Posts Tagged ‘ sin ’

Cultural Must Read Rant on Matthew 4:1-11

believes we choose to use our means to manufacture the miraculous rather than wait for God’s deliverance in His time. Mat 4:3-4 @WeeManWest

Matthew 4:1-2 God path for our lives isn’t always the easiest or simplest path. He always leads us where He leads us for our own good. Sometimes we NEED to be led into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil. He will refine those of us who are His. How do we respond in the wilderness? Imagine that you’ve been in the wilderness 40 days and 40 nights fasting and you are starving, how are you going to respond to temptation then? Even the longest periods of temptation that we face will be temporary and will come to an end. Endurance is God’s goal for us in these times.

Matthew 4:3-4 Satan begins by tempting Jesus’ flesh. “Are you hungry? Why not just use your “God” powers and make yourself some bread out of the rocks?” Personally, I couldn’t imagine a 40 day fast. My longest fast was 3 days. Admittedly I was starving. Satan is trying to get Jesus to use His own available means to deliver Himself rather than wait on God and trust in what God will do. We don’t like to wait for deliverance in our culture. We need an immediate answer from God. We need an immediate deliverance from our bondage. Yet, if we seek to jump God’s timing for our lives then we ruin the harvest that God has waiting for us once we have endured. Are we trying to deliver ourselves by our own means?

Matthew 4:5-7 Jesus, having endured and overcome the lust of the flesh is now going to be tempted in the pride of life. He is going to be tempted to exalt Himself above all else. However, such a platform is the opposite for the way in which God works. We don’t exalt ourselves, but rather God exalts us. Basically Satan tempts Jesus to throw Himself down from the top of the temple and expect/demand God intervene and rescue Him before He goes splat! The emphasis here is on preservation and presumption. The temptation is also to use the miraculous to bring glory to yourself and the “make a name for yourself”. Such sin is ancient to mankind. We are not to test God. We have no right to demand God save us from any of our bad decisions. If we make a poor decision we must face those consequences. When we miss out on the consequences, then we miss out the lesson we could have learned and the blessing we could have received. Are we tempted today to “miss out” on the consequences of our sinful and bad choices?

Matthew 4:8-10 Jesus faces the lust of the eyes. The temptation is to have what you see…to desire all that you see…and to covet, cheat, steal to get what you desire. All Satan wanted, in order to hand the world over to Jesus, was for Jesus to worship him. Jesus would get the whole world, yet would bypass the cross…How many people do you know who have traded their soul for all they can get out of this world? The temptation is so real. We see what others have an we want it. We don’t understand why we cannot have it so we covet. We don’t realize how powerful a venom is contained in the trunk of covetousness. We don’t realize that merely seeing and wanting what someone else has is the first step into the pit of the sin of covetousness which leads swiftly to jealousy and discontenmentment. Hence we find ourselves ready to compromise everything in order to have what we see. Jesus said, “Be gone!” Covetousness causes us to worship what we see and desire what we see rather than to worship and desire the God whom we can’t see. Covetousness replaces living by faith with living by sight and we become trapped creatures of this world. Are we tempted today to have what others have for ourselves even if it means compromising our faith?

Matthew 4:1-11 My summary is this: we fail at every point when it comes to these sorts of temptations. We give in. Christ did not. Christ overcame them and in Him alone can we overcome them as well. We need His power in our lives. We need Him in our lives. If we try to work harder at not falling into these sins we will fail. We’ve got to instead spend out time in Christ, abiding in a relationship with Him in which we are listening to Him. We fail in these temptations because everyone else does. However, if we are listening to Christ we will spot and recognize these temptations for what they are and will have His power availalbe to overcome them. Don’t work hard, but rather rest (in Christ) and resist (Satan). We have to come into the battle with the humility to recognize that we cannot overcome our sin, only Christ can, and He can overcome our sin for us if we humble ourselves and allow Him to do so.

2013
01/09
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Rants 6 January 2013: Matthew 3:13-17; Acts 4:1-22; Psalm 6; Genesis 9-10

believes we must respond in faith when God speaks if we desire that He manifest Himself in our lives. Mat 3:13-17 @WeeManWest

hopes to never be ashamed of the world’s rejection for so often God uses such for His greatest works of glory. Act 4:13 @WeeManWest

Matthew 3:15 What if Jesus came to you and said that He needed you to do something for Him to fulfill all righteousness? How would you respond? For John it was as simple as baptizing Jesus, for others it may be so much more.

Matthew 3:16-17 John submitted and was allowed to witness an amazing spectacle and affirmation of the identity of Jesus. Normally, God waits for us to respond in faith before He reveals and manifests Himself in our lives. God speaks->We respond (either in faith/doubt)->God manifests Himself (either positive/negative). This pattern is repeated throughout Scripture.

Acts 4:2-3 May we be just as annoying in our proclaiming the gospel…that we would be willing to be arrested and thrown into prison…rather than remain silent as souls head without our witness into a Christless eternity.

Acts 4:13 Let us not be dissuaded from our witness by our education or occupation for it seems fitting that God frequently uses those that the world reject.

Psalm 6:4 All of us should realize that our salvation is designed not so much for our glory, but for His glory. He saves us for the sake of His name and for the sake of His love. He doesn’t save us because He owes us anything. He saves us because He wants to save us and has promised to save us.

Psalm 6:6-7 We should all come to this realization of our place before God. We are in a dire, hopeless, and desperate situation. The ONLY deliverance we shall have is in the name of Christ Acts 4:12 .

Genesis 9:6 In God’s institution of the death penalty we see the greatest indictment of the human race. We are so desperately wicked that we NEED the threat of retribution to keep us from harming one another. Our unwillingness to admit this reality is an even worse indictment.

Genesis 9:13 God has set His bow in the sky, He has hung it up. When the bow hangs God threat of judgment is abated. However, when God takes His bow Revelation 6:2 His judgment is soon to follow.

Genesis 9:17 God’s covenants always have accompanying signs. The bow in the clouds is the sign of His covenant with Noah.

Genesis 9:21 Noah, the righteous man, has a lapse in judgment. We must be ALWAYS on watch lest we fall to our temptations that continually surround us in all that we set to do.

Genesis 9:25 Noah curses Ham’s specific descendnt Canaan and leaves his line to be the slaves of Shem’s line and Japheth’s line. The was NEVER a curse on ALL of Ham’s descendants, but rather a specific curse upon Canaan’s descendants. Noah apparently saw the error of Ham Genesis 9:22 in his descendant Canaan.

Genesis 10:8-14 We see the birth of Nimrod, a mighty hunter in God’s face. He opposed God and built a kingdom centered around the defiance of God centered at Babel. That’s right! This descendant, grandson of Ham through Cush was the founder of Babel (Babylon).

Genesis 10:19 Canaan’s peoples filled Sodom, Gomorrah, Admah and Zeboiim. This line was a wicked line as we will see. However, we must realize that we are equally as wicked and in desperate need for deliverance from our own internal, genetic, fatal flaw.

2013
01/08
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Rants 5 January 2013 Matthew 3:1-12; Acts 3, Psalm 5; Genesis 6-8

is curious as to how often we miss the message because we reject the appearance of the messenger? Mat 3:4 @WeeManWest

Matthew 3:4 In our age of the well-dressed, high-profile, nice-looking messenger I can’t help but wonder how do we respond when God’s messenger to us stinks, hasn’t shaved in ages, is wearing cheap and nasty clothes, and probably looks like he/she is starving?

Acts 3:6 We have made caring for the poor and sick as though it is a payment we make rather than an act we perform. We give our money to our government, churches and charities and we neglect actually going ourselves and ministering to those who need our ministry. We create the disconnect. We allow the dependence to be about money rather than about the Person, Jesus Christ.

Acts 3:23 Peter again points to the fact that the age of Israel and the Law were coming to an abrupt ending. Within 40 years these words of Peter would be very true. The Roman armies would sack and burn Jerusalem slaying most of the population. I believe that every “people” is judged by God for their response to Christ as the Psalmist wrote, “Now therefore, O kings, be wise; be warned, O rulers of the earth….Kis the Son, lest he be angry, and you perish in the way, for his wrath is quickly kindled.” Psalm 2:10-12

Psalm 5:9-12 We are a pack of liars and flatterers. We bear our guilt. Our only hope is in taking refuge in the abundance of God’s steadfast love (Psalm 5:7) in Christ Jesus.

Genesis 6:5 In case you were wondering…yes, we are still the same way. Only God’s grace makes any of us different.

Genesis 6:9 & Genesis 6:22 Noah is a picture to us of Jesus Christ, who in the midst of a corrupted human race was righteous before God and was blameless and walked with God and did all that God commanded Him. Such cannot be said for any of the rest of us. We are pictured in the ones who have filled the earth with violence and corruption, whose thoughts and motives are continually evil before God. This chapter gives us a true glimpse at the holiness of God in comparison to the corruption of His creation. Even the angels are impure before God.

Genesis 7:3-4 I believe that there is a connection between the 7 couples of birds of the air and the fact that this judgment is coming from the air, the abode of the birds. Just throwing out the possibility.

Genesis 7:17 One day, as God closed the door of the ark, so also will He close the door to heaven. We do not know what day such will be. However, we should live in light of the knowledge that one day, God will bring all things to an end. When the Lord shuts, no man can open what He has shut.

Genesis 8:1 Here for a second time already in Scripture we see the picture of the wind blowing over the earth to recede the waters. We have the wind of the Holy Spirit in Genesis 1:2 and now we have the wind again. The wind often accompanies the work of the Holy Spirit on this earth.

Genesis 8:8-12 Raven and dove, raven doesn’t return but the dove does. 7 days later the dove returns with the olive branch. 7 days later the dover remains. Maybe this pictures the ages of God’s movement. In the beginning, the age from Creation to the Flood both Satan and the Holy Spirit worked in the earth. Satan found a place in the earth and corrupted all flesh and remained in the earth, the Spirit returned (the ark). Seven days (an age) later the dove is sent back out and returns with an olive branch which is a picture of the remnant of Israel…however, Satan still held much sway over the inhabitants of the earth in that age, from the Flood to Christ’s advent. Seven days (an age) later the dove is sent back out and remains in the earth. This may picture the current gospel era in which the gospel is to go to the nations and fill the earth. Just throwing out some thoughts, not saying definitively that such is what this text teaches. Just more a rumination drawn from the picture.

2013
01/06
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Rants 4 January 2013

Matthew 2:16-18 Tragedy is not without purpose. God is able, from the most tragic of circumstances, to bring great joy. If one reads Jeremiah 31 they find that this passage is couched in the midst of a prophecy about God bringing Israel back together. God promises these women a reward for the “work” of enduring such a painful and horrific tragedy. Will we in our own tragedies seek the reward that is not of this age or will we succomb to the destructive means of the enemy?

Acts 2:23 Jesus was delivered up by God’s plan to be crucified and killed. Are we willing to surrender to God’s plan for our life knowing it may include a similar ending?

Acts 2:34-35 We should all give a very prayerful and meditative reading of Psalm 110.

Psalm 110:1 is one of the most quoted Old Testament passages found in the New Testament. After Jesus lived, died, and rose from the tomb He ascended to heaven to receive His kingdom as Daniel wrote in Daniel 7:13-14. His kingdom consists of Him sitting at God’s right hand and pouring forth the Holy Spirit among His poeple. He will remain at God’s right hand until God has made all His enemies His footstool. Psalm 110:2 states that Jesus will rule in the midst of His enemies. He rules in us by the Holy Spirit in the midst of His enemies. However, 1 Corinthians 15:25-26 carries this passage further and states that the final enemy to be defeated is death. So Christ’s return will Scripturally occur AFTER the resurrection because death must be defeated before He leaves His place at His Father’s right hand. We are living the kingdom of Christ daily.

Acts 2:36-37 We, like Peter’s audience, stand guilty of the blood of Jesus Christ. Had we lived in that day we would have fallen into the same sinful temptations and would have crucified Jesus. Hence  we are, as they were, a “crooked generation” Acts 2:40 and deserve eternal death and separation from God. They were pricked to the heart because they realized their own culpability in Christ’s death. We will be equally pricked when we realize the same culpability for ourselves.

Acts 2:42-47 We must take great care as to how we allow our society to interpret this passage. A contingent of our society uses this passage to support a social gospel that is driven by the guilting of God’s people into approving, through the ballot box, the redistribution of income. Such is not what is pictured here, but such is what is played on by pathetic people who desire to control the wealth of others. People who lack the creativity, ingeniuty, and courage to step out on their own and start new businesses and sources of income who rather seek to control those who have such qualities by controlling their wealth through guilt manipulation. We live in and age of guilt manipulators and we should be ashamed for any moment of which we ourselves have played the part of a guilt manipulator. The difference is in choice. The disciples devoted themselves, they were not commanded, guilted or legally consigned to this system of church application. They chose to devote themselves to one another. We cannot miss this choice. For which such choice comes the choice to not be so devoted, as Paul later taught, when people were joining to reap benefits of this society, yet were contributing nothing to the society itself. We must guard our heart from those without and within who would love to goad us into allowing them control us by controlling the wealth that God has blessed us with. Our wealth falls under His dominion.

Psalm 4:2 We are those who love the vain words of this world instead of loving the powerful words of God. We are the ones who believe lies when the truth is before us. We are the ones deceived by this world and in desperate need of a Savior. Only God and deliver us from this life of shame that we live.

Genesis 6:2-4 We now come upon a very controversial passage that I’ve seen interpretted a couple of different ways. I am going to lean to the side of warning with this text. I’ll just say that I support my opionion on this text with a couple of Scriptural items. #1 the term for sons of God is usually used to describe angels. I would cite the various texts but most of them, with few exceptions, refer to angels. I know this thought may seem “out there” to modern readers. Yet, most scholars before the modern era believed this text was referring to angels. This seems to make sense when one adds in 2 Peter 2:4-10 we see Peter use the example twice. The angels were judged with the ancient world as Noah and his family were preserved. Then Sodom and Gomorrah were destroyed while Lot was rescued. What is interesting to note is that Peter says the angels were cast into hell. However, in the Greek the word Peter uses is not Gehenna or Hades. He uses a word that is used only once in Scripture. Peter says they were cast into Tartarus. Tartarus, in Greek mythology, was the place the Titans were cast. Who were the Titans? In Greek mythology they were the large and powerful offspring of heaven and earth. My question: “Why would Peter use Tartarus instead of Gehenna or Hades?” Then we look to Jude 6-7 we see the same line of thinking whereas the sin of Sodom and Gomorrah is said to be just like the sin of the angels. What is the warning? God delivers the righteous and destroys the unrighteous. Another text we find in the word to point to the absolute necessity of Jesus Christ. This union brought about the Nephillim or fallen ones. Since Satan knew that the seed of the woman would be his destruction, why would he not then seek to eliminate the seed? What better way to do that than to so corrupt mankind with sin and lineage (Nephillim) that God would have to destroy them all?

2013
01/05
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Radical Rants & Notes 3 January 2013

is too much like Herod and Israel, who were troubled because Christ was a threat to their kingdom, to his own shame! Mat 2:3 @WeeManWest

is guilty of scoffing, even if only in his thoughts, at what God was doing in someone else’s life. How about you? Acts 2:13 @WeeManWest

believes that we will either rule over sin or instead be ruled by sin, our momentary choices reveal who is in charge. Gen 4:7 @WeeManWestMatthew 2:3

I am way too often just like Herod. I’ve worked hard to establish my place in this world and Christ seems to be a threat to all that I’ve accomplished. Herod was troubled because Christ threatened his world, his lifestyle. How often are we troubled at the thought of Christ really stepping into our lives because we know His Kingdom is a threat to our own?
Acts 2:4-12 This miraculous work of the Holy Spirit, to cause these believers to speak in tongues. Personally, I see the reversal of the tower of Babel in this instance. I believe that before Babel mankind spoke the language of heaven from which all languages on earth have been taken. I believe that for this moment, man again received the heavenly language and all men could understand what was being said. Babel was being reversed. God had confused the languages to cause men to disperse, now God wants to draw all men to Christ so He gives the gift of the heavenly language back for this moment.
Acts 2:13 We often scoff at what God is doing in the lives of other believers, often out of jealousy, because God isn’t working the same way in our lives and we are jealous.
Acts 2:16-21 Peter tells the crowd filling Jerusalem at Pentecost that what they are witnessing is the fulfillment of Joel 2:28-32.  Peter is teaching, inspired by the Holy Spirit, that the event transpiring was ushering in the last days. What “last days” you may ask? The earth has existed nearly 2000 years since this event. Yes, these last days were NOT the last days of this world, but instead were that last days of an age. The last days of the age that saw Israel and the Temple in Jerusalem as the worship center. Those last days were upon them and would be closed out within the generation (about 40 years later Jerusalem was demolished and burned to the ground in the Roman conflagration fulfilling Joel’s “signs in the earth below, blood, and fire, and vapor of smoke; the sun shall be turned to darkness and the moon to blood, before the day of the Lord comes.”).  This marked the definitive end of the old Jerusalem old temple center of worship and God’s shift in to the New Jersualem and New Temple worship that is discussed throughout the New Testament. Peter announces such beginning has now come!
Psalm 3:1-2 We are often found to be fighting against Christ’s work, warring in our flesh because our territories and opinions have been threatened. How often have you taken the honest evaluation of where you are and what you are doing and opened the door to the possibility that you may just be at war with God and a persecutor of His people?
Genesis 4:3-5 I believe the difference in Cain and Abel’s offering was in the substance. Cain’s offering looked to his work, the labor of his own hands whereas Abel’s offering looked back to God’s sacrifice of an animal in Genesis 3:21. Cain’s offering wreaked of his own ability to overcome the curse (Genesis 3:17-19) and he offers to God the food of man, drawn from the ground outside of the Garden. Abel offers God’s work, the animal being born, and its blood in place of his own.
Genesis 4:7 We will either rule over our sin or be ruled by it, we make moment-by-moment choices as to which it will be. How have you chosen recently?
Genesis 4:8 Cain offered the blood of his own brother, whose offering had been acceptable; rather than just surrender to God’s will. What all have we sacrificed to God instead of what He has told us is acceptable? Do we think that rather removing those God accepts will bring us acceptance? Similar error was made by the Jews toward Jesus. They had the kingdom the way they wanted it, Jesus taught them something different that was acceptable to God, they sought to remove Christ and force God to do the kingdom their own way. We have our own plans and desires for what we think should be acceptable to God when instead we she be at God’s feet seeking what is acceptable to Him and then simply obeying His will.
Genesis 4:17 The 3rd from Adam through Cain built a city in rebellion against God’s decree to wander as a vagabond. He called the name of the city after his son.
Genesis 4:23 The 7th from Adam through Cain would become a murderer as well.
Genesis 4:26 The 3rd from Adam through Seth ushered in a time when people called upon the name of the Lord.
Genesis 4:17 & Genesis 4:26 Note the comparison of the lines through the 3rd descendant from Adam. Cain’s line was calling on their own names whereas Seth’s line was calling on the Lord. Are we teaching our children to call on their own name, to establish their own will and kingdom; or are we teaching them to call on the name of the Lord and seek His will and Kingdom?
Genesis 4:19-24 & Genesis 5:18-24 Note the comparison betwee the 7th from Adam per Cain and Seth. Cain’s lineage brought a polygamist and murderer. Seth’s lineage brought a man who walked with God and was taken to God without dying! How stark the difference and how important it is that we focus on raising children to call on the name of the Lord.
Genesis 5:29 The 10th from Adam through Seth is Noah. Yep, that Noah, the one who builds the ark and survives the flood.

In the Lamb,

Mark West

2013
01/03
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Radical Rants & Notes

believes Jesus didn’t come to topple Rome or establish political Israel but instead to save us from our sins. Mat 1:21 @WeeManWest

knows  Jesus came to give us not what we want, but rather what only He alone can provide, the forgiveness of our sins. Mat 1:21 @WeeManWest

believes that our church would be powerful for His Kingdom if we could just be one before Jesus Christ our Lord. Act 1:14 @WeeManWest

struggles with his fallen heart that sees God’s way as bondage and his own way as liberty when the opposite is the truth. Ps 2:3 @WeeManWest

understands that God’s plan is for everything to go through His Son, we cannot reject His Son and claim God as our own. Ps 2:6-12 @WeeManWest

believes that the core of our struggle against God is that we feel cheated if God doesn’t do what we want how we want. Gen 3:5 @WeeManWest

NOTES

Matthew 1:21 Jesus name meant Jehovah is salvation and such Joseph is told Jesus would do. Jesus came to save people from their sins. He didn’t come to topple Rome. He didn’t come to establish national Israel. He came to save us from our sins. Jesus gave us what only He alone could provide…the forgiveness of our sins.

Acts 1:14 God’s intention is for us to be in one accord. How powerful would His church be for His kingdom if we would just seek to be one before Christ?

Psalm 2:3 It is essential for us that we understand what is in the heart of every person on the planet. We are all filled with a spirit of rebellion that desires to have our own way over God’s way. We have a mindset that sees God’s ways as bondage and cords from which we must escape.

Psalm 2:6-12 God’s way is through His Son. He set His Son as King. He gave birth to His Son through Mary. He has given the nations to His Son. All must honor His Son. All will be blessed by taking refuge in His Son.

Genesis 3:5-6 The crux of our rebellion against God is and always has been that we feel God is cheating us by keeping us from what we see as best for ourselves. God alone knows what is best for us. If we trust Him, we will accept what He is doing. If not, we will try to make our own way to establish our own plans and our own will.

Genesis 3:6 The peril of the passive man. Instead of being aggressive and defending his wife, exerting his dominion and expressing his disapproval the man instead passively goes along with what the woman desires even knowing the price! Men must reject passivity and be aggressive for God. He totally wigs out on his roel in God’s kingdom by refusing to lead and be courageous. Would God not bless him abundantly if he had taken the leadership role? Instead he passively rebels against God. Why should I take the lead and make all the decisions? My wife has made a perfectly acceptable decision so I should just go along with it and keep the peace in the household. Adam was a coward and just like him all men since have been cowards, the apple doesn’t fall far from the tree, excuse the pun.

Genesis 3:12 The man now, rather than take responsibility for his passivity and rebellion instead blames God. Did you see it? He said, “the woman whom you gave to be with me,” and basically blamed God! The man says that he would not have chosen rebellion if not for the woman that God gave him. Basically, God if you hadn’t given me this woman I would not have rebelled! WOW!

Genesis 3:13 The woman, who was deceived and led man into sin, is the ONLY ONE HERE TAKING RESPONSIBILITY!!!! She knew what she had done was rebellious and she took responsiblity for what she had done! Wake up men. She is saying what the man should have said. He was the one given dominion for the sake of protecting his family from harm and yet he was passive and refused to take responsibility and so his family would be plunged into the curse!

Genesis 3:15 Jesus would have to come and do what we are incapable of doing…conquering our sins!

Genesis 3:16-19 The curse would be enmity in the household. The woman would constantly seek to usurp the role given to man. Her pain would be in childbirth, the one means by which she would also bring deliverance into the world as Mary would give birth to our Messiah. The husband’s pain was to be in the workforce. His role is now to be the laborer. The woman was given to be in labor, the man was given to be put to labor. Both will now eventually die and return to the dust of the earth. Earth will now be full of conflict, even in the home. Totally full of conflict because one man was a passive, irresponsible coward. However, all men since have followed the same path as though cut from the same mold.

Genesis 3:23 Did you notice here that man was taken from the dust OUTSIDE of Eden? Man was an import into Eden. He wasn’t ready. He needs something to happen. He needs God’s clothing which Christ would eventually provide to all mankind.

Genesis 3:7 and Genesis 3:21 Adam and Eve tried to cover their nakedness with fig leaves of their own design. See the rebellion!? Rather than come humbly before God in responsible repentance instead they chose the hollow refuge of religion. Please tell me you see the difference?! God slew an animal, the first death on planet earth, to provide appropriate clothing for Adam and Eve. He covered them in his way, showing that sin can only be dealt with through death. While God sacrificed the first sacrifice, He would also make the final sacrifice by placing Himself on the cross in Jesus Christ to remove sin from His people.

2013
01/02
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Crux of the Kingdom

“Jesus answered, “My kingdom is not of this world. If my kingdom were of this world, my servants would have been fighting, that I might not be delivered over to the Jews. But my kingdom is not from this world.”” John 18:36

My son was working on an essay on the Holocaust last week for literacy at school. As we discussed his research I noticed that he really struggled to explain to me in specific terms what the Holocaust was. He knew a lot of facts about it, who was involved, and when it occurred.

Yet he was missing the answers to the bigger questions of reason and substance?

I think, from conversations that I’ve had and from articles I’ve read, that much of Christianity is in the same quandary when it comes to the kingdom of Christ. We know a lot of facts and who is involved but often we miss the reason and substance of His kingdom.

Jesus stood before Pilate and faced questions regarding His kingdom. Essentially Jesus tried to explain to Pilate that His kingdom wasn’t necessarily about this world. He portrayed Himself not as the King of the Jews, as Pilate had Him so titled, but as the King of a kingdom not of this world.

A kingdom based on truth.

Pilate was left with the question, “What is truth?” John 18:38

I believe the crux of the kingdom of Christ is illuminated by Jesus’ answer to Pilate’s question. The crux of the kingdom is the crucifixion!

Jesus humbled Himself, being God in the flesh, and made Himself the answer and substance for man’s greatest question: Why?

All the pain and suffering we endure in this life and in this world find their reply in the willing, sacrificial, substitutionary death of Jesus Christ on the cross. He subjected this world to the agony of sin only so that He alone could be the one to bear that agony upon Himself and drive it from this world.

Unfortunately, we’ve lost sight of the power of His sacrifice in our modern church. We run to money, medicine, and oratory for the world’s question of why when our response should be as Christ’s was…to come and die.

Christ’s kingdom is centered on truth. The truth is that God is, and God is holy. God made man and man rejected God and chose this sin-stained, death-panged existence. Christ came as the solution to the equation. He is the one denominator that brings man back to where he was intended to be in the first place.

The crux of the kingdom is that Christ brings man back to God!

Why are we subjected to such a futile existence? We are subjected as such because we refuse to come back to our Creator. His plan for all of time was to win us back to Himself.

So what is the substance of the kingdom of Christ? Willing and sacrificial death! Trusting that Christ’s kingdom, and ours by faith, is not of this world, but rather of the world to come.

When we come to Christ, we die to ourselves. Our death, spiritually to our old way of life, often becomes concrete and literal as we lay down our lives for the Gospel to spread. God’s word doesn’t say that we overcome Satan with guns, bombs, laws, and rhetoric. God’s word is clear on our purpose.

“And they have conquered him by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony, for they loved not their lives even unto death.” Revelation 12:11

We conquer Satan and drive sin out of this world by the blood of the Lamb, Jesus Christ, and by the word of our testimony. Our story of how Christ saved us and transformed our lives by the power of His blood is the greatest weapon we have against the enemy!

Satan can take everything from us, even our very lives, yet with all his raging against us he cannot ever separate us from our story in Christ! Our testimony is sealed in that we are willing to die for Christ rather than cling to the fading pleasures of this world.

Our death for Christ does essentially draw others to Christ. We then become a part of the process of God bringing man back to Himself. How willing are we to lay down everything in our lives even if it means only one convert?

He died and so we die in Him and surrender any claim we have over ourselves. We become His for His purposes. We receive our story His gracious deliverance from our sinful, destructive lives.

Our new lives, lived on the edge of death, speak bold and resolute that the crux of the kingdom is unleashed in our willingness to lay it all down for His Gospel to spread.

Such is the crux of the kingdom!

Are we willing lay it all down, as Christ did, to bring man back to his Creator?

In the Lamb,

Mark West

2012
12/18
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