Reading Matthew with Missional Eyes

Jesus came to present salvation ‘first for the Jew’. One would think then,   that He would base His ministry in the capital city of Jerusalem. But He did not. One might think that because Jesus was born in Bethlehem, perhaps His birthplace would be a good ministry center – it’s also roughly in the center of the country. But He did not chose Bethlehem either. Knowing He spent at least a good portion of His childhood in Egypt and was of the line of Judah (a southern tribe), it would’ve also made sense if He based His ministry in the southern area. He did not. Of all the places He could’ve chosen, He made Capernaum His ministry center. Capernaum was a border city, in the very north of Israel on the border with Jordan. Being a frontier city, it would’ve had a garrison of Roman soldiers. This made it all but impossible to live there and not interact with the occupying Romans. Such interaction made the citizens of that city suspect as collaborators in the eyes of many Jews. 

“When Jesus had entered Capernaum, a centurion came to him, asking for help. “Lord,” he said, “my servant lies at home paralyzed and in terrible suffering.”” A centurion was a leader of a garrison (about 100 soldiers). That means this man is no ordinary Roman. He is not merely a citizen and so largely innocent of his country’s occupation of Israel. He is a solider of Rome, and a soldier who leads other soldiers in completing their mission. Even if he is kind and good to the Jews around him, he is the very definition of Israel’s occupier. Yet here he is, calling Jesus “Lord.” This is truly remarkable, for up to this point in Matthew’s Gospel account, only the leper had seen Jesus as Lord. 

Matthew is making a point. It bears pointing out that by teaching the people to follow the letter of the Law more than the spirit of the Law, the teachers of Israel had led the nation to the point where outcasts and foreigners could more easily recognize the Lord more than they could. Fortunately, Jesus does not teach as they had taught, and He does not act as they had acted. He is the Lord of all, and He purposes to grow the Kingdom of God among all. Consequently, He not only based His ministry close to foreigners (because Israel was supposed to be a light to all people), He actually practiced what He preached and what the Word taught regarding helping others as a demonstration and extension of God’s love. 

To that end Jesus Himself had preached, “Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you.” Now we read of how He lived that out in His response to the centurion, “Jesus said to him, “I will go and heal him.”” 

Not only does Jesus interact with the centurion, but He also agrees to his request and indicates He’ll go into his home. From a first-century Jewish perspective, this is worse than touching a diseased and unclean person (as He just did with the leper). For in this case He is violating both Jewish protocol (in entering a Gentile’s house) and Jewish ethics (in helping the representative of those persecuting the Jewish nation). 

Thankfully, Jesus is far more interested in demonstrating and growing the Kingdom of God by ministering to broken people than He is in following the protocols and mindsets that got the Jews so far from God to start with. It bears asking the question; “Are we likewise so focused?”

Although we tend to think about saints as holy and pious, and picture them with halos above their heads and ecstatic gazes, true saints are much more accessible. They are men and women like us, who live ordinary lives and struggle with ordinary problems. What makes them saints is their clear and unwavering focus on God and God’s people

Henri Nouwen

APPLICATION: Intentionality

Jesus did not allow prejudice or the fear of seeing misunderstood stop him from bringing the blessing of God to all peoples. May we all be and act likewise. 

When the Lord does a miracle, it is never for you alone. At the very least it  is a testimony  to those nearby of His care, His presence and His mercy. Perhaps it was for that reason that the Lord instructed Moses that whenever someone who was unclean was cleansed, a priest needed to examine them, a ceremony needed to be completed and an announcement needed to be made. Leviticus 14:1-32 details the lengthy and rather complicated process, involving two birds, three lambs, flour and oil. A guilt offering, a sin offering and a burnt offering must be made, and the cleansed individual must wash, shave and stay outside the camp for 8 more days. It was a very public act, deliberately done over time so that no one could miss what was happening. It was also a very structured event, so that no one could mistake it for something other than the Lord’s work. Miracles are never private favors. They are divine acts of power and providential grace, meant to bring much glory to God. They are never random, and never without purpose.

So when Jesus cleanses a leper, it is not a random event. It is not only for the diseased person’s personal betterment, and neither is it to be mistaken as a fluke, or anything other than an act of God. Like a glorious sunrise after a difficult evening, it is profoundly meaningful for those who see it, but it is for all, not just some. 

Matthew writes, “Then Jesus said to him, “See that you don’t tell anyone. But go, show yourself to the priest and offer the gift Moses commanded, as a testimony to them.”  Matthew’s readers can clearly see that Jesus wanted the man to follow the instructions of Leviticus 14. “In conforming to the law, the cured leper becomes the occasion for the law to confirm Jesus’ authority as the healer who needs but to will the deed for it to be done.” After all, Christ Himself had said, “Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I have not come to abolish them but to fulfill them.” Additionally, “Because the leprosy was looked upon, among the Jews, as a particular mark of God’s displeasure: hence we find Miriam, Gehazi, and Uzziah, smitten with leprosy for some one particular sin; and therefore Christ, to show that he came to turn away the wrath of God, by taking away sin, began with the cure of a leper.”

So although it may look like a random act done in response to a random circumstance, it was actually a very deliberate act. It was done in response to God’s purposeful and providential circumstance. It was recorded by the Spirit of God in a very deliberate and purposeful way. Not only that, but we know that Jesus had performed miracles before (see John 2), so we can know that Matthew specifically records this miracle as His first for a reason; It was because Matthew is building a case for the Jewish reader to understand Jesus as the fulfillment of the Law, in accordance to what and how the Spirit instructed him (Matthew). Even its record in Scripture is deliberate, purposeful and strategically placed to bring glory to God!

Though the Lord’s work sometimes seems random, unclear and at times quite contradictory, He is none of those things. His ways are merely beyond our limited understanding. Time eventually reveals just how purposeful, straightforward and focused He always is. As Romans 8:28 proclaims, “And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose.”

Amen.

Human reason may not be able to understand the mysterious ways of God, but faith knows that the sorest disappointments and the heaviest losses are among the “all things” which work together for our good.

AW. Pink

APPLICATION: Intentionality

What is the Lord strategically doing in this season of your life? How can you participate today in that?

Matthew records way back in chapter 4 that Jesus was, “…healing every  disease and  sickness among the people. News about him spread all over Syria, and people brought to him all who were ill with various diseases, those suffering severe pain, the demon-possessed, those having seizures, and the paralyzed, and he healed them.” But to this point in Matthew’s account, we have not seen what that healing ministry looked like. Now, at the beginning of chapter 8, we have our first glimpse. 

A man comes to Jesus with a serious skin disease. Skin diseases range from temporary and short lived infections to long term debilitating conditions. Their typical manifestation as immediately obvious meant the victim was almost certainly ostracized, especially as Leviticus 13-14 speaks extensively about the ‘unclean’ nature of such diseases, and the required quarantine in Jewish culture. That quarantine could be a few days, or it could mean a lifetime of living outside the city walls. It is likely the man in this story had a very severe skin disease that was both obvious and debilitating, because He comes to Jesus of His own account and seemingly out of desperation. 

“A man with leprosy came and knelt before him and said, “Lord, if you are willing, you can make me clean.” Jesus reached out his hand and touched the man. “I am willing,” he said. “Be clean!” Immediately he was cured of his leprosy.”

We tend to focus on the last six words, “he was cured of his leprosy.” On occasion, we make a formula out of it by focusing on what the man did. We note that the man came before the Lord, that He humbled himself before the Lord (kneeling down) and that He confessed that Jesus was Lord. Finally, he asked that he be healed if the Lord’s should will it. Yet all that focus belies our tendency to make this story about us – as though what we do and how we do it provides the mandate for Jesus to heal. Yet nothing could be further from the truth.

The truth is that this story is more about Jesus than it is about us. It is part of the revelation of who Jesus is and who the Father who sent Him is. If we look at the story from that perspective, we see that Jesus immediately reached for the man. We see that Jesus touched him even before He spoke to him – in fact, that Jesus is willing to touch the one no one else would touch! We hear Him say that He is willing. We listen as He speaks an impossible truth into existence, and only then do we see that the man is healed. 

It is true of course that this story is a story of faith in action. But the far greater thing is that God is real. That God really loves the unlovable. That God is reaching for the unredeemed even before they hear the sound of His Voice. That God is willing to rescue and redeem and heal. That God can and does speak impossible truths into reality. With only so much as a word from His lips, lives and eternities are changed!

If we see our world through our own eyes, we see only fault, limitation and brokenness. If we see ministry through our own eyes, we see only determination, action and works. If we see our world through God’s eyes, we see hope, wonder and restoration. If we see ministry through God’s eyes, we see compassion, supernatural power and miracle. 

Your real life is your own God-given opportunity to see the miracles he can accomplish through a weak preacher

Raymond C. Ortlund Jr.

APPLICATION: Intentionality

“From him the whole body, joined and held together by every supporting ligament, grows and builds itself up in love, as each part does its work.” (Eph 4:16). 

What is your part in that work? 

When Jesus completed His sermon on the mount, Matthew records, “When he came down from the mountainside, large crowds followed him.” That doesn’t sound so remarkable to the reader of Matthew’s Gospel. Jesus had large crowds before He spoke, and He had large crowds after He spoke. Both crowds followed Him, and both crowds consisted of diverse peoples. We know that because Matthew had previously told us, “Large crowds from Galilee, the Decapolis, Jerusalem, Judea and the region across the Jordan followed him.” That meant the crowd was made up of people from various cultures – Jews and Greeks and all manner of gentiles. Yet through the sermon, Jesus was effectively able to move the entire group closer to ultimate reality.

When they met Jesus, they saw the Kingdom of God breaking into their reality. Jesus was, “…healing every disease and sickness among the people. News about him spread all over Syria, and people brought to him all who were ill with various diseases, those suffering severe pain, the demon-possessed, those having seizures, and the paralyzed, and he healed them.” That’s why they had gathered around Him to start with. A demonstration of God’s power will always gather a crowd. Everyone wants to see a healing, and everyone wants to get healed.

Now the Kingdom of God was going beyond what they were seeking and experiencing. It was breaking into their personal worldview. They recognized Jesus as one who teaches with authority; “When Jesus had finished saying these things, the crowds were amazed at his teaching, because he taught as one who had authority, and not as their teachers of the law.”

There is a progression to our awareness of the Kingdom of God. First you become aware that something is happening, then you realize it is happening to or around you. Perhaps you are physically blessed in some capacity. Perhaps you find a series of eerie coincidences that you know cannot just be coincidence. Then the Kingdom of God begins to break into your thinking. You become aware that Jesus is not just someone to be aware of, but someone to look into – someone to hear from. More than that, someone who teaches truth. More than that, that He is truth. That He is ultimate truth. Truth that changes everything. Truth that compels you to follow, because your reality has been altered, and that by God. 

This principle is applicable to every group of people. It is the principle by which Jesus drew individuals, families and communities into His Kingdom. It is how He demonstrated to a largely apathetic society that God was alive and cared for them: A demonstration of His power followed by a demonstration of His wisdom. Power first, wisdom second. Demonstrated power and wisdom (in that order) always results in changed worldviews and committed followers. 

If we are to impact our neighborhoods, we best remember Jesus’ methodology.  

“We preach Christ crucified: a stumbling block to Jews and foolishness to Gentiles, but to those whom God has called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God.”

the apostle Paul (from 1 Co 1:23–24)

APPLICATION: Intentionality

How do you those you seek to reach see Christ in you? Is there power before preaching, or preaching before power?  

Matthew is detailing the impact Jesus’ sermon has had on those who heard Him, “When Jesus had finished saying these things, the crowds were amazed at his teaching, because he taught as one who had authority, and not as their teachers of the law.”

This might be the single kindest thing that Matthew says about the teachers of the law. That through all of their misunderstanding of the purpose of Scripture, the scope of Scripture and the power of Scripture, they did not also misunderstand the authority of Scripture. So when Jesus teaches as someone who has the same and even greater authority as Scripture, He clearly stands out from them. The teachers of the law never put themselves on the same footing as the Scripture. 

Rightly so, for everyone in Jewish society knew that Scripture had authority. The very first chapter of Genesis tells us that God spoke all things into existence, so the Jews knew that God’s Word had and has power! Indeed, the One who speaks it has all authority and all power! So His written word must be understood as having much more authority than the written edict or law of any earthly king or government, and it must be treated accordingly. 

The teachers of the law knew they had God’s Word and so could speak for His Name, but they also knew that they should not misappropriate that authority. To speak from His Word with the authority of God is to speak in His Name, not merely for His Name. That may be a subtle difference, but it is a most profound difference. It is not something to take lightly. Indeed, to speak in His Name without first hearing directly from Him would be a misuse His Name: something God specifically warned His people about, “You shall not misuse the name of the Lord your God, for the Lord will not hold anyone guiltless who misuses his name.” It was the third commandment, and all Israel knew it. Indeed, how could God hold them guiltless, if they would claim to speak in His Name and then speak even the smallest thing in error? To speak in the Name of God but not speak rightly is to be guilty of contempt in God’s court. At least the teachers of the law understood that fact. They may have shared ‘learned opinions’ of His Word, but they did not share them as through they were God’s own opinion. 

To be a teacher you only need know more than your students know. To be an expert you only need to know more than the teachers of the subject know. To be an authority you need to be the creator and sustainer of the subject you have authority over, or have authority imparted to you by the creator and sustainer of the subject. Only then can you say, “It is like this,” and never be wrong. 

This is something Christ can do with confidence. So He teaches with authority. He shares His opinion of how to understand God’s Word as though it was God’s opinion, and He does that without inconsistency, because Christ is God. To that end He has said repeatedly, “You have heard that it was said to the people long ago […], but I tell you…” The only other people who ever spoke with that kind of authority were the prophets, who heard directly from God and only then said, “Thus says the Lord…” Jesus is clearly also a prophet, who also says prophetic things, fore-telling as well as forth-telling. But He is more than a prophet. He created all things (John 1:3) and He sustains all things (Heb 1:3). He is literally THE authority, and all who hear Him speak are not the authority. 

Every preacher and teacher of the Scripture must surely know that, and every disciple of Christ and witness of Christ must know that too. Amen.

Christian teachers and preachers must not rule by authority, but guide and direct by the power of truth and love and the force of example. Let no pastor be a pope.

Jean Paul Friedrich (aka Richter)

APPLICATION: Intentionality

Teaching the authoritative Word of God should never be taken lightly. It is an honor and a privilege, but it is also a test. A test of our ability to discern between our own thoughts and the Spirit’s leading, “for the Lord will not hold anyone guiltless who misuses his name.” 

Jesus has just finished His Sermon on the Mount. Matthew – who is writing   this account with thee hindsight of time – now details us the impact His sermon has had, “When Jesus had finished saying these things, the crowds were amazed at his teaching, because he taught as one who had authority, and not as their teachers of the law.”

The goal of any opportunity to teach, preach or expound God’s Word is to accurately reflect something of the Lord to the people you are influencing. Only then will then have something of true value to add to themselves, and/or hear something that will have power to change them more into the likeness of Jesus Christ. That might amaze, but the goal is never to simply amaze. That is the objective of the secularist in speaking to crowds. That is the objective of the entertainer, the objective of the proud and haughty. To speak so that people will be amazed is to purpose that they should focus on the speaker, not on the truth of God. The result is wonder and delight for yourself as a speaker, not wonder and delight in God. 

For all but Jesus, that is nothing short of idolatry. A normal speaker – a regular teacher or preacher – who amazes the crowd at the exposition, interpretation or application of God’s Word – is taking glory that belongs to God and depositing it to their own credit. That is not a small error to be casually overlooked. Jesus however, is not a regular speaker. He is the Son of God, very God of very God. He is God. To worship Jesus is to worship the Father, for “the Son is the radiance of God’s glory and the exact representation of his being.” So, He is not a regular teacher, nor is He a regular preacher. So when Jesus amazes the crowd, He does so righteously. He also does so easily. 

Jesus has just been explaining God’s Word. He did not have the benefit of a microphone or a loudspeaker or a sound system. He did not have powerpoint, or slides, or photos of any kind. He did not have a whiteboard, a chalkboard or even a pulpit. He did not have a prop (aside from the birds of the air and the flowers of the field). He did not have the benefit of a worship band to help prepare the crowd’s mindset. He did not have the benefit of advance notice of the opportunity to speak, so He had no time to first sit down and do an exegesis or time to practice. He just had what He knew of God’s Word and a crowd in front of him. 

Of course, amazing a crowd is no guarantee that they will leave permanently changed. We know that because ultimately, many of these same people would be part of the crowd that demanded His crucifixion and jeered at Him hanging on the cross. Even though they were amazed at His teaching, and even though they recognized His authority, they did not rise to defend Him en mass when He was brought out to be crucified. These facts tell us that all who witness for the Lord must know that it is not merely the skill, knowledge and craftsmanship of the speaker that affects change in the congregation. It is the willingness of the people to hear from God. If they are willing to hear from God, then when they hear from God they will not be merely amazed, but changed. If they are not willing to hear from God, even if God Himself speaks to them, they will simply leave amazed instead of changed. 

That is a freeing principle to know. For if we know His Word, and we know Him, we can simply and faithfully speak of our experience of both Him and His Word, and know that it will be fulfilling to those who hear it. Actually, that is all Jesus ever asks of His people; To be faithful witnesses of Him, to bear testimony of His Word and how He has spoken to us – that is enough for any crowd. Better still, such testimony brings much glory to God. For instead of God speaking directly to them, those who are being saved still find wonder and delight in what God is saying through You, to whom He has already spoken. Our witness results then in much fruit.

If however, we faithfully witness to those who are not keen to hear from God, we find that at most they find wonder and delight in the way we speak, not in God who is speaking through us. They leave amazed instead of changed. Our witness has nevertheless been effective, but instead of a harvest of changed lives the result is a congregation of hardened hearts. The fruit we harvest then, is their accolades and appreciation instead of changed lives. Either harvest is to the benefit of the faithful speaker, but only one is to the benefit of the crowd.

It is natural that the preacher should wish to please his hearers, but it is spiritual for him to desire and aim at the approbation of God.

A.W. Pink

APPLICATION: Intentionality

Let our witness be faithful. Let the result be entirely God’s doing.

One of the great things about ultimate reality is that living your life in accordance to it   will yield exceedingly positive results, even if it results in short term difficulty, and even if that difficulty is severe. The people of eternal God should surely know that. One should never sacrifice the eternal on the altar of the immediate. Yet unfortunately, that is exactly what many do. They choose to build their lives on what is not ultimately true, even when they’ve been exposed to what is ultimately true. That’s not merely unfortunate. It is the very definition of foolishness. 

Jesus has just given us a positive analogy of what it means to put into practice the ultimate reality of what He has just said, “Therefore everyone who hears these words of mine and puts them into practice is like a wise man who built his house on the rock. The rain came down, the streams rose, and the winds blew and beat against that house; yet it did not fall, because it had its foundation on the rock.” Now He provides the counterpoint. The other side of the equation is that a foolish response to reality is also possible, “But everyone who hears these words of mine and does not put them into practice is like a foolish man who built his house on sand. The rain came down, the streams rose, and the winds blew and beat against that house, and it fell with a great crash.”

Both houses are built, and remarkably, nothing is said of the construction of and by itself. The assumption is that the construction of both is adequate. One expects that both houses look perfectly fine for a period of time. The problem is that the one house is set on a substrate that can easily be washed away. Like a beautiful home built over a sinkhole, it stands until the ground beneath it fails. Like a home by the sea that sits on the sand, it is lifted by the flood and demolished. Destruction comes not at a point during construction, but at a point in the future – after the house is finished, and after the owner makes it a home. This is the crux of Jesus’ point; Fault inevitably shows up. An incorrect worldview will not persist, because the supporting substructure is unstable. Lies always get found out. Misunderstandings eventually get set right. Truth always wins in the end, no matter how many lies are spoken against it, or how long those lies are repeated. As sure as the weather erodes that which can be eroded, reality eventually exposes untruth. 

Sadly, the world is full of such foolishness. Broken worldview abound. Most people are building their hopes and dreams on what is effectively sand. Sadly, many have heard the words of God, but they do not put them into practice. The result is that initially, their lives may look as beautiful and secure as those who did put Jesus’ words into practice. Perhaps even better. But like a house whose foundation is suddenly washed away, their lives eventually collapse into utter ruin. We can read about such people almost every day. Famous preachers and people of faith who are found out to be far less than what they presented to the world. But it isn’t only the famous who are found out. Countless are the nameless individuals who’ve disregarded Christ’s exhortations and lived to regret it.

It is the nature of life that storms come. It is the nature of storms to blow down and wash away that which can be blown down and washed away. The storm cannot stop to think of the damage it does anymore than the truth can stop being true. This is fact. Either we have well prepared for that day, or we have not. Either we are prepared for the storms of life and the eventual judgment of God, or we have not. 

Too often our trust in the Lord is based on our own understanding, or only engages part of our heart. When the storms of life come, faulty foundations are destroyed.

Steven E. Runge

APPLICATION: Intentionality

It is not that the foolish builder did not know what to do. It is that they made a conscious choice to ignore good instruction. What good instruction are you tempted to ignore? 

Jesus is almost done His Sermon on the Mount. He has spoken about   everything from a basic understanding of how to live a satisfying life (the beatitudes) to better understanding of the Law of God (murder, adultery, divorce, oaths, revenge & giving). He has given instructions for holy living (prayer, fasting, giving), advice on right living (worry, judging others, seeking God) and warnings (the narrow gate, false prophets). All through His sermon the focus has been on the application, because Jesus knows that what He is saying is both immediately applicable and highly practical. He concludes with the same focus – a pointed analogy about the application of the total, “Therefore everyone who hears these words of mine and puts them into practice is like a wise man who built his house on the rock. The rain came down, the streams rose, and the winds blew and beat against that house; yet it did not fall, because it had its foundation on the rock.”   

Everyone – whether they realize it or not – builds their life on a philosophy. Some would call it a worldview. It is the largely unconscious substrata of your mind that informs and supports your everyday decisions. Your understanding of what is real, what can be ultimately trusted. That is what Jesus is seeking to change. Jesus is not trying to change the beliefs of His hearers. They are Jews who believe in God and both believe and know their Scripture. Their beliefs are honest, so rather than try to deconstruct and rebuild them, He is trying to change their understanding of what is real, because the reality of God is very different than what they had been taught. That reality will forever change them. 

They had been told all their lives by the teachers of the Law that God was most concerned with whether or not they had been completely obedient to everything they interpreted from His Law. The reality is that the Law was there to reflect God’s character to His people, so that His people would and could seek Him in all they did and thought. The human interpretation they had been handed by their teachers was pedantic and small-minded at best. The Law was not there to micro-manage people God already endowed with self-awareness. It was there to spur people toward loving Him. Him who not only made and provided for them, but also chose to reveal Himself in a way they could understand, and in a way that enlightened them to live very differently from the cultures around them. It was there that His people would know God is far above them in thought and act, but loved them as His people and blessed them as His people – all so that they could demonstrate Him to others who did not yet know Him. The reality is so much vaster, more wonderous and more fulfilling then what they had been led to believe. Reality always is.

Jesus’ analogy about a wise builder is a pointed reminder that times will come when what you base your life upon is assailed by that which is completely out of your control. When that happens – and it happens to everyone at some point, as surely and as often as the storm comes in season – then only those who have a philosophy of life based on ultimate reality can stand. The worldviews of others may collapse, but the one who puts into practice what Jesus teaches is secure. Their life is built on on the rock of God – unchangeable, immoveable and forever!

Amen.

The power to change the lives of people comes as the Spirit of God applies the Word of God to the lives of those who listen.

Charles B. Bugg

APPLICATION: Intentionality

Foundation work is difficult, often exhaustive and expensive. But it is necessary and even critical to avoid catastrophic damage. How have you prepared your heart for the coming storm(s)? 

The Psalmist wrote, “O Lord, do not rebuke me in your anger or discipline me in your   wrath. Be merciful to me, Lord, for I am faint; O Lord, heal me, for my bones are in agony. My soul is in anguish. How long, O Lord, how long? Turn, O Lord, and deliver me; save me because of your unfailing love. No one remembers you when he is dead. Who praises you from the grave? I am worn out from groaning; all night long I flood my bed with weeping and drench my couch with tears. My eyes grow weak with sorrow; they fail because of all my foes. Away from me, all you who do evil, for the Lord has heard my weeping. The Lord has heard my cry for mercy; the Lord accepts my prayer. All my enemies will be ashamed and dismayed; they will turn back in sudden disgrace.”

David wrote that Psalm as both a piece of music for His court and a reminder of his sorrow and faith in God in the face of many enemies. But it is also a prophetic Psalm. It speaks of David’s grief, and it also speaks of Christ’s anguish and sorrow at His people’s sins, and of His ultimate victory. His victories actually, for there are more than one. “The Lord has heard my cry for mercy; the Lord accepts my prayer. All my enemies will be ashamed and dismayed; they will turn back in sudden disgrace.” Christ was victorious on the cross over His people’s sins. He was victorious over death and our spiritual enemies in rising from the dead. He will be victorious over all His enemies on the day of His return. It means more still, for in the last line you can hear the voice of the Lord condemning evildoers for the evil they have done.

The scene brings to mind what Jesus said in Matthew 7. “Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only he who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. Many will say to me on that day, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and in your name drive out demons and perform many miracles?’ Then I will tell them plainly, ‘I never knew you. Away from me, you evildoers!’”  Christ’s enemies are those who claimed to belong to Him but did not act according to His will. They pretended to know Him and so prophesied in His Name. They believed they had driven out demons. They wholeheartedly saw their work as miracles. Yet they will be turned back in sudden disgrace. Some translations say, “Depart from me, you who practice lawlessness.” The intention of the words is the same. Although Christ’s hearers and Matthew’s readers may not perceive themselves as evil or lawless people, Jesus’ statement communicates that failure to take His words most seriously is both evil of itself (for inattentiveness is rebellion) and evil in act (for blatant disregard for God’s Law – which Jesus has been teaching about for some time – is the very definition of lawlessness). For Him to therefore summarily dismiss evildoers from His presence is more than understandable. It is expected of God, for He is just and fair and holy. 

The disgrace His enemies must shoulder in their dismissal is unimaginably heavy. They thought they were in His inner circle. They presented themselves as His friends. They ministered in His Name. Yet they are not welcomed or accepted or even tolerated. They are condemned. They bear the responsibility for His tears. They are the ones who caused God in the flesh to weep. They are the ones who have brought pain and misery on Him who is holy and perfect – the creator of us all, the only one worthy of glory! Not only that, but Christ’s dismissal of them forces them to bear responsibility for the accusations against His people, upon which God has heard Christ’s plea for mercy. What then shall be their lot? How terrible it will be for them to hear those words on “that day” – “Away from me, you evildoers!’”

Our Lord is full of loving-kindness. He receives the repentance of sinners.

Theodoret of Cyrus

APPLICATION: Intentionality

“Therefore, my brothers, be all the more eager to make your calling and election sure.” 

(2 Pe 1:10).

Jesus has just said that not everyone who knows He is Lord, and not   everyone who calls Him Lord, and not everyone who even insists that He is Lord, will gain entry to the Kingdom of heaven. Now He elaborates on that point, seemingly making it impossible to get to the Kingdom at all; “Many will say to me on that day, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and in your name drive out demons and perform many miracles?’ Then I will tell them plainly, ‘I never knew you. Away from me, you evildoers!’” 

Surely to prophesy is a good thing. Is it not better then, to prophesy in Jesus’ Name? To drive out demons is a good thing. What then of those who drive them out in Jesus’ Name? To perform a miracle qualifies you for canonization in the Catholic church! To do so in Jesus’ Name, and to do ‘many miracles’ must be a very good thing. Yet in His books, not only is it not good enough to know Jesus’s Name and to call Him Lord, it is not good enough to do good things. Not even very good things, and not even very good things in His Name! In fact, although Jesus’ has already said that entrance to the Kingdom of heaven depends on doing the will of God (v21), His distaste for those who merely do things – even very good things in His own Name – is such that He calls them, “evildoers”. 

The people in Christ’s prophetic vision of “that day” are clearly in trouble, and they’ve obviously appealed to Jesus to help them. Yet He says to them, “I never knew you.” “What is meant by ‘I never knew you’?” [Jesus]..uses the language of origin because origin was so important for identity in the ancient world, but fundamentally it is a denial of relationship: no link of any significance exists.” Effectively, Jesus is declaring that although they knew He was Lord, and although they knew to call Him Lord (even to insist on it through repetition), and although they had prophesied in His Name, driven out the demonic in His Name and performed miracles in His Name, they obviously misunderstood Him. They may be aware of who Christ is, and keenly aware of the power of His Name, but there was no true knowledge of the other. They may have even thought they had that, but Jesus certainly had no relationship with them. What a horrible realization to come to on “that day”! 

Family members understand each other because they have a kinship relationship with each other. A son of the Father knows the Father, and the Father knows him. A son of the Father must know The Son, for “the Son is the radiance of God’s glory and the exact representation of his being.” Those who are God’s children hear His Voice in the Gospel call to repentance. They become aware of their true identity through the preaching of the Gospel, they grasp that identity through faith in Jesus, and they live out that identity through obedience to the Word of God. In all these ways and more, they demonstrate a living relationship with God through Jesus Christ the Son, because they are related by faith. Therefore, they do not try to accomplish their own admission to the Kingdom of heaven through works. That admission is already (and can only be) accomplished by means of family ties.

If there was ever a condemnation of salvation by works alone, this is it; “Many will say to me on that day, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and in your name drive out demons and perform many miracles?’ Then I will tell them plainly, ‘I never knew you. Away from me, you evildoers!’” Spiritual works done of and by ourselves are dead works; they are seen by the Lord as works of evil, for their motivation is not bringing the Kingdom of Christ to others, but our own selfishness. Moreover, their result is not the glory of God, but our own pride. How could God ever reward that? 

Only the work Jesus does through us by His Spirit matters. As the cliche goes, “Know Jesus, know salvation. No Jesus, no salvation!”

I dare not think of standing without Christ for even an instant. I am a poor sinner and nothing at all, but, thanks be unto God, “Jesus Christ is my all and in all.

Hannah Whitall Smith

APPLICATION: Worship

All of salvation and all of the Christ-life God has appointed for us to live after meeting Him are due to the presence and work of God in us. Celebrate that work today by honouring God through worship.