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A Free Pass To Heaven

5×5×5 Bible Plan

Read: Matthew 22
Meditation: Matthew 22:14

“Many are called, but few are chosen.”

Shift Your Focus…I am always amazed at people’s reaction to the tragic and untimely death of a pop culture icon. Whether it is a famous singer, a well known actor or a celebrity of some other sort, we can almost expect that each year three or four of the rich and famous, sadly, will pass from this life to the next, and invariably the same responses will begin to bubble up from their adoring fans.

Many of their admirers assume that no matter what kind of life the celebrity led and what kind of perversity contributed to his or her death, this star gets a free and easy pass to heaven. How often have you heard a heartbroken fan trying to find some comfort in their favorite celebrity’s death 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 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, and we must crown him as the Lord and Ruler of our lives—which means every dimension of our being. It is on those terms that we are given the free and easy pass to heaven.

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

Prayer… God, I am so grateful that I have been invited to the party.  I gratefully and gladly accept.

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Anger Management, Jesus Style

5×5×5 Bible Plan

Read: Matthew 21
Meditation: Matthew 21:12-13

Then Jesus went into the temple of God and drove out all those who bought and sold in the temple, and overturned the tables of the money-changers and the seats of those who sold doves. And He said to them, “It is written, ‘My house shall be called a house of prayer,’ but you have made it a ‘den of thieves.’”

Shift Your Focus… This passage may blow your image of Jesus as the “Gentle Shepherd” right out of the water. 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 trying to pick 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 greatly 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, or to gain name recognition, or for sexual gratification, or simply to feed their own hunger for power, or who deliberately prevents the abundance of God he would pour out on his children will sooner or later have to stand before a just Jesus who 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

Prayer… Lord Jesus, I want to have a heart like yours. Cause me to laugh over the things that make you laugh, weep over what breaks your heart, even to get angry over the kind of things that upset you. I want to live as you would if you were living in my stead.

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I’m With Stooping

5×5×5 Bible Plan

Read: Matthew 20
Meditation: Matthew 20:26-28

“Whoever wants to become great among you must be your servant, and whoever wants to be first must be your slave—just as the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.”

Shift Your Focus… Now that’s not something you hear everyday from the CEO of a major corporation. You most likely will never hear your boss tell you that the way to the top is by humbling yourself and giving your life as the servant of all.

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.

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 emptied himself of 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’s the kind of stooping servanthood that is eternally celebrated by heaven. and it 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

Prayer… Lord Jesus, transform me into your character. You were a servant, make me one too. Do whatever it takes, O Lord, to make me, both in attitude and behavior, exactly like you.

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Get Rich Quick, Stay Rich Forever

5×5×5 Bible Plan

Read: Matthew 19
Meditation: Matthew 19:21-22

“Jesus said to him, ‘If you want to be perfect, go, sell what you have and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; and come, follow Me.’ But when the young man heard that saying, he went away sorrowful, for he had great possessions.”

Shift Your Focus… The rich young ruler had a real problem: His whole belief system was fundamentally flawed. He had three very common, but deadly serious misconceptions as it related to money and happiness which were laid wide open in this dangerous conversation with Jesus.

The first flaw was a misguided belief about security. He misunderstood what it would take to give him that basic sense of well being that every human being desires. He believed that his good works would earn him favor with God, which he hoped Jesus would affirm when he asked the question in verse 17: “What must I do to inherit eternal life?”

So Jesus rattles off five of the Ten Commandments and says, “here’s a starting point.” Why only five; why these five? These five rules were very measurable, and Jesus knew this young man would equate them with the good works needed to feel secure.

Notice in verse 20 the guy’s starting to feel proud and justified: “All these I have kept since I was a boy.” But here’s the thing about good works: You can never do enough. You always feel you need to do more.

Notice the irony. This rich young ruler is feeling good about himself and wants Jesus to justify his lifestyle, but he forgets the reason that drew him to Jesus in the first place: He’s empty inside, and doing these good things still isn’t enough.

Jesus is trying to help this young man to see that the very law that he was so proud of keeping was in reality meant to show that no matter how hard you tried to keep it, you could never measure up, and that was the reason for his insecurity.

You have probably noticed by now that Jesus didn’t list out the first 4 Commandments — the one’s that have to do with loving God? That’s the real issue here. If you do really well in these measurable areas of the law, and yet fall short in this not so measurable area of wholeheartedly loving God, then you have truly failed and will feel far more miserable. Why? Because if you fail at this one, you’ve failed in keeping the whole Law.

That’s why we are told in verse 22 that this young man went away sad. Not just because he’s rich and doesn’t want to part with his possessions, but mainly because he’s failed at the very thing he thought he was so good at: Keeping the law, and in doing so, having a life that is pleasing to God.

Jesus has pulled back the curtain on this guy’s life, revealing that in reality, he’s a law-breaker. He’s stumbled at the most basic law—the very first one: Loving God perfectly.

Did you also notice that Jesus left off the Tenth Commandment, “You shall not covet”? Again, what Jesus didn’t say would have been deafening to this young man. What he had earned—the wealth he had gained, the stuff he had accumulated—had become his god. And when Jesus challenged him to give it up, an arrow went right to the heart of the issue of coveting.

The second flaw was a misguided belief about salvation. It was the classic mistake of thinking that what I do will save me: “What must I do to inherit eternal life?” Notice the emphasis is on I: What must I do. So many people stumble at this point of salvation by grace through faith, not works.

When you ask churchgoers about eternal life, what a high percentage of them will say will be no different than the rich young ruler: They believe being good and doing good will earn them salvation. But salvation by grace through faith is not about anything you can do—you cannot do enough! Never! It’s all about what Jesus has done! That’s grace: He did for you what you can never do in a million years for yourself! The only thing you can do is humbly accept this gift!

The third misguided belief is about satisfaction. The flaw was his thinking that what he had would satisfy him. It’s another irony in this story: The things he depended on for happiness are the very things that have left him so empty, yet he’s still addicted to them.

Did you see what Jesus’ antidote for his emptiness was? “Give to the poor, come follow me.” (verse 21) Jesus is challenging him to re-prioritize his life if he wants to be happy. Priority #1 must be to love God first—“follow me.” And priority #2 is a close second: love people before loving his possessions—“give to the poor.”

Jesus challenges him to totally surrender his priorities. And that’s really what this conversation is all about—a call for the total surrender of our priorities to God. If you hang around with Jesus long enough, he’ll challenge you in the same way. He’ll call you to…

Surrender your financial security…in exchange for eternal security.

Surrender your need for the approval of people…in exchange for God’s favor.

Surrender your relationships…in exchange for intimacy with the God of the universe.

Surrender all your priorities…in exchange for peace that passes all understanding.

Surrender your life—your comfort, your lifestyle, your things, your goals…in exchange for the unimaginable, incomparable blessings of God.

The rich young ruler was looking for satisfaction—Jesus showed him that it only comes through surrender.

Jesus invites you to do the same: Surrender everything to him, and by so doing, find everything your heart desires in him.

“Man should not consider his material possession his own, but as common to all, so as to share them without hesitation when others are in need.”  ~Thomas Aquinas

Prayer… Lord, in all likelihood, I am more like this rich young ruler than I realize. Money and material possessions are more important to me than I care to admit.  I, too, have been sucked into the deception that stuff will make be happy.  Deliver me, I pray.  Help me to truly and fully love you and use my stuff to honor you.

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Cleaning Things Up With People

5×5×5 Bible Plan

Read: Matthew 18
Meditation: Matthew 18:15

“Moreover, if your brother sins against you, go and tell him his fault between you and him alone. If he hears you, you have gained your brother.”

Shift Your Focus… Jesus understood that one of the greatest threats to life in Kingdom 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.

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 is, once it has been determined that the offense was indeed the result of a sin, to do it 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.  That kind of action will not be honored by God, and it will not produce reconciliation.

Jesus does provide a clause by which others should be drawn into the dispute in verses 16-20.  These participants should be godly and objective representatives of Christ’s church (not necessarily church officials—simply mature Christians). Christ himself has placed his mantle of authority on this group to settle the dispute and if need be, administer discipline to an unrepentant brother or sister—discipline that will stand up even in the courts of heaven.

And a final essential to conflict resolution is that the desired outcome is restoration.  Jesus said, “If he hears you, you have gained a brother.”  Unfortunately, some people believe that getting what they want is the goal.  It is not.  Resolving the dispute, forgiving the offence, restoring the relationship, and preserving the harmony of the church is what is 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.

“Forgiveness does not change the past, but it does enlarge the future.” ~Paul Boese

Prayer… Father God, teach me to so absorb these principles of conflict resolution that I will be highly skilled in one of the greatest areas of need in your family—restoration of bruised and broken relationships.  Use me today to bring peace, forgiveness and harmony to your church.

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Immature Infatuations

5×5×5 Bible Plan

Read: Matthew 17
Meditation: Matthew 17:9

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

Shift Your Focus… 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.”

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 every 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 a shelter 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

Prayer… God, I sometimes worship experience instead of asking you to show me how you intend for my “experiential high” to energize me for the kingdom assignment you’ve set before me. I am sorry that I do that. Forgive me, change me and once again empower me to do your bidding.

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All The Proof You Need

5×5×5 Bible Plan

Read: Matthew 16
Meditation: Matthew 16:1,4

One day the Pharisees and Sadducees came to test Jesus, demanding that he show them a miraculous sign from heaven to prove his authority. He replied, “…Only an evil, adulterous generation would demand a miraculous sign…”  (Matthew 16:1 & 4, NLT)

Shift Your Focus… A sign?  They want another sign?  You’ve got to be kidding!

Keep in mind that Jesus had just delivered the demonized daughter of a Syro-Phoenicean woman (Matthew 16:21-28, NLT).  He had just healed scores of people—“the crippled were made well, the lame were walking, and the blind could see again”—in the Galilee (Matthew 15:29-31, NLT).  Then to top it off, he had just fed 4,000 men (not including women and children) with seven loaves of bread and a few fish—with seven doggy bags for his disciples afterwards (Matthew 15:32-39, NLT).

Now the Pharisees and Sadducees had the gall to ask Jesus to show them a miracle!  As we used to say when I was a kid (for which I usually reprimanded by my very prim and proper mother), “what did they want, egg in their beer?”  What else could Jesus do, raise someone from the dead before their very eyes? (Oh yeah, he’d already done that!)  Come on, did they expect him to die and come back to life again to prove his divine authority? (Oops, guess he did that, too!)

The point is, Jesus has already done plenty to prove himself to anyone who is half interested in who he is.  The Father has done more than enough to authenticate that Jesus is indeed the Son of God—and as such, is worthy to be accepted as Savior and obediently followed as Lord.

At some point with Jesus, we need to stop asking for proof and start proving our faith—whether or not we have signs, wonders and miracles to, yet again excite, our trust that Jesus is who he said he is.

Miracles are nice—but our faith doesn’t depend on them for stability. You’ve got all the proof you need!  So why don’t you prove your faith in Jesus by giving him your trust today!

“Miracles are not contrary to nature, but only contrary to what we know about nature.”  ~Augustine

Prayer… God, I believe.  Help me to act like it!