The Coming of Elias ...

No-one believes in “now”.  Everyone seems comfortable in “someday”.  But to believe that someday is here, seems to much for any of us to accept.  When the time comes, it is time to stand.  But there is the catch, when does “when” truly arrive.  As Christians we await the second coming, we await the end of all things. 2000+ years ago, an oppressed people awaited the first coming, the coming of the Messiah.  The World was around 2000 years old when Noah and his family were saved.  It had been another 2000 years past that when the Messiah would finally arrive.  Abraham was dust by then.  David was dust.  The prophets mostly in their tombs.  Yet alas, not all the prophets were gone.  In fact, prophets were constantly with Israel through the entire passage of time.  They acted as a communication line between Jesus and us.  They were inspired to say, to preach, to warn, to encourage – whatever the Lord our God told them to say.  And while they were not all accepted in their own times; after they died their manuscripts were venerated and became what we now call the Old Testament part of our Bibles.

If you were a Jew, living in the age of Roman supremacy, you longed for the Messiah as well.  But who would believe it was here?  Ask yourself, how soon do you really think the second coming of the Lord will be?  You can perhaps accept it is coming.  But to think it will be next week, tomorrow, today – most of us just say no, we do not believe in “now”, we believe only in “someday”, perhaps someday soon.  So is it any wonder, that the people who lived right up the birth of Jesus Christ, likely looked at time the same way we do?  They longed for it, but “when”; that is an entirely different matter.  The Messiah was believed to solve a number of problems, escape from oppression being number one.  That was then.  The second coming is believed to solve a number of different problems.  Escape from the oppression of sin and our addiction to sin being number one.  We look exactly the same, then and now.  They doubted the timeline, we do too.  We use the excuse they invented – that our grandparents, and parents, all thought it was soon, and they were all dust in the ground with no event to show for it.

There comes the time, when “now”, means now.  No more waiting.  Just now.  Does that idea spark fear or joy in your heart?  Luke gives us an account of a human response to the idea of now.  And there are many parallels for us to discover.  He picks up with the backstory in his gospel letter in verse 5 saying … “There was in the days of Herod, the king of Judaea, a certain priest named Zacharias, of the course of Abia: and his wife was of the daughters of Aaron, and her name was Elisabeth. [verse 6] And they were both righteous before God, walking in all the commandments and ordinances of the Lord blameless.”  Is righteous and blameless the same thing as perfect?  Can you achieve these things by the power of will, or must it take the power of His love completely ruling you, in order for it to occur?  Those ordinances that Zacharias the priest and his wife Elisabeth observed included the rights of sacrifice, repentance, and forgiveness.  Observing those forgiveness rituals would have made them blameless before the Lord, even if they were not perfected yet. 

The question becomes, how often did they need forgiveness?  The measure of love you hold in your heart for others (and the lack of it for yourself) will give you a pretty good indication of how often you need repentance and forgiveness.  But just because 2 servants of God, did what God asked, does not mean they had a perfect life.  They were not blessed in all things, even though they were blessed in many things.  This was not punishment, it was preparation.  Might it be so with you as well.  What you see as punishment, might only be preparation for something far greater.  Can we open our eyes through trust, and find ourselves part of something much larger than the tiny timelines of our own lives?  It was to be so for Zachariah, and Elisabeth, even though their entire youth would pass by barren and without the blessing of children.

Luke continues in verse 7 saying … “And they had no child, because that Elisabeth was barren, and they both were now well stricken in years.”  First you will note, that Zachariah did not abandon his wife, because she was unable to conceive.  Nor did he pull an “Abraham” and simply add another wife to the equation.  Part of perfection, or rather blamelessness, is to love whether things go our way or not.  He remained a dedicated husband despite her inability to conceive.  Frankly, had Luke not specifically named Elisabeth as the cause it just as easily could have been him.  Inspiration clears that up for us.  But having no heir, was considered a curse in Israel at the time.  That curse then was a reflection of how you were living your life.  It was thought that God withheld His blessings of family from those who carried secret evil in their hearts.  So as usual, the church, and the local people and neighborhood gossips, held a field day at Elisabeths’s expense.  She later refers to this as “her reproach”.

Luke continues in verse 8 saying … “And it came to pass, that while he executed the priest's office before God in the order of his course, [verse 9] According to the custom of the priest's office, his lot was to burn incense when he went into the temple of the Lord. [verse 10] And the whole multitude of the people were praying without at the time of incense.”  The burning of incense was not just done on the day of atonement, but it was a solemn duty none the less.  And the Temple was a Holy Place none the less.  While Zachariah went about this ritual, the people gathered outside the front door of the Temple and prayed and sang hymns to themselves of the love and mercy of God.  You can bet many of those prayers were for the Messiah.  Need drives prayer.  The Romans certainly created plenty of need.  I wonder, do we see our sins in the same light?  Do we see a full and final escape from our sins, from who we are, as a great need that drives us to pray for relief, not just forgiveness?

 Luke continues in verse 11 saying … “And there appeared unto him an angel of the Lord standing on the right side of the altar of incense. [verse 12] And when Zacharias saw him, he was troubled, and fear fell upon him.”  Here is our humanity shining through.  Forgiven is not enough to keep us from fear.  Only a full lack of sin can do that.  While there is still sin in us, there is still fear in us.  When there is only love in us, fear will leave the building.  Zacharias adheres to all the ordinances and traditions.  Yet when confronted with an angel of the Lord, his humanity shines through, and he becomes afraid.  All the sudden, the texts of Old become alive.  All of the sudden, the supernatural becomes very real, very present.  And if it is present, then the presence of the Lord in that Temple becomes even more real as well.  Our minds instantly gravitate back to the last sin we committed.  Did we repent of it?  Do we really wish to be rid of it?  Or do we just want forgiveness number 547 until the next time we commit it again requiring forgiveness number 548.  And when does God run out of patience with us, perhaps on number 549?  And so enters fear as we examine ourselves.

Luke continues in verse 13 saying … “But the angel said unto him, Fear not, Zacharias: for thy prayer is heard; and thy wife Elisabeth shall bear thee a son, and thou shalt call his name John. [verse 14] And thou shalt have joy and gladness; and many shall rejoice at his birth. [verse 15] For he shall be great in the sight of the Lord, and shall drink neither wine nor strong drink; and he shall be filled with the Holy Ghost, even from his mother's womb. [verse 16] And many of the children of Israel shall he turn to the Lord their God. [verse 17] And he shall go before him in the spirit and power of Elias, to turn the hearts of the fathers to the children, and the disobedient to the wisdom of the just; to make ready a people prepared for the Lord.”  Wow!  That was a mouthful.  So first things first, the fact that this couple was barren, was not something they just ignored.  They did what all of us should do.  They took their sorrow to the Lord and prayed for His intervention, for Him to do, what science cannot do.  This angel’s first declaration is fear not, for their prayer has been answered.

Now every parent is always happy to know that junior is coming.  But long before ultra-sounds, and chemical testing, the angel tells Zachariah the sex of the child (what dad does not want a boy, at least once).  And the angel names him John.  More good news.  But it gets much better quickly.  Anyone can have a boy, but what if that boy turns out to be Saddam Hussein, or Adolph Hitler?  Not an appealing prospect.  But the angel is saying don’t worry, many people are going to be happy this boy was born.  This child is going to be great in the sight of the Lord.  Talk about an accomplishment there.  So the angel gives the new parents a precaution, we want this kids brain as good as it can be, so ditch anything with alcohol in it.  Nothing, nada, ever.  And the even better upside is that the Holy Spirit is going to be in this kid, even while he is still in momma’s womb.  Maybe not all babies are destined to be babies, but this one certainly was.  Hard to argue with this.

And the last bit of good news was perhaps the best.  This child was going to turn the hearts of the people towards God, in the spirit and power of Elias (just like the prophet of old in other words).  To turn the disobedient back to the wisdom of the just, this is just awesome stuff.  And it would be driven by the Holy Spirit from birth forwards.  The angel has effectively said – time is up, or rather the time is “now”.  Zachariah is being confronted with a message of the “now”.  The reality is that Zachariah is old, and has never seen anything like this.  How old are you?  Better said, are you so old, that you refuse to be confronted with the “now” even though the angels of God would love to give you just that message?  Could you accept it?  Could you believe it, because it comes from the mouth of an angel?

As blameless as Zachariah is, as used to following all the right rituals as he is, this guy is a priest by occupation after all – all of that is not a recipe for lack of doubt.  Luke continues in verse 18 saying … “And Zacharias said unto the angel, Whereby shall I know this? for I am an old man, and my wife well stricken in years.”  This is the danger of religion based on so many rituals.  We begin to think that the performance of rituals somehow depends on us, instead of being designed for our benefit.  Zachariah is used to being active in his religion.  So when the angel tells him he is going to have this miracle baby boy, Zachariah immediately assumes he is supposed to get it done.  And he knows Elisabeth can’t, or he can’t.  Zachariah knows that his humanity is now old and tired.  There was no Viagra back then.  And Elisabeth is long past menopause.  If this is meant for humanity to solve, it will not happen.  So Zachariah wants a sign to insure he can believe what he is hearing – all the while forgetting where he is, and who he is talking to.

Luke continues in verse 19 saying … “And the angel answering said unto him, I am Gabriel, that stand in the presence of God; and am sent to speak unto thee, and to shew thee these glad tidings. [verse 20] And, behold, thou shalt be dumb, and not able to speak, until the day that these things shall be performed, because thou believest not my words, which shall be fulfilled in their season.”  Yikes.  Gabriel that stands in the presence of God, that is not just an inconsequential position.  It is the replacement for the fallen Lucifer.  This is the chief angel coming personally to tell Zachariah these things, and yet Zachariah relies upon his own ideas about how to get them done, knows he cannot, and so doubts.  Zachariah wants another sign, and he will get one.  Not a good one, but a sign none the less.  Zachariah will no longer be able to speak until this is all accomplished.  Time to run to Walmart and pick up a chalk board and a ton of chalk and good eraser.  No wait, they did not have Walmart back then.  Oops.

This conversation has taken way longer than burning incense is supposed to take.  The people are getting a little nervous.  Luke concludes this segment in verse 21 saying … “And the people waited for Zacharias, and marvelled that he tarried so long in the temple. [verse 22] And when he came out, he could not speak unto them: and they perceived that he had seen a vision in the temple: for he beckoned unto them, and remained speechless. [verse 23] And it came to pass, that, as soon as the days of his ministration were accomplished, he departed to his own house.”  Despite being unable to speak, Zachariah still had duties at the Temple that had to be fulfilled.  When all of them were done, he went home, still speechless. 

What happens when the angel of the Lord tells us – it is time.  What happens when someday is converted to “now”?  What happens when what you read becomes real to you in a way you never imagined.  This issue is not just one in the pending pile, it is in the coming pile.  We may not be blessed with the birth of another John the Baptist (who otherwise would have been called John Ben Zachariah as was the custom – his work earned him the more famous title).  But we will face the outpouring of the Holy Spirit.  We will be given our own message to carry.  For me, it was – it is time to wake up.  I have known that message since I was in college, and it has never changed.  For me the now, is still now, even though what I long for, is not now yet.  But if there is a lesson in the 5 foolish virgins and the 5 wise, I interpret the now, as the time to prepare and secure oil in our lamps.  Because one day, perhaps more soon than any of us can imagine, that final midnight cry will go out.  And whatever we have secured of His oil, and His love in our hearts, will be all there will ever be.  Perhaps for you, your someday is becoming now right in front of your eyes.  Are you listening for the word of an angel, or discerning it in the scriptures right there in that Bible on the shelf?

Elias has already come.  It was as sure as the word of the angel of the Lord who stands in the presence of God.  But this was not the only back story Luke needed to share with us …

 

The Preamble ...

Most of our New Testament is made up of letters to fellow believers, and in general to encourage them to hang on to what they have been taught.  Even the Gospel of Luke itself begins in letter form to a believer called Theophilus.  It reminds me of some of our reality TV programs, where contestants may be separated from their families in order to participate.  Often the TV show allows letters from home to be handed out, as a form of reward, and generally only on rare occasions.  But each recipient that gets that letter from home, treasures it.  I can imagine that in these early days of the Christian church it is much the same.  The postal service was not as developed back then.  To transport a letter was dicey thing.  They could have been intercepted and destroyed by enemies of the faith, if they had been able.  Satan was no fan of the church or of believers, so you can bet his full attention was on doing just that.  To see that any of these letters survived his onslaught, and remain part of our gospel in the Bible, is already a testament to the miraculous power of our God.  For our God wants us to know His love, and every written volume that remains for us, is intended to reveal just that.  These letters then, are for us to treasure, for they were bought at great price and great consequence.

Luke himself, was known as a physician, a doctor.  Those healing skills in the early church would have been a tremendous help, but the power of healing was not confined to the limits of science, then or now.  Even though he was a doctor, Luke was not limited to being just that.  Luke emplored the Holy Spirit to do a healing work that was well beyond the limits of any science, except a re-creative one.  So Luke does not just examine Jesus from a scientific point of view, He examines Jesus from the power of the Holy Spirit point of view as well.  It seems sad, that so many of the excellent doctors we have in our world today, who also claim to be Christians, have allowed their scientific training to put limits on the power of God in their own lives.  Miracles (if they will even allow for the possibility of such a thing), are brought about by the power of prayer of others, who when confronted with the impossible, choose to look to Jesus rather than accept their scientifically proscribed fate.  Doing our best to heal, was never a prerequisite to seeing a miracle take place.  Instead trusting fully to God was, and remains the way to open that door.  This is not a contest between how to medically treat, it is an expansion of how to do it.  If you wish to employ the best of our knowledge to date, have at it.  And so you should.  But do not think the end of that road, is the end of all roads, it is not – as Luke can provide first-hand testimony to.

Luke was an educated Gentile.  Writing this letter, this gospel, was not denied to him by right of his birth.  It was opened to him by his choice to embrace the faith, and the power behind it.  Luke was converted and wanted to serve, and so his chance to serve was put in front of him.  Further proof, that God did not want an exclusively “Jewish” church, but a church of any who would choose to believe in it.  Luke’s upbringing was not in synagogue per se (such as would have been a Pharisee).  The Sanhedrin would not have accepted Luke in their upper ranks because of Luke’s gentile birth.  The Old church had become a social-status factory where the service of Luke would have been politely denied.  Have our churches become just like this as well?  Would we deny the service of one we believe to be caught up in too much sin (as we define it)?  Or because the doctrinal understanding is just not deep enough yet (when is it ever)?  Those facts did not deter Jesus.  Jesus accepted Luke and the Holy Spirit inspired him to write, and then preserved his writings for now nearly 2000 years.  There is a lesson here for us.

Luke opens his gospel in chapter one, in verse 1 saying … “Forasmuch as many have taken in hand to set forth in order a declaration of those things which are most surely believed among us, [verse 2] Even as they delivered them unto us, which from the beginning were eyewitnesses, and ministers of the word;”  You will note the motivation of Luke as he sets down to write out this good news letter.  This is a declaration of the things which are surely believed among us.  This is an affirmation letter.  This is a letter of encouragement.  It is not meant to dispute other versions of the gospel but to add a different perspective and result in achieving the goal of encouraging the faith.  Luke also here testifies that this account will be aided by first-hand eye-witnesses, as well as ministers of the word.  He likely is pointing out the original 11 disciples (without calling any by name).  He may also be referring to folks like Nicodemus, or the woman of Samaria at the well, who also encountered Jesus.  Is it any wonder this will be a letter to treasure?

Luke continues in verse 3 saying … “It seemed good to me also, having had perfect understanding of all things from the very first, to write unto thee in order, most excellent Theophilus, [verse 4] That thou mightest know the certainty of those things, wherein thou hast been instructed.”  And there it is, the first reference to the effects of what salvation is able to do to you.  To be saved from oneself by the power of Jesus Christ (that is through submission to Him in full, our desires, our thoughts, our motives, etc.) – has the power to “perfect” our understanding of our beliefs.  We let Jesus lead, we find a whole new trail of love through the letters written and preserved for our benefit.  Scripture is no longer a means to condemn sin, it is a means to find redemption from our all-so-evident condemnation of self.  We already know we are lost.  We do not need the Bible to make that any clearer.  Just look at the pain we cause ourselves and others as evidence.  Look at the death we bring to ourselves.  It is in our real world; we are living it.  We desperately need the Bible to throw us a life-line.  We need scripture to point us to the way away from our pain and death.  To the source of love meant to redeem even the worst of us.  A perfect understanding is not a tolerance for sin and pain, but instead a direct path away from both.  Luke wishes for his friend Theophilus to see this, to not let go of it, and to cling to it forever. 

Those with a perfect understanding of how to condemn do the work of another player in the battle for our salvation, namely that of Satan.  Satan is forever condemning the world, and the believers who reside in it.  Satan condemns both those who sin and do not care, as much as he condemns those who sin and know better.  His entire role is one of prosecutor.  He condemns without ceasing.  No, a perfect understanding of our beliefs, points one to Jesus Christ, to find relief.  Not just relief from accusation, but relief by a change in our motives, in our behavior, in how we love each other.  That is true relief.  We do not need an excuse to keep sinning and causing ourselves and each other more pain.  We need a way of escape from who we are, and from our desires to sin in the first place.  That kind of relief brings a perfect understanding of what we have been taught.  Perfection is not a pipe-dream.  It is a miraculous gift we can begin to experience in the here and now.  Let us give doctor Luke’s gospel letter a second look and begin to see how this perfection can begin to be established in each of us, and in our real lives now …

 

The Apostles of Christ ...

One could say the “Apostles of Christ” begin in the aftermath of Jesus Christ.  The writers of the Old Testament all had a direct connection with Jesus Christ through the means of prophecy and vision.  But they all lacked the history of His life.  They knew Him but only through the means that a prophet can know God, through inspiration.  And finding other people/prophets with similar experiences was going to be rare.  The Apostles of Christ had this same means of inspiration, but it was buffeted by the deeds, and witnesses, and stories of Jesus that were common in the first century after the ascension of Jesus Christ.  Imagine being a writer, and on your journey of mission, encountering another person who had a direct exposure to Jesus.  You would not be alone in talking about Him, you would be in a crowd of witnesses.  Everyone from young children who may have sat on His lap, to those whose bodies were fully restored because they did nothing but touch the hem of His garments as He walked by.  The Apostles would apt’ly be called prophets, but they lived in an age, where exposure to Jesus was not just a rare thing, it was a more common thing.

In our first volume of “A Second Look”, we studied the authors who had direct personal experience with Jesus Christ.  Those authors included Jude and James (likely His brothers as well as disciples).  They also included John (the beloved), Peter (the little rock), and Matthew (the former tax collector).  Between these men the story of the gospel was told very well.  However, while the story of our salvation is a great start, the story of our evangelism would seem to follow next.  It is the chronicles of that evangelistic message of the early Christian church, where the letters of the Apostles seem to add great context to our doctrines and understanding of God.  We will begin our study of this next phase of the work, with the author Luke (the physician).  Luke wrote another version of the gospel, inspired by the Holy Spirit, and with ample second-hand testimony by others who witnessed it.  Luke then went on to write the next chapter “The Acts of the Apostles” meant to show how the work would spread across the region.  During his travels with fellow apostle Paul (formerly Saul the Pharisee); it is believed Luke likely wrote the book or letter to the Hebrews. 

Understand that there is absolute unity among the disciples and apostles in pointing the new believer to Jesus Christ.  But beyond that, philosophy, perspective, education, and personal histories are all different.  Different parts of the body of the church, that present different attributes, each important, and each part of the Mosaic that makes up the body of Christ (His church).  There were no entirely separate denominations in these early days.  But there was a rift coming, between what the church would become in Rome, and what the church remained in the rest of the world.  Luke and Paul traveled together through much of these early evangelistic missions.  But that does not make them identical twins in what either wrote.  How could it?  Paul was a former Pharisee.  Luke was a current physician.  Both educated, but Luke was a gentile.  Both were converts, but both came from a completely different upbringing.  Just like all the others.  Jesus did not pick 12 men, then later 70 more disciples, as well as the women He invited to carry the gospel, because they were all cookie cutter images of each other.  He picked them for their diversity.  And He intended for them to cover each other’s weaknesses, and nuture each other’s strengths.  One body made of different parts.

In the end, most all of the passionate followers of Jesus, did not die deaths from old age, in comfort.  They died martyr’s deaths before their time, because of the fury of Satan against Jesus and His church.  Jewish persecution mounted the first attacks.  Which was followed by Roman persecution in the later years.  The early Christian faith was not born in a time with no opposition, but perhaps in a time when opposition was at its greatest.  Yet the ones who seem to have known Him best died these deaths and did not keep silent.  For a knowledge of Jesus does not inspire silence in us, but demonstrations of love in us, even to those who would name themselves our mortal enemies.  If today, we call ourselves Christian, yet pray for the death of our enemies, perhaps it reveals just how little we truly know Jesus Christ.  Perhaps instead we should take a second look at what has been written and see if we can find insight, that Jesus will lead us to find.  For now, let us put away our preconceptions, and read as if it were the first time, what has been preserved through miracle for us to freely read.

 

One For The Road ...

There comes that time, when something appears bound to end, that we begin to crave just one more of it, before it is completely gone.  For some, this happens in a bar at closing time.  For others, this happens near the end of a relationship that for some unexplainable reason is about to end.  For a lucky few, it happens in my daughter’s Bible school class, where the participants wish we just had ten more minutes to keep talking and learning any fine Sabbath morning.  But whatever context you are most familiar with, the sentiment, the feeling is the same.  We look back at something, and begin to relish it, cherish it, perhaps more at the end of it, than when it was just “there” and we took it for granted.  At that moment of realization, we desperately reach out to cling to it, even if just for one moment more.  If your most familiar context for this happens in a bar, there is a place that can offer so much more happiness, and that can last so much longer.  And if you find the context that serves you best is in the form of romantic relationships, there is a way to base them in the cement of faith, rather that the shifting sands of human interests.  And for those unlucky few, who search for this in church, but rather than wanting to stay longer, are burning up the aisles to get out faster – there is a way to “do church” that is so much better than perhaps you do it today.

The short answer to all of this, is Jesus.  The gospel of Matthew concludes by making this point very well in chapter 28 in the last few verses, picking up in verse 16 saying … “Then the eleven disciples went away into Galilee, into a mountain where Jesus had appointed them. [verse 17] And when they saw him, they worshipped him: but some doubted.”  Talk about a one-for-the-road situation.  Matthew makes the point that Judas is gone, by subtling stating the number of the remaining disciples.  But what Matthew omits, is the number of women disciples who were likely there at this same mountain as well.  Jesus had summoned all of them there to say His temporary goodbyes.  This was about 40 days after His resurrection.  And if you believe the risen saints who were the first fruits of His Kingdom walked the earth for 40 days and not 3 days, they would have been gathered there as well.  The point is that this was not just an isolated event for only the eleven main disciples to share, but for all those who deeply loved and believed in our Savior to share.  Keep in mind it was the women who FIRST received this very invitational message.

But then, as often happens in matters of religion, particularly before the entrance of the Holy Spirit, the devil tempts us to doubt.  This is another one of those situations, it is hard for those of us, who have never even seen the beautiful face, hands, and feet of Jesus to understand.  Despite all the evidence, the personal and up-close evidence, doubt reared its head in not just one disciple, but in “some”.  How does this happen in those who knew Him best, and knew Him longest?  How are we able to sit at the feet of Jesus (in our day at church, or perhaps at a parent’s knee) and still come to doubt, what we have always known was the truth of our beliefs?  They had Jesus in person.  We have Him enumerated throughout an entire collection of works we call the Bible.  And yet both of us are subject to the weakness of doubt.  We look at them in no small amount of contempt, and ask, how is that possible, given where you were, and what you witnessed first-hand?  These disciples saw the miracles we wish we could see.  They experienced first-hand what it was like to move through time and space across the Sea of Galilee after Jesus calmed the storm.  Those were first-hand accounts.  As were the healings, and casting out of demons, they had first-hand exposure to doing themselves.  They even saw the raising of Lazarus from the dead.

But now, in the final moments they would ever spend in the physical presence of Jesus who was leaving for heaven.  Knowing He was crucified.  And seeing Him risen.  Some doubted.  Is it any different with us?  Do we spend precious moments we have on earth, taking a “for granted” stance about them?  Instead of appreciating the brevity of our lives, and therefore taking the most care to enjoy our moments in the love of Jesus – we doubt where Jesus has brought us.  We let doubt seep in, and start raising the banner of circumstances for our victories, or worse claiming self-made victories in our past.  Our journey with Jesus is not about what “we” have done or not done.  It is about allowing Him to guide us, remake us, and lead us to where we are.  That journey happens outside of the written Word, and inside of the reformation of our particular hearts.  It is a real-life thing for each of us.  And that real-life experience then amplifies what we read of the stories of others who have encountered Jesus in the written Word.  One does not contradict the other, but both amplify the impact of Jesus in our lives.  If the Bible is still just a story book for you, and Jesus is still someone you have never met; there is still time to correct those positions.  Meet the One, then see the other go from story book, to His Word in printed form.

Jesus does not immediately address the doubt of His own disciples.  But He does communicate what He must.  Matthew picks back up in verse 18 saying … “And Jesus came and spake unto them, saying, All power is given unto me in heaven and in earth.”  There has been a change of ownership of our world.  Adam was its caretaker, until he surrendered it to Satan, when he broke trust with God.  Satan made the argument that it was impossible for man to keep God’s Laws.  But Jesus came, lived, died, and was ressurected in perfect harmony with God’s Law of love.  As such, because Jesus surrendered His own will to the will of His Father – His Father “gave” Jesus “All” power in both heaven and in earth.  There will still be opposition to the will of God in our world.  But that opposition will come from an angry tenant, not from the landlord.  The landlord of our world is now Jesus, whether we like that or not.  This new fact, of which Satan is well aware, makes that angry tenent even more angry.  Satan looks now to shred this planet, and shred as many of us as he can, before the landlord (Jesus) throws him out, and remakes the place all over again.  Satan knows his time is short, he knows he is on a clock.  And each second that ticks by is one more second closer to his demise.  So each passing second only serves to increase his desperation at shredding us all.  Ironic, that Satan sees time more acutely, than we do, when our life expectancy is far more brief.

Jesus continues in verse 19 saying … “Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost: [verse 20] Teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you: and, lo, I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world. Amen.”  These are the last two verses in the book of Matthew to his contemporaries, to his Jewish counterparts.  That was the focus of the ministry of Matthew, and of the audience of this book.  Jews would understand perfectly the concept of baptism.  Matthew takes this concept and enumerates through the words of Jesus an alteration to its historical context.  Instead of baptizing for repentance only, they would add, doing it as a public sign of accepting not only Jesus, but God the Father, and the Holy Spirit as well.  Our God, better described as three-in-one – three entities in perfect harmony, with unique roles, unique personalities, but perfectly aligned in goal and practice to redeem we who were lost.  That was something new to the Jews who would read this.  Using baptism as a public statement of accepting the role of Jesus in this trio of God was something new.  Even the introduction or better stated re-introduction of the Holy Spirit as part of the baptism statement was something new.

But Jews who understood the need for baptism understood why this might make sense.  And while Matthew was targeting his Jewish contemporaries, he was not ONLY targeting them.  For us Gentiles, the right of baptism would be equally valid and equally meaningful as our next author of study Luke, would begin to chronicle.  Matthew also knew his Jewish contemporaries would easily understand the next words of Jesus as well.  “Teaching them to observe”, was a concept deeply rooted in Jewish tradition.  The Jewish mind at that time and place would easily grasp this idea because it was one they were intimately familiar with.  The “art” of study of all things religious made sense to the Jewish mind.  Switching from naked tradition as taught by the Pharisees, to Jesus who rooted His teachings in the same scriptures, but from a motivation of love for others – was a radical change, but still a familiar idea to the people of God at this time and place.  Most Christians seem to forget that Christianity itself started as a Jewish religion, founded by Jews, whose leader was and is still a Jew, and whose first practioners were ALL Jewish.  It was only later that this new Jewish faith, became inundated with Gentiles from around the then known world.

“Things whatsoever that I have commanded you”.  This phrase in other gospels might find its closest expression in “Love one another, as I have loved you”.  We will be known as followers of Jesus, as Christians, by how we love one another.  When asked which commandment of the Law was greatest, Jesus summarized saying Love God first with all your heart, then love each other as you would love yourself.  That is to say, love the life of others so much you would lay down your own life for them.  That kind of love, that kind of self-sacrificing love.  It starts with loving God.  We know from practical experience that by allowing God to remake us, He puts His love inside of us for others.  Only then are we able to love them, to the extent that Christ would have us love them.  But in all these references whether by example of Jesus Himself, or by His teachings, we find that love itself is at the center of everything.  Love to God.  Love to others.  In that is the fulfillment of ALL of the Law, and of the prophets.  These were the teachings of Jesus we are commanded to observe. 

What we were NOT commanded to observe, are the unique interpretations of scripture that each denomination currently holds.  Those interpretations are meant to bring you closer to God.  But they are decidedly NOT on the Jesus-said-so list.  Love is.  Love is the only thing that is.  This is why it is so unfortunate when entire groups of Christians, decide that other groups of Christians are both wrong and evil, because they hold different interpretations of the same scriptures we all read.  Who is wrong, and who is not, is not important – if you believe we all seek the same Jesus, who alone is responsible for saving us, and leading us, into His truth, in His way, in His time, and in a manner that each one of us can comprehend and over time assimilate.  If you trust Jesus with your own salvation, then you must trust Jesus with mine.  We do not need to educate each other.  We need to love each other, and let our combined education flow from Jesus and the Holy Spirit as they see fit.  We are to be led by God, not to try to do the leading.  It is the interjection of unique doctrines, and interpretations into these verses than begin to make them of none effect.  If we boiled our teachings down to the same Love that Jesus asked of us, our differences would become meaningless.  For our journeys lead to the same place.

And what we seem most to forget about these words of Jesus written down by Matthew is the last phrases.  “Lo, I am with you always, even unto the end of the world.”  We are NOT alone.  We never have been.  We are not just accompanied by our guardian angels who keep us safe from the unseen war that rages around us.  But we are accompanied by Jesus through the power of the Holy Spirit who is everywhere at once, and with each of us, as we have permitted Him to be.  The eye of God Himself is on each of us.  He does not watch with pen in one hand, and tablet in the other, recording each and every wrong doing we embrace, by choice or by accident.  That list only has meaning if we reject His love.  It would serve as evidence to other humans who will one day ask “why is so-and-so not with us here in heaven”.  Then the list will be produced that shows an entire life of rejected love, the rejection of God’s love.  But for those who embrace God, that list has ALREADY been wiped clean by the blood of Christ and tossed into the deepest recesses of black holes the universe has to offer.  So when God Himself looks at us, he does not see the plethora of what is wrong with His child – He sees the infinite potential He could do and will do for that same child.

That kind of parental love is something we should understand.  When my parents looked at me at 2 years old sitting in the kitchen with gold paint everywhere.  They were surely not happy about my artistic skills.  But they did not love me any the less.  They cleaned me up (that was pretty rough).  They cleaned up what I had done (again no easy feat).  And they loved me each and every day after that.  Neither wanted a repeat of my golden paint fiasco, so paint cans were sealed tight, and moved beyond my reach.  They gave me a set of finger paints that were safer for me to use, and caused much less permanent damage.  This is the love of a parent.  Encourage the art, remove the danger, love the effort.  Would God look at us, at you, any different?  Would He not act as much as He could to take you out of the danger of your life.  Remove the desire to injest that which you should not injest.  Remove the desire to engage in what you should not engage.  He cannot prevent you from running away from Him or His wisdom.  But He can and does clean up your mess, clean you up, and love you everyday.  His efforts with you are the efforts of a parent who deeply loves their 2yr old.  And He looks to make the life of that toddler better every day.

This is what Jesus being with us, is like.  A Friend to talk to.  A Savior who cleans the mess.  A Creator who re-creates who we are, so that the future messes seem to just disappear.  And through all of it, love is at the center of it all.  We don’t need to know everything.  But if we are to have just one more for the road, let that one thing, be more of His love …