When God is pleased

Dove descending on Jesus at baptism - Artist unknown

TODAY'S SPECIAL: Matthew 3-4; Psalm 82

TO CHEW ON: "And suddenly a voice came from heaven, saying, 'This is My beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased.'" Matthew 3:17

When people came to John to be baptized it was in repentance. Repentance implied they had done something wrong from which they needed to turn. Jesus, however, was sinless. He didn't need to repent, so why did He need to be baptized?

John objected when Jesus asked him for baptism: "I need to be baptized by You," he said - Matthew 3:14.

But Jesus countered with "'Permit it to be so now, for thus it is fitting for us to fulfill all righteousness'" (Matthew 3:15). What did He mean by "fulfill all righteousness"?

Matthew Henry in his commentary on this verse says He "fulfills all righteousness" in two main ways:

1] It shows His grace.
"There was a propriety in ever thing that Christ did for us; it was all graceful (Hebrews 2:10; 7:26); and we must study to do not only that which behooves us but that which becomes us" (in plain words, do not only what is required but what is fittingly attractive).

2] It shows His ownership of the divine institution of baptism.
The Old Testament law contains many washing ceremonies. Matthew Henry: "Thus Christ filled up the righteousness of the ceremonial law which consisted of divers washings; thus He recommended the gospel ordinance of baptism to His church."

The beauty of Jesus' obedience, humility, and graciousness was enhanced by what followed. In a burst of unusual demonstrativeness heaven broke through. The Holy Spirit descended as a dove on Jesus and God the Father called in a thunderous voice that echoed through the Jordan's hills (or I imagine hills—like the hills that surround the Saskatchewan River where I was baptized): "'This is My beloved Son in whom I am well pleased.'" If there was any doubt in Jesus' mind that He was doing the right thing, it was now dispelled.

I submit that this is sometimes how God deals with us too. We have a choice. We consider the options and take the course of obedience. Often, at the moment we cast the die, there is no emotion to confirm us in our decision. But later, perhaps with a sense of surprise, we feel the divine smile, the warm, approving benediction. For our love for God and our obedience to Him are of one piece and prove that we are His (John 15:23-26).

Henry says of God the Father's declaration and us: "See how ready He is to own us in Him: He is my beloved Son not only with whom but in whom I am well pleased. He is pleased with all that are in Him and are united to Him by faith" -  Matthew Henry's Commentary on Matthew 3.


PRAYER: Dear God, thank You for this intimate glimpse into the relationship of the Godhead—Father, Son and Holy Spirit. Thank You for Jesus' example  and willingness to "fulfill all righteousness" in this humble way. Please help me to be as obedient. Amen. 

PSALM TO PRAY: Psalm 82

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Unless otherwise indicated, all scripture quotations are taken from the New King James Version (NKJV) Used with permission. The Holy Bible, New King James Version Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc.

Meet the Servant

Image: aschenputtel / pixabay.com

TODAY'S SPECIAL: Isaiah 42-44; Psalm 119:1-32

TO CHEW ON: "Behold! My Servant whom I uphold,
My Elect One in whom My soul delights!
I have put My Spirit upon Him;
He will bring forth justice to the Gentiles." Isaiah 42:1


In today's passage we read the first of what Bible scholars call the Servant Songs of Isaiah. GotQuestions.org defines these:

"There are four “Servant Songs” of Isaiah that describe the service, suffering, and exaltation of the Servant of the Lord, the Messiah. All four songs show the Messiah to be God’s meek and gentle Servant. He is a royal figure, representing Israel in its ideal form; He is the high priest, atoning for the sins of the world. Isaiah predicts that this Servant of the Lord would deliver the world from the prison of sin. In the royal terminology of the ancient Near East, a servant was a “trusted envoy,” a “confidential representative,” or “one who is chosen.” The Servant Songs are found in Isaiah 42:1–9; Isaiah 49:1–13; Isaiah 50:4–11; and Isaiah 52:13—53:12" (read entire article...)

I am sure there are many scholarly approaches we could take to discovering the riches of these songs, but I'm going to look at them personally and devotionally, through the lens of Jesus being their fulfillment—the Servant that these songs celebrate.

The Servant involves all of God.
This first song is rich in all of the Godhead. All of the trinity is here: The speaker, God the Father, who "puts upon" the Servant (God the Son) the Spirit - Isaiah 42:1. Later the Servant qualifies to receive God's glory (which He will not give to another) - Isaiah 42:8.

The Servant is gentle.
I have heard the Holy Spirit described as a gentleman. That is certainly how He appears here as the Servant empowered by the Spirit administers justice, but with a soft voice and unshowy ways - Isaiah 42:2. He is also gentle with the hurting and frees the most tightly bound - Isaiah 42:3,7.

The Servant is trustworthy.
He stands for what is right and true, and is the means by which God keeps His promises - Isaiah 42:3,6.

The Servant is creative.
He was active with God in creation - Isaiah 42:5 and will be the catalyst of new things - Isaiah 42:9.

I invite you, as I am doing, to let this first Servant Song be salve to your spirit today. Do you need gentleness? Jesus is gentle. Do you crave truth and righteousness? Jesus is that too. Do you need to know you have put your faith in someone who can and will keep His promises? That's Jesus. Do you need His creative activity in your life? Ask Him to be Creator in your circumstances.


PRAYER: Dear Jesus, thank You for this beautiful picture of Your willingness to serve God the Father, and us. Help me to find comfort and hope in Your abilities today. Amen. 

PSALM TO PRAY: Psalm 119:1-32

The Bible Project VIDEO: The Gospel of the Kingdom (Theme Series)



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Unless otherwise noted all Scripture quotations are taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

Forsaken

TODAY'S SPECIAL: Matthew 27:27-56

TO CHEW ON: "And about the ninth hour Jesus cried out with a loud voice, saying, 'Eli, Eli, lama sabachtani?' that is, 'My God, My God, why have You forsaken Me?'" - Matthew 27:46

Jesus and God the Father were always incredibly close. Even at twelve years, Jesus wanted to be in his Father's house and seemed surprised that His parents hadn't thought to look there first when He was discovered missing on their journey back to Nazareth.

At Jesus' baptism the Father, in "a voice from heaven" alerted the onlookers to their relationship: "This is My beloved Son in whom I am well pleased" - Matthew 3:16-17.

Jesus was always going off somewhere to spend time with His Father. He'd get up early, spend all night,  stay behind, go off by Himself  just so He could be with Him (Mark 1:35; Luke 6:12; Mark 6:46; Luke 5:16).

Again at Jesus' transfiguration, God the Father broke through to the human bystanders in the proud pronouncement: "This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased. Hear Him!"- Matthew 17:5.

So when Jesus cried from the cross, "My God, My God, why have You forsaken Me?" we know something very serious was up.

And why Had God the Father forsaken His beloved Son? Because that Son had become something the Father could not look at. Jesus became utterly abhorrent to God when He took our sins on Him.

"For He made Him who knew no sin to be sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him" 2 Corinthians 5:21.

Why did Jesus and God allow that to happen? Because:

"God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life' - John 3:16

Explained eloquently by J. I. Packer:

"God's love to sinners was expressed by the gift of His Son to be their Saviour. The measure of love is how much it gives and the measure of the love of God is the gift of His only Son to be made man, and to die for sins, and so to become the one mediator who can bring us to God. No wonder Paul speaks of God's love as "great," and passing knowledge (Ephesians 2:4; 3:19). Was there ever such costly munificence?" - Knowing God, p. 138-9.

PRAYER: Dear God, Thank You for sending Jesus. Jesus, thank You for enduring the utter desolation of my sin and death on the cross and so that I can be reconciled to God. Amen.


MORE: Good Friday

Today the church celebrates Jesus' crucifixion. We call it "Good Friday."

The Good Friday liturgy begins with this collect:

"Almighty God, we pray you graciously to behold this your family, for whom our Lord Jesus Christ was willing to be betrayed, and given into the hands of sinners, and to suffer death upon the cross; who now lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen."

Andrew Peterson's song "The Silence of God" portrays how we  feel when it seems God is giving us the silent treatment. At such times perhaps the best thing for us to do is follow Jesus' example and keep praying.

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Unless otherwise noted all Scripture quotations are taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

Spirit of order

"Creation of Light"
- Woodcut by Gustave Doré

TODAY'S SPECIAL: Genesis 1:1-2:4a

TO CHEW ON: "The earth was without form and void; and darkness was on the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God was hovering over the face of the waters." Genesis 1:2


What is an earth "without form and void"? The Hebrew uses two rhyming synonyms "tohu" and "bohu" for "without form and void." A sidebar article in my Bible defines them:

["Tohu" - a formless chaotic mess, a waste, a worthless thing, emptiness and desolation, for no purpose, for nothing. Tohu and its rhyming synonym bohu are coupled to describe a scene of disorder, confusion, and lack of arrangement. Elsewhere tohu refers to a howling waste, a trackless wilderness, a scene of utter disarray, desolation, and barreness. Tohu suggests 'sheer emptiness' as opposed to order and balance" - New Spirit-Filled Life Bible, p. 927.]

And who was there "hovering" over that chaos? The "Spirit of God" that same Spirit who came to inhabit individual Christians on the day of Pentecost and who comes to lives in us when we are reborn.

My Bible's notes on Genesis comment on the word "hovering": "Hovering connotes sweeping or moving rather than staying stationary. The Holy Spirit is the 'executive arm' of the Trinity so He was quite active as God spoke each word" - R. Russell Bixler,  New Spirit-Filled Life Bible, p. 4.

A grand account of creation follows. It's a marvel of writing, really, if you think of how much the verses of today's reading describe.

It's also a majestic display of the Trinity working in harmony.

God: "In the beginning God created..." Genesis 1:1.

Jesus: "In the beginning was the Word and the Word was with God and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things were made through Him and without Him nothing was made that was made... And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us" John 1:1-3,14.

Holy Spirit: "And the Spirit was hovering ..." Genesis 1:2 — sweeping, moving, and executing the Word.

If we bring together these thoughts about the Spirit, we have a wonderful promise to take into the day:

• God the Holy Spirit can bring order to chaos.

• This Spirit lives in us (1 Corinthians 6:19)
  

• We can trust Him with the chaotic messes, the mysteries and confusions of our lives. He can order them into something meaningful, beautiful, and fruitful;  make out of them something that could be described as "good."

PRAYER: Dear God, thank You for this account of You working in creation, Please bring order to the confusing, disordered, chaotic parts of my life. Help me to cooperate with You in this. Amen.

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Unless otherwise noted all Scripture quotations are taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

Who is this?

Jesus' Triumphal Entry 
by Alexandre Bida

TODAY'S SPECIAL: Matthew 21:1-17

TO CHEW ON: "And when He had come into Jerusalem, all the city was moved, saying 'Who is this?'" Matthew 21:10

I sometimes wish that I could strip away all familiarity with the Bible stories and read them again for the first time. Wouldn't it be a thrill, here, to see Jesus triumphant at last, and enjoy the exultation of the moment untainted with the knowledge that this incident was just a blip and that a few hours from now, a crowd (maybe some from that crowd( would be shouting something altogether different?

I love the way all Jerusalem reverberates with the question: "Who is this?" So many answers jump off the page:

- This was a Man who had unusual knowledge: "Go into the village opposite you, and immediately you will find a donkey tied and a colt with her..." Jesus tells His disciples (Matthew 21:1-3).


- This was a Man who knew His role in history: "All this was done that it might be fulfilled which was spoken by the prophet..." (Matthew 21:4-7).

- This was a man who was humble, yet accepted worship (Matthew 21:8-9).

Was this only a man?

J. I. Packer in his book Knowing God says:

"If Jesus had been no more than a very remarkable, godly man, the difficulties in believing what the New Testament tells us about His life and work would be truly mountainous. But if Jesus was the same person as the eternal Word, the Father's agent in creation, 'through whom also He made the worlds' (Hebrews 1:2 RV), it is no wonder if fresh acts of creative power marked His coming into this world and His life in it, and His exit from it. It is not strange that He, the author of life, should rise from the dead.


If He was truly God the Son, it is much more startling that He should die than that He should rise again. 'Tis mystery all! The Immortal dies,' wrote Wesley; but there is no comparable mystery in the Immortal's resurrection.


And if the immortal Son of God did really submit to taste death, it is not strange that such a death should have saving significance for a doomed raced. Once we grant that Jesus was divine, it becomes unreasonable to find difficulty in any of this; it is all of a piece, and hangs together completely. The incarnation is in itself an unfathomable mystery, but it makes sense of everything else that the New Testament contains."

- J. I. Packer, Knowing God, p. 53-54.

Who is this?

The multitudes answered: "This is Jesus the prophet from Nazareth of Galiliee." To them He was a man with a name, a vocation, and a place of birth on the globe.

We know, though, He was and is much more, and that this triumphant moment was bittersweet because He understood the utter desolation to death that awaited Him. Yet he went through with it. Why? Here is Paul's answer:

"For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though He was rich, yet for your sakes He became poor, that you through His poverty might become rich" 2 Corinthians 8:9.

PRAYER: Dear Jesus, God the Son, thank You for coming to earth, taking on the humility of a human body, going through the ups and downs of human experience, then taking the punishment I deserve for my sins, so that my relationship with God can be restored. Amen.

MORE: Palm Sunday

Today the church commemorates the Sunday of the Passion or Palm Sunday. The day's liturgy contains with this collect:

Almighty and everliving God, in your tender love for the human race you sent your Son our Savior Jesus Christ to take upon him our nature, and to suffer death upon the cross, giving us the example of his great humility: Mercifully grant that we may walk in the way of his suffering, and also share in his resurrection; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.

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Unless otherwise noted all Scripture quotations are taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

Jesus—God in action

Christ Healing - Carl Heinrich Bloch

TODAY'S SPECIAL: Psalm 146:1-10

TO CHEW ON: "… the God of Jacob …. Who executes justice for the oppressed,
Who gives food to the hungry.
The Lord gives freedom to the prisoners.
The Lord opens the eyes of the blind;
The Lord raises those who are bowed down;
The Lord loves the righteous." Psalm 146:5, 7-8

Jesus made sure the oppressed got justice.
When the scribes and Pharisees brought a woman caught in adultery to Him, he made the self-righteous men aware that none of them was sinless. Then, without condemning the woman, Jesus sent her away, though not before naming her act sin and telling her to sin no more - John 8:3-11.

Jesus gave food to the hungry.
He fed at least two crowds, one of 5,000 (Mark 6:30-44) and another of 4,000 (Mark 8:1-9).

Jesus gave freedom to prisoners.
Numerous times He loosed people from control by demonic spirits—in the synagogue (Mark 1:21-28), in the hills (Mark 5:1-20), giving a man the ability to speak once more (Matthew 9:32-34), and freeing a man's dear son from seizures (Mark 9:14-29).

Jesus opened the eyes of the blind.
He did it for two blind buddies (Matthew 9:27-31); He did it with spit and mud (Mark 8:22-26); and He restored the sight of beggar Bartimaeus (Mark 10:46-52).

Jesus raised those who were bowed down.
He healed a paralyzed man (Mark 2:1-12), and straightened a woman who had been bent over for eighteen years (Luke 13:10-17).

Jesus loved the righteous.
He loved the rich young ruler who had lived an upright life (Mark 10:17-31).

Jesus watched over strangers.
He talked at length to the Samaritan woman about her heart thirst (John 4:5-42).

Jesus relieved the fatherless and widows.
He raised a widow's son from the dead (Luke 7:11-17).

Jesus also turned the way of the wicked upside-down.
He did it twice, cleansing the temple of greedy merchandisers, pouring out the changers' money and overturning tables at the beginning of His ministry (John 2:13-22) and again at the end (Mark 11:15-17).

Though we can interpret  "the God of Jacob" and "the Lord" as the psalmist referring to God the Father, isn't it noteworthy that Jesus, in His ministry, demonstrated all these actions literally?

That's our God in action. For, as He told the disciples: "He who has seen Me has seen the Father" - John 14:9.


PRAYER: Dear Jesus, thank You for the wonderful fulfilments of this prophetic psalm in Your life. I know You don't change. Please help me to trust You to be these things for me and for others in need. Amen.

MORE:  "He Carries All of My Sorrow" - Philip & Brenda Janz

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The Holy Bible, New King James Version Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc. - Used with permission.

Who is Jesus?

TODAY'S SPECIAL: Acts 2:22-36

TO CHEW ON: "This Jesus God has raised up, of which we are all witnesses .... Therefore let all the house of Israel know assuredly that God has made this Jesus both Lord and Christ." Acts 2:32,36

Understanding Jesus' identity was a process, even for the disciples. It is illuminating to see how many times Jesus alerts His close followers to who He is and how that will play out. Here's a sampling:

Mark 8:31-33; Luke 9:20-22; Luke 22:37; John 3:14-17

Still they don't understand. Peter is especially forward in voicing his disapproval of Jesus' prediction that He will suffer and die. In Mark 8 after Jesus says plainly what His fate will be, Peter takes Him aside and rebukes Him.

Later, when Jesus asks His disciples, who they say He is and Peter gives the right answer: "The Christ of God," Jesus again reminds them of His fate, that He will "be rejected by the elders and chief priests and scribes, and be killed, and be raised the third day” Luke 9:22.

When these predictions become actual events Peter is the most adamant that Jesus' arrest is a big mistake (he actually attacks one of the soldiers, cutting off his ear). He is then so shaken that he betrays Jesus by insisting to those who identify him as one of Jesus' disciples, that he doesn't even know Him.

Despite this thickness, God doesn't give up on Peter or the rest of the disciples. At the tomb, the angels reiterate what Jesus has been saying (Luke 24:6-7). Later, the disciples who encounter Jesus on the road to Emmaus get another teaching session about how Jesus is the fulfillment of prophecies in the writings of Moses, the psalms and the prophets (Luke 24:13-27).

In our reading today we see that Peter finally gets it. He proclaims boldly, "This Jesus God has raised up of which we are all witnesses .... Therefore let all the house of Israel know assuredly that God has made this Jesus both Lord and Christ."

Watching this process brings two things to mind:

1. I wonder how often we don't hear the things we don't want to hear. That seems to have been the disciples' problem. They had an idea of who Jesus was but thought that He would establish an earthly kingdom. So anything that didn't fit with that, they didn't hear. Are we so different? Do we take to heart the things Jesus said, for example, about the last days in Matthew 24 and 25, and as a result live alert?

2. Each one of us must come to our own conclusion about who Jesus is. Do we believe He is just another good prophet in a parade of prophets that have walked this earth — as a majority of earth's inhabitants would believe? Or do we believe He really is who He said He was — God the Son, who died in our stead so that we can be reconciled with God the Father? Our eternal fate hangs on our answer.

May we, through the Holy Spirit, experience what the disciples did that day on the Road to Emmaus: "And He opened their understanding that they might comprehend the Scriptures" (Luke 24:46).

PRAYER: Dear Jesus, thank You for coming as the fulfillment of prophetic scripture to die for me. Help me to understand the Bible and apply it to my life. Amen.

MORE: "My Deliverer is Coming" - Rich Mullins