Matthew 3 -- WHY He Did It

When John preached, “Change your hearts and lives because the kingdom of heaven is near,” the listeners had no idea just how immediately that would be confirmed, for not long after that, Jesus Himself showed up to be baptized by John.  Knowing who He was, John insisted that he needed to be baptized by Jesus instead.  After all, Jesus had no sins that He needed to repent of!

 

My commentary discussed why Jesus was baptized:  “First, His baptism gave approval to John’s ministry.  Second, He identified Himself with publicans and sinners, the very people He came to save.  But mainly, His baptism pictured Hi future baptism on the cross when all the waves and billows of God’s judgment would go over Him.”

 

Those “waves and billows of God’s judgment” were meant for me for my sins!  And just as Jesus physically felt the water surrounding Him as He was lowered below the surface, so too did He feel my sins – past, present, and future – wrap around Him and pull Him under from the weight of them as He hung there on the cross and took the punishment of God’s wrath that was meant for me.

 

When Jesus came up out of the water, He saw heaven opened up and the Holy Spirit descending upon Him like a dove.  This was a personal message from His Father, and it was meant to encourage Him and reassure Him as He began His ministry, that God loved him and was highly pleased with Him for His obedience.  Knowing what He would endure some three years later, Christ still obeyed His Father in everything.  He didn’t question and He never failed to obey, because He trusted His Father.

 

Dear God, help me to rust in You that way.  Speak clearly to me as You did to John.  And help my sons to trust me to help them come to know You better in this life each and every day.  Help them to obey, too, Lord.

 

Your Brother In Christ,

Gary Ford

Matthew 2 -- Knowing, Yet Choosing NOT To Obey

Matthew points out how Jesus’ birth and early years dovetail the prophecies from the Old Testament:

 

Verses 5-6  “A ruler will come from [Bethlehem] who will be like a shepherd for My people Israel.”  (Micah 5:2)

 

Verse 15 “And Joseph stayed in Egypt until Herod died.  This happened to bring about what the Lord had said through the prophet:  “I call My Son out of Egypt.” (Hosea 11:1)

 

Verse 23 “And so what God had said through the prophet came true. ‘He will be called a Nazarene.’” (Isaiah 11:1) [The Hebrew word netzer means a branch or shoot, and resembles Nazarene]

 

God had seeded the Old Testament with multiple clues that could be used by the priests to verify that Jesus was the Messiah.

 

My commentary made an interesting point:  “The magi were seeking the King; Herod was opposing the King; and the Jewish priests were ignoring the King.  These priests knew the Scriptures and pointed others (the Magi) to the Savior, but they would not go to worship Him themselves!  They quoted Micah 5:2 but did not obey it.  They were five miles from the very Son of God, yet they did not go see Him!  The Gentiles sought and found Him, but the Jews did not.”

 

Looking back now with 20/20 hindsight, we can much more easily see all of the Scriptural references to the Messiah and each one fits exactly.  Yet most people today are just as willfully blind about Jesus as the Jewish priests were!  Their casual indifference to the Son of God will be their worst decision of this lifetime.

 

Father, thank You for drawing me to You and for seeing that I understand about Jesus being the Christ.  Do that again in the lives of those I love.

 

Your Brother In Christ,

Gary Ford

Matthew 1 -- Going Out On A Limb

“All of Jewish history prepared the way for His birth,” my commentary said.  And any Jew looking at the names in this genealogy could certainly agree.  God made a silk purse out of a sow’s ear:  Judah having a child with his daughter-in-law Tamar; the widow Ruth finding Boaz, who’s mother was the also the prostitute in the Jericho story; David’s affair with Bathsheba after he had her husband killed; the good kings Uzziah, Hezekiah, and Josiah; and the really bad king Manasseh.  What a recitation of history this was, and how amazing to see how God used the weaknesses of men and despite them brought our Savior to us!

 

Not just any angel came to Joseph in a dream, but “an angel of the Lord”, advising him that this was another of those holy interventions by God.  The Holy Spirit had enabled this pregnancy, not any man.

 

Previously, kings had dreamed of their sons fighting might battles and ruling the land, but Joseph is told that his son Jesus would do something even more amazing – “He will save His people from their sins.”

 

What a call for Joseph.  The sidebar in my Bible, from God Came Near by Max Lucado, said, “Regardless of the nature of the call, the consequences are the same:  civil war.  Though your heart may say yes, your feet say no.  Excuses blow numerously … But eventually you’re left staring at a bare tree and a hard choice:  His will or yours? … Like Joseph, you’ve been a pretty good branch-sitter.  And then you hear the call.  “I need you to go out on a limb …”

 

“Joseph woke up and did what the Lord’s angel had told him to do.  Joseph took Mary as his wife … she gave birth to the son.  And Joseph named him Jesus.”

 

Father, it’s been a dozen years since You said, “I need you to go out on a limb, Gary.”  Despite some tough times, I’m so glad You did.  Please speak clearly to both of my sons this weekend.  Let them hear You say, “I need you to go out on a limb …” and help them to respond, “Yes, Lord.”  Let this be another divine appointment.

 

Your Brother In Christ,

Gary Ford

Acts 27-28 God Doesn't Just Predict The Outcomes, He DRIVES Them

Paul’s trip to Rome as a prisoner is detailed in these chapters.  With 20/20 hindsight, it is certainly tempting to say that the Roman commanders should have taken the overland route.  Before arriving in Rome, they’d changed ships three times and been shipwrecked on Malta for several months.  The captain and the guard had failed to listen to the word Paul was getting from God, ending in the loss of the entire ship and its cargo, yet God insured that no lives were lost.

 

My commentary said, “Sometimes we get ourselves into storms for the same reasons:  impatience, accepting expert advice that is contrary to God’s will, following the majority, and trusting ideal conditions.”  Yet only God is sovereign and all-knowing.  His plans for our lives are always for our best.  So why is it that even Christians often fail to listen to Him and obey?

 

Father, as I did yesterday, help me to always seek out Your advice and guidance.  Help me to trust You rather than my own intellect or intuitions or the advice of friends, for only You can see past time and know the outcomes beforehand.  In truth, You drive the outcomes to suit Yourself.

 

Your Brother In Christ,

Gary Ford

Acts 25-26 What Else Jesus Said To Paul

Paul related to King Agrippa and Governor Festus details of his encounter with the risen Christ on the Damascus road that he hadn’t shared before.  When Jesus said, “Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting Me?”, He followed it with something very important:  “You are only hurting yourself by fighting Me.”  If God and His Son want only Their best for us, then if we do fight them, we can only be hurting ourselves!

 

Jesus also told him, “I am sending you to them to open their eyes so that they may turn away from darkness to the light, away from the power of Satan and to God.  Then their sins can be forgiven …”  In other words, if someone fights Christ for control of his own life, he is siding with Satan AGAINST HIMSELF!  Who in his right mind would purposefully join forces with his greatest enemy against himself?  But in our sinful state, we are so blinded and deceived that we cannot see the truth.  Jesus simply wants to open our eyes and show us that truth, holding Satan at bay as He removes our blinders and shows us what’s real.

 

Father, many have blinders on right now and don’t even know it.  I pray for the guys I’ve been talking to about Disciple Now.  Lift the blinders enough for now to get them there, then in Your power show them Your truth and Satan’s lies and help them to know that You love them and that Satan only seeks their eternal destruction.

 

Your Brother In Christ,

Gary Ford

Acts 24 -- The Perils Of Procrastination

“But Felix became afraid when Paul spoke about living right, self-control, and the time when God will judge the world.”  The Roman governor was all-powerful in his region, answerable only to Caesar.  He was also corrupt.  Felix had kept Paul imprisoned, hoping to receive a bribe to either release him or convict him.  He and his wife had a curiosity about Christianity, and Paul kept chipping away at his resistance.

 

“Paul said they had to do something about yesterday’s sin,” my commentary said.  The current state of unrighteousness that people were living in had resulted from all of their unconfessed sins over a lifetime.

 

“The second point … dealt with self-control:  we must do something about today’s temptations.  Man can control almost everything but himself.”

 

“Paul’s third point was the clincher – judgment to come.  We must do something about tomorrow’s judgment … Jesus Christ is either your Savior or your Judge.”  This terrified Felix, yet he procrastinated, unwilling to make a decision.  My commentary also said, “Procrastination is the thief of time and also the thief of souls.”

 

Paul’s three points still fit well today:  yesterday’s sin, today’s temptation, and tomorrow’s judgment.  Everyone should tremble at the thought of meeting God without resolving it all.

 

Father, give me courage to talk to the guys who should be coming to my home for Disciple Now this weekend.  Open their hearts to come and hear what You have to say to them.  Don’t let me procrastinate.

 

Your Brother In Christ,

Gary Ford

Acts 23 -- My Conscience

I wondered how Paul could say, “I have lived my life without guilt feelings before God up to this day.”  My commentary said that Paul was speaking of his conscience, and that he was saying that, given the light that he had, he had followed what he knew to follow, and when God had given more light, he’d then changed how he acted.

 

Regardless, the fact that he was before the Jewish council being questioned and saying that he felt no guilt made the high priest furious, and he ordered someone to slap Paul for his impertinence.

 

The sidebar in my Bible quoted Abraham Lincoln regarding his conscience:  “I desire to so conduct the affairs of this administration that if, at the end … I have lost every other friend on earth, I shall at least have one friend left, and that friend shall be deep down inside me … I am not bound to succeed, but I am bound to live up to the light I have.”

 

Father, You’ve given me a lot of light.  Help me to live up to that light and not let the darkness of this world invade my soul.  Help me to say yes to You and no to myself and to the world.

 

Your Brother In Christ,

Gary Ford