Tag Archive - Luke

Thoughts on Judges 3

March 4, 2010 in Other with 0 Comments

We’re reading through Judges at Oak Tree Church, and I’m posting some observations from my daily readings here. I’d love for you to join in the discussion.

Thoughts on Judges 3

These were the nations the LORD permitted to remain so he could use them to test Israel– he wanted to test all those who had not experienced battle against the Canaanites. He left those nations simply because he wanted to teach the subsequent generations of Israelites, who had not experienced the earlier battles, how to conduct holy war. … They were left to test Israel, so the LORD would know if his people would obey the commands he gave their ancestors through Moses. Judges 3:1-2, 4 NET

This is so hard to remember. Sometimes God puts us into situations we would never otherwise sign up for 1) to test our faith and faithfulness and 2) to show us how to live properly.

When the Israelites cried out for help to the LORD, he raised up a deliverer for the Israelites who rescued them. His name was Othniel son of Kenaz, Caleb’s younger brother. Judges 3:9 NET

Why did it take so long (8 years) for them to finally cry out to God for help? Why do we insist on getting as far away as we can before we’re willing to come back (or come to our senses, Luke 15:17)?

Israel humiliated Moab that day, and the land had rest for eighty years. Judges 3:30 NET

Here’s an awesome thing to remember: God’s blessings for obedience far surpass his discipline for disobedience. The first captivity was 8 years followed by 40 years of rest. The next one was 18 years followed by 80 years of rest.

Jesus said, “Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest” (Matthew 11:28). What an awesome promise to everyone who takes him up on it!

What did you see in these verses? What was important to you in Judges 3 that I did not see?

Jonah (intro)

April 7, 2009 in Other with 0 Comments

Continuing through the Old Testament Minor Prophets, we come to the short – but packed – story of Jonah. Outside of this little book, the prophet Jonah appears in the Bible only twice. The first is an obscure reference in 2 Kings 14:25

The only other reference to Jonah is in the New Testament (Matthew 12:38-42; 16:1-4; Luke 11:29-32). In response to being asked for a sign from heaven, Jesus tells the religious leaders that the only other sign he would give them is the sign of the prophet Jonah. And what sign was that?

“For just as Jonah was in the belly of the huge fish for three days and three nights, so the Son of Man will be in the heart of the earth for three days and three nights.” (Matthew 12:40)

There are a couple of things to point out before we dig into this book.

  1. Nineveh (where Jonah was sent to preach) was the last capital of the Assyrian empire. The last (and greatest) age of the empire ran from 745 B.C. to 606 B.C. when Assyria was defeated and the Babylonian empire took over.
  2. Based on the reference in 2 Kings, Jonah probably lived at some point between 800 B.C. and 750 B.C., during the next-to-last period of Assyria’s dominance.
  3. Using Jonah as a reference, Jesus mentioned both Jonah’s encounter in the huge fish and the repentance of the Ninevites as historical fact and paralleled them with his own ministry and death in Israel.

It is common to hear Jonah’s story used as an example of what’s wrong with the Bible. Really – who could believe a story like that? It’s obviously an allegory or fable, right?

Wrong. We may not know a lot about Jonah, but God gave us enough information to track him down to a 50-year time period. Jesus used this story as if it were historical fact, and his immediate listeners did not correct him, leading us to believe that they thought it to be accurate and true as well.

With that in mind, let’s dig right into chapter 1 in the next post.

jonah-cartoon

Winning friends and influencing people

February 4, 2009 in Other with 0 Comments

No, this isn’t a review of that classic book, or the title would have started with “Book Review”.

Actually, I was reading Proverbs 3 yesterday, and verses 3-4 caught my attention.

Do not let truth and mercy leave you;
bind them around your neck,
write them on the tablet of your heart.
Then you will find favor and good understanding,
in the sight of God and people.

In our Treehouse Kids program on Sunday mornings, we use a curriculum called 252Basics. According to their website, the program “is built around three Basic Truths every child should embrace according to what Jesus modeled in Luke 2:52.”

Now Luke 2:52 tells us that “Jesus increased in wisdom and in stature, and in favor with God and with people.”

Since our mission in Treehouse Kids is to help kids grow in Jesus Christ, who grew “in favor with God and with people”, we should probably know how to do that.

Which brings us back to Proverbs. How does a person – whether a child or adult – “find favor…in the sight of God and people”?

By holding fast to truth and mercy. By planting them deep into our hearts.

Jesus said that the truth sets people free (John 8:32). Micah told us that God’s desire for his people is “to do what is right, to love mercy, and walk humbly with your God” (Micah 6:8, NLT).

That sounds a lot like the “three Basic Truths” that 252Basics is built on:

  • I need to make the wise choice.
  • I can trust God no matter what.
  • I should treat others the way I want to be treated.

 

So, how are you doing at winning friends and influencing people? Better yet, is your life one that finds favor with God and with people?

If not, which of those steps do you need to take today to start heading in that direction?

Baptism, Part 5

February 3, 2009 in Water Baptism with 0 Comments

This is the last post in a series on water baptism. In Part 1 and Part 2 we explored what water baptism is and how the early church performed it. Part 3 introduced the teaching that water baptism can provide salvation – a teaching that we thoroughly debunked in Parts 4a, 4b, and 4c.

Based on all of that, to finish this series, let’s answer the questions “Who should be baptized and when?”

As usual, we’ll go back to the Scriptures and see the pattern established there:

  • John baptized people “as they confessed their sins” (Matthew 3:6; Mark 1:5) and because of their “repentance” (Matthew 3:11; Luke 3:12-16). Repentance means change of heart, mind, and action.
  • The apostles baptized people “who accepted [Peter's] message” about Jesus Christ (Acts 2:41)
  • Philip baptized Samaritans “when they believed…as he was proclaiming the good news” (Acts 8:12)
  • Philip baptized the Ethiopian official after he “proclaimed the good news about Jesus to him” (Acts 8:35-38)
  • Ananias baptized Saul after his encounter with Jesus on the way to Damascus (Acts 9:1-18)
  • Peter baptized people in Cornelius’ house after they “received the Holy Spirit…[and] accepted the word of God” (Acts 10:44 – 11:1)
  • Paul baptized Lydia after God “opened her heart to respond to what Paul was saying” (Acts 16:14-15)
  • Paul and Silas baptized their jailer and his family after he asked what he “must do to be saved” and “he had come to believe in God, together with his entire household” (Acts 16:30-34)
  • Paul and his team baptized people in Corinth after they “believed” (Acts 18:8)

In every single recorded case, baptism followed someone’s belief in Jesus Christ. Even if was at the same time they believed, in each case, they believed first and were baptized after.

There is not a single biblical case where a person was baptized first, then believed in Christ or was baptized for salvation without believing in Jesus.

Additionally, it seems that everyone who believed in Jesus Christ for salvation was baptized, most of them as soon as possible afterward.

I don’t think this needs a lot of explanation.

Who should be baptized? Everyone who has already believed in Jesus, turned from their sins, and accepted his salvation.

When should a person be baptized? As soon as possible after their salvation.

At OTCC we’ll baptize anyone who has accepted Christ as long as they understand what baptism is – an outward expression of an inward reality.

The only caveat to this practice for us is in the case of minors. If an under-age person wants to be baptized, and he or she is still living at home, we must have permission from the parents. (The same is true of church membership.) We will not baptize minors against their parents’ wishes.

Have you turned from your sin and believed in Jesus Christ for salvation? If so, have you been baptized in water to express that publicly?

You can read all the posts in this series here.

Baptism, Part 4a

January 28, 2009 in Water Baptism with 0 Comments

We’re working through a study of water baptism. In Part 1 and Part 2 we saw that water baptism in the New Testament was used as a public expression to identify a person as a believer in Jesus Christ. The early Christians baptized people by immersing them in cold, flowing water (like a river or stream). Not until the 2nd century do we find anything suggesting a non-immersion method, like pouring, and that was only when they could not find enough water for immersion. The best and natural method for water baptism is full-body immersion.

In Part 3 we began to explore the passages that people use to prove that water baptism is actually necessary for salvation or at least the means by which a person can be saved. What we found was just the opposite. Water baptism always followed belief in Jesus Christ – never before and never in place of.

But there are three passages that tend to stump people more than others, so we should focus on them in Part 4 (in sub-parts so it doesn’t get too long).

Peter said to them, “Repent, and each one of you be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins, and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. Acts 2:38

If we try to understand the Bible literally, which we normally do, this seems to say, “Repent…and be baptized…for the forgiveness of your sins…” Sounds pretty straightforward to me.

But, as I taught on Sunday, we also must take into account the historical nature of the Bible text, especially when the account has to do with a specific event. In this case, we have a Jew talking to Jews.

In the Jewish mind set, repentance and baptism went hand-in-hand; that is, the spiritual event and physical expression were closely connected. Baptism was such a natural assumption as the next step after repentance that they often happened at the same time.

John the Baptizer was a perfect example of this. We’re told that he preached “a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins” (Luke 3:3). That does not mean that he preached that baptism did forgive sins. In fact, Matthew tells us quite the opposite: “He was baptizing them in the Jordan River as they confessed their sins” (Matthew 3:6).

We still see this happen today. There are many churches that baptize people immediately following the worship service where they accept Christ. Do they believe that if the people leave without being baptized, their salvation is in jeopardy? Some, maybe, but not most. They just want the church to be able to celebrate that person’s salvation with him or her.

Peter’s message was not that water baptism forgave sins, but that if a person was not willing to identify with Christ through water baptism, their “repentance” was questionable. You can’t say that you will follow Christ as your God and Lord, yet not be willing to actually follow in public. Water baptism is the first major step in a person’s following Christ after salvation.

Peter’s theology (as seen in his other messages) and the theology of the book of Acts both point to baptism as a follow-up to repentance and salvation, not the other way around. Water baptism as a means of salvation does not fit with Peter’s theology or practice throughout the Scriptures, and this passage does not support that teaching.

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