The Cross Offers Hope In Times Of Failure
“Then Jesus said to them, ‘All of you will be made to stumble because of me this night, for it is written: I will strike the Shepherd, and the sheep of the flock will be scattered’.” (Matthew 26:31)The one holiday that Christians can celebrate everyday is Easter. In spite of the trials that Christians face, we have hope every day of the year because of what happened at Easter.
No one understood the hope that the Cross offers more than the Apostle Peter. He was one of Christ’s most trusted disciples and often served as spokesman for the group. Yet, when Christ told his disciples that they would scatter like sheep at the first sign of trouble, Peter defiantly declared, “Even if all are made to stumble because of you, I will never be made to stumble.” (Matthew 26:33)
We know that’s not what happened. The Bible records that Jesus told Peter, “I say to you that this night, before the rooster crows, you will deny me three times.” (Matthew 26:34)
Peter stayed true to form as he again staked his claim of loyalty to Jesus, “Even if I have to die with you, I will not deny you!” (Matthew 26:35)
Peter turned his back on Christ just as Jesus had predicted. “To Peter’s credit,” as Herschel Hobbs pointed out, “it should be noted that all of the eleven joined in and said the same thing. Peter had plenty of company - and they all meant it at the time. But they were to learn that not merely physical but moral and spiritual courage is necessary to be true to Jesus.”
All four Gospels tell of Peter’s denials. They make no effort to excuse his failure. In fact, even Peter, when he remembered what Jesus had told him, “wept bitterly.” Peter was already repenting for his sin.
Peter truly loved Jesus and Jesus knew his heart. After his resurrection, Jesus made a special appearance to reassure him. Genuine repentance always brings divine forgiveness.
It’s hard to condemn Peter when we look at how we own up to the fact that we have denied Jesus, too. Again, Herschel Hobbs points his finger right at us: “How often do we move from professing loyalty and making efforts to follow Jesus to doing things that deny him? How often do we deny Jesus by the way we live, speak, or remain silent? Sometimes Christians go to extremes to disassociate themselves from Jesus. Perhaps we all need to join with Peter in bitter tears of repentance.”
The hope of Christian faith is played out in Peter’s life. You see, after Jesus forgave Peter, he also commissioned him to "feed my sheep". (John 21:15-19) Isn’t it interesting that in these verses, it was Jesus who asked Peter three times if he loved him and told him three times to feed his sheep? I don’t think that was an accident.
In just a little more than seven weeks after he denied his Lord, Peter preached one of the greatest sermons ever. Some of those present to hear that sermon were probably responsible for Jesus’ death. This time, Peter did not back down. With the courage and conviction that he had once promised, he said, “Therefore let all the house of Israel know assuredly that God has made this Jesus, whom you crucified, both Lord and Christ.” (Acts 2:36)
Yes, Peter denied Jesus. But his story teaches us that failure does not have to be final and carry lifelong damage with it. Peter wept bitterly and Jesus later told him, “But I have prayed for you, that your faith should not fail; and when you have returned to me, strengthen your brethren.” (Luke 22:32)
Peter stood tall in the early church and certainly has done his part to strengthen fellow Christians. He also kept his promise to die with Jesus. He, too, was crucified. However, because he had denied Jesus, he did not feel worthy enough to be crucified upright; so at his own request he was crucified head down.
How The "World" Sees The Christian
“Woe unto them that call evil good, and good evil; that put darkness for light, and light for darkness; that put bitter for sweet, and sweet for bitter!” (Isaiah 5:20)We live in a world of moral relativism – a world that does not believe in absolute truths. What’s the difference? Moral relativism believes that man can determine what is true and untrue; what is right or wrong. As Ernest Hemingway said, “What is moral is what you feel good after; what is immoral is what you feel bad after”. But absolute truths, as taught by the Bible, believe that God, not man, is the lawmaker. As the Bible says, “Who commits sin also commits lawlessness, and sin is lawlessness”. (1 John 3:4)
Most Christians don’t agree with the concept of political correctness. Expressions like “live and let live” and “to each his own” are not consistent with the truths espoused in the Bible. What all this means is that confrontation is inevitable. Unfortunately, it usually resorts in some pretty ugly name-calling. Here are a few I’ve read in the newspaper over the last couple of weeks.
1. The world often refers to us as religious. But we’re not religious – we’re Christians. The Apostle Paul made that distinction when he visited Athens in Acts 17. “Men of Athens,” he said. “I perceive that in all things you are very religious; for as I was passing through and considering the objects of your worship, I even found an altar with this inscription: To the Unknown God. Therefore, the one whom you worship without knowing, him I proclaim to you: God, who made the world and everything in it, since He is Lord of heaven and earth, does not dwell in temples made with hands.”
2. Then there are some who call us self-righteous. They have yet to understand that while we see, and call, sin for what it is, most of us know that we must view it in the context of the sin in our own lives. That’s why Jesus said to those who were about to stone the adulterous woman, “He who is without sin among you, let him throw a stone at her first”. (John 8:7)
3. How often have we heard visitors to our church comment about the hypocrisy that they see? “Your church is full of hypocrites,” I once heard a friend of mine say. “Yes”, I replied. “We’re very much like the rest of the world. We have our share of sinners who have yet to accept Jesus as their Lord and Savior.”
Ironically, Jesus didn’t care very much for hypocrites either. When the very mention of their name came up, he quoted the Prophet Isaiah saying, “These people draw near to me with their mouth, and honor me with their lips, but their heart is far from me, and in vain they worship me, teaching as doctrines the commandments of men”. (Matthew 15:8-9)
4. Finally, the latest word I’ve heard associated with Christians is homophobes. In other words, because we believe that homosexuality is a sin, it is assumed that we hate homosexuals. When you stop and think about it, we have no one to blame but ourselves. In our zeal to condemn the sin, some of us have stepped over the line and condemned the sinner, too. Our judgment needs to stop with the sin.
The world refers to us as religious, self-righteous, hypocrites, and homophobes, all of which prove how much we are misunderstood. We really shouldn’t be surprised. Jesus promised that the road to heaven would not be an easy one. “You will be hated by all for my name’s sake,” he told us. (Mark 13:13)
Take heart – He also promised: “But he who endures to the end shall be saved”. (Mark 13:13)
Unconfessed Sin Is Destructive Choice For Today's Christian
“Then Nathan said to David, ‘You are the man!’” (2 Samuel 12:7)When the prophet Nathan pointed his finger at David and told him his sins were known by God, it shook him to the core. No longer could he think he could hide the fact that he had committed adultery with Bathsheba and murdered her husband, Uriah. He had foolishly convinced himself that out of sight meant out of mind until Nathan reminded him that God knew his sins, not to mention others who worked and lived close by.
David later realized the consequences of unconfessed sin and wrote about that experience in Psalm 32. First, he emphasized that unconfessed sin can make you hurt when you’re under conviction about it. “When I kept silent,” he later admitted, “my bones grew old through my groaning all the day long.” (Psalm 32:3) Interesting, isn’t it? We know that sin ultimately kills, but what we don’t always understand is it can make you hurt along the way. In other words, that joint ache may have more to do with how you’re living as opposed to how long you’ve lived!
But David not only realized how unconfessed sin can literally make your body
ache, he also knew it could zap you of your strength, too. Again still under conviction, he wrote, “For day and night your hand was heavy upon me; my vitality was turned into the drought of summer.” (Psalm 32:4)
David finally succumbed to the power of conviction, confessed his sins and received forgiveness. He later exclaimed, “Blessed is the man to whom the Lord does not impute iniquity and in whose spirit there is no deceit.” (Psalm 32:2) Indeed, there is liberty when we are freed from burden of sin.
As Christians, we need to be careful when it comes to sin. You can’t read this account and think that David’s sins needed to be confessed because they were so grievous. All sin distances us from God. He makes no distinction in the Bible. Consequently, what we may see as small sins grieve God just as much as David’s sins. There is no difference.
David also warned us about waiting too long to confess our sins. As Nathan pointed out, God already knows about the sin in our lives, he just wants us to own up to it and seek his forgiveness. “For this cause everyone who is godly shall pray to you in a time when you may be found.” (Psalm 32:6) While there are no limits to God’s forgiveness, the longer we wait to confess our sins, the farther it distances us from him. In short, our relationship can grow cold.
Sin is like a chronic disease. If it goes unattended, it will manifest itself in our lives in dangerous ways. I told my Sunday School class that as a diabetic, I cannot ignore the effects of high levels of glucose in my bloodstream. “You may not see what it’s doing to me, but I see it,” I told them. “My lower legs itch and I stay tired. If I don’t do something about it, it will eventually kill me.”
Unconfessed sin among Christians distances us from God. It kills any chance of having the close, abiding relationship that he wants to have with us. That’s why we should remember what the Psalmist wrote: “But there is forgiveness with you…For with the Lord there is mercy, and with him is abundant redemption.” (Psalm 130:4,7)
Children Learn More In Church Than You Think
“Train up a child in the way he should go, and when he is old he will not depart from it.” (Proverbs 22:6) Art Linkletter’s 1957 book,
Kids Say the Darndest Things, still reminds us that kids not only say those things that sometimes embarrass their parents, but they also blurt out occasional pearls of wisdom that help us to realize we’re doing some right things with them. My wife, Robbie, recounted a recent conversation with her niece and nephew that reminded me of Linkletter’s book and underscored the importance of child-like faith.
She and her mother was taking her niece, Ashlyn, and nephew, Andrew, out for lunch and began to reminisce about their Great Grandmother, Viola. “Grandmaw Viola died,” three-year-old Ashlyn said, “but she went to heaven.” “How do you know she went to heaven?” Robbie asked. “Because she died and I’m smart,” she said. Her brother, six-year-old Andrew, then piped in, “You have to have Jesus in your heart to go to heaven.” Ashlyn agreed: “Well, I know Grandmaw went to heaven because she had Jesus in her heart and so do I.”
Indeed, kids do say the darndest things, and they’re as innocent and truthful today as they were when Linkletter wrote his book on the subject. Interestingly, a lot of adults think all you have to do to go to heaven is die, but Andrew went right to the heart of the matter. He knows in heart that what Jesus said to his disciples is still true today: “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the father except through me.” (John 14:6)
Andrew parents didn’t drill that truth in him, although they also believe it. He learned it in Sunday School, probably while he was coloring. Ironic, isn’t it? In today’s society, we repeatedly hear the contemporary parent say, “I want to let my child reach his own decision about what he believes”. Sadly, they freely admit their child wouldn’t know how to read if he didn’t attend school. Yet, they fail to see that he will never know what to believe if he is not exposed to it in our places of worship.
There is a message in this story for all of us. I know in my case, I am the Christian I am today because of the childhood that I was privileged to have lived. Much of my life was spent around godly people and many of their habits then are my habits today. It’s not just a verse in the Bible: “Train up a child in the way that he should go and when he is old, he will not depart from it.” (Proverbs 22:6)
Jesus told us very clearly what he thought about such matters. “Let the little children come to me and do not forbid them,” he once said. “For of such is the kingdom of heaven.” (Matthew 19:14)
As parents and grandparents, we must be careful to remember that age and maturity have nothing to do with the condition of the soul. God is providing us with a wonderful opportunity to teach spiritual truths to our children and grandchildren. If we seize that opportunity, the fruit we see in the lives of those children will bless us in ways we could never imagine.
"Box of Bones" Found In Jerusalem Does Not Contain Jesus
“And go quickly and tell his disciples that he is risen from the dead, and indeed he is going before you into Galilee; there you will see him. Behold, I have told you.” (Matthew 28:7)Every Lenten season, someone comes up with an idea to make money off of doubts about the resurrection. It has become an Easter ritual and is exactly why the Discovery Channel unveiled a documentary film on Sunday arguing that ten small caskets discovered in a Jerusalem suburb in 1980 may contain the bones of Jesus and his family.
The documentary,
The Lost Tomb of Jesus, alleges that Jesus was buried instead of walking out of his tomb. The evidence the filmmakers use to support their claim are three ossuaries (limestone coffins) found in a cave that they say contain the bones of Jesus, Mary and Mary Magdalene. One of the other coffins bore the name, “Judah, son of Jesus”. They base their claim on the fact that the boxes contain the names of the three Bible icons and statistically estimate the odds of there being another group by the same names as 600 to 1.
On the surface, it makes you think. But when you peel back the veil of deceit that covers the truth, you walk away with a completely different conclusion. Here’s what scholars have to say:
•Amos Kloner, the first archaeologist to examine the site, said the claim is not supported by archaeological standards. “They just want to get money for it,” he told Fox News. When asked about the uncanny combination of names on the boxes, Kloner told World Entertainment News, “It’s was an ordinary middle-class Jewish burial cave. The names on the caskets are the most common names found among Jews at the time.”
•William Dever, another expert who has worked with Israeli archaeologists for five decades told Fox News, “The fact that it’s been ignored tells you something. It would be amusing if it didn’t mislead so many people.”
The verse I selected to lead this week's devotion should be proof enough that Jesus rose from the dead - that is if you believe what the Word of God says: All Scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness. (2 Timothy 3:16)
The truth is the Bible is the best source for what happened to Jesus. Think about it – the only eyewitness accounts to the fact that Jesus (and his bones) is not in a tomb are in Scripture. Over 500 people saw the resurrected Jesus. In fact, his appearance to the disciples sealed their allegiance to him as the Son of God. When he was crucified, they scattered out of fear for their lives. After the resurrection, they gave their lives for him, some suffering the same fate – death on a cross.
The Apostle Paul, who met the resurrected Jesus, never mentioned an empty tomb, but there’s no doubt what he would say if he were living today. In fact, I think I’ve heard him say it before: “Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, and that he was buried, and that he rose again the third day according to the Scriptures, and that he was seen by Cephas, then by the twelve. After that he was seen by over five hundred brethren at once, of whom the greater part remain to the present, but some have fallen asleep. After that he was seen by James, then by all the apostles. Then last of all he was seen by me also, as by one born out of due time.” (1 Corinthians 15:3-8)
Don’t let the smoke and mirrors of filmmaking shake your faith. Hold on what you believe and take delight in what the Word of God has to say.
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