Robert J. Morgan's Blog, page 3

The Proverbial Pacesetter

Maturity means Paying Attention to Things Large and Small

Some time ago an innovative woman in London named Lorlett Hanson came up with a new way of encouraging under-achieving youngsters, especially those of black and minority ethnic heritage.  Ms. Hanson was raised by her grandmother who taught her about life by continuously passing on wise sayings and Jamaican proverbs.  Now Ms. Hanson has tracked down and preserved a wide collection of proverbs from Caribbean sources.  

“Some of the sayings I remembered myself as I was fed proverbs as a child.  I had a whole diet of them,” she said.  She has collected and packaged fifty-two of these proverbs, and they have been printed on a set of cards and published under the title, “Things Mama Used to Say.”  

This product has been an award-winner in England, and it’s being widely used by educators working with minority youth.  The publisher says, “They provide food for thought, lessons for living and keen observations of how to successfully navigate your life journey.”

Well, “Things Mama Used to Say” is a great idea, but not a new one.  The Bible came up with the idea nearly 3,000 years ago, and the book of Proverbs gives us, not just 52, but over 900 verses that provide “food for thought, lessons for living, and keen observations about how to successfully navigate your life journey.”  We can call the book of Proverbs:  “Things Papa Solomon Used to Say,” or even better:  “Things our Heavenly Father Wants to Say to Us Now.”

One of the most frequent themes in the book of Proverbs is the importance of being diligent in life, for maturity means paying attention to things both large and small.  We want to lead well, to influence others, to be a pacesetter. That requires a threefold commitment.

Improving Ourselves

First, we have to make a commitment to ourselves to improve ourselves.  We have to tell ourselves, “God has created me to be special for Him, to live for Him in an abundant life, to be as effective as I can be during my temporary tour of duty on earth.  I have to keep growing, to keep learning, to keep developing, to keep improving myself for the sake of Christ and His kingdom.”  This is one of the underlying themes of the book of Proverbs.  We should be growing in wisdom every day, in our ability to live with purpose and perspicuity.  As I read through the book of Proverbs, one of the constant refrains is:  You can be wiser.  You can do better.  You can learn to live on a higher level.  Notice how this theme shows up in a single word that occurs several times in Proverbs:

Proverbs 2:1-2 (NIV):  My son, if you accept my words and store up my commands within you, turning your ear to wisdom and applying your heart to understanding….Proverbs 22:17 (NIV):  Incline your ear and hear the words of the wise, and apply your heart….Proverbs 23:12 (NKJV):  Apply your heart to instruction, and your ears to the words of knowledge.Proverbs 24:30ff (NIV):  I went past the field of the sluggard, past the vineyard of the man who lacks judgment; thorns had come up everywhere, the ground was covered with weeds, and the stone wall was in ruins.  I applied my heart to what I observed and learned a lesson from what I saw….

Apply your heart to understanding… Apply your heart…  Apply your heart to instruction… I applied my heart….

There comes a point in which we have to be proactive and diligently take charge of our own lives, applying ourselves and doing whatever we need to do to improve ourselves so that we can live to our fullest potential.

Proverbs 4:5ff (NIV):  Get wisdom, get understanding… Wisdom is supreme; therefore get wisdom.  Though it cost all you have, get understanding….  Hold on to instruction, do not let it go; guard it well, for it is your life.Proverbs 19:8 (NIV):  He who gets wisdom loves his own soul; he who cherishes understanding prospers.

As a preacher and public speaker, I’ve been encouraged by the example of Demosthenes, the most famous of the Greek orators.  As a young man, so the story goes, he attempted to speak before the Assembly in Athens, which was made up of the greatest orators in the nation, but he was laughed off the stage and his attempt ended in humiliation.  In his gloom and despondency, he traveled to the Greek coast where a friend counseled him and told him that with enough effort he could become a great speaker.  

So Demosthenes shaved off the beard on one half of his face so that he wouldn’t be tempted to go out in public.  And there by the seashore he started practicing.  He used the crashing of the ocean as a sounding board with which to strengthen his voice.  He practiced speaking with pebbles in his mouth to improve his enunciation and diction.  He would shout out his speeches while running uphill to improve his volume and his lung capacity.  He would suspend a sword over his shoulder to correct a problem he had with his posture.  He studied the speeches of Thucydides and wrote them word for word, over and over again to teach him the construction of sentences.

The day finally came when he rose to speak again in the Athenian Assembly, and by the time Demosthenes had finished his address the entire audience was on its feet, shouting, “Yes!  Yes!  We shall follow this man!  We shall do as he says!”

Demosthenes was intent on improving himself.

Almost the same thing happened to Benjamin Disraeli, the famous Jewish Prime Minister of England during the days of Queen Victoria.  As a young man, he rose to speak for the first time in the British Parliament, but his speech was so poor and so poorly received that he was literally shouted down.  As he took his seat in humiliation, he said these words:  “I sit down now, but the time will come when you will hear me.”

He went to work on developing his positions on issues, his thoughts, his ability to communicate, his speech patterns, his delivery; and the day did come when the Parliament heard him and when the entire world listened to him.

Now matter what we are doing now, we can learn to do it better.

Whatever God has called you to do, you can learn to do it better than you’re doing it now.  Whatever your profession, whatever your hobby, whatever your ministry, whatever your skill, whatever your gift, you can develop and improve and grow.

This is true of children who want to become all God wants them to be.  This is true of teenagers who want to become men and women who God can greatly use.  This is true of those in midlife who are wondering if they’re on the downward slide.  This is true of older folks who think now they’ve reached an age where there’s little reason to keep plugging away at improvement.

There once lived a famous Japanese artist named Hokusai, one of Japan’s greatest painters who is best remembered for his historical scenes and landscapes including his Thirty-Six Views of Mount Fuji.  Here’s what he once said on this subject:  “Ever since the age of six I have had a mania for drawing the forms of objects.  Towards the age of fifty I published a very large number of drawings, but I am dissatisfied with everything which I produced before the age of seventy.  It was at the age of seventy-three I nearly mastered the real nature and form of birds, fish, plants, etcetera.  Consequently, at the age of eighty, I shall have got to the bottom of things; at one hundred I shall have attained a decidedly higher level which I cannot define, and at that age of one hundred and ten every dot and every line from my brush will be alive.  I call on those who may live as long as I to see if I keep my word.”

Well, as it turned out Hokusai died at the age of ninety, but he was still producing art when he died and his work became the inspiration for the great French Impressionists including Claude Monet who collected and studied his art.

The great novelist, Pearl Buck, was asked on her eightieth birthday if she wished to be young again.  She replied, “Wish to be young again? No, for I have learned too much to wish to lose it. I am a far more valuable person today than I was 50 years ago, or 40 years ago, or 30, 20 or even 10. I have learned so much since I was 70.”

Norman Vincent Peale was an American clergyman who wrote a famous book in the middle of the twentieth century entitled, The Power of Positive Thinking.  Some of his theology is a little weak, but I’ve found his book very helpful, and so have a lot of other people.  One day, Dr. Peale received a letter from a man thanking him for his book.  The man was 93 years old.  He said, “I have had an inferiority complex for 93 years, and it made me miserable for 93 years.  But a friend gave me your book, The Power of Positive Thinking.  I read this book; I believed it; I practiced all your suggestions.  And I’m writing to report that after 93 years I have lost my inferiority complex.”

As long as we’re alive, we should keep growing.  Maybe you need to muster your energy and get back into school.  Finish your degree.  Get into that Bible study.  Start exercising and develop a work-out plan.  Ask that Christian guy or girl out on a date.  Join the choir.  Listen to those Christian motivational tapes or podcasts or audible books.  Memorize that chapter of Scripture.  Change your dietary habits.  Just take charge and prayerfully begin applying yourself to be all you can be for the Lord!

The apostle Paul wrote that outwardly we are perishing, but inwardly we are being renewed day by day.  Proverbs 4:18 says:  “The ways of right-living people glow with light; the longer they live, the brighter they shine” (the Message).

Accepting Correction

A second application of diligence is seen in the way in which we accept correction.  I’m not talking about responding to criticism, but receiving correction from those friends and family members—and from God Himself—for we need their insights if we’re to improve.  This theme winds its way through Proverbs like an unbroken ribbon.

Proverbs 3:11-12 (NIV):  My son, do not despise the Lord’s discipline, and do not resent His rebuke, because the Lord disciplines those He loves, as a father the son he delights in.Proverbs 9:9 (NIV):  Instruct a wise man and he will be wiser still; teach a righteous man and he will add to his learning.Proverbs 10:17 (NIV):  He who heeds discipline shows the way to life, but whoever ignores correction leads others astray.Proverbs 12:1 (NIV):  Whoever loves discipline loves knowledge, but he who hates correction is stupid.Proverbs 13:1 (NIV):  A wise son heeds his father’s instruction, but a mocker does not listen to rebuke.

The other day I picked up a book for a dollar at a used book sale.  It was the memoirs of Priscilla Presley in which she told the bizarre story of her marriage to Elvis.  In one chapter, Priscilla reveals how disturbed she was when she learned that Elvis was taking so many pills every night.  His fear of insomnia and his family history of anxiety, coupled with his performance schedule, made it difficult for him to sleep, a condition that just tormented him and led him to take handful after handful of prescription sleeping pills, sedatives, and tranquilizers at bedtime.  Elvis didn’t take kindly to anyone giving him advice, and so Priscilla was afraid to say very much.  But one night she ventured to express her concern.

He bristled.  Picking up a medical dictionary he always kept near at hand on his night table, he said, “In here is the explanation for every type of pill on the market, their ingredients, side effects, cures, everything about them.  There isn’t anything I can’t find out.”

“It was true,” Priscilla wrote in her memoirs.  “He was always reading up on pills, always checking to see what was on the market, and which ones had received FDA approval.  He referred to them by their medical names and knew all their ingredients.  Like everyone else around him, I was impressed with his knowledge and certain he was an expert.  One would think he had a degree in pharmacology.” 

But of course, his vast knowledge of the subject did not represent the equivalence of wisdom, and his long-term abuse of powerful pharmaceuticals contributed to his tragic death at the age of forty-two.  He wouldn’t listen to the concerns of his friends.  Out of selfishness or pride or stubbornness, he just wouldn’t listen, and he died at the very time when he should have been coming into his most productive and mature years.

I’ve seen a lot of people like that.  You try to help them, you try to tell them something, you try to admonish them, and all you get is angry resentment.  In counseling married couples through the years, I’ve found that sometimes husbands just don’t want to sit down for counseling and they resent it.  They think they can solve everything on their own and they’re irritable at the thought of marriage counseling.  Sometimes the husband is eager, but the wife is the resistant one.  People battling substance abuse are often in denial and don’t want anyone telling them things they don’t want to hear.  They resent correction or counsel.  But the book of Proverbs speaks very frankly and attributes that kind of response to fools.  The wise person is eager for help and humble enough to accept advice and correction and counsel.  Solomon wrote:

Proverbs 13:18 (NIV):  He who ignores discipline comes to poverty and shame, but whoever heeds correction is honored.Proverbs 15:5 (NIV):  A fool spurns his father’s discipline, but whoever heeds correction shows prudence.Proverbs 15:31-32 (NIV):  He who listens to a life-giving rebuke will be at home among the wise.  He who ignores discipline despises himself, but whoever heeds correction gains understanding.Proverbs 17:10 (NIV):  A rebuke impresses a man of discernment more than a hundred lashes a fool.Proverbs 19:20 (NIV):  Listen to advice and accept instruction, and in the end you will be wise.Proverbs 19:25 (NIV):  Rebuke a discerning man, and he will gain knowledge.Proverbs 25:12 (NIV):  Like an earring of gold or an ornament of fine gold is a wise man’s rebuke to a listening ear.Proverbs 27:6 (NKJV):  Faithful are the wounds of a friend, but the kisses of an enemy are deceitful.Proverbs 28:23 (NKJV):  He who rebukes a man will find more favor afterward than eh who flatters with the tongue.Proverbs 29:1 (NKJV):  He who is often rebuked, and hardens his neck, will suddenly be destroyed, and that without remedy.

Working Hard

Finally, being diligent in life means that we commit ourselves to working hard.  The verses that speak to this in the book of Proverbs are almost too numerous to quote.

Proverbs 6:6-8 (NIV):  Go to the ant… consider its ways and be wise!  It has no commander, no overseer or ruler, yet it stores its provision in summer and gathers its food at harvest.Proverbs 10:4-5:  Lazy hands make a man poor, but diligent hands bring wealth.  He who gathers crops in summer is a wise son, but he who sleeps during harvest is a disgraceful son.Proverbs 12:11 (NIV):  He who works his land will have abundant food, but he who chases fantasies lacks judgment.Proverbs 12:24 (NIV):  Diligent hands will rule, but laziness ends in slave labor.Proverbs 12:27 (The Message):  A lazy life is an empty life, but “early to rise” gets the job done.Proverbs 14:23 (NIV):  All hard work brings a profit, but mere talk leads only to poverty.Proverbs 26:13ff (NKJV):  The lazy man says, “There is a lion in the road!  A fierce lion is in the streets!”  As a door turns on its hinges, so does the lazy man on his bed.  The lazy man buries his hand in the bowl; it wearies him to bring it back to his mouth.  The lazy man is wiser in his own eyes than seven men who can answer sensibly.Proverbs 27:23ff (NKJV):  Be diligent to know the state of your flocks, and attend to your herds.  For riches are not forever, nor does a crown endure to all generations.  When the hay is removed, and the tender grass shows itself, and the herbs of the mountains are gathered in, the lambs will provide your clothing, and the goats the price of a field; you shall have enough goats’ milk for your food, and the food of your household, and the nourishment of your maidservants.Proverbs 28:19 (NKJV):  He who tills his land will have plenty of bread, but he who follows frivolity will have poverty enough!

When I was working on the book Then Sings My Soul, I came across the story of Sabine Gould, the author of “Onward Christian Soldiers” and the hymn “Now the Day is Over.”  He was an incredibly prolific who pastored his village church, taught college, dabbled in archaeology, published travel guides, and for many years published a new novel annually.  He became an authority on British folk music, and no one really knows how many other books and publications he penned.  It was an astonishing number—at one time, he was responsible for more books in the British Museum Library than any other author.

Sabine Baring-Gould declared that he often did his best work when he felt least inclined to apply himself to the task.  Rather than waiting for inspiration, he plunged into his work and plodded on until it was finished.  “The secret is simply that I stick to a task when I begin it,” he said.  “It would never do to wait from day to day for some moments that might seem favorable for work.”

It reminded me of another Englishman.  Some time ago, I picked up an interesting book entitled I Was Winston Churchill’s Private Secretary by Phyllis Moir who described how diligent her boss was at going about his work.  Before he became Prime Minister during World War II, Churchill was fraught with worry about the Nazi threat, but he also had a series of demanding book deadlines.  One the day that Prague was seized by the Nazis he was hurrying to complete a 300,000 word history of the English people.  He said to his son Randolph after supper on that tense and frightening day, “It’s hard to take one’s attention off the events of today and concentrate on the reign of James II—but I’m going to do it.”  

And he did.  Phyllis Moir said, “When a job of writing has to be done Mr. Churchill sits down to it whether he is in the mood or not and the effort generates his creative power.”

It reminds me of what basketball star Jerry West once said:  “You can’t get much done in life if you only work on the days when you feel good.”

I know there are times in life when we need to relax our minds and our bodies.  We aren’t machines that pound away twenty-four hours a day.  Jesus Himself told the disciples to take a break, come apart, and rest awhile.  But by and large, God didn’t make us to waste our time, to sit around for hours and hours day after day watching television, devouring movies, or playing video games ad infinitum and ad nauseam.  

Jesus said, “My Father works and I work.”  

In one of the most remarkable paragraphs I’ve ever read about this, Roland H. Bainton said in his biography of Reformer Martin Luther that God has called us to labor because He labors.  God Himself works at common occupations.

He is a tailor who makes coats for the animals, fur for the rabbit, and wool for the sheep.He’s a shoemaker who provides paws and hoofs for the animals.He is a gardener who fills the earth with flowers and trees and shrubs.He is a schoolteacher who instructs us daily in the art of living.He’s the best cook, said Luther, because the heat of the sun supplies all the heat there is for cooking.God is a butler who sets forth a feast for the sparrows and spreads a table in the wilderness.The Lord Jesus Christ worked as a carpenter and stone mason in the hillside towns of Galilee.And, said Luther, look at the Lord’s friends and families.  One of the most remarkable examples of humility in history is the Virgin Mary, who, after receiving the astounding news that she was to become the mother of the Redeemer Himself, went back and milked the cows, scoured the kittles, and swept the house like any homemaker.

We only have a few years to accomplish all that God wants us to do, and so the Bible tells us we should number our days so that we may present to God a heart of wisdom.  We should redeem the time, for the days are evil.  We should occupy till He comes, because time is drawing short.  We must be about the Father’s business, so that one day He will look at us in glory and say, “Well done, thou good and faithful servant.”

The very process of sanctification is that process whereby God perfects which concerns us.  He wants us to grow, to improve.

Not many of us are satisfied with the way we are right now.  Sometimes I become very discouraged with myself, and I feel worthless and useless and like a colossal failure.  Most of us have bouts with feelings like those.  But God isn’t finished with us yet. 

Through Jesus Christ He wants us to mature, to grow, to become all He intends for us to be and to do all He intends for us to do.  But we have to cooperate, to be diligent, to pay attention to matters large and small.  And that means improving ourselves, accepting correction, and working hard.  As we do so, the God who has begun a good work in us will carry it to completion until the coming day.

Let’s heed the book of Proverbs and become pacesetters—improving ourselves in some way every day; accept correction and advice; and working hard. As one old song says: We’ll work till Jesus comes, then we’ll be carried home.

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At Home with Zacchaeus

When you’re out on a limb you can trust God with the impossible. That’s our subject today and if you’re able to turn with me into the Scriptures, let’s go to Luke 19. 

Now let’s take a visit to the ancient city of Jericho,

I first visited Jericho in 1975, and for the first time I understood the meaning of the word oasis. In the middle of a rugged land, a set of springs and palm trees created what the Jewish historian Josephus called “a little paradise.” The rain that falls on Israel’s central mountains is soaked up by the limestone and runs through unground tributaries to feed the springs at Jericho. It was called “The City of Palms” (2 Chronicles 28:15).

On my tours of Israel, Jericho is usually a lunch stop where people can ride a camel, buy amazing oranges and grapefruits, and gaze in wonder at the Greek Orthodox Monastery of Temptation clinging to the side of a barren mountain. I’ve taken the cable car up to the monastery before, but it’s an arduous trip and the cable car isn’t always running. The shops and restaurants in Jericho are full of Dead Sea products and of Hebron glass vases and stemware, and there’s something festive and happy about this oasis town.

In the middle of Jericho are the ruins of past generations, an archaeological site. Jericho is one of the oldest continuously inhabited cities on earth. It’s also one of the lowest cities on earth, sitting at about 800 feet below sea level.

When Joshua led the Israelites across the Jordan River, this fortified city stood directly in their path, blocking the road inland. The Israelite army needed a victory under its belt, and the Lord gave Joshua a remarkable battle plan. The army was to march around the city once every day for six days, and on the seventh to make the circuit seven times.

As I wrote in my book, The Jordan River Rules, we too must learn to march and encircle our obstacles in the name of the Lord. We must encircle them with prayer, with praise, with perseverance, and with  the promises of Scripture in our hands and hearts. 

Henry Melville wrote, “Let us remember that then only can there be hope of success in our endeavors, when we advance, like the Israelites, in a believing [frame of mind], using in faith the weapons which God has revealed, and pleading in faith the promises which God has delivered.”

After the destruction of Jericho by the incoming Israelites, the city was rebuilt. Elisha had a school of prophets there (2 Kings 2:5)

In the days of Jesus, the Jews who traveled from Galilee and the northern regions would bypass the mountainous Samaritan region and trek southward along the valley by the Jordan River. Coming to Jericho, they would turn right and take the rugged trail up the Wadi Kelt to Jerusalem, a six-hour climb. This was the famous Jericho road, some of which my grandson and I have hiked.

The Jewish scholar Alfred Edersheim described Jericho in the days of Christ like this: 

Here grew palm trees of various kinds, sycamores, the cypress-flower… but especially the balsam plant. If to these advantages of climate, soil, and productions we add… that it lay on the caravan road from Damascus and Arabia, that it was a great commercial and military center, and lastly, its nearness to Jerusalem, to which it formed the last station on the road of the festive pilgrims from Galilee and Perea—it would not be difficult to understand either its importance or its prosperity.

We can picture to ourselves the scene as our Lord on that afternoon in early spring beheld it…. We are approaching it from the Jordan. It is protected by walls, flanked by four forts. These walls, the theatre, and the amphitheatre, have been built by Herod; the new palace and its splendid gardens are the work of Archelaus. All around wave groves of feathery palms, rising in stately beauty…, gardens of roses, and especially sweet, scented balsam plantations—the largest behind the royal gardens, of which the perfume is carried by the wind almost out to sea, and which may have given to the city its name (Jericho, the perfumed). 

It is the Eden of Palestine, the very fairyland of the old world. And how strangely is this gem set! Deep down in that hollowed valley, through which the torturous Jordan winds…. Far across the river rises the mountains of Moab, on which lies the purple and violet coloring. Towards Jerusalem and northward stretched those bare limestone hills, the hiding place of robbers along the desolate road toward the city….  

And in the streets of Jericho a motley throng meets: pilgrims from Galilee and Perea, priests who have a station there, traders from all lands who have come to purchase or sell, or are on the great caravan road from Arabia and Damascus—robbers and anchorites, wild fanatics, soldiers, couriers, and busy publicans, for Jericho was the central station for the collection of tax and custom…. 

And (as Jewish legend had it) the sound to Temple music came from Moriah, borne in faint echoes on the breeze, like the distant sound of many waters.

It was through Jericho that Jesus, having entered, was passing through….

And that’s where the Lord had a providential rendezvous with one of the worst men in town who was clinging to a limb above the busy roadway—the wee little man known as Zacchaeus.

Perhaps you know the story of the rich young ruler. But did you know Jesus met two of them, back to back. In Luke 18, a rich young man, a leader or ruler, came to Jesus asking what he needed to do in order to gain eternal life. Jesus told him to keep all the commandments perfectly, and the young man said he had already done that. Then Jesus said, “Sell everything you have and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come, follow me” (Luke 18:22). When the fellow couldn’t bring himself to do that, Jesus said, “How hard it is for the rich to enter the kingdom of God. Indeed, it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for someone rich to enter the kingdom of God” (verses 24-25).

Someone spoke up and said, in effect, “It’s impossible for a camel to go through the eye of a needle. That means rich people can never be saved.” But Jesus said, “What is impossible for man is possible with God” (verse 27).

Jesus is making His way down the Jordan Valley on His approach to Jerusalem, where He is going to be crucified. This is His final trip. And on His way He enters the city of Jericho. Luke 19 begins, “Jesus entered Jericho and was passing through. A man was there by the name of Zacchaeus.”

The meaning of that name is “Pure” or “Righteous One.” His parents had a vision for the son they wanted to raise, and they named him with high aspirations. They dreamed of a son who would be of solid and sterling character, who would reflect the holiness of God.

But Zacchaeus had broken their hearts. Verse 2 says, “He was a chief tax collector and was wealthy.” We’ve already studied first-century Jewish tax collectors in the story of Matthew Levi. They were corrupt, treasonous, despised, and crooked. But Zaccheaus had gotten rich, and he had become the head of all the other tax collectors in the region. 

He was also shorter than most other men. Verses 3-4 says, “He wanted to see who Jesus was, but because he was short he could not see over the crowd. So he ran ahead and climbed a sycamore-fig tree to see him, since Jesus was coming that way.”

So Zacchaeus was rich. He was a ruler, a leader. And he was young enough to run ahead of everyone and clamber up a tree. He is the second rich, young ruler Jesus had encountered within a few miles of His travels. And according to the Lord’s own word, it would be easier for a camel to crawl through the eye of a dressmaker’s needle than for him to become a child of God and a follower of Christ.

But even though it appears an impossibility, with God there are no such things.

There was something about Jesus that fascinated Zacchaeus. He had undoubtedly heard about Him and perhaps Zacchaeus was growing tired of his rich, but empty, life. He knew he had disappointed his parents. He knew he was disliked by his community. He realized that his money and his large house and all his possessions hadn’t satisfied his spiritual hunger.

He wanted to see Jesus. He was curious. He was drawn. But he was too short to see over the crowd, so he ran ahead and scurried up a tree and was literally out on a limb. What happened next came as a shock. Jesus and His entourage stopped right under the tree, and the Savior looked up and said, “Zacchaeus! There you are! Hurry and come down. I want to spend the night in your house. I simply must stay with you.”

At that moment, Zacchaeus felt a joy he had never before known. He climbed down out of that tree and led Jesus and His disciples down the street, around the block, and through the gates of his estate. He introduced Jesus to his wife and children. He quickly gave orders for lodging to be prepared, a meal to be cooked, and he did everything in his power to make Jesus feel at home. Despite being a short man, he felt ten feet tall.

That night he threw a dinner for his friends to introduce them to Jesus. His friends were not the most respected citizens of the community. They were the city’s undesirables. They were the deplorables. Some of the people of Jericho made critical comments. They said, “Jesus has gone to be the guest of a sinner.”

But inside the dining hall that night, Zacchaeus stood and made a speech. He gave his testimony. He said, as I imagine it: “Jesus has changed my life. He has done something I thought was impossible. He has restored my self-image. He has brought joy to my family and me. I’ve made a lot of money, but I’ve been disappointed in the way I’ve lived. Now I’m making some changes. I’m going to give half my yearly income to help fund ministries to the poor, and I’m also going to make restitution to anyone I’ve defrauded. From this point on, I am a changed man. Jesus has sought me out and saved me.”

Then it was Jesus’ turn to get up and say a few words. Luke records them verbatim: “Today salvation has come to this house, because this man, too, is a son of Abraham. For the Son of Man came to seek and to save the lost” (Luke 19:9-10).

That’s one of our Lord’s clearest statements of purpose as to why He came. He came to do the impossible. None of us can get to Heaven on our own any more than a camel can pass through the eye of a tailor’s needle. But Jesus can do the impossible. He can save to the uttermost. He came to seek and to save those who are lost.

One rich young ruler refused; but another one accepted.

I’m of the opinion that Zacchaeus didn’t sleep very much that night. He was too excited. He and his family probably stayed up in the wee hours talking of Jesus. I imagine the exhausted disciples went on to bed, but Zacchaeus sat and talked with Jesus by the flickering light of the oil lamb. I suppose Jesus told Zacchaeus what He had been trying to tell His disciples, that He was going to Jerusalem where He would be crucified and would rise again for the sins of the world.

Zacchaeus seemed to understand, because, according to our best traditions, in coming years he would be appointed by Simon Peter to be the head of the church in Caesarea. There is a set of books known as the Apostolic Constitutions that dates to about 375 AD. They were probably composed and kept in the church in Antioch. And this is our source for the plausible tradition that Zacchaeus became a prominent church leader in the first century, serving in the city of Caesarea along the Israeli coast of the Mediterranean.

Jesus took a man who was out on a limb and got him through the eye of a needle.

Our Lord told us that His Father could do the impossible, and His words are affirmed throughout Scripture. Thirty-three years before, the angel Grabriel appeared to the Lord’s mother, Mary, telling her she would give birth to a child without physical intimacy with a man but through the overshadowing work of the Holy Spirit. Gabriel told her, “For with God nothing will be impossible” (Luke 1:37 NKJV). I supposed that’s where Jesus first learned this truth. I imagine His mother shared all that with Him when He was young.

The patriarch Job prayed, “I know that you can do all things” (Job 42:1).

The prophet Jeremiah prayed, “Nothing is too hard for you” (Jeremiah 32:17).

Jesus described the impossible as a camel crawling through the eye of the needle of a leatherworker or a seamstress. But here’s another way to describe the impossible. It involves things that you and I need, but we have absolutely no power to bring them about.

It is impossible for us to know the future or chart our own paths.

It is impossible for us to change and transform another person, no matter how much we love them.

There are some problems that are impossible for us to solve; some goals that are impossible for us to reach; some needs that are impossible for us to meet. Those are the things we have to give to God.

In her book, Prodigals and Those Who Love Them, Ruth Bell Graham wrote, “We mothers must take care of the possible and trust God for the impossible. We are to love, affirm, encourage, teach, listen, and care for the physical needs of the family. But we cannot convict of sin, create hunger and thirst after God, or convert. These are miracles, and miracles are not in our department.”

Let me close this episode with another miracle that happened to a man who was out on a limb, another man who was literally at a life-changing moment while high in a tree. His name was Tom Kildare, and he was a Marine during World War II. His daughter, Christine, later said that her father rarely talked about his combat experiences, but there was one story he freely told.

It happened just as the war was winding down. Kildare was serving in the Pacific theater, and one day he was assigned to scout for enemy troop movements in a rough jungle terrain. He climbed up into a tree for a wider view when suddenly the entire area beneath the tree was filled with enemy Japanese soldiers. They decided to camp under that tree, and Kildare was trapped above them in the branches. He was afraid to even breathe for fear of giving away his position.

He earnestly prayed for God to deliver him from this impossible situation. He prayed every prayer he could think of. He prayed for deliverance. He even prayed for the enemy soldiers beneath him. He realized they were men like him with loved ones back home, with wives and children and dads and moms. Beneath him, the soldiers were laughing and sharing letters and pictures from home.

Kildare began to realize he would not survive to return home. He could not remain motionless and undetected in that tree for much longer. He began to pray for mercy and to prepare himself to be captured and killed. As he ended his prayer, he made the sign of the cross over his chest. Just as he did so, an enemy soldier looked up and saw him. The soldier looked directly into Kildare’s eyes and the Marine made the sign of the cross.

To his amazement, the enemy soldier also silently made the sign of the cross on his forehead, then put his fingers to his lips as if to say, “Be still, my brother. I will not betray you.” The enemy soldiers suddenly began to move out, and soon they were gone. Kildare jumped out of the tree and escaped. But for as long as he lived, he prayed for that silent brother in Christ who had saved his life in the name of the cross.

So, my friend, when you are out on a limb, encircle your situation with prayer, with praise, with perseverance, and with  the promises of Scripture. And trust God to do what you cannot.

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At Home with Jesus – with the Canaanite Woman

The Lord Jesus Christ traveled beyond the boundaries of Israel on two occasions we know of. As a child, He was taken south to Egypt for His own safety (Matthew 2:13-15). As an adult, He trekked north, to the regions of Tyre and Sidon. These cities still exist today in southern Lebanon. 

The city of Tyre is one of the oldest continuously occupied cities in the world, and its history is fascinating. In antiquity, half the city was located on the mainland and the other half on a rocky island about a half a mile offshore. This island city withstood every enemy for centuries. As early as Joshua 19, we’re told that the territory for the Jewish tribe of Asher extended northward “to the fortified city of Tyre” (Judges 19:29). 

In the days of David and Solomon, King Hiram of Tyre provided cedar logs from Lebanon and skilled craftsmen for the building of the royal palace and the temple in Jerusalem (2 Samuel 5:11; 1 Kings 7:13-14). Because of its wealth and unassailable fortress, Tyre was one of the great cities of the world. 

In the 800s B.C., a little girl—a princess—was born in Tyre who would become arguably the most wicked woman in the Bible—Jezebel, the daughter of Ithobaal I, king of Tyre. She married King Ahab of the northern kingdom of Israel, bringing with her the vile worship practices associated with the Phoenician god Baal. She battled with her archenemy, Elijah, and was finally killed in the streets of Samaria where dogs devoured her body and licked up her blood (2 Kings 9:30-37).

Tyre continued to grow stronger and richer. But the Old Testament prophets Isaiah, Ezekiel, Jeremiah, Amos, Joel and Zechariah predicted the destruction of Tyre and its neighboring city of Sidon.

Isaiah wrote, “A prophecy against Tyre: Wail, you ships of Tarshish! For Tyre is destroyed and left without house or harbor” (Isaiah 23:1). The Lord spoke in Ezekiel 26, saying, “I am against you, Tyre, and I will bring many nations against you, like the sea casting up its waves. They will destroy the walls of Tyre and pull down her towers; I will scrape away her rubble and make her a bear rock” (verses 3-4).

The book of Zechariah implies that the agent of destruction would be Alexander the Great, saying, “Tyre has built herself a stronghold; she has heaped up silver like dust, and gold like the dirt of the streets. But the Lord will take away her possessions and destroy her power on the sea, and she will be consumed by fire.” 

Zechariah wrote that in about 480 B.C., and 150 years later it came to pass. Alexander blockaded the city for seven months, then built a massive land bridge over to the island. He destroyed the city, just as the prophets had predicted. 

By the first century, Tyre and Sidon were once again strong cities, and they were close enough to Galilee to hear the spreading news about the amazing Jewish rabbi who was healing the sick, raising the dead, and preaching the Gospel. Tyre was only twelve miles north of the border of Israel.

Mark 3:7-8 says, “Jesus withdrew with his disciples to the lake, and a large crowd from Galilee followed. When they heard about all he was doing, many people came from Judea, Jerusalem, Idumea, and the regions across the Jordan and around Tyre and Sidon.”

The Gospel of Luke adds that people “from the coastal region around Tyre and Sidon… had come to hear him to be healed of their disease. Those troubled by impure spirits were cured, and the people all tried to touch him, because power was coming out from him and healing all of them” (Luke 6:17-18).

It’s likely that someone, perhaps a devoted follower from the region of Tyre, said to Jesus, “Lord, You must be exhausted. If you ever need a place where You can retreat from the crowds and rest, I have a large home outside the city of Tyre. It will accommodate You and Your disciples, so please come as my guest whenever You’d like.”

And Jesus took the man up on his offer. So let’s go with Jesus to the region of Tyre, where Jesus entered a house—and the light came on.

Matthew and Mark tell us the story of the unnamed Syrophoenician woman of Tyre. Their accounts are complementary and give the full story when we put them together. Matthew wrote, “Leaving that place, Jesus withdrew to the region of Tyre and Sidon. A Canaanite woman from that vicinity came to him, crying out, “Lord, Son of David, have mercy on me! My daughter is demon-possessed and suffering terribly” (Matthew 15:21-22).

Somehow this woman knew that Jesus was the Lord and that He could deal with demon possessed people. And she was frantic with anxious desperation for her daughter. Everyone who has children knows what it’s like to worry yourself sick over them. There are times when we pray, “Lord, take me on to Heaven if You need to, but please have mercy on my son or my daughter or my children.” There is no pain like a parent’s pain.

She apparently followed Jesus down the street with her cries. But verse 23 says, “Jesus did not answer a word. So his disciples came to him and urged him, ‘Send her way, for she keeps crying out after us.’”

We believe Jesus went into the region of Tyre to rest and to get away from the crowds. The last thing the disciples wanted was another mob forming in the streets. They entered the house where Jesus was staying, but she followed them right through the door. Mark 7:24-26 says, “Jesus…went into the vicinity of Tyre. He entered a house and did not want anyone to know it; yet he could not keep his presence secret. In fact, as soon as she heard about him, a woman whose little daughter was possessed by an impure spirit came and fell at his feet. The woman was a Greek, born in Syrian Phoenicia. She begged Jesus to drive the demon out of her daughter.”

When Jesus did speak to her, He said something totally unexpected. It seemed totally out of character for Him. Let’s go back to Matthew’s account: “He answered, ‘I was sent only to the lost sheep of Israel.’ The woman came and knelt before him. ‘Lord, help me!’ she said. He replied, ‘It is not right to take the children’s bread and toss it to the dogs’” (Matthew 15:24-26).

Mark’s account is similar. Jesus said, “First let the children eat all they want, for it is not right to take the children’s bread and toss it to dogs” (Mark 7:27).

The better translation of dogs would be puppies. The Greek word here referred to little puppies, not scavenger dogs. Jesus was saying, “My dear woman, My mission is to Israel and to these disciples. That is My first priority, the reason I was sent. The mission to the Gentiles will come later, when I send My followers into all the world. Why should I divert from that plan?”

Jesus was born as the Jewish Messiah to be their long-awaited prophet, priest, and king. He came unto His own, and His ministry was aimed at Israel. Later, after His resurrection, He would send His followers into the world. But the Gospel was to the Jew first, and also to the Gentile afterward. So Jesus told her, in effect, to wait her turn. First let the children eat all they want, for it is not right to take the children’s bread and toss it to puppies.

I think He said this with a smile. But His smile grew even wider when He heard her amazing response. She replied, “Lord, even the dogs under the table eat the children’s crumbs.”

This is the only time in the Gospel of Mark that anyone addressed Jesus as “Lord,” and it was this Syrophoenician woman. 

“What an answer!” He said. “I haven’t run into this kind of stubborn faith anywhere in Israel.” Matthew tells us that the daughter back home was healed at that very moment. Jesus commended her great faith and kindly told her to go home because her request was granted. Going home, she found her child lying on the bed, the demon gone. 

One commentary said, “[Jesus] saw in the ministry to the woman a preview of the Gentile mission and in the response of the woman a preview of the acceptance of the gospel by the Gentiles.”

Tim Keller has a great observation about this: “Isn’t that amazing? She doesn’t take offense [at the Lord’s words]. She doesn’t stand on her rights. She says, all right. I may not have a place at the table – but there’s more than enough on that table for everyone in the world, and I need mine now. She is wrestling with Jesus in the most respectful way and she will not take no for an answer. I love what this woman is doing.”

Another commentator, James Edwards, wrote: “She appears to understand the purpose of Israel’s Messiah better than Israel does. Her pluck and persistence are a testimony to her trust in the sufficiency and surplus of Jesus: His provision for the disciples and Israel will be abundant enough to provide for one such as herself…. What an irony! Jesus seeks desperately to teach his chosen disciples—yet they are dull and uncomprehending; Jesus reluctant even to speak to a walk-on pagan woman—and after one sentence she understands his mission and receives his unambiguous commendation.”

Our lesson: When you pray with sanctified stubbornness, the Lord answers with sanctifying grace.

Most of us who are followers of Jesus realize we’ve been given twenty-four-hour access to God’s throne through the communication tool of prayer. We’re grateful, yet most of us feel we could pray more effectively and more often than we do. 

There are some things the Canaanite woman can teach us.

First, she prayed with sanctified stubbornness. The disciples complained about that, saying, “…she keeps crying out after us” (Matthew 15:23). Even after Jesus chided her, she didn’t give up. She was a mother who wouldn’t be denied, who wouldn’t take no for an answer. That seems to be a quality God respects. There’s a remarkable passage in Isaiah 62 about how the prophet Isaiah continually interceded for Jerusalem and asked others to do the same:

Because I love Zion,

I will not keep still.

Because my heart years for Jerusalem,

I cannot remain silent.

I will not stop praying for her

until her righteousness shines like the dawn

and her salvation blazes like a burning torch….

O Jerusalem, I have posted watchmen on your walls;

They will pray day and night continually.

Take no rest, all you who pray to the Lord.

Give the Lord no rest until he completes his work,

until he makes Jerusalem the pride of the earth (Isaiah 62:1, 6-7 NLT).

This may be the most vivid passage about persistent praying in the whole Bible. Imagine putting the name of your son or daughter or loved one in place of the names Jerusalem and Zion. 

Because I love this person I will not keep still…. I cannot remain silent… I will not stop praying for her until her righteousness shines like the dawn….I will take no rest as I pray to the Lord, and I will give the Lord no rest until He completes His work.

That’s what the Canaanite woman did. She gave the Lord Jesus no rest until He delivered her daughter. It’s summarized for us in Luke 18, which says we should always pray and not give up.

This is why I keep a little prayer notebook and make a record of the specific things I pray about. It goes back, month by month, for years. When the Lord answers, I put a circle around the number on the left side of the page. During my morning prayer time, I often thumb through the pages and remind the Lord of the as-yet unanswered need.

Second, this woman had someone on her heart. Her prayers were prayers of intercession for her daughter. It’s perfectly agreeable to the Lord when we pray about our own needs, but we can’t underestimate the power of praying for others.

When I was in college, I often heard the name George Verwer. I was in a school heavily committed to the evangelization of the world, and so many of the students had been influenced by George Verwer. His name kept coming up. I never met the man nor heard him speak, but even back in the 1970s he was a legend, the man who had started a global movement known as Operation Mobilization. All these memories came back when I read recently that he had passed away at 84 years of age. Millions of people will be in Heaven because of this man.

When I have learned since is how George Verwer came to Christ. As a teenager he lived in Ramsey, New Jersey and went to Ramsey High School where he was outgoing and popular. Directly near the high school was the home of a woman named Dorothea Clapp, and she prayed for the students of that school. She had no direct contact with the students, but she would pray for every student who walked past her window.

One of those students was George Verwer, and starting in his sophomore year she prayed for him every day as he walked past her house on this way to and from school. She even asked God to turn that boy into a missionary. “Lord, make him a missionary,” she prayed. 

One day she sent many of the students copies of the New Testament through the mail, and George later said he read it off and on.

In the Spring of 1955, a friend invited George to go into New York City with him and to attend a Word of Life event with Jack Wrytzen. The special speaker was Billy Graham. The event was held in Madison Square Garden, and that evening George Verwer responded to the invitation to come forward and proclaim Jesus as Lord of his life.

He came back to school for his senior year and was elected Student Council President. He used his position to distribute 1,000 copies of the Gospel of John. When he had the opportunity of speaking to the entire student body, 120 students prayed to receive Christ as Savior. And that was the beginning of a life of endless evangelism. Later George gave Dorothea credit for his conversion, saying she had put him on the Holy Spirit’s hit list.

When God lays someone on your heart and you begin praying for that person, you don’t know what’s going to happen. But the Lord laid them on your heart for a reason.

Third, the Canaanite woman teaches us to pray with humility. She wasn’t offended or put off by what Jesus said. 

One of the great prayers of the English was written by Thomas Cranmer in the first Book of Common Prayer. It’s based on this story in Mark, and over the centuries millions of people have prayed it as they came to observe the Lord’s Supper. It says: We do not presume to come to this Your table, merciful Lord, trusting in our own righteousness, but in Your manifold and great mercies. We are not worthy so much as to gather up the crumbs under Your table, but you are the same Lord whose [nature] is always to have mercy. 

If all we ever receive are the crumbs under the Lord’s table, how blessed we would be. And yet, He treats us as children. Jesus said, “Keep on asking, and you will receive what you ask for. Keep on seeking, and you will find. Keep on knocking, and the door will be opened to you…. You parents—if your children ask for a loaf of bread, do you give them a stone instead? Or if they ask for a fish, do you give them a snake? Of course not! So if you sinful people know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your heavenly Father give good gifts to those who ask him?” (Matthew 7:7-11 NLT).

Finally, the Canaanite woman can help us learn the famous “Jesus Prayer.” I first learned about this prayer by reading a book by Elisabeth Elliott, and I was confounded I had never known of it before. It’s not a large part of Protestant tradition, nor even so much a Roman Catholic practice. It comes from the Orthodox branch of Christianity. It came out of the practice of the desert fathers, the monks of the fourth and fifth centuries.

The Jesus prayer is only ten words in the English and seven words in Greek or Russian: “Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, Have Mercy On Me.”

Many Orthodox priests suggest praying this prayer while sitting still, repeating the words, and synchronizing them with the rhythm of breathing—breathing out each of the three phrases. Doctors pray this prayer before surgery. Students pray this prayer before exams. Families pray it in times of danger or distress.

Eddie Lyle, the President of the missions organization Open Doors UK & Ireland, wrote about spending time with his friend, Father Abdullah, a monk in the Syrian Orthodox Church. One evening the two men took a walk along a span of the Mediterranean coast in Lebanon. Father Abdullah said the Patriarch of the Orthodox Church had asked him to lead a team of archaeologists to a holy site in northern Syria to rescue artifacts and treasures before ISIS warriors destroyed them. Just as they crossed into Syria, their convoy was stopped by a group of hooded men.

We were blindfolded,” said Father Abdullah, “and taken to a hideout. There, they imprisoned us underground, and they interrogated us ruthlessly…. We spent every day and night in complete darkness. The only way that we knew who was still alive was when we prayed together and recognized each other’s voices…. Every day, there were summary executions—another member of the group was killed…. The killings continued until there were only four of us left.”

“The killings continued until there were only four of us left.” 

Then a rescue plan was initiated by the Syrian Special Forces, on the direct orders of President Assad. Their ordeal was brought to a sudden end. Obviously, some high-level diplomacy had taken place.

I heard myself asking him a question like no other I have ever asked: ‘How did you pray under the hood?’ He paused and looked at me. ‘Do you know the Jesus Prayer?’ he asked. ‘It is one of the oldest prayers in Christendom. Let me teach you.’ First, he prayed in Aramaic, Jesus’ own earth language. It is more melodic than Arabic. Then he prayed in English, for my benefit: ‘Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God. Have mercy upon me.’ ‘This prayer saved me,’ he told me, ‘and it has a special place in the Eastern Orthodox Church. Now you pray it.’ And so I did: ‘Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God. Have mercy upon me.’

Do you know where we get the Jesus prayer? It’s from this Canaanite woman. She prayed, “Lord, Son of David, have mercy on me!” (Matthew 15:22). She is one of a handful of people who made this their prayer in the Gospels. And I recommend it to you: “Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, Have Mercy on Me.”

Somewhere in the vicinity of ancient Tyre, near the pristine coast of the Mediterranean Sea, in the house of a friend, Jesus encountered a woman with a desperate need who would not be denied. And under that roof, the lesson went forth and it descends down through the ages to your home and mine.

When you pray with sanctified stubbornness, the Lord answers with sanctifying grace.

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At Home with Jesus – with Jairus

When Everything Seems Lost, Don’t Be Afraid; Only Believe!

Today we’re going to be making a special visit to the home of a synagogue leader named Jairus, and the story is told in Mark 4 and 5. 

A. Background

Jewish synagogues developed after the Babylonian Empire destroyed Jerusalem’s great Temple in 587 B.C. The Jewish people were exiled from their land. Many went to Babylon but others migrated far afield. Without their temple or their presence in the Promised Land, the Jewish people needed places to worship. So they developed places of “bringing themselves together,” which is the meaning of the word synagogue. It is a place of assembly.

The Greek word that’s translated church in the New Testament has a very similar meaning—an assembly.

The synagogue didn’t replace the temple. No sacrifices were offered. Synagogues weren’t centered in Jerusalem but were built everywhere there was a community of Jews. The leadership wasn’t restricted to priests or Levites, but open to anyone. People went inside the building, in distinction from Temple worship–only the priests entered the temple. The temple was restricted to Jews. But anyone—even non-Jewish worshippers—were welcomed at the synagogues.

Lee Lavine, who is a leading authority on the development of synagogues, wrote, “Over the course of Late Antiquity, the synagogue came to embrace a wide range of religious activities, including scriptural readings, communal prayers, hymns, targum, sermons, and [Jewish liturgical poems and songs]…. The synagogue placed a premium on public recitation—communal prayers, as well as reading, translation, and exposition of sacred texts.” 

Lavine continued, “[T]he primary importance of the synagogue, as a whole, throughout antiquity lay in its role as a community center. By the first century C.E., the synagogue had become the dominant institution on the local Jewish scene in both the Diaspora and Judea…. Within the confines of the synagogue the Jewish community not only worshiped, but also studied, held court, administered punishment, organized sacred meals, collected charitable donations, housed the communal archives and library, and assembled for political and social purposes.”

It seems remarkable to me that there’s no mention of synagogues in the Old Testament, and no mandate from God to develop them. There’s nothing about synagogues in the Law, the Writings, or the Prophets of the Old Testament. Yet when we open the New Testament, synagogues are everywhere, and Jesus of Nazareth is an eager and faithful attender. The God of Israel, in His providence, moved His people to do what was necessary to maintain their Jewish faith even with Jerusalem in rubble. 

While Jews gathered in synagogues to study the Law and worship on the Sabbath day, the buildings were also busy through the week, hosting civic functions and community gatherings.

The general form of the Christian worship service—singing, prayer, and Bible teaching—was adapted from the synagogue.

According to Luke 4:16, Jesus went to the synagogue on a habitual basis; and during His ministry He often used synagogues as preaching points. He said in John 18:20, “I have spoken openly to the world. I always taught in synagogues or at the temple, where all the Jews come together.”

As excavations in Israel have advanced, we’ve found first-century synagogues across Israel, including at Masada, Herodium, Capernaum, and two in the town of Magdala. These ruins tell us synagogues were formed around a primary rectangular assembly hall with stepped benches lining the walls. Columns supported the ceiling, and the stone walls accentuated the sound. The buildings were smaller in smaller communities and larger in larger ones. Some of the excavated synagogues featured beautiful mosaic floors and colorful frescoes on the walls.

When Jesus moved to Capernaum, He began attending a synagogue built only steps away from Peter’s house. The foundation of this building still exists beneath the ruins of a later synagogue. The sudden presence of this controversial, miracle-working, Gospel-preaching stranger created quite a challenge for the synagogue’s ruler or overseer.

His name was Jairus, and he had a day of trauma and drama he never forgot.

B. The Home of Jairus

Last year I went through the entire Bible, marking every time I came across the words “Don’t be afraid” from Genesis to Revelation. I haven’t yet gone back to count or classify them. But the one thing I noticed is this: Whenever the Lord tells us not to be worried or afraid, He also qualifies it. Usually He gives us a specific reason why we shouldn’t be afraid or anxious. On other occasions, He gives us an alternative, which is what Jesus did for Jairus. He told him, “Don’t be afraid; only believe.” 

Five words—don’t be afraid; only believe! When all seems lost, only believe. That’s the axiom we learn under the roof of Jairus, his wife, and his twelve-year-old daughter. 

This is one story in the Bible that’s connected with interlocking rings to several stories that precede it. Let’s begin with Mark 4:35, the evening of the preceding day. This is the story of Jesus getting in a boat with His disciples. The sun was setting, and the Lord was exhausted. He lay down in the stern and fell asleep. A storm descended on the lake, and the disciples woke Jesus in alarm. Verse 39 says: “He got up, rebuked the wind and said to the waves, “Quiet! Be still!” Then the wind died down and it was completely calm. 40 He said to his disciples, “Why are you so afraid? Do you still have no faith?” 41 They were terrified and asked each other, “Who is this? Even the wind and the waves obey him!”

The point of the entire story is in that last sentence. Even the winds and waves obey Jesus. He has all authority and power over the Creation. 

The next story begins in chapter 5: “They went across the lake to the region of the Gerasenes. 2 When Jesus got out of the boat, a man with an impure spirit came from the tombs to meet him.” This man was a savage demonic, a human beehive of demonic activity. Jesus rebuked the demons and cast them out of the man. Verse 20 says, “So the man went away and began to tell in the Decapolis how much Jesus had done for him. And all the people were amazed.

Jesus demonstrated that He possesses all authority, not only in the visible realm of Creation but in the invisible realm of spiritual realities. He is Lord over every principality, power, and dominion, against all the forces of evil in the heavenly realms.

Now notice what happens next. “21 When Jesus had again crossed over by boat to the other side of the lake, a large crowd gathered around him while he was by the lake. 22 Then one of the synagogue leaders, named Jairus, came, and when he saw Jesus, he fell at his feet. 23 He pleaded earnestly with him, “My little daughter is dying. Please come and put your hands on her so that she will be healed and live.” 

Let me ask you a question. If your sweet daughter was at the point of death, struggling to breathe, suffering pain, would you leave her bedside? The only thing that would have torn Jairus from her bedside was the hope of finding Jesus. He said to his daughter, “Honey, I love you more than anything. You’re the apple of my eye. You hang on. Don’t give up. I’m going to see if I can find the Nazarene!” He glanced at his anxious wife, and she nodded her approval. And out the door he went, straining, looking across the water. 

Oh, where is He? Please, Jesus, please. We don’t have much time. My little girl is nearly gone. Is that Him in the boat? That boat doesn’t look like it’s fishing. It’s transporting some men over here. I think it’s Jesus! Oh, dear Lord, help me to get His attention.

As soon as Jesus neared the dock, the crowd pushed toward Him. With adrenaline he hadn’t felt in years, Jairus pushed his way to the front of the crowd and said, “My little girl is dying. My little girl is dying. Please come and put your hands on her so that she will be healed and live. Please hurry. She’s right at the end….”

Verse 24 says, “So Jesus went with him.”

Jesus does that. He responds to our prayers and pleas. He’s happy to be invited into our homes and into our pain and problems and perplexities.

The problem for Jairus is that as Jesus went with him, so did hundreds of other people, all pressing in on Jesus and threatening to crush Him. Verse 24 says, “So Jesus went with him.

A large crowd followed and pressed around him.”

That’s when the fatal interruption happened. A woman with a terrible medical problem came up behind Jesus, touched the hem of His garment, and was healed. No one would have known anything about it, except that Jesus stopped. He said, “I just felt power flow out of Me. Who did that? Who touched Me?”

He stopped, looked around, and the disciples looked at Him in amazement. “We’re being pushed and shoved like potatoes on a conveyor belt, and You asked who touched You?”

Verses 32-34 say, “But Jesus kept looking around to see who had done it.  Then the woman, knowing what had happened to her, came and fell at his feet and, trembling with fear, told him the whole truth. He said to her, ‘Daughter, your faith has healed you. Go in peace and be freed from your suffering.’”

And just like that, having demonstrated His power over Creation and over the Invisible Realm, Jesus showed His power over sickness and disease.” Jesus is more powerful than any illness, more powerful than any disease. If you can think of it no other way, think of it like this—one hundred years from now, Jesus will be alive. You will be alive. But your disease or disability will be nowhere to be seen, nor ever will again.

You say, “But that means I’ll die.” Well, that brings us to the next demonstration of God’s power. He has all authority over the weather, over the demons, and over sickness. But He also has all power and authority over death itself.

Verse 35 says, “While Jesus was still speaking, some people came from the house of Jairus, the synagogue leader. ‘Your daughter is dead,’ they said. ‘Why bother the teacher anymore?’”

We get the idea they didn’t really want Jesus showing up. But overhearing them, Jesus looked at Jairus and said those five words—don’t be afraid; only believe.

37  He did not let anyone follow him except Peter, James and John the brother of James.  38  When they came to the home of the synagogue leader, Jesus saw a commotion, with people crying and wailing loudly.  39  He went in and said to them, “Why all this commotion and wailing? The child is not dead but asleep.”  40  But they laughed at him. After he put them all out, he took the child’s father and mother and the disciples who were with him, and went in where the child was.  41  He took her by the hand and said to her, “Talitha koum!” (which means “Little girl, I say to you, get up!”).  42  Immediately the girl stood up and began to walk around (she was twelve years old). At this they were completely astonished.  43  He gave strict orders not to let anyone know about this, and told them to give her something to eat.

Four stories in a row—four exhibitions of authority and power over the four great realms of reality—over the visible creation; over the invisible realm; over sickness; and over death.

Jesus is Lord of all!

At the name of Jesus, every knee will bow of things over the earth, on the earth, and under the earth, and every tongue will confess that He is Lord to the glory of God the Father.

The Bible says, “The Son is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation. For in him all things were created: things in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or powers or rulers or authorities; all things have been created through him and for him. He is before all things, and in him all things hold together” (Colossians 1:15-17).

He is the head over every power and authority” (Colossians 2:10).

“Worthy is the Lamb, who was slain, to receive power and wealth and wisdom and strength and honor and glory and praise!” (Revelation 5:12).

By raising this little girl from death, Jesus was sending us a clear and present signal that He can and will reverse the trajectory of death, raise His people to life, and give His people everlasting glory that will never fade away. One day all who are in the graves will hear His voice and rise, some to everlasting life and others to everlasting destruction.

He is our best hope; He is our only hope; He is our sure and steadfast hope. And whatever we’re going through—whether storms, or demons, or sickness, or death, He says:

Don’t be afraid; only believe.

C. Try This at Home

It doesn’t come naturally for me to do what Jesus expected of Jairus: Don’t be afraid; only believe. But I’m learning. It all depends on where we focus our thoughts at any given moment. We can’t control our emotions if we don’t allow the Holy Spirit to control our thoughts.

The Bible says, “Those who live according to the flesh have their minds set on what the flesh desires; but those who live in accordance with the Spirit have their minds set on what the Spirit desires. The mind governed by the flesh is death, but the mind governed by the Spirit is life and peace” (Romans 8:5-6).

Isaiah 26:3-4 says, as I learned and memorized it in the King James Version: “Thou wilt keep him in perfect peace, whose mind is stayed on Thee: because he trusteth in Thee. Trust ye in the Lord forever; for in the Lord Jehovah is everlasting strength.”

Our minds are to be stayed on Christ. The old definition of stay means to be fixed upon or to rest upon. We don’t have to ignore our problems or put our heads in the sand. We simply accept the fact that we’re facing a problem or a crisis, but we place our primary mental focus on the Lord. 

I want to show you two snippets from the book of Hebrews that talk about this.

Therefore, holy brothers and sisters, who share in the heavenly calling, fix your thoughts on Jesus… – Hebrews 3:1And let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us, fixing our eyes on Jesus, the pioneer and perfecter of faith – Hebrews 12:1-2

We’re to fix our thoughts on Him and our eyes on Him, I believe we do that in four ways.

First, we focus on the person of Christ. We visualize the Lord Jesus in all His glory. Someone asked me recently what I have learned about God that I didn’t realize five years ago. The answer that comes to mind is what Jesus looks like. We’re prone to see Him as He was in the first century, with long hair and beard and robe and sandals. If He had come the first time in our own day, He would have shown up in different clothes, maybe slacks and a sport coat; perhaps jeans and a button-down shirt. He may or may not have had long hair and a beard, but He would have looked at home in today’s world.

But Jesus doesn’t look exactly as He did then or as He would now. He is risen, glorified, and reigning in Heaven. He looks more like He did on the Mount of Transfiguration, when His face shone like the sun. Or like John saw Him in the first chapter of Revelation, with His face shining in all its brilliance.

We need to think of our Lord Jesus Christ as sitting at the right hand of the throne of glory, effulgent in light, power radiating from Him, watching over His children and ruling from His throne.

Mark 16:19 says, …the Lord…was taken up to heaven and he sat at the right hand of God.Romans 8:34 says, Jesus Christ…was raised to life [and] is at the right hand of God and is also interceding for us.Ephesians 1:20 talks about the power God “exerted when He raised Christ from the dead and seated Him at His right hand in the heavenly realms.”Colossians 3:1 says, “…set your hearts on things above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God.”1 Peter 3:22 says Jesus “has gone into heaven and is at God’s right hand—with angels, authorities and powers in submission to Him.”

Spend some time thinking about the resurrected, exalted, glorified person of Christ.

And then think about His power—the power that can calm the storms, control the spiritual forces of evil, heal diseases, and raise the dead. When did you last sit on the porch swing or in the front seat of your truck and contemplate the power of Jesus? Here’s one way of doing it. Just imagine a terrific storm takes aim at your house. We’ve had several of those recently at my house, which sits on the crest of a hill and bears the brunt of storms. The tornado sirens went off; the wind was howling and tugging at the trees; the rain was falling in sheets; and the thunder was jolting.

Imagine Jesus stepped onto your front porch, viewed the storm with a sense of wonder, and then said, “Okay; that’s enough. Hush up. Be still.” Imagine how you would feel if the wind suddenly stopped; the clouds instantly parted; the sun flooded the landscape; and the birds started singing as if it were a springtime holiday.

That’s what the Lord did for the disciples, and He can still control the weather whenever and however He chooses. Though He may not supernaturally intervene in specific storms, He certainly could anytime He wanted. Imagine it. Contemplate it.

Psalm 62:11 says, “One thing God has spoken, two things I have heard: ‘Power belongs to you, God, and with you, Lord, is unfailing love….”

Hebrews 1:3 says, “The Son is the radiance of God’s glory and the exact representation of his being, sustaining all things by His powerful word.”

One of the reasons I love the classic hymns is that by singing them or listening to them, my mind contemplates the almighty power of Jesus Christ. 

I sing the mighty power of God, that made the mountains rise;

That spread the flowing seas abroad, and built the lofty skies.

I sing the wisdom that ordained the sun to rule by day.

The moon shines full at His command and all the stars obey.

Third, we need to contemplate not only the person and the power of Jesus, but also His promises. His grace is all our trauma and drama is conveyed to us through His promises. And the promises of Jesus can take many forms. For example, Jesus told Jairus, “Don’t be afraid; only believe.” That was not technically a promise, was it? It was a set of commandments. Jesus was ordering, He was urging, He was commanding Jairus to obey two urgent injunction—(1) do not be afraid; and (2) only believe.

But those commandments contained an implicit promise. Jesus was going to do something. Jesus was going to act. Jesus was going to turn this for good. 

And that brings us to the final thing. We have to trust our Lord’s providence—His ability to invalidate the devil’s plan and reverse the tide of circumstances. Jesus can overrule. He can override. He can overturn. He can oversee the trauma and drama of our lives, and He can bring forth the victory we need.

Contemplating on the person, power, promises, and providence of Jesus Christ is the best way I know to obey His words to Jairus—don’t be afraid; only believe.

Can you do that?

Yes, with His help, you can—and so can I.

When all seems lost, don’t be afraid. Only believe.

The post At Home with Jesus – with Jairus appeared first on RobertJMorgan.com.

At Home with Jairus

When Everything Seems Lost, Don’t Be Afraid; Only Believe!

Today we’re going to be making a special visit to the home of a synagogue leader named Jairus, and the story is told in Mark 4 and 5. 

A. Background

Jewish synagogues developed after the Babylonian Empire destroyed Jerusalem’s great Temple in 587 B.C. The Jewish people were exiled from their land. Many went to Babylon but others migrated far afield. Without their temple or their presence in the Promised Land, the Jewish people needed places to worship. So they developed places of “bringing themselves together,” which is the meaning of the word synagogue. It is a place of assembly.

The Greek word that’s translated church in the New Testament has a very similar meaning—an assembly.

The synagogue didn’t replace the temple. No sacrifices were offered. Synagogues weren’t centered in Jerusalem but were built everywhere there was a community of Jews. The leadership wasn’t restricted to priests or Levites, but open to anyone. People went inside the building, in distinction from Temple worship–only the priests entered the temple. The temple was restricted to Jews. But anyone—even non-Jewish worshippers—were welcomed at the synagogues.

Lee Lavine, who is a leading authority on the development of synagogues, wrote, “Over the course of Late Antiquity, the synagogue came to embrace a wide range of religious activities, including scriptural readings, communal prayers, hymns, targum, sermons, and [Jewish liturgical poems and songs]…. The synagogue placed a premium on public recitation—communal prayers, as well as reading, translation, and exposition of sacred texts.” 

Lavine continued, “[T]he primary importance of the synagogue, as a whole, throughout antiquity lay in its role as a community center. By the first century C.E., the synagogue had become the dominant institution on the local Jewish scene in both the Diaspora and Judea…. Within the confines of the synagogue the Jewish community not only worshiped, but also studied, held court, administered punishment, organized sacred meals, collected charitable donations, housed the communal archives and library, and assembled for political and social purposes.”

It seems remarkable to me that there’s no mention of synagogues in the Old Testament, and no mandate from God to develop them. There’s nothing about synagogues in the Law, the Writings, or the Prophets of the Old Testament. Yet when we open the New Testament, synagogues are everywhere, and Jesus of Nazareth is an eager and faithful attender. The God of Israel, in His providence, moved His people to do what was necessary to maintain their Jewish faith even with Jerusalem in rubble. 

While Jews gathered in synagogues to study the Law and worship on the Sabbath day, the buildings were also busy through the week, hosting civic functions and community gatherings.

The general form of the Christian worship service—singing, prayer, and Bible teaching—was adapted from the synagogue.

According to Luke 4:16, Jesus went to the synagogue on a habitual basis; and during His ministry He often used synagogues as preaching points. He said in John 18:20, “I have spoken openly to the world. I always taught in synagogues or at the temple, where all the Jews come together.”

As excavations in Israel have advanced, we’ve found first-century synagogues across Israel, including at Masada, Herodium, Capernaum, and two in the town of Magdala. These ruins tell us synagogues were formed around a primary rectangular assembly hall with stepped benches lining the walls. Columns supported the ceiling, and the stone walls accentuated the sound. The buildings were smaller in smaller communities and larger in larger ones. Some of the excavated synagogues featured beautiful mosaic floors and colorful frescoes on the walls.

When Jesus moved to Capernaum, He began attending a synagogue built only steps away from Peter’s house. The foundation of this building still exists beneath the ruins of a later synagogue. The sudden presence of this controversial, miracle-working, Gospel-preaching stranger created quite a challenge for the synagogue’s ruler or overseer.

His name was Jairus, and he had a day of trauma and drama he never forgot.

B. The Home of Jairus

Last year I went through the entire Bible, marking every time I came across the words “Don’t be afraid” from Genesis to Revelation. I haven’t yet gone back to count or classify them. But the one thing I noticed is this: Whenever the Lord tells us not to be worried or afraid, He also qualifies it. Usually He gives us a specific reason why we shouldn’t be afraid or anxious. On other occasions, He gives us an alternative, which is what Jesus did for Jairus. He told him, “Don’t be afraid; only believe.” 

Five words—don’t be afraid; only believe! When all seems lost, only believe. That’s the axiom we learn under the roof of Jairus, his wife, and his twelve-year-old daughter. 

This is one story in the Bible that’s connected with interlocking rings to several stories that precede it. Let’s begin with Mark 4:35, the evening of the preceding day. This is the story of Jesus getting in a boat with His disciples. The sun was setting, and the Lord was exhausted. He lay down in the stern and fell asleep. A storm descended on the lake, and the disciples woke Jesus in alarm. Verse 39 says: “He got up, rebuked the wind and said to the waves, “Quiet! Be still!” Then the wind died down and it was completely calm. 40 He said to his disciples, “Why are you so afraid? Do you still have no faith?” 41 They were terrified and asked each other, “Who is this? Even the wind and the waves obey him!”

The point of the entire story is in that last sentence. Even the winds and waves obey Jesus. He has all authority and power over the Creation. 

The next story begins in chapter 5: “They went across the lake to the region of the Gerasenes. 2 When Jesus got out of the boat, a man with an impure spirit came from the tombs to meet him.” This man was a savage demonic, a human beehive of demonic activity. Jesus rebuked the demons and cast them out of the man. Verse 20 says, “So the man went away and began to tell in the Decapolis how much Jesus had done for him. And all the people were amazed.

Jesus demonstrated that He possesses all authority, not only in the visible realm of Creation but in the invisible realm of spiritual realities. He is Lord over every principality, power, and dominion, against all the forces of evil in the heavenly realms.

Now notice what happens next. “21 When Jesus had again crossed over by boat to the other side of the lake, a large crowd gathered around him while he was by the lake. 22 Then one of the synagogue leaders, named Jairus, came, and when he saw Jesus, he fell at his feet. 23 He pleaded earnestly with him, “My little daughter is dying. Please come and put your hands on her so that she will be healed and live.” 

Let me ask you a question. If your sweet daughter was at the point of death, struggling to breathe, suffering pain, would you leave her bedside? The only thing that would have torn Jairus from her bedside was the hope of finding Jesus. He said to his daughter, “Honey, I love you more than anything. You’re the apple of my eye. You hang on. Don’t give up. I’m going to see if I can find the Nazarene!” He glanced at his anxious wife, and she nodded her approval. And out the door he went, straining, looking across the water. 

Oh, where is He? Please, Jesus, please. We don’t have much time. My little girl is nearly gone. Is that Him in the boat? That boat doesn’t look like it’s fishing. It’s transporting some men over here. I think it’s Jesus! Oh, dear Lord, help me to get His attention.

As soon as Jesus neared the dock, the crowd pushed toward Him. With adrenaline he hadn’t felt in years, Jairus pushed his way to the front of the crowd and said, “My little girl is dying. My little girl is dying. Please come and put your hands on her so that she will be healed and live. Please hurry. She’s right at the end….”

Verse 24 says, “So Jesus went with him.”

Jesus does that. He responds to our prayers and pleas. He’s happy to be invited into our homes and into our pain and problems and perplexities.

The problem for Jairus is that as Jesus went with him, so did hundreds of other people, all pressing in on Jesus and threatening to crush Him. Verse 24 says, “So Jesus went with him.

A large crowd followed and pressed around him.”

That’s when the fatal interruption happened. A woman with a terrible medical problem came up behind Jesus, touched the hem of His garment, and was healed. No one would have known anything about it, except that Jesus stopped. He said, “I just felt power flow out of Me. Who did that? Who touched Me?”

He stopped, looked around, and the disciples looked at Him in amazement. “We’re being pushed and shoved like potatoes on a conveyor belt, and You asked who touched You?”

Verses 32-34 say, “But Jesus kept looking around to see who had done it.  Then the woman, knowing what had happened to her, came and fell at his feet and, trembling with fear, told him the whole truth. He said to her, ‘Daughter, your faith has healed you. Go in peace and be freed from your suffering.’”

And just like that, having demonstrated His power over Creation and over the Invisible Realm, Jesus showed His power over sickness and disease.” Jesus is more powerful than any illness, more powerful than any disease. If you can think of it no other way, think of it like this—one hundred years from now, Jesus will be alive. You will be alive. But your disease or disability will be nowhere to be seen, nor ever will again.

You say, “But that means I’ll die.” Well, that brings us to the next demonstration of God’s power. He has all authority over the weather, over the demons, and over sickness. But He also has all power and authority over death itself.

Verse 35 says, “While Jesus was still speaking, some people came from the house of Jairus, the synagogue leader. ‘Your daughter is dead,’ they said. ‘Why bother the teacher anymore?’”

We get the idea they didn’t really want Jesus showing up. But overhearing them, Jesus looked at Jairus and said those five words—don’t be afraid; only believe.

37  He did not let anyone follow him except Peter, James and John the brother of James.  38  When they came to the home of the synagogue leader, Jesus saw a commotion, with people crying and wailing loudly.  39  He went in and said to them, “Why all this commotion and wailing? The child is not dead but asleep.”  40  But they laughed at him. After he put them all out, he took the child’s father and mother and the disciples who were with him, and went in where the child was.  41  He took her by the hand and said to her, “Talitha koum!” (which means “Little girl, I say to you, get up!”).  42  Immediately the girl stood up and began to walk around (she was twelve years old). At this they were completely astonished.  43  He gave strict orders not to let anyone know about this, and told them to give her something to eat.

Four stories in a row—four exhibitions of authority and power over the four great realms of reality—over the visible creation; over the invisible realm; over sickness; and over death.

Jesus is Lord of all!

At the name of Jesus, every knee will bow of things over the earth, on the earth, and under the earth, and every tongue will confess that He is Lord to the glory of God the Father.

The Bible says, “The Son is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation. For in him all things were created: things in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or powers or rulers or authorities; all things have been created through him and for him. He is before all things, and in him all things hold together” (Colossians 1:15-17).

He is the head over every power and authority” (Colossians 2:10).

“Worthy is the Lamb, who was slain, to receive power and wealth and wisdom and strength and honor and glory and praise!” (Revelation 5:12).

By raising this little girl from death, Jesus was sending us a clear and present signal that He can and will reverse the trajectory of death, raise His people to life, and give His people everlasting glory that will never fade away. One day all who are in the graves will hear His voice and rise, some to everlasting life and others to everlasting destruction.

He is our best hope; He is our only hope; He is our sure and steadfast hope. And whatever we’re going through—whether storms, or demons, or sickness, or death, He says:

Don’t be afraid; only believe.

C. Try This at Home

It doesn’t come naturally for me to do what Jesus expected of Jairus: Don’t be afraid; only believe. But I’m learning. It all depends on where we focus our thoughts at any given moment. We can’t control our emotions if we don’t allow the Holy Spirit to control our thoughts.

The Bible says, “Those who live according to the flesh have their minds set on what the flesh desires; but those who live in accordance with the Spirit have their minds set on what the Spirit desires. The mind governed by the flesh is death, but the mind governed by the Spirit is life and peace” (Romans 8:5-6).

Isaiah 26:3-4 says, as I learned and memorized it in the King James Version: “Thou wilt keep him in perfect peace, whose mind is stayed on Thee: because he trusteth in Thee. Trust ye in the Lord forever; for in the Lord Jehovah is everlasting strength.”

Our minds are to be stayed on Christ. The old definition of stay means to be fixed upon or to rest upon. We don’t have to ignore our problems or put our heads in the sand. We simply accept the fact that we’re facing a problem or a crisis, but we place our primary mental focus on the Lord. 

I want to show you two snippets from the book of Hebrews that talk about this.

Therefore, holy brothers and sisters, who share in the heavenly calling, fix your thoughts on Jesus… – Hebrews 3:1And let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us, fixing our eyes on Jesus, the pioneer and perfecter of faith – Hebrews 12:1-2

We’re to fix our thoughts on Him and our eyes on Him, I believe we do that in four ways.

First, we focus on the person of Christ. We visualize the Lord Jesus in all His glory. Someone asked me recently what I have learned about God that I didn’t realize five years ago. The answer that comes to mind is what Jesus looks like. We’re prone to see Him as He was in the first century, with long hair and beard and robe and sandals. If He had come the first time in our own day, He would have shown up in different clothes, maybe slacks and a sport coat; perhaps jeans and a button-down shirt. He may or may not have had long hair and a beard, but He would have looked at home in today’s world.

But Jesus doesn’t look exactly as He did then or as He would now. He is risen, glorified, and reigning in Heaven. He looks more like He did on the Mount of Transfiguration, when His face shone like the sun. Or like John saw Him in the first chapter of Revelation, with His face shining in all its brilliance.

We need to think of our Lord Jesus Christ as sitting at the right hand of the throne of glory, effulgent in light, power radiating from Him, watching over His children and ruling from His throne.

Mark 16:19 says, …the Lord…was taken up to heaven and he sat at the right hand of God.Romans 8:34 says, Jesus Christ…was raised to life [and] is at the right hand of God and is also interceding for us.Ephesians 1:20 talks about the power God “exerted when He raised Christ from the dead and seated Him at His right hand in the heavenly realms.”Colossians 3:1 says, “…set your hearts on things above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God.”1 Peter 3:22 says Jesus “has gone into heaven and is at God’s right hand—with angels, authorities and powers in submission to Him.”

Spend some time thinking about the resurrected, exalted, glorified person of Christ.

And then think about His power—the power that can calm the storms, control the spiritual forces of evil, heal diseases, and raise the dead. When did you last sit on the porch swing or in the front seat of your truck and contemplate the power of Jesus? Here’s one way of doing it. Just imagine a terrific storm takes aim at your house. We’ve had several of those recently at my house, which sits on the crest of a hill and bears the brunt of storms. The tornado sirens went off; the wind was howling and tugging at the trees; the rain was falling in sheets; and the thunder was jolting.

Imagine Jesus stepped onto your front porch, viewed the storm with a sense of wonder, and then said, “Okay; that’s enough. Hush up. Be still.” Imagine how you would feel if the wind suddenly stopped; the clouds instantly parted; the sun flooded the landscape; and the birds started singing as if it were a springtime holiday.

That’s what the Lord did for the disciples, and He can still control the weather whenever and however He chooses. Though He may not supernaturally intervene in specific storms, He certainly could anytime He wanted. Imagine it. Contemplate it.

Psalm 62:11 says, “One thing God has spoken, two things I have heard: ‘Power belongs to you, God, and with you, Lord, is unfailing love….”

Hebrews 1:3 says, “The Son is the radiance of God’s glory and the exact representation of his being, sustaining all things by His powerful word.”

One of the reasons I love the classic hymns is that by singing them or listening to them, my mind contemplates the almighty power of Jesus Christ. 

I sing the mighty power of God, that made the mountains rise;

That spread the flowing seas abroad, and built the lofty skies.

I sing the wisdom that ordained the sun to rule by day.

The moon shines full at His command and all the stars obey.

Third, we need to contemplate not only the person and the power of Jesus, but also His promises. His grace is all our trauma and drama is conveyed to us through His promises. And the promises of Jesus can take many forms. For example, Jesus told Jairus, “Don’t be afraid; only believe.” That was not technically a promise, was it? It was a set of commandments. Jesus was ordering, He was urging, He was commanding Jairus to obey two urgent injunction—(1) do not be afraid; and (2) only believe.

But those commandments contained an implicit promise. Jesus was going to do something. Jesus was going to act. Jesus was going to turn this for good. 

And that brings us to the final thing. We have to trust our Lord’s providence—His ability to invalidate the devil’s plan and reverse the tide of circumstances. Jesus can overrule. He can override. He can overturn. He can oversee the trauma and drama of our lives, and He can bring forth the victory we need.

Contemplating on the person, power, promises, and providence of Jesus Christ is the best way I know to obey His words to Jairus—don’t be afraid; only believe.

Can you do that?

Yes, with His help, you can—and so can I.

When all seems lost, don’t be afraid. Only believe.

The post At Home with Jairus appeared first on RobertJMorgan.com.

Do We Talk Too Much About Discipleship?

Hello, everyone! The other day I ran into a lady at the grocery store and I asked her how they were doing and how things were at their church. Oh, she said we’re thinking of finding another church. Our pastor doesn’t talk about anything except discipleship. It’s discipleship, discipleship, discipleship. I believe in discipleship, but surely there is more to learn in the Bible than that.

I’ve been thinking about what she said. Today I want to ask a question you’ve never heard before. Should we be talking so much about discipleship in our churches?

A Disciple – mathētēs in Biblical Greek – is someone who follows and learns. Literally, it’s what followers of Jesus did in the Gospels. As you may remember, Jesus told His disciples to “go into all the world and make disciples.” During this time, he used Gospel era language.

For a little while, that terminology continued. It’s not found in Acts 1-5, but we see an example of it in Acts 6: “In those days when the number of disciples was increasing, the Hellenistic Jews among them complained against the Hebraic Jews because their widows were being overlooked in the daily distribution of food. So the disciples gathered all the disciples together… So the word of God spread. The number of disciples in Jerusalem increased…” We see this again in Acts 9: “Saul was still breathing out threats against the Lord’s disciples….” In fact, the word disciple occurs several times in this chapter. 

Later, Acts 11:26 says, “The disciples were called Christians first at Antioch.” This seems to mark a change of terminology. This Greek word Christianós, (Chres-dee-a nos), occurs 3 times in the New Testament. It refers to one who models himself after Christ. 

The word disciple appears a few more times in Acts, until we come to Acts 21:6, and from that point on the word disciple is never used again in the New Testament. It simply doesn’t occur.

I didn’t realize this until an older friend of mine pointed it out a few months ago. I was astonished! The word disciple seems to be missing from rest of the New Testament! 

The word disciple is…

Not in Romans

Not in 1 or 2 Corinthians

Not in Galatians

Not in the Prison epistles

Not in the pastoral epistles

Never used by the Apostle Paul, not even once

Absent from the book of Hebrews

Not in James, Peter, John, or Jude.

Not in Revelation.

After Acts 21, it disappears from the pages of the Bible. But why?

Here’s one theory. Disciple was a literal Gospel term that implied following Jesus and learning from Him. That’s what the original disciples did, and that idea lingered through the early days of the Acts of the Apostles. But then as these early believers realized more and more the role of the Holy Spirit after Pentecost, there was a change both in the verbage and the expectation of a follower of Jesus. Now, it was not just following Christ and learning from Him. It was letting Him actually live within us and live His life through us, beginning with the gift of the Holy Spirit. Look at the pattern in the following verses, as the call on a disciple’s life in many ways shifts from simple following and imitation of Christ to a Spirit-filled life.

Galatians 2:20 – I am crucified with Christ.2 Corinthians 3:18: And we all, who with unveiled faces contemplate the Lord’s glory, are being transformed into his image with ever-increasing glory, which comes from the Lord, who is the Spirit.Colossians 1:27 – Christ in you, the hope of glory.1 Peter 4:14 says, the Spirit of glory and of God rests on you.1 Corinthians 6 says: Do you not know that your bodies are the temple of the HS, who is in you.Ephesians 5 says, be filled with the Spirit.Galatians 5 says, walk in the Spirit and be led by the Spirit and keep in step with the Spirit.1 Corinthians 3 says, live by the Spirit.Ephesians 6 says, pray in the Spirit.Romans 8: Live according to the Spirit.1 Thessalonians 5:19 says, do not quench the spirit.Ephesians 4: Do not grieve the Holy Spirit.2 Thessalonians 2 and 1 Peter 1 talk about the sanctifying work of the Spirit.2 Timothy 1: God does not give us the Spirit of fear, but of power, love, and self-controlGalatians 5: the fruit of the Spirit is love… 

This lines up well with the idea of the Victorious Christian Life. God has empowered us, even beyond the sacrifice of Jesus that cleanses us from all unrighteousness, to actually live the life Jesus has called us to live. And this empowerment is possible only through full submission to the Holy Spirit’s innerworkings in our lives. So, more than obeying the Father and following after the Son alone, we are also called to walk with the Spirit, submit to the Spirit, listen to the Spirit, and live by the Spirit’s guidance. The full Christian life, when lived well, is much more than just following in the footsteps of Jesus. It’s obedience to Father, Son, and Spirit.

Robertson McQuilkin says it this way: “Our thought processes are so under the control of the Holy Spirit and instructed by Scripture that the normal Christian authentically reflects the attitudes and behavior of Jesus Christ. God has first place in his life, and the welfare of others takes precedent over personal desires. The normal Christian has power not only for godly living but for effective service in the church. Above all he or she has the joy of constant companionship with the Lord.”

The concept of discipleship matured into something even better than someone who only follows and learns from the life of Jesus Christ.

The apostle Paul and the writers of the epistles, as it were, retired the term disciple and replaced it with the concept of Jesus Christ Himself living within us by His Holy Spirit, living His life and doing His work in us by the power of His indwelling, dynamic, active, overflowing Holy Spirit.

That doesn’t mean we can’t use the words disciple and discipleship. But it does mean we should at least be aware that this wasn’t the term Paul used—not even once. Instead he said things like: May the god of hope fill you with all joy and peace as you trust in him, so that you may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit (Romans 15:13).

So I’m going to talk about discipleship a bit less, and the Spirit-filled life more and more.

The post Do We Talk Too Much About Discipleship? appeared first on RobertJMorgan.com.

At Home with Jesus – In Matthew’s House

When Jesus Occupies Your Space You Can’t Keep Quiet About It.

1. Taxing Matters

The Twelve disciples of Jesus are among the most famous figures in history, yet we know only bits and pieces of what happened to them. The book of Acts follows Peter’s story for several chapters, then he drops from the scene. The last half of Acts is devoted to Paul, who wasn’t one of the Twelve. Luke had a definite plan in writing the book of Acts, and his agenda didn’t include following the careers of the Twelve. He wanted to show how the Gospel spread from the Jewish community in Jerusalem until it penetrated the Mediterranean world, including the imperial city of Rome.

So what of the others? What happened to Andrew, James, Nathaneal, and Matthew?

When I was a teenager, I came across a book by California pastor William Steuart McBirnie entitled What Became of the Twelve Apostles. He related many of the traditions that have descended down to us from the early church. More recently, I’ve been engrossed in newer and better treatment of this topic, a book called Quest for the Historical Apostles by W. Brian Shelton. 

For our purposes here, we’re interested in everything we can learn about Matthew. That was his Greek name and it meant “Gift of Yahweh.” But like many others he also had a Hebrew name—Levi, which probably indicates he came from the tribe of Levi. The Levites were to serve the people of Israel in a spiritual capacity. The entire tribe of Levi—the descendants of Jacob’s son by that name—were set aside as the priestly tribe of Israel. Within that tribe, only the descendants of Aaron were the actual priests, but all the Levites were to assist the priests in caring for the spiritual needs of all the people. They had no territory of their own, as the other tribes did. Instead, they were scattered among all the tribes to provide pastoral support.

Matthew Levi wasn’t doing anything akin to that. Instead of blessing the people spiritually, he was fleecing them financially. He had become a reviled, Roman-paid, corrupt internal revenue agent. 

According to Shelton, the growth of the Roman Empire required vast amounts of income, and Rome became skilled at taxing the countries they had defeated and occupied. In Israel, three major taxes vexed the population. There was an agricultural tax amounting to ten percent of all harvested grain and twenty percent of all harvested fruit. There was also a poll tax for every adult, and there was an income tax on business income.

But that was far from all. A variety of lesser taxes kept cropping up, including something akin to a sales tax and fees at travel crossings. The Jewish people resented the Roman presence in their land and despised having to cede their produce and money to their pagan occupiers. 

The Romans hired local workers, known as publicans or tax-farmers, to collect taxes at  the local level, and these publicans lined their own pockets by overcharging people and by cooking the books. They were loathed by their neighbors, but they tended to be among the wealthiest people in their communities.

Matthew Levi was a tax agent and customs official in Capernaum and his tollhouse probably sat right on the major highway that ran through the town. Shelton wrote, “The tax office at Capernaum would have had interest in material entering the territory of Herod Antipas through roadways and through the waters of the Sea of Galilee and the Jordan River.” It’s likely that Peter, Andrew, James, and John had to pay taxes on the fish they exported from Capernaum to the rest of Israel. Some commentators think the reason Peter and Andrew moved from Bethsaida to Capernaum was to avoid this tax every time they sent their fish to the south. 

His name, Matthew, meant “Gift of Yahweh,” and his name Levi probably indicated he was from the tribe appointed by Yahweh to minister grace to the rest of the Israelites. But this man was falling far short of his name.

Imagine how surprised Peter, Andrew, James, and John felt when Jesus suddenly invited Matthew Levi to join the team!

2. The Home of Matthew Levi

The story of Matthew Levi is told in three Gospel accounts, Matthew, Mark, and Luke. But since the writer of the first Gospel is Matthew Levi himself, let’s listen to him share his testimony in third person. You’ll find it in Matthew 9:9-13:

9 As Jesus went on from there, he saw a man named Matthew sitting at the tax collector’s booth. “Follow me,” he told him, and Matthew got up and followed him. 10 While Jesus was having dinner at Matthew’s house, many tax collectors and sinners came and ate with him and his disciples. 11 When the Pharisees saw this, they asked his disciples, “Why does your teacher eat with tax collectors and sinners?” 12 On hearing this, Jesus said, “It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick. 13 But go and learn what this means: ‘I desire mercy, not sacrifice.’ For I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners.”

In this story, Matthew Levi’s conversion seemed instantaneous, but we can assume the Holy Spirit had been working in his heart in advance. Let me suggest three assumptions.

First, Matthew Levi had undoubtedly heard about Jesus and listened to him before this moment, because Capernaum wasn’t that large, and Jesus had moved into town and made it the headquarters for His ministry. For weeks or months, Matthew Levi listened at his tollbooth as reports came from every passerby. Perhaps he had lingered at the edge of the crowds, listening to Jesus’ words. The Lord Jesus, who doesn’t miss a thing, saw the tax collector trying to hide behind the crowds or the shrubbery or the corners of the building. But the words of Jesus were finding a target in the man’s heart.

It’s important to remember that few people make an instantaneous decision to follow Christ the first time they’re exposed to the Gospel. Just as in a human birth, the new birth requires a period of gestation. In Bible college, my professor called this “prevenient grace,” the grace of God that prepares a person to make a conscious decision to follow Christ. 

Many years ago, I had an appointment with a young man named David who managed a local Christian bookstore. He told me grew up attending a liberal where the Bible was seldom taught and the Gospel was never heard. One Sunday when David was a teenager, his Sunday School teacher surprisingly shared the plan of salvation. It was a crystal clear presentation of the Gospel. David heard it clearly but it didn’t have much of an effect on him. 

Several years passed, and one night David was watching a television program that touched on religion. Somehow at that moment, David became conscious of the reality of spiritual things. The plan of salvation came back to him, the one he had heard years before. He recalled it almost word for word. That night David knelt down and responded by inviting Christ to be his Savior, and he had made an appointment with me because he was considering going to seminary.

That’s why we shouldn’t be discouraged when we share the Gospel and the other person doesn’t immediately receive it. The apostle Paul said, “I planted the seed, Apollos watered it, but God has been making it grow” (1 Corinthians 3:6).

The second assumption is that just as Matthew Levi was finding himself attracted to the person and message of Jesus Christ, he was growing tired of the way he was living. We know something about Matthew. He knew the Scriptures. He knew the Old Testament. In his Gospel, Matthew quoted directly from the Old Testament 53 times, and if you include allusions the number is nearly one hundred times. He has more references to the Old Testament than any of the other Gospels. 

Based on that, we can assume Matthew knew he should be building a better life than the one he was living. He knew he wasn’t living as he should. He was successful in some ways, but he felt a rising tide of failure on the inside.

Perhaps you feel that way too. 

It took only two words to totally change Matthew’s life: Follow Me! 

As Jesus went on from there, he saw a man named Matthew sitting at the tax collector’s booth. “Follow me,” he told him, and Matthew got up and followed him.

And that brings us to our primary lesson—when Jesus occupies your space, you can’t keep quiet about it. Matthew wasn’t embarrassed about his decision to follow the Messiah. He didn’t whisper the news to people. He didn’t try to hide or hedge the change that came over him. Instead he threw a party. He threw a party for Jesus. And the only people who attended were Matthew’s friends, who were the worst people of Galilee.

10 While Jesus was having dinner at Matthew’s house, many tax collectors and sinners came and ate with him and his disciples. 11 When the Pharisees saw this, they asked his disciples, “Why does your teacher eat with tax collectors and sinners?” 12 On hearing this, Jesus said, “It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick. 13 But go and learn what this means: ‘I desire mercy, not sacrifice.’ For I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners.”

This is the only time in the Gospels that Jesus calls Himself a physician, and He is using the term as a metaphor. But isn’t it wonderful? There’s an old Gospel song that says, “The Great Physician now is near, the sympathizing Jesus; / He speaks the drooping heart to cheer, oh, hear the voice of Jesus.”

If the doctor called you or me today and told us our blood work revealed a terrible and deadly illness, the news would hit us like an anvil falling from the sky. But the Bible tells us we’re sick and dying on the inside and only the Great Physician can help us. We need spiritual healing, emotional healing, psychological healing, and eternal healing. Jesus said, “It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick… I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners.”

I don’t know how Peter, Andrew, James, and John felt, but I think Jesus was perfectly at home at this party. He wasn’t there to live it up. He was there as Matthew’s honored guest to celebrate Matthew’s conversion and to spread the message to publicans and sinners and the rest of the motley crew. 

But that’s not all. This was just the beginning of Matthew Levi’s new career of sharing Jesus. His job as a tax collector required intelligence and rigorous record keeping. He knew how to work with books and records and documents of all kinds. We believe he was very adept at taking notes. If we could go back and see him during the three years of our Lord’s ministry, I think we would see him scribbling away in his tablet, perhaps using his own form of shorthand to record the sermons of Jesus. Sheldon wrote, “Scholars have suggested that a tax collector would have been skilled in note taking as part of his responsibilities.”

My mother taught shorthand in high school. It’s the one course she taught that I didn’t take, but I wish I had. It would have proved very useful over the years. My executive assistant, Sherry Anderson, knows shorthand. With today’s digital technology, that’s a dying art. But historians tell us that shorthand goes back to at least the first century before Christ. A form of shorthand was used in the days of Jesus, and Matthew, whose business depended on large amounts of records, probably knew a form of it.

His records probably formed the basis of his Gospel, which records five major sermons by Jesus, along with many other actions and sayings of our Lord.

Matthew wrote his Gospel especially to present Jesus as Messiah for the Jewish people. He wrote especially to the Jews. As I said, he quoted extensively from the Old Testament, and that’s the reason his Gospel comes first. It links up with the Old Testament like the engine of a train.

The earliest church fathers and historians tell us that Matthew originally wrote his Gospel in the Hebrew dialect, which could have meant Aramaic. He wrote it while he was still in Judea. Shelton wrote, “A plausible conclusion is that Matthew wrote the Gospel we know for Jewish Christians during the decades of 50-70.” It’s also likely that having written his Gospel in Aramaic or Hebrew, he translated himself into Greek, since he would have been proficient in both languages. 

When we read Matthew’s Gospel, we’re struck by the way he ends his Gospel. He doesn’t end it with our Lord’s ascension back into heaven. He ends it, in effect, by telling us to go everywhere throwing dinner parties with publicans and sinners to introduce them to Christ. In other words, He ends his Gospel with the Great Commission: 

16 Then the eleven disciples went to Galilee, to the mountain where Jesus had told them to go. 17 When they saw him, they worshiped him; but some doubted. 18 Then Jesus came to them and said, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. 19 Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, 20 and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.”

From everything we can learn from early Christian history, Matthew did exactly that! We believe he stayed in Palestine and Syria until about the middle of the first century, sharing his Gospel and writing his Gospel. And then he went to a place called Ethiopia, but probably not the nation in East Africa that bears that name. Ethiopia was also the name of a region in Parthia [northeastern Iran]. It was called “Second Ethiopia” because of the Ethiopian immigrants that had settled there.

In the book of the Acts of the Apostles, Luke primarily tells the story of how the Gospel spread westward across Europe through Peter and Paul, but we know that many of the other apostles went eastward into the lands we know today as Iran, Iraq, Pakistan, and India. 

One early authority about Matthew says, “Matthew wrote the Gospel in the Hebrew tongue, and published it in Jerusalem, and fell asleep in Hierees, a town in Parthia. Another says HE first preached the Gospel in Judea, and after that in Macedonia, and he suffered martyrdom in Persia. He has his final resting place in the mountains in the land of the Parthians.” That would place him somewhere east of the city of Tehran, southeast of the Caspian Sea.

So let’s sum up.

The first thing Matthew did after deciding to follow Christ was to invite his friends to meet Jesus at a dinner party. He ended his Gospel by telling us to invite our friends to become disciples and to do so to the end of the age. And he gave his life taking the Gospel to his Jewish audience in Judea, then eastward into Asia. 

He is living proof that when Jesus occupies your space, you can’t keep quiet about it. And remember the words Jesus spoke under the roof of Matthew Levi, tax collector turned disciple: It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick. For I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance.

3. Try This at Home

Until I was nineteen years old, I had no interest in sharing my faith with someone else in a personal conversation. I went to church and I was even beginning to teach and preach a little bit in my church. But I’m an introvert, and the thought of telling someone about Jesus petrified me. And then I opened the door of my life as fully to Christ as I knew how, and suddenly I couldn’t wait to share with someone else what had happened to me.

I think we all have a little bit of Matthew Levi inside of us.

Recently I read about a man named Wales Goebel, who was a successful residential contractor. When he was thirty-nine years old, he developed a burden for high school and college students, and he developed ministries designed to reach them. He spoke at sports events, youth events, and athletic camps. The more I read about this man, the more I’m amazed. 

The years passed, and Wales Goebel grew old. At the age of 92, he wondered what he could do for the Lord. Every day he took a little walk through the park alongside a lake, and one day he became tired and sat down on a bench. The Lord gave him an idea. Why not sit on that bench every day and ask the Lord to bring someone who needed the Gospel. So at the age of 92, Mr. Goebel began his bench-sitting ministry.

People would come and sit down. Some would seem weary and worried. Mr. Goebel would chat with them and gently begin to talk about the Lord. As soon as he led someone to Christ, he enrolled them in a Bible study. He is 98 years old now, and as of my last report of him, he is still doing it.

Let me tell you about another man. I recently had supper with a young missionary couple who serve in Bulgaria, and they gave me a copy of a book entitled, Tortured for His Faith by Haralan Popov. This man was initially an atheist who became a Christian when he was a teenager. He traveled to London to attend Bible college, and while he was there he married a Swedish woman named Ruth. They returned to Bulgaria just before the outbreak of World War II.

When the Soviet Union gained control of Bulgaria, Popov was arrested and sentenced to fifteen years in prison for his faith. He was tortured. He was placed on starvation diets. He was thrown into punishment cells designed to break the strongest men. For years, he didn’t see his family. His children grew up without him, while he sometimes suffered horribly in near-freezing conditions.

But God gave him strength, and he learned creative ways to lead other prisoners to Christ. One of the most astonishing stories I’ve ever read is how the prisoners developed what they called the Prison Telegraph. It was a sort of crude version of the Morse Code. One tap on the wall stood for the letter A. Two taps stood for the letter B. Three taps was a C.

One day Popov took his tin drinking cup and began tapping on the wall. In a few minutes there was a tapping sound from the other side. Popov tapped out, “What is your name?” The man’s name was Mitchev. Popov asked about his condition, how long he had been there, and so forth.

You can imagine how long it took to communicate each solitary word.

At length, Popov asked the man if he knew about the Lord Jesus. The man said that he only knew a little he had learned in the Orthodox church when he was a boy. Popov began tapping out each word of the plan of salvation explaining it as best he could using that primitive Prison Telegraph. For three days, interrupted only by sleep, Popov preached to Mitchev and explained the Gospel. At the end of the third day, Mitchev asked, “But, Pastor, how can my sins be gone? I don’t understand.”

Popov answered his questions, and by the fourth day the man tapped back, “I am ready now to believe in Jesus, pray for me. I am ready to accept Christ.”

Popov told him to get on his knees in his cell and Popov did the same in his cell. They prayed together, as it were, and the man was wonderfully brought into the Lord’s family and into eternal life.

Popov later wrote, “All of this occurred by tapping a tin cup. Not one audible word was ever said.”

Matthew Levi would have been delighted with that story. The entire focus of his life was letting others know that when Jesus occupies your space, you can’t keep quiet.

Here’s the key takeaway. Learn to initiate Gospel conversations. Find gentle ways of turning any conversation toward something having to do with the Lord or with the church or with the Bible or with your testimony. If the other person seems responsive, go as far as the Holy Spirit leads you. Sometimes you’ll be planting a seed. Sometimes you’ll be watering. And sometimes the Lord will give you the privilege of seeing the harvest.

Invite people to church and to Gospel-centered events. Support evangelistic ministries with your finances. Keep some Christian books or New Testaments nearby to give away as the occasion allows. And remember the words spoken by Jesus of Nazareth under the roof of the house of Matthew Levi of Capernaum: It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick. For I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance.

The post At Home with Jesus – In Matthew’s House appeared first on RobertJMorgan.com.

At Home with Jesus in Matthew’s House

When Jesus Occupies Your Space You Can’t Keep Quiet About It.

1. Taxing Matters

The Twelve disciples of Jesus are among the most famous figures in history, yet we know only bits and pieces of what happened to them. The book of Acts follows Peter’s story for several chapters, then he drops from the scene. The last half of Acts is devoted to Paul, who wasn’t one of the Twelve. Luke had a definite plan in writing the book of Acts, and his agenda didn’t include following the careers of the Twelve. He wanted to show how the Gospel spread from the Jewish community in Jerusalem until it penetrated the Mediterranean world, including the imperial city of Rome.

So what of the others? What happened to Andrew, James, Nathaneal, and Matthew?

When I was a teenager, I came across a book by California pastor William Steuart McBirnie entitled What Became of the Twelve Apostles. He related many of the traditions that have descended down to us from the early church. More recently, I’ve been engrossed in newer and better treatment of this topic, a book called Quest for the Historical Apostles by W. Brian Shelton. 

For our purposes here, we’re interested in everything we can learn about Matthew. That was his Greek name and it meant “Gift of Yahweh.” But like many others he also had a Hebrew name—Levi, which probably indicates he came from the tribe of Levi. The Levites were to serve the people of Israel in a spiritual capacity. The entire tribe of Levi—the descendants of Jacob’s son by that name—were set aside as the priestly tribe of Israel. Within that tribe, only the descendants of Aaron were the actual priests, but all the Levites were to assist the priests in caring for the spiritual needs of all the people. They had no territory of their own, as the other tribes did. Instead, they were scattered among all the tribes to provide pastoral support.

Matthew Levi wasn’t doing anything akin to that. Instead of blessing the people spiritually, he was fleecing them financially. He had become a reviled, Roman-paid, corrupt internal revenue agent. 

According to Shelton, the growth of the Roman Empire required vast amounts of income, and Rome became skilled at taxing the countries they had defeated and occupied. In Israel, three major taxes vexed the population. There was an agricultural tax amounting to ten percent of all harvested grain and twenty percent of all harvested fruit. There was also a poll tax for every adult, and there was an income tax on business income.

But that was far from all. A variety of lesser taxes kept cropping up, including something akin to a sales tax and fees at travel crossings. The Jewish people resented the Roman presence in their land and despised having to cede their produce and money to their pagan occupiers. 

The Romans hired local workers, known as publicans or tax-farmers, to collect taxes at  the local level, and these publicans lined their own pockets by overcharging people and by cooking the books. They were loathed by their neighbors, but they tended to be among the wealthiest people in their communities.

Matthew Levi was a tax agent and customs official in Capernaum and his tollhouse probably sat right on the major highway that ran through the town. Shelton wrote, “The tax office at Capernaum would have had interest in material entering the territory of Herod Antipas through roadways and through the waters of the Sea of Galilee and the Jordan River.” It’s likely that Peter, Andrew, James, and John had to pay taxes on the fish they exported from Capernaum to the rest of Israel. Some commentators think the reason Peter and Andrew moved from Bethsaida to Capernaum was to avoid this tax every time they sent their fish to the south. 

His name, Matthew, meant “Gift of Yahweh,” and his name Levi probably indicated he was from the tribe appointed by Yahweh to minister grace to the rest of the Israelites. But this man was falling far short of his name.

Imagine how surprised Peter, Andrew, James, and John felt when Jesus suddenly invited Matthew Levi to join the team!

2. The Home of Matthew Levi

The story of Matthew Levi is told in three Gospel accounts, Matthew, Mark, and Luke. But since the writer of the first Gospel is Matthew Levi himself, let’s listen to him share his testimony in third person. You’ll find it in Matthew 9:9-13:

9 As Jesus went on from there, he saw a man named Matthew sitting at the tax collector’s booth. “Follow me,” he told him, and Matthew got up and followed him. 10 While Jesus was having dinner at Matthew’s house, many tax collectors and sinners came and ate with him and his disciples. 11 When the Pharisees saw this, they asked his disciples, “Why does your teacher eat with tax collectors and sinners?” 12 On hearing this, Jesus said, “It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick. 13 But go and learn what this means: ‘I desire mercy, not sacrifice.’ For I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners.”

In this story, Matthew Levi’s conversion seemed instantaneous, but we can assume the Holy Spirit had been working in his heart in advance. Let me suggest three assumptions.

First, Matthew Levi had undoubtedly heard about Jesus and listened to him before this moment, because Capernaum wasn’t that large, and Jesus had moved into town and made it the headquarters for His ministry. For weeks or months, Matthew Levi listened at his tollbooth as reports came from every passerby. Perhaps he had lingered at the edge of the crowds, listening to Jesus’ words. The Lord Jesus, who doesn’t miss a thing, saw the tax collector trying to hide behind the crowds or the shrubbery or the corners of the building. But the words of Jesus were finding a target in the man’s heart.

It’s important to remember that few people make an instantaneous decision to follow Christ the first time they’re exposed to the Gospel. Just as in a human birth, the new birth requires a period of gestation. In Bible college, my professor called this “prevenient grace,” the grace of God that prepares a person to make a conscious decision to follow Christ. 

Many years ago, I had an appointment with a young man named David who managed a local Christian bookstore. He told me grew up attending a liberal where the Bible was seldom taught and the Gospel was never heard. One Sunday when David was a teenager, his Sunday School teacher surprisingly shared the plan of salvation. It was a crystal clear presentation of the Gospel. David heard it clearly but it didn’t have much of an effect on him. 

Several years passed, and one night David was watching a television program that touched on religion. Somehow at that moment, David became conscious of the reality of spiritual things. The plan of salvation came back to him, the one he had heard years before. He recalled it almost word for word. That night David knelt down and responded by inviting Christ to be his Savior, and he had made an appointment with me because he was considering going to seminary.

That’s why we shouldn’t be discouraged when we share the Gospel and the other person doesn’t immediately receive it. The apostle Paul said, “I planted the seed, Apollos watered it, but God has been making it grow” (1 Corinthians 3:6).

The second assumption is that just as Matthew Levi was finding himself attracted to the person and message of Jesus Christ, he was growing tired of the way he was living. We know something about Matthew. He knew the Scriptures. He knew the Old Testament. In his Gospel, Matthew quoted directly from the Old Testament 53 times, and if you include allusions the number is nearly one hundred times. He has more references to the Old Testament than any of the other Gospels. 

Based on that, we can assume Matthew knew he should be building a better life than the one he was living. He knew he wasn’t living as he should. He was successful in some ways, but he felt a rising tide of failure on the inside.

Perhaps you feel that way too. 

It took only two words to totally change Matthew’s life: Follow Me! 

As Jesus went on from there, he saw a man named Matthew sitting at the tax collector’s booth. “Follow me,” he told him, and Matthew got up and followed him.

And that brings us to our primary lesson—when Jesus occupies your space, you can’t keep quiet about it. Matthew wasn’t embarrassed about his decision to follow the Messiah. He didn’t whisper the news to people. He didn’t try to hide or hedge the change that came over him. Instead he threw a party. He threw a party for Jesus. And the only people who attended were Matthew’s friends, who were the worst people of Galilee.

10 While Jesus was having dinner at Matthew’s house, many tax collectors and sinners came and ate with him and his disciples. 11 When the Pharisees saw this, they asked his disciples, “Why does your teacher eat with tax collectors and sinners?” 12 On hearing this, Jesus said, “It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick. 13 But go and learn what this means: ‘I desire mercy, not sacrifice.’ For I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners.”

This is the only time in the Gospels that Jesus calls Himself a physician, and He is using the term as a metaphor. But isn’t it wonderful? There’s an old Gospel song that says, “The Great Physician now is near, the sympathizing Jesus; / He speaks the drooping heart to cheer, oh, hear the voice of Jesus.”

If the doctor called you or me today and told us our blood work revealed a terrible and deadly illness, the news would hit us like an anvil falling from the sky. But the Bible tells us we’re sick and dying on the inside and only the Great Physician can help us. We need spiritual healing, emotional healing, psychological healing, and eternal healing. Jesus said, “It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick… I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners.”

I don’t know how Peter, Andrew, James, and John felt, but I think Jesus was perfectly at home at this party. He wasn’t there to live it up. He was there as Matthew’s honored guest to celebrate Matthew’s conversion and to spread the message to publicans and sinners and the rest of the motley crew. 

But that’s not all. This was just the beginning of Matthew Levi’s new career of sharing Jesus. His job as a tax collector required intelligence and rigorous record keeping. He knew how to work with books and records and documents of all kinds. We believe he was very adept at taking notes. If we could go back and see him during the three years of our Lord’s ministry, I think we would see him scribbling away in his tablet, perhaps using his own form of shorthand to record the sermons of Jesus. Sheldon wrote, “Scholars have suggested that a tax collector would have been skilled in note taking as part of his responsibilities.”

My mother taught shorthand in high school. It’s the one course she taught that I didn’t take, but I wish I had. It would have proved very useful over the years. My executive assistant, Sherry Anderson, knows shorthand. With today’s digital technology, that’s a dying art. But historians tell us that shorthand goes back to at least the first century before Christ. A form of shorthand was used in the days of Jesus, and Matthew, whose business depended on large amounts of records, probably knew a form of it.

His records probably formed the basis of his Gospel, which records five major sermons by Jesus, along with many other actions and sayings of our Lord.

Matthew wrote his Gospel especially to present Jesus as Messiah for the Jewish people. He wrote especially to the Jews. As I said, he quoted extensively from the Old Testament, and that’s the reason his Gospel comes first. It links up with the Old Testament like the engine of a train.

The earliest church fathers and historians tell us that Matthew originally wrote his Gospel in the Hebrew dialect, which could have meant Aramaic. He wrote it while he was still in Judea. Shelton wrote, “A plausible conclusion is that Matthew wrote the Gospel we know for Jewish Christians during the decades of 50-70.” It’s also likely that having written his Gospel in Aramaic or Hebrew, he translated himself into Greek, since he would have been proficient in both languages. 

When we read Matthew’s Gospel, we’re struck by the way he ends his Gospel. He doesn’t end it with our Lord’s ascension back into heaven. He ends it, in effect, by telling us to go everywhere throwing dinner parties with publicans and sinners to introduce them to Christ. In other words, He ends his Gospel with the Great Commission: 

16 Then the eleven disciples went to Galilee, to the mountain where Jesus had told them to go. 17 When they saw him, they worshiped him; but some doubted. 18 Then Jesus came to them and said, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. 19 Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, 20 and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.”

From everything we can learn from early Christian history, Matthew did exactly that! We believe he stayed in Palestine and Syria until about the middle of the first century, sharing his Gospel and writing his Gospel. And then he went to a place called Ethiopia, but probably not the nation in East Africa that bears that name. Ethiopia was also the name of a region in Parthia [northeastern Iran]. It was called “Second Ethiopia” because of the Ethiopian immigrants that had settled there.

In the book of the Acts of the Apostles, Luke primarily tells the story of how the Gospel spread westward across Europe through Peter and Paul, but we know that many of the other apostles went eastward into the lands we know today as Iran, Iraq, Pakistan, and India. 

One early authority about Matthew says, “Matthew wrote the Gospel in the Hebrew tongue, and published it in Jerusalem, and fell asleep in Hierees, a town in Parthia. Another says HE first preached the Gospel in Judea, and after that in Macedonia, and he suffered martyrdom in Persia. He has his final resting place in the mountains in the land of the Parthians.” That would place him somewhere east of the city of Tehran, southeast of the Caspian Sea.

So let’s sum up.

The first thing Matthew did after deciding to follow Christ was to invite his friends to meet Jesus at a dinner party. He ended his Gospel by telling us to invite our friends to become disciples and to do so to the end of the age. And he gave his life taking the Gospel to his Jewish audience in Judea, then eastward into Asia. 

He is living proof that when Jesus occupies your space, you can’t keep quiet about it. And remember the words Jesus spoke under the roof of Matthew Levi, tax collector turned disciple: It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick. For I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance.

3. Try This at Home

Until I was nineteen years old, I had no interest in sharing my faith with someone else in a personal conversation. I went to church and I was even beginning to teach and preach a little bit in my church. But I’m an introvert, and the thought of telling someone about Jesus petrified me. And then I opened the door of my life as fully to Christ as I knew how, and suddenly I couldn’t wait to share with someone else what had happened to me.

I think we all have a little bit of Matthew Levi inside of us.

Recently I read about a man named Wales Goebel, who was a successful residential contractor. When he was thirty-nine years old, he developed a burden for high school and college students, and he developed ministries designed to reach them. He spoke at sports events, youth events, and athletic camps. The more I read about this man, the more I’m amazed. 

The years passed, and Wales Goebel grew old. At the age of 92, he wondered what he could do for the Lord. Every day he took a little walk through the park alongside a lake, and one day he became tired and sat down on a bench. The Lord gave him an idea. Why not sit on that bench every day and ask the Lord to bring someone who needed the Gospel. So at the age of 92, Mr. Goebel began his bench-sitting ministry.

People would come and sit down. Some would seem weary and worried. Mr. Goebel would chat with them and gently begin to talk about the Lord. As soon as he led someone to Christ, he enrolled them in a Bible study. He is 98 years old now, and as of my last report of him, he is still doing it.

Let me tell you about another man. I recently had supper with a young missionary couple who serve in Bulgaria, and they gave me a copy of a book entitled, Tortured for His Faith by Haralan Popov. This man was initially an atheist who became a Christian when he was a teenager. He traveled to London to attend Bible college, and while he was there he married a Swedish woman named Ruth. They returned to Bulgaria just before the outbreak of World War II.

When the Soviet Union gained control of Bulgaria, Popov was arrested and sentenced to fifteen years in prison for his faith. He was tortured. He was placed on starvation diets. He was thrown into punishment cells designed to break the strongest men. For years, he didn’t see his family. His children grew up without him, while he sometimes suffered horribly in near-freezing conditions.

But God gave him strength, and he learned creative ways to lead other prisoners to Christ. One of the most astonishing stories I’ve ever read is how the prisoners developed what they called the Prison Telegraph. It was a sort of crude version of the Morse Code. One tap on the wall stood for the letter A. Two taps stood for the letter B. Three taps was a C.

One day Popov took his tin drinking cup and began tapping on the wall. In a few minutes there was a tapping sound from the other side. Popov tapped out, “What is your name?” The man’s name was Mitchev. Popov asked about his condition, how long he had been there, and so forth.

You can imagine how long it took to communicate each solitary word.

At length, Popov asked the man if he knew about the Lord Jesus. The man said that he only knew a little he had learned in the Orthodox church when he was a boy. Popov began tapping out each word of the plan of salvation explaining it as best he could using that primitive Prison Telegraph. For three days, interrupted only by sleep, Popov preached to Mitchev and explained the Gospel. At the end of the third day, Mitchev asked, “But, Pastor, how can my sins be gone? I don’t understand.”

Popov answered his questions, and by the fourth day the man tapped back, “I am ready now to believe in Jesus, pray for me. I am ready to accept Christ.”

Popov told him to get on his knees in his cell and Popov did the same in his cell. They prayed together, as it were, and the man was wonderfully brought into the Lord’s family and into eternal life.

Popov later wrote, “All of this occurred by tapping a tin cup. Not one audible word was ever said.”

Matthew Levi would have been delighted with that story. The entire focus of his life was letting others know that when Jesus occupies your space, you can’t keep quiet.

Here’s the key takeaway. Learn to initiate Gospel conversations. Find gentle ways of turning any conversation toward something having to do with the Lord or with the church or with the Bible or with your testimony. If the other person seems responsive, go as far as the Holy Spirit leads you. Sometimes you’ll be planting a seed. Sometimes you’ll be watering. And sometimes the Lord will give you the privilege of seeing the harvest.

Invite people to church and to Gospel-centered events. Support evangelistic ministries with your finances. Keep some Christian books or New Testaments nearby to give away as the occasion allows. And remember the words spoken by Jesus of Nazareth under the roof of the house of Matthew Levi of Capernaum: It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick. For I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance.

The post At Home with Jesus in Matthew’s House appeared first on RobertJMorgan.com.

At Home with Jesus – In Peter’s Home

When people ask my favorite site in Israel, the ruins of Capernaum are high on the list. Here we can literally walk where Jesus’ did, visit the ruins of His adopted hometown and the headquarters for His ministry, and, if excavators are correct, stand in front of the actual house of Simon Peter.

Peter and his brother Andrew grew up in Bethsaida, as did the disciple Philip (John 1:44). Archaeologist R. Steven Notley suggests the remains of Bethsaida are today known as El-Araj and located on the northern shore of the Sea of Galilee, just to the east of the incoming Jordan River. It’s possible Andrew and Peter kept their family home in Bethsaida or let their extended family live in it. Jesus frequently visited Bethsaida, and perhaps He stayed in this house.

Peter and Andrew, however, relocated their immediate families to Capernaum, five miles down the western side of Lake Galilee. After Jesus was rejected in Nazareth, He trekked to Capernaum and moved in with Peter’s family. 

The location of this town was lost to history until 1866, when the British engineer and explorer, Captain Charles Wilson, identified the site. In 1894, the Franciscan Fathers bought a portion of ground here, excavated it, built a high stone wall around it, and oversee it to this day. 

Capernaum was a prosperous fishing town in New Testament times. In The Archaeology of Daily Life, David A. Fiensy writes about the remains of ancient fish bones in Israel. “We know that one of the major Galilean export items was fish. The Sea of Galilee contained many varieties of fish edible for both Jews and Gentiles. These fish were pickled or salted, and then sold all over Israel. Many were involved in this trade, from the fishermen—who could be day laborers—to the owners of the fishing boats and the merchants who marketed the fish.”

In nearby Magdala, it’s possible excavators have discovered “some of the fish vats where the fish were pickled/salted, as well as possible aquaria where live fish were kept until ready to be killed and processed.” 

Around the lake, there were at least sixteen harbors in New Testament times. Dr. Titus Kennedy wrote, “These harbors were built with the local black basalt stones, and the harbor of a town usually consisted of several piers that protruded out into the water, stopping the waves and providing calm and protected docking locations for the boats. The known harbors are located around the Sea of Galilee and demonstrate the prolific fishing industry during the time of Jesus.”

Dr. Kennedy estimates the population of the whole Galilee region in the time of Christ as 200,000. That made Capernaum an ideal headquarters for Jesus, who was able to “teach and perform miracles in front of thousands of people during his early public ministry without traveling any great distance, often using boats to go from town to town.”

I’ve come to believe that Peter and Andrew were the prosperous owners of a fishing enterprise, in partnership with Zebedee and his sons, James and John (Matthew 4:21; Mark 1:19-20; Luke 5:10). As I’ll show in a later chapter, I believe John was a teenage entrepreneur who marketed the fish in Jerusalem, selling Galilean specialties to the rich and famous.  

The name of the town—Capernaum, or Kfar Nahum—means village of Nahum, though we cannot connect it with the Old Testament prophet by that name. The town seems to have occupied about twenty-five acres with a population of perhaps 3,000. It could have been considerably larger, for much of the area in and around Capernaum hasn’t been excavated. A major highway ran through the town, and a Roman customs house that collected taxes from travelers, traders, and merchants. That, too, will show up in a later chapter.

Kennedy writes, “Due to its location, the town was home to a wide variety of professions, such as fishermen, farmers, artisans, merchants, government officials, soldiers, scholars, and religious leaders.”

Visitors to Capernaum today see the magnificent ruins of a synagogue that was built after the time of Christ, but it sits atop the ruins of a first-century synagogue, the one in which Jesus taught. For example, when I lead tours to Israel I often read portions of the Lord’s sermon about the Bread of Life from John 6 in the center of this synagogue. After recording this sermon, John added, “He (Jesus) said this while teaching in the synagogue in Capernaum” (John 6:59). This is the only time I can definitely say we’re standing exactly where Jesus gave a specific set of teachings.

Just a few steps from the synagogue is the house where He stayed, the house of Peter and Andrew and their families. When I first visited Capernaum in 1975, I was thrilled to see the ruins of the home of Simon Peter. To me, the most obvious stones formed a large octagonal space. Beneath the octagon, however, were the remains of a large, multi-room Jewish home in the first century. The house was organized around two interior courtyards, one of them containing a round oven. 

In the time of Peter and Andrew, large crowds gathered in front of the door of their house. Kennedy wrote, “This suggests that a large space was available in front of the house of Peter where people could gather. Excavations of the house demonstrate that it was along the main north-south street of the town, and a large open space did exist between the street and the doorway, which would allow a crowd to assemble in front of the house and all the way down the street as their waited to see Jesus.”

We even know something about the roof of this house. Another archaeological expert, John C. H. Laughlin, wrote, “One major architectural difference between the buildings at Capernaum and those at contemporaneous sites (such as Chorazin and Meiron, as well as sites on the Golan and in Transjordan) is that the Capernaum builders did not roof their structures with basalt slabs (at least none were found in the remains). The Capernaum roofs were probably made of wood, covered with grass/straw and earth. This technique of roof construction has also been suggested for the first century house associated with St. Peter on the Franciscan side of the property.”

That explains how the teachings of Jesus were interrupted in Mark 2:1-9, when four men tore through the room and lowered their paralyzed friend on a mat, begging for Jesus to heal him.

This house was converted into a church only a few years after the resurrection of Christ, in the mid-first century. The floors, walls, and ceiling of the largest room were plastered, which was highly unusual in Capernaum. Plaster allowed lamps to better reflect their light, as was popular with churches. Over the next decades, over a hundred graffiti were scratched into the walls mentioning Jesus as “Lord” and Christ.”

Later, the area was expanded and renovated to form a larger church. Then in the 400s, an octagonal church was built over the area, which is what drew my attention in 1975. 

In the 300s the Spanish pilgrim, Egeria, whom we’ve met in a previous chapter, visited the site and said, “In Capernaum, a house-church was made out of the home of the prince of the apostles, whose walls still stand today as they were.”

In the 500s, another pilgrim visited Capernaum and wrote, “We came to Capernaum to the house of St. Peter, which is now a basilica.” 

Just as we have evidence for the house of Joseph and Mary in Nazareth, and just as we’ve good reason to trust the location of Cana, so we have excellent evidence for the ruins and floorplan of the house where Jesus stayed in Capernaum—His primary headquarters for His ministry. 

The Gospels tell of five significant events that took place in this very house: (1) The healing of Peter’s mother-in-law (Mark 1:29-39); (2) the aforementioned paralyzed man who was lowered through the room (Mark 2:1-13); (3) the teachings of Jesus while His family waited and worried outside, trying to see Him (Mark 3:20-35); (4) the conversation between Jesus and Peter regarding the temple tax (Matthew 17:24-27); and (5) the Lord’s question to His disciples about their quarreling (Mark 3:33-50). I think I can detect a common theme in these stories, and I’ll give you the axiom now: Jesus employs only servants. Following Him means a humble willingness to joyfully do whatever is required.

The First Visit Inside Peter’s Home

Now, let’s knock on Peter’s door and see who answers. 

Oh, it’s an older woman with a smile on her face. Her story is very short, but it’s told in Matthew, in Mark, and in Luke. Look at Luke 4:38-39

“Jesus left the synagogue and went to the home of Simon. Now Simon’s mother-in-law was suffering from a high fever, and they asked Jesus to help her. So he bent over her and rebuked the fever, and it left here. She got up at once and began to wait on them” (Luke 4:38-39).

We don’t know what had caused the woman’s fever, but mosquitoes and malaria were problems in Galilee in biblical times. She may have had malaria. Jesus bent over her, rebuked the disease, and she was instantly well. And what did she do? She got up and quickly began waiting on them. It doesn’t say she got up and worshipped, or she got up and prayed, or she got up and gave her testimony. It simply came naturally to her to start serving.

“Oh, my, you need that dirt washed off your feet. You need somewhere to sit down. Let’s find you a cool drink. Then I need to get back to roasting those fish. We’re going to have a lot of mouths to feed today with all this company. I’d better cut up some more cucumbers. I think I have time to bake another loaf of bread.”

She got up and served them. Is that what you or I would have done?

If I could go back and re-live my life—including my years as a husband to Katrina—I like to think I would do a better job about humbly serving. In looking back at her prolonged illness, there were times when I was called upon to do things I never expected to do. Everyone who has done serious caregiving knows what this is like. It is almost traumatic at times. It was exhausting. It was messy. I wasn’t prepared, and if I could do it over I think I could do better at following my axiom: Jesus employs only servants. Following Him means a humble willingness to joyfully do whatever is required.

Sometimes I did that, but many times I didn’t. Studying Peter’s house has made me reevaluate some things about my entire life.

I just finished reading Chad William’s book, Seal of God. His dad was a pastor, and Chad caused his parents many sleepless nights. He was a stubborn teenager looking for fun and adventure. At some point, he decided he wanted to be a Navy SEAL, and he went after it with all heart. He made it. The Navy SEAL trident was pinned onto his uniform. 

His parents planned a big party for him at their home in Huntington Beach, and as he drove home for his party a feeling of desolation came over him. He wrote, “The farther I drove, and the deeper I reflected, the more let down I felt. I had reached my mountaintop, only to discover after a brief look around that the view disappointed me. And there was no higher step to take. I had reached as high as I could reach, accomplished everything I believed I could accomplish….”

He went on to say, “There had to be more than a hundred people at my parents’ house for the celebration. Everywhere I turned, someone was walking up to me with a ‘Congratulations, Chad!’

“‘Thanks,” I would answer, with a smile—a fake smile. I knew they expected me to appear excited, but deep down I wasn’t. Why did I feel so disappointed?”

“I didn’t tell anyone how I felt. I just began looking around for the missing piece. Unfortunately I started my search in all the wrong places…. That is when I reached a new level of recklessness—not only with my drinking, but with my entire lifestyle.”

He went on to describe the crazy, foolhardy things he became involved with, and I wondered how he could survive the things he was doing. Finally his threw him out of the house. He had come home for a break, but his behavior was so self-destructive they told him to leave. He was killing them. But there was a problem. He had a lot of alcohol hidden in their garage, and he didn’t want to get kicked out of the house before smuggling it out. So he decided to buy some time.

“Hey,  you guys are going to some church thing tonight, aren’t you?”

“Yeah,” they said.

“I’ll go with you.” He thought that would buy him one more day at home and give him time to smuggle out his contraband. So he went with them to a tent meeting where evangelist Greg Laurie was preaching. Before he knew it, Chad was getting caught up in the sermon, and to his own shock and consternation, when Laurie gave the invitation, Chad got up. The moment he stood up, he felt a change come over him instantly.

He wrote, “I had already felt a complete transformation inside of me, but when I started down the aisle, I experienced yet another new feeling: humility. That walk was like a walk of humiliation. I felt exposed…. And I felt like a quitter—but the good kind of quitter. I was admitting that I couldn’t keep living my life on my own. I was… enlisting to live a life God’s way.

“Such an attitude doesn’t come naturally to a SEAL… it was a big step into humility for me to remove my trust in myself and place it completely in God. Nothing in my life—not even Hell Week [during SEAL training]—made me feel weak. But that night I did feel weak. it wasn’t what I would have thought weakness would feel like, though.”

He said it was like the apostle Paul said, that in our weakness we feel God’s strength.

You may wonder what this had to do with Peter’s mother. When we turn our lives over to Christ, when He heals us, we have to accept what Chad Williams called, “another new feeling: humility. That walk was like a walk of humiliation. I felt exposed….”

To serve your husband or your wife or your children, to serve those under your roof, to serve your friends and community, to be a caregiver—that’s a walk of humility. I haven’t always done it as well as I should have. But Peter’s mother-in-law can teach us a very important lesson. She only has two verses in the Bible. She makes only a cameo appearance. But the moment the fever felt away from her, her strength returned and she got up and started serving the large crew that had shown up in her son-in-law’s house.

More Visits Inside Peter’s Home

Let’s briefly look at three more things that took place within the walls of Peter’s home. In Mark 2, the whole town was trying to get inside of that house: A few days later, when Jesus again entered Capernaum, the people heard that he had come home.

Jesus had made their town and in particular Peter’s house His home. Jesus will move right into your house and life with you, if you’ll let Him. 

They gathered in such large numbers that there was no room left, not even outside the door, and he preached the word to them. Some men came, bringing to him a paralyzed man, carried by four of them.

A group of men—who knows the number, perhaps a dozen or so—had a buddy who was paralyzed. These men loved their buddy. He might have been one of the coworkers who had been injured in an accident. This was a group of men who had placed their faith in Jesus, and they believed Jesus could heal him. So they put their buddy on a stretcher, and for of them carried him to Jesus. But the crowd was so great they couldn’t get in the door. But these men would not be denied. Some of them climbed on top of the room and started shoving aside the wood and the branches, which probably sent a cloud of dirt and dust down on top of Jesus. 

I’ve had sermons interrupted by many things, but never this. They formed a human chain and somehow got their buddy situated so they lowered him through the roof.

These men had faith in Jesus, but the paralyzed man must have also had a lot of faith in his buddies. I remember during Katrina’s illness someone became worried about my lifting her all the time and they said we needed to get a Hoyer Lift. That’s a contraption where you put the person in a sling and then take them through the air from one place to another.

I had Katrina swinging through the air like she was on an amusement park ride. She was shouting, “Robert! Robert!” I’d try to land her in the right place, but my bearings were off, so up she’d go again! It was like the swings at the State Fair. I finally landed her safe and sound in the bed, but it was akin to the space shuttle splashing down. 

I imagine that’s how the man felt as he came down through the roof. But the passage says, “Jesus saw their faith…,” meaning the faith of the group of men. And He healed the man, forgave his sins, and the man walked out under his own power.

When a group of men have faith in the Lord and want to serve their buddy, that’s a combination that draws the attention of Jesus. Jesus employs only servants. Following Him means a humble willingness to joyfully do whatever is required.

Our next visit is when the Lord’s brothers show up in the next chapter, Mark 3:31-35, as we saw in the previous chapter. They thought Jesus was out of His mind. But Jesus told the crowd: “Who are my mother and my brothers?” Then He looked at those seated in a circle around Him, and He said, “Here are my mother and my brothers! Whoever does God’s will is my brother and sister and mother.” 

Doing God’s will. Serving Him. Humbly doing what He says. 

The next time we visit Peter’s house, Jesus is inside and Peter is upset about paying the temple tax. Jesus said, in effect, “I am the Lord of the temple; I don’t have to pay the tax. But let’s not cause offense. Go catch a fish and you’ll find a coin in its mouth. Take it and pay My tax and yours too” (see Matthew 17:24-27).

Not only did Jesus offer to pay Peter’s tax, but He did it when He didn’t have to, just to avoid causing offense, causing a problem. And He threw in a personal miracle for Peter as well.

The Last Visit Inside Peter’s Home

Before making our last visit to Peter’s home, let’s look at the context. Mark 9:2-4 says, “After six days Jesus took Peter, James and John with him and let them up a high mountain, where they were all alone. There he was transfigured before them. His clothes became dazzling white, whither than anyone in the world could bleach them. And there appeared before them Elijah and Moses, who were talking with Jesus.”

This is the ultimate mountaintop experience. This was the most exciting, glorious, single moment in the Lord’s entire ministry prior to His resurrection. Why didn’t He take all His disciples with Him? Well, He had another assignment for them. He left them down in the lower elevations to work on a problem.

Look down at verse 14: “When they came to the other disciples, they saw a large crowd around them and the teachers of the law arguing with them.” The other nine disciples had gotten into a shouting match with the crowd. They were arguing. Jesus approached the group and said, “What are you arguing about?” (verse 16). The problem was that the other disciples had failed to cast a demon out of a boy. They had tried. They had probably said, “Demon, come out of him. In the name of Jesus, come out of him.” But the boy had gone berserk, foaming at the mouth, gnashing his teeth, and becoming as rigid as an iron pipe.

Jesus cast the demon out, and then He and His disciples returned to Capernaum and came into Peter’s house. They were home. Now look at verses 33-37:

They came to Capernaum. When he was in the house [that would have almost certainly been Peter’s house, where He was staying], he asked them, “What were you arguing about on the road?” 34 But they kept quiet because on the way they had argued about who was the greatest.

Can you get the feeling of this? Jesus was apparently walking some distance ahead of them, or perhaps behind them, but He could see they were bickering. They were quarreling. Have you ever walked in on a married couple and realized you walked in on a squabble? What do you think caused the argument? Peter probably said, “We were up on the mountain with Jesus in all His glory, and there you guys were. You couldn’t even cast out the stupid demon!”

Nathanael shot back, “I’d like to have seen you try. You have no idea what we were dealing with.”

35 Sitting down, Jesus called the Twelve and said, “Anyone who wants to be first must be the very last, and the servant of all.”

36 He took a little child whom he placed among them. Taking the child in his arms, he said to them, 37 “Whoever welcomes one of these little children in my name welcomes me; and whoever welcomes me does not welcome me but the one who sent me.”

Children had the very lowest status of anyone in the culture. That was especially true in the ancient world. They couldn’t do anything except run around and play and cry and make messes and be fed and go to the bathroom whenever and wherever they felt like it. Jesus was telling them, “Taking care of these little children and feeding them and changing them and caring for their needs is a greater thing that hiking to the mountaintop to see Me transfigured.”

Do you think they got the message?

No. Luke 22 says that in the Upper Room on the final night of our Lord’s natural life as He met with them amid the flickering candles and lamps, they were still put out with each other. Luke 22:24 said, “A dispute also arose among them as to which of them was considered to be greatest.”

I believe that’s when, according to John 13, Jesus said, in effect, “No one here has offered to do that task that Jewish people have been doing for 2000 years, washing the dust and dirt off your feet. So I’m going to do it.” And He washed their feet like a slave or a servant would have done.

Did that do the trick?

Nope. After Jesus rose from the dead, He met with Peter one day on the shore of the Sea of Galilee and they had a very tender moment together. Then Peter saw the disciple John in the distance and said, “Lord, what about him?”

Jesus said, in effect, “If I want Him to live to be 2,000 years old and stay on this earth until I return, what does that have to do with you? I have a plan for him and I have a plan for you, and they are two different plans. You follow Me. You serve Me” (See John 21:21-23).

There’s a paradox to being the servant of the Lord. In the Old Testament, it was considered a phrase of honor—the servant of the Lord. The Bible talks about Moses the servant of the Lord (Deuteronomy 34:5); Joshua the servant of the Lord (Joshua 24:29); and David the servant of the Lord (Psalm 18:1). And yet, there’s a humility to it, because it is, by nature, a lowly place.

In preparing for this message, I read a book titled Born to Serve. The author was Samuel Sutton Jr., a Navy veteran, who served as the personal valet to three presidents—Clinton, Bush, and Obama. Sutton is a dedicated Christian. He grew up in a house with no heat or air conditioning, no hot water, and he walked over three miles to church every Sunday. He worked in the tobacco fields from the age of ten until he was nineteen and joined the Navy where he says he had his first hot shower. In the Navy he was assigned to drive around the admiral, and he became his valet. In time he became the same for General Joe Vessey, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. 

Samual wrote, “I cut the grass, cleaned the house, washed clothes and cars… [and took care of] the general’s uniform…. General Vessey had at least thirty ribbons and stars that had to be put back in the same exact way after his uniform was cleaned.”

In time, Samuel was appointed to the White House. He wrote, “Other than the First Family, no one is physically closer to the president than his valet.” The valet is the one who wakes the president up, whether it’s in the middle of the night or at six o’clock in the morning. He helps him with his bath, selects his clothes, shines his shoes, helps him dress, get his breakfast for him, gets lunch for him, takes the dog on a walk, and tucks the president in at night.

Samuel said that when Barack Obama woke up on his first morning in the White House, he looked over and said, “Sam, where’s a good place to smoke.”

Sam said, “Mr. President, I think the greenhouse would be best.”

Sam found an ashtray and led Obama to the solarium on the roof where the new president lit his cigarette. Obama asked him about his service in the Navy, and then he said, “I need your help with something. Can you show me the right way to salute when I’m walking to a helicopter or meeting with our military.”

“Mr. President, I’d be happy to help you.”

Obama put down his cigarette and the two men faced each other and for the next half hour he taught the forth-fourth president of the United States how to salute.

Here is what I highlighted in Samuel Sutton Jr.’s book:

Performing the duties of a valet is an underappreciated art. It’s not something you can master in a month or two. You have to be aware of a person’s tastes, moods, inclinations, likes, and dislikes. It’s not a haphazard job…. 

My life has been a life of faith. I believe that God sent Jesus to die for our sins. If God is for me, then who can be against me? I know I’m not perfect. I get up every morning and pray to God to make me a better person. I know I would not have come this far without his help. I pray throughout the day for God to help me. If something gets in my way, I take a breath. God, help me put this breakfast together real quick. And then the angels come, and help is on the way….

I was born to serve. That service has afforded me opportunities that have richly blessed my life and my family.

That’s what Peter would have said. In fact, he said something very similar when he wrote 1 Peter. He said, “Humble yourselves, therefore, under God’s mighty hand, that he may lift you up…. Each of you should use whatever gift you have received to serve others, as faithful stewards of God’s grace in its various forms….”

He learned those lessons under his own roof when Jesus came to stay with him. Let’s open the door for Jesus too. Let’s make room for Him.  And let’s remember:

Jesus employs only servants. Following Him means a humble willingness to joyfully do whatever is required.

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At Home with Jesus – In Cana

Today I want to take you to a wedding with me, and they had a problem there too. It’s the setting for our Lord’s first miracle, and it’s found in John 2.

Scripture: John 2:1-11

1 On the third day a wedding took place at Cana in Galilee. Jesus’ mother was there,  2  and Jesus and his disciples had also been invited to the wedding.  3  When the wine was gone, Jesus’ mother said to him, “They have no more wine.”

4  “Woman, why do you involve me?” Jesus replied. “My hour has not yet come.”

5  His mother said to the servants, “Do whatever he tells you.”

6  Nearby stood six stone water jars, the kind used by the Jews for ceremonial washing, each holding from twenty to thirty gallons. 7  Jesus said to the servants, “Fill the jars with water”; so they filled them to the brim. 8  Then he told them, “Now draw some out and take it to the master of the banquet.”

They did so,  9  and the master of the banquet tasted the water that had been turned into wine. He did not realize where it had come from, though the servants who had drawn the water knew. Then he called the bridegroom aside  10  and said, “Everyone brings out the choice wine first and then the cheaper wine after the guests have had too much to drink; but you have saved the best till now.”

11  What Jesus did here in Cana of Galilee was the first of the signs through which he revealed his glory; and his disciples believed in him.

Background

My first trip to Israel in 1975. One day our bus drove through a certain village and the guide told us it was Cana of Galilee.

One particular Cana wine company says, “Jesus’ first miracle of turning water into wine has been memorialized for centuries, and the Cana Wedding Wine allows you to honor and enjoy this momentous occasion. This 11-percent alcohol product is made in Israel, and is as close to the original story as possible.”

I assume they mean close in proximity rather than in quality.

However, there are four other places more likely to have been the biblical site of Cana. Dr. C. Thomas McCollough, an archaeologist, makes a strong case for a set of ruins five miles north of modern Cana (Kafr Kanna). The site is called Khirbet Cana (“the ruins of Cana”). In biblical times, this town sat at the junction of two major Roman roads, and the remaining first-century ruins indicate it was a vibrant Jewish town. Excavators have found an olive press, over sixty cisterns, and one wool dying installation there. There’s a cave nearby that apparently became a chapel for ancient pilgrims who wanted to visit the location of our Lord’s first miracle.

Cana was extremely important to the Gospel story because Jesus ended His first official week of ministry by attending a wedding there and choosing that town as the location for His very first miracle.

Exposition

Verse 1: On the third day a wedding took place at Cana in Galilee. 

The first and last chapters of the Gospel of John focus on the first and last weeks of our Lord’s ministry. The final week of Jesus’ natural life occupies John 12 through 20. But the Lord’s initial week is told in John 1 and 2. The apostle John gives us a day by day account:

Day 1: John the Baptist is questioned by Jewish leaders from Jerusalem who had come down to the Jordan River to investigate his wilderness revival. He tells them he is not the Christ. The actual Christ is among the crowds, ready to make His appearance — John 1:19-28.Day 2: “The next day John saw Jesus coming toward him, and said, ‘Look, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world’” – John 1:29-34.Day 3: “The next day John was there again with two of his disciples. When he saw Jesus passing by, he said, ‘Look, the Lamb of God!’” John, Andrew, and Peter choose to follow Christ as His disciples – John 1:35-43Day 4: “The next day Jesus decided to leave for Galilee.” He challenged Philip and Nathanael (who was from Cana) to follow Him – John 1:43-51.Day 5: Jesus and His new followers were traveling.Day 6: Jesus and His new followers were traveling.Day 7: “On the third day a wedding took place in Cana of Galilee. Jesus’ mother was there, and Jesus and his disciples had been invited to the wedding”—John 2:1-11.

In biblical times, wedding celebrations would sometimes occupy a week or more.

John’s emphasis isn’t on the couple but on one of the guests, the Man who would perform a miracle of transformation—turning everyday water into the finest wine the world had ever tasted! 

Think of it! According to John’s Gospel, the Lord’s first week of ministry ended on “the third day” with a miracle. And so did His last week, when He rose from the dead—on the third day. There is a plan and pattern to the Gospel of John. He opens and closes His Gospel with one-week accounts which end with a miracle on the Third Day.

Verse 1: Jesus’ mother was there, and Jesus and His disciples had also been invited to the wedding.

The two towns were less than ten miles apart, and so the happy couple must have been either good friends or extended family of Joseph and Mary and Jesus.

After looking further, it’s not really surprising that Jesus began His supernatural ministry by blessing a marriage.

First, marriage is the first institution ever established by God. He brought together Adam and Eve and performed the ceremony in the Garden of Eden, saying, “For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and the two will become one flesh” (Mark 10:7-8). The first institution God established was that of marriage, and the first miracle Jesus performed was at a wedding. 

God doesn’t take your marriage for granted. Neither should you. To Him, it is a holy and wonderful relationship that points to our relationship with Him. Don’t be afraid to keep working on your marriage to make it as healthy as you can. 

When Jesus is invited into a wedding, marriage, and home, He can bring about transformative change. And notice that Jesus was invited. John wrote, “On the third day a wedding took place in Cana in Galilee. Jesus’ mother was there, and Jesus and his disciples had also been invited to the wedding” (John 2:1-2).

Verse 3: When the wine was gone, Jesus’ mother said to him, “They have no more wine.”

Some commentators believe she had a role in hosting the event. Her Son was dependable, resourceful, and a talented problem-solver.

Verse 4: “Woman, why do you involve me?” Jesus replied. “My hour has not yet come.”

The Lord’s response has puzzled commentators for centuries. “Woman,” He said, “why do you involve me? My hour has not yet come.” That sounds pretty blunt. It’s true that in those days the word “woman” wasn’t as abrupt as it is now. The New Living Translation says, “Dear woman,” and that’s a bit closer. But what was Jesus telling her?

F. F. Bruce said, “He [Jesus] had been anointed with the Holy Spirit and had received power to undertake the special work which His Father had given Him to do. Now that, after the long ‘silent years’ at Nazareth, He had entered into His public ministry, everything (including family ties) must be subordinated to this.”

When we embrace Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior, our highest priority is doing what He tells us, even if that sometimes upsets our family members. We do our very best to please them, but Jesus comes first.

Mary had only one thing on her mind—if we don’t get more wine this young groom and his family will be humiliated. Looking over at the servants, she gave the world’s best advice: “Do whatever he tells you.” Her words are timeless, and they might as well have been spoken to me—and to you. 

Whatever Jesus says to you, do it!

Verse 5: His mother said to the servants, “Do whatever he tells you.”

So Mary told the servants to do whatever He said. 

Verse 6: Nearby stood six stone water jars, the kind used by the Jews for ceremonial washing, each holding from twenty to thirty gallons (verse 6).

The Gospel of Mark helps us understand this, because on another occasion Mark explained the process of ritual purification among the Jews. He said, “The Pharisees and all the Jews do not eat unless they give their hands a ceremonial washing, holding on to the tradition of the elders. When they come from the marketplace they do not eat unless they wash. And they observe many other traditions, such as the washing of cups, pitchers and kettles” (Mark 7:3-4).

Everyone who came to the wedding feast lined up to wash their hands, and all the dishes, cups, and pitchers had to be ceremonially cleansed too. They explained why the six water jars were now empty. They were stone jars, not pottery, for in the Jewish tradition a stone vessel was unlikely to absorb impurities.

There is significance to all this. Most commentators believe the Jewish water pots and purification ceremonies represented the Old Covenant and its traditions. Jesus was about to transform all that, and He would do it through the wine of His own blood. 

Dr. F. F. Bruce wrote, “The water, provided for purification as laid down by Jewish law and custom, stands for the whole ancient order of Jewish ceremonial, which Christ was to replace by something better.”

Morris also points out that the New Testament often compares the Kingdom of God with a wedding feast, and the disciples in the presence of Christ are pictured as friends of the bridegroom (Mark 2:19). Putting it all together, this is the perfect opening miracle for the message of Jesus. He had come to replace the Jewish law with the wine of His own life and blood, and, in the process, to gain for Himself a bride—the church—which on this earth is eagerly awaiting the coming Marriage Supper of the Lamb, the time when we will be united with Him in person for all eternity (Revelation 19:6-9).

Wherever Jesus goes, He brings about change. If you let Him take over your life, He’ll change your life. If you let Him take over your home, He will change your home. Here in this first miracle, Jesus was telling us about the change He was bringing to the Jewish faith.

John 2:7: Jesus said to the servants, “Fill the jars with water”; so they filled them to the brim.

John 2:8-9- Then he told them, “Now draw some out and take it to the master of the banquet.”

They did so, 9 and the master of the banquet tasted the water that had been turned into wine. He did not realize where it had come from, though the servants who had drawn the water knew. Then he called the bridegroom aside and said, “Everyone brings out the choice wine first and then the cheaper wine after the guests have had too much to drink; but you have saved the best till now.”

One old commentary said, “[This miracle] sanctifies marriage, and gives Christ’s approval to innocent mirth and gladness.” In other words, Jesus wanted the wedding party to enjoy themselves with fellowship, food, wine, and the merriment of the holy occasion of marriage. The Lord wants us to enjoy life!

John 2:11 says, “What Jesus did here in Cana was the first of the signs through which he revealed his glory; and his disciples believed in him.” 

In this case, it was the first flash of glory that astonished His disciples and caused them to believe in His mission on earth. Jesus was beginning to exhibit the glory that belonged to Him as almighty God. This is one of the themes of John’s Gospel. In the prologue, John wrote, “The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the one and only Son, who came from the father, full of grace and truth” (John 1:14).

Here at Cana, Jesus began to reveal His glory to His disciples, who must have stood in slack-jawed amazement as they watched the miracle unfold.

In John 8:54, Jesus told His critics that He wasn’t seeking to glorify Himself. It was God the Father who was endowing Him with glory.

In John 11, Jesus said His purpose in raising Lazarus from the dead was “for God’s glory so that God’s Son may be glorified through it” (verse 4). In John 12:41, John tells us that even the prophet Isaiah, who had preached 700 years earlier, had foreseen the glory of the Messiah and written about it.

Then in His deeply personal prayer in John 17, Jesus told His Father, “I have brought you glory on earth by finishing the work you gave me to do. And now, father, glorify me in your presence with the glory I had with you before the world began…. Father, I want those you have given me to be with me where I am, to see my glory, the glory you have given me because you loved me before the creation of the world” (verses 4-5, 24).

The Lesson For Us

As you can see, there are many points of interest to this story, but the one overriding axiom that impresses me most is this. Whenever we do whatever Jesus tells us, our ordinary tasks yield extraordinary results. It was the servants completing a set of very ordinary tasks. But somehow in the middle of their ordinary tasks, the Lord accomplished extraordinary results.

It reminds me of a rather obscure verse of Scripture in the Old Testament. Isaiah 26:12 says, “Lord,… all that we have accomplished you have done for us.”

We should wake up every morning saying, “What will Jesus do today?” He scatters “everyday miracles” We should ask Him to turn the water of our everyday efforts into the wine of His elegant ministry. He can touch our daily actions with transforming dynamism, though we may not know it at the time. Only in Heaven will we realize how many gallons of wine He produced as we filled the jars and ladled the liquid.

Whenever We Do Whatever Jesus Tells Us, Our Ordinary Tasks Yield Extraordinary Results. Never be discouraged when you are doing the least thing for Christ. Just fill the jar to the brim and watch what the Lord will do!

As the old song says, we find that little is much when God is in it. 

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