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MastodonWEEK 4 – “YOU HAVE SAID SO, BUT I SAY TO YOU...”
Much of the content for this week’s devotions is from Chapter 4 of The Final
Days, by Matt Rawle.
MONDAY – The plot unfolds
Matthew 20: 26b-28 Whoever wants to become great among you
must be your servant, and whoever wants to be first must be your
slave— just as the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to
serve, and to give His life as a ransom for many.”
Matthew 26: 1 & 2 When Jesus had finished saying all these things, He
said to His disciples, “As you know, the Passover is two days away—and the
Son of Man will be handed over to be crucified.”
Read Matthew 20: 20-28, 26: 1-56
The disciples had been in the
presence of Jesus for three years,
had been present for all His
teachings and miracles, and had
frequently asked Jesus, after a
busy day, to explain to them some
of what He had said and done
during the day, and He did. He had
in the course of such discussions
outlined His Gospel mission to
them in many different ways and
had three times predicted His death
on the cross, but since their spiritual
senses were not yet strengthened
by the presence of the Holy Spirit,
they did not understand that Jesus
had to die on the cross “as a
ransom for many”.
Consider: In Gethsemane, when
Jesus prayed earnestly He asked
God, His Father, whether the “cup
could be taken from Him, if at all
possible, because He knew what was
going to happen. I have often
wondered how I would react when in
a really challenging situation. In the
past fortnight, in our small group
Bible study, the leader asked us for
testimonies about difficult periods in
our lives, and in virtually every
response the immediate choice of
those who testified was to say they
started
praying, earnestly and
persistently. When you find yourself
in a difficult situation, life-threatening
or otherwise, is seeking God’s help
and/or advice in prayer your “go-to”
solution?
Prayer: Dear Abba Father, I praise and worship You for the sacrifice
of Your Son, Jesus Christ, our Passover Lamb, who died for all of us
on the cross. The huge sacrifice Jesus made shows the enormity of
Your love for all people on earth AND gives me the opportunity to
choose to be rescued from spiritual death. I pray this in the name of the
RISEN CHRIST. AMEN
TUESDAY – You know the answer, but what is the question
Matthew 26: 63b, 64 The high priest said to Him, “I charge you
under oath by the living God: Tell us if You are the Messiah, the
Son of God.” “You have said so,” Jesus replied. “But I say to all of
you: From now on you will see the Son of Man sitting at the right hand of the
Mighty One and coming on the clouds of heaven.”
Read Matthew 26: 57-67
In the course of His teachings,
Jesus asked many questions to
His disciples, followers and the
crowds. Most of these questions
were asked in response to a
question asked of Him. His
questions were typically phrased
in such a way that answering yes
or no was not really an option. In
order to answer the question
Jesus had asked, they had to
think carefully about their own
journey of faith. His answer in
Matthew 26: 64 above is not a
direct answer but an invitation to
both the high priest and the
Jewish leaders to think – as you
can see they reacted very
differently to the exact same
words.
In Matthew 26 - 28 I find 18
references to scriptures in the Old
Testament. Matthew wanted to
make sure that the reader does
not experience this Gospel, and
especially its final chapters, as a
failed campaign, but rather as a
joyous victory over sin, the
realisation of prophecies made
hundreds of years earlier by the
prophets. What a wonderful
realisation!
Consider: I once asked a
colleague what his main work
related goal was for the next 12
months. His answer, “I want to, by
the end of this year, do what I now
do between 5 and 8, between 8
and 5” was both confusing and
crystal clear. He wanted to focus
on his work life and achieve a
better work/home balance, and he
did! Is that how you sometimes
feel when you hear God’s voice –
“What does that mean?” It
happens to me too, and over time
I
have learnt to persist until I
discern the crystal clear message
in God’s answer.
Prayer: Dear Lord, grant me a discerning heart and mind to clearly
see Your will for my life, so that I may walk in Your light and not veer
off into darkness. I ask this in the name of Jesus, the RISEN CHRIST.
AMEN
WEDNESDAY – Three perspectives on the forgiveness of sins
Romans 10: 9-10 If you declare with your mouth, “Jesus is Lord,”
and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you
will be saved. For it is with your heart that you believe and are
justified, and it is with your mouth that you profess your faith and are saved.
Read Matthew 26: 31-35, 69-75; John 21: 15-25 (Peter); Matthew 26: 14
16, 47-50, 27: 1-10 (Judas); Matthew 27: 11-26 (Pilate)
In these three different events in
Matthew 26 to 28 we are
reminded how important it was to
receive forgiveness. By reading
the
scripture
passages
highlighted above, you can see
that Peter was so filled with regret
for his inability to stand by Jesus,
that he disappeared from the
group, thinking that all was lost,
not knowing that Jesus had
already forgiven him, in fact Jesus
had an important commission for
Peter; whereas Judas had regret
and when the Chief Priests did not
want their money back, went away
and took his own life. Pilate, on
the other hand, although he could
not find any guilt in Jesus, gave in
to the crowds and handed Jesus
over to be flogged and crucified.
For true forgiveness one has to
repent and confess one’s sin and
in faith believe that Jesus paid for
it in full on the cross. Romans 10:
9 basically says that the core
elements of what a sinner’s prayer
should embody are: confession,
belief and salvation.
Consider: The narratives above
on Peter, Judas and Pilate do not
really show us how to ask God to
forgive our sins and to lead us to
salvation. How do you handle it
when you have sinned and want
to ask for forgiveness? “Pray
continually” says 1 Thessalonians
5: 17. There is no verbatim
sinner’s prayer, but the prayer
below contains all three elements
of the Romans 10 sinner’s prayer.
Prayer: Abba Father, I admit that I am a sinner. I both need and want
Your forgiveness. I accept Your death as the penalty for my sin and
recognise that Your mercy and grace are a gift You offer to me
because of Your great love, not based on anything I have done. By
faith I receive You into my heart as the Son of God and as Saviour and Lord
of my life. I ask this in the name of the RISEN CHRIST. AMEN
THURSDAY – Reconciliation is not what you think
Colossians 1: 19-20 For God was pleased to have all His fullness
dwell in Him, and through Him to reconcile to Himself all things,
whether things on earth or things in heaven, by making peace
through His blood, shed on the cross.
2 Corinthians 5: 18-19 All this is from God, who reconciled us to Himself
through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation: that God was
reconciling the world to himself in Christ, not counting people’s sins against
them. And he has committed to us the message of reconciliation.
Read 1 Corinthians 5: 11-21
Have you ever done something that
is totally wrong, or unfair to the
affected and/or impacted party but
you cannot get yourself to forgive
that person when they then cut you
out of their circle of friends; well
knowing that it is actually you that
should be asking for forgiveness,
and that only once that has
happened can you hope to be
reconciled with them? I have.
In his book “The Final Days” Rawle
says that forgiveness, more than
faith, is the outward and visible sign
of the Christian community. He then
says
the
following
reconciliation with God:
about
“It seems that at the end of it all,
Matthew wants us to know, more
than
any other Gospel, that
reconciliation with God is less
dependent on our fidelity to Christ
as on Christ’s fidelity to God and
us.”
I
was unsure of the meaning of
“fidelity” in scripture and looked it
up. I learnt that it implies loyalty to
the New Covenant and good faith
and
trustworthiness
relationships.
in
Consider: The Apostle Paul in his
letters to the Colossians and the
second letter to the Corinthians
elaborates on and explains
reconciliation to the readers. So
against this background, do you
agree
with
Matt
Rawle’s
statement about fidelity, and if not,
how do you see it?
Prayer: Loving God, I acknowledge my need for reconciliation, both
with You and with those who have wronged me, as well as with those
that I had wronged. As You have forgiven me through Jesus, I pray
for the grace to forgive others, to heal past hurts, and to build bridges
of understanding and compassion. May Your spirit guide me to seek unity
and peace, just as You have reconciled us to Yourself. I pray this in the name
of Jesus. AMEN
FRIDAY – A rendezvous arranged from “beyond the grave”
John 20: 27 Then He said to Thomas, “Put your finger here; see
My hands. Reach out your hand and put it into My side. Stop
doubting and believe.”
Matthew 28: 10 Then Jesus said to them, “Do not be afraid. Go and tell My
brothers to go to Galilee; there they will see Me.”
Read Matthew 28: 1-10 and John 20: 24-29
During His three-year ministry,
which is considered to have
started at His baptism by John the
Baptist and ended at the Last
Supper with His disciples, Jesus
travelled,
preached
and
performed miracles. Of all of those
who had encountered Jesus and
in
many cases followed Him
around, the 12 disciples and the
women who travelled with Jesus
had received the most detailed
and intimate teachings of all.
Yet, as we know, they were ill
prepared for what was about to
happen at the crucifixion. Jesus
had explicitly predicted His death
three times in the final days and at
the Last Supper. Even after His
resurrection,
when
Mary
Magdalene and the other Mary,
who on the morning of the third day
after the crucifixion had gone to the
tomb, went back to the disciples
and told them what they had seen
and heard and that an angel inside
the tomb had told them not to be
afraid because Jesus had risen and
was alive. The women went on to
tell the disciples that they had then
actually seen Jesus and that He
had spoken to them, but still, some
of the disciples did not believe.
However, after all that had
happened, Jesus then appeared to
the disciples, and later also to
Thomas, who had not been present
earlier (John 20:10).
Only then did the message that
Jesus had given Mary Magdalene
and the other Mary in the garden at
the tomb, hit home and they went to
Galilee to await their rendezvous
with Jesus.
Consider: Have you discerned the
call to your “Galilee”, or are you still
searching? Give it over to Jesus.
Prayer: We praise You, Jesus Christ, for defeating the powers of
death; and we thank You for Your sacrifice on the cross for our
Salvation. We stand in awe of Your resurrection; You are truly the
RISEN MESSIAH. Come, Holy Spirit, come! We pray this in the name
of Jesus. AMEN
Holy unto the Lord!
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