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RE Verse reading–Matthew 23 (day four)  “And do not call anyone on earth ‘father,’ for you have one Father, and He is in heaven.”  (vs 9)  We call it a “personal relationship with God through faith in Jesus Christ”.  I am not sure the words are completely adequate.  I am certain that the concept is both correct and necessary.  In Matthew 23, the Lord is teaching against our tendency to submit too much to human authority, to imagine that they do more for us than they actually do.  The essential fact of fatherhood is the power to impart life.  When medieval people called a king “sire” they were crediting him with this power.  No man can give life–not through sacrament, inspiration or physical reproduction.  Only God gives life.  While we submit, for the sake of conscience, to all human authority it is always in a measured/boundaried way.  Our real dependence, and therefore our ultimate submission belongs exclusively to God.

RE Verse reading–Matthew 23 (day three)  “The scribes and the Pharisees have seated themselves in the chair of Moses; therefore all that they tell you, do and observe.”  (vs 2-3)  This will require some careful thought.  Jesus regularly broke the traditions of the elders.  He ignored their legalism and treated the rules that they had superadded to the Mosaic law with disdain.  Given this example,  what did the Lord mean when He told the disciples (and us by extension) to obey them?  The key is the word therefore.  Because they had taken the chair of Moses (a place with teaching authority),  to the extent that they communicated what Moses taught, the disciples were to obey.  God establishes all authority. (Romans 13)  It is His normal will for us to live in submission.  Even illegitimate and hypocritical authority has binding power in our lives, unless and until it runs contrary to the word and will of God. Then, we answer a higher call.

RE Verse reading– Matthew 23 (don’t stop with verses 1-12, read the whole chapter!)  “Woe, shepherds of Israel who have been feeding themselves.” (Ezekiel 34:2)  The Bible is very serious about leadership.  Not always, but often, the problems of a church or synagogue can be traced to the moral and spiritual failure of its leaders.  It was true in ancient Israel.  The Pharisees were both lazy and proud.  Strange combination!  They loved the recognition of their office(vs 6), but were unwilling to work at righteousness (vs 3).  “PURSUE holiness”, says Hebrews 12:14.  Jesus saw them as a sad fulfillment of the words of Ezekiel. ( Another moment in Jewish history that turned out badly.)  When shepherds (leaders) cannot see past their own needs, when they cannot lead with unselfish courage, the future will be tragic.  At this critical moment, we must ask the Lord to send us leaders who care for the flock by caring for the kingdom.  We are in a serious situation.

Re:Verse reading–Matthew 23:1-12 (day one)  “Do not do what they do, for they do not practice what they preach” (vs 3)  I had lunch recently with a friend whose main problem with Christ is “christians”.  Maybe more than she even realizes, her objections are not with Jesus but with bad examples she has seen from those who claim His name.  It is a real problem–one that even Jesus had to address.  How do we press forward with real religion without being distracted and discouraged by false?  The first step of freedom is to admit the truth.  Fact  # 1–there are people who misuse the name of God.  They existed in Jesus’ day.  They are still with us.  Sometimes they are conscious of doing so.  Sometimes not.  Fact #2–bad examples do not disprove the possibility or reality of a right relationship with God.  We are neither cynical nor naive.  We must navigate around bad examples as we press forward toward the truth.

RE Verse reading–Matthew 16:13-26 (day seven)  “Shall we accept good from God and not adversity?”  (Job 2:10)  It is a big moment in the life of the believer.  It is a good and glorious breakthrough.  As we grow in Christ, we come to the point where faith is not conditional.  We trust Him in tragedy as much as we do in victory (more?).  This transition was hard for Peter.  “No, Lord!” (vs 22)  We struggle at the same place.  When we first follow Christ, most of us expect life to get “better”.  Often it does.  Eventually we  must arrive at the conclusion that He is no less worthy of our trust when life is not “getting better”.   “Consider it all joy, my brethren, when you encounter various trials” (James 1:2)  “You meant evil against me, God meant it for good” (Genesis 50:20)  May the Lord bring us to and through this moment.  We love and trust Him, “for better, for worse”.

RE Verse reading–Matthew 16:13-26 (day six) “Some say John the Baptist; others say Elijah; and still others, Jeremiah or one of the prophets” (vs 14)  Not sure what this says, but when the crowds searched for an analogy, they decided Jesus was like one of the prophets.  (all the men above)  No one compared Christ to a priest.  Priest were well-known.  The High Priests, Annas and Caiaphas figured in the gospel story.  They were, however,  comfortable men, content to operate religious institutions without passion or transformation.  Jesus was not like them.  More like a prophet.  A spokesman for God.  Courageous.  Counter-cultural.  Regarded by the establishment as dangerous.  Question.  If Jesus reminded the crowds of the prophets, do we?  Shameless commercial.  I hope you will come Sunday night February 19.  “Partners with the Prophets” will be our first Time for Teaching lecture of 2012.  I think you will be blessed by this “refresher course” on these remarkable men. They will remind us of Jesus!

RE Verse reading–Matthew 16:13-26 (day five) “Jesus replied, ‘Blessed are you, Simon son of  Jonah’ ” (vs 17)  “From that time on Jesus began to explain to his disciples that he must go to Jerusalem and suffer many things” (vs 21)  They go together in the Lord’s mind.  They usually don’t go together in mine.  The blessings of God are a door forward, but not necessarily to comfort and ease!  “To whom much is given, much is REQUIRED”  (Luke 12:48)  Peter had been blessed!  No argument.  He had been given spiritual insight into the eternal identity of Jesus.  But one level of spiritual growth introduces the next–the necessity of the cross.  It is a hard vision.  There would be a cross for Christ.  There would be a cross for the disciples. Comfort is not His priority.  Salvation is! When God blesses us, He presses us forward.  His gifts obligate us to become like Him in love.  “I’m pressing on the upward way. . .”

RE Verse reading–Matthew 16:13-26 (day four)  “From that time on Jesus began to explain to his disciples that he MUST go to Jerusalem and suffer many things . . .and that he MUST be killed and on the third day be raised to life.” (vs 21)  There is a dark side of the moon.  I am not sure why, but there is a side we never see.  The moon is like God.  There is a side of Him that we rarely see (or don’t want to).  For most of my life, the Spirit of God has been a source of salvation,peace and joy.  Gradually, I’ve come to see the side of Him that is a source of pain and loss.  His holy wrath and unspeakable love required Christ to die.  God calls me to join Him, to carry a cross, to suffer and serve. It is a dark message.  I don’t always want to see it (neither did Peter), but I MUST!

RE Verse reading–Matthew 16:13-26 (day three)  “Peter took him aside and began to rebuke him.  “Never, Lord!” he said.  “This will never happen to you.”  (vs 22)  The second step following Christ is often the hardest.  It is when the high cost of surrender becomes clear.  Most of us have a bias or “box” into which we expect God and His plan to fit.  Peter certainly did.  His confidence in Christ and his unrecognized ambitions made him expect a victory rather than suffering and a cross.  He was adamant on this!  “This will NEVER happen”, he said and earned the Lord’s rebuke for his presumption.  Sometimes we imagine that if we surrender to Christ once we will be finished–that the hard decisions and real losses all come early.  Not true.  All along the way we learn that our thoughts are not His (Isaiah 55:8)  To call Jesus Lord is as much about the second surrender as the first.

Re:Verse reading–Matthew 16:13-26 (day two)  “Some say John the Baptist; others say Elijah; and still others, Jeremiah or one of the prophets” (vs 14)  There were many opinions.  Jesus was polling the disciples on the conclusions of the crowd.  For several months (Galilean ministry) they had all seen and heard remarkable things.  They had to make up their minds.  Most had come to respect Christ.  They compared Him to John the Baptist or one of the prophets.  It was not enough!  Not until Peter, speaking for all the disciples, confessed that Jesus was “the Christ, the Son of the Living God” was the savior satisfied and the church born (cf vs. 18)  We should all remember.  It is possible to respect Jesus and fall short of the reverence due Him.  It is possible to support and still not surrender to Him as God.  Danger!  To go “part of the way” with Christ is to not arrive at all.