The Christian Dependent

Psalm 89:9-18

⁹ You rule the raging of the sea;
    when its waves rise, you still them.
¹⁰ You crushed Rahab like a carcass;
    you scattered your enemies with your mighty arm.
¹¹  The heavens are yours; the earth also is yours;
     the world and all that is in it, you have founded them.
¹²  The north and the south, you have created them;
     Tabor and Hermon joyously praise your name.
¹³ You have a mighty arm;
    strong is your hand, high your right hand.
¹⁴  Righteousness and justice are the foundation of your throne;
     steadfast love and faithfulness go before you.
¹⁵ Blessed are the people who know the festal shout,
    who walk, O Lord, in the light of your face,
¹⁶ who exult in your name all the day
    and in your righteousness are exalted.
¹⁷ For you are the glory of their strength;
    by your favor our horn is exalted.
¹⁸ For our shield belongs to the Lord,
    our king to the Holy One of Israel.

***

Reread that passage. Go ahead, I'll wait.

Did you reread the passage, or just go straight to this sentence? Reread it! Trust me.

If we let these words from the beautiful 89th chapter of the book of Psalms sink into us, something will change.

There have been many times in my life that, as a man, I have taken pride in doing something alone. "I don't need anyone else!" I proclaim, whether inwardly or out loud as I tackle a problem. I rely on my own power, my own knowledge, my own ideas or my own ability to problem-solve. 

This verse flies in that face of that attitude. The idea here is to "walk in the light of the LORD's face." What does that mean? Walk in God's will and, by definition, his favor. The writer here makes it clear first why we should follow the LORD, and then what it looks like once one does follow Him.

He rules the sea, it's ebb and flow, the currents and shifting plates.

He can not just fight off but scatter His enemies. 

He lays claim to both the heavens and the earth.

He creates the poles, curvature of the earth, the sense of directional awareness.

He is good; righteousness and justice are the foundations of His throne.

These truths shout an overarching story above their baseline ideas: There is another way. A better way. You can have the LORD of all things in your corner. He can fight with you, fight for you. You don't have to be alone.

As a guy, this is a hard concept to grasp. We are brought up to believe that asking for help equals weakness or inability. It's something only a lesser man would do. Real men stand up, shut up and do whatever they need to do, independent of anyone and everyone. 

This is not the picture of true manhood we see painted for us in Scripture. A true man is in touch with his need for salvation, for sanctification, and a continual reliance on Christ. To lean onto Him is to break free of the hollow, frail shell of manhood the world presents us with and to embrace our true nature: wholly and completely dependent on the person of Jesus Christ for all things. The world and heavens are His; what foolishness it is to run from Him and seek to persevere under our own power! 

My old pastor said something profound one Sunday morning years ago: "Live in such a way that you cannot survive without daily dependence on God."

Our God is to be trusted and to be relied upon. We are made to rely on Him. The sooner we accept this truth and lean into Him, the better our lives will be. They may not be easier, they may not be more fun, but they will be better.

Seeing God at Work

Luke 11:29-36

The Sign of Jonah

²⁹ As the crowds increased, Jesus said, “This is a wicked generation. It asks for a sign, but none will be given it except the sign of Jonah. ³⁰ For as Jonah was a sign to the Ninevites, so also will the Son of Man be to this generation. ³¹ The Queen of the South will rise at the judgment with the people of this generation and condemn them, for she came from the ends of the earth to listen to Solomon’s wisdom; and now one greater than Solomon is here. ³² The people of Nineveh will stand up at the judgment with this generation and condemn it, for they repented at the preaching of Jonah; and now one greater than Jonah is here.
³³ “None of you lights a lamp and puts it in a place where it will be hidden, or under a bowl. Instead you put it on its stand, so that those who come in may see the light. ³⁴ Your eye is the lamp of your body. When your eyes are healthy, your whole body also is full of light. But when they are unhealthy, your body also is full of darkness. ³⁵ See to it, then, that the light within you is not darkness. ³⁶ Therefore, if your whole body is full of light, and no part of it dark, it will be just as full of light as when a lamp shines its light on you.”

Reflection

One day while I was in chapel at Azusa Pacific University, our campus pastor stood up on stage holding a chair in one hand about 2 feet off the ground. He stated in a dramatically loud voice, “God, if you are real, make this chair stop before it hits the ground.”

The crowd was silent as the campus pastor let go of the chair and it plummeted to the ground and off the stage. “Well I guess God isn’t real,” the campus pastor said after the chair hit the floor.

Now, my campus pastor was just trying to make a point. He did not really think that his little experiment disproved God’s existence, but I think if we were really honest with ourselves we would admit we play little games with God like my campus pastor did. We tell God, “If you do this then…fill-in-the-blank.” We sometimes just cannot see God at work, so we are moved to demand a sign.

In the text today, Jesus stands in the mist of a crowd asking for a sign: some type of miracle that would “prove” Jesus to be who he said he was. It was not enough for those in the crowd to have heard the stories; the crowd wanted to see the miracle man work his magic. It was not enough that Jesus spoke as one with authority, they wanted to see the “good-stuff;” they wanted to see the show.

Jesus just responds by saying, “no sign will be given except the sign of Jonah.”

Jonah was a man who was called by God to preach to the people of Nineveh, a people group whom Israel did not really like because they were so wicked. (This is why Jonah ran away from God’s calling at first and had to go through that whole eaten-by-a-whale part of the story.) When Jonah preached to the people of Nineveh, they all turned from their evil actions and followed God.

Now hundreds of years later, Jesus stands preaching the good news to another such wicked generation. The difference between when Jesus preached to that wicked generation and when Jonah preached to the other wicked generation is that the people of Nineveh listened to Jonah and repented from living in evil.

During the time of Jesus, it was believed that people could see because there was a “light” inside of them that would shine through their eyes highlighting everything in the world. This is what Jesus is talking about when he said, “Your eye is the lamp of your body.”

 If someone could not see, it was believed that the “light” inside him or her was “dull” or “dimmer,” because they had done something wrong. This is what Jesus meant when he said, “When your eyes are healthy, your whole body also is full of light. But when they are unhealthy, your body also is full of darkness.”

For those living during the time of Jesus, there was a large connection between the physical and the spiritual. If you were physically sick, there might have been a spiritual reason for it. If you were physically fine, there was believed to be a spiritual reason for it.

Today we might think this is really silly, but I think there is some truth to this. One time I was talking to a student when she told me that she had lately been really tired, sick feeling, and even randomly broken out in tears over “little things.” As we began to talk more, it became clear that there was a spiritual war with God happening within her. She was dealing with something very physical, but also something very spiritual.

Throughout the book of Luke and Acts, the writer refers to Jesus as “light” and the Evil One as “dark.” Jesus now picks up this theme by using the language and understanding of those in his culture to teach them a lesson. Jesus wants the crowd around him to realize that those with a “healthy eye” have an inner light and those with a “sick eye’ indicate that they have inner darkness. In simpler terms, the reason that the crowd could not easily see that Jesus is from God, and therefore requested a sign, is because the darkness inside of their bodies clouded out their ability to see correctly. Therefore, they could not truly see who Jesus was.

This story begs a scary question: if we cannot see God at work in our lives and/or in the world, is it because God is not there? Or, is it because there is some darkness inside us that is clouding out God’s work in the world?

Questions

1.     What did Jesus’s audience demand of him?

2.     Have you ever asked for or even demanded a sign from God? If so, why? What brought you to that point?

3.     Why cannot the people see Jesus for who he really is?

4.     Is there any darkness that might be blocking or clouding out God’s work in your life?

5.     What are some ways can you ask God to help you remove that darkness? In what ways can you seek God and his light?

6.     In what ways can your family try to focus on God and not the darkness of the world?

7.     Pray for each other as a family, pray and ask God to help you focus on him and see his light in the world.

The Transfiguration

Luke 9:28-36

The Transfiguration

²⁸ About eight days after Jesus said this, he took Peter, John and James with him and went up onto a mountain to pray. ²⁹ As he was praying, the appearance of his face changed, and his clothes became as bright as a flash of lightning. ³⁰ Two men, Moses and Elijah, ³¹ appeared in glorious splendor, talking with Jesus. They spoke about his departure, which he was about to bring to fulfillment at Jerusalem. ³² Peter and his companions were very sleepy, but when they became fully awake, they saw his glory and the two men standing with him. ³³ As the men were leaving Jesus, Peter said to him, “Master, it is good for us to be here. Let us put up three shelters—one for you, one for Moses and one for Elijah.” (He did not know what he was saying.)

³⁴ While he was speaking, a cloud appeared and covered them, and they were afraid as they entered the cloud. ³⁵ A voice came from the cloud, saying, “This is my Son, whom I have chosen; listen to him.” ³⁶ When the voice had spoken, they found that Jesus was alone. The disciples kept this to themselves and did not tell anyone at that time what they had seen.

Reflection

I remember talking to my mom about Jesus when I was around 9 years old. We were driving in her car and she was talking to me about who Jesus was and why he came. I remember her telling me that Jesus was the “Son of God” and that he came to “die for my sins.” To be completely honest, even though I heard what she was saying and could tell you that Jesus was the “Son of God,” I had no idea what it meant until much later on in my life.

In Luke, the disciples are like me; they do not understand exactly who Jesus is right away. Previous to our text today, we read that Peter confesses that Jesus is, “God’s Messiah.” In reality, Peter does not completely understand what this confession means.

After Peter confesses that Jesus is “God’s Messiah,” Jesus tells his disciples how he must die and then will be resurrected three days later. He then tells his disciples that to be “his disciple” they must themselves “die.”

We read this text and make the assumption that Jesus’s disciples “get it,” yet the story of the Transfiguration reveals the complete opposite.

On a clear day, Jesus takes his top three disciples up to a mountaintop, where he reveals a small part of his real glory to them. As Jesus is praying, he starts to glow. Upon seeing the glowing Jesus, the disciples fight off their tiredness and see that Jesus standing there talking to Moses and Elijah.

Moses and Elijah are honored as two of the greatest prophets to ever live. In fact, the book of Deuteronomy calls Moses, “Since then, no prophet has risen in Israel like Moses, whom the LORD knew face to face.” Now, Jesus’s disciples see him standing there talking to these great prophets, and they cannot believe their eyes.

Peter, as if he has just forgotten the confession he made eight days earlier says, “Master, it is good for us to be here. Let us put up three shelters—one for you, one for Moses and one for Elijah.”

This statement shows that in reality Peter believes that Jesus is of the same greatness as Moses and Elijah, not that Jesus is anything more special than Moses or Elijah.

This is when a voice reminiscent of when Jesus was baptized again comes from the clouds and says, “This is my Son, whom I have chosen; listen to him.”

By saying this, God was basically saying, this guy Jesus who you call “master” and “messiah” is greater that both Moses and Elijah because he is my Son. Jesus is the greatest prophet that has ever lived and who will ever live. Listen to him and follow him because he is greater than anyone who has come before him. He is the Messiah who will redeem and save Israel and the world.

Reading this story in Luke, I cannot help but wonder how many times I have been like Peter. I confess that Jesus is the Messiah, but I just do not completely get it. I quickly forget or do not completely understand what my confession means. I forget that my confession of Jesus as the “Messiah” should be a life changing statement that transforms who I am, how I live, and how I love others. Sometimes, I think I need God to remind me that this guy Jesus is, “…my Son, whom I have chosen; listen to him.”

Questions

1.     Try to remember to the first time you heard that Jesus was the “Messiah,” did that word mean anything to you? Did you get it at first?

2.     Now when you hear the word “Messiah” what do you think of?

3.     Do you feel like there are times in your life that you forget your confession that Jesus is the “Messiah?” Why do you think we forget so easily?

4.     Do you think our confession that Jesus is the “Messiah” should change how we live? If so, how? If not, why not? 

5.     What are ways or think you try to do allow God to remind you who Jesus is?

6.     What are some new thinks your family or you could do to create space for God to remind you who Jesus is?