What does it say, when Jesus Christ was preparing to go to the cross, where He would bear the wrath of God for the sins of the world, that He was praying for us? As Jesus prepared to go to the cross, He was thinking about us.
Thus, as He prepared to sacrifice Himself to redeem us from sin and death, He prayed for us. He prayed for our protection and well-being. He prayed for our unity, that we would be empowered to carry the Gospel throughout the entire world, and that we would bring Him glory.
In this, we see the love that the Lord has for us. Love can be verified by action, and when the Lord went to the cross, He expressed the highest, and deepest level of love for us. God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.
God’s will is for us to be redeemed. God’s will for us is for us to be saved. He wants us to enter Heaven, and to live with Him in His Kingdom.
His desire for us is strong, and His desire for us is Heaven.
Seeing that God’s desire for us is Heaven, anything less is menial. We need not be concerned whether God intends for us to have certain jobs, cars, houses, or financial blessings. Knowing that His desire for us is Heaven, we should know that God intends the best for us on the highest levels. Thus, we can trust Him, even when the tangible things of this world do not materialize.
Knowing that God’s will for us is to receive us into Heaven, how do we respond to His will?
In John 17:7-8, “Now they have known that all things whatsoever thou hast given me are of thee. 8 For I have given unto them the words which thou gavest me; and they have received them, and have known surely that I came out from thee, and they have believed that thou didst send me.”
These verses demonstrate a few things about Christ. First, they demonstrate the deity of Christ, that He is God in the flesh. Secondly, they demonstrate that Christ was sent from God to complete the plan of salvation. And finally, the words Christ spoke were the very words of God.
Check out Pastor Leland Acker’s message, posted via YouTube above, and let us know what you think.
It’s not you, this world really is fallen, broken, and condemned.
The fallen nature of this world began when Adam and Eve ate the fruit of the tree of knowledge of good and evil. By doing so, they sought to expel God from the lives that He gave them. Thus, man not only began the process of dying, but the impact of sin entering the world affected everything. Suddenly, animals turned carnivorous and began hunting each other. Disease entered the world. The first murder happened, and Cain set out to establish a completely Godless society.
This sin led to brokenness, from Lamech marrying two wives in Genesis 4, to the world being full of violence in Genesis 6. Today, we see this brokenness in the form of a broken society, broken homes, and broken people. And this broken, fallen world stands condemned before God. Consider the words of Romans 3:10-19:
“As it is written, There is none righteous, no, not one: 11 There is none that understandeth, there is none that seeketh after God. 12 They are all gone out of the way, they are together become unprofitable; there is none that doeth good, no, not one. 13 Their throat is an open sepulchre; with their tongues they have used deceit; the poison of asps is under their lips: 14 Whose mouth is full of cursing and bitterness: 15 Their feet are swift to shed blood: 16 Destruction and misery are in their ways: 17 And the way of peace have they not known: 18 There is no fear of God before their eyes. 19 Now we know that what things soever the law saith, it saith to them who are under the law: that every mouth may be stopped, and all the world may become guilty before God.”
The entire world has fallen, is guilty before God, and will be condemned, unless they find His salvation through Jesus Christ His Son. Romans 3:23-26 goes on to say:
“For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God; 24 Being justified freely by his grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus: 25 Whom God hath set forth to be a propitiation through faith in his blood, to declare his righteousness for the remission of sins that are past, through the forbearance of God; 26 To declare, I say, at this time his righteousness: that he might be just, and the justifier of him which believeth in Jesus.”
Sure, the world may be fallen, broken and condemned, but it doesn’t have to be. Redemption, healing and salvation are found through faith in Jesus Christ.
So, in His prayer in John 17, when Jesus said, “I have manifested thy name to the men which thou gavest me out of the world,” He was indicating that He was not only the manifestation of God on this earth, but through His Gospel God’s people were rescued from this world. Check out the above-posted video of Pastor Leland Acker bringing a powerful message of redemption and grace.
The Greek language has a beautiful aspect to it… it puts the central thought of the message at the beginning of the sentence. So, when Jesus said in John 17:5, “And now, O Father, glorify thou me with thine own self with the glory which I had with thee before the world was,” the central thought was “And now…” meaning “This moment.”
Christ was asking God to glorify Him in that moment, not the same way an impatient child wants their birthday present “right now,” or the way I wish my download would complete “right now,” but rather, Jesus was saying, “In this moment, glorify Me.”
The moment Jesus was talking about was the Gospel, His death, burial and resurrection for our sins, according to the scriptures. It is in the Gospel that Christ is truly glorified, because in the Gospel, His mission is completed. In the Gospel, His claims of Messiahship are validated. In the Gospel, He has His complete victory.
The Gospel is the culmination of all the promises God made in the Old Testament. It is the fulfillment of the Law, and it was the subject of the prophets. It was the inspiration of the Psalms. When Jesus Christ died for our sins, redeeming us from condemnation and shame, completing that redemption with the resurrection, the disciples saw their faith become tangible. From that moment, they could keep silent no more.
Because of the Gospel, Jesus Christ is the central figure in human history. Secular history can neither deny the existence of Christ, nor can it deny His impact on the world. While secular history ingores the divinity of Christ and His redemptive work through the Gospel, secular history records how the teachings of Jesus have influenced the greatest philosophers ever since. The teachings of Jesus have also influenced Western literature, and if we are to be honest, the ministry of Jesus is the foundation for Western civilization.
Without Jesus, there would be no Western civilization, at least not as we know it. Northern and Western European peoples were barbarians before the conquest of the Roman Empire. Secular history records that fact. Furthermore, the Roman Empire was heavily influenced by Christianity. With the rapid spread of Christianity throughout the Roman Empire (much of it in that first generation after Jesus rose to be at the right hand of the Father,) Roman culture was heavily influenced by the faith. And when Constantine had his conversion a couple hundred years later, Christianity became the official religion of the Roman Empire.
The conquered barbarians were now civilized, living by Christian values, even if those values were forced upon them. The influence of Christianity then gave rise to literature, architecture, education, the Sistine Chapel, art, and culture.
It was Christianity which motivated the pilgrims to seek a new life in the new world, and serious historians cannot deny the influence of Christianity on the American colonies and the new nations emerging in the Americas. They may deny or disagree with the faith, but they cannot deny its influence.
With this influence apparent, it becomes evident that without Jesus, there would have been no Western Civilization. What more glory could the Lord ask for than to be the bedrock of our culture’s history? I tell you, it is to be the foundation of our faith, which He is. Hebrews 12 says He is the author and finisher of our faith.
Christ was truly glorified in the Gospel, in the moment that He asked God for the glory. Next, Christ will be glorified when He returns. When Christ returns, there will be no debate about Who He is or What He is. There will only be the decision to surrender to Him, or to fight against Him. And many, unfortunately, will choose the latter.
So, with that, the glory of Christ is truly that He is the turning point of human history, the beginning of Western Civilization, but more importantly, the foundation of our faith, a faith which looks to God for forgiveness and righteousness, and trusts Him for redemption when He returns to this world and establishes His Kingdom on Earth. That truly is epic.
One of the most frustrating characters of The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe was Edmund, the younger brother who suffered the stereotypical middle-child syndrome. Lured into Narnia to play with his younger sister, he denied its existence to avoid being associated with her immaturity when confronted by their older siblings.
Eager to obtain special treatment, he quickly abandons his siblings in a new, mystical world to seek the favor of the witch, who had previously fed him Turkish Delight. By the time Edmund reaches the following scene, a full-on war has erupted in his heart.
Edmund realizes that, at the witch’s side, he is on the wrong side of the coming battle, but his desire for self-preservation and the hope for possible future favors prevents him from undertaking his own escape. Ultimately, he has to be rescued.
Most characters who frustrate us onscreen do so because we see a little of ourselves in them. Edmund frustrates us because we see his struggle as our struggle. Trying to fulfill our own desires, we find ourselves trapped on the wrong side of the spiritual battle front. Our desire to be on Aslan’s side while simultaneously receiving Turkish Delight from the witch has rendered us captive, needing the Lord to rescue us by His divine grace.
This battle inflicts needless pain and anxiety upon us, as the struggle could easily be avoided simply by following the words of Christ in Matthew 6:24, “No man can serve two masters: for either he will hate the one, and love the other; or else he will hold to the one, and despise the other. Ye cannot serve God and mammon.”
Just as Edmund could have avoided the whole struggle by choosing loyalty to his siblings, the creatures helping them along, and pursuing the presence of the obviously good Aslan, Edmund tried to have it both ways. Such is the same mistake we make.
Most Christians want to serve God, but to a degree, we also want to enjoy the pleasures of this world. We envision a world where we can somehow live for ourselves while at the same time living for God. Jesus said in Matthew 6:24 that this is impossible. We will either serve God, or we will serve our own self-interests, seeking only to enrich ourselves with the pleasures of this world (serving mammon).
Any choice to try to accomplish both is actually a choice to serve the latter, with the added consequence of self-deception.
Therefore it is important to heed the words of Joshua as he closed out his service to the nation of Israel, “Choose this day whom you will serve… as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord.” This decision will lead to a powerful commitment, one Moses made which was chronicled in Hebrews 11:24-26, “By faith Moses, when he was come to years, refused to be called the son of Pharaoh’s daughter; Choosing rather to suffer affliction with the people of God, than to enjoy the pleasures of sin for a season; Esteeming the reproach of Christ greater riches than the treasures in Egypt: for he had respect unto the recompence of the reward.”
What sinks most Christians is the desire to enjoy the things of the world while having God in their corner. The way of the narrow road that Jesus described is the commitment to serve God first in all things, and trust Him to bless you as a result. To commit to serve God first, and to live for Him and not self, we must constantly ask ourselves two questions. (1) To what have I committed myself today? and (2) Why?
As we continually ask ourselves those questions, while continuously committing ourselves to serving God, we will notice a shift in our priorities, and a shift in our motivations, to the point where we become the people God intended on us being, and we will see the blessings thereof.
As He prayed the high priestly prayer, Jesus told God in John 17:4, “I have glorified thee on the earth: I have finished the work which thou gavest me to do.”
The word “glorified” comes from a Greek word which means to make one renown, to show or demonstrate one’s honor, basically to promote and show the value of one.
When Jesus said that He glorified God on the earth, He was saying that He showed the world how great God is, how gracious God is, how loving God is, how powerful God is, how good God is, and every other positive attribute that you can ascribe to God, Jesus demonstrated it in His life and ministry.
Like Jesus, we too should glorify God.
This sounds like a big task. How much effort and Spirituality it must take to glorify God!
But in all reality, glorifying God is not that much different than glorifying our favorite brands. Ask any Apple or iPhone user, and they will extol the virtues, features, vision and mission of Apple products. They will tell you how much they identify with their devices, or how much their devices seem to enable them to do what they do.
The same is true for Samsung users, PC users, and fans of Adobe or Office.
In Texas, we love our brands. If a brand has successfully identified itself with the Lone Star State, we offer it undying loyalty whether it’s a superior product or not. Such is the case with Wolf Brand Chili. Go to any championship chili cookoff, and you will not find a chili similar to Wolf Brand anywhere near the top of the field. However, we buy Wolf Brand by the case, and we love it.
“Texan? When’s the last time you’ve had a bowl of Wolf Brand Chili… oh that’s too long.”
However, Blue Bell Ice Cream truly is a superior brand, and it’s Texan, so Texans will not so much as entertain the notion of buying anything else.
We fall in love with brands, and we tell each other why we love these brands. Why we find them to be better than other brands. Whether it’s quality or identity, we gravitate toward them and tell others about them.
We glorify them. We cause them to become renown. To be valued. To be adored.
Same way with Christians. We love our Christian brands… Chick-Fil-A, Hobby Lobby, and In-N-Out Burger. We promote them, stand with them during PR crises, and back their efforts wholeheartedly.
However, when it comes to God, suddenly we don’t know what to say.
What if we identified ourselves with God as strongly as we identify ourselves with our cell phones, computers, food brands, favorite restaurants and retailers? What if we could extol His virtues and benefits the way we can extol the virtues and benefits of the latest car we drive, or TV we’ve purchased.
The reason we fail to do this is possibly because we fail to truly realize the blessings He has given us.
Jesus glorified God by showing through His life and ministry Who God is. In His death on the cross, we see the righteousness of God, the grace and mercy of God, and the desire of God to redeem His people. We see God’s passion. We see His love.
In the resurrection of Jesus, we see God’s power. In the teachings of Jesus, we see God’s truth. In the miracles of Jesus, we see His compassion and power. Jesus truly glorified God on this earth.
We have the same ability to glorify God, albeit we will do it a little differently.
We glorify God when we believe the Gospel. We show His glory when we follow the Lord in Baptism. We show His death and our redemption when we observe the Lord’s supper. We show His power and His character by living in obedience to Him, demonstrating His transformation on our lives.
And we extol Him by telling others about Him and discussing our faith, with the same passion, attention to detail, and drive that we have in discussing our favorite brands.
But to do that, we have to truly believe. If we do it out of obligation, we will fail.
So reflect on what God has done for you, then show that glory to others.
One of my favorite cartoons to watch as a kid was the Charlie Brown Christmas Special. For some reason, Lucy thought it would be a good idea to help Charlie Brown overcome his seasonal depression by recruiting him to direct the Christmas play.
Charlie Brown arrives to the set to find chaos. Everyone is basically doing their own thing, and he is having trouble getting the cast to go along with the order of the production. So, to set the mood, and to bring everyone back on the same page, he and Linus go to a Christmas tree lot to select a tree.
The lot, full of beautifully decorated aluminum trees, doesn’t quite have the vibe Charlie Brown was looking for. In fact, the one natural tree that he finds is basically a twig, holding on for dear life. He selects it, and thus today we still refer to it as the Charlie Brown Christmas Tree.
When his tree is predictably rejected by the cast (as they had all bought into the commercialization of Christmas), Charlie Brown pines, “Can anyone tell me what Christmas is really all about?” To which Linus responded by telling the Christmas story.
Today, Christianity is in a state of disarray in western civilization. We have involved ourselves in pop-culture, politics, have completely reimagined worship services, and have attempted to capture the culture’s attention by having input on every single political and pop-culture trend that arises.
It’s as if we’ve bought into the post-modern ethic that, to have a voice, you must have a take. If you don’t have a take, you don’t have a voice, and thus you don’t really exist at all.
So, worship teams meet and practice for hours each week, not to pray over the coming service and for God’s Spirit to move (they may include that in their prayers), but rather to plan each intricate detail of the worship performance so that the presentation impresses the congregation, leading them to return next week.
Pastors sit in front of their keyboards, not to pray over the scriptures and write the weekly message, but rather to come up with a blog post that will garner attention and go viral. (The irony is not lost on me).
Congregants plan their activities based on what brings them fulfillment and advances their cause, and involvement in the church or worship attendance is not always high on that priority list.
Then there’s the publications, the media, the movies, and the outreach efforts.
It’s all so crazy and hectic, and everyone is busy doing their own thing. Then, Charlie Brown enters from stage left and says, “Can anybody really tell me what it’s all about?”
And that question demands an answer, because despite all the activity by modern Christianity, the number of Christians in America, at least as a percentage of the population, is declining. Furthermore, the percentage of adults who regularly attend church is declining. To make matters worse, there is not a single county in North America that is seeing an increase in church attendance.
There are megachurches and church plants that arise and grow, but these are anecdotal, and not indicative of overall trends.
One trend is emerging, however, and that is the busier the church gets, the more it declines.
Now this is not the fault of those promoting contemporary worship, neither is it the fault of the traditionalists. It is the result of a loss of the central message of the church. That is the only logical explanation of the decline of the church in the prosperous West while the church experiences rapid growth in the East, where persecution runs rampant.
The only explanation for the decline of the church in the West while the East grows under rampant persecution is that the East has believed a Gospel that they are willing to die for, while the West barely knows what that Gospel is.
Disagree? If so, ask your average self-identifying Christian what the Gospel is. Odds are, they either won’t be able to tell you, or will give a generic answer about “the good news” or “the story of Jesus.” Both of which are partially correct.
However, the Gospel is clearly defined in 1 Corinthians 15:3-4 as “How Christ died for our sins, according to the scriptures, that He was buried, and that He rose again the third day according to the scriptures.”
Jesus Christ died for our sins. His death cleared the debt we owed for sin, because in His death, Christ endured the wrath of God on our behalf (Isaiah 53, Romans 5, among others). This is truly a powerful message, because in this message we can wipe away all of our tears, and feel cleansed of all guilt, shame and regret. This is the great reset button one can push in life. To simply trust what Jesus did on the cross.
Not only did Christ clear our guilt and sin-debt on the cross, but He rose from the dead, conquering death, and opening the gates of Heaven, bringing eternal life to all who believe. It is because of the resurrection of Jesus that we have a confident expectation (hope) that we will go to Heaven when we die, and not only that, but we’ll be reunited with our loved ones there.
That message of redemption and eternal hope is what powers believers in the third world to sing praises to God as they are slaughtered for merely mentioning the name of Jesus. That message of redemption is what brings dying hospice patients hope when they realize that their time on earth is nearly done. That message of redemption is likely what powered Dr. King’s “Mountaintop Speech,” as he predicted his death while expressing joy and hope for the future of our nation.
And we believe, at Life Point Baptist Church, that if we are to see a revival in our culture, if we are to see the rapid spread of Christianity in the Western world today, then it will be sparked by the rapid spread of that Gospel. If the church is to find its voice and be relevant again, it will not be because the ministerial staff is up to date on the latest in entertainment or cultural trends. It will be because the staff, and the church, is centered on that Gospel.
Once the church is centered on the Gospel, worship styles, campus design and location, and audio visual tools become irrelevant. The church will see a revival.
So, enjoy your contemporary service, or your traditional service, but center it on the Gospel, and find your voice.
As of today, the riots and protests have calmed down. There are no images of burning cities on cable news, there has been no high profile atrocity in recent weeks, and it’s been a few days since the last act of mass violence against the innocent. Yet, the underlying divide that fuels that unrest remains.
Our nation is deeply divided. Deep divisions in philosophy, religion, world view, and visions for the future have always existed. America was built upon a foundation of faultlines, which, at times, have resulted in political earthquakes of epic proportions.
We’ve seen those faultlines erupt in recent years, and our society is exhausted.
The challenge for our nation is how to heal those faultlines. How can you bring the nation together under one unifying concept when our views, desires and convictions are so different?
In times past, we sought to persuade each other to join our side. When that didn’t work, we learned to live together while ignoring or downplaying our differences. This is why for decades, the ethic was to never discuss religion or politics.
However, in recent years, the ethic has arisen that silence is consent, and tolerating your opponents equates endorsing them. Endorsing them therefore equates endorsing evil. Therefore, we must stand and defeat our enemies whenever they surface.
And thus births the new American society, a society in which dissention is opposition and opposition is evil, therefore those of a different mindset are our enemies, and our enemies are to be defeated.
This is evident in the political sphere, where supporters of political opponents (not the candidates, but the supporters of those candidates) are branded as deplorable, cancers, communists, fascist, and whatever other dehumanizing term we can find.
In our political sphere, candidates run on platforms, not of a future aspiration of prosperity for the country, but on the eradication of the supporters of the opposing candidates. And instead of shunning that candidate and ending his political career, crowds celebrate and support him.
How can we survive if we continue down this road?
In the 1960s, our country was in a similar position, to the point that Lyndon B. Johnson declined to seek reelection in hopes of helping the country heal.
However, two voices emerged that brought the country healing. The first, being Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Dr. King’s creed of reconciliation, driven by the concept of love for one’s enemies, led a positive transformation in our nation. The second was the collective voice of Chuck Smith and Lonnie Free, who led a spiritual revival across the nation with the message of the Gospel.
Dr. King’s movement grew out of a belief articulated in a sermon he preached called, “Love Your Enemies.” In it, Dr. King discussed the concept of Agape love, how it was selfless, self-reflective, and how it had a redemptive quality that could reconcile enemies.
Smith and Free led a movement of faith in the Gospel of Jesus Christ. More than reconciliation over earthly differences, the Gospel preached by Smith and Free led people to true redemption, eternal life, and complete healing inside and out.
The same scriptures which have healed our nation before are just as true today as they ever were, and they are more needed today than ever.
“But I say unto you, Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which despitefully use you, and persecute you;” Matthew 5:44
At one time, we were all enemies to God. Yet He loved us, and gave His Son to die for our sins so that we could be redeemed and reconciled to Him. Being reconciled to Him, we can be reconciled to each other, and find healing in our divisions.
And by emulating God as we love each other, we can not only find peace in our lives, but we can find healing altogether. Christ promises that this will be rewarded.
So today, as you watch the news and see the angry posts on social media, do not be overtaken by the flesh and the sin nature, and succumb to anger. Instead, remember your redemption, and the love God gave you, and love your enemies, praying for their redemption and healing, because it is out of brokenness in their own personal darkness that they rage.
As you do this, you contribute to our national healing. If enough of us do this, we will realize that healing as a society.
After instituting the Lord’s Supper, and preparing His disciples for His crucifixion, our Lord Jesus lifted up His eyes to our Heavenly Father and began to pray for us. In this prayer, often called the High Priestly Prayer of Christ, or the great intercessory prayer, our Lord prayed that we would be sanctified, protected, and that we would be able to carry our testimonies throughout the world.
True to the form He taught us in the Model Prayer, Christ praised God for all that He had done. In John 17:2, Jesus praised God for the power He gave, saying, “As thou hast given him power over all flesh, that he should give eternal life to as many as thou hast given him.”
The power Christ referred to is the authority God gave Him. In fully realizing the beauty of His words, let’s take a closer look at the power God gave.
First, the power (authority) all belongs to God. Psalm 24:1-4 says, ” The earth is the Lord’s, and the fulness thereof; the world, and they that dwell therein. 2 For he hath founded it upon the seas, and established it upon the floods. 3 Who shall ascend into the hill of the Lord? or who shall stand in his holy place? 4 He that hath clean hands, and a pure heart; who hath not lifted up his soul unto vanity, nor sworn deceitfully.”
God has all the power in the world because He created the world. He made it, He owns it, He makes the rules.
He spoke the world into existence. He formed man from the dust of the ground. He breathed into our nostrils the breath of life so that we became living souls. He is the source of our life, the source of our consciousness, the source of our creativity, dreams, hope and aspirations. These are all attributes of Him, and characteristics of the life that He has given us.
Therefore, it follows that we actually belong to Him, and that He is in control.
Man’s first act after being created was to rebel against God. Satan tempted Eve in the garden, saying that in the day she disobeyed God by eating of the fruit of the tree of knowledge of good and evil, she and Adam would be as gods. Adam and Eve’s sin of eating the fruit went beyond simple disobedience, it was an all-out rebellion against God’s authority in their lives.
They sought to dethrone God so that they could do as they please. It was a sin similar to Lucifer’s rebellion that led to His ejection from Heaven.
Yet, God, in His power and grace did not expel man the way He did Lucifer and the angels who rebelled. Instead, He gave His only begotten Son in order to redeem man, and create a way for man to ascend into His Holy Hill and stand in His Holy Place.
God’s power and wisdom are infinite, which is why God says His ways are higher than our ways, and His thoughts are higher than our thoughts (Isaiah 55:8-9). That’s why, regardless of how hard it may be to understand what God is doing, it behooves us to trust Him and His plan.
It is that great power and authority that God gave to Jesus. Jesus prayed in John 17:2, “As thou hast given Him power over all flesh.” God has infinite authority over us all, and He gave that authority to Christ.
Jesus said in Matthew 28:18, “All power is given unto me in Heaven and in Earth.” That word power means authority. Jesus has all authority over all who live. It is He who will judge us, and He who will hold us accountable for whether we believed, and it is He who will decide whether we enter Heaven.
Jesus was crystal clear in His teachings. Those who believe will be saved, and those who believe will be welcomed into the Kingdom. On that note, we take a look at the power (authority) that He gave us.
In John 1:12, scripture says “But as many as received Him, to them gave He the power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on His name.”
To those who believe, that is, those who receive Him, Christ gave the power (authority) to become the sons of God. To those who believe, Christ gave the right to become the sons of God. This is an unalienable right endowed upon us by our creator, and our Lord.
Have you exercised this right? Have you realized this right? Do you know Christ as your Savior?
Furthermore, Christ gave us the authority to further the Kingdom on Earth. Jesus said in Matthew 28:18-20, ” All power is given unto me in heaven and in earth. 19 Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost: 20 Teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you: and, lo, I am with you always, even unto the end of the world. Amen.”
After proclaiming that God had given Christ all the power (authority) in Heaven and Earth, He commanded us by that authority to make disciples, to baptize the believers, and to teach the disciples all that He taught us. We are to spread His Gospel. Not only are we directed to go, we have been given the authority of the Lord to do so.
Given the power and authority of God, given to Christ and extended to us, where should we place our faith, and what should the focus of our days be?
In the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus states “Think not that I am come to destroy the law, or the prophets: I am not come to destroy, but to fulfil. (Matthew 5:17)”
This verse teaches us that righteousness matters, that obedience to God matters, and that what’s in our hearts matters. Jesus goes on to say, “For I say unto you, That except your righteousness shall exceed the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees, ye shall in no case enter into the kingdom of heaven. (Matthew 5:20)”
That’s pretty intimidating, when you consider how religious the Pharisees really were.
If you’ve been around 21st Century Christianity any length of time, you know that Pharisees are often presented in scripture as the bad guys. They hated Jesus because He challenged their pride. They hated poor people because they felt the poor were inferior and not worth their time. They misused and abused people. And their religion was often a show.
The same criticisms, for what it’s worth, have been levelled toward modern churches and Christians. Whether such criticism is warranted or not is a discussion for another day. However, I think we can all agree that Christians have failed from time to time. However, Christianity has done a lot of good in the world.
The same can be said for the Pharisees. Their benevolence (alms) programs raised large amounts of money for the poor. They were very devout in their faith. They prayed constantly and spent their entire lives in the scriptures, and taught others the scriptures.
They desired to strongly adhere to the law of God and to honor Him with their lives. What could be wrong with that?
And it’s that brand of righteousness that Jesus said we must exceed if we want to see the Kingdom of God.
To understand what the Lord was calling us to, we must understand what righteousness is. Thayer’s Bible dictionary defines righteousness (and the Greek word it was translated from) as “the doctrine concerning the way in which man may attain a state approved of God.” In other words, righteousness is about gaining God’s approval.
The standard for righteousness, what it takes to earn God’s approval, is the law of God. The law of God is summarized in the 10 Commandments, 10 rules that God gave to Israel telling them what standard of righteousness they must hold in order to enter into His presence. For the sake of this study, we will examine the same two commandments that Jesus referenced in the Sermon on the Mount in Matthew 5.
That shalt not kill, and thou shalt not commit adultery. Basically, don’t take anyone’s life, and don’t take anyone’s wife. It seems pretty simple. If you haven’t killed anyone, and you haven’t cheated on your spouse, you are well on your way.
However, in the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus pointed out that if you have committed these sins in your mind, then you are guilty of them in your heart. Jesus said if you are angry with your brother without cause, you are in danger of the judgment. And, if you have looked upon a woman with lust, you have committed adultery with her in your heart.
In speaking these words, Jesus taught us that righteousness is not just about what you do (or don’t do), but also about what’s in your heart. Therefore, you can do all the right things, but still have the sin in your heart, and still be found unrighteous.
This is a tough truth, because we all have sin in our hearts. That was a problem for the Pharisees too, whom Jesus said were like sepulchres, ornate on the outside, but full of death on the inside.
Romans 7:18 tells us that in our flesh dwells no good thing, and Jeremiah 17:9 says the heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked.
By His teaching in Matthew 5, Jesus has held a spiritual mirror up to our souls to reveal to us our true condition in order to show us the way of salvation, which is through faith in Him.
Galatians 3:24 says the law is our schoolmaster to drive us to Christ, that we might be justified by faith. Romans 4 tells us that faith is counted as righteousness.
The Pharisees’ faith was in themselves, and their own version of obedience to God. Christ said for true righteousness, one must trust Him. And as Charles Spurgeon said, “Any faith that falls short of the cross will leave you short of Heaven.”
So the way to have the righteousness that surpasses that of the scribes and the Pharisees is to trust Jesus for your salvation and righteousness. He will grant you that righteousness if your faith is in Him.
In John 17, Jesus is with His disciples in the upper room following their observance of the Passover, and the institution of The Lord’s Supper. Judas has been sent away to betray Christ, and our Lord spent chapters 14-16 preparing His disciples for His crucifixion, and their lives after His ascension into Heaven.
At the conclusion of his discussion with His disciples, Jesus lifts up His eyes to God and says the most epic prayer ever recorded. In opening the High Priestly Prayer, Jesus says, “Father, the hour is come; glorify thy Son, that thy Son also may glorify thee:”
This word, “glorify,” is translated from the Greek word doxoza, which means to honor, to make renown, to make to be well-thought of. Basically, to be made famous in a good way for great things you’ve done. It is from this word comes the title of the hymn, “Doxology,” which is simply referred to in many Christian denominations as “The Doxology.”
Indeed, God’s name has been made great throughout all of human history, from the creation, to redeeming Adam and Eve, to His raising up of Israel, to His chastisement of Israel, to His reconstruction of Israel, to bringing forth Jesus, born of a virgin, and giving Him to be the sacrifice for the sins of all mankind. God’s glorification continues with the resurrection of Jesus, His victory over sin, and will come to full fruition when He establishes His Kingdom on Earth.
Jesus prays that God would glorify Him, to make Him great and renown, so that Christ, in turn, can do the same for the Father.
But first, He says, “The hour is come.”
The hour is this moment, when Christ would fulfill the Gospel and redeem His people. God’s entire plan with mankind centered around this moment. This is the moment that Jesus Christ would undo the inherent sin and death brought by Satan into the world. He would undo the damage done by Adam and Eve in the garden.
In this hour, Christ would pay for the sins of the world, bringing forgiveness and redemption to mankind, and saving all those who believe to the eternal life God originally intended back in the beginning. For Jesus, it’s time!
In this hour, mankind had a decision to make. In Luke 19:42 Jesus said, “If thou hadst known, even thou, at least in this thy day, the things which belong unto thy peace! but now they are hid from thine eyes.”
Jesus had come to Jerusalem to complete God’s plan of salvation, but the Pharisees only saw a threat to their personal prestige, power and desires. So, they had Him crucified, and sealed their judgment. Hence, Jesus says in Luke 22:53, as He was being arrested, “When I was daily with you in the temple, ye stretched forth no hands against me: but this is your hour, and the power of darkness.”
To complete the Gospel and pay for the sins of mankind, Christ handed Himself over to sinful man. And man was told He had one hour, to do unto God (who was in the flesh in Jesus) what He wished. Man treated our Lord as shamefully as he could.
No compassion.
No mercy.
The compassion and mercy we desire was denied to Christ, both by man, and by God.
Thus, Isaiah 53:4-6 says, “Surely he hath borne our griefs, and carried our sorrows: yet we did esteem him stricken, smitten of God, and afflicted. 5 But he was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities: the chastisement of our peace was upon him; and with his stripes we are healed. 6 All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned every one to his own way; and the LORD hath laid on him the iniquity of us all.”
The punishment Christ endured on the cross settled the sin-debt for all mankind. Man’s rebellion against God came to full fruition on Christ as He was beaten and tortured prior to the crucifixion.
And God’s need for justice was satisfied on the cross, as Isaiah 53:11 says, “He shall see of the travail of his soul, and shall be satisfied: by his knowledge shall my righteous servant justify many; for he shall bear their iniquities.”
Now, with the hour of salvation complete, it’s now your hour, and you have the same choice to make.
Will you see Christ as a threat to your happiness, pleasure, fun, prosperity, autonomy over your life. Is He a buzzkill?
Or will you see Him as salvation, the source of life, and the One to whom you will give your faith and trust?
What is your decision?
Having proclaimed that the hour has come, Jesus then prayed that God would glorify Him so that the glory could be returned to God. God answered that prayer by resurrecting our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Because of the resurrection, the Gospel was spread throughout the world, and the name of Jesus Christ has been remembered throughout the centuries.
Because of the resurrection, we have a confident expectation of salvation, of eternal life in the Kingdom of God, and a life without pain, sin or adversity in His Heaven.
Because of the resurrection, we can comfort each other at funerals.
Again, there is a choice to be made here. To believe, or to reject. What is yours?
The Point... 