Week 9/30-10/6: Perfect Response - The Faithful Son

Day One: Luke 3:21-22 When all the people were baptized, Jesus also was baptized. As He was praying, heaven opened, and the Holy Spirit descended on Him in a physical appearance like a dove. And a voice came from heaven: You are My beloved Son. I take delight in You!

IMAGINE THE SCENE THAT DAY. Jesus is making his way to the Jordan River where John the Baptist has been baptizing people. John spots Jesus approaching and declares, “Here is the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world!” (John 1:29).The people must have been amazed at such a declaration. However, their amazement is only heightened as Jesus enters the Jordan’s waters and is baptized and God Himself declares, “You are My beloved Son. I take delight in You!” (Luke 3:22).This scene is amazing! There are many incredible things happening in this text. We see the Triune God on full display: the Son is being baptized, the Father declares His pleasure, and the Spirit descends to rest upon the Son. We also see the inauguration of Jesus’ earthly ministry with this event. But perhaps the greatest thing we see in this text is God the Father’s verbal affirmation of Jesus’ qualifications to fulfill the righteous requirements that expected of us. This is great news for us.

Jesus was the unique Son of God. He was fully God and fully man. As fully God, he alone was able to come and be the sinless Savior for man. As fully man, he alone was able to pay the debt that humanity owed to God. When the time had come for Jesus to begin his earthly ministry, and make his first step toward the cross in Jerusalem, God the Father declares His approval of His Son’s worthiness for the task. Because of this we rejoice! For as God is satisfied with His Son, He is also satisfied with all who are found with faith in His Son.

PAUSE AND REFLECT

▷▷When your parents express their loving affirmation with you over something you have done, how does it make you feel?

▷▷What lengths have you gone to in striving to win someone’s affirmation? Was it worth what you had to do to earn it?

▷▷Why do you think we all desire to be affirmed and liked, even by people we don’t know?

Week 9/30-10/6: Perfect Response - The Faithful Son

Day Two: Luke 4:1-13 Then Jesus returned from the Jordan, full of the Holy Spirit, and was led by the Spirit in the wilderness for 40 days to be tempted by the Devil. He ate nothing during those days, and when they were over, He was hungry. The Devil said to Him, “If You are the Son of God, tell this stone to become bread.” But Jesus answered him, “It is written: Man must not live on bread alone.” So he took Him up and showed Him all the kingdoms of the world in a moment of time. The Devil said to Him, “I will give You their splendor and all this authority, because it has been given over to me, and I can give it to anyone I want. If You, then, will worship me, all will be Yours.” And Jesus answered him, “It is written: Worship the Lord your God, and serve Him only.” So he took Him to Jerusalem, had Him stand on the pinnacle of the temple, and said to Him, “If You are the Son of God, throw Yourself down from here. For it is written: He will give His angels orders concerning you, to protect you, and they will support you with their hands, so that you will not strike your foot against a stone.” And Jesus answered him, “It is said: Do not test the Lord your God.” After the Devil had finished every temptation, he departed from Him for a time.

HAVE YOU EVER KNOWN SOMEONE who does everything well? There always seem to be one or two of them around us. These are the people who could dribble better, tackle harder, and run faster. They always made great grades, remembered everything, and studied less than everyone else. You know these types. They just seem to be one notch ahead of everyone else. Usually these people are not the objects of our affections. It isn’t that they are good at things; it is usually their attitude about it that we dislike. If only their success in life was reflected in their attitude. In many ways, Jesus is just like these people. He is far superior in all His ways. Successful where we have failed. Victorious where we have lost. However, with Jesus, rather than responding with envy and jealously, we can respond with worship and adoration. His victories secure our victory. His successes become our successes, and erase our failures.

It is amazing to think about the sinlessness of Jesus. Because we are painfully aware of our sinfulness and imperfections, it gives us some insight into the magnificence of Jesus’ perfection. Take a moment to take in this idea: in every way that we are tempted, Jesus was tempted, yet he never sinned (Heb.4:15).He never once failed to obey His Father at every point of the Law. What an amazing Savior we have!

PAUSE AND REFLECT

▷▷What does it mean to you that Christ’s success and victories can be shared by you?

▷▷If He was able to resist Satan’s traps and temptations, and He is empowering you, do you have to give in to sin?

▷▷What is one area of your life you are desperate for a victory today? Spend some time in prayer asking for God’s help.

Week 9/30-10/6: Perfect Respone - The Faithful Son

Day Three: Luke 4:40-41 When the sun was setting, all those who had anyone sick with various diseases brought them to Him. As He laid His hands on each one of them, He would heal them. Also, demons were coming out of many, shouting and saying, “You are the Son of God!” But He rebuked them and would not allow them to speak, because they knew He was the Messiah.

HOW DO WE KNOW if Jesus is the one who can save us? Is there a way to judge if Jesus was the expected Savior? To prove He was who He said He was?

Jesus anticipated and answered questions like these. On one occasion, Jesus went to his hometown of Nazareth on the Sabbath Day and went to the synagogue to preach. Upon arrival He is given a scroll of the prophet Isaiah. He opens it to Isaiah 61 and reads the first two verses and then declares to them, “Today as you listen, this Scripture has been fulfilled.” (Luke 4:21).

What did he mean by this? He meant that He was the one doing the things that passage predicted the Messiah would do. He was the anointed proclaimer of Good News. He was the healer of the sick, blind, and lame. Jesus came to fulfill the Word of God. He came to do all that God’s Holy Word commanded, and in doing so, He proved He was the One all history had been pointing to and waiting for.

What is the aim and intent of Jesus’ fulfilling of the Word of God? To bring forth restoration to the fallen race of Adam and to make all things new (Rev.21:5).Jesus came to bring forth the Kingdom of God. In the bringing forth of the kingdom, He is inaugurating a new reality.

When sin entered the Garden, creation became broken. He is reversing the effects of the fall, both in the descendants of Adam and the creation. His obedience to those written prophecies show that he alone has the authority to bring forth this new reality, and He expects us and enables us to take part in this new reality.

PAUSE AND REFLECT

▷▷Do you truly believe Jesus is who He claimed to be?

▷▷What difference does that belief make in your life?

▷▷Are you actively taking part is God’s restoration project?

▷▷What is holding you back?

Week 9/23-9/29: Broken Response: Numb To The Word

Day One: Rom. 6:23 For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord. Eph. 2:1-2 And you were dead in your trespasses and sins ²in which you previously walked according to the ways of this world, according to the ruler who exercises authority over the lower heavens, the spirit now working in the disobedient.

EVERYONE LIKES FLOWERS.They’re great for impressing a date or for sitting on a bookshelf… at least for a while.But over the course of a few days, even the most beautiful flowers start to wither.The reason behind that withering is simple:

Flowers in a vase are dead.

Sure, they look good for a while.They have the appearance of life.But in the end, they are cut off at the stem, and without that link to the root, they are dead.Sure, they might show signs of life for a while, but that beauty is a lie.A wonderful lie, but a lie all the same.

This is an important spiritual truth for us to recognize.Too many people are flowers, not in a garden, but sitting in a vase.They may look pretty, even enhancing the beauty of the room they’re sitting in, but that beauty is a lie.Though they have signs of life, they’re actually spiritually dead; apart from Christ, all of us are cut off from the source of life.And it’s just a matter of time until we start to show the signs of that death rather than life.

Verses like Ephesians 2:1-2 might sound at best pessimistic, and at worst mean, but these are words of love from the Lord.God loves us enough to tell us the truth about ourselves.He’s not content to have us acting like we’re alive; He wants us to be alive.The only way that life happens is through a living and vital connection to the vine of God in Christ.

PAUSE AND REFLECT

▷▷Why is Ephesians 2:1-2 rooted in the love of God?

▷▷What does it mean to be spiritually alive?

▷▷Be honest with yourself, are you a flower in a garden or a vase?

Week 9/23-9/29: Broken Response - Numb To The Word

Day Two: Is. 64:6 All of us have become like something unclean, and all our righteous acts are like a polluted garment; all of us wither like a leaf, and our iniquities carry us away like the wind.

HAVE YOU EVER THOUGHT about what makes Christianity unique as a religion? You might think about stuff like the virgin birth, miracles, or the prophecies of the Old Testament, but think about this, too:

Christianity is the only religion that tells people how bad they are.

According to Emil Brunner, the Swiss theologian: “All other religions spare us the ultimate humiliation of being stripped naked and being declared bankrupt before God.” That’s pretty strong language.

And yet it points to the humiliating nature of Christianity. Other world religions don’t treat humanity with such pessimism. In all other schools of thought, we have something to bring to the table. We can strive toward God and meet Him, and in a sense, be congratulated when we do.

Not Christianity.

In Christianity, we bring nothing to the table. In fact, the only thing we bring to the table with God is the sin we need to be rescued from. Perhaps that’s why, if we look back into history, Christianity has been called the religion of women and slaves. In cultures of the past, neither of those two groups had many rights, so it wasn’t a far stretch for them to admit their abject need of God’s complete and total intervention on their behalf.

The bottom line is this: The one character flaw that has, and will continue to, keep most people from Christ is not greed. It’s not lust. It’s not lying or stealing or killing. It’s pride. That’s the only thing there is no room for at the foot of the cross.

PAUSE AND REFLECT

▷▷Why does pride, above all things, keep people from Jesus?

▷▷Are you taking pride in your spiritual achievements today?

Week 9/23-9/29: Broken Response - Numb To The Word

Day Three: Rom. 3:10-12 as it is written: There is no one righteous, not even one. There is no one who understands; there is no one who seeks God. All have turned away; all alike have become useless. There is no one who does what is good, not even one.

CHANGE IS A NATURAL PART of life. You change classes.You change favorite songs.You change your underwear (hopefully). But the real discouraging news from the Bible is that there is one key thing that you cannot change:

You can’t change your heart.

Think about it in terms of love. How would you tell someone how to love? Tricky question, right? You can tell someone how to behave, how to study, or how to set up a DVR, but how to love? That’s much harder, and maybe even impossible.Love is a deep, heartfelt emotion that is backed up by choice and action.But because it’s a condition, you can’t make yourself do it.This is where the gospel starts to connect with us.

Jesus told us that the greatest commandment is to love God.And the second commandment is like it: to love other people.Here’s the thing, though – because we can’t change our hearts, we can’t actually keep these two commandments Jesus gave us.

Jesus knows this, and that’s why He doesn’t tell us to change.He does the changing for us.

When you believe the gospel, you get a new heart, complete with new desires and affections.Now, you actually can love God, not because you made yourself do so, but because Jesus gave you the kind of heart that can.

PAUSE AND REFLECT

▷▷Is it encouraging or discouraging to you that you can’t change your heart?

▷▷How does knowing that you can’t change the heart change the way you talk about the gospel to others?

Week 9/16-9/22: Broken Response - God's Law of Life

Day One: Exodus 6:2-9 Then God spoke to Moses, telling him, “I am Yahweh. I appeared to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob as God Almighty, but I did not make My name Yahweh known to them. I also established My covenant with them to give them the land of Canaan, the land they lived in as foreigners. Furthermore, I have heard the groaning of the Israelites, whom the Egyptians are forcing to work as slaves, and I have remembered My covenant. “Therefore tell the Israelites: I am Yahweh, and I will deliver you from the forced labor of the Egyptians and free you from slavery to them. I will redeem you with an outstretched arm and great acts of judgment. I will take you as My people, and I will be your God. You will know that I am Yahweh your God, who delivered you from the forced labor of the Egyptians. I will bring you to the land that I swore to give to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and I will give it to you as a possession. I am the LORD.” Moses told this to the Israelites, but they did not listen to him because of their broken spirit and hard labor.

ON OCTOBER 13, 2010, millions of people around the world were glued to their TVs as an incredible rescue operation was taking place before their eyes. Sixty-nine days prior, 33 men went to work as usual in a copper and gold mine in Copiapo, Chile. To their horror, the mine caved in, trapping all 33 people over 2,000 feet underground.

After initially fearing the worst, a sign of hope arose 17 days after the collapse as the miners were able to attach a note to a drill searching for them with the following message: “The 33 of us in the shelter are well.” The rescue that ensued took place live before a worldwide television audience. Incredibly, all 33 men were not only alive, but none of them sustained serious injury.

Imagine that you were one of those miners, trapped deep beneath the surface of the earth. There is absolutely nothing you can do to rescue yourself. Left to your own accord, you would sit in the belly of the earth until your physical resources ran dry. Your only hope would be that someone would do something incredible to rescue you from a situation in which you cannot rescue yourself.

While the Chilean miners experienced this in the physical realm, we all experience this same dire situation in the spiritual realm. We are all born into slavery of sin (John 8:34). There is nothing we can do on our own to escape this slavery. Fortunately, we have a personal and loving God at work on a rescue plan of eternal proportions.

PAUSE AND REFLECT

▷▷What does it mean to be a slave to sin?

▷▷Why couldn’t the miners save themselves? Why can’t you rescue yourself from slavery to sin?

▷▷How can you be rescued from slavery to sin?

Week 9/16-9/22: Broken Response - God's Law for Life

Day Two: Exodus 12:11-13 Here is how you must eat it: dressed for travel, your sandals on your feet, and your staff in your hand. You are to eat it in a hurry; it is the LORD’s Passover. “I will pass through the land of Egypt on that night and strike every firstborn [male] in the land of Egypt, both man and beast. I am the LORD; I will execute judgments against all the gods of Egypt. The blood on the houses where you are staying will be a distinguishing mark for you; when I see the blood, I will pass over you. No plague will be among you to destroy [you] when I strike the land of Egypt.

For the full story, read verses 5-10 in your Bible.

WHEN I WAS GROWING UP, my grandparents seemed to always have new kittens coming and going from their back yard. One of my favorite games to play with the young cats was named “The Claw.” The game was simple: quietly approach unsuspecting kitten with my hand slightly spread and fingers bent into the shape of a claw. While the cats always seemed to enjoy the game, I would inevitably come home with scratches all up and down my arms from where the cats had gotten “The Claw.” This led to the following interaction with my mother:

Mom: “What happened to your arm!?!”

Me: “One of the kittens scratched it.”

Mom: “Were you aggravating it?”

Me: “Of course not! I was just playing ‘The Claw.’ ”

Mom: “Well, then, I don’t feel sorry for you. You got what you deserved.”

Notice that last phrase: “You got what you deserved.” Have you ever been told that in the midst of a pain or trouble? Have you ever thought that about someone else’s misfortunes? Better yet, have you ever considered what we truly deserve in light of our continued sin?

Scripture is clear that the only thing we as sinners deserve is death (Rom. 1:32). Fortunately, just as God delivered Israel from the punishment they deserved here in Exodus, God delivers those who trust in Him from the punishment they deserve through the blood of Christ (Rom. 5:8)!

PAUSE AND REFLECT

▷▷What does it mean to “get what you deserve”?

▷▷What is that we all truly deserve?

▷▷How are we rescued from what we truly deserve?

Week 9/16-9/22: Broken Response - God's Law for Life

Day Three: Exodus 14:10-14 As Pharaoh approached, the Israelites looked up and saw the Egyptians coming after them. Then the Israelites were terrified and cried out to the LORD for help. They said to Moses: “Is it because there are no graves in Egypt that you took us to die in the wilderness? What have you done to us by bringing us out of Egypt? Isn’t this what we told you in Egypt: Leave us alone so that we may serve the Egyptians? It would have been better for us to serve the Egyptians than to die in the wilderness.” But Moses said to the people, “Don’t be afraid. Stand firm and see the LORD’s salvation He will provide for you today; for the Egyptians you see today, you will never see again. The LORD will fight for you; you must be quiet.”

DO YOU HAVE AN IPHONE? An iPad? An iPod? Did you know that Apple invests office space, man hours, and tons of production dollars into the way their products are packaged? Appleinsider.com, a website that specializes in news on Apple products, revealed a little bit about this packaging process when highlighting a book entitled “Inside Apple” by Adam Lashinsky.

“How a customer opens a box must be one of the last things a typical product designer would consider,” Lashinsky wrote. “Yet for Apple, the inexpensive box merits as much attention as the high-margin electronic device inside.”

He goes on to note that showing attention to detail at even the smallest level communicates to customers that “the manufacturer cares about them.” Customers then feel a bond with the company, something that transcends price points.

So why does a company like Apple devote so many resources to something that is destined to wind up in a garbage can? Because even that experience brings honor and recognition to the Apple brand. Apple orchestrates everything to glorify their name.

If a company will go to those lengths to gain notoriety, think of what an all-good, all-powerful, holy, and wonderful God would do to bring glory to His name! God designed and created the world for His glory, and providentially works through people in this world for His glory. He places us in the communities we are in in order that His name may be glorified!

PAUSE AND REFLECT

▷▷Does it seem wasteful to spend so much time on a box?

▷▷What does it mean to “glorify God”?

▷▷Why is God’s glory so important?

▷▷How are you being used and shaped for the glory of God?

Week of 9/9-9/15: Broken Response - In God We Trust?

 Day One: Gen. 3:1-2 Now the serpent was the most cunning of all the wild animals that the Lord God had made. He said to the woman, “Did God really say, ‘You can’t eat from any tree in the garden’?” The woman said to the serpent, “We may eat the fruit from the trees in the garden.”

IMAGINE YOUR PARENTS walk you into the kitchen one day and have a serious talk with you that goes something like this: “We want you to know that we love you. We want the best for you. That’s why we have given you free reign of the kitchen. You can eat everything in the refrigerator that you want. The pantry, too. Any time you need a snack, just come on in.  But there’s one thing. Up there on the shelf, there is a jar of cookies. Those are bad for you. There are plenty of other cookies in the pantry that you can help yourself to, just please keep your hands off that one jar.”

This would be a totally different scenario than if you were starving, and your parents brought you into the kitchen and laughed at your hunger. They opened up all the cabinets and showed you that even though you were hungry, there was no food in the house. Then they put a steaming hot plate of chocolate chip cookies in front of you and told you not to eat them.

In the first scenario, your parents have provided for you. They love you. Their command about the cookies, though you might not fully understand it, is built on that love. You know it’s true.

But in the second scene, your parents are misers. They withhold things just to be mean. They enjoy their power over you and abuse it for their enjoyment.

The great lie of Satan in Genesis 3 made Adam and Eve think about God in terms of the second scenario rather than the first. He talked about God like He was a withholder rather than a provider. And the first humans succumbed to the temptation. They believed the lie about God, and their behavior was devastating.

Sin, at its core, is about disbelief. We sin because we don’t really believe God loves us. That He wants the best for us. That He’s not withholding from us. But if that’s true, then the way you fight sin isn’t just to try hard against it.It’s to remind yourself of what is true about God. Today, when you are tempted, don’t just try and say no.Remember who God is, and use that memory to stand strong.

PAUSE AND REFLECT

▷▷What does freedom in Christ mean?

▷▷Would you describe Adam and Eve as being free or restricted? Why?

▷▷What about you? Do you find freedom in Christ or restrictions? What has caused that feeling??

Week of 9/9-9/15: Broken Response - In God We Trust?

Day Two: Gen. 3:2-5 The woman said to the serpent, “We may eat the fruit from the trees in the garden. But about the fruit of the tree in the middle of the garden, God said, ‘You must not eat it or touch it, or you will die.’ ” “No! You will not die,” the serpent said to the woman. “In fact, God knows that when you eat it your eyes will be opened and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.”

WHAT IS THE ONE MOVIE that you have seen more than any other? Are you thinking of it? Right now, you could probably pick up the dialogue from any point in that movie. In fact, you may have incorporated phrases from the film into your regular conversation. That’s your movie; you know it backward and forward.

In fact, you have such a personal attachment to that movie that you get offended when people try and quote it, only to butcher what you know to be the true words. But that’s how personally you know it.That’s how closely you are attached to it.

As you read the encounter between the serpent and Eve in Genesis 3, notice that the serpent questioned the word of God. And Eve seemed at first to defend those words. But if you read carefully, you’ll see that when Eve quoted God back to the serpent, she “almost” got it right.

Almost, but not quite.

And in this case, almost isn’t good enough. The troubling thing for most of us is that Satan might actually have a better grasp on the Word of God than we do. He knows who God is, and He knows what God said. If we want to be serious about defending attacks from the devil, we had better know what God said, too.

Not almost know.

Not sort of know.

Know. Exactly.

And why shouldn’t we? We memorize everything else: song lyrics, movie lines, favorite quotes—why not the Bible? Could it be that we simply don’t.

PAUSE AND REFLECT

▷▷How well you do know God’s Words?

▷▷What keeps you from enjoying time with God and His Word?

▷▷Could it be that Satan knows the Word of God better than you do?

▷▷What changes do you need to make to reverse that?

Week of 9/9-9/15: Broken Response - In God We Trust?

Day Three: Gen. 3:6 Then the woman saw that the tree was good for food and delightful to look at, and that it was desirable for obtaining wisdom. So she took some of its fruit and ate it; she also gave some to her husband, who was with her, and he ate it.

THE CORE ISSUE IN GENESIS 3 is the same core issue at stake in any temptation. It’s not exit’s not food. It’s not anger. It’s not greed.

It’s trust.

When you go to the doctor, there is always a moment when you list your symptoms. Those symptoms are carefully recorded, and when taken together, they lead to a diagnosis. Often, the symptoms aren’t really the problem. They are the surface-level manifestations of something deeper going on inside of you. That’s why the solution to a runny nose isn’t a Kleenex, it’s an antibiotic. A good doctor doesn’t settle with treating the symptoms. He looks deeper.

Such is the case with us. We must look deeper, past the surface-level temptations and into the area of trust. When we are tempted toward materialism, the real issue is whether we trust that God has and will provide enough. Are we content with what He provides? When we are tempted toward sex, the real issue is whether we trust God when He gives us the prescribed means of sex in marriage. Do we believe what God is telling us or what culture is selling? When we are tempted to overeat, the deeper issue is whether we trust God when He says that our bodies are temples of the Holy Spirit. Are we willing to treat our bodies as such?

And fighting these temptations? Well, that’s an issue of trust, too. Do we really trust that God will give us the grace to stand firm, or are we relying on our own strength? It all comes down to trust. So who are you trusting today? Take a look at your actions. They’re the symptoms and they will lead you to the truth.

PAUSE AND REFLECT

▷▷When it comes to resisting sin, who are you trusting?

▷▷Think about the nagging sin present in your life right now. What is the real issue behind that sin? What are you trading or looking for when you give in to that sin?

▷▷How can Christ satisfy that need better?