Category Archives: Matthew

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The Stench of Hypocrisy

Read: Matthew 23

“The teachers of religious law and the Pharisees are the official interpreters of the law of Moses. So practice and obey whatever they tell you, but don’t follow their example. For they don’t practice what they teach. (Matthew 23:2-3)

Let’s be perfectly clear about this: Sin is sin, and no matter what level of sin it is, it is always offensive to a holy God.  Sin corrupts; it corrodes the soul; it prevents the blessings of God and if not dealt with, will cause the gift of eternal life to be forfeited.

Having said that, have you noticed how Jesus seems to rail against one particular sin more than others?  Jesus doesn’t beat up on prostitutes and thieves and good old run of the mill garden variety sinners like he does religious hypocrites.  Just read through this chapter and you will see what I mean.

Hypocrisy is intolerable to God; religious hypocrisy is especially repugnant.  It is the worst indictment the Divine could lay against you.  To say one thing and to do another; to believe one way and live a different way; to teach people one thing and to personally practice another in the name of Christ will arouse God’s disdain like no other.

Why?  Hypocrisy is the height of deceitfulness.  It layers the heart act by act with calluses that will eventually prevent the Holy Spirit from doing his work: Convicting us of sin.  It lures gullible followers into the same destructive patterns of incongruent beliefs.  And perhaps worst of all, it hardens those who are turned off by the religious hypocrisy they witness among God’s so-called people from ever wanting to have anything to do with Jesus Christ.

How many times have you heard an angry, hardened unbeliever say, “If that’s what Christianity is all about, I want nothing to do with it!”?  How sad!  It may be that the hypocrisy they’re reacting to will close the door of their heart for all eternity to God’s offer of salvation.

The challenge with hypocrisy is that it is so hard to spot in your own life.  Again, it is so effectively evil because of its power of deception and the hardening of the heart that it wreaks.  However, if you are willing to lie very still on the Great Surgeon’s table and allow the Holy Spirit to apply the scalpel to your heart, I am confident that he will expose and excise any hypocrisy that has taken up residence.

Are you courageous enough to allow him to do some spiritual surgery on you today?

“Hypocrisy desires to seem good rather than to be so; honesty desires to be good rather than seem so.” ~Arthur Warwick

 

What If God Took Over?

 

Ask the Holy Spirit to open your heart to you, expose any hidden and unknown sin and remove anything that could hinder or destroy you relationship with God.

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The Free And Easy Plan

Read: Matthew 22

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

Have you ever noticed that when a popular public figure dies—a successful movie star, a music icon, a popular athlete or a charismatic politician–adoring fans assume that no matter what kind of life they led (and in some cases, what kind of perversity contributed to their death), these celebrities get a free and easy pass to heaven. How often have you heard a heartbroken fan trying to find some comfort in the death of the one they idolized say something like this: “I’ll sure miss ’so and so’, but I know they’re in a much better place. I’ll bet they’re smiling down on us right now.”

Of course, death is tragic, whether it’s a celebrity or not. And of course, God loves famous people just as he loves not so famous people, and has made room for all in his eternal kingdom. But no one gets a free and easy pass to heaven—unless, that is, they go through Jesus. He is the only free and easy way to the Father. (John 14:6)

“Many are called, but few are chosen.” Those sobering words appear at the very end of the Parable of the Banquet, and if you read that entire parable (Matthew 22:1-14), you find that Jesus is not painting the picture of a narrow, exclusive God. Quite the opposite—he invites pretty much everybody to the party.

The problem is, most reject the invitation. They want to come to it when they are good and ready. They don’t want to change into proper banquet attire. In the words of that famous theologian Frank Sinatra, the vast majority of people want to do it “my way.” But it doesn’t work that way. Only a few get chosen, not because of the exclusivity of God, but because of the resistance of those who demand entrance into the banquet on their terms.

Let’s be very clear about this: God is not willing that any should perish; He desires that all should come to repentance. (II Peter 3:9) But we don’t get to tell God how we are going to get into his heaven. We can only get there on his terms. And his terms (not mine, but his) are very clear: Complete and total surrender to Jesus Christ as Savior AND Lord. We must receive him as the only one who can save us from our sins, because he was the one and only perfect sacrifice for our sins. And we must crown him as the Lord and Ruler of our lives–which means every dimension of our being, not just selective parts. It is on those terms that we are given the free and easy pass to heaven.

Yes, many get invited, but only the few who come on God’s terms will get in on the party that will never end.

“None shall be saved by Christ but those only who work out their own salvation while God is working in them by His truth and His Holy Spirit. We cannot do without God; and God will not do without us.” ~Matthew Henry

What If God Took Over?

Have you fully surrendered your life to God and asked him to give you eternal life on Jesus’ free and easy grace plan?  If not, why not do that right now?  Just ask, admit your sin, and accept Jesus as Savior and Lord of your life.

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Good and Angry

Read: Matthew 21

Jesus entered the Temple and began to drive out all the people buying and selling animals for sacrifice. He knocked over the tables of the moneychangers and the chairs of those selling doves. He said to them, “The Scriptures declare, ‘My Temple will be called a house of prayer,’ but you have turned it into a den of thieves!” (Matthew 21:12-13)

Jesus angry—so much so that he literally tossed a few people out of the church!  Now that image may totally blow the picture you have of the Lord as the “Gentle Shepherd”. I hope so! There were times that Jesus was good and angry—and not to be so would have been un-God like.

To be sure, Jesus loved people, and that love especially came through in his compassion for the poor, widows and orphans, the sick and infirmed, and those who were held captive to sin by Satan. He was a man of love and peace who called people to a lifestyle of love and peace. But Jesus was no pushover. He had a large capacity for anger—righteous indignation—as we see here in this encounter with the moneychangers at the temple. Jesus didn’t go around picking fights, but when he saw injustice, it really ticked him off.

What pushed his button in particular was seeing how religious authorities would turn what should have been the worship of God into a way to manipulate people for their own purposes. It bothered him a great deal when spiritual directors stood in the way of the kindness of God reaching people in need, and when religious systems abused and enslaved people instead of ushering them into the abundance of God.

J. I. Packer, in his book, Your Father Loves You, writes of the many times Jesus’ anger flared at this sort of thing:

Jesus went into the synagogue on the Sabbath and saw a man with a crippled hand. He knew that the Pharisees were watching to see what he would do, and he felt angry that they were only out to put him in the wrong. They did not care a scrap for the handicapped man, nor did they want to see the power and love of God brought to bear on him. There were other instances where Jesus showed anger or sternness. He “sternly charged” the leper whom he had healed not to tell anyone about it (Mark 1:43) because he foresaw the problems of being pursued by a huge crowd of thoughtless people who were interested only in seeing miracles and not in his teaching. But the leper disobeyed and so made things very hard for Jesus. Jesus showed anger again when the disciples tried to send away the mothers and their children (Mark 10:13-16). He was indignant and distressed at the way the disciples were thwarting his loving purposes and giving the impression that he did not have time for ordinary people. He showed anger once more when he drove “out those who sold and those who bought in the temple” (Mark 11:15-17). God’s house of prayer was being made into a den of thieves and God was not being glorified—hence Jesus’ angry words and deeds. Commenting on this, Warfield wrote: “A man who cannot be angry, cannot be merciful.” The person who cannot be angry at things which thwart God’s purposes and God’s love toward people is living too far away from his fellow men ever to feel anything positive towards them. Finally, at Lazarus’ grave Jesus showed not just sympathy and deep distress for the mourners (John 11:33-35), but also a sense of angry outrage at the monstrosity of death in God’s world. This is the meaning of “deeply moved” in John 11:38.

Any form of spiritual manipulation, control, abuse or neglect that prevents the goodness of God from reaching people, no matter what form it takes, or who is perpetrating it, doesn’t make Jesus very happy. Not then…and not now.

Religious leaders, televangelists, youth directors, or anyone who has spiritual influence over others, and uses that influence for their own financial gain, to gain name recognition, for sexual gratification, to feed their own hunger for power, or who deliberately prevent God’s abundance from reaching his children will sooner or later have to stand before a righteous Jesus.  And as we just saw, the real Jesus is perfectly capable of anger. One day there will be an accounting for the mismanagement of spiritual authority—and it won’t be pretty.

Jesus, the Gentle Shepherd, the Prince of Peace, got good and angry over a few things. Maybe it is high time Christ followers got a little fed up with sin as well.

So if it is called for, go ahead and get angry. Just make sure you are good—literally—and angry.

“Anger is a divinely implanted emotion. Closely allied to our instinct for right, it is designed to be used for constructive spiritual purposes. The person who cannot feel anger at evil is a person who lacks enthusiasm for good. If you cannot hate wrong, it’s very questionable whether you really love righteousness.” ~David Seamands

What If God Took Over?

If God had total control of your life, you would be able to get angry in the right way for the right reasons at the right time.  What are the things that make you angry?  If they don’t meet that standard, then you are expressing destructive anger.  Repent of it and, if you need to, get some help (from a friend, pastor, accountability partner, mental healthy professional) in learning to manage it.

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Stooping Into Greatness

Read: Matthew 20

“But among you it will be different. Whoever wants to be a leader among you must be your servant, and whoever wants to be first among you must become your slave.  For even the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve others and to give his life as a ransom for many.” (Matthew 20:26-28)

Servanthood.  Now that’s not something you hear everyday from the CEO of a major corporation. It is not likely you will hear your boss say that the way to the top is by humbling yourself and giving your life as the servant of all. You will probably get a half dozen slick promotional pieces in the mail this week inviting you to a spendy leadership conference, but my guess is that not a single one will be promoting servanthood as the key feature.

Yet that is the upside down logic of the Kingdom of God. Jesus said the surest way to greatness is by way of descent—you’ve got to lower yourself into it. And that’s not something Jesus just preached; it’s what he practiced. Serving was the core value of his very existence and the primary purpose of his coming, according to Matthew 20:28,

“For even the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve others and to give his life as a ransom for many.”

Jesus understood, modeled and taught that greatness, as well as a whole host of other Kingdom values, came only by authentic humility and willing servanthood. C.S. Lewis described it this way: “Jesus descends to re-ascend.” Paul, in Philippians 2:5-11, said,

“Your attitude should be the same as that of Christ Jesus: Who, being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be grasped, but made himself nothing, taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness. And being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself and became obedient to death—even death on a cross! Therefore God exalted him to the highest place and gave him the name that is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.”

Paul says the secret to spiritual authenticity and Christian greatness is to adopt the attitude of Jesus; to make his mindset our mindset. Verse 5 says, “Let this mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus…” What was that mindset? Verse 7 says Jesus “made himself nothing.” Literally, when he left heaven and was born into humanity, he emptied himself.

Emptied himself of what? Not of his Divine identity, of course. Jesus the man was always God. Take that away and our faith is no more useful than any other religion. Jesus set aside his divine prerogatives. He lowered himself to human status. And if that weren’t low enough, he descended further into the role of servant to all mankind. Really, the term “servant” is too clean! He literally became a bond-slave: one without rights or privileges of his own.

This amazing Jesus who crafted the solar systems with ease, stooped to learn a trade in his father’s carpentry shop. The Sovereign Lord whom all creation worships donned a servant’s towel, stooping to wash the feet of those who should have washed his. This incredible Jesus, ruler of all mankind, stooped to the humiliation of the cross to pay for sins that should have nailed you and me there! He emptied himself of his Divine prerogatives to become a slave to redeem us from our slavery to sin and death. So Paul says that if we have grasped the love of God and the grace of our Lord Jesus and the work of the Spirit in the least, then we will understand that at the very least, our duty is to think like Jesus thought, to serve like Jesus served, and to live as Jesus would if he were living in our place.

Jesus came to serve, not to be served, and to give his life away. That is your call, too.

It is said that a western tourist visiting India observed Mother Teresa stoop down and hold a dying leper in her arms. The tourist disgustedly commented, “I wouldn’t do that for a million dollars!”

Mother Teresa looked up at the visitor and said, “Neither would I.”

That kind of stooping servanthood is eternally celebrated by heaven and is the pathway to greatness in God’s Kingdom.

I hope you will make the descent into greatness this week!

Happy stooping!

“A Christian is a perfectly free lord of all, subject to none. A Christian is a perfectly dutiful servant of all, subject…to all.” ~Martin Luther

What If God Took Over?

Servanthood is not a one-time act; it is a mindset, a way of life.  Obviously, putting yourself into a serving role will not automatically give you the mind of Christ, but it’s a good start.  Attitudes follow actions, so what action steps can you take to permanently orient your life toward this value?  Here is a suggestion: Find a role where you can serve those who cannot do anything for you in return, except perhaps to say “thanks”.

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Possessed!

Read: Matthew 19

Someone came to Jesus with this question: “Teacher, what good deed must I do to have eternal life?” … Jesus told him, “If you want to be perfect, go and sell all your possessions and give the money to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come, follow me.” But when the young man heard this, he went away sad, for he had many possessions. Then Jesus said to his disciples, “I tell you the truth, it is very hard for a rich person to enter the Kingdom of Heaven. I’ll say it again—it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich person to enter the Kingdom of God!” (Matthew 19:16, 21-24)

Twice in his conversation with this rich, young man, Jesus said how hard it is for the rich to enter the Kingdom of God—as hard, in fact, as it would be for a camel to slip through the eye of a needle!

Now that is a little intimidating, and bothersome, too, in light of this stubborn conviction we seem to have that money will make us happy! It bothered the disciples, too, so we’re in good company. They were so shaken they asked, “Then who in the world can be saved?” (Matthew 19:25) They were unnerved because popular Jewish thought had it that wealth and prosperity were a sign of God’s blessing.

Here’s the deal: Wealth itself isn’t the problem. It’s our attitude toward money; our over-dependence on it! This is really a very simple thing Jesus is saying: Through your own efforts, whatever those efforts might be, you cannot be truly satisfied or eternally saved.  That was the original question that led to Jesus response: “What good deed must I do to have eternal life?” Jesus says that the wealthy can’t be saved through money anymore than someone can one be saved by skills, talents, intellect, good looks—or even by living a good life!

Wealth is not the overriding issue here. As you can see, it would be just as dangerous for an underprivileged person to think that his poverty gave him spiritual piety and eternal favor.  In truth, anything can lead us from the path of righteousness: Not only wealth, but drink, food, television, leisure, entertainment, or any number of things available to us in this world.  In II Timothy 4:10, Paul writes, “Demas has forsaken me, having loved this present world.” What caused this close friend and ministry companion, Demas, to leave Paul and walk away from Christ? He loved the world; the particulars aren’t divulged.

Whatever it was, the simple fact is that a camel cannot go through the eye of a needle, and someone who loves the world more than God, whether rich or poor, forfeits the approval of God. I John 2:15-17 says,

“Do not love this world nor the things it offers you, for when you love the world, you do not have the love of the Father in you. For the world offers only a craving for physical pleasure, a craving for everything we see, and pride in our achievements and possessions. These are not from the Father, but are from this world. And this world is fading away, along with everything that people crave. But anyone who does what pleases God will live forever.”

Again, the point is that we do not achieve salvation through our own efforts, nor can we gain lasting security and satisfaction by worldly means; those are from God alone. So the real issue Jesus is addressing—back then and right now—is about priorities, not possessions. He isn’t teaching that wealth is wrong… it’s not money that’s evil…it’s the love of money that’s at the root of all kinds of evil. (I Timothy 6:10)

Jesus’ real concern is this: What possesses you—not what you possess.

“Money is like muck, not good except it be spread.” ~Francis Bacon

What If God Took Over?

One of the toughest areas to completely surrender to God is our money—and what money represents.  Would you join me in offering this prayer to God?

“Dear God, I want you to possess all of me.  Deliver me from the deceitfulness of wealth, or any other thing that I have substituted for you to bring me earthly happiness and eternal security.  Bring me to that place where I am ready to let it all go in complete obedience and full devotion to you in whatever way you should ask.”

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Conflict Resolution

Read: Matthew 18

“If another believer sins against you, go privately and point out the offense. If the other person listens and confesses it, you have won that person back.” (Matthew 18:15)

Jesus understood that one of the greatest threats to the Kingdom Life would be disharmony in the family of God. Conflicts between brothers and sisters in Christ could potentially derail God’s purposes in the local fellowship and give Satan the upper hand if they weren’t handled properly. The great Puritan preacher Richard Baxter observed,

“He that is not a son of Peace is not a son of God. All other sins destroy the Church consequentially; but Division and Separation demolish it directly.”

So he provided his twelve disciples—and by extension, followers in every age, including you and me—a template for conflict resolution.

To resolve a conflict with a God-honoring outcome, the most foundational and critical principle that must be followed comes from the first part of Christ’s words:  “If a brother sins against you.”  The offended party must assess whether the offense was truly a sin, or if it was simply an act that irritated or violated their personal preferences.

In my experience facilitating conflict resolution over the years, much of what people find offensive never rises to the level of a sin that needs to be confronted.  In these cases, the offended party was, in reality, the culprit, and simply needed to grow thicker skin, develop greater tolerance, and/or learn to more effectively communicate their upset with the offender with grace and love.

Another essential to conflict resolution, once it has been determined that the offense was indeed the result of a sin, is to address the issue privately, just between the two parties.  Too many people are quick to jump past this hoop and go right to group involvement.  If you have not first addressed your hurt with the offender, do not take it to others and try to get them on your side. God will not honor that kind of action, and it will not produce reconciliation.

Jesus does provide a clause by which others should be drawn into the dispute in verses 16-20: If the sinning party won’t listen to you. That is when others may need to be brought in to mediate and reconcile the offense.  These participants should be godly and objective representatives of Christ’s church (not necessarily church officials—simply mature, respectable Christians). Christ himself has placed his mantle of authority on this group to settle the dispute and if needs be, administer discipline to an unrepentant brother or sister—discipline that will stand up even in the courts of heaven.

A final essential to conflict resolution is that the desired outcome is to be restoration.  Jesus said, “If the other person listens and confesses it, you have won that person back.” Unfortunately, some people believe that getting what they want is the goal.  It is not. Resolving the dispute, forgiving the offense, restoring the relationship, and preserving the harmony of the church is the outcome most honoring to God.

Conflict is an unavoidable fact of life—in general and in the family of God.  It can either be a cause for fractured relationships and deep hurt, or it can be an opportunity for personal, relational growth, spiritual and Kingdom growth.

Though not always easy, if we simply follow Christ’s template for conflict resolution, we will experience the latter.

“If you have been putting off going to another person to try to achieve reconciliation with him, you have wronged him.” ~Jay E. Adams

What If God Took Over?

Living as a peace-maker in God’s family will require you to first be quick to deal with your own offenses and sins.  Robert Williams suggests a rule called 7 A’s of Confession that would helpful for you to absorb into your response to people you have wounded.:

  1. Address everyone involved and only them. Talk to them about my faults. Do it right away and be persistent. Only talk to people who are part of the problem or part of the solution.
  2. Avoid “if”, “but”, “maybe”. That’s just blaming the other party and finding fault with them for my own failure. “If I offended you”, “Maybe I was wrong”, “If you hadn’t said that”, “I’m sorry, but you..”
  3. Admit specifically what you did, when possible.
  4. Apologize – express your sorrow for your sin
  5. Ask for forgiveness. Most people leave this out. The other party might be 99% wrong, but this isn’t about them right now. It’s about your own log.
  6. Accept the consequences. Make restitution. It’s what you ought to do. Don’t demand that they pretend nothing happened.
  7. Alter your behavior. You won’t be perfect, but you’ll get better. Repent before God.
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Spiritual Fixations

Read: Matthew 17

“As they went back down the mountain, Jesus commanded them …” (Matthew 17:9)

We love mountaintop experiences — “spiritual highs” — experiences that are so wonderful we never want to lose the good feeling of their warm afterglow.  Like the good feelings we had at the moment of salvation, or an ecstatic encounter with the Holy Spirit, or when we cried our eyes out at the altar during summer youth camp, or at a revival meeting when God’s presence seemed so thick you could slice it.

The problem with those kinds of experiences is that we tend to fixate on them, and then rate the rest of our Christian walk against them.  Unfortunately, nothing can quite live up to the warm fuzzies of a mountaintop high.

We love to stay on the mountaintop with Jesus, Moses, and Elijah. After all, it is so spiritual…and it feels so good!  Going back down the mountain is way overrated.

But following Jesus always means we have to “come down from the mountain to do as he commands.” We have to leave the sanctuary, the worship service, the warm incubator of our small group Bible study and get back into the game of extending the Kingdom to those who don’t know Jesus yet.

Jesus took Peter, James, and John to a high mountain where he was transfigured—literally, morphed—right before their eyes.  And not only that, two of Israel’s greatest prophets appeared before them—Moses and Elijah. Predictably, Peter suggested what the other two disciples were thinking:  “Lord, it’s wonderful for us to be here! If you want, I’ll make three shelters as memorials—one for you, one for Moses, and one for Elijah.” (Matthew 17:4)

Who wouldn’t want to stay there?  I sure would!  I would want to can that spiritual experience and pull it back out of the can everyone once in a while—okay, a lot—to whiff the fumes of that intoxicating spiritual high all over again.

Here’s the deal: God never intends for us to fixate on “spiritual highs”; they are meant for fuel to empower us for some spiritual assignment.  Jesus didn’t have this encounter with Moses and Elijah just so he could feel special.  Luke 9:31 says that these two Old Testament prophets came to encourage him about his upcoming departure—literally, in the original text, his “exodus”. Jesus was about to face the greatest assignment of all—the cross.  This mountaintop experience was meant as fuel—encouragement, strength, a reminder of his life’s purpose—for his impending death for the sins of the world.

I am not down on “spiritual highs”. They are wonderful, and necessary.  Just don’t fixate on them.  Resist the urge to erect shelters and live in their warm afterglow.  Don’t rate the rest of your Christian experience against them.  Simply see them for what they are: Fuel for the assignment ahead.

Then get off the mountain and back in the game.  Get back out there and give ‘em heaven!

“Serve God by doing common actions in a heavenly spirit, and then, if your daily calling only leaves you cracks and crevices of time, fill them up with holy service.” ~Charles Spurgeon

What If God Took Over?

Is there a “spiritual high” from your past (an ecstatic experience, a fruitful time of ministry, a wonderful season in an amazing church family, a dramatic period of spiritual growth under a gifted spiritual leader) against which you tend to measure current experience?  Stop doing that!  Repent of worshiping that experience and instead ask God to show you how he intends for that “high” to fuel you for the kingdom assignment setting before you today.