ResponsiveReiding

From Matthew 15:10-20 / Breaking the Chains of Tradition

These verses are a continuation of Jesus’ exchange with the scribes and Pharisees. For Jesus, it is not enough to rebuke those who err, He must go on to bring truth to those who had been influenced by the erring. Such is His care for His people.

Hint to preachers: This is the example upon which passages like 2 Timothy 4:2 are based: “Preach the word; be ready in season and out of season; reprove, rebuke, and exhort, with complete patience and teaching.”

Jesus tells them the truth; Reproves the bad teaching; Rebukes the bad teachers; Exhorts the listening crowd – and does so with patience, and teaching.

Simply rebuking is never enough. It devolves into mere ranting and venting. It is never sufficient, and indeed eventually does more damage – for it never heals the wound. D. A. Carson likes to say that preaching should both wound and heal. If we only do one or the other – or neglect both – we abuse our people.

Note first: Jesus immediately shifts the conversation from mere behaviors, to inward motives of the heart. Mere behavior modification is not the same as sanctification.

Take two men who have become drunkards. Both decide to enter a 12 step program to get sober. (What we might think of such programs here is not the issue – don’t get side tracked.) One of these men is a Christian, the other is not. Both in time do find themselves living a sober lifestyle.

The Christian is seeking to grow in the image of Christ. The un-Believer – as good as it is outwardly, and it IS better to be sober than not – is simply now sober. He has not grown in the image of Christ at all.

We dare not make what is identical outwardly into what is true inwardly. 2 different motivations were at work. One is sweetly acceptable to God with eternal impact. The other, acceptable to God as it is better for the man as a creature of God, nevertheless has done nothing of eternal significance. He is still lost and undone.

Men may modify their behaviors for all sorts of reasons. But if these changes are not the product of a heart seeking to serve Christ – they are not holy things. Just different. If the heart is not changed, the behavior is of very secondary importance.

Note second: When we make following Christ into a system of do’s and don’ts – taste not, touch not, etc., we have become Pharisees in the worst sense of the word.

Are there behaviors which are commensurate with being a Christian, and some which are antithetical to it? Of course! The Word of God is filled with such examples. But the ruling principle is not the action – the ruling principle is the motive.

As you work through a passage like Eph. 4:25-32, you see a pattern of true sanctification which we dare not ignore. In each example, 3 things are evident: 1 – Identifying a wrong behavior (that which is inconsistent with the character of Christ) – like “falsehood.” 2 – Stop the habit of lying BY – speaking the truth. 3 – And this is the key: BECAUSE – “we are members one of another.” The proper motivation which appeals only to those who have been regenerated by the Spirit of Christ.

But please PLEASE do not miss the critical point: It is not the behavior considered by itself which is the problem – it is behavior which is not consistent with the character of Christ within us.

So it is, we pursue the character of Christ, and the behaviors fall in behind in due time.

If my motivation changes, the behaviors will automatically follow. Seek first the Kingdom, the Kingship of Christ – that is the “prime directive.”

One more side thought here. So much teaching and thinking about sanctification revolves around “how do I stop doing X”. And this is why it so often fails.

Here is the principle: If the “law” says, “thou shalt not walk south.” Do not worry about how to stop walking south. Walk north. And you will by default stop walking south. Do not approach mortifying the deeds of the flesh in terms of negatives, but in terms of positives. Just as we saw in Eph. 4. Speak the truth, and you have just stopped lying. But just trying to stop lying, cannot be done.

Note third: Jesus disabuses us of the notion that sin is matter of external contamination. Such a faulty view of sin inevitably leads to things like the traditions He is directly confronting, and things like cloisterism.

So ingrained is this wrong view of sin, that many Christian parents virtually raise their children as though they were born pure, and so if they can only keep them pure and un-engaged with that nasty world “out there” that their kids will always grow up to be fine Christians by default. We just need to keep them pure and all will be well.

It is a lie.

We must reckon with the Biblical teaching regarding our being born in sin, and the need of the new birth. We come into this world loaded with inward corruptions.

So Jesus will be clear, it is out of the heart that evil thoughts come, murder, adultery, sexual immorality, theft, false witness, slander and the such. These do not need to be taught. They are the natural gravitation pull of our own inward sin – irrespective of our outward environment.

If outward environment were the answer to sin, then Adam and Eve should have never fallen. They had the most perfect environment which could possibly be provided. Something else had to be afoot.

Sin is not caught, it is inherited.

I had a dear aunt, who loved Christ and did all she could to raise her 2 boys in the faith.

So zealous was she for their purity, that she would go through the Sunday newspaper and remove all adds for women’s undergarments, bathing suits, lingerie or even normal clothes she thought were too revealing.

They were in Church constantly, and even into young adulthood their friends and companions were carefully curated.

Both men eventually fell into public and unrepentant homosexual lifestyles.

Both, quite simply, had never been born again. All of the well meaning vigilance could not do what only the Holy Spirit can do.

Failure to reason from the Biblical understanding the Fall, leads to all kinds of sincere, but sincerely wrong approaches to sin.

And it produces the worst of cognitive dissonance in the parents who feel betrayed by God – after having done all they could do.

Note fourth: What an amazing thing this salvation is which is extended to us through the Gospel. It is not a program of moral reformation, behavior modification, works based acceptance with God or vain religiosity – it is nothing short of the dead being raised to life by the Spirit of the Living God – and made new creatures by His sovereign work.

We MUST, MUST, MUST preach as Jesus and the earlier generations – above all – “You must be born again!”

And how willing He is to do that very thing for all who hear and flee to Him in their guilt, shame and utter weakness.

From Matthew 15:1-10 / Slaves to Tradition.

This exchange with the scribes and Pharisees in vss. 1-20 is filled with crucial principles for living in Christ’s Kingdom. We see His reasoning on display in a most wonderful fashion. And, in the process, He frees Believers from so much that man-made religion imposes.

Note first: How this exchange proves to be Jesus’ own exposition of Matthew 7:3-5. There, in the parable of the speck in a brother’s eye versus the log in our own, Jesus appeals directly to the priorities of weights. Some things are more important than others.

Jesus will come back to this principle in Ch. 23: ““Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you tithe mint and dill and cumin, and have neglected the weightier matters of the law: justice and mercy and faithfulness. These you ought to have done, without neglecting the others. You blind guides, straining out a gnat and swallowing a camel!”

Some matters, even of God’s Law are weightier than others. Failure to make this distinction flattens God’s Law so as to utterly distort it.

One thinks back to the issue of circumcision. It was given to the Israelites as a unique sign of the Covenant. And yet, we read in Joshua that for the entire 40 years Israel wandered in the desert, they failed to circumcise their young. And did God abandon them? Did He charge them with gross sin? Did He fail to meet them every step of the way? No. But when they finally crossed over the Jordan, He told them to do what they had neglected before they were to begin their campaign.

Think now how some would make water baptism the equivalent of circumcision, and lay such stress upon it as to make one who is not baptized to remain in gross sin and perhaps not even saved.

Passages such as this bid us to think in the broader construct of Biblical Theology rather than in narrow patterns of mere proof texting.

Not every sin, not even every heresy is – damnable. Indeed, some are, but not all. And for lack of understanding this, the Body of Christ is often needlessly divided.

Just recently I heard from 2 different sources that some have made a major issue over whether or not the angelic host sang as Jesus’ birth, or only made a proclamation.

And will any be asked of they were correct in this when they reach the courts of Heaven, or be denied entrance, or lose rewards over it? Nonsense.

Note second then: Those who make every deviation from their own considered opinions into rank heresy, commit a terrible error.

Here, it was the tradition, the mere human opinion of some which actually overrode the commandment of God! So the appeal to “honor” in vs. 4.

And it bids us examine ourselves, even in the New Covenant regarding what “traditions” have come to have more impact upon us than the commandments of God Himself.

As a young man coming out of a strongly Pentecostal tradition, the practice of some women wearing open-toed shoes was considered salacious. Can you imagine that in Jesus’ day when all wore sandals or went completely barefoot?

On Sundays, we could not read the color comics in the newspaper until after the Sunday morning service. Or turn on the TV until after the evening service.

Wednesday service was a sacrosanct as Sunday’s.

Those who were not Pentecostal were – in the words of a Pastor cousin of mine: “driving a Cadillac with a 4 cylinder engine” – and were barely saved, if at all.

Communion had to be unfermented grape juice and unleavened crackers. Real wine and leavened bread were to be eschewed. Neglecting not only the Scripture examples, but the historical debates over the same.

In the mid-second century, the entire church nearly split over what day to celebrate Easter on, if not for the intervention of Irenaeus.

And today, some Christians will celebrate Christmas and others consider it pagan. But when such traditions actually govern or disturb the unity of the Church, we are following the Pharisees as our exemplars.

Note third: Jesus’ most excellent definition of hypocrites. The Pharisaical hypocrites put on the mask of righteousness in washing their hands, while their real face is the one of creating loopholes around God’s commands.

No one defines hypocrisy better than Jesus in this place: Playing righteous by what one says, but living in sin in direct contradistinction to that profession. Actors playing a role.

Note fourth: Every doctrine or teaching of the Word is a commandment of God and is to be heard as God’s voice to us. But to leap to assigning the same authority or statute to our extrapolations or implications of those doctrines is a grave error. And soon, our extrapolations take the place of the doctrines themselves, morphing into doctrines. When we make our extrapolations equal to or even above Scripture – we have usurped God’s voice with our own. And we will not be found faultless. Teachers and preachers, beware. Church leaders, beware. Every man or woman who desires to serve Christ – beware.

Note fifth: How freeing all of this is. It is so blessed and free to serve Christ, in that we are not called to nit-pick everyone else all the time. And freeing that we can step out of our own bondage to tradition.

The old adage, wrongly attributed to Irenaeus or Augustine, comes to us from the 1th century German Lutheran theologian Rupertus Meldenius, and emerges from the principles of passages like this: “In essentials unity, in non-essentials liberty, in all things charity. May it be so.

From Matthew 14:34-36 / Just the Fringe

In this small portion, almost an aside, are still some blessed lessons to take in.

Note first: How sad it is that some only want enough of Jesus to have their immediate needs met. Just the fringe is all we want. Not His Gospel. Not His person. Not to know Him, seek and walk with Him. Just fix my felt need, and let me go on my way.

It reminds me of Wilbur Rees famous poem:

I would like to buy $3.00 worth of God, please—not enough to explode my soul or disturb my sleep, but enough to equal a cup of warm milk or a snooze in the sunshine.

I don’t want enough of God to make me love an enemy or pick beets with a migrant; I want ecstasy, not transformation; I want the warmth of the womb, not a new birth. I want a pound of the Eternal in a paper sack. I would like to buy $3.00 worth of God, please.

Father, please work in my heart so as to not let this be the case with me. I know at times it has been. Forgive me. I repent. Teach my heart to seek you for you. I do not want your fringe, I want to want you with all my heart.

Note second: We can receive blessings and even miracles from our brush with Christ, the Gospel, His Church and the Father – and leave with nothing more. Just because we have received a miracle, says nothing about the state of our souls. If we have not come to Him for salvation – we may find our few remaining years easier, but what is that in comparison with an eternity shut out from His presence?

Later, when Jesus addresses the battle we must prosecute against the remnants of indwelling sin (Matt. 18) He will tell us that it is better to enter life (Heaven) missing a foot or a hand or an eye, than to be thrown whole into the hell of fire.

Note third: How abundant, free and gracious is His mercy, in spite of men’s surface response to it.

The rain falls on the just and the unjust.

God’s common grace sweeps the earth with the miracles and blessings of modern medicine, scientific breakthroughs against plagues and disease, and countless inventions which add comfort, ease and pleasure to our lives. The entire race is abundantly blessed. The proof is all around us.

God is a giving God.

God is an abundant God.

God is a merciful God, to the just and the unjust.

God is a patient God as so much time has been afforded to let the Gospel go out into all the ends of the earth – as He withholds His just and final judgment.

And if He is so good, so that even if we but touch the hem of His garment we will be blessed, then how much more is ready and waiting for those who press on to know Him, walk with Him, obey Him and trust Him?

Truly, the half of His glory has not even yet be told, let alone received.

From Matthew 14:28-33 / When Jesus says: “Come!”

When Jesus commanded Peter to come to Him walking on the water, it was no more miraculous than when He bid Lazarus to come out of the tomb – or to you and me when He said “Come unto me all you who are weak and heavy laden, and I will give you rest.”

His voice commands the seas. His voice commands the very stars. Heaven and earth are held together and function by His word.

How much more then should our hearts rest when He says that all who receive Him have the right to become the children of God?

All that is needed, is for us to believe Him. And the impossible is done. Rebels are made into servants. Sinners into saints. Savages into sons. The dead, raised to new life in Him. And all His promises made sure.

Sinner – hear Him – He calls to you today: Lay down your sin and flee to Him. His blood can cleanse every stain of sin and guilt. He can make you new this very moment – if you will but obey His commend to “come” – no matter how daunting, or impossible it seems.

Christian – hear Him – He calls to you today: Cast all your cares upon Him, for He cares for you. Believe Him. He who began His good work in you will complete it until the day of His return. No matter how daunting the remnants of indwelling sin. No matter how far from bearing His restored image you are at this point, no matter how impossible that seems.

1 – HE bids us come! His voice we know,

And boldly on the waters go,

To Him, our Lord and God:

We walk on life’s tempestuous sea,

For He who died to set us free,

Hath called us by His word.

2—Secure from troubled waves we tread,

Nor all the storms around us heed,

While to our Lord we look;

O’er every fierce temptation bound,

The billows yield a solid ground,

The wave is firm as rock.

3—But if from Him we turn our eye,

And see the raging floods run high,

And feel our fears within,

Our foes so strong, our flesh so frail,

Reason and unbelief prevail,

And sink us into sin.

4—Lord, we our unbelief confess,

Our little spark of faith increase,

That we may doubt no more,

But fix on Thee a steady eye,

And on Thine outstretched arm rely,

Till all the storm is o’er.

Ryle’s Hymns for the Church on Earth #29

From Matthew 14:22-27 / The Unexpected Jesus

Throughout His incarnation, Jesus was continually doing the unexpected.

It was not expected that the Messiah would be born to a virgin.

It was not expected that He would come when Israel’s spiritual state was at such a low ebb.

It was not expected He would be so humble and – ordinary.

It was not expected that He would preach as He did.

Not expected that He would avoid seeking authority or power among men.

Not expected that His public ministry would be so short.

Not expected that He would die on a cross.

And certainly not expected – by ANY – that He would rise again the 3rd day.

Jesus did then, and continues even now to defy human expectations – constructed out of our own imaginations and preferences.

And so it is in this frightful moment on the sea. The last thing any of the Disciples would have expected was to find Jesus walking to them on the water in the midst of a life-threatening storm.

But there He was.

Note first: Here He still is in our hour of need today. No child of His is in such a place where He cannot be found. No matter how unlikely, how unexpected, how impossible. No matter how stormy, how bleak, how seemingly beyond all hope – He comes to us where we are.

He is magnificent.

Note second: Obedience to Christ is no barrier to trial, danger and struggle. This scenario will be repeated in the lives of His disciples both in similar circumstances as well as in very different ones. There they were, doing what He had specifically asked, while facing inhuman and insurmountable opposition. It is in these hours we are to look for His visitation.

It is a myth that serving and obeying Christ somehow exempts His servants from danger.

There are many who believe that as long as they have a sense of peace about their decisions, that He will always make their path smooth and easy. It is not so. These men were as “in the center of God’s will” as they could possibly be; and never were they less peaceful and more troubled.

Note third: How this scene might parallel the return of Christ? Contrary to my postmillennial brethren, He does not come to a “Christianized” world, but to one in turmoil. It was true in His first coming, and we’ve no reason to believe it will not be when He returns. If Jesus Himself can query as to whether or not He will find faith in the earth when He comes (Luke 18:8), should we expect it to be any different?

I’ve little doubt that before He returns, that it will be a season of darkness and great labor for the Church, but seeming to make little headway?

But when He does finally appear, we may well fear Him before we recognize Him, so focused on the struggle, and fearful of sinking. But it will be then that He calls to us and tells us – the storm is not the problem, “it is I” – I am here. All will be well.

Note third: The nature of great prayer revealed here twice. And observe, I said great prayer, not eloquent, verbose or well thought out prayer. First was a cry of fear in their misunderstanding. How graciously He responds to such prayers with His blessed: “Take heart; it is I. Do not be afraid.” The second will come soon after in Peter’s “Lord save me!”

How He hears are gasps in His direction. And answers in grace.

Note fourth: We may well have before us a hint of what the dying saint may face in their final hours. Having exhausted all, failing to reach the final shore, struggling in the dark, no more progress being made, fearful, doubtful, and as the final time approaches, the specter of Christ seems more fearful than joyful. But even then, in that near-sinking bark, He will call out and say “Take heart; it is I” – and He will not only come to us, but in that moment, we be immediately at the shore.

Oh praise the name of our unexpected Jesus!

Matthew 14:13-21 / Seeing The God/Man

There is perhaps no other place in the Gospels, where both Christ’s humanity and His divinity are so fully seen at one and the same time. Indeed, this portion is so full, it almost defies being mined out completely. Deep, deep revelations are set before our eyes.

Note first: What a picture of Jesus’ humanity emerges.

In vss. 13-14, we see there is no question that Jesus withdraws at least in part to deal with His own personal grief. John, above all others, knew who Jesus was, and shared the most with Him. He paved the way for Him. He was His cousin, and uniquely called to his prophetic office in direct connection with Jesus.

Now, John was senselessly and brutally murdered because a spineless, immoral political leader driven by impulse at the sight of a young girl acting lewdly for his illicit pleasure – and didn’t even have the decency to stop himself in the face of something so heinous. So it is, upon hearing this news, Jesus withdrew. As He would weep at Lazarus’ tomb even though He knew He would raise him from the dead, so too, He know full well He and John will rejoice in Heaven and at the resurrection – and yet – He grieves. He is full man.

Note second: At how wonderful our Savior is. Withdrawing in these moments, nevertheless, refusing to shut His heart at the sight of these people. He does not let His own grief destroy His compassion for them. He still meets out mercy, while reeling from the blows of such wickedness. This is our Lord. His heart remains full even when it is breaking.

Grief has taken an improper place in us when it prevents us from having compassion on the circumstances of others. Jesus demonstrates how even in His great grief – the sorrows, even of mere temporal discomforts – are still able to impact Him.

Note third: In the breaking of the bread – Scant resources are no barrier to meeting great needs, when they are given into the hands of our God, and consecrated to His ends. He will be glorified in our lack – if we look to Him in it. Trust Him.

What good news this is for preachers who must be bi-vocational and are often drawn off to other necessities while wanting to shepherd God’s flock. No, you may not have the time for study and prayer and preparation you desire – but if it is God’s Word, if it is but some small loaves and fishes, it will meet the needs of the souls of your hearers, and then some. Trust His provision in your situation even if it seems meager at the time.

Note fourth: The magnificent display of His divinity. In my estimation, His multiplying the loaves and the fishes is His greatest miracle.

Right before their eyes, in plain view, He had to perform and act of creation ex nihilo. There were only so many atoms and molecules in the loaves and fish at hand. So He had to create more matter right then and there. It is as though He is back in Genesis 1:1. And it is done without fanfare, without telling them what He is doing, without any sort of pageantry. He simply creates, breaks and distributes. What a God!

Could He possibly make His divinity any more clear than in this moment? And yet, they all missed it. Even the Disciples. How blind sin has made us!

Note fifth: What a model for preaching is set before us here.

a. The loaves are broken by Jesus. We get edible portions of His Word from Him in our discourse with Him.

b. We take that, and give it to others.

c. Don’t worry if it seems small, or plain. If eaten, it WILL satisfy.

d. Don’t assume it is only good once. There is more there to feed others as well. There is great abundance.

Note lastly: Three things.

1. Clearly, the idea of abundance is meant to be demonstrated. When God meets the need, He does more than meet it barely. He is a God of abundance and there was enough left over here to feed many, many more.
2. How quickly we are satisfied – when He has provided so much more. We stop receiving from Him when our immediate pinch is met, and not according to all He has made available for us. May we become voracious consumers of all He has provided, and not just triflers at His provision.
3. Why did not those who partook, take more with them to take to others? Why was so much left over? They consumed what they had an appetite for themselves, but thought nothing of taking what Christ had blessed for them to others who might be hungry too.

Father, open my eyes to your great, abundant provision for my soul and life in Jesus. Give me a ravenous appetite for your provision – hunger for your Word and the truth of Christ that gobbles up everything thing I can. And let me take what you have broken, and not let a crumb of it be left behind, but carry it to others who need the Bread of Life that only you can, and have so graciously supplied.

From Matthew 14:1-12 / Descending into Hell

James warns us that we can hear the Word, which can act like a mirror reflecting our true visage – but from which when we walk away – allows our imagination to recreate that image into something we prefer. As the Word reflects the ill-effects of sin in our souls, if we fail to unflinchingly continue that view, soon, we will imagine ourselves something we are not.

Now it is absolutely true that the Believer, by virtue of the new birth, justification and the indwelling Spirit is a new creature indeed. What we were in ourselves considered alone is gone forever. And, it is also true that we are not yet all that the Father intends us to be before He is done with us.

Even the resurrected Christ still bore the scars of His crucifixion. Healed they were, yet visible still. And so the damage sin has done to us leaves its scars behind. In fact, we might think in terms of a deadly cancer. It ravages, disfigures and wreaks all kinds of havoc. At this point in our salvation, sin’s progress has been stopped in its tracks. It can no longer present the danger it once did, even though some of the remnants of its ravages remain visible.

And, the cancer is not yet fully eradicated. It still has some energy. The flesh still lusts against the Spirit even though it can no longer have dominion nor threaten damnation.

But praise God He has given us assurance of the final dominion and perfection in the resurrection. Oh happy day!

Until then, we still see sin at work. And one place where it is bared in ghastly relief is in this passage – and in Herod Antipas.

Note first: How the unregenerate often mix true religion and superstition together.

Herod had no Biblical reason to believe that John the Baptist had been raised from the dead and was performing miracles in the form of Jesus. Nevertheless, he was disturbed by these thoughts. His guilt over what he had done in murdering John, filtered through his unregenerate and ill-informed mind, led him to a strange conclusion.

We ought not to think it strange then that unbelievers we meet today may need to be disabused of such perverse notions as well. We need to consider that in our evangelization.

Note second: As we have seen often before, simply seeing miraculous things does not convert a soul to Christ. There is no “magic bullet” in evangelization but the plain Gospel itself. How may Christians think that if people could just witness some sign, some miracle, the discussion would end. Not so. Jesus healed multitudes. Even after raising the dead, demonstrating mastery over nature and preaching truth in its purest form for years – He had but a handful of Believers in His death. And they, not fully comprehending. Our faith must be in the Spirit creating faith in the heart – not in outward proofs.

Note third: It is right for us to proclaim to public figures that their sin is unjustifiable. And this remains true regardless of party or affinity. So many in recent years have delighted to proclaim the sins of those in opposing political parties, while remaining virtually silent on the one who is “our guy.” It is a wicked hypocrisy which has taken hold in American Evangelicalism which needs to be repented of. Yes, we need to confront sin. No, we cannot do so with political exemptions.

Note fourth: When sin goes unchecked, sooner or later it will demand the unthinkable from us. And we will give it. For we have lost all resolve to resist if we have seared our consciences time after time after time.

So it is Herod went from lusting after his brother’s wife – divorcing his own to have her; to locking up John for calling him on it; to lusting after his step-daughter in a most public way; to having John beheaded. The descent is obvious and terrifying.

Historians tell us Herodias’ daughter was probably between 12 and 14 at this time. Her public and sensual gyrations were too much for the man who had stepped further and further down from moral decisions time after time. And such is the pattern for all still bound in sin. A tendency which does not leave even the most godly saint.

Note fifth: How Herod was more concerned about offending his guest, than God in any respect. And how this tendency again can still have it urgings in us. We see its shadow in Peter’s failure in Antioch. We must still beware the same in ourselves.

Note lastly: Jesus did not consider John’s senseless death as reason to stop manifesting the Kingdom and preaching the Gospel.

Our Christ remained undaunted by any danger to fulfill the Father’s will, and bring about the salvation He was sent to accomplish. And if it was true in His incarnation, how much more does He remain at work on our behalf until the day of His return. Nothing can thwart the hand of our Savior. He who began a good work in us, will absolutely complete it until His day. Have no fear dear Believer, your Christ cannot be turned aside by anything.

From Matthew 13:53-58 / A Prophet Without Honor

Note first: There is an old proverb which reads: Familiarity breeds contempt. And the verses before us demonstrate just how this can be. It is in fact one of the most pernicious of sins. And one all too common among us today.

In Psalm 50, Asaph speaks prophetically to God’s people, calling them back to a right view of Him. And among the charges listed there, we read vs. 21: “These things you have done, and I have been silent; you thought that I was one like yourself. But now I rebuke you and lay the charge before you.”

Because God had been patient with their sin, the people began to imagine that God thought like they thought, liked what they liked, disliked what they disliked. They superimposed their thoughts, feelings and opinions upon God.

It makes me wonder how many times I’ve done this myself. How have I baptized my thoughts, preferences and opinions by imagining God’s must be identical to mine.

Heavenly Father, forgive me. How often I have superimposed my feelings, my opinions, my viewpoints onto you. I have assumed you feel toward the same people as I do. I have imagined your willingness to see my compromises, and that you abide them and excuse them as I do. That my priorities and agenda – you take up too. That you are as easily offended as I am. As petty. As punitive. As irritable. As short-tempered. As temporally oriented. I have thought you are one like myself. I have been a fool. Let me see your glory.

In this account, their familiarity with Jesus led them to ignore what He was teaching and preaching.

How many a foolish person has left a sound Church and deeply committed leadership because their preaching was not flash-in-the-pan? Didn’t scratch their itch? Didn’t dazzle them? Because the man in the pulpit simply and plainly broke the Bread of Life to them faithfully, but was just an ordinary man? Wickedness.

Note second the reason for their rejection of Christ. It was not based upon His character, for He was sinless, nor upon His teaching, for even they acknowledged His wisdom and mighty works. What then was their objection? He’s not unusual enough. As though truth needs some sort of spectacular demonstration in order to be truth.

In the modern Church, there is a great movement that signs and wonders must be present to verify truth, and bring people to belief. Here, they knew His mighty works and did not believe. He didn’t dazzle them enough for their taste.

Note lastly then: That when the truth is rejected on such paltry and foolish grounds, that unbelief is met with an unresponsive God. Jesus left His home town with little by way of extra blessing.

Woe to us when His plain Word is not enough for us. When we casually set aside the God/Man as He preached and taught, because we thought it too simple, plain and unexciting.

And yet how faithfully He continued to preach and teach.

Movement 4 The Angel and the Shepherds

1 Upon a quiet hillside
Lay flocks of gentle sheep
As Shepherds lay their heads down
Day’s end would hasten sleep

2 No noble men among them
No poets, priests or kings
The humble and the lowly
Not giv’n to lofty things

3 Not privy to the wonders
Revealed to others, yet
No sense there was a Mary
Or aged Elizabeth

4 They’d heard no prophet’s voices
Nor Mary’s hymn of praise
They tended to their business
This one, like other days

5 There were no signs of warning
No omens in the sky
No great anticipation
To prompt a careful eye

6 Just humble, no-name shepherds
About their daily charge
Amid the bleating sheepfold
Glum duty to discharge

7 When through the sleepy silence
Broke blinding, dazzling light
The shock of God’s own glory
Brought terror at the sight

8 The angel – though astounding
Spoke quickly – do not fear!
I’ve come to bring you good news
For all the world to hear

9 Today, in David’s city
In humble Bethlehem
To you is born a Savior What things he spoke to them!

10 Why say such things to shepherds
Whose word none would believe? These are the least of all men
Who will their word receive?

11 And yet there in his glory
The angel spoke his word
Here, I give a sign to you
A pledge of what you’ve heard

12 In David’s town, a baby
Was born this very day
He’s lying in a manger
In swaddling cloths arrayed

13 And when the angel said this
The sky was filled with light
A great angelic army
Dispelled the dark of night

14 A martial choir of angels
With massive, deafn’ing sound
Began to sing God’s glory
And make His praise abound

15 God’s glory in the highest
And peace to you on earth
For it has pleased the Godhead
The Prince of Peace to birth

16 The Shepherds hastened quickly
To Bethlehem they ran
To find the Babe as told them
This Savior born to Man

17 They ran to find the family
To see what they’d been told
And told them of the angels
And why they left their fold

18 Then leaving, telling others
Like prophets they became
And all who heard them wondered
What news they did proclaim

19 Returning to the sheepfold
A choir now were they
In praises glorifying
What God had done that day

20 And while this first – God’s Christmas
Began, and now was done
The saving work of Jesus
Had only just begun

Movement 3 Gabriel and Mary

1 In Nazareth secluded
A Virgin soon to wed
This lowly one named Mary
To her was Gabriel led

2 Appearing without warning
With greetings from God’s throne
He spoke of God’s great favor
A call for her – alone

3 The God of all Creation
Has sent me here to you
Your heart and mind preparing
What He’s about to do

4 Don’t be afraid dear Mary
This message strange to hear
You’ll be a virgin mother
Tho how – will be unclear

5 Amazed her heart was troubled
What can this greeting be?
Thus Gabriel responded
You’re favored – you must see

6 The way ahead’s not easy
You’ll bear shame unrestrained
So few will understand it
A myst’ry unexplained

7 (At first not even Joseph
Could grasp it or conceive
Without an angel’s visit
E’en he would not believe)

8 What wonder I’m announcing
The Son of the Most High
The long-foretold Messiah
Will in your bosom lie

9 He’ll rule o’er Israel’s Kingdom
His reign will have no end
The Son of God, most holy
The flock of God He’ll tend

10 But sir, in wide amazement
She asked, how will this be?
I’ve known no man in marriage
The means I cannot see

11 How Gabriel smiled at Mary
In gentleness spoke low
God’s Spirit will accomplish
What none can really know

12 By power none can fathom
Beyond the human mind
Creating life within you
The God/man all divine

13 And to confirm my message
That it might be believed
Elizabeth the barren
Though ag-ed, has conceived

14 God’s power is not lacking
All’s possible to Him
And though you are a Virgin
In you, life will begin

15 Submitting as a servant
To all that she had heard
She said, so let it be sir
According to Your word

16 Then rushing to the country
Elizabeth to see
She came into the house there
Amazed in Holy glee

17 Elizabeth exclaiming
For joy – how can it be?
You, the mother of my Lord
Have come to visit me?

18 For when I heard your greeting
My baby stirred and leapt
For joy he could not help it
And I in gladness wept

19 Thus Mary broke out singing
To magnify her Lord
A hymn of praise and worship
For all He had outpoured

20 Returning home rejoicing
Soon after John was born
In faith she trusted fully
In Christ, would dawn God’s morn