Note: Devotion taken from last Sunday's sermon on Matthew 5:13-16.
“Ye are the salt of the earth…. Ye
are the light of the world….” (Matthew 5:13, 14).
Following the Beatitudes, Christ
presents two fundamental images or metaphors for who his disciples are in the
world in his Sermon on the Mount.
“Ye are the salt of the earth” (v.
13);
“Ye are the light of the world” (v.
14).
Notice that each of these are
simple propositional declarations. They are not imperatives. Christ does not
say, “Become salt of the earth.” or “Become the light of the world.” They are
not exhortations. Christ does not say,
“You should be the salt of the earth.” r “You should be the light of the
world.”
No, he declares what we already
are, merely by virtue of the fact that we are believers, saved by God’s grace
thought the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ, and his disciples. It is a present
reality. No matter how weak we may be spiritually, no matter how puny our
numbers, if we are genuine disciples, we are already salt and light, and we
already have an influence in the world out of all proportion to our meagre size
and strength.
Grace and peace, Pastor Jeff Riddle
Note: Devotion taken from last Sunday's sermon on Matthew 5:7-12.
Blessed are they which
are persecuted for righteousness’ sake: for theirs is the kingdom of heaven
(Matt 5:10).
In John 15:20 Christ told his disciples, “The servant is not greater
than his lord. If they have persecuted me, they will also persecute you.”
This
truth has been proven over and again throughout church history.
Peter
and John were arrested in the temple, beaten, and commanded not to speak in the
name of Jesus (Acts 5:40), to which Luke adds that they departed “rejoicing
that they were counted worthy to suffer shame for his name” (v. 41).
The
story continued in the protomartyr Stephen (Acts 7), and in the death of James,
the first apostle to lay down his life for Christ (Acts 12:1-2).
It is
there in the multiple imprisonments, beatings, shipwrecks, and trials of the
apostle Paul (cf. 2 Cor 11:21-30).
It
continued in those mentioned in Hebrews 10, who were made a “gazingstock both
by reproaches and afflictions (v. 33) and who “took joyfully” the spoiling of
their goods, knowing in themselves that they had “in heaven a better and an
enduring substance” (v. 34).
Beyond
the time of the apostles, it was there in early men who suffered, including
Ignatius of Antioch, who wrote letters to his fellow believers in the churches
as he was being carried off to Rome to be fed to the lions. Or, in Polycarp of
Smyrna who refused to deny Christ when he was 86 years old and was put to death
for his faithfulness.
The
more the church was persecuted the more it grew. As Tertullian of Carthage put
it, “The blood of the martyrs is the seedbed of the church.”
It
continued in the sufferings of believers under various Roman emperors,
including during the “Great Persecution” under Diocletian when Bibles were
burned and ministers put to death.
It
continued at the time of the Protestant Reformation when the “Marian martyrs”
were burned at the stake for preaching the Gospel.
It
was there when men like the Particular Baptist Benjamin Keach was pilloried for
teaching believer’s baptism.
And
when John Bunyan was put in prison for preaching outside of state sanction,
making shoe-laces from his prison cell to support his family, which included a
daughter who was bind.
It
continued in the persecuted church in the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe
during communism.
And
it continues today among brethren all over the world who continue to suffer
shame and even death for the name of Christ. In my experiences those who have
suffered most for Christ are usually those who desire least to talk of this.
They wish instead to speak of Christ.
If
you were to visit the grounds of the little hospital in Jibla, Yemen, you’d
find the graves of William Koehn (administrator of the hospital) and Dr. Martha
Myers (who for over 25 years served there as an obstetrician and surgeon). They
were martyred by a fanatical Muslim on December 30, 2002. On Koehn’s grave
marker in crude handwritten English and Arabic it says, “God’s tool; loving
husband; father to many”; and on Myers’ it simply states in broken English,
“She love God” (for a picture of the grave markers, see R. W. Yarbrough’s Clash
of Visions, p. 68).
Christ announces the reward for the
persecuted: “for theirs is the kingdom of heaven” (v. 10b). In v. 12 he adds an
additional promise: “for great is your reward in heaven.”
Skeptics sometimes mock believers for
the hope of heaven. They call it “pie in the sky.” Marx called it an opiate for
the masses.
But the hope of heaven has proven the
very thing through the years that has led ordinary men and women to live in
extra-ordinary ways. For many, it has been that which was needed to stiffen the
spine and brace the courage when facing persecution and even death for the sake
of their Lord.
Men will do much for Christ if they
believe this: To die for Christ in this life is to wake with Christ in the life
to come.
May we be found faithful in this generation.
Grace and peace, Pastor Jeff Riddle
Image: View of the Mount of the Beatitudes, Israel.
Note: Devotion take from last Sunday's sermon on Matthew 5:1-6.
And seeing the multitudes, he went up into a mountain: and when
he was set, his disciples came unto him: And he opened his mouth and taught them…
(Matthew 5:1-2).
Most would agree that in the Sermon on the Mount of Matthew
chapters 5-7 one finds the heart of the moral and ethical teaching of the Lord
Jesus. Augustine of Hippo called it, “A perfect standard of the Christian life.”
The setting for the sermon is given in Matthew 5:1-2.
Notice first, that Christ’s teaching came as he saw the multitudes coming
out to him (v. 1a).
Most of these people had been attracted to Christ due to his
miraculous healing ministry (see 4:24-25). By turning to teaching, perhaps
Christ was saying to them, “What good does it do if a man has a healthy body
but a sick, twisted, diseased, and deformed spirit?”
Notice second, that he went up into a mountain. If you were to go to
Israel today you would find a site now known as the Mount of the Beatitudes
(also known as Mount Eremos) where some believe the sermon was given.
The elevated site of the teaching reflects the elevated
doctrine conveyed there. Moses went up to Mount Sinai to receive the law of
God. Christ goes up on a mountain not to receive God’s law but directly to
speak it. Here is the true Lawgiver who is greater than Moses.
Notice third, that he taught them from a seated position (“when he was
set”).
When we think today about public speaking (teaching or
preaching), we assume the speaker is standing. But in Christ’s day
authoritative teaching was often done while seated. Christ stood to read the
law at the synagogue in Nazareth, and then sat to teach (cf. Luke 4:16-21). In
Matthew 23, Christ denounced the scribes and the Pharisees who “sit in Moses’
seat” (v. 2). Christ speaks in this sermon with settled authority.
Notice fourth, he spoke to his disciples (see vv. 1b-2).
The Lord Jesus had just called the four fishermen to become
his disciples (4:18-22). Now the multitudes followed him for healing (4:25). No
doubt, not all in this crowd were authentic disciples. Many were likely among
those who later “went back, and walked no more with him” (John 6:66). But his
true disciples were also there (perhaps including Matthew the tax collector,
who was later called; see Matt 9:9).
This teaching is for followers of Christ. It is insider
communication. When we read, study, and meditate upon this sermon, we, like
those first disciples, are seated at the feet of the Lord Jesus as he opens his
mouth to teach us.
Lord, help us to listen.
Grace and peace, Pastor Jeff Riddle
I
was listening to the “In Our Time” podcast on Marcus Aurelius the other day and
one of the panelists made the observation that upper class Romans often preferred
speaking Greek to Latin. He noted that although in Shakespeare’s Julius Caesar the dictator’s final words are “Et tu, Brute?”, it is more likely that he said,
καὶ σύ, τέκνον; (“You also, child?”). See this Wikipedia
article.
I
thought I’d add this anecdote to my repertoire when explaining why the NT was written in
Greek (the lingua franca of the early Roman empirical period) rather than in Latin.
JTR
Image: Ruins of a first century synagogue in Galilee (Northern Israel), discovered in 2016. Did the Lord Jesus ever teach here?
Note: Devotion taken from last Sunday's sermon on Matthew 4:23-25.
And Jesus went about all Galilee, teaching in
their synagogues, and preaching the gospel of the kingdom, and healing
all manner of sickness and all manner of diseases among the people (Matthew
4:23).
First, Christ came as
a teacher. He came to bring knowledge of God’s will, of God’s
law, of God’s Spirit, and knowledge simply of God himself. He taught the woman
at the well, “God is a spirit: and they that worship him must worship him in
spirit and in truth” (John 4:24).
Christ was called by
the title of “Teacher” throughout his ministry, both by his disciples and his
detractors (cf. Matt 8:19; 9:11; 12:38; 17:24; 19:16; 22:16, 24, 36; 23:8; 26:18).
This is a reminder
that the Christian faith involves knowledge, the mind and the intellect. Christ
will teach that you should love God “with all thy mind” (Matt 22:37; cf. Rom
12:2).
One wag has said that
an “open mind” is like an open mouth; if it never clamps down on something of
substance it will starve to death.
Geerhardus Vos is
reported to have said, “Theology is a means of grace.” God is not only pleased
when we think rightly about him, but he also uses our thinking or theologizing
about him as a means to prosper us spiritually.
Second, Christ came as
a preacher. Matthew says he came “preaching [kerusso] the
gospel of the kingdom.” Christ came as a herald of the gospel (the good news)
of the kingdom (the rule and reign of God).
Mathew had already
described the early preaching ministry of Christ as a call to repentance and an
announcement that the kingdom of heaven is at hand (4:17; cf. 3:12).
What gospel did Christ
proclaim? His death, burial, resurrection, and resurrection appearances (cf. 1
Cor 15:1-5). He preached the gospel even before he went to the cross (see Matt
16:21)!
Third, Christ came as
a healer: He came “healing all manner of diseases sickness and
all manner of disease among the people.”
The statement is
proven out by the Gospel accounts. He healed those with leprosy, with fevers,
with withered hands, with paralysis, with blindness, with issues of blood,
those unable to speak, those tormented by evil spirits. He even raised men from
the dead.
These miracles (and
others in which he demonstrated his power over nature itself, by turning water
into wine, stilling storms, walking on waves, feeding five thousand, etc.) all
show or demonstrate his authority over all things.
This was Christ’s threefold
ministry at his first advent, and this ministry continues in the body of Christ
(cf. 1 Cor 12:27) in this present age. We are called to teach God’s Word (cf.
Matt 28:20); to preach the gospel (cf. 2 Tim 4:1-5); and to be agents of his healing
(cf. James 5:13-16).
Grace and peace,
Pastor Jeff Riddle
