Redemption Draws Near

It is ironic the scribes and Pharisees who were educated and knowledgeable concerning the scriptures, having their eyes opened to the wonder of God in His word, were blinded with unbelief concerning Jesus the Son of God.  When wise men came to Jerusalem from the east at the appearance of the star of the King of the Jews, Herod called the chief priests and demanded where the Christ should be born.  They correctly answered He would be born in Bethlehem in the land of Judah, yet did not care to accompany the Gentile wise men to worship the babe who turned out to be Jesus Christ our LORD.  The wise men rejoiced with exceedingly great joy while the Herod, the chief priests and all Jerusalem were troubled.

Ironic responses are not limited to the Jewish rulers of ancient times, of course.  I have seen this play out in my own life and in the lives of other believers.  Having gained knowledge of God, His will and future events outlined in scripture, the most discerning believers can lose sight of our Saviour who redeems us, provides perfect peace and rest for our souls.  I don't know if it was the era, my church in particular or the teaching I was exposed to as a youth or just me, but for an extended season I was quite preoccupied with end-times events:  the rapture, the rise of the anti-christ, the mark of the beast, the advance of a one-world government and global currency.  It seemed if there was any news regarding world leaders gathering together at conferences it confirmed we were truly in the last days.  When earthquakes, wars and rumours of wars began to swirl, it again fed into a paranoia that led Christians to speculate about prophetic passages and worry about what was next as we hunkered down defensively.  Knowledge of prophesy grew to be an unhealthy obsession as, from a biblical perspective, the attention of many was turned from Jesus who we follow and instead focused on the wind and waves.  "As bad as things are, it's going to get worse," we would assure one another--as if knowing this made things better.

In response to questions from His disciples, Jesus spoke of future events yet to come.  Jesus warned them about falling prey to false messiahs who would claim the time of the end was near when it was not.  Nations would rise against nation and there would be famine, earthquakes and pestilence.  Believers would be persecuted, killed and brought before rulers and would be given opportunity to testify of Christ.  Jesus continued in Luke 21:25-28:  "And there will be signs in the sun, in the moon, and in the stars; and on the earth distress of nations, with perplexity, the sea and the waves roaring; ²⁶ men's hearts failing them from fear and the expectation of those things which are coming on the earth, for the powers of heaven will be shaken. ²⁷ Then they will see the Son of Man coming in a cloud with power and great glory. ²⁸ Now when these things begin to happen, look up and lift up your heads, because your redemption draws near."  Wise is the one who discerns the signs of the times, but we can be foolish to have hearts that fail us when we ought to look up and lift up our heads because our redemption draws nigh.  Ironic, isn't it, that the redeemed of the LORD can faint when we know our Redeemer lives and we will one day see Him in glory?  We are not to fear the shaking of the earth and the powers of heaven when our eyes are on the Son of Man Jesus Christ, our God and Saviour who will redeem us.

When faced with the departure of Jesus before His crucifixion the disciples were sorrowful, and Jesus assured them in John 16:22, "Therefore you now have sorrow; but I will see you again and your heart will rejoice, and your joy no one will take from you."  Jesus followed up in John 16:32-33:  "Indeed the hour is coming, yes, has now come, that you will be scattered, each to his own, and will leave Me alone. And yet I am not alone, because the Father is with Me. ³³ These things I have spoken to you, that in Me you may have peace. In the world you will have tribulation; but be of good cheer, I have overcome the world."  In a world full of conflict that longs for peace, Jesus provides peace even in tribulation.  He would be soon abandoned by frightened disciples in the garden of Gethsemane, yet He was not alone because God the Father was with Him.  Jesus told of future conflicts, separation and tribulation not so they would steel their minds and bodies to fight against it, but to be joyful because He has overcome the world.  The powerful forces of spiritual wickedness and humanity were not neutralised but already conquered by His glorious power and strength.

Instead of worrying how our little world or the whole world is spinning out of control, we are to lift our eyes and heads because we know our redemption draws near.  We have been given joy by faith in Jesus nothing can rob from us because our Saviour Jesus has overcome.  God forbid we should rejoice in the news of devastating wars, earthquakes, pestilence or persecution of believers, yet these are not harbingers of doom to be dreaded:  they are signs and reminders our redemption draws closer with every passing day.  Lift up your head, believer, and turn your eyes to Jesus with joy today, our Redeemer who has purchased us as His own with His own blood on Calvary.  The Man of sorrows who suffered for us has spoken to us and provided peace and joy in the knowledge of Him we can rest in today and always.

God's Wondrous Blessings

Today I went to the nearby drive-in testing centre because my place of work is more than 5km from my home, and this has become routine of late.  ABC radio teased an upcoming program that encouraged people to "get back to nature" and experience the "spiritual" benefits of connecting with the land.  There is much the secular calls spiritual I have no desire to connect with, but if what is meant is the appreciation and awe of God for His awesome creation, I agree.  The glory of God is seen in the heavens and on the earth, and knowing what we see and experience is a revelation of His creative genius fills us with adoration for the greatness of our God whose ways are past finding out.

As I sat in my car with the window open, waiting for my turn to be swabbed, a leaf from a gumtree dropped inside the cabin.  I picked up the slender leaf of a deep purple colour with a light green vein that ran down the centre.  The leaf was cool, dry and flexible as I twisted it gently in my hands.  To think this leaf was not only beautiful but functional to help a tree utilise the light of the sun for the process of photosynthesis is remarkable.  For some reason this leaf fluttered down from a towering height into my car and I held a little bit of nature in my hands as I stared and wondered over the amazing and awesome Creator who devised such living things.

When I was a kid I would souvenir leaves, cover them with a piece of white paper, and gently run a pencil over the entire surface of the leaf to make a copy.  I could not draw a leaf on my own, much less conceive to design a living, functional leaf or tree!  This is what God does, and much more besides.  He says of people created in the image of God who fear Him and meditate in His law day and night in Psalm 1:3:  "He shall be like a tree planted by the rivers of water, that brings forth its fruit in its season, whose leaf also shall not wither; and whatever he does shall prosper."  Evergreen trees naturally shed their leaves, yet the believer in God has the promise of fruitfulness and prosperity in doing what God created us to do:  to know, trust and grow in His grace and bring Him glory.

Getting back to nature may have great benefits, but nothing compares with turning our hearts to the LORD in worship and thanksgiving.  The heavens declare the glory of God, and a small leaf was a reminder to prompt me to worship God and share His goodness with you.  Isn't our God marvelous who does all things well, the Almighty who causes blessings to drop down upon us by His grace?

Anger and Me

"Seeing then that we have a great High Priest who has passed through the heavens, Jesus the Son of God, let us hold fast our confession.¹⁵ For we do not have a High Priest who cannot sympathize with our weaknesses, but was in all points tempted as we are, yet without sin."

Hebrews 4:14-15

Every person alive knows what it feels like to be angry.  Frustration at failure, feeling picked on or making mistakes can result in a white-hot rage that makes the blood boil.  Releasing this anger through words or throwing things does nothing to calm us within and leads to more regrettable behaviour than our excuse for it.  We would like to claim all our anger is a result of justifiable righteous indignation, yet no one but God can rightly make this claim.  It is not a sin to be angry, yet when we justify remaining angry it always results in sin.

Ephesians 4:26-27 says, "Be angry, and do not sin": do not let the sun go down on your wrath, ²⁷ nor give place to the devil."  When we justify sinful anger we open ourselves up to follow in the proud footsteps of Satan rather than our great High Priest Jesus Christ who sympathises with our weaknesses, was in all points tempted, and He remained without sin.  In the moment of anger we imagine no one could possibly feel as angry as we do and thus justify us taking action accordingly.  The writer of Hebrews said we ought to hold fast our confession of faith in Jesus Christ, having put off the corrupt ways of living and thinking which mark the unregenerate and then, as Ephesians 4:23-24 says, "...be renewed in the spirit of your mind, ²⁴ and that you put on the new man which was created according to God, in true righteousness and holiness."

Walking in holiness is not living with a serene smile plastered on your face without experiencing feelings like anger or grief.  To the contrary:  before we were born again we were without feeling--without godly conviction of sinful boasting, anger, greediness and uncleanness.  After being born again by faith in Jesus we now have a heart of flesh that enables us to learn to feel, think and order our lives after true righteousness and holiness, not self-confidence and pride.  People who once were marked with the character trait of being easily angered can by God's grace and wisdom be slow to anger and be longsuffering by personal transformation through the Gospel.  No self-help book or seminar can change you from what you are.  It is by acknowledging our sin in light of God's righteousness and repentance God changes us and gives us wisdom not to give place to the devil through anger.

Like greed, anger cannot be satisfied.  All the rage man unleashes upon others and himself will provide rest for his troubled soul nor free him of bondage to pride and folly.  Praise the LORD Jesus understands how we feel even when we are at our angriest, and He remains without sin.  This proves He is able to help us walk wisely and uprightly, to experience feelings of anger without sin because He has provided atonement for us.  God asked Jonah, "Is it right for you to be angry?"  May our hearts be humbled at this question and repent because most times the honest answer is, "No.  I'm angry because I am all about me."

God Writes on Hearts

Last night some people from Calvary Chapel Sydney and myself enjoyed a Bible study of the passage in John 8 when a woman was brought to Jesus as He was teaching in the temple.  The woman, caught in the act of adultery, was hauled before Jesus and those He taught by the scribes and Pharisees in an attempt to undermine His popularity and expose Him as the fraud they believed Him to be.  Ignoring the protocols and due process of the Law of Moses, they demanded Jesus weigh in:  "Moses said she ought to be stoned:  what do you say?"  Jesus stooped and wrote on the ground as if He did not hear them.

Jesus remained calm and poised despite their hypocritical demands.  John 8:7-9 reads, "So when they continued asking Him, He raised Himself up and said to them, "He who is without sin among you, let him throw a stone at her first." ⁸ And again He stooped down and wrote on the ground. ⁹ Then those who heard it, being convicted by their conscience, went out one by one, beginning with the oldest even to the last. And Jesus was left alone, and the woman standing in the midst."  The Law already condemned adultery as sin so Jesus did not need to make a judgment in the matter.  He turned the tables on the accusers of the woman because their sins were as great as hers and they added to their hypocrisy in their unjust treatment of her.  One by one the accusers, having heard the words of Jesus and being convicted by their conscience, went out from the assembly.

As we discussed last night, there has been much speculation about what Jesus wrote.  If it had been critical to our understanding of the passage, I believe it would have been included for us.  What came to mind is the God who wrote with His finger on tablets of stone stooped before them and wrote in the dust, and in doing so alluded to His divinity.  Man was created by God from the dust of the ground and breathed into Him a living soul, and this same God has given each person a conscience.  He is the One who writes His laws on our hearts and brings about conviction of sin, righteousness and judgment by the Holy Spirit.  Each man was convicted by his own conscience, and by walking away acknowledged their own sin before God.

God had already written what was sinful according to the Law and the woman and her accusers walked contrary to it:  was it necessary for Him to write again what He had already written twice?  After Moses received the 10 Commandments on tablets of stone he threw them down because the people immediately broke them, and he later ascended the mount to receive new ones written by the finger of God.  Jesus came to fulfill the Law and went beyond it, revealing sin the letter of the Law could not address within the hearts and minds of people:  the Law dealt with behaviour and God looks at the heart.  Jesus promised to give the Living Water of the Holy Spirit to those who believe on Him as God made flesh, and Hebrews 10:15-17 reveals, "But the Holy Spirit also witnesses to us; for after He had said before, ¹⁶ "This is the covenant that I will make with them after those days, says the LORD: I will put My laws into their hearts, and in their minds I will write them," ¹⁷ then He adds, "Their sins and their lawless deeds I will remember no more."

Praise God for His mercy and grace towards us, who has given us a conscience that helps us to acknowledge our sin so we can be delivered from the accusations of the devil and the condemnation of Law.  Those who are born again by faith in Jesus Christ have a sure foundation for our feet and are guided to walk in truth and righteousness.  All glory to God who gives us new hearts!