Month: November 2024

 …of whom are the fathers and from whom, according to the flesh, Christ came, who is over all, the eternally blessed God. Amen.
Romans 9:5

The Apostle Paul was hurting when he wrote this section of Romans. He realized that the Jewish people were eternally lost because they had rejected their Messiah and he was grieving the loss. They could be saved if they repented of their denial of Christ and embraced Him as Lord, but for a huge number of those who heard the gospel, it wasn’t happening. How much more serious could it be? The man they had crucified was God incarnate, the Eternally Blessed God.

Herein lies the great irony. The Eternal God came to this world to be able to bless Adam’s sinful race with everlasting life. However, to reject this gift of the Savior’s sacrifice outright is to be cursed forever with separation from God. The saddest part of all is that many of the early Jewish leaders, who handed the Savior over for torture and death, did so thinking they were doing the work of God.

As Paul preached the gospel in the pagan world, it wasn’t usually the polytheists who shouted him down, but the expatriate Jewish leaders living in the Greek speaking world. Again, they convinced themselves of their own righteousness and assumed they were doing the will of God. They were tragically wrong and sadly deceived because they were following the direction of the god of this world and not the Eternally Blessed God.

Just like Paul, Christians should feel sad and burdened that the lost are going to hell, but they should be careful not to think it is not their fault that they made bad choices. Just like ol’ Pharaoh and Judas Iscariot, Christ- rejecters don’t flip a coin and pick wrong. They go through life, refusing to acknowledge the sovereignty of God and respond repeatedly to their sinful desires even though they generally reap bad consequences from these choices. They have purposefully and methodically believed the “father of lies” throughout their lives and resist the still small voice of God.

People are saved by agreeing with the Eternally Blessed God that they are hopeless sinners, rather than trying to explain or justify their actions.

October 19

I am the living bread which came down from heaven…
John 6:51

Bread really isn’t alive. It dries out or gets moldy if you don’t take care of it; it’s a lot of work to make and you need an oven to bake it. Wouldn’t it be great if bread could just grow on trees?

Actually, breadfruit does exist and on paper is the perfect food. Its slightly yeasty odor and texture remind people of bread and it is actually very nutritious. It’s a good source of energy and high in vitamins, minerals, and fiber. One tree can produce over 400 pounds of fruit a year, so it seems ideal. There is only one problem, it’s almost tasteless. The food has never really caught on, so it fails as living bread.

After the Lord Jesus fed  5,000 people, they hung around until the next day wanting Him to provide breakfast and lunch. He left that place, so they searched for Him, but when they finally found Him, the eatery was closed. He wasn’t there to make bread; He came to the world to be bread, Living Bread.

The bread He offered wasn’t the kind that filled men’s bellies; He came to feed their souls. Here again, there’s a problem with market appeal. People would rather feed their faces than satisfy a hunger and thirst for righteousness.

The fast-food and grocery industries have built  multi-billion dollar businesses counting on people to make poor nutritional decisions. Food high in fats, sugars, and chemicals will kill you, but that doesn’t matter as long as it tastes good.

People walked away from Jesus on the day He offered them living bread. They wanted the kind of bread that can dry out or get moldy, the kind of loaves that get eaten up today and need to be purchased again tomorrow.

Living Bread satisfies the emptiness within a sin-sick soul. It costs no money, produces sustenance within the person, and keeps on satisfying. That’s a much better deal.

October 18

But we preach Christ crucified, to the Jews a stumbling block and to the Greeks foolishness.
1 Corinthians 1:23

The word stumbling block occurs 11 times in scripture but only once does it refer to Christ. In the remaining ten verses, four times God’s people are told not to purposefully lay down obstacles for others, and six times were told that sin trips us up. The Lord Jesus is neither sinful or deliberately trying to bring down the Jewish people, so, how is the Savior a Stumbling Block?

The New Testament quotes five times from Psalm 118:22: “The stone which the builders rejected has become the chief cornerstone.” The fact that this verse was cited so many times emphasizes the importance of the teaching. The Jewish teachers of the law were those builders. Instead of embracing Old Testament prophesy, proclaiming the arrival of the Messiah, they rejected Him; they discarded the Holy One of Israel.

Obeying the letter of the law became more important than honoring and having fellowship with God. Christ came to establish that fellowship much deeper than it had ever been before by becoming the Mediator of a Better Covenant. The problem is that the rulers of the Jewish people had become comfortable with observing the rules and regulations they had added, and so rejected the King of the Jews.

God, on the other hand, highly exalted Christ and gave Him a Name that is Above Every Name. Since the fourth century, the Jewish people have seen the rise of Christianity and this dispersed people have lived under the control of so-called Christian nations for centuries.

To this day, most of the descendants of Israel still stumble and fall over the Key Stone that their ancestors threw away. Blessings have become few and antisemitism is on the rise all over the world. Yet, most of the Jewish people today don’t understand what is happening, because Christ is still their Stumbling Block rather than a Savior.

October 17

And all drank the same spiritual drink. For they drank of that spiritual Rock that followed them, and that Rock was Christ.
1 Corinthians 10:4

Since the verse above is pulled out of context, it’s a little difficult to understand what it is talking about. Actually, the Apostle Paul was making a reference to the Old Testament story of Moses getting water from the rock. Truth be told, the miracle was performed on many occasions.

Rocks by nature aren’t very absorbent. There is no such thing as a soggy rock. Also a huge amount of water would be needed. Do the math. Most scholars agree that the Israelites numbered around 3 million people and probably had hundreds of thousands of heads of  livestock. Calculating a gallon of water per day per person with two gallons per day per animal, they’d need at least 200,000 gallons of water per hour, (i.e. 55 gal./sec.) everyday day for 40 years. That’s not allowing for baths, washing clothes or spillage. Even if they got that much, it would have to be rationed.

In reality, the water coming out of the rock would have to be a small river that would constantly flow and allow for water seeping into desert sand. Once they found this kind of water source, they wouldn’t find another. But, they did leave it and then found another water-producing rock and then another and then another.

If the desert was full of these “gusher-rocks” then it wouldn’t be a desert. Truth is that God was performing a daily (hourly) miracle to provide His people with water and this miracle followed them as they wandered the wilderness for forty years. In the verse above, Paul tells us that it was actually Christ in His capacity of Creator that was producing the H2O out of stone. It was the Second Person of the Trinity come down from heaven to follow His people and provide what they needed to live. This time He manifested Himself as the Rock.

October 16

…But made Himself of no reputation, taking the form
of a bondservant, and coming in the likeness of men.
Philippians 2:7*

Seven Hundred years before the Savior walked the hills of Galilee, the prophet Isaiah spoke of the coming Servant of Jehovah (Isaiah 52:13-15). Even the scribes and doctors of the law of Jesus’ day had serious problems with the prophecy. It was clear that God’s Servant was to suffer and be cruelly treated in order to justify many, but other prophesies presented the Messiah as an all-powerful king. To explain the apparent contradiction, some suggested that God would send two different Anointed Ones.

The religious leaders failed to see the two separate missions of Christ. Before He could reign and rule over Israel, He first had to stoop to conquer. When the Lord came to die on Calvary, He was the Suffering Servant. When He comes the second time, it will be as King of Kings.

“For even the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give His life a ransom for many” (Mark 10:45). He fed the hungry, attended the sick, and washed dirty feet. Finally, when his time of service was over, He humbled Himself and became obedient to the point of death, even the death of the cross (Philippians 2:8).

Men became slaves to the Devil by emulating their owner. Lucifer is a prideful creature who has the power to hold in bondage all those given to self-exaltation. It is deception to covet power and authority at all cost. But it’s bad business to gain even the whole world and lose one’s soul (Matthew 16:26).

Our master told his disciples “If anyone desires to be first, he shall be last of all and servant of all” (Mark 9:35). Strange logic indeed it seems – until one realizes that there is nothing greater than being like the Lord. Being conformed to the image of Christ is glorious.

*see also Isaiah 42:1, 52:13, 53:11; Matthew 12:18; Acts 3:13, 26, 4:30

October 15

The LORD is my shepherd; I shall not want.
Psalm 23:1

This psalm might be the most well-known portion of the Old Testament. It is commonly read at funerals, quoted in greeting cards, and is set to music. But to most, it is just a pretty poem that doesn’t fit the reality of their lives. It says, “I shall not want,” but most people have plenty of wants: money, things, power, fame, pleasure, and if they do get those things they want even more; they are never satisfied.

The problem is that most people can’t say, “The LORD is my shepherd.” To do so would be to admit that they were like sheep and they needed to follow someone who actually knew the way. The prophet Isaiah nailed it: “All we like sheep have gone astray; We have turned, every one, to his own way” (Isaiah 53:6). A sheep that won’t follow the shepherd always gets lost, even if the shepherd brings it back to the fold. Sooner or later that sheep becomes wolf food. Sheep really can’t take care of themselves, especially the really dumb ones who pride themselves on their independence.

In 1868, Elizabeth Clephane wrote the following poem that later became a hymn:

There were ninety and nine that safely lay
In the shelter of the fold;
But one was out on the hills away,
Far off from the gates of gold.
Away on the mountains wild and bare;
Away from the tender Shepherd’s care.

The next three stanzas describe how the Shepherd searches and suffers to find the sheep until it cries out for help. The last verse concludes:

And all through the mountains, thunder-riv’n,
And up from the rocky steep,
There arose a glad cry to the gate of heav’n,
“Rejoice! I have found My sheep!”
And the angels echoed around the throne,
“Rejoice, for the Lord brings back His own!”

October 14

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Do they not blaspheme that noble name by which you are called?
James 2:7

 The apostle James overflowed with contempt towards rich Christians who flaunted their wealth and expected special seating in meetings of the church. He made a rhetorical question to the saints to make them realize what was going on: “Do not the rich oppress you and drag you into the courts?” (James 2:5). He concluded that such behavior blasphemed the noble name of Christ.

Often when we read in the gospels of Christ’s birth in a stable, or the fact that He didn’t even have a roof over His head during His ministry or that He was buried in a borrowed tomb, we envision the Savior in His humanity and forget that He is King of kings.

Jesus was of noble birth and could trace his lineage back to King David. His ancestry went back to Adam who at one point had dominion over all the earth. But His noble origin goes back further yet. He is God, so He is also Lord of lords, the blessed and only Potentate, and King of Glory.

The Lord came to this world to save sinners “and purify for Himself His own special people, zealous for good works” (Titus 2:15). But of those whom He called there were “not many wise according to the flesh, not many mighty, not many noble” (1 Corinthians 1:26). Yet, it is the plan of the Savior that Christians hear “the word with a noble and good heart, keep it and bear fruit with patience” (Luke 8:15). In other words, He takes those whom the world esteems as lowly and brings them to share in His nobility. He elevates us to be joint heirs.

As a result, we are called on to shed the weak and beggarly elements of our human nature that we were born with and be transformed by the renewing of our minds. The Apostle Paul admonishes believers: “whatever things are true, whatever things are noble […] meditate on these things” (Philippians 4:8). In doing that we’ll never forget that the King of Righteousness is Noble.

October 13

And walk in love, as Christ also has loved us and given Himself for us,
an offering and a sacrifice to God for a sweet-smelling aroma.
Ephesians 5:2

In the Bible, sacrifice and offerings are often mentioned together, but there are important differences. Offerings
 compromise the broader category and refer to anything brought to the designated place of worship that is presented as a gift to God. Sacrifices are a sub-group of offerings and refer to food stuffs that are totally or partially burnt on the altar.

Christ came to earth to sacrifice His life as a substitution for mankind’s sins. This wasn’t something the Lord had to do because He owed salvation to Adam’s race but rather was a free will offering. Jesus didn’t have to save us; He chose to save us.

Since the focus was on giving a gift, all offerings are types of Christ and they come in many varieties. The many variations of sweet-smelling sacrifices were all voluntary and precious. Although a lame, blind, or sick animal could be butchered for food, it could not be given to God; it had to be without defect.

Sin and Trespass offerings fall under non-sweet-smelling sacrifices, but also are Old Testament images of Christ. These were not optional; they were required in order to atone for sins. The Lord Jesus willingly became a sin offering in order to impute our sins as His own, because we were unwilling and unable to reconcile ourselves to the Holy God.

Scriptures also link tithes and offerings. A tithe literally means 10% of one’s income and was compulsory for God’s people. Actually, there were three separate tithes required; one for the priests, one for the feasts, and one for the poor every three years. Therefore, tithing would actually come out to be between 20 and 30% any given year. Anything on top of that was considered an offering.

Since Jesus Christ gave Himself 100% to free us from our sins, He is the living embodiment of an offering.

October 10

For Moses truly said to the fathers, “The LORD your God will raise up for you
a Prophet like me from your brethren. Him you shall hear in all things,
whatever He says to you. And it shall be that every soul who will not hear
that Prophet shall be utterly destroyed from among the people.
Acts 3:22,23*

Shortly before Moses died, he prophesied that another Prophet would come after him that would be on the magnitude of Moses himself. This meant the ability to do signs and wonders at the level that Moses was able to do them, not to mention leading the people of God. Even before “the Babe” was born in Bethlehem, Jewish sages recognized that Moses was referring to the Messiah.

Synagogue leaders would have taught this in the Sabbath services, so by the time Christ taught and performed His wonders, the title “The Prophet” was generally acknowledged as a title for the Lord’s Anointed.

After Christ miraculously fed 5,000 men with only five bread rolls and two sardines many remarked, “This is truly the Prophet who is to come into the world” (John 6:14). On another occasion Jesus stood up to the Pharisees and chief priests so that the crowd marveled and exclaimed, “’Truly this is the Prophet‘. Others said, ‘This is the Christ'” (John 7:40-41). Even King Herod’s advisers discussed who Jesus was. The king feared Jesus was John the Baptist come back to life, but some of his counselors speculated that. “It is the Prophet, or like one of the prophets” (Mark. 6:15).

The verses at the beginning of this meditation come from Peter’s sermon in the temple after the healing of the lame man. Again, a major miracle was performed and still some people argued rather than coming to the conclusion of faith in the Messiah. Peter reminded them that these very people had seen the fulfillment of the Prophet coming, but they crucified Him instead of giving Him glory.

The bottom line is that some people repented and embraced the Savior while others rejected the Prophet and were utterly condemned just like people today.

*see also Deuteronomy 18:15,18; Mark 6:15; John 6:14, 7:40

October 8

The woman said to Him, “Sir, I perceive that You are a prophet.”
John 4:19

In English grammar, the little word “a” is an indefinite article. That means that the noun it is linked to is nothing special or in particular. When the Samaritan woman called Jesus a prophet, she was seeing Him as one among many religious professionals.

The woman at the well had never seen Christ before, and yet, He knew all about her. He knew things that only God could know, so she assumed that God had revealed the information to Him. No one in that village had ever seen a man of God before, but seeing how extraordinary this stranger was, she concluded that He must be a prophet.

The title was meant to be a compliment. After all, hundreds of years had gone by without any prophet at all so, she was putting Him into a very special category. Herein lies the whole problem; Christ is in a class by Himself. In every group that people want to put Him in, the Savior must have the preeminence.

In the minds of modern theologians, Jesus is just a prophet. He is a spiritual leader that formed a world religion and is on par with Moses, Buddha, Confucius, and Krishna. But Christ is Lord of lords and all others will bow the knee to Him.

In Islam, Christ is honored as a prophet. However, Mohammed is considered to be “the Prophet” so the Lord of Glory at best comes in second place. That’s wrong! The Lord Jesus remains the only “Way, the Truth, and the Life” (John 14:6).

Whenever Christ is bundled to something else, He is esteemed as less than the God of the universe, so people reject Him for what he claimed to be. Many see Jesus as a way to God (among many others) or a savior for some people in the world, but not others. Unbelief likes to use the indefinite article. It would be like calling Him a prophet.

October 7