Let’s look at verses 32-33 today:

“Now learn the parable from the fig tree: when its branch has already become tender and puts forth its leaves, you know that summer is near; so, you too, when you see all these things, recognize that He is near, right at the door.”

The world does not seem to offer the believer much good news. Just this week we have seen the political and economic power of an industry bent on the murder of unborn boys and girls. Our own President has abused the power of his office to mandate that, regardless of religious conviction, health centers must offer free birth control. Militant Islam continues to be a dangerous global threat. And oh by the way, pastors and evangelical leaders are increasingly prizing a false unity over the truth and refusing to confront others on their sin and false teaching. The city on a hill that should be shining the light of Jesus to the world is all too frequently hiding itself under a bushel.

Our generation is not alone in lamenting the spirit of its age, but when Jesus says you can see the leaves and know that He is near, it sure seems like we’re getting close. One thing is for sure: We are closer today than we were yesterday.

The bottom line is that Jesus Christ can return for His church at any time. It could be by the time I hit “Publish” on this post, or it could be years, decades, even centuries down the road. Nevertheless, Christ’s return is imminent, and the Scriptures make a big deal about that. It’s important for His people to know that He could come back at any moment. Why?

Well first, obviously, is how it gives us hope. No matter how bad things get here and now, Jesus is coming back. He’s right at the door, and if that were not true, the Bible wouldn’t be true and we would have no hope.

But second, there is practical application in that Jesus’ imminent return ought to be a serious motivating force in all of His children to not merely live in light of the gospel, but proclaim it boldly. It’s a lot easier and more often said than done, but it is no less true. If your thoughts on the return of Christ don’t give you a sense of urgency about proclaiming the gospel to dying people, then you have a faulty doctrine regarding the return of Christ.

So in light of the fact that Jesus could return at any time… hope, but proclaim. Rest, but go. And may the Lord be glorified.

You might not immediately associate the Pharisees of the New Testament with the prosperity gospel preachers of our present day, but they have more in common than you think. Consider verses 25-26:

“Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you clean the outside of the cup and of the dish, but inside they are full of robbery and self-indulgence. You blind Pharisee, first clean the inside of the cup and of the dish, so that the outside of it may become clean also.”

Like the Pharisees whom Jesus encountered, today’s prosperity gospel proponents are all about the exterior. Of course, it’s not limited to those peddlers, but they and their message certainly exemplify religious robbery and self-indulgence, and they, like the Pharisees and Sadducees two millennia ago, took advantage of those who were not them.

Prosperity gospel preachers and others might look good on the outside, but what really counts is what is on the inside. Who cares if the outside of my girls’ milk cups look nice and clean if there is old milk dried up on the inside? We need to take heed to our own hearts and humble ourselves before God. We need to be clean and the only way that happens is if we are in Christ.

This goes for individual Christians and for local churches. A church might be “evangelistically fruitful” as I recently read (i.e., a lot of people go there)… a church might have the slickest presentations and the most charismatic preachers… but if the inside isn’t right… if Christ is not exalted by the truth being boldly proclaimed… well, then, it’s just a dirty milk cup.

Consider verses 34-39:

But when the Pharisees heard that Jesus had silenced the Sadducees, they gathered themselves together.  35 One of them, a lawyer, asked Him a question, testing Him, “Teacher, which is the great commandment in the Law?” And He said to him, “‘YOU SHALL LOVE THE LORD YOUR GOD WITH ALL YOUR HEART, AND WITH ALL YOUR SOUL, AND WITH ALL YOUR MIND.’ This is the great and foremost commandment.The second is like it, ‘YOU SHALL LOVE YOUR NEIGHBOR AS YOURSELF.’ On these two commandments depend the whole Law and the Prophets.”

We take for granted that these are the two greatest commandments and that they are really all-encompassing for all of life (words, thoughts, actions… everything). But what strikes me today as I read this familiar passage once again is that it comes in the context of the enemies of God trying to entrap the Savior. It strikes me that until we are saved even from the presence of sin we are bombarded by traps… sin, strife, entanglements. By faith in Jesus we must press on, to use a Pauline phrase, and love the Lord our God. When we love God with less than our all we will succumb to the traps of Pharisees, Sadducees, the enemies of God today, and our own sinful proclivities.

One more thing. Our day is one in which love has been severed from truth and doctrine. Each week I see or read multiple examples of those who would erect an artificial divide between the two. However, it is worth noting when we read this passage that the love of which Jesus speaks encompasses the Law and the Prophets. In other words, the kind of love He is talking about is grounded in and is the fruit of the Scriptures (i.e., the truth). Truth and love are inseparable in Christ.

This is what Jesus said in verses 28-32:

But what do you think? A man had two sons, and he came to the first and said, ‘Son, go work today in the vineyard.’ And he answered, ‘I will not’; but afterward he regretted it and went. The man came to the second and said the same thing; and he answered, ‘I will, sir’; but he did not go. Which of the two did the will of his father?” They *said, “The first.” Jesus *said to them, “Truly I say to you that athe tax collectors and prostitutes will get into the kingdom of God before you. For John came to you in the way of righteousness and you did not believe him; but the tax collectors and prostitutes did believe him; and you, seeing this, did not even feel remorse afterward so as to believe him.

Jesus is not excusing those who sin now and He’s not making the argument that it’s okay to put off faithful obedience as long as you eventually get around to doing the will of the Father. He is making an argument against the established religionists of the day, and those who would do as they. They say they are doing the will of God, and will continue to do the will of God, but they really do not.

There is a lot of the spirit of the second son in modern American evangelicalism today. I could tell you that I’ve seen a lot of it on display in the past few days on the internet, but the truth that the vast majority of us, those who identify themselves as modern American evangelicals, deal with it every day we look in the mirror. We are prone to put on the facade of religiosity and go about our lives… a safe, sanitized Christianity.

But when we compare this passage with the rest of Jesus’ teaching we learn that it really is the safe, sanitized Christianity and those who feel comfortable in it (as if they are strong in the faith) who are the second sons. I want to be the first son because I know I’m a sinner. I know I fall short. I regret my sin often (but probably not often enough). I want to *really* do the will of God and not hide behind tolerance, tradition, or anything else. I only want to be hidden with Christ in God. Let’s have our “yes” (or “I will” to quote the passage) be “yes” (“I will”) in spirit and in truth.

When the mother of James and John asked Jesus if her sons could sit at His right and His left in the kingdom, Jesus rightly admonished her by telling her she did not know what she was asking. To be sure, at that point she probably had no idea what would be demanded of Jesus a short time from then (the cross) and her sons as well (James would be put to death with the sword, while John lived a long life but not without persecution). That’s why the saying exist that there is always a cross before a crown.

Tragically, many professing believers today fall into a snare consistently by which they dictate to God in their words, their actions, and their attitudes what He must or at least should do for them. This is most plainly seen in the prosperity gospel teachers such as Benny Hinn, T.D. Jakes, Paula White, and even Joel Osteen, but is just as prevalent if not more subtle amongst more mainstream conservative evangelical Christians. We fall into the mindset of Jacob whereby he told God, “If you do (this and this and this), then you will be my God.”

It’s easy to call on God, pardon the metaphor, when the chips are down, and ask Him for help out of your problems. And perhaps it’s even easy to call on God in times of prosperity and think about how blessed you are. But be very careful about making conditions with God. We don’t know what we are asking when we do that. He is God and we are not. He is the Lord, the Master, the Sovereign, and He is the One who makes conditions.

We find out those conditions in Mark 1:14-20… repent of your sins, believe in the gospel, follow Him.

Practically every Christian who takes the word of God even half-seriously would agree that divorce is a bad thing. Most Christians would even say it is evil. In the book of Malachi God says “I hate divorce.” But something overlooked in most discussions about it in Scripture is not just that God intended marriage to be until death… that’s too neutral a conclusion when it comes to what the Bible says. No, divorce is against the created order, therefore, it is against God.

When the Pharisees asked Jesus about divorce He told them to go back to what was written, “Have you not read that He who created them from the beginning MADE THEM MALE AND FEMALE, and said, ‘FOR THIS REASON A MAN SHALL LEAVE HIS FATHER AND MOTHER AND BE JOINED TO HIS WIFE, AND THE TWO SHALL BECOME ONE FLESH’?” When we read the account of creation we find that God saw all He had made and declared it “very good” (Gen 1:31). So from the very beginning, all the way to creation, man and woman have been decreed by God to be together (one flesh). And lest there be any confusion about whether or not that one flesh can ever legitimately separate, Jesus adds in this discourse, “What therefore God has joined together, let no man separate.”

That last statement is in the form of a command. The so-called exception clause in the following verses is not an exception in the least, but an indictment against the sins of the Israelites. (Note: I’m working on a post, perhaps a series, on marriage, divorce, and permanence.)

All in all, we as Christians are always eager to preach against homosexuality, pedophilia, beastiality, transgender/transsexuals, and many other forms of sexual immorality, but divorce is just as much against the created order as those things, and thus, divorce is just as much against God.

Jesus says in verses 12-14:

What do you think? If any man has a hundred sheep, and one of them has gone astray, does he not leave the ninety-nine on the mountains and go and search for the one that is straying? If it turns out that he finds it, truly I say to you, he rejoices over it more than over the ninety-nine which have not gone astray. So it is not the will of your Father who is in heaven that one of these little ones perish.

There is a doctrine related to our salvation known to many as “Once Saved, Always Saved.” It is the idea that once you are saved by grace through faith in Jesus Christ you cannot lose your salvation. It is known more in theological circles as the “perseverance of the saints.” However, this passage indicates what I believe to be a greater truth, that this doctrine should actually be called the “preservation of the saints.”

Sheep don’t keep themselves within the flock. They stray. I know my own self, my own tendencies, to forsake the grace that has been bestowed to me my the Lord Jesus. This truth was beautifully captured in the eighteenth century hymn “Come, Thou Fount of Every Blessing”:

O to grace how great a debtor
Daily I’m constrained to be!
Let Thy goodness, like a fetter,
Bind my wandering heart to Thee.
Prone to wander, Lord, I feel it,
Prone to leave the God I love;
Here’s my heart, O take and seal it,
Seal it for Thy courts above.

We are all prone to wander, but it is the Lord who binds us to Himself through the gracious and precious blood of Christ. The Good Shepherd is the One who goes after even the one out of a hundred who are straying away. God will not allow any of those whom He is saving to be lost.

What a comfort! What cause for hope! That no matter how bad we might think it is, if we are ever truly in Christ we are always truly in Christ and He will never allow one of His own to be lost. Praise God through Whom all blessings flow!

It is a good and right thing to be terrified, that is to say, have a great awe-inspiring fear of the Lord. That’s what happens when His people see His glory. That’s what happened with Peter, James, and John. On that Mount of Transfiguration they saw a preview of what all who are in Christ shall see when we are with Him face to face. They saw Jesus changed and they heard the voice of the Father. They fell down on their faces and “were terrified.”

The word translated “were terrified” is from the word by which we get phobia, which in English uses describes types of fear, depending on the prefix. In the New Testament it is used to describe different types of fear as well, but very notably, upon the disciples seeing Jesus do something or seeing something happen to Jesus, such as this transfiguration, it seems to describe the awe-inspiring fear I am talking about.

What kind of emotion or attitude is produced in you when you encounter God in His word? What does the revelation of truth to you through the Scriptures cause you to do? If it is anything less than worship, anything less than fearing God in a good way, then we fall short of where we should be falling… on our faces to the ground.

God is glorious, and as that glory is revealed to us in many different ways throughout the course of our lives we are duty bound to respond to Him the right way, with a good kind of terror.

I love the church. I am part of the church. I am right now looking for a new church to pastor because I love my God, believe He has called me to it, and desire earnestly to shepherd His flock. That said, I may be the most pessimistic person I know with regards to the church at large. Maybe that’s an unhealthy thing. I don’t know.

I just see things like T.D. Jakes being called the “greatest preacher in the world” by the pastor of the hippest church in the area. I see that pastor post slickly produced videos in which he basically labels anyone who dares to criticize his methodology (or is it methidolatry?) as “haters.” I see Jakes also being invited to the Elephant Room 2. I see Matt Chandler making the mistake (in my opinion) of preaching at a revival also featuring Jakes and a woman preacher, and then preaching a good, God-glorifying message, and then seeing the people in charge of the revival leave his sermon out of the rebroadcast because that church wanted to “focus on Jesus.”

It feels sometimes like there are more reasons to be pessimistic about the church than there are reasons to be optimistic, or even hopeful.

But then I read the words of Jesus: “and the gates of Hades will not overpower it.” And that, beloved, gives me confidence in a day and age when there is much confusion over who Jesus is, what kind of authority the Bible has, what the church should look like, and much more. It’s what gives me confidence when I see so many people who should no better capitulate the truth in exchange for a false Christian unity. Because let’s be clear, any “Christian” unity that does not put the gospel before the unity is false Christian unity (and that’s exactly what is going on with Jakes, McDonald, the Elephant Room, Steven Furtick, and Elevation Church).

Glory be to God, who has given those who truly believe Him the victory through His Son Jesus Christ. The gates of Hades will not overpower His church.

This is what verse 31 says…

So the crowd marveled as they saw the mute speaking, the crippled restored, and the lame walking, and the blind seeing; and they glorified the God of Israel.

The world is still adjusting to the age of social media, but one thing it does do is give you a window the lives of others who you know but really don’t know, people from the past, your high school, old home towns, that sort of thing. This has been a mixed blessing in my life. As a believer in Jesus Christ and a pastor I have been both encouraged and troubled by things I have read.

In the past few months I have been troubled by posts from people who I used to go to church with. I’ve moved on from that church, of course, but so have they. They are attending a very popular church in the area, and the posts I see them make about their church seem to never cease praising their pastor or others who have spoken in their church.

One of the sinful tendencies I know about myself is my tendency to be hypercritical and pessimistic, especially when I am suspicious about what I perceive to be a lack of zeal for the truth of the word of God. I believe such a lack of zeal for truth exists in this church — a belief, or suspicion, that has been confirmed over and over again in recent days, and one in which those Twitter and Facebook friends have been quick to post praises about their pastor, their guest speakers, and the excitement about “what is going on” at their church.

What is missing is glory to the God of Israel. And as I read Matthew 15:31 I am struck by the crowd seeing Jesus give speech to the mute, restore the crippled, etc. (all things Isaiah 35 points to in the Messiah, by the way). How did the crowd respond? By glorifying the God of Israel.

I don’t write this to condemn anyone, although to be quite frank I have serious issues with the church I allude to; however, but I challenge anyone who reads this to think about who they give glory to when they see and hear of great things in their church or any other church. God is the only One worthy of glory, so when we give glory to anyone else, even our pastors who labor mightily in the word (hopefully), we are in fact worshiping an idol. Give glory to the God of Israel alone!