Who Killed Jesus?

 

He who did not spare his own Son but gave him up for us all, how will he not also with him graciously give us all things? (Romans 8:32)

One of my friends who used to be a pastor in Illinois was preaching to a group of prisoners in a state prison during Holy Week several years ago. At one point in his message, he paused and asked the men if they knew who killed Jesus.

Some said the soldiers did. Some said the Jews did. Some said Pilate. After there was silence, my friend said simply, “His Father killed him.”

That’s what the first half of Romans 8:32 says: God did not spare his own Son but handed him over — to death. “This Jesus [was] delivered up according to the definite plan and foreknowledge of God” (Acts 2:23). Isaiah 53 puts it even more bluntly, “We esteemed him stricken, smitten by God. . . . It was the will of the Lord to crush him; he (his Father!) has put him to grief” (Isaiah 53:4, 10).

Or as Romans 3:25 says, “God put [him] forward as a propitiation by his blood.” Just as Abraham lifted the knife over the chest of his son Isaac, but then spared his son because there was a ram in the thicket, so God the Father lifted his knife over the chest of his own Son, Jesus — but did not spare him, because he was the ram; he was the substitute.

God did not spare his own Son, because it was the only way he could spare us and still be a just and holy God. The guilt of our transgressions, the punishment of our iniquities, the curse of our sin would have brought us inescapably to the destruction of hell. But God did not spare his own Son; he gave him up to be pierced for our transgressions, and crushed for our iniquities, and crucified for our sins.

This verse — Romans 8:32 — is the most precious verse in the Bible to me because the foundation of the all-encompassing promise of God’s future grace is that the Son of God bore in his body all my punishment and all my guilt and all my condemnation and all my blame and all my fault and all my corruption, so that I might stand before a great and holy God, forgiven, reconciled, justified, accepted, and the beneficiary of unspeakable promises of pleasure forever and ever at his right hand.

GOD’S MERCY IN OUR LIVES!

 EVERYDAY IN THE WORD!

TUESDAY JUNE 13, 2023.

SUBJECT : GOD’S MERCY IN OUR LIVES!

Memory verse: "But go and learn what that means: 'I will have mercy, and not sacrifice.' For I did not come to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance." (Matthew 9 vs 13.)

READ: Zechariah 3 vs 1 - 5:

3:1: Then he showed me Joshua the high priest standing before the Angel of the Lord, and Satan standing at his right hand to oppose him.

3:2: And the Lord said to Satan, “The Lord rebuke you, Satan! The Lord who has chosen Jerusalem rebuke you! Is this not a brand plucked from the fire?”

3:3: Now Joshua was clothed with filthy garments, and was standing before the Angel.

3:4: Then He answered and spoke to those who stood before Him, saying, “Take away the filthy garments from Him.” And to him He said, “See I have removed your iniquity from you, and I will clothe you with rich robes.”

3:5: And I said, “Let them put a clean turban on his head.” So they put a clean turban on his head, and they put the clothes on him. And the Angel of the Lord stood by.

INTIMATION:

Mercy is kindness or forbearance towards someone in one's power: a good thing regarded as derived from God. Mercy is God's nature, and is one of His profound ways of helping His people. God's mercy is forgiving, compassionate, withholding of the punishment or judgement our sins deserve. And because we can't do without help from God, His mercy endures forever.

King David, the man God described as; “a man after My own heart,” extensively utilized that nature of God. For instance, God was angry with David when he counted the people of Israel and sent a plaque among the people, such that seventy thousand men died in one day. But David cried out for God's mercy, which he knew would always answer for him and God was intreated. David said to Gad, "I am in great distress. Please let us fall now into the hand of the Lord; for His mercies are great: and let me not fall into the hand of man." (Second Samuel 24 vs 14.)

The passage we read today, the prophet Zechariah, had a vision of how merciful God is. In the vision, he saw the activities or accusations of Satan against the children of Israel represented by Joshua the high priest (He was Israel’s high priest when the remnant returned to Jerusalem and began rebuilding the walls). Satan accused (“opposed”) Joshua. Though the accusations were accurate because the children of Israel had sinned against God (the reason Joshua stood in filthy garments (sins), but yet God revealed His mercy, stating that He chose to save His people in spite of their sin. 

Satan is always accusing people of their sins before God (Job 1 vs 6). But he greatly misunderstands the breadth of God’s mercy and forgiveness toward those who believe in Him. God punished Judah through the fire of great trials, but He rescued the nation before it was completely destroyed, like “a brand plucked from the fire.”

Zechariah’s vision graphically portrays how we receive God’s mercy. We do nothing ourselves. God removes our filthy garments (sins), then provides us with fine, new clothes (the righteousness and holiness of God—Second Corinthians 5 vs 21; Ephesians 4 vs 24; Revelation 19 vs 8). All we need to do is repent and ask God to forgive us. When Satan tries to make you feel dirty and unworthy, remember that the clean clothes of Christ’s righteousness make you worthy to draw near to God.

There is a need to understand the place of God's mercy in our lives. It’s important also to note that what you are fighting against may not be the devil, or witches and wizards as you had thought; it could be something you had done, like David, that angered God. He can be intreated when you call for His mercy. Also, certain things may be responsible for where we find ourselves and we may not know what they are. You may know all that you are doing, but will not know all that is doing you. But the mercy of God will always answer for us when we cry to Him in prayers.

Maybe a curse was placed upon one of your forefathers, which you inherited without knowing. Some people have so much money but can't account for how it was spent. They have no land, house, or anything to show for all the money that passed through their hands, yet they are heavily indebted. Some don't even know what next to do with their lives. They just keep wandering about. They invest in all manner of businesses and never realize anything out of them. 

For some people, the things or habits plaguing them are like ancestral curses. They discover that things such as poverty, failure, marriage spell, immorality, drunkenness, lying, etc run through all their family tree.

If you find yourself in any of such predicament, you can cry for the mercy of God to severe you from them. You can say to God, "Lord, I don't know the cause of this thing, but You know all things. Whatever I may have dabbled into through carelessness or ignorance and which has brought this affliction in my life, Lord have mercy! Whatever may have come on me through the negative side of my natural background, let Your mercy prevail for me!" Plead the mercy of God against that mysterious affliction in your life and it will give up, and you will be free. 

It is God's Will to show mercy, therefore, His desire is to have mercy on us out of His Love nature, and not out of our ability to appease Him with our sacrifice. Hence God's instruction in Psalm 50 vs 15, "And call upon Me in the day of trouble: I will deliver you, and you shall glorify Me."

God willingly responds with help when we ask. Perhaps there is some sin in your life that you thought God would not forgive. God's steadfast love and mercy are greater than any sin, and He promises forgiveness: "Through the Lord's mercies we are not consumed, Because His compassions fail not. They are new every morning: Great is Your faithfulness."(Lamentations 3 vs 22 -  23.)

Prayer: Abba Father, You are Loving, and ever merciful. Like David, I prefer to fall into Your hands because I know Your mercy endures forever. Great is Your faithfulness. Let Your mercy, O Lord, locate me in my distress, even when I don’t know the source for my afflictions, in Jesus’ Name I have prayed,  Amen. 

PRAISE THE LORD!

Help My Unbelief

 

For by the grace given to me I say to everyone among you not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think, but to think with sober judgment, each according to the measure of faith that God has assigned. (Romans 12:3)

In the context of this verse, Paul is concerned that people were thinking of themselves “more highly than [they] ought to think.” His final remedy for this pride is to say that not only are spiritual gifts a work of God’s free grace in our lives, but so also is the very faith with which we use those gifts. “. . . each according to the measure of faith that God has assigned.”

This means that every possible ground of boasting is taken away from us. How can we boast if even the qualification for receiving gifts is also a gift?

This truth has a profound impact on how we pray. Jesus gives us the example in Luke 22:31–32. Before Peter denies him three times Jesus says to him, “Simon, Simon, behold, Satan demanded to have you, that he might sift you like wheat, but I have prayed for you that your faith may not fail. And when you have turned again, strengthen your brothers.”

Jesus prays for Peter’s faith to be sustained even through the sin of denial, because he knows that God is the one who gives faith. So we should pray the way Jesus did — for ourselves and for others that God would sustain our faith.

Thus, the man with the epileptic son cried out, “I believe; help my unbelief!” (Mark 9:24). This is a good prayer. It acknowledges that without God we cannot believe as we ought to believe.

Let us pray daily, “O Lord, thank you for my faith. Sustain it. Strengthen it. Deepen it. Don’t let it fail. Make it the power of my life, so that in everything I do, you get the glory as the great Giver. Amen.”

FORGIVENESS BEGETS FORGIVENESS!

 EVERYDAY IN THE WORD!

MONDAY JUNE 12, 2023.

SUBJECT : FORGIVENESS  BEGETS FORGIVENESS!

Memory verse: "Bearing with one another, and forgiving one another, If anyone has a complaint against another; even as Christ forgave you, so you also must do." (Colossians 3 vs 13.)

READ: Matthew 6 vs 12; 14 - 15; Mark 11 vs 25 - 26:

Matthew 6:12: And forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors.

6:14: For If you forgive men their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you.

6:15: But If you do not forgive men their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses.

Mark 11:25: And whenever you stand praying, if you have anything against anyone, forgive him, that your Father in heaven may also forgive you your trespasses.

11:26: But If you do not forgive, neither will your Father in heaven forgive your trespasses.

INTIMATION:

Forgiveness is to pardon; to acquit of sin. Forgiveness is an expression of love. When Jesus taught His disciples how to pray, one of the things He told them to say was, "And forgive us our sins, for we also forgive every one that has sinned against us." That is to say, ‘Lord forgive us, just the way we forgive others. Don't forgive us when we don't forgive others.’

When we don’t forgive others, we are denying our common ground as sinners in need of God’s forgiveness. It’s easy to ask God for forgiveness but difficult to grant it to others. Whenever we ask God to forgive us our sin, we should first ask ourselves, “Have I forgiven the people who have wronged me?”

If we document other people's sins against us, then the Lord will document ours also, if we desire their hurt, He will desire our hurt also. So, when you don't forgive those who have offended you, your sins also remain unforgiven. Until your sins are forgiven, you don't have any fellowship or prayer access to God. 

The key to forgiving others is remembering how much God has forgiven you. Realizing God’s infinite love and forgiveness should help you love and forgive others. Is it difficult for you to forgive someone who has wronged you a little when God had forgiven you so much? Forgive those who have wronged you, and let God worry about the wrongs you have suffered. 

Many have been crying in all manner of prayers, fasting and vigils, yet God hasn't heard them because they are holding back the sins of others in their hearts. You probably may have told your offender, "I have forgiven you, it is all over." But it is not over yet in your heart. And because the Bible says in Psalm 66 vs 18, "If I regard iniquity in my heart, the Lord will not hear me," your prayers go unheard. 

You may pray as long as you like, remain on your knees all the days of your life and fast as many days as possible, if you have imprisoned somebody in your heart through unforgiveness, you will never have a breakthrough, because the Scriptures cannot be broken. Love is your vital link to God, and the foundation stones of the altar of your heart relationship with God. There is a future in forgiveness. Let love flow from your heart to everyone and you will see God step into the affairs of your life.

It is spiritual foolishness to live with unforgiveness; the cost is too high. It is one of the traps of the devil to make you lose favor with God. Jesus told a parable in Matthew 18 vs 23 - 35, likening the kingdom of heaven to forgiveness;  A king had a servant who owed him and was unable to pay. The king wanted to sell him and members of his household to recover his money. But when the servant begged the king, he was moved  with compassion, and he forgave him the debt.

But that same servant went out and found one of his fellow servants who owed him, and seized him by the throat, insisted he must pay him. His fellow servant begged him, but he refused and threw him into prison till he should pay the debt. His master got the wind of what he did and was very angry. And since he was not able to be compassionate to his fellow servant who owed him, his master delivered him to the torturers until he should pay all that was due to him.

When God forgives you your sins but later sees the way you are tormenting somebody who has offended you, He will bring your records out again and deal with you. Forgiveness brings you into eternal friendship with Jesus and gives you access to heaven's hotline. Until you free that man or woman, God will not hear your cry of affliction. That man might have really cheated you, and that woman insulted you terribly, but let him go! Let her go! Until the love foundation is in place, effectual prayer is impossible.

Watch any person who walks in hatred, malice and unforgiveness, the person's life keeps drying up. And because the person has no access to God's favor, he or she is a cheap prey to the devil. Your expression of love for your fellow human is the authentic proof of your salvation. 

Examine yourself, to see if there is anywhere your altar has been broken down by i forgiveness, and plead for the mercy of God for restoration. Rededicate your life to God and be determined never to be found doing what displeases Him. That long-awaited answer to your prayers will be delivered to you now, in Jesus' name!

Prayer: Abba Father, endue me with the spirit of forgiveness, and love for one another, that I may be able to have eternal fellowship with You, in Jesus’ Name I have prayed, Amen.

PRAISE THE LORD!

CHRIST’S NEW COMMANDMENT OF LOVE!

 EVERYDAY IN THE WORD!

SUNDAY JUNE 11, 2023.

SUBJECT : CHRIST’S NEW COMMANDMENT OF LOVE!

Memory verse: "A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another, as I have loved you, that you also love one another." (John 13 vs 34.)

READ: Romans 13 vs 8 - 10:

13:8: Owe no one anything except to love one another, for he who loves another has fulfilled the law.

13:9: For the commandments, “You shall not commit adultery,” “You shall not murder,” “You shall not steal,” “You shall not bear false witness,” “You shall not covet,” and if there is any other commandment, are all summed up in this saying, namely, “You shall love your neighbor as Yourself.”

13:10: Love does no harm to a neighbor; therefore love is the fulfillment of the law.

INTIMATION:

The new commandment is the law of love for one another. It was given by our great King Jesus Christ, who said, “Love one another as I loved you” (John 15 vs 12). To love others was not a new commandment (see Leviticus 19 vs 18), it was originally summarized in the Old Testament, and was the basis for all the laws of how people should relate with one another. But to love others as Christ loved us was new and revolutionary. 

Now we are to love others based on Jesus' sacrificial love for us; He loved us and gave His life so that we can live. Jesus is a living example of God's love—Who gave His only Son as a propitiation for us. His unique and unequalled love for us caused Him to give His life for us, hence He said, “Greater love has no one than this, than to lay down one’s life for his friends” (John 15 vid 13).

Jesus summarized the law as Love for God and neighbor (Matthew 22 vs 37 - 40). The new law holds us accountable to God and devoted to others. In the the passage we read today, the apostle Paul said that love demonstrated toward a neighbor would fully satisfy the law. Therefore, when we fail to love we are actually breaking God’s law. A heart of love, both towards God and your fellow human, is a fundamental requirement in our relationship and fellowship with God.

We must treat all people as we would want to be treated. This is a debt that all believers in Christ owe. Why? Because we are permanently in debt to Christ for the lavish love He has poured out on us. The only way we can even begin to repay this debt is by fulfilling our obligation to love others in turn. Because Christ’s love will always be infinitely greater than ours, we will always have the obligation to love our neighbors. 

The love for your neighbor is limitless and has no boundaries. It doesn’t ignore anybody, because ignoring anybody, whether rich or poor, is tantamount to withholding our love. But we must not favor the rich for what they can do for us, while ignoring the poor who can offer us seemingly nothing or so little in return.

The Scripture recognizes love for one another as a demonstration of love for God; "If someone says, "I love God," and hates his brother, he is a liar, for he who does not love his brother whom he has seen, how can he love God whom he has not seen?" (First John 4 vs 20.) Therefore, love your neighbor you are seeing before you can claim your love for God you do not see.

Christians must obey the law of love, which supersedes both religious and civil laws. It’s quite easy for us to excuse our indifference to others merely because we have no legal obligation to help them, and even, in some circumstances, justly harming them if our actions are technically legal! For instance, if our actions are legal and beneficial to us, we may not care how it affect others. But Jesus does not leave loopholes in the law of love. Whenever love demands it, we are to go beyond human legal requirements and imitate the God of love. 

When we believers lose the motivation of love, we become critical of others. We stop looking for good in them and see only their faults. Soon we lose our unity. Have you talked behind someone’s back? Have you focused on others’ shortcomings instead of their strengths? Remind yourself of Jesus’ command to love others as you love yourself. (Matthew 22 vs 39). When you begin to feel critical of someone, make a list of that person’s positive qualities. When problems need to be addressed, confront in love rather than gossip.

It’s noteworthy that we need self-love that can influence our love for others. But even if you have low self-esteem, you probably don’t willingly let yourself go hungry. You take care of your body and may even exercise. You clothe yourself reasonably well. You make sure there is a roof over your head. You try not to let yourself be cheated or injured. This is the kind of love we need to have for our neighbors. 

Now, do we see that others are fed, clothed, and housed as well as they can be? Are we concerned about issues of social justice? Loving others as ourselves means actively working to see that their needs are met. Interestingly, people who focus on others rather than on themselves rarely suffer from low self-esteem.

Examine your attitude and actions toward others. Do you build people up or tear them down? When you really criticize someone, remember God’s law of love and say something good instead. Saying something beneficial to others will cure you of finding fault and increase your ability to obey God’s law of love.

Prayer: Abba Father, endue me with the spirit of love for You and my neighbor that I may love others as Christ loves me, in Jesus’ Name I have prayed, Amen.

PRAISE THE LORD!

Faith for the Future

 

For all the promises of God find their Yes in him. (2 Corinthians 1:20)

If “all the promises of God find their Yes in [Jesus],” then to trust him now in the present is to believe that his promises will come true.

Those are not two separate faiths — trusting him, and believing in his promises. Trusting Jesus — believing in Jesus for salvation — means believing that he keeps his word. Being satisfied in the crucified and risen Jesus includes the belief that at every future moment, to all eternity, nothing will separate us from his love, or keep him from working all things together for our good. And that “good” is ultimately seeing and savoring the beauty and worth of God in Christ as our supreme Treasure.

The confidence that this all-satisfying good will be there for us forever is based on all the glorious grace of the past, especially the grace that God did not spare his own Son but gave him up for us all (Romans 8:32).

We need to taste now the spiritual beauty of God in all his past achievements — especially the death and resurrection of Christ for our sins — and in all his promises. Rooted in this past grace, our confidence and trust lay hold on all that God himself will be for us in the next moment, and in the next month, and in the endless ages of eternity.

It is he and he alone who will satisfy the soul in the future. And we must be sure of this future, if we are to live the radical Christian lives that Christ calls us to live here and now.

If our present enjoyment of Christ now — our present faith — does not have in it the Yes to all God’s promises, it will not embrace the power for radical service in the strength that God (in every future moment) will supply (1 Peter 4:11).

My prayer is that reflecting like this on the nature of faith in future grace will help us avoid superficial, oversimplified statements about believing the promises of God. It is a deep and wonderful thing.

When Reason Serves Rebellion

 

The sluggard says, “There is a lion outside! I shall be killed in the streets!” (Proverbs 22:13)

This is not what I expected the proverb to say. I would have expected it to say, “The coward says, ‘There is a lion outside! I shall be killed in the streets!’” But it says, “sluggard,” not “coward.” So, the controlling emotion here is laziness, not fear.

But what does laziness have to do with the danger of a lion in the street? We don’t usually say, “This man is too lazy to go do his work because there is a lion outside.”

The point is that the sluggard creates imaginary circumstances to justify not doing his work, and thus shifts the focus from the vice of his laziness to the danger of lions. No one will approve his staying in the house all day just because he is lazy. But they might excuse him if there is a lion in the street.

One profound biblical insight we need to learn from this is that our heart exploits our mind to justify what we want. That is, our deepest desires precede the rational functioning of our minds and incline the mind to perceive and think in a way that will make the desires look right, even if they’re wrong.

This is what the sluggard is doing. He deeply desires to stay at home and not work. There is no good reason to stay at home. So, what does he do? Does he overcome his bad desire — his laziness? No, he uses his mind to create unreal circumstances to justify his desire.

Jesus said, “The light has come into the world, and people loved the darkness rather than the light because their works were evil” (John 3:19). We love the darkness so that we can keep on doing what we want without exposure. In this condition, the mind becomes a factory of darkness — a fountain of half-truths, equivocations, sophistries, evasions, and lies — anything to protect the evil desires of the heart from exposure and destruction.

Consider and be wise.