Worship
Believing without seeing
1 Peter 1:8-9
The very same Peter who wrote 1 Peter is the same fisherman who saw Jesus resurrected. He was the second disciple to reach the tomb after Mary had announced worriedly that Jesus was not in the tomb and that the stone had been rolled out of place. When he entered the tomb, he saw that Jesus’ body wasn’t there (John 20:6-7).
John himself writes that when he went into the tomb and saw the grave clothes lying there, he believed that Jesus had been resurrected. Mary, after encountering the resurrected Jesus in person, exclaimed to the other disciples, “I have seen the Lord” (John 20:18)
Then Jesus appeared to the rest of the disciples, and John records, “Then the disciples were glad when they saw the Lord” (John 20:20)
Thomas missed the meeting with Jesus and, having not seen with his own eyes, declared, “Unless I see in his hands the mark of the nails, and place my finger into the mark of the nails, and place my hand into his side, I will never believe.” (John 20:25) But he too saw Jesus, and then he too believed, John tells us.
Jesus went on to say, “Have you believed because you have seen me? Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed.” (John 20:29)
I guess it is no surprise then that; “seeing is believing” is a proverbial saying that is so universally understood. And yet Jesus, when he was praying for his disciples and for you and I prayed for us who would believe in Him without seeing Him; “I am praying not only for these disciples but also for all who will ever believe in me through their message.” (John 17:20)
In his letter, Peter, one of the ones who believed because he saw Jesus, one who believed because he was an eyewitness of Jesus’ life, transfiguration, death, resurrection & ascension, wrote;
Peter knows how he, Mary, John, the other disciples and Thomas all needed to see Jesus resurrected in order to believe. And Peter would have remembered Jesus’ words to Thomas about the blessedness of those who would believe in Him without seeing Him.
Maybe Peter was there overhearing Jesus’ prayer recorded in John 17 and remembered while writing to these believers how Jesus had prayed for those who would believe in Him not because they saw Him but because Jesus’ disciples would share the good news, the message of Jesus with them…
Because he writes;
You love him even though you have never seen him. Though you do not see him now, you trust him; and you rejoice with a glorious, inexpressible joy. 9 The reward for trusting him will be the salvation of your souls. (1 Peter 1:8-9 in NLT)
I detect a hint of marvelling in Peter. Knowing himself, knowing what people are like having seen the wrestle Thomas had, and then thinking of how those who have not seen but have believed in Jesus without ever having seen Him.
Fellow believers, even though we have not seen the resurrected Jesus, we have believed, we have trusted the truths we have read about Him in His word, we have believed & we rejoice with joy that is inexpressible.
How did this happen? I believe it happened because Jesus prayed for us (John 17:20) and because we were foreknown & elected by God before the foundation of the world was laid because of His love (1 Peter 1:1-2 & Ephesians 1:4-5).
You have believed in Jesus without seeing – you are truly blessed. You are an answer to Jesus’ prayer to the Father; you and your faith in Jesus are an exception to the way most people in the world think, and you are blessed.
And, one day, all of us who have believed will see Jesus as He is in all his glory (John 17:24).
“Father, I want these whom you have given me to be with me where I am. Then they can see all the glory you gave me because you loved me even before the world began!”
But until then, be encouraged; “though you have not seen Him, you love Him.” Love Jesus & trust in Him with all your heart, rejoice in Him, delight in Him with joy that is inexpressible and filled with glory because the reward for this believing without seeing is the salvation of your souls (1 Peter 1:9).
When Life Blurs Our Vision (Psalm 43)
Do you know the feeling – when life’s circumstances skew your perspective so much that you are no longer seeing correctly?
The Psalmist in Psalm 43 is overwhelmed & preoccupied by some hard times brought on by the actions of others. As a result, he begins with a request – he wants God to vindicate him, to defend & deliver him from unjust, ungodly, deceitful people.
His is the prayer of a person who feels powerless; they have reached the end of the limit of themselves, and so they cry out to God to do something on their behalf (43:1)
But that is not all. This poor ‘victim’ isn’t just feeling unjustly treated; he has another problem. He feels God has let him down like God, who ought to be his refuge, hasn’t been. Like God has dropped the ball and left him exposed to these ungodly people, and so his lament is actually against God (43:2)!
Effectively, he says to God, ‘You are my refuge, but You’ve been no refuge at all – you have left me exposed, You have rejected me; God!’ (paraphrase of 43:2a). His lament is about God.
How often don’t we do this? Life is hard; we face difficulties and trials, but before we know it, we are grumbling to God about God Himself.
The ‘victim narrative’ is not new; it is as old as the sun. The Psalmist is so self-centred and entitled at this point that he expresses disbelief that he has had to experience sadness because of the actions of others (43:2b).
Yet, God is so gracious! Although the Psalmist’s prayers begin with a request for protection & ejection from the circumstances he is enduring, and even though his prayer progresses to grumbling about God and accusing God of rejecting him & leaving him exposed so that he suffers at the hands of his enemies…God is quiet.
Thank you, LORD, for not responding too quickly to our rants – at times. Thank you, LORD, for your silence, for allowing us to blow off ungodly misdirected steam in prayer at times, and for just being silent.
Often, what we think our needs are and what is truly our most significant need are not the same. In his prayer process, eventually, the Psalmist realises that he has another need! More than vindication or protection from his enemies, he needs proximity to God (43:3).
Sometimes, trials and life circumstances can so occupy our attention that we drift from being close to God. Our vision is so full of our problems that we can’t see God anymore, and in those moments, we can find that we have drifted from His nearness. We can have drifted so far off course that we need help finding our way back into God’s presence.
So, the Psalmist’s prayer changes & then he prays;
Send your light and your truth; let them lead me. Let them bring me to your holy mountain, to your dwelling place. Then I will come to the altar of God, to God, my greatest joy. I will praise you with the lyre, God, my God. – Psalm 43:3-4 (CSB)
The Psalmist’s greatest need & ours – is God, our greatest joy. We were made for proximity to God. God hard-wired this need and desire into the very fibre of our being. It is a creation ordinance.
Adam and Eve walked daily in the Garden with God before sin ruined that perfect relationship. But the wiring is still in us; it is how we were made. Our internal compass points to God; we were made to be close to God, to desire God’s presence, to dwell with God & to have God as our greatest joy (43:4).
Yet, sometimes life has skewed our vision, distracted us, and our troubles can preoccupy us that we need help to get back to nearness with God. And so, the Psalmist’s request effectively becomes, ‘Help me find my way back to you, God’ (43:3).
Rick Warren famously said, People close to God are not ‘lucky’, they are not ‘blessed’, and they do not have some spiritual gift of closeness bestowed on them. Instead, they have made a decision!
The Psalmist started with a felt need; he needed God’s protection & deliverance & he felt like God was not delivering, and yet his prayer transformed his perspective so that he began to see his greater need – closeness to God.
And so, the Psalmist asks for God’s help to guide him back to God’s presence. However, as Christ followers, we know the One who is the Way, the truth and life. We have believed in the One who is the only way into the Father’s presence.
And so, we have the confidence to enter the holy places by the blood of Jesus. We know the way into God’s presence; we come by a new and living way opened up for us by the life, death & resurrection of Jesus (Hebrews 10:19-20).
More than this, we have Jesus, our great high priest, who is ever living to intercede for us in the throne room of God. Therefore, let’s draw near to God the Father with hearts full of confident faith because of our glorious Saviour, Jesus (Hebrews 10:21-22).
Our whole being is transformed by God’s presence so that depression, grumbling & despair are superseded by hope, praise, gratitude & faith (43:5).
Brother or sister, you and I have no greater need than proximity to God. And you do not need to ask God to send you light or truth to lead you into His presence – you have none other than Jesus Christ, the One who is the way, the truth, and the life eagerly waiting for you to come. Jesus is standing waiting for you to simply reach out to Him & if you do, if you invite Him into your presence, He will enter and dwell with you (Revelation 3:20).
So enter His presence, let us draw near to God; Jesus is with you now and omnipresent. Ask Him to make you aware of His presence with you right now – the very thing you need more than any other felt need.
Delight yourself in Jesus, God who has promised, ‘never will I leave you and never will I forsake you’ (Hebrews 13:5). So, because God is with you and for you, what can people do to you (Hebrews 13:6)?
Silent Saviour (Psalm 39)
Don’t just read the Bible; rather, let it search you & let God speak to you through it. Scripture came alive to me today as I meditated on Psalm 39.
What started as another Psalm of David’s lamenting injustice & detailing his struggle to remain quiet & at peace in his heart while feeling aggrieved by the actions of others (39:1-3)…Suddenly, it opened into a Psalm that helped me worship my Saviour today with a new light!
I was identifying with David on the struggle of holding your tongue in the presence of injustice & how restraining the tongue can lead to another fire – an internal one which ended up in hot words anyway… (39:1-3)
But then I was drawn to the phrase, “I was mute and silent; I held my peace…” And it struck me that Isaiah had prophesied about Jesus;
He was oppressed, and he was afflicted, yet he opened not his mouth; like a lamb that is led to the slaughter, and like a sheep that before its shearers is silent, so he opened not his mouth. (Isaiah 53:7)
The apostle Peter, who was an eyewitness of Jesus’ various trials and his death on the cross, wrote these words;
When he was reviled, he did not revile in return; when he suffered, he did not threaten, but continued entrusting himself to him who judges justly. 24 He himself bore our sins in his body on the tree, that we might die to sin and live to righteousness. By his wounds you have been healed. (1 Peter 2:23-24)
Although David struggled in the presence of evil & injustice, and I like him too. My Saviour Jesus kept His peace when oppressed; he didn’t fight back but was silent and didn’t insult back when He was unjustly accused, abused and insulted.
And so, Lord, where do I put my hope? My only hope is in you. (Psalm 39:7 in NLT)
Jesus Christ is our only hope, so
- We put our hope in the ONE (vs7) who didn’t speak when falsely accused! (vs1-3)
- We put our hope in the ONE (vs7) who, unlike us (vs4-6), is eternal, the unending ONE who can therefore save us completely (Hebrews 7:25).
- We put our hope in the ONE who alone can deliver us from all our transgressions BECAUSE He didn’t ask the Father to deliver Him when He bore our transgressions (vs8).
- We put our hope in the ONE who didn’t open His mouth to ask the Father to rescue Him from the cross so He could rescue us (vs9)!
- We put our hope in the ONE who endured the wrath of God against sin, who didn’t ask the Father to remove His stroke from him so that we would never receive the stroke of God’s wrath against our sin (vs9-10).
Jesus, thank You for not asking the Father to deliver You from the sin that was on You SO THAT You could deliver us, thank You for not opening Your mouth to ask the Father to rescue You SO THAT You could rescue us, and thank You for not asking the Father to stop the His punishment of You for our sin SO THAT You could be the propitiating sacrifice that took away the Holy Father’s wrath, SO THAT we would never have to face His wrath but only receive His loving embrace!
We are in awe of You, Jesus; we worship You & praise You for who You are & for what You have done in saving us.
Born into a living hope!
“Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! According to his great mercy, he has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead” (1 Peter 1:3)
Having greeted the recipients of his letter, believers throughout modern-day Turkey. Peter bursts into praise to the Father in heaven for His great mercy, which caused those who believed in Jesus to be ‘born again’ (1 Peter 1:3).
There was a day when every one of us had come into this world with a first gasp of oxygen filling our lungs. But Peter celebrates another birth here – the second birth of every believer in Jesus.
That being ‘born again’ that Jesus first spoke of to Nicodemus (John 3:3-7) & which John wrote of in his gospel when he said, “But to all who did receive him, who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God, 13 who were born, not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man, but of God” (John 1:12-13).
When a baby is born, they are hopefully greeted with eager expectation into a web of loving relationships & receive a birth name & surname that anchors their identity & belonging in the world.
Through this second birth, we too are supernaturally welcomed eternally into a new identity & sense of belonging as we are welcomed into a loving relationship with God, and all those who like us have been welcomed into His worldwide family through faith in Jesus (1 John 3:1).
In our text, Peter draws our attention to another thing – we are born again into a living hope. Peter’s lived experience fills this phrase, ‘a living hope’ with meaning.
The Old Testament prophets had prophesied in the hope of the Messiah to come. Simeon, when He saw Him as a baby, sang in hope;
“…my eyes have seen your salvation 31 that you have prepared in the presence of all peoples, 32 a light for revelation to the Gentiles, and for glory to your people Israel.” (Luke 2:30-32)
Thirty years later, Peter found Him, the One Simeon had sung a Messianic hope over! And when He saw Jesus, he left all he knew to follow Jesus (Luke 5:11). Peter’s hope that Jesus indeed was the Messiah must have grown as he spent time with Jesus, talking along the road, listening to every sermon, watching every interaction with people & with each miracle he witnessed Jesus perform.
Peter’s conviction & hope regarding Jesus indeed peaked just after seeing Jesus transfigured before his very eyes on the mountaintop, so much so that Peter proclaimed that Jesus was the anointed “Christ of God” (Luke 9:20).
But Peter’s hope must have been severely dented when soldiers whisked Jesus away to face charges of blasphemy before the High Priest & the Council. And, as he watched from a distance & denied three times the One he had fixed his hope to – Peter must have felt devastated as his hope was dashed.
Peter was there when his hope died & cried out, “It is finished” (John 19:30). What depths of despair, hope lost.
But! Just a few days later, when Mary Magdalene came running to Peter saying that Jesus was not in the tomb, Peter must have had millions of thoughts rushing through his mind… Was his body stolen? By whom? Why? Or, was Jesus actually alive like He said He would be (Luke 9:22)?
Hope is rising again amidst the questions. Then later, Mary returned saying, “I have seen the Lord” (John 20:18), and hope rose even more despite the questions. But when Jesus walked into the upper room, and the risen Lord Jesus came and stood among the disciples, I can only imagine how Peter’s heart leapt with hope!
Now writing to the believers in Asia, Peter writes;
“Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! According to his great mercy, he has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead” (1 Peter 1:3)
He had seen the resurrected Jesus in the flesh, and that first encounter was branded into his mind forever. Peter’s hope, our hope, was a person – Jesus Christ the One who was dead, but He is alive forevermore.
So, Jesus is our living hope. And He ever lives now to intercede for us & to act as our one Mediator for us before the Father in Heaven (1 Timothy 2:5).
Isn’t it incredible & reassuring that our Messiah isn’t just an idea, or some dead person or even worse some mythological figure of history, but living & active person who loves us. Someone we can cry out to, pour out our hearts to, someone we can love and be loved by.
In another sense, the phrase ‘a living hope’ represents the hope in Peter’s heart and ours that Jesus will return for us at the end of this age to take us to be with Him in heaven & the new earth, forever ushering in a new and everlasting era. A day when we will receive glorified bodies fit for eternity & all of creation will be renewed (Revelation 21:5). Jesus is our & all creation’s living hope!
Lastly, Jesus is our living hope because His resurrection life is the guarantee both of our life now as believers (Galatians 2:20) & our resurrection life to come (1 Corinthians 15:12-58).
“Our hope is anchored in the past: Jesus rose! Our hope remains in the present: Jesus lives! Our hope is completed in the future: Jesus is coming!” – Edmund Clowney.
Thank you Jesus for being our living hope, a hope that fills the present with meaning & significance and fills the future with joyful expectation.
Mercy: moves towards need.
1 Peter 1:3-5
John Piper has said that God’s glory is the beauty of the whole panorama of God’s perfections. We delight, therefore, in the fullness of who God is. We ought to be careful of having favourite attributes of God, lest we become guilty of fashioning a ‘god’ suitable to our preferences like the idol makers Isaiah admonished.
And yet, an attribute of God’s character & being that has become especially dear to me is the mercy of God. Until recently, I had a feeble understanding of God’s mercy. I had always understood mercy as being contrasted to grace. Grace was getting what I didn’t deserve, and mercy was not getting what I did deserve. Mercy was not receiving the punishment or wrath of God that I deserved – and this is all true.
However, what was missing for me was that mercy is drawn towards weakness & helplessness, not repulsed by it. God, in His great mercy, saw me in my sin-soaked helpless state and moved towards me, not away from me. Oh, the immeasurable richness of His kindness in coming towards me in the incarnation – the great mercy of God in Jesus Christ, my Messiah!
This insight that mercy’s trajectory is towards need & helplessness has opened my eyes to portions of Scripture that reveal some of the motives behind God’s saving work. As I meditate on Peter’s outburst of praise & thanks to God again this morning, I see God’s abundant mercy as the deep well from which God’s plan of salvation flowed.
Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! According to his great mercy, he has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, 4 to an inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled, and unfading, kept in heaven for you, 5 who by God’s power are being guarded through faith for a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time. (1 Peter 1:3-5)
The apostle Paul similarly attributes God’s work of salvation to God’s mercy;
And you were dead in the trespasses and sins 2 in which you once walked, following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience— 3 among whom we all once lived in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the body and the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, like the rest of mankind. 4 But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, 5 even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ—by grace you have been saved.” (Ephesians 2:1-5)
The spring from which salvation flowed was God’s mercy. We were dead, helpless, sinful, deserving of God’s wrath, BUT GOD being rich in mercy, because of His great mercy, moved towards us, not away from us, sent Jesus Christ the Son towards us to save us and cause us to be born again into a living hope through His life, death & resurrection – hallelujah.
The whole incarnation is God’s mercy being physically demonstrated in Jesus. If God was holy, righteous & just but not merciful, God would have recoiled from our sins & shame pitied our hopelessness. But our God is the same God who, when Moses asked God to show him His glory, revealed Himself to Moses as;
The Lord passed before him and proclaimed, “The Lord, the Lord, a God merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness (Exodus 34:6)
God revealed His glory as being shown in His mercy & grace. God’s glory is that despite being the Holy One, He is moved to action in the presence of need by His mercy – which is the fountainhead of our salvation.
Thinking about salvation, Peter can not help but consider again that the source of the things that are given to us in salvation (our living hope & our eternal inheritance) have been given to us because of the way God has responded to our need – with His great mercy.
Stop for a moment and thank God for His mercy. Thank Him that He moved towards your sin, your mess & your helplessness – in sending you Jesus. Your Saviour was moved with such compassion; He didn’t just reach out His hand but gave His whole life for you because of His great mercy.
Jesus, thank you for moving towards my sin by taking on flesh & becoming like me so that you could save me from yourself by giving yourself as my propitiatory sacrifice so that I could be forgiven.
Jesus, thank you for moving towards my weakness by sending me the Holy Spirit as my Helper for all of life, not just to come and help me but to dwell within me forever.
Jesus, thank you for moving towards my insecurity & anxiety with your assuring steadfast love & faithfulness & your promises of proximity.
Jesus, thank you for moving towards my doubt, fear & unbelief with continual revelations & experiences of your trustworthiness & your undeniable love and attention to the slightest needs.
Jesus, thank you for moving towards my lack of wisdom or resources in giving me the Holy Spirit & your Scriptures, which give me everything I need for life and godliness.
Jesus, thank you for never moving away from me but because of your great mercy always moving towards me and my need & frailty – how I love your mercy, LORD. Make me more like You as I see need & brokenness around me. Amen.
Jesus: Your brother.
“Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! According to his great mercy, he has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead” – 1 Peter 1:3
Having introduced the letter with a greeting & a blessing to God’s chosen people spread throughout modern day Turkey. Peter then calls them & us to universally ‘bless’ or to ‘praise’ our Father in heaven. But note how the apostle describes our heavenly Father.
He is; “the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ!” (vs3a)
Pause for a moment to consider this statement. Your and my heavenly Father is also Jesus’ heavenly Father. Here we have the mystery & the wonder of the Triune God on display again for the second time in this letter (see also vs2).
“God eternally exists as three persons, Father, Son and Holy Spirit, and each person is fully God, and there is one God.” – Wayne Grudem
God your heavenly Father is also the God-man, Jesus’ Father! Jesus defers to the Father continually as is most beautifully seen in John’s gospel. I love Jesus’ words in John 5:19; “Truly, truly, I say to you, ‘the Son can do nothing of his own accord, but only what he sees the Father doing. For whatever the Father does, that the Son does likewise.”
Having walked with Jesus, observed Jesus, Peter is clear that Jesus the Messiah related to God as His Father. He heard Jesus speak of the Father, he witnessed Jesus’ prayer life continually taking time to be with the Father to wait on the Father & saw Jesus’ total obedience to the Father’s will, especially in the garden of Gethsemane.
Having just marvelled at the wonder of the salvation of those he is writing to (vs1-2), Peter calls these believers in Jesus to praise God the Father, the One who sent their Saviour, the Lord Jesus Christ so that they might be born again.
It was the Father’s plan to save them. We know that Peter and the believers just after Jesus’ death & resurrection believed that everything of Jesus’ life was the plan of God the Father’s since they prayed;
for truly in this city there were gathered together against your holy servant Jesus, whom you anointed, both Herod and Pontius Pilate, along with the Gentiles and the peoples of Israel, 28to do whatever your hand and your plan had predestined to take place. – Acts 4:27-28
The apostle knew that God the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, was the One to be praised for the plan of salvation because He was the One whom Jesus was obeying & therefore our being saved was ultimately His plan, so He is worthy of our praise & thanks.
All praise to God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. It is by his great mercy that we have been born again – 1 Peter 1:3a – NLT
I will come back to the wonder of salvation & the mercy of God another day. But for today, I want to behold the wonder of the Trinity & it’s implications flowing out of 1 Peter 1:3.
Because God the Father is not just my heavenly Father, but also Jesus’ Father – that establishes a relationship between Jesus & ourselves that is simply wonderful to marvel at.
Jesus is not just our Messiah & Lord, worthy of all praise, honour & thanks. But Jesus is our ‘older brother’! Jesus is and was truly God & truly human, Jesus became like us so that He could save us from our sin through His atoning sacrifice & become our merciful & faithful High Priest representing us before God the Father.
Since therefore the children share in flesh and blood, he himself likewise partook of the same things, that through death he might destroy the one who has the power of death, that is, the devil, 15 and deliver all those who through fear of death were subject to lifelong slavery. 16 For surely it is not angels that he helps, but he helps the offspring of Abraham. 17 Therefore he had to be made like his brothers in every respect, so that he might become a merciful and faithful high priest in the service of God, to make propitiation for the sins of the people. 18 For because he himself has suffered when tempted, he is able to help those who are being tempted. – Hebrews 2:14-18
But note, Jesus didn’t just become human, He became our ‘brother’ – Jesus & I are related to one another because of our common relationship to God the Father. Our brother is our High Priest who mediates in the presence of the Almighty God, our Father in Heaven. He knows us, He has shared our humanity, our frailness, our suffering and so he is touched by our experiences of life & sympathises with us (Hebrews 4:14-15).
And now in this life, we are being transformed more and more into our older brother’s likeness. God the Father chose us, predestined us, foreknew us (1 Peter 1:2) so that we would be conformed to the image of God’s Son – Jesus. So that He, Jesus, would be the first of many brothers & sisters.
For those whom he foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, in order that he might be the firstborn among many brothers. – Romans 8:29
How great is the love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God! And that is what we are! – 1 John 3:1 NIV
Jesus, is not just your Saviour, He is your brother! What a privilege to be welcomed into this family over which the Father providentially cares & loves. This is who you really are, this is your primary identity now. You are in God’s family, you belong & you are being moulded daily more and more into the likeness of your brother – Jesus. He is your empathetic High Priest who is also your brother! Amen.
A Day Like No Other (Mark 15:1-32)
From the time of Jesus’ instructions to the disciples to find a place to prepare for and then celebrate the Passover with a meal we now call ‘The Last Supper’ to Jesus death is a period of just 24hrs.
And yet, these 24hrs take-up 92 verses in Mark, 103 verses in Matthew, 74 in Luke 74 and a massive 225 in John’s gospel. The gospel’s all slow down at this focal point of our faith. So much happens in this one 24hr period of Jesus’ life;
- Preparations for the Passover
- The Last Supper
- An agonising prayer in the garden
- Jesus’ betrayal and arrest
- Peter’s denial & the abandonment of all Jesus’ followers
- An unjust trial before the Chief Priests utterly alone
- A night of mocking and mistreatment by soldiers
- A hearing before Pilate & the crowd
- A hearing before Herod
- Pilate’s capitulation to the blood-thirsty mob releasing Barabas and sentencing Jesus
- Scourging Jesus by the whip
- The walk to Golgotha through the streets
- The crucifixion & death
So, what was the joy in the heart of Jesus that sustained Him through this most terrible 24hrs?
We know from Jesus’ prayer in the garden of Gethsemane that Jesus’ passion was to please Father God in all He did. Jesus desired to obey God the Father and fulfil the will of the Father. We know this because Jesus prayed;
“Abba, Father, all things are possible for you. Remove this cup from me. Yet not what I will, but what you will.” (Mark 14:36)
Therefore we can say that the greatest joy in the heart of Jesus, the joy that sustained Jesus was the joy of pleasing the Father, fulfilling the plan and the will of the Father.
Jesus’ whole life, His coming to earth as an incarnate human being, His 24/7 life and obedience and His death was all fueled by this same passion. Jesus prayed in John 17:1-4 that the Father would glorify Him ‘so that the Son might glorify’ the Father and He prayed saying that He had ‘glorified the Father on earth, by accomplishing the work the Father had given Him to do.
In addition to this, we also know that Jesus endured all that happened in these 24hrs because He also had another joy in His heart. Hebrews 12:2 reveals to us that part of what sustained Jesus through these horrific 24hrs was His longing for you and me.
“Because of the joy awaiting him, he endured the cross, disregarding its shame.” (Hebrews 12:2 in the NLT)
Brothers and sisters, you and I were in Jesus mind’s eye when He endured all of this pain and suffering. The joy awaiting Jesus was us! It was our being reconciled back to a right relationship with Him, which was only possible because of what He was doing by suffering in our place for our sin.
This means that as we see, as we contemplate the ghastly ordeal Jesus endured in these 24hrs we should feel the love of Jesus in each injustice committed against Him, in every droplet of spit sliding down His face, in every strike of the whip tearing flesh from His back, in every agonising step being led like a lamb to the slaughter in silence (Isaiah 53:7-8), in every thunderbolt of pain from the nails in His wrists and the crushing suffocation of the crucifixion. This is love!
“This is real love – not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as a sacrifice to take away our sins.” (1 John 4:10 in NLT)
Why don’t you pause now and pray? Contemplate these 24hrs Jesus endured, bring the details to mind and know this, He did this all out of love for you! Bask in that incredible love of Jesus’ for you! And then love Jesus back in this moment, love Him with your whole life, don’t give Him the left-overs give Him everything. What a Saviour!
Two T’s and a World Pandemic! (Mark 12:13-17 & 38-44)
Taxes, Tithing and COVID19 – what a combo! We are living in unprecedented times of financial hardship. In South Africa, our statistics are that more than 3 million people have been retrenched in the last three months. So we can safely say that for the majority of people we’ve never faced a time like this. In addition to this, many have had salaries reduced, or people’s businesses are under severe strain. Unemployment and uncertainty are at all-time highs.
And then our bible reading plan comes to this little section in the gospel of Mark that seems to have a bit of a mini-focus on money from Jesus as a result of some of Jesus’ interactions.
But is it insensitive to write about money at this time? No, I don’t believe it is, after-all in times of financial pressure or lack we need to speak more not less about money.
Taxes & Tithes
In Mark 12:13-17 Jesus teaches us to be faithful in paying our taxes making our contribution to the governance and upkeep of the country in which we live and in the same moment Jesus teaches us that similarly, we ought to give ‘to God the things that are God’s’ – tithes (Mark 12:17).
Bear in mind that the Roman authority over the Jewish people of the time would have been seen as an oppressive authority by most Jews. This was not a government the Jewish people welcomed, agreed to or voted for! Yet referring to tax, Jesus says that we are to give to Caesar what is Caesar’s.
Now for most people, tax is normally a grudge expense! It is not common to find citizens who just can’t wait to pay their taxes. However, taxes are necessary for civil society to function and when taxes when are administered well they provide things like physical infrastructure, policing, a justice system, healthcare, education and social services for the poor and vulnerable.
Before you understandably interject about corruption in South Africa and you’d happily pay taxes if you knew they would be stewarded well – may I remind you of who Jesus was telling the Jews to pay their taxes to!
The rule and authority of the Roman Empire was an authority that was not invited but imposed through military force. Yet Jesus tells His Jewish hearers to pay to that authority the tax it was imposing.
Let’s be clear, corruption and mismanagement of public funds are sinful, corruption ought to be lamented over and exposed wherever possible. However, corruption does not release Christ-followers from paying our taxes.
Although I can’t claim to have ever been excited about paying tax. I have tried to shape my heart and my thoughts by thinking about two things;
- My taxes are my contribution to all the good things that taxes enable; it is nation-building.
- And reminding myself that if I’m paying tax, it means I have a job and an income and that is something I never want to take for granted!
I’ve found that these things have helped me in paying tax with a good heart. Jesus doesn’t stop there but goes on in Make 12:17 saying that similarly just like Caesar is owed taxes, it is right for us to give to God, the ultimate authority, our tithes.
A Wonderful Example:
Jesus comes back to the issue of money when He does a remarkable thing. Jesus sits Himself down in the temple opposite the offering box and ‘watched the people putting money into the offering box’ (Mark 12:41).
Since becoming a church leader, for the past 17yrs, I have always kept myself from knowing what people are or are not tithing, but Jesus did the exact opposite! Jesus sat there, watching. People are coming and placing their tithe offerings into the box in the temple, some tithes are large, and some are tiny in monetary terms (Mark 12:41-42).
Jesus watches one poor widow approach the tithe box. She doesn’t have much, that is obvious to see. She isn’t dressed in fancy apparel like the rich people and the scribes (Mark 12:38).
We don’t know much about her other than that she was a widow and that she was poor (Mark 12:42). We do also know, however, that what she put into the offering box as her tithe impressed Jesus more than any of the other offerings given that day.
You see, in the maths of heaven, her two little coins (worth probably less than ten Rands) meant more to Jesus than the great sums of money given by others.
Why is that?
Well in the maths of heaven what makes your gift substantial is the heart with which it is given not the amount that is given. What matters is the wholeheartedness of the gift in relation to what that person has been entrusted with financially by God.
And so, it didn’t matter one iota to Jesus that she only had two coins to give! What mattered to Jesus was her heart of generosity with which those two coins were given. Giving is all about our hearts. Jesus taught that where our treasure is our hearts are too (Matthew 6:21), and I have found the reverse to be true as well – that where our hearts are there our money flows too.
This poor widow teaches us that giving to God is not about affordability but is about our heart’s condition. Her offering was small, but it was large, relatively speaking when compared to what she had – so she had given much. Jesus knows this and so says to the disciples (I think in her presence to honour her);
“Truly, I say to you, this poor widow has put in more than all those who are contributing to the offering box. 44 For they all contributed out of their abundance, but she out of her poverty has put in everything she had, all she had to live on.”
She had ‘put in more’ than all the others with their big monetary values! Because her heart of generosity and or love for God overcame her state of poverty. Her heart for God leads her into giving wholeheartedly in rich generosity with faith. We know that she gave in faith because having given she then needed to trust God for the rest of her needs (see vs44).
And because of her example, Jesus makes much of her and honours her above all those giving large monetary amounts but giving gifts that proportionately presumably weren’t generous or sacrificial at all.
Were these others’ tipping’ God rather than tithing?
It seems likely. They were all about appearances, but their hearts were not like hers, seemingly. I think to consider tithing as simply giving to God 10% of the income God has entrusted to you is a really helpful thing.
It is helpful partly because the maths is so easy. It is also helpful because giving a percentage of your income in a church like ours where some people earn more than R100 000/month, and some people earn only R1000/month giving 10% honours everyone’s giving equally.
What matters is not the Rand amount, but that you are willingly faithful with whatever amounts of income God has entrusted you with. And so, whatever your tithe’s monetary amount is it is valuable to Jesus!
We have an older single woman in our church, who actually reminds me of this widow. She is actually supported by our church every month and has been for some time. During the lockdown, she made more effort than anyone else I know to tithe on the money we had given her for her provision! She made a big effort each month to make contact and make arrangements for her small offering in monetary terms but big offering in proportion to be given to God! Amazing.
This is what matters that even amid COVID-19 we have hearts that are wholehearted like the poor widow in Mark 12, that we give from whatever it is God has entrusted to us financially even if that amount entrusted to us is less during this time. And, that we give the whole tithe, that we give with faith and with joy in Jesus.
Jesus seems to like to watch what we are giving and wants to commend us for our wholehearted and faithful consistent giving to God in bringing in the whole tithe. Let’s not be like these rich people Jesus rebuked in Mark 12:38-44 who appear to have been tipping God not tithing and so got rebuked.
Genie? (Mark 12:28-34)
Jesus had caused a stir in towns like Capernaum and Nazareth. His teachings and actions astounded and angered the religious establishment (Mark 3:6).
But he was now having come to Jerusalem, riding in on a donkey in what felt something like the inauguration of a promised Messiah king (Zechariah 9:9/Mark 11:1-11).
And having walked into the headquarters of Jewish religion, tearing up the place, effectively pronouncing judgement on the state of affairs at the Temple -Jesus had pulled the proverbial trigger that would lead ultimately to His death on the cross.
His reputation had proceeded Him, but since arriving in Jerusalem at a high point in their religious calendar, His actions had enraged the Jewish religious leaders.
And so, Jesus had the full attention of all the various religious groups who came to Him in unrelenting waves trying to expose Him, or trap Him in the public space with their crafty questions and wanting to arrest Him (Mark 12:12).
But one Scribe who most likely shared the angst of his fellow religious brothers was intrigued by Jesus’ handling of the various tricks and traps set by his associates.
Something about Jesus drew him towards Jesus. Mark records that he saw “that He answered them well” (Mark 12:28) and so he decided to risk asking Jesus a real question. One that wasn’t designed to lure Jesus into a trap but to learn; “Which commandment is the most important of all?” (Mark 12:28)
Often when Jesus was asked a question with a warped motive, He would answer in an obscure way or would tell a parable exposing the bad heart motive of those asking or even pronounce judgement on those asking. But this man’s question must have felt like a relief to Jesus after the barrage of tricks and traps.
He actually wanted to know Jesus’ answer. And so Jesus gives a succinct answer that helped not just him but helps you and me as Christ Followers to understand what matters most to God. Quoting Deuteronomy 6:4-5 Jesus replies;
The God of the Bible is the only One worthy of worship, adoration and praise. And so we are to;
- Love God with all our HEART (our emotions/desires)
- Love God with all our SOUL (our entire body & life)
- Love God with all our MIND (our thoughts)
- Love God with all our STRENGTH (our energy)
Almighty God is worthy of nothing less than our wholehearted worship. Every facet of our humanity (Heart, Soul, Mind & Strength) is to bow to God in loving worship that is to be expressed to fullest since facet of our lives is prefaced with the word “all” by Jesus.
There is a holy discontent in my heart, soul & mind. Brothers and sisters, we live in distracted days that seem so at odds with Jesus’ commandment here in Mark 12:31.
Love for God, worship of God by even those who call themselves Christ-followers is so commonly lukewarm, so partial rather than wholehearted.
For so many God is like a ‘Genie-in-a-bottle.’ God can stay in His corner of our lives ignored like the Genie concealed in its container until we need him.
And yet when we have some desire or desperate need, we pick up the bottle and rub it in prayer summonsing God to answer us and act as we desire.
Lockdown and a Global Pandemic, today again is an opportunity for us to hit the RESET button if we have slipped into such a form of spirituality.
Jesus’ answer to the Scribe reveals God’s desire for us all; it defines what true Christ-followers lives will look like. And it is radical; it is wholehearted. It is the only way to really live, and living this way will never result in regret.
Jesus wants all of YOU, all of ME. Are you distracted, are you lukewarm, are you acting like a consumer rather than a wholehearted worshiper of God?
This is the greatest commandment – love God with all your affections, love God with all your thoughts, make God the centre of your attention, love God with your whole being, your physical body and all the energy you have been given by Him.
Don’t hold anything back, expend it all, don’t waste your time and energy and focus on anything or anyone else, expend it all on loving and worshipping God. You will never regret that decision!
So, do you need to hit the RESET button today? The Scribe knew that Jesus’ answer to him contained the truth. And that truth of Jesus’ answer is still powerful to transform your life in the present and your experience of life in eternity. It is still powerful to shape your life and to fill your life with that which is truly valuable.
Jesus continued in vs31 to add a second bonus answer to the Scribes question. He had asked for the ‘greatest commandment’ and Jesus answered him, but as a bonus Jesus went further to explain that obedience to the greatest commandment would lead to something else…
True and wholehearted love for God would result in another love – love for other people. You see, love for God transforms who we are and transforms how we treat all other people God made.
It is utterly inconsistent, therefore to claim that you truly love God if you don’t love all people.
And, therefore it is also utterly inconsistent for Christ-followers to be complicit or silent about things like racism or Gender-based violence or injustice since all of these evils are rooted not in love but in a lack of love for individuals God created in His image.
To love God fully & to love people sums up all the commandments. We can easily make following Jesus overly complicated, but Jesus makes God’s will exceedingly clear.
As the Westminster Shorter Catechism states; “Man’s chief end is to glorify God and to enjoy him forever.”
This is our purpose, to love, to honour, to glorify God in all we do. And here in Mark 12, Jesus connects this with how we treat others. If we truly love God, our hearts will be soft toward God, and the Holy Spirit will lead us to love others as God has loved us. This is the whole message of Galatians 5:16-24.
Loving God leads to loving people, being compassionate, merciful, forgiving as we have been forgiven. That’s true godliness, true holiness, the Jesus journey!
And the only way to get to a life that truly looks like that is to have a life that is overtaken with love for God. And the only way to love God more deeply is to see God more clearly, to see who He is and what He has done for us and to live out your whole life as a response. #moreinawe
Turning Point! (Mark 8:31-38)
Mountain tops and valleys! One moment Peter is exclaiming; “Messiah!” (Mark 8:29), the next Jesus is bursting Peter’s messianic bubble, saying that He “must suffer many things…and be killed!” (Mark 8:31)
Keller writes in his excellent book (King’s Cross) how from Peter’s earliest memories learning from his parents would have been hearing that the Messiah would come and defeat evil and injustice.
Now the Messiah was telling Peter; “Yes, I’m the Messiah, the King, but I came not to live but to die. I’m not here to take power but to lose it; I’m here not to rule but to serve. And that’s how I’m going to defeat evil and put everything right.” (Kings Cross pp95)
Bewildering! What is remarkable is that Jesus while referring to Himself says; “the Son of Man (a divine title from Daniel 7) must suffer…and be killed”
Why MUST Jesus the Messiah suffer and be killed?
Well, in one sense He doesn’t have to at all. He is not obliged in the slightest. After all, He has never sinned, and so deserves no wrath against sin or punishment. He is God, and so His will is not constrained in any way.
But because of His love for You and I – He must suffer and be killed. Because there was no other way for our sin, guilt and shame to be dealt with and the wrath of God propitiated.
I am reminded of Jesus in the Garden of Gethsemane in agonizing prayer asking the Father if there was any other way (Mark 14:36), and the Father said nothing because nothing could be said because there was no other way but the cross and calvary.
Jesus had to die; the Messiah must die if our sin was to be atoned for, and if we were to be ransomed and reconciled back to a right relationship with God. What love, what sacrifice for you and me!
This is the turning point of the whole Gospel, WHO Jesus is has been the main idea, now Jesus has just introduced the focus of the second half – WHAT Jesus came to do for you and for me!
This is the lamb of God who came to take away, to atone for the sins of the world by dying as our substitute sacrifice – John recalls in his Gospel (John 1:29)
Peter is horrified and rebukes Jesus (the same word for Jesus’ treatment of demons) but ends up being the one rebuked as Jesus refuses to be tempted into believing there is an easier way. Jesus presses through the resistance with clear conviction and begins again to teach those gathered around.
“If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. 35 For whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake and the gospel’s will save it. 36 For what does it profit a man to gain the whole world and forfeit his soul? 37 For what can a man give in return for his soul? 38 For whoever is ashamed of me and of my words in this adulterous and sinful generation, of him will the Son of Man also be ashamed when he comes in the glory of his Father with the holy angels.” (Mark 8:34-38)
Jesus’ teaching makes sense since it follows what He has just revealed about His own purpose (Mark 8:31). Since the Messiah is going to lay His life down, those who choose to follow Him are called to do the same. Jesus’ purpose shapes our purpose.
Jesus literally dies. Most Christ-followers don’t necessarily have to die literally, but we are all called by King Jesus to die to our old way of living. We die to a life that has ME, MYSELF & I at the centre of it all.
Who is really at the centre of your life? Who is the focus of your attention? Is it yourself or is it King Jesus?
We are to fix our eyes on Jesus, the One who died for us, and in response decide to live the rest of our lives no longer for ourselves but rather for Him who for our sake died (2 Corinthians 5:14-15).
We live like this, believing that what Jesus said is true! We live believing that this is really the only way to live. We believe Jesus when He warns us that spending ourselves collecting things and experiences in this present life trying to satisfy ourselves will only leave us empty.
We believe Jesus who urged us to live our whole lives as a whole-life response to His love for us. Making pleasing Him and sharing His Gospel our whole life’s purpose, believing Him that living like this will result in us enjoying life that’s truly worth having, having satisfaction that is immeasurable and eternal!
You will never regret believing Jesus’ advice on how to live your life. At no point will you look back and think, ‘I really wish I hadn’t trusted Jesus’ advice!’ The Psalmist declares of the ancients of the faith; “They cried to you and were saved; in you they trusted and were not disappointed. ” (Psalm 22:5 in the NIV)
Since Mark 8 records the turning point in this Gospel that is so focused on WHO Jesus is and WHAT Jesus came to do, I pray that it would be something of a turning point for you too. Meditate on Jesus’ words captured here to you in Mark 8:34-38, don’t gloss over them let their eternal wisdom go deep into your soul and begin to produce a life wholly pleasing to King Jesus. The One who went before You and lovingly laid down His life for you and rose again victorious (Mark 8:31).
Reset Opportunity (Colossians 3:16-17)
National Lockdowns and social distancing restrictions stopping churches from gathering for Sunday worship celebrations have the potential to expose & bring adjustment to some unbiblical patterns that have crept into the church of Jesus. Our passage for today says;
Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly, teaching and admonishing one another in all wisdom, singing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, with thankfulness in your hearts to God. 17 And whatever you do, in word or deed, do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him. (Colossians 3:16-17)
1. Corporate not Individual Faith
In our individualistic age, we need first to remember that these words were not written to individuals. “We are writing to God’s holy people in the city of Colosse, who are faithful brothers and sisters in Christ.” (Colossians 1:2 in NLT) Why is this important?
We live in a self-obsessed age. The ‘god’ of our age in the Western world at least – is SELF. Sadly, as believers in Jesus, we are not immune to the influence of our age.
It is all too common to have individuals or families opting out of regular church gatherings be those physical or virtual due to lockdowns on a Sun or mid-week or for small group times of worship/prayer/God’s word/community/care.
They do so, rationalising their choice to themselves or others even though they are in flagrant disregard to the command of Scripture not to stop meeting together as the church (Hebrews 10:25).
The problem is that the decision making GRID they are using is too individualistic and is not Biblical – ‘This doesn’t suit me, I don’t have time, I don’t need this…service/prayer meeting or small group.’
But what is entirely missing is the biblical emphasis we see in our passage today – the very corporate nature of our faith! Biblically, we are a family, a body of believers. We are not individuals doing what serves us and suits us. We are to be those who think of others and their needs as more significant than ourselves (Philippians 2:3-4).
In Colossians 2:19 & 3:12-17, we see radiating out of Paul’s letter his understanding of the church as a body. The church as a community of faith formed by the Gospel and deeply interconnected.
Personal Application:
- How are you engaging with your local church?
- Are you acting like an individualistic, selfish consumer connected to your church in whatever ways you decide while it still serves your needs expectations and desires?
- Or are you truly there for the whole body, playing your unique part, totally committed for the sake of the whole body?
- I urge you even in these unique times of social distancing, to repent of self-centred thinking and to ask God to help you to make your unique contribution for the sake of those other people God’s put you into contact with through your local church community.
- Get into a Community Group and show up each week when it meets, spend yourself for others and watch what God will do in and through you!
- Show up for church mtgs, prayer times etc. and reach out to others daily.
2. Saturated with God’s Word (vs16)
“Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly” (vs16)
The Apostle Paul’s desire for this church in Colossae (and for all church communities) is that it be one that is saturated with the Word of God!
As believers; we have an innate sense that reading the Bible would be good for us and would help us to grow spiritually. And although we might know that Colossians 3:16 urges us to let God’s Word dwell in us abundantly richly – the dangerous modern pattern is that we simply do not read the Bible enough!
Here are some thought-provoking statistics from LifeWay Research (@https://lifewayresearch.com):
- 88% of Americans own a Bible, and 80% consider the Bible to be a sacred book, yet only 20% of Americans read the Bible regularly.
- However, more than half of Americans have read little or none of the Bible
- Less than a quarter of those who have ever read a Bible have a systematic plan for reading the Christian scriptures each day, and a third of Americans never pick it up on their own.
- 57% read the Bible 4 times a year or less!
We are increasingly in a pattern in the Western church at large of wanting to be spoon-fed Scripture once a week by our pastor through the preaching.
If God’s Word were equated to the physical food necessary for nourishment for health and growth – many believers would be on a habitual hunger strike! We would be we emaciated and weak due to our eating only once a week (assuming you come to church every week & that the sermons and worship are Scripture saturated, which is a big assumption)! Is it any surprise therefore that the Western church’s spirituality is so emaciated, weak & riddled with compromise?
I unashamedly want to inspire you to hit the reset button in your life and to inspire others around you in your church to do the same. Decide today to commit yourself to a personal habit, a personal devotion of reading, believing and applying God’s Word to your life and watch what God will do in you!
“When it comes to spiritual growth, nothing beats the Bible… Scripture reflection more than any other practice moves people forward in their love for God and love for others.” – Parkinson & Hawkins
Reflection on Scripture is the most potent spiritual practise you could give yourself to. Let the word of God dwell in you and in your church richly, abundantly, deeply. Make Scripture not just your daily pattern but make it central to your thought processes, decision making, your conversations with others.
Personal Application:
Eugene Petersen said of Bible reading that we should “read the Bible with our ears!”. By this, he meant that we need to read listening to the One who authored it – God Himself. The Bible is no ordinary book, so why not try reading, asking the following three questions as you read:
- What have I LEARNT about God/faith?
- What is God SAYING to me?
- What am I going to DO now?
3. #Everyonehasacontributiontomake! (vs16)
As a church, when we all saturate our individual lives with God’s Word, things begin to change as a result in our community of faith.
- We all begin to teach and correct and counsel one another with all spiritual wisdom rooted in Scripture not the ideas of the world we live in or our opinions.
- We also lose our over-reliance on leadership to teach us once a week through the sermon, rather we start teaching one another from the treasures stored up in our hearts from our own Bible reading.
After all, God promised that we would all know Him (Jeremiah 31:33-34), that we would all be filled with the Holy Spirit (Joel 2:28-29) and Jesus said; ‘My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me’ (John 10:27).
- And lastly from our passage, we all begin to overflow with lives of worship and thanksgiving and praise to God. We won’t have an over-reliance on the worship band to gather us to worship, we will initiate worship in whatever context we find ourselves in, we will break out in hymns and spiritual songs filled with thankfulness to God because we are overflowing with these things because we have filled our own life-tanks and so aren’t relying on someone else to fill us, but we bring our plenty and splash it on everyone we engage with.
Colossians 3:16-17 teaches us that in a biblical church, everyone has a contribution to make! So, let’s all decide today to get into our Bible’s, to fill up our spiritual tank so that we have an overabundant supply to splash on to others in our church.
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What a compelling, inspirational picture of what is possible in your church and in your personal life, if only you and I will allow these lockdown moments to jolt us into a personal and church-wide RESET! Let’s respond to God’s Word to us today and see all that God will do as a result.
Magnificient! (Colossians 2:11-15)
How do you express or explain the wonders of the miracle of our salvation? Paul, in these verses, draws on five distinct word pictures in an attempt to make real to us the wonder of our salvation.
1. Circumcision (vs11)
Male circumcision was the mark of the covenant God had established between Himself and His people (see Genesis 17:10-14). It was the physical sign that this person was set apart for God, was part of God’s people.
Paul takes that whole concept of circumcision and applies it to believers in Jesus. Having believed we are spiritually circumcised, ‘cut off’ from the body of sin (Romans 6:6) that was ‘in-Adam’, and are now correctly described as being ‘in-Christ’ and free from the dominion of sin.
The moment of salvation cuts us off from our old life, our old habits, our old slavery to sin and so we are now free from sin and able to walk in obedience and love for Jesus. We don’t have to try to cut ourselves off from the old life of sin, we have been cut off from it by the finished work of Jesus. His victory is our victory and freedom. We now ought to consider that freedom and victory to be ours and live accordingly (Romans 6:9-11).
We who believe in Jesus and worship Jesus by the Spirit are God’s chosen people now, God’s circumcised ones (Philippians 3:3).
2. Baptism (vs12)
Colossians 2:12 and Romans 6:3-6 both teach that when we believe in Jesus and are baptised as believers, we are united with Jesus in his death and resurrection!
The symbol of baptism in water isn’t just a symbol, but somehow spiritually we are united with Jesus through baptism.
Our going under the water represents our unification with Jesus and His death, and our dying to sin and our old self so that the ‘body of sin might be brought to nothing’ (Romans 6:6).
Our coming up from the water represents our unification with Jesus in His resurrection and our being raised to new life through faith in Jesus (Colossians 2:12-13 & Romans 6:8-11).
Jesus’ death & resurrection remind us of our death to the old life of sin, satan’s control and fear of death and our new life (Colossians 2:13) and hope and freedom that was obtained for us by Jesus on the cross.
[Application point]: If you have not yet been baptised in water as a believer, note how the Apostle Paul has a high view of baptism as having not just symbolic but spiritual significance. I urge you to speak to your pastor about getting baptised in water if you have believed in Jesus.
3. A Record of Debt Notice (vs14)
The third word picture Paul uses is what was known as a ‘cheirographon’ in the Greco-Roman world of the day. This was a legal written note of indebtedness that someone would be given if they had a debt that was as yet unpaid.
Paul uses this metaphor to make clear that when we put our faith in Jesus the legal and moral debt that we owed to God, the debt we carried around with us as a ‘cheirographon’ – that debt was set aside in full.
We were duty-bound to pay that debt, but God set it aside when Jesus stepped in our place and said in effect; ‘I’ll pay for that in full!’ on the cross. When Jesus cried out on the cross in the moment of His death; ‘it is finished!’ (John 19:30) we can understand this to mean that He had paid the price for our freedom from debt in full. And because the price was paid in full, the debt is set aside (Colossians 2:14), the ‘cheirographon’ is annulled, and we are free! No more debt before a Holy God, free at last, free at last, thank God almighty we are free at last!
4. Crucifixion (vs14)
But what did God do with the ‘cheirographon’? In the time of Jesus and Paul, when someone was crucified, a note would be nailed to the cross to tell everyone what they were guilty of, being executed for.
We know that Pilate had a note nailed to Jesus’ cross that read; “This is Jesus, the King of the Jews.” (Matthew 27:37). This is ironic since this was both the charge against Jesus – that He claimed to be God, and also the truth about Jesus that He was God! This note above Jesus’ head as He is dying for us on the cross reminds Paul of the ‘cheirographon’ that God was setting aside through Jesus’ dying in our place for our sin.
Paul then says, God took that ‘cheirographon’ and nailed it to the cross, this is how God could set aside our debt, Jesus paid for it on the cross in full!
5. Victory! (vs14-15)
The death and resurrection of Jesus was the most glorious victory. In Jesus’ time when a military victory had been won, the defeated king or military officials and their soldiers would be paraded in humiliation and defeat behind the victorious king in a victory parade.
This is the picture in mind for Paul when thinking of the cross of Christ and its impact on our lives as believers. The devil and his devilish host have been utterly triumphed over by Jesus death & resurrection; they have been humiliated and defeated, put to shame openly by Jesus’ magnificent once and for all victory!
What good news this is for us who have believed in Jesus. We are on the winning side for eternity; the battle is won, we know how the story ends. His victory is our victory. So live in the good of His victory and never cower in defeat before satan, sin or death.
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God’s Mystery! (Colossians 2:1-5)
[Mystery]: something that is difficult or impossible to understand or explain…a religious belief based on divine revelation, especially one regarded as beyond human understanding. ‘Mystery’ is an important category for us who are so finite!
A few years ago, I resolved; ‘to be more in awe’. To be satisfied with being unable to explain everything and satisfied to embrace my limitations and the corresponding magnitude and magnificence of God and His ways.
There is a theme of mystery in the New Testament from the first to the last page. Need I to remind you of the incarnation, angelic visitations, a virgin birth, water into wine, dead people raised, people healed, demons banished, Jesus the God-man walking and talking to everyday people. The King of kings who came to die on a Roman cross as the atoning sacrifice & rise again three days later with a resurrection body and then ascending up into the clouds before His followers promising to send the Holy Spirit and one day return in glory! Mystery – embrace it, believer!
And then there is a mystery in the New Testament that has been revealed, the secret that has been finally told to everyone. God’s mystery, Jesus Christ! (Colossians 2:2)
Jesus is the mystery of God revealed. Paul is defending the church in Colossae from ‘mystery peddlers’, false teachers who were trying to peddle ‘secret teachings’, mysteries they claimed they had ‘special revelation’ about. Paul won’t have any of it. Jesus is God’s mystery revealed. Don’t waste your time with people who are more excited about some supposed new revelation, extra-knowledge they’ve gained that they want to share with you – Jesus Christ is God’s mystery revealed. In the past, God spoke in many ways, through many people & prophets but now;
“…in these last days he has spoken to us by his Son, whom he appointed the heir of all things, through whom also he created the world. 3 He is the radiance of the glory of God and the exact imprint of his nature, and he upholds the universe by the word of his power. After making purification for sins, he sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high, 4 having become as much superior to angels as the name he has inherited is more excellent than theirs.” (Hebrews 1:2-4)
And what is the mystery which is Christ?
1. The Gospel of Christ: that in Jesus God has revealed a righteousness of God apart from the law (Romans 3:21) that for all who will believe in Jesus (Romans 3:22), Jew and Gentile (Romans 3:29-30). That those who believe are justified by God as a gift of grace (Romans 3:24), declared righteous before the Holy God because of the redemption from the slavery of sin, Satan and death that was made possible by the saving work of Jesus on the cross (Romans 3:24). This happened so that God could be both just and the justifier of anyone who has faith in Jesus (Romans 3:26). Such people are therefore entirely free from sin and given new life in Christ, given the privilege of becoming the children of God (John 1:12) with the certain hope of an eternity in a loving relationship with God. What a glorious mystery revealed!
2. Christ is the King of all kings: The mystery of Jesus is that Jesus is not just the Messiah for the Jewish people. But that Jesus the promised Messiah came to save all types of people, to be King of all who would believe in Him. God’s chosen people had a history of thousands of years cherishing their chosen status, the honour of being God’s covenant people, awaiting a Messiah who was coming to reign and rule for them. The mystery of the New Testament is that God’s Messiah, Jesus came for Jews and Gentiles alike. In Jesus God has made;
“…known to us the mystery of his will, according to his purpose, which he set forth in Christ as a plan for the fullness of time, to unite all things in him, things in heaven and things on earth.” (Ephesians 1:9-10)
“This mystery is that the Gentiles are fellow heirs, members of the same body, and partakers of the promise in Christ Jesus through the gospel.” (Ephesians 3:6)
Therefore through faith in Christ “you are all sons of God, through faith. For as many of you as were baptized into Christ have put on Christ. There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is no male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus. And if you are Christ’s, then you are Abraham’s offspring, heirs according to promise.” (Galatians 3:26-28)
Jesus is the long-awaited Messiah-King. Who has come and conquered the great enemies that stood against us and proclaimed the freedom of His kingdom rule and reign. He will come again for ALL who will believe in Him and reign with them forever and ever in a new heaven and a new earth. Magnificient marvellous mystery revealed.
3. Christ in us the hope of glory: A miracle happens when we put our faith in Jesus. We die to sin & we are made alive to God in Christ Jesus (Romans 6:7-11), we are those who have been brought from death to life, but the life we now live is, in fact, the life of Christ in us (Galatians 2:20)! One of the most profound and prolific statements used in the New Testament is the phrase ‘in Christ’, which appears 90 times. The life of Jesus pulsating through every believer is the source of our new way of seeing the world, our new desires, identity, sense of belonging & purpose, our sanctification our assurance, our peace, our relationships and our hope for the future…
In Colossians, it says; “the mystery hidden for ages and generations but now revealed to his saints. To them God chose to make known how great among the Gentiles are the riches of the glory of this mystery, which is Christ in you, the hope of glory.” (Colossians 1:26-27)
Do you want to grow as a believer? There is no secret knowledge you need to make progress. Because Jesus is God’s mystery revealed. The One; “in whom are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge.” (Colossians 2:3)
So make much of Jesus! Meditate on Jesus, worship Jesus, spend time with Jesus, love Jesus… Doing so will result in your encouragement, in your being knit together in love with others who love Jesus (the church), will result in you growing in assurance and confidence in your walk with God and will cause you to grow in your knowledge and understanding of God (Colossians 2:2). So make much of Jesus, God’s mystery revealed.
Gospel Vignette (Ps 89:14)
“Righteousness and justice are the foundation of your throne, steadfast love and faithfulness go before you.” (Psalm 89:14)
Ethan the Ezrahite could not have been able to see the full revelation of the wonder of the Gospel yet but this one line in his psalm encapsulates so much of the Gospel!
God’s throne (‘your throne’) evokes thoughts about God’s rule, God’s kingdom. God’s rule is characterised by, is founded on God’s character, His nature. Who God is, defines His kingdom.
And as the Psalmist says, God is righteous. This means God always does the right thing in every situation. God is utterly pure in character and flawless in His actions. God is perfect in all He does and is and there is no stain or shadow or turning in Him at all. God’s righteousness is the reason God is holy, totally ‘other than’ anything and anyone else because no one else is righteous.
God is just. He has no favouritism in Him, no partiality that leads to injustice to some. God cannot be influenced so that evil or sin is allowed to prevail or go unchecked or unpunished. God can’t ‘turn a blind eye’ to sin.
Jesus’ righteousness and His justice make Jesus the perfect King. We reverently fear Him because of His righteous justice and yet we are also comforted that the injustices we see daily will be judged.
Because God is just and righteous, we sinners need a Saviour lest we perish in our sin under the righteous judgment of God’s justice. God is righteous in administering His justice and so we need a Saviour.
Steadfast love and Faithfulness announce God’s presence or His coming. Like a praise singer walking out in front of God. Yet the God He announces is characterised by steadfast love and faithfulness so how ought we to approach this righteous, just, Holy, loving, faithful King?
Here is the paradox that is the Gospel. God is holy, righteous & just and we are not! Yet as our Creator, God loves the unlovely and so in love He chose to give Himself for us on the cross to satisfy His righteous justice and to simultaneously express His love. When Jesus died in our place for our sin the righteous One became unrighteous so that we the unrighteous could be made righteous so that we could be reconciled to God in love!
And because Jesus did this, God is faithful to Jesus (1 John 1:9) to forgive the sin of anyone who approaches Him as their King and asks Him to forgive them of all their sins.
Amazing God, awesome Saviour!
The Re-Mix (Psalm 98)
[Firstly, thanks so much to Tom and Donrich who wrote devotions for me in December on 1 & 2 Timothy! Such good content, thanks guys.]
Psalm 98 is a song, that was sung for a thousand years with a particular meaning and significance to God’s people.
But since the birth, death and resurrection of Jesus as our Messiah King, it now carries an even greater significance than the original composer could never have contemplated.
The composer sings of God’s deliverance of Israel from its enemies (vs1-3) how God is worthy of new songs, songs that express gratitude in new ways, fresh melodies and rhythms (vs1).
But for the believer in Jesus, this Psalm about salvation now carries even more profound meaning. God has now revealed His plan for salvation for His people, in fact, for all people through Jesus Christ (vs2).
The whole Old Testament pointed to the time when Jesus would come; however, those events could only be seen dimly to all those believers in the Old Testament.
But then Jesus did come (as we have just celebrated at Christmas) and God’s plan for salvation was revealed (Ephesians 3:9 & Colossians 1:24-29) in all its glory and wonder to the apostles and the early church.
God’s salvation story is no longer a mystery, but a mystery revealed to the praise of His glorious grace (Ephesians 1:3-10)!
So, ‘sing to the LORD and new song, for He has done marvellous things!’ (vs1)
For, God has worked salvation for us in a way that no one could ever have imagined. God became flesh and gave Himself for us to save us from Himself so that we could be with Him forever. Sing a new song about that – marvel at that!
God did this before all the nations. The great empire of Rome heard about it, ancient Greece. God made known His salvation not just to Israel but to every nation, to all people (vs2-3). So much so that every person on planet earth has their history and their calendars hinged around Jesus’ birth date! The good news of salvation through Jesus; ‘will be proclaimed throughout the whole world as a testimony to all nations, and then the end will come’ (Matthew 24:14).
What was once Israel’s song, is not a song for anyone who will believe in King Jesus and bow their knee in glorious good surrender.
So, let the whole earth worship God for Jesus is the King of all kings. Jesus is worthy of majestic, beautiful worship with diverse instruments and melodies (vs4-6).
Let the whole of creation join in and worship King Jesus for he has come not just to redeem humankind but to redeem all things (Romans 8:19-23) and one day to declare; ‘Behold, I am making all things new!’ (Revelation 21:5)
Psalm 98 is an old song revitalised by new revelation, transforming it into an eternally relevant song about King Jesus. Worship Jesus today, sing your own new song, use your own worship let worship bubble up and out of you, He is worthy of all praise forever.
Two words that matter 