Bible Through the Year: Episode 42

Week 42 Devotion

This week we are going to get a clear answer to one of the biggest questions that the gospel writers are trying to answer for us, “Who is Jesus?” Last week, I brought this question up and encourage you to think about it as you read the assigned readings. Did you notice how often this question appeared in the text? This question is one of the key themes in each of the 4 gospel accounts.

As you read through you can see that the people are trying to figure out who He is. The people from his home-town think they know him, after all, they know his parents, but they can’t figure out how He became so wise in the Scriptures. As His ministry grows, the crowds begin to form and they too are asking, “Who is this man?”

The Pharisees and Scribes are intrigued by all that Jesus is doing and they are concerned about all that Jesus is saying. For instance, on several occasions, Jesus heals a person and says this, “Your sins are forgiven.” The Pharisees are quick to ask, “Who is this man who claims to forgive sins?”

The disciples are trying to figure this out as well. When they are in the boat with Jesus and the storm is about to claim their lives, they wake Jesus up and ask for help. Jesus sits up and speaks to the wind. He sits up and speaks a command to the storm and both the wind and the waves obey His voice. This was enough to put fear into the disciple’s hearts and cause them to ask, “Who is this man who commands the sea and the wind?”

This week we see that this question has reached all the way to King Herod. He wants to know who Jesus is. This is a pretty impressive progression. From the 1st chapter of Luke to the 9th chapter of Luke, we have seen this question on the lips of Jesus’ family, His neighbors, the crowd of followers, The Pharisees and Scribes, the 12 disciples and now even the king is trying to figure this out.

So it makes sense that at some point Jesus is going to sit down with the disciples to have a discussion about this question. We are going to see that discussion unfold this week.

Something to meditate on…

In Matthew 16, Luke 9, and Mark 8 we see Jesus finally sit down with His disciples to have a discussion about His identity and Jesus poses the question with a kind of, “what’s the word on the street” type of question.

Now, everybody has an opinion about Jesus. From the 1st century until now, people from all walks of life have weighed in to give their opinion about Jesus. And here in our text, we see that Jesus wants to talk about this with His friends. In other words, Jesus cares what you think of Him.

Now, this passage falls on the heels of Jesus feeding the 5000 where the disciples saw first-hand the miracle of Jesus turning a small amount of food into a feast. And you can easily imagine that as the Disciples were walking through the crowd handing out food that they were interacting with the people and this question (Who is Jesus?) was one that the people were talking about.

The question is, “When the people talk about me who do they say that I am?” And we learn that there are three general responses to this question: John the Baptist, Elijah, or one of the prophets of old. In other words, the people aren't realy sure who Jesus is, but they have no problem putting Him alongside some pretty heavy hitters.

Their responses indicate that they see Jesus as a major prophetic eschatological (end times) figure, but there is no mention of the possibility that He is the Messiah and there is really no clue that He is the Son of God. Like many people today, they know that Jesus is important but they are blind or unclear to the reality of who He is.

But Jesus wants to bring the question closer to home when He asks, “But who do you say that I am?” The “You” here is emphatic, which indicates a contrast between the crowd’s opinion and the disciples’ opinion. “Now that we’ve discussed what they think, I want to know what you think. Who do you say that I am?” And Peter steps forward as the spokesman for the group saying, “You are the Christ of God.”

One of the marks of discipleship (saving faith) is that despite what people may say about Jesus, we understand that He is the Christ, the Son of the Living God. He is not just one man in a long list of potential ways to God. He is the long promised and long-awaited savior of God’s people, the only one who can bring peace between God and man. Jesus is the most important man in the history of the world. As Christians, we know and trust that Jesus is the promised One; that He is not simply a messenger, but the message.

Here are a few questions for you to answer: How did Peter come to understand Jesus’ true identity? What are the disciples supposed to do with this knowledge? If Jesus is the Messiah, what should we expect to see take place in His life?

All of these questions can be answered as you look at this passage in Matthew, Mark, and Luke.

Something to discuss…

Early on in Jesus’ ministry, we read about the huge crowds that followed him around. But by the end of His ministry, we see that the crowd has dwindled down to just over 100. So what happened? John 6 helps us to answer this question.

In the beginning of the chapter, the crowds have gathered because “They saw the signs that He was doing on the sick (v. 2).” Then in verse 14, they recognized that Jesus had performed a miracle, a sign, by feeding 5,000 with just a small amount of food. That night, Jesus left the crowd and sailed to the other side of the sea but by morning they were tracking Him down. They caught up with Jesus and a conversation ensues.

They seem to be upset that Jesus left them but He replies, “You didn’t come looking for me because of the signs that you saw me perform. You came here for food. But you need to seek the food that will give you eternal life.” This statement might be a bit hard for us to understand but I don’t think the crowds would have the same problem. They recognize that Jesus is making a reference to Moses and the Israelites.

When God rescued Israel from slavery in Egypt, it was Moses who led them through the wilderness. When they became hungry it was Moses who asked God to feed them. In a sense, it was Moses who gave them bread from Heaven. The crowds see Jesus as a Moses type figure who will lead the people and feed the people. So this crowd has come for more bread.

But the problem with this metaphor is that Jesus is not just Moses, He is the Bread. Like the manna in the wilderness, Jesus has come down from Heaven. Like the manna in the wilderness, Jesus was sent by the Father to satisfy the needs of His people. Like the manna in the wilderness, the people must feast on Jesus and satisfy the need of their souls with Him alone.

This is too much. If Jesus had simply kept feeding them they would have been happy. In fact, they would have made Him their King. But He didn’t just come to feed their bellies, He came to feed their souls. He came to die as their Passover lamb. He came to cover them with His blood that would atone for their sins. They wanted food and He gave them the truth. They wanted bread and He gave them His own life.

So many of them left and stopped following Jesus on that day. The crowd of thousands broke up and became a group of just over 100.

How does this chapter help us understand the fickle crowds in churches today? What can we learn from John 6 that will help us to understand what we often see in the evangelical world today? Why do people flock to Jesus in such large numbers? Why is it that only a small fraction of those people continues to follow Jesus throughout their lives? What would God have us think and do to protect our own hearts from the temptation to wander away?

Something to pray about…

Mark 9:24 Immediately the father of the child cried out and said, “I believe; help my unbelief.”

What a painfully honest prayer. In Mark 9 we meet a man whose son is demon possessed and this father wants nothing more than for his son to be healed. The disciples have tried but they were unable to help the boy and now Jesus has joined the group. He was up on the mountain with the 3 for what we call the transfiguration, but He’s back and when Jesus realizes the situation He rebukes the disciples for their lack of faith.

The father explains to Jesus the desperate nature of his son’s condition and then asks Jesus to have compassion on them. But here in verse 24 you see the desperation in the father. He is so desirous for his son to be healed that he cries out. He can’t be civil any longer. He needs help and he wants it from Jesus.

He believes that Jesus can heal his son, but he knows that his faith is weak. This is an acknowledgment that though faith is present in us we still need God’s help. It is an acknowledgment that without God’s sustaining grace we cannot believe as we ought to believe.

So let’s make this our prayer for the week that God would strengthen our faith. Let’s pray for God to deepen our faith, to sustain our faith, and allow His power to be seen in our life each day.

October 10, 2017

Justin Wheeler

Podcast

Bible Through the Year: Episode 41

October 10, 2017

Justin Wheeler

Podcast

Week 41 Devotion

This week we work our way deeper into the New Testament gospel and one of the biggest questions that the gospel writers are trying to answer for us is this, “Who is Jesus?” Having read through all of Scripture up to this point it is clear to see that this man stands out from all those who have come before him. In just a few chapters, Jesus has far surpassed Elijah and Elisha in terms of the sheer number of miracles that he has performed and the scope of his power has far outpaced all the prophets.

Jesus is also a man who speaks with a type of authority that has never been seen. The people marvel at the fact that he speaks with great wisdom but also the fact that he doesn’t quote sources like the other religious leaders do. Jesus speaks off the cuff if you will, and what he says is incredible.

But there is something else about him, he knows what is in the heart of men. He knows what men are thinking and he calls them out in front of everyone. He talks about forgiving sin like he is God and he has no problem whatsoever in calling out the religious leaders of the day to point out their hypocrisy and their flawed theology.

This man is unique and compelling but the question is, “Who is He?”

Something to meditate on from John 5…

So far in John’s gospel, we have read about Jesus’ interaction with Nicodemus who was a Pharisee and the woman at the well who was a Samaritan. Here in John 5, we see Jesus interacting with a crippled man in Jerusalem. The man is sitting by a particular pool that is known to have healing power. Jesus walks in and sees a man lying by the pool so he asks him, “Do you want to be healed?”

The obvious answer is yes but the problem is the man needs help to get into the water. Jesus says to him, “get up, take up your bed and walk. And at once the man was healed…” Jesus doesn’t need a prop to help him. He doesn’t need a magic formula to aid him in his healing work. His power to heal comes from within, from his very nature.

As the story continues, we see a group of Jewish men who know the once crippled man and when they ask him what happened he points them to Jesus. But there is a problem, Jesus healed this man on the Sabbath and even told the man to take up his bed and walk home, which would have been a violation of their strict Sabbath rules. So the Jews ask, “Who is this man who said to you take up your bed and walk.”

As you read through each of the four gospels, especially toward the beginning of them, pay attention to how many times you see that question being asked, “Who is this man?” It is a key theme and it is one of the most important questions that any man can ever ask. Who is Jesus?

He has a mysterious heritage but there is clear Biblical evidence letting us know that He was conceived by the Holy Spirit. He had a rather normal upbringing, it appears, but even as a 12-year-old boy in the Luke 2, He possessed amazing knowledge of God and had a unique relationship with God the Father. He possessed power, the kind of power that no one had ever seen nor heard of from the prophets of old. He spoke with authority as if His very words were directly from God.

Who is this man, whom they call Jesus Christ? Next week we will see this theme and this question come up again but this time it will be Jesus asking the question to His disciples, “Who do you say that I am?” But until next week let’s be thinking about who Jesus is based on what where He has come from, what He is doing, and how He is doing it.

Something to discuss from Matthew…

We are going to spend a lot of time in Matthew this week reading 6 chapters. The majority of what we’ll read comes from the Sermon on the Mount in chapters 5-7. This sermon is incredibly important because it is the first major public address of Jesus and because it is a detailed announcement concerning the Kingdom of God.

In it, Jesus tells us what the Kingdom is like and what it’s citizens are like. He tells us the characteristics of His kingdom and we come to realize that they are completely backward in comparison to the kingdom of this world. He makes it clear in this sermon that He has no intentions of setting aside the law of God but rather He will fulfill it, whatever that means.

We are going through this sermon in detail on Sunday mornings and you can follow along on our other church podcast (Cornerstone Wylie Sermons) or you can go the resource page on our website at cornerstonewylie.org.

Moving on from the Sermon on the Mount we get a slew of stories related to Jesus healing various people. In chapters 8-10 He has 9 different encounters where He brings healing, calms the sea, raises a dead girl, cast demons out of two men; and all of these are intended to show us that Jesus hasn’t simply come to announce the Kingdom but He has come to bring the Kingdom into people’s lives.

When we talk about the Kingdom of God we tend to talk about it as being already present but not yet fully consummated. Much of that comes from our understanding of what Jesus is doing in the gospels. He brought the Kingdom to earth and He imparted its power into the lives of people. Even today we who believe are part of the kingdom of God and we can work to make the Kingdom known in the world. But we know that there is still more to come.

There is a day in the future when the Kingdom will come in its fullness when it will be fully and eternally established. But for now, we live with the tension of the kingdom as having “already” come but “not yet” complete. So this week as you are reading make sure to think about how Jesus’ words and works display the power of His Kingdom and discuss with others what life will be like when He brings the Kingdom to its fullness.

Something to pray about…

When we look at the life of Jesus it becomes clear what he valued the most because that is what he spent his time doing. Jesus valued the Truth. His life was spent in preaching, teaching, arguing, illustrating and bearing witness to the Truth of how God created the universe to be. Jesus died to vindicate the Truth of God’s Word and to fulfill God’s promise of redemption. Jesus shows us with his life the value of God’s Truth.

Jesus valued people. If Jesus wasn’t teaching people or sharing the Truth with them, he was healing them, feeding them, casting off their afflictions and caring for them. He was full of compassion and even the instances where we see him confronting others it has to do with the fact that their teaching is corrupted and burdensome to the average man.

Jesus valued both the spiritual condition of man and his physical condition as well. But there are times when it seems that Jesus values something even more than people. We often see him pull away from preaching and teaching, we see him pull away from healing and caring for people so that he can get alone and pray.

Jesus valued prayer. One of the major themes in the gospels is the consistent prayer life of Jesus. Prayer is mentioned dozens of times in the gospels you can put these occurrences into three categories: Jesus Teaching on prayer, Jesus Commanding His disciples to pray, or Jesus is modeling prayer as an Example for us to follow.

No matter where He was and no matter what He was doing, He seems constantly to be longing for communion with the Father. When he is in the wilderness preparing for His showdown with Satan Jesus is fasting and praying. When his time for ministry came and news about Him was spreading he would withdraw to desolate places and pray. On the eve of his sermon on the mount, he spent all night praying. Before the transfiguration, he was praying. On the night when he was betrayed he was praying. Even on the cross, Jesus is praying when he lifts up his eyes and says, “Father forgive them…”

What we see throughout the life of Jesus is that He was a man who has no problem dropping everything to pray. He has no problem losing sleep so that he can stay awake and pray. In fact, he often just wanders off into the wilderness so that he can spend time with the Father in prayer. Prayer is one of the unshakable rhythms of Jesus life and for us, his followers/disciples, we are to follow him living like he lived, valuing what he valued and doing life like he did.

Take time this week to read about Jesus teaching in Luke 11 on prayer and then go and follow His instruction by praying? Praise Him for who He is and what He has done. Confess your sin and your need of His grace. Thank Him for his mercy and His blessings. Make know to Him your needs, your fears, your longings, and trust that He sees hears, knows, and desires to care for His children.

Start today and begin to develop prayer as a consistent rhythm in your life.

October 2, 2017

Justin Wheeler

Podcast

Bible Through the Year: Episode 40

October 2, 2017

Justin Wheeler

Podcast

Week 40 Devotion

This week we work our way into the New Testament and I couldn’t be more excited. All of the history, all of the ups and downs, all of the promises and anticipation from the Old Testament have built up to this. Something new is about to take place and we have a front row seat where we will read about it.

What is God going to do with Israel? What will happen to Jerusalem? Will God’s people ever have a new king? What about the New Covenant that God promised through Jeremiah and Ezekiel? All of these questions and more will be answered as we work out way through the New Testament.

Something to meditate on from Matthew…

The gospel of Matthew is the first book we will encounter as we turn to the New Testament and the purpose of this gospel is to give an account of everything related to Jesus (birth, life, death, resurrection) but Mathew is really focused on showing how Jesus fulfills the promises and expectations of the Old Testament. In fact, Matthew wants us to read his gospel as a continuation of the Old Testament, which is why he starts with a lengthy genealogy.

Have you ever wondered why that genealogy is in there? It’s in there because Matthew doesn’t want us to miss the fact that Jesus is not an afterthought but is connected to all the stories that have come before. Then moving on from the genealogy, Matthew wants us to see the connection between God’s work of redemption in the past to God’s work of redemption in the present.

Here’s what I mean. There are two key events in the Bible that help us to see the redeeming love of God more clearly than any others: The Exodus from Egypt and the Ministry of Jesus. Matthew wants us to see a parallel between what took place at the time of the Exodus and what is taking place as Jesus takes His place getting set to deliver the Sermon on the Mount.

We call this typology and it is extensive in Matthew. But here’s the point, as the gospel of Matthew gets underway there should be great anticipation as we get set to hear what the Messiah and new Moses will say about the Kingdom of God and our own redemption from bondage to sin.

Something to discuss from Luke…

There is plenty for us to think about and discuss as we begin reading the gospel of Luke. The birth narratives in this gospel are more extensive than the others. We get this great story in chapter 2 about Jesus as a 12-13 yr old boy who gets separated from His parents but he not only keeps calm but decides to go into the temple and teach the teachers. But for the purpose of this devotion, I want us to focus on what we see in Luke 3:24-38.

Yes, I want us to talk about the genealogy. Part of the reason that I want to draw this out has to do with the fact that we just finished reading the Old Testament and this list of names stands out as a solid reminder of key events that have taken place in Israel’s history. The Jews of that day could read this list of 77 names and be reminded of what happened just a generation ago and if they were paying attention then they could come to realize that everything from the past has been leading up to Jesus.

But let’s ask the question, what are the theological implications of what we read? One thing that I find intriguing about this genealogy is that though there are some big names and important people listed, we can’t forget that fact that these are also sinful men whom God has been gracious to forgive and to use for His good purpose.

Adam – Failed to protect his wife from Satan, sinned against God, blamed his wife and ushered all of humanity into rebellion against God.

Noah – Got drunk and passed out naked in front of his family

Abraham – Gave his wife away twice because he was afraid for his own life

Jacob –cheated his own brother out of his birthright and then he deceived his own father in order to steal the blessing

David – committed adultery and murder

These are all men whose particular examples we would want to avoid and we would not want our own sons to follow in their footsteps. But what this reveals to us is that God delights to use us for His good purposes as a means of showing His faithfulness and His grace. No one reads the genealogy of Jesus and praises these wicked men for doing their part to bring about the Messiah; when you read this list of capital sinners you can only be struck by the fact that even though these men were faithless, God remained faithful.

One more thing, this long list of sinful men lets us know that there is hope for every sinner who calls on the name of the Lord. Salvation is a work of God’s grace and not the result of our effort. Salvation is not about our covenant faithfulness it’s about God’s covenant love.

Something to pray about from Mark…

I don’t know if you noticed it or not but Mark seems to be somewhat fond of the word immediately. As I read the first two chapters I noted in the margin of my Bible that this word shows up 10 times. So I jumped on my bible software and did a little research to find that Mark uses this term 36 times in his gospel. But the question is why?

Are we to understand that Jesus was like a teleporter vanishing one second to appear in another? Nope! Was He just this breathless guy that went from one place to another, from one person to another, from one need to another? Maybe. But is there a better explanation for the frequent use of the term immediately.

For what it’s worth, here’s what I think. Mark uses this term as a way to speed us through from the good stuff to the really good stuff. Mark wants us to have a good and full picture of who Jesus is and of what Jesus said and did during His ministry; but he really wants to make sure that we don’t miss the cross. It’s as if Mark just can’t wait to get to the end of the story so that we see what his gospel story is all about.

We get distracted sometimes by all the details. We are prone to miss the forest because we are staring at and analyzing one really interesting tree. We have a tendency to miss the climax of the story because we are trying to figure out what to do with that one encounter Jesus had with that person in that place…but throughout this book Mark wants us to know that there is something coming that changes everything.

So, I think that Mark is trying to get us to the cross as quickly as possible and that is what I want us to pray about this week. Let’s pray that for all the questions we have about Jesus, and His teaching and His life, let’s not neglect to understand the importance of Jesus’ death. He came to die. He came to set us free from our slavery to sin. He came to lay down His life as a ransom for all those who believe in Him. So let’s pray that we would keep the gospel at the forefront of our minds not just this week, but always.

September 25, 2017

Justin Wheeler

Podcast

Bible Through the Year: Episode 39

September 25, 2017

Justin Wheeler

Podcast

Week 39 Devotion

This is a big week for us because by the end of the week we will have completed the Old Testament and next week we will move on and begin to read the New Testament. Congratulations for making it this far and keep going because the climax of this whole Biblical story is right around the corner. Everything that we have been reading for the past 39 weeks has led us to this point and we are wondering what is going to happen to the Israelites.

What is God going to do to with this nation? How is God going to fulfill the promises that He made to them about a giving them a new king who will rule forever? How is God going to fulfill His promise to give them a new heart and to put His Spirit within them? How is God going to bring Israel back from the four corners of the earth so that they can worship Him again in the temple?

All of these questions and more will be answered as we come to the New Testament and especially the Gospels of Jesus. But before we get to the New we have to wrap up the Old and this week we are going to do just that.

Something to meditate on from the books of Ezra-Nehemiah…

Last week we saw that the opening lines of Ezra were simply a repeat of the end of 2 Chronicles and this shows us that the Bible is meant to be read as a connected story, a flowing work of history. These aren’t disconnected stories aimed at teaching us different moral lessons, no this is the true story of God and His people.

Now there is something interesting about the books of Ezra and Nehemiah. It’s plain to see as you read that they are writing at the same time, to the same people about the same things; but what we don’t see in most of our modern Bibles is that these two books were originally one unified work telling of the return of a group of Israelites to Jerusalem. These books are also designed in such a way that they parallel one another.

Each book opens with the decree of a Persian king that has been moved by God to call the Israelites back to Jerusalem. The Israelites leaders who go back and begin to rebuild the temple face opposition from the surrounding nations. Then the books end with a strange anti-climax. Everything was going well and the people were filled with hope and then out of nowhere something happens to show that sin is still a big problem.

At the end of the book of Ezra we read that the men of Israel had married foreign wives and since Ezra had been working hard to prepare for his upcoming work as a priest, he has been reading the Torah. In his reading he found where God commanded Israel to be separate from the other nations and that included not marrying women who worshipped foreign gods. Knowing Israel’s history, especially that of king Solomon, we can understand how this might be a problem, but the next step that Ezra takes is a radical one.

He rebukes the men for breaking faith with the Torah, he offers a prayer to God on behalf of the people, then he rallies all the leaders together and proposes a divorce decree that will annul all of these marriages. This decree is going to result in these women and the children born from these marriages away. Now why did Ezra do this?

Nowhere in the book does God command Ezra to do this. But the prophet is so fearful of the past repeating itself and so desirous of the people being faithful to the Torah that he carries out this decree. This is a hard text and one that shows us that the problems within Israel will not go away simply because they have a new temple. The real solution to the people’s problems is that they need that New Covenant that Jeremiah and Ezekiel promised.

The book of Nehemiah parallels Ezra in almost every way. The king of Persia sends Jewish leaders back to rebuild, those leaders face opposition and ridicule, it appears that genuine spiritual renewal has taken place but then the book ends with a whole host of problems rising up.

The whole of chapter 13 shows the prophet addressing the ongoing sins of the people. The people weren’t’ following the hospitality laws, one man is living in the temple court, the Levites weren’t receiving their portion, people were working on the Sabbath; and the list just keeps going. The point is that sin remains and you might be able to rebuild a temple and clean out the city; but you can’t build faith and clean out man’s heart. Heart work is God’s work and so the books end with us hoping that God will come and bring true spiritual renewal to His people.

Something to discuss from the book of Malachi…

The prophet Malachi lived in the rebuilt city of Jerusalem about 100 years after the people had returned from Babylon. By that time, the city and the temple had been rebuilt and the people were living there once again but things were far from perfect. We saw at the end of Ezra and Nehemiah that sin, corruption and injustice were still a problem. So what began as a hopeful work of restoration and spiritual renewal has revealed the same old problem of sin in the camp. This generation of Israelites is just as wicked as the ones before it.

But this book is structured in a very interesting way, it is structured as a series of arguments between the people and God. God makes a claim of their injustice and the people respond in disagreement and then God explains how they are wrong. In chapter 1 God states His love for the people and they say, “How have you loved us?” God answers by going back to the story of Jacob and Esau.

Next, there is a disagreement about how the people have defiled the temple by offering lame sacrifices and polluted offerings, but the people respond with, “How have we polluted you?” In a sense they are denying God’s accusations but once again God points out what they have done. This happens over and over. There is a dispute about marriage to foreign wives and divorce which God hates, there is a dispute about justice, tithing, and serving God.

In the end, the people prove to be arrogant in their sin and just as corrupt as they have always been. But now they are accusing God of being in the wrong. They accuse God of not loving them, not accepting their sacrifices, not approving of their unlawful marriages, not being a just God, blessing the wicked but not blessing them. The tide has turned in a way and it is quite shocking to read.

But tucked away in chapter 3 is a promise. God is going to send a messenger who will,

“Prepare the way before Me. And the Lord whom you seek will suddenly come to his temple; and the messenger of the covenant in whom you delight, behold, he is coming says the Lord (Mal 3:1).”

A new messenger is going to come and the Lord Himself will come. When they come they will refine and purify the people like never before. They will usher in judgment like never before. And the question on our minds is how will this messenger make any difference in the hearts of the people. Surely he will fail just like all the rest.

The problem is not with the messengers of God but with the people of God. If this new batch of prophets are going to make any difference at all then God is going to have to do something drastic.

The book ends with this reminder and promise,

Mal 4:4“Remember the law of my servant Moses, the statutes and rules that I commanded him at Horeb for all Israel.

5 “Behold, I will send you Elijah the prophet before the great and awesome day of the Lord comes. 6 And he will turn the hearts of fathers to their children and the hearts of children to their fathers, lest I come and strike the land with a decree of utter destruction.”

This marks the end of the book of Malachi but also the end of the Old Testament. As you think over all that we have read, what would you say is the consistent problem with God’s people? What must happen in the world and in the hearts of men for things to truly change? What promises are we looking to see fulfilled as we begin to read in the New Testament? When will God’s Messiah come?

Something to pray about from Psalm 126…

Psalm 126 is about God restoring Zion, which refers to the city of Jerusalem, the temple of God and the people of God. This psalm is about the joy that filled the hearts of the people when God raised them up and how the nations will recognize and give God praise for the great things He has done for His people.

It is a Psalm of hope that even in times of hard labor (sowing in tears) God will bring about a harvest of joy. Ultimately, the hope of this psalmist is in the covenant keeping faithfulness of God. He alone is our hope. He alone can restore our fortunes and our joy. He alone can turn our sorrow into gladness and fill our mouth with laughter and joy.

So let us follow the psalmists lead and praise God for the joy that we have in Christ. Let’s pray for God to renew our hope in the Lord and to bring happiness to His people. Let us ask the Lord to turn our sorrows into joy and our tears into happiness. Let us pray that God would do great things for us and in us.

September 18, 2017

Justin Wheeler

Podcast

Bible Through the Year: Episode 38

September 18, 2017

Justin Wheeler

Podcast

Week 38 Devotion

We begin our reading this week in the book of Ezra which takes about 50 years after the fall of Jerusalem. The book begins with Cyrus, the king of Persia, issuing a decree allowing the Jews to go back to Jerusalem to rebuild the temple of God. In 539 BC King Cyrus overthrew Babylon and took control of a massive empire. Then, as we will read in the book, God stirred in the heart of King Cyrus to send the first wave of Israelites back into Jerusalem and he promised to give them money to rebuild the temple and offer sacrifices to God.

We will only read the first part of this book this week but we are going to see that not everyone supported this plan. A group of people steps in to try and keep God’s people from rebuilding, but in the end, God’s plan and God’s grace is once again seen in Jerusalem.

Next, we are going to be reading the prophet Haggai and this short book is about the rebuilding of the temple of God and the promise that the glory of the Lord would return. There is one passage in particular from Haggai that I want us to look at this week and it has to do with God shaking the earth once more.

Zechariah is next and this book picks up where Ezra leaves off. The people have rebuilt the foundation of the temple of God in Jerusalem but the opposition is still strong. Zechariah addresses what was going on in the hearts of the people during this time. He had to deal with a lot of discouraged Jews who look are looking around at the nations and feeling like they don’t really matter all that much. But God wants doesn’t want them to “despise the day of small things.” The point of this book is for the people to learn faithfulness to God and trust in His promises.

Finally, we are going to be reading in the book of Esther which tells how a beautiful Jewish girl became queen of Persia and how she stood up for her people, putting her own life on the line to intercede for them.

Something to meditate on from the book of Ezra…

The book of Ezra opens by repeating the end of 2 Chronicles and I point this out because it helps us to see that the books of the Bible are meant to read as a connected story, a flowing work of history. But what is the message in these first few chapters of the book?

This book reminds us that no matter what we are facing today, God is still moving, working, and acting in the world to accomplish His purpose for His people. The people of Judah are slaves once again but God hasn’t forgotten them. In fact, this book is evidence that God not only still cares about His people but also that He holds the hearts of kings in His hand.

God is not done. He is not giving up on His plan nor His people. He will keep moving forward even when it looks like all hope is lost.

But why did God want to bring the Jews back to Jerusalem? Why not just start over with them right there in Babylon? Going back to the Promised Land meant starting over from scratch, but that’s what they had to do because God made a promise and that promise entailed a King for Israel rising up from the land of Bethlehem. In other words, Jesus was coming.

Just when you think that God is through with Israel, His greatest promise yet is about to be fulfilled. God is willing to turn the nations upside down to accomplish His purpose of redemption and sometimes He will use one generation to build, restore, and get everything ready for what He is going to do with the generation that is to come.

Something to discuss from the book of Zechariah…

Like Ezra, Zechariah is a prophet during the post-exilic period and his task was to encourage the people not to lose heart during the time of rebuilding. If God was going to get Jerusalem ready to welcome the Coming King then someone was going to have to do the hard work of reconstruction. That’s where Zechariah comes in.

The people who returned to Jerusalem started out with a great deal of enthusiasm, but now that they are 20 years into the work, it seems more daunting than ever. Not to mention the fact that they were facing opposition that had slowed their progress to a complete halt.

Now, as you read through this book there are quite a few visions and oracles that are hard to understand and I would recommend that you consult a good study Bible like the ESV Study Bible as you move through the book. But the overall theme of this book is the need for God’s people to stand in faith and embrace the calling of their God.

Why would the people of God fear the size of a task? Why would the people of God fear opposition from the world? Why would the people of God reject the plan of God for their lives? I’ll let you answer those questions on your own, but at some level, the problem is not with God and His plan but with the people’s lack of trust and lack of faithfulness.

God hasn’t abandoned His people, but instead, He is about to give them the greatest gift and blessing that they have ever received. Their task today is to be faithful and so is ours. We live on this side of the cross, having received the blessing of salvation through Christ our Messiah. The full measure of our hope stretches into eternity and our calling is to be faithful today. Our calling is not to despise the day of small things, but to trust the Lord’s timing and purpose.

So take some time this week think about the small things that God has called us to be faithful in. Discuss with others how we can stay faithful in the day to day task of discipleship. Discuss also the blessings that are coming our way when our Messiah and King visits us again.

Something to pray about from the Book of Esther…

Finally, in the book of Esther, we see a young woman who faces great fear and uncertainty as she stands for her people. This is a wonderful book but in a way, it is an odd one. It’s not odd that the main character of the book is a woman, there are amazing women of God who stand out in Biblical history, so it’s no surprise at all that an entire book is devoted to this one. No, this book is odd because, well for starters, God is not mentioned in the entire book.

“God’s own people don’t talk about him. They talk around him. They get close. But they never actually come out and mention him. For example, in Esther 4:14 Mordecai says to Esther, “For if you keep silent at this time, relief and deliverance will rise for the Jews from ____________” – what should Mordecai say right then? He should say, “... relief and deliverance will rise for the Jews from God,” right? But no. What he actually says is, “... relief and deliverance will rise for the Jews from another place.” God’s people aren’t thinking in the right categories! That’s surprising. But maybe not so surprising. After all, look at how we think and speak at times. Yikes! Stephen Charnock, the Puritan theologian, called this “practical atheism.”[1]

Now, we all love this story because it shows us a woman willing to face death in order to save her people and this points our attention to Jesus, the one who was not only willing to face death but who actually died to save us from our sin and God’s judgment. So let’s be sure to pray and thank God for this gospel reality in the book of Esther.

But let’s also pray that God would help us to think in the right categories. Let’s pray that we do not get to the point of talking around God but that He would keep our hearts fixed on Him no matter what is going on in our lives.

[1] Notes from Ray Ortlund’s Journey Through the Bible 2016

September 12, 2017

Justin Wheeler

Podcast

Bible Through the Year: Episode 37

September 12, 2017

Justin Wheeler

Podcast

Week 37 Devotion

One of the first things that comes to mind when we think of the OT prophets is the role that they played in announcing the judgment of God. These men were preachers and it was their responsibility to warn the people and also to call them to repent of their sin. But there is more to their ministry than the announcement of sin and judgment. In fact, this week as we finish the book of Ezekiel and read through Joel and Daniel we will see a strong note of hope round out the message of these men.

Let’s jump right in by looking at how the book of Ezekiel comes to a close.

The Book of Ezekiel…

In the 33 chapters of Ezekiel the prophet had the unenviable task of pointing out the sins of Judah that brought about the exile into Babylon. This exile would have been one of the most horrendous things to happen to God’s people since their captivity in Egypt, but in chapter 33 it gets worse. In chapter 33 the prophet meets a refugee who just arrived in the city of Babylon and he gives the prophet the bad news that the city of Jerusalem has finally been destroyed and you can imagine that this would have brought terrible grief to Ezekiel.

But in the next chapter things begin to change. In chapter 34, the book shifts from the judgment of God upon Israel and the nations, to the hope of God for Israel and the nations. In Ezekiel 34:20-24, God declares that He, Himself, is going to come and rule over the people. He is going to rescue them and He will even set up over them a king, like His servant David, to shepherd them.

But Ezekiel can’t understand how God can take a dead nation and restore them. That’s when God shows Ezekiel another vision. This time Ezekiel is standing in a valley filled with dry bones, the bones of God’s dead people, and in this vision God shows the prophet that He is going to make these bones live. The word of God is going to come and make these bones come back together, stand up and will clothe them with flesh. Then the Spirit or breath is going to come and restore life to these once dead bones.

God is going to restore His people, give them new life, raise them up and give them a new king. In chapter 36, God says, “I am going to give my people a new heart and I will put my own Spirit within them so that they can obey my word.” More than a dozen times in chapter 36 we read God saying, “I will…” do this.

God is not done with His people. He has a plan to restore them to life, to remake their hearts, to defeat their enemies and will even restore the temple. In chapters 40-48 we see this detailed description of a bigger and better temple that God has in store. It is a temple that is larger than the one Solomon built. God will once again allow His presence to rest inside this temple and from this new temple a river will flow. This river is going to heal the world and restore it back to the way it was in the Garden of Eden, before sin entered the world.

This book began on a dark note of judgment but it ends on a bright note of hope that God is going to restore humanity and creation. He is going to dwell in the midst of His people once again.

The Book of Joel…

The book of Joel is unique among the prophetic books for a couple of reasons. Firstt, we don’t know exactly when the book was written but some of the clues in the book lead us to believe that it takes place after Israel returns from exile. Secondly, throughout the book we see the prophet Joel quoting from other prophets and from other books of the Bible. Third, this book is unique in that Joel doesn’t call the people out for their sin but rather he assumes that the people already know what they’ve done wrong.

The thing that stands out the most is the plague of locusts in chapters 1 and 2, which makes us think back to the plague of locusts that God sent into Egypt back in the book of Exodus. In the past, God sent that plague as a way to confront the evil of Pharaoh and to punish the Egyptians for their treatment of God’s people. But here in Joel the locusts are coming for Jerusalem.

A plague of locusts has the devastating power to consume in a few days the amount of grain that would feed an entire city for a year. Joel wants us to see this as the hand of God but he also wants us to see beyond the bugs. This plague is a metaphor for the foreign armies that are going to swarm Jerusalem.

Joel 2:10-11

The earth quakes before them;

the heavens tremble.

The sun and the moon are darkened,

and the stars withdraw their shining.

11 The Lord utters his voice

before his army,

for his camp is exceedingly great;

he who executes his word is powerful.

For the day of the Lord is great and very awesome;

who can endure it?

All of this imagery is meant to serve as motivation for the people to repent and Joel even joins in on the repentance. In the end, the Lord became jealous for His land and had pity on the people. In other words, he restored them and filled them with hope.

This little book explores some of the biggest and most important themes in all of Scripture. It points out that human sin has had a devastating effect upon humanity and upon the world. It shows us that God’s judgment has been seen in the past and it will be seen in the future. But it also reminds us that God’s mercy is greater than His wrath. God longs to restore His people and His creation and that is exactly what He plans to do.

One-day God will confront the evil of mankind and will bring it to an end. One-day God will restore creation and will make it to be like a new Garden of Eden. One-day God will dwell with His people and His Spirit will fill them all. This book that began with a message of destruction has ended with the promise of hope that God would right all the wrongs and make all things new again.

The Book of Daniel…

The book of Daniel takes us back to the first attack of Babylon on the city of Jerusalem because like Ezekiel, Daniel, was among the people taken prisoner during that first attack along with Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego. These four were taken into Babylon and were recruited to serve the king but these men refused to defile themselves. They refused to give up their Jewish identity and as a result the king praised them above other men.

The king even found that one of them was able to interpret dreams and that was important because they king had a dream that left him confused. The dream was all about this statue that was made of different materials and how that statue would be destroyed to make way for something new that God was going to set up.

Now, it’s probably important to point out that there are some pretty strong symbols and parallels that take place in this book and they center around three things: The dreams, the temptation and exaltation of God’s people, and the pride of wicked men. We have already seen in chapter 1 where the 4 Jewish men were told to sin against God but they refused and in the end the king exalts them.

Well, in chapter 3 we see this happen again when Daniel’s three companions are forced into the fiery furnace for not worshipping the image of the king. But they survive and in the end the king exalts them. Finally, in chapter 6 it’s Daniel’s turn and when he refuses to worship the king as God he is thrown into the lion’s den. But he survives because God protects him and the story ends with the king exalting Daniel. This theme is meant to encourage the people of God to stay faithful to him in the midst of persecution because in the end God will bless His people and exalt them.

Another theme is the dreams and what they mean. In chapter 2 we read the kings dream and what it means concerning God’s plan for the world. In chapter 7 we read of Daniel’s dream and what it means concerning God’s plan for the world. Even chapters 8-12 reveal visions of what God is going to do in the world to deal with evil, restore His people and dwell among them once more.

Finally, there is the theme of man’s pride and we see this lived out in chapters 4 and 5. In chapter 4 Nebuchadnezzar becomes like a beast of the field all because of his pride and arrogant refusal to worship God rather than himself. Then in chapter 5 we read of Belshazzar whose pride results in his assassination.

This book is filled with patterns and promises. These patterns aren’t always easy to understand so it’s probably a good idea to read them with a good study bible close by. But the promises of God leave us with hope as the book comes to an end. Our hope in God is meant to motivate us to be faithful to Him and His word despite how the world may treat us and in the end we can trust that God has a plan to overcome the sin of the world and to restore His people and the world.

September 5, 2017

Justin Wheeler

Podcast

Bible Through the Year: Episode 36

September 5, 2017

Justin Wheeler

Podcast

Week 36 Devotion

As we continue reading Ezekiel, it might be important for us to remember that Ezekiel was a priest who had been living in Jerusalem during Babylon’s first attack on the city. He was one of the people carried away to Babylon during the first exile, but when he and the others were taken from Jerusalem the city was still standing.

The city of Jerusalem wasn’t destroyed until several years later, but 5 years into his time in Babylon, Ezekiel saw a vision. He saw a vision of the Royal throne chariot of God but the problem was that God’s presence was supposed to be in Jerusalem, not Babylon. What is the glory of God doing outside of the temple? Well, we learned that the situation in Jerusalem had gotten so bad (Eze 8-11) that God removed His presence from the city and gave it over to their enemies.

The city was then destroyed and Ezekiel was charged by God to explain why these things were happening. In short, it was a combination of the peoples ongoing sin, their blatant idolatry, and their rejection of the covenant that they had made with God; and Ezekiel is going to spend a large portion of his book pointing out Israel’s sins as the cause of their destruction and exile.

But along the way, God has a message for the other nations surrounding Israel and He even speaks about a New Covenant that will be fundamentally different than the one that came before. In the midst of God’s judgment, there is a strong note of hope that God’s mercy had not yet reached its end. There would come a time when God would raise up and bless His people once again by giving them a new heart and putting His Own Spirit within them.

Let’s look at chapter 23-42 a little more closely.

Something to meditate on…

Ezekiel chapter 23 may be one of the more graphic and stomach-turning depictions of Israel’s sin against God in all of Scripture. It pictures Jerusalem and Samaria as helpless little girls who had been left to die but God scooped them up, cleaned them off, raised them to be strong and beautiful women only to have them turn around and defile themselves in the worst way imaginable.

It is a horrifying image and one that haunts most fathers when you read of how a daughter can turn away from her father and treat herself so cheaply that she would give herself over to the lust of her flesh and to the wicked men of this world. But it is a picture that helps us to understand how God feels about Israel’s rebellion. For God, it is a truly heartbreaking reality and we are the ones who have broken God’s heart.

We don’t like to think of ourselves in this way, but this is what our sin and idolatry look like in the eyes of God. In our sin, we have become idolaters who commit spiritual adultery to such a degree that it looks like a form of spiritual prostitution. And when we see it from this perspective it makes sense that God would bring down judgment upon us for such sin. It makes sense that God would bring down judgment upon the world for such sin.

But that is not the end of the story.

Gal 4:4 But when the fullness of time had come, God sent forth his Son, born of woman, born under the law, 5 to redeem those who were under the law, so that we might receive adoption as sons.

At the pinnacle of God’s timing, He sent Jesus to become like one of us in order to win us back from our sin and idolatry. He came to make us clean once and for all. He came to draw us into His family and He gave His life to make our adoption a reality. Take some time this week to meditate on the fact that we are no better than Israel but in His love Christ came for us, lived for us, bled for us, died for us, and has been raised to rule as our Brother and King forever.

Something to discuss…

In chapter 24 of Ezekiel, we read that the final siege of Jerusalem has begun just nine years after the first exiles came into Babylon. The people had 9 years to repent of their sin and seek the Lord, but they refused to do so. To make matters worse God tells Ezekiel that his wife is going to die and this is a picture of God’s own sorrow at the destruction of Jerusalem.

Ezekiel’s wife was the delight of his eyes and Jerusalem was the delight of God’s eye, but now they are both gone. This wasn’t part of the job description that Ezekiel signed up for, but he would bear this and continue to serve the Lord. All the more because the message of God needed to be delivered.

But let’s discuss the fact that they had 9 years to repent; 9 years to cleanse the idolatry from their midst and instead, they used those 9 years to go deeper into sin. And during those 9 years, God flooded the city of Jerusalem with prophets to warn the kings and people. Jeremiah was in the city and the people didn’t listen. Zephaniah was there too and they refused to heed his warning. God sent prophet after prophet to warn them but the people did not follow their word.

I point these things out so that we understand that God didn’t just spring this on the people, no He had been warning them for years. God wanted them to repent. He wanted them to turn from their sin and run back to Him. Jesus mourned in Matthew saying, “Time and time again, I wanted to gather you in like a hen gathering in her chicks, but you were not willing Matt 23:37).” God’s broken heart still reached out to the people, but they refused His love and His Word.

Let’s discuss with one another the incredible patience and mercy of God. Let’s discuss how we have seen this patience in our own lifetime. Let’s also discuss the fact that God is just to pour out His anger on man’s sin, but not forget that His patience and kindness is intended to lead us to repentance.

Something to pray about…

In Ezekiel chapter 33, God tells the prophet to say this to the house of Israel,

11 Say to them, As I live, declares the Lord God, I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked, but that the wicked turn from his way and live; turn back, turn back from your evil ways, for why will you die, O house of Israel?

Why will you die? This is such a haunting question and it comes from God. He is asking Israel, “Why will you continue in your wickedness to the point of death when you could simply turn from your sin and live?”

This is a good question for us to ask ourselves, our friends, our family, and others. It is a question that forces us to consider the current pursuit of our lives and the consequences that will come. It is a question that places God in the center of our minds and it forces us to ask, “Am I living my life in faithful obedience to my Creator and Redeemer?”

Let’s slow down and examine our hearts and ask ourselves this question. Let’s slow down and examine our lives and ask ourselves this question and pray that God would give us a heart of repentance. Let’s pray that we would not continue in sin like Israel, but instead that we would confess our sin in prayer, turn from our sin in repentance, and live.

August 29, 2017

Justin Wheeler

Podcast

Bible Through the Year: Episode 35

August 29, 2017

Justin Wheeler

Podcast