Peter & David

Recently as I read the account of Peter's denial of Christ, I was struck a similarity between him and David.  Often we forget that these great men of the faith were but men, after all.  We read of David as King, as a mighty man of war, and as a man after God's own heart (Acts 13:22).  We read of Peter as the chief among Christ’s apostles, even of the 3, Peter, James & John; Peter is also the one on whom Christ will build His Church.  Yet we sometime elevate them too far, beyond the Scriptural descriptors.  Soon they are more than men to us.  Yet both Peter and David had as great a series of failures as they had successes.  David in his murder of Uriah and adultery with Bathsheba; Peter in his denial of Christ and of the truth of the Gospel in Galatians 2:11-14.

These great men were of the same cloth as I am.  In a moment I may be found in grave sin - even to the denying of my Lord.  Yet He knows our frame, that we are but dust (Psalm 10-3:14).  And Christ indeed knows the danger we face - Look at what He tells Peter in Luke’s Gospel, "But I have prayed for you, that your faith should not fail" (Luke 22:32) In the same verse where He predicts Peters failure, Christ offers encouragement to Peter, beforehand, that he will be of use to his Lord when he does return to Him, to be an encouragement to his brothers.

Finally, an oft quoted verse of Scripture in 1 Peter is made all the more incredible, and encouraging - when we consider it in light of what we've been discussing here.  Recall that it was through this very trial Peter writes us an encouraging note, "casting all your care upon Him, for He cares for you".  Peter, saying this to us, upon the furnace of such trials as his very denial of Christ, reminds us that God indeed cares for us.  Peter's faith having been strengthened, now strengthens us and many others throughout the millennia since his letter was sent.  Verse 75 (of Matthew chapter 26) tells us that he went out and "wept bitterly".  I am reminded of the Psalm 126:5-6,

Those who sow in tears, shall reap in joy.

He who continually goes forth weeping,

bearing seed for sowing,

Shall doubtless come again with rejoicing,

bringing his sheaves with him.

 

Lord - Help us to love you always and obey - but when we fail - help us to be brought back again to You and to encourage our brethren.

Amen

Three proofs of Jesus being the Messiah

As I was studying Matthew 26:57-6, the trial before Caiaphas the High Priest, I was faced with a verse that has always left me unsatisfied.  Yet after thinking about it, I was tremendously blessed.  Here is that verse:

'Jesus said to him, “It is as you said. Nevertheless, I say to you, hereafter you will see the Son of Man sitting at the right hand of the Power, and coming on the clouds of heaven.”'

As all good translations do, the first sentence is shown to be only 2 words, You say or you said, as the other words are in italics, and therefore supplied by the translators to make the meaning clearer.  Sometimes this works, but sometimes it is really not necessary, as I think in this case.

But here is what has troubled me.  Christ has an ideal opportunity to answer the High Priest with a direct and irrefutable answer, given the particularity of the question, "I put You under oath by the living God: Tell us if You are the Christ, the Son of God?"  Why does Christ squander such an obvious opportunity? 

Because it was no opportunity!  Over and over throughout the 3 years of His ministry they had already been shown the truth and rejected it.  Consider the following 3 proofs...

Proof #1  Christ's Healing ministry

John the Baptist, in a moment of weakness while in prison, sent his disciples to ask, Are you the One, or should we look for another?  Christ told them go and tell John what you see and hear, the blind see and the lame walk; the lepers are cleansed and the deaf hear; the dead are raised up and the poor have the gospel preached to them. (Matt. 11:4-5) Luke records in chapter 4, when Christ read Isaiah 61:1-2a while he was in his home synagogue in Nazareth, “The Spirit of the Lord God is upon Me, Because the Lord has anointed Me To preach good tidings to the poor; He has sent Me to heal the brokenhearted, To proclaim liberty to the captives, And the opening of the prison to those who are bound; To proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord" He stated, “Today this Scripture is fulfilled in your hearing.” (4:21). They could not accept this and wanted to cast Him off a cliff. 

Proof #2  He is the great "I AM"

In John chapter 4, the witness of Christ to the woman of Samaria is bold and teaches us.  In verse 25 the woman brings up a suggestion that the Messiah would answer all their questions. Christ answers her, "I who speak to you am he" with the last word He, being again a supplied word in italics.  Christ is effectively claiming the divine phrase, I AM (Ex 3:13-15), for His own.  In fact this was not the only time he did so.  In John 8:48-59 the Jews were accusing Him of possession by a demon and He responds in verse 58, “Most assuredly, I say to you, before Abraham was, I AM.” For that they tried to stone Him.

The point of this is that over and over Christ does plainly say who He is and what He came for.  So His answer in Matthew 26:64, "You say" is clear enough.

Proof #3  Even the dead being raised will not persuade the unbeliever.

They will not believe Him, even if one is raised from the dead as we learn from the parable of the Rich man & Lazarus (Luke 16:19-31, as well as from Mary & Martha's brother Lazarus who was dead for 4 whole days and then raised up.  Christ even tells us plainly through His prayer to the Father before He raised Lazarus, that it was for our belief that He is the Christ. “Father, I thank You that You have heard Me. And I know that You always hear Me, but because of the people who are standing by I said this, that they may believe that You sent Me.” (John 11:41b-42)

Amazingly Christ, having broken His silence thus far, now gives them another true statement, but this one enough to convict on(vs. 64) - and the High priest stops the proceedings.  They had their testimony, and it would stick.

Lord - It is amazing to think of how much you put up with to save some of this wicked bunch.  Thank you for your great love!

Amen.

30 Pieces

¹⁴ Then one of the twelve, called Judas Iscariot, went to the chief priests ¹⁵ and said, “What are you willing to give me if I deliver Him to you?” And they counted out to him thirty pieces of silver. ¹⁶ So from that time he sought opportunity to betray Him. (Matthew 26:14-16)

It really bugs me. To read of the matter of fact way Judas went after Christ....

I want to find in him some wicked way not found in me, yet what charge can I make against him which does not, at some point suit me as well?!

Sometimes a question, all by itself is a committal, or perhaps in this case it may be better to say a betrayal, to a fact not yet apparent to the one asking.

Asking forces one to form an idea in the mind, an idea which may not be such a good one.  (On a side note, I am always the one asking questions in classes I attend... Yikes!)

And a question can be answered in ways that reveal the hand of both the questioner and the questioned.  In this case, the Pharisee's 'could' have rebuked Judas for such a wicked request.

Instead they played right into it.  Counting out the silver revealed that they were on Judas' side, against Christ.

Had they rebuked him, I wonder how he might have acted?  Perhaps he'd have played the hypocrite for a while longer and returned to Christ & the Apostles to see what more he might pilfer.

But now he returns, not to pilfer more - he's got 30 pieces of silver burning in his soul... To do nothing would be stealing, but to betray Christ...?!  What a dilemma he had... Yet he asked the question, “What are you willing to give me if I deliver Him to you?" betrayed to the Pharisee's (and to Judas, if he would admit it) that he knew from the start what he planned to do.  He was waiting for the price to be right.

Would the Pharisee's have paid anything for such a betrayal, if Judas had made such a request a year earlier?

And 30 pieces of silver - how did the Pharisee's come to such a price?  In Zechariah 11:4-17 there is the prophecy of the shepherds.  Most certainly the Lord, in His providential care established such a price.  John MacArthur says it was God's sarcasm which had this fulfilled in such a manner.

In the prophecy the shepherd asks what his wages are and the price offered was equal to that given in Exodus 21 for a slave who was gored by an ox.  Again MacArthur, "The Jews of Jesus day, who offered that amount, were saying He was worth no more than a common slave."

"Then I said to them, “If it is agreeable to you, give me my wages; and if not, refrain.” So they weighed out for my wages thirty pieces of silver.  And the Lord said to me, “Throw it to the potter”—that princely price they set on me. So I took the thirty pieces of silver and threw them into the house of the Lord for the potter." (Zech 11:12-13)

All this from a simple question.

We have a saying - be careful what you ask, you might just get it...  

Indeed.

 

Lord - help me to be true with you and your people.  Amen.

The parable of the Stewards: Moral Lessons & Conclusions

From the beginning I asserted that verse 15, with the phrase, "to each according to his own ability" was key to grasping this parable.  The parable is set towards the end of Matthew at the end of Christ's earthly ministry, right before His passion.  It is one of 3 or 4 parables He delivers in regards to the question in 24:3, "Tell us when these things will be? And what will be the sign of your coming, and of the end of the age?"  Immediately after this parable Christ plainly tells us in 25:31-46 of that coming Day of Judgment.

It is in this context that we find such a parable.  And at the end of this parable we see verse 29, "For to everyone who has more will be given, and he will have abundance, but from him who does not have, even what he has will be taken away."

What do we learn?  Our Lord does entrust to us a stewardship - and we have a response - ability to manage it aright.  What we do with the stewardship will differ from person to person - both as we are obedient & faithful to the work, or as we are not!

Our Lord is not capricious - to each according to his own ability.  We read in Luke 12:48b, "...For everyone to whom much has been given much will be required; and to whom much has been committed of him they will ask the more."

In another place Augustine of Hippo said, "Give what you command, and then command whatever you will."  We are to work - but only as a response to the Lord.  For He made Him who knew no sin to be sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him. (2 Corinthians 5:21)

So why does God take the one talent from the unprofitable servant and grant it to the one who has ten?  Is this fair?  In our key verse we are reminded that to each according to his own ability, and that is of God.  Since the unprofitable servant had the ability to manage 1 talent, but neglected his responsibility to manage it we can easily reason that it was fair to take it from him.  Yet one might question why the talent taken from him was granted to the one with ten, and not the one with four.  What was the rational? Was this fair?

Of course to ask such a question we plunge ourselves right into Paul’s argument in Romans 9.  Paul asks the very same question of God - Is He fair in what He is doing?  Then Paul shows us the folly of such a question. (Rom 9:14-24)  And the fact that our passage is only a parable does not mean we ask these questions in irrelevance.  The Spiritual truths are why Christ is teaching.  The argument in Romans 9 continues through chapter 11 in a great doxology (11:33-36).  Deep waters indeed.

Is it wrong to ask such questions? Not at all.  Christ teaches us because He knows we will and do ask such.  Paul asks in as plain and clear language as one can use.  What is wrong, would be to make conclusions which demonstrate God to not be what we know He is, as He is already revealed in His Holy Word.

Sometimes this leaves in our mouth an unsatisfying taste.  We want complete understanding as to the mechanics of HOW God is just, granting the man with ten talents one more and not giving it to the man with four.

And we even surmise, that since He is God and He is the giver of all things, even the ability to manage talents, why then, does He grant some more than others?

But we fall for the lie to travel this line of reasoning too far.  We are not gods or as God, knowing good & evil.  In fact we are even worse than we suppose.

Recently I was introduced to a doctrine which beforehand had not been known to me.  The doctrine of concurrence. And I think it a wise matter to consider at this point.

There are times we see 2 apparently contradictory truths & reconciliation looks impossible, without more understanding or compromise.  As compromise is not acceptable we have to admit to our limited understanding of the truths and move on, for a time to other places, in Scripture, until greater understanding is acquired.  But do come back.

Concurrence is the recognition of our inherent inabilities to grasp all that we know of certainty, of God & His Works, and keep them balanced.

But we should not use it as an excuse or tool for laziness.  Do come back to those hard to understand teachings.  It may be that God will grant, due to greater life experience and Scriptural study time, new frameworks from which your contradiction may be reconciled.

Or He may not.  Just be prepared.  He is not One to trifle with.  Jacob wrestled with God all night for a blessing.  We ought to grapple with God and His Word, yet in reverence and awe - for we are only men & women, creature not creator.

Lord, grant us humility & yet help us to tenaciously strive to understand You better.

Amen

The parable of the Stewards: The Defense of the Evil Steward

Read the passage at hand, Matthew 25:24-28.  At first one might be inclined to see the validity of the bad servant’s argument.  His lord even partly acknowledged such when he said, "you knew that I reap where I have not scattered seed"

Yet such acknowledgment does not free him of his response - abilities (see yesterday’s post).  This steward’s defense is even more trouble for him as it shows the condition of his heart toward his lord.  "I knew you to be a hard man..."

As steward over another's property, shouldn't you know the man?  Shouldn't you love the man?  It is predisposed that the man knew him, at least well enough to entrust a year’s wages to him...  Else why would he trust that you would make good decisions over his property?

It is his property after all...

Personal challenge: Is your disposition toward the Lord hard?

Verse 26 reveals to us the true disposition of the bad steward, "You wicked and lazy servant"   And before anyone complains that his lord is not just in his judgment, recall our key verse, 15 which says, "to each according to his own ability"

This steward did not have a leg to stand on.  Verse 27 tells us that doing as little as depositing the money in a bank would have been enough. 

But what kept him from that?  Only the steward’s hard heart toward his lord.

This begins to get into some deep waters but ought to be dealt with.  In studying the Immutability of the Lord a few years ago, I realized something of how He responds to men. And it is the hard cases particularly which taught me this.

In particular how the Lord relented from his judgment on the Ninevites when they repented of their sin.  Jonah knew this about God - and complained about it in Jonah 4:1-2. 

How could God go back upon His Word and still be true to his character, immutable in his ways?  Yet it is not God who is doing the changing.  Recall some of the verse which declare this, Heb 13:8, Malachi 3:6, and Numbers 23:19 to name a few. 

And Numbers 23:19 is particular in this, "God is not a man, that He should lie, Nor a son of man, that He should repent. Has He said, and will He not do? Or has He spoken, and will He not make it good?"   Here we see that God's immutability is placed side by side with man's changeability.  It is man who changes.  And God's disposition moves reflexively, as the man changes, He changes in line with His character towards the man. 

(As an aside, this is a beautiful reminder that God DOES want the sinner to change and will condescend to him, if he will but come...)

This steward WAS lazy and stubborn.  Unwilling to do the smallest task for his lord - all because he does not really know the man or love him.   Tomorrow Lord willing, I will try to point out some principles we ought to derive from this parable and some action we can take.   Amen

The parable of the Stewards: Report and Judgment of the good stewards (Matt. 25:20-23)

As a reminder to us of what the stewards did, we should look briefly at verses 16-19.  These good stewards traded with the talents they had.  Risky and hard work, both stewards did the job at hand and doubled that which they were stewards over.

What is a steward?  One might call him a manager of sorts.  He is in charge of certain affairs of his master.  An example of a steward in the Old Testament would be Joseph.  He was set over Potiphar’s household, and later over the whole of Egypt!  A steward is not the owner but is the responsible party over what he was set. 

Etymologically we see a link to our key verse, 15, to each according to his ability.  A steward has the response - ability, or responsibility to handle the affairs.

Lastly - let's look at the reward.  Proportionately the two stewards were given equal success over the work.  No one would say that the work of stewardship over 5 talents (perhaps $250,000) would be the same as that of 2 talents, yet the reward was equal.

"His lord said to him, ‘Well done, good and faithful servant; you were faithful over a few things, I will make you ruler over many things. Enter into the joy of your lord.’" (Matt 25:21 & 23)

Why might they have been given the same reward?  Verse 15 states, "And to one he gave five talents, to another two, and to another one, to each according to his own ability" While the work of managing the affairs of his lord over 5 talents would have been greater than that of two or even 1 talent, the steward did it, as easily as the steward over two talent managed his stewardship.

Tomorrow I plan to consider how the last steward was missing the mark.  Amen

The parable of the Stewards: The background & introduction (Matt. 25: 14-19)

At the outset it must be noted that this is a parable. A story designed to teach morals & principles using parallels in this world.  As such, we must be careful how far we take these parables & the connections in this world.  Only as far as is necessary to teach the moral or principle before us.

For the kingdom of heaven is like a man... To say is like is not to say is.

The key to the whole parable is the phrase found in verse 15, "to each according to his own ability"

What did the stewards do?  We see this in verses 16-18.  Verse 19 points out the judgment.

To each according to his own ability.  Our Lord does not expect of us what he does not give.  He knows what we can handle and grants to us as we are able, that which we can bear.  Whether an active responsibility to positively do something, or negatively a trial to bear. 

1 Corinthians 10:13 exemplifies this negative point, "No temptation has overtaken you except such as is common to man; but God is faithful, who will not allow you to be tempted beyond what you are able, but with the temptation will also make the way of escape, that you may be able to bear it."

Our Lord know that we are but dust. (Psa 103:14)

My wife’s favorite passage, Proverbs 3:5-6, also speaks to this principle when is states, "Lean not on your own understanding" 

Augustine of Hippo is quoted as praying, "Oh Lord, Command what you will, give what you command."

And He will - For He is good. And it is this point which is not agreed upon by the unjust steward.  We'll see this as we study.   Amen.