All About Him

In Luke 12:13-21 we see a familiar and contemporary struggle – a family fighting over inheritance money. My extended family has had a drama like this. Maybe you can relate.

“Someone in the crowd said to him, “Teacher, tell my brother to divide the inheritance with me.” But he said to him, “Man, who made me a judge or arbitrator over you?” And he said to them, “Take care, and be on your guard against all covetousness, for one’s life does not consist in the abundance of his possessions.” And he told them a parable, saying, “The land of a rich man produced plentifully, and he thought to himself, ‘What shall I do, for I have nowhere to store my crops?’ And he said, ‘I will do this: I will tear down my barns and build larger ones, and there I will store all my grain and my goods. And I will say to my soul, Soul, you have ample goods laid up for many years; relax, eat, drink, be merry.’ But God said to him, ‘Fool! This night your soul is required of you, and the things you have prepared, whose will they be?’ So is the one who lays up treasure for himself and is not rich toward God.” (Luke 12:13-21)

In this parable, Jesus describes a man who is living the American dream. He has had a windfall crop; so much grain that he doesn’t know what to do with it all. In our world, our company is bought out and we get a windfall. A stock we own goes through the roof. The point is that here is a man who suddenly is rich toward earth. Notice what he’s thinking and what he’s not thinking. He’s not thinking, What good can I do with this? Who can I help? How can I give back to God? His only thoughts are for himself. Eat, drink, be merry. Relax. Retire. Just sit back and count my money. He’s living the American dream.

But wait – there’s something he doesn’t see. He doesn’t realize that that very night is his last. Now what happens to all that money? Does he take it with him? What is it worth now?

Jesus calls him a fool, but realize why. It’s not because he was rich. The Bible never condemns the accumulation of wealth or financial success. It does condemn living for it and being foolish with it, which in this parable, is his failure to understand what real worth is. Death reveals the stupidity of his life.

Is anyone out there being stupid? Is there anyone out there who Jesus would point to and call a fool? Is anyone out there assessing things like the rich man, living so foolishly merely for the here and now? “Fool! This night your soul is required of you, and the things you have prepared, whose will they be?” (Luke 12:20)

The answer to that question is, NOT his. It seems about every week there is some successful person in our culture who dies. This week it’s Hall of Famer Gary Carter. Last week it was Whitney Houston. Steve Appleton of Micron Tech died in a plane crash…Etta James…Joe Paterno. Every week someone rich and famous dies. Remember I said that for whomever it is this week.

What do you think about when you hear it? I often think about what the death moment is like for someone who has lived in luxury and fame. What is it like to go from that to being face to face with God? To be suddenly ushered into an eternal destiny? Eternal life or death? Heaven or hell? To look at your life from the perspective of eternity and what could have been. As Ryle said, “Hell is truth discovered too late.” How many millions must there be in eternity thinking, “What a fool I was!”?

May I ask you, are you laying up treasure in heaven? Are you rich toward God?

Scripture quotations are taken from The Holy Bible, English Standard Version, copyright © 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a division of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

©Steve DeWitt. You are permitted and encouraged to reproduce and distribute this material in any format provided that: (1) you credit the author, (2) any modifications are clearly marked, (3) you do not charge a fee beyond the cost of reproduction, (4) you include Bethel’s website address (www.bethelweb.org) on the copied resource.

To hear the message of this excerpt in its entirety, click here

There has never been, nor will there ever be in all of human history, a greater personal failure against Jesus AND a greater complete restoration than Simon Peter.

How do we feel on the other side of the failure, or the betrayal, or the sin?

• Can God really forgive me?
• Will it ever be the same again?
• Can my conscience ever be clean again?
• In God’s eyes, am I a second-class citizen because of what I have done?

Peter’s story has to be utterly hope-giving to us as his failure was greater than ours can ever be. Yet even with this failure, he is not only reinstated, but fully so to eventual apostleship, to preaching the first sermon on Pentecost, to introducing the gospel to the Gentile world, and to the authorship of parts of the Scripture you hold in your hand today.

“The fact that Peter was clearly forgiven by Jesus and given new responsibilities, amounting to apostleship, despite his total denial of his Lord, can give genuine hope to Christians today who feel that they have denied Jesus and that this is unforgiveable. He calls only for our repentance and our love.”^[1]

God can’t use me. I’ve done this or that. God’s done with me. I’ve failed him so badly.

How does your failure compare to Peter’s? It certainly can’t be worse, can it? Can Jesus restore someone like you? If he can restore Peter, then he can restore you.

©2012 by Steve DeWitt. You are permitted and encouraged to reproduce and distribute this material in any format provided that: (1) you credit the author, (2) any modifications are clearly marked, (3) you do not charge a fee beyond the cost of reproduction, (4) you include Bethel’s website address (www.bethelweb.org) on the copied resource.

To hear the message of this excerpt in its entirety, click here

Peter’s actions have nothing to do with the macro themes of Christ and his cross or his death for us. It could be removed and we would still have the gospel and a clear Christology. Why include what’s going on in the courtyard with Peter when the real story is in the house with Jesus?

Peter pictures our weaknesses and highlights the strength and courage of Christ

The courtyard and the house are a kind of parable of human weakness and divine strength.

The Courtyard                                  The House

Peter                                                           Jesus

I will die for you                                    I will die for you

Fear                                                            Courage

Deception                                                Truth

Betrayal                                                    Faithfulness

Failure                                                       Success

The point is not that we should be like Jesus in the house and not like Peter in the courtyard, but that we are by nature like Peter. This realization ought to cause us to look at the One in the house and realize that he is utterly worthy of adoration. We see Jesus’ story continue from the house to Pilate’s judgment to the flogging and ultimately to the cross. The courage Jesus displayed and his willing obedience to the Father’s will – even to death – shows in stark contrast who we are and who he is.

I read this week that the actor Mark Wahlberg said that if on 9/11 he had been in one of the planes, the outcome would have been much different. He later apologized, but don’t we do that? Don’t we imagine ourselves the hero in the story? Don’t we picture ourselves as Jesus instead of Peter? This narrative is here to glorify the character of the Son of God. Peter makes Jesus look good.

What does an honest assessment of ourselves reveal? We are just as flaky as Peter. As our church doctrinal statement says, We are sinners by nature and by action. But praise God there is One in the house who is faithful and true, courageous and unbending, obedient unto death. We don’t die for him, he dies for us!

© 2012 by Steve DeWitt. You are permitted and encouraged to reproduce and distribute this material in any format provided that: (1) you credit the author, (2) any modifications are clearly marked, (3) you do not charge a fee beyond the cost of reproduction, (4) you include Bethel’s website address (www.bethelweb.org) on the copied resource.

To hear the message of this excerpt in its entirety, click here

Here we are in the Christmas season; a season that seems to begin earlier and earlier each year. How long have Christmas decorations been up at the mall? If you were from another planet and came to our country and observed our whole country celebrating Christmas in the manner we do, what might you think? You may ask someone, “So what does this word “Christmas” mean?”

“Well, it’s a compound word. “Christ” and the ancient “mass,” which was The Lord’s Supper. Christ is the biblical title for Jesus and the Lord’s Supper celebrates what he did dying for us. So the word Christmas means “celebrating Jesus who came to save us.”

“What are these decorations everywhere for?”

“Our culture celebrates Jesus coming to save us.”

“What about all these songs I hear in the background of the stores?”

“They are songs about Jesus like, ‘O holy Night the stars are brightly shining/it is the night of our dear Savior’s birth’ or ‘Joy to the World! the Lord has come…let heaven and nature sing…’”

“Interesting…So are all the people shopping for presents at the mall and all the people decorating their homes with Christmas lights and all the people you pass real believers in Jesus?”

“No! Are you kidding? It’s one giant celebration of something most of us don’t really believe.”

Something’s clearly not getting through to our culture. Seeing but not seeing. Hearing but not hearing. Knowing but not understanding. That is what unbelief is – the suppression of truth that could save, but it doesn’t and therefore, it can’t.

Another example of modern unbelief is Christopher Hitchens (pictured below). You may have seen in the news that Hitchens died on Thursday. You may or may not know who he is. He and Richard Dawkins are the two most well-known modern day atheists. He was a brilliant writer and thinker and held many debates with evangelicals. Hitchens understood Christianity. In fact, he probably understood it better than most Christians. But that didn’t mean that he believed it.

A few years ago a film was made of a series of debates between Hitchens and Pastor Douglas Wilson, entitled “Collision.” The movie ends with the two of them in the back of a limo and Hitchens, the famous atheist, says this:

“If I could convert everyone in the world – not convert, if I could convince – to be a non-believer and I’d really done brilliantly, and there’s only one left, one more, and then it’d be done – there’d be no more religion in the world, no more deism, theism, I wouldn’t do it…I don’t quite know why I wouldn’t do it. And it’s not just because there’d be…no one left to argue with. It’s not just that, though it would be that. Somehow if I could drive it out of the world, I wouldn’t.”

In these words we hear the most famous and articulate atheist of our time groping in the darkness of his unbelief for something he instinctively knew he needed.

Where are you today? Missing heaven by 12 inches (the distance between your head and your heart)? What is needed is what Jesus said in John 12:36, While you have the light, believe in the Light. Jesus is that light. May you believe fully and truly in him today.

The flip side of this is that for genuine believers here today, we are reminded of God’s gracious act in allowing us to see who Christ is and to believe in him. Who can boast? Who can say, “Look at me”? What do we have that God has not given to us? Let’s allow this reminder to humble us and rekindle in our hearts the wonder that God would show such love to us.

Scripture quotations are taken from The Holy Bible, English Standard Version, copyright © 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a division of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

© 2011 Steve DeWitt. You are permitted and encouraged to reproduce and distribute this material in any format provided that: (1) you credit the author, (2) any modifications are clearly marked, (3) you do not charge a fee beyond the cost of reproduction.

To hear the message of this excerpt in its entirety, click here

It is either lunacy or the great hope for mankind

I often think of those who may be visiting with us as either seeking answers for life’s hard questions or skeptics who sit here wondering what the big deal is. Jesus’ statement here is one that makes it hard to admire Jesus in a kind of religious sense without it driving you to a very personal decision about who He is. Who says things like, “I am the resurrection and the life?” Such a claim is so absurd unless you are who? God. Only God could make a claim like this and the conditional clause of “whoever believes” forces us to internalize our admiration in what the Bible calls “saving faith.”

I don’t see how people can admire Jesus generally, not with statements like this. He is either a madman, in which case you wouldn’t want to admire anything about Him, OR He is who He claims to be – eternal God, giver and sustainer of life eternal for all who believe in Him. It is impossible to rationally sit on the fence about Jesus. So like Jesus said to Martha, I ask you, do you believe?

Jesus’ promise is nothing less than an indestructible, eternal life

Of all the “I am” statements, this one is the most dramatic because it is filled with the most far reaching promise. To believe in Jesus is to be promised by God an indestructible life. The skeptic will quickly say, “Christians die.” Yes. But so did Lazarus and Jesus resurrected Him as a demonstration of His power to raise the dead.

How can this be anything less than about the most wonderful news we could ever hear? For the natural man, death is a nightmare unbroken by a dawn. Death is emptiness. It is the absence of everything, including everything I value and want from beauty to love, to family, to relationships, and even deeper to my personhood and whether anything matters at all.

I was recently asked to speak at a high school that was dealing with a suicide. The condition was that I could not mention or insinuate anything about God or the gospel or faith, and definitely not Jesus. As I considered it, I couldn’t think of anything I would say. How do you speak hope into a grieving student body filled with young people asking very personal questions, like “What really matters?” “Why did this happen?” “What will death mean to me?” I declined the offer.

The only thing I know to say is what Jesus said at a funeral so many years ago, “I am the resurrection and the life.” There’s hope in that. There’s hope in Him. I couldn’t say it at the high school, but I can say it here, and I can say it to you. The question is, like for Martha, do you believe this?

Scripture quotations are taken from The Holy Bible, English Standard Version, copyright © 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a division of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

©Steve DeWitt. You are permitted and encouraged to reproduce and distribute this material in any format provided that: (1) you credit the author, (2) any modifications are clearly marked, (3) you do not charge a fee beyond the cost of reproduction, (4) you include Bethel’s website address (www.bethelweb.org) on the copied resource.

To hear the message of this excerpt in its entirety, click here

There are 41 verses in this chapter, how many of them are about the healing itself? Two. The point of the chapter is not that Jesus heals (although that is wonderful); it is about light and darkness, blindness and seeing. It is wonderfully written to juxtapose what unbelief (blindness) looks like and what belief (seeing) looks like.

Pharisees                                              Blind Man

Jesus is not from God                         Jesus is a prophet

He doesn’t keep our rules                 He comes from God

Jesus is a sinner                                    He is the Son of Man

We are disciples of Moses!               Lord

You were born in sin (not us)         I believe!

We are the experts!

Could the differences be any starker? Light/darkness. Blindness/sight. The twist here is like the movie, The Sixth Sense. The ones everyone thought could see (including themselves) turn out to be the ones who are actually blind. The one who was actually blind turns out to be the only one who can see.

The purpose of the healing of the blind man was to illustrate that Jesus is the Light of the World. His light blinds some and causes others to see.

That is the key here. What is the difference between those who are spiritually blind and those who can spiritually see? Paul writes in 2 Corinthians 4:4-6,

“In their case the god of this world has blinded the minds of the unbelievers, to keep them from seeing the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God. For what we proclaim is not ourselves, but Jesus Christ as Lord, with ourselves as your servants for Jesus’ sake. For God, who said, “Let light shine out of darkness,” has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.” (2 Corinthians 4:4-6)

Remember the progression of the blind man. Healer. Prophet. Son of Man. Lord. Believe. The light of understanding and faith unveiled Jesus’ true identity. But for the Pharisees, the light blinded them and their willful and almost humorous unwillingness to believe shows just how blind they are. That is the meaning of verse 39, Jesus said, “For judgment I came into this world, that those who do not see may see, and those who see may become blind.”

“He is the real light which shows up the hidden motives and the darkest secrets of men. The inevitable consequence of His presence in the world is a separation between those who claim to have religious insight though they are in fact spiritually blind, and those who, conscious that they are blinded by sin, pray that they may be giving the sight of which the sin inherent in their nature has robbed them.” (Tasker, John, p. 121.)

Look at the progression of the blind man:

Prophet                      I admire Him

Sent from God         I think He is more than human

Son of Man               I believe He is God

Lord                            I submit and personally believe in Him

I am a part of cohort of pastors that meets in Dallas. These pastors all pastor churches our size and larger and are around my age. We get together every six months. I was there this past week. On my way home I had a businessman sit next to me on the plane for the one-hour flight from Dallas to Kansas City. Right away we got to talking. We started with football. He was from Kansas City, so we talked Chiefs and Bears. We got rolling along pretty good as airplane conversations go; this in spite of him using more profanity in that one hour than I’ve heard in the last decade. Nearly every sentence and every other word or so was bleep…bleep…bleep…English word…bleep…bleep…bleep.

He eventually asked me, “What do you do for a living?” I told him I was a pastor. I have found most people can magically turn off the profanity. It didn’t stop this guy at all. It opened him up. He had gone through a divorce recently. He had a college roommate recently commit suicide. This went on for a while. He went on to tell about another buddy. Remember, this whole time it’s… Blankety blank, blankety blank. This buddy of his was really struggling. He said, “I told him to do what I’ve done. He needed to go to church.” I didn’t know whether to laugh or not. Go to church? You’ve used Jesus’ name as profanity multiple times in the last ten minutes but the solution is to go to church?

Jesus is the Light of the World meaning that the light of His life and teaching and death on the cross for sin – the whole thing unveils Him, but also unveils us. It shows us for who we really are. By His light do we see Him as prophet, God, and Lord leading to “I believe” OR are we blinded to His majesty and refuse to submit to His Lordship? That’s seeing. Can you see Him for who He is today? Do the words of the formerly blind man resonate in your heart, “Lord, I believe!”

For believers here, where are we in the story? Disciples? Nope. Townsfolk? Nope. Pharisees? I hope not. Each Christian here is illustrated in this story by the blind man. We are born spiritually blind and without the light of the gospel of Jesus, we would die blind to Him. But Jesus is a healer and is light and He has given light and sight to all who see Him as prophet, God, and Lord. Christian, I want you to see yourself in the story. A beggar. Without resource. Without hope. And one day, by the hearing of the gospel, Jesus came along your path and caused you to see. Let’s rejoice in a Savior who puts mud on the eyes of the blind and causes us to see.

 Amazing Grace – how sweet the sound – that saved a wretch like me!/I once was lost but now am found/Was blind but now I see.

Scripture quotations are taken from The Holy Bible, English Standard Version, copyright © 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a division of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

©Steve DeWitt. You are permitted and encouraged to reproduce and distribute this material in any format provided that: (1) you credit the author, (2) any modifications are clearly marked, (3) you do not charge a fee beyond the cost of reproduction, (4) you include Bethel’s website address (www.bethelweb.org) on the copied resource.

To hear the message of this excerpt in its entirety, click here

A virtual visit of Jesus’ Jerusalem. Check it out!

What is Jesus Saying and What Was the Feeding of 15,000 Really All About?

The miracle of the multiplying bread pictures the salvation Christ offers in Himself as the Bread of Life:

Bread                      His body
Broken                   Crucifixion
Multiplied             Atonement offered and applied
Crowd                    Mankind
Requirement        Hunger
Eating                    Believing/personal receiving
Satisfaction          Fullness/completeness of Christ
Extra bread          His all-sufficiency

When Jesus said, “I am the bread of life,” it didn’t mean He was a baker, it means He is a Savior. Hungry people the world over eat bread with an understanding of what the bread inside their stomach means. Take it. Believe it will satisfy. Place it in your mouth. Chew it. Savor it. Bring it into you inwardly by swallowing. Feel its satisfaction of hunger. This is what the crowd didn’t understand. Their thoughts toward Jesus were material and fleeting. They were just about their bellies being filled. Jesus as their King was a means to their superficial need.

People still seek Jesus in the same way. They experience need in a wilderness experience of their life. Life is difficult. Life is hard. They feel desperation and seek Jesus to fix or heal or meet some temporary need. They pray for God’s help. That’s good and we should do that. But if that is all we seek, we are like the Jews who simply wanted their bellies filled. Jesus didn’t die for our hunger, He died for our sins and to save us from God’s righteous judgment of them. “I am the bread of life” had nothing to do with empty stomachs but had everything to do with empty hearts and souls.

“I am the bread of life.” I am the broken and multiplied Savior of the world. That’s what the miracle was about. The boy provided the bread, but it had to be broken and multiplied to meet the needs of the many.

That is what it means for Jesus to be the Bread of Life. His mission. His love for mankind. His willingness to be personally broken that His death in our place could be multiplied over and over again across the centuries, even to us here today. He is the Bread of Life, which can be received by faith into the soul and will satisfy our spiritual hunger forever. Sinners are hungry people – hungry for forgiveness; hungry for life – eternal life.

Like the manna in the Old Testament, it wasn’t about the bread, it was about Him. In fact, I wonder, what was Jesus thinking as He broke the bread, over and over and over again? This is my body which is broken for you. And this. And this. And this. Over and over. Every tear and every piece was a picture of Jesus’ body broken on the cross.

“I am the Bread of Life” implies a final question, is He your Bread of Life? Every man, woman and child in the crowd that day was a picture of this room as well. Jesus offers Himself like bread to us. Each one of us must decide if we believe He is the source of eternal life. Are you hungry for Him? Will you personally receive Him by faith as Savior?

Scripture quotations are taken from The Holy Bible, English Standard Version, copyright © 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a division of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

©Steve DeWitt. You are permitted and encouraged to reproduce and distribute this material in any format provided that: (1) you credit the author, (2) any modifications are clearly marked, (3) you do not charge a fee beyond the cost of reproduction, (4) you include Bethel’s website address (www.bethelweb.org) on the copied resource.

To hear the message of this excerpt in its entirety, click here