Opening Scripture Sentence May the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be pleasing in your sight, O LORD, my Rock and my Redeemer. (Psalm 19:14)
Psalm 51 Have mercy on me, O God, according to your steadfast love; according to your abundant mercy blot out my transgressions. Wash me thoroughly from my iniquity, and cleanse me from my sin! For I know my transgressions, and my sin is ever before me. Against you, you only, have I sinned and done what is evil in your sight, so that you may be justified in your words and blameless in your judgment. Behold, I was brought forth in iniquity, and in sin did my mother conceive me. Behold, you delight in truth in the inward being, and you teach me wisdom in the secret heart. Purge me with hyssop, and I shall be clean; wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow. Let me hear joy and gladness; let the bones that you have broken rejoice. Hide your face from my sins, and blot out all my iniquities. Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a right spirit within me. Cast me not away from your presence, and take not your Holy Spirit from me. Restore to me the joy of your salvation, and uphold me with a willing spirit. (Psalm 51:1-12)
O Lord, Open our lips, and our mouth will proclaim your praise! (Psalm 51:15) Make haste, O God, to deliver me! O Lord, make haste to help me! (Psalm 70:1)
The Apostles’ Creed I believe in God, the Father almighty, creator of heaven and earth. I believe in Jesus Christ, his only Son, our Lord. He was conceived by the Holy Spirit and born of the Virgin Mary. He suffered under Pontius Pilate, was crucified, died, and was buried. He descended to the dead. On the third day he rose again. He ascended into heaven, and is seated at the right hand of the Father. He will come again to judge the living and the dead. I believe in the Holy Spirit, the holy catholic Church, the communion of saints, the forgiveness of sins, the resurrection of the body, and the life everlasting. Amen.
The Lord’s Prayer Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name, your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven. Give us today our daily bread. And forgive us our trespasses, as we also forgive those who trespass against us. And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil, for yours is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever. Amen. (Matthew 6:9-13)
Prayers and Thanksgivings Here, you may offer your own intercessions and thanksgivings.
The Grace The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ and the love of God and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with us all. Amen. (2 Corinthians 13:14)
A prophet with faltering faith John the Baptist has a moment of faltering faith. He sent his disciples to ask Jesus directly—are you the one we should be looking for, of is there another? I am encouraged by his honesty to Jesus here.
John was called by God to baptize, saying “Repent of your sins because the Kingdom is near.” Thousands were coming to him to humble themselves and seek the Lord. His message was, if you humble yourself, God will exalt you; If you bow your head, God will lift it up again. But if you hold on in pride to your image or reputation, you will reap the consequences of it. As Luke’s story unfolds, you see some who did humble themselves and some who did not.
John himself baptizes and, in a sense, ordains Jesus for his public ministry. John witnesses the Holy Spirit descend on Jesus and the Father say, “This is my beloved Son in whom I am well-pleased.” Why then would John’s faith waver? Matthew 11 tells us that John was in prison for preaching against King Herod’s immorality. (Herod was one who did not humble himself.)
An unexpected kingdom John was preaching a gospel of repentance because he, along with all of Israel expected the Kingdom to arrive. Everyone expected a political movement that would cleanse Israel morally and restore Israel’s independence, drive out Rome, and restore the glory of Israel’s golden age under David.
Jesus was preaching a kingdom, but it was a different kind of kingdom. The kingdom Jesus was preaching is based on humility that takes hold in our hearts and radiates outward from there. But John was looking around and seeing the walls of a prison cell. Far from repenting, the King had him arrested. Rome, it seemed, was only consolidating power.
How does Jesus Answer? How does Jesus answer John’s question? Jesus says, “Look at what’s happening—the blind are receiving sight, lepers are cleansed, the lame walk, the deaf hear, and the dead are being raised.” Jesus is referencing the promise of messiah in Isaiah. Jesus gently reminds John what the messiah’s ministry will look like.
Have you ever experienced a faltering faith? John the Baptist did, and Jesus says he was an example of the greatest of mankind. When our faith fails us, we are so quick to look inward, perhaps examining the fruit in our lives; perhaps looking for some sin to repent of to get things back on track. Perhaps we look around at our peers or at our circumstances and get cynical; fooled again, we might say.
Look at Jesus We look inward or we look around, but in that moment, here is what Jesus says to us. He does not condemn you because your faith falters. He does not shame you for seeing that things are different from what you might have expected your life to look like. He also does not appeal to fear, calling you to look for positive fruits in your life to prove your faith is genuine. No. Jesus gently, kindly says, “Don’t look there, look at me.” What are the fruits of Jesus’s ministry? What is the fruit of Jesus’s life, Jesus’s character?
Jesus gently invites us to repent. He does not shame us for feeling angry, or sad, or afraid. He does not try to prevent us from feeling these things. He does not shame us for having a shaky faith. He just invites us to turn our focus from ourselves and onto him.
If we hold on to our pride—if we try to white-knuckle ourselves, and hold on tight, we will miss the kingdom of God. But if we simply humble ourselves, admit our frailty, our weakness—yes, even our sin—then Jesus will lift us right back up again. And even when the kingdom we receive doesn’t look like wealth and power, it may look like a powerful Roman centurion (vv. 1-10) who entrusts himself to the lowly Jewish preacher. It may look like a widow receiving her son again (vv. 11-17). It may look like a woman with a reputation being freed from shame (vv. 36-50). And it may look like a prophet of God getting his faith back.
What would it look like for you if you look at Jesus again today?
Jesus “is the mediator of a new covenant.” This sentence is whole point of the epistle to the Hebrews. And that’s exactly what he goes on to explain in the rest of this passage. Think of it this way: The story of the Bible is God’s revealing himself to humankind. In Genesis, we meet God as creator and savior. He’s the one who makes the world and chooses people from the world to be his own. In Exodus, and on through the rest of the Old Testament, we see God save Israel from slavery in Egypt, we meet Moses, and we see God’s people ask for God’s word through a representative or mediator. Then through the rest of the Bible we see people try to live up to God’s revelation and fall short again and again and again, until finally at the end of the age, we meet a person named Jesus. Jesus is radical, in that he teaches, but with his own authority. He is a rabbi who appears more learned than all the most elite teachers in Jerusalem, and yet he both subverts the common (mis)understandings of God’s law and calls us all to a very much higher standard: love.
All along the way, the people of God tried to follow God’s word, as it had been given to Moses. They tried to obey the laws. They even made new rules to keep them from even approaching the boundaries. They studied the words of the Law, the Prophets, and the Writings to make sure they had all the details exactly correct. But there was something missing. Not in God’s revelation, of course—God gives us exactly what we need at just the right time.
What was missing was the right time. In the prior days, God gave us a law to instruct us, and a temple to point us to a deeper reality. The law instructs us in the way of righteousness. The temple reminds us we are not righteous. The law shows us a path to holiness, the temple reminds us we have broken the law already, both in what we have done and what we have left undone.
Hebrews teaches us that in Jesus we have the true and greater revelation of God. As Paul writes in Colossians, he is the exact image of the invisible God. And here in Hebrews, he is “the mediator of a new covenant.”
How is it new? Well in the old covenant, we have images and pictures. Verse 23 calls the temple and its system—taught to us by Moses—a copy or a picture of heavenly things. And because it was a copy or a picture, it had to be constantly sanctified and set apart. The writer says that blood had to continually be shed, not only for forgiveness in the old system, but also to cleanse and sanctify the temple itself.
The blood was a lesson. The blood in the temple showed us that sin is costly. A lot of sacrifices were made in the temple daily—for the temple, for the kings and governors, and for the people—each reminding them that as hard as they tried, as many rules as they followed, they still sinned. They still failed to love God as they should and still failed to love their neighbors as they loved themselves. So, the sacrifices in the temple continued day after day.
The blood was also a promise. It was a promise that God desires to forgive sins. That God does not ultimately desire sacrifice, but repentance. The blood in the temple was a promise that God was writing a story—a history in which the rituals in the temple would be finally fulfilled. Sins would finally be cast as far as the east is from the west. That God would not simply overlook sin but cast it away entirely and forever.
The blood was a lesson that our best efforts will never bridge the gap between us and God; and it was a promise that God would soon bridge the gap between us by himself. And this is where Jesus comes in. The writer of Hebrews says that Jesus did not enter a copy of the heavenly things—Jesus walked into heaven itself. He did not bring the blood of bulls and goats—he brough his own blood, his own life. Jesus “appeared once for all at the culmination of the ages to do away with sin by the sacrifice of himself.”
The writer goes on, “people are destined to die once, and then face judgment.” Perhaps you’re afraid of judgment in one way or another. Perhaps the idea you will face the Lord one day terrifies you. On the other hand, perhaps you feel particularly judged right here and now when people talk about law, obedience, sin, and repentance. Maybe you think of self-righteous religious people who tell you if you were only more like them, then you’d be okay with God.
Or more likely than all of it, you just feel judgment in much more ordinary ways. You feel shame that you’ve not achieved what you wanted to when you were younger. You feel shame because there is distance in many of your relationships that you barely understand. You feel guilt that you cannot spend more of your time with your family. You feel afraid that you’re just not enough.
But, and here’s what’s new, Jesus Christ died once—he was judged and found to be enough; he was sacrificed—so that the sins of many would be forgiven and done away with—your sins and mine. Here’s what’s new: The promise of the Old Covenant was that sins could be forgiven once-for-all. And this promise is kept in the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ.
Are you tired and burdened? Look to who keeps his promise to give you rest. Do you feel guilty or ashamed? Look to the one who lifts your head. Do you want to know how to live with new life? Then look to the one who is gentle and humble in heart. Learn from him, and you will find rest for your soul.
Do not rebuke an older man but encourage him as you would a father, younger men as brothers, older women as mothers, younger women as sisters, in all purity. (1Timothy 5:1-2)
Everyone faces, at various times in our lives, a moment when we need to say difficult things to people. If you know me, I imagine you’re picking your jaw up off the floor, because you know confrontation is about my least favorite thing in the world. I would be willing to wager that confrontation is low on your list as well. But we cannot get away from these kinds of conversations. As my wife wisely says, a healthy church is built on the relationships that are formed amid a thousand difficult but loving conversations. Anecdotally though, I know that many, many relationships between churches and their ministers—indeed between friends and even families—have been brought to an untimely end because of ugly confrontations. Since we can’t get away from confrontations, let’s learn how to have them. Let’s look over Timothy’s shoulder as Paul gives him instruction on how to have these difficult conversations. Continue reading →
For to this end we toil and strive, because we have our hope set on the living God, who is the Savior of all people, especially of those who believe. (1Timothy 4:10)
Here on my blog recently, I’ve been trying to write a little every day about my Daily Bible Reading. I am doing this writing project in an effort to meditate more on the Scripture, learn a little for myself, and hopefully say something useful. So I’ve been writing about one or more verses that jump out at me as I read. And as a reformed and baptist Christian, this one definitely stands out. If you know anything about reformed Christianity, you may have heard about the doctrine of election—God saves and justifies those whom he has chosen. So that’s why this verse is so arresting. How is it true that God is the Savior of all? And what does this mean for Timothy’s ministry?
Beyond all question, the mystery from which true godliness springs is great: He appeared in the flesh, was vindicated by the Spirit, was seen by angels, was preached among the nations, was believed on in the world, was taken up in glory. (1Timothy 3:16)
I have one remarkable observation to make about 1Timothy 3 — it is remarkable that the qualifications listed for Pastors and Deacons are so unremarkable. The character traits listed by Paul in chapter 3 are character traits that were exemplified and taught by Jesus. They belong aspirationally to all Christians. They certainly belong to Christ, and as Paul teaches us in Galatians 3:27, when we are baptized into Christ, we put on Christ. In Christ, they belong to us as well, if we will determine to walk in repentance and faith. For ordained (that is, formally set apart and recognized) officers of the church, it is appropriate that these character traits are basic qualifications. But here’s the remarkable part: the qualifications for ordained ministry simply amount to a requirement that a person should be making progress along the path of discipleship. Pastors and Deacons should simply be good examples of a growing Christian.
The goal of this command is love, which comes from a pure heart and a good conscience and a sincere faith. (1Timothy 1:5)
Why did the Apostle Paul send Timothy to be the Bishop (or Lead Pastor) in Ephesus? You might answer with verse 3 of 1 Timothy 1—to “command certain people not to teach false doctrines.” You wouldn’t be wrong, but there’s more to the story. Paul does want Timothy to fight against false teachers. But there’s another reason why in the text. You can see Paul’s ultimate reason for appointing Timothy to be Bishop in Ephesus—and the reason to oppose false doctrine—in verse 5: “goal of this command is love.” Specifically, the kind that comes from a pure heart, a good conscience, and a sincere faith. For this reason, Paul sends Timothy to organize and teach the church in Ephesus.
Your laws are always right; help me to understand them so I may live. (Psalm 119:144)
I expect most people have an innate understanding that nit-picky legalism is bad. We have a variety of English idioms that illustrate the point. In Matthew 23, Jesus said the Pharisees would strain out gnats but swallow camels. Another phrase is penny-wise and pound-foolish; another, missing the forest for the trees. Each one of these illustrate the problem of focusing on small details to the exclusion of the big picture.
Everyone knows that nit-picky legalism is bad, but the problem is no one thinks they’re guilty of it. This can be a particular tendency for people who love the Bible—or you could insert any other body of literature. Javert, the primary antagonist in Les Misérables loved the laws of France, but was unable to see in Jean Valjean a man who had not only repented of his sins, but also worked to improve the lives of hundreds. In Matthew 23, the Pharisees would be sure to count their tithes to the penny, but Jesus said they neglected things like justice, mercy, and faith. Continue reading →
For God so loved the world that he gave his only-begotten Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. (John 3:16-21)
In this passage, John introduces a theme he comes back to again and again in his Gospel and his letters: love. Here is right where it starts: God loved the world. The word there is cosmos, and it means that God loves the whole creation and everyone in it. He demonstrates his love in a very particular way: he gave his only-begotten Son. This is the good news.
Jesus did not entrust himself to them, because he knew what was in them. (John 2:23-25)
To put it in context, today’s passage comes after Jesus is announced by John and calls his first disciples (John 1), and immediately after the miracle at Cana and the cleansing of the temple (John 2). Jesus is in Jerusalem for the Passover and many people are responding to his ministry. But the passage says that Jesus did not entrust himself to them.
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Chuck Anderson 