The Word Must Spread [part 2 of 2] ...

Sometimes we modern Christians believe there is nothing left to do.  There are few, if any, new mission fields to discover.  It looks to us like the work of spreading the word has been all but accomplished in the days before our own.  Perhaps there is merit to this, except in one case.  There is a field yet to be truly planted.  There is one field left, perhaps more important than any the missionaries have suffered to explore.  It is the field of our very own hearts.  We modern Christians know all “about” Jesus, we may have studied scripture, even for as long as all of our lives.  Our historical knowledge may be unparalleled.  Our doctrinal knowledge unrivaled.  But our experiential knowledge no more than that of an infant.  This condition is a symptom of one small thing, the insertion of “self” into the process of our salvation.  So many of us have been taught that “bad” people end up in hell, and “good” people end up in heaven at the end of all things.  That simple idea leads us to “try” to be “good” people.  When we fail at it, we are told to ask for forgiveness and get up and “try” again, “try” harder, show more will power, until we stop failing.  And these actions teach us over time that “we” are responsible for the molding of our characters by abstaining from evil.  We are told we must do our best “before” God will “make up the difference”.

And in so doing, our hearts remain our own.  Even for those strong of will, who abstain from evil by the sheer force of their will in action; their hearts remain unplowed fields, still chained to the desires for sin, even if overcome by abstention, still longing for what they should not long for.  We remain addicts to sin, no matter where we are in our self-proscribed 12-step-programs for treating our sins.  We rely upon Jesus so seldomly to truly rid us of sin, we have little exposure to that method, little testimony of it, little witness to it.  Instead, we have a long history of warring against sin on our own, and ultimately failing.  Still addicted to what we cannot change; the desires in us to still want evil.  What we really know about Jesus is from what we hear in sermons, and what we read in scripture, and these days what we see in films or other dramatic interpretations of these events like in “the Chosen” TV series.  All of our knowledge is “about” Jesus, little of our knowledge is personal to us, and truly meaningful in how we live our lives being made free from the desire to sin, because we do not ask Jesus for that, nor expect it if we ask.

Thus our hearts are last great mission field that must be truly sown by the Holy Spirit, creating in us a longing to let our sins go, putting them in the hands of Jesus for more than just forgiveness but to be eliminated from our thinking and our desire, thus freed from our action by His nature that becomes our own, not by struggle of our will.  For so long we have preached a message about the soon coming of our Lord, the return of Jesus to take us home.  And for so long, the Lord has delayed His return.  His delay has been one of love, hoping to harvest as many as can be harvested.  And each time we have preached His return with urgency and urgency has not yielded to fruition, even those in the church have turned aside from that message and decided it is not as real as we thought.  Those who have sought to find signs of the end have found them, yet still the Lord does not return.  Those who have sought exact dates of the Lord’s return have been bitterly disappointed.  And we wonder why the delay, why the disappointment?  All the while seeking a salvation that would tolerate and excuse the sins of our hearts.

His delay in returning is because there is one mission field left, the one of our hearts.  To live in heaven, we need to be transformed to the total absence of sin, holding on to none of it.  So many of us cling to the one cherished sin we refuse to yield up, hoping God will somehow just wink at our weakness.  But God wants us to free us from the pain and death of our sins, not leave us to continue to suffer within them.  So He delays His coming hoping to see the fields of our hearts truly sown, planted, and reaping a harvest centered upon the transformative love of Jesus Christ.  But the time for that is now.  The aspiration of repeating the Day of Pentecost in our lives is no longer just a passing whimsy but a desperate need in order to truly make us ready for His soon coming.  It is time to seek righteousness and discover the only way of finding it.  It is time to seek perfection and realize it has always been possible, not in our own strength but in the strength of Jesus Christ and His transformation of who we are down to the core.  Luke recorded the sermon of Peter upon the Day of Pentecost, but that sermon was not meant for that audience.  It was meant for this one, for you, and for me; for the purpose of these last days.

Peter mounts a defense for what some of Jews were questioning about the miracles seen on the Day of Pentecost in his day.  But Peter also speaks to us directly listen as Luke records picking up in verse 16 saying … “But this is that which was spoken by the prophet Joel; [verse 17] And it shall come to pass in the last days, saith God, I will pour out of my Spirit upon all flesh: and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, and your young men shall see visions, and your old men shall dream dreams: [verse 18] And on my servants and on my handmaidens I will pour out in those days of my Spirit; and they shall prophesy:”  The last days Joel referred to were never so needed as they are today.  We war against atheism that would deny us purpose and meaning.  We war against humanism that would entice us to believe “intentions” are the pathway of self-realization.  We war against the delays of His return to dull our faith and reduce Jesus to historical stories, not experiential life changing transformation in the here and now.  Christianity has all but given up on the notion of perfection, as we have too long relied upon self to achieve it, and failed.  It is our hearts that need revival, and more reformation.  It is now which has become our last days.  And so our need is greater now than it has ever been.

Joel speaks to that need.  Peter correctly points out how God longs to pour our His Spirit upon ALL FLESH, yet we have too long choked off the access point of our hearts from that very experience.  But what would happen if we restricted God no longer?  What would happen if we longed for the very thing Joel describes, and Peter recounts.  What would happen if we literally begged for this?  Are we ready to beg for it?  I am.  My need is so great of these events my heart breaks for it, and my soul aches for it.  I have seen my need and I know how great it is.  I am certain that if I continue to rely upon me to achieve perfection, then my perfection is ever to remain out of reach. If I am to be saved from myself, only my Savior Jesus Christ can save me.  The Lord has granted me vision to see beyond into what is happening beyond the realms of human sight.  I see what God longs to do.  He only awaits a group of believers who also long to receive it.  “Your” sons and “your” daughters will prophesy.  “Your” children, not the children of strangers, but your own.  Are you ready for that?  Will you hear the word of God they utter, or will you close yourself off to it, affirming the age old adage the prophet receives no glory in his own home.  Your young men will see visions.  Your old men will dream dreams.  On MY servants AND on MY handmaidens will I pour out MY Spirit and they will prophesy says our God.  God describes a group of believers beyond any particular church who are ready and longing to receive this outpouring.  Has there ever been more need of these than there is today?

Luke continues in verse 19 saying … “And I will shew wonders in heaven above, and signs in the earth beneath; blood, and fire, and vapour of smoke: [verse 20] The sun shall be turned into darkness, and the moon into blood, before that great and notable day of the Lord come:”  These signs in the earth have already been in our history.  They could repeat themselves again if the Lord desires, but they are only hallmarks to point us back to readiness.  Not because we make ourselves ready, but that we would allow the Holy Spirit to make us ready.  God is looking for all of us.  God is longing for as many of us as will turn our hearts back to Him and long for Him in return.  Now!  During the time in our history when the ministry for this earth has changed.  We have moved from a period of investigative judgment to one of the final sealing of the people of God.  The investigation is over.  All that remains is to know who will allow the Lord to seal them before He returns.  The outpouring of the Holy Spirit is the oil we have long sought, and the delays are finally coming to an end.  But because we have heard this message before will we ignore it now?  Will we treat it like just another boy crying wolf?  Or will we take it to heart, to our hearts.

Luke continues in verse 21 saying … “And it shall come to pass, that whosoever shall call on the name of the Lord shall be saved.”  There it is.  There is the simple message of the Gospel of Jesus Christ.  To call upon “His” name.  For that is the only “name” of God we are certain exists in our knowledge.  Time for our prayers to become of singular nature, to ask forgiveness, and beg for the Holy Spirit if begging is what it takes.  Let us not face the end of all things on our own.  Let us face it armed with the Holy Spirit, and transformed by the power of Jesus Christ.  Devoid of sin, not just in action, but in desire, motive, even thought.  That is the kind of transformation that has always been possible, and is possible still.  If you have not found it yet, then join me as we pray in earnest for it, for the outpouring of the Holy Spirit.  Let us be of one accord, in this one thing, once more.  Let us shed our denominational labels and cling to the one thing that unites us in Jesus Christ, and in the power of His Spirit to bring us into alignment with Him.  Along the way we will find the truth in His Word that has been there eluding us all the while.  We will come to know what He wants us to know.  But I submit there will be no revelation of truth while our eyes are dimmed by a refusal to follow, or while we cling to the notion it is our will that will somehow save us.

Luke continues as Peter continues his sermon in verse 22 saying … “Ye men of Israel, hear these words; Jesus of Nazareth, a man approved of God among you by miracles and wonders and signs, which God did by him in the midst of you, as ye yourselves also know: [verse 23] Him, being delivered by the determinate counsel and foreknowledge of God, ye have taken, and by wicked hands have crucified and slain: [verse 24] Whom God hath raised up, having loosed the pains of death: because it was not possible that he should be holden of it.”  Peter here gives a summary of the gospel word that has the power to save, to save even you from the desire to sin, let alone from the actions of sin.  Peter then goes back to the scriptures of his day to once again give argument for Jesus Christ.  He does not throw away the Old Testament, but instead embraces the truth of the Old Testament to prove out Jesus Christ, referring back to Joel, and now moving back even farther to David.  

Luke continues in verse 25 saying … “For David speaketh concerning him, I foresaw the Lord always before my face, for he is on my right hand, that I should not be moved: [verse 26] Therefore did my heart rejoice, and my tongue was glad; moreover also my flesh shall rest in hope: [verse 27] Because thou wilt not leave my soul in hell, neither wilt thou suffer thine Holy One to see corruption. [verse 28] Thou hast made known to me the ways of life; thou shalt make me full of joy with thy countenance. [verse 29] Men and brethren, let me freely speak unto you of the patriarch David, that he is both dead and buried, and his sepulchre is with us unto this day. [verse 30] Therefore being a prophet, and knowing that God had sworn with an oath to him, that of the fruit of his loins, according to the flesh, he would raise up Christ to sit on his throne; [verse 31] He seeing this before spake of the resurrection of Christ, that his soul was not left in hell, neither his flesh did see corruption.”  Peter outlines how David foretold of Jesus Christ and His resurrection.  David in this sense was more than patriarch, he was a prophet.

Luke continues in verse 32 saying … “This Jesus hath God raised up, whereof we all are witnesses. [verse 33] Therefore being by the right hand of God exalted, and having received of the Father the promise of the Holy Ghost, he hath shed forth this, which ye now see and hear. [verse 34] For David is not ascended into the heavens: but he saith himself, The LORD said unto my Lord, Sit thou on my right hand, [verse 35] Until I make thy foes thy footstool. [verse 36] Therefore let all the house of Israel know assuredly, that God hath made that same Jesus, whom ye have crucified, both Lord and Christ.”  Peter again uses the same texts Jesus used when confronted by Pharisees who asked Him by what authority He spoke in the Temple.  Jesus uses this same story of David’s prophesy for which the Pharisees had no answer how to explain it.  But Peter does.  Now in retrospect Peter is able to use the exact same passages from the author David and the words of Christ to point out how they point to Jesus as the fulfillment of these passages.  And Peter again points out that all the servants of Jesus there, bare witness to these events from ministry, to crucifixion, to resurrection, to ascension.

And in all of this the singular goal of the Holy Spirit is achieved.  Jesus planted the seeds.  Peter becomes a vessel along with all the others in that place.  And the word is spread across the hearts of every person there.  It is undeniable.  And its impact and effects unmistakable.  This is what God wants for you and I in the here and now.  Luke continues in verse 37 saying … “Now when they heard this, they were pricked in their heart, and said unto Peter and to the rest of the apostles, Men and brethren, what shall we do? [verse 38] Then Peter said unto them, Repent, and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins, and ye shall receive the gift of the Holy Ghost. [verse 39] For the promise is unto you, and to your children, and to all that are afar off, even as many as the Lord our God shall call. [verse 40] And with many other words did he testify and exhort, saying, Save yourselves from this untoward generation. [verse 41] Then they that gladly received his word were baptized: and the same day there were added unto them about three thousand souls.”

This sermon of Peter was meant for you, not just them as some sort of history lesson.  The effect of the Holy Spirit was “prick them in their hearts”, that is the recognition of our sins, and our guilt in embracing our sins.  That is the first thing the Holy Spirit does, convict us of what we need to lose.  And you will notice it is the heart that is the mechanism, or the field if you will, through which the Holy Spirit enters.  They respond as I hope you and I do asking – what shall we do?.  The answer is “repent”.  Then be baptized literally every one of you, in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins.  Notice not just forgiveness of sins (that is implied), but for the remission or the removal of sins from your life, from your hands and feet, mind and heart.  That is the work of transformation only Jesus promises to perform within you.  And we will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit promised to each and all of us tp accomplish that work.  For the promise is UNTO YOU, and to YOUR children, to all that are afar off, even as many as the Lord our God SHALL CALL.  That call is going out right now.  That call goes out in this text, but more importantly it goes out to your heart from the same Jesus you know so much about.  They gladly received his words and were baptized and that same day 3000 souls were added to his kingdom.

But more importantly than that precious harvest back then, is the harvest of one more, of you, of me.  Let us turn our hearts towards Jesus, let us too repent of our sins, of who we have become, and seek His baptism by the fire of the Holy Spirit.  Let us be transformed not by what we think to do, or try to do, but by the power of His love to make us new, here and now.  In mind and heart let us allow the Holy Spirit to make us One with our God and Lord Jesus Christ.  For it is only Jesus that has ever made us this offer, this promise.  There is no other way to the Father but through Jesus Christ.  And the power of the Holy Spirit is meant to make the gospel of Jesus Christ real in our hearts and minds, and be one with us as we face the end of all things.  Only then will our actions flow from our hearts, aligned with God, one with Him in the redemptive ministry to our world in these last few hours.  The nature of the ministry for our world has changed.  It has entered its final stage.  What will you do with what time you have left?  As for me and my house, clinging to the name and grace of Jesus Christ, we will serve the Lord …

 

When Truth Confronts Pride ...

Pick any heavyweight boxer you can think of, and for a time at least, they think of themselves as the “greatest” fighter that ever lived.  They talk about this stature in the press nearly as often as they are handed a microphone.  And this boast may even seem true, at least for a while.  But inevitably, time demonstrates that “for a while” is as good as that boast will ever be.  At some point, a challenger comes along that wins the title fight, and notches a loss in that once proud fighter’s column.  Then begins a desperate scramble for a rematch or three, to regain what was lost.  Even if it is regained, time presents as an unstoppable enemy, and with it more challengers that one after another take that title away, and prove the once invulnerable fighter is no longer the greatest.  Mike Tyson might fall into this category.  At his prime he was nearly unstoppable.  He hit so hard, fights rarely made it out of the first round, or first few hits to his opponent.  But over time, came Evander Holyfield, and the realization that he might actually lose that fight.  So Mike resorts to biting an ear and ending the fight through disqualification before he loses it through skill he cannot defeat.  Truth confronts pride, and pride refuses to submit.

But this phenomenon is not just restricted to sports, or boxing.  It infects the church.  It comes in a different package but with all the same fundamentals elements in place.  In the time of Christ, doctrines were determined by Pharisees.  Doctrines were thought to be unalterable, and common truth.  So Jesus should have just accepted them as they were.  If Jesus had done that, He would have tacitly accepted the authority of the Pharisees over His own church, and made them happy, happy enough to leave Jesus alone, perhaps even hail Him as their Messiah as well.  But to challenge those doctrines, would not just challenge the teachings, but challenge the pride behind them.  Now, inside the one true church itself, before the crucifixion, would come the confrontation between the Truth, and what men believed, and the pride they took in those beliefs.  Pride that would refuse to yield.  Pride that would rather kill our God, than yield.  And we look backwards and scold the Pharisees for what they did, but refuse to look in our mirrors to see if that same behavior still exists within us today.

Consider for a moment what happens when the Truth of scripture confronts the reality of where and when and how we live.  Conservative Christians decry the acceptance of homosexuality into the church, while at the same time never figuring out an effective ministry to those who suffer from that particular condition.  There is plenty of rejection in conservative Christian circles based on Biblical teachings that are quite clear.  But there is zero ministry to these people who need our love every bit as much as those who suffer from other variants of sexual expression that are equaling as disturbing to our God.  Adultery is every bit as big a problem as homosexuality will ever be.  And adultery happens quietly, not talked about, not admitted to, and completely infects that same conservative Christian community that is so quick to condemn people whose propensities they do not share.  Easy to condemn the gay person for being gay, when I have no desire to ever be gay.  But hard to condemn my own lusts, that drive me to forever look away from marital bonds I should be bound to.  Men who will not forsake the pursuit of variety.  Women who will not forsake the pursuit of satisfaction or love from a source that is not their own husband, having given up hope they will ever find it there.  And this more quiet problem, is a much more prevalent problem, that it seems nearly none of us are willing to confront, or sadly forsake.

The cure for both of these sins remains Jesus.  And both sins are a disease of the mind and heart.  Both are sins whether we would prefer to hear that designation or not.  The answer is not to “accept” them as part of who we are.  The answer is to submit ourselves fully to Jesus, and let Him do with our sex life whatever and however He sees fit.  And to love each other without condemnation of each other in the meantime while Jesus does the work within us, only Jesus could ever do.  If I arrive at the Pearly gates and my sin was never fully removed from me during my lifetime, it will be removed before I enter those gates, by the grace and love of Jesus Christ.  Many a believer has gone down to the grave, still struggling against some sin they never found the victory against.  Forgiveness was ever their watchword even if reform was the one they always desired, but did not find enough submission to Jesus, to ever experience.  But transformation will happen.  Faith guarantees it.  Whether in this life where relief comes early to the burdened soul, or at the start of the next one, when it comes in the twinkling of an eye – transformation will come.  And Jesus will make us then, what He always desired for us to be.  The truth however, does not change, and confronts our pride in the here and now.  Do we try to accept ourselves giving us license to sin, or ever look to Jesus and have faith He can remove our sins from us, and change who we are, and what we want.

Will we be like the Pharisees of old, and cling to our pride, even to the point of denying the Truth, and rather seeking to kill God Himself over it?  Or will be react another way.  Consider what Luke tells us of an incident regarding the confrontation of pride with the Truth in the person of Jesus Christ.  This story begins not long after the triumphal entry of Jesus into Jerusalem on a colt that was never ridden by any other man.  The anthems of praise echoed through the city and refused to go away, even days after Jesus had entered.  Jesus had cleansed the Temple, and thrown out the cheaters, breaking entirely the worship based economy that emerged within it.  And now, Jesus was teaching in the Temple day after day.  But Jesus did not teach in the manner of previous priests or current Pharisees.  Jesus taught with power and authority.  Jesus did not explain a passage from scripture and talk about what it might have meant, or all the possible meanings it might have contained.  Jesus simple zoned in on the truth of what it said, and what it meant, and what God the Father intended us to learn from every given passage of scripture.  Scriptures were never thrown out by Jesus, but instead explained through the lens of Jesus, and finally rightly interpreted.  This was teaching with authority, authority like none other in history.  It was clear.  It was decisive.  It was direct.  It was Truth as it proceeded from the mouth of the Truth.  … and the Pharisees hated it.

Eventually they reached a breaking point and could keep silent no longer.  Luke picks up with this in the twentieth chapter of his gospel letter to his friend about what we believe and why.  In verse 1 it says … “And it came to pass, that on one of those days, as he taught the people in the temple, and preached the gospel, the chief priests and the scribes came upon him with the elders, [verse 2] And spake unto him, saying, Tell us, by what authority doest thou these things? or who is he that gave thee this authority?”  The Pharisees demanded to know, who gave Jesus the authority to teach what and how He did.  They knew it was not the Sanhedrin.  They were the Sanhedrin.  They knew Rome would never insert itself into these kinds of inherently Jewish teachings.  So that left only one choice.  Jesus must declare the His Father God granted Him this authority.  Or better yet for the Pharisees, Jesus might even declare that He gave Himself this authority, for that would be an admission that He thought of Himself as God.  Either declaration of God granting Jesus this authority, might be enough to convince the people that Jesus was a blasphemer.  Saying you are God when you are not is indeed blasphemy.  But the Pharisees knew Jesus was in fact God.  So if Jesus had declared Himself as such, it would have been true.  The Pharisees must then convince the people that truth spoken by Jesus was a lie, and they should stone Jesus for having the nerve to speak it.

This was no simple question of curiosity launched by the Pharisees.  It was a calculated attack designed to trap Jesus into giving them an excuse to discredit Him with the people, and an occasion to stone Him for so doing.  Think of the depth of hatred pride had inspired in these men, to pervert truth in order to commit murder, of God Himself and they knew it.  Notice too, they did not attack the Truth of the messages Jesus had been teaching.  They engaged in no debate with Him about what He had been saying.  For there was no debate.  What Jesus said was pure truth, and they recognized it, and had no debate they could launch.  So instead of debating scripture with Jesus, which they knew they would lose, they challenged His authority to be able to teach at all.  This was after all, “their” Temple.  From their point of view, Jesus did not own this place, it belonged to the people was managed by them, not Jesus.  So Jesus should not have been teaching at all without their blessing.  A blessing they would never give.  So here was a trap disguised as a question to challenge His authority.

Jesus however, saw right through the subterfuge into the hearts of each of them present offering this challenge.  Jesus knew immediately what they were doing, and why.  He saw the hate barely able to contain itself.  He saw the thirst for blood, that pride confronted by truth, was ready to shed.  And are we any different than those Pharisees?  When scripture tells us clearly not to cheat, not to betray, and we do it anyway – don’t we tend to just ignore scripture entirely?  We kind of have to, in order to keep doing what we are doing.  We get mad at anyone who would dare confront us with what scripture might say to us.  We attack them, attack their character, point out their sins, and less than perfect lives.  Who are they to tell us anything?  But the truth in scripture does not change because its messenger is less than perfect.  Yet we war against truth, in order for us to remain in sin, and refuse to call sin by its right name.  For if it is not sin, then we do not need forgiveness, and do not need to change.  Our pride can remain in tact if we do not need to be saved from ourselves.  But that is not the truth of it.  We do need to be saved.  Saved from who we are in the core of us.

Jesus responds in verse 3 saying … “And he answered and said unto them, I will also ask you one thing; and answer me: [verse 4] The baptism of John, was it from heaven, or of men?”  How would you answer?  I put this same challenge to your pride to you in a different way.  The Bible; is it of God or of men?  If you answer it is of God, then why do you not believe it, or do what it says.  If you answer it is of men, then what hope is left to you at all?  This was the same dilemma the Pharisees faced.  But they, like you, already knew the truth of the answer to this question.  John’s baptism, and the Bible from Genesis to Revelations, is of God, or of heaven.  We were created, we did not evolve.  Jesus is revealed in prophecy of things yet to be.  We can learn from those revelations or choose to ignore them at our peril.  John’s baptism was as relevant then as it is now.  We need a baptism of repentance.  Notice we do not need a baptism to profess our faith in Jesus, we need a baptism of repentance of who we are, of what we have made of ourselves by our own choices to embrace sin.  We need to be washed clean by ceremonial waters, with our eyes fixed on Jesus who washes us clean before the Father.  This we need.  But so few churches offer it this way.  Instead baptism is made a ceremonial right of joining a particular denomination of Jesus, and done only once.  I dare say our need for repentance exceeds a one-time event.  I imagine even in the days of John, the same believer might have showed up at the river Jordan more than once.

The Pharisees now began to see their own dilemma.  Luke continues in verse 5 saying … “And they reasoned with themselves, saying, If we shall say, From heaven; he will say, Why then believed ye him not? [verse 6] But and if we say, Of men; all the people will stone us: for they be persuaded that John was a prophet.”  Keep in mind, the Pharisees knew the truth, but pride would not allow them to acknowledge it.  For John had called them out on their misdeeds and hypocrisy.  And instead of seeking repentance when those warning were offered, they rebelled further still.  No Pharisee had taken that baptism (at least not in public).  Instead they thought themselves in no need of it.  Are we any different?  Do we cast a purposely blind eye to our own sins, focusing only on the sins of others.  We think ourselves as “good people”, particular good if you compare us to those people, and that guy over there.  So if we are good, we do not really need to repent at all, let alone have a baptism to acknowledge publicly we needed repentance.  Pride would have us refuse any opportunity to be saved, for pride would tell us we do not need saving, especially from who we have become.

Luke continues in verse 7 saying … “And they answered, that they could not tell whence it was. [verse 8] And Jesus said unto them, Neither tell I you by what authority I do these things.”  Mexican standoff.  The Pharisees will not admit they know the truth, or need repentance, or need to be saved.  And Jesus will not stumble into the trap they have for Him.  But Jesus never strayed from the truth, or changed what He taught, or how, for Jesus is the Truth.  The Pharisees however, allowed pride to keep them from the Truth at all costs.  And determined themselves even more to kill this Truth as soon as they could find a way.  Are we any different?  Are we willing to be broken upon the Rock of Jesus Christ, having our pride shattered completely so that only humility, even public humility, is all that remains?  It is not easy picking up from the aftermath of having embraced sin of any kind.  What you thought was private, turns out to be not so private after all.  You hurt others.  Your betrayal shatters the hearts and minds of others, most chiefly of those you love the most, or say you do.  And even when forgiven you bear the burden of what you have done, for the pain does not quickly go out of their hearts and minds and lives. It will scar you.  Perhaps it should scar you.  But you cannot be rebuilt upon a foundation of lies.  You cannot find your way past the pain while you seek no repentance.  You cannot be forgiven while you do not seek it.

Sin is devastating.  But to allow pride to tell you, you do not sin, is even worse.  To allow pride to minimize what you do or how or why you do it, is no better.  The pain you cause will be amplified instead of released.  Jesus was and remains the Truth we all need, we all require.  It is Jesus alone who can rebuild our shattered lives.  It is our pride that would lead us to destroy ourselves, and all those we claim to love.  But to be confronted by the Truth of Jesus and seek repentance is the first step in a long journey back to living a whole life Jesus intends for you.  It is only in your humility that you begin to understand just how large forgiveness really is, and how expensive it was to purchase and give to you.  It is when we acknowledge who we are, that we begin to see, why we need to be remade from that old person into the creation Jesus would have us to be.  And while we may ever see the pain of what we have done reflected in the eyes or life of another, we can set our minds and hearts firm, to make amends.  To serve our victims for the rest of our lives, and show them what the love of Jesus can do to heal, and make well again.  Lives need not remain shattered by Truth, but cannot be rebuilt until they are.  Then we begin to move from mere repentance, to real reform, and this is how perfection begins in you.

 

The First Revelation of Ministry ...

The first of anything is always unprecedented.  Sounds like common sense, but the idea of “unprecedented” has more of an impact on us, than just the word “first” sometimes.  The term unprecedented by nature then is used rarely, because it is experienced rarely.  The first time a president elect chooses to use Twitter instead of the main stream media has been unprecedented as an example.  The level of crisis in Aleppo Syria is unprecedented to the residents who live there.  And on the plus side, the birth of our Savior was unprecedented as well.  No virgins ever gave birth before that.  Satan may have done his best to counterfeit this characteristic of the Gospel in other pagan religions.  But the real event, the real virgin birth was unprecedented.  It didn’t hurt to have angelic choirs, magi from the East, and a dedicated star leading the way either.  All of these supporting events insured the unprecedented nature of God entering our earth in human form.

But while many miraculous events marked the birth and youth of Jesus, the main event had yet to begin.  The ministry of Jesus was on the doorstep.  John the Baptist had been preaching about it with a fervency that could not be matched.  The Holy Spirit was blessing the ministry of John, convicting his listeners of their need to repent and come to God, symbolically through baptism, and now possibly literally through human contact with Jesus.  As with His birth, the counterfeit events Satan created in other pagan religions were not going to come close to the real thing.  All the deities of Satan demanded things of man for their favor; Jesus would be the only God who offered things to man, even to His enemies.  The real ministry of Jesus was about to be unveiled and it was truly going to be a first.  It was truly going to be unprecedented.

So how does the unveiling take place?  An event this glorious is sure to begin at the Temple in Jerusalem, in front of the High Priest and the assembly of the Sanhedrin.  All of Jerusalem would be called to attend, well at least, anyone who was anyone in polite society, would be called to attend.  Jesus would submit His authority to the Priesthood and the Sanhedrin.  They would give Him His marching orders, and discuss how soon Rome was to be evicted from Israel.  Then the existing leadership would start making plans about which leadership positions they wanted in the new government Jesus was sure to form.  After all, Jesus was going to need good lieutenants and counselors, in order to maintain order in the provinces.  This was certainly the view of those who led the church in the days of Christ.  But it was not the way of Jesus, or of His Father.  They had different ideas.

First must come the ratification of the ministry of John the Baptist.  The same nut, who called the Priests vipers, and had a message of shock and awe for church leadership, was to be validated by Jesus before Jesus did a single thing on His own formally.  That did not make any sense to the Sanhedrin.  But it made perfect sense to those who heard the message of Elijah in the words of John, and the power of the Holy Spirit that Isaiah had predicted.  God was moving near the Jordan river.  Not moving the waters, but stirring the hearts to repentance.  The announcements of the proximity of Jesus that John made every day were not the empty rattling’s of a homeless crazy.  They were a prophecy of the Truth, who was soon to be among them.

So Jesus begins His ministry without pomp or circumstance.  He foregoes the formality of the Temple, and the authority of the Sanhedrin, and looks for a place and a man of abject humility.  And there he finds his cousin, a willing servant of the most high God.  Matthew begins his account in chapter three of his Gospel picking up in verse 13 saying … “Then cometh Jesus from Galilee to Jordan unto John, to be baptized of him.”  Say What?!  From the point of view of church leadership this move makes zero sense.  And frankly from our perspective some 2000 years later a lot of questions emerge as well.

First, Jesus had no sin to be baptized from.  He had no need of repentance because He lived a perfect life.  So why request this act that would have no real meaning for Himself?  Second, for those who care about perceptions, the audience standing near was sure to interpret this move as Jesus being no different than they were.  But He was different.  He was God.  They were not.  There could not be a bigger difference, yet doing this action would cause them to think, He was just one of them.  It is a bit deceptive if all you judge actions upon is their appearances.  How many of us still judge so?

Matthew continues in verse 14 saying … “But John forbad him, saying, I have need to be baptized of thee, and comest thou to me?”  Look closely here as John knows Jesus to be the Son of God immediately, without hesitation, and without doubt.  John is not wrestling with the identity of Jesus.  John knows full well that Jesus is the Messiah.  Not because he read about it in a book.  Not because he was related to Jesus by blood.  Not because of the conditions of His unprecedented birth.  John knows Jesus to be God, because the light of divinity shines through the eyes of Jesus as they stare right through John to the depths of his very soul.  John’s response is to further humble himself.  John wants Jesus to baptize him, preferably with Holy Fire, but water will do too.  At a minimum Jesus has this all backwards.

Matthew continues in verse 15 saying … “And Jesus answering said unto him, Suffer it to be so now: for thus it becometh us to fulfil all righteousness. Then he suffered him.”  Interesting the choice of the word suffer.  He might have used the term, humor me.  He might have commanded John, but He did not, instead He pleads with John for patience and acquiescence.  He gives John the reason, that this tradition is part of the fulfillment of all righteousness.  And there it is.  The real motive of Jesus begins to emerge.  Those witnesses on the banks of the Jordan river, were in no less need of baptism after the arrival of Jesus than they were before it.  Our need continues.  Our embrace of the symbolism continues.  Jesus does not eradicate the practice of baptism, He endorses it personally by example.

There are those modern Christians who believe they need make no public display of the embrace of humility and service to our Lord.  They believe that “what is in their hearts” is enough.  Yet across the New Testament church, baptism becomes the entry, the gateway to the faith.  The outpouring of the Holy Spirit happens after baptism.  Though I am certain His ministry occurs across our lifetimes.  Jesus does not get baptized because He needs it.  He does it because we need it.  We will need it later, even after His work for us on this earth reaches its fulfillment.  There is always need for repentance.  There is always need for humility.  There is always need for submission.

And the ministry of John the Baptist is validated and ratified in no higher a way.  God Himself, ratifies John’s message and its continued need.  John does not go home after this encounter with Christ.  He does not resign and go on a tour to Disneyland.  Instead he is even more committed, even more energized.  If Jesus had ignored John, that continuation may have never had its fervor.  But then the unprecedented happens.

Matthew continues in verse 16 saying … “And Jesus, when he was baptized, went up straightway out of the water: and, lo, the heavens were opened unto him, and he saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove, and lighting upon him: [verse 17] And lo a voice from heaven, saying, This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased.”  This is the definition of unprecedented.  No other baptism went like this one.  No other baptizee came up out of the water and found the heavens opened up, the Spirit of God descending in the form of a dove, and very voice of the Father God saying these words.  God the Father Himself bears witness to the identity of His own very loved Son.  God the Father Himself declares in front of all who are there, who Jesus is.

The ministry of John is ratified.  But even more important, the ministry of Jesus is revealed to begin, by His own Father in heaven.  What John has foretold is reality.  It is their reality.  It is our reality.  This was more than a first.  This was a one time only event.  The coming of the Messiah was now.  The fulfillment of the prophecy given to Adam and Eve, given to Noah, given to Abraham, Moses, David, and countless others has reached its zenith.  For 4000 years humanity has waited for this.  We have waited for an encounter with God.  And sadly, some of us, are still waiting.  Not because our God is unwilling to reach us, but because we have substituted the worship of self in His place.  We preach the gospel of self, of self reliance, instead of submission to Jesus.

There is no need of baptism, when submission has been fully discarded.  The mirror makes no demands on our humility.  It asks us only to serve the image we find in it.  But Jesus offers us so much more.  Jesus offers us an escape from that image, and a journey towards something bigger than we have ever dreamed of.  Our self imposed limitations have kept us enslaved to mediocrity at best, and depravity at worst, when what Jesus offers us is a perfection we have not even imagined.  Perfect health.  Perfect minds.  And a Perfect ability to love unencumbered by slavery to self, and the image in the mirror.

Matthew makes no comparison between Old and New Testaments in this passage, because there was no reference that could have encompassed it.  Unprecedented leaves Matthew only reporting what he has seen.  And this was only the beginning …

 

Fire and Brimstone, with a Twist [part one] ...

Perception is tough in the eyes of the blind.  How do you know where you are, or what you need if your eyesight is impaired?  But to complicate it, what if you only choose to be blind, simply choose not to see.  Look at it another way.  How do you get help? - You ask for it.  But when you are certain you need no help, you are nearly certain not to ask.  And the perception of someone else, that you are in desperate need of help, is meaningless unless you share that same perception, recognize your need, and ask for the help that will resolve the matter.  This is the splinter that resides in the eyes of the sinner; that they have forgotten their need, or choose not to see it.  And this is the tree-trunk that resides in the eyes of the modern Christian; that they believe it is their job to convict of sin, when only the Holy Spirit can do that.  So how do we save both the sinner, and the modern Christian, who refuse to see their need?  Short answer is; we don’t, but Jesus does.

Perhaps one of the most famous “fire and brimstone” preachers in scripture was John the Baptist (at least if you only read Matthew’s account).  John preached “repentance”.  But is repentance condemnatory, or redemptive?  John calls sinners to repentance; he does not burst into their lives, pointing out their sins, and reminding them of how wrong each sin is from heaven’s accounting point of view.  Actually, he makes no accusation at all about “which” sin any of his listeners might be committing.  Instead John focuses only on the “need” to repent.  “Which” sins we have committed, the ones we know we should not have done, is a silent matter between us and God.  It is the Holy Spirit that calls those desires, actions and motives to mind.  It is the Holy Spirit who would see us freed from our bondage to them, not continually enslaved to them.  But there goes that funny thing of perception once again.

The Holy Spirit sees the sin in us for what it truly is; an addiction to self-love we are powerless to break.  Even if our hands can be held in check, our hearts cannot.  We still want to sin.  And very often we do what we want.  When we see we are unable to fix the cycle of sin, when we recognize our need, then FINALLY Jesus through the power of the Holy Spirit is able to free us from those desires, motives and actions that otherwise enslave us.  But the perception of sin as enslaving is one the divine understands.  The human perception of sin is often not the same.  We see sin as some sort of fun-house, we don’t want to lose.  We see the lack of sin as boredom squared.  A life without any disobedience is the life of some goody-two-shoes we would simply not want.  So we cling to our sins, figuring we can always give them up in our future.  But that future never arrives.  Even though we do not seem to evolve, our sin does.  Sin does change over time in that it gets worse.  We hurt others more, we hurt ourselves more, and we hurt God more (because He loves us and hates seeing us do this to ourselves).

The trick for saving sinners then, is to simply expose them to the Holy Spirit.  The Holy Spirit takes over from there.  But here is where performing this work gets tricky.  Most modern Christians believe it is their job to preach the word; defining those terms as condemning and judging others who are clearly sinners for the sins they commit.  We believe our job is to enlighten these ignorant sinners about the sins they commit, as if they could not see them themselves.  We believe that only through our careful enlightenment and public exposure of their sins, will the sinner ever desire to leave those sins behind (I would guess through embarrassment of public ridicule as this plan has not been well thought out).  While we ourselves still cling to the pet-sins in our own lives, we are quick to condemn the same ones in the lives of others.  Our entire “gospel” then becomes pointing out sins in others.  No love.  No redemption.  No method of actually getting rid of those sins, but then, how could we offer something we have never experienced.  So when you boil it down; we offer, no hope.  At least, no hope for living differently in this world.  We bundle up forgiveness and sell the prospects of life in the next world.  In this one, only condemnation for the crap in your life.

So to save our modern Christian, we need to recognize our need of an entirely different gospel.  The new gospel does not depend on you or me.  The new gospel depends only on Jesus.  If work needs to get done, then Jesus must do it.  In us, for us, in spite of us.  We keep pointing at Jesus, and Jesus takes over from there.  Jesus deals with the sins, the desires to sin, and sometimes our continued failures in sin.  The best way to point to Jesus is to love, not to focus on sin.  Loving someone gives them a reason to change, not a reason to rebel.  Loving someone in spite of what they do, gives them an example of forgiveness, not an ethereal explanation of it.  But loving like this is hard.  Well at least, it is hard with an unchanged heart.  Time to go to Jesus again.  Time to seek an entirely different heart and subsequently different perspective.  Fear just does not do the job.  But love does.  So let’s examine the ministry of John the Baptist (from the perspective of Matthew) and see what kind of twist he puts in the reputation he carries for one of the loudest and most famous hellfire and brimstone preachers.

Matthew begins his account in chapter three of his gospel picking up in verse 1 saying … “In those days came John the Baptist, preaching in the wilderness of Judaea, [verse 2] And saying, Repent ye: for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.”  Matthew has skipped forward through the youthful years of Jesus and is now right at the public start of His ministry.  John the Baptist is actually the cousin of Jesus and just coincidentally follows the customs of the Nazarene’s with his own hair.  John is what we would call an ultra-conservative in appearance and manner.  Thus far, a perfect candidate for hellfire and brimstone preaching.  But the twist is in his message.  It is a simple one.  John calls for repentance.  John also offers a reason why repentance is so important at this time in earth’s history; because the kingdom of God is at hand.  God is about to be with us.  God will be in human form, and in point of fact, he has already been with us for nearly 30 years with only minimal notice.  So why is the message of John different?  Because John is declaring that God will be revealed to all of us very shortly.  Proximity with God.  The ability to see God, talk to God, and have the eyes of God look right through you.

Now imagine you are a typical Israelite in these days.  Chances are you are too poor to have the luxury of time to commit a wide variety of sins.  But poverty is no protection against the sins you are certain to have committed in spite of it.  You go to Temple.  You make sacrifice.  But you have never thought that God might be within talking distance.  You have never thought of having God be close enough to see you with human eyes, but divine insight.  If you are to greet God in person, you want to be ready to do it.  You want to be clean inside.  You want to be dipped into the waters, have your carnal nature symbolically die, and be resurrected a new creation.  A new creation unto your God, who has been so long desired.  None of this message has anything to do with toppling the Roman empire.  None of this message has anything to do with condemnation of you for what you do.  Instead it is an opportunity to make ready inside yourself for God.  It is open to everyone.  It is constant.  John is always preaching about it.  And when you are close, you feel the Holy Spirit convict your heart, and you long to make ready and be clean.

The message of repentance is not about judgment, it is about proximity with God on earth.  The message of repentance is not about punishment it is about reconciliation.  Your average sinner gets this.  Your average sinner has been exposed to the Holy Spirit through the ministry of John, without condemnation or judgment or public humiliation.  Matthew continues in verse 3 saying … “For this is he that was spoken of by the prophet Esaias, saying, The voice of one crying in the wilderness, Prepare ye the way of the Lord, make his paths straight.”  Again Matthew ties together the Old Testament with the New in the life of Jesus Christ.  Isaiah foretold of the power of this message (referencing his book in chapter 40 and verse 3).  This proclamation would therefore be blessed by the Holy Spirit as the time for it was at hand.  Malachi (referencing chapter 4 and verse 5) would also foretell of it in the sending of Elijah before the end of time.  Jesus would later call reference to Malachi, in explaining the importance of the ministry of John, and how John’s ministry fulfills those words.

Matthew then goes on to describe John more fully and the results of his ministry among sinners picking up in verse 4 saying … “And the same John had his raiment of camel's hair, and a leathern girdle about his loins; and his meat was locusts and wild honey. [verse 5] Then went out to him Jerusalem, and all Judaea, and all the region round about Jordan, [verse 6] And were baptized of him in Jordan, confessing their sins.”  John wore simple homemade clothing from things he could put together.  John ate bugs (large ugly ones) and likely dipped them in honey to enhance the taste.  His diet was desert fair, food his God would provide to him.  Matthew describes these things not as the reason people came to see him.  But to insure his readers understand John was not wearing priestly clothing of fine raiment, and eating a priestly diet of sacrificial meats and vegetables a priest could afford.  John was dirt poor.  His clothing and his food were poorer than those who came to see him.  Even beggars did better financially than John.  But John was taken care of by God.  While John did not have much, he had what he needed from his God.

Then there was the results of the ministry of John.  Word of mouth, spread quickly about John.  Not because he was some nut in the desert near the river preaching nutball theories.  But John’s ministry held spiritual blessing, and the Holy Spirit was present to all who would come to hear.  John was not preaching to make income, or himself famous.  John was preaching for his listeners, with the ecstatic news that God would soon be among them.  His words were loud and clear, and pierced right to the heart of those who came to hear.  When they went home at night, they told everyone they knew about what had happened to them.  They had been baptized in the river Jordan without a second thought.  In spite of how embarrassing it might have been they publicly declared and confessed their sins during the baptism because they were so moved by the Holy Spirit.  They came to John burdened, they left unburdened and made free by the power of the Holy Spirit.  This message was not to be missed.

So many modern preachers believe it is their duty, their responsibility, to reach the hearts of their listeners.  But it is not.  They offer only words.  It is the Holy Spirit that turns those simple words in the ears of the listener into life altering musings from the very throne of God Himself.  Empowered by the Holy Spirit, the listener is willing to give up his sins, begin his life over, and lay everything at the altar of our God.  They come burdened but leave free.  They come burdened but leave with a sense of hope.  No modern preacher accomplishes this feat, but the Holy Spirit cannot be denied in doing it. 

The difference between the results from one sermon to another is not the skill of the preacher, but the outpouring of the Holy Spirit to the listeners.  The preacher already knows the truth.  The listeners are revealed the Truth in a deeper way ONLY by the Holy Spirit, or not at all.  The preacher’s blessing is to offer the testimony of what Jesus has done for him.  The preacher is honored to participate.  But it is the Holy Spirit who drives ALL the results, not just some of them.  How often has the Holy Spirit been stifled, because the minister believes he can do it himself, with his great oratory skills, with his great PowerPoint overheads, and because he has achieved a level of fame in himself.  It is our taking the credit the stifles the flow of He who alone can accomplish what our feeble attempts never will.

Matthew has concluded his recollections of John’s ministry for the common sinners among us.  He has recited a brilliant ministry with stunning national results in changing the life of the common believer.  Israel had not seen this kind of ministry since the age of the prophets, and even they were not often focused on the common man.  This was unprecedented.  This could serve well the effort of a modern ministry or Christian as an example of public outreach.  John was steeped in humility.  John shunned all wealth, he took no offerings to support his ministry.  John was homeless.  John lived off the land and the mercy of God.  John’s ministry was blessed by the Holy Spirit.  John offered a way to become clean again.  John never called out any particular sinner’s sin, or publicly humiliated anyone.  John offered a way to be free, and many took him up on it.  John had twisted the rules of a fire and brimstone preacher quite a bit.  But this was for the common man, the common sinner, the common believer.

The message of John for the leadership of the church was something else entirely …

 

Rights of Ownership [part three] ...

How do you prove that you own something?  I have a plastic cup on my desk, if my ownership of this cup were challenged, perhaps I could produce a receipt for it.  But a receipt only shows that I bought “a” plastic cup, not that I bought “this” plastic cup.  At some point, the person who challenges my ownership of something is going to have to believe that it is mine, perhaps based on my word, perhaps based on the evidence I can produce (receipts, eye-witness testimony, etc.).  But if the questioner is determined “not” to believe me, no matter what truth I tell, what witnesses I can produce, and what evidence supports my claims … they can remain unconvinced simply because they choose not to believe.  Most of us would not be so hard headed, particularly where it comes to the ownership of a plastic cup, mostly because we could care less who owns a particular plastic cup.  When the stakes are higher, we need more to be convinced.  When the stakes are for your soul, what would it take you to be convinced?

Satan is playing the highest stakes game there is.  And he is playing it with you.  His argument is simple; he does not exist, in fact, nothing supernatural exists.  Therefore, you are the only one in charge of you.  You own you.  You must take care of you, as no one else will.  His goal is not to argue against God, for in this he would undoubtedly lose.  His goal is to convince you there is no game, there are no players, and the only one here, is you.  Atheists gladly accept this idea.  They like it better.  They prefer it.  They understand it.  Accepting that there is a supernatural, that there is something beyond their sight, complicates their decisions, and presents a different choice of ownership to them, one they do not want to make, or believe exists.  Atheists claim to believe only in evidence, and yet can find a way to disallow every piece of evidence, and eye-witness testimony you provide.  They are determined NOT to believe, and so they remain unconvinced by choice.

God is also playing the highest stakes game there is.  He is not playing by choice, but by necessity.  Satan has forced God into this position, because for Love’s sake, God must do something, or see Satan destroy His children with no remorse.  God never intended His children to suffer.  God never intended His children to know what “death” is.  Satan introduced that knowledge of good and of evil to us in firsthand experience.  God wanted us to be blissfully ignorant of disease, of pain, and of death.  But we wanted to know, Eve wanted to know.  And so we do.  God’s argument is also simple.  God wants to free us from the slavery we have unknowingly embraced in ceding our dominion to Satan.  God wants to take the chains of slavery of self-love off of us, and make us free to end pain, end death, and know perfection once again.  He offers us this gift, for no more reason, than He loves us, even more than He loves His own life.  And He dies to prove it to us, to take our punishment upon Himself.

So the players are assembled, the prize is you, and the choice about what you believe determines the ownership that will be asserted over you every day of your life.  Your death will finally end the choosing.  Your life will determine what choice you made most often, and at its end.  But what will it take for you to believe it?  This choice of whether one will believe or not is far from new.  Adam and Eve faced it.  You and I will as well.  Jesus Christ is perpetually facing those on both sides of the belief question.  Some of us accept what He offers.  Some decline, some even decline with a vengeance.  There are some, who do accept the premise of the supernatural, they just do not accept that Jesus can do anything to free their souls, or their choices.

Peter recalled for John Mark in chapter eleven, some of the first enemies of Christ.  These were religious leaders … perhaps that bears repeating … these were religious leaders.  These were men who devoutly believed in the supernatural, in the God they worshipped, just not in the manifestation of that same God.  They refused belief, because they would have had to give up control to do so.  Please read that previous sentence again.  How many of us refuse belief, because we would have to give up control to do so?  Instead we become the virtual enemies of Christ, while still claiming to follow Him.  The Pharisees, Scribes, and Sadducees also claimed the faith of Abraham, and to serve Abraham’s God.  But they refused to be saved by Jesus Christ, the long awaited Messiah, because He loved others, and they could not.  They loved themselves more, and they bear a reflection of so many of us, sitting in pews of Christian churches, with all the doctrinal knowledge of our forefathers, and as little love as them as well.

These men had gone from teacher, to killer.  They went from studying scripture to making plans on how to kill the Author of scripture.  And so this was the context of the day.  Jesus was still in “their” Temple, He was teaching “His” doctrine, not theirs, and He did not recognize their authority.  Something had to be done to remedy this.  The recollection begins in verse 27 saying … “And they come again to Jerusalem: and as he was walking in the temple, there come to him the chief priests, and the scribes, and the elders, [verse 28] And say unto him, By what authority doest thou these things? and who gave thee this authority to do these things?”  The trap was laid.  This question was designed to have Jesus publicly state that He was the Messiah, the Son of God.  Had they been listening, they would have already heard this throughout His ministry by the healed, by the saved, even by the demons He cast out.  But the leaders wanted Jesus to say it in their Temple, right after which, they would try Him for heresy.

Jesus responds in verse 29 saying … “And Jesus answered and said unto them, I will also ask of you one question, and answer me, and I will tell you by what authority I do these things. [verse 30] The baptism of John, was it from heaven, or of men? answer me.”  Perhaps starting the great political tradition of our age, answering a question with a question, Jesus offers them a trap of His own.  The motives here are widely different.  An answer to Jesus’ question is to prompt their hearts about the state of their own salvation.  For Jesus has come to save His enemies, as much as His followers.  Sometimes, they are the same people, in His day, and in ours.

The leadership ponders picking up in verse 31 saying … “And they reasoned with themselves, saying, If we shall say, From heaven; he will say, Why then did ye not believe him? [verse 32] But if we shall say, Of men; they feared the people: for all men counted John, that he was a prophet indeed.”  Ouch!  Consider closely the reasoning of the enemies of Jesus, in His day, and in your own churches.  They “knew” that John’s messages were of God.  It was more than the people who were convicted of the error of their ways by the Holy Spirit speaking through John.  Priests were confronted.  Hypocrites were called out.  Even Herod was privately convinced he needed to change his life, and was planning to get rid of the women that were pulling him away from God (when those women acted to see John’s influence forever silenced by Herod’s pride).  The priests know John was telling the truth, as much as they know Jesus is.  But they continue to refuse to believe, because it would require them to give up control.  How many of us read these words, and ignore the 800-pound gorilla in our own spiritual lives … we too refuse to give up control to Jesus Christ?  We want to make ourselves ready for Jesus, not let Him do it.

So the matter is resolved in verse 33 saying … “And they answered and said unto Jesus, We cannot tell. And Jesus answering saith unto them, Neither do I tell you by what authority I do these things.”  How disappointed Jesus must have been.  Either answer from those men could have helped them recognize their need of Jesus to save to them.  Baptism was a public symbolism of what God does for each of us.  The internal carnal man, his nature, his addiction to sin, is put to death in the gentle waters of the Jordon.  Or by the Son of God who gently takes from us our chains of sin and pain.  We rise from the waters a new creation, a new creature born of our God, with a new life He gives us.  We are remade by our Creator.  Yet the enemies of Christ refused repentance, and embraced the pain of sin.  They cast aside scripture, because it teaches them to love, and embrace only the ideas of killing Jesus, and the scriptures that could be twisted to support that cause.

How like us.  We decide the meaning first, then open scriptures to prove our point, not to be taught a different one.  We perceive ourselves to be spiritually mature based on our accumulated knowledge, not on our ability to cast aside our knowledge and embrace the playtime of a toddler (dirty diaper and all) wholly dependent on our Father to care for us in every way, including removing the filth of our sins.  The danger in the lesson of the religious leadership in the days of Christ, are meant for the Christian to understand in our own day in age.  Those men believed they were owned by God.  They had given themselves to God by declaration.  But when Jesus came to them, looking to reform their hearts, in effect to follow up on the ownership deed they had given … the men took it back.  They revealed that control was more important than salvation, or belief.  Are we different?  Do we claim Christianity, until Jesus asks to change some aspect of our lives?  Only then do we decide our sin, is more precious to us, than His request?  Does our life reveal our slavery, or His victories?

The priests asked “by what authority” does Jesus perform these actions?  Satan asks Him the same question today.  When it comes to your life, in the game Satan is playing with you, whether you like it or not, Satan asks Jesus “by what authority” does Jesus intend to change your desires for his sins?  Have you given Jesus this authority, or are you yet holding it back, making sure Jesus does not touch “that” part of your life?  Jesus is fully capable of changing everything about you.  He can make you a new creature.  He can make your life exponentially better than it is today.  But only “you” can grant Him the authority to do so.  He cannot take it.  Satan cannot steal your decision to do so.  When Satan asks the question “by what authority” to Jesus Christ in the matters of your life … what will Jesus be able to answer?