Forgiven

Matthew 9:1-8

   For Matthew 9:1-8, which records an event also witnessed in Luke 5:17-26, I dive right into the main message.  The message: Jesus forgave the sins of the man.  The personal message: Jesus offers the forgiveness of sins to anyone.

   Though not a comfortable topic, the issue of sin is central to both the need of people and the mission of Jesus, because sin is what caused the separation of people from God, and the atoning sacrifice of Jesus is what will bring the redemption of a person so that he or she can be forgiven and united with God.

   I do add that Jesus forgave this man of his sins prior to when He died as the atonement for sins on the cross.  Whether it was simply temporary forgiveness, or eternal forgiveness by the atonement on the cross in advance, I do not know.  Yet Jesus had authority to forgive sins, just as He said.  The bottom line is Scripture reveals the atonement made by Jesus on the cross is permanent for any person who receives Christ.  The atonement made by Jesus on the cross was not confined by time or space.  All people before the time of Christ could be saved (see 1 Peter 3:18-20).  All people at that moment could be saved.  And all people until judgment day have an opportunity to be saved (see Acts 16:31).  To be saved, a person must believe in Jesus.

Hunter

   Please join me in considering one sin you have done recently.  After thinking of one, you can ask God for forgiveness for that wrong doing.

   And if you would like, close this time by saying the Lord’s Prayer:

Our Father

who art in heaven

hallowed be thy name

Thy kingdom come

thy will be done

on earth as it is in heaven.

Give us this day our daily bread

and forgive us our sins

as we forgive those who sin against us.

And lead us not into temptation

but deliver us from evil

For thine is the kingdom

and the power

and the glory

forever and ever.

Amen.

Humbly ask for help

Matthew 8:23-27   Then he got into the boat and his disciples followed him.  Without warning, a furious storm came up on the lake, so that the waves swept over the boat.  But Jesus was sleeping.  The disciples went and woke him, saying, “Lord, save us! We’re going to drown!”

He replied, “You of little faith, why are you so afraid?”

Then he got up and rebuked the winds and the waves, and it was completely calm.  The men were amazed and asked, “What kind of man is this?  Even the winds and the waves obey him!” (NIV)

Why would Jesus lecture His disciples who were pleading for help?

I think what they were doing was smart.

   The problem was not the fact they were asking for help, though granted they seemed to be demanding help.  But such emotions are natural when there is a crisis.  The problem Jesus identified was their mode of fear and despair.  Reacting to desperate circumstances in a mode of despair only makes things worse.  But if things look hopeless, fear and despair are natural.  Why not fear?  Because God is willing to help.

   Honestly, for years the response of Jesus seemed to me to be a bit harsh.  I did not understand why He was being so critical of His disciples in such a life or death situation.  Yet I think Jesus wanted them to be certain, and for us to be certain, of a critical fact: He is God.  He was sleeping in the boat, being fully human.  Yet Jesus stopped the wind and the waves, the One who is fully God, One with the Father and the Holy Spirit.

   The disciples asked the right question: “What kind of man is this?”  The answer is He was Immanuel, which means God with us (see Matthew 1:23).  And we can turn to Him.  When desperate, if we humbly come to Jesus and ask for help, there can be goodness, even if it is nothing more than His peace.  Why can we rely on Jesus?  Because He is the One who has overcome the world (see John 16:33).

   All encounter trouble in this world, and desperate circumstances sometime happen.  They have for me.  For some crises, you need to act quickly.  For other crises, ones which are a swelling crisis with potential for terrible long term consequences, you need to invest time pondering the situation in order to make a careful decision.  A person with a heart humbled by God will be able to make a wiser decision.  I will speak for myself and say I sometimes still make mistakes when the pressure is on.  Yet rather than getting upset with Jesus, goodness results when we ask Him for help.

   You will be more prepared for future crises, which often come when we least expect them, if you keep soaking in two truths of Jesus.  First, if you believe in Jesus as your Savior and Lord, your soul has been saved from spiritual death, and you have eternal life.  Jesus is God the Son, and Jesus saves.  Second, if you believe in Jesus as your Savior and Lord, Jesus is spiritually with you!  Jesus wants to guide and encourage you daily, and Jesus is available to help you!  We can humbly, and even quickly, ask God for help.

   To celebrate my vaccination I went to a great water park in the Denver metro area.  Though unemployed, and though all by myself, I made it happen.  After a year of social distancing, there I was with numerous unmasked people outside at a neat place on a sunny Colorado day ready to have fun.

   Being excited, I waded into the giant wave pool.  When the wave machine was turned off, which they do every so many minutes to give people a rest, I went out to the deep end, where few people were, to swim around and tread water.  To give an example of my swimming history, during a period of my life in the past decade, I swam strong for about one mile every week at a recreation center.  Yet being older now, I do not have the stamina I had even a few years ago.  And I had not been to a pool since the pandemic was declared.  Treading water there in the calm wave pool, I could tell my stamina was lower.

   Then the buzzer sounded and the wave maker was turned back on.  Tired after treading water, all of the sudden I was dealing with waves which were too much for me to handle.  I had not even considered the waves would be so much more challenging in the deep end.  I had even thought they would be easier to deal with compared to back where they “broke,” as was the case at the beach I went to in my childhood.  Yet a wave pool is different.  Those powerful swelling waves required intense treading, and much stamina, which I did not have.

   Suddenly I realized I was not going to be able to handle those waves much longer.  It was a moment of realistic panic.  Fortunately, in that moment of crisis I made a humble decision: Head to the emergency steps, those steps at the side of the pool there in the deep end.  I had never seen anyone use those steps the time I was at that water park years before.  Yet I realized I needed help, and those steps were help.  In retrospect I praise God, because thanks to the vast work He has done in my heart over many years, I am someone who is incredibly more humble than I was years ago.

   Slowly swimming towards the steps while working to rise over the waves, I got one gulp of water from a wave I did not completely clear.  Fortunately I drank the water rather than inhaling.  It was scary, because I was weak enough where I could have gone under had I inhaled water.  They have top-notch lifeguards, but I would not have even been capable of yelling up the large wall to her while coughing and weak.  Yet I was soon at the steps, safe.  I made a terrible mistake, yet a humble response resulted in a happy ending.

   Sometimes even Christians make mistakes where there is no safe way out and which lead to tragic consequences.  However, for those who believe in Jesus, He has promised He will be with us always (see Matthew 28:20).

Hunter Irvine

The song “Be Still My Soul” is a grand illustration of this passage.  Over six years ago I added a link to this live version by Selah, and I do so again.  It is a classic.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wUnil3wo-js

Prepare for life

Matthew 8:21-22   Another disciple said to him, “Lord, first let me go and bury my father.”

But Jesus told him, “Follow me, and let the dead bury their own dead” (NIV).

   Father’s Day was one week ago, and this sure seems like the opposite of a caring Father’s Day message or a caring any other day message.  However, carefully examining this passage we can learn the message of Jesus is a life giving and caring message.  One important context point here: I read years ago from a scholar or minister that the expression “bury my father” probably meant the man’s father was elderly, thus the request was to go and be with his father for a number of months or years in preparation for the man’s death.

   So the message of Jesus: Death is not to be our focus.  Life is to be our focus.

   Thus, Jesus needs to be our core devotion!

   Death is not to be what we are preparing for in this world!  Waiting for the inevitable, physical death, is not to be the mode of a Christian.  I personally committed to ministering to my Grandma in her last five years in this world.  Quite the unique “ministry” for a single man in my thirties, yet it was simply the “ministry” I accepted and gave my all to.  Grandma was not very mobile, yet for us, those years were not a time of waiting or preparing for death.  Instead we lived.  Since she did not drive, and since she could not walk far, I would take her out to eat at her favorite restaurant and a huge variety of other restaurants.  I would take her on drives, and she would be able to see places she had not seen in many years.  I would watch sports with her, frankly over doing it on that activity.  And for a period of time when I was not working as a youth pastor, I took her to church.  We had the privilege of learning from my favorite preacher of all time, Dr. David Beckman.  They were years of living!

   Had I been married and thus unable to make that huge commitment for so many years, I could have still expressed love to her, such as taking her out to eat and for a drive on special occasions.  Your expression of love to family and friends, including any assistance, is between you and God.  Yet we can always care, and we can always be witnessing Christ in our own personal way.

   I add Jesus was not instructing the man to skip his dad’s memorial service.  The man’s dad was probably not going to die any second, or the man would not have even been there in the first place.  When family and friends pass away, God wants us to mourn.  In fact, that is the only healthy response.

   Yet key to this passage is the statement by Jesus: “Follow me.”  Why?  Because we can only engage in life in this world full of frustrations and hurts by relying on Jesus.  Jesus is the One who has given believers in Him eternal life.  In following Jesus day by day, we will continue to be a light for Christ to those who are spiritually lost and perishing.  And only Jesus enables us to have genuine joy and peace.  It is imperative that Jesus is your core devotion in order for you to engage in healthy ministry work.  A person whose heart is completely devoted to Jesus can encourage elderly people to flourish in a relationship with Christ.

   I could not have helped grandma as I did without help from Jesus.  Honestly there were times when circumstances seemed hopeless, yet Jesus carried me through.  And when things were going smooth, Jesus enabled me to have fun with grandma, someone who had little fun over many previous years.  We followers of Jesus can engage in life now, and look forward to heaven to come.

Hunter Irvine

The home of Jesus

Matthew 8:19-20   Then a teacher of the law came to him and said, “Teacher, I will follow you wherever you go.”

Jesus replied, “Foxes have holes and birds of the air have nests, but the Son of Man has no place to lay his head” (NIV).

Jesus was not at home in this world!  Being holy and being one with the Father, He was not at home.

The kingdom of heaven is the home of Jesus!

Jesus went home when He ascended into heaven.

And when Jesus comes to reign on earth, and then renews both heaven and earth, both heaven and earth will be His home, and the home of all of His children.

And the Lord God Almighty; Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, will reign forever!

Hunter Irvine

Decision for Jesus

   God has offered all people an opportunity for eternal life in Christ, and each person is allowed to make his or her own decision.  In Matthew 8:28-34 and Luke 8:26-39, we learn of the event where Jesus entered the region of the Gadarenes (or Gerasenes).  In that region, there were two men who were possessed by demons.  Luke focuses specifically on the one man who was possessed by numerous demons.  These men lived in tombs and were violent.  The result of the encounter with these two men possessed by demons was that Jesus ordered the demons to leave the men and go into a herd of pigs.  The possessed pigs then ran down a steep bank into the lake and they all died.

   This event seems rather bizarre, yet this event exposes the sins of the people in that region.  First, the region of Gadarenes was in the territory of what use to be Israel.  A combination of people who were Jewish and people who were not Jewish probably lived there.  Yet one thing is for sure: Jewish people were not supposed to be eating bacon, ham, or pork chops.  The law given by God through Moses prohibited eating pig meat as is stated in Leviticus 11:7-8 and Deuteronomy 14:8.  Those pig herders were probably not raising pigs for pets.  They were going to sell the meat.  I am convinced this is why Jesus allowed the demons to go into the pigs.

   The end result was the two men were rescued from the demons.  Luke details how the one demon possessed man was healed.  “…When they came to Jesus, they found the man from whom the demons had gone out, sitting at Jesus’ feet, dressed and in his right mind…” (Luke 8:35).  But the people were not grateful.  Instead, the end of that verse reveals their response: “…they were afraid” (Luke 8:35).  Their response resulted in them asking Jesus to leave.  “Then the whole town went out to meet Jesus.  And when they saw him, they pleaded with him to leave their region” (Matthew 8:34).  And from Luke: “Then all the people of the region of the Gerasenes asked Jesus to leave them, because they were overcome with fear… (Luke 8:37).

   What did Jesus do?  “…So he got into the boat and left” (Luke 8:37).  Tragically, those people put their cash crop or other sins over being with Jesus.  And Jesus honored their decision to reject Him.

   We people have a choice today still.  Jesus does not force Himself upon anyone in a spiritual manner just as He did not force Himself upon the people in the region of the Gerasenes.  You can be with Jesus or you can reject Him.  Receiving Jesus through faith results in eternal life, and rejection of Jesus results in spiritual death.  Why?  Because we all need God our creator for everlasting life.  And Jesus is God the Son who came into the world to save people.

   Rejection of Jesus in this world continued to the extent of Jesus being murdered on a cross.  Yet it fulfilled the mission of Jesus who died on a cross for the forgiveness of sins of anyone.  Jesus was the sacrificial atonement for the consequence of sins which is spiritual death.  Then Jesus was resurrected.  If you believe in Jesus as your Savior and Lord, you will have eternal life in Christ.  Thanks to Jesus, you have the opportunity to be saved from your sins.  What you need to do to be saved is believe in Jesus.

Hunter Irvine

+ Thank You Jesus for giving us all the opportunity to believe in You and thus be saved from our sins, and thus be with You forever.  Personally, may I be grateful daily that I have been saved.

It is through Your loving name Jesus I pray.  Amen.

Reasons to improve sermons

   Why should sermons be retained as a part of a worship service?

   First, Jesus instructed: “And the gospel must first be preached to all nations” (Mark 13:10).  Preaching is needed!  Peter preached; one example is recorded in Acts 2:14-40.  Paul preached; one example is recorded in Acts 13:16-41.  Carried out by many Christians for nearly two thousand years, preaching has even crossed denominational borders, though with countless styles.

   Second, preaching is a spiritual gift.  Paul stated to Timothy, “Until I come, devote yourself to the public reading of Scripture, to preaching and to teaching.  Do not neglect your gift…” (I Timothy 4:13-14).

   I do sympathize with people who are discouraged by the preaching in their church.  For example, I am an interactive learner.  A college professor who talked on and on usually did not engage me personally.  Still I would take notes in class, and then carefully study the notes before the test so I would get a good grade.  However, I was not learning much for the long haul.  Whereas when learning from a professor who asked questions, often termed the Socratic method, I would be more actively engaged since I could participate in discussion.  Thus I was far more likely to remember the material.  I need engagement!

   Regarding the improvement of preaching during worship, I offer two suggestions.

   First, make sermons shorter!  It is easy to say, but hard to do.  This is my personal goal as a preacher.  When I prepare a sermon, I immerse myself in that passage for one week.  Thus I become capable of giving a long sermon.  But the listeners have not been pondering the passage all week.  And if too much information is given, they may retain little.  Thus the best I can give listeners is a single message.  And the more I prepare, the more capable I become for giving a smoother and shorter sermon.

   Second, provide other opportunities for interaction.  In my next position, I want to implement a short time during the worship where people get into discussion groups of three or so, and give some insight between one another regarding the Scripture passage.  This is a radical idea, which I have never seen carried out in a worship service.  But I read this suggestion from a woman in a short article on the Internet, and I want to try it.  I think it has the potential of making worship more interesting or fun for many people.

   Even though I advocate shorter sermons and more interaction during a service, the bottom line is preaching is needed!  If you preach, give it your all!

Hunter Irvine

Be yourself when doing ministry work!

    I learned a critical lesson about church in my first youth minister position: Be yourself!

After I resigned that position, I wrote that statement on a sheet of paper, and here over twenty years later I still have that sheet of paper.

   You are a person created by God who is unique from any other person ever created, physically and spiritually.  God wants you to be the person He created you to be!  God abhors sin, since sin only interferes with you being the person He created you to be.  And God does not want church leaders or people in the congregation stifling your unique personality, your God given gifts, or your calling from God.

   I love preaching!  When I preach, it is totally personal, because I am conveying messages from God from Scripture, and those messages are coming from my heart.  Thus in pouring out my heart, I must be “me.”

   Once I tried to be someone different.  My first day of high school, I was a new kid in school since I had gone to a different junior high school in the district where my family use to live.  Taking the suggestion of a friend in junior high, I decided to try and create a new image.  I was going to be cool.  I did not have a plan ahead of time for being cool, but that is what I was aiming for.  Coming up with a last minute plan which I probably could not even have articulated, I started trying to be the strong silent type, since that was my perception of cool, from TV probably.  I was miserable.  Slowly, I went back to being “me,” which is to be joyful and loud.  Trying to be someone different, not only was I miserable, but my attempted image did not help me in a single relationship.  My relationships with other students only were good when I was “myself.”  Great relationships are genuine.

   Likewise, a preacher needs to be totally himself or herself with listeners, so they may know who you really are in order to accept the sincerity of your message.  Be yourself when you preach, and people will have the opportunity to recognize the sincerity of your preaching from your heart.

   God works so we may keep personally improving, and as with any spiritual gift, God works to improve our preaching.  Yet in being yourself, you will be a genuine preacher.

Hunter