I just finished watching a the movie Rudy, after having read Acts 10 earlier today. I gotta say, I'm a little excited from it and praising God that I enjoyed them both in the same day so that I could enjoy the connection.
Rudy, if you're not familiar with the movie, is based on the real life story of Daniel "Rudy" Ruettiger who desperately wanted to play football for Notre Dame all of his life. The catch, however, was that Rudy was a below average student from a working class family. Not only that, but he was pretty small in both height and weight, especially so relative to a college football player, and never possessed any athletic talent or prowess. He just played hard.
Late into the movie Rudy admits that he knows that he simply wasn't born a football player, whatever the desires of his heart. This doesn't matter to him though. He never quits, he never stops doing everything that he can to participate as a member of the team.
Rudy was given the heart of a Notre Dame football player, if not the body and he eventually resigned himself to the implications of that situation while holding onto hope for something better despite everything. The end result was that Rudy improved the game of the entire team and through the experience gained the opportunity to always be counted as a Notre Dame football player. Something that only a relatively small number of people can enjoy.
Long before Rudy, however, there was Cornelius. Cornelius wasn't working-class, of course, but he was physically poor in that he was a gentile and not a Jew. Nonetheless, he continued doing all that he could to honor and glorify the God of Israel despite the unfortunate incongruity between his birth and heart.
His prayers where a sweet incense before the Lord when most of Israel's were a foul stench. God so loved Cornelius that he assigned to him the honor of educating Peter, thereby dramatically improving the "game" of the whole Church! Not only that, but Cornelius' relatives and close friends we all brought into the kingdom.
Now if there's any mistake about the purpose God had for Cornelius or that perhaps Cornelius' ultimate salvation was the point of the whole exercise, then let me point you to an important fact: Peter never finished delivering the Good News of the Gospel what before the Holy Spirit of God descended on the Gentiles there.
Their hearts had already been prepared for Christ long before Peter showed up. It was Peter's heart that needed work. It wasn't the hearing of the Gospel from Peter that was necessary, but rather, it was the pouring out of the Spirit upon Gentiles that Peter needed to see.
As a bit of a separate thought, I find it so encouraging that God preserved the Roman Centurion Cornelius and all the other gentiles present until that day. I don't' know what God had for them after that moment, but I know it's a hard fact that no army, no nation, no king, no anything had the power to kill Cornelius or any of his relatives and close friends before that day. Think about that for a moment to. The implications, at least to me, are huge.
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The following is the text from the Scripture reading given on 1/18/09
(Unfortunately, church was cancelled due to heavy snow. Fortunately, however, I was able to make some minor, but important, feedback-based edits to the introduction to help remove myself from the text as well as provide a more positive and appropriate consideration.)
Introduction to Scripture reading:
Two major public events occur in chapters 11 and 12 of John’s Gospel, the first leading directly into the second; Lazarus is raised from the dead and Jesus, having displayed His complete power over even death itself and word of it having spread far and wide, enters triumphantly into Jerusalem.
Despite this, huge numbers of people, if not the majority, neither understand nor believe. Each of them remains entirely wrapped up in themselves and in their own desires; completely unable to respond properly to the recent miracles.
Caiaphas, having previously received a direct prophetic revelation from God, twists the revelation of truth into something perverted and sinful; using the revelation to boast of his own intelligence and justify sin. Judas’ conscience is shown to be made of Teflon in that he continues unflinchingly with his thievery, obviously never realizing or appreciating that he’s in the presence of one who sees into the heart of all men. For all the hoopla and ceremony, the throngs of people that witnessed or heard first-hand accounts of these recent events are immediately revealed to having been completely overtaken and actively walking in the exact darkness that Jesus speaks of and they never seem to realize it; Jesus is clearly referring to himself as “the son of man” but because He also prophecies of His own crucifixion they can’t accept it. He is revealed as the author of the Law and to have all authority over death, and yet they cling to their own understanding of the Law, believing Him to be another John the Baptist or some such.
The verses that we’re reading from today cover a whole lot of ground, touching several important topics regarding faith, death, hypocrisy, and so on. We’ll need to dedicate several full-length messages or personal study time in order to address them all, of course, but with the few minutes available to us this morning we can examine some of what this text and the context surrounding it reveal in particular about our King to help prepare ourselves for the rest of our worship of Him as well as provide fuel to our hearts and minds.
Scripture Reading Text:
Lessons from text:
Our King…
- …will use His servants to lead men to Him.
- …is not sitting idle on some throne overlooking his kingdom, He is active and fruitful in leading men’s hearts.
- ….desires us to be near Him in everything.
- …serves His Father. When we serve the King we serve the Father also.
- …is King above everything. There is no room or forbearance for any other ruler.
- …is the beacon of light in the darkness of the world through His Word.
- …will not be a light into a dark world forever.
- …came into the darkness to save the sinful men from being overtaken by the darkness. The light of His Word will judge men.
Application/Conclusion:
We’ve got to be careful not to think of our King in medieval terms. We’re not peasants out scraping a living in abject poverty while the Lord of the land sits ignorant of our plight in some a high ivory tower drinking fine wine, eating succulent dishes carried in on our worn-out backs and throwing around edicts and laws based on some whim, fancy or political consideration.
Our King is a willing and humble servant himself, with a very specific purpose and goal in mind; the glorification of His Father. He’s elected us as not simply as His servants, meant merely to please His fancy, but as His fellow countrymen and brothers.
God has intended men to be led to the Christ through us, through our associations with them, just as the Greeks at the feast did through Philip. And again like Philip, we’re not necessarily meant to toil each on our own. Philip sought council with Andrew; we’re to actively seek council among one another. God will see to it that His Light, His Word, is seen by men walking in a dark world. He has purposed that His light will shine through us, so that men seeking Him will know where to turn.
As high priest under the Law, Caiaphas enjoyed a particular closeness with God, and so the light of God’s Word reflected itself through his office. Caiaphas himself was in utter darkness, of course, and so was completely unable to lead anyone to anything but a horrifying fall. Unfortunately, however, no one around him, not even those authorities that believed, shone any light at all on Caiaphas’ ignorance.
We’re to speak up boldly when we witness liars leading people into destruction, regardless of the worldly cost. This isn’t hypocritical or judgmental or any such thing. Just be careful to hear what I’m saying, I’m certainly not suggesting that we engage in arguments or legalism or anything beyond speaking the Word that God has given us with boldness, sincerity and clarity, allowing Scripture to interpret Scripture and God’s Word to judge the truth from a lie. If you hear a lie, speak the truth; nothing more, nothing less.
Matthew 9:35-38 tells us that "Jesus went throughout all the cities and villages, teaching in their synagogues and proclaiming the gospel of the kingdom and healing every disease and every affliction."
HOW MUCH MORE TRAGIC COULD THIS BE! How are they so without shepherds?!
The clear context provided is that Jesus observed this in THE VERY PLACE that they should have had a multitude of shepherds, the synagogue; a place that was intended to house an entire tribe of shepherds.
And yet, no shepherd could be found. The synagogue had become a vapid and hollow shell of religious observance; a place in which to feed upon the poor and needy; populated with wicked and slothful servants who, knowing their master, did not invest properly that in which He had entrusted them.
This, friends, is empty religion defined.
Praise God that we have so compassionate King as Jesus! We have no need to be slaves and victims of men any longer than it takes to look upon Christ, the saviour, because He has freed us so wonderfully from such bondage and allowed all those who seek to enter into His kingdom. This was the message preached by Him.
I'd encourage you to read Spurgeon's sermon of Matt 9:36 titled "The Compassion of Jesus", published in 1914, and I'll close this post with Spurgeon's closing prayer in the sermon:
" My Saviour, have pity upon me; be moved with compassion towards me, for if misery be any qualification for mercy, I am a fit object for thy compassion. Oh! save me for thy mercy's sake!" Amen.
I haven't begun exegeting the text yet because I'm reading through first before breaking it down further, but a couple of things jumped out at me while reading through Matthew chapter 2 the other morning and have been on my mind since.
First, no matter how many times I've read this text something never seemed to have popped until now; I've been a victim of tradition! Always I've had in my mind the manger scene we see so often during the Christmas holiday season. In that scene, we usually see the magi bearing gifts for the baby Jesus.
Wrong!
It was the shepherds in the field, alerted by angels of heaven of the savior's birth, who visited Jesus in the manger (Luk 2:8-18). The magi didn't come until much later, when Christ was nearly 2. It sounds like (and I'm on my own with this, I know) Christ's birth may have had such impact on the community that Joseph decided, or was convinced, to stay in Bethlehem after the census was completed rather than return to Galilee.
In Matthew's account of the Lord's infancy, it's stated “and going into the house...” (Mat 2:11). There was no manger here nor is a number given to the magi, only that there was more than 1 and they presented 3 gifts.
Interesting.
At least it is in the sense that it's a reminder for us (just me?) to REALLY REALLY check any assumptions at the door before going in to read the Word.
The other thing that popped out to me was that, in purely human terms, the way we would reckon things from our perspective, Herod and the Jewish authorities campaign to thwart the will of God and retain their grip on power appeared to be a rousing success.
Sure, they didn't actually succeed in killing the child, but Joseph did take Christ and flee to Egypt. To be blunt, they were run out of town. The current power structure remained until Herod's death (and again, from an earthly standpoint for some time after.)
Looking at the heavenly perspective provided in the Scriptures, of course, we know this is unquestionably not the case. It was FAR more a victory for God. Prophecy was fulfilled with total completeness. Not a jot or tittle was left unfulfilled. The will of the human element in the story was allowed to run its course while God's sovereign will remained above it all completely unthwarted and intact.
