Tag: Christianity

The Identity of Jesus

On By BrianIn Book of Luke

Who is Jesus?  What is his identity?  As Jesus traveled around teaching and healing, people were talking.  They wondered who he was, and they came to some interesting conclusions, as we can see in Luke 9.

Popular Ideas (v7-9, 18-19)

Herod wondered who Jesus was and heard what people were saying.  Some thought Jesus was John the Baptist risen from the dead.  Others thought he was Elijah.  Still others thought he was another ancient prophet raised again.  When Jesus asked his disciples who people said he was, they responded with the same ideas – John, Elijah, an ancient prophet.  All three options agree on the idea that he was a prophet.  Curiously, all three ideas also agree that he was a dead prophet raised from the dead.

Today, people have their own ideas about who Jesus is.  Some children presumably might think Jesus is simply a swear word, as that is the only time they have ever heard the name.  Others think he was a great deceiver of the people.  Most I suspect would simply say he was a good teacher, a moral person, a spiritual leader akin to the Dalia Lama and others.  Who is Jesus?

His Claim (v20-22)

Jesus asked his disciples who they thought he was.  Closer to the source perhaps they had a better answer.  As usual Peter takes the role of the spokesman and suggests that he is the Christ of God; that is, he is God’s Messiah, the one predicted in the Old Testament to be sent by God, the coming king.  It is clear from parallel passages that Jesus agrees with Peter’s assessment…as far as it goes.

And yet the popular view of the Messiah at the time was that of a political leader who would free the Jewish people from their Roman oppressors.  And so Jesus goes on to redefine for them who he was as the Messiah.  He must suffer.  He would be rejected by the Jewish leaders.  He would be killed.  And then he would be raised from the dead.

The Old Testament speaks of one who will in fact suffer, be rejected and killed, an even hints at a resurrection in various places.  The clearest passage is surely Isaiah 53 which clearly predicts these things, as well as giving the reason – he will die to pay for sins.  As Jesus seeks to broaden their understanding of the Messiah, he points to himself as not only the King but also the Savior.

Sorting the Options

This didn’t fit with their understanding.  Indeed parallel passages tell us that Peter rebukes Jesus.  This view of Jesus overall doesn’t fit today either.  A good teacher is fine, but not the King and Savior of the world.  And yet, suppose I claimed to be sent by God to reign over you as king and to save you from your sins.  Would you call me a good teacher?  A spiritual leader?  No, you would think I was an egotistical nut.  Such claims to be king and savior negate the idea of being a good teacher, unless those claims are true.

Who is Jesus?  He is either the King and Savior as he claims or he is an egotistical nut, a fruitcake.  And yet he doesn’t act like a nut.  He is not at all like the mentally disturbed folks you might meet wandering around downtown cities claiming to be the Messiah.  He speaks and acts with sanity, and indeed with power – casting out demons, calming storms, healing disease, and even raising the dead.  The evidence, I suggest, points to him being who he claims to be – the King and Savior.  Have you come to believe in him as your King and your Savior?

Web Weekly

On By BrianIn Idolatry, PASSION Points

Maybe I should have called this Web Bi-weekly, but I’d lose the alliteration.  Anyway, here are some highlights from the last 2-3 weeks related to living the three passions life.

First, Ray Ortlund gives another good picture of a passion for God versus idolatry.

Second, Justin Taylor notes the important distinction between loving people in abstract and really having compassion for people (and it even includes a Peanuts cartoon!)

Finally, here are a number of recommended posts about important habits of three passions living – daily prayer, worship, church, simplicity, and even an interesting discussion of modesty.

The Provision of Jesus

On By BrianIn Book of Luke, Uncategorized

Can the provision of Jesus meet my needs?  This is an important question today as we live in a world of uncertainty.  Many are fearful of the future with a poor economy, lack of jobs, loss of money, and the list could go on.  Do we need to be afraid?  Or can we trust in the provision of Jesus?  We get a helpful glimpse of an answer in Luke 9:10-17.

Jesus is preaching to a crowd of over 5000 in a desolate place.  Evening comes, and the crowds are hungry.  This is a big need.  It would take a lot to feed over 5000 people!  Have you ever had a big need in your life? Maybe you do now.

Jesus tells the disciples to give them something to eat.  They rightly recognize that they can’t – this situation is too big for them.  Ever been there – in a situation too big for you?  Maybe you are now.

The disciples manage to come up with five small loaves and two little fish, but that won’t even feed the disciples, let alone the multitudes.  They consider buying food, but where would they get so much food?  There are no Super Walmarts.  The surrounding towns are smaller than the crowd with Jesus.  Even if they could find the food, how would they pay for it?  Mark 6 gives us the figure of 200 denarii.  Each denarius is a day’s wage.  Estimate $100 a day and you get $20,000.  How many of us have that kind of cash on us?  None of the disciples did.  No place to buy food and no money to do it.  The situation seemed impossible.  Ever been there?  Maybe you are now.

But Jesus thanks God (literally blesses God) for the food, divides it up, and they all eat, are satisfied, and have 12 baskets of leftovers.  There was a great need beyond any of them, and Jesus provided for the need.  How has Jesus provided for your needs in the past.  Times when the need was so great you didn’t see how it could be met, but He did.  I can think of ways God has provided jobs in incredible ways for me.  I asked the congregation Sunday, and we heard a number of wonderful stories of God’s provision.  Don’t you think he can provide for your need today?

Of course Jesus provides in different ways for different people.  He might meet a need miraculously like he did in these verses.  Or he might use others to provide for our need as he did when he sent the disciples out in verses 1-6.  Often he provides a job for us to work that our needs might be met.  He makes our gardens grow that we might have food.  And on and on the list might go.  Sometimes he provides in totally unexpected ways.  We are waiting for provision in one way, and he provides in a completely different way.  We don’t understand why, but how he provides is up to him.

He also provides in various amounts.  He provided more than enough for the crowds in our passage.  In verses 1-6, he presumably provided just enough.  Verse 5 suggests there were times when they didn’t get any food, but God still provided enough to keep them going.  None of them starved.  Which reminds us that we could get by on much less than we think.  Paul tells us that if we have food and clothes, we should be content (I Timothy 6:8).  Most of us have much more than that!

Our greatest need, however, is not even food and clothes.  Our greatest need is God, a relationship with him, a home with him forever.  This too is provided to us by Jesus who died for our sins and rose again to give us a new life with God.  Should he choose to withhold food, clothing, or health, still in him we have our greatest need met.  The Psalmist reminds us of this in Psalm 73:26 – “My flesh and my heart may fail, but God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever.”  One day it will come our time to die.  He will withhold our physical needs.  But he will provide something greater – a home with him.

With all this in mind, how should we face the future?  Do we need to be afraid?  Or is the provision of Jesus enough to meet our needs?  The answer is found in the feeding of the 5000.  The answer is found in our own past experiences.  He is more than able to meet our needs.  So let us:

  • Seek.  Seek his provision for our needs.  Let us pray as Jesus taught us to pray – “Give us this day our daily bread.”
  • Trust.  Trust the Lord to take care of us.  We need not be afraid.  God will give us what we need.
  • Be Content.  God may provide abundantly or just enough.  He might provide for us to come home to him.  Regardless of how he provides, let us be content.
  • Give Thanks.  God provides for us in measureless ways.  We always have reason to give thanks to God.

Freedom Prayer

On By BrianIn Habit of Prayer

Father,

Thank you for our country, and the freedoms we enjoy as Americans.  Thank you for freedom of speech, press, and travel. Thank you for the freedom to gather to worship you, and the freedom to scatter to share the good news with others.

Even more we thank you for Jesus, and the freedoms we enjoy as Christians.  Thank you for freedom from the penalty of sin, freedom from the power of sin, and the promise that one day we will have freedom from the very presence of sin.

Thank you for the wonderful freedoms you have blessed us with in this country and in Christ.  Amen.

Cross Centered or Idol Centered?

On By BrianIn Idolatry

C.J. Mahaney in his book, The Cross Centered Life, provides two quotes that tie his topic to the issue of idolatry:

I fear that the cross, without ever being disowned, is constantly in danger of being dismissed from the central place it must enjoy, by relatively peripheral insights that take on far too much weight.  Whenever the periphery is in danger of displacing the center, we are not far removed from idolatry. – D. A. Carson

Legalism has its origin in self-worship. [i.e. idolatry]  If people are justified through their obedience to the law, then they merit praise, honor, and glory.  Legalism, in other words, means the glory goes to people rather than God. – Thomas Schreiner

(For more thoughts on idolatry, see the new Three Passions Idolatry page.)

Finding Help In God

On By BrianIn Uncategorized

God must be trying to tell me something because my reading this morning again points toward relying on God.

Psalm 146 tells us not to trust in people, for in them there is no salvation.  It would seem to me that this includes ourselves.  Indeed Proverb 26:12 warns us about being wise in our own eyes.  When we think that our newest plan, idea, program, message, or whatever is hot stuff to change the world – we are being wise in our eyes.  We are full of ourselves and our own wisdom and cleverness.  The proverb goes on to say that there is more hope for a fool than one who is wise in his own eyes.  When I am impressed with myself, I am worse than a fool.  This is pretty strong considering the nine verses before all speak of the fool in in very negative terms.

Back to Psalm 146, instead of trusting in people we are called to trust in God.  “Blessed is he whose help is the God of Jacob, whose hope is in the Lord his God” (v5).  When we rely not on ourselves but on God, we are blessed.  And why should we rely on God?  Verse 6 continues the thought – because God is the maker of heaven and earth.  As the one who made everything, he can help us.  We should rely on him.

And how does he help us.  The Psalmist begins a list:

  • He keeps faith
  • He executes justice
  • He gives food
  • He sets free
  • He opens eyes
  • He lifts up
  • He loves
  • He watches over
  • He upholds

Of course this is only a partial list.  But the point is that God is the one we should rely on because he is the one who can truly help us.  May we be wise, stop trusting in ourselves, and look to him.

More Relying On God

On By BrianIn Uncategorized

A few more voices on our need to rely on God.

Mark Altrogge notes that we could be the greatest in our area of ministry, but without God all our “efforts would be useless.”

On a related note, Joshua Harris asks, “What are we leaning on?”  He also quotes Jerry Bridges on our need to know God that we might trust or rely on him.

Rely On God

On By BrianIn Habit of Prayer, Virtue of Humility

I was listening to part of a message about John Bunyan by John Piper this morning which referenced II Corinthians 1:9 – “Indeed, we felt that we had received the sentence of death.  But that was to make us rely not on ourselves but on God who raises the dead.”

How easy it is for us to get this wrong.  We try to rely on ourselves or on our bank accounts or in our own cleverness or…you fill in the blank.  This is a huge issue in ministry as well.  Am I relying on God or trying to do it myself?  Of course, we have to minister, to do the work.  But God is the one who blesses our ministry, who makes it effective…or not.  We always need his grace, his help, his Spirit to be at work, or we labor in vain.

We know this, yet that self-sufficiency can creep in.  We can get so excited and impressed with our newest sermon, program, idea, whatever.  We think, “Certainly this will make a difference!”  But if God doesn’t bless it, it amounts to nothing.

Perhaps God doesn’t bless our churches more because we simply couldn’t handle it.  We would start to think too much of ourselves, begin to rely too much on ourselves.  We would forget that we need God, and that it is all of God, not of ourselves.

I think this is where prayer comes in, though that too can become a mere formality tacked on to our own self-reliance.  But if we truly believe we need God’s help, we will pray.  We will plead with God to work through us.  We will pray with fervor – “Your kingdom come.”  We will join the Psalmist in praying, “Let the favor of the Lord our God be upon us, and establish the work of our hands upon us; yea, establish the work of our hands!” (Psalm 90:17)

May this be our prayer as we rely on him.

Web Weekly

On By BrianIn PASSION Points

Last week was a very good and busy week of VBS at our church, so I wasn’t able to blog much.  Let’s start this week with a few recommended posts to visit from around the web related to Three Passion living.

First, we start with God’s passion for us.  Justin Taylor explores how Paul describes God’s grace throughout the book of Ephesians.  His question at the end of his post is important for us to consider: “Do we feel, with Paul, how truly great God’s grace is?”

People are obsessed about all kinds of things in our world, but our passion should only be found in one place as Mark Altrogge reminds us.

If we are going to grow in our passion for God and compassion for people, we need to be in God’s Word.  James MacDonald reminds us of some of the Bible’s vivid pictures of itself – and what they mean for us.

What Defines You?

On By BrianIn PASSION Quotes1 Comment

C. J. Mahaney asks some good probing questions for all of us to consider in his book, The Cross Centered Life:

It’s important to ask honestly what we’re currently building our lives around….  We’re all living lives centered on something.  But is it the right thing?

So think about this for a moment.  What is the main thing in your life?

Let me put it another way.  What are you most passionate about?  What do you think about when you can think about whatever you want?  What do you love to talk about?

What defines you?