation in these verses may seem like a peculiar way of trying to attract a following.

Who wants to be Jesus’s follower if it requires you to give up your own life, to turn from your selfish ways and take up your cross?

It doesn’t really sound very interesting. In fact, it doesn’t sound like much fun at all!

But when you consider the membership requirements to be in His club that Jesus expressed in these verses within the context of the complete passage (vs. 24-28), His invitation to spend your life following Him instead of following after your own self-interests doesn’t seem so unusual.

In fact, it makes a lot of sense! It becomes a most compelling challenge!

Peter had just identified Jesus as the Messiah: “You are the Messiah, the Son of the living God” (vs. 16). As Messiah He will return to Earth at the end of time to judge all people according to their deeds (vs. 27).

So, there is clearly no eternal advantage to rejecting Jesus, to being selfish or self-absorbed. Instead, you have everything to gain by living for God and making His will the main the priority of your life.

Because in the end, Jesus is going to judge you according to how you lived your life and not on what possessions or power you accumulated for yourself during your lifetime: “And what do you benefit if you gain the whole world but lose your own soul? Is anything worth more than your soul?” (vs. 26).

From the perspective of eternity, it just makes sense to follow Jesus!

“My old self has been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me. So I live in this earthly body by trusting in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me”
(Galatians 2:20, NLT).

God’s Merit Badges – Job 36:15

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“God rescues the afflicted by their affliction; He instructs them by their torment” (Job 36:15, HCSB).

In the story of Job, Elihu was the fourth and last to speak from among Job’s friends. Elihu was younger than the others and waited to speak, giving deference to the older men.

Though younger, Elihu believed he was speaking God’s truth in confronting Job, but he claimed neither human superiority nor inferiority to Job.

Elihu had listened carefully to Job’s claims of being pure and innocent and being unjustly oppressed by God.

And Elihu reminded Job that as a human being, he was not in a position to bring accusations against God, his Creator.

Elihu declared to Job that instead of being a sign of God’s unconcern as Job had supposed, affliction was a mark of God’s mercy, keeping one from the path of iniquity.

In other words, the very thing that afflicts you may also be what saves you.

God can use your affliction to rescue and restore you to Him and His will. Your affliction can spiritually develop you into a human being that is prepared for spending eternity with God!

Admittedly, affliction is not my first choice for spiritual growth. In fact, I like to avoid affliction as much as possible. So, I often recite from the Lord’s prayer the supplication that Jesus teaches us to pray for protection from affliction: “And do not bring us into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one” (Matthew 6:13, HCSB).

Indeed, our affliction may sometimes be one way that God deals with issues in our lives that could potentially cause us to be unfaithful. But this verse does not say that God afflicts us, but that He rescues and restores us through our affliction. (Remember, it was Satan that afflicted Job; it was Satan that tested Job, not God.)

Because affliction causes us to throw ourselves on God’s mercy!

That which causes my pain and suffering is also that which can restore me to intimacy with God.
     That which causes me to give up and quit is also that which empowers me to endure and persevere.

So what we perceive to be our problem is actually the solution to our problem!

In fact, our affliction may even prevent evil or temptation from overtaking or overcoming us: “Be careful that you do not turn to iniquity, for that is why you have been tested by affliction” (vs. 21).

When I was a boy, I joined the boy scouts. In scouting you earn merit badges for demonstrating a useful skill or a good behavior. By earning merit badges, a scout may advance in rank. Advancement in rank acknowledges the scout’s growing ability to serve others better.

Our afflictions are God’s merit badges. They are designed to empower us to become more obedient and productive as Jesus’s disciples.

“Endure suffering as discipline: God is dealing with you as sons.” (Hebrews 12:7, HCSB)

In Sync – Romans 8:28

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“We know that all things work together for the good of those who love God: those who are called according to His purpose” (Romans 8:28, HCSB).

This familiar verse is probably one of the most often quoted, yet, often misunderstood verses in the Bible!

We generally quote the verse and its promise to someone who has suffered tragedy or misfortune or we claim its promise for ourselves when we personally encounter tragedy or misfortune.

Now, don’t get me wrong, there is some very powerful theology embedded in this verse. It’s just that we sometimes misapply or misappropriate it to our lives!

On one hand, we interpret Romans 8:28 to mean that God does bad things to us (or allows bad things to happen to us) to drive us back into line with His will.

We were bad so God caused something bad to happen to us so we’ll start being good!

On the other hand, we interpret Romans 8:28 to mean that God will take the bad things that happen to us and turn them into good things.

The problem with these interpretations is that both views cause you to miss out on the powerful promise that’s contained in Romans 8:28.

The promise of restoration!

Both views impede what God actually wants to do in your life when you encounter adversity.

God doesn’t cause bad things to happen to us to make us obey Him nor does He change the bad things that happen to us into good things!

Bad things happen because we live in a fallen world.

When I have encountered tragedy in my life, I find that I wake up each day and the tragic event has still occurred and its residual grief, stress, frustration, or sadness is still felt deeply and the havoc that it has reaped in my life and others is still evident.

So am I being cynical and sterilizing this potent promise, this powerful theology, with cynicism?

Not at all. I’m not being cynical, I’m being a realist.

I want to show you how the wonderful promise contained in Romans 8:28 can have a transformative effect on your life when you understand God’s reality as it is explained in this verse.

After all, God really, really wants you to experience His reality. His reality, not our version of it.

The fundamental basis for forming a relationship with God is restoration. God created a perfect world. That perfect world has become imperfect; it has fallen from its original splendor because of rebellion, specifically, humanity’s rebellion against God’s plans.

God wants to restore this world and humanity from its fallen state to a perfect state. God wants to restore this world so much that He sent His Son, Jesus, to live and die as a human being for it, for us.

So restoration is God’s purpose. And our redemption has always been God’s plan since before the creation of the world, and will always be His plan even to eternity.

And God not only wants to redeem and restore this world, He wants to redeem and restore you!

He redeemed you from your fallen state when you first believed in Jesus. Now, God wants to restore you everyday of your life as you struggle in this fallen world to live for Him. And He especially wants to restore you when you encounter hardship and suffering.

That’s how a relationship with God works–restoration!

But God does not restore you by removing the problem. If you think that, then you are missing the blessing of the Romans 8:28 promise.

God wants to apply the healing balm of restoration to your problems as you seek refuge from your difficulties under the protection of His love and grace.

He wants to draw you into His lovingkindness, His mercy, His redeeming love!

And He’s so mighty, so powerful, that evil and the consequences of evil are inconsequential to God.

Nothing, not even evil and the bad that it produces, can thwart God’s good purposes or prevent God’s love. So much so, that God even uses evil to accomplish His redemptive plans and purposes.

The bad of this world can never stand in the way of God’s good: “Nothing can ever separate us from God’s love. Neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither our fears for today nor our worries about tomorrow—not even the powers of hell can separate us from God’s love. No power in the sky above or in the earth below—indeed, nothing in all creation will ever be able to separate us from the love of God that is revealed in Christ Jesus our Lord” (Romans 8:38-39, NLT).

Wow! God’s love is incredible, amazing, incredibly amazing!

God is almighty and, therefore, makes all things, even evil, even tragedy or misfortune, work together for His good purposes!

When bad things happen to you, God puts your life back in sync! He realigns your life for you. He restores you to His will!

So the marvelous promise of Romans 8:28 should not be stored away to be grabbed off the shelf when tragedy strikes. It’s a way of life. It’s the way we maintain a relationship with God!

God restores you. God continuously synchronizes your life with His plans and purposes when you love Him and seek His will as the way for your life.

“Whatever has been born of God conquers the world” (1 John 5:4, HCSB).

Filling Empty Pockets – Matthew 14:19-21

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“Jesus took the five loaves and two fish, looked up toward heaven, and blessed them. Then, breaking the loaves into pieces, he gave the bread to the disciples, who distributed it to the people. They all ate as much as they wanted, and afterward, the disciples picked up twelve baskets of leftovers”  (Matthew 14:19-21, NLT).

We sometimes think the way God provides for His people is to give us what we don’t have or more of what don’t have enough of.

Our pockets are empty and we expect God to fill them.

For example, if we are experiencing financial difficulties, we pray for a miracle to increase our income; if our car is broken down, we pray for a new one.

However, God’s care over our lives is more often provided by extending the resources we already have as they are offered totally and willingly to the Lord than by giving us what we don’t have or more of what we already have.

God’s provision is demonstrated by the miracle of Jesus feeding the five thousand with five loaves of bread and two fish. The feeding of the five thousand is the only miracle of Jesus recorded in all four gospels (cf. Mark 6:32-44; Luke 9:10-17; John 6:1-13) and is recorded with substantial narration in each of the gospels, which may suggest its importance among the supernatural events of Jesus’ ministry.

Undoubtedly, the miracle itself was significant based solely on its scale–feeding an estimated 15-20 thousand men, women, and children from five loaves of bread and two fish and then having 12 baskets of leftovers!

Jesus had been preaching to the large crowd for an extended period of time in a remote location and the people needed to eat. When the disciples indicated the unavailability of food at the location, Jesus suggested how He might intervene: “Bring them here,” he said (vs. 18) referring to the loaves of bread and fish.

In these three words—BRING THEM HERE—we see the practical application for receiving God’s provision:
Bring everything you have to Jesus and when you offer any and all of yourself and your possessions totally and willingly to God, His care is provided by extending or expanding your possessions and capabilities even to an abundance.