Real faith or an imitation?

 READ Matthew 21-24  

I’m an idea person. Sometimes I really want the idea to happen and become convinced that it will. This can be real but often is imitation faith. Faith is just knowing something will happen. It isn’t based on wants or wishes but on the revealed will of God. One example:

Now when they drew near to Jerusalem and came to Bethphage, to the Mount of Olives, then Jesus sent two disciples, saying to them, “Go into the village in front of you, and immediately you will find a donkey tied, and a colt with her. Untie them and bring them to me. If anyone says anything to you, you shall say, ‘The Lord needs them,’ and he will send them at once.” This took place to fulfill what was spoken by the prophet, saying, “Say to the daughter of Zion, ‘Behold, your king is coming to you, humble, and mounted on a donkey, on a colt, the foal of a beast of burden.’ ” (Matthew 21:1–6)

The disciples did as Jesus directed them. Of course the donkey and colt were where Jesus said they would be. How did He know that? A few verses later, Jesus emphasized that what happens is known by God prior to the event:

But when the chief priests and the scribes saw the wonderful things that he did, and the children crying out in the temple, “Hosanna to the Son of David!” they were indignant, and they said to him, “Do you hear what these are saying?” And Jesus said to them, “Yes; have you never read, “ ‘Out of the mouth of infants and nursing babies you have prepared praise’?” (Matthew 21:15–16)

Knowing all things is an attribute of God. He is eternal, not bound to time. He knows past, present and future all as NOW. This omniscience quality shows up in Jesus, the man who is God, and it is tied to faith.

In the morning, as he was returning to the city, he became hungry. And seeing a fig tree by the wayside, he went to it and found nothing on it but only leaves. And he said to it, “May no fruit ever come from you again!” And the fig tree withered at once. When the disciples saw it, they marveled, saying, “How did the fig tree wither at once?” And Jesus answered them, “Truly, I say to you, if you have faith and do not doubt, you will not only do what has been done to the fig tree, but even if you say to this mountain, ‘Be taken up and thrown into the sea,’ it will happen. (Matthew 21:18–21)

According to Jesus, God can also give the same kind of certainty to His people through His Word when it is received by faith. Jesus showed this in many ways. He knew from Scripture that the kingdom of God would be taken from Israel and given to people who would “produce its fruits” (Matthew 21:41–45). He knew that the religious leaders of His day would not last when that happened. (Matthew 23:13–36).

Jesus also knew what would be going on in the world at the time of His return even though He did not know the day or the hour. Why not? It was because He had laid aside omniscience to be like us — totally dependent on the Holy Spirit to reveal things to Him by faith. (see Philippians 2:6–8)

He also knew that false christs and false teachers would come and lead people astray and that before He came back, certain events would happen. This understanding came to Him by revelation through faith and He passed on some of this to His followers and to us. (Matthew 24:7–31) Yet He affirmed:

But concerning that day and hour no one knows, not even the angels of heaven, nor the Son, but the Father only. For as were the days of Noah, so will be the coming of the Son of Man. For as in those days before the flood they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, until the day when Noah entered the ark, and they were unaware until the flood came and swept them all away, so will be the coming of the Son of Man. (Matthew 24:36–39)

And that is the bottom line of faith. I don’t know all that Jesus knows, but I do know He promised to return at an hour most people would not expect and I “must be ready” — by listening to what He says, doing what He asks, and dropping all my ideas of what should happen because I want it to happen. The future belongs to Him and is not given to me unless it comes from Him and coincides with His Word and His promises.

 

Am I ready?

 

READ Matthew 21-24

Over the centuries, Christians have thought ‘this must be it’ yet Jesus has not returned. Most of this section in Matthew is about the Second Coming. Jesus gives clues, but not enough for anyone to know the day or the hour. When reading, I wondered if some events could be a pattern of that return. For instance, the excitement of the crowd when He entered the city . . .

And the crowds that went before him and that followed him were shouting, “Hosanna to the Son of David! Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord! Hosanna in the highest!” And when he entered Jerusalem, the whole city was stirred up, saying, “Who is this?” And the crowds said, “This is the prophet Jesus, from Nazareth of Galilee.”

This describes a victory parade of a king who arrived home to take his place as a great warrior. Jesus will do that when He comes again, however this is not what happened back then . . .

And Jesus entered the temple and drove out all who sold and bought in the temple, and he overturned the tables of the money-changers and the seats of those who sold pigeons. He said to them, “It is written, ‘My house shall be called a house of prayer,’ but you make it a den of robbers.” (Matthew 21:9–13)

The only way this could be a pattern for the second coming is that He will return to deal with the problem of “robbers” that have put themselves in the church. Today, as back then, our places of Christian worship are supposed to be places of prayer, dedicated to the love of God and to serving one another. But some of them are filled with those who call themselves Christian yet are more like money-changers who take advantage of true worshipers so they can live in luxury. This lust for personal gain puts shame on the name of Christ. This is also hypocrisy because those who urge people to sacrificial giving do not practice what they preach.

They were not the only ones who mocked the meaning of loving God and loving others. In Jesus day, the spiritual leaders fell short just as some do today.

Jesus said to the crowds and to his disciples, “The scribes and the Pharisees sit on Moses’ seat, so do and observe whatever they tell you, but not the works they do. For they preach, but do not practice. They tie up heavy burdens, hard to bear, and lay them on people’s shoulders, but they themselves are not willing to move them with their finger. They do all their deeds to be seen by others . . . and they love the place of honor at feasts and the best seats in the synagogues and greetings in the marketplaces and being called rabbi by others. (Matthew 23:1–7)

Jesus condemned this kind of ‘spiritual’ leadership and said that “The greatest among you shall be your servant. Whoever exalts himself will be humbled, and whoever humbles himself will be exalted.” (Matthew 23:11–12) He made it clear that the kingdom of heaven was for those whose hearts were right and their behavior matched their hearts. He warned about “outwardly appearing righteous to others, but within you are full of hypocrisy and lawlessness.” (Matthew 23:28)

The church has always has its hypocrites. In condemning this selfishness, I must examine my own attitudes. Do I expect others to be more righteous, more sacrificial, more like Jesus — yet am not doing myself what I think they should be doing? Do I ever do things to impress others or for some sort of personal gain or recognition? If so, woe to me also.

Jesus told the religious people of His day that the two most important commandments were to “love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind . . . and love your neighbor as yourself. (Matthew 22:36–40)

It seems obvious that most people ‘love themselves’ yet Jesus was not talking about selfishness. His love is anything but personal gain, but it is also unconditional. It depends on who He is, not on my performance. That said, many times I’m not satisfied with me. However if that is how I ‘love myself’ then I’m not reflecting His love toward me . . . and if that is true, how can I have the right kind of love toward others? I could be dissatisfied with people, demanding more of them all the time, just like I always demand more of myself. Instead of focusing on the negatives, His love focuses on God’s grace and accepts me just as He accepts me.

This is lots to think about. First, Jesus is coming and it could be soon. He loves me beyond description and wants me to focus on His goodness and grace so I can share this with others. I am not to be shocked by sin in other people (Jesus wasn’t) but if I am often shocked at my own and annoyed about it, this will be reflected in my attitude toward others. That is not the love He wants. His love is not blind but it includes mercy, forgiveness and grace.