Barnabas’s Bad Day

Today’s reading is Galatians 2.

Barnabas had a bad day. I don’t mean Barnabas had a day in which a bunch of bad things happened to him. I mean, Barnabas had a day when he got sucked into error and hypocrisy. This is so shocking because he had been labeled the “son of encouragement” by the apostles (Acts 4:36).

However, along comes Peter, who also had a bad day. When some influential brethren from Jerusalem showed up at Antioch, Peter snubbed the Gentiles Christians, refusing to eat with them. He didn’t want to look bad in front of the Jewish Christians. This is really a shocking turn of events. After all, Peter was the first one to teach Gentiles and go into a Gentile home. Now, Peter is struggling with discrimination. His influence is so strong, he leads the son of encouragement to do something very discouraging.

Paul sets them straight. And in the context of Galatians, this is part of Paul’s argument that Jerusalem apostles had not changed his teaching, rather he had defended his teaching even when Jerusalem apostles weren’t being consistent.

However, the reason I’m bringing this up is not about all of that. I just want us to see Barnabas had a bad day. He messed up. He sinned. So did Peter (and he was an apostle). No doubt, this is not permission for us to go about sinning. However, I hope it helps us turn back to the Lord without beating ourselves up endlessly with guilt and shame. I hope this will help us realize when we mess up, we are walking the discipleship journey with the best of them. We don’t need to give up. We just need to get back up, dust ourselves off, turn to the Lord for forgiveness, and keep walking the road with the Jesus.

Yes, you’ll have bad days. We all do. Sometimes, you may even have to be rebuked by someone in order to get called back from your bad days. Don’t hang your head in shame. Don’t isolate yourself in embarrassment. Admit your sin. Confess your wrongdoing. Then put your hand back in Jesus’s and keep on keeping on.

Praise the Lord! You get to do that.

PODCAST!!!

Click here to take about 15 minutes to listen to the Text Talk conversation between Andrew Roberts and Edwin Crozier sparked by this post.

Discuss the Following Questions with Your Family

1. What are your initial reactions to the chapter and the written devo above?
2. What causes Christians to struggle, stumble, and fall into sin?
3. Why do Christians sometimes just linger there, embarrassed to turn back to the Lord?
4. What advice and encouragement would you give to Christians who have struggled and stumbled in embarrassing ways to come back to the Lord?
5. What do you think we should pray for and about in light of this chapter and today’s post?

Be Humble…Again!

Today’s reading is Matthew 23.

Just when you thought we had figured out how to be humble and could move on to some other topic, Matthew brings us right back to it. This time Jesus is speaking not only to His disciples, but also to the crowds. Further, He places some different legs on this teaching about humility versus pride. When He wanted to illustrate humility, He called a child into their midst. Now He is illustrating pride. He brings up scribes and Pharisees.

Jesus highlights four aspects of pride: hypocrisy, self-promotion, competition, honor-seeking.

In hypocrisy, the proud spout laws, rules, precepts, as a means to pass judgment on others. Yet, the proud figure out loopholes or merely ignore the teaching themselves. Remember, Jesus had said we will be judged by our own pronouncements and measured by our own measurements (Matthew 7:1-2).

In self-promotion, the proud are not motivated by the hunger for righteousness or for the glory of God. Rather, they seek to be seen by others. Remember, Jesus said we have no reward from our Father in heaven if we are performing our righteousness to be seen by others. Instead, we shouldn’t even let our left hand know what our right hand is doing (Matthew 6:1-18). If our good works are seen, our motivation should be God’s glory, not our own (Matthew 5:16).

In competition, the proud seek the best seats and the places of higher honor. Remember, Jesus taught we should give others preference in honor. We should sit in the lowest place. The one who is humble will be exalted (Luke 14:7-11).

In pursuit of honor, the proud want titles promoting them as special, as above, as more than those who honor them with the titles. Remember, Jesus taught when we seek and receive the praises, accolades, honorifics from people, we have received all the reward we are going to get (Matthew 6:1-18).

The humble, however, serve. It is that simple. In Christ Jesus, we descend to greatness.

Granted, Jesus is not trying to establish a check list of rote requirements. For instance, Luke calls Barnabas, Simeon, Lucius, Manaen, and Saul teachers (Acts 13:1). Paul says God has appointed some people to be teachers (1 Corinthians 12:28). Paul says Abraham is the father of all who believe (Romans 4:11). Paul said he was a father to the Thessalonian Christians (1 Thessalonians 2:11). Further, he claims both Timothy and Titus were his children in the faith, a thing that can’t happen unless he is seen as their father in the faith at the same time (1 Timothy 1:2; 2 Timothy 1:2; Titus 1:4). We could go on. The point is we aren’t following Jesus’s teaching by turning this into a list of rules like, “Don’t call people ‘Father.'” I mean, am I allowed to call my father, “Father”? I know we like this because it gives us an easy rebuke against the Roman Catholics. But if that is how we use this passage, we are missing the point. Jesus’s point isn’t the priesthood in churches is wrong because they call the priests “Father.” Jesus’s point is pride will be judged, humility will be exalted.

Let’s humble ourselves today.

Tomorrow’s reading is Matthew 23.

PODCAST!!!

Click here to take about 15 minutes to listen to the Text Talk conversation between Andrew Roberts and Edwin Crozier sparked by this post.

Discuss the Following Questions with Your Family

1. What are your initial reactions to the chapter and the written devo above?
2. Why do you think Jesus spent so much time teaching on humility? …Matthew recorded so much of Jesus’s teaching on humility?
3. Why is humility hard?
4. What advice would you give to help us pursue humility?
5. What do you think we should pray for and about in light of this chapter and today’s post?

From Heaven or From Man?

Today’s reading is Matthew 21.

The chief priests and the elders are pretty put out with Jesus. So they decide to take Jesus head on. “By what authority are you doing these things?” Jesus deftly maneuvers His way out of their attack by turning the tables on them. “The baptism of John, from where did it come? From heaven or from man?”

Let us not get so caught up in throwing the priests and elders under the bus for their hypocrisy and duplicity that we miss the most important thing in this story. Jesus has just dropped a truth bomb into the middle of this event. He has dropped a question that we should all be asking all the time.

Is this thing we are doing from heaven or from man? When my church gathers to worship God and edify one another, are the things we engage in from heaven or from man? When I teach people how to serve the Lord, are the things I teach from heaven or from man? When I claim to do things in the name of the Lord, are the things I’m doing from heaven or from men?

Then, let’s make sure we don’t walk in the footsteps of the scribes and elders. If we really believe it is from heaven, let’s stand up and act like it. Let’s give our hearts, minds, souls, and lives to following it. If, on the other hand, we think it is only from man. Then let us say so and not be afraid what the men who made it up will say about us or do to us.

Never forget this question. It is one of the most important we can and should ask: From heaven or from man?

Tomorrow’s reading is Matthew 21.

PODCAST!!!

Click here to take about 15 minutes to listen to the Text Talk conversation between Andrew Roberts and Edwin Crozier sparked by this post.

Discuss the Following Questions with Your Family

1. What are your initial reactions to the chapter and the written devo above?
2. Why is the question Jesus asks so important?
3. How did the scribes and elders demonstrate their hypocrisy when they refused to answer because of their fears about the people?
4. Do you know of things that folks claim as being from heaven that are actually just from men? What about vice versa things folks often claim are from men that are actually from heaven? How can we know the difference?
5. What do you think we should pray for and about in light of this chapter and today’s post?

Kingdom Righteousness

Today’s reading is Matthew 6.

The righteousness surpassing that of the scribes and Pharisees doesn’t blow trumpets. It doesn’t Tweet, Instagram, Snapchat, or Facebook. Of course, I don’t mean a Christian isn’t allowed to be in marching band. Nor do I mean a faithful Christian morally opposes social media. I mean, as we pursue the righteousness surpassing that of the scribes and Pharisees, we don’t announce our righteousness. We don’t make sure others notice our righteous actions.

Jesus uses three illustrations: benevolence, prayer, fasting. The hypocrites are hypocrites because they claim these actions are for God’s glory, but really the practitioners are doing so for their own glory. The issue, to be certain, is not that it is sin to give to the needy while out on the street or pray in front of others or claim you are hungry when you’ve been fasting. The issue is pointing to self instead of to Jesus. Of course, let us not play mind games. “Oh, I shared that good thing I did on Facebook because I want everyone to know what God is doing through me.” I guess it’s possible. But do you notice the last thing anyone reads in that sentence is “me”?

The question Jesus raises is would you have done the exact same thing if no one would know it? In fact, Jesus so wonders this, He encourages us to go out of our way to make sure no one does. On your days of fasting, go out of your way to look well-kempt, full, and satisfied. When you are praying, go to a secret place. When you give benevolence, don’t even let your left hand know what your right is doing. I don’t think Jesus meant with last one that we should play our trumpet one-handed or type our Facebook report about it with just our right hand. Jesus doesn’t say just go about your business and if people happen to see, no biggie. He actually says, go out of your way to be unseen. That is, perhaps, hyperbole. But it does get the point across.

Here’s the thing. If we practice our righteousness in order for others to see our righteousness, when they praise us, give us our awards, pat us on the back, we’ve received all the reward we are going to get. “But I just want to make sure my light is shining brightly so God will get more glory.” Okay. But you realize the one telling us to be part of this Secret Service is the same God who told us to let our light shine, right? Perhaps He knows the best way for Him to get the glory from our shining light is not to let it become strobe or spotlight on self. Perhaps He is satisfied with the amount of glory He will receive from our righteous behaviors when we are trying to do them without being noticed.

In any event, I love what one of my shepherd’s, Rich Gant, says: “Our job is to be a street light, not a chandelier.”

Tomorrow’s reading is Matthew 6.

PODCAST!!!

Click here to take about 15 minutes to listen to the Text Talk conversation between Andrew Roberts and Edwin Crozier sparked by this post.

Discuss the Following Questions with Your Family

1. What are your initial reactions to the chapter and the written devo above?
2. Why is it so tempting to practice our righteousness where everyone can see us?
3. Why is it so tempting to push back against practicing our righteousness secretly?
4. But Jesus told us to let our light shine earlier in the Sermon, how do we do both?
5. What do you think we should pray for and about in light of this chapter and today’s post?

Whitewashed Walls

Today’s reading is Acts 23.

Paul borrows a picture from Jesus as he rebukes the man who ordered him struck. “You whitewashed wall!” Jesus’s picture was a little more stark. He claimed the scribes and Pharisees were whitewashed tombs. Tombs that had been painted white, shining in the sun, clean. However, underneath the painted wall was rot, corruption, filth. This is a picture of hypocrisy. Paul brings up this same kind of imagery. If you’ve ever purchased a house, you may know about “whitewashed walls.” That is, you may know about walls that look good because they have a nice veneer of paint over them. But as you start working with the wall, you discover behind the paint is a rotten wall. It won’t hold nails. Won’t hold your pictures. You can’t lean things against it. In fact, it may collapse under the weight of the house. Again, a picture of hypocrisy. The priests were acting like they had a right to judge someone based on the Law, but by having Paul struck before being lawfully condemned, they were not following the Law. That is hypocrisy. We must contend with this in our own lives. How easy it is to judge ourselves by our intentions, while judging all others by their actions. We know we meant to do what was right, we want to do what is right, so we overlook our slips and faults and even outright sins and wish others would as well. However, the moment someone else steps out of line, we want condemnation brought down on them immediately. Whitewashed walls. The solution, of course, is not to ignore the sins of others. Rather, the solution is to not ignore the sins of ourselves.

Tomorrow’s reading is Acts 23.

No Pretending

Today’s reading is Luke 20.

It broke my heart. I had become friends with a couple of baristas years ago in Texas. They had invited me to their coffee shop/diner. They often gave me steep discounts. I would try to talk to them about the gospel, Jesus, the church. They were always nice to me. I think they liked me, but they always stiff-armed on the spiritual conversations. I remember one conversation though. They didn’t say it quite this politely, but one of the ladies said one day, “You know how you can tell a business owner is going to take advantage of you?” “How?” I replied. “If he’s got a fish or a cross on his business card.” In other words, business owners who make their Christianity part of their marketing are probably out to make a buck, not save your soul. I’m sure her statement was painting with way too broad of a brush. But it does get at Jesus’s point at the end of Luke 20. God doesn’t like pretending. Christianity isn’t a game. It isn’t a business strategy or a marketing ploy. Jesus Christ intends to change lives down at the heart level and then outward to the behavior that loves God and loves your neighbor. It doesn’t matter how often you go to church, how you dress up when you are there, or how actively you participate, if you are taking advantage of people, you’re just pretending. If you aren’t going to really follow Jesus, don’t pretend.

Monday’s reading is Luke 21.

Beware Hypocrisy

Today’s reading is Luke 12.

In last week’s reading, we learned about the sins of the Pharisees. For so many things they actually did get right, they struggled with hypocrisy. Their insides often didn’t match their outsides. Even the good things they did were often done with ulterior selfish motives. The great problem with this is that they not only ignored the kingdom of God, but hindered others from entering. Their hypocrisy spread secretly like leaven to all who looked up to them. It influenced others, who were not Pharisees, but thought the Pharisees were spiritual giants. Thus, Jesus warns, “Beware the leaven of the Pharisees, which is hypocrisy.” Then He explains why we need to beware. Those internal bits and pieces we try to hide and cover up with a shiny veneer, will all eventually be exposed. This is not merely an issue of final judgment. It is simply the fact that whatever is inside us, whatever really drives us, whatever we say in the dark rooms with our closest friends, will eventually be exposed to everyone. If the #MeToo movement has taught us anything, it is what we hope to keep covered up will come out. And, of course, if somehow we are able to keep it hidden for now, God knows and in judgment it will be revealed. Beware hypocrisy, it will not protect you.

Tomorrow’s reading is Luke 12.

A Modern Pharisee

Today’s reading is Matthew 23.

“Then Jesus said to the crowds and his disciples, ‘The Pharisees do all their deeds to be seen by others. For they make their social media reach wide and the posts of their actions long. They love the likes and retweets they receive. They love to have the place of honor on the internet, competing for friends and likes. They love to have the greetings of those who agree with what they say and jump to their defense when someone disagrees. But you are not to be called Teacher or Father, for you are all siblings. And you have one Teacher who is Jesus. The greatest among you shall be your servant. Whoever exalts himself will be humbled, and whoever humbles himself will be exalted.'”

So says the guy writing a blog post. Yes, I get it. And I’m talking to me as much as to anyone else. This platform can accomplish great good. At the same time, it can lead us down a subtly dark and sinful path. As we navigate it, let’s be fearlessly and thoroughly honest about what we are doing here. And let’s make sure it is always and only God whom we are glorifying.

Tomorrow’s reading is Matthew 24.

It’s a Trap

Today’s reading is Romans 2.

Have you ever wondered why every other place in Scripture, including other places in Romans Paul says salvation and justification is not about working the law, but here in Romans 2:6-13 he says it is? Be careful, this passage is a trap. If we jump into this passage too quickly thinking we’ve found the means of salvation, we will miss Paul’s point. Certainly, what Paul says is absolutely true–those who by patience in well-doing seek for glory and honor and immortality will receive eternal life and there will be glory and honor and peace for everyone who does good. Here’s the problem. Paul spends these first three chapters explaining that no one, neither Jew nor Gentile, does good, “no, not one…not even one.” Where does that leave us? In need of a Savior. That is why we must be busy sharing the gospel, because there is no other way to God than through Jesus Christ and His gospel. Praise God for a Savior!

Tomorrow’s reading is Romans 3.