Wednesday, November 13th

Today's passage from the Bible In a Year Reading Plan is 1 Peter 5; Ezekiel 25-26

Today's scripture focus is Luke 21:12-19

Luke 21:12-19

English Standard Version (ESV)

¹² But before all this they will lay their hands on you and persecute you, delivering you up to the synagogues and prisons, and you will be brought before kings and governors for my name's sake. ¹³ This will be your opportunity to bear witness. ¹⁴ Settle it therefore in your minds not to meditate beforehand how to answer, ¹⁵ for I will give you a mouth and wisdom, which none of your adversaries will be able to withstand or contradict. ¹⁶ You will be delivered up even by parents and brothers and relatives and friends, and some of you they will put to death.¹⁷ You will be hated by all for my name's sake. ¹⁸ But not a hair of your head will perish. ¹⁹ By your endurance you will gain your lives.

We are living between the times.  Between the time of Jesus first coming and the time of His second.  His first coming was one of mercy and forgiveness, with the offer of salvation.  His second coming will be one of judgment.  And we're living in between.

Jesus warns the disciples, and us, that the in between time will be very, very dismal at times.  We saw yesterday that war, terrors, plagues, famines, and natural disasters will wreak havoc on the earth - and we've seen that truth play out throughout history exactly as Jesus said it would.

And in today's passage we see that persecution will also be rampant.  This is also simply gaining in numbers.  MacArthur states (and is something I've heard said before) that more Christians have been killed for their faith in the 20th century, than in all the other centuries combined.  It's getting worse.  Just as Jesus said it would.

But there's a few things that Jesus says here that is amazing, and truly gives hope to those living under persecution.

First of all, it says very clearly we don't need to stress out ahead of time about what we would say and how we would respond to persecution.  Why not?  Genuine faith, though exercised of free will, is a gift of God, and one that cannot be taken away.  Genuine faith is proved genuine in times of persecution.


Those who fall away were simply not saved to begin with.

I know the whole "once saved, always saved" debate can get quite heated - but I am beginning to feel more and more that it is true.  Once genuinely saved, always saved.  Those who fall away simply give evidence that their faith was not genuine to begin with - they were the seed that fell anywhere but on the rich, fertile soil.

Jesus just said in this very passage... ¹⁸ But not a hair of your head will perish. ¹⁹ By your endurance you will gain your lives.
He's obviously not talking about physical life, because He just said some would be killed for their faith. He's talking about spiritual life.

Here's just a few more passages to support this....

John 4:13-14 ¹³ Jesus said to her, “Everyone who drinks of this water will be thirsty again, ¹⁴ but whoever drinks of the water that I will give him will never be thirsty again. The water that I will give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life.”
You drink it, and you never thirst again.

John 5:24 ²⁴ Truly, truly, I say to you, whoever hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life. He does not come into judgment, but has passed from death to life.
You don't go back and forth from life to death to life to death.  Whoever believes has eternal life.  And eternal life, by definition, lasts forever.

John 6:37-40 ³⁷ All that the Father gives me will come to me, and whoever comes to me I will never cast out. ³⁸ For I have come down from heaven, not to do my own will but the will of him who sent me. ³⁹ And this is the will of him who sent me, that I should lose nothing of all that he has given me, but raise it up on the last day. ⁴⁰ For this is the will of my Father, that everyone who looks on the Son and believes in him should have eternal life, and I will raise him up on the last day.”
MacArthur: all believers who come to faith are brought to faith by the work of the Father, they are given to the Son as gifts of love, the Son receives them, the Son does not reject them, the Son holds them, the Son keeps them....the Son loses none and the Son raises all to eternal glory. Nobody falls through the cracks.

John 10:27-30 ²⁷ My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me. ²⁸ I give them eternal life, and they will never perish, and no one will snatch them out of my hand. ²⁹ My Father, who has given them to me, is greater than all, and no one is able to snatch them out of the Father's hand. ³⁰ I and the Father are one.”
Jesus gives believers eternal life.  We will never perish.  No one will every snatch us from His hand.  No one.  Ever.

God has given us a faith that cannot fail.  It's not up to us.  If it was up to us, we would fail, no doubt about it.  But's it's not up to us.  It's His gift.  And His saving faith cannot fail.  It will endure - despite war, terror, plague, famine, false teaching, and even persecution to the point of physical death.

Matthew 24:10-13 is a parallel passage that adds to this thought....
¹⁰ And then many will fall away and betray one another and hate one another. ¹¹ And many false prophets will arise and lead many astray. ¹² And because lawlessness will be increased, the love of many will grow cold. ¹³ But the one who endures to the end will be saved.
The one who endures to the end will be saved, because his/her faith has been proved genuine.  Those who fell away were not saved to begin with.

Exactly like it says in 1 John 2:19 ¹⁹ They went out from us, but they were not of us; for if they had been of us, they would have continued with us. But they went out, that it might become plain that they all are not of us.
Those who are genuinely saved do not fall away.

We cannot see into people's hearts.  We cannot know who actually believes what they say they believe.  They may even live like they believe it for awhile.  But if hardship causes them to fall away - they were never saved to begin with.

Let's use an analogy of a man and a woman getting married.
How do you know they actually love each other?
By the marriage enduring the test of time and hardship.

You can say all the right words. You can pledge your love in front of a congregation in a church and in front of God.  You can vow to love.  You can even act loving for years.  The love may be genuine or it may not be.  The way it is proven genuine is when it survives trial.

Similarly with faith.  You can say all the right words.  You can speak Christianese with the best of them.  You can walk down the aisle and pray a prayer.  But there are no magic words.  If you do not understand the gospel, if you do not understand what you're repenting of and committing your life to, if you do not believe in your heart the words you are saying, if you do not live the newfound commitment you've made, and if you do not endure - then it wasn't genuine.

Look at 1 Peter 1:3-10 ³ Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! According to his great mercy, he has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, ⁴ to an inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled, and unfading, kept in heaven for you, ⁵ who by God's power are being guarded through faith for a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time. ⁶ In this you rejoice, though now for a little while, if necessary, you have been grieved by various trials, ⁷ so that the tested genuineness of your faith—more precious than gold that perishes though it is tested by fire—may be found to result in praise and glory and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ. ⁸ Though you have not seen him, you love him. Though you do not now see him, you believe in him and rejoice with joy that is inexpressible and filled with glory, ⁹ obtaining the outcome of your faith, the salvation of your souls.
That just sums it up right there.

God gets the glory and credit for our salvation.  We've done nothing to earn or deserve it.  It's completely His mercy.
MacArthur: You have by God’s mercy been caused to be born again into eternal life, you have a hope that cannot die and to fulfill that hope, you already have reserved in heaven for you, not for anybody who happens to make it, but for you an inheritance which cannot perish, cannot be defiled, will not fade away.....you don’t have the power. But you’re protected by the power of God through...what?...here’s the key, “Through faith.” God protects you to the very end when you will receive that eternal inheritance, He protects you by His power, that’s the source of protection, the means of protection is your faith. That’s what He says. Protected by the power of God through faith. Faith is the means by which God protects you all the way to eternal glory. That faith which He has given you is an unassailable, unfading, undying, unfailing faith. It is a permanent faith. It is in that gift of supernatural faith that God does His protecting so that one day you will receive the final salvation to be revealed in the last time.

Protected by faith. Protected by the power of God through the means of faith. You see, the gift that God gave you when you came to Christ, you were dead in trespasses and sin, you were blind, you could not understand, you could not believe, you could not do anything to earn salvation, God gave it to you as a gift. He gave you faith to believe, a faith to save, and the faith that He gave you is a faith that cannot fail. And God keeps you by His power through means of the gift of that unfailing faith so that no matter what comes, you who are true believers endure it all. Not only do you endure it all, but you don’t necessarily endure it all hanging on by your fingernails. It’s quite the opposite....You rejoice in your trials....

This is what He’s saying. The difficulties of life, that troubles that come into life, whether it’s deception or disaster or persecution, tests your faith so that the proof of your faith is more precious than gold.

You know what the most precious thing you have is? No question, THE most precious thing you possess is the confidence that you’re going to heaven, right? That is THE most precious thing you have. There are some people who don’t know that. Maybe I’ll make it, maybe I won’t, if I can hang on I’ll make it... You know what you want to know? You want to know that your faith is the real deal. You know how you can know that? The only way you can know that is to have it tested. Did it survive the disaster? Did it survive the test of cancer? Did it survive the rebellion? Did it survive the doubt when you were caught in a false religion? Did it survive this and that and the other thing? Does it survive the world in which you live with all of its struggles? Did it survive when you were disappointed by the person you loved the most, when you’ve cast out, rejected by your own children? Where is your faith when tested by fire? Because when it comes through and it’s stronger, then that’s more precious to you than gold because now you know that you have the real thing.

Romans 8:35-39 almost seems written for this very passage!

³⁵ Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or danger, or sword? ³⁶ As it is written,

“For your sake we are being killed all the day long;
    we are regarded as sheep to be slaughtered.”

³⁷ No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. ³⁸ For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, ³⁹ nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.

MacArthur agrees: we’re protected by the power of God through faith. And God gives us that enduring faith because He loves us. Nothing can ever change His love for us. No one can ever tear us out of the secure hold of the Father. Therefore, salvation is forever. And so whatever comes in this world, we are not terrified. We know what our glorious end will be.


Tomorrow's scripture focus: Luke 21:20-24

Tomorrow's Bible In a Year Passage passage: 2 Peter 1, Ezekiel 27-28

Tuesday, November 12 ~ tammi

Today's Bible In a Year reading: 1 Peter 4; Ezekiel 23-24
Today's scripture focus passage: Luke 21:9-11 -

"When you hear of wars and disturbances, do not be terrified; for these things must take place first, but the end does not follow immediately.” 

Then He continued by saying to them, “Nation will rise against nation and kingdom against kingdom, and there will be great earthquakes, and in various places plagues and famines; and there will be terrors and great signs from heaven."

I will confess: I forgot about this post until late yesterday afternoon and just didn't have the time to spend on it like I usually do.

I am always a little conflicted by passages like this.  On the one hand, it's reassuring.  God is in control and the bad things that happen?  Part of the plan.  But on the other hand, it scares me to know that it will get worse before it gets better.  I can't help but fear for my children and grandchildren and their futures; realizing how much more depraved society will be and become over their lifetimes.  It's already deteriorated so much during my own life to this point.

And yet Jesus tells us here, "DO NOT BE TERRIFIED"!

It's hard not to be fearful when you read the newspaper or watch news on TV.  It's never good news.   Atrocities that were only in the far reaches of a few wild and twisted imaginations back when I was a child now actually happen, and with frightening regularity.  The moral fabric of our society is unraveling at lightning speed.  Reports of strange and devastating weather phenomena and natural disasters seem to be multiplying and indeed, insurance company reports testify to the reality of exponential increases in "act of God" claims over the last two decades.

How can we not fear the future?!

But we know who holds it.  He created the heavens and earth out of nothing.  He spoke, and solar systems took their places.  He breathed life into dust and mankind was born.  He healed the sick, made the lame to walk and the blind to see; He calmed the storm with just a word, and brought the dead back to life.  And that same power holds our lives secure, no matter what happens to us in this physical life.

That's how we can face the future with joy instead of anxiety.  We know how the story ends, where WE will end up.  Yes, there's dreadful stuff coming first ~ and we may even experience some of it first-hand ~ but Heaven awaits, and no matter how much we suffer in this life, it amounts to nothing against eternity there.








 



Tomorrow's Bible In a Year reading: 1 Peter 5; Ezekiel 25-26
Monday's scripture focus passage: Luke 21:12-19

Monday - November 11 - Tiffany

Today's passage from the Bible In a Year Reading Plan is Ezekiel 21-22, 1 Peter 3

Today's scripture focus is Luke 21:8


And He said, “See to it that you are not misled; for many will come in My name, saying, ‘I am He,’ and, ‘The time is near.’ Do not go after them. 

In most Bibles, this verse is included under the story heading "The Widow's Gift" and is right before the heading "Things to come."
We know these headings were not their originally, but put there for guidance.  I think I would move this under the "things to come" heading.

For Jesus is talking about what is going to happen.  We just read the passage where he spoke about the temple being destroyed, and the disciples want to know when all this is going to happen.  They want to be prepared.

And yet Jesus doesn't give us a particular time or day.  He just warns us further.  "See to it that you are not mislead." Study up, know your Bible, know ME, because there are going to be people pretending to be Me.  There are going to be people who claim the time is near when really they have no clue.  "Do not go after them."

The following passages include more of this prophecy of things to come, I'll leave those for Tammi.  But today I leave you with this - know Jesus, so that when others come claiming to be Him (because they will, He says they will), you can know the truth.

 Tomorrow's scripture focus: Luke 21:9-11

Tomorrow's Bible In a Year Passage passage: Ezekiel 23-24, 1 Peter 4

Friday, November 7th

Today's passage from the Bible In a Year Reading Plan is 1 Peter 2; Ezekiel 15-16.

Today's scripture focus is Luke 21:5-7.

Luke 21:5-7

English Standard Version (ESV)

Jesus Foretells Destruction of the Temple

⁵ And while some were speaking of the temple, how it was adorned with noble stones and offerings, he said, ⁶ “As for these things that you see, the days will come when there will not be left here one stone upon another that will not be thrown down.” ⁷ And they asked him, “Teacher, when will these things be, and what will be the sign when these things are about to take place?”

It's Wednesday of Passion Week.  The following day Jesus will be arrested, and the day after that, crucified.

He has finished His last sermon to the crowd - ending with a strong warning to the people about the direction their false leaders are taking them, and a blistering condemnation on the religious leaders themselves.  He has nothing more to say to the crowd.

MacArthur:

He has nothing more to say to the crowds.  He has told them the truth.  He’s given them the gospel.  He’s declared Himself to be the Messiah, Son of David, and David’s Lord at the same time, God and Man.  He has preached His last message, His last warning.  He’s had His last discussion, His last dialogue confrontation with the leaders.  It’s over.  The last thing that we know that He did in the temple was sit down because He was drained and weary.  And as He sat down in the Court of the Women, He looked across opposite Him to the treasury and He watched the people putting money in and He saw the widow come by in the first four verses of chapter 21, and He watched the widow put in her last two cents to go home to die.  And He hated the kind of religious system that would take the last two cents out of the hand of a defenseless, destitute widow.  And that was the final scene with Jesus in the temple, so corrupt...so corrupt that those whom He had accused of devouring widows’ houses are doing just that and He watches a widow give up her last two cents because that’s what that religious, legalistic system required of her if she was to buy her salvation, and blessing from God.  And He has had all that He can take of this system. 

And so, He leaves the temple.  We know this from the parallel passage in Matthew, the parallel passage in Matthew, the end of chapter 23.  He closes the sermon against the false leaders with these words, verse 37, “O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, who kills the prophets and stones those who were sent to her.  How often I wanted to gather your children together the way a hen gathers her chicks under her wings and you were unwilling.  Behold, your house, that is your temple and your city and your nation all encompassed in your house is being left to you desolate.  For I say to you, from now on you shall not see Me until you say, ‘Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord.’” And He implies there that there’s going to be a long time of desolation.  Desolation upon your house, destruction and emptiness upon your house for a long time until you acknowledge Me. 

And so He leaves the temple.  And as they're leaving, the disciples are looking back at the temple and talking about it.  It was an amazing temple - in total an 85 yr building project begun by Herod the Great to immortalize himself.  It was likely the most beautiful building in the world at that time.

And the disciples were fully aware of what this building meant to them, and what it meant to their history and the effort that had gone into it.  And that the whole sacrificial system and the religious system dominated their whole lives.  They had been to the Passover and other feasts and festivals every year of their lives.  And Jesus has unmasked it as full of hypocrisy and wretchedness and death and it’s coming down.  Stunning

I think Jesus has just had it.  I think He's repulsed by the beauty of this temple that was built to immortalize a human, but that was portrayed as the presence of God.  He's had it, and He lets them know it.  He's going to destroy it.

The disciples can understand the idea that judgment is coming.  They expected Messiah to come to save them, to bring judgment, to restore.  But if He's going to destroy the temple, they're expecting a really quick restoration.  And so they ask Him, when will this happen?

They weren’t waiting for the Messiah to come, He was present.  In fact, in Matthew 24:3 where it says, “What will be the sign of Your coming?”coming is really a little bit of a misleading translation.  The word in the Greek is parousia, it means presence...presence.  And it really was used of a king who had arrived and would continue to dwell among his people.  So what they’re really asking is this, “Now that You are here, what are we looking for that will inaugurate the work that You’ve come to do?”  They don’t see Him there and going away and coming back several thousand years later.  They see His parousia, His presence, and they want to know You’re here, what sign are we looking for that’s going to inaugurate all our Messianic expectations?  That’s their question and it comes in response to His statement about the tearing down of the temple in verse 6, that not one stone will be left upon another that will not be torn down. 

And then Jesus gives them the answer - and it's the longest answer to any question that He's asked. And it's not the answer they were expecting.

But back to the destruction of the temple for just one more moment.

Do we have anything like that in our lives?  Something we've built that looks holy but it was built with the wrong motives or for the wrong purpose?  Do we have anything in our lives that God would be repulsed by and determine to destroy?

Or have we brought everything we have, all that we are, to the altar, and laid it at the feet of the cross?



Tomorrow's scripture focus: Luke 21:8

Tomorrow's Bible In a Year Passage passage: Ezekiel 17-18
Sunday's passage: Ezekiel 19-20
Monday's passage: 1 Peter 3, Ezekiel 21-22

Thursday, November 6 ~ Miriam

Today's passage from the Bible In a Year Reading Plan is 1 Peter 1; Ezekiel 13-14.

Today's scripture focus is Luke 21:1-4.

And He looked up and saw the rich putting their gifts into the treasury. 2 And He saw a poor widow putting in two small copper coins. 3 And He said, “Truly I say to you, this poor widow put in more than all of them; 4 for they all out of their surplus put into the offering; but she out of her poverty put in all that she had to live on.”

Ooooh, tough, tough, tough.  A poor widow puts in two small copper coins.  She has no more money.  That's all she had.

We believe (or are supposed to believe) that God will provide for our needs.  But he has, hasn't he?  He's given us the ways and means and talents and abilities to earn an income and purchase what we need, or make or grow it.  So because He has provided for us in that way, why should we give from what little we have and then expect Him to provide more because we've given away what He provided for us in the first place?  (I'm not saying I feel that way, I'm just saying that is one perspective.)

I admit that there are times where I have not given because I felt that we just couldn't spare it.  I know that in comparison to a large part of the world's population we are wealthy, but when the bills come each month and there is barely enough to go around because some of your "wealth" you're still paying for (with interest!), it doesn't feel like you can spare it.

So here's what I think.  It's something I suck at; I'll admit that right now.  I really, really suck at remembering that it all belongs to Him anyway, and I need to use my financial means and possessions for His glory.  I am REALLY bad at it.  But I do know that in the past, when I have given faithfully, we have always had enough.  Not a lot, but enough.  It always seems when I hold back because of some expense that is coming up, there just seems to be less somehow.  I can't explain it, and yet it seems to be so.  And this past year I have been giving less because I told myself I needed to pay off our debt more quickly, and yet the debt doesn't seem to be disappearing any more quickly and in the last two months our income has been DRAMATICALLY reduced, so that will make giving AND repaying the debt even more challenging.  So perhaps I need to keep in mind the old "He who is faithful in a very little thing is faithful also in much; and he who is unrighteous in a very little thing is unrighteous also in much."  (Luke 16:10)

Happy Thursday!

Tomorrow's scripture focus:  Luke 21:5-7.

Tomorrow's Bible In a Year Passage passage:  1 Peter 2; Ezekiel 15-16.

Wednesday, November 6th

Today's passage from the Bible In a Year Reading Plan is James 5; Song of Solomon 8; Ezekiel 11-12

Today's scripture focus is Luke 20:45-47

Luke 20:45-47

English Standard Version (ESV)

Beware of the Scribes

45 And in the hearing of all the people he said to his disciples, 46 “Beware of the scribes, who like to walk around in long robes, and love greetings in the marketplaces and the best seats in the synagogues and the places of honor at feasts, 47 who devour widows' houses and for a pretense make long prayers. They will receive the greater condemnation.”

Accompanying John MacArthur sermon: Confront Error with Condemnation not Conversation

Yesterday we saw Jesus reach out with compassion one last time to the scribes and Pharisees.  He took them back to Psalm 110 and affirmed both His deity, and the necessity of the Messiah being both God and man.

And now He's done.  From now on He's going to only speak to His disciples.  But as He transitions, He says one more thing - to the disciples, but in the hearing of all the people.  This is the last thing He says.  If it's the last thing - it must be pretty important!  And Jesus' final message is one of warning and condemnation.

He warns the people to beware of the scribes (and Pharisees).  They are ungodly, they have nothing beneficial to offer you - stay away from them!

What were they like?

They liked to walk around in long robes - it brought attention to them and their position of spiritual authority. They weren't trying to bring attention to God's word  as Numbers 15:38-40 had instructed them to do.  Instead, they lengthened the tassels in order to bring attention to their "holiness".

They loved greetings in the marketplace - they wanted to be greeted with titles of dignity, like rabbi (Matthew 23:7), father (Matthew 23:9), leader (Matthew 23:10).  They were proud and wanted their egos stroked with these titles.

They loved the best seats in the synagogues and the places of honor at feasts - they want to be exalted and honoured in front of everyone.

All of these have to do with pride.

They devour widows' houses - they completely plundered the unprotected, weak woman - the very ones they are commanded to protect and care for ( Exodus 22:22, Deuteronomy 10:18, Malachi 3:5).  How? As scribes (ie lawyers) they definitely had the means to do so.  Apparently they charged exorbitant fees for their services, ate away at their estates under the guise of legal protection, abused their hospitality, mismanage their properties, accumulate debts causing the widows to pledge their homes and then evict them.  Atrocious behaviour by the "religious elite".

They make long prayers for pretense - making a show of their piety, all the while hiding the reality of what they were.

False teachers are proud and greedy, and use their status and power to bilk the most helpless and defenseless people, they present themselves as holy but in reality, they are evil in disguise.

And Jesus condemns them in the strongest of terms (Matthew 23 has specifics).

They will receive greater condemnation.  The falsely religious will receive greater condemnation, especially if they've trampled underfoot the blood of the covenant., and rejected Christ.

Jesus does not mince words, does He?!


Tomorrow's scripture focus: Luke 21:1-4

Tomorrow's Bible In a Year Passage passage: 1 Peter 1, Ezekiel 13-14

Tuesday, November 5 ~ tammi

Today's Bible In a Year reading: James 4; Song of Solomon 7; Ezekiel 9-10
Today's scripture focus passage: Luke 20:41-44 -

Then He said to them, “How is it that they say the Christ is David’s son?  For David himself says in the book of Psalms,

‘The Lord said to my Lord,
“Sit at My right hand,
Until I make Your enemies a footstool for Your feet.”’

Therefore David calls Him ‘Lord,’ and how is He his son?”

I think the thing I found most interesting about MacArthur's sermon on this passage is that the Pharisees didn't have a problem with Jesus being the Messiah.  They couldn't refute the reality that He had superior knowledge and understanding.  They couldn't argue His power over injury, disease, demons, and even death.  He was undoubtedly qualified to fill that role.  The could understandably foresee His political future and His ability to rule the world from Jerusalem.  They had no problem with the man, Jesus, claiming to be their Messiah.  They had a problem with Him claiming to be God.

You see, they were expecting the Messiah to be a man.  Yes, he would be gifted spiritually, physically, politically, supernaturally, etc., but he would still be a mere mortal.  They could not or would not grasp and embrace the concept of their promised Messiah being the same God who had chosen them through Abram, who had delivered them from Egypt ~ whom they claimed to worship.  They simply couldn't conceive or believe their long-awaited Messiah was actually God come down, living among them, preaching and teaching in human form.

Here, just a couple of days before His crucifixion, Jesus tries one last time to prove, using the Scriptures of the Old Testament, that the Messiah HAD to be both God and man.

Everyone knew the Messiah would come from David's lineage and the phrase "Son of David" was universally understood to mean this promised Deliverer.  So Jesus recites a passage where David clearly implies that his Savior-yet-to-come is in the presence of God and being addressed by God, receiving a promise of future glory.  And Jesus asks, indirectly, how can this "Lord" David mentions be just a man if He exists with God before He is even born?

This was the Pharisees' last chance to hear His voice, to acknowledge Him as the Messiah.  He didn't speak to them again after the crucifixion and resurrection.  Some Pharisees did respond and become His followers during His three-year ministry.  We don't know for certain if any more were convinced at this particular time, but apparently, the messianic nature of Psalm 110 ~ unquestioned until this point ~ suddenly became, and still is, the focus of frenzied efforts to find alternative meanings.

Even today, few have problems with Jesus being a real person, a prophet, a miracle-worker, a great teacher.  It's once we maintain His claim that He is God, that He has a right to be worshipped as Lord of our lives that the fight begins.  But following His example, let us persevere; let us continue engaging the world and proving His claim till the very end of our lives.

 



Tomorrow's Bible In a Year reading: James 5; Song of Solomon 8; Ezekiel 11-12
Monday's scripture focus passage: Luke 20:45-47

Monday, November 4- Pamela

Today's passage from the Bible In a Year Reading Plan is James 3, Song of Solomon 6, Ezekiel 7-8

Today's scripture focus is  Luke 20:27-40

Sadducees Ask About the Resurrection

²⁷ There came to him some Sadducees, those who deny that there is a resurrection, ²⁸ and they asked him a question, saying, “Teacher, Moses wrote for us that if a man's brother dies, having a wife but no children, the man^[a] must take the widow and raise up offspring for his brother. ²⁹ Now there were seven brothers. The first took a wife, and died without children.³⁰ And the second ³¹ and the third took her, and likewise all seven left no children and died.³² Afterward the woman also died. ³³ In the resurrection, therefore, whose wife will the woman be? For the seven had her as wife.”

³⁴ And Jesus said to them, “The sons of this age marry and are given in marriage, ³⁵ but those who are considered worthy to attain to that age and to the resurrection from the dead neither marry nor are given in marriage, ³⁶ for they cannot die anymore, because they are equal to angels and are sons of God, being sons^[b] of the resurrection. ³⁷ But that the dead are raised, even Moses showed, in the passage about the bush, where he calls the Lord the God of Abraham and the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob. ³⁸ Now he is not God of the dead, but of the living, for all live to him.” ³⁹ Then some of the scribes answered, “Teacher, you have spoken well.” ⁴⁰ For they no longer dared to ask him any question.

I grew up in a family that argued all the time. Over little things. Over big things. It seemed like it was always a competition to get the last word. Voices often were raised, conflict was common, and doing things just for the sake of pushing someone's buttons was a normal occurrence. I didn't know any better because this was my reality. Thankfully, God brought me to place where I met my husband and my whole life changed for the better. I am a better person because of my husband and what he had learned from his family and how he changed me for the better. Anyway...today's passage made me think of this because the Sadducees seemed like they were a part of the family I grew up in...they wanted to have the last word, they tried desperately to push Jesus' buttons by giving him a worst possible scenario that would probably never happen, and they believed they were right and wanted Jesus to be proven wrong. They got more than they bargained for when it was Jesus who had the last word and left them speechless.

We all want to feel powerful by sharing the things we know, to feel confident that what we know is truth, and to feel like we can enlighten those around us. I think that's how the Sadducees felt. They felt hat they knew more than Jesus and they were angry at Him for suggesting they did not. I think they desperately wanted to back Him into a corner with their accusations and to "win" the argument once and for all. In fact, I think the Sadducees were among the many that felt that way.

MacArthur says:  

The Pharisees have come after Him. The Herodians have come after Him. And now it is the Sadducees' turn. And they are furious at Jesus. When you study the gospel accounts, you don't see the Sadducees very often. You don't see them in Jesus' ministry in Galilee. You don't see them as He's moving around in the land of Judea. Where you see them is where they always were, and that's at the temple. They come into play at the times that Jesus cleanses the temple. He did it at the beginning of His ministry, He did it again at the end, as you remember, we studied it in chapter 19. They ran the temple operation, very lucrative, very powerful. They were wealthy. And Jesus interrupted their very successful business. They hated Him. They were furious at Him for what He had just done a matter of hours before this event in cleansing the temple, throwing out the buyers and the sellers and the moneychangers. And so He had assaulted them just as He had assaulted the theology of the Pharisees, He had assaulted the economics of the Sadducees. They had the power over the temple operation.

Religiously they were very narrow and very strict. Some people have thought that they were liberal. They were liberal in the sense that they didn't believe in resurrection and angels and spirits and that's a view like liberal theologians take today. But in applying justice in the land and in applying the law, they were virtually cruel. It was part of how they kept their power to be cruel. Josephus tells us they were more savaged than any other group of Jews. The Pharisees, he says does Josephus, were lenient in dealing with people compared to the Sadducees. They were brutal in enforcing their will upon the people as they interpreted the Law of God, in order to keep their power and position. They were viewed then as fundamentalists and traditionalists who refused to accept the oral law and the scribal law. Which, by the way, the Pharisees fully accepted. The Pharisees accepted Scripture and the oral tradition and the scribal writings. But the Sadducees did not. They only accepted Scripture. They prided themselves on being committed to the pure faith, nothing more. They interpreted Mosaic Law more literally than any others and were fastidious beyond all others in the matters of Levitical purity. They denied any future life of blessing or reward at all. They believed, says Josephus, that the soul and body perish together at death. There are no penalties in the life to come, there is no life to come, there are no rewards. They are known for that and that is the way they are defined by the New Testament.

Sadducees accepted what was convenient for them and nothing more. Argumentative people are like that. My family growing up was like that...spinning things in a way that works out best for them....and of course to get the last word.

MacArthur suggests that the Sadducees had motivation to discredit Jesus in front of everyone:  

But the Sadducees, they don't want the Romans involved in this because they think they'll lose their position. So a certain one of them, the high priest, Caiaphas who is a Sadducee, said to them, "You know nothing at all. Do you take into account that it is expedient for you that one man should die for the people and that the whole nation should not perish?" In other words, we have to have Him put to death. He's got to die or we're all going to perish. And so the Pharisees and the Sadducees come together, even though the Pharisees wanted Him dead for sure, the Sadducees might have not necessarily wanted Him dead thinking Rome would invade, Caiaphas steps up, he's the high priest, and says, "Wait a minute, He's got to be dead or we're all going to lose everything." They're determined that Jesus has to die.

The Sadducees approach is to discredit Him in front of the people by asking Him a question that nobody's been able to answer. This is their ultimate question. This is the one that stumped everybody, I'm sure, all the way along in the debates. This is their best shot. Let's make Him look stupid, let's make Him look foolish by this question on the resurrection.

MacArthur closes:

So the enemies of Jesus, the Sadducees, give Him an opportunity, a great and glorious opportunity, they give Him an opportunity to demonstrate His supernatural wisdom, His relentless devotion to the Scripture, and His affirmation of the promise of resurrection. And so this passage which is a defeat for His enemies is a triumph for His friends, right? While they're stunned into cold-stone heart silence, we come away rejoicing because our Lord is infinitely wise, our Lord is committed to a true and accurate interpretation of Scripture and its application, and our Lord affirms with His own lips the promises of the Bible concerning resurrection. And so I lean more heavily on my all-wise, all-powerful, all-true and always living Lord Jesus Christ. And this joy is only for those who are worthy to attain to that age and the resurrection from the dead. And who are those? Those who put their trust in the Lord Jesus Christ and in His sacrifice, His death and resurrection alone and no confidence in their own works, those who come repenting saying, "God, I have no righteousness of my own, I plead that You would forgive me and apply the righteousness that belongs only to Christ to my account." In an act of faith we are forgiven of all our sin, we are covered with the righteousness of Christ. We receive the promise of eternal life and thus by His worthiness we have been made worthy to attain to the resurrection from the dead. We live then in that hope, affirmed by the words of our Savior Himself in this great encounter.

May we not seek to have the last word and be, instead, humbled and grateful for the sacrifice that Jesus made to take on our sinful nature and cover all of our iniquities.

Tomorrow's scripture focus: James 4, Song of Solomon 7, Ezekiel 9-10

Tomorrow's Bible In a Year Passage passage: Luke 20:41-44