Sun, 31 December, 2006: Today’s Bible readings.

John 21:25

²⁵ Now there are also many other things that Jesus did. Were every one of them to be written, I suppose that the world itself could not contain the books that would be written.

John doesn’t pretend to have written a full documentary of everything Jesus did. He was very selective of what He has chosen, for John was working with a specific purpose.

John 20:30-31

³⁰ Now Jesus did many other signs in the presence of the disciples, which are not written in this book; ³¹ but these are written so that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name.

What do we learn from this?

John’s desire for us, as we come to the end of this book (and the end of the year) is for us to believe in Jesus Christ and gain eternal life. The things we have read in his account of Jesus’ life were selected, by the guidance of the Holy Spirit, to explain who Jesus is, and how we should come to Him in faith for eternal life.

Where is Christ in this passage?

There are many other things that John could have written, but these are selected for the purpose of teaching us what we need to come to faith in Jesus Christ.

Sat, 30 December, 2006: Today’s Bible readings.

Malachi 3:1-4

¹ “Behold, I send my messenger and he will prepare the way before me. And the Lord whom you seek will suddenly come to his temple; and the messenger of the covenant in whom you delight, behold, he is coming, says the LORD of hosts. ² But who can endure the day of his coming, and who can stand when he appears? For he is like a refiner’s fire and like fullers’ soap. ³ He will sit as a refiner and purifier of silver, and he will purify the sons of Levi and refine them like gold and silver, and they will bring offerings in righteousness to the LORD. ⁴ Then the offering of Judah and Jerusalem will be pleasing to the LORD as in the days of old and as in former years.”

We are winding up the Old Testament with the book of Malachi. With this book, the Old Testament canon was closed and there was 400 years of silence. People were waiting for the promised Messiah. But they should have realized that this Messiah would be more than just a man. He would be God Himself.

What do we learn from this?

Malachi tells us there will be a messenger before the Messiah. We know this is John the Baptist. But the amazing thing here is that the one they are waiting for will be the Lord.

Where is Christ in this passage?

The Messiah they were waiting for was Jesus Christ, the God-Man. He is fully man and fully God. One person with two natures. The people did not recognize Him for who He is, so although there were miraculous things that accompanied His birth, Jesus Christ as an adult was an unknown. When He began His public ministry, He just suddenly appeared on the scene. John the Baptist came first and points to Jesus. The messenger prepares the way and Jesus Christ suddenly appears.

Fri, 29 December, 2006: Today’s Bible readings.

Revelation 20:11-15

¹¹ Then I saw a great white throne and him who was seated on it. From his presence earth and sky fled away, and no place was found for them. ¹² And I saw the dead, great and small, standing before the throne, and books were opened. Then another book was opened, which is the book of life. And the dead were judged by what was written in the books, according to what they had done. ¹³ And the sea gave up the dead who were in it, Death and Hades gave up the dead who were in them, and they were judged, each one of them, according to what they had done. ¹⁴ Then Death and Hades were thrown into the lake of fire. This is the second death, the lake of fire. ¹⁵ And if anyone’s name was not found written in the book of life, he was thrown into the lake of fire.

We are coming to the end of the book of Revelation. We have just been through the Millennium, and now time comes to an end, as everyone stands before God in judgment.

What do we learn from this?

Everyone will appear before God to be judged. The book of our lives will be opened, and we will be judged by what is written there. Have we perfectly kept God’s law? No. No one has. If we are to be judged by our actions, we will all be condemned, because we have all sinned. Our final destination will be the lake of fire, because we have violated God’s holy law.

Where is Christ in this passage?

There is a second book at the final judgment. This is called the book of life. In that book, it is written the names of all those who have been redeemed by Jesus Christ. We have violated God’s law, but Jesus Christ has paid the price for those sins. He has given His people the righteousness they require, so that they can be accepted by God. This book of life testifies to the fact that God has justified them. God has declared them to be in right standing with Him because of the work of Jesus Christ on their behalf.

So the question is, has your name been written in the book of life? Have you trusted in Jesus Christ alone for your salvation? Has He taken the penalty of your sin and given you His righteousness? Or on the last day will you be judged by the book of your life that has recorded all your sins?

Thu, 28 December, 2006: Today’s Bible readings.

2 Chronicles 33:10-17

¹⁰ The LORD spoke to Manasseh and to his people, but they paid no attention. ¹¹ Therefore the LORD brought upon them the commanders of the army of the king of Assyria, who captured Manasseh with hooks and bound him with chains of bronze and brought him to Babylon. ¹² And when he was in distress, he entreated the favor of the LORD his God and humbled himself greatly before the God of his fathers. ¹³ He prayed to him, and God was moved by his entreaty and heard his plea and brought him again to Jerusalem into his kingdom. Then Manasseh knew that the LORD was God.

¹⁴ Afterward he built an outer wall for the city of David west of Gihon, in the valley, and for the entrance into the Fish Gate, and carried it around Ophel, and raised it to a very great height. He also put commanders of the army in all the fortified cities in Judah. ¹⁵ And he took away the foreign gods and the idol from the house of the LORD, and all the altars that he had built on the mountain of the house of the LORD and in Jerusalem, and he threw them outside of the city. ¹⁶ He also restored the altar of the LORD and offered on it sacrifices of peace offerings and of thanksgiving, and he commanded Judah to serve the LORD, the God of Israel. ¹⁷ Nevertheless, the people still sacrificed at the high places, but only to the LORD their God.

Manasseh was a wicked king. In the beginning of this chapter, we have a recitation of the evils he did as king of Judah. Manasseh even offered his sons as sacrifices and was so bad that he led Judah to do more evil than the nations whom the LORD destroyed before the people of Israel.

But late in his life, Manasseh repented and was restored.

What do we learn from this?

Although Manasseh did terrible things, he could still repent and find forgiveness. We have so much hope from this story of Manasseh. No one has done so much evil their sins would keep God from greeting them forgiveness if they would but turn to God in repentance and faith. We can’t disqualify ourselves from God’s grace by our actions in the past. Salvation is not an issue of refraining from sinning the “big” sins that would close the door to us. Salvation is about repenting and turning to God in faith, regardless of the sins we have sinned.

Manasseh sinned the “big” sins, but he found forgiveness when he repented and turned to God in faith.

Where is Christ in this passage?

I expect we will see Manasseh in heaven. And if so, he will be there for the same reason we are there: because the sins we have committed have been imputed to Jesus Christ and paid for on the cross. We are saved as we trust in the substitute God has provided for our salvation. All who are saved, Manasseh included, are saved by the work of Jesus Christ.

Wed, 27 December, 2006: Today’s Bible readings.

John 17:1

When Jesus had spoken these words, he lifted up his eyes to heaven, and said, “Father, the hour has come; glorify your Son that the Son may glorify you….”

John 17 is Jesus Christ’s High Priestly prayer. He is praying after the Last Supper, and just before He is arrested, tried, and crucified. Here at the beginning of the prayer, Jesus prays that the hour has come.

What do we learn from this?

The hour is the climactic hour of our salvation. Everything He had done on earth was building to this point. The hour of which Jesus speaks is the hour that He will bear the sins of all of His people from all of time. As such, it is longer than 60 minutes. It starts in the Garden of Gethsemane and goes through His trial and crucifixion.

This hour is the climactic event of all history, because our eternal destiny is determined by this event. It is the turning point of all prophecy as the Old Testament looks forward to it, the Gospels tell of it, and the Epistles look back to it to tell us what it means. We celebrate it every Sunday, and in a special way at the Lord’s Table. That is the hour of which Jesus speaks.

In John 17, Jesus is coming to the crucial hour of all history. This is the hour that our Triune God had planned from all eternity for the salvation of His people. It was completely in His control, and none of the events took Him by surprise.

Where is Christ in this passage?

This hour was the turning point of history, as Satan was given control and allowed to crucify Jesus Christ. The only Sinless One was given to Satan and the powers of darkness. In that hour, God the Father would pour on Jesus Christ His wrath against all the sins of all those who will come to Him in faith. And in that act, God will break the power of Satan and of sin over His people, ultimately freeing us from their tyranny. It is the moment of judgment, as the penalty for sins is paid.

Tue, 26 December, 2006: Today’s Bible readings.

Zechariah 13:7-9

⁷ “Awake, O sword, against my shepherd,
against the man who stands next to me,”
declares the LORD of hosts.

“Strike the shepherd, and the sheep will be scattered;
I will turn my hand against the little ones.
⁸ In the whole land, declares the LORD,
two thirds shall be cut off and perish,
and one third shall be left alive.
⁹ And I will put this third into the fire,
and refine them as one refines silver,
and test them as gold is tested.
They will call upon my name,
and I will answer them.
I will say, ‘They are my people’;
and they will say, ‘The LORD is my God.’”

Zechariah tells us that God will strike the shepherd and scatter the sheep, but out of this will come the formation of the people of God.

What do we learn from this?

We see it all over in the scriptures. God allows evil to happen in this world. Since He is God and He is omnipotent, He could stop every evil in this world. But for His own purposes, He allows bad things to happen. However, they always happen for a reason. They bring about a greater good. Every thing, even the evil that occurs, is for God’s glory and for the good of His people.

In our passage today we see that the shepherd is struck and the sheep are scattered, but the end result is that people will call upon God’s. They will claim the Lord as their God, and God will accept them. They are my people, will be His reply.

A great evil will occur, but the result is a greater good: People will become the people of God and will be accepted by God.

God works in the midst of evil to bring about His glory and the good of His people.

Where is Christ in this passage?

On the night that Jesus Christ was betrayed, He tells us that He is the shepherd who was struck, and His disciples are the sheep who were scattered.

Matthew 26:31-32

³¹ Then Jesus said to them, “You will all fall away because of me this night. For it is written, ‘I will strike the shepherd, and the sheep of the flock will be scattered.’ ³² But after I am raised up, I will go before you to Galilee.”

Mon, 25 December, 2006: Today’s Bible readings.

Revelation 16:8-10

⁸ The fourth angel poured out his bowl on the sun, and it was allowed to scorch people with fire. ⁹ They were scorched by the fierce heat, and they cursed the name of God who had power over these plagues. They did not repent and give him glory.

¹⁰ The fifth angel poured out his bowl on the throne of the beast, and its kingdom was plunged into darkness. People gnawed their tongues in anguish ¹¹ and cursed the God of heaven for their pain and sores. They did not repent of their deeds.

In chapter 16, John sees the angels pour out the seven bowl judgments upon the inhabitants of the earth. We see that God is just and righteous to bring these judgments, and that they are what the people deserve.

But we also see that in the face of judgment, the people continue to rebel against God. They do not repent and turn to Him, but instead curse Him and remain in their rebellion.

What do we learn from this?

Difficult times will come into our lives. I dare say most of us will never face anything like these bowl judgments in this chapter, but we will see pain, suffering, and death. How we react to it shows a lot about our relationship with God.

The true child of God can wonder why God would allow such things to happen to them. They can question God. Sometimes they will even be angry at God for the things they must endure. But they will come to the point where they will submit to God and trust Him in the face of their pain and suffering. They will repent of their sin (including their sinful reactions to the suffering) and give glory to God for all that He does, even the hardships that He brings into our lives.

The person who is not a child of God will curse God and be strengthened in his rebellion against God. He will not learn the lesson, and heed God’s call to repent, but will instead be hardened in his unbelief and flee from God even further.

Since we all will face hardships, we should set it in our minds firmly that we will not rebel against God in the hard times. We will not withdraw from attending church. We will not curse God and hate Him for allowing such things to happen to us. We will, to the best of our ability, God giving us the power, submit to His will, and seek Him in our times of trouble. We will repent of our sin and trust Him to bring us through the difficulties He brings into our lives.

Where is Christ in this passage?

In these bowl judgments, God is pouring out His wrath against the sins of the rebellious followers of the beast. They will suffer for the way they have rejected God.

God does vent His anger against sin, and all sin must be punished. As the angel says in this chapter, Just are you, O Holy One, who is and who was, for you brought these judgments. God is just and He will punish all sin. He will punish every sin that you and I commit.

The good news is that Jesus Christ has taken the punishment for all those who come to Him in faith. For all His people, He has borne the punishment due to them. On the cross, He suffered in their place, so that they would be found righteous in the Father’s sight.

Jesus Christ willingly took the full brunt of the wrath of God against sin, so that we do not have to bear it ourselves for eternity in hell.

Sun, 24 December, 2006: Today’s Bible readings.

2 Chronicles 29:25-30

²⁵ And he stationed the Levites in the house of the LORD with cymbals, harps, and lyres, according to the commandment of David and of Gad the king’s seer and of Nathan the prophet, for the commandment was from the LORD through his prophets. ²⁶ The Levites stood with the instruments of David, and the priests with the trumpets. ²⁷ Then Hezekiah commanded that the burnt offering be offered on the altar. And when the burnt offering began, the song to the LORD began also, and the trumpets, accompanied by the instruments of David king of Israel. ²⁸ The whole assembly worshiped, and the singers sang and the trumpeters sounded. All this continued until the burnt offering was finished. ²⁹ When the offering was finished, the king and all who were present with him bowed themselves and worshiped. ³⁰ And Hezekiah the king and the officials commanded the Levites to sing praises to the LORD with the words of David and of Asaph the seer. And they sang praises with gladness, and they bowed down and worshiped.

Hezekiah has dedicated himself to purifying the worship of Judah. His father, Ahaz, had been a wicked king, leading Israel into all sorts of idolatry. So there was much work for Hezekiah to do to correct the temple worship. This chapter describes how he had the priests clean out the temple, and how they began to do the rituals that had commanded.

After a careful study of what God had commanded (this was done according to the commandment of David and of Gad the king’s seer and of Nathan the prophet, for the commandment was from the LORD through his prophets), Hezekiah appointed priests to play musical instruments as part of their worship. The instruments were begin playing when the burnt offering began, and they continued until the burnt offering was finished. When the sacrifice was done, the priests sang psalms unaccompanied.

What do we learn from this?

This is one of the clearest passages that explain what God had commanded for music as part of the sacrificial worship in the Old Testament. The instruments were only to be used during the slaughter and burning of the animal. Once the sacrifice was complete, they were to sing the psalms unaccompanied. That is God’s command for worship.

Where is Christ in this passage?

The sacrificial system has been completely fulfilled by Jesus Christ. He came and as the spotless lamb lived a sinless life. He then died on the cross as the sacrifice of atonement for the sins of His people. He died in the place of all who come to Him in faith. This fulfilled all sacrifice, and there is now no more acceptable sacrifice. Remember, the temple veil was torn in half at Christ’s death. The way to God was fully opened and the sacrificial system was ended.

Thus, there is no more sacrifice. The burnt offering is now finished, and so the use of instruments in worship is also finished. There is no New Testament command to use instruments in worship (there are New Testament commands to sing psalms), and the only Old Testament authorization for the use of instruments has been removed. This is the reason that churches who hold to the regulative principle (we can only do in worship that which God has explicitly commanded) have traditionally held to singing only psalms and singing them without accompaniment. Most regulative principle churches have fallen away from exclusive, a capella psalmody, but they have not done so because they suddenly found a New Testament authorization to do so.

Sat, 23 December, 2006: Today’s Bible readings.

John 13:1

¹ Now before the Feast of the Passover, when Jesus knew that his hour had come to depart out of this world to the Father, having loved his own who were in the world, he loved them to the end.

John begins to tell us about Jesus washing the disciples feet at the last supper with this interesting statement: he loved them to the end.

What do we learn from this?

Jesus loved the disciples. He cared deeply for them, and was concerned for them as He would be leaving them. But His loving wasn’t just mushy sentimentality. It wasn’t emotion. Jesus’ love for His disciples was action. He loved them by washing their feet. He served them. We willingly took did the menial task for them that they all avoided. He did this to teach them a lesson about love.

Love is an action. Love is how we treat each other. The feeling is beside the point, and hopefully will align with our actions. But true love will always act in service, regardless of whether we have the feeling or not.

This is really important to our commitments to each other. If we think that love is a feeling, then we will end our marriages when the feeling wears off. We will break off relations with family and friends when something happens to change our feelings.

But if we understand that love is an action, not a feeling, then we will stay together through the difficult times. We will be committed to treating each other in a loving way, even if we don’t feel like it. And over time, as we keep acting in a loving way, the feeling will return.

Where is Christ in this passage?

When we think that Jesus loved those who were His own right to the end of His time on earth, we realize that His death on the cross was an act of love. He was serving His people by bearing their sins upon Himself. He was paying a debt He did not owe so that His people could be free from the penalty of sin.

It was His love, displayed as an action of saving His people, that caused Him to go to the cross the very next day.

Fri, 22 December, 2006: Today’s Bible readings.

Zechariah 9:9

Rejoice greatly, O daughter of Zion!
Shout aloud, O daughter of Jerusalem!
behold, your king is coming to you;
righteous and having salvation is he,
humble and mounted on a donkey,
on a colt, the foal of a donkey.

In a chapter filled with the promise of God saving His people, we have this promise of the coming of the King to Jerusalem.

What do we learn from this?

Zechariah tells Israel how they can recognize their great King who is to come. He is righteous (sinless) and He has salvation. He will be the salvation of His people. But unexpectedly, he will come humbly. He will come to Jerusalem riding on a young donkey.

Where is Christ in this passage?

Who is this great King?

That’s easy for us since we know the New Testament. Zechariah is describing Jesus’ Triumphal Entry on Palm Sunday. Jesus fulfilled this when He very purposefully entered Jerusalem, riding on the young donkey. He knew who He was. He knew He was the sinless one who was coming to Jerusalem to win the salvation of His people. He was not coming to rule, as most expected. But instead, He came humbly, to die for the sins of His people.