Category Archives: Matthew

Posted on

Is Hell For Real…and Forever?

Read: Matthew 25

“Then the King will turn to those on the left and say, ‘Away with you, you cursed ones, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his demons. (Matthew 25:41, NLT)

Is hell for real…and forever?  Once again, that has become a hot topic in evangelical circles. A certain well-known pastor of one of America’s so-called “mega-churches” has seemed to indicate that possibly, just maybe, perhaps there is an escape clause in the whole “eternal” part of the doctrine of hell.

On what does he base this departure from orthodox theology?  The love of God.  The thought behind this is that God’s love will ultimately triumph over man’s sinfulness, and in the end (even after death), every human being will come to the faith Christians have expressed in this life that Jesus Christ is Lord and Savior.  The general term for those who hold such a belief is “universalism.” Theologian J. I. Packer says this of universalism:

A universalist is someone who believes that every human being whom God has created or will create will finally come to enjoy the everlasting salvation into which Christians enter here and now…it appears as an extreme optimism of grace, or perhaps of nature, and sometimes, it seems, of both. But in itself it is a revisionist challenge to orthodoxy, whether Roman Catholic, Eastern Orthodox, or Protestant evangelical; for the church has officially rated universalism a heresy ever since the second Council of Constantinople (the fifth ecumenical council, A.D. 553), when the doctrine of apokatastasis (the universal return to God and restoration of all souls) that Origen taught was anathematized.

According to Jesus, who knows more about heaven and hell than anyone, and according to other Scripture, hell is not a temporary place to pay for sins, it is a place of eternal hopelessness where sooner or later those who are there will realize there is no second chance. Leighton Ford said,

“The fire, outer darkness, the thirst [of hell] depict spiritual separation from God, moral remorse, the consciousness that one deserves what he’s getting.  Hell is disintegration—the eternal loss of being a real person. In hell the mathematician who lived for his science can’t add two and two.  The concert pianist who worshipped himself through his art can’t play a simple scale.  The man who lived for sex goes on in eternal lust, with nobody to exploit.  The woman who made a god out of fashion has a thousand dresses but no mirror!  Hell is eternal desire— eternally unfulfilled.”

Hell is an awful reality, and that is why we must to do everything we can to make it really hard for people to go there. Love requires that from us, and God’s love sent Jesus to give people every chance on this side of eternity to escape it. He, himself, paid the price to get you out of hell and into heaven!

The great preacher Henry Ironside told the story of pioneers who were making their way across the country to a place that had been opened up for homesteading.  They traveled in covered wagons, and progress was very slow.  One day they were horrified to see a long line of smoke in the west, stretching for miles across the prairie.  It was evident that the dried grass was burning toward them rapidly.  They faced certain death. But one man knew what do, and he set fire to the grass behind them, then had them move back on it once it had burned.

As the flames roared on toward them, a little girl began to scream in terror, “Are you sure we’ll not all be burned up?” The man replied, “Child, the flames can’t reach us here, for we are standing where the fire has been!”

What a picture of being safe in Christ!  The fires of God’s judgment burned themselves out on Jesus, and those who are in Christ are safe forever.

Hallelujah!  We are standing where the fire has been.

“No one who is ever in hell will be able to say to God, ‘You put me here,’ and no one who is in heaven will ever be able to say, ‘I put myself here.’” ~John Hannah

What If God Took Over?

Do you know someone who has not received eternal life by placing saving faith in Jesus Christ?  What would God’s love have you to do for them?  For starters, you can pray!

Posted on

Weekend Meditation: They Also Serve Who Lead

Read: Matthew 23-24

“The greatest among you will be your servant. For those who exalt themselves will be humbled, and those who humble themselves will be exalted.” (Matthew 23:11-12, NLT)

Oswald Chambers said, “True greatness, true leadership, is achieved not by reducing [people] to one’s service, but by giving up oneself in selfless service to them.”

If that be true, then our greatest leadership is wherever we practice authentic servant-leadership. Our greatest influence occurs when we serve from a Christ-centered heart of love. And we are most bless-able before God when we humble ourselves in selfless service to those God has placed within our reach.

Do you want to be a great leader, have influence over people’s lives and be positioned for Divine favor?  Develop your servant-leader quotient. The late Dr. Earnest J. Campbell, Senior Minister at the historic Riverside Church in new York City from 1968-1976, gave a powerful commencement address at Princeton Seminary in 1978, and the title of his message was, “They Also Serve Who Lead.”

That title is a sermon in itself.  In his address, Campbell gave some characteristics of servant leaders that I have found personally challenging—and definitely worth emulating.  Give some thought to these as you think about your own call to servanthood and influence:

  1. The servant-leader is willing to assume whatever role necessary.

  2. The servant-leader understands that there is no job beneath his dignity.

  3. The servant-leader is willing to pay whatever price for stability, peace, and health [in his home, business or church].

  4. The servant-leader measures his success not in how submissive people are to him, but in how much they respond to his Christ-like example.

  5. The servant-leader takes responsibility for and watches closely the spiritual, emotional, financial and physical well-being of those in his care.

  6. The servant-leader is never too busy to or too important for interruptions to meet whatever need people may have at the moment.

  7. The servant-leader is quick to forgive, slow to judge.

  8. The servant-leader is ridiculously generous.

  9. The servant-leader is willing to pay a high price, whatever the cost, to obey God.

  10. The servant-leader willingly puts his life on the line for God, his family, and his people.

Something to really think about, isn’t it?  Have a great weekend!

Pastor Ray

 

Posted on

The One Important Thing

Read: Matthew 22

When the crowds heard him, they were astounded at his teaching. (Matthew 22:33, NLT)

Like the old E.F. Hutton commercial, when Jesus spoke, people listened. They were often left with the same reaction that Matthew 22:22 & 33 recorded: They were mesmerized. There was just something about this rabbi they had never encountered before among Israel’s many notable religious teachers.

What was it that the crowds were so amazed and astonished at whenever they heard Jesus teach? Was it Jesus’ winsome personality and his engaging speaking ability that awed them?  For sure, Jesus’ charisma and confidence were of a caliber that would impress even the most discriminating audience.  Was it the miracles that often attended his exposition of the Scripture? Certainly that would have impressed the people listening, since no other religious authority had been able to pull off signs and wonders in their sessions.

For sure, those were factors in the public’s attraction to Jesus, but what really touched them at the core was how Jesus brought the long-awaited Kingdom of God easily within their grasp. Furthermore, the incredible profundity of the absolute simplicity of Jesus’ summary of the entire law of God into two simple, doable commands was music to their ears:

“‘You must love the Lord your God with all your heart, all your soul, and all your mind.’ This is the first and greatest commandment. A second is equally important: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ The entire law and all the demands of the prophets are based on these two commandments.” (Matthew 22:37-40)

Amazingly, the people in Jesus’ day had never heard God’s Word explained that way before. Instead, they had been led to believe that the law of God was comprised of a list of rules and regulations that had to be religiously followed in exacting detail in order for anyone to be pleasing to God.  Unfortunately, this list of rules had become an ever-expanding playbook, and the goalpost of obedience kept getting moved further and further away from the worshiper’s ability to score.

But then Jesus came along and said that the entire law of God, rather than being a complex list of rules and unending regulations, could be simply obeyed by one important thing: Love for God!  Loving God—to joyfully reverence him, to gratefully obey him, to gladly concern yourself with the things that concern him, and to authenticate that love for God by treating other people as you, yourself, expect to be treated—that was what it meant to fulfill the entire law of God!

That, Jesus said, was the whole law, the greatest obligation, the best and most satisfying use of life; that was the only thing people really needed to worry about; that was the one important thing in life that they needed to get right: Simply love the Lord God with all of your heart!  Really, what Jesus was saying was summed up quite nicely a few centuries later by St. Augustine, who put it this way,

“Love God, and do what you want.”

Come to think of it, the complete profundity of the absolute simplicity of that one important thing amazes and astonishes me, too. Count me in with the crowd of the impressed!

“We cannot help conforming ourselves to what we love.” ~Francis de Sales

What If God Took Over?

The entire law, the greatest obligation, the best and most satisfying use of your life is simply love the Lord God with all of our heart!  Is that true of you?  Take a few moments to express your love to God—he loves to hear from you!

Posted on

Christ-unlikeness

Read: Matthew 21

“But what do you think about this? A man with two sons told the older boy, ‘Son, go out and work in the vineyard today.’ The son answered, ‘No, I won’t go,’ but later he changed his mind and went anyway. Then the father told the other son, ‘You go,’ and he said, ‘Yes, sir, I will.’ But he didn’t go. Which of the two obeyed his father?” (Matthew 21:28-30, NLT)

Jesus was talking to priests and elders about submitting to the work of God, but they were resisting, while unlikely tax collectors and prostitutes were embracing it.  The Jewish leaders were unwilling to open their hearts to God, and they were jealous of Jesus—the miracles he was performing, the crowds he was garnering, the authority with which he was preaching—so much so, that a few days later, they would have him crucified.

Jesus knew all of this, so to expose their hardness of heart and yet one more time, give them a chance to respond to the work of God, he told them a parable about two sons—one who was a problem at breakfast but a delight at dinner, and one who was compliant at breakfast but absent at supper.

Then Jesus makes a very clear application in verse 31. He asked which of the two sons did the will of his Father: The one who looked the right way and said the right things, but never really changed, or the one who seemed to be so way off track but at the end of the day responded to the Father’s will?

What Jesus was saying to the priest and leaders, and to you and me by extension, was that what matters is where you are when suppertime comes.  You see, this parable isn’t about your intentions at breakfast, it’s about your actions at dinner. This is a supper story, not a breakfast parable.  Jesus is talking about the invitation to enter God’s vineyard, which is a metaphorical way of talking about responding to the will of the Father. And the will of the Father is for people to be conformed to the image of Christ. That’s the work of God in the world today:  Transforming your heart and mine into the likeness of Jesus.

What about you—are you a breakfast boy or are you a suppertime son?  If you were to honestly apply this to your own life, are you saying “yes” to the vineyard—the work of God in your life—but never really following through on it?  Or are you, even if you have so very far to go in the process of transformation, submitting your life to the Lord’s vineyard?  In what ways are you looking more like Christ and in what areas do you still need to get into God’s vineyard?

Where are you unlike Christ?  That’s where the work of the vineyard is. Most of us have areas that need to be brought into the vineyard:  Our temper, our tongue, our thought life, our attitude…pieces of our lives that still don’t look like Jesus. We’ve set around the breakfast table and said, “you know, I better get into the vineyard in that area,” but we never really seem to make it there.

Jesus is inviting us to get into the vineyard, no matter what stage we’re at in the game, so that when suppertime comes, you and I will have submitted to what the Father wanted to do in our lives. There is a sense of urgency to this story; dinner is just about ready! So push back from the breakfast table and get into the transforming work of the Holy Spirit in those areas where you don’t look like Jesus.

“The process of being conformed to the image of Christ, doing the will of the father, takes place primarily at the point of our unlikeness to Christ’s image.” ~Robert Mulholland

What If God Took Over?

Changing to the image of Christ usually involves physical practices called spiritual disciplines—things we must do consistently over time that allows us to take on the character of Christ.  If the Holy Spirit is prompting you to say yes to God’s vineyard today, what does that mean?  What action do you need to take?  What spiritual practices do you need to begin? Write down that spiritual discipline you need to engage, share it with a friend, and get into the vineyard. Don’t be one who says, “I will go” but never gets there.

Posted on

The Whole Enchilada

Read: Matthew 20
Jesus said, “So those who are last now will be first then, and those who are first will be last.”  (Matthew 20:16, NLT)

On its face, the Parable of the Vineyard in Matthew 20:1-16 has to be one of the most unfair stories in the Bible. Come on—people who come to work just before quitting time and get paid the same as those who’ve put in a full day! You’ve got to be kidding!  Since Jesus told parables to illustrate the Kingdom of God, how in the world does this story represent the Father’s righteous rule?

In this story, a landowner goes to the marketplace to hire temps at the beginning of the work day—a 12-hour day that began at 6:00 AM—and contracts with the most suitable looking workers: a day’s work for a day’s wage—one denarius. Then, still needing help, he goes back at 9:00 AM, again at noon and at 3:00 PM to get more workers.  Each additional time, however, there is no contract; he just says he’ll pay them whatever is right. Finally, at the 11th hour—at 5:00 PM—he goes back and sees a few more workers hanging around. Now you’ve got to ask why haven’t they been hired yet…and how come they’re still here? Waiting to get hired with one hour left in the day is kind of like showing up at a Pumpkin Patch the day after Halloween looking for work. Obviously, these guys are not your Stanford MBA types; they’re not the most employable people at the temp service. But help is needed, so they’re hired.

Then the owner blows them all away at the end of the workday by paying all the workers the same: One denarius—a full day’s wage!  Imagine the surprise of the 11th hour workers when they realize they’ve just been paid the same as the all-day guys. I can imagine one of them saying, “We didn’t really deserve this. Let’s get out of here before the payroll people realize their mistake and ask for the money back.” And the all-day workers—man, are they mad at the ridiculous generosity of the owner!

So what is Jesus getting at in this parable?  To begin with, understand that this is not a story about how corporations should draft compensation policy, so don’t get hung up over that. As a general rule, people who work 12 hours should get paid more than people who work 1 hour.  Operate your HR department like this landowner and you’ll soon be out of business.

What Jesus is doing here is picturing the kingdom for us:  Undeserving, unlikely desperate people trusting in the generosity of God to include them in his vineyard. The vineyard is a metaphor about coming into God’s kingdom, through Jesus.  Who gets to be in God’s kingdom? Everyone—anyone who accepts Jesus’ offer, that’s who! And all kinds of sinful people are taking Jesus up on this offer:  Prostitutes, tax collectors and even Gentiles.  They’re coming in at the 11th hour and still getting the whole denarius.

But the pious Jews who’ve been in the vineyard all day long aren’t happy about this.  They can’t grasp this thing called grace that Jesus is revealing; it’s nothing less than scandalous to them.

Now here is one of the things I’d like for you to consider in this story: You are an 11th hour person—me, too—but the longer we’re in the kingdom, the more we become like the all-day people.  Every time someone new comes into the vineyard, they become the 11th hour worker and we move back down the line to 9th hour workers, to noon people, to the nine o’clock crowd, until finally, we are sitting with the all-day folks. And the real danger we face is taking on the attitude of these all-day workers.

As we move along in our walk with Jesus, we are either moving into what we might call performance-based Christianity, or we’re moving toward grace-based faith. Performance-based people believe they deserve a full day’s pay based what they do. They act as if God is getting a good deal in getting them; that he couldn’t run his vineyard without them.  But grace-based believers understand they did nothing except to show up and accept God’s offer.  Their entire relationship with God is based on trust in his ridiculous generosity and gracious character.

Don’t slide into an all-day spirit.  Rather—perhaps you should do this on a regular basis—simply recount the gracious goodness of God that invited you into his vineyard when you did nothing to deserve it at all.  Take a moment to absorb what Philip Yancey wrote so insightfully about this in his book, What’s So Amazing About Grace:

“Many Christians who study this parable identify with the employees who put in a full day’s work rather than with the add-ons at the end of the day.  We like to think of ourselves as responsible workers, and the employer’s strange behavior baffles us as it did the original hearers. But we risk missing the story’s point: that God dispenses gifts, not wages.  None of us gets paid according to merit like these early workers, none of us, for none of us comes close to satisfying God’s requirement for a perfect life.  If paid on the basis of merit, we would all end up in hell.”

Good point—none of us gets paid according to merit. And aren’t you glad for that?  If we did, we would all—all-day and 11th hour workers alike—end up in a Christ-less eternity.

Listen, friend, you received the whole grace enchilada when you didn’t even deserve a nibble of the beans and rice.  So be grateful—be very grateful! And don’t ever stop!

What If God Took Over?

Quit trying to control how others come to God, or worship, or serve or grow in their faith. Just release them to God’s grace, because his grace will do a much better job conforming them to his image than your griping.  Memorize Acts 15:19,

“Don’t make it difficult for those who are turning to God.”

Posted on

What’s In It For Me?

Read: Matthew 19

Then Peter said to him, “We’ve given up everything to follow you. What will we get?” (Matthew 19:27, NLT)

Most of us think about it, few of us ever express it.  I am talking about rewards. For some reason, in the church world we think it is somehow unspiritual to bring up the idea of recognition and compensation in this life and the one to come for the things we’ve done in service for our Lord.  It seems, well, unseemly.  It’s poor form.  It reveals ulterior, perhaps even dark motives to dare talk about what we might get out of the following Jesus deal.

But the thing is, we are actually being more “spiritual” than Jesus when we suppress what is simply a God-given impulse to expect to be rewarded for doing what is good and right.  Of course, doing things only for what I might get out of it rather than a motive of love and gratitude for what has been undeservedly done for me is never a good thing.  With that said, let’s just acknowledge once and for all that Jesus talked openly and frequently about the benefits and blessings that would come our way for doing the right thing.

When Peter asked, in essence, “Hey Jesus, we’ve done quite a bit for you.  So what’s in it for us?”, Jesus didn’t rebuke him.  There were other times Peter’s speak-before-you-think outbursts drew the Master’s ire, but not this time. Instead, Jesus gave him an immediate answer:

“Yes, you have followed me. In the re-creation of the world, when the Son of Man will rule gloriously, you who have followed me will also rule, starting with the twelve tribes of Israel. And not only you, but anyone who sacrifices home, family, fields—whatever—because of me will get it all back a hundred times over, not to mention the considerable bonus of eternal life. This is the Great Reversal: many of the first ending up last, and the last first.” (Matthew 19:28-30, MSG)

Rewards are part and parcel of the Kingdom Life.  So don’t be afraid to think about them once in a while—or a lot.  Believe me, what you might think God has in store for your faithful service to him is far less than you could ever imagine.  God has some big plans for you!

Now there are just a couple of caveats to keep in mind as you dream:  First, the rewards Jesus talked about were rarely ever expressed in terms of material things.  And that should be no surprise.  Material things are temporal, so don’t spend too much time dreaming about stuff that will only end up in a garage sale, or in the junk heap or in the dustbin of history.  Second, remember that the greatest reward comes to those who are not seeking it.  If you are seeking it, chances are you think you deserve it, that you can earn it.  That is sort of the accountant’s approach to Christianity—checking off your debits and credits.  But the greatest reward comes to those whose efforts are simply to pay back the un-repayable and insurmountable debt of love they owe to a gracious and merciful Redeemer.

Of course, that brings up the paradox of Christian reward: Jesus talked about it enough that we ought to have the freedom to talk about it too, but those who are in love are always in debt, and the idea of reward rarely, if ever, enters their minds.

“If men and women all their lives have sought to walk with God, if they have sought to obey their Lord, if goodness has been their quest through all their days, then throughout their lives they have been growing closer and closer to God, until in the end they pass into God’s nearer presence, without fear and with radiant joy—that is the greatest reward of all.” ~William Barclay

What If God Took Over?

Offer this prayer: “Dear God, simply knowing you is the greatest reward I could ever hope for. Thank you for the privilege of being brought close to you and held in your arms as a treasured child.  Thank you for the blood of your Son Jesus Christ who made it all possible. I will forever be grateful. Anything beyond that is simply icing on the cake!”

Posted on

Be A Big Baby!

Read: Matthew 18

The disciples came to Jesus and asked, “Who is greatest in the Kingdom of Heaven?” Jesus called a little child to him and put the child among them. Then he said, “I tell you the truth, unless you turn from your sins and become like little children, you will never get into the Kingdom of Heaven. So anyone who becomes as humble as this little child is the greatest in the Kingdom of Heaven.”  (Matthew 18:1-4, NLT)

At some point in our developing years, most of us heard the parental admonition, “quit acting like a child.” We were sometimes derisively chided, “you’re being a big baby!” We were told to “grow up and act our age!” The Bible even gets in on the act, telling us to put away childish things (I Corinthians 13:11), to stop thinking like children (I Corinthians 14:20), to grow out of the instability of our emotional/spiritual infancy (Ephesians 4:14).

Yet here Jesus tells us that the people who are the greatest in his Father’s kingdom are those who become like little children.  Obviously, we’ve heard that before, and I’m sure most of us think we get what Jesus is saying, but have we really stopped to think about those child-like qualities exhibited in the faith, character and life of a believer that cause Father God to sit up and take notice?  It would be easy to simply pass by this familiar passage without giving it much thought, but let’s take a moment before we move on to consider what it is about little kids that not only makes them, but anyone who embodies those very characteristics, so precious to God.

First, Jesus mentions repentance:  “Unless you turn from your sins and become like little children you will never get into the Kingdom of Heaven.” It is typical of children to recognize their own “childishness”, and along with that recognition is an innate sense that change is desperately needed, correction is helpful (though not always appreciated), and a new course is required if maturity is to take place. The starting point in the Kingdom is acknowledgment of our sinfulness, sorrow for our offensiveness to a holy God, and our willingness to change the whole orientation of our life by walking in a way that is pleasing to the One who created us to glorify him by our very existence. Jesus declares that this attitude of repentance—not just the act, but an attitude of repentance—is both a child-like quality and a necessary condition for entrance into the Kingdom Life as well as growth in it.

Second, Jesus speaks about humility: “Anyone who becomes as humble as this little child is the greatest in the Kingdom of Heaven.” Many helpful definitions of humility have been offered, but the kind of humility a child naturally exhibits is simply one that recognizes its utter dependence on the parent for day-by-say sustenance, guidance and protection—for life itself.  Jesus says that those who know their utter helplessness and their total moment-by-moment dependence on the Father are on their way to greatness in his eyes.

Third, Jesus talks about trust: “If you cause one of these little ones who trusts in me to fall into sin, it would be better for you to have a large millstone tied around your neck and be drowned in the depths of the sea.” (Matthew 18:6)  Perhaps the most endearing quality of a child is a fully devoted trust in their parent. So precious is a child’s trust to God that he reserves his worst punishment for adults who damage it in children.  And so precious to God is the trust of his spiritual children that Jesus died to make it possible.  Eternal life is the gift God gives to his children; complete trust is the gift God’s children give back to him.

Do you desire to be great in God’s eyes?  I do.  If you do, then join me today by nurturing a repentant spirit, cultivating authentic humility, and by wrapping up your trust and giving it as a gift to the Father who gave you your very life. According to Jesus, his Father will think it’s great.  He’ll think you’re great, too!

“Childlike trust that is the defining spirit of authentic discipleship.” ~Brennan Manning

What If God Took Over?

Repentance, humility and trust—we much more easily and naturally exhibit these as children. As adults, the current of sin causes us to drift further from them as authentic expressions of who we are before God. The good news is, since these very things are so precious to God, he is ready and willing to help you reclaim them in your life.  All you need to do is ask.  That’s a good start!