Studies In Matthew - Praying In Agony

As the struggling Christian I am, prayer is the one endeavor of the faith I seem able to stay focused on. The command of 1 Thessalonians 5:17 to “pray without ceasing,” is the one command I tend to lean on most. I simply cannot carry on through this life without asking God for help. I have a saying about myself. I’m either praying or sinning. I believe there is a great lesson here. Pray more; sin less.

This morning in chapter 26 of the Gospel of Matthew, I come to one of my favorite narratives of Jesus. Jesus is near the end of His earthly ministry and knows that soon, he will face the ultimate reason He came to the earth. He is about to go through the ordeal of arrest, trial, and then death, yes, even death on a cross. But His death will be unlike any other death in history. Embedded within His death will be the payment for all sin. He will face something He has never known. He will be separated from His Father for the first time in all of eternity, for the deepest level of eternal punishment is separation from God. He will pay the cost of my sin. And in the Garden of Gethsemane, we see the agony of His suffering made manifest in His humanity. What does He do with this distress? He goes to the Father in prayer.

Matthew 26:36-44
Then Jesus went with them to a place called Gethsemane, and he said to his disciples, “Sit here, while I go over there and pray.”  And taking with him Peter and the two sons of Zebedee, he began to be sorrowful and troubled.  Then he said to them, “My soul is very sorrowful, even to death; remain here, and watch with me.”  And going a little farther he fell on his face and prayed, saying, “My Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me; nevertheless, not as I will, but as you will.”  And he came to the disciples and found them sleeping. And he said to Peter, “So, could you not watch with me one hour?  Watch and pray that you may not enter into temptation. The spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak.”  Again, for the second time, he went away and prayed, “My Father, if this cannot pass unless I drink it, your will be done.”  And again he came and found them sleeping, for their eyes were heavy.  So, leaving them again, he went away and prayed for the third time, saying the same words again.

As one who loves prayer as I do, there is a great lesson in this for me. There is a principle of prayer here that we all can gain from. As Christians, we know we are to be a people who deny themselves. We know we are supposed to surrender our lives to God as we follow Jesus. But the fact is, we are still living in our fleshly desires. In this story, we see that God knows we are yet dust, that we are a work in progress. He does not mind when we ask Him for the things we desire, even when that are not His desire for us.

First of we see that Jesus, like us, in His humanity wanted the comfort of His friends to share in His distress. Yet, they, like all of us, failed Him in their flesh. They were worn out and could not even watch with Him one hour. Jesus rebukes them but doesn’t let that deter His prayer. Sometimes those around us will fail us in our need for emotional support. In our most difficult of nights, we cam still go to our Father. He never sleeps. He is already there for us when we pray.

The main lesson here I find this morning though is one that we need to take hold of. God is not a magical genie who is bound to answer our prayers just as we ask. Jesus, in His humanity, asked that if an angel from heaven, strengthening him.”

The lesson here is that we can go to God with any request and He hears us. Jesus prayed and asked for something three times and that prayer was for a different way for this to go down. Three times Jesus in His humanity asked for this cup to pass Him by, while in His deity Jesus knew that He had to face the cross. So even though Jesus asked for one thing, He put the answer in the hands of God as He prayed “Your will be done.”

Whatever we face each day, we have a God who hears us and even when our Father knows that the answer will be no to our prayer, He comforts us, and He strengthens us as we pray. This should change our lives. We should pray without ceasing, making our requests known to God, but then resting comfortably in faith, that it is His will that must be done.

Jesus is the way, the truth, and the life. Let us become a people of prayer. Let us become a people of faith. Let us become a people of God.

possible this cup, this method of paying the price of all sin, be taken away. Three times Jesus makes this plea as He prays in great sorrow and agony. Luke in his Gospel adds more detail to the distress Jesus was in saying that “being in an agony he prayed more earnestly; and his sweat became like great drops of blood falling down to the ground.” This is some serious prayer.

Luke also added another informative word in Luke 22:43 which says, “And there appeared to him

 

 

Studies in Matthew - Waiting On the Return of Christ

I cannot count the times I have been asked the question, “So, what is your eschatological theology?” Christians seem fascinated with the prophecies on the return of Christ, the timing of the rapture, and all the other events scripture has presented to us for the future of the Kingdom of God. I have read many of the great books on the topic and heard many good sermons. And yes, yes, I have my opinion on the topic and if pressed on the matter, could take upon myself one of the labels we Christians have come up with that separate us on the end times. But as I continue to study the scriptures, I have grown into a place in which I believe is of greater importance than taking on a specific label.

The last two mornings I have been studying in Matthew, chapters 24 and 25. This section of scripture finds Jesus addressing the future of the coming Kingdom. He responds to this question of the disciples, as found in Matthew 24:3 that says, As He was sitting on the Mount of Olives, the disciples came to Him privately, saying, "Tell us, when will these things happen, and what will be the sign of Your coming, and of the end of the age?"

Jesus responds to the question by explaining many things that will happen. He gives it to them as a warning not to be duped by the many false teachers that will come as seen in Matthew 24:4, And Jesus answered and said to them, "See to it that no one misleads you.” Implied in this warning is the idea that we certainly ought to study the scriptures so we will not be misled.

Wars, famines, and earthquakes are signs of the nearing of the end, but Jesus compares them to the pains of an impending birth of a baby. Jesus warns us that there will be persecution. There will be hatred and betrayals. Lawlessness in increase. Love will grow cold. All things that seem to be happening right now in our land.

Jesus makes a statement that many misinterpret as meaning we can lose our salvation. He says in Matthew 24:13 that "The one who endures to the end, he will be saved.” That isn’t a suggestion that the saved might fall away, it is a statement that the true believers WILL come through the troubles of life and shall persevere.

As I study through Matthew 24 and 25, I realized I have become more concerned with what I will do as I wait upon His return, than I am about when He is coming.

Matthew 24:36
"But of that day and hour no one knows, not even the angels of heaven, nor the Son, but the Father alone.”

No one knows the day and hour of His return, yet we continue to see so-called prophets making predictions. The message of Jesus in this section of scripture is not to satisfy our curiosity of prophecy, but it is to tell us what to until He comes. Listen to what Jesus says.

Matthew 24:42
"Therefore be on the alert, for you do not know which day your Lord is coming.”

 

Matthew 24:44
"For this reason you also must be ready; for the Son of Man is coming at an hour when you do not think He will.”

Jesus proceeds in the end of chapter 24 and in 25 to explain what we need to be doing as we await His return.

Through several parables Jesus gives us our orders. The Parable of the Ten Virgins reminds us to be ready to meet our Bridegroom, Jesus, when the day of the wedding banquet comes. The Parable of the Talents teaches us to be faithful with what God has given us, whether we have a lot or a little, we must not squirrel it away. We are to live as investors of our lives, our money, talents, and time.

Jesus finishes up by making a stark comparison of two types of people. There are those who provide for the sick, the hungry, the naked, and the prisoners. There are those who do not. Listen to what He says to each of these two types of people.

Matthew 25:40
"The King will answer and say to them, 'Truly I say to you, to the extent that you did it to one of these brothers of Mine, even the least of them, you did it to Me.”

Matthew 25:45
"Then He will answer them, 'Truly I say to you, to the extent that you did not do it to one of the least of these, you did not do it to Me.”

The way we treat people is the way we treat Jesus. Salvation is by faith alone, but true salvation will evidence itself in a new person, a person who seeks to meet the needs of others. This is what James means when he speaks of his works is how he shows his faith.

Jesus finishes up with a fearful warning that ought to wake us up to a life of service.

Matthew 25:41-43
"Then He will also say to those on His left, 'Depart from Me, accursed ones, into the eternal fire which has been prepared for the devil and his angels;  for I was hungry, and you gave Me nothing to eat; I was thirsty, and you gave Me nothing to drink;  I was a stranger, and you did not invite Me in; naked, and you did not clothe Me; sick, and in prison, and you did not visit Me.”

Matthew 25:46
"These will go away into eternal punishment, but the righteous into eternal life."

Wow. Those are the words of Jesus. They ought to change the priorities of our lives. I love theology. There is nothing wrong with studying scripture, but if all we study it for is to defend our eschatology and our other doctrinal positions, then we’ve missed the message.

We do not know when Jesus will return. Rather than worry about that, we should simply be busy doing what He said to do. We must be prepared for His coming. He tells us here how to do that. Read these two chapters of Matthew and ask the Holy Spirit to teach you and guide you. He’s coming back. What will He catch us doing when He comes?

Studies In Matthew - Confronting Hypocrisy

My morning time with God this morning found me in Matthew, chapter 23. This is the section in which we find Jesus confronting the Scribes and the Pharisees with their hypocrisy. That the very leaders of the Jewish people would be such hypocrites, was very important to Jesus, so much so that He spoke out against them and pronounced seven woes against them.

It is tempting to see this section in only its immediate context and to shake our heads at these horrible men. But do we really think that the Holy Spirit inspired Matthew to record this narrative simply, so we could applaud Jesus for putting these bad men in their places?

1 Corinthians 10:6 reminds us why we have these stories. It says that “these things took place as examples for us, that we might not desire evil as they did.”

The Word of God is not just a story about the history of the Jews; it is God’s Word written so that those who are Born Again will know what God expects us to be like as we grow in our faith. There is a spiritual lesson for us here as well. Actually, there are many. This morning I want to share a story from the Holman New Testament Commentary, written by Stu Weber.

I pray this speaks to your heart as it did mine. As Christians, we are to be watching over each other. We are to be encouraging each other as we seek to run the race Paul reminds us to be running. That race is the race to holiness. Sometimes we need to encourage each other by speaking the truth in love. Love without truth and truth without love is not pleasing to God. Sometimes it means that we must simply say what needs to be said.

Please read this story. Please read Matthew 23 and search your own heart. The world needs to see Christ. But Jesus is no longer walking this earth in His physical body. He left us His Holy Spirit so that in us, the world could see Jesus. The religious leaders though they were leading the people down the path to God. They were not. They were hypocrites. Our witness to the world is not received by the words we speak; it is received by the life we live. This is why James said that faith without works is dead. This why he told us to be DOERS of the Word not just hearers. This why sometimes we Christians need to gently, in love, confront each other with the truth of God’s Word.

Now, as Paul Harvey would say, The rest of the story…

Hypocrisy Confronted

It happened during my high school days at a state leadership camp. It was unforgettable. For the first time in my memory, I had stood up—in public—to confront hypocrisy.

Several hundred high school student-body officers were being trained for their senior tenure. About a dozen of us were housed in one cabin just about right for a couple of guys to doze off, a couple to read, and the rest of us to engage in developing a healthy "group dynamic." In other words, we told stories and hooted at their craziness into the wee hours.

One stretch involved an hour or more of "can-you-top-this" jokes and stories. I found myself unable to participate so I lay quiet in the darkness, hoping the others would think I had fallen asleep. One voice in particular, from the top bunk on the west wall, seemed to dominate the off-color conversation.

When the conversation shifted to things that mattered, the guys began to discuss "religion," real spiritual issues, and eventually their own hearts. It was amazing. Christ and the Christian faith became the center of discussion.

But the majesty of that healthy dialogue was broken when the same voice from the top bunk on the west wall chimed in. Unable to remain silent and wanting to be included with the "in" crowd, he declared: "Oh, yeah, I am a Christian too!"

His loud "about face" disturbed me. To go from off-color jokes to spiritual bliss in one easy breath was more than I could handle. Suddenly I heard my own voice breaking the silence: "Well, if I claimed to be a Christian and had just finished spouting off a bunch of off-color stories, I sure would not be advertising my faith."

My heart was pounding! I had done it! What was going to happen now? As it turned out, not much. The cabin went dead silent. I was sure the other guys could hear my heart pounding. But I do not recall anyone saying another word that night. Nor the next day. My impetuous, angry comment had just ended it all. Camp broke up. We returned to our homes. And that was the end of that; or so I thought. Years went by—through college, then the military and Vietnam, followed by seminary. I never thought another thing about the incident.

Fifteen years later I was walking on the sidewalk of a seminary campus when a voice from across the lawn called a loud hello. The guy asked if I had been at a particular high school leadership camp and involved in a certain conversation. I realized that was the person from that top bunk on the west wall. He proceeded to rehearse the exchange that night and described the discomfort of the silence that followed. "Yes, that was me," I admitted.

Then, in a wonderful moment of confession and a genuine statement of gratitude, he thanked me for my comments in that cabin on that night long ago. He told me that the shock of having his hypocrisy pointed out had begun his turnaround. Those uncomfortable moments in that cabin fifteen years ago had played a significant role in his commitment to Christ. He was now on a seminary campus, studying for vocational Christian ministry. It was a wonderful conclusion to a long-forgotten story.

There comes a time when we need to confront hypocrisy. In the flow of Matthew's Gospel, that time had arrived. Jesus was going to confront the hypocrisy of Israel's religious leaders. In a loud voice, blunt and truthful, the Lord of heaven confronted the hypocritical religious leaders.

Confronting hypocrisy may turn the hypocrite around. But even when it does not, it serves to protect others who might become victims of the hypocrisy.

Story taken from the Holman New Testament Commentary - Matthew. Written by Stuart K. Weber