Storms

Well...what a crazy week. It is 12:49AM, and I am just now sitting down to write this devotion for you guys. Doesn't that make you feel good about your devotional life. The guy who is in charge of writing for you sometimes forgets all about it.

It's been a crazy week.

I'm sure all of you have had these kind of weeks. Today, I had class all morning, worked this afternoon, and it was just a normal, easygoing day. Then I went to my friend's rehearsal for his wedding tomorrow and I locked my keys in my car. The spare was with my wife who didn't know how to get to where I was and I didn't have good enough phone service to tell her the crazy directions. So I rode with someone to the rehearsal dinner.

I had a test I had to take back at Ozark at 7, and dinner started at six-thirty, I didn't eat with the best of manners.

So I borrowed someone's car, drove to the school to take my test, ran back as quickly as possible to try and get seconds (I love Hackett's too much to not get seconds), and then I thought my crazy night was over. I was going to drop by my house after the bachelor party, grab the spare key from Monica and my friend was going to take me to pick up my car. Perfect plan, except that I forgot to tell Monica.

So when we arrived at my house 10 minutes ago, the door was locked and she was asleep. So now I am crashing at some friends' house until I can get the spare key tomorrow.

What a crazy day.

And now I am here, remembering that I am supposed to be writing a devotion on Matthew 8.28-34.

Well...

You all deserve better than me throwing something together for ya.

Don't we all just have crazy days like this?

Mine wasn't even that bad, just inconvenient, but it is interesting how I have let some mishaps occurred and I have acted like my day has been totally ruined.

But it hasn't.

It really has been a great day.

I got to learn about God's word, work at a job that I LOVE, go to the wedding rehearsal of a friend that I love deeply (and also I just love weddings), eat a ton of wings at Hacketts, hang out with some buys at a bachelor party, the Christian version, and now I get the opportunity to write something to help you guys in your daily devotions to Jesus.

So is the cup half full or half empty?

It's both....but I feel like that isn't the question that needs to be asked. The question is always, what are you going to do with it?

A mentor of mine said something very interesting, a thought that I think does apply to the section of scripture that we are in.

He said this, "most every person that Jesus comes into contact with, every healing and conversation, is the direct result of an interruption."

An interruption? Really?

Yes.

Jesus had an agenda, he was going somewhere with some plan, doing something, and a man with leprosy came up to him, or a centurion brings a request about his servant, or Jesus finally gets to one of his disciples' home, and the guys mother-in-law is sick. He is interrupted by guys asking if they can follow him, but first they want to take care of their father, the disciples get caught in a storm, and even this next passage, two demon possessed guys run up to Jesus, taunting him.

Yet Jesus heals the leper, heals the centurion's servant, makes the mother-in-law well, answers the questions, calms the storm, and as we will see, frees the men who are possessed by the demons. And all these are situations in which someone interrupted Jesus in his day to day life.

A professor of mine keeps a sign above his door that is a quote from a guy named Henri Nouwen that says this: "The interruptions are your work."

Think about this for a moment.

I realised that because of what happened to me today, I was able to minister to the groom before his big day, just helping him calm some of his nerves, I was able to see some friends I hadn't seen in awhile, and even I was encouraged by a guy loaning me his car and another friend allowing him to stay at his place tonight.

Not only do interruptions give you opportunities to bless others, but you are able to receive blessing as well.

So was it a crazy day?

YES, it was definitely crazy.

Would I change it?

well....no. Not in a million years. Because, when interruptions occur, this is when Jesus is really at his best. And as his followers, interruptions are our work.

So today, pray for interruptions.

Matthew 8.23-27

23 Then Jesus got into the boat and started across the lake with his disciples. 24 Suddenly, a fierce storm struck the lake, with waves breaking into the boat. But Jesus was sleeping. 25 The disciples went and woke him up, shouting, “Lord, save us! We’re going to drown!”

 26 Jesus responded, “Why are you afraid? You have so little faith!” Then he got up and rebuked the wind and waves, and suddenly there was a great calm.

 27 The disciples were amazed. “Who is this man?” they asked. “Even the winds and waves obey him!”

After a long day of preaching, healing, casting out demons, and doing Messiah things Jesus is very tired and lies down in the boat to get a little sleep. While Jesus is sleeping a massive storm hits and waves are smashing into the boat and crashing on top of them. 

A little background, the Sea of Galilee is basically a huge hole in the ground that is about 700 feet below sea-level. Sudden storms were not uncommon for this sea. They kind of just dropped into the giant hole in the earth without warning and created huge waves and powerful winds. 

Even though these storms were sudden and seemed terrible, a professional fisherman wouldn't be intimidated by them. These guys were on the water a lot and weren't afraid of much. Why did this scare them? At this time, although the disciple's had seen many miracles, they didn't really believe Jesus to be the Messiah that the prophets had spoken of. Perhaps, God made this storm worse than what these guys were used to so Jesus could  show them that he not only had power over people, but also nature. To prove that he was God and that they need not to fear.

That being said, the disciples woke up a physically drained Messiah to show him their cruddy faith. The Greek word "oligopistoi" means a lack of good faith, not a quantitative amount of faith, because faith can't really be measured by numbers. It was their poor quality of faith. I bring this to light because if the disciples lacked faith entirely, they wouldn't have woke Jesus up. They knew he could do something, so they woke him up. But their faith wasn't strong enough for them to just believe that God wouldn't send his perfect son to earth to die in a boating accident.

This makes me think of us…

Sometimes we know God can do huge things, but we don't trust him enough to follow his good and perfect will (Jeremiah 29:11)

How do we follow God's good and perfect will?

I feel like preachers have talked about this a lot, but never given me practical application. So here are some ways that we can see God's plan and thus, follow it. 

1. Spiritual Disciplines

-Prayer

  I know this is said a lot, but we can't expect God to show us his plan without talking to him and asking him to show us his plans. 

But how does he reply?

 

God doesn't respond verbally to us, like our earthly father would. But God DEFINITELY shows us his will through other things. More to come on that.

-Reading your Bible

  Sometimes God shows us his plans for our lives through scripture. How many times have you sat down to read your bible and the stuff you read involves the EXACT stuff you've been dealing with in your life. Hasn't ever happened to you? Try praying for God to show you his will before you read his word. "Knock and the door shall be opened", does that ring any bells?

2. Manifestation 

-Sometimes God's will just works out fluidly in our lives. 

In the summer of 2010 I went to Honduras for a month long internship through a church planting organization called Mision Caribe. I prayed and prayed asking if this was God's will and as a fifteen-year-old kid wondered how I would know what he wanted. I had to raise about $1,000, which isn't a massive amount of money, but without a job or any real way of making money this seemed almost undoable. So i raised about $200 mowing and doing other odd jobs and sent out about fifty support letters. I prayed and, BOOM! God provided the money without any hiccups whatsoever. Even as a minor traveling alone into a foreign country I had no problems, and actually it worked to my advantage. I got to board planes before everyone else! I later realized this was God showing me that it was what he wanted me to do. 

3. Lack of Comfort

- Other times the Holy Spirit shows God's his will to us by making us uncomfortable with what we're doing.

Another example in my own life of this occurring is with my own father. When I was about seven my dad went into full-time ministry. 

When my dad was in junior high he dedicated his life to God's will and was led to vocational ministry. My dad was so on fire for God and so pumped about following his will, he made a pulpit in his dad's shop. Then through high school he fell away from God's will and followed his own dreams and joined the Air Force. Many years later, he was running a car repair shop, making lots of money and even doing some part time ministry at our church. But he wasn't fully following God's will with his life. What did God do? Made him very uncomfortable. Even as a seven-year-old, I noticed my dad's depression. It was the Holy Spirit working inside of him. Next thing I knew, we were moving to St. Petersburg, Florida. God then used him in very powerful ways. Crazy, huh?

Its crazy how we know God is right, but don't put full faith in him, like the disciples on the boat, that stormy day in The Sea of Galilee. If we have faith, we will recognize God's plan. 

So don't wake Jesus up to ask him what to do, he's already got it covered, we just have to put full faith in him and pay attention to the ways he's already showing us.

Jeremiah Harenza

Matthew 8.18-22

In verses 1-17 of this chapter we see large crowds around Jesus. These large crowds were following him for a very good reason. Jesus was performing the miraculous. He had healed the sick, cast out demons and as verse 17 says, fulfilled prophecy. Who wouldn’t want to follow him, to see what he would do next? He had stirred up so much excitement and amazement. It reminds me of people who follow famous illusionist like David Blaine or Criss Angel. These guys perform illusions that in appearance seem completely impossible. I myself have watched You Tube videos of these guys and stood in amazement thinking, “No way! How in the world did they do that?” That amazement then caused me to look up more videos and spend unneeded time watching these illusions. Thousands of people go to watch illusionists perform and become their fans. The wonder of the unknown stirs up attention and draws a crowd. 

In verses 18-22 we see Jesus draw a line in the sand so to speak. On one side of the line will be the people who want to see him perform. These people are very entertained and amazed at the works Jesus is performing, but when they are confronted with the cost of following Jesus, the cost of being a disciple of Christ, the excitement dies. Then on the other side of the line are people that want all that Jesus has for them. They see that the cost is worth it and they truly want to follow Jesus. Let’s read the passage and look a little deeper. 

¹⁸ When Jesus saw the crowd around him, he instructed his disciples to cross to the other side of the lake. 

 ¹⁹ Then one of the teachers of religious law said to him, “Teacher, I will follow you wherever you go.” 

 ²⁰ But Jesus replied, “Foxes have dens to live in, and birds have nests, but the Son of Man^[a] has no place even to lay his head.” 

 ²¹ Another of his disciples said, “Lord, first let me return home and bury my father.” 

 ²² But Jesus told him, “Follow me now. Let the spiritually dead bury their own dead.

There is some conjecture in verse 18. You might think, “Jesus had all these people around him, they were prime for the picking. Why did he want to cross the lake to get away from them?” Was Jesus being antisocial, was he tired of performing miracles, or was he just tired of the crowd? Well I don’t think he was necessarily being antisocial, but we do need to remember that Jesus is fully God and fully man. He might have just been tired and needed a break. It seems to me though that Jesus never did anything without a purpose. Even if he was tired, he was going to use this as a teaching point. This is where Jesus began to draw the line, the dividing line of being fan of Jesus or deciding to be a follower of Jesus. 

Then in verse 19 the scribe or teacher of the religious law said to Jesus, “Teacher, I will follow you wherever you go.”  Jesus replied to this bold statement by saying, “Foxes have dens to live in, and birds have nests, but the Son of Man has no place to lay his head.” I can’t blame the scribe for thinking he really would follow Jesus wherever he went. It seemed like the right move at the time I am sure. He has just seen Jesus perform all these miracles and was amazed at this power. I am sure he was speaking with his emotions. From his perception the life of Jesus seemed glamorous. That is why Jesus brought clarity to the situation. It is important to note here the phrase, “Son of Man” that Jesus uses. This is done very strategically by Jesus. Remember, this man he is speaking with is a scribe, a teacher of religious law. As a scribe he has studied and knows the word. Jesus uses the phrase “Son of Man” to lay claim to his identity and draw the scripture Daniel 7:13-14 to the scribe’s memory. Daniel 7:13-14 says, “As my vision continued that night, I saw someone like a son of man coming with the clouds of heaven. He approached the Ancient One and was led into his presence. He was given authority, honor, and sovereignty over all the nations of the world, so that people of every race and nation and language would obey him. His rule is eternal—it will never end. His kingdom will never be destroyed.”

 In not so many words Jesus replies, “You want to follow me? Do you know who I am? Earthly possessions and comforts mean nothing to me. You might not even have a place to sleep at night. It is not a comfortable life on this earth. Is this temporary cost worth it to you? Is the struggle worth it to you?”

Then another disciple in verse 21 says, “Lord, first let me return home and bury my father.” Jesus replied, “Follow me now. Let the spiritually dead bury their own dead.” We need to make it clear here that Jesus wasn’t being cold or heartless. The man wasn’t referring to going to actually go physically bury his dead father. It was a way of saying that he would follow Jesus, but after his father died. It was truly an undetermined amount of time. In reality, the disciple was just making an excuse. Sound familiar? “Jesus I will follow you after I have kids.” “Jesus, I will follow you when I retire or after I make a lot of money.” “Jesus I will follow you…” Fill in the blank. What excuses have we made? Jesus is basically saying in his reply, “If you want to follow me, do it. This is the cost of following me, all other obligations are to be set aside and following me is to be priority.” 

That answer finishes the dividing line we spoke of earlier. Following Jesus might cost you something. The cost might hurt. It might cost you relationships with friends or family even. The cost is not easy, but that is what separates a fan of Jesus and a follower of Jesus. A fan thinks Jesus is really cool and great guy. They might even think he is a great moral example. A follower of Jesus takes it a little further. They realize that Jesus is God. Followers understand the cost is great, but that the reward is even greater. Followers cling to Jesus and allow him to see them through the peaks and the valleys. Followers of Jesus realize that the cost is their life.

The cost of following Jesus is hard. He never lied to us and said it would be easy. Jesus was always truthful about the cost. He was also truthful about the reward. The cost is great, but believe me the reward is even greater. 

Johnny Templeton

Matthew 8.14-17

We are in the midst of a section of the book of Matthew that is showing what Jesus' ministry consists of. We have seen him heal a man with leprosy, heal a centurion's son, and now we see him heal a mother-in-law. I don't know which one is worse!!

Just kidding, I love my mother-in-law.

Anyhow, this is the first set of three miracles that Matthew presents in chapters 8-9, and he ends this first set of three with Jesus healing Simon's mother-in-law who was in bed with a fever. Let's read this passage:

¹⁴ When Jesus came into Peter’s house, he saw Peter’s mother-in-law lying in bed with a fever. ¹⁵ He touched her hand and the fever left her, and she got up and began to wait on him.
 ¹⁶ When evening came, many who were demon-possessed were brought to him, and he drove out the spirits with a word and healed all the sick. ¹⁷ This was to fulfill what was spoken through the prophet Isaiah:
   “He took up our infirmities
   and carried our diseases.”


I know that this is a short passage, but I think it has some huge implications. First of all, Jesus healed Simon's mother-in-law from a fever. Now this, to us, does not seem like that big of a deal, I mean I even had a fever last week, and I took some aspirin and got over it in twenty-four hours. Yet to the ancient world, this was a big deal. Luke even refers to it as a "great fever" in his account. So Jesus goes and just touchers her hand and she is healed. Now if that weren't enough, the entire town seems to come to Jesus late into the night, bringing to him the demon-possessed and sick, and he goes through one at a time, healing them and casting out demons. 


I imagine Jesus opening the door to all these voices outside, chattering among themselves, wandering if he was going to come out. And when he opens the door, a hush falls over the entire crowd. And they are just staring at him, then next thing you know, Jesus moves to the little crippled boy on crutches, and he touches his legs, and the boy tosses the crutches aside. Then Jesus saw the woman lying on a mat, paralyzed her entire life, and he touches her and she runs away for joy leaving the mat behind. Or the elderly man possessed by demons that cause him to cut himself, so that he has bandages all over his arms, Jesus moves over to him and says, "Be gone!!!" and the man tosses down the bandages that are no longer needed. 


And one by one, Jesus moves through the crowd, healing the sick and casting out the demons, and I imagine that after this went on late into the night, after he healed the last person, he turned around, and what was lying there still were the crutches and mats and bandages that are no longer needed because of Jesus. 


Then Matthew shows that this was what part of Jesus' ministry was supposed to be. He quotes Isa. 53, which says, 


⁴ Surely he took up our infirmities
   and carried our sorrows,
yet we considered him stricken by God,
   smitten by him, and afflicted.
⁵ But he was pierced for our transgressions,
   he was crushed for our iniquities;
the punishment that brought us peace was upon him,
   and by his wounds we are healed.
⁶ We all, like sheep, have gone astray,
   each of us has turned to his own way;
and the LORD has laid on him
   the iniquity of us all.


Jesus is the suffering the servant, the king who takes on our suffering for us, who gives of his life to pay the penalty of our sins so the we don't have, the master who stays up late into the night meeting the physical needs of people. This is where Jesus' ministry is lived out in our day to day lives. Sure sometimes we are called to the mountaintop experiences, asking whether we are going to die for our faith or not, but this may happen once in our lives or so, but the majority of our time on this earth is spent living out Jesus' ministry, day in and day out. It is the grind of the everyday ministry that we sometimes ignore. Yet this is what the majority of our life is supposed to be doing. 


We are supposed to leave trails of crutches and bandages and mats that are no longer needed because we have met the needs of people. We need to put divorce attorneys out of business, cause the homeless shelters to get bored and the orphanages to be empty. We are called to meet the needs of everyday people in our everyday lives, every day. 


So how is God calling you to do this today?

Matthew 8.5-12

8:5 When he entered Capernaum, a centurion came to him asking for help: 8:6 “Lord, my servant is lying at home paralyzed, in terrible anguish.” 8:7 Jesus said to him. “I will come and heal him.” 8:8 But the centurion replied, “Lord, I am not worthy to have you come under my roof. Instead, just say the word and my servant will be healed. 8:9 For I too am a man under authority, with soldiers under me. I say to this one, ‘Go’ and he goes, and to another ‘Come’ and he comes, and to my slave ‘Do this’ and he does it.” 8:10 When Jesus heard this he was amazed and said to those who followed him, “I tell you the truth, I have not found such faith in anyone in Israel! 8:11 I tell you, many will come from east and west to share the banquet with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob in the kingdom of heaven, 8:12 but the sons of the kingdom will be thrown out into the outer darkness , where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.” 8:13 Then Jesus said to the centurion, “Go; just as you believed, it will be done for you.” And the servant was healed at that hour. (New English Translation)

We find ourselves in the midst of another story where Jesus heals yet another sick individual. This is nothing new to Jesus. He’s already traveled throughout Galilee healing all kinds of disease and sickness. In fact due to this, word spreads and all kinds of persons approach him begging to be healed of afflictions and illness (Matt 4:23-25). So what makes this account and healing so spectacular, one where Jesus states; “I have not found such faith in anyone in Israel”?

As we approach the text we learn that this centurion comes asking Jesus for help. (The Lukan account, 7:1-10, mentions that the centurion sends Jewish elders to speak on his behalf. Even with this the principles and truths that will be presented are just as valid because these elders are the representation of the centurion, and as acting representatives they relay the centurion’s faith in Jesus and his healing act.) We are presented with a man of power and authority, a centurion (a man placed in leadership over one hundred soldiers) coming to ask a favor of a Jew. Better yet this Roman centurion is a Gentile. A Gentile and a Jew together. What? The centurion is asking a favor from a lowly carpenter who has the ability to heal. And Jesus a Jew, do we even need to go into the fact that Jews viewed Gentiles as unclean. So you have this unclean man of power approaching this lowly Jewish healer.

The favor asked of Jesus is that he would heal the centurion’s paralyzed servant, who happens to be at home. Jesus’ response is “I will come and heal him.” Grammatically the Greek could be translated as Jesus stating a question, “I will come myself and heal him?” or to rephrase “You wish for me to come and heal him?” We must remember that Jesus is a Jew and that the centurion is indeed a Gentile, also Jesus’ ministry is to the Jews. (The only other instance in the book of Matthew where Jesus is presented with the healing of a Gentile is Matt 15:21-27. And Jesus’ initial response was ‘I was sent only to the lost sheep of Israel.’) The centurion’s response in vss. 8-9 better fit Jesus’ statement posed as a question.

The centurion knows that Jews would view Gentiles as unclean but he does not let this deter him. Lord just say the words and I know that you can heal my servant. “Just say the words and my servant will be healed.” How powerful is his statement? Even though the centurion calling Jesus ‘Lord’ is a powerful statement, it is not the most significant portion of this sentence, since it would not have the same soteriological implications that arise post-resurrection. But, the significance lies in the fact that the centurion wishes for Jesus to heal from afar. The centurion places his faith in healer Jesus who could heal from near or far.  This is why Jesus has not seen such faith in all of Israel, because all this time the Jews have brought their sick to him. In fact, due to the centurion’s statement Jesus is amazed.

Due to the centurion’s declaration Jesus conveys a symbolic message about the gathering of the kingdom. What is so surprising is the crowd that is invited along with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. In a nutshell Jesus says, Gentiles will be reclining with the patriarchs and the sons of the kingdom (unfaithful/ faithless Jews) will be thrown out. Jesus expounds upon this further in his parable come Matthew 22. This centurion’s faith in what Jesus can do, even for an unclean Gentile, impresses Jesus so much that He heals the paralytic immediately, and from quite a distance.

Faith in Jesus to do the impossible, or the seemingly impossible. The Jews brought their sick to their healer, but one man’s faith allowed him to approach Jesus and ask for healing from afar. Whose faith was stronger? Who placed more faith in Jesus? In reading this I wonder how much I truly ask of Jesus. Do I bring my sick to him or do I ask him to work miracles from afar? Do I believe that Jesus could do such a thing? Maybe it’s time to stop limiting Jesus and time to start letting him do far greater things than we ever thought imaginable. Maybe then both we and Jesus can be amazed.

Terry Jones

Matthew 8.1-4

What a great few weeks we have spent on studying the best, most controversial sermon in the history of the world. Give yourselves a good pat on the back. There are seminary classes that spend an entire semester studying what you guys studied in five weeks. Choose one thing that you learned from the Sermon on the Mount that you maybe never heard before, challenged you or maybe something that you are still chewing on and post it on the blog or your Facebook status or something like that.

I would love to step back and look at the big picture of the book of Matthew real quick before we dive headfirst into this next section.

Remember, Matthew is a Jew writing to Jews who is trying to show them that Jesus is the son of David, king, reigning a kingdom. And also Matthew is wanting to show that Jesus is the son of Abraham, fulfilling the covenant promise God made to Abraham in Genesis 12 to bless the nations.

We stand in the line of both of these as well.

We are part of Jesus' kingdom, and we are to carry out his blessing to the nations.

And so Let's look at where we have been:

Matthew is divided into five discourses, sermons, with events that relate to the sermon that proceed the sermons

1. Matthew 5-7--The sermon on the proclamation of a king, and the upside-down nature of his kingdom. 
1. Matthew 1-4 was all about the presentation of a king, now we see what this king has to say about his kingdom
2. Matthew 10--The sermon on the ministry of the King.
1. Matthew 8-9 is all about the King's ministry which is two fold: 1. healing the sick and 2. discipling the disciples. This is what his message is about in Matthew 10. 
3. Matthew 13--The sermon on the what Kingdom life is like (in parables)
1. Matthew 11-12 is filled with Jesus training the disciples what it means to be the people of God. 
2. The Pharisees and religious leaders of the day had a different idea of what it means to be the people of God, so there is a lot of conflict involved in this section. 
3. Jesus clarifies it all with his sermon in Matthew 13. 
4. Matthew 18--This sermon is all about Jesus teaching his disciples what the life of discipleship is like. 
1. Matthew 14-17, Jesus is focusing on the twelve disciples, training them and trying to get them ready for his death. 
5. Matthew 23-25--This sermon is about how to live in between Jesus' first coming and second coming. 
1. Matthew 19-22 is beginning Jesus' journey to the cross. And because his journey to the cross is filled with conflict, questions, debates, triumphal entries and all kinds of crazy things, Jesus wants to make sure his disciples know to Be ready and to Be faithful and to Be Loving, unlike the Pharisees. 

And then after Matthew 25, the rest of the book is about the death and resurrection of Jesus. 

We are now entering into taking a closer look at what ministry looks like in the Kingdom of God. First we see in chapters 8-9 what the King's ministry looks like, then the King will send his disciples out and teach them to do the same kind of ministry.

His ministry is twofold, 1. healing the sick and 2. discipling the disciples. This is what his message is about in chapter 10, and we will see him doing these two things in the next two chapters. So let's get started:

Matthew 8.1-4:
¹ When he came down from the mountainside, large crowds followed him. ² A man with leprosy came and knelt before him and said, “Lord, if you are willing, you can make me clean.”
 ³ Jesus reached out his hand and touched the man. “I am willing,” he said. “Be clean!” Immediately he was cured of his leprosy. ⁴ Then Jesus said to him, “See that you don’t tell anyone. But go, show yourself to the priest and offer the gift Moses commanded, as a testimony to them.”


The mountainside that Jesus was on goes all the way back to Matthew 5.1-3, "As Jesus saw the crowds, he went up on a mountainside and sat down. His disciples came to him and he began to teach them saying..." and that is how the sermon on the Mount started. So now at the conclusion of the Sermon, Jesus comes down from the mountain with large crowds following him. 


Then a man came splitting the crowd, falling at Jesus' feet. The people who have gasped when they realized who he was. 


He was a leper. 


He had a disease called "leprosy" which literally meant to "peel off like scales." It was highly contagious, so contagious that when you were found to have leprosy, you were ostracized from the community, and when you came close to someone you would have to scream "Unclean! Unclean" to warn them so they could stay away from you. Some Rabbis would not even purchase an egg in a street where there was a leper, others would throw stones at them to keep them far off. 


But this leper did not yell "unclean", he did not warn anybody. Instead, he came directly to Jesus and said, "Lord if you are willing you can make me clean."


This man was not only sick physically with a disease that just ate away at him till he died, but he was in need of healing emotionally. Ever since he had acquired this disease, he had to leave his family, and probably had not felt the touch of a human in years. To not be touched for so longed will affect the way you feel about yourself. Not only was he sick physically and emotionally, he was sick socially as well. 


He was an outcast, kicked out of society, no friends, no relations, and because he was kicked out of the community, he was kicked out of the nation of Israel, in the minds of the religious leaders. They believed that sickness came upon those who were sinful and unfaithful to God. 


Being a leper meant that you had a disease that was going to kill you, would not be touched by another human, would be kicked out of you family and community and were even considered kicked out of the people of God. 


They were outsiders, and look what Jesus does. 


³ Jesus reached out his hand and touched the man. “I am willing,” he said. “Be clean!” Immediately he was cured of his leprosy. 


Jesus touched him!!!! This was against the law because if you touched a leper you became unclean. Yet the reverse happens. Jesus touches the man and the man with leprosy becomes clean. Jesus took care of all the needs of this man in this one act. He heals his physical disease, his emotional need to feel touched and loved, and he then fixes his social need by sending him to the priest to be reinstated into the community. 


 ⁴ Then Jesus said to him, “See that you don’t tell anyone. But go, show yourself to the priest and offer the gift Moses commanded, as a testimony to them.”


Jesus' ministry first consisted of him meeting the needs of people. And this is what we are called to do. We are called to bless the nations by simply meeting the needs of people, the physical, emotional and social needs of people. We are called to undo everything that sin has done to the outcasts and the downtrodden. 


So let me ask you, "are you willing?" Are you willing to meet the needs of people even when it makes you look bad or it is a social stigmata? Are you willing to get your hands dirty and risk even your own life to meet the needs of others?

Matthew 7.24-29

Before you go on reading today, take a moment to check out this video of something that happened in Manila, Philippines a few years back:

How unsettling would it be to be in your apartment one morning when you begin to feel the entire building shift? Watching this video makes me thankful that my apartment building is only two stories high (and that I live on the bottom floor!). It’s important for a building to be built well, right? Shoddy workmanship results in buildings collapsing. Of especial significance is the foundation of a building. This is what the whole building rests on—it gives the building is shape, support, and strength. If the foundation is weak, the whole building is going to be weak. The guy in the video even says that the foundation of this building gives way. It collapses because of a poor foundation.

We’ve been looking at the Sermon on the Mount bit by bit for an entire month! I hope that you have learned a lot in these weeks of study and that you have a clearer understanding of this upside-down life that Jesus calls us to as members of his kingdom. But if all that happens is that we read Jesus’ words and study and check out a blog post every morning, but then nothing changes after that, then we have really missed the point. And that’s what Jesus makes clear as he concludes the sermon in Matthew 7:24-29:

²⁴”Therefore everyone who hears these words of mine and puts them into practice is like a wise man who built his house on the rock. ²⁵The rain came down, the streams rose, and the winds blew and beat against that house; yet it did not fall, because it had its foundation on the rock. ²⁶But everyone who hears these words of mine and does not put them into practice is like a foolish man who built his house on sand. ²⁷The rain came down, the streams rose, and the winds blew and beat against that house, and it fell with a great crash.”

²⁸When Jesus had finished saying these things, the crowds were amazed at his teaching, ²⁹because he taught as one who had authority, and not as their teachers of the law.

In these verses, Jesus describes a pretty stark contrast. There are two builders: one builds his house with rock as its foundation, and the other builds a house with sand as the foundation. A storm hits the area, and the house on the rock remains standing strong, but the house on sand collapses.

It’s one thing to listen to Jesus’ words. It’s quite another thing to listen to them and then to put them into practice. Just listening does nothing except set us up for collapse. Listening and doing, on the other hand, gives our characters strength. Jesus’ call to us is that we be like the wise builder, and we build our lives on the “rock” of his teaching—on everything he has been saying through this whole sermon. Then, when the storms of life hit, we’ll still be standing on the other side.

It seems silly for a person to build a house on sand. Why would he do this? Well, it would certainly be easier. In Palestine, sand is all over the place! It takes a lot of work to dig down beneath the sand to get to bedrock. So a sandy foundation is quick and easy. It’s the drive-thru takeout of construction.

In the same way, it often seems easier to build our lives on something other than Jesus, doesn’t it? In the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus says some tough things! It’s hard not to get angry with an irritating coworker. It’s hard to remain both physically and mentally faithful to your spouse. It’s hard to not give the stink eye to someone who cuts you off while driving. It’s hard not to worry when bills come in the mail and you’re not sure how you’re going to be able to pay them. So the much easier thing is to look at the Sermon on the Mount and say, “Well, that all sounds pretty good. It’s good food for thought,” and then never to apply it to your daily decisions and relationships.

But if all we do is listen to Jesus and never practice it, then we’re building our lives on sand. Every other code of living eventually lets us down, usually when the storms come and life gets hard and we realize that we can’t make it through on our own.

In a pretty similar vein of thought, James 1:22-25 says that when you hear God’s word and don’t put it into practice, it’s like looking at yourself in a mirror and then walking away, forgetting what you look like. That’s a ridiculous picture. Imagine that you have a date one night. (In my case, I need a pretty good imagination.) You wake up from a nap a little before your date and then walk into the bathroom and look at yourself in the mirror, and it’s a pretty bad image. Your hair is all matted down on one side, you have some drool seeping from the corner of your mouth, and you still have some of those eye-crusties in your eyes. So you see yourself in the mirror and then say, “Alright, sweet” and walk out the door for your date without doing anything about your appearance.

James says that’s what it’s like when we hear God’s word but don’t do what it says. What a ridiculous image. It might even be as ridiculous as building a house on a foundation of sand. Who would do such things? The fool.

So don’t just read the Bible, check out these blog posts, or listen to sermons and then leave it at that. Ask God to show you how you need to change in light of his word, and ask him for his Spirit in making it happen.

Build on the rock.

David Heffren

Matthew 7.15-23

Fact: We live in a culture obsessed with “being heard.”

Fact: People want to “be heard” because they feel like they have something to say.

Fact: In the obsession of “being heard,” many have not considered if they have something worth saying.

Fact: Everyone has something worth saying, but they don’t always get around to saying it.

Fact: In a culture filled with too many voices – news corporations, talk shows, the film industry, record labels, Facebook, Twitter, etc. – it is difficult to discern between someone who is saying something worth saying and someone who isn’t.

Fact: Words are only words.  But actions can say what words cannot.

Fact: There are those whose desire to “be heard” is greater than their desire to be worthy of “being heard.”  They will speak in half-truths.  They will say things that we want to hear.  They will try to change the way that you live (but not for the better).  In the Christian church, we call them false prophets.

One of Jesus’ main concerns during his ministry on earth was to warn his followers that there would be some among them who would attempt to deceive to the rest.  On the outside, they would seem like just another disciple of Jesus.  They would talk, act and look like one of his servants, like a harmless sheep in a pasture following the Good Shepherd.  But in reality, they would be much worse.  

Jesus gave this warning to his audience in Matthew 7:15-20:

¹⁵ “Watch out for false prophets. They come to you in sheep’s clothing, but inwardly they are ferocious wolves. ¹⁶ By their fruit you will recognize them. Do people pick grapes from thornbushes, or figs from thistles? ¹⁷ Likewise every good tree bears good fruit, but a bad tree bears bad fruit. ¹⁸ A good tree cannot bear bad fruit, and a bad tree cannot bear good fruit. ¹⁹ Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire. ²⁰ Thus, by their fruit you will recognize them.

During the time in which the book of Matthew was written, a false prophet was a person who would enter the Christian assembly during a time of worship.  While the community was worshipping, he would go into a trance and start shouting aloud what he believed God was “saying” to him.  He would make a show of it, perhaps thrashing around like an animal or speaking in a haunting voice.  But it was just that.  A show.

Now some of these false prophets would behave in this way in order to be noticed or admired.  Others would use it as a means to make money, selling the “words of God” for profit.  But the worst of them would do it to attract followers.  They positioned their actions and planned their words carefully to entice others to follow them for their own benefit.  They would do it to gain power over others.  In the Greek, to be “false” means to “lie.”  They were liars.

Now, there are false prophets in existence today.  They have books and television shows and movies and record deals and blogs.  And they have hordes of followers and fans, buying their books, watching their shows and reading their blogs.  They cannot get enough of what these prophets say.  

Some of these “prophets” even claim Jesus as their Lord, even though they do not truly follow Him.  But how can we detect these false prophets in today’s world?

Before I started writing this post, I began compiling a list of people and organizations that I considered “false,” those who promote a way of life or a way of thinking opposite to what God purposes for us.  There were some televangelists on that list, some preachers, some musical artists, some filmmakers and a popular news network.  Soon, however, I realized that this list wasn’t so much composed of people that were necessarily “false” so much as it was a list of people and networks that I didn’t like or with whom I disagreed.

And that got me thinking.  How can we really know whether someone is being false or if they’re just wrong?  For instance, I disagree rather heavily with the theology of John Calvin.  His beliefs, which are today known as “Calvinism,” can be destructive to the church and to the faith of Christians.  But that doesn’t make John Calvin a false prophet.  That doesn’t mean that used his teachings in order to deceive others and cause them to stumble in their faith.  It just means that he’s wrong (at least in my opinion).

So we must be careful to throw out the term “false prophet” at people.  And we must also turn the question in on ourselves: Are there moments when I would be considered “false”?  

There are three methods to spot a false prophet, and as it so happens, these are also questions we must use to examine ourselves for falseness.  

1. Do their actions line up with their teaching?  In the text above, Jesus explains this with a metaphor: a diseased tree cannot bear healthy fruit. “Fruit” for Jesus is a symbol for the outcome of a person’s faith: the lives that are changed, the people that are healed, the love that is displayed.  So if a person’s life bears much fruit, then their teaching or prophecy is worthy of being heard.  But if a Christian does little (or nothing at all) to express God’s love to others in a real and practical way, then why should we listen to them?  Their advice comes from inexperience, and their teaching has had no chance to be practiced in the real world.  Their words are rotten.  And as Jesus teaches us, if the core of a tree is rotten, then the fruit that it produces will be rotten as well.

2. Do they care more about applause than the truth?  Paul warns his student Timothy in 2 Timothy 4:3 that a time was coming when men and women would no longer be happy with sound doctrine and instead would listen to teachers who would give them what they wanted to hear.  That time probably came along time ago, but it is still in full force to this day.  In this culture, you can find any opinion you could possibly want either in print, on television or in a sound byte.  And because of this, we can be tempted to stick with what we like to hear as opposed to listening to what we should hear.

Beware of those who only say what we want to hear.  They seek applause and not the truth.  Challenge yourself to encounter someone with a different point of view, especially if you would disagree, and weigh his or her opinions against Scripture to see if they are true.  Consider this: In Scripture, prophets like Isaiah and Jeremiah and Jesus often brought words that the audience did not want to hear but should have heard anyway.

3. Are they leaving something out of their message?  In Paul’s final sermon to the Ephesian church in Acts 20:27, he declares, “I have not hesitated to proclaim to you the whole will of God.”  A common method of a false prophet is to preach only part of the Gospel without including the whole of it.  They will continually land on one aspect of the teachings of Scripture but either ignore the grander narrative of the Bible or leave out what we might call “the whole will of God.”  They will have their pet soapboxes because they cannot speak convincingly about anything else.

As we ask these questions to determine whether or not someone is promoting a false gospel, we must remember to ask these questions of ourselves.  Do my actions line up with my speech?  Do I merely say what others want to hear or do I say what they should hear (in love)?  Am I omitting some part of the Gospel message in my life?

These are essential questions for us to answer, for Jesus has strict words for those who claim to be His followers and yet are false in their faith.

²¹ “Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only he who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. ²² Many will say to me on that day, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and in your name drive out demons and perform many miracles?’ ²³ Then I will tell them plainly, ‘I never knew you. Away from me, you evildoers!’”

May we do the will of the Father, then, not only in word and speech but also in action and in truth.

Kyle Welch

Matthew 7.13-14

Today, we have just two verses to look at. But these two verses represent a huge concept that effects every choice and decision and thought and desire we make on a day to day basis.

It is the beginning of the end of the Sermon on the Mount, the sermon in which Jesus is teaching his disciples what it looks like to follow him, what it looks like to be a citizen in his kingdom. And at the end of the sermon, Jesus talks about two roads, two kinds of fruit and two builders. The question is always, which one will you choose. The first is the two roads:

 ¹³ “Enter through the narrow gate. For wide is the gate and broad is the road that leads to destruction, and many enter through it. ¹⁴ But small is the gate and narrow the road that leads to life, and only a few find it.


This is very appropriate that Jesus saves this for the end of the sermon. After looking back at all the things we have talked about over the last number of weeks on our study through the sermon on the Mount, we can see that following Jesus is really really really hard. 


Following Jesus consists of living a life that is separate from the majority of people around you, it just doesn't deal with your actions, but the heart and desires behind your actions, he wants you to have an audience of one, and he above all wants your entire life, everything sacrificed and given to him for his glory. 


That is really really hard!!!


But let me let you in on a little secret...It is really really worth it. 


The narrow path is narrow and hard, but it is the only path that leads to hope and peace and fulfillment and eternal life instead of death. 


The key to walking the narrow path is easy to say but hard to do. 


It is simply to live the in the now with an eternal mindset. 


So when we are faced with whether or not to sacrifice for someone in the workplace, to be late to appointment because we stop to buy a homeless person a meal, or even if we are faced with the temptation late at night to look at stuff we shouldn't, we live in every one of those moments with an eternal mindset. We have to think, "the narrow path leads life, the wide easy path leads to death."


So every time you are faced with a decision, just imagine yourself at a fork in the road, looking down one road that is narrow and another that is wide. And just remember the destinations that those roads lead to. 


Choose the narrow path, it is really really hard, but really really worth it. 

Matthew 7.7-12

Today, let's just start off with reading the passage:

⁷ “Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you. ⁸ For everyone who asks receives; he who seeks finds; and to him who knocks, the door will be opened.
   ⁹ “Which of you, if his son asks for bread, will give him a stone? ¹⁰ Or if he asks for a fish, will give him a snake? ¹¹ If you, then, though you are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give good gifts to those who ask him! ¹² So in everything, do to others what you would have them do to you, for this sums up the Law and the Prophets.


After first reading this passage, it seems like it doesn't fit with the passage about judging that comes right before it. I was having a hard time seeing the connection. But I think they way it connects is that after Jesus has talked about not worrying about life, making our treasure in heaven and not judging, he knows that we as followers of Jesus need help to live this kind of life. That is why he enters into another discussion on prayer here. You may have been thinking over the last couple of days, "Jesus is expecting a lot of us, how are we able to do this?" 


We need to ask God for help. 


This the purpose of his repetition at the beginning of this passage. He says this: “Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you. ⁸ For everyone who asks receives; he who seeks finds; and to him who knocks, the door will be opened."


Jesus is saying, "if you want to follow me, ask God to help you, if you do, he will give you what you need."


So what do we need to live a life of following Jesus? It is found in the next paragraph of this passage. Jesus says, "⁹ “Which of you, if his son asks for bread, will give him a stone? ¹⁰ Or if he asks for a fish, will give him a snake? ¹¹ If you, then, though you are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give good gifts to those who ask him!"


Jesus says that God, who is good unlike us, gives the best gifts to his followers to help them with following him. But what are these gifts?


This same teaching is found in Luke 11.13. Jesus says this same teaching, but adds something different that is very very interesting. 


¹³ If you then, though you are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him!”


The key to following Jesus and living the life he is calling you to live is to ask God to give you the Holy Spirit to help you. 


The Holy Spirit is kind of a weird thing to most of us, we tend to ignore it and not talk about it a lot because it seems superstitious or something. But the problem with that is the Holy spirit is what God has given us to empower us to live the life he is calling us to live. The Holy Spirit is God's presence living inside of us, moving us, guiding us, talking to us, empowering us to overcome our sinful nature's and to live the life of Jesus. 


So how do we live by the Spirit?


Here are three simple steps to take to allow the spirit to speak to your life on a regular basis:

• Sit in silence every day for five minutes and listen

A lot of times, the reason we don't hear the Spirit or know how to listen to the Spirit in our lives is because we got so much going on, so much noise, that we don't ever give the spirit time to talk to us.

• Read the Word of God daily

The Bible is the living Word of God, which was inspired by the Holy Spirit and is one of the best avenues for the Spirit to speak to us everyday. If we come to God's word and ask him to speak to us, he will. 

• Surround yourself with people who listen to the Spirit and allow them to speak into your life

The Spirit speaks through people to people. So surround yourselves with people who are also reading God's word and listening to the Spirit and the Spirit will use them to speak to you and vice versa. 

And the end result, what all this is summed up in, is the Golden rule. 

¹² So in everything, do to others what you would have them do to you, for this sums up the Law and the Prophets.

This is what living by the Spirit will lead you to do, and this is the rule of thumb you can live your life by. 

So sit in silence, read God's word and listen to others. And also, ask him to speak to you, This is the good gift that God wants to give you to help you to live the life of following Jesus. 

So ask. 

Matthew 7.1-6

Matthew 7:1-6

Do not judge, or you too will be judged. For in the same way you judge others, you will be judged, and with the measure you use, it will be measured to you. Why do you look at the speck of sawdust in your brother’s eye and pay no attention to the plank in your own eye? How can you say to your brother, ‘Let me take the speck out of your eye,’ when all the time there is a plank in your own eye? You hypocrite, first take the plank out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to remove the speck from your brother’s eye.

This text is perhaps one of the most quoted (and misused) texts in the entire bible. Even those who have never actually read the Bible, will often have the token “don’t judge me” ready whenever they need to get others off their back. Sadly, Christians have often been quite condemning, thus creating this secular need for such a response in the first place. Even more sad is that Christians will themselves use this line to prevent others from giving them advice or rebuking them in love. Nobody likes to be called out on their sin. Pulling out the “Don’t Judge” card is a quick and easy way to avoid accountability. But what does this text really mean? What does “not judging” look like? What does it not look like?

Yes, Jesus says “Do not Judge”. But in that very passage he goes on to say “first take the plank out of your own eye, then you will be able to see clearly to help your brother.”  Doesn’t telling your brother or sister that they morally have something in their eye require judgment? So what is Jesus really saying here? Are some kinds of judgment ok? Furthermore, isn’t the gospel message (you need a savour) itself judgmental? Yes, there is judgment, yet it is always followed by a ‘but.’ You are a sinner, but…Jesus has paved a way for you to move past that if you accept him. The but is quintessential. The but is what distinguishes our judgment from the total absolute irrevocable judgment of god that will not occur until the end times.

Therefore, to ‘not judge’ is to not condemn someone forever. We can point out immorality to the world, but we are not to condemn them to hell. That is God’s decision. We are not God. And to try to judge someone finally and absolutely, without any possibility of repentance (without a “but”) is to make ourselves God. One day there will be judgment, but our role on earth as the church, is not to walk around condemning everyone. We convict them of sin, yes, but in the hopes that when they are convicted, they will then turn and embrace Jesus Christ as their saviour from that sin. The point isn’t to judge them, the point is to bring them to Christ. As Romans 12 says “Leave room for God’s wrath. It is mine to avenge, I will repay. Says the Lord.”

So, it seems that some kinds of judgments are ok, and indeed necessary. But also some kinds are not ok. Lets look at some biblical examples where judgment is ok.

• 1 Corinthians 5 Paul says he “passed judgment” on sexual immorality 
• Luke 12:57 “judge for yourselves what is right.”  
• Hebrews 5:14 “mature Christians have trained themselves to distinguish between good and evil.” 
• Jn.7:24 “stop judging by mere appearances and make a right judgment” 
• 2 Thess 5:21 says we are to “test everything”. How can we test something if we cannot judge or evaluate it?
• 1 Cor.6:5 say  “we can judge disputes among believers.”
• Gal.6:1 “restore gently the sinful brother.” On the one hand we must judge in order to identify a brother as sinful. On the other hand, we must be gentle in our restoration of that individual.

So according to the bible, we must be able to judge and evaluate things. This kind of judgment is ok. In fact, the Bible seems to think its good. So what kinds of judgement are not ok?

Jesus said “remove the plank from your own eye, then you will see clearly to remove the plank from your brothers eye.” Thus it is not so much judgment, but hypocritical judgement that is the problem.  Jesus doesn’t like it when Christians walk around condemning everyone while they themselves continue doing the same things over and over again. We are all sinners, and we ourselves have planks in our eyes or once had planks in our eyes. We can’t pretend we are way better than others because they are struggling with something. No, we come to them with grace and forgiveness, because that is what Jesus came to us with.

The Bible distinguishes between judging those in the church, and judging those outside the church. 1 Cor. 5:11 says “What business is it of mine to judge those outside the church? Are you not to judge those inside? God will judge those outside.” Doesn’t the church usually seem to do the opposite. We get so mad about proposition 8 or dirty movies or the government, but we often leave sin within the church unaddressed. I personally love the accountability that comes from being in a church. If we are not consistently accountable to those around us, then iron is not sharpening iron. We need to be looking into each others lives and gentle confronting each other in rebuke and encouragement. A church that is comfortable enough with grace that they can openly work through their sins is a beautiful testament to the forgiving power of the cross.

What are some sins that you wish were more openly discussed and confronted in the church? Try listing out a few.

Now turn the question around. What are some things that we in the church often make judgments about that we should not? What kind of things do we judge others about that ultimately do not matter? Try listing a few of these out.

You may need to sit with this next question for a while. What are some things that you yourself struggle to judge people about? 

            

Many of us know we struggle with judgment, but have no clue how to begin to work through it. Here are some of the things that I at least I have found to be helpful in learning not to judge:

• Praying for those we struggle to judge. Praying for someone teaches you to see them not merely as an enemy or an annoyance, but as a fellow child of God who needs his love, forgiveness and guidance just as much as we ourselves do. Further, prayer is essentially asking God to step into a situation. His presence in your interactions with someone is the biggest step towards grace and mercy in how you see and treat them. Let the power of God into your interactions.

• Getting involved more deeply in peoples stories. The judgments we make often tend to be made without consideration for how someone became the way they are, or what led them to act and say the things they do. Try getting to know people better, ask them about their past or their testimony. In general, most people want and need to talk about their past, they just need to be given permission by a willing listener. Knowing someone more deeply helps you see beyond superficial judgments, and peel away to what is really going on underneath. Further, learning about someones past helps you see them as a real human being, with their own struggles, successes, failures, joys, idiosyncrasies, dreams, needs, and personal baggage. The more time we spend genuinely getting to know someone, the more we will come to care about them, and the less we will be prone to make quick judgments about them. Where your treasure is (where you spend your time, energy or attention) there your heart will be also. Try giving your treasure and devotion to other people. It can really help with judging them.
• Dwelling on the gospel message. It is only when we begin to understand how much Christ has forgiven us for, that we can then begin to find the mercy and love to fully forgive others. Contemplating the depths of our own sin, and the unending mercy of God, we come closer to true forgiveness and the ability to refrain from malicious judgments.  Even from the cross Christ prayed for his murderers “Forgive them Father, for they know not what they do.” 
• One bible story in particular has helped me work through judging others. It comes from John 8:

The teachers of the law and the Pharisees brought in a woman caught in adultery. They made her stand before the group and said to Jesus, “Teacher, this woman was caught in the act of adultery. In the Law Moses commanded us to stone such women. Now what do you say?” Jesus bent down and started to write on the ground with his finger. When they kept on questioning him, he straightened up and said to them, “If any one of you is without sin, let him be the first to throw a stone at her.” Again he stooped down and wrote on the ground. At this, those who heard began to go away one at a time, the older ones first, until only Jesus was left, with the woman still standing there. Jesus straightened up and asked her, “Woman, where are they? Has no one condemned you?”   “No one, sir,” she said. “Then neither do I condemn you,” Jesus declared. “Go now and leave your life of sin.”

Christ was the only one who was sinless enough to judge and throw the first stone without being a hypocrite. Furthermore he was God, the only being in existence who truly had the right to judge! Yet the only one who truly could judge her, does not. He acknowledges her sin (“Go now and leave your life of sin”) yet he does not condemn her to death, dismiss her, or mock her. In the church of Christ, there is no stones to throw at one another. There is loving rebuke and guidance, but there is not supposed to be hatred, condemnation, revenge, or raw punishment. We accept one another, because Christ has first accepted us.

Jon Lyon