The passage we will be studying today is long. It is Matthew 6 v 1 -18. We continue in the Sermon on the Mount in which Jesus is talking about the way a Christian must live. As way of introducing the content of today’s passage, I would say the very first verse of this passage does a great job of summarizing it for us.

Matthew 6 v 1 – “Beware of practicing your righteousness before other people in order to be seen by them, for then you will have no reward from your Father who is in heaven”.

The 17 verses that follow this one is about how we should practice certain religious activities in secret or in private. Now, this may seem like a contradiction to the verses we studied just a few weeks ago. Jesus specifically called us to be the light and salt of the world, so that “they may see your good works and give glory to your Father who is in heaven” (Matthew 5 v 16). It’s obvious that Jesus does not call us to hide the fact that we are Christians. So, there is something deeper here that we need to discern and separate.

Here Jesus introduces three very specific religious acts that He is calling us to do in secret- giving to the poor, praying, and fasting. Before I read the whole passage, I would like to point out a few details you could be listening for, so that when we address them in the discussion, you’ll be able to reason for yourself the significance of these matters.

• There are three characters called out in this passage -the religious hypocrite who does things for the sake of public applause, the Christian who should not be like the hypocrite, and thirdly, the Father who sees and rewards in secret – Pay attention to the actions of each as described or prescribed by Jesus.
• The acts of righteousness, giving to the needy, prayer, and fasting are identified by Jesus as essential, even elementary to the religious faith. I say this because, as you will hear when I read, Jesus specifically says, when you give to the needy, when you pray, when you fast, as opposed to if you give, if you pray, if you fast. He took it for granted that these three acts would continue to be part of the faith-filled life of a believer.
• Reward is a Christian concept. Many of us struggle with the idea of reward – the hedonist might wrestle with the idea of being motivated by anything but complete satisfaction in Christ. Somehow, we must come to terms with the fact that the New Testament talks a lot about rewards – an inheritance, a crown, an eternal life free from tears and sin, even heaven.

Keeping these three points in mind, let’s go ahead and read today’s passage.

Matthew 6 v 1 thru 18 –

“Beware of practicing your righteousness before other people in order to be seen by them, for then you will have no reward from your Father who is in heaven. Thus, when you give to the needy, sound no trumpet before you ,as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and in the streets, that they may be praised by others. Truly, I say to you. they have received their reward. But when you give to the needy, do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing, so that your giving may be in secret. And your Father who sees in secret will reward you.

And when you pray, you must not be like the hypocrites, for they love to stand and pray in the synagogues and at the street corners that they may be seen by others. Truly I say to you, they have received their reward. But when you pray go into your room and shut the door and pray to your Father who is in secret. And your Father who sees in secret will reward you.

And when you pray do not heap up empty phrases as the Gentiles do, for they think that they will be heard for their many words. Do not be like them for your Father knows what you need before you ask Him. Pray then like this:

Our Father in heaven hallowed be your name. Your kingdom come your will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread and forgive us our debts as we also have forgiven our debtors. And lead us not into temptation but deliver us from evil.

For if you forgive others their trespasses your heavenly Father will also forgive your but if you do not forgive others their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses.

And when you fast, do not look gloomy like the hypocrites, for they disfigure their faces that their fasting may be seen by others. Truly, I say to you, they have received their reward. But when you fast, anoint your head and wash your face so that your fasting may not be seen by others but by your Father who is in secret. And your Father who is in secret will reward you.“

So, as pointed out earlier, there seems to be a contradiction in Jesus instructions to be the salt and light of the world just a few verses earlier and now this call to secret service. When we discussed the salt and light passage a few weeks ago, we talked about how the horizontal consequences of our saltiness and our light was that the world around us is better for it. The people around us benefit from the fact that we are salt and light. They get to experience God through us and in return give glory to the God we serve, not to us.

One aspect that I see different in today’s passage, when compared to the salt and light passage, is Jesus calling out the specific faith-filled acts of  giving, praying, and fasting- as vertical interactions, i.e., between the Father and the believer. Jesus is pointing out that there is a private aspect of our Christian lives which should be reverently held in distinction from our public Christian lives.

God is glorified when we diligently live as the salt and light of the world for all to see. Such lives are rewarded in others glorifying our Father in heaven. And so, God is dishonored when we lose our saltiness or hide our light under a basket. He considers this hypocritical. Inversely, however, our private interactions with Him, which include giving to the poor, praying, and fasting, are honoring to God when it is done unto Him ALONE, in the privacy of our rooms and hearts. The hypocritical public display of these activities for others to behold gives Him no glory. Such lives are deprived of the Father’s reward, says Jesus.

The Jews highly regarded these specific religious activities. And rightly so. Jesus confirms this when in this passage He calls these three activities, practices of righteousness. He goes through each of these acts with details on how not do to them and how to do them rightly. He describes the unworthy manner through the actions of the one He identifies as the hypocrite and then immediately prescribes the commendable way to His disciples. He points out that the measure of worthiness for such actions is the reward from the Father who sees in secret. So, let’s go through them one at a time.

The Act of Giving to the Needy

When it comes to giving, Jesus says, “sound no trumpet before you in the synagogues or in the streets that you may be praised by others”. Sound no trumpet, as in take no action to make it known. Not in the synagogues, as in among believers nor on the streets, as in, before unbelievers. By your own volition, NO ONE should know of your giving.

Jesus goes a step further when He prescribes the right way to give to the needy. “Do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing, so that your giving may be in secret”. Not only should we make no attempt to have our actions known but we should also take intentional steps to keep it private, even secret.

I love the fact that Jesus uses the word secret in these verses as opposed to private. Secrecy implies privacy but to a heightened extent. A private matter can be known by a few. A secret is usually held between two and in this case, specifically between the Father and you.

Our left hand not knowing what our right hand is doing takes the intentional action of hiding the one from the other. Naturally, the way our bodies are made, the left hand and right hand are not hidden from each other. They face the same direction and are in plain sight of each other. So, one hand not in the presence of the other takes the intentional act of holding the other hand behind us in an unnatural pose. This is the idea of what Jesus is asking us to do – that we would go out of our way and make every effort to keep our giving hidden from everyone but our Father who sees in secret.

The Act of Praying

The next act of righteousness that Jesus cautions us on, is that of praying.

“Do not pray like the hypocrites,” He warns. “They love to stand and pray in the synagogues (read among believers) and at street corners (among unbelievers) that they may be seen by others.”

Of course, the Bible itself has mandated communal praying and we read of it all through the OT and in the NT church. So, we can know for a fact that Jesus is not condemning praying in our gatherings or in public. But such a prayer is hypocritical if done by someone who  doesn’t practice private prayer. And even if you do practice private prayer, it is considered hypocritical if done to be seen by others or in an unworthy manner.

This unworthy manner is not limited to where we pray but also how we pray as described by Jesus when He says. “Do not heap up empty phrases as the Gentiles do,” Jesus says. “They think they will be heard for their many words.” The words we use and how we use them matter. This includes meaning, tone, and amount.

Jesus then proceeds to teach them the Lord’s prayer. We did a detailed study on the Lord’s prayer in Episode 4 of Season 3 on PUYB so I won’t repeat that material here. I would, however, like to point out what we can learn from the Lord’s prayer, specifically regarding tone, words, and attitude we practice in  prayer because this is what Jesus is calling us to do when warning us not to pray like the Gentiles who give no thought to these things in their prayers.

“Pray then like this,” Jesus says

“Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name. Your Kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.”

Let’s pause there and take a look at the humility that accompanies these words. There is a clear recognizing and honoring of God as being high and holy, quickly followed by the surrender of earthly wills and desires to His higher will. These words are not about receiving from God but giving to Him. Giving praise, honor, and ourselves in complete surrender.

“Give us this day our daily bread,”

Notice the brevity of this supplication. God knows what we need, exactly how much of it we need, and when we need it. The scarcity of words in this supplication magnifies the trustworthiness of the One Who hears our prayer.

“and forgive us our debts as we also have forgiven our debtors.”

There is no extended guilt-ridden exposition into the sin committed or detailed expression of immense personal remorse. This confession stands on the principle of divine grace and forgiveness. It is free for all who repent and ask for it. In addition, by its very divine nature, we can only experience it if we are willing to extend it to others. If we don’t extend forgiveness to others, we can tie it back to losing our saltiness or covering our light under a basket. We are good for nothing but to be trampled underfoot.

And the last bit of the prayer

“lead us not into temptation but deliver us from evil.”

This simple prayer ends with committing our future into the hands of the One who preserves us till the end.

The overarching theme in this prayer, that Jesus teaches His disciples, is that every word stands on the promises of God. His will being done, Him providing our needs, forgiving our sins, delivering us from evil, are all promises in the Bible. This is what a prayer built on the promises of God sounds like. It is not the name and claim, or bless and manifest, tone that we hear in many prayers. No, this prayer requires nothing but trust in the One who made the promise. The number of words, the tone of speech, the attitude of the heart, mind, and body should all surrender to the One who hears the prayer.

But this is hard to do when you are praying in public, especially if you don’t have a strong private prayer relationship with God. It takes immense effort to keep your words simple, humble, and for God’s ears only. Perhaps, this is the reason behind Jesus’ strong caution to pray in private.

The Act of Fasting

The third act of righteousness that Jesus brings to our attention is that of fasting.

“And when you fast, do not look gloomy like the hypocrites, for they disfigure their faces that their fasting may be seen by others. Truly, I say to you, they have received their reward. But when you fast, anoint your head and wash your face so that your fasting may not be seen by others but by your Father who is in secret. And your Father who is in secret will reward you.”

Jesus again, cautions His disciples that when doing something to be seen and praised by others, their praise and adoration is the reward we’d gain. However, when it comes to fasting for spiritual reasons, the act must indeed, like praying and giving, remain unknown to anyone else but God. In Scripture, the only fast God had asked of the people was on the Day of Atonement. It was a national fast that was centered around repentance and atoning for sins.  We do see other situations in which people fasted. Moses fasted before for 40 days on the mountain, Daniel fasted, Jesus fasted to prepare for the temptation in the desert. In these situations of personal fasts there was no announcement, no declaration, no public display. These fasts occurred in private. Unlike them, the Pharisees had started fasting every Monday and Thursday, which happened to be the public market days, when people would flood into the city from the countryside, to ensure an even bigger audience for their “displays of superior piety”. They would then walk around town with their outfits in shambles, their hair disheveled, and their faces twisted and disfigured to show suffering. Jesus says, this does not impress, nor have the audience of God.

There is a right way to fast before God, Jesus says. The righteous act of fasting to receive from God spiritually, as Moses, Daniel, and Jesus did, needs but the audience of the One who can spiritually bless. In Wiersbe’s words, “Simply to deprive ourselves of a natural benefit (such as food or sleep) is not of itself fasting. We must devote ourselves to God and worship Him. Unless there is the devotion of the heart, there is no lasting spiritual benefits”. And it is solely an act for God’s eyes only.

In today’s passage, Jesus calls out the hypocrisy He was witnessing among those who claimed to be righteous. In these three acts that were supposedly done for God, there was no desire for Him but rather for the approval and praise of others. As a remedy to this human tendency to desire applause, Jesus draws our attention to the Father who is in secret.  He uses this description of the Father multiple times through this passage – “The Father who sees in secret” or “the Father who is in secret.” I want to spend the last few minutes of this podcast episode exploring this. What does this mean? Obviously, it doesn’t mean that the Father person or the knowledge of the Father is hidden from us, because the Bible says that the Father is revealed to mankind through His Son, Jesus Christ and through the Holy Spirit. I suggest that when Jesus uses the term, “The Father who is in secret” or “the Father who sees in secret,” He is describing the posture of God within the parameters of our personal interaction with Him. Not that the relationship between God and us is in itself private but rather that there are private aspects to the relationship which when public is void of spiritual transformation and is dishonoring to the relationship. The spiritual growth of our hearts happens in secrecy of God working is us one on one. This is why Jesus would spend so much time alone with God.

I’m going to make an attempt to explain this private aspect of our relationship with God through a similar dynamic we see in marriage. The fact that a couple is married is a public affair. The relationship and the life that a husband and wife build together, when done the right way,  becomes a real blessing to their children, parents, siblings, friends, and even the wider community they are a part of (think salt and light here). However, the most essential aspects of this relationship between husband and wife are indeed private. The strength of this relationship does not lie in the fruit that it bears in public, rather in the many private acts of kindness, forgiveness, love, care, affection, compassion, intimacy, patience, forbearing, encouragement, sacrifice, humility, and the list goes on.  It’s not just that it takes the work but that this work is done in secrecy between husband and wife. When Godwin, my husband, looks at me from across the dining table and proclaims out loud, “I love you”, his intent is that our kids know that he loves me. Though he is looking at me he is speaking to them. That the kids know that their mom is loved by their dad is of no small value and is a blessing to them and to me as their mother. But only because it stands on the shoulders of him having told me that he loves me countless times in private, and more importantly shown it to me daily. Without this they would be empty words on shifting sand; It would mean nothing.

When we become more concerned about what others think of us rather than what God works in us, we have become hypocrites. It behooves us to understand the intentional  distinction between the private and public aspects of our Christian lives. We spiritually grow in God in private to be effectively used by Him in public.

The Word of God shows us so much of God’s heart. The Spirit of God reveals to us the truth about Him in His word. The Bible also holds up like a mirror before us to show us who we truly are, so that we can see our need for a Savior and to call on Him to be justified and sanctified through his Spirit.

I hope that todays’ passage encourages. Maybe you are doing exactly what you are supposed to and you will reap the spiritual benefit from the One who rewards in secret. In case, you struggle with this matter, Jesus, through this beautiful passage, calls you to secret service to our Father who is in secret.

LOVE YOUR ENEMIES

Mathew 5 v 43-48

“You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy.’ But I say to you, Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, so that you may be sons of your Father who is in heaven. For he makes his sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the just and on the unjust. For if you love those who love you, what reward do you have? Do not even the tax collectors do the same? And if you greet only your brothers, what more are you doing than others? Do not even the Gentiles do the same?  You therefore must be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect.”

Welcome back, PUYB fam! We are in the series Jesus Said What?!?, going through the red words in the Bible, diligently studying the words of Jesus Christ. As Bible readers, we can often get caught up in getting through our Bible reading time and overlooking the importance of pausing for the purpose of understanding and meditating on His Word. This series is an effort to encourage fellow Bible students to read the Word of God with the purpose of intentional study.

In today’s session, we are again in the gospel of Matthew. In this section of the account by Matthew, Jesus is delivering the famous Sermon on the Mount. Over the past 5 weeks we studied 5 Mosaic laws that Jesus reinterpreted for those who were following Him. To no surprise He raised the bar for His disciples, not just in the practice of the law but also in their understanding of it. Jesus is first concerned with the health of the heart. “A good man out of the good treasure of the heart brings forth good things“, He said in Matthew 12 v 35 . So, it is intentional on His part that His words to us focus on the transformation of our hearts.

In today’s passage, Jesus addresses another of the Mosaic laws. This law is considered one of the most essential and unique principles of the Christian religion. Even those who vehemently oppose Christians and Jesus, will often quote this principle and scorn the believer for his or her inability to uphold it. We can find this original law written in Leviticus 19 v 18 “You shall love your neighbor as yourself”.

When Jesus quotes it here in Matthew 5, he adds to it the ‘and hate your enemy” part that we do not find anywhere in the mosaic law. This is evidence that the current day teaching by the rabbis and the Pharisees had morphed from the original law that was delivered by Moses. They had derived from it this additional commandment of hate and contempt. Today we will study how Jesus interprets this law for his followers.

“But I say to you,” He says in verse 44, “Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, so that you may be sons of your Father who is in heaven. For He makes his sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the just and on the unjust. “

Jesus in raising the proverbial bar for his disciples, prescribes this essential and appropriate response to our enemies – we must love them and pray for them. How do we love our enemy? What would that look like? Does it simply mean not retaliating to provocation? Does it mean a relationship with them? Does it mean we know their kids’ birthdays and invite them over for dinner?

It becomes immensely helpful to know exactly what Jesus is asking of us and I believe that we can understand this better when we look at the Greek in this context. In an earlier episode on the podcast, we discussed the four different loves described by four distinct Greek words- Storge, Philia, Eros, and Agape. I think its worth repeating here, so lets go through them again.

Storge refers to the affection that we see among family members. It’s the kind of love that develops because of established relationship, familiarity and often times proximity. You won’t necessarily choose these people because their qualities are attractive to you, like you would choose a friend or lover. The intrinsic characteristic of storge is the initial established relationship which becomes fertile ground for such a love to evolve. Here the relationship precedes the love, like in the case of parent and child or between siblings. To use C.S.Lewis’ words, storge has its own criteria – that the objects of love must be familiar. One could say storge grows amidst a prepared audience.

Eros, the Greek word from which we get our English word, erotic, describes the kind of love that we see between lovers. It is not just sexual because sex can occur in the absence of love. Eros is essentially the “being in love” between a man and a woman, that could exist even in the absence of the ability to sexually express it, though such expression is only natural and specific to this kind of love.

Philia is the Greek word used to describe the love between two friends or equals. Not “friends” as we understand it these days – the superficial tag we hand out by simply clicking a confirm or allow button. No, this Greek word refers to a deeper, more unique sense of friendship -a brotherly love that is intentionally cultivated between two otherwise unrelated persons. Philia or friendship is unlike storge and eros in that it is a non-essential kind of love. We could and many do live without it and for this very reason it is more intentional a love than eros and storge are. Philia displays the necessary characteristics of commonalty or at least complementarity in interests, personality, work, or hobbies etc.

These three loves, described by these three unique Greek words, storge, philia and eros, are natural loves. This means that God has placed in mankind, the abilities to express and experience these loves. However, agape, the fourth Greek word for love, is unique. Though it also means love, as Storge, Philia, Eros do, it is quite unlike these three kinds of natural loves. Agape, which is the love of God for mankind exists before and outside of humans. It is divine. And agape is the word that Jesus uses in the context of loving our enemies in this passage.

In his book, The Four Loves, C.S Lewis says that this agape love in man, “enables him to love what is not naturally lovable: lepers, criminals, enemies, morons, the sulky, the superior, and the sneering”. In the absence of familial connection, brotherly friendship, and romantic expression, which are all loves of the self-satisfying kind, this love stands independent. A love that needs no response. A love that needs only to give and not receive. A love that is interested in its expression alone, because in its expression the one who is loved benefits. This is the type of love intended in the statement – God is love.

This love is indescribable and unfathomable to this world. As a matter of fact, those who do not know God, deny and even defy the existence of agape. This is why the rebellious sinners of this world vilify Christians. They do not believe the words of the Christian who says, “I love you, but I do not affirm of your choice to sin.” They do not believe it because in their denying God, they have no context for agape love. They do not believe that they can be loved unless they are deemed lovely in some sense. Thus one must affirm them to love them. If their understanding and experience of love is limited to storge, which requires familiarity and closeness, philia which requires commonality or at least complementarity, and eros which requires romantic expression, it is understandable that they do not fathom the love the Christian professes to them.

For that matter many who identify as Christians, in limiting their definition of love to the expression of these three natural loves, also feel that the only way to love the sinner is to affirm them in their sin. Such a Christian is then confused and finds himself in the unfavorable position of having to step off the very path he professes to be on. Such a Christian requires that the sinful be called lovely so that we could indeed love them.

But the love of God, Agape love, has no such requirement. God freely expresses it to all, His children and HIs enemies alike. As Jesus says in verse 45- “He makes the sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the just and on the unjust.” In God’s love for mankind, you are loved simply because of the existence of this God love. Not because of who you are or who you are not. It’s by its very definition exclusive of this factor.

So, all this to make the point that as a believer it becomes impossible to love our enemy when we try to limit our love to the three natural loves. Coming back to the passage we are studying, When Jesus asks us to love our enemies, the Greek word He uses for love is not storge that we should be affectionate toward them, it is not philia that we should develop common ground with them, it is not eros that we should be unequally yoked with them. Jesus specifically uses the word “agape“. We are to love them with God love. It doesn’t require us to compromise His moral code in order to practice it. It doesn’t ask of us to see beauty where there is none. Agape love is selfless in this sense. And a believer’s expression of this kind of divine but common love for the brother and enemy alike, is what is rewarded in heaven, because in this expression we are practicing perfect love as does our Father in heaven.

As a believer, if you find yourself holding on to a grudge or worse anger, mocking the sinner, indifferent toward their desperation, unable to pray for them, unwilling to share the gospel truth with them because you deem them underserving, even unlovable, I suggest this deeper understanding of what love should look like. Or, perhaps, you find yourself on the other end of this spectrum. Your compassionate heart inhibits you from speaking the truth in love to those who oppose your faith and the truth it stands on. The only way you know how to express love is to accept someone unconditionally. Your passion for harmony, peace, civil rights and social justice are at odds with what you know the Bible says. You are having to redefine what it says or ignore the truth all together, to make sense of a relationship or what is happening around you. If this is you, to you also I suggest, the same. Do not ignore what Jesus is commanding.

In the case of both of these scenarios, we have limited ourselves to the capacities of natural loves and thus have failed at the impossible task of loving our enemies as God has called us to. We have not practiced the love that Jesus speaks of here when he gives us the unique and high calling of loving our enemies. But the Bible tells us of the special access we as believers have to agape love.

Gal 5 v 22,23

“…the fruit of the Spirit is love (agape), joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law.

When we become believers we have, through the power of the Holy Spirit, agape within us. We experience it on the receiving end, even before we are believers, but when indwelt by the Holy Spirit, we become conduits of this love to the world around us, when we choose to live in the Spirit. It is an ongoing battle, even as a believer, to live and act in the Spirit. We must surrender our fleshly inclinations on a minute by minute basis. It doesn’t automatically happen just because we are believers. We must make the conscious and intentional decision to submit to the work of the Holy Spirit through us. And when we do, when we love others with agape love and start praying for them, we are transformed, they are transformed, and mountains are moved for the glory of God.

But Jesus not only mandates the actions of loving and praying, He also gives us the reason for such a response – “so that you may be sons of your Father who is in heaven.” In acting in the Spirit and choosing to surrender our feelings of pride, hurt, and fear, we become imitators of Christ. We don’t do so in order to become sons of God but we prove ourselves children of God in our doing so.

In John 13v35, Jesus says, “By this all people will know that you are my disciples, if you have love (agape) for one another.”

Studying these red words in the Bible have been so joyful for me these past few weeks. It has proven timely and freeing, especially considering our current socio-political climate. I hope it proves helpful to you as well.

This week we find ourselves in the gospel of Matthew again. We come onto the scene of Jesus’ first public appearance in this passage. Since his birth, escape from Herod  into Egypt, and ,ensuing return to Nazareth in Galilee, a 30yr old Jesus reappears on the scene at the river of Jordan, to be baptized by John the Baptist.

John the Baptist was what many Christians of today call the ultimate forerunner for the Messiah. Jesus and John were cousins. Like Jesus, his birth was announced to his parents by angels. But this incident, recorded in the gospel of Luke, is not the first mention of John the Baptist in the Scriptures.  Nearly 700 years prior to his birth, Isaiah foretold of him, in a message of comfort from God to the Israelites. We find this in the book of Isaiah 40 v 1-3.

“A voice cries: “In the wilderness, prepare the way of the LORD; make straight in the desert a highway for our God”

As foretold, John grew to be the last OT prophet. He traveled up and down the Jordan riverbank, proclaiming the imminent arrival of the kingdom of heaven, charging people to repent of their sin, and prepare for the coming of the Messiah. He was direct, even harsh, and confrontational with his apocalyptic message. Comparing a person’s desolate heart to the wilderness or the desert, he preached that each one should be accountable to prepare his or her own heart to receive the soon-to-arrive, redeeming work of God. And so, as each person responded with a repentant heart and a changed attitude, John would baptize them in water earning him the renowned title of John the Baptist.

Imagine his confusion when the Messiah, Jesus Himself, unexpectantly comes to the River Jordan to be baptized by him. John knew for a fact that he was lesser than Jesus. In Mark, John’s words are recorded. Let me read Mark 1 v 7-8 to you:

“And [John] preached saying, “After me comes He who is mightier that I, the strap of whose sandals I am not worthy to stoop down and untie. I have baptized you with water, but He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit””.

John knew that HE was the sinner who needed to be baptized by the sinless Jesus. Not unlike us, John struggled with the idea that Jesus would respond to his message of “repent and prepare a way for the Lord”. That Jesus would be baptized, even more so, that He would be baptized by him. Many of us struggle with understanding this because it seems to challenge the confession of Scripture that Jesus was sinless.

1Corinthians 5 v 21 – “For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.”

1John 3 v 5 – “You know that He appeared to take away sins, and in Him there is no sin.”

Hebrews 4 v 15 – “For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but one who in every respect has been tempted as we are, yet without sin.”

So, why did Jesus get baptized?

In Matthew 3 v 13-15, we can hear Jesus respond to John who had the same question:

“Then Jesus came from Galilee to the Jordan to John to be baptized by him. John would have prevented him, saying, I need to be baptized by you and do you come to me? But Jesus answered him, “Let it be so now, for thus it is fitting for us to fulfill all righteousness.””

Fun fact: this is the first red-inked letters in the Bible. The first time we hear Jesus speak. And this surely fits the Jesus said What?!? category. It is definitely unclear what Jesus means here and that makes it a great spot to pause and dig deep. After all, the first red ink in the Bible deserves an intentional stop and study. Don’t you think?  So, let’s do just that.

Jesus says, “Let it be so now, for thus it is fitting for us to fulfill all righteousness.”

If you have your Bible with you now, underline, circle, highlight these three words in this verse – ‘Let’, ‘now’, and ‘us’. I’ll first focus on the initial part of Jesus response.

The first word is “Let”. Jesus says, “let it be so”. The use of this word “Let” highlights a couple of things for us. The first being that Jesus is not disagreeing with John’s thought that Jesus shouldn’t be baptized by him. Rather, it seems like He concurs but is asking him to act despite it. “Let it be” is also translated “allow it to be”, “suffer it to be”, and “permit it to be” in various versions on the NT. So essentially, Jesus is telling John that though John is right that he is not worthy of baptizing Jesus, he must trust God’s divine will and permit it to be so for now.

 This brings us to our second highlighted word “now”. The Greek adverb  “arti” is what is translated into “now” in this verse. And it carries this specific sense of an act being carried through “at this very time” or “in this very moment”. The beauty of that as we study these verses is that Jesus is telling John that this very moment in history was specifically decided by God for this act of Jesus’ baptism.

The third word we highlighted in Jesus’ response is “us”, “for thus it is fitting for us”, by which He means himself and John. Jesus is reassuring John here, that just as the moment of baptism was so intentionally chosen, that John would be the one to baptize Jesus was also divine will and purpose.

So, when we put these three words together that make the initial part of Jesus’ response, “Let it be so now, for this is fitting for us”, we effectively have Jesus giving John a divine mission that exposes us to the beauty of God’s will in action. The participants, the timing, and the trust it takes to do God’s will even when we cannot make complete sense of it, is all part of doing God’s work. With these words and with this knowledge we see that Jesus encouraged John to participate in the baptism despite his feelings of confusion and disagreement.

So now that it has been made clear that Jesus didn’t need to be baptized, but still had John baptize Him, the question remains –  Why did Jesus need to take the baptism of repentance when He was sinless and didn’t have anything to repent of? I suggest that the answer to this lies in the second half of Jesus’ response, in the words – “to fulfill all righteousness”.

Jesus came to this world on a mission to redeem mankind. He came that we may become righteous in a way that we cannot be apart from Him. Even in our repentance we are imperfect. Jesus’ redeeming work on earth was not just accomplished in that moment on the cross, rather it began even at His birth when the angels proclaimed the arrival of the Savior to the shepherds in the fields (Luke 2 v 11). In every other act of His human life, even His baptism, we see His redeeming work in action. He didn’t get baptized because He was a sinner. He got baptized in obedience to His father, to fulfill all righteousness. He  did not excuse Himself from anything God required of man. His life of perfect obedience and His ultimate sacrificial death was credited to us as righteousness that we may be saved from our wretched selves and be reconciled with God.

As I present this material to you today, I am filled with gratitude for my Lord and my Savior. That

“…though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied himself, by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross.” Philippians 2 v 6-11

May this truth about your God always move you to gratitude and praise for Him. Happy Thanksgiving.

“Seeing they do not see, and hearing they do not hear, nor do they not understand”

I am excited about this new series on Pick Up Your Bible, called “Jesus Said What?!?”. This series is an attempt to identify things that Jesus said that might be hard to grasp at first, but when we pause and dig deep we see God revealed. Remember my favorite Piper quote, “When you rake you get leaves. When you dig you find diamonds”. In this series, I will be combing through the NT in an effort to dig deep and find diamonds in those precious red words in the Bible. I welcome you to join me over the next few weeks on PUYB as we learn more.

We will begin with a passage in the gospel of Matthew 13 v 10 – 13. I54 encourage you to pause and grab your Bible before we start so that you can underline, circle, and highlight it. The choice of this passage was by no means random. I believe it is perfect for this first episode because in these verses, Jesus is responding to his disciples who were having a hard time understanding Him. They find Jesus after He has preached to the masses and ask Him for understanding. Many of us believers experience the same in reading the Word of God. We may understand some of it but are left with a feeling that there is something deeper that we are missing. And we are usually right. Just like the disciples, its when we spend time in the Spirit, asking for understanding of what we just read that we get deeper insight.

But why is it so? Why did Jesus speak in a manner that was hard to understand? Why didn’t He just say things clearly and simply right off the bat. In Matthew 13, we see the disciples approaching Jesus with this same question. Jesus was teaching about the Kingdom of God through parables and people were having a hard time getting His point, including the disciples. This frustrated them. They couldn’t understand the meaning of what He was saying and they couldn’t imagine why He’d choose to teach that way. If Jesus would just speak in a simple manner and make His message clear probably all would believe and follow Him. And so they straight up ask Him.

Matthew 13 v 10,

“Then the disciples came and said to Him, “Why do you speak to them in parables?”

In Matthew 13 v 11, Jesus answers them.

“”to you it has been given to know the secrets of the kingdom of heaven, but to them it has not been given.”

Jesus said what?

Woah! Is He saying that His words are for some but not for all? Is he implying that salvation is just for a few chosen? Does he mean that He didn’t come to save everyone?

It seems He is.

Jesus is not unaware that people are not getting Him. He means to be not understood by all. Isn’t that mind blowing! On one hand it’s a relief because we can know that it’s not always because we have poor comprehension that we don’t understand and its not that we don’t have the theological training that we can’t follow. I’d always feel frustrated when I’d wrestle with a passage in the Bible and them I’d hear someone teach on it and I’d wonder how I didn’t see that the whole time. On the other hand, it shows that Jesus intends for us to pursue the meaning, to seek Him for understanding. Jesus was intentionally being mysterious with His words. In these verses, He is telling the disciples that His message, His revelation, the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven are for those who seek Him.

Now, before we get riled up, I suggest that The key to understanding this is in the following verses, so let’s read 11-13 together.

““to you it has been given to know the secrets of the kingdom of heaven, but to them it has not been given. For to the one who has , more will be given, and he will have in abundance, but from the one who has not, even what he has will be taken away. This is why I speak to them in parables because seeing they do not see, and hearing they do not hear, nor do they understand”.

Lets unpack this. Here Jesus explains why His words are meant for His disciples and not for others. V 12, “for to the one who has more will be given, but to the one has not, even what he has, he will lose”.

What is He referring to when He says “The one who has and the one who has not”? It seems like Jesus is referring to some amount of divine understanding that anyone and everyone could possess even before hearing or reading a word that He says.

I’m not pulling this out of nowhere. Paul describes this same preexisting knowledge of God in his letter to the Romans. Let’s read Romans 1 v 18 – 25.

“18For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who by their unrighteousness suppress the truth. 19 For what can be known about God is plain to them. 20 For his invisible attributes, namely His eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly perceived ever since the creation of the world, in the things that have been made. So they are without excuse. 21 For although they knew God they did not honor him as God or give thanks to Him, but they became futile in the their thinking, and their foolish hearts were darkened. 22 Claiming to be wise, they became fools. 23 and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images resembling mortal man and birds and animals and creeping things. 24 Therefore God gave them up in the lusts of their hearts to impurity, to the dishonoring of their bodies among themselves, 25 because they exchanged the truth about God for a lie and worshipped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever! Amen.”

Jesus said in Matthew and Paul described in Romans, this same phenomenon – That the understanding of God that is evident to all through His creation from the very beginning pf time, is received in two different manners. To the one accepts and holds onto it, it will be increased. But to those who have rejected even this elementary knowledge of God, and have suppressed the truth of Him, this indeed multiplies. Even the little that such a person understands increases to a total lack of knowledge and an utter rejection of understanding. In Paul’s words, they became futile in their thinking, and their foolish hearts are darkened.

Thus we get a glimpse of the great mystery of how people perish despite God’s desire for all to be saved and to come to the knowledge of Him (1 Timothy 2 v 4).

In my opinion, this is a peek into the essence of election. For those of us who struggle with the concept of election, that God would choose one person but not all, hopefully this is a start to understanding it. This also gives us comfort in knowing that there is not one who seeks Him that He hides himself from. All who seek God for who He is will find Him (Matthew 7v 7). When He says that to them it was not given to understand the secrets of the kingdom of God, it is not because He withholds understanding from the seeking heart. It is because to the one who has rejected the evident knowledge of Him, God remains unseen, unknown, unrevealed.

It is easy to misunderstand the word of God, to think that it is beyond our ability to comprehend, or worse, to think God doesn’t intend for us to search for deeper meaning. But though it isn’t for all, it is for His children. Like the disciples who decided to approach Jesus personally when they didn’t understand Him, let us, as His disciples of today and as students of His Word also readily and eagerly approach the Holy Spirit to give us after we read His words. Jesus told us to do so in John 6 v 13,14:

“The Spirit of truth will guide you into all the truth… He will glorify me, for He will take what is mine and declare it to you.”

The Father sent the Spirit for this purpose – to reveal the Son in all His glory and to declare the truth of His word to us. We are never alone in our seeking. The Spirit of God leads and guides us.

I hope you’ve enjoyed this first episode and can’t await for you to join me again as we continue on in the series “Jesus said What?!?”

Until next time, listeners. God bless you.

Potentially one of the most difficult aspects of walking the Christian life is prayer. I don’t mind being completely honest about this because it is indeed quite mysterious and wonderous, and hard to grasp.  And a common theme with humans is this tendency to take the awesome and inexplicable and make it quite ordinary and simple. We have not spared prayer either. In trying to make the concept of prayer palpable to everyone, we have used terms like dialogue, conversation, or just talking to God. The problem with this is that in insisting that spiritual things can and should make sense in our minds, we lose the sacredness of them. 1 Corinthians 2 v 14 says that

“The natural person does not accept the things of the Spirit of God, for they are folly to him, and he is not able to understand them because they are spiritually discerned.”

When it comes to prayer, only God can define the true purpose of it. Any other words we use will fall short and has. If prayer is a hard concept to understand, what some perceive as unanswered prayer is an even more difficult pill to swallow, and a very hard theological issue to resolve.  The thing is, when we have begged and pleaded with God for years on end and our situation has not changed or even gotten worse, it requires of us to take a deep and hard look at the God we call good and loving. And at times we do not like what we see.

I know people who have taken this deep, hard look at God. I have a friend who prayed that God would save the life of his 8-year-old son only to have him pass away in his hospital bed. He has never stepped into a church since and has given up the God who did not hear his cry. Every time he shares this story, which he has many times, my heart breaks. “I don’t want anything to do with a God like that”, he says.

I have another friend who has been praying for the past 20 years that her son be healed of autism. Why wouldn’t God heal him?  In our own family, we’ve been praying for over 25 years for my sister and brother-in-law to be blessed with a baby. There are prayers for spouses, unsaved friends, broken marriages, health of loved ones, the list goes on. Many of these prayers have met their finality in a “no” from God. Others seem to have no end to them.

So, what do we do with our unanswered prayers? What do we do when the Almighty, all powerful, and all good God doesn’t answer our prayers or doesn’t answer them the way we want Him to?

What do we do with our unanswered prayers?

In this post, I’d like to direct your eyes to a few scriptures in the Bible that could provide insight, maybe some action items, and even some much-needed comfort.

1. When considering unanswered prayers, the first place I would go to is my own heart, to sift it and see if I am the deterrent to my own prayers. The Word of God makes it clear that there are certain reasons because of which God refuses to hear the prayer of even his own children. I’ll be honest in that I was unaware of these for a very long time. I just assumed that God was waiting to hear from me and answer my prayers. God doesn’t expect perfection from us but there are some reasons for which he will not answer prayers. We covered this a little in the first episode on prayer but I wanted to share a few specific verses here that could help us make sure that we are not the reasons that our prayers are not being heard. The first is

James 1 v 5-8

“If any of you lacks wisdom,  let him ask God,  who gives generously to all without reproach, and it will be given him.  But let him ask in faith,  with no doubting, for the one who doubts is like a wave of the sea that is driven and tossed by the wind. For that person must not suppose that he will receive anything from the Lord;  he is a double-minded man,  unstable in all his ways.”

So, the very first thing we should search for in our heart is doubt. Let me also make it clear that there is a difference in the kind of doubt that we surrender to God like the father who came to Jesus with his son for healing, where he says, “I believe Lord, but help my unbelief”. But then there is the kind of doubt, that is not from a place of humility, rather it is self-protective. In your heart you are not expecting God will or wants to answer your prayer. This is the kind of doubt that James is referring to and that makes us a double minded person who shouldn’t expect anything at all from God.

Another thing one should search for is the condition of our hearts.

James 4 v 3 says

“You ask and do not receive because you ask wrongly to spend it on your passions.”

It matters to God why you are asking for what you are asking. This may seem simple and obvious at face value. I’m praying for my marriage because I want to be happy and give my children a safe home. These are valid and good reasons to pray for your marriage. However, as you grow as a Christian, the Lord is teaching you so much more about marriage. He desires for our hearts to grow from the prayers of  “I want to be happy” to “Help my life glorify you in every way” and “Help my marriage point others to you”.

A third reason we search our hearts is to see how we treat the people in our lives. These verses are quite clear and don’t require more words to them. So I will just read.

1 Peter 3 v 7 

“Husbands, live with your wives in an understanding way, showing honor to the woman as the weaker vessel, since they are heirs with you of the grace of life, so that your prayers may not be hindered.”

Matthew 5 v 23,24

“So if you are offering your gift at the altar and there remember that your brother has something against you , leave your gift there before the altar. First go and be reconciled to your brother, then come and offer your gift.”

Isaiah 58 v6 – 9

“Is not this the fast that I choose: to loose the bonds of wickedness, to undo the straps of the yoke, to let the oppressed go free, and to break every yoke? Is it not to share your bread with the hungry and bring the homeless poor into your house, when you see the naked, to cover him, and not to hide yourself from your own flesh? Then shall your light break forth like the dawn, and your healing shall spring up speedily; your righteousness shall go before you; the glory of the Lord shall be your rear guard. Then you shall call, and the Lord will answer; you shall cry, and he will say, ‘Here I am.’”

            This would be the first thing you should do when it comes to the unanswered prayers in your life. Check your heart to see if you are wrestling with prideful doubt, search your heart for worthy intentions behind prayers, and make sure your heart is pure in your dealings with people around you, specifically your spouse, the oppressed, and your brethren.

• Another reason God would say “no” or ‘not yet” to our desperate pleas is found in  Isaiah 55 v 8 and 9.

^“For my thoughts are not your thoughts,
    neither are your ways my ways, declares the Lord.
For as the heavens are higher than the earth,
    so are my ways higher than your ways
    and my thoughts than your thoughts.”

I’ve underlined, starred, and highlighted this passage in my Bible because every time I feel stumped, discouraged, doubtful or fearful, or in this case, wondering why my prayers are not being answered, these words ground me.  Followers of the Christian God must come to terms with this fundamental truth expressed in these verses. It should become the foundation upon which we build any understanding we have of God. His thoughts and ways supersede ours in every sense. They are not just different than ours, His ways are higher than ours. This means that most of the time we will not understand why God does things the way He does them. And that’s okay. He doesn’t expect us to understand Him but to trust Him. The Christian is called to have faith in the God who promises to incline His ear to us and answer us.

• The third point I would like to share with you on what we should do with unanswered prayers is to give thanks for them. Why would one ever give thanks for unanswered prayers? Let me explain.

Paul Miller, in his book The Praying Life, likens unanswered prayers in a believer’s life to a desert. What an apt metaphor! It is in our unanswered prayers that we feel the most lonely, tired, and desperate. We hunger and thirst for an answer from God.

Miller writes – “God takes everyone He loves through a desert….The still, dry air of the desert brings the sense of  helplessness that is so crucial to the spirit of prayer.”

 Miller continues to explain how in the desert we come to the end of ourselves. He says, “Desert life sanctifies you. You have no idea you are changing. You simply notice after you’ve been in the desert awhile that you are different.”

Miller says that this horrid and dry yet sanctifying desert “becomes to us a window to the heart of God…. The best gift of the desert is God’s presence.”

This is why we should give thanks. It is the unanswered prayers in life, that keeps our eyes on our Father.

Unanswered prayer is arguably the heaviest burden you will carry as a Christian. But I hope that in the desert of unanswered prayers you will lean into the faithfulness of the promise-keeping God, trust in His ways that are higher than your own, and let the sanctifying work of the Spirit work in you to draw you closer to your Creator.

In his book Secrets of a Prayer Warrior, Derek Prince makes the observation that the quality of our prayers rests on the image of God we have in our mind. Each of us has indeed created some sort of image of God, the Father in our mind. Maybe we see Him as a judge seeking to dole out punishment, a puppeteer directing our every move, or perhaps, as Derek Prince himself did, we see God as a Schoolmaster, waiting to scold anyone who steps out of line. The image of God I struggled with for many years was that of a Dictator – One who forces His will upon his subjects regardless of their desires, hopes, or dreams. Isn’t that why we are asked to end each prayer with “Your will be done”? Cause that’s all that He will do anyways. So, what’s the point? Why even pray? He knows my heart. He knows my desires even before I am aware of it. Why do I need to formally say it out in prayer just to end it with “but not my will, your will be done.” Isn’t prayer kind of pointless?

Despite all my doubts and disillusionment with it, prayer remained one of those mysteries that kept intriguing me. Though I didn’t see the point of it, I kept yearning the prayer life. I missed praying. It seemed like my spirit that longed to pray was in disagreement with my mind that was convinced that it was pointless.

So, I began exploring the Bible to see if it would give me any clarity on why I should pray and of course I learnt a few things 🙂 The truth is that regardless of my imagination, God is no dictator. He has shared with us in His Word, many reasons why we should come to Him in prayer. He has and continues to graciously teach me the great and irreplaceable value of prayer in the life of a Christian. Today, I will share with you three biblical reasons to pray.

1. So that our faith may not fail.

In Luke 22 v 32 and 33, we read of how Jesus foretold of Peter’s denial of Him.

“Simon, Simon, behold, Satan demanded to have you, that he might sift you like wheat, but I have prayed for you, that your faith may not fail. And when you have turned again, strengthen your brothers.”

Jesus was privy to the fact that Peter was going to walk through this horrific and humbling trial of denying His beloved Savior three times right before His very eyes. Yet we don’t see a Jesus raising His hands up in hopeless surrender to the Father’s will, saying, “Well, I guess that’s going to happen. Nothing can be done now that God has willed it”. Instead, we see Jesus, pray. He prays that Peter will be strengthened through his trial, so that when he turned back to Jesus again, he could strengthen his brothers.

Jesus shows us that the first reason to pray is because our faith is strengthened through prayer. And even more, we are transformed by this strength to in return strengthen others.

2. If we do not pray, we will not receive

According to James, the brother of Jesus, there is a very simple equation we must grasp as followers of Christ. We read this in James 4 v 2, “You do not have because you do not ask.”

Jesus knew that it was God’s will that Peter goes through his trial of denying his Lord. Jesus also knew that he had to pray for strength in order for Peter to have it in his time of need.

Just as trials are part of God’s plan for our lives, that we would pray is also part of His plan. Though a mystery to us, somehow, God has made it part of His plan that as we pray certain realities will unfold. What and how, we are not privy to. But James says it is so. As Jesus taught – It is part of God’s plan that upon our asking He gives, upon our seeking He reveals, and open our knocking He opens.

Hebrews 4 v 16 echoes this. “Let us then draw near to the throne of grace that we may receive mercy and find grace in our time of need.”

3. God promises to draw near to us when we draw near to Him

God designed prayer in order that He may respond to it. Can’t He still talk to us regardless of whether we pray or not? Of course, He can. God’s hands are not tied because we didn’t say a prayer. However, He has intentionally designed prayer in pursuit of relationship with His children, and not as a means for accomplishing His will. Just like a little child’s cry for dad or mom never goes unanswered, God asks us to pray so that He may incline His ear toward us. It is His intention and desire to hear our prayers and respond.

James 4 v 8 reminds us– “Draw near to God and He will draw near to you.”

There is no other means to draw near to God other than through prayer.

Of course there are a number of other reasons the Bible gives us to spend time in prayer. But I hope that the next time you feel like a prayer wouldn’t change anything, I hope you recall these three simple reasons to get down on your knees. Pray so that your faith may not fail, pray so that you receive in your time of need, and pray so that as you draw nearer to Him, you experience the amazing grace of God drawing nearer to you.