Monthly Archives: August 2015

The Cup And The Crown

Bible Study, , ,

THE CUP AND THE CROWN

Then James and John, the sons of Zebedee, came to Him. ‘Teacher,’ they said, ‘we want you to do for us whatever we ask.’

‘What do you want me to do for you?’ He asked. They replied, ‘Let one of us sit at your right hand and the other at you left in your glory.’

‘You don’t know what you are asking,’ Jesus said. ‘Can you drink the cup I drink or be baptised with the baptism I am baptised with?’ ‘We can,’ they answered.

Jesus said to them, ‘You will drink the cup I drink and be baptised with the baptism I am baptised with, but to sit on my right or left is not for me to grant. These places belong to those for whom they are prepared.’ When the ten heard about this, they became indignant with James and John (Mark 10: 35-41).

What a cheek! James and John were shameless in their attempt to get ahead of their fellow disciples. Up to this point the disciples had jockeyed among themselves for the highest position in the kingdom of God. Jesus often caught them arguing and tried to instil in them the values of the kingdom but, apparently to no avail. In the same way as they ignored His repeated warnings about His impending death, they were deaf to His teaching about leadership and greatness.

Now James and John went straight to the top. One would have thought that they would have been careful about approaching Jesus on this subject seeing that He had clearly taught them not to seek greatness. The way up was down, He told them, but they had obviously not got the message.

Did you notice how they approached Him? “Will you say yes to whatever we ask you?” That’s what children do. They want to secure the parent’s agreement before they ask what they want. Jesus was smart. He was not about to fall into their trap. “Tell me what you want first and then I’ll give you an answer.” Their response was bold and brash. They had obviously schemed together to secure their place in the kingdom before the other disciples got in. “Promise us that we will have the places of honour beside you when you are crowned king.”

“You guys just don’t understand, do you?” I can imagine that Jesus was annoyed with them. What would it take to get it into their thick skulls that they had no right to ask for what they were asking? Matthew mentioned that their mother accompanied them when they came to Jesus with the request and voiced it for them. Did they think that their mom had more clout with Jesus than they had? This had even become a family matter.

Jesus’ response cut right across their way of thinking. There was a cup to drink and a baptism to be baptised with before they could receive a position of honour like that. What was the “cup” to which Jesus referred? It was a cup and a baptism He, first of all, was about to endure before they could experience it themselves.

Throughout the Old Testament the “cup” is mentioned – both the cup of God’s wrath (Jer. 25:15) and the cup of salvation (Psalm 116: 13). Without going into great detail, “cup” is a euphemism for the full experience of either wrath of salvation. Paul uses the same expression to refer to God’s blessing (1 Cor. 10:16). To “drink” implies to take it into oneself with all its effects.

“James and John, before you can participate in any glory that belongs to me, you must first drink the cup I must drink. Can you do that?” How blasé they were in their reply. “Yes, we can” they replied, yet they had no clue about what they were saying. Sadly Jesus agreed that they would drink the cup and go through the baptism but to give them the assurance of the honour they requested was not His right.

Jesus’ position of honour was given to Him by the Father but earned by His humiliation and suffering. He drank the cup of God’s wrath to the dregs so that He could offer the cup of salvation to anyone who received it by faith. Mere association with Jesus did not qualify the brothers. Only full participation with Him would allow them to share in His glory. The cup first and them the crown.

At that moment they had no idea what He meant but they would one day. John was killed at the hands of the despotic Herod and John was exiled to the Isle of Patmos. Yes, they had a cup to drink – the cup of suffering because they had been baptised into identity with Jesus.

Each of us has our own cup to drink and our own baptism to be baptised with. Only when we submit to Jesus and embrace the cup will we have a share in what has been prepared for us.

Scripture taken from THE HOLY BIBLE, NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION®, NIV® Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.® Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.

Have you read my new book, Learning to be a Son – The Way to the Father’s Heart (copyright 2015, Partridge Publishing)? You’ll love it!

Available on www.amazon.com in paperback, e-book or kindle version or order directly from the publisher at www.partridgepublishing.com.

Check out my Blog site – www.learningtobeason.wordpress.com

 

 

Selective Hearing

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SELECTIVE HEARING

They were on their way up to Jerusalem, with Jesus leading the way, and the disciples were astonished, while those who followed were afraid. Again He took the Twelve aside and told them what was to happen to Him.

‘We are going up to Jerusalem,’ He said, ‘and the Son of Man will be delivered over to the chief priests and the teachers of the law. They will condemn Him to death and will hand Him over to the Gentiles who will mock Him and spit on Him, flog Him and kill Him. Three days later He will rise.’ (Mark 10: 32-34).

How many times had Jesus told the disciples that He was going to suffer and die in Jerusalem? Read his words again. Could He have been more explicit and given them more detail than this? Step by step He told them what would happen to Him in Jerusalem. Surely they would have remembered at least some of His words when it happened.

What was it in His words that either cancelled out what He told them or, alternatively, sparked faith that would not have been fazed by His death? “Three days later He will rise again.’ Every time He spoke of His death, He told them that He would rise again. Since the two events were tied together, they refused to listen to Him because rising again was outside their experience.

O yes, they were with Jesus when He raised a few people from the dead. They had seen it but His words still didn’t penetrate their reluctant brains. They could not process the idea that their Master would be ripped away from them by violent death. Why would anyone want to kill Him? People from all over followed Him. Even then, He had to take them aside from the crowd to remind them of His words to them. Surely their very presence would protect Him from anyone who had evil intent.

They knew that Jesus was not afraid to tell people the truth, even if it offended them, and offend the religious leaders He did. Sometimes they worried that He had gone too far. He seemed to provoke them deliberately, accusing them of being blind guides and whited sepulchres. That kind of talk would not win their favour. Why did He do it? Why didn’t He just leave them alone? These men were powerful and influential. They could turn the Roman authorities against Him in a heartbeat.

What offended the religious authorities even more was His claim to be the Son of God. They just could not stomach those words because to them it was blasphemy. How could a mere man claim to be God? Of course, any other man claiming to be God would have been written off as crazy, but Jesus gave no evidence of being crazy. In fact, just the opposite. Even His mother and brothers thought He had lost it but Jesus ignored them and refused to go home with them so that they could keep an eye on Him.

What was the difference between His claim and any other claim that did not even warrant consideration? Evidence! Jesus kept insisting, ‘Look at the evidence.’ There were at least three witnesses to authenticate His claim – John the Baptist, the Father and His works. For anyone to be proved guilty of a charge, there had to be two or three witnesses. Jesus produced three witnesses to prove that He was guilty of being the Son of God.

But the authorities still dismissed His claim and so did the disciples even though Peter had confessed his conviction, on behalf of the Twelve, that Jesus was the Messiah, the Son of God. But, as far as Jesus was concerned, Peter might not have even bothered to make that confession because he had no idea what it meant.

The Holy Scriptures presented two streams of thought regarding the Messiah; He would be both a king and a Suffering Servant. Since the Suffering Servant did not fit their expectation of what Messiah would do, they dismissed it and refused to listen to His instruction about His impending death.

It was only after His resurrection that it began to make sense to them, and especially when the Holy Spirit fell on them at Pentecost and did what Jesus said He would do – lead them into all truth.

How often we are just like the disciples – uncomprehending and unbelieving until the Holy Spirit opens our eyes to the truth. It’s not just that we can’t understand. We actually don’t want to understand or believe because the truth is too painful to receive. But there is always “resurrection”, and understanding and faith come when we allow the Holy Spirit to interpret life, not according to our expectations but according to the truth.

The presence of Jesus in our pain makes all the difference because only He can make sense of it all. Even if nothing changes, He is there – Emmanuel – and that’s all that really matters.

Scripture taken from THE HOLY BIBLE, NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION®, NIV® Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.® Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.

Have you read my new book, Learning to be a Son – The Way to the Father’s Heart (copyright 2015, Partridge Publishing)? You’ll love it!

Available on www.amazon.com in paperback, e-book or kindle version or order directly from the publisher at www.partridgepublishing.com.

Check out my Blog site – www.learningtobeason.wordpress.com

 

 

 

 

 

A Fair Exchange

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A FAIR EXCHANGE

‘Truly I tell you,’ Jesus replied, ‘no one who has left home or brothers or sisters or mother or father or fields for me and the gospel will fail to receive a hundred times as much in this present age: homes, brothers, sisters, mothers, children and fields – along with persecutions – and in the age to come, eternal life. But many who are first will be last, and the last first.’ (Mark 10: 28-32).

Sounds like a good deal, doesn’t it? A hundredfold return! Really? But was Jesus speaking literally? If He was, it was not true. What would a person do with a hundred houses, for instance?

Jesus was using a literary device here called hyperbole – exaggeration. It was a common rabbinic teaching method to make a point. What was He getting at? Peter had just commented that he and his fellow disciples had left everything to follow Him. Peter focussed on what they had given up. Loss. For them, following Jesus meant loss. But again, was that true? If they only took into consideration their material possessions and blood family relationships then yes, it was true.

But Jesus wanted them to see the bigger picture. Way back in the book of Psalms, King David recorded a discovery he had made as a young shepherd boy. Translated from the Hebrew, it reads like this:

The Lord is my Shepherd; I shall lack nothing (Psa. 23:1).

Another meaning of lack can be, “I shall never be diminished.’ David has learned that anyone who trusted and obeyed the Lord was never a loser. In the natural, of course, many people who have followed the Lord have lost everything, including their lives. However, Jesus always looked beyond the natural because that was only a part of this life. Life in “this present age”, as He called it, is transient at best. Humans have a limited time on earth and then it’s over. But is it?

There is an “age to come” in which God will restore everything that has been damaged and destroyed by Adam’s disobedience. This present age is a preparation for that eternal age where everything will be restored to its original perfection to fulfil God’s original purpose. To be a part of that realm where God’s reign will extend over everything and everyone who submits to Him as God and Lord, we must submit to His instructions in this life.  God’s intention is to have a family of human beings who are exactly like His Son, living in union with the Godhead in perfect harmony because He created us to be one with Him.

This is the background to Jesus’ promise to His disciples. They had left their earthly families and possessions to follow Him, but He promised them many more homes and families because they had become members of God’s “forever” family through faith in Jesus. It was His intention that His children share everything they had with one another so that no one would ever experience lack. They did not have to wait until they left this earth to know what it was like to be members of God’s redeemed family.

One of the first signs, according to Jesus, of a new heart is a new attitude to our money and possessions. We are stewards of what God has entrusted to us, not owners. Jesus commended Zacchaeus for the turnaround that had happened to him when he met Him.

Salvation has come to this house, He said, ‘because this man, too, is a son of Abraham (Luke 19: 9)

Since we do not own our “stuff” – it all belongs to God – He has the right to tell us how to use it.

The earth is the Lord’s and everything in it (Psa. 24:1).

Unfortunately, many of God’s children have not grasped this truth and, because of that, there is not equality in the family of God. He does not want us to hoard what we have. Of course, it is right that we make provision for the future. The attitude that “I can spend it all now because God will take care of me” is not spiritual; it’s stupid. But at the same time, we have a duty to take care of those for whom we are responsible, which includes our spiritual authority, i.e., our pastor and those who are full-time employees of the church, our families and the poor, the widow, the orphan and the alien.

When we obey God’s instructions and do what is right, He has promised that we will never be diminished by our association with Him. Why then are there so many believers who are in want. Has Jesus failed to keep His promise? No. His people have failed to believe Him and do what He says. We, in the end set the measure of what we receive from God.

Give, and it will be given to you. A good measure, pressed down, shaken together and running over, will be poured into your lap. For with the measure you use, it will be measured to you again (Luke 6: 38).

Scripture taken from THE HOLY BIBLE, NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION®, NIV® Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.® Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.

Have you read my new book, Learning to be a Son – The Way to the Father’s Heart (copyright 2015, Partridge Publishing)? You’ll love it!

Available on www.amazon.com in paperback, e-book or kindle version or order directly from the publisher at www.partridgepublishing.com.

Check out my Blog site – www.learningtobeason.wordpress.com