"You shall worship the Lord your God and him only shall you serve."
This response, by Jesus, is in the same context as the first post. He's being tempted by Satan. In this case, he's specifically being tempted to worship Satan. Jesus' response is pretty straightforward.
To remind us of post #1, notice that Jesus uses God's word to respond to all three of the temptations in the passage. We must live by every word that comes from the mouth of God.
Anyway, look at Jesus' response here:
You shall
- worship the Lord your God
- him only shall you serve
Oh, that we would obey this command! How often we give ourselves to idols. In John 4, Jesus tells us the kind of worshippers that God is seeking... "those who worship in spirit and in truth." So our worship of only God must be in spirit (from our hearts... in other words sincerely, not just participating in a church service) and in truth. Not to keep harping on #1, but what does that mean? Jesus prays in John 17:17, "Sanctify them by the truth, your word is truth." So our worship must be sincere and consistent with God's word.
A quick comment about the importance of doctrine and worship. One of Jesus' indictments of the Pharisees was Matthew 15:8-9, "This people honors me with their lips, but their heart is far from me; in vain do they worship me, teaching as doctrines the commandments of men." Correct doctrine in incredibly important. The Pharisees worship was in vain. Imagine coming before the Lord, which Matthew 7 says many will do, and finding out that your worship was meaningless. Why was theirs meaningless? Doctrine. They didn't believe and obey the truth. Church, study. Don't just assume that doctrine is something that is just for pastors to know. It is crucial for our worship.
Another comment on worship: Romans 12:1 gives us a picture of our spiritual act of worship. Paul says, "present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship." Now this could be a long post, but to comment quickly... a sacrifice is something that is surrendered at a cost (often life); holy means to be set apart; and we're called to be acceptable to God. This verse screams holiness. If we're going to worship God in a way that pleases him, we must resist sin and live for him (him only shall you serve).
Isn't that what Jesus is doing in Matthew 4? I love this because in this passage he's not preaching to others, he's preaching to himself. Yes, the kingdoms of this world are tempting. Power and influence are tempting. Food is tempting. But "you shall worship the Lord your God and him only shall you serve." When tempted Jesus reminded himself (and Satan) of this command. We as the church should do the same.
Thursday, July 3, 2008
Monday, June 30, 2008
Tolerance and the Glory of God
I read an article this past week that was pretty frustrating. It was about how 3 teens beat a homeless man to death. A very sad story in itself. But one of the things that was incredibly frustrating was something that the surveillance camera revealed. This man never should have died. There were eyewitnesses. The camera revealed that during the beating, several cars slowed down to observe the teenagers beat the man and then drove off. Drove off.
My heart broke as I read that. I struggled with not being more mad at the drivers than the teens. How can people just watch someone suffer and then die and not intervene? I mean at least get someone else to help; the police or someone.
But sadly, my mind turns to the church and how much we are like these people just watching and not intervening. In my sermon, yesterday, I talked about this very thing. How so many "believers" will not tell their co-workers, neighbors, friends (how can we even use that word), or family the truth about the Bible and it's exclusive claims about salvation.
An amazing part of the passage we looked at (Acts 13:4-12) is vs 10, where Paul looks at this guy who is opposing the message (God's word) that Paul and Barnabas are teaching and says this to him: "You son of the devil, you enemy of all righteousness, full of all deceit and villainy, will you not stop making crooked the straight paths of the Lord?"
After asking the people not to memorize this to use on the next person they talk to about the Lord, I mentioned how we probably look at that and think, "That's pretty harsh, isn't Paul?" In our day of tolerance and not wanting to offend anyone with this exclusive, you have to be born again-Jesus is the only way message, it does seem harsh. But is it? I contend (as I did yesterday) that it is not. It is loving and more.
Why do I think that? Because verse 9 says that Paul said it, "filled with the Holy Spirit." Ephesians 5 teaches us what the fruit of the Holy Spirit are: Love, Joy, Peace, Patience, Kindness, Goodness, Faithfulness, Gentleness and Self-Control. So the most loving, peaceful, kind, patient, good, gentle thing that Paul could have done is said that to Elymus (the man opposing the gospel).
God is not tolerant. He is loving and good... more than we can imagine. And the most loving thing that you can do is tell someone the truth about Him and how they can only find forgiveness and grace through Jesus... even if it offends them.
How long will we be satisfied being the people driving by while others are being ravaged by sin, satan and the fall of man. We have help. We have the truth. We have the saving power of the Word of God. Don't just slow down and look at people going to hell. Stop and tell the truth.. the whole truth of the gospel. Or at least get someone else who can help them.
My heart broke as I read that. I struggled with not being more mad at the drivers than the teens. How can people just watch someone suffer and then die and not intervene? I mean at least get someone else to help; the police or someone.
But sadly, my mind turns to the church and how much we are like these people just watching and not intervening. In my sermon, yesterday, I talked about this very thing. How so many "believers" will not tell their co-workers, neighbors, friends (how can we even use that word), or family the truth about the Bible and it's exclusive claims about salvation.
An amazing part of the passage we looked at (Acts 13:4-12) is vs 10, where Paul looks at this guy who is opposing the message (God's word) that Paul and Barnabas are teaching and says this to him: "You son of the devil, you enemy of all righteousness, full of all deceit and villainy, will you not stop making crooked the straight paths of the Lord?"
After asking the people not to memorize this to use on the next person they talk to about the Lord, I mentioned how we probably look at that and think, "That's pretty harsh, isn't Paul?" In our day of tolerance and not wanting to offend anyone with this exclusive, you have to be born again-Jesus is the only way message, it does seem harsh. But is it? I contend (as I did yesterday) that it is not. It is loving and more.
Why do I think that? Because verse 9 says that Paul said it, "filled with the Holy Spirit." Ephesians 5 teaches us what the fruit of the Holy Spirit are: Love, Joy, Peace, Patience, Kindness, Goodness, Faithfulness, Gentleness and Self-Control. So the most loving, peaceful, kind, patient, good, gentle thing that Paul could have done is said that to Elymus (the man opposing the gospel).
God is not tolerant. He is loving and good... more than we can imagine. And the most loving thing that you can do is tell someone the truth about Him and how they can only find forgiveness and grace through Jesus... even if it offends them.
How long will we be satisfied being the people driving by while others are being ravaged by sin, satan and the fall of man. We have help. We have the truth. We have the saving power of the Word of God. Don't just slow down and look at people going to hell. Stop and tell the truth.. the whole truth of the gospel. Or at least get someone else who can help them.
Thursday, June 26, 2008
A Quick Addition to #1
Some, I know, may think that I take the Bible too literally. To those who feel this way I respond simply with this:
I will take my chances.
For the life of me, I cannot imagine the Lord chastising someone for taking him too seriously or trying too hard to obey him. I say this absolutely humbly. I cannot boast, because I fail miserably at what I take literally. I am not a success story. I just believe that God's Word never fails which makes me extremely dependent on the Holy Spirit to lead me in the way of righteousness.
I will take my chances.
For the life of me, I cannot imagine the Lord chastising someone for taking him too seriously or trying too hard to obey him. I say this absolutely humbly. I cannot boast, because I fail miserably at what I take literally. I am not a success story. I just believe that God's Word never fails which makes me extremely dependent on the Holy Spirit to lead me in the way of righteousness.
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