Pilate Meets the Son of God...and It Scares Him

Pilate has a fascinating response to finding out that Christ claimed to be the Son of God. When Pilate hears this he "is more frightened than ever." Perhaps because his own wife has already sent him a message saying, "have nothing to do with that righteous, innocent man." Pilate does not listen, nor does he give in to the inner voice that tells him, "your wife is correct, buddy. You'd better listen to her." Unfortunately (on the other hand, fortunately for us), but in God's divine plan and providence, Pilate condemns an innocent man to death, one whom, ironically enough, Pilate himself has declared is innocent.

You have the spectacle of a guilty man declaring himself innocent of condemning an innocent man to death, and the irony of knowing that by that innocent man, Christ, Pilate himself will be declared guilty. Strange doings in history.

He Has Avenged the Murder of His Servants

This from the vast crowd in heaven as they worship God the king in a praise song in Rev 19.1-2. Some might cringe at what appears to be the thirst for blood. I think it is better understood as the thirst to see God take his place for all time as king of all things. The people who murder God's servants are implacably opposed to God and all that he stands for, else why would they kill his servants. We think back to the cry of the martyrs in the great tribulation, "How long O Lord?" How long will you let this murder go on? How long until you stop these people who oppose and hate you?

The cry of the vast crowd in heaven is a cry that God would win out over his enemies; that he would act justly by punishing evil; that he would stop the murder of innocents. It is a good cry. It is a good prayer.

Come quickly, Lord, and avenge the murder of your innocent servants, in India, and Iraq, and North Korea, and China. and across the whole world.

The World's Sin

According to Christ the world's sin is unbelief: The world's sin is that it refuses to believe me; he tells the disciples in John 16.9 (NLT). This seems to fit squarely into Paul's description of sinful man and his penchant to worship anything and everything but the Creator.

Professing to be wise, they became fools and exchanged the glory of the incorruptible God for an image in the form of corruptible man and of birds and four-footed animals and crawling creatures. (Rom 1.22-23, NASB).

Just so. It is not difficult to explain why this is. Mankind is prone to pride; refusing to believe that Christ is God is the outward indication of the desire to be one's own God.

Given Authority

Reading in Rev 13.7, this morning. And the beast was allowed to wage war against God's holy people and to conquer them, and he was given authority to rule over every tribe and people and language and nation.

What strikes me here is that the text (NLT) says that the beast was given authority to rule. The beast doesn't take authority, though when it happens it may seem that way, he was given authority; given it by God. This fits neatly into the biblical theme of God's overriding sovereignty. Nothing happens outside of God's control and care. Even as we approach the true end of history (as opposed to Francis Fukuyama's now debunked theory), when it appears that the forces of evil are ascendant; their ascendancy is given to them by God for his good and wise purposes.

What are followers of Christ to do in light of this truth? God's holy people must endure persecution patiently and remain faithful (Rev 13.10, NLT)

First Words

The first words of the company of the redeemed in heaven are recorded in Rev 7.10 [as opposed to the first words recorded in heaven in Rev 5.13, but this is all of God's creatures, not the redeemed]. Salvation comes from our God who sits on the throne and from the Lamb! The first word is salvation (in Greek "the salvation"). Place in the Greek language is important, so the first recorded words out of the mouth of the redeemed in heaven is "salvation." It seems to me that this puts the emphasis on God's greatest work in history, the redemption of his people. To whom does salvation belong? To us? To our ability? To our acute intelligence in recognizing our need for Christ? Not according to the song of the redeemed in heaven. Salvation belongs to God the king, and to the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world.

Apocalypse (Almost) Now

Thinking about Rev 6.8 this morning: "I looked up and saw a horse whose color was pale green. Its rider was named Death and his companion was the Grave. These two were given authority over one-fourth of the earth, to kill with the sword and famine and disease and wild animals" (NLT). This is an astonishing number—roughly 1.5 billion people today. How it happens and the time frame is not clear, it is after all the book of Revelation. What is clear is that this is a true apocalypse, a shattering of the complacency of the earth and it's silly theories that there is no God, nor any purpose to life, nor any ultimate truth or reality.

Faith is not a One Time Inoculation

The faith lesson I take from 2 Chron 16.7-9. Asa had won a great victory over a huge army of Ethiopians early on in his reign because he trusted in the Lord and the Lord provided a great victory. The next time a big test came up, he trusted the king of Syria, rather than the Lord. His punishment was that he would have constant war for the remainder of his reign.

You cannot assume that, because you had faith once, you are good to go for the rest of your life. A huge spiritual victory is no guarantee that the next time you have a battle you will also win a huge spiritual victory based on the last one. Faith is a living, breathing, never-sitting-still, never satisfied thing. You either grow in the faith or you go backwards; there is no such thing as "making it;" there are no plateaus upon which we may rest on our laurels. It is always and ever upward in the life of faith; trusting on God to grow us.

When Your Pockets Seem Full of Holes

Reading in Hag 2.14-19. I take a couple of faith lessons from this passage for us.

The first thing we should do when things go against us is to ask ourselves, "Is the Lord poking my pockets full of holes?" Which is to say, is the Lord bringing difficulty on me because I have not been faithful to him, or because he is trying to tell me something? God does not always bring difficulty because we have been unfaithful (witness Job's life); however, he sometimes does, which is why we need to rule that out first thing.

Second, the people had holes in their pockets because they were building their own stuff while the Lord's house lay in ruins. They were neglecting God's dwelling place among his people. God does not dwell in church buildings now, as he did among his people then (some deep theology here that I don't have time to go into. How can God "dwell" in the temple and yet be everywhere?). Where does God dwell? He dwells in the hearts and lives of believers, so in the same way the exiles should have been rebuilding the temple first, we should be, as the group Watermark put it, asking the Lord to "come and make my heart your home."

Clearly Predicted

On the road to Emmaus, Jesus, unrecognized by two of his followers, asked this question of the two: "Wasn't it clearly predicted that the Messiah would have to suffer all these things before entering his glory?" Christ goes on to explain to the pair how he (even though they didn't recognize him) fulfilled the Scriptures. The ESV translates the same expression "wasn't it necessary" which is more accurate. The word in its context here means to indicate that something that happened should by all means have happened (BDAG). So Christ's death and resurrection were meant to happen, and indeed, he goes on to explain to his followers just exactly what he meant by that. (Oh, if I could only have been a fly on the wall at THAT exegesis of the Scriptures!)

But Not Here!

Reading in Luke 22.27, this morning in the NLT. It does a nice job of this verse: Who is more important? The one who sits at the table, or the one who serves? The one who sits at the table of course, but not here! For I am among you as one who serves.

But not here. This is a good summation of the approach to greatness in the kingdom of God. In the world at large important people sit. In Christ's kingdom, important people serve.

Prayer: O Lord God, may I be a willing servant to people.

Two Characteristics of God Emphasized in Public Worship

Reading in 2 Chron 7.3, this morning where the people see the glory of the Lord and fire come down on the temple when it is dedicated. They burst out into praise of God. Their praise seems to be a liturgical formula that was used in worship to praise God (2 Chron 5.13). What I find interesting is that the formula emphasizes two characteristics of God: He is good; and, his covenant love (Hebrew: Hesed, a difficult to translate word because there is no comparable equivalent in English) endures forever.

It would seem that following this pattern in our own praise of God might be a good thing.

Observations on the Parable of Ten Servants

Reading in Luke 19.11-26 this morning, the parable of ten servants. Here are some observations not grouped in any particular order:

1. It is a parable of ten servants, but only the first three are referenced. I wonder if "ten" had any significance.

2. Luke says that the purpose of the parable was to dispel the notion that the Kingdom of God would begin right away. This is nice of Luke because we know what Christ's purpose was, which helps us interpret the parable correctly.

3. There is no difference between the servant who made ten times the original amount or five times the original amount. They get the same reception: Well done! However, their reward is different and appears to be based upon their output. The point is that the king tells them both, "Well done!"

4. The worst thing that one can do is nothing. The servant who did nothing with the money entrusted to him is given the harshest punishment. He loses everything.

5. While the punishment for those who did not want the king to rule may seem harsh to our modern ears, to Christ's hearers this would have seemed perfectly just and normal. A king was sovereign ruler, deciding on matters of life and death within his realm. He had certain subjects who were rebellious; who did not want his rule and reign. They were rebellious subjects and worthy of death. Christ's hearers would have agreed with him. This is what rebellious subjects deserved.

God is Good...Trouble Comes

I find it interesting how Nahum juxtaposes God's goodness with trouble coming in Nahum 1.7: "The Lord is good; a strong refuge when trouble comes. He is close to those who trust in him." Nahum saw no difficulty in the fact that God is good, and that he allows trouble to come into the lives of those who trust in him (actually he allows trouble to come into the lives of all people). We sometimes connect God's goodness to no trouble, the Scriptures never do. In this way the Scriptures face reality much better than we do. They obviously see no paradox between God's goodness and men's troubles. In other words it is quite obvious from the Scriptures that God is both good and he allows troubles to enter into men's lives. He does this for many reasons, some that make sense to us, and some that we cannot fathom, which is to be expected. He is God; we are not.

The second part of the verse is the one to hang onto here. God is good, a strong refuge when trouble comes. He is close to all who trust in him. Are you in trouble? Do you trust in God? Then he is close to you. That's what you need to know. That is what you need to hang onto. That is enough.

Prayer: O Lord God may I understand deeply that it is exactly at the point of trouble and difficulty that you are most present; that your refuge is the strongest; that you are most demonstrating your goodness to us.

Dead Men Walking...and Talking...

...are no match for the Word of God. So Christ implies by his parable of the rich man and Lazarus (Luke 16.31). Every time I read this passage I am stunned anew by the hardness of men's hearts and the power of the Scriptures. Abraham states plainly that if men are not convinced of their need for a Saviour by the words of Scripture; they will not be convinced by dead men walking, and warning them of what lies beyond death.

In light of this truth, how ought we to evangelize? Scripture and more Scripture. Take every opportunity to get it before those to whom we share. Speak it. Teach it. Read it. Proclaim it. If men are saved, they will be saved through the Word of God.