What Does God Really Want from Me? Part 5

Matthew 20:24-28.  This sermon was preached by Pastor Marty Bonner on Sunday, February 13, 2022.

What does God really want from Me?  That is the question we are continuing to look at.  The third purpose that God has for us is to serve.  He wants us to serve selflessly through the natural and spiritual gifts that He has given us.

Serving should not be seen as a level that we achieve, or cannot start until we finish growing to be like Jesus.  In truth, serving is part of our spiritual growth.  Yet, it is a part of our spiritual growth that is worthy of its own focus because serving others moves the emphasis from me to others.

Yes, I need to grow, but everything that I do cannot be only focused on whether or not I get something out of it.  Spiritual growth is not some sort of competition or point of comparison that we can brag about.  I used the word focus because this is a key issue.  Spiritual growth cannot become stuck in the quagmire of self-improvement.  Learning to serve like Jesus did is the only thing that can save us from this elitist’s box canyon.  Our focus is first and foremost on the will of Jesus Christ, and then he focuses us on the need of others around us.  This is part of our spiritual growth.

Of course, you will get something out of service.  You will become more like Jesus, and that is all we should ever need.  However, once our flesh realizes that we are serious about spiritual growth, it will quickly move to make that spiritual growth all about you.

Thus, we are using the adverb “selflessly.”  Of course, I am using my self to serve you, but I need to serve without my own desires and needs getting in the way of what God is wanting to do.  Serving others is part of our spiritual sacrifices.  Just like the Israelites under the Law of Moses could have used those bulls and goats for their own purposes, we also could use our time, money, and gifts for ourselves.  Yet, we help others as a free-will offering to Jesus.  In so doing, service becomes a true act of worship that shows God that He is worthy enough for me to sacrifice myself for the sake of the others to which He points me.

Lastly, we all have natural and spiritual gifts that come from God.  There are strong people and there are weak people.  We have trouble processing why “God made me weak.”  However, God in His wisdom is teaching us that we need others.  None of us can “do it” alone.  Some are strong to help the weak, and yet in so doing the strong learn something from the weak that they could never learn without them, and vice versa.  James 1:17 tells us that “Every good and every perfect gift is from above, and comes down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation or shadow of turning.”  Remind yourself often that you have gifts because God gave them to you for a purpose, and that purpose is to serve others.

Let’s look at our passage.

The human desire to be great

For the sake of time, I have jumped into the middle of this story.  The 10 disciples are the others besides James and John.  They are greatly displeased, or riled up, because they found out that the mother of James and John had brought them to Jesus and asked him to let them sit on his right and on his left when he rules in his kingdom.

Their anger is most likely not coming from a true sense of what is moral.  All of them were spending lots of time arguing about who was the greatest among them.  This is what was at the root of asking for the sons to sit on the right and left of Jesus.  Whether it was the mom’s idea or the sons thought it would be more appropriate coming from her, they are asking for the top two spots in the coming administration of King Jesus.  Of course, we can debate about whether or not those two positions are to be given to the greatest.

They all wanted the greatest spot for themselves, and they are probably angry that James and John beat them to the punch out of pure audacity.

Now, there is nothing wrong with wanting to be great and to do something great, especially to be and to do so for God.  However, the fly in this ointment is that our definition of greatness generally involves me being greater than others.  We find it practically impossible to separate the idea of greatness from being an indirect reference to others.  What if everything that every person ever did was intended by God to be great?  Could it be possible that the Great Creator God of every human being intends for each of us to be great in our own unique way?  Wouldn’t it be greater if we learned to dovetail perfectly together in honor of our great Lord, Jesus?

Yet, sinfulness often pushes us to want to stick out as better, or more important among our peers.  Ask yourself this.  What makes a mom or dad great?  Is it to be defined by those who get the “Mom of the Year” award?  Is it defined from society’s perspective, the child’s perspective, God’s?  How many moms and dads do a great service to their kids, and for society, by training their kids to follow Jesus?  Let us always remember this.  It is generally our desire to be great in all the wrong ways that gets in the way of doing the truly great things.

So, the key is in separating a desire for greatness from being attached to others around you, and then recognizing that we are lousy at knowing what is truly great.  We need Jesus to teach us.  Humility is saying, “Jesus, I know nothing of greatness.  Please teach me!”

In verse 25, Jesus takes them all aside and uses this moment to teach them (to teach us) about greatness.  He uses the fact that Israel has been under the thumb of Gentile empires for centuries.  Their desire for Messiah to come was heavily influenced by their desire to be out from under this “boot in the face” that they had endured for a long time.

Jesus warns them that those in the top spots among the Gentiles lord it over those under them.  He says the same thing twice, but uses two synonyms for this concept of lording over others.  The first word is a combination of the words down and lord, and means to lord down on others, or to force others down under your lordship.  The second word does the same thing with the words down and authority.  It would mean to exercise authority down on others, or to force others down under your authority.  Notice the emphasis is that the Gentile way of being a lord and having authority is to emphasize that they are higher and you are lower.

Now, Jesus could have easily pointed out that the Sadducees, Pharisees, and Herod all suffered from this same world view, but instead he focuses it on the Gentiles.  You see, the problem with Israel’s leadership was not Rome, but that they had become too much like Rome.  Really, it started for them under the Greeks before Rome came to power.  The Persians had allowed them to go back to Jerusalem and rebuild, but under the Greeks, the leaders had begun to adopt the Greek ways of thinking and doing many things including leadership.

Nothing has changed so much.  Even today, our world is focused on who is on top and who is on the bottom.  Pastors and Bishops can be overly concerned with this vertical challenge that actually comes from an unbiblical world view.

Christians are not to copy this

Jesus basically says that this kind of thinking and action is not to happen among them.  He doesn’t deny that it can happen, or will happen, but that it is not supposed to happen.  His command is that none of us ever do this.  Of course, we have tragically failed in this matter throughout much of the history of the Church.  So then, what form should authority take among the followers of Christ?

In verse 26, Jesus speaks to those who wanted to be great in his kingdom, which again was not a bad thing.  He instructs them on what they should do.  Whoever wants to be great should become the servant of the others.  Notice that there is still a vertical aspect here, but that the great one should lower themselves to serve the others.  Isn’t that exactly what is wrong with many of our political and spiritual leaders today, that they refuse to lower themselves in order to serve?

Now Jesus uses the nice Greek word for servant here.  Its focus is on performing a service, but that service can be done by the king’s right-hand man, or by the helper of a village blacksmith. We could say that it is the respectable term for a servant that does not focus on how high the position is.  It is where we get the word for deacon in English.  Thus, serving is not a position that is about being above others, even though some servants may have servants that are under them.

Jesus is refocusing their concept of greatness from lording over others to humbling themselves in order to serve others.

In verse 27, Jesus basically says the same thing, but he changes a couple of the words.  Here are the two statements back-to-back.

You who want to be great should become the servants of the others.

You who want to be first should become the slaves of the others.

Being first is about being the greatest of the greats.  Jesus then uses a term for serving that is not the nice term, and is why most translations bring it over as slave.  So, it repeats the same concept, but calls for one to get even lower, to become a slave who has no rights and no self-purpose, only the master’s purpose.  This is what it means to have the first place in Christ’s kingdom.  The highest position is reserved for those who would take the lowest place among them.

Wow, that is sobering.  This is why the Apostle Paul would call himself a slave of Christ Jesus, and a slave of God.  He understood that he was the Lord of no one.  Jesus is the Lord!  Paul was simply serving God’s people on His behalf, even becoming a slave among God’s people.  Notice that God’s slaves don’t peel His grapes and fan Him.  Rather, they serve His purposes among His people.  Thus, Paul served believers, but they don’t get to boss him around because he is their slave.  He is following God’s orders.  However, no task is too menial for someone who is a slave.  Slaves do the dirtiest of jobs without complaint.

If spiritual growth is all about becoming like Jesus, then serving others is not enough.  I must learn to serve others like Jesus did, and in the way that he wants me to do.

In verse 28, Jesus points them to the example that he was living out.  Jesus was the fulfillment of all the promises of God, not just to Israel, but also to the nations.  He was the Messiah.  He was destined to rule from the throne of David over Israel and the nations.  Yet, he didn’t come to be served by others.  Of course, he was served by others.  People gave money so that he could travel and preach.  Others gave places to stay and food (often for 13 of them).  Later, certain ones would serve him by taking care of his body and placing it in the tomb.  These very disciples would serve him by taking the Gospel to the nations.

However, Jesus himself was not focused on what others should be doing for him.  Instead of making us serve him, he first served us in the role, not just of a servant, but of the lowest slave of all mankind.  The one who would take all the sins of the world upon himself and carry them away, if we would just believe on him.

Can we get real for a second?  No one deserves first place, but Jesus because no one can take a lower place than the one Jesus took.  Even to speak of who then is second place behind him is to actually diminish the perfection of our lord.  When Jesus is first place, no other place matters.  He became the ransom in the place of the many who would believe upon him.  They would live because he would die for their sins in their place.  These are the many who would believe on this lowest slave, and ask the Father to forgive them for such heinous sins, and such heinous lack of faith in Him.  These are the many who would be enabled to have eternal life because he laid down his eternal life for them.

This is our example.  The God of heaven humbled Himself and took on the nature of a human.  He then humbled Himself further by becoming the lowest slave to all humanity. 

It seems impossible that religious leaders throughout history have seemingly not understood what Jesus is saying here.  Yet, that is how sophisticated we can get.  We can rely upon a system of thinking and operating that blinds us to what our Lord is saying.  It doesn’t matter what tradition says.  What ultimately matters is what our Lord says, and he is asking you, “How great do you really want to be?”  Maybe even more pointed, “Do you really want to be like me?”  God forgive us for being selfish in the face of His amazing unselfishness!

Serve Part 5

What Does God Really Want from Me? Part 4

1 Peter 4:1-9.  This sermon was preached by Pastor Marty Bonner on Sunday, February 6, 2022.

What does God really want from Me?  We continue today on part 4 of God’s desire for us.

Last week, we talked about the analogy for spiritual growth given in John 15, the vine of Christ.  We want to connect into the vine of Christ and draw life from him, instead of drawing death from the vine of this world.

Today, we are going to look at some very practical ways in which we can focus ourselves and ensure that we grow spiritually.  Yet, we must remember that all spiritual growth is measured by Jesus Christ.  He is the goal, and the means by which we attain it.

Spiritual growth takes intentionality from God and from us.  God is always faithful to do His part, so the only question is me.  What is my focus on?

Let’s look at our passage in 1 Peter 4.

Live for the will of God, not lusts

In Philippians 2:5, Paul said, “Let this mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus.”  In verse 1 Peter is basically saying the same thing.  “Arm yourselves also with the same mind.”  Peter’s version gives a distinct reminder that spiritual growth is also spiritual battle.  Christians need to get themselves ready to think like Jesus did, and Jesus thought about doing the will of God, not satisfying his earthly lusts, and fleshly desires.

Jesus physically suffered for us in order to do the will of God, and we need to do the same.  His life was first filled with slanders, which is emotional suffering.  However, he was also physically abused to the point of death for the will of God.

If Jesus had been living for the lusts of his natural self, then he would not have suffered a death on a cross.  He was put to death because he was following his Father in heaven. 

Do you remember that vine imagery in John 15?  Later, in verses 18-19, Jesus said,

“If the world hates you, you know that it hated me before it hated you.  If you were of the world, the world would love its own.  Yet because you are not of the world, but I chose you out of the world, therefore the world hates you.”

To choose to live for God instead of living for your flesh is a hard choice that only those who are connected to Christ can follow through because it requires suffering that is emotional and physical.

In verse three, Peter reminds us that we spent “enough” of our past life living for the lusts of our flesh.  He goes on to list the various things that people pursue in such a life.

Lewdness is a life that is lived without any restraint.  Lusts are those strong desires that our flesh has for the pleasures of this life.  Next, we have three partying terms that often go together.  Drunkenness is drinking too much wine, but often can become a way of life.  Revelries represent the activities of those who get drunk with others and are caught up in all manner of public nuisance afterwards.  Drinking parties is a word connected to drunkenness.  It is seen as a worse stage than the previous word.  Lastly, we have abominable idolatries.  The worship of idols and the things connected to them is a constant challenge in this life.

For the Christian, we know that it is high time that we leave this stuff behind, and begin to follow Christ, to learn from him a new way of life that is truly life.

Peter then recognizes that people in this world will be annoyed that you don’t live like they do.  This judgment can be as simple as speaking evil of you, but can also go to the point, as it did with Christ, that they put you to death.

Being judged by people in the flesh has to do with this life and what we experience from sinners.  Their judgment of us is “thumbs down,” but it is a judgment of fleshly people who can only see our outer man.  Their judgments can only touch our bodies, as Jesus reminded us. 

“Do not fear those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul. But rather fear Him who is able to destroy both soul and body in hell.”  Matthew 10:28 (NKJV). 

Don’t let the fleshly judgment of sinners bother you because there is One who is your judge, and it is only his judgment that matters.  In fact, he is also the judge of those who are judging you.  Verses 5 and 6 remind us that those judging us are about to be judged themselves by Jesus.  So, don’t pay a lot of attention to their antics and statements.  Focus on Jesus who is the judge.

Verse 6 continues this point, but is a bit cryptic.  The key is to recognize that the main point is in the second half of the verse.  You may be judged by men through fleshly means while you live on this earth, but in Christ we will live by the judgment of God through the power of His Spirit.  Peter points out that even those righteous men and women of the past who have died had to live with the same tension that we do. 

Think of those righteous people before the flood who were living in dangerous times.  There is a Jewish tradition that Noah’s father Lamech was killed by a wicked man.  They did not have as much information as us, but they knew to live for God rather than for the flesh, regardless of the judgments of the world around you.  They died and went into the grave awaiting God to vindicate them.  As Peter detailed in the prior chapter, Jesus went into Hades, the grave, and proclaimed his victory over sin and death.  This was bad news to those on the bad side of Hades, but it was wonderful news to those in the Paradise side.  They would now be enabled to follow Jesus into heaven and dwell in the presence of God while they await the Resurrection of their bodies.  All righteous individuals of every age must live in this tension of fleshly judgments of this world, and the judgment of God that is not clear to the world yet.  That day will come, and you will shine on that day!

In verse 7, Peter reminds us that the end of all things is at hand.  Remember, in chapter 1, we are told that Peter is writing to Jewish Christians who had been dispersed throughout the region of modern-day Turkey.  They knew that the judgment of God was coming upon the nation of Israel.  It was the end of national Israel until the times of the Gentiles would come to an end.  The way things were would come to an end and not continue into the way things were going to be.

This is a kind of template, or parable, for how the righteous should always live.  The pre-flood world had been warned that a judgment loomed over the earth.  The righteous lived in such a way that recognized the judgment on this world, whether it happens in their lifetime or not.  The righteous remnant of Israel lived this way, until Christ came and things changed.  We too know that this world is under the judgment of God.  The end of all things is near, and we should not view the world with the eyes of flesh.  It will look invulnerable and powerfully persuasive with such eyes.  However, with the eyes of faith, we will see that it is near to destruction and judgment by God. 

Peter tells us that this ought to inspire us to be a person of prayer, a person who spends time talking with God about the world around them, and what is to come.  This is a person who is serious, that is of a sound mind.  They haven’t been caught up in the crazy thinking of this world.  We are to be also watchful.  This word has the idea of sobriety at its root.  Instead of getting drunk with the world, we are awake and at our post in this spiritual battle. 

There is a connection in Scripture between watching and praying.  Jesus used this with his disciples on the night he was betrayed.  He asked them to come and watch with him for a while in prayer.  Yet, they kept falling asleep.  Thus, Jesus revealed the big problem in all spiritual growth.  “The spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak.”  Your spirit may want to be like Christ, but your flesh doesn’t!  Only a person who wrestles with their flesh in prayer and watches over their soul before the Lord in prayer can overcome in the time of temptation and trial.

Then, Peter tells them to love one another.  We need other believers around us, and we need to be there for other believers.  This world is hammering on our faith, attempting to get us to follow it into what it thinks is its glory.  Our love must be fervent.  That English word gives the idea of heated, on fire.  However, the original word is more the sense of stretching forward, or leaning forward.  Instead of holding back, we are to lean into loving one another.  It is the picture of eagerness in fulfilling the command.

Peter says that this would involve covering a multitude of sins.  This is not the idea of covering up sins, but in making a proper covering for sin.  Peter doesn’t explain, but James does in James 5:19-20.

“Brethren, if anyone among you wanders from the truth, and someone turns him back, let him know that he who turns a sinner from the error of his way will save a soul from death and cover a multitude of sins.”

Without other believers around, we would be wandering away from the truth, and that’s the truth!  Keeping ourselves in Christ is the only way to properly cover sins.  That is why Repentance, Forgiveness, and the deeds of faith in Jesus are so important.

May God help us to help each other in this spiritual battle of faith.  In so doing, we will all spiritually grow through intentionally becoming like Jesus!

Grow part 4 audio

What Does God Really Want from Me? Part 3

Grow Spiritually through Intentionally Becoming Like Jesus

John 15:1-8.  This sermon was preached by Pastor Marty Bonner on Sunday, January 30, 2022.

What does God really want from me?  We are answering this question in a series of sermons of which this is the third.

Our last two sermons focused on God’s desire for us to connect to Jesus through whole life Worship and to connect to his people through authentic relationships.  Everything starts there.  Without a real connection to Jesus, we will not be able to connect to His people.  These other purposes then become a lifeless exercise of a moral do-gooder, as they say.

So now, we move to the next purpose that God has for us, spiritual growth.  God wants us to grow spiritually through intentionally becoming like Jesus.

Similar to how connecting had an individual aspect and a corporate aspect to it, so too, there is a personal and group dynamic to our spiritual growth.

Also, don’t forget that at the heart of each of these purposes is the demonstration that Jesus is worthy of our whole life.  The way I connect spiritually and grow spiritually either tells God that He is worthy, or it tells Him that I’m only interested in doing it my way.  Thus, it is not merely a box to check off of a list. 

We are going to see in our passage that a true living connection will always create true growth.  Let’s look at John 15:1-8.

The Analogy of Spiritual Growth

Jesus shared this analogy with his disciples depicting spiritual growth.  This vine imagery is used of Israel by the prophets, so it would have been very familiar to the disciples.  Here are some examples: Psalm 80:15; Isaiah 5; Jeremiah 12:10f; and Malachi 4:1-2.  In this analogy, Jesus explains what the important elements are portraying right up front.

First of all, Jesus is the true vine.  The use of the adjective “true” should not be overlooked.  There is a true vine, but there are also false fines in this world.  Those false vines beckon for us to connect to them.  Deuteronomy 32:32-33 calls it a Vine of Sodom.

³² For their vine is of the vine of Sodom and of the fields of Gomorrah;
Their grapes are grapes of gall, their clusters are bitter.
³³ Their wine is the poison of serpents, and the cruel venom of cobras.

This is the vine that we were tied into before we came to Jesus.  It promises life, but, in the end, it sucks the life out of you.  There is no vine like Jesus.  He gives true life, and enables us to bear true fruit.

This vine imagery is mixed with another agricultural metaphor, the fruit tree.  God warned with the prophets that the fruit tree of Israel would be chopped down, but out of the stump a branch from the root of Jesse would grow up and become bigger than the original tree.  This is true also of the vineyard.  God spoke of Israel as His vineyard.  The vineyard has gone bad and sour, but a branch or a vine will grow up from the Lord to rebuild the vineyard.

Next in verse 1, we are told that the Father is the pruner.  There is a contrast between the word for “takes away” in verse 2 and “prune” in that same verse.  They both involve cutting, but one is a lopping off of the whole branch, whereas the second, is to cut out smaller parts of the branch so that it can be fruitful.  God is not quick on the trigger of lopping people off of the true vine, but He will if He has to do so for the sake of the other branches.

Another important point is that the word for “prune” in verse 2 and “clean” in verse 3 is the same word.  It essentially means to clean.  Thus, pruning was seen as cleaning a branch.  You remove the dead stuff, and make room for growth by also getting rid of perfectly good parts of the branch so that oxygen and sunlight can reach the fruit well.

This shows us a distinction in the work of the Son and the Father.  The Son’s job is to make a connection with us so life can flow into us.  The Father’s job is to maintenance the vine and everything connected to it.

The disciples of Jesus are, of course, the branches in this analogy.  In fact, anyone who believes today is a branch on the true vine of Jesus.  The analogy is showing that we are intended to be fruitful for The One who owns the vineyard.  Now, can you see why connection is so important?  It is what enables us to grow.

Now that we have all of the important elements of this analogy, let’s look at the teaching that Jesus gives us about spiritual growth.

The Truth about Spiritual Growth

There are many people who become disciples of Jesus, but that doesn’t mean that they are truly disciples of Jesus.  The truth is that there are fruitful and unfruitful disciples of Jesus.

We can be tempted to think of this as being about people who are strong and can “get it done,” versus people who are weak and don’t.  However, Jesus points to something more fundamental that just production.

Perhaps first, we should ask ourselves what is meant by “fruitful.”  It would be easy to only think of this as bringing other people to Christ.  This would be fruitful.  However, it is far more likely that Jesus sees fruitfulness here as being transformed by our living connection to him.  Over time a believer that has a living connection to Jesus will become more like Jesus.  Of course, this is not a mystical thing.  Jesus explains to us exactly why some disciples fail to become like him, and others do.

Twice in a row, in verses 4 and 5, Jesus tells them that they must “abide” in him, or “remain” in him in order to be fruitful.  At first, it just looks like God is getting rid of dead wood.  However, Jesus then explains that if you are really connected to him, you will bear fruit.  Thus, we are left with only one reason why the “lopped off” branches were unfruitful.  They lacked a real living connection to Jesus.

We can try and blame things on God, but that is a no-win game.  Jesus really is life, and if you really connect to him, his life will really flow into you.  The life that is within Jesus will flow into your life and it cannot help but make a change.

Jesus tells them that they are “clean,” or pruned, because of the word that he has spoken to them.  Of course, for us, it is the Bible, which is their accurate account of all that Jesus taught.  I must stay connected to the life of Jesus by daily taking in his word, and listening to the leading of the Holy Spirit.  As we hear the Word, and then do it, we are pruning off things like sin, and lazy habits, that keep us from being fruitful.  These for sure have to be cut out.  However, sometimes God prunes off things in our life that aren’t necessarily bad.  Just like a pruner removes good branches so that oxygen and sunlight can reach the fruit, so God calls us to remove things that are getting in the way of good growth. 

Sometimes people act like they don’t have time to read the Bible, or join a Bible Study.  Most likely, they have things in their life that are crowding out God’s word. 

Ask yourself, what is more important?  Nothing is more important than the word of God.  It is eternal life.

Let’s close by looking at verse 8.  Those who maintain a living connection to Jesus will glorify the Father.  Bearing fruit becomes another litmus test in the will of God.  Jesus is the first litmus test to those who claim to love God.  The real One True God sent Jesus.  If you really love God, then you will love Jesus.  Similarly, spiritual growth is the litmus test of whether or not I am truly connected to Christ.  You can try and fake it by making surface changes, but those changes will not be living changes, nor will they last.

The greatest way to show God the Father that He is the most important thing to you in the universe is to become like His Son, Jesus.  It is to say, “Yes,” to a life of discipleship.  If you are going to become like Jesus it will take a lot of repenting, a lot of studying God’s Word, a lot of introspection concerning what needs to change, and lastly perseverance, that is, not giving up.

The alternative is nothing to desire.  God is not playing games.  It is not enough to be in the right place and say the right things.  We must have a real living connection to Jesus by the Spirit of God and The Word.  Our life must really be that courageous life of fighting those battles, one by one.  Perhaps, we may lose one here or there.  Yet, always we will be helped by the God who loves us.

Grow 3 audio

What Does God Really Want from Me? Part 2

Connect to God's People through Authentic Relationships

Matthew 9:9; 1 John 4:19-21; Galatians 5:13; Psalm 68:5-6.

This sermon was preached by Pastor Marty Bonner on Sunday, January 23, 2022. 

Today, we continue on part 2 of God’s desire for us to come into relationship with Him.  We are using the word “connect” to focus on two aspects of this relationship with God. 

We first connect to God through whole-life worship.  This can only be done through Jesus because He is God’s answer for the world.  However, in connecting to Jesus, we must also connect to his other followers through authentic relationships.

Let’s look at our first passage.

Who are these guys?

Matthew 9:9 shows Jesus coming to the tax collection booth and calling Matthew to follow him.  Matthew had most likely heard about Jesus.  However, Matthew was an outcast within Israel because he was collaborating with the Romans to tax his people, and at oppressive rates.

In short order, Matthew leaves his post to follow Jesus.  It is hard to know what he was thinking.  However, we do know that Jesus had already called the four fishermen: Peter, Andrew, James, and John back in chapter four. 

Now, leaving our old way of thinking or living and following Jesus is an individual command from Christ, but it doesn’t take long to figure out that he has other people who are following him already.  Who are these guys?

In fact, it was most probable that Matthew had been taking tax money from these guys.  That must have been an awkward moment.  I can hear Peter saying something like this.  “What’s he doing here?”  You see, you can’t follow Jesus without having to deal with his other followers.

There are various reasons why people may not want to connect with other Christians.  Matthew doesn’t get to choose who his fellow disciples are, and the fishermen also get no vote.  All of them had been chosen by Jesus.

I know; I know.  What about Judas?  I think that Judas is the Lord’s business.  My business is to surrender to Jesus as the master.  Yes, there are hypocrites and traitors in the Church, but are you a perfect hypocrite detector, and does your “alarm” go off when you are around yourself?

I don’t want to overly simplify this issue, but at its core is the truth that none of us are perfectly like Jesus.  We have that in common, and we have chosen to follow Jesus, another thing in common.  Peter and the others most likely didn’t want Matthew in the group, but it isn’t their choice.  Their choice is how they will treat Matthew, and how he will treat them.

Calling the bluff

If Jesus was some kind of gang leader, then he might not care how we interact with each other.  He could just chalk it up to “the strong survive.”  However, Jesus does care how we treat one another.  He commanded his disciples to love one another, and John passes this on to us in 1 John 4:19-21

Part of why Jesus does this is to call our bluff.  To bluff is a term that comes from betting at poker, so it might seem inappropriate to refer to God calling our bluff.  However, in this case, it is we who can be playing a game and God waking us up to the fact that He is not playing a game.

It is easier to say that we love God and want to follow Jesus, but loving other real-live people who fall short of being Jesus is much tougher.  Or, is it?  I don’t know if Judas ever seriously followed Jesus as the answer.  He may have at first, but then realized that Jesus wasn’t going to do what he wanted.

Now, it is bad enough that Jesus expects us to accept others into the group, but then Jesus goes further and commands us to love one another.  John says in this passage that you can’t love God whom you can’t see while you hate your brother whom you can see.  God created your brother, and He hasn’t written him off yet.  So, you either love that about God or you don’t.  Which is it?  Your brother is actually the litmus test that reveals just how much we actually love God.

Talking about love is easy.  It’s the doing that is the hard part.  If I love God, then I must learn to love my brother also.

In Galatians 5:13, Paul takes this a step forward because loving someone is not a command to have a feeling.  To love others is to be committed to their well-being.  If you are committed to their good, then you will help them in different ways as God leads you.

Paul emphasizes that Jesus has given us freedom, not a list of what you have to do to others.  Making a list would be easy, but it would miss the point.  We often make a list because it allows us to pretend like we have loved our brother when all along we are resisting that one thing that Jesus is prompting us to do.  You have been set free by Christ.  Now, use that freedom to serve one another in love, out of a motive for their good.

We will look at this purpose of serving later.

So, that’s the question I have to put to myself.  Am I bluffing?  Jesus calls us to follow him and serve his other followers out of love.  This is the true test to loving Christ.  Do I love him enough to love those whom he asks me to love?

God is not into pretense, fantasy, and mimicry.  He wants a relationship with you that is built upon reality, truth, and the very core of your being.  Can you give him that?  Perhaps none of us can actually answer that question up front.  Perhaps all we can do is say, “I love you, Lord; help my lack of love!”  That is a disciple that the Lord can work with.

Our need for family

You wouldn’t be on t his planet without family.  By definition, there is a couple who gave birth to you, your parents.  This is how God has designed us.  Its part of our nature.

Yet, another part of our nature is that we are born helpless to a couple who have been enabled by God to be helpful.  Babies need both a father and a mother to come alongside of them and prepare them for an adult life in this world, and to teach them h ow to connect to their Heavenly Father.

In a sinful world, families can be pretty messy, but we have a duty to our biological family.  The best-case scenario is that your parents were followers of Jesus and your family is more than biologically connected.

The reality is that we need spiritual family even more than we need biological family.  Yes, it is incredibly important when the biological family is failed, but if you have an incredibly close-knit biological family, then your family still needs spiritual family around you too.

David wrote Psalm 68.  He knew what it was to be pushed away by family.  His brothers looked down on him, and then King Saul had attempted to kill him, which had pushed him out of Israel.  David refused to lose his inheritance in Israel because God had given it to him.  He stuck in there when the “family” of Israel wasn’t so lovely.  In fact, David’s story is one of loving people for God’s sake when they aren’t so loveable.

David pictures God in these verses with language from the family.  God is the Father of those who have no father, orphans.  He is the defender of widows who have no defender.  God sets the person who is by themselves within a family.  Wow, what a picture.

If your biological family is great and they love Jesus, you still need to make room and time for a larger community of followers of Christ.  God never intended for us to be isolated as individuals, or as singular families.

Our eternal destiny is founded upon God the Father’s heart for us.  He wants you in His forever-family.  He has paid the price to win your freedom so that you can be adopted into it.

The abundant life that flows from Jesus into our hearts teaches us how to love and serve one another, even when it requires repentance and forgiveness.

We are told that the rebellious will dwell in a dry land.  Ours is a very dry land today.  People are spiritually dying of thirst, and it is God’s word that they need, Jesus that they need.  Yet, it is easy for them to look at a cup of spiritual water and push it away.  Their condition can be so bad that they believe it is no good. 

Let’s be a people who are trusting that Jesus can take care of his family.  It is my job to simply be a loving family member by serving my brothers and sisters in love.  God help us!

Connect 2 audio