1 April 2021 – 1 Corinthians 6:9-11 Wednesday, Mar 31 2021

Or do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived: neither the sexually immoral, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor men who practice homosexuality, nor thieves, nor the greedy, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God. And such were some of you. But you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God. – 1 Corinthians 6:9-11 (ESV)

What were you before you became a self-conscious follower of Jesus Christ? Some people, like the Apostle Paul, have very dramatic testimonies about how they were transformed from being notorious sinners into children of God. Thankfully, most of us were graciously preserved from those sorts of notorious sins even before we became Christians. Indeed, some of us never knew a time when we didn’t think of Jesus as our own personal Lord and Savior. That is a wonderful blessing that we should be thankful for. Nevertheless, just as there is a danger of thinking that becoming a Christian requires us to have had a dramatic conversion story there is also the opposite danger of vainly imagining that it is possible to become a Christian without being transformed. Gordon Fee helpfully explains:

For Paul there is to be the closest possible relationship between the experience of grace and one’s behavior that evidences that experience of grace. Paul himself is as concerned as anyone that the later (right behavior) should not be perceived as coming first or leading to the former (the experience of grace). But those who concern themselves with grace without equal concern for behavior have missed Paul’s own theological urgencies. It is precisely for these reasons that the warning texts in Paul must be taken with real seriousness. Security in Christ there is, to be sure, but it is a false security that would justify sinners who have never taken seriously “but such were some of you.” That is to whitewash the sinner without regeneration or transformation; Paul would simply not understand such theology.

What is most often missing in such theologies is the central ingredient in Paul, the transforming work of the Spirit. And in his case that is not simply to be understood as theological jargon. It is rather predicated on the Spirit’s coming into the world, signifying the turning of the ages, so that the realities of the future are already at work in power in the present age. The Corinthian problem was not with their experience of the Spirit, but with their misunderstanding of what it meant to be Spirit people. Our problems are usually of another kind. The Spirit belongs to the creed and to our theology; but he is all too often left there, so that his genuinely transforming and empowering work is often left until {after the Second Coming}, rather than experienced in the present.

MEMORY WORK – Shorter Catechism Q/A 100
Q. 100. What doth the preface of the Lord’s prayer teach us?
A. The preface of the Lord’s prayer, which is, Our Father which art in heaven, teacheth us to draw near to God with all holy reverence and confidence, as children to a father able and ready to help us; and that we should pray with and for others.

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31 March 2021 – Exodus 3:1-15 Tuesday, Mar 30 2021

Now Moses was keeping the flock of his father-in-law, Jethro, the priest of Midian, and he led his flock to the west side of the wilderness and came to Horeb, the mountain of God. And the angel of the LORD appeared to him in a flame of fire out of the midst of a bush. He looked, and behold, the bush was burning, yet it was not consumed. And Moses said, “I will turn aside to see this great sight, why the bush is not burned.” When the LORD saw that he turned aside to see, God called to him out of the bush, “Moses, Moses!” And he said, “Here I am.” Then he said, “Do not come near; take your sandals off your feet, for the place on which you are standing is holy ground.” And he said, “I am the God of your father, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob.” And Moses hid his face, for he was afraid to look at God.

Then the LORD said, “I have surely seen the affliction of my people who are in Egypt and have heard their cry because of their taskmasters. I know their sufferings, and I have come down to deliver them out of the hand of the Egyptians and to bring them up out of that land to a good and broad land, a land flowing with milk and honey, to the place of the Canaanites, the Hittites, the Amorites, the Perizzites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites. And now, behold, the cry of the people of Israel has come to me, and I have also seen the oppression with which the Egyptians oppress them. Come, I will send you to Pharaoh that you may bring my people, the children of Israel, out of Egypt.” But Moses said to God, “Who am I that I should go to Pharaoh and bring the children of Israel out of Egypt?” He said, “But I will be with you, and this shall be the sign for you, that I have sent you: when you have brought the people out of Egypt, you shall serve God on this mountain.”

Then Moses said to God, “If I come to the people of Israel and say to them, ‘The God of your fathers has sent me to you,’ and they ask me, ‘What is his name?’ what shall I say to them?” God said to Moses, “I AM WHO I AM.” And he said, “Say this to the people of Israel: ‘I AM has sent me to you.’” God also said to Moses, “Say this to the people of Israel: ‘The LORD, the God of your fathers, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob, has sent me to you.’ This is my name forever, and thus I am to be remembered throughout all generations. (ESV)

Doug Stuart writes:

By authorizing Moses to say, “I AM/CAUSE TO BE” has sent me to you,” God made Moses his ambassadorial representative, that is, prophet, assigned to speak on his behalf to the Israelites. They would have recognized, if they perceived the situation correctly, that what he said was not of his own making but was the word of Yahweh, the God of their forefathers.

What had just been revealed in terms of the divine name was now reiterated [in verse 15] with connection to the Patriarchs, so that the Israelites in Egypt would be able to properly draw the conclusion that Moses was not coming to them in the name of a new god but the true God of old, the God their own ancestors worshiped, and thus the God who should logically be their national deliverer. God also made clear that the third-person form of his name, Yahweh, was to be employed immediately (since no human could use it properly in the first-person form) and would identify him to his people for the generations thereafter.

MEMORY WORK – Shorter Catechism Q/A 99
Q. 99. What rule hath God given for our direction in prayer?
A. The whole word of God is of use to direct us in prayer; but the special rule of direction is that form of prayer which Christ taught his disciples, commonly called the Lord’s prayer.

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30 March 2021 – 1 Corinthians 6:1-8 Monday, Mar 29 2021

When one of you has a grievance against another, does he dare go to law before the unrighteous instead of the saints? Or do you not know that the saints will judge the world? And if the world is to be judged by you, are you incompetent to try trivial cases? Do you not know that we are to judge angels? How much more, then, matters pertaining to this life! So if you have such cases, why do you lay them before those who have no standing in the church? I say this to your shame. Can it be that there is no one among you wise enough to settle a dispute between the brothers, but brother goes to law against brother, and that before unbelievers? To have lawsuits at all with one another is already a defeat for you. Why not rather suffer wrong? Why not rather be defrauded? But you yourselves wrong and defraud—even your own brothers! – 1 Corinthians 6:1-8 (ESV)

Paul is quite emotionally heated in today’s passage and we may wonder why exactly this is so. We can understand why the Apostle was so upset that a man in the Corinthian church had sexual relations with his stepmother. Beginning with verse 12 Paul will once again return to the subject of sexual immorality. Sandwiched between these two discussions is today’s discussion of lawsuits among Christians. Because Christians have been bringing other Christians to civil court in the West for hundreds of years, we can have quite a bit of difficulty grasping what the big deal is. A little history might help. Christians (like Jews) largely avoided bringing charges against other believers in civil courts until the advent of Christendom. Once the state became officially Christian, and the judges were at least nominally Christian, this prohibition naturally melted away. After hundreds of years of treating civil courts as though they were “Christian” civil courts, Westerners have been very slow to change the practice of suing brothers in Christ even though are courts have become largely secular – and in many cases even hostile to Biblical Christianity. If we are to re-evaluate this practice, we will need to grasp what is at the heart of Paul’s concern. Put simply, the Corinthians didn’t realize who they were as the people of God and they were acting in a way that practically denied the reality of the Church being God’s family. Richard Hays explains it like this:

Paul is summoning his Corinthian readers to a conversion of the imagination, calling them to understand themselves first and foremost as “the saints” (vv. 1-2) – that is, the eschatological people of God, called out of their previous social world, like Israel out of Egypt.

If we grasp that last point, or better are grasped by it, then all the details of Paul’s argument will fall into place. Can you imagine someone who had crossed the Red Sea and was heading toward the Promised Land suggesting that a dispute with one of his fellow Jews should be settled by an Egyptian court under the oversight of Pharaoh? Paul is saying that is precisely what we are doing when one member of a church takes another member of that congregation before unbelievers in court. When we consider the hundreds of millions (regretfully that is not a typo) of dollars that have been spent on legal fees over the past twenty years just by churches suing each other over property disputes – we should realize that something has gone terribly wrong with the churches in North America.

MEMORY WORK – Shorter Catechism Q/A 98
Q. 98. What is prayer?
A. Prayer is an offering up of our desires unto God, for things agreeable to his will, in the name of Christ, with confession of our sins, and thankful acknowledgment of his mercies.

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29 March 2021 – Luke 24:1-12 Sunday, Mar 28 2021

But on the first day of the week, at early dawn, they went to the tomb, taking the spices they had prepared. And they found the stone rolled away from the tomb, but when they went in they did not find the body of the Lord Jesus. While they were perplexed about this, behold, two men stood by them in dazzling apparel. And as they were frightened and bowed their faces to the ground, the men said to them, “Why do you seek the living among the dead? He is not here, but has risen. Remember how he told you, while he was still in Galilee, that the Son of Man must be delivered into the hands of sinful men and be crucified and on the third day rise.” And they remembered his words, and returning from the tomb they told all these things to the eleven and to all the rest. Now it was Mary Magdalene and Joanna and Mary the mother of James and the other women with them who told these things to the apostles, but these words seemed to them an idle tale, and they did not believe them. But Peter rose and ran to the tomb; stooping and looking in, he saw the linen cloths by themselves; and he went home marveling at what had happened. – Luke 24:1-12 (ESV)

Darrell Bock writes:

Luke 24:1-12 is the first account that hints of a reversal of the tragedy of Jesus’ death. An act of mourning and respect turns to perplexity for some devoted women. They appear at the tomb, only to find the stone moved, angels present, and the tomb empty. Jesus is brought to life, just as he predicted. The promise of God’s power has come to pass, but the whole story is rather unbelievable. Nonetheless, the women go back to the disciples to relate the story, where they are met with unbelief, probably because they thought that resurrection from the dead would come at the end-time. But Peter is not sure. He has learned that what Jesus says is not only surprising, but right. He runs to the tomb. It is empty, except for the grave clothes, which suggests that Jesus was there at one time. Surely if he had been taken, the clothes would not still be there. No one would steal the body and leave the impression of resurrection. Peter is left to marvel over events and the reminder of Jesus’ words. It is a moment of reflection, decision and faith. Is resurrection the only adequate explanation for what Peter sees? Is not resurrection what Jesus promised? Has not God acted on behalf of Jesus? Is Jesus alive to carry out God’s plan after all? These are questions not only for Peter in the moment of his discovery, but for all who relive that moment through Luke’s retelling of the story. What else can explain these events? Can one really believe in resurrection hope? The story is not over. The apparent end has become a new beginning. Those who doubt will have their doubts laid to rest by the Lord who stands risen from his encounter with death.

MEMORY WORK – Shorter Catechism Q/A 97
Q. 97. What is required to the worthy receiving of the Lord’s supper?
A. It is required of them that would worthily partake of the Lord’s supper, that they examine themselves of their knowledge to discern the Lord’s body, of their faith to feed upon him, of their repentance, love, and new obedience; lest, coming unworthily, they eat and drink judgment to themselves.

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27 March 2021 – John 19:16-37 Friday, Mar 26 2021

So he delivered him over to them to be crucified.

So they took Jesus, and he went out, bearing his own cross, to the place called The Place of a Skull, which in Aramaic is called Golgotha. There they crucified him, and with him two others, one on either side, and Jesus between them. Pilate also wrote an inscription and put it on the cross. It read, “Jesus of Nazareth, the King of the Jews.” Many of the Jews read this inscription, for the place where Jesus was crucified was near the city, and it was written in Aramaic, in Latin, and in Greek. So the chief priests of the Jews said to Pilate, “Do not write, ‘The King of the Jews,’ but rather, ‘This man said, I am King of the Jews.’” Pilate answered, “What I have written I have written.”

When the soldiers had crucified Jesus, they took his garments and divided them into four parts, one part for each soldier; also his tunic. But the tunic was seamless, woven in one piece from top to bottom, so they said to one another, “Let us not tear it, but cast lots for it to see whose it shall be.” This was to fulfill the Scripture which says,

“They divided my garments among them,
and for my clothing they cast lots.”

So the soldiers did these things, but standing by the cross of Jesus were his mother and his mother’s sister, Mary the wife of Clopas, and Mary Magdalene. When Jesus saw his mother and the disciple whom he loved standing nearby, he said to his mother, “Woman, behold, your son!” Then he said to the disciple, “Behold, your mother!” And from that hour the disciple took her to his own home.

After this, Jesus, knowing that all was now finished, said (to fulfill the Scripture), “I thirst.” A jar full of sour wine stood there, so they put a sponge full of the sour wine on a hyssop branch and held it to his mouth. When Jesus had received the sour wine, he said, “It is finished,” and he bowed his head and gave up his spirit.

Since it was the day of Preparation, and so that the bodies would not remain on the cross on the Sabbath (for that Sabbath was a high day), the Jews asked Pilate that their legs might be broken and that they might be taken away. So the soldiers came and broke the legs of the first, and of the other who had been crucified with him. But when they came to Jesus and saw that he was already dead, they did not break his legs. But one of the soldiers pierced his side with a spear, and at once there came out blood and water. He who saw it has borne witness—his testimony is true, and he knows that he is telling the truth—that you also may believe. For these things took place that the Scripture might be fulfilled: “Not one of his bones will be broken.” And again another Scripture says, “They will look on him whom they have pierced.”

After these things Joseph of Arimathea, who was a disciple of Jesus, but secretly for fear of the Jews, asked Pilate that he might take away the body of Jesus, and Pilate gave him permission. So he came and took away his body. Nicodemus also, who earlier had come to Jesus by night, came bringing a mixture of myrrh and aloes, about seventy-five pounds in weight. So they took the body of Jesus and bound it in linen cloths with the spices, as is the burial custom of the Jews. Now in the place where he was crucified there was a garden, and in the garden a new tomb in which no one had yet been laid. So because of the Jewish day of Preparation, since the tomb was close at hand, they laid Jesus there. – John 19:16-37 (ESV)

When John points out that Scripture says, “They will look upon Him whom they pierced,” he is referring to Zechariah 12:10. There the LORD says: “And I will pour out on the house of David and the inhabitants of Jerusalem a spirit of grace and pleas for mercy, so that, when they look on me, on him whom they have pierced, they shall mourn for him, as one mourns for an only child, and weep bitterly over him, as one weeps over a firstborn.”

There are two key things to take note of:

First, the LORD begins by saying that He “pour out on the house of David and the inhabitants of Jerusalem a spirit of grace and pleas for mercy.” That is, the LORD is going to lead them to repentance and give them new hearts. These are not people who are destined to terrifying judgement. These are people who are being redeemed to dwell in the House of the LORD forever.
Second, unlike the nations in Revelation 1:7 who are wailing over their own plight, these converted Jews will look “on Him whom they have pierced” and “they will mourn for him, … tenderly … as one mourns for an only child.” That is, they will be mourning out of compassion for Christ who suffered like this at the hands of their fellow Jews.

Rather than looking forward to a time of terror, Zechariah is magnifying the grace of the Messiah in that even though most of the Jews rejected Christ at His first coming and cried out for His death – by God’s grace, at Christ’s Second Coming, most of the Jewish people, although not necessarily all of them, will have been converted. Speaking in terms of corporate solidarity with the Jewish people throughout the ages, “they will look upon Him whom they pierced,” they will mourn that they had caused His suffering, but they will be mourning as those confess that Christ’s grace is greater than their sin – and that He loved me, and gave Himself for me. And then we remember our Lord’s prayer from the cross: “Father, forgive them. For they know not what they do!”

MEMORY WORK – Shorter Catechism Q/A 96
Q. 96. What is the Lord’s supper?
A. The Lord’s supper is a sacrament, wherein, by giving and receiving bread and wine according to Christ’s appointment, his death is showed forth; and the worthy receivers are, not after a corporal and carnal manner, but by faith, made partakers of his body and blood, with all his benefits, to their spiritual nourishment and growth in grace.

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26 March 2021 – 1 Corinthians 5:9-13 Thursday, Mar 25 2021

I wrote to you in my letter not to associate with sexually immoral people—not at all meaning the sexually immoral of this world, or the greedy and swindlers, or idolaters, since then you would need to go out of the world. But now I am writing to you not to associate with anyone who bears the name of brother if he is guilty of sexual immorality or greed, or is an idolater, reviler, drunkard, or swindler—not even to eat with such a one. For what have I to do with judging outsiders? Is it not those inside the church whom you are to judge? God judges those outside. “Purge the evil person from among you.” (ESV)

Christians face two different types of difficult decisions. First, there are those decisions which are quite clear but rather hard to do. Paul may have been addressing precisely that sort of situation in verses 1-8. It is always difficult to actually excommunicate someone from a congregation and, if this man was prominent in the community, it may have been even more difficult. Nevertheless, we easily get Paul’s point: A person flaunting notoriously sinful behavior cannot remain a part of the people of God. The Second type of difficult decision that Christians face involves decisions that are less black and white yet engage our emotions and relationships in a most personal way: “If my son is marrying a Jehovah’s witness, do I go to the wedding?” “A friend at work is cheating on his wife. Can I still have lunch with him? Should I?” “Should I attend a Roman Catholic funeral where the mass is going to be celebrated?” The only people who never wrestle with such questions are those who are not very concerned about living a life that is pleasing to God. Today’s passage teaches us the important truth that Paul is specifically NOT saying that you should only fellowship with non-Christians who somehow still live in accordance with Christian ethics “since then you would need to go out of the world”. The rub comes with how we apply Paul’s teaching that we are “not to associate with anyone who bears the name of brother if he is guilty of sexual immorality or greed, or is an idolater, reviler, drunkard, or swindler—not even to eat with such a one.” How do we do this in an environment where most of the non-Christians we know call themselves Christians? Does this mean that you shouldn’t invite your Roman Catholic friend who only attends church once a year over to dinner? Such an application of the passage seems unlikely. Paul is assuming in the passage that all the Christians in Corinth are attending the same congregation. Notice that the climatic end of Paul’s argument is a command: “Purge the evil person from among you.” The immediate application of this passage in our own day would be to our own local church. By extension, with much wisdom we could apply these truths to other like-minded Christian churches. To rigorously avoid associating with all the immoral people who claim to be Christians would essentially require us to leave this world when we are elsewhere commanded to remain engaged as salt and light.

MEMORY WORK – Shorter Catechism Q/A 95
Q. 95. To whom is baptism to be administered?
A. Baptism is not to be administered to any that are out of the visible church, till they profess their faith in Christ, and obedience to him; but the infants of such as are members of the visible church are to be baptized.

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25 March 2021 – 1 Corinthians 5:1-8 Wednesday, Mar 24 2021

It is actually reported that there is sexual immorality among you, and of a kind that is not tolerated even among pagans, for a man has his father’s wife. And you are arrogant! Ought you not rather to mourn? Let him who has done this be removed from among you.

For though absent in body, I am present in spirit; and as if present, I have already pronounced judgment on the one who did such a thing. When you are assembled in the name of the Lord Jesus and my spirit is present, with the power of our Lord Jesus, you are to deliver this man to Satan for the destruction of the flesh, so that his spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord.

Your boasting is not good. Do you not know that a little leaven leavens the whole lump? Cleanse out the old leaven that you may be a new lump, as you really are unleavened. For Christ, our Passover lamb, has been sacrificed. Let us therefore celebrate the festival, not with the old leaven, the leaven of malice and evil, but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth. – 1 Corinthians 5:1-8 (ESV)

Who you think you are will radically impact how you choose to live. Paul begins today’s passage with the startling accusation “that there is sexual immorality among you, and of a kind that is not tolerated even among pagans, for a man has his father’s wife.” One striking aspect of this charge is that the word translated “pagans” literally simply means “gentiles”. In this deft way Paul is reminding the Corinthians that, in one sense, they are no longer gentiles. They have been cut out of the pagan nations and grafted into the Israel of God. They have been transferred out of the kingdom of darkness and into the kingdom of God’s beloved Son – and so are all who have put their trust in Jesus. The astonishing new status of Christians as God’s own treasured possession ought to radically alter the way that we live. This is why Paul drives home his point using an image drawn from the Passover. Just as the first Passover marked out the deliverance of Israel out of Egypt, the once and for all sacrifice of Jesus Christ on the cross marks out our deliverance from this fallen world. We are therefore to celebrate (keep the feast) in sincerity and truth. There is one other aspect of who we are that we shouldn’t miss in this passage. We are vulnerable. Although redeemed, we are still sinners in a fallen world. One key reality of our life together as a church is that fellowship with other Christians who are pursuing to walk in the paths of righteousness strengthens each of us in our own walk with the LORD. On the other hand, to engage in close fellowship with those who are brazenly trampling the blood of Christ underfoot by defiantly living in sin is very likely to corrupt the entire church family. If someone came into our church, or into the school of your children, with a highly contagious and destructive disease you would insist on separation. Sin that is being flaunted rather than mortified is like that. For both the good of the sinner and the good of the whole church such sin must be dealt with.

MEMORY WORK – Shorter Catechism Q/A 94
Q. 94. What is baptism?
A. Baptism is a sacrament, wherein the washing with water in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost, doth signify and seal our ingrafting into Christ, and partaking of the benefits of the covenant of grace, and our engagement to be the Lord’s.

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24 March 2021 – Psalm 22 Tuesday, Mar 23 2021

My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?
Why are you so far from saving me, from the words of my groaning?
O my God, I cry by day, but you do not answer,
and by night, but I find no rest.

Yet you are holy,
enthroned on the praises of Israel.
In you our fathers trusted;
they trusted, and you delivered them.
To you they cried and were rescued;
in you they trusted and were not put to shame.

But I am a worm and not a man,
scorned by mankind and despised by the people.
All who see me mock me;
they make mouths at me; they wag their heads;
“He trusts in the LORD; let him deliver him;
let him rescue him, for he delights in him!”

Yet you are he who took me from the womb;
you made me trust you at my mother’s breasts.
On you was I cast from my birth,
and from my mother’s womb you have been my God.
Be not far from me,
for trouble is near,
and there is none to help.

Many bulls encompass me;
strong bulls of Bashan surround me;
they open wide their mouths at me,
like a ravening and roaring lion.

I am poured out like water,
and all my bones are out of joint;
my heart is like wax;
it is melted within my breast;
my strength is dried up like a potsherd,
and my tongue sticks to my jaws;
you lay me in the dust of death.

For dogs encompass me;
a company of evildoers encircles me;
they have pierced my hands and feet—
I can count all my bones—
they stare and gloat over me;
they divide my garments among them,
and for my clothing they cast lots.

But you, O LORD, do not be far off!
O you my help, come quickly to my aid!
Deliver my soul from the sword,
my precious life from the power of the dog!
Save me from the mouth of the lion!
You have rescued me from the horns of the wild oxen!

I will tell of your name to my brothers;
in the midst of the congregation I will praise you:
You who fear the LORD, praise him!
All you offspring of Jacob, glorify him,
and stand in awe of him, all you offspring of Israel!
For he has not despised or abhorred
the affliction of the afflicted,
and he has not hidden his face from him,
but has heard, when he cried to him.

From you comes my praise in the great congregation;
my vows I will perform before those who fear him.
The afflicted shall eat and be satisfied;
those who seek him shall praise the LORD!
May your hearts live forever!

All the ends of the earth shall remember
and turn to the LORD,
and all the families of the nations
shall worship before you.
For kingship belongs to the LORD,
and he rules over the nations.

All the prosperous of the earth eat and worship;
before him shall bow all who go down to the dust,
even the one who could not keep himself alive.
Posterity shall serve him;
it shall be told of the Lord to the coming generation;
they shall come and proclaim his righteousness to a people yet unborn,
that he has done it. (ESV)

Today’s psalm begins with jarring abruptness: “My God, my God, why have You forsaken me? Why are You so far from the cry of my groaning?” We are naturally drawn into the psalmist’s agony and wonder what he could have done that led the LORD to abandon him like this. Then we come to the cross and find these very lips on the lips of Jesus – the only intrinsically righteous man who has ever lived – and we are dumbfounded. Why? How could it be that He would suffer like this? The great sixteenth century Anglican, Richard Hooker, answers this question perhaps as well as is humanly possible:

Let men count it folly, or frenzy, or whatever. We care for no knowledge, no wisdom in the world but this, that man has sinned and God has suffered, that God has been made the sin of man and man is made the righteousness of God.

Why was He forsaken? Jesus chose to be forsaken for you. As we meditate on this prophetic psalm, written a millennium before the cross, we enter into the horror of what the King of glory suffered for His people. Yet that isn’t the end of the story. We should remember that Psalm 22 begins with our Lord’s cry of dereliction but that is not how it ends. Verse 23 calls the people of God to praise “For He has not despised nor abhorred the affliction of the afflicted; neither has He hid His face from Him; but when He cried unto Him, He heard (v. 24).” Indeed, the last nine verses of the psalm are a celebration of the Lord’s victory. Surely Jesus knew this when He cried in agony from the cross. As unfathomable as His suffering was; Jesus knew that it was a suffering unto victory.

MEMORY WORK – Shorter Catechism Q/A 93
Q. 93. Which are the sacraments of the New Testament?
A. The sacraments of the New Testament are baptism and the Lord’s supper.

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23 March 2021 – 1 Corinthians 4:6-21 Monday, Mar 22 2021

Already you have all you want! Already you have become rich! Without us you have become kings! And would that you did reign, so that we might share the rule with you! For I think that God has exhibited us apostles as last of all, like men sentenced to death, because we have become a spectacle to the world, to angels, and to men. We are fools for Christ’s sake, but you are wise in Christ. We are weak, but you are strong. You are held in honor, but we in disrepute. To the present hour we hunger and thirst, we are poorly dressed and buffeted and homeless, and we labor, working with our own hands. When reviled, we bless; when persecuted, we endure; when slandered, we entreat. We have become, and are still, like the scum of the world, the refuse of all things.

I do not write these things to make you ashamed, but to admonish you as my beloved children. For though you have countless guides in Christ, you do not have many fathers. For I became your father in Christ Jesus through the gospel. I urge you, then, be imitators of me. That is why I sent you Timothy, my beloved and faithful child in the Lord, to remind you of my ways in Christ, as I teach them everywhere in every church. Some are arrogant, as though I were not coming to you. But I will come to you soon, if the Lord wills, and I will find out not the talk of these arrogant people but their power. For the kingdom of God does not consist in talk but in power. What do you wish? Shall I come to you with a rod, or with love in a spirit of gentleness? – 1 Corinthians 4:6-21 (ESV)

“If you’re so smart, why aren’t you rich?” This rhetorical question is intended to put people in their place. When someone goes on and on as he or she has the solution to all problems this question is a way of saying “where’s the beef? If you are really so smart, show us what you have done with it. Surely, someone as smart as you claim to be must have made a fortune by now.” As attractive as this question may seem at times, it is fundamentally wrong. First, it assumes that the chief thing that an intellectually gifted person could do with this gift is to make money. That is a very worldly assumption. Second, it fails to take into consideration the many reasons beyond mere intelligence that frequently go with those who are financially successful. Nevertheless, the attractiveness of the question poses a spiritual danger for us. In the twenty-first century we have a large number of polished religious teachers who attempt to validate their “ministries” by how large, influential, or wealthy they are. Now there is nothing wrong with gifted men finding a wide audience for their teaching or for the fact that they are pastoring large congregations or are on radio stations all over the country. The danger is when we imagine that those things demonstrate that such teachers are somehow anointed by God. This line of reasoning seems to have taken hold in first century Corinth. Some of the Corinthians were pointing to their own wealth and social status as evidence that they clearly had God’s approval. How do you answer people like that? The Apostle Paul responds with biting sarcasm where he contrasts how exalted these men are with the lowly and despised condition that he and the other Apostles experienced. If they didn’t immediately catch the point of Paul’s sarcasm, it becomes crystal clear in the middle of verse 12: “When reviled, we bless; when persecuted, we endure; when slandered, we entreat.” These words clearly echo the life of Jesus. Paul understands that true discipleship is costly. Rather than being embarrassed by the hardships that he faced, Paul is holding them out as marks that he is being conformed to the likeness of Christ. Put directly, Paul is asking the Corinthians: “If you claim to be so fully mature as Christians, why does your life look so different than that of Jesus?” This is a good question for us to ask the health and wealth teachers of our own day. On the other hand, we must be careful not to turn Christian faithfulness into a quest for persecution. Gordon Fee wisely points out that “Paul took seriously that his sufferings and weaknesses were a genuine participation in Christ himself. For him discipleship entailed a fellowship in the sufferings of Christ (Rom. 8:17; Phil 3:10); but that did not mean that one must suffer in order to be a genuine disciple.” We are not to pursue suffering. We are to pursue faithfulness.

MEMORY WORK – Shorter Catechism Q/A 92
Q. 92. What is a sacrament?
A. A sacrament is an holy ordinance instituted by Christ; wherein, by sensible signs, Christ, and the benefits of the new covenant, are represented, sealed, and applied to believers.

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22 March 2021 – John 19:16-37 Sunday, Mar 21 2021

So he delivered him over to them to be crucified.

So they took Jesus, and he went out, bearing his own cross, to the place called The Place of a Skull, which in Aramaic is called Golgotha. There they crucified him, and with him two others, one on either side, and Jesus between them. Pilate also wrote an inscription and put it on the cross. It read, “Jesus of Nazareth, the King of the Jews.” Many of the Jews read this inscription, for the place where Jesus was crucified was near the city, and it was written in Aramaic, in Latin, and in Greek. So the chief priests of the Jews said to Pilate, “Do not write, ‘The King of the Jews,’ but rather, ‘This man said, I am King of the Jews.’” Pilate answered, “What I have written I have written.”

When the soldiers had crucified Jesus, they took his garments and divided them into four parts, one part for each soldier; also his tunic. But the tunic was seamless, woven in one piece from top to bottom, so they said to one another, “Let us not tear it, but cast lots for it to see whose it shall be.” This was to fulfill the Scripture which says,

“They divided my garments among them,
and for my clothing they cast lots.”

So the soldiers did these things, but standing by the cross of Jesus were his mother and his mother’s sister, Mary the wife of Clopas, and Mary Magdalene. When Jesus saw his mother and the disciple whom he loved standing nearby, he said to his mother, “Woman, behold, your son!” Then he said to the disciple, “Behold, your mother!” And from that hour the disciple took her to his own home.

After this, Jesus, knowing that all was now finished, said (to fulfill the Scripture), “I thirst.” A jar full of sour wine stood there, so they put a sponge full of the sour wine on a hyssop branch and held it to his mouth. When Jesus had received the sour wine, he said, “It is finished,” and he bowed his head and gave up his spirit.

Since it was the day of Preparation, and so that the bodies would not remain on the cross on the Sabbath (for that Sabbath was a high day), the Jews asked Pilate that their legs might be broken and that they might be taken away. So the soldiers came and broke the legs of the first, and of the other who had been crucified with him. But when they came to Jesus and saw that he was already dead, they did not break his legs. But one of the soldiers pierced his side with a spear, and at once there came out blood and water. He who saw it has borne witness—his testimony is true, and he knows that he is telling the truth—that you also may believe. For these things took place that the Scripture might be fulfilled: “Not one of his bones will be broken.” And again another Scripture says, “They will look on him whom they have pierced.”

After these things Joseph of Arimathea, who was a disciple of Jesus, but secretly for fear of the Jews, asked Pilate that he might take away the body of Jesus, and Pilate gave him permission. So he came and took away his body. Nicodemus also, who earlier had come to Jesus by night, came bringing a mixture of myrrh and aloes, about seventy-five pounds in weight. So they took the body of Jesus and bound it in linen cloths with the spices, as is the burial custom of the Jews. Now in the place where he was crucified there was a garden, and in the garden a new tomb in which no one had yet been laid. So because of the Jewish day of Preparation, since the tomb was close at hand, they laid Jesus there. – John 19:16-37 (ESV)

R.C. Sproul writes:

The Jews were concerned because it was a preparation day for the Sabbath, and the next day was a high Sabbath. If the bodies of the condemned men hung on their crosses overnight, the land would be defiled (Deut. 21:23), and that would have major repercussions for the Sabbath observances. So the Jews asked Pilate to order the soldiers to break the men’s legs. With their legs broken, the crucified men would not be able to elevate their chests and gain any breath, so they would die quickly from asphyxiation. The Jews were not concerned with putting Jesus out of His misery; they were concerned about the purity of the feast. They had just killed the One for whom the feasts were established in the first place, but they did not want to be guilty of violating the Old Testament law against bodies hanging on crosses overnight on the preparation day.

Pilate granted the Jews’ request in this instance, so the soldiers broke the legs of one of the robbers, then broke the legs of the other. But when they came to Jesus, they found He was already dead, having died much sooner than was normal in crucifixion. Thus, they did not break His legs, but one of the soldiers jammed his spear into Jesus’ side, perhaps to ensure that He was dead, and blood and water poured out.

MEMORY WORK – Shorter Catechism Q/A 91
Q. 91. How do the sacraments become effectual means of salvation?
A. The sacraments become effectual means of salvation, not from any virtue in them, or in him that doth administer them; but only by the blessing of Christ, and the working of his Spirit in them that by faith receive them.

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