Psalm 85 - The nature of forgiveness

The Psalmist is calling on God to once again restore the fortunes of Israel. He reminds himself of the times when God had restored the nation in the past. He had shown favour to Israel, and had forgiven them their sins. Forgiveness of sins is an essential ingredient of restoration.

In our own lives we can be very reluctant to face up to our sin. This is not just a matter of being reluctant to admit that we have done wrong, but not believing that God will forgive us. God's forgiveness is central to His plans.

At the same time as believing that God will forgive us, we also need to face up to the fact of His anger against our sin. We find it difficult to believe that God can both be angry against our sin and at the same time forgive us. But God's forgiveness is not Him saying "it doesn't matter", but rather of Him saying "it does matter, but I forgive you". It is because sin really does matter that Jesus had to go to the cross.

Receiving His forgiveness and restoration is not the end of the matter. We need to be faithful, not to return to folly and to fear the Lord. There needs to be a transformation of our lives.

When there is the Lord's forgiveness and the faithful response of the people there is an amazing outpouring of blessing. On the cross God has offered His forgiveness, we need to believe.

Matthew 23:27-39 - Listen to the prophets

The theme of outward appearance against what is inside continues. To touch a grave made someone unclean, so graves were whitewashed to make them easily visible. So a grave looked fine, but inside was rotting flesh and dead bones. The Pharisees were no different.

The Pharisees venerated the prophets of old, but refused to listen to John or Jesus. They claimed they would have listened where their ancestors had failed to do so, but in reality they were no better. We need to be wary of this one. While we need to be discerning about anything claiming to be a "new move of God", we also need to be aware that whenever God does anything new, people usually react against it. 

Throughout the ages, including the present one that the Pharisees were in, men had killed and persecuted the servants of God. So judgement would come upon them. 

The tragedy was that if only Jerusalem had listened to the prophets she would have been saved.

Matthew 23:23-26 - What really matters

The woes continue. The Pharisees were very careful to ensure that they gave 10% of their income, even down to the least little bit of "income" from herbs and spices. Yet they neglected the more important things like justice, mercy and faithfulness.

It is easy to find some aspect of our life where we are obeying God, and to go to great lengths to stress and keep that obedience, yet at the same time we can be using this as an excuse for neglecting some other area of our life. It is also easy to get engrossed in the minutiae of life, while neglecting the really important things. Notice that Jesus does not say we should not tithe, but only that we need to keep things in perspective. 

The heart of the problem with the Pharisees was that they focused on externals, while neglecting the root of the problem. They focused on outward appearances, but neglected the sinful heart within. We can all do this, and it isn't always done for bad motives. It can seem easier to change the externals, it can seem like something we can do in our own strength. But to effect real change, we need to change the inside, and we can only do this with the help of the Holy Spirit.

We need to beware of thinking that seeking the help of the Holy Spirit is a matter  of Him helping us to do things. This is a danger, for it still leaves us in control. No, receiving the help of the Holy Spirit is a matter of us co-operating with Him, doing things His way. To be set free we need to submit to the lordship of the Holy Spirit and to trust in Him.

Matthew 23:13- 22 - Woes

Jesus now issues a tirade against the Pharisees and teachers of the Law. Hypocrisy is the root of His condemnation of them. True religion is about reality, and we always need to be on our guard against hypocrisy. Every one of us, and every branch of the church is prone to this. It does not matter whether you are charismatic, evangelical, catholic, reformed, baptist or whatever. We need to watch ourselves.

The fruit of their hypocrisy was that they stopped others entering the kingdom, and would not enter themselves. Hypocrisy is a serious matter.

The tragedy was that they put great effort in, they would travel far and wide to find a convert, but then the convert was worse off than before they found him.

One aspect of their hypocrisy was that they developed a ridiculous system of oaths. God's "system" is very simple, speak and live the truth. The Pharisees system was very complicated and resulted in a lie. God's ways are straightforward, and if things start getting convoluted it is a sign that we are straying off the path.

Matthew 23:1-12 - Humble yourself before God

Jesus has been addressing the religious leaders, but the crowds have apparently been observing and listening too. When we see someone else being criticised it is easy to feel self-satisfied, but Jesus has a lesson for the people as well.

The people still had to obey the Pharisees. There may be many things about our political leaders that are reprehensible, but we still have to give them proper respect.

"They do not practice what they preach". This is one of the many sayings that are common parlance and originate from the Bible. When we see someone else being hypocritical it is easy to think, "well there is no point me following the law or doing right either". This is the wrong reaction. The Law the Pharisees were being hypocritical about was God's law, so they still had to follow the Law.

Jesus then proceeded to point out more of the hypocrisy of the leaders. They put heavy burdens on the people, but then proceeded to ignore them themselves. The Pharisees wanted to be seen to be religious.

In contrast, Jesus instructs us to remember that there is only one true teacher, one Father, one source of all good things. We are to have a servant attitude, humbling ourselves before God.

Matthew 22:41-45 - Whose Son?

Now Jesus turns the questioning on to the Pharisees, asking them whose son do they think the Messiah is. The Jews all had an expectation of a Messiah whom God would send to rescue His people. Beliefs that we hold can easily become just words, without us thinking about what they mean, or we get wrong impressions of what they mean. 

Almost every Christian would say that they believe in eternal life, but for many this means "we will go to heaven when we die". It means far more than this. It is about a whole new level of life, a whole transformation. Tom Wright has written a very good book on the subject, called "Surprised by Hope".

The Pharisees reply "the Son of David". Jesus then quotes from Ps 110, a well known messianic Psalm (ie one talking about the messiah). Jesus points out that David refers to the Messiah as his lord. This means that the Messiah must be greater than David, he must be more than the son of David (ie a human descendant of David).

All of us need to read the Bible more, and think about what it says more. Don't just skim over passages thinking, "yes, I know what this says". There can be passages we have read many dozens of times, yet suddenly we can realise something new and exciting in them.

Matthew 22:34-40 - Keep it Simple Stupid

On hearing that the Saducees had come a cropper, the Pharisees thought that they could do better.

They asked him what the most important commandment is in the Law of Moses. It seems a little odd that they thought this would work. Indeed, since Jesus had a had a hand in inspiring the Old Testament there was no way it could work. In fact, we see this same principle at work in nature. Atheists are keen to claim that science shows that there is no need for God. However, the whole universe was created by God and so reflects His glory. So in the end they will just find out how great God is. 

Jesus told them that the greatest commandment was to love the Lord with all that we have, and that the second is equally important, namely to  love your neighbour as yourself. Everything else flows from these. 

Jesus often took them back to first principles. When asked about divorce, He took them back to the original purpose of marriage. We need to ensure that we always focus on the spirit of the Law and God's commands, and not become bogged down in legalism.