All posts in Unvarnished Jesus

  • April 18, 2006

    The Name of Jesus

    Day 49

    Acts 3 & 4

    Jesus has ascended to heaven to sit at the right hand of the Father until the time when He will return, set up His Kingdom and rule the nations with a rod of iron. But Jesus has left the authority of His name and sent the power of the Holy Spirit to His church. With the authority of Jesus’ name and the power of the Holy Spirit we are proclaiming the gospel with signs and wonders and bringing the rule of Christ to the hearts of men. We see this pattern powerfully demonstrated in Acts 3 and 4.

    May there be more miracles, in Jesus’ name. May we enter into a supernatural spring and summer, in Jesus’ name. Let’s believe for it!

    But don’t make the mistake of ever expecting miracles to be common. Miracles are miraculous — an exception to the norm. Even when miracles are regular, they are never common. In Acts 3 we find the miracle healing of the lame man at the temple gate. This man had been born lame and we are told he was laid daily at the temple gate to beg for alms. That means that Peter and John had regularly walked past him and that Jesus had even regularly walked past this man. But in God’s sovereign purposes the hour came for the power of Jesus’ name to be demonstrated in this man, and Peter was sensitive enough to the Holy Spirit and courageous enough in faith to act boldly and see this great miracle. But I don’t want you to get the idea that Peter and John (or Jesus) healed every lame beggar they encountered, they did not. But they did move regularly in the miraculous, and that is what we need much more of. Let’s go for it!

    If we will pray more, believe more and take some bold steps of faith, we will see more miracles among us. Amen!

    _______________________________________________________

    Life is good.

    If you heard otherwise…you’ve been lied to.

    The devil is a liar and Jesus is Lord!

    If you’ll stay on fire you’ll never be bored!

    BZ

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  • April 17, 2006

    The Going and The Coming

    Day 48

    We have now completed a forty-seven day journey through the Gospels with a revisiting of the Holy Week in our discovery of the Unvarnished Jesus. In the two weeks that remain in our Two Months of Discovery we will be in the Book of Acts where we will discover the ongoing ministry of Jesus through His church. The Book of Acts…twenty-eight chapters…during fourteen days…two chapters a day. It’s easy to do, but if you let it, it will be enormously exciting.

    Next Sunday I will be preaching on the Ascension of Jesus and His ministry during the forty day interim between the His Resurrection and His Ascension. On the last day of April (Sunday, April 30) — the last day of our Two Months of Discovery — I will preach on the Second Coming of Christ. Then, during May, June, July and part of August, I will preach 28 messages from the book of Acts (Fridays and Sundays) — one chapter per message. From the Unvarnished Jesus to the Unvarnished Church. It will be a supernatural summer!

    INTRODUCTION TO THE BOOK OF ACTS

    The end of the Gospels is the beginning of a movement called Christianity; a spiritual movement that has changed the world and is changing the world still. The author of Acts is Luke; Luke was a doctor turned historian and the traveling companion of the Apostle Paul. Luke had written the Gospel that bears his name from his interviews with the people who were eyewitnesses of the events surrounding the life of Jesus. Luke concludes His gospel with the ascension of Christ, but this was not the end of the ministry of Jesus on the earth. The ministry of Jesus continued, but in a different way — through His church. Luke is the man who is used by God to record the astounding advance of Christianity during its first generation. The book of Acts is a book of action and adventure. It is full of supernatural events; there are lots of angels and lots of dreams and visions. All kinds of people speak in tongues and prophesy. Demons are cast out, the sick are healed and the dead are raised. Other people are most definitely not healed, instead they suddenly drop dead or are struck blind. There are supernatural escapes from prisons, shipwrecks and snakebites. It is hard to imagine an adventure more filled with excitement and risk than what is recorded in Acts.

    Adventure and the miraculous permeate Acts. Acts is the historical record of Jesus on the move. It’s impossible not to notice the priority of prayer and reliance upon the Holy Spirit in the book of Acts. These men and women turned the world upside down, not through conventional means, but by an audacious expectation of the supernatural. They constantly risked everything on the wager that God would show up and do His thing.

    But the book of Acts is not a glossy account that only covers the highpoints. There are also trials (the hardship kind and the literal kind) and personality conflicts and church disputes and wrangling over doctrine and believers who don’t get a miraculous deliverance but instead get killed. The book of Acts is a faithful record of the good, the bad and the ugly. But even when things are bad and ugly, the Jesus Movement moves on and Christianity keeps advancing. It was that way then and it’s that way now.

    So get ready for a fourteen day adventure through the book of Acts. We’ll be in the upper room with the wind and fire. We will see plenty of miracles…and plenty of trials. We’ll be in a shipwreck and hear lots of sermons that have this theme: Jesus is alive! Jesus is Lord! And when we reach the end, this will be the final word: Unhindered. No matter what obstacles hell may throw in the way, hell cannot stop the advance of the movement that Jesus began. The record of the book of Acts ends with chapter 28. But you and I are writing chapter 29 and we have our own adventure to live. Let’s go!

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    Acts 1 & 2

    Since I will be preaching through the Book of Acts this spring and summer, I don’t feel a need to give a general commentary on our daily readings; there will be ample time for that in the twenty-eight messages I am preparing. Instead, my intention in these daily blogs is to share thoughts, ideas, feelings, impressions I have from our daily readings.

    Acts 1 is the going and Acts 2 is the coming.

    “As you saw Him go into heaven.” -Acts 1:11

    “Suddenly there came from heaven a sound…” -Acts 2:2

    Jesus goes into heaven by ascension and ten days later the Holy Spirit comes from heaven to empower the believers and give birth to the church.

    The coming is all about the Kingdom coming. Thy Kingdom come. The Kingdom has been coming for a long time.

    The call of Abraham was about the Kingdom coming.

    The rise of the kingdom of Israel was about the Kingdom coming.

    The oracles of the prophets was about the Kingdom coming.

    The preaching of John the Baptist was about the Kingdom coming.

    The ministry of Jesus was about the Kingdom coming.

    The outpouring of the Holy Spirit on the day of Pentecost and the birth of the church was about the Kingdom coming.

    All of these things advance the coming of the Kingdom. When Jesus comes the second time the Kingdom will come in fullness and finality. Maranatha!

    Notice how Peter connects the outpouring of the Holy Spirit with the coming of the great and awesome Day of the Lord (when the nations will be judged and the kingdoms of the earth will become the Kingdom of Christ)…

    And it shall come to pass in the last days, says God, that I will pour out of My Spirit on all flesh…before the coming of the great and awesome Day of the Lord.
    (Acts 2:17, 20)

    The outpouring of the Holy Spirit leads all the way up to the coming of the Day of the Lord. But like the rains in Israel, there is an early and latter outpouring. The first installment began at Pentecost nearly two thousand years ago. The second installment began at Azusa Street a hundred years ago this month. Everything is moving toward the coming of Jesus Christ and His Kingdom. Maranatha!

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    The song stuck in my head today…

    Ring Them Bells
    Bob Dylan

    Ring them bells, ye heathen
    From the city that dreams,
    Ring them bells from the sanctuaries
    Cross the valleys and streams,
    For they’re deep and they’re wide
    And the world’s on its side
    And time is running backwards
    And so is the bride.

    Ring them bells St. Peter
    Where the four winds blow,
    Ring them bells with an iron hand
    So the people will know.
    Oh it’s rush hour now
    On the wheel and the plow
    And the sun is going down
    Upon the sacred cow.

    Ring them bells Sweet Martha,
    For the poor man’s son,
    Ring them bells so the world will know
    That God is one.
    Oh the shepherd is asleep
    Where the willows weep
    And the mountains are filled
    With lost sheep.

    Ring them bells for the blind and the deaf,
    Ring them bells for all of us who are left,
    Ring them bells for the chosen few
    Who will judge the many when the game is through.
    Ring them bells, for the time that flies,
    For the child that cries
    When innocence dies.

    Ring them bells St. Catherine
    From the top of the room,
    Ring them from the fortress
    For the lilies that bloom.
    Oh the lines are long
    And the fighting is strong
    And they’re breaking down the distance
    Between right and wrong.

    4 Comments / Uncategorized, Unvarnished Jesus /

  • April 16, 2006

    The Greatest Story Ever Told

    Day 47

    Holy Week – Easter Sunday

    Matthew 28
    Mark 16
    Luke 24
    John 20 & 21

    The dramatic and triumphant conclusion to The Greatest Story Ever Told is the resurrection of Jesus. It is the happy ending of all happy endings. It is also to the introduction to the sequel to The Greatest Story Ever Told, which we might call, “To the Ends of the Earth”.

    The eyewitness accounts from the events of that first Easter Sunday are honest accounts. The Holy Spirit inspired the Gospel writers to record these accounts, but trying to fit all the details together is difficult (which is further evidence that they are reporting a real event). Nevertheless, let me try to give you a chronology of the key events in Jerusalem on the first Sunday following Passover in the year A.D. 30.

    Sometime around 5:00 A.M., maybe a little earlier, Jerusalem was rattled by an earthquake. This is the second earthquake in Jerusalem that weekend. The first one occurred at 3:00 P.M. on Friday — the moment Jesus died. I believe the second earthquake occurred at the moment of the resurrection.

    Immediately after the earthquake an angel came to the garden of Joseph of Arimathea and rolled back the large stone that was sealing the tomb. This was not to let Jesus out (apparently the resurrected Christ operates in extra-dimensionality and coming and going is no problem).

    At the same time these events are happening, three women from Galilee who are staying in Bethany are making their way to Joseph’s garden. These three women are Mary Magdalene, Mary Clopas and Salome. They are coming at the first opportunity since the crucifixion to add spices to the body of Jesus. If the resurrection occurred in the year A.D. 30, it is April 11. (The other possible year is A.D. 33. I lean toward A.D. 30). It’s not yet light, but they know it will be soon. The temperature is probably in the upper 40’s. Their route from Bethany would take them past the old quarry known as Calvary. The city walls would be on their left and Calvary on their right. They are probably thankful that it is still dark so they don’t have to look at the Place of the Skull and be further reminded of the awful events of Friday.

    As they enter the gate into the walled garden it is still dark and they are almost at the tomb before they realize the stone has been rolled away! They can only assume that the body of Jesus has been stolen.

    Mary Magdalene, the youngest of the women, runs to the upper city of Jerusalem to tell Peter and John what she has discovered. This will take twenty minutes or more. When she tells Peter and John what she has discovered (that the tomb is empty), Peter and John set off running for the tomb. Mary follows, but she is no longer running.

    Meanwhile back in the garden: Mary Clopas and Salome have been waiting by the tomb. Two other women have come to the tomb to join them in anointing the body of Jesus; these women are Joanna and Susanna. These women are married to prominent men and live in the wealthy Hasmonean quarter of Jerusalem. The five of them had probably planned to meet at the tomb on Sunday at sunrise.

    With the arrival of Joanna and Susanna (and now that it’s getting lighter), the four women decide to look into the tomb. To their shock they discover that the tomb is not empty! There is a young man in a long robe sitting to the right. They are frightened by this discovery. The young man speaks and says, “Don’t be afraid. I know you’re looking for Jesus. He’s not here, because He has risen. Come and see where He lay.” Then this young man, who perhaps they have now figured out is an angel, tells them to go tell the disciples. Off they go.

    Now Peter and John arrive at the garden. For some reason there are no angels at the tomb when Peter and John arrive. I have my ideas about why this is. In their run from the upper city of Jerusalem, John got to the tomb first (he tells us he outran Peter!). But John only looks into the tomb. When Peter gets there, he enters the tomb, followed by John. They inspect the abandoned grave clothes. What John sees is enough evidence for him to believe that Jesus has risen from the dead. Peter and John return to Jerusalem.

    Now Mary Magdalene arrives back at the tomb and she is weeping. It’s light now. She looks into the tomb. Maybe she even stuck her head into the doorway of the tomb, because she discovers, not one young man, but two young men (angels) sitting in the tomb. They ask her why she is weeping and she says it’s because the body of Jesus has been stolen. As Mary, still weeping, turns around, she notices a man is standing nearby. She assumes he is the gardener. She asks him about the missing body. The “gardener” says, “Mary.” And Mary says, “Rabboni” and falls at the feet of Jesus worshiping Him.

    Mary Magdalene is the first person to see Jesus after He had risen from the dead.

    Jesus made four more appearances that day…

    1. That morning to the other four women as they were on their way to report to the disciples.

    2. Later in the day in a private appearance to Peter.

    3. Late in the afternoon to Cleopas and another disciple as they traveled from Jerusalem to Emmaus.

    4. That evening to the disciples (without Thomas) in the Upper Room in Jerusalem.

    That is the summary of how seventeen people on the first Easter Sunday made the life changing discovery that Jesus is alive.

    How did you make your discovery of the risen Savior?

    Maybe it was dramatic, maybe it was simple. Maybe it was sudden, maybe it progressive. The important thing is that you have made your own discovery of the greatest fact in history: Jesus is alive!

    HE IS RISEN!

    1 Comment / Uncategorized, Unvarnished Jesus /

  • April 15, 2006

    Jesus in the Tomb

    Day 46

    Holy Week – Saturday

    Matthew 27:57-66
    Mark 15:42-47
    Luke 23:50-56
    John 19:38-42

    Jesus in the tomb. Jesus dead. Jesus buried. This is part of the gospel.

    We know what happened on Good Friday and we know what happened on Easter Sunday. But what happened on Saturday is also part of the gospel. So what happened on Saturday? Nothing. Nothing happened. Nothing happened because Jesus was dead and buried. Indeed, this is an essential part of the gospel.

    The oldest Christian creed is found in Paul’s first letter to the church in Corinth. Paul’s epistles to the Corinthians are the earliest New Testament writings, written even before the Gospel of Mark. In 1 Corinthians 15 Paul inserts a creed he learned in Aramaic shortly after his conversion. This creed was written in the first few years after the resurrection (probably by the original Apostles while they were still in Jerusalem). It says…

    Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures,
    He was buried,
    He rose again the third day according to the Scriptures.
    He was seen by Cephas,
    Then by the Twelve.
    After that He was seen by over five hundred brethren at once.
    After that He was seen by James,
    Then by all the apostles.

    Paul says, THIS IS THE GOSPEL!

    Don’t skip over the second line of the Gospel: “He was buried.” The burial is the death certificate of Christ. We don’t bury people who are alive; we bury people who are dead. And Jesus was dead. Dead and buried.

    To be dead is one thing…to be dead and buried is another. Buried means, “beyond hope.” Saturday is harder than Friday. Friday is full of drama and peril; but though it is awful, there is still the glimmer of hope that there might be a miracle. But Saturday there is nothing. Nothing to do but to face the fact that all is lost. Friday has its horrific shock, but Saturday is more cruel still, because on Saturday the shock wears off and the devastating reality sets in. Many people are familiar with Tony Campolo’s famous sermon, It’s Friday, But Sunday’s Coming! But before Sunday comes, we have to endure Saturday.

    What was that Saturday like for the disciples? For Peter? For the women who followed Jesus? It must have been utter hopelessness…and hopelessness is a kind of hell.

    While the great Russian writer Fyodor Dostoevsky was living in Switzerland, he visited an art museum in Basle where he saw a painting by Hans Holbein entitled Christ in the Tomb. Dostoevsky was profoundly affected by this painting which depicts Jesus dead in the tomb with harrowing realism. When Dostoevsky saw the painting, which was above a door in the gallary, he stood upon a chair to get a closer look at it and then remarked, “Such a painting could make a man lose his faith.” At that time Dostoevsky was writing his novel, The Idiot, and he placed those words in the mouth of the central character, Myshkin. The painting figures prominently in the book; some editions of The Idiot even put this painting on the cover. Later Myshkin comes to realize that instead of making a man lose his faith, knowing (and feeling) that Jesus really was dead, is precisely the antecedent to overcoming faith. Myshkin comes to understand that there surely were those who had seen the dead body of Jesus in just such a horrifying state as depicted by Holbein in his painting, and only one thing could turn them into the apostles and heralds of the Christian faith: The FACT that Jesus Christ rose from the dead! Until we see Jesus as really dead in the tomb, the resurrection is little more than a fairy tale.

    Here is Holbein’s painting…

    Christ in the Tomb

    Jesus really was that dead.

    Meditate upon this fact…and then get ready for THE GREATEST FACT IN HISTORY!

    _____________________________________________________

    Tomorrow is Easter. It will be the greatest Easter Sunday we’ve ever had at Word of Life! I promise that! You will never forget this Easter celebration!

    BZ

    1 Comment / Uncategorized, Unvarnished Jesus /

  • April 14, 2006

    The Place Called Calvary

    Day 45

    Holy Week – Good Friday

    Matthew 27:1-56
    Mark 15:1-41
    Luke 23:1-49
    John 19:1-37

    Good Friday. A strange name for the most awful day in history. The day that God died. But it is an apt name. The ultimate testimony of grace. Yet Good Friday only becomes good on Easter Sunday. The two must remain connected or neither one makes any sense.

    I don’t know how to tell you how I feel about tonight’s Good Friday service at Word of Life. “Excited” sounds too trite. But whatever the appropriate word is, I have great, shall we say, anticipation, for what will happen tonight. I will say this much: It will be unlike any service we’ve ever had. The Good Friday observance and the Easter Sunday celebrations at Word of Life this weekend are in reality one thing…with 36 hours in between. I really hope that if at all possible you will be with us tonight at 7:30 for this Good Friday observance. Come willing to experience something different.

    _____________________________________________________

    The Place Called Calvary

    Tonight I will talk to you about a place called Calvary. I will take you there. So I will save what I have to say about the sacred place called Calvary for tonight. Instead I will focus my thoughts from today’s reading of the Gospel accounts of the Passion of Jesus on one aspect: Jesus being bound.

    Then the detachment of troops and the captain and the officers of the Jews arrested Jesus and bound Him.

    Then Annas sent Him bound to Caiaphas the high priest.

    And when they had bound Him, they led Him away and delivered Him to Pontius Pilate the governor.

    Christ in Chains

    Jesus bound. The King confined. Christ in chains. Why? Why was it necessary to send armed soldiers to arrest Jesus and bind Him as a dangerous criminal? It was unnecessary cruelty. Ah, there we have it — it was cruelty, and cruelty is always the offspring of cowardice. They were afraid of Him.

    In the picture of Christ bound we see what the sinner would do if he could. The sinner would put God in chains and worse…if he could, the sinner would kill God. What is the fool doing when he says, “There is no God”? He is killing God as best he knows how.

    Men binding Jesus. What does it say? If we cannot convince ourselves there is no God, then let us make sure it is a powerless God we believe in. Sinners will attempt to bind God that they might sit in judgment of God. “God, we find the idea of hell intolerable. Therefore we sentence you to a correctional facility until what time you learn your lesson and amend your ways. You must be rehabilitated.” But if God could not be bound by all the power of death, He cannot be bound by the opinions of men.

    The binding of Jesus was completely unnecessary. Those bonds did not keep Him from escaping. Had Jesus wanted to escape He could have burst those bonds far easier than Samson burst the ropes the Philistines tried to bind him with. But Jesus was bound. He was bound with cords of love. His love for the Father’s will and His love for fallen humanity were the cords that bound Christ. That and nothing else could hold Him.

    And remember that all the suffering of Christ is redemptive. He suffered the cross that we might be forgiven, the stripes that we might be healed, the shame that we might have peace and the bonds that we might be set free.

    He did it all for us.

    We love Him because He first loved us.

    Now may the love of Christ constrain us. (2 Corinthians 5:14)

    Christ in chains. Meditate on this holy thought on this Good Friday.

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  • April 13, 2006

    The Last Supper

    Day 44

    Holy Week – Maundy Thursday

    Matthew 26:17-75
    Mark 14:12-72
    Luke 22:1-62

    Meals play an important role in the Bible. God shared a meal with Abraham. Israel’s redemption from Egypt involved a meal and God gave them an annual covenant meal to observe in remembrance of that event: Passover. In the life of Jesus we find Him eating with both tax gatherers and Pharisees. Three of Jesus’ post resurrection appearances involve meals. And now that Jesus is only a few hours away from His passion, He desires to share a meal with His disciples: The Last Supper.

    The meal was prepared in the Upper Room near Mount Zion in Jerusalem. Certainly the table in the Upper Room was not as Leonardo da Vinci depicts in his famous painting of The Last Supper, but rather was a low seated three sided triclinium.

    With a little bit of detective work I can make a calculated guess as to where four of the people at the Last Supper were seated. Jesus would certainly been at the seat of honor which is the second one in on the left side (as seen in the picture.) We know that John would have been on Jesus’ right because we are told that he leaned upon Jesus and at a triclinium you rested on your left side. I have reason to believe that Judas was seated on the left side of Jesus because we are told that Jesus gave Judas a sop and we are also told that Jesus indicated to Judas that He knew that it was him who would betray Him, and this was apparently done without the other disciples being aware of it (this being so, it would mean that Jesus leaned upon His betrayer at the Last Supper!). Furthermore, I suspect that Peter was seated opposite John (at the far right), because Peter was able to signal to John to ask Jesus who the betrayer was. There is also evidence that Peter was the last one to have his feet washed by Jesus, and the outside seat on the right is the last seat. Did you get all that?

    When Jesus sent two disciples to prepare the Passover in the Upper Room, He remarked, “My time is at hand.” Indeed within a few hours Jesus would be sweating blood in Gethsemane and would soon thereafter be arrested. I am amazed at how calm Jesus is at the Last Supper.

    Pay close attention to what Jesus does during the meal when He establishes the sacrament of communion. Jesus took bread, blessed bread, broke bread and gave bread. This pattern is repeated over and over by Jesus. You see it at the multiplication of the loaves and fishes, at the Last Supper and at the post resurrection meal in Emmaus (this may have been how Cleopas and the other disciple recognized Jesus).

    This pattern of Jesus is repeated in His dealings with us. He takes us, blesses, breaks us and gives us. I know we don’t like the breaking part, but we cannot be a blessing to others until we are broken.

    While Jesus was sitting at the table with His disciples, He said…

    With fervent desire I have desired to eat this Passover with you before I suffer.”

    Oh, the poignancy of this moment! Jesus is about to enter His suffering — suffering beyond knowing — and His fervent desire is to share one last meal with His disciples.

    Now be an unseen disciple in the Upper Room and see Jesus with bread and wine saying…

    This is My body which is broken for you; do this in remembrance of Me. This cup is the new covenant in My blood, which is shed for you.

    What a holy moment.

    Finally Jesus says this…

    I will no longer eat of it until it is fulfilled in the Kingdom of God.

    Remember that Jesus shared a meal with His disciples three times following His resurrection. What does that mean? It means that with the resurrection of Jesus the Kingdom has come. So when we share in the Lord’s Supper (as we will Friday night), we not only memorialize the Lord’s death, we also declare that the Kingdom of God has come among us.

    Hallelujah!

    BZ

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    Song for the day…

    The Sacrifice Lamb
    Joel Chernoff

    Have you ever heard Messiah has come?
    It says in His Word to cleanse every one
    Atonement He made iniquity bore
    That we can find life in Him evermore

    The Sacrifice Lamb has been slain
    His blood on the alter a stain
    To wipe away guilt and pain
    To bring hope eternal
    Salvation has come to the world
    God’s only Son to the world
    Jesus the one for the world
    Yeshua is He

    The prophets of old speak much of Messiah
    His death is foretold the purpose is clear
    Isaiah did say ’twas for an atonement
    To give us a way that leads not to death

    The Sacrifice Lamb has been slain
    His blood on the alter a stain
    To wipe away guilt and pain
    To bring hope eternal
    Salvation has come to the world
    God’s only Son to the world
    Jesus the one for the world
    Yeshua is He

    So brothers of mine look not to yourselves
    For we are but one we all need His help
    We’ve broken the Law but He paid our debt
    That we can find life by Yeshua’s death

    The Sacrifice Lamb has been slain
    His Blood on the alter a stain
    To wipe away guilt and pain
    To bring hope eternal
    So final atonement has come
    And brought us new hope by God’s Son
    If you will believe in your heart
    Yeshua you’ll know

    1 Comment / Uncategorized, Unvarnished Jesus /

  • April 12, 2006

    Anointed for Burial

    Day 43

    Holy Week – Wednesday

    Matthew 26:1-16
    Mark 14:1-11

    On Wednesday of the Holy Week there was a dinner in Bethany. I don’t know who all was at the dinner, but I do know the names of seventeen people who were there: Simon the Leper (the host), Simon Peter, James and John the sons of Zebedee, Andrew, Philip, Matthew Levi, Nathanael Bartholomew, Thomas Didymus, James Alpheus, Lebbaeus Thaddaeus, Simon the Zealot, Judas Iscariot, Lazarus and his sisters Martha and Mary, and the guest of honor, Jesus of Nazareth.

    I also know that everyone of these people had been blessed by Jesus. I think it’s safe to say that Simon was no more a leper thanks to Jesus, the twelve disciples had the awesome priviledge of being called by Jesus to be apostles, Lazarus had been raised from the dead and Martha and Mary had been given their beloved brother back from the grave. And yet I get the feeling that those at the dinner had adopted a sort of casual familiarity toward Jesus…all except for Mary. Mary was incapable of being casual toward Jesus. She was the One Thing Woman whose entire life had its orbit around Jesus.

    While Jesus was at the table, something compelled her to do something extravagant, something irrational, something far exceeding what is called for. Mary was as sensible as anyone else and she knew that what she was about to do was an unbounded extravagance, but she couldn’t help it. She was obsessed with doing this thing. She ran back to her house and got one of her most valuable possessions — an alabaster flask containing a pound of pure oil of spikenard. Spikenard is a root that grows only in the Himalayan mountains of Nepal and was very expensive. In fact this bottle of fragrant oil was worth about $15,000. Fifteen thousand dollars! What could be done with $15,000? What objects could be obtained or what charitable causes could be funded with $15,000? But Mary was only thinking about One Thing.

    She hurried back to Simon’s home where she broke — not opened, mind you, but broke — the alabaster flask and poured the entire contents upon Jesus’ head.

    “And the house was filled with the fragrance of the oil.”

    And the criticism began…

    “Why this waste?”

    “What was the purpose of this excessive extravagance?”

    “This oil could have been sold and given to the poor.”

    “FIFTEEN THOUSAND DOLLARS!!”

    “Don’t you care about the poor?”

    “If you really knew what is important you wouldn’t be wasting God’s money on such things.”

    “You just don’t have any common sense; you need to become more practical.”

    “It’s a sin to waste things, you know.”

    And then Jesus spoke up…

    “LEAVE HER ALONE! STOP CRITICIZING HER!”

    “She has done a good work for Me. She’s done what she could.”

    “She has anointed my body for burial.”

    Silence.

    Judas had been the ringleader of the criticism, yet others had joined in. (Be careful of being influenced by others to heap criticism on those who are doing something for the Lord. You never know what kind of spirit may be behind it.)

    Jesus’ rebuke had silenced them. I assume most of them were chastised by Jesus’ rebuke and adjusted their attitude, but Judas did not. Judas’ anger at Jesus’ defense of Mary’s extravagance was the final catalyst for betrayal.

    “She has anointed My body for burial.”

    Did anyone really hear those words? I don’t think so. But later they remembered them.

    Within 36 hours Jesus would be in the throes of His passion. Spikenard is a very powerful fragrance and its scent will linger for days. When Jesus was sweating blood in Gethsemane, when Jesus was being scourged at Gabbatha, when Jesus was suffering at Golgotha, did He smell the scent of the spikenard and did it bring even the slightest measure of comfort to Him? I like to think so.

    Jesus said wherever the gospel is preached, what Mary has done will be told as a memorial to her. I’m preaching the gospel on the internet coming up on midnight Wednesday morning…and I have just set up a memorial to Mary of Bethany.

    May we be more like her. May we anoint Jesus with the precious oil of our prayers, our tears, our devotion, our worship. May we “waste” our lives on the One who poured out His life for us.

    Amen.

    _____________________________________________________

    At noon today in the Upper Room we will have an hour long “Anointing the Christ” prayer and worship service. We have anointed the Upper Room with oil of spikenard that you might catch the scent of extravagant devotion to Christ.

    No Comments / Uncategorized, Unvarnished Jesus /

  • April 11, 2006

    Teaching in the Temple

    Day 42

    Holy Week – Tuesday

    Luke 20 & 21

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    A Mighty Fortress Is Our God
    Martin Luther

    A mighty fortress is our God, a bulwark never failing;
    Our helper He, amid the flood of mortal ills prevailing:
    For still our ancient foe doth seek to work us woe;
    His craft and power are great, and, armed with cruel hate,
    On earth is not his equal.

    Did we in our own strength confide, our striving would be losing;
    Were not the right Man on our side, the Man of God’s own choosing:
    Dost ask who that may be? Christ Jesus, it is He;
    Lord Sabaoth, His Name, from age to age the same,
    And He must win the battle.

    And though this world, with devils filled, should threaten to undo us,
    We will not fear, for God hath willed His truth to triumph through us:
    The Prince of Darkness grim, we tremble not for him;
    His rage we can endure, for lo, his doom is sure,
    One little word shall fell him.

    That word above all earthly powers, no thanks to them, abideth;
    The Spirit and the gifts are ours through Him Who with us sideth:
    Let goods and kindred go, this mortal life also;
    The body they may kill: God’s truth abideth still,
    His kingdom is forever.

    As I was with Jesus today, I found myself thinking about this great hymn by Martin Luther. I’ll tell you why in a moment.

    On Tuesday of the Holy Week Jesus taught publicly in the temple and then later privately on the Mount of Olives. The common denominator of Luke 20 and 21 is conflict; both the mood and the theme of Jesus’ teaching is one of conflict. Luke 20 opens with this…

    “Now it happened on one of those days as He taught the people in the temple and preached the gospel, that the chief priests and the scribes, together with the elders, confronted Him.”

    All of Luke 20 is a conflict between Jesus and the Jewish religious hierarchy. Jesus tells them that soon they will no longer be the keepers of the Lord’s vineyard and they reply, “God forbid!” Then the Pharisees and the Sadducees take their respective turns in unsuccessfully trying to trip up Jesus with trick questions. The chapter closes with Jesus point-blank telling the people to beware of the scribes who are doomed to a greater condemnation.

    At the beginning of chapter 21 it seems as though the disciples want to innocently distract Jesus from all of the conflict by drawing His attention to the marvelous buildings of the temple complex. But Jesus will have none of it and curtly tells them that the buildings are doomed to destruction and foretold the signs that would indicate the eminent destruction of Jerusalem. These things came to pass forty years later.

    In His Olivet discourse Jesus weaves together prophecy concerning the difficult times pertaining to the destruction of Jerusalem (which happen in A.D. 70) and the difficult times that will accompany the last days. I am convinced that the events of May 14, 1948 (Israel becoming a modern nation) and June 5, 1967 (Jerusalem returning to Jewish control) are important prophetic signs indicating that we are living in the last days before the return of Christ. These days are destined to be days of great Kingdom advance amidst tremendous difficulty and conflict.

    The prophetic theme of the Kingdom advancing admist danger and conflict is what drew my mind to Martin Luther’s great hymn. (One of the greatest hymns ever written — the only other two I would place in the same category would be “Amazing Grace” and “Holy, Holy, Holy”.)

    Martin Luther was no stranger to conflict. From the moment he nailed his “95 Thesis” to the church door in Wittenberg, Germany on October 31, 1517, he was embroiled in tremendous conflict and danger as he labored to liberate the Christian world from the oppression of dead religious tradition. Martin Luther was undoubtedly one of the most courageous men in history.

    “A Mighty Fortress Is Our God” was the battle cry of the Reformation and I think there is no greater hymn for encouraging those who are fighting the Lord’s battle in a “world with devils filled.” Read Luke 21 one more time and then read “A Mighty Fortress Is Our God” and you’ll see what I mean.

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    Here’s something that stood out to me in Luke 21 this morning.

    “They will put some of you to death…But not a hair of your head shall be lost.” –Jesus (Luke 21:16, 18)

    “Some of you will be killed, but not a hair of your head will be lost.” Hmm? At first that might seem a bit contradictory. But when you remember that your destiny lies in the eternal Kingdom of Jesus Christ, and not in this temporal life, it begins to make sense. If you stay faithful to Jesus Christ, no matter what any man or devil may do to you, it cannot touch your eternal destiny in Jesus Christ. That’s really encouraging!

    A mighty fortress is our God!

    BZ

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  • April 10, 2006

    Lessons from the Fig Tree

    Day 41

    Holy Week – Monday

    Matthew 21:18-46
    Mark 11:20-33
    John 12:20-50

    Jesus is on an inevitable collision course with the Pharisees and Sadducees. Jesus was always merciful toward the tax collectors and harlots who came to Him; He was their friend. But Jesus was always harsh with the religious hypocrites and hucksters who oppressed and manipulated people with their legalism and corrupted the sacred ideals of worship with the base motives of profit; He was their enemy.

    The Cleansing of the Temple

    It appears that Jesus cleansed the Temple twice. John records Jesus cleansing the Temple at the beginning of His ministry. Matthew, Mark and Luke record Jesus cleansing the Temple during the final week of His ministry. Matthew and Luke simply report that Jesus cleansed the Temple following His triumphal entry, but Mark makes it clear that is was on the following day — Monday.

    During the week leading up to the crucifixion, Jesus was staying in Bethany (probably with Mary, Martha and Lazarus) and would journey each day into the city of Jerusalem to minister. It’s a walk of no more than thirty minutes. On Sunday Jesus arrived in Bethany from Jericho, it was probably in the afternoon. That day He made His triumphal entry into Jerusalem; then He returned to Bethany to spend the night. On Monday morning Jesus and His disciples headed back into the city. On His way to the city Jesus saw a fig tree. (There are still fig trees on this road today!) Jesus looked for fruit, found none, cursed the fig tree and soon it withered away. Jesus then continued into Jerusalem, cleansed the Temple spoke some very pointed parables directed at the Pharisees. The Pharisees knew that Jesus had spoken against them and they wanted to arrest Him on the spot, but they had to bide their time. They didn’t dare attempt to arrest Jesus in the temple during the day lest there be a riot.

    The fruitless fig tree which Jesus cursed and subsequently withered away is a picture of the corrupted religion of the temple worship controlled by the Pharisees and Sadducees. What had once contained the life of God, no longer bore spiritual fruit and within forty years the temple itself would be destroyed (as Jesus will prophecy the next day on the Mount of Olives). Instead Jesus said to the chief priests, “The Kingdom of God will be taken away from you and given to a nation bearing the fruits of it.” This kingdom nation is not a political entity, but the community of committed followers of Jesus Christ from ever nation, tribe and tongue.

    On this Monday of the final week, some Greeks who were in Jerusalem for the Passover sought an audience with Jesus. When Philip and Andrew informed Jesus of their request, Jesus at first seemed to ignore it and spoke of His impending death as a grain of wheat falling into the ground that it might produce much grain. But a little bit later Jesus says, “And I, if I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all peoples to Myself.”

    Here’s what’s happening: Greeks (Gentiles) want to meet with Jesus, but Jesus is focused on His impending death in less than four days. He knows that if He is lifted on the cross (and in the subsequent preaching of the message of cross), not only will these Greeks become the salvation fruit of death, but millions and millions of Gentiles wherever the gospel is preached will be saved. Jesus was focused on the big picture. The big picture of saving the world. That’s as big as the picture gets.

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    “The Gospel of Judas”

    Some people have asked me about the documentary on “The Gospel of Judas” which was shown on the National Geographic Channel Sunday night and has been endlessly hyped in the media. So, a few comments…

    First of all, this late second century document is neither a gospel nor written by Judas. It is a Gnostic text written about 150 years after the resurrection which attempts to cast Judas in a new light by asserting, contrary to the canonical gospels, that Judas was Jesus’ closest disciple and the only one who really understood His teaching. Furthermore, this Gnostic document claims that Jesus asked Judas to betray Him and Judas did so out of loyalty to Jesus. The so-called “Gospel of Judas” gives us a “new and improved” Judas and presents Jesus as somewhat manipulative and a teacher of Gnostic thought.

    OK. A little bit on the Gnostics. They were early Christian era heretics who taught that Jesus did not come in the flesh and that the way to salvation was through secret knowledge, not the redemptive work of Christ. The Gnostics were fond of recasting Biblical “villains” in a positive light; e.g. Cain, Esau, the Sodomites, and, now we learn, Judas.

    The Apostle John, who lived long enough to see the rise of the Gnostic heresy, directed much of his apostolic writings against Gnosticism. John specifically called the Gnostics antichrists (see 1 John 2:18-23, 1 John 4:3 and 2 John 1:7). Later the early church fathers (notably Justin Martyr, Irenaeus and Tertullian) waged a great theological war with the Gnostics to rescue Christianity from the influence of the Gnostic heretics.

    The importance of the so-called “Gospel of Judas” (discovered some 50 years ago in Egypt) is that it sheds light on the Gnostics and their heresies. But it has nothing to do with the historical Jesus. As Collin Hansen of Christianity Today put it, “This new text tells us nothing more about Jesus’ relationship with Judas than does Jesus Christ Superstar.”

    The media hype of the “Gospel of Judas” and the popularity of Dan Brown’s book and soon to be movie, The Da Vinci Code is absolutely the spirit of antichrist at work in the 21st Century. In recent years there has been a resurgence of Gnostic ideas in both popular culture and the pseudo-academic world. The first century apostles and the early church father’s had to contend diligently for the faith during the first five centuries of Christianity. Now in the 21st century we must do the same.

    For those of you who would be interested in a serious academic critique of Elain Pagels’ Beyond Belief (the book that the NGC program was based on), I would refer you to this critical response by Matthew Goss. Print this out for the know-it-all at work who thinks “The Gospel of Judas” somehow reveals a grand conspiracy to conceal the “truth.” Intellectual attacks on Christianity usually aren’t intellectual. That is a secret most academic skeptics don’t want you to know…but I’m letting the cat out of the bag.

    Jesus is Lord!

    BZ

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