Category / New Testament Blog

by In Light Of The Cross

Matthew 5; The Beatitudes

I am writing tonight from the beautiful Tampa Bay area.

 

Blessed [are] the poor in spirit: for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.  Matthew 5:3

 

Here Jesus is talking about a people who have no pride in spirit, but instead sense their need of a Savior. Notice it is at that time that we receive eternal life. Sure the conversion is still to be completed and spiritual victories are yet to be won. Yet Jesus clearly says that for the poor in spirit, theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Not will be but is, now.

 

Throughout the conversion process and even when it is completed we are poor in spirit. We realized our righteousness is not our own, it is God’s. Our good deeds are actually the fruits of the spirit, not our works of the flesh.

 

For example, several years ago I was watching the Cosby Show. Vanessa was complaining to her dad, Bill Cosby that kids were calling her a snob because they had so much money. “Dad”, she sighed, ‘Why do we have to be so rich?” Bill Cosby replied as only he can, “Wait a minute Vanessa, your mother and I are rich. You have nothing!” Good point. The nice fancy home Vanessa lived in was her parents not hers. The healthy food she ate came from her folks. The expensive clothes she wore had been all paid by her mother and father as well. Her parents were rich. She had nothing. At least on her own she had nothing but by being in a relationship with her parents she was made rich. Likewise on our own we are spiritually broke. Everything good about us comes from the goodness of God living in us.

 

 

Blessed [are] they that mourn: for they shall be comforted.  Matthew 5:4

 

The second step to a complete conversion is a true sorrow for sin. A truly converted person does not brag about all the money she swindled or men that she has been with. A truly converted person mourns because of what their sin has done to Christ and His cause and not what the sin had done to them personally. In Psalms 51 David says, “Against you and you only have I sinned.” What David is saying, is I have hurt You God. That is why I am sorry.

 

Blessed [are] the meek: for they shall inherit the earth.  Matthew 5:5

 

Meek people are teachable. Jesus does not require us to be perfect on day one of our conversion. Jesus accepts us just the way we are. If we are poor in spirit and mourn for our sins, then Jesus finds us teachable. Jesus spent His time on earth with druggies and perverts. They seemed to be losers in society except for one attribute which kept them from maturing into complete losers. They were teachable.

 

 Jesus was a patient teacher. Jesus did not try to be patient nor did he pretend to be patient. He was patient.  Jesus did not use the failures of others as opportunities to censor. He used them for an opportunity for Him to teach. He taught by example and often the same lesson over and over. He never censored the publicans and prostitutes as long as they were teachable. He did censor the self righteous Pharisees for not being teachable.

 

Blessed [are] they which do hunger and thirst after righteousness: for they shall be filled.  Matthew 5:6

 

Converted people don’t reach for the lowest standards. They reach for the righteousness of Christ. While many debate as to just how far sanctification can take us, Jesus promises to fill us with His righteousness. Ephesians 3:19 tells us we can be filled with all the fullness of God. Romans 8:4 tells us the righteousness of the law will be fulfilled in us, not just for us. For that to happen we must sense our need for it. We must hunger and thirst for the living water. Poor people in third world countries are not the only ones starving to death. Millionaires in California and Texas have starved to death as well, because some of them had a disease that took away their appetite and they didn’t eat. They ended up starving to death simply because they were not hungry. God can save us if we will just allow Him to make us hungry enough to eat the living bread.

 

So far as the conversion has progressed, God has not asked us to be self righteous, He has asked us to be poor in spirit. He has not asked us to be perfect but teachable. He has not demanded for us to know it all but to hunger and thirst for it all. He will teach. He will fill us. He will make us righteous. Jesus is truly patient because all He is truly wanting are opportunities to teach people who really want to learn. Patient is the teacher who sees the best in the student while seeking better ways and opportunities to teach.

 

Blessed [are] the merciful: for they shall obtain mercy.  Matthew5:7

 

Notice after being filled with righteousness, the next step is not self righteousness but being merciful. A converted person always expects less from others and more from himself. A converted person knows that not only was Jesus treated the way I should be treated so I can be treated the way Jesus should be treated, but I can also treat my enemy just like I would treat Christ Himself, because Christ was treated just like my enemy should have been treated.

 

 

 

 

Blessed [are] the pure in heart: for they shall see God.  Matthew 5:8

 

The purity in heart is the purity of our heavenly Teacher. Look at this passage in Ezekiel 36: 24-29 and see how it is accomplished in the student not just for the student. At the same time it is all accomplished by the Teacher not the student. “For I will take you from among the heathen, and gather you out of all countries, and will bring you into your own land. Then will I sprinkle clean water upon you, and ye shall be clean: from all your filthiness, and from all your idols, will I cleanse you. A new heart also will I give you, and a new spirit will I put within you: and I will take away the stony heart out of your flesh, and I will give you an heart of flesh. And I will put my spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes, and ye shall keep my judgments, and do [them]. And ye shall dwell in the land that I gave to your fathers; and ye shall be my people, and I will be your God.  I will also save you from all your uncleannesses: and I will call for the corn, and will increase it, and lay no famine upon you.” 

 

 

Blessed [are] the peacemakers: for they shall be called the children of God.  Matthew 5:9

 

Jesus’ conversion process has us ending up with His character. He is the great Prince of Peace and He will teach us to be peacemakers. Converted people don’t break up families and homes or churches.

 

Peace does not mean calm and quiet. Peace means unity. Peace does not mean there is no storm. It just means there is a unity with God in the storm. Peace does not come from being proud and self righteous but by being poor in spirit, knowing you need to be in unity with God. Peace does not come from knowing it all but by being teachable. Peace comes from hungering and thirsting for God and His righteousness instead of hungering and thirsting for worldly accomplishments and worldly greatness.

 

True peace and contentment does not come from unity with your spouse. It comes from being in unity with God.

 

Blessed [are] they which are persecuted for righteousness’ sake: for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are ye, when [men] shall revile you, and persecute [you], and shall say all manner of evil against you falsely, for my sake. Rejoice, and be exceeding glad: for great [is] your reward in heaven: for so persecuted they the prophets which were before you.  Matthew 5:10-12

 

Notice that now that the conversion is complete, now the persecution has come. Why? Because we have raised the standard. When I was in 9th grade algebra our teacher graded on the curve and counted the highest score as 100%. So if the highest grade was 85 and mine was 60 then my percentage was 60 out of 85 instead of 60 out of 100. We only had one problem. A girl in our class kept getting 100 out of 100 and so the standard was never lowered. She was not popular on the days we got out tests back because she would not lower the standard for the rest of us. Likewise when we have been converted and we raise the standard above the worldly standard the world will persecute us. The church will never see persecution as long as it watches the same movies the world watches, dresses the same way the world dresses and eats the same way the world eats. Persecution will never come as long as we don’t make the world look any less holy than it is. In the book of Revelation the persecution comes after God’s people have been sealed with His character. A character far above the world. The same is seen here in the Beatitudes. Once the conversion is complete, here comes the persecution. And Jesus says “Rejoice!” The kingdom is at hand and it is yours!

 

Check out more studies on my personal website at http://www.InLightOfTheCross.com

by In Light Of The Cross

Matthew 4; Faith in God’s Love

I am writing today from the beautiful Tampa Bay area.

Then was Jesus led up of the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted of the devil.  And when he had fasted forty days and forty nights, he was afterward an hungered. And when the tempter came to him, he said, If thou be the Son of God, command that these stones be made bread.  Matthew 4:1-3

 

 

Jesus overcame sin for us by meeting the same temptation Eve met. In the Garden, Satan had told Eve that if she ate of the forbidden fruit that she would be like God and be much happie,r and insinuated that God had withheld this special fruit because He did not really love them. Eve’s sin was rebelling against God and buying the lie of Satan that God did not really love her. Sin is saying God does not really love me. When we do not believe God is planning for our good and happiness we rebel and start making our own laws and plans.

 

In the wilderness Satan insinuates again to Jesus that He is not the object of God’s  love. “IF” “Thou be the Son of God” insinuated distrust. Satan appears an angel of light to Jesus, who has taken human nature and not eaten for days. Satan insinuates that there was an angel who had been rejected by God and banished from heaven. Satan wanted Jesus to feel like that angel and believe that he, an angel of light was the Son of God. “Turn those stones into bread and prove to me that you are the Son of God, in whom He is well pleased. Prove to me that your Father still loves you and has not banished you to this sin dark world” was Satan’s temptation.  Just days earlier, Jesus had heard the Word of God saying, “This is my Son in whom I am well pleased.” Jesus had a choice to make. He could go by feelings and appearances, or He could go by the Word of God. Jesus overcame by putting His faith in the Word of God, that He was loved by the Father. Thus, Jesus overcame and solved the sin problem by trusting in God’s love. When we choose sin, we are saying we don’t think God really loves us. When we obey God’s Word we are putting our trust in His love.

 

By God giving us His One and Only Son to us, we no longer need to doubt God’s love! By dying on the Cross Jesus does not convince God to accept us, God already accepts us. By dying on the Cross God wins our trust back, by proving that He really does love us so much that He would die for us. Would Satan do that? No! We can trust God’s law of love now. He really does love us!

 

Here is another article I wrote a while back called “Was the Atonement to Appease an Angry God or an Angry Race?”

by In Light Of The Cross

Matthew 3; The Baptism of Jesus

I am writing this morning from the beautiful Tampa Bay area. The love of Christ in the hearts of His followers is what makes this area so beautiful.

Bring forth therefore fruits meet for repentance: Matthew 3:8

 

Many people were coming to John to be baptized, some of them, not because they loved God but because of political advantage. While John had a burden for souls and a great desire for them to be saved, he was not just baptizing to bring in large numbers or make himself look like a good preacher. He wanted to be sure the Holy Spirit had convicted the baptismal candidates and truly changed their lives. God works the same way today:

 

“Ministers who labor in towns and cities to present the truth should not feel content, nor that their work is ended, until those who have accepted the theory of the truth realize indeed the effect of its sanctifying power, and are truly converted to God. God would be better pleased to have six truly converted to the truth as the result of their labors, than to have sixty make a nominal profession, and yet not be thoroughly converted. These ministers should devote less time to preaching sermons, and reserve a portion of their strength to visit and pray with those who are interested, giving them godly instruction, to the end that they may “present every man perfect in Christ Jesus.”  {Evangelism  320}

 

Jesus understood that baptism meant giving up His life for the Father. Jesus taught every converted Christian to pray “Thy will be done in earth, as[it is in heaven.” Later, before literally giving up His life, He prays, “O my Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me: nevertheless not as I will, but as thou wilt.” This is why Jesus told John to baptize Him, “thus it becometh us to fulfil all righteousness.” Matthew 3:15  In baptism we give all of ourselves to God, because God gave all of Himself for us! Anything less is not being baptized. It’s just getting wet.

 

Here is a study on Baptism.

 

If it sounds like baptism is too big of a step,  please consider this:

 

” But what do we give up, when we give all? A sin-polluted heart, for Jesus to purify, to cleanse by His own blood, and to save by His matchless love. And yet men think it hard to give up all! I am ashamed to hear it spoken of, ashamed to write it.    God does not require us to give up anything that it is for our best interest to retain. In all that He does, He has the well-being of His children in view. Would that all who have not chosen Christ might realize that He has something vastly better to offer them than they are seeking for themselves. Man is doing the greatest injury and injustice to his own soul when he thinks and acts contrary to the will of God. No real joy can be found in the path forbidden by Him who knows what is best and who plans for the good of His creatures. The path of transgression is the path of misery and destruction. 

 

     It is a mistake to entertain the thought that God is pleased to see His children suffer. All heaven is interested in the happiness of man. Our heavenly Father does not close the avenues of joy to any of His creatures. The divine requirements call upon us to shun those indulgences that would bring suffering and disappointment, that would close to us the door of happiness and heaven.” Steps to Christ, p. 46

If you are interested in baptism I would love to talk to you! Please call me at (813) 933-7505

by In Light Of The Cross

Blogging Through The New Testament; Luke 2

I am writing tonight from the beautiful Tampa Bay area.

And she brought forth her firstborn son, and wrapped him in swaddling clothes, and laid him in a manger; because there was no room for them in the inn. Luke 2:7

 

Every year the poor inn keeper is portrayed as the “goat” of the nativity story, as he had no room for Mary and Joseph, and poor Mary was going into labor to boot. Not just any labor but was about to deliver the Son of God. How could the inn keeper be so cold? Wait a minute. The inn keeper worked on a first come first serve basis. It was not his fault Joseph and Mary showed up when they did, and he did have room for them- in the manger. It wasn’t like he didn’t have room for them at all. It’s not like the inn keeper meant any ill will towards the Son of God, it’s just that by the end of the day a little corner in a barn was all that was left for Jesus.

 

Before we give the inn keeper a bad rap let’s examine our own lives. We mean no ill will towards Jesus either, and we do have room for Him in our lives, but like the inn keeper, are we giving Him the best place in our lives or just what is left?  Today it is not at an inn that Jesus seeks a place to stay.  Jesus stands at your hearts door and says, “Behold, I stand at the door, and knock: if any man hear my voice, and open the door, I will come in to him, and will sup with him, and he with me.” Revelation 3:20 Do you have room for Him in your life today? If so where? Are you going to give Him the best part of your day, or just whatever is left?

 

You may find more studies and devotionals at In Light of The Cross.

by In Light Of The Cross

Matthew 1; Blogging Through the New Testament

I am writing tonight from the beautiful Tampa Bay area.

 

This is my first blog on my current adventure through the New Testament.  I begin of course with Matthew chapter one.  As you notice, this chapter begins with a lot of begats. Sounds boring. Why do we need all of this repetition? Believe it or not, there is actually a point to the repeating of this lineage. Each generation had its weaknesses. These weaknesses were passed down from generation to generation on to Jesus. However, while Jesus shared the weaknesses of His ancestors He did not participate in their sins. Ellen White explains in her classic The Desire of Ages, p. 49; “It would have been an almost infinite humiliation for the Son of God to take man’s nature, even when Adam stood in his innocence in Eden. But Jesus accepted humanity when the race had been weakened by four thousand years of sin. Like every child of Adam He accepted the results of the working of the great law of heredity. What these results were is shown in the history of His earthly ancestors. He came with such a heredity to share our sorrows and temptations, and to give us the example of a sinless life.”  Abraham lied to the Pharaoh of Egypt in regard to his relationship with Sarai. Isaac, Abraham’s son, did the same thing. Then Jacob, Isaac’s son lies to Isaac when he steals the birthright. Then Jacob’s uncle Laben, turns around and deceives Jacob. Generation after generation of liars! However, while this heredity was passed down to Jesus He did not give in to the temptation to lie and lived a perfect life, thus making it possible for us to overcome our heredity.

 

Seeing then that we have a great high priest, that is passed into the heavens, Jesus the Son of God, let us hold fast [our] profession. For we have not an high priest which cannot be touched with the feeling of our infirmities; but was in all points tempted like as [we are, yet] without sin. Let us therefore come boldly unto the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy, and find grace to help in time of need.  Hebrews 4:14-16

 

There hath no temptation taken you but such as is common to man: but God [is] faithful, who will not suffer you to be tempted above that ye are able; but will with the temptation also make a way to escape, that ye may be able to bear [it].  1 Corinthians 10:13

 

Now unto him that is able to keep you from falling, and to present [you] faultless before the presence of his glory with exceeding joy, To the only wise God our Saviour, [be] glory and majesty, dominion and power, both now and for ever. Amen.  Jude 1:24-25

 

Later in chapter one, we read of Joseph planning to quietly divorce Mary, since she is already with child, even though they have not been together yet. Here is a great lesson for us. Jacob is not going to gossip or publicly hurt Mary’s reputation. Didn’t Jesus also try to protect the reputation of sinners? He wrote in the sand, letting sinners see their own mistakes without having them publicly pointed out to them. He told parables so people could see themselves without having their sins published abroad. Of course Mary had not been cheating on Joseph as he thought. Here is another lesson. If Joseph could be wrong about Mary, even with the overwhelming evidence, could we also be wrong when we judge others?

 

You may find more studies and devotionals at In Light of The Cross.