Archive for September, 2009

Matthew 23:Will you escape condemnation?

Sunday, September 13th, 2009

Reading Matthew 23 we find Jesus not exactly happy. I am used to meek and gentle Jesus who is kind to everyone. He might have a pithy comeback to a pharisee or a sadducee, but for the most part he is not talking about how condemned they all are. Or maybe that’s because it makes Jesus seem like a cult leader and most of us aren’t comfortable with Jesus condemning people to hell.

Jesus criticizes the way the Pharisees take oaths, the way that their hearts are darka nd they are greedy, he criticizes the way they dress, how they put such a burden on those they convert to the faith that they become more legalist and less loving than even the pharisees are which is pretty hard to believe.Jesusmuch everything about them he hammers. It is kind of like Rush Limbaugh hammering Obama or someone that opposes his political views.

In Matthew 23:33-36 33 “You snakes! You brood of vipers! How will you escape being condemned to hell? 34 Therefore I am sending you prophets and wise men and teachers. Some of them you will kill and crucify; others you will flog in your synagogues and pursue from town to town. 35 And so upon you will come all the righteous blood that has been shed on earth, from the blood of righteous Abel to the blood of Zechariah son of Berekiah, whom you murdered between the temple and the altar. 36 I tell you the truth, all this will come upon this generation.

Here is Jesus bringing the wrath. But the next verse, is a totally different tune. Jesus contrasts his wrath with His love leaving some of his hearers confused. Jesus wants to gather up his people like a hen gathers her chicks. But his people, won’t listen and are condemned.

The pharisees had just enough religion to innoculate them from the relationship with their Heavenly Father.

Is that true about some of us in America. We have seen so much half hearted faith lived out and have been oversaturated with a lot of words and a lot of reliegion, that we have been innoculated to a soul saving relationship with our Heavenly Father through Christ?

Seriously, look at yourself…if you are a Christian, are you more excited about Jesus and following Him or is it just rhetoric and rules? Do you know for sure if you will escape condemnation?

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Matthew 22: Are You Ready?

Saturday, September 12th, 2009

Reading today in Matthew 22:1-14, So a King is having his son get married and he is pretty excited about it. He calls up all of the elite and gives them an invitation. At first, his subjects politely refuse, but then they end up killing some of the messengers. The King gets really angry about this, and starts inviting every body to the banquet. He invites the good and the bad. Weird. The king invited the good people and the bad people. They all got an equal shot at coming.

Once again, the Gospel is not about making bad people good…

So the party rolls around and the peeps are all there and they are dressed to the nines,. Then Jesus describes a random weird guy who is wearing jean shorts, flip flops, and an over sized Tommy Bahama shirt. The king walks over to him and is like hey buddy where are your wedding clothes?” The guy just stares at him, jaw dropping to the floor, and says nothing.

No excuses. This guy didn’t belong. He wasn’t chosen. The guy looked around and probably thought he was dressed like everyone else. But he never had been clothed with Christ. This guy was fakin the funk and the King could see right through him. He didn’t realize he was even at a wedding..

I think a lot of Christians are living like that. They have gotten enough Christianity to innoculate them from the real thing. Especially in Dallas.

Here you go to chruch, because that is what you do. But how many of us, when Jesus comes back will be wondering what’s going on and never get ready for the wedding of Christ to His church.

Ask yourself that question, Are you ready for the wedding? or is that concept ridiculous to you?

The answer will determine the state of your soul.

cp

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Matthew 21: Are you out of season?

Thursday, September 10th, 2009
Reading today in Matthew 21. I love the story of the fig tree that is withered. I think for years this one puzzled me. I mean here is Jesus and he sees a fig tree and the thing is not in season and he is hungry. He curses the fig tree and the disciples are astonished. You would be too.

But here is the thing that always gets me. Why did he do that? This verse was what I used to confront all my environmentalist Christian friends with and say, “See, Jesus was not in to nature.”

However that is not the point of that at all. Jesus used this fig tree as a teaching moment for his disciples.

Jesus was hungry for his people to recognize Him, but the Jews were no longer in season. They were no longer even capable of producing fruit. And if you have a tree in the grove that is no longer producing, you kill it, because it is just sucking up resources from the soil.

Verses 23-27 confirm this as they fall right on the heels of 18-22. Here are the blind religious leaders who have no fruit and are just spiritually killing all fruit they might have brought in. They challenge Jesus’s authority. When the tree challenges soil’s ability to give it nourishment and it rejects Jesus, then Jesus will not unlock the mystery of heaven to them. He rejects them.

We see this in the next two parables. 28-32 is the parable of the two sons. One son says he will work for his father and doesn’t. The other says he won’t work, but does. Jesus explains he wants the one that doesn’t give lip service, he wants the one who does his will. The Jewish religious leaders talked a good game, but they bore no fruit. Whereas those who recognized who Jesus was bore much fruit, even though their lives in the beginning bore no reflection of following him, and they gave him no lip service.

33-45 finishes the chapter with another parable of a vineyard owner who is trying to collect fruit. But the tenants who were leasing his land were not coughing up the goods. They would just kill every messenger from the owner. The owner then sent his son, and they killed him too. Then the owner brought in the militia and didn’t just kill them, he utterly destroyed them.

Jesus concludes that parable with a line from Psalm 21

The stone that the builders rejected has become the cornerstone. This came from the Lord and it is wonderful in his eyes.

The Jews rejected Jesus and the Father was happy to offer the Kingdom of Heaven to those who would receive his son and produce and give him the fruits of their labor.

The problem I have is that I am more like the pharisees than I should be. I am not producing a harvest all the time.

Yesterday, case in point. I got my car towed. And instead of using that as an opportunity to go and share grace with the Muslim shop owner who had my car towed, I just looked at him and said,

“I can’t believe you did that. You know what I want you to go home and pray about what you did.”

The man with a long frizzy white beard and a little head hugging hat looked at me in horror and tried to make me understand why he did it.

I just looked at him and firmly said, “You pray.” and I walked out.

Never shared the gospel. Never planted the seed. No fruit to harvest. I was just mad that this guy had the audacity to have my vehicle towed at a gas station that I left there for about 3 hours. I was righteous. I was justified. I was out of season.

Are you in or out of season right now? You see Paul writing to Timothy gave this instruction

2 Timothy 4:1-2 In the presence of God and of Christ Jesus, who will judge the living and the dead, and in view of his appearing and his kingdom, I give you this charge: Preach the Word; be prepared in season and out of season; correct, rebuke and encourage– with great patience and careful instruction.

Let’s be prepared to make some fruit.

Are you in or out of season?

Are you in or out of season?

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