Enduring Temptation

Immediately the Spirit drove Him into the wilderness. And He was there in the wilderness forty days, tempted by Satan, and was with the wild beasts; and the angels ministered to Him. Mark 1:12-13

Forty days seems a rather long time to endure temptation to me, but let's see how long some others endured. Eve and then Adam made it less than a minute; it appears, when the Serpent cunningly came along to tempt them in Genesis 3. In 2 Samuel 11, David holds out against temptation for even less time before having Bathsheba brought to his bed. And the story of his fall did not even require the Serpent's direct hand. The Adversary entered into Judas Iscariot when Jesus gave the word, and he took off immediately; a sort of record no one should strive to achieve. So, forty days in the wilderness enduring the temptation of this same deceiver would be about 57,600 times longer than any of us if we held out for even as long as 1 minute? Our resistance to temptation is rather paltry compared to our Lord's. Which is why we all need to place our faith in Jesus, right now!

Rejoice in Jesus and live in Him!

Bucky

Hearts Of Darkness

But Jesus did not commit Himself to them, because He knew all men, and had no need that anyone should testify of man, for He knew what was in man.  John 2:24-25

As a fellow human, I'm going to guess that this was not our finest moments shining through to Jesus our Lord. In another scripture Jesus tells what comes out of the heart of us humans, and that is not a complimentary list either. This is the sort of thing Jesus faces as He begins His ministry in Galilee and Judea. A bunch of lost and sin-fouled humans looking at Him to be king and save them from the Romans. That He didn't, shows to us that He knew where the real salvation needed to be placed. Born with hearts of sinful darkness, we have no basis for pride but wear it proudly. How did Jesus even manage to start saving us? He sent a fellow from the wilderness in a camel hair suit with a few bug legs in his beard to tell us to repent and get washed. And that was only to prepare the way for His salvation. 

Love to you in Christ our Lord,

Bucky

Forgiving Sins

When Jesus saw their faith, He said to the paralytic, “Son, your sins are forgiven you.” Mark 2:5

Last week, we saw how Jesus began His ministry, which, if He were just another preacher, would not have caused the commotion that it did. Some say that Jesus never declared Himself to be God, but the Pharisees knew immediately when He said, "Son, your sins are forgiven you," that He was either blaspheming or God was there before them. We know from the scripture that they chose the one that let them pick up the stoning stones. They didn't do it this time, but later in the ministry of the Christ, the stones would fly. Here we read of a choice to not believe, and one where Jesus saw faith and a man was healed.

Healing faith and forgiving sins, praise Jesus!

Bucky

Hear The Word

And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth.  John 1:14

The wind blew up this morning wanting to be heard. Another influencer on social media tells of science supporting his opinion and wants to be heard. A politician complains and wants to be heard. And I realize that everyone wants to matter and to have their voice heard above the din of everyone else. 

A few years ago, a voice cried in the wilderness to prepare the way for a greater voice about to be heard. At the baptism of Jesus, God spoke from Heaven, and He was heard. A message of good news was about to be heard in the dark world, and it would be delivered by Him who spoke as one having authority. Some in Judea would be astonished, others would be angered, but according to John the disciple, the voice spoke grace and truth. Today, some still ask, "What is truth?" while others accept the Word and believe. 

It's your choice: do you want to be heard, or do you want to hear the Word and believe? 

Bucky

A Baptismal Recognition

When He had been baptized, Jesus came up immediately from the water; and behold, the heavens were opened to Him, and He saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and alighting upon Him.  And suddenly a voice came from heaven, saying, “This is My beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased.”  Matthew 3:16-17

Now we would like a pile of our efforts at goodness to cause God to say something like this of us. A baptismal recognition reward, if you will. However, as the Holy Spirit shows to us the mountain of our sin with its dark slopes, we know that this lifetime will by no means be enough to save ourselves no matter how many good works we do. And of course good works done to save the self has a rather selfish bent to it. Jesus selflessly set out to redeem us from our sin. And His ministry to spread the good news began all dripping wet beside the Jordan River. Humble, obedient to God, and worthy of His baptismal recognition. 

Praise to the Lord our God and Savior!

Bucky

Prevent Jesus?

Then Jesus came from Galilee to John at the Jordan to be baptized by him. And John tried to prevent Him, saying, “I need to be baptized by You, and are You coming to me?”  Matthew 3:13-14

Imagine for a moment that you are a knight in jolly old England during those armor clangin' and bangin' times. For some reason there is a sudden need for more knights, and you are doing your best to knight all the squires you can find. No word on who is going to pay for all that armor, but there you are knighting away. You look up one day and there is the king of England, waiting in the crowd to be knighted. No one else knows him, but you have some secret knowledge. You would likely do as John the Baptizer does here in our scripture for today. 

Prevent Jesus? Can it be that the Baptizer was confused? Certainly, but we would be in a similar situation. With our commission in mind, we lower our Lord into the water, "I baptize you in the name of the Father, uh, Yourself, and the Holy Spirit!" It would seem just a bit out of order to us. However, Jesus gently and lovingly got John on the right track, and He does the same for us in all circumstances...when we listen to Him that is. 

Be in prayer, and don't try to prevent Jesus from speaking to you,

Bucky

How It Began

The beginning of the gospel of Jesus Christ, the Son of God. As it is written in the Prophets:

​​“Behold, I send My messenger before Your face,
​​Who will prepare Your way before You.”
  -- Mark 1:1-2

For about a month we have been learning of the beginning of the gospel with the birth of Jesus Christ in Bethlehem. But one of the gospels tells us of the beginning being back in the prophets. We knew that of course from the many prophecies pointed out in Matthew and Luke, but it's nice to see it stated as well. John takes it a step further by showing the beginning was before the Creation, but this isn't a contest of gospellers. All four accounts agree that the one to kick off the preaching of the gospel was that relative of Jesus, John the Baptizer; the messenger who went before the face of Jesus.

John was a wilderness man living a simple life on a simple diet of locusts and wild honey, and wearing a simple wardrobe that didn't require a lot of thought each morning. But why did John live out there in the first place? Born to elderly parents, John probably lost them to old age when he was not even come of age himself. It is quite possible that John went out to the wilderness to grieve, and then just stayed there with God, learning the message he would soon preach. And that message hit like the proverbial bombshell. "You, yes you, Jews of the Law of Moses, with your priests and sacrifices in the temple: Repent! For the kingdom of God is at hand."

Repent means that they were doing something wrong. We can well imagine how that message went over the religious authorities.

Rejoice in the Good News of Jesus,

Bucky

A Prayer Multitude

The next day a great multitude that had come to the feast, when they heard that Jesus was coming to Jerusalem, took branches of palm trees and went out to meet Him, and cried out:

​​“Hosanna!
​‘​Blessed is He who comes in the name of the LORD!’
​​The King of Israel!”
  -- John 12:12-13

On this day the multitude was indeed great, but soon, within the week even, the multitude would not act so great. A multitude of people can be a dangerous thing rampaging through a city. Or, a multitude could be a thing glorious to God, such as the multitude which no one could number in Revelation 7. This morning I think we need a multitude of us to call upon Jesus for His help in Minneapolis. Yes, a prayer multitude. And we must pray that His will is done.

Let us pray to the One who saves,

Bucky

The Start Of The Ministry

John answered them, saying, “I baptize with water, but there stands One among you whom you do not know. It is He who, coming after me, is preferred before me, whose sandal strap I am not worthy to loose.”  John 1:26-27

The two first met as unborn babies, and then again in the river. There may have been other times as they were relatives. When the time came, John started his ministry calling for repentance and baptizing. He made a big splash. The answer John gives in our verses today was for the Pharisees, who didn't like to get wet. As those Pharisees stood looking to John for a satisfactory answer to their questions, John told them they were in the presence of one greater than he. Jesus was there! We know from the scripture picture, but surely the Pharisees must have looked around with even more questions on their suspicious minds. After an important baptism, they would get their chance as Jesus began His ministry with some mighty signs. 

Praise God the Father for the ministry of John and Jesus,

Bucky

The Child Time

And the Child grew and became strong in spirit, filled with wisdom; and the grace of God was upon Him. Luke 2:40

The small family had escaped to Egypt, and then after another dream visitation had come back to Nazareth. There, Jesus got to do what was likely an enjoyable time in his life; he got to be a child. While part of his childhood was spent in Egypt, Jesus did much of his growing up in Nazareth. During that time there is but one story of a Passover trip to Jerusalem. All the other time was spent likely in the usual way of kids and teens growing up and learning. No crowds, no Pharisees, and no readers from the future poking around in the life of the young Jesus. The birth of our Lord's brothers and sisters, the passing of Joseph, all done in privacy. In a time when each of us can easily know more about the life of the latest celebrity than we probably should, we can be grateful that Jesus had this time of just growing up with his earthly family.

May your day be joyous by faith in Jesus Christ!

Bucky

On This Journey

All things are full of labor;
Man cannot express it.
The eye is not satisfied with seeing,
Nor the ear filled with hearing.
  -- Ecclesiastes 1:8

By this time in life most of us have seen a great many things. It would be bad news for the tourism, movie, and social media industries if our eyes were satisfied with seeing. Those touring artists putting on the big concerts would have to take up something else for a living if our ears were filled with hearing just one concert. And yet there is a compulsion we may not like in the struggle to see or hear that next thing. How many hours will a person have to work to earn enough to purchase the next ticket to the show? That sounds like a thing full of labor.

We read what Solomon wrote just a bit less than 3,000 years ago and have to wonder just how far the human race has progressed. We labor to feed ourselves and to go to the show on Saturday night, much like they did in Solomon's time. We just celebrated a season of something entirely new though. This new man didn't look like much according to the prophet Isaiah, but he certainly went on about hearing and he who has ears to hear. And seeing? He put on quite a show of miracles, didn't he? Imagine being there to see Lazarus stumble from the tomb all tied up in his grave clothes.

On this journey, there is much to see with the eyes that believe in Jesus, and plenty to hear from His word!

Bucky

Another Silence, Then The Show Begins

The next day John saw Jesus coming toward him, and said, “Behold! The Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world!  John 1:29

The subject for this morning message has been easy to decide for about the last month since Christmas is the celebration of the birth of Jesus our Lord. But we have ended one year and started a new one, so what is the subject now? Of course you will easily see that the subject does not need to change. The great birth events had passed and some years went by when all seemed quiet again in Judea and Galilee. But that was about to change as Jesus came of age and His ministry was set to begin. Joseph was gone, leaving only John and Mary the mother of Jesus to await all those things that would start with a baptism. Twelve unsuspecting men would soon take up the life of disciples of a new rabbi. A wedding would be blessed with the best wine a professional host had ever tasted. Blind eyes would see, dead people would be raised, and many other miracles would turn lives over in a short time. But, it wasn't for nothing that Isaiah had foretold of a great light shining in a land of darkness. Soon the word of God would be preached like it had not been heard before. And John's notice in our verse today would be fulfilled in Jesus the Christ. 

So get ready for a new year of blessings from our Lord and Savior!

Bucky