Easter 3
Devotional
Pause Before The Pulpit
Personal Reflections For Pastors On The Lectionary Readings
Luke 24:36b-48
Do you think our reaction to Jesus' sudden appearance would have been the same as that of the disciples? How terrifying it was for them to suddenly see Jesus standing in their room! This was, no doubt, also a marvelous time for them as Jesus assured them that he was indeed alive. He invited them to touch him, and he ate some fish as evidence that he was physically present and not a ghost as they first thought.
The second half of the text was extremely significant for the disciples and still is for the church today, as Jesus said, These are my words that I spoke to you while I was still with you -- that everything written about me in the law of Moses, the prophets, and the psalms must be fulfilled.
The way that the Old and New Testaments harmonize with each other gives the whole of scripture much credibility. Not only was it encouraging for the disciples that their scriptures were being fulfilled in Christ, but it ought to be a great encouragement to us as well. For we are not working with two totally unrelated stories -- that of God's Old Covenant with Israel and his New Covenant with the church -- but rather with one total story that had its beginning in the Old Covenant relationship and has its fulfillment in the New Covenant relationship.
Jesus then opened their minds to understand the scriptures. Oh how we need our minds opened each week as we prepare to preach his word. No matter how many times we have spoken on a particular passage, there is always something more we can learn. For example: We can always gain a better understanding of how Christ fulfilled the Old Testament. We have a constant need for Christ to help us understand how to apply the same, timeless truths of God's Word to the ever-changing and increasingly challenging issues in our world today.
There was a particular message that Jesus told his disciples to proclaim. It was that repentance and forgiveness of sins is possible through faith in Christ Jesus. This message is to be proclaimed in the name of Jesus to all nations, beginning from Jerusalem. Jesus repeated this missionary mandate on more than one occasion. It was not just for the disciples, however; it is a universal mandate for all who believe in him. Everyone who believes is to be a missionary, proclaiming the importance of repentance and the forgiveness of sins.
More and more, various voices throughout the world are telling the church that we should NOT be engaged in missionary work. We are to let people believe what they want. Who are we to say that Christianity is the only way to God and eternal life? They bristle at such exclusive "narrow-mindedness and arrogance." The Muslims and the Jews refuse to accept that Christianity is the only way to be saved, and now many Christians, including some pastors, are questioning that, too.
However, we must remember that the exclusive claims of Christianity were not made up by Christians, but spoken by Christ Jesus himself. It is the exclusiveness of Christ's message that makes it an urgent one. Since he is the only way to be saved, then that message needs to get out to as many people as possible. It's as if a cure had been found for cancer. That would be good news and one would want to spread that good news far and wide. However, if it were one of many ways to be cured, then the urgency decreases. Many Christians have bought into the lie that the claims of Christ are one of many ways to God, and have therefore minimized the urgency of proclaiming this message to all nations. In so doing, they have stripped the gospel of its good news.
Pray for courage to uphold this truth and to preach the message of Christ for what it is: the only way to God and eternal life with him.
A Pastor's Prayer:
Dear Lord,
You know that many people claim there are multiple paths that lead to you. However, your word clearly claims that there is only one. Please give me the faith to hold to that truth and to preach it with the same unwavering boldness as that of the first witnesses, so that many might be saved and find life in you. Amen.
1 John 3:1-7
This text has a clearly discernable law/grace balance to it. In the first half, John describes the wonderful relationship we have with God and what this means for us. Notice what John used as a way of measuring the love that God has given us: See what love the Father has given us, that we should be called children of God. The fact that we -- small, insignificant people in comparison to God's vast, infinite universe -- are called children of God is marvelous! It shows the extent of his love for us, that a pure and holy God wants to be a Father to this fallen human race that we are a part of. That is grace at its best!
But John didn't stop at making an observation about God's love. He went on to state that, by faith in Christ, we are children of God. There is no question about it and there should be no doubt in our minds: we are children of God! We don't deserve it, but such is the beauty of God's grace and mercy. What a wonderful truth! But there's more.
John went on to point out that the Father/child relationship gets better: We are God's children now; what we will be has not yet been revealed. What we do know is this: when he is revealed, we will be like him, for we will see him as he is. There is a sense where there can be a partial fulfillment of this in our lifetime, but its ultimate fulfillment is when we get to heaven. We will see, in the second half of our text, that there ought to be changes in the child of God that make us look more like the Father; but we will never be fully like him in this life, nor will we ever fully see him in this life. Here again, there is a partial fulfillment now, in that we can see some things about God through his word and by looking at his creation; but we will never fully see him as he is. That privilege and pleasure has been reserved for our arrival in heaven.
Part of what gives every child of God joy is the expectancy of what awaits us in heaven. We will not be disappointed, that's for sure! And John had this to say as he transitioned from his grace portion of the text to the law portion: All who have this hope in him purify themselves, just as he is pure. We know that this purity comes, not by works, but by faith. So all who have hope in Christ purify themselves, not by anything they have done, but by faith in what God has done for them and declared them to be: pure!
The law portion of our text is hard to read, for it makes us uncomfortable in regards to our relationship with God, and has become a point of controversy in the Christian church. We can't argue with verses 4 and 5. They are very clear. We are all guilty of sin and therefore of lawlessness. We ought never water down sin and call it mistakes or flaws of character. Sin is a breaking of God's Laws and it comes out of sheer rebellion against God. But thank God that Jesus came to take away our sins, for in him there is no sin.
The next verses are more difficult, for if taken at face value, they dump huge amounts of guilt upon us and shake our assurance of salvation. Since we all sin daily in thought, word, and deed, this passage can leave us thinking, "Apparently, I'm not abiding in him and I've neither seen him [nor] known him." Such a statement is troubling, for we know we are abiding in him, that we have seen him through the eyes of faith, and that we know him. How are we to understand this?
It is important that we hear this in terms of ongoing attitude and relationship. The more we fellowship with Christ, the less we sin. The less we fellowship with Christ, the more we sin. The better we get to know God, and the more we see of him in his word and his working in our lives, the less we will sin (or even want to sin, for that matter). The more we hang around our Father, the more we will be like our Father.
A Pastor's Prayer:
Dear Lord,
Thank you for making me your child and wanting to be my Father. Forgive me for when I have taken that relationship for granted. Forgive me, too, for all my sins. Lord, I desire to know you better and to allow you to live your righteousness through me. Amen.
Do you think our reaction to Jesus' sudden appearance would have been the same as that of the disciples? How terrifying it was for them to suddenly see Jesus standing in their room! This was, no doubt, also a marvelous time for them as Jesus assured them that he was indeed alive. He invited them to touch him, and he ate some fish as evidence that he was physically present and not a ghost as they first thought.
The second half of the text was extremely significant for the disciples and still is for the church today, as Jesus said, These are my words that I spoke to you while I was still with you -- that everything written about me in the law of Moses, the prophets, and the psalms must be fulfilled.
The way that the Old and New Testaments harmonize with each other gives the whole of scripture much credibility. Not only was it encouraging for the disciples that their scriptures were being fulfilled in Christ, but it ought to be a great encouragement to us as well. For we are not working with two totally unrelated stories -- that of God's Old Covenant with Israel and his New Covenant with the church -- but rather with one total story that had its beginning in the Old Covenant relationship and has its fulfillment in the New Covenant relationship.
Jesus then opened their minds to understand the scriptures. Oh how we need our minds opened each week as we prepare to preach his word. No matter how many times we have spoken on a particular passage, there is always something more we can learn. For example: We can always gain a better understanding of how Christ fulfilled the Old Testament. We have a constant need for Christ to help us understand how to apply the same, timeless truths of God's Word to the ever-changing and increasingly challenging issues in our world today.
There was a particular message that Jesus told his disciples to proclaim. It was that repentance and forgiveness of sins is possible through faith in Christ Jesus. This message is to be proclaimed in the name of Jesus to all nations, beginning from Jerusalem. Jesus repeated this missionary mandate on more than one occasion. It was not just for the disciples, however; it is a universal mandate for all who believe in him. Everyone who believes is to be a missionary, proclaiming the importance of repentance and the forgiveness of sins.
More and more, various voices throughout the world are telling the church that we should NOT be engaged in missionary work. We are to let people believe what they want. Who are we to say that Christianity is the only way to God and eternal life? They bristle at such exclusive "narrow-mindedness and arrogance." The Muslims and the Jews refuse to accept that Christianity is the only way to be saved, and now many Christians, including some pastors, are questioning that, too.
However, we must remember that the exclusive claims of Christianity were not made up by Christians, but spoken by Christ Jesus himself. It is the exclusiveness of Christ's message that makes it an urgent one. Since he is the only way to be saved, then that message needs to get out to as many people as possible. It's as if a cure had been found for cancer. That would be good news and one would want to spread that good news far and wide. However, if it were one of many ways to be cured, then the urgency decreases. Many Christians have bought into the lie that the claims of Christ are one of many ways to God, and have therefore minimized the urgency of proclaiming this message to all nations. In so doing, they have stripped the gospel of its good news.
Pray for courage to uphold this truth and to preach the message of Christ for what it is: the only way to God and eternal life with him.
A Pastor's Prayer:
Dear Lord,
You know that many people claim there are multiple paths that lead to you. However, your word clearly claims that there is only one. Please give me the faith to hold to that truth and to preach it with the same unwavering boldness as that of the first witnesses, so that many might be saved and find life in you. Amen.
1 John 3:1-7
This text has a clearly discernable law/grace balance to it. In the first half, John describes the wonderful relationship we have with God and what this means for us. Notice what John used as a way of measuring the love that God has given us: See what love the Father has given us, that we should be called children of God. The fact that we -- small, insignificant people in comparison to God's vast, infinite universe -- are called children of God is marvelous! It shows the extent of his love for us, that a pure and holy God wants to be a Father to this fallen human race that we are a part of. That is grace at its best!
But John didn't stop at making an observation about God's love. He went on to state that, by faith in Christ, we are children of God. There is no question about it and there should be no doubt in our minds: we are children of God! We don't deserve it, but such is the beauty of God's grace and mercy. What a wonderful truth! But there's more.
John went on to point out that the Father/child relationship gets better: We are God's children now; what we will be has not yet been revealed. What we do know is this: when he is revealed, we will be like him, for we will see him as he is. There is a sense where there can be a partial fulfillment of this in our lifetime, but its ultimate fulfillment is when we get to heaven. We will see, in the second half of our text, that there ought to be changes in the child of God that make us look more like the Father; but we will never be fully like him in this life, nor will we ever fully see him in this life. Here again, there is a partial fulfillment now, in that we can see some things about God through his word and by looking at his creation; but we will never fully see him as he is. That privilege and pleasure has been reserved for our arrival in heaven.
Part of what gives every child of God joy is the expectancy of what awaits us in heaven. We will not be disappointed, that's for sure! And John had this to say as he transitioned from his grace portion of the text to the law portion: All who have this hope in him purify themselves, just as he is pure. We know that this purity comes, not by works, but by faith. So all who have hope in Christ purify themselves, not by anything they have done, but by faith in what God has done for them and declared them to be: pure!
The law portion of our text is hard to read, for it makes us uncomfortable in regards to our relationship with God, and has become a point of controversy in the Christian church. We can't argue with verses 4 and 5. They are very clear. We are all guilty of sin and therefore of lawlessness. We ought never water down sin and call it mistakes or flaws of character. Sin is a breaking of God's Laws and it comes out of sheer rebellion against God. But thank God that Jesus came to take away our sins, for in him there is no sin.
The next verses are more difficult, for if taken at face value, they dump huge amounts of guilt upon us and shake our assurance of salvation. Since we all sin daily in thought, word, and deed, this passage can leave us thinking, "Apparently, I'm not abiding in him and I've neither seen him [nor] known him." Such a statement is troubling, for we know we are abiding in him, that we have seen him through the eyes of faith, and that we know him. How are we to understand this?
It is important that we hear this in terms of ongoing attitude and relationship. The more we fellowship with Christ, the less we sin. The less we fellowship with Christ, the more we sin. The better we get to know God, and the more we see of him in his word and his working in our lives, the less we will sin (or even want to sin, for that matter). The more we hang around our Father, the more we will be like our Father.
A Pastor's Prayer:
Dear Lord,
Thank you for making me your child and wanting to be my Father. Forgive me for when I have taken that relationship for granted. Forgive me, too, for all my sins. Lord, I desire to know you better and to allow you to live your righteousness through me. Amen.
