Tag: Jesus

Consider His Compassionate Care

On By BrianIn Book of Luke2 Comments

In Luke 23:26-31, Jesus is on the road to the cross.  He is bleeding from the lashes and the thorns.  He is bruised from the beatings.  He is exhausted from the torture and lack of sleep.  Every step is utter pain.  And he is too weak to carry his own cross, so the soldiers grap Simon from the crowd to do it for him. 

Here then we see the depths of his compassion, as he looks not to his own great needs but to the needs of others.  He stops to show compassionate care to a group of weeping women.  He cares enough to warn them of the coming judgment.

And does he not show this compassionate care to us?  Does he not comfort us in our weeping?  Did he not warn us of coming judgment and call us to himself?  And as we came, did he not forgive us, embrace us, and celebrate over us?  Did he not endure the cross for us?

And he calls us to follow in his steps.  He calls us to show compassionate care to others.  To comfort the weeping.  To warn the sinner.  Even in the midst of our own suffering.  In our trials, we can become so self-focused that we see only our needs.  We disolve into self-pity.  We expect others to minister to us.  And certainly we need care in our suffering.  But Jesus shows us that we can care for others even in the midst of our own suffering.  What a challenge!  And how convicting.  How often we fail in this and must run back to the one whose compassionate care provided a way to be saved at such great expense to himself.

Gospel Quotes To Ponder

On By BrianIn PASSION Quotes

Remember what the gospel says about us:
we are more sinful and flawed than we ever dared believe
but we are also more loved and welcomed than we ever dared hope.
– Elyse M. Fitzpatrick and Dennis E. Johnson

So when the devil throws your sins in your face
and declares that you deserve death and hell, tell him this:
“I admit that I deserve death and hell, what of it?
For I know One who suffered and made satisfaction on my behalf.
His name is Jesus Christ, Son of God, and where he is there I shall be also!”
– Martin Luther

I am a great sinner, but Christ is a great Savior.
– John Newton

Where Is My Worth Found?

On By BrianIn Identity

In my last post I asked whether we are really worth dying for.  I concluded that Jesus died for us not because of our own worth, but because of his love.  To go further: Christ didn’t die because of my worth; my worth is found in Christ’s death.  My worth is found not in myself but in Christ. 

Jeremy Pierre addresses this issue of worth in his post on insecurity.  Insecurity is the failure to grasp our worth, but the critical issue is where do we find our worth.  He compares our culture’s view of insecurity with God’s view:

Our cultural instructors disapprove of our insecurity because it is an offense to individual worthiness. God disapproves of our insecurity because it is an offense to his Son’s worthiness.

And it is His Son’s worth that gives us worth.  Pierre goes on to point out four reasons that insecurity is sinful:

  • Insecurity keeps us from loving God and others because we are too distracted with self.
  • Insecurity indicates a dissatisfaction with God.
  • Insecurity reveals a desire for justification from people rather than God.
  • Insecurity shows that we are still seeking justification from works.

So we need to flee insecurity, but not by clinging to some sense of our own self-worth.  Rather we need to “abandon finding our worth in anything other than Christ and his redemptive work on our behalf.” 

You can read Pierre’s entire post here.

Passion Points

On By BrianIn Holidays, PASSION Points

Here are few good posts focused on the cross, resurrection, and our salvation for your weekend reading:

Jared Wilson considers the many things Jesus accomplished on the cross for us.

Steve Dewitt writes about Jesus’ resurrection body – which points to what our resurrection bodies will one day be like.

Tullian Tchividjian reminds us that because of Christ we are already righteous – and that changes everything.

Have a great Resurrection Sunday celebrating our Risen Savior!

Resurrection Week Reflections

On By BrianIn Holidays

Last week I posted some daily Passion Week reflections.  Below are some reflections for Easter and the following week to help us ponder what Christ’s resurrection means to us:

Sunday – Rejoice: Celebrate His Resurrection

Monday – Received – Embrace the Gospel

Tuesday – Raised: Live Your New Life

Wednesday – Reigns: Submit to Your King

Thursday – Resurrected: Victory Over Death

Friday – Returning – With the Lord

Saturday – Reborn – Hope in Your Inheritance

Sunday – Ransomed: Praise to the Lamb

His Love For You

On By BrianIn Holidays, PASSION Quotes

And going a little farther he fell on his face and prayed, saying, “My Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me; nevertheless, not as I will, but as you will.”
– Matthew 26:39

What is this cup?  It is clearly a reference to the wrath of God for your sins and mine….

That’s why there’s shuddering terror and deep distress for him at this moment.  In the crucible of human weakness he’s brought face to face with the abhorrent reality of bearing our iniquity and becoming the object of God’s full and furious wrath….

This is what bearing our sins means to him – utter distress of soul as he confronts total abandonment and absolute wrath from his Father on the cross, a distress and an abandonment and a rejection we cannot begin to grasp. 

In this, our Savior’s darkest hour…do you recognize his love for you?

– C. J. Mahaney

Easter Timeline and Geography

On By BrianIn Holidays

In what order did the events of Passion Week occur, and where?  Here are some interesting attempts to visualize the answers to those questions.  

First, Bible Gateway has created a Holy Week Timeline.  You can get a glimpse of it below.  For more information and to see details, visit here. 

Meanwhile Crossway has put together a google map with possible locations of the various events of Jesus’ last week.  You can see a glimpse below.  See here to access the actual map and descriptions of each location.

Thanks to Justin Taylor for noting these visual resources on his blog.  Of course there is disagreement on the order and exact location of some events, but these still give us helpful visuals of when and where these events may have occured.  For a more detailed discussion of the order of events for Good Friday and Easter, I recommend John Wenham’s excellent book Easter Enigma.

More Reason To Praise

On By BrianIn Church Life

On Sunday we reviewed the story in Mark 11:7-10 of the triumphal entry of Jesus into Jerusalem.  The people had lined the way into Jerusalem with palm branches and their own cloaks.  They were shouting and singing and celebrating.  There was excitement in the air.  They saw in Jesus the long awaited king who would save them from Roman oppression. 

But we know something they didn’t.  In less than a week, Jesus would die on a cross, because he came not to save them from the tyranny of Rome, but from the tyranny of sin.  He came to save us by becoming our sacrifice for sins so we could be forgiven and reconciled to God.  He came to rise again so we too could be raised from the dead someday.  He rose to reign not merely as the king of Israel, but as the king of the whole world, for he is not only in the line of David but also God in the flesh. 

If Israel had reason to gather to shout and sing and celebrate Jesus, how much more reason do we have to gather to shout and sing and celebrate Jesus? 

But is that why we gather on Sundays?  Do we gather to praise the Lord?  Do we come ready to shout and sing and celebrate?  Really?  Is it in our minds?  Is it on our hearts?  The Israelites had been anticipating that day for years.  Do we anticipate during the week that time when we can gather with God’s people to praise him together?  Can we hardly wait?  Are we excited to come together to praise our great King and Savior? 

We have more reason to praise Jesus than the Israelites did.  Let’s act like it as we gather this Sunday to praise our risen Savior and King. 

And yet we need not wait until Sunday.  Let’s get warmed up during the week.  As we reflect on the cross this week, let’s shout and sing and celebrate in our personal times with the Lord.  Let’s praise the Lord in our own homes as families.  We have more reason to praise Jesus this week.  Let’s live like it!

Hosannah To Christ

On By BrianIn Hymns1 Comment

I have a book with a couple hundred hymns by Isaac Watts, and I found this one that goes along with Palm Sunday.  We are planning to sing it this Sunday using the familiar tune to O For A Thousand Tongues To Sing (both hymns share the same meter and the music fits well).  Read the words and notice their theological depth in reference to the person of Christ that leads to the call to praise him.

Hosannah To Christ
Isaac Watts

Hosannah to the royal Son
Of David’s ancient line!
His natures two, his person one,
Mysterious and divine.

The root of David here, we find,
And offspring is the same:
Eternity and time are join’d
In our Immanuel’s name

Bless’d he that comes to wretched men
With peaceful news from heav’n!
Hosannahs of the highest strain
To Christ the Lord be giv’n!

Let mortals ne’er refuse to take
The hosannah on their tongues,
Lest rocks and stones should rise and break
Their silence into songs.

Two Ways To Live

On By BrianIn Book of Luke, Heart

In the Sermon on the Plain in Luke 6, Jesus gives us two ways to live. 

One way is to live for self.  We can chase after riches, fullness, laughter, and popularity.  We can live to gain for ourselves, as though the world revolved around self.  This is our tendency even from our youngest years – consider the toddler throwing a tantrum because he doesn’t get what he wants.  To those who live this way, Jesus says:  “Woe to you.”

But Jesus calls us to another way of life.  He calls us to deny ourselves, take up our cross, and follow him.  Instead of living for self, we should live for Christ.  We should be willing to give up all the world chases after and become poor, hungry, weeping, hated, rejected, and ridiculed for the sake of Christ.  When we live for Christ instead of ourselves, Jesus says:  “Blessed are you.”  But that is not all.  Jesus then goes on to tell us to live for others – even those who hate us, ridicule us, and reject us.  He tells us to love our enemies.  We are to do good, bless, pray for, and be merciful to others.  Rather than judge and condemn others, we should forgive and give generously.  Live for Christ and others.  Love God and people.  Live with a passion for God and compassion for people.

Two ways to live.  We can live for self or we can live for Christ and others.  Jesus closes his sermon with four applications:

First, choose your teachers carefully.  Those blind to the truth follow those blind to the truth, and they both fall into a pit.  But if you are in Christ, you are no longer blind, so don’t follow those who are.  When we are fully trained we will be like our teacher.  If we make the lies of our culture our teacher, we will be like our culture – we will live for self.  If we make Christ our teacher, we will be like Christ, willing to give of ourselves for others.  So who are we listening to?  What does our favorite music, movies, books, magazines, and websites teach us?  What do our closest friends teach us?  To live for self or for Christ?  Have we chosen our teachers carefully?  Do we need to make some changes? 

Of course, our culture is everywhere, and we cannot help but hear the lies, but we can minimize our exposure.  And when we do hear the lies, we can reject them rather than let them shape us.  We must continually ask ourselves the question as we traverse this world:  “Is this true?”  And we must saturate ourselves with the truth of God’s Word so we can know the truth and see the lies. 

Second, Jesus calls us to apply the truth to ourselves first.  We may agree with Jesus that we should live for him instead of ourselves, but we have this tendency too often to apply the truth to someone else.  We think: “He really needs to hear this message.  I hope so-and-so is listening.  I should send this post to her….”  Though we may have a plank in our own eyes, we want to take the speck out of another’s eyes.  Jesus calls us to look to ourselves first, to apply the message to our own lives.

Third, we need to focus on the heart.  The tree determines the fruit.  Our heart determines our words and actions.  It would be easy to hear Jesus’ message to love others, and attempt to tinker with our words and actions.  But Jesus says we need to go deeper, we need to address our hearts. 

We are all born with hearts bent toward sin, bent toward self.  So our first need is to get a new heart bent toward God.  We need to be born again.  We need Christ to come into our lives and change us if we have any hope of living for Christ and others. 

Assuming we have received Jesus as our Savior and have received a new heart, we must guard our hearts.  Our new heart believes the best thing is to live for Jesus.  It desires to live for Jesus.  With that believe and desire, we will live for Jesus.  But we have been living for self for a long time.  And our culture calls us constantly to live for ourselves.  And so we must guard our hearts from the lies of the culture we once believed.  We must guard our hearts from the sinful desires of our culture we once desired.  When we don’t, lies mix with truth, sinful desires mix with desires for Christ, and we sin.  That is why we still sin.  Sometimes we believe the lies, desire what the lies promise, and live out the lie.  What we believe is what we will desire, and what we desire is what we will do.  Our heart leads to our words and actions.

And so we must also examine our hearts.  We need God’s Word to discern the thoughts and intents of our hearts (Hebrews 4:12) to reveal the lies and sinful desires.  We need to pray with the Psalmist:  “Search me, O God, and know my heart (Psalm 139).  We can’t just tinker with our words and actions.  We must examine our hearts.

Finally, we must live the truth.  We shouldn’t claim Jesus is our Lord if we don’t obey him.  We can’t simply listen to the truth, we must live it out.  If we do, we are like the man who builds on a firm foundation, whose house stands.  If we don’t, we are like a man who builds without a foundation, and great is the ruin.

Jesus calls us to stop living for ourselves, and to start living for Christ and others.  If we are to do that, we must choose our teachers carefully.  We must apply this truth to ourselves first.  We must focus on the heart – we need a new heart, we must guard our heart, and we must examine our heart.  We must live out the truth. 

So how do you need to respond to Jesus’ message?  As you respond and live for Christ and others, you will hear our Lord say to you: “Blessed are you!”