How to Get In to Heaven ...

Every modern Christian thinks they have a pretty good answer to the most basic question ever posed.  It is after all, the goal every Christian seems to seek above all other things.  It is held out as “the final reward”; and is often positioned against hell the only other final destination everyone should want to avoid.  So as soon as an awareness of God is discovered in you, the basic question of how to wind up in the good place, is one you want an answer to right at the get go.  This is not something new to our age.  It has a long history of being asked by people just like us.  You can date it back to the disciples and Pharisees who lived in the days of Christ.  But if you want to, you can keep seeing it asked all the way back to Adam and Eve as soon as they knew they had broken trust with God, and were destined to leave their perfect garden home for the labors of a scarred earth for the remainder of their lives.  And like the later days of Adam and Eve, there were many who just gave up seeking an answer, until the point where they no longer cared, and no longer wanted a future good-place outcome.  Give me a great life now, instead of a great life later, the prevailing thinking.  This thinking too, has lasted all the way to our day.

In the gospel of Matthew, in chapter nineteen, Matthew provides a series of contrasts of those who ask this question, and a detailed view of how it works.  It begins with the real answers, and then follows up with what most of think about how it works, and frankly, why we are nearly all wrong about it.  To begin we pick up in verse 13 saying … “Then were there brought unto him little children, that he should put his hands on them, and pray: and the disciples rebuked them.”  If ever there were a living example of how to get into heaven this was it.  Take note of the sequence here.  It begins with someone (presumably the parents) bringing “little children” (picture 2yr old toddlers, though the ages probably had a little wider range than that) to Jesus.  In our case, we do not even seek Christ on our own.  We have to be brought.  Not by an earthly parent, but by our Heavenly One.  It is God the Father who brings His children to Jesus.  He does NOT just bring the perfect ones.  Because let’s face it, what 2yr old behaves perfectly?  They make messes, sometimes messes with poo they have yet to learn where the proper place for that goes. 

But, and again here is the important part, regardless of their current condition, we are brought to Jesus for Jesus to lay hands on us, and pray.  For this to happen, we must first recognize we are not sophisticated adults coming to debate the correctness of our doctrines.  We are 2yr olds whose primary obsession is to love, be loved, play, eat, sleep, and repeat.  This is not an entrance based on a doctrinal understanding exam, it is based on a personal perception exam – are you a toddler – or not?  And as usual, church leadership (in this case the very disciples of Christ, not the typical anti-hero-Pharisees) are the ones trying to keep Jesus from being bothered by it.  If you are looking to gain entrance into the Kingdom of Heaven, don’t find yourself depending on the church to accomplish it.  They are more likely standing in the way, than lending you a hand.  Think about it, how much does your church, encourage you (regardless of your physical age) to be the toddler, you are supposed to be?  Most often, the church demands “adult” behavior from you, and is ready to throw you out, if you should dare to act like this kind of young kid.

Jesus responds in verse 14 saying … “But Jesus said, Suffer little children, and forbid them not, to come unto me: for of such is the kingdom of heaven. [verse 15] And he laid his hands on them, and departed thence.”  Jesus states it right here folks, in plain English, and in good old black and white.  This citizenry of heaven is made up of little toddlers.  Not adults, like you and me, or rather old farts like me, but young minded, obsessed with loving and being loved, ready to play, eat, or sleep at a moment’s notice.  Toddlers have the unique characteristic of NOT trying to be adults, or have deep doctrinal understanding, they leave all that to Jesus.  Toddlers trust.  Something that adults have a remarkably hard time doing.  The only thing adults are given to trust, is in themselves, which is possibly the worst thing they could ever take trust in.  Toddlers just roll with it.  Whatever Dad wants to do, is an adventure to them.  They trust the love of Dad.

But we don’t.  So Matthew follows this rather complete lesson on how to get in to Heaven with a study of the contrasted thinking (in his day and what remains in ours).  He continues in verse 16 saying … “And, behold, one came and said unto him, Good Master, what good thing shall I do, that I may have eternal life?”  Here ya go.  We just heard the answer.  We just saw an example in living color.  Jesus laying His hands on little children who trust Him for everything (including transformation and blessing).  And a typical adult, just like you or me, ignores ALL of that, and asks the question, as if, there is some other path required of adults, that is not demanded of toddlers.  So a rich young ruler, who considers himself a religious man, asks the question orally, as if a different answer is forthcoming.

Matthew continues in verse 17 saying … “And he said unto him, Why callest thou me good? there is none good but one, that is, God: but if thou wilt enter into life, keep the commandments.”  Jesus begins by losing all the flattery.  The term good master, or good rabbi, was not really genuine.  That is to say, this parishioner was not treating Jesus like the Son of God, he was treating Him like a fellow albeit unrecognized informal member of the Sanhedrin.  Folks in the Sanhedrin liked respectful name calling, so he uses one.  But the goal of Jesus is not to join the Sanhedrin, and fake flattery is not something He wants, so Jesus points the young man back to giving only God respect.  Then Jesus answers him, as any contemporary of the day would.  If you want to enter into “life” (mind you, not the Kingdom, but a better life), you should keep the commandments.  This is the prevailing wisdom of the day, and is meant to challenge the young man’s thinking.

The man responds in verse 18 saying … “He saith unto him, Which? Jesus said, Thou shalt do no murder, Thou shalt not commit adultery, Thou shalt not steal, Thou shalt not bear false witness, [verse 19] Honour thy father and thy mother: and, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself.”  The silly young ruler, actually asks, “which” commandment he is supposed to obey.  As if there is only one that needs it.  This question itself reflects a huge lack of understanding of what obedience means, let alone what harmony with the law would imply.  If this man is looking for “the” commandment to focus on, he is already looking in the wrong place for Kingdom entry.  Nevertheless Jesus gives him an answer, of all the commandments that deal with how to love others.  This is yet another test to challenge the thinking of this man.  You would think his response would be ,,, what about the ones where you love God first? ,,, but that is not what he says.

The incident continues in verse 20 saying … “The young man saith unto him, All these things have I kept from my youth up: what lack I yet?”  Yikes!!  The arrogance of this man.  To state to Jesus of all people, that you have kept all the commandments that have to do with loving others, since you were a child, is in effect saying, I have not sinned against my fellow man, ever.  First, highly unlikely, given the nature of human kind, second, useless as criterion to enter the kingdom.  The young man is smart enough to know, he still lacks something,  He can sense it.  For all his works he has done.  For all the obedience he has manufactures, it is not enough.  There is something more.  He can sense he is out of harmony.  But instead of coming to Christ as a toddler, looking for the blessing of transformation.  He is coming as mini-rabbi looking for something He can “do” to fix it.

Jesus continues to indulge his questions picking up again in verse 21 saying … “Jesus said unto him, If thou wilt be perfect, go and sell that thou hast, and give to the poor, and thou shalt have treasure in heaven: and come and follow me.”  Notice the response of Jesus, He says if you will be “perfect”.  Again not gaining entrance into heaven, but if he wishes to actually begin that process, to understand what loving others truly means.  If he is looking for something he can “do”.  Then go sell everything you have, give it all to the poor, and follow Jesus becoming the 13^th disciple, or disciple next if you will.  This is Jesus offering him an invitation that will finally and fully impact his life, change it, and truly transform it.  It is not the shedding of wealth that will do that, it is the following of Jesus that will.  The problem with his wealth, and with ours, is that it keeps us from following Jesus full time.  It distracts us with the cares of maintaining wealth, whether by working hour after hour on some other duty, and away from Jesus in the process.  We want a part time God.  Available for us when we need Him, but content to be quiet in the corner when we do not.  That is not how it works.  Not for toddlers anyway.  They want Daddy’s time and attention ALL the time.  Eat together, play together, nap together or sleep in Daddy’s bed warm and snug next to Him.  Toddlers don’t care about money, they hardly understand it.  They do care about attention, it is the constant companionship that makes them most happy.  Sharing that with other toddlers, even better.

The incident continues in verse 22 saying … “But when the young man heard that saying, he went away sorrowful: for he had great possessions.”  Here is where the concept of “doing” something to obtain your salvation ends.  In great sorrow.  For the pull of sin, and of this world, is stronger than the will you have within you.  Motives matter.  Despite all the behavior the rich man thought adequate since his youth, he never really understood what it meant to love others, at least to love them, more than he loved his wealth, or himself.  That was a bridge too far.  He could have stored his treasure in heaven by giving it away, but instead he preferred staying liquid in this world.  A short sighted response,  But based in thinking that was misguided from the outset.  It was only the connection with Jesus that might have reset it.  But it was that very connection, the man had refused.  At least, refused for now.

Jesus offers an epilogue to his disciples on this incident picking up in verse 23 saying … “Then said Jesus unto his disciples, Verily I say unto you, That a rich man shall hardly enter into the kingdom of heaven. [verse 24] And again I say unto you, It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle, than for a rich man to enter into the kingdom of God.”  Here Jesus repeats a basic truth we should all know, but somehow conveniently forget.  There is no way for us to “do” something to get into heaven.  Getting a camel through the eye of a needle is simply not possible, at least not possible for us.  In simple terms, there is no way to do it on our own.  There is no way to bring ourselves into harmony with God’s laws.  We may think we obey them.  But we do not understand what obedience really means.  Motives matter.  It is not just the actions of our hands and feet, it is motive of our hearts that reflect the heart of God, or just action without empathy, or worse, action with false empathy.

The incident continues in verse 25 saying … “When his disciples heard it, they were exceedingly amazed, saying, Who then can be saved? [verse 26] But Jesus beheld them, and said unto them, With men this is impossible; but with God all things are possible.”  The disciples are freaked out.  If this rich young ruler (keep in mind wealth is considered an earmark of the direct favor of God in their day), is not headed into the kingdom, who is?  If a solid commandment keeper is not going to heaven, who is?  Every good Jew, and Adventist, are completely bought in on the idea that if you can get to keeping all the commandments, you have it made.  Conversely, if you are not keeping every commandment, you are out.  No ifs, ands, or buts.  Except here was Jesus debunking that entire line of thinking.  His assessment of camels getting through the eye of a needle, is Him stating we will never get there on our own, ever.

It is the second half of this verse that gives us back hope again.  It is not about what we do.  It is about what God can do in us, for us, and often in spite of us.  With men this is impossible, but with God, all things are possible.  The God who invented physics, can easily bend the norms of physics.  The God who died for our sins, understands more than forgiving our sins, He understands how to change our hearts and minds so we stop sinning all together.  That is what transformation is all about.  It is not what we do.  It is becoming the toddler who trusts Jesus to lay hands on us and pray, and see us transformed by the power of His love injected in us.  We reap the benefits of His work, do none ourselves.  We begin to feel His love for others in us, instead of our own love for us and no one else.  We begin to see truth, as we begin to see The Truth, and no other way.

But the topic of the rewards of the kingdom, was not something concluded just yet …

 

Monday Morning Quarterbacks ...

Hindsight is 20:20.  If you knew what was coming, you could avoid it, make better plans, execute better, and generally make the outcome much better than the history you now review.  Once the event is over, we talk as if we would have taken that uncharted course.  We speak as if somehow, we would have known what the people involved clearly did not.  Thus, we speak as if our decisions would have led to a much better outcome even though common sense dictates this is doubtful at best.  It is in fact only history that can demonstrate folly, usually our own.  But what if you could know the facts as they were occurring?  What if someone told you what was happening, and what was going to happen, during the event in question?  Would you listen?  Would you believe them?  And most importantly, if you acted on that real-time feed, would the outcome actually be significantly better than the ones history most commonly reveals?

Having someone, or even a team, report the facts as they are occurring is one thing.  We used to call that “the news”.  But having someone tell you what was going to happen; that, is something considerably more rare, and considerably less believed.  But here is the tricky part.  It did happen.  And stick with me on this, it is still happening.  Matthew writes his gospel to the Hebrews, to the Jews of his day.  He writes to a proud people, with a proud faith rooted in traditions, grounded in the scriptures passed down in written form from Moses to his own day (what we now refer to as the Old Testament).  Jesus, was the New Testament in 4D living color, in real life.  What Jesus did, as He did it, was a real-time feed of The Truth.  Jesus was telling the people who would listen to Him, what “was” happening, but beyond that, what was going to happen.  Modern Christians read the gospel of Matthew, and in our brains, somehow we think that real-time and predictive feed of the words of Jesus is now past.  But it isn’t.  It is still both real time, and futuristic, even for us.  We have just stopped seeing it that way.

Consider what Matthew writes in his gospel in chapter twelve, continuing an encounter between Jesus and the Sanhedrin bent on His destruction.  Matthew sets the encounter picking up in verse 38 saying … “Then certain of the scribes and of the Pharisees answered, saying, Master, we would see a sign from thee.”  How many times have you heard these words today, in your real life, from folks who do not share your faith in a risen Lord?  Or worse, in your own moments of doubt, desperation, or sadness, have you considered them yourself?  This was Jesus.  The same Jesus who had been preaching recorded in the gospel books of the New Testament.  The same ones you read, and this audience, had a front row seat to.  After all the miracles of Jesus they had already witnessed (and you have read about), they persist in asking for “a sign”.  After all of it they saw (and you know from reading the first person accounts inspired by the Holy Spirit), what more could have been offered that would have met that need?

That particular question or request, cannot really be answered, because the one asking will not believe the answer given.  Atheists are forever asking for “a sign”.  They purport to believe in the science of facts.  Yet when those facts point to God, they look another way.  They demand the miraculous in the here-and-now, in front of their eyes, “in order that they might believe”.  But should that sign be given, the outcome would not change because the heart of the asker will not be influenced by what it chooses not to believe.  But even to these Israelite men sworn to the destruction of Jesus; Jesus refused to be their enemy.  Instead He longed for their redemption, so in His answer of Truth, is found the glimmer of hope.  Jesus responds in verse 39 saying … “But he answered and said unto them, An evil and adulterous generation seeketh after a sign; and there shall no sign be given to it, but the sign of the prophet Jonas:”  Here Jesus gets a little metaphorical in His response.

Jonah the prophet spent time in the belly of a whale, a place where no one usually gets out alive again.  But beyond that for which he is famous, Jonah the prophet, was also dispatched to preach to the people of Nineveh to save it from the destruction its embrace of evil was insuring.  Jonah was dispatched on a mission of salvation, on a mission of redemption.  The Sanhedrin asks Jesus for a sign, and in His response Jesus offers them an allegory to Jonah the prophet whose mission was one of redemption, even for men who were bent on His own destruction.  Jesus continues in verse 40 saying … “For as Jonas was three days and three nights in the whale's belly; so shall the Son of man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth. [verse 41] The men of Nineveh shall rise in judgment with this generation, and shall condemn it: because they repented at the preaching of Jonas; and, behold, a greater than Jonas is here.”

Jesus begins with His own journey into the earth in death which none other ever escaped on their own.  But Jesus also offers a picture of last day events, of a resurrection (sorry Sadducees) where the men of Nineveh by comparison did repent at the preaching of Jonah, but the men of the Sanhedrin refuse to repent at the preaching of God Himself in human form.  Notice that these dead men of Nineveh “rise” at the end of all things, they do not descend and re-inhabit human form.  These men have been dead, asleep in the earth, and only then are awakened in a resurrection where they discover the men of Jesus’ time were so stubborn against repentance when they themselves repented at the word of Jonah.  The men of spiritual privilege fail, where the men of pagan poverty did repent.  The similarity of the story might also be found in its ending, as even those men who did repent initially did not sustain that repentance very long, and the doom Jonah predicted found them after all as they returned to the evil they were intended to abandon.  To repent only casually was not was needed in the men of the Sanhedrin, and to we who stare into the mirrors of our homes.  In our day, is it only the homeless who truly find Jesus; while we of spiritual privilege who claimed to know Him, never really did?

Jesus extends the comparison further continuing in verse 42 saying … “The queen of the south shall rise up in the judgment with this generation, and shall condemn it: for she came from the uttermost parts of the earth to hear the wisdom of Solomon; and, behold, a greater than Solomon is here.”  The subtilty is lost on His accusers.  Jesus compares missions of salvation that were targeted at Gentiles, at the citizens of Nineveh who would be largely Assyrian, and to the Queen of the South whose people were likely ancestors of Kenya or Ethiopia.  People not born to the gospel, but who find it none the less.  People who the gospel was brought to them even when uninvited, and people who sought the gospel and were willing to travel to the ends of the earth to find it.  And in both scenarios those listeners were willing to repent based on the words of human messengers, yet these men of spiritual privilege were stubborn against repentance in front of God Himself.

And how are we different?  Whether by invitation to God, or by the pursuit of God even though uninvited, Jesus offers us reformative love, transformative love, love that can make us different than who we once were.  And somewhere on our journey we look away from it, and begin to question it, and doubt it, and presume to ask for a miraculous sign in order to believe in it once again.  Has your life changed nothing at all from the love of Christ?  If so, perhaps you have yet to surrender to it.  But if you have surrendered how “you” think things of salvation should be done; you will most certainly find a progression of who you are from sin-infected vessel of evil, to repentant servant of Christ who is beginning to love others more than you used to love yourself.  That transition “IS” the miraculous sign you seek.  It is hard coded into who you are, and cannot be taken from you by any in the world, though it can be discarded by you if you choose to pull away your focus and surrender from Jesus, its source.  Your life “IS” the miracle, no matter where you are, or what condition you find yourself in.  What bigger more meaningful “sign” could Jesus ever offer you.

Compare where you are, and who you are, with who you used to be, and what you used to value.  For a Christian who has surrendered to Jesus, there “IS” a difference.  You cannot explain “why” there is.  But you surely will be able to see it and notice it.  The work of changing you belongs to God, and it is why you cannot explain it.  But you can certainly see the difference.  This is what transformation is all about.  You may not be perfect yet, but you are on a journey to perfection.  The closer to perfection you come, the more you realize the need of repentance; for the more heinous you find the sins you once embraced.  The more you surrender the closer to perfection you will find yourself, and the more the mystery of how it is happening will boggle your brain.  This is Jesus in real life, in your real life.  This is the testimony you have to offer, no one else’s, just yours.  It is unique to you.  It cannot be faked, or falsified.  People will see through that in a New-York-Minute.  But a real connection to Jesus that transforms you from who you were to who He intends you to be, is equally undeniable, by anyone who knows you.

Those who attempt to hold control to themselves in matters of salvation; those who fake the idea of transformation because they do not know how to surrender, nor are they inclined; have a different fate to await them.  Faking transformation leaves one empty, hollow, and not in harmony with God’s laws or His ideas of loving others.  A person so hollowed out is susceptible to things they will wish they never encountered.  Jesus begins talking about a man who has been freed of demonic possession.  But a onetime event, is not the same thing as a life-long commitment to the Savior who can truly keep you saved, and perfect His ideas of salvation within you.  He picks up in verse 43 saying … “When the unclean spirit is gone out of a man, he walketh through dry places, seeking rest, and findeth none. [verse 44] Then he saith, I will return into my house from whence I came out; and when he is come, he findeth it empty, swept, and garnished.”

The demon is forced to leave the man.  But the man, while grateful, is content to work on cleaning himself up, effectively saving himself in his own eyes.  The vessel of our bodies (and souls) is then un-equipped to withstand the supernatural no matter how strong we think we are.  We are hollowed out, empty Christians, who know nothing of real transformation.  We may know doctrine.  We may know “about” Jesus, but we have never surrendered and trusted Jesus to save us, so we have no personal experience with Jesus.  We clean ourselves up, with the strength of our wills, dusting and sweeping, but unable to clean the motives that underlie our desire to sin.  The fate of men & women like this is enumerated further in verse 45 saying … “Then goeth he, and taketh with himself seven other spirits more wicked than himself, and they enter in and dwell there: and the last state of that man is worse than the first. Even so shall it be also unto this wicked generation.”

Superficial encounters.  Emotional highs.  Shared experiences of others that become co-opted as our own, but in truth are not.  These are not the hallmarks of deep encounters with Jesus of a personal nature; they are instead earmarks of “religion”.  Tradition and repetition do not save, Jesus does.  Personal will power to resist sin and remain pure does not clear out defective motives, Jesus does.  Trusting in Jesus, something bigger than ourselves, to truly save us, works – everything else does not.  It is Satan’s crowing achievement to seduce men into believing that men have control of their lives, when he knows there are only willing servants of God, and bound slaves to himself.  “Control” is not in the province of men.  We surrendered it at the tree of knowledge of good and of evil.  Once Adam broke trust with God and ate the fruit, the fruit owned him not the other way around.  Salvation must come to man from outside of man.  You must be saved from yourself by Jesus, or not at all.

We read the gospel of Matthew and do we see this as nothing but hindsight.  The trust, or lack of it, that plagued the Sanhedrin, a group of men (and women in our day), who are the spiritually privileged but refuse repentance because they refuse to yield even the ideas of control to anyone other than self.  This group heads on a freeway towards doom that cannot be reversed.  Do we see this as nothing but hindsight for them, or is this real-time for us?  It is still counsel as relevant now as it ever was, and to the audience of one who stares back at you from your mirror.  It is also predictive now as it ever was.  The future of this fate and these choices has not changed.  As you live you remain open to change your fate and trust that what God predicts, God can guarantee.  Jesus saves, nothing else, no one else, especially not you.  You need saving, you are not the vehicle of it.

It is not just the danger of trying to fake salvation we try to avoid.  It is the actual bliss that comes from truly surrendering a life to Jesus.  Emptiness is replaced with fulfillment.  Worry is lifted away and peace given in its place.  What Jesus does in your life is not just remove the bad, He replaces it with a level of good your mind is ill equipped to even imagine.  This is the beauty of salvation, of the journey to perfection, of the transformation of who you were, into who you are becoming.  Your house is not made empty, but filled to the brim with the furnishings of joy and true cleanliness you could have never put there on your own.  Understanding what harmony with God’s law looks like is not reserved for you after death.  It is available to you in the here-and-now.  It is offered to you by Jesus who so longs to bring you this level of real-time salvation.  Jesus is working so hard to reconcile you back to Him, to the Father, and to the Holy Spirit.  Do you intend to play Monday Morning Quarterback with His efforts, or do you want to get into the game for yourself, and see what it looks like on the field in real-time as “your” journey unfolds?

 

Reaching Out [part two] ...

Ideology matters; perhaps never more than today.  What you believe will drive what you are willing to sacrifice for it.  And more dangerously, what you believe may strongly influence how much you are willing to make others suffer because they do not share your beliefs.  Belief underlies it all.  And our enemy is quick to introduce fear into that equation.  Combine fear and belief, and it is easy to believe others intend to persecute you for your own beliefs.  When you believe you might be persecuted, you form a defense against this persecution.  And a good offense is always a good defense, so belief and fear combine to drive violence into our world.  Whether threats are real or perceived becomes irrelevant.  The violence that ensues is measurable.  Perhaps this is why whenever our Lord introduced the supernatural of His Kingdom to mankind he always opens the greeting with “Fear Not”.

Where your willingness to inflict violence over your beliefs, becomes more important to you than traditional bonds of friendship and family … belief transcends reasonable boundaries and becomes fanaticism.  A fanatic puts his beliefs so high in importance, that even friendship and family must take a back seat.  Friendships of many years can be dissolved in an instant over a slight change in shared beliefs.  Churches split over them.  Cain kills Able over them.  Differences in our exact interpretation of beliefs cause us to cast aside friendships, a spirit of community, and even the blood bonds of family.  And in the mind of the fanatic, all of these must be sacrificed for the sake of what is more important.  Fanatics point to the words of Jesus on this matter, stating those who love parents or children more than they love Him are not worthy of Him.  But Jesus did not offer the example of committing violence against non-believers.  Rather Jesus offered us an example of redemptive love for ALL those who do not yet believe.  Yet the fanatic ignores anything in the narrative of scripture that countermands his beliefs and violent intentions, and passionately embraces any tittle of scripture that might support them, and so builds his ‘doctrinal epoch of cause’ to inflict violence where he sees fit.

The fundamentalist is a brand that has emerged in the last 50 years.  The fundamentalist is a unique and partial picture of the fanatic.  They wish a “return” to basic doctrines and are extremely passionate about these ideas.  However, their reactions range from pity & condemnation for those who do not share their beliefs; to outright violence against the unbeliever in order to prompt him to see the error of his ways.  If the unbeliever dies in the process, that is left to the will of God.  Islamic extremists tend to fall in the fundamentalist category.  But so do many Christians who are willing to kill over their beliefs, whether to defend themselves, or to “defend the faith”.  What separates the fundamentalist from the full-on-fanatic is the boundary of family-relationships.  When the fundamentalist is willing to discard, or remove, a family member over a dispute about beliefs – they have entered the domain of the fanatic.

You can see ranges of this in your own life, if we begin by talking about politics first.  Most solid friendships can endure a difference over presidential candidates and how they are doing.  Good friends just come to a place where they agree to disagree.  Or perhaps learn to enjoy a good round of debates where no one leaves angry.  Families usually do better at this still … but only because ‘they have to’.  The bonds of blood are way too important to lose over some idiot presidential candidate.  So each family member agrees to “forgive” the one who is “mis-informed” and they either don’t talk about it at all (so as not to get angry), or they reach a maturity level that allows them open discourse without taking it personally.  It is rare where a family is willing to break apart over a disagreement in politics.  Frankly, politics is just not that worth it.

But where it comes to your salvation (in a spiritual context); people do the stupidest things, in the worst ways imaginable – and then claim what they do is the direct will of God, as if God spoke to them and dictated the series of events and actions they must go do.  But God does not.  God does not whisper in the inquisitor’s ear; that in order to change this infidel’s thinking about religion, you need to continue torturing him/her in more and more severe ways.  If there is a voice in that ear, it is NOT the voice of the Lord.  Nor does God whisper in the voice of the ear of a self-described Muslim Martyr; that murdering the innocent will somehow send a “bigger” statement to infidels about how wrong they are.  Neither act accomplishes anything, but the degradation of the perpetrator.  And to ascribe these acts to the will of God is to blaspheme the name of God; yet the crime continues on every day in assorted variations until blasphemy is common place.

Even where minds are so made up; even where opinions rarely change they only harden; the commission of the gospel lives on.  The message of the arrival of the kingdom of God, and the entry through Jesus Christ lives on, remains relevant, and is still good news.  To live a better life in the here-and-now is still an awesome concept no matter how badly I have screwed up doctrines, or how fanatically I am wrong about so so many things.  That good news dwarfs the condemnation of my fundamentalism, and has the potential to restore the relationships with family and friends my craziness has broken apart.  My entire life could be so exponentially better through Jesus Christ, and His gift is so easy to accept.  Even though our internet jungle of ever hardening circles of judgement remain, the gospel is bigger, better, and more powerful than that. 

Jesus knew the weird beliefs systems we would face.  Jesus knew how beliefs devolve into fanaticism.  Jesus knew even His own religion would fall victim to this horror.  But the gospel had to go out still.  Matthew continues the counsel of Christ resuming in chapter ten of his gospel picking up in verse 16 saying … “Behold, I send you forth as sheep in the midst of wolves: be ye therefore wise as serpents, and harmless as doves.”  No matter what the level of violence raised against the follower of Christ, violence in return, is not the response.  This text is very specific that the gospel is not spread on the point of sword.  Inflicting violence does nothing to change hearts, only love does that.  Responding to threats is not couched in excellent defensive postures and weapons of self-defense, it is couched only in love for the enemy who means us harm.  Wisdom is a better method of avoiding problems, than violence.  Being harmless makes us less of a threat than a posture of strength.  Let the Lord be our strength instead.

Matthew continues in verse 17 saying … “But beware of men: for they will deliver you up to the councils, and they will scourge you in their synagogues; [verse 18] And ye shall be brought before governors and kings for my sake, for a testimony against them and the Gentiles.”  Jesus predicts the fury of organized religion against the pure message of saving grace.  He does not assure us deliverance against these heinous crimes, rather that we will surely endure them for the sake of the gospel, for the sake of the redemption of the man carrying the whip.  His own religion, that is, the religion Jesus setup with Moses in the desert will be the first to unleash the satanic fury of fanaticism against the simple saving message of Jesus as the Messiah.  But religious persecution is not the only brand His followers would suffer.  Religion would unite with the power of the State to continue and expand persecution of the followers of Jesus.  In the years to come, the corruption within the legacy Jewish religion would find its way into the Roman Catholic halls and extend the reach of persecution against groups like the Waldensians, and other smaller segments of people who believed in the saving message of Jesus Christ, not the absolute control of the organized church.  “Who” saves you has always been the ultimate question, whether singularly Jesus Christ, or some version of people claiming to be His sole church.

Jesus then provides His followers with the ultimate defense attorney for the upcoming “trials” in which they will be accused falsely, picking up in verse 19 saying … “But when they deliver you up, take no thought how or what ye shall speak: for it shall be given you in that same hour what ye shall speak. [verse 20] For it is not ye that speak, but the Spirit of your Father which speaketh in you.”  We are nothing better than a conduit for the Spirit of God.  And to be that, we must get out of the way.  Preparation, is NOT required.  In fact, it should be purposely avoided.  That takes trust.  That takes confidence that we will not be making a fool of ourselves when the time comes.  But the fool in us will remain silent, while the Spirit that enters us will speak with a clarity, and emotional pull, that ONLY the Spirit of God can accomplish.  It is the well prepared of us, that provides no outlet for His Spirit.  We are too busy talking ourselves to let Him get a word in edgewise.  And while we speak our own well prepared words, it is evident we are truly fools.  For Satan can out debate us any day of the week, but against His Spirit, Satan is moot, and irrelevant.

The core of this counsel relies on a faith in Jesus Christ to save us.  To save us from ourselves.  To save us from situations well beyond our control.  And in the process, to reach out to others, and point them to the salvation of Jesus Christ.  The goal is not to be saved in a vacuum, but to spread out the witness of salvation, of what it means to be saved, in a community that is so desperate to see those effects in themselves.  And we do it so poorly.  So perhaps it is time now, to be still, to remain unprepared, and let our words become His words.  And there is no audience who we would wish to reach more intensely than the members of our own families.  Sadly, they will not always be willing to hear.  And worse we may discover fanaticism in our own ranks against the concept of Jesus Christ and his gift of salvation.

Matthew continues in verse 21 saying … “And the brother shall deliver up the brother to death, and the father the child: and the children shall rise up against their parents, and cause them to be put to death. [verse 22] And ye shall be hated of all men for my name's sake: but he that endureth to the end shall be saved.”  Family will rise against family from the inside.  The blood bonds that should bind us in tolerance and love, prove brittle in the face of salvation and the name of Jesus Christ.  Our own families prefer agnosticism, they prefer methods of self-salvation, they prefer a nebulous god who can be reached through a variety of methods certainly not only through the Jesus Christ our silly scriptures describe.  Sad to think, that one sect of purported Christians, would turn in another, over doctrinal disputes of the how the remainder of scripture (outside of Jesus) is interpreted.  But that is our history, and will remain our future.  Power carries great allure, and once intoxicated with it, fanaticism is easy to achieve, even if at the death of a family member.  Keep in mind, the true followers of Jesus Christ are the victims our Lord describes … not the perpetrators.  If “Christians” turn anyone over to be killed, they blaspheme the name they carry.  Also keep in mind, our Lord does not promise us deliverance against the deaths our own families and the state and the corrupted churches would visit upon us.  Not everyone will get away, or find escape.  Some will die, perhaps many.  But to endure until the end is to keep our faith grounded in Jesus for our salvation, if not in this world, then in the far more important next one.

Matthew continues in verse 23 saying … “But when they persecute you in this city, flee ye into another: for verily I say unto you, Ye shall not have gone over the cities of Israel, till the Son of man be come.”  Our response to persecution is to flee, not to confront it violently.  But the second half of this verse always stirs up controversy in its interpretation.  On the surface, it looks as though once the gospel is spread to all the cities of Israel (in the time of Christ), that the Son of Man will return in His second coming.  But it does not say that.  It says that He will “be come”.  Keeping in the mind the timing of this commission, and the quickly spreading fame of Jesus Christ at the time.  What may have been meant, is that the Son of Man will complete His mission for our salvation, and “be come” back to the throne of His Father.  It is natural for us to read this from our own perspective, and want so bad for the words “be come” to mean “returned to take us home”.  But the facts on the ground obviously dispute that, and we know Jesus is not a liar.  Therefore our understanding must be off, and another meaning must have been intended.

Matthew continues in verse 24 saying … “The disciple is not above his master, nor the servant above his lord. [verse 25] It is enough for the disciple that he be as his master, and the servant as his lord. If they have called the master of the house Beelzebub, how much more shall they call them of his household?”  Look at the history of reformation within the church, any church.  When Jesus entered the house and religion of Israel, they called our God, Satan.  When Luther stood up in the Catholic church, his reputation was the first thing to suffer.  When the youth of our own churches rise, to embrace the homeless, or meet their peers where they are with the things they may be used to.  We, the organized body, the elders, the established and traditional members of the church, ALWAYS shun what is new, or what is different, of what looks “unholy” to us.  Just as the Pharisees of old did to Jesus.  Just as the Catholic leadership did to Luther.  Just as you and I do to our youth, fearing they bring the world into the church.  Odd that the results of the Spirit of God are always condemned as the workings of Satan, by those who profess to follow Jesus, but seem to have no real idea who Jesus is.

But conspiracy is no match for the Holy Spirit.  Matthew continues in verse 26 saying … “Fear them not therefore: for there is nothing covered, that shall not be revealed; and hid, that shall not be known. [verse 27] What I tell you in darkness, that speak ye in light: and what ye hear in the ear, that preach ye upon the housetops.”  The quiet conspiracies to put Jesus to death are now revealed as part of our scriptures for all to see.  The quiet betrayal of Judas revealed to everyone.  The denials of Peter reprinted in the light of day.  The hypocrisies of the Catholic church over the centuries, obsessed more with the power of popes, than the saving power of Jesus Christ.  And in our day, the quiet conspiracies that take place in government halls, or church board meetings, where the interests of power or financial gains are the number one priority; they will again be revealed for all to see, in the failures that are sure to accompany them.  Jesus is not interested in maintaining our earthly wealth, and even less in granting us power.  Jesus is interested in developing our sense of humble service, and our hearts to be willing to part with everything we own, for the sake of another’s benefit.  The former only distracts from the latter, and so it will be revealed for the folly it is.

Matthew continues in verse 28 saying … “And fear not them which kill the body, but are not able to kill the soul: but rather fear him which is able to destroy both soul and body in hell. [verse 29] Are not two sparrows sold for a farthing? and one of them shall not fall on the ground without your Father. [verse 30] But the very hairs of your head are all numbered. [verse 31] Fear ye not therefore, ye are of more value than many sparrows.”  The message of the gospel is at war with the natural inclinations of the human heart.  Our embrace of sin made this so, and continues to make this so.  It is the power of Jesus, that can override what we would naturally want, and what we would naturally do.  That is the power of salvation.  What our opposition is prepared to do, the level of fundamentalism they will claim as justification for what violence they wish to inflict, is not a matter for us to fear.  The tragedy that fanaticism is willing to impose is not a matter for us to fear.  For our Lord sees all.  He knows us so intimately that He knows how many hairs sit upon our heads (even when that number is in constant decline 😊).  Our salvation rests in His hands not our own.  It is that message that Satan wishes to cover up.  He does not want the name of Jesus Christ spread he wants it silenced.  Killing a messenger does not accomplish that.  But altering a follower’s philosophy to be one of self does do the trick.

Satan has no need to silence a follower of Jesus who has no personal testimony to share.  Satan has no need to torture a “Christian” who is already very busy attempting to drive the sin from themselves, and from their desires.  They are already torturing themselves with their own failure.  And one day, they will reach of point of repeated failures until they give up, and advise others to do the same.  Satan could care less about the body, it is the permanence of the soul he is after.  Directing us away from Jesus Christ gives him a chance at getting that ultimate prize.  This is how the soul is destroyed.  It is not the ultimate fires that will do the work of destruction.  The destruction will happen long before, at the tips of our own fingers as we refuse to give Jesus our salvation, and hold on to it instead ourselves.  It was always the introduction of self into Christianity that Satan has long sought.  Do some amount of good deeds.  Give away some amount of money.  In effect, buy your salvation by the strength of your own hands and intentions.  He sold the lie to Cain, and continues to sell it to us.  And too many, who do not know Jesus personally yet, are avid consumers of this lie, to the destruction of their own souls.  That is worth fearing.

But even then Jesus says we need not fear, for our salvation is based in Jesus Christ, and not ourselves.  And the counsel for outreach was not concluded yet …

 

The "A" Team ...

When a difficult task stands before you, a wise approach to accomplish it, is to select a team that is able to contribute a set of unique skills that when combined are able to meet nearly any task of any size.  In professional sports this team of athletes is referred to as “starters” or if the need is singular, then special teams.  In the military, teams are assembled like this within the special forces branches, and only elite, albeit different soldiers are used.  In the business world, the moniker the “A” team is still sometimes used.  It refers an organization’s best and brightest.  It represents the folks who are most likely to overcome any difficulty, rely upon each other’s strengths, offset each other’s weaknesses, and march on to victory.  So in the spiritual world, why would we expect to see anything different?

Imagine the magnitude of the task that stood before Jesus at the outset of His ministry.  Jesus must change the perception of God in the eyes of the people.  He has this task to do not just for Gentiles who believe in many gods, but for Israelites who believe in a vindicate, rules-obsessed God.  Jesus must change the way an entire nation views how to interpret scripture.  For even though they call themselves by His name, and the name of His Father, they have twisted scripture to fit the doctrines of debate, and in so doing have squeezed the love completely out of it.  How like us.  Jesus must demonstrate to all people the intentions of He and His Father in tangible ways, erasing the pain of sin, inside their hearts and minds, and outside in the defects sin brings by bad choices, heredity, and misfortune of Satan’s rage.  To heal a sin sick world, crying from pain of disease, deformity, and even possession will be no small task.   And while Jesus takes on this work, He must remain spotless (no shortcuts), and He must groom His followers to become a church that will stand the test of time and fury of a Roman empire, and Jewish religion, that will stand against it.

What Jesus needs is an “A” team.  Both then and now, Jesus needs a few followers that can assist Him in these tasks, and make the work of redemption easier by example, and by action, and by personal testimony.  So who should Jesus select?  From a decidedly human perspective, our minds would immediately turn to the great spiritual leaders who have lived in our past, or perhaps are still carrying on great missions today.  We think of pastors of large churches, or leaders of large conferences.  We think of singers who have international acclaim, and have toured the world over.  We think of miracle workers, who have performed great acts of healing, most of them on television. 

Our thinking is not much different, than the church leadership thought in the days of Jesus on earth.  The Sanhedrin was waiting on the call.  They expected that when the Messiah emerged, He would immediately come to them for assistance.  After all, who better than they to provide spiritual guidance in matters of doctrine.  They were the established leaders of the people in all matters of the Temple and of religion in that day.  Any doctrine outside of their blessing was heresy.  So any teacher outside of their order must by definition be a heretic.  And besides, these men, were just waiting on the call.  They had every intention of responding when it came.  But it didn’t.  At least not the way they thought it should.

Quietly, that is to say, without any formal pronouncements from the Temple order, or solicitations of the same; Jesus had come to earth.  Even the angels who burst into song at His birth because they could hold their voices no longer, found an audience of humble shepherds in the fields, not priests in the Temple.  The same star that guided men from half way across the world, went unnoticed by the Sanhedrin.  The voice of the Father Himself, and appearance of the Spirit in the form of a dove, were heard at the river Jordan, during a practice the priests discarded as unnecessary, but God obviously did not.  For all the sacrificial system of the Temple, a simple humbling of the heart, was worth more to God.  And it was that.  It was humility that all but had disappeared in the hearts of those who “knew” the word of God, and who studied it without ceasing, yet loved very little.

They, and we, have become proud of our accumulated religious knowledge.  The Sanhedrin, and the modern Christian, await the call of God as if God owes it to us.  After all, we have read so much, learned so much, done so much “mission” oriented work.  The fact that we do not know how to love, and who to love, does not even cross our minds.  We are too obsessed with a perfection we intend to achieve, either completely alone, or in some sort of “partnership” with God, where we do “our” part, and then He makes up the meager difference.  Although in truth these “partnerships” produce nothing more than excuses for our continued imperfection, and a chance to blame God because we continue to fail.  Albeit, we take pride in our rich spiritual history, and claim it as our own, though contribute very little to it.  We are spiritually wealthy in our own eyes, and now only await the official call of God, to put His seal on our life’s work.  So it was then.  So it is now.  How little has changed.

But the “A” team for Jesus was not to be found in the Temple, or ranks of the Sanhedrin, nor perhaps in the hearts of the modern Christian who yet refuses to humble himself no matter the size of his ministry.  The “A” team for Jesus was to be found in the least likely of suspects.  Jesus had already picked up the mantle of John the Baptist.  Jesus was preaching his gospel message of repentance, and was baptizing in the same river John did.  As for disciples, the “A” team so to speak, Matthew was not there when they were first picked.  He did not see it first hand, but he reported on it, from collective recollections he heard. 

His account begins in chapter four of his gospel picking up in verse 18 saying … “And Jesus, walking by the sea of Galilee, saw two brethren, Simon called Peter, and Andrew his brother, casting a net into the sea: for they were fishers. [verse 19] And he saith unto them, Follow me, and I will make you fishers of men. [verse 20] And they straightway left their nets, and followed him.”  The disciple John provides a better first person account, revealing more details that it was he and Andrew, who were already disciples of John the Baptist.  That when Jesus appeared, John directed them to follow Him, as Jesus was the Messiah.  It was John and Andrew who raced to their respective homes, and told their respective brothers, about the discovery of the Messiah.  And then it was Jesus who follows as Matthew records above.

Matthew continues in verse 21 saying … “And going on from thence, he saw other two brethren, James the son of Zebedee, and John his brother, in a ship with Zebedee their father, mending their nets; and he called them. [verse 22] And they immediately left the ship and their father, and followed him.”  Fishermen.  After all the preconceived ideas about who Jesus would select for His “A” team, He picks four fishermen.  He could choose to do so again today.  Though the methods have evolved, the profession remains even till our day.  Can you imagine if the fate of modern Christianity, is still resting in the hands of common, ordinary fishermen.  Not the preachers.  Not the teachers, or singers, or miracle workers.  Especially not the conference leaders, but instead the entire fate of Christianity continues to reside in the hands of fishermen along our coasts.  It is unthinkable, in every mind, but the mind of Christ.  Perhaps in our day, Jesus might expand His selections of an “A” team but limit it only to any other truly blue collar position in life.  Still unthinkable, even to them, but NOT to Jesus Christ.  He not only thought it, He picked it.

The stain on the face of the Sanhedrin could not have been brighter.  To be overlooked in favor of illiterate fishermen, who had only a baby’s view of the scriptures, was inconceivable.  This very pick, puts Jesus in the fake Messiah column.  Because surely no “real” Messiah would start out like this, and then pick these idiots as His “A” team when SO MANY better qualified candidates exist right here in the Temple, and center of the established religious leadership of the day.  It’s like trying to start a baseball team, and walking right by the Hall of Famers and picking the janitor, hot dog stand guy, and ladies working to clean the bathrooms instead.  Only an idiot would ever do that right, so if Jesus did it, that makes Him an … but hold the phone.  If Jesus is God, and we know He is, then it may be that our ideas of “qualifications” that are all twisted around, just like those of the Sanhedrin.

What Jesus needed was and is, men who are willing to admit, they do not know everything, in fact, they know very little.  Jesus needs humility in us, so that He can actually teach us, the right things, the right ways, in the right time.  He can’t do that, if we refuse to let Him, because we ALREADY know what we need to know.  Our submission to Jesus then, is the hallmark trait of an “A” team member for His purposes.  He does not need us to lead at all.  He has that covered.  Instead, He needs us to play, understanding we have NO skills, and He will provide them to us, when and how we need them.  Imagine what it takes for the janitor lady who normally cleans the bathrooms to step up to the mound against true “professionals”.  That takes faith.  That takes trust.  That does NOT take confidence, it takes dependence and humility.  It is our confidence that has been our problem all along.  We put our confidence in us, in the accumulated knowledge and work we have done for Jesus.  Instead of putting our confidence in knowing we know nothing, and he knows everything.  We can solve zero problems, but He can solve every problem.  Our lack of humility, and misplaced confidence, keeps us out of the real game entirely.

And what does Jesus do right after picking this team?  Matthew continues in verse 23 saying … “And Jesus went about all Galilee, teaching in their synagogues, and preaching the gospel of the kingdom, and healing all manner of sickness and all manner of disease among the people. [verse 24] And his fame went throughout all Syria: and they brought unto him all sick people that were taken with divers diseases and torments, and those which were possessed with devils, and those which were lunatick, and those that had the palsy; and he healed them. [verse 25] And there followed him great multitudes of people from Galilee, and from Decapolis, and from Jerusalem, and from Judaea, and from beyond Jordan.”  Jesus does what Jesus always does, and what Jesus was meant to do.  The better question is, how did this “A” team “help” Jesus do what Jesus does?  In point of fact they did not.  They were there as witnesses, not as participants, at least not yet.

It turns out the job of an “A” teamer for Jesus may also be quite a bit different than we thought as well.  Instead of jumping right in and offering their opinions to folks.  They were a bit dumb-founded as they watched God do, what God has always wanted to do for us, and through us, and sometimes in spite of us.  Watching God work is staggering, both then and now.  Same God, who wants to do the same work.  Jesus is every bit as interested in healing the sick now, as He was then.  The modern Christian is the one all twisted around, because we pray weak prayers questioning the will of God, or we take credit for what He does, as if it only happened because we prayed at all.  Neither condition was a problem in the days of Jesus.  Jesus healed, without any prompting from His disciples at all.  Jesus healed because that is what Jesus does.  He restores men to God, and to the image He intended for them to be in.  Peter did not have to pray to get Him started.  Peter just had to step aside and watch Him go.

It is we who have lost confidence in the will of our God.  We now sometimes believe it must be His will when calamity strikes (instead of most often a cause and effect relationship between choices to sin, and the results of pain that sin inevitably brings with it).  But then you ask, how else could bad things happen to the innocent?  I answer, Satan has not disappeared or gotten tired of playing.  He is every bit the unflinching animal he ever was, and will inflict as much pain as he can.  In addition, when I choose to smoke, and I get cancer, that is not God’s will for my choice or its result.  That is cause and effect.  And when my unborn child suffers because my second-hand smoke penetrates his mother and gives him grief in the womb.  That is also NOT the will of God, but the result of my choices, and their results.  Modern Christians are all too keen on passing off responsibilities we should own to our God, and then wonder why the unbeliever questions His character. 

Our environment is polluted, our air, water, and earth, because of the greed sin promotes, and the choices our forefathers, and we ourselves continue to make.  When disaster arises from environmental disturbances that come up, they too are NOT the will of God, but the results of what man has done to himself, and what Satan makes worse from his efforts.  You will notice in these texts, that Jesus does not go around creating earthquakes, and tornadoes, and otherwise judging and killing the wicked.  That is unthinkable to what we know about Jesus.  You will also note, that Jesus does not go around creating terminal diseases in the innocent, and using terminal disease to judge the wicked.  In fact that is NOT what Jesus does, or ever did.  That is what sin does, and always did.  Jesus ends the pain of those things.  Jesus restores humanity to what He intended for it.  He does not create misery in order for people to run to Him to avoid it.  That is not love.  That is fear.  And fear does not change lives or motives, it only puts things in perspective for a moment.  Then life resumes just as it was.  Love however, changes things forever.

Jesus ends suffering, He does not cause it.  The “A” team witnessed this, over and over and over again until it was drilled into their minds and hearts.  They became so confident over time, that THIS was the will of God, to end suffering.  And later they would be able to see God do it, even after Jesus had left this world.  They knew it was still Him.  They knew it had nothing to do with themselves, only everything to do with ending the suffering of the person in need.  The “A” team saw God in action.  The “A” team had their own perceptions of God changed.  The “A” team were humble enough to allow this to occur.  Are you ready to join that team?  Or do you already know, everything you need to know?