[NOTE: For those who are continuing the 1-year Bible reading plan we started on April 1, 2018, just go to the end of this entry and you will find the Day 327-Romans 12-14; Matthew 14 summary!]
Deuteronomy 16 restates the need to celebrate the Festivals of Passover, Harvest, and Shelters each year. The conclusion of the chapter and the first part of chapter 17, remind the people to appoint fair judges to meet the peoples’ needs for settling disputes. It also tells them no one can be convicted on the testimony of a single witness. The chapter concludes with instructions for the time when a king might be chosen for the people. The requirements include being a native Israelite and reading and recording the Law daily. Moses wanted to ensure any leader of God’s people would know God’s ways. Chapter 18 reminds the Israelites of the offerings to be given to the Levites. It then offers another reminder to live holy lives. In specific, the Israelites are reminded never to offer a child in sacrifice to any god. Finally, the people are reminded how they will know the difference between true and false prophets. Basically, a true prophet serves only God and his or her prophecies always come true.
John 20 records Jesus’ resurrection as well as a statement of the purpose for which John wrote His gospel. In John’s resurrection account, Jesus appeared first to Mary Magdalene. She went to the tomb and found it empty. She went back and told the disciples about this. Peter and John ran to the tomb to see for themselves. When they entered the tomb, they found only the grave clothes lying there, with the head cloth in a different place than that of the rest. This was enough to convince John that Jesus had risen.
Next, Jesus appeared to Mary, and they had a conversation. Afterwards, Mary returned to the disciples and told them she had seen the Lord. That night Jesus appeared to all the disciples with the exception of Thomas, who wasn’t with the group. Jesus offered peace to them, breathed on them and gave them the Holy Spirit, and told them they had the power to forgive or retain sins!
When Thomas heard about Jesus’ appearance to the other ten disciples, he didn’t believe it. He wanted hard evidence Jesus was alive. He got it: Jesus appeared to him, too. Without needing to touch Jesus, as he said he would need to do to believe Jesus had risen, Thomas fell down and proclaimed, “My Lord, and my God!” Jesus responded to Thomas that he only believed, because he had seen. Then He said, “Blessed are those who have not seen and yet believe.” That includes us!
John concluded the chapter by telling us Jesus did many other signs and wonders not written in his book, but he had written the book so those who read it might believe Jesus is the Christ, the Son of the living God, and believing might have life in His name. What a powerful statement! We have not seen Jesus with our own eyes yet. Even so, as we believe in Him, we have life–eternal life–in His name. No greater gift has ever been given, and at such a great cost: the perfect life, death, and resurrection of Jesus.
Day 327-Romans 12-14; Matthew 14
In Romans 12, the Paul starts with the word “Therefore.” Pastor Arthur Pace, the pastor I served under in my first year in the ministry, used to say, “When you come to the word ‘therefore’ in a biblical text, you need to stop and see what it’s ‘there for.” Paul was summing up the entire first half of Romans. He was saying, “Therefore, because we’re all sinners who are redeemed by the incredible love of God, and because He has empowered us to live new lives in the power of the Holy Spirit, we are to offer God our bodies as living sacrifices. We are to be transformed by the renewing of our minds. Finally, we are to live as members of the body of Jesus Christ by going all in for Him. Whatever our gifts and skills, we are to use them for Him, and invest our lives in serving God’s Kingdom.
Romans 13 offers us Paul’s command to obey the governing authorities. As I have often written regarding this passage, Paul tells us to obey the governing authorities, and yet church tradition tells us he was executed for disobeying the governing authorities. The conclusion we draw from that is: We must obey the governing authorities except when to do so is to go against the clear word of God. The rest of the chapter focuses on our responsibility to love one another.
Romans 14 focuses on how we are to respond to those around us who are “weaker” in the faith than we are. Following Jesus was a new matter in Paul’s day, and some believed you had to follow the Jewish law to follow Jesus. Others believed you couldn’t eat anything that had anything to do with idols, if you were following Jesus. Paul simplified it: Nothing we eat is a problem. However, if what we eat causes a brother or sister for whom Jesus died to sin, then we ought to be more concerned about the brother or sister’s well-being than our own comfort. I have used these words of Paul to take a position of not drinking alcohol. The Bible doesn’t say a believer can’t drink alcohol, but if someone who is “weaker” than I am sees me drinking alcohol, then they might assume, “If it’s okay for Pastor Chris, then it is for me, too.” That person might end up addicted to alcohol. That might seem an extreme position to you, but having worked with 100’s of people recovering from addiction, one of the questions I’ve asked is, “How many people do you know who don’t drink any alcohol?” The answer is always the same, “None. I don’t know anyone who doesn’t drink or do drugs.” I raise my hand and say, “Now, you know one.” I want people to know no one has to smoke or drink alcohol, and I never want to be the one who causes a person who is “weaker” in the faith to stumble, because of me.
As we return to Matthew 14, we read of King Herod’s execution of John the Baptist. As we know he did it because of his wife’s cruel request, and because He didn’t want to appear to go back on his words in front of his dinner guests. After this, Matthew records the feeding of the 5,000, Jesus walking on water, and Jesus healing people in Gennesaret. Each of these events was powerful and in its own way impacted the lives of many people. John’s death shows us those who are righteous don’t always receive justice in this life. Jesus feeding the 5,000 shows us He is not limited in any way by “limited” resources. His walking on water shows us He was not limited by the laws of nature. His healing people in Gennesaret shows us, He was concerned for more people than the local Jews with who He grew up. He was concerned for everyone. While Jesus never ventured beyond Israel during His time on the earth, He did help people who weren’t Jews. The world-wide mission to offer salvation to everyone was left to His disciples and to us, but Jesus’ love for the world knows no limits.