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GIVING — NOT TO BE NOTICED

Matthew 6:1-4 NET

1 “Be careful not to display your righteousness merely to be seen by people. Otherwise you have no reward with your Father in heaven. 2 Thus whenever you do charitable giving, do not blow a trumpet before you, as the hypocrites do in synagogues and on streets so that people will praise them. I tell you the truth, they have their reward. 3 But when you do your giving, do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing, 4 so that your gift may be in secret. And your Father, who sees in secret, will reward you.

We are beginning a study of Matthew’s sixth chapter today, which is the second of three chapters he reserves for Jesus’ sermon on the mount. Just before Jesus had begun to expound upon the principles of the kingdom, he told his apostles that “…unless your righteousness goes beyond that of the experts in the law and the Pharisees, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven” (Matthew 5:20).

The experts in the law and the Pharisees were considered to be the super-spiritual class. When someone thought of a saint, they thought of someone from these groups. When a person decided to devote themselves to the things of the Spirit, it was one of these people that he decided to mimic. But Jesus set the bar higher. He told his apostles that they had to be more spiritual that these with the reputation of being super-spiritual. In fact, if they decided to commit themselves to just doing what the experts in the law and the Pharisees were doing, then they would not even enter the kingdom.

Lange said that these super-spiritual in Jesus’ day ” imagined that they had reached the highest eminence in these three phases of spiritual life, which mark a right relationship toward our neighbor (alms-giving), toward God (prayer), and toward ourselves (fasting)” (122).

These super-spiritual saints of Jesus’ day wanted to cover all the bases of their obedience. They wanted to do their duty to everyone, and that was commendable. As MacLaren puts it, they wanted to practice “the beneficence which is (their) duty to (their) neighbour, the devotion which is (their) duty to God, and the abstinence which is (their) duty to (themselves)” (87).

But Jesus had already warned his apostles that that commitment was not enough. In today’s text, he explains why. These four verses specifically talk about charitable giving. Jesus explains why the charitable giving of these hypocrites was not a display of God’s kind of righteousness.

The hypocrites were not giving out of love (2).

They were giving, and giving is good — except when it is not. The hypocrites gave “so that people will praise them.” Parker says “The spring of all true service in Christ’s kingdom is love; whatever is less than this, though collateral and subsidiary, will be burnt up by the final fire” (63).

Jesus had specifically told his apostles to let their light shine before people, so that the people can see their good deeds and give honor to their Father in heaven (Matthew 5:16). So the hypocrites’ problem was not that they were giving in public. Nast says their problem was “ostentatious display before men, which is very forcibly expressed by the Greek πρὸς τὸ θεαθῆναι, for the purpose of being gazed at as a show” (261). There is a difference between giving in public and giving to be praised by the public.

Maas says “our alms-deeds must be done with as little ostentation as possible” (78). MacLaren says “Christ condemned ostentation. His followers too often try to make use of it” (89). I Googled ostentation. It is “pretentious and vulgar display, especially of wealth and luxury, intended to impress or attract notice.” When we give to our neighbor in order to impress our other neighbors, we are not giving out of love.

On the word hypocrites, Williams says it “was derived from one which meant to act upon the stage. A hypocrite was an actor. As stage-playing implied that the actor did not feel but only pretended to feel, so the Pharisees only pretended to feel for the poor, and were therefore called hypocrites” (82).

The hypocrites thought that giving itself would be rewarded by God (1).

Rice said “”The scribes, like the Moslems and Roman Catholics of now, held that alms-giving was meritorious before God. The rabbins said, ‘For one farthing given to the poor, a man will gain heaven.’ The names of large givers to the poor were announced in the synagogue. The religion of that day was ostentatious, for display. Jesus unmasks this pharisaical ‘acting’ in religion by setting over against it the spirit of true worship” (76).

If you give to the poor so that your name shows up on the plaque honoring the contributors, that’s great. Just don’t expect to be rewarded by God for the gift.

The hypocrites would get their reward from the ones they were trying to impress (2).

Jesus said that when these hypocrites give in order to be seen by people, they have their reward. The reputation that they were seeking would be all the reward they get.

Chamblin says “In the Judaism of Jesus’ day, trumpets were blown to announce times for prayer and fasting …, for worship and sacrifice, for feasting and celebrating.” There is no evidence, beyond that of verse 2, that almsgivers used real trumpets to summon the poor; and while there were horn-shaped chests in the temple and elsewhere for depositing offerings, the language of 6:2 does not suggest such an act.” The words, ‘Do not sound a trumpet before you,’ are in all probability a metaphor — one readily suggested by trumpets’ actual usage… and well suited (once captured by the imagination) for showing how ludicrous such a performance is” (392).

Livermore said “Our Lord had been speaking (in chapter 5) of the wrong construction put upon many of the Mosaic precepts by the Scribes and Pharisees; and he sets up a much higher and purer standard of virtue than theirs. He now proceeds to show that in their religious acts, as well as opinions, there was a corrupt motive; and that his disciples should act from far better principles” (87).

But for these hypocrites, Maclaren says “Their charity was no charity, for what they did was not to give, but to buy. Their gift was a speculation. They invested in charity, and looked for a profit of praise” (89).

The Bible does teach us to give to the needy.

“If a fellow Israelite from one of your villages in the land that the LORD your God is giving you should be poor, you must not harden your heart or be insensitive to his impoverished condition” (Deuteronomy 15:7).

“A generous person will be enriched, and the one who provides water for others will himself be satisfied” (Proverbs 11:25).

“I want you to share your food with the hungry and to provide shelter for homeless, oppressed people. When you see someone naked, clothe him! Don’t turn your back on your own flesh and blood! Then your light will shine like the sunrise; your restoration will quickly arrive; your godly behavior will go before you, and the LORD’s splendor will be your rear guard” (Isaiah 58:7-8).

We also have an example from Israelite history. David announced that he was going to contribute towards building a temple in Jerusalem — a project that his son Solomon would oversee. Then the Chronicler said this happened:

“The leaders of the families, the leaders of the Israelite tribes, the commanders of units of a thousand and a hundred, and the supervisors of the king’s work contributed willingly. They donated for the service of God’s temple 5,000 talents and ten thousand darics of gold, 10,000 talents of silver, 18,000 talents of bronze, and 100,000 talents of iron. All who possessed precious stones donated them to the treasury of the LORD’s temple, which was under the supervision of Jehiel the Gershonite. The people were delighted with their donations, for they contributed to the LORD with a willing attitude; King David was also very happy” (1 Chronicles 29:6-9). The people who had, gave, and gave willingly.

The apostle Paul tells us that New Testament churches should give like that:

“Each one of you should give just as he has decided in his heart, not reluctantly or under compulsion, because God loves a cheerful giver” (2 Corinthians 9:7).

Jesus himself had taught this principle:

“Give to the one who asks you, and do not reject the one who wants to borrow from you” (Matthew 5:42).

Jesus also commended a poor widow who gave out of her poverty:

“Jesus looked up and saw the rich putting their gifts into the offering box. He also saw a poor widow put in two small copper coins. He said, “I tell you the truth, this poor widow has put in more than all of them. For they all offered their gifts out of their wealth. But she, out of her poverty, put in everything she had to live on” (Luke 21:1-4).

So, Jesus is not discouraging giving, any more than he is discouraging the other visible displays of righteousness: praying (vss. 5-15) and fasting (vss. 16-18). But Harrington says “these acts of piety are really intended as worship of God, then they should be practiced without excessive display intended to impress other people. In each case—almsgiving, prayer, and fasting—Jesus contrasts how the hypocrites do it and what their reward is (a reputation for piety), and how ‘you’ should do it and what your reward will be (from God)” (29).

Jesus commands us to be careful about how we give (1, 3-4).

The command from our Lord with reference to giving is “Be careful.” The Greek word is προσέχω, which means to be on the alert. He uses the same word when he tells us to “watch out for false prophets, who come to (us) in sheep’s clothing but inwardly are voracious wolves” (Matthew 7:15). The idea is that there is a danger here, but it might be like those wolves. They come in sheep’s clothing, so they don’t look dangerous. That is why we need to be careful.

A packet of cigarettes does not look dangerous. But that is why the government requires that the manufacturer puts warning labels on them. There is a danger there. Everyone who ever smokes a cigarette does not immediately die of lung cancer. But that is why they are dangerous.

Jesus is telling us that our charitable giving should also have a warning label. It can be a sign of our love for God and our fellow humans. But it can also be an ostentatious display of our own pride, or seeking praise from others. So, Jesus says that when we do our giving, we should not let our left hand know what our right hand is doing, so that our gift may be in secret. And our Father, who sees in secret, will reward us.

Before we drop that offering in the collection plate, we should ask if we are doing this as part of our worship. We should ask if we would still give the gift if there was no one around to see it. We should ask if there is a way to give that does not draw attention to ourselves. Our church has a benevolent fund that we use to help the needy in our community. No one knows who gives to this fund. It is a way helping us remove the wrong motives from our charitable giving. Those gifts help others, but our giving is between the Father and ourselves, which is the way it should be.

_______

Chamblin, J K. Matthew: A Mentor Commentary. Fearn, Tain: Christian Focus Pub, 2010.

Harrington, Daniel J. Meeting St. Matthew Today: Understanding the Man, His Mission, and His Message. Chicago: Loyola Press, 2010.

Lange, Johann Peter, and Philip Schaff. The Gospel According to Matthew. New York: C. Scribner, 1865.

Maas, A J. The Gospel According to Saint Matthew: With an Explanatory and Critical Commentary. St. Louis, Mo: Herder, 1898

Maclaren, Alexander. The Gospel of St. Matthew. London: Hodder and Stoughton, 1892

Nast, Wilhelm. A Commentary on the Gospels of Matthew and Mark. Cincinnati: Poe & Hitchcock, 1864.

Parker, Joseph. A Homiletic Analysis of the Gospel by Matthew. London: Hodder and Stoughton, 1870.

Rice, Edwin W. Commentary on the Gospel According to Matthew. Philadelphia: The American Sunday-school union, 1909.

LOVE YOUR ENEMIES

LOVE YOUR ENEMIES

Luke 6:27-36 NET

27 “But I say to you who are listening: Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you,
28 bless those who curse you, pray for those who mistreat you.
29 To the person who strikes you on the cheek, offer the other as well, and from the person who takes away your coat, do not withhold your tunic either.
30 Give to everyone who asks you, and do not ask for your possessions back from the person who takes them away.
31 Treat others in the same way that you would want them to treat you.
32 “If you love those who love you, what credit is that to you? For even sinners love those who love them.
33 And if you do good to those who do good to you, what credit is that to you? Even sinners do the same.
34 And if you lend to those from whom you hope to be repaid, what credit is that to you? Even sinners lend to sinners, so that they may be repaid in full.
35 But love your enemies, and do good, and lend, expecting nothing back. Then your reward will be great, and you will be sons of the Most High, because he is kind to ungrateful and evil people.
36 Be merciful, just as your Father is merciful.

Before we get to examining today’s text I want to remind you of the picture we need to see in our minds in order to understand why Jesus preached the sermon from which this text is extracted. He had just been praying on a mountain, and then he gathered his disciples to himself and appointed twelve who were going to be his apostles. The sermon was directed to the twelve as representatives of his mission to reach all the people with the message of his coming kingdom. The sermon was not a new law for the world to follow. It was missionary training for the apostles. The purpose of the message was not to get the apostles saved. The purpose was to equip them to get other people saved.

Jesus commands his apostles to GO BEYOND their enemies’ expectations (27-28).

The NET Study Bible notes for these verses say “Love your enemies is the first of four short exhortations that call for an unusual response to those who are persecuting disciples.” That means that instead of one command, there are actually four — or at least four different ways of obeying this command. Those exhortations are:

LOVE your enemies,

Barclay says of this command, “We cannot love our enemies as we love our nearest and dearest. To do so would be unnatural, impossible, and even wrong. But we can see to it that, no matter what a man does to us, even if he insults, ill-treats, and injures us, we will seek nothing but his highest good. One thing emerges from this. The love we bear for our dear ones is something we cannot help. We speak of falling in love; it is something that happens to us. But this love towards our enemies is not only something of the heart; it is something of the will. It is something which by the grace of Christ we will ourselves to do” (76).

McDonald says that this choice to love is our secret weapon. He says “This will be one of (the apostles’) most effective weapons in evangelizing the world. When Jesus speaks of love, He is not referring to human emotion. This is supernatural love. Only those who are born again can know it or display it. It is utterly impossible for anyone who does not have the indwelling Holy Spirit. A murderer may love his own children, but that is not love as Jesus intended. One is human affection; the other is divine love. The first requires only physical life; the second requires divine life. The first is largely a matter of emotions; the second is largely a matter of the will. Anyone can love his friends, but it takes supernatural power to love his enemies. And that is the love (Greek—agape) of the New Testament. It means to do good to those who hate you, to bless those who curse you, to pray for those who are nasty to you, and ever and always to turn the other cheek. … This love is unbeatable. The world can usually conquer the man who fights back. It is used to jungle warfare and to the principle of retaliation. But it does not know how to deal with someone who repays every wrong with kindness. It is utterly confused and disorganized by such other-worldly behavior” (43).

DO GOOD to those who hate you,

Jesus later told his followers “You will be betrayed even by parents, brothers, relatives, and friends, and they will have some of you put to death. You will be hated by everyone because of my name” (Luke 21:16-17). So this amounts to a command to love everyone.

BLESS those who curse you,

Gooding suggests that sonship is “the key to Christ’s moral teaching” (121). Jesus is suggesting that the apostles will be cursed by many who they will try to reach. Instead of cursing back in retaliation, they should bless the people who curse them.

PRAY FOR those who mistreat you.

Our Lord Jesus himself prayed for those who nailed him to the cross.

Our enemies expect us to hate them, but we should love them instead.
Our enemies expect us to do harm to them, but we should do good to them instead.
Our enemies expect us to curse them, but we should bless them instead.
Our enemies expect us to mistreat them, but we should pray for them instead.

Craddock says that “Following the statement of principle are numerous examples of forms of mistreatment: hating, cursing, abusing, striking, stealing, begging (pressuring one’s sense of compassion). Two observations are in order. First, the teachings assume that the listeners are victims, not victimizers. Jesus offered no instruction on what to do after striking, stealing, hating, cursing, and abusing others” (89). There are some things that are going to happen when these apostles set off on their evangelistic campaigns. They should expect mistreatment and abuse.

Jesus warns his apostles that obeying him will make them vulnerable to VIOLENT REJECTION (29a).

Someone who strikes me on the side of my face is saying “No, and I mean no.” They are sick to death of me trying to witness to them. They have had enough of my preaching. My temptation will be to say, Okay, I’ll just go on to the next person. But what would happen if I resisted that temptation? What would happen in the heart of that person if I said, “Okay, beat on the other side of my face if you want to, but I have good news to tell, and I’m going to tell it”?

That is persistence. But if someone is drowning, it takes a brave person to jump into the deep water to try to save him. He might pull me down with him. But it’s life or death for that drowning victim. Love jumps in.

Jesus warns his apostles that obeying him will make them vulnerable to UNFAIR LOSS (29b).

You might lose your overcoat. Are you prepared to risk your suitcoat as well? There will be some unfair things that will happen to you if you dare to bear witness to others. Safety is for those who will never enjoy the harvest.

Jesus warns his apostles that obeying him will test their GENEROSITY (30).

We all like to manage our debts — to always know we will have enough. So, we choose carefully those to whom we will lend. But Jesus is calling on us to risk loss for the sake of his name. He’s not asking us to risk for our own benefit. He doesn’t want us to throw our money away. He isn’t telling us to invest in the lottery in the hopes of striking it rich. He’s telling us to invest in lost people as a witness to the generosity that is in us because of who our heavenly Father is.

Jesus commands his apostles to treat their enemies according to their POTENTIAL (31).

He says to “Treat others in the same way that you would want them to treat you.” The apostles were once have-nots, now they have life in Christ. All their enemies are potential brothers and sisters because they have the potential to come to Christ as well. It is impossible to truly love an enemy, but it is possible to love someone into becoming your friend. That is what love does. “God demonstrates his own love for us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us” (Romans 5:8). God chose to love us — his enemies — and then we became his friends.

Jesus warns his apostles not to NARROW THE SCOPE of their love (32-34).

He said “If you love those who love you, what credit is that to you? For even sinners love those who love them. And if you do good to those who do good to you, what credit is that to you? Even sinners do the same. And if you lend to those from whom you hope to be repaid, what credit is that to you? Even sinners lend to sinners, so that they may be repaid in full.” Sinners choose to narrow the scope of their love. They decide they will love those who are related to them, those who treat them right, those who are of the same race as them, or those who root for the same team as them.

But Jesus warned his apostles that if they wanted to reach people for the kingdom, they could not afford to narrow the scope of their love. They had to stretch out their love so that it reached people outside of their comfort zones.

Jesus explains two benefits of obeying this command: HARVEST and GODLINESS (35-36).

One of these benefits is HARVEST. Jesus calls it a great reward. I used to think Jesus was talking about our reward at his coming. But the context (remember) is that Jesus is coaching the apostles to bring people to him. In that context, the great reward will be lots of people won to Christ.

Harvest takes hard work. Penny and have been enjoying a good harvest in our garden this year. But we have paid for that harvest by investing time and effort in pulling weeds, working the soil, fertilizing, watering, and processing what grows. Loving our enemies is the hard work of kingdom living. The reward of that hard work is a great harvest of new believers. Some of those enemies are going to become friends and brothers and sisters.

The second benefit that Jesus mentioned is that Loving our enemies makes us more like our heavenly Father. Godliness does not come from saying that we love them. It comes from showing that we love them. It is a supernatural act. It is Christ demonstrating his love through us.

So, the challenge today — if we choose to accept it — is to do something we cannot do for people we cannot stand so that God can accomplish the impossible. In Matthew’s version of this text, Jesus puts it this way: “be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect” (Matthew 5:48). That is not just hard, it is impossible. But Jesus never gave us a challenge that he did not equip us with the power to accomplish. Let’s go love our enemies, y’all.

Barclay, William. The Gospel of Luke. Edinburgh: Saint Andrew, 1997.

Craddock, Fred B. Luke, 2009.

Gooding, David W. According to Luke: A New Exposition of the Third Gospel, 1988.

MacDonald, William. The Gospel of Luke. Dubuque, IA: Emmaus Correspondence School, 2011.

GIVING THE RIGHT ANSWER

GIVING THE RIGHT ANSWER

“But set Christ apart as Lord in your hearts and always be ready to give an answer to anyone who asks about the hope you possess. Yet do it with courtesy and respect, keeping a good conscience, so that those who slander your good conduct in Christ may be put to shame when they accuse you” (1 Peter 3:15-16 NET).

Today I want to talk about witnessing. The apostle Peter told his readers that they should always be ready to “give an answer to anyone who asks about the hope (they) possess. I know some Christians who are always ready to give an answer, but unfortunately, it is the wrong answer. What many in our churches say when they have an opportunity to testify is biblically embarrassing.

Here is a popular but wrong answer: “I’m a good person and I come from a good family, so I know I am saved.”

I don’t know anyone who has actually said it that way, but I get the impression from a lot of people that they are depending on their own decency and niceness to count for them on judgment day. We know that is the wrong answer because if any of us was nice enough to make it by our own goodness, then Jesus would not have had to die on the cross. The fact is, even the goodness of the best of us is ugly, corrupt, and sinful. Isaiah was talking about his own nation — God’s chosen people — when he said “We are all like one who is unclean, all our so-called righteous acts are like a menstrual rag in your sight” (Isaiah 64:6 NET). Brother, if you are trusting in your own goodness, you are still in your sins. You might be a good person in the world’s eyes, but God’s eyes see deeper and clearer.

Here is another popular but wrong answer: “I have an immortal soul, and I know it is going to heaven when I die.”

That kind of statement is very popular but it is full of wrong answers. If we have souls, they are not immortal, because only God is immortal (1 Timothy 6:16). The Bible never calls believers immortal on this side of the resurrection. It is at the resurrection that the apostle Paul says we will put on our immortality (1 Corinthians 15:51-53). Before the resurrection, we are just as mortal as the pigs and chickens.

Another wrong answer from that statement has to do with the expectation of going to heaven. The Bible says that “No one has ascended into heaven except the one who descended from heaven — the Son of Man” (John 3:13). Jesus did not promise to take us to heaven. He promised to come back and take us to where he will be — and that’s not the same thing. Jesus is coming back to earth to reign as its king. I don’t know about you, but I want to be where Jesus is. If he’s not going to be in heaven when he returns, then I don’t want to be there either.

The third thing wrong about that statement is that it suggests that the goal is to go somewhere when we die. People do go somewhere when they die, but it is not heaven. In the Old Testament, the place that people went when they died was identified by the Hebrew word Sheol (שְׁאוֹל). It is the intermediate state where people wait in an unconscious state until the resurrection. The New Testament equivalent is the Greek word Hades (ᾅδης). Even Jesus went to Hades when he died, and was raised from it on Easter Sunday. That is the only place in scripture that anyone goes when they die. It is described in scripture as a dark, silent place. No one ever wants to go there but everyone eventually does. The best thing about Sheol/Hades is that it is temporary. The hope of the believer is not to go there but to be raised to live again.

The right answer begins with Jesus

The right answer has to be Christocentric. Grudem says that this passage is “preparation for active witness which will win the unbeliever to Christ” (153). It focuses on Jesus, not us. It’s not about who you are or where you are going to go. It’s about who Jesus is — what he has done, and what he is going to do. Our text tells us to “set Christ apart as Lord in (our) hearts.” There is only room in your heart for one Lord. Your job cannot be Lord. Your family cannot be Lord. Even your church or your pastor cannot be Lord. Before we come to Christ, we already have a lord set up on the throne of our hearts. His name is self. Surrendering to the Lordship of Christ means dethroning self. The Bible calls this repentance. Jesus commanded everyone to repent. He said “”The time is fulfilled and the kingdom of God is near. Repent and believe the gospel!” (Mark 1:15). If the kingdom is near, that means the king is near. Jesus is the king. There is only room on the throne for one king. That means we need to get our hearts tuned in to who is actually on the throne.

Another reason that the right answer begins with Jesus is that he is the Savior, and you are not. You might be able to save people from a lot of things, but you are not qualified to save them from their sins, and neither am I. The angel Gabriel told Mary to name her son Jesus. It means Savior. The angel told the shepherds of Bethlehem “Today your Savior is born in the city of David. He is Christ the Lord” (Luke 2:11).

If we are serious about giving people the right answer, then we need to be telling them about Jesus: who he is, what he has done for us on the cross, and what he is going to do when he returns to earth. It’s not about us, it’s about the Savior.

The right answer explains the blessed hope.

Peter said to “set Christ apart as Lord in your hearts and always be ready to give an answer to anyone who asks about the hope you possess.” The Bible identifies only one blessed hope. It is “our hope in the glorious appearing of our great God and Savior, Jesus Christ” (Titus 2:13). If you have to talk about heaven, talk about Jesus coming back from heaven. That’s the blessed hope.

We have never needed hope more than we need it right now. But we are used to using that word to describe what we want. For many, hope is wishful thinking. “I hope it doesn’t rain.” “I hope I get a better job.” “I hope my team wins.” Biblical hope is not wishing for what might happen. Biblical hope is confidently expecting what will happen.

The Bible tells us that the world as we know it today is going to be violently disrupted by the sudden, cataclysmic return of its rightful king. He’s going to set everything right and make everything new. He is going to judge the living and the dead. He is going to destroy the wicked, soul and body, in Gehenna hell. He is going to create a new heaven and a new earth where only righteousness dwells. He has invited us to be part of that new creation. That is the hope that we possess!

But giving the right answer needs to be accompanied by the right attitude.

Peter said to share our hope “with courtesy and respect.” Best says that if the readers really revere God, it should show in their attitude to others. He says “If before him they are genuinely humble they will not be aggressive toward others” (134). Those who do not share our faith in Christ are not going to be won to the gospel if we cannot share it without condemning them and their philosophies. Arrogance and pride have no place in the testimony of a believer. Paul told the Colossians to let their “speech always be gracious, seasoned with salt, so that (they) may know how (they) should answer everyone (4:6). You can share the gospel without telling people that they are sinners. You shouldn’t tell them that they are not sinners, but you can concentrate on how good Jesus is instead of just telling them how bad they are. News flash: Everybody knows that things are not as they should be. The gospel is about how Jesus is going to change that. That is good news. We are sent to share that good news. There is an appropriate diplomatic decorum that we should follow. Part of that decorum is a courteous and respectful attitude toward everyone we share the gospel with.

The context of today’s passage is suffering as a believer. Peter tells his readers that they should witness not just when things are going right, but also keep giving people the right answer when they are suffering. Harrel talks about maintaining a policy of good works. He argues that “If the Lord is pleased by the gracious lives of his people, then men made in his image should also appreciate and be pleased by the good works done by the godly” (95).

Giving the right answer is not always going to make people into our friends.

Peter tells his readers that they are going to have enemies who criticize their good conduct and accuse them of all kinds of crimes. If they seek your good attitude, they may change their mind about your faith. But as Elliott points out “the possibility is expressed that the slanderers could also persist in disparaging the good conduct of Christians” (630). Our Lord himself predicted that we “will be hated by all the nations because of (his) name” (Matthew 24:9). That includes the nation that you and I live in. There are going to be some who hate you just because of what you believe and teach. You can give the right answer and it will just make them angrier at you. But Peter still says “always be ready to give an answer” to them.

Jesus told us that we are the light of the world. But he warned us against hiding our light under a basket. When I was in the army, they trained us on the importance of proper light discipline. There were times when darkness was our friend because you cannot shoot an enemy that you cannot see.

Sometimes we are afraid of shining our light because it makes us an easier target. It is so much easier when people do not know what we believe. But our instruction today is that we always need to have our lights on. The good news is for sharing, even if it makes us a target.

LORD, you have called us to be witnesses of your coming kingdom. You have empowered us with your Holy Spirit to enable us to give an answer to anyone who asks us about the hope that we have. That blessed hope of your soon coming in glory to take your rightful place as king is a hope worth sharing, even if it makes enemies. Give us the courage to have a biblical answer and to always be ready to share it.

Best, Ernest E. I Peter: Based on the Revised Standard Version. London: Oliphants, 1971

Elliott, John H. 1 Peter: A New Translation with Introduction and Commentary. New York: Doubleday, 2000.

Grudem, Wayne A. 1 Peter: An Introduction and Commentary. Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 2007.

Harrell, William W. Let’s Study 1 Peter. Edinburgh [Scotland: Banner of Truth Trust, 2004.

THE GOD WHO REVEALS HIMSELF

THE GOD WHO REVEALS HIMSELF

Psalms 19:1-14 NET

¹The heavens declare the glory of God; the sky displays his handiwork. ²Day after day it speaks out; night after night it reveals his greatness. ³There is no actual speech or word, nor is its voice literally heard. ⁴Yet its voice echoes throughout the earth; its words carry to the distant horizon. In the sky he has pitched a tent for the sun. ⁵Like a bridegroom it emerges from its chamber; like a strong man it enjoys running its course. ⁶It emerges from the distant horizon, and goes from one end of the sky to the other; nothing can escape its heat. ⁷The law of the LORD is perfect and preserves one’s life. The rules set down by the LORD are reliable and impart wisdom to the inexperienced. ⁸The LORD’s precepts are fair and make one joyful. The LORD’s commands are pure and give insight for life. ⁹The commands to fear the LORD are right and endure forever. The judgments given by the LORD are trustworthy and absolutely just. ¹⁰They are of greater value than gold, than even a great amount of pure gold; they bring greater delight than honey than even the sweetest honey from a honeycomb. ¹¹Yes, your servant finds moral guidance there; those who obey them receive a rich reward. ¹²Who can know all his errors? Please do not punish me for sins I am unaware of. ¹³Moreover, keep me from committing flagrant sins; do not allow such sins to control me. Then I will be blameless, and innocent of blatant rebellion. ¹⁴May my words and my thoughts be acceptable in your sight, O LORD, my sheltering rock and my redeemer.

The author of Hebrews began his epistle with the words “at many times and in many ways, God spoke…” (Heb. 1:1), reminding his readers that supernatural revelation is not a rare commodity. Jewish Christians in the first century are not the only ones who need to be reminded that such revelation exists. People nowadays are very good at convincing themselves that it is impossible to know if God is real. The evidence that God has revealed himself is abundant, and that is what this psalm is about.

God has revealed himself by his creation (1-6)

At first glance, you might think this psalm is contradicting itself. It talks about the sky pouring speaking out in verse two, but then it says there is no actual speech and no word in verse three. You cannot catch that in some translations, because they add a word or two to make it say something else. What the psalmist is actually saying is that the universe around him does not need any words to explain itself. Its existence is constantly revealing the existence and glory of its creator.

God revealed his existence and character through the universe he created. The passage speaks of the universe as a constant light and picture show displaying how glorious God is. Paul asserts that unbelievers are not excused for rejecting God since “his invisible attributes, namely, his eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly perceived, ever since the creation of the world, in the things that have been made” (Romans 1:20). This is the evidence of CREATION, but people often label it EVOLUTION, a term that suggests no need for an explanation beyond what is to explain what is.

Looking closely at the evidence in this box you will find a universe that has an origin that cannot be explained adequately through the powers and processes that currently exist. Science has suggested some “big bang” happened billions of years ago to account for the present universe. But science also predicts that the current universe will eventually be destroyed because there is no power available within it to preserve it. However, many scientists acknowledge an anthropocentric aspect to reality. That is, the universe seems to be designed for a purpose, and humanity seems to be central to that purpose. The universe also seems to contain sources of power that are not always apparent.

God is a Puzzle Maker

If I dare to assume that creation is displaying evidence of its creator, I can draw conclusions about the nature of the creator from a reasoned look at creation. For example, the universe can be categorized as a combination of systems, each of which has a definite structure. There are star systems in space, climate, geological and ecological systems on the planet, and circulatory, pulmonary, and digestive systems among creatures. The existence of these systems suggests an intelligent designer who enjoys artistically producing unity from diverse objects. It is almost as if every system is a puzzle, and God is encouraging people to search for patterns so that we can understand the systems as a whole. Science is our attempt at putting together the pieces of the puzzles. If there were no order to the systems – that is, if everything was random chaos – the universe would be impossible to figure out, and that would lead to an altogether different view of God.

God has a Purpose for Everything

The unity that God builds into all these interlocking systems is a unity of purpose. The systems work together to foster and sustain life, reveal God’s craftsmanship in the master design, and promote more unity-in-diversity.

Everything has a purpose. We make mistakes when we use things for the wrong purpose. Children of God learn that everything that happens to us is allowed by God to benefit us in some way. So Joseph told his brothers who had sold him into slavery ion Egypt: “As for you, you meant evil against me, but God meant it for good, to bring it about that many people should be kept alive, as they are today” (Genesis 50:20). Paul told the Romans that “And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose” (Romans 8:28). Seeing God at work in the difficulties we face is not always easy. That is why David encouraged his soul not to forget all of God’s benefits (Psalm 103:2). Each of these texts points to the fact that God is at work in the universe all around us orchestrating it for his own purpose.

I want to invite you to see if I am right about this. Pick a corner of God’s universe — just one system. It doesn’t matter which one. Maybe you want to study the sky. Maybe you want to study the land all around us, the trees, or animals, or human nature. If you look for the daily speech without words, you will find it pouring forth.

God has revealed himself by his word (7-11)

⁷The law of the LORD is perfect and preserves one’s life. The rules set down by the LORD are reliable and impart wisdom to the inexperienced. ⁸The LORD’s precepts are fair and make one joyful. The LORD’s commands are pure and give insight for life. ⁹The commands to fear the LORD are right and endure forever. The judgments given by the LORD are trustworthy and absolutely just. ¹⁰They are of greater value than gold, than even a great amount of pure gold; they bring greater delight than honey, than even the sweetest honey from a honeycomb. ¹¹Yes, your servant finds moral guidance there; those who obey them receive a rich reward.

By his word I mean his written word, the sixty six books of the Holy Bible. God revealed his standards, his desires and his plan through the scriptures. God is our father. As a father, he wants us to do more than just acknowledge his existence. He wants us to follow his instructions. That is why deism, theism, or unitarianism will never please God. It is not enough to admit that he does (or might) exist. He is our father, and we must acknowledge that relationship through obedience. The Bible is God’s way of showing us what he wants – how we can obey him and please him.

The Bible is God’s witness to himself.” This truth serves as a foundation for all talk about revelation. Biblical theology assumes that the author of Hebrews is right – that God has revealed himself. So a believer does not have to begin where an unbeliever does. Instead, a biblical theologian starts with affirming what the Bible says about itself, and then invites unbelievers, skeptics and atheists to evaluate the truthfulness of the statements.

The Bible teaches four things about itself.

Scripture is God’s word, so it speaks with God’s authority.
Scripture is sufficient to do what God wants it to do.
Scripture is as clear as it needs to be.
Scripture cannot be broken. When rightly understood, it is infallible.

Each of these qualities describes scripture because each faithfully describes the source of scripture: God himself. He is the ultimate authority, having no superior from which his authority could derive. He is entirely self-sufficient, having no need for any other for fulfillment. His words and thoughts are completely clear to himself (in spite of the difficulty humans often have understanding them). His words cannot be broken because the truth they reveal does not change, or go out of style. He is dependable. Therefore the best thing anyone can say about scripture is not a negative statement (like “inerrant,” or “infallible,”) but a positive one. Scripture is from God.

Scripture records the incidents when “God showed himself. He let himself be heard. He disclosed his presence. He revealed who he is. He made known his name. Today we may wonder why God chose to do so thousands of years ago to the fathers and prophets and apostles. We may question the wisdom of embedding the most important truth the world has ever heard in a collection of ancient Jewish stories. But we cannot deny that the revelation has happened. Even if we set aside the internal evidence presented in the scriptures themselves, we are overwhelmed by the impact that these Jewish stories have had on the planet.

What amazes me is that the Bible is so large. A few years ago, I decided to make an electronic scripture index of myself. It involved making folders on my computer and putting links in those folders to everything that I have written online — by chapter and verse. Apparently, not a lot of people do that because I couldn’t find an easy way to do it. So, I did it the hard way. I had to create a folder for each verse of the Bible! Just the New Testament alone has 260 chapters and 7,956 verses. The Old Testament has 929 chapters, with 23,208 verses. So, altogether, that’s 1,189 chapters with 31,164 verses. It took me about a month just to make the folders, and another month to file everything in them.

A few years ago, I realized that even though I had been a Bible college professor, I had been pretty lazy about studying the Bible on a regular basis. The Lord wanted me to read and study the Bible daily. When I first started, I was too lazy even to read a passage every day. So, I found a place online where someone would read a passage for me. I followed that site through the whole Bible in a modern version, for a year. By then, I was ready to read for myself, so I went through the Bible in three years in another modern version, and I wrote a short commentary every day.

When I finished that project a few years ago, I asked the Lord what he wanted me to do. He said, “translate.” I am translating the Bible from Hebrew, Aramaic, and Greek. I do just a few verses a day. I’m starting to believe I can really finish this project. So far, I have just over 40 books translated. But the New Testament alone has 184,590 words in it (in English). The Old Testament has 622,771 words. So, altogether, that’s 807,361 words. It’s going to take a while. But every day I learn something more just by staying on task. The project has given me a whole new appreciation for those who have been involved in translation. It also continues to remind me how important it is to keep it up. We are not there yet. We have a long way to go. There are still truths in the original scriptures which are not clear from our numerous translations.

God also reveals himself through personal experience (12-14).

There is another way that God who is not silent has revealed himself as well. Notice what the last few verses of this psalm tells us:

¹²Who can know all his errors? Please do not punish me for sins I am unaware of. ¹³Moreover, keep me from committing flagrant sins; do not allow such sins to control me.Then I will be blameless, and innocent of blatant rebellion. ¹⁴May my words and my thoughts be acceptable in your sight, O LORD, my sheltering rock and my redeemer.

God has overwhelmed us with evidence of his existence – first by placing trademarks in creation itself that point to his character and power, then by getting specific through the special revelation in the Bible. Through these means, anyone can recognize that God exists, and have a clear understanding of what he wants. Sadly, we humans have developed world-views that enable us to either ignore the God of the Bible or replace him with a substitute that we can be more comfortable with. But occasionally God intervenes in this mass stupidity and his Holy Spirit produces a believer. By REGENERATION, he opens an unbeliever’s eyes, and suddenly she can see a universe that reflects its creator, and a Bible that reveals his will.

The result of this miracle is a personal experience with God – a relationship with God through Jesus Christ. The miracle itself is a third means of God’s self-revelation. The final words of Psalm 19 are about this kind of revelation.

The focus of this section of Psalm 19 shifts to the personal level, as can be seen in the use of the first person (me, my). The focus also shifts from instruction through the law to redemption from sins. This amazing psalm shows that God wants to do more than just get us to acknowledge his existence, or understand his word. He wants to cleanse us from our personal sins so that we can be reconciled with him, and redeemed for the purpose of an eternal relationship with him.

The God who has flooded the universe with evidence of his creation is not silent. He has revealed himself. He gave us not just one word but over 800,000 words to reveal his will. But if you really want to get to know God, you can go beyond even these two forms of revelation. You can get to know God personally. He can redeem you and forgive you for all your past mistakes. He can walk beside you and change the words of your mouth and the musings of your heart. You can actually stand before him blameless and cleansed. You can do this because of Jesus Christ. His death on the cross was God’s answer to your sin problem. Come to Jesus today, and you will begin to know God like you have never known him before.

Pray with me.

OUR GOD, YOU HAVE REVEALED YOURSELF.

YOU HAVE FLOODED THE UNIVERSE WITH EVIDENCE OF YOUR EXISTENCE AND GREATNESS.

OUR GOD, HAVE REVEALED YOURSELF.

YOU HAVE REVEALED YOUR WILL IN DETAIL IN THE SIXTY-SIX BOOKS YOU GAVE US.

OUR GOD, HAVE REVEALED YOURSELF.

YOU HAVE SENT YOUR SON TO DIE IN OUR PLACE SO THAT WE CAN BE REDEEMED AND FORGIVEN.

YOU, OUR GOD, HAVE REVEALED YOURSELF, SO WE CHOOSE TO ACKNOWLEDGE YOUR REVELATION.

WE ACKNOWLEDGE THE GLORY THAT WE SEE ALL AROUND US.

WE THANK YOU FOR YOUR WORD, WHICH TO US IS MORE VALUABLE THAN GOLD, AND SWEETER THAN HONEY.

WE THANK YOU FOR YOUR SON, OUR REDEEMER.

In Jesus’ name. Amen!

YES MEANS YES

YES MEANS YES

Matthew 5:31-37 NET

31 “It was said, ‘Whoever divorces his wife must give her a legal document.’ 32 But I say to you that everyone who divorces his wife, except for immorality, makes her commit adultery, and whoever marries a divorced woman commits adultery. 33 “Again, you have heard that it was said to an older generation, ‘Do not break an oath, but fulfill your vows to the Lord.’ 34 But I say to you, do not take oaths at all — not by heaven, because it is the throne of God, 35 not by earth, because it is his footstool, and not by Jerusalem, because it is the city of the great King. 36 Do not take an oath by your head, because you are not able to make one hair white or black. 37 Let your word be ‘Yes, yes’ or ‘No, no.’ More than this is from the evil one.

We have been studying Jesus’ sermon on the mount and we are seeing that he intended his sermon to be a manual for his missionaries. He had called them the light of the world, but he knew that if they simply kept doing things the way they had learned to do them from their culture, their light would be put out. So, Jesus gave them some instructions on how to live so that the people who saw them would notice the light. In other words, if they did things “business as usual” then the mission would suffer. The mission was to draw attention to Jesus Christ and proclaim him as the world’s savior and coming king. But the world around them would want to squeeze them into its mold. The apostles would have to make choices that would prevent that from happening.

Jesus criticized his culture for making it easy to end a marriage (v.31).

The culture in which the apostles lived had an easy fix for a bad relationship. They believed that ‘whoever divorces his wife must give her a legal document.’

Filson says the idea behind the legal document was to protect the woman. He says the “practice of giving the wife a written certificate of divorce was a protection for her. A capricious husband might drive her from his home with an oral declaration of divorce and later insist that she was still his wife. With a written certificate, however, she could remarry, as Jewish custom permitted, and could not be accused of adultery (87).

But Bland says that the legal document turned out to be an excuse to end a marriage easily. He referred to “a note or writing whereby a man declared that he dismissed his wife and gave her leave to marry whomsoever she would. This being confirmed with the husband’s seal, and the subscription of witnesses, was to be delivered into the hand of the wife either by the husband himself or by some other deputed by him for this office: or the wife might depute someone to receive it in her stead. This must be done in the presence of two, who might read the bill both before it was given into the hand of the wife and after: and when it was given, the husband, if present, said behold this is a bill of divorce to you” (134).

So, behind every man’s mind was the fact that if his current relationship did not please him, there was an easy way out. The law would allow him to have a do-over. But Jesus condemned that way of thinking.

For Jesus, easy divorce was a problem, rather than a solution (v.32).

He said, “everyone who divorces his wife, except for immorality, makes her commit adultery, and whoever marries a divorced woman commits adultery.” The easy way out was not a way out. It was a way into adultery. If your wife was committed to you, giving her a piece of paper was not going to change that. It would just be forcing her to commit adultery with someone willing to have her. If you sought to marry someone divorced in this way, you would be choosing to commit adultery, no matter what the piece of paper said. The culture’s solution was a problem rather than a solution. It created a whole society of broken relationships. It was too easy because it avoided the reconciliation that God wants when two people have a problem with one another.

Remember that Jesus taught his apostles to reconcile with a brother who had something against them. He said that reconciling was so important that it trumped regular worship. Reconciliation was more important than religion. The culture taught them that if someone had something against you, the solution was easy — just unfriend them and ignore them. But Jesus said that every relationship is important and that God wants reconciliation.

Jesus introduced the topic of adultery when he told his apostles that “whoever looks at a woman to desire her has already committed adultery with her in his heart” (5:28). The culture’s easy solution to that problem was “Look but don’t touch.” Jesus told them that the easy solution is not a solution. Looking is the problem, and you need to rid yourself of the problem of lustful looking, even if it means tearing an eye out.

This issue comes up again as recorded in Matthew 19.

3 Then some Pharisees came to him in order to test him. They asked, “Is it lawful to divorce a wife for any cause?”

The Pharisees are asking the wrong question. They are only interested in what is lawful, and what is allowed. For many today, that is all they are interested in. They want to know how they can get away with doing what they want without being arrested. their question is not “What is the speed limit?” Their question is more like “How much faster can I go beyond the speed limit without being stopped by the cops?”

4 He answered, “Have you not read that from the beginning the Creator made them male and female, 5 and said, ‘For this reason, a man will leave his father and mother and will be united with his wife, and the two will become one flesh’? 6 So they are no longer two, but one flesh. Therefore what God has joined together, let no one separate.”

Jesus redirected their question — away from the Law — to the original intention of the Creator for his creatures. God had created Adam and put him in a garden to enjoy. Then he made Eve and gave her to Adam so that they both could enjoy each other. The two of them were literally made for each other. They were designed for each other’s happiness. Until sin entered the picture, they were each other’s best friends.

God intends for all marriages to follow that model. The two hearts are designed to beat as one. The two are to become one flesh. This is why God joins a man and a woman together. They are combined. The combination is a good thing. God had said it is not good for man to be alone. It was lawful for Adam to stay alone, but it wasn’t good. It was permitted, but it was not the best.

7 They said to him, “Why then did Moses command us to give a certificate of dismissal and to divorce her?”

The Pharisees had assumed that Moses’ permission was God’s last word on the subject. They were guilty of taking one passage from the Bible and teaching it as if all the other passages on the subject did not matter. We should not do that, even with these passages from Matthew’s Gospel. We find out from later texts in the epistles that there are some legitimate reasons for divorce. But the issue that Jesus was dealing with was hardened hearts.

8 Jesus said to them, “Moses permitted you to divorce your wives because of your hard hearts, but from the beginning, it was not this way. 9 Now I say to you that whoever divorces his wife, except for immorality, and marries another commits adultery.”

Jesus encouraged a lifetime of follow-through on our commitments (vv. 33-37).

He said “you have heard that it was said to an older generation, ‘Do not break an oath, but fulfill your vows to the Lord.’ But I say to you, do not take oaths at all — not by heaven, because it is the throne of God, not by earth, because it is his footstool, and not by Jerusalem, because it is the city of the great King. Do not take an oath by your head, because you are not able to make one hair white or black. Let your word be ‘Yes, yes’ or ‘No, no.’ More than this is from the evil one.”

The problem with staying true to your commitments was another one that the culture of the apostles had learned to deal with. In their minds, a promise did not mean anything unless it was accompanied by a solemn vow. They had learned to be fast and loose with their yeses and nos because there was no obligation to be faithful to those words unless they had been made legal by vows. Mounce explains that the “very existence of a vow introduces a double standard. It implies that a person’s word may not be reliable unless accompanied by some sort of verbal guarantee” (48).

Johnson says that when “Jesus says that anything additional to yes and no is of the evil one, it is a recognition of Satan’s title as father of lies” (41). If your yes does not always mean yes then there is a devil behind it. If your no is not consistently no then there is a devil behind it.

Jesus wants his missionaries to be just as true to their everyday commitments as if they were given from the throne of God in heaven. He wants us to understand that the commitments we make in Delco are just as important as promises made in Jerusalem. He wants our word to be our bond. He wants our small commitments to be treated with the same loyalty as our marriages. He wants every yes to be just as important to us as our “I do” was. He wants every no to be a never.

The reason for all these commands is that we represent Christ and his coming kingdom. If people are going to turn to Christ, it is going to be because of us. So our words need to be reliable. Our promises need to be kept. Our commitments need to be something that others can depend on. If we fail to live up to our commitments made in these human relationships, then people will doubt what we say about the kingdom we say we belong to.

How can we follow the command of Christ and honor all our human commitments? We can do this. All it takes is living daily with the realization that our King could come today. Would we want the last statement we made before he comes in the clouds a promise that we intended to break? We want him to say “Well done, good and faithful servant. We want to enter into his joy, not experience his condemnation.

_________

Bland, Miles. Annotations on the Gospel of St. Matthew. 1828.

Filson, Floyd V. A Commentary on the Gospel According to St. Matthew. New York: Harper, 1960.

Johnson, Benjamin A. Matthew, the First Evangelist: A Reader’s Commentary on the Gospel According to Matthew. Lima, Ohio: C.S.S. Pub. Co, 1977.

Mounce, Robert H. Matthew. Peabody, Mass: Hendrickson Publishers, 1991