31

Jump Start # 1507

Posted on December 31, 2015 by Jump Starts Daily in Jump Starts Daily | Tagged | Leave a comment

Jump Start # 1507

Acts 2:14 “But Peter, taking his stand with the eleven, raised his voice and declared to them; ‘Men of Judea, and all you who live in Jerusalem, let this be known to you, and give heed to my words.”

Note: Tomorrow is a holiday.  There will be no Jump Start tomorrow. We will hopefully be back with you on Monday.

  Today is the last day of the year. My, it seems that time flies by so fast anymore. This is a time when folks look back to reflect and look ahead to plan. Was it a good year for you? How would you define “a good year?” There is always hardships along the way. Death happens. Did you get to go to any weddings? Did you get to hold a new born baby? Did you travel? Did you gain a new friend? Did you learn something that helped your character? Many would admit that they probably ate too much, saved too little, worried more than they should have and forgot to do some things that were important. Did you read any good books this year? Did you worship weekly? Did you pray daily? Those are the highlights of strong Christians.

 

I saw the other day a list that was called the sportsman’s bucket list. The expression, ‘bucket list’ is used to describe what a person wants to see or do before they die. The sportsman’s bucket list included visiting all the major league baseball fields. I’ve known some folks who were trying to do that. Every summer it’s off to a different city to catch a game in a stadium that they have never been in before. What a neat idea. I suppose if there is a sportsman’s bucket list, then there ought to be the movie goer bucket list. A list of all the movies you want to see before you die.  There could be a bucket list for every hobby out there.

 

So, what if we made a Spiritual bucket list. A list of all the spiritual things you would want to see or do before you die. That list could include going to hear some well known preachers preach. It could include traveling to Jerusalem. It could include going to the British Museum, where one would find many important Biblically related artifacts. It could include memorizing  passages. It could be learning Greek. Before I die, I would like to… What would you put on your spiritual bucket list? Do you think you could come up with a “Top Ten” list? If you know some things, share them with me. I’d be interested in knowing what you came up with.

 

Since this is the last day of the year, I thought we would take a look at the first gospel sermon ever preached. On the last day, we look at the first. This isn’t the only sermon in the Bible and it probably wouldn’t even rank as the most important sermon in the Bible, but it has tremendous value.

 

Consider a few simple thoughts:

 

  • Peter was probably not the best choice, at least not one that we would pick, to preach this sermon. Just a month and a half before this, he publicly denied Jesus. Most folks would think that he shouldn’t be preaching. Some would say that he needs some time to prove himself. The Lord didn’t see it that way. There is Peter, preaching his heart out. Courageous, confident and bold.

 

  • This audience wasn’t the best audience to hear this first sermon. They didn’t come to hear a sermon. They gathered as Jews to celebrate a Jewish feast day. The background to Peter’s sermon, the Holy Spirit had empowered the apostles to speak in tongues. This was such an unusual event that many in the audience accused the apostles of being drunk. Peter had to deal with that at the very beginning of his sermon. Not a great way to begin when the audience has already turned against you.

 

  • It was a short sermon. There are a total of 531 words in Peter’s sermon. Most of us are just getting going by that time. Peter got to the point and got done. There was a time when some criticized “sermonettes”. God seemed to be pleased with what Peter was doing. It’s not how much you say, but what you say.

 

  • Peter’s lesson was about Jesus. 42% of this sermon are quotations from the O.T. He shows that Joel’s prophecy was fulfilled. He shows David’s prophesy about the resurrection was fulfilled. The sermon wasn’t about the church, Heaven, Hell or worship. It was about Jesus. Peter didn’t tell the people how miserable their lives were. He didn’t scare them with scenes of torment and punishment. He preached Jesus. Jesus the man (23). Jesus the miracle worker (22). Jesus the prophesied one (31). Jesus the raised one (32). Jesus the Lord (36). It must be Jesus first. Some talk more about the church than they do Jesus.

 

  • Peter brought the audience into the sermon. He said, ‘you know’ (22), ‘you nailed’ (23), ‘you see’ (33), ‘you crucified’ (36). You, you, you. That’s personal. That’s on their front porch. That’s something that would demand a response from them. Some can be so general in their sermons that no one knows who the lesson is for. Not Peter. Not here. They knew. He made it plain. He made it clear. He wasn’t rude. He wasn’t over the top, but neither was he letting them escape without thinking about this Jesus.

 

  • The sermon wasn’t finished when they shouted out a question. They asked, “What shall we do?” Peter didn’t say, ‘hold on, I have three more points to cover.’ He didn’t say, ‘Wait until I am finished.’ He didn’t say, ‘Be quiet and stop interrupting me.’ Right there, right then, Peter answered their question. His answer was plain. It was what they could understand. He didn’t take forty minutes telling them what’s wrong with everything that’s wrong, he answered their question. One sentence. Repent and be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins. That’s the answer. That’s what they needed to hear. Peter didn’t say, “You don’t have to do a thing.” He didn’t say, “Come back next week and find out the answer.” Right then, right there.

 

And three thousand people were baptized! They knew. They obeyed. They changed.

 

The first sermon, on the last day. It gives us a lot to think about. Have you done what Peter told these people? Why not?

 

Roger

 

 

30

Jump Start # 1506

Posted on December 30, 2015 by Jump Starts Daily in Jump Starts Daily | Tagged | Leave a comment

Jump Start # 1506

2 Timothy 1:12 “For this reason I also suffer these things, but I am not ashamed; for I know whom I have believed and I am convinced that He is able to guard what I have entrusted to Him until that day.”

  I like this verse. It’s like a suitcase that is so stuffed that one has to sit on it to get it closed. We notice the heavy use of personal pronouns. Paul refers to himself six times. Six times in one sentence. Out of 39 words, six of them are the pronoun, “I.” I suffer. I am not ashamed. I know. I have believed. I am convinced. I have entrusted. Wow! That’s a lot of action on Paul’s part. His faith was not dormant. It wasn’t God who was doing everything, either. This wasn’t a one way street. Paul believed. Paul was convinced. Paul trusted. Paul knew.

 

Don’t you wish you could say that? Sometimes, with us, it’s just the opposite. I’m not sure anymore what I believe. I’m not sure that God will answer my prayers. I don’t think God will help me. I don’t know if I can hang on much longer. The Gospel of doubt leads to despair and defeat. This certainly wasn’t the language of Paul.

 

A couple of thoughts here.

 

First, this amazing believer suffered. Paul began this sentence, “For this reason I also suffer these things.” God was going to guard what Paul had entrusted to Him. That is stated deeper in the sentence. But this guarding didn’t exclude Paul from suffering. The suffering Savior is followed by suffering saints. That’s us. That’s Paul. The light that we shine, often offends and blinds others. They don’t want to see it. They want it turned off. They love the darkness more than the light. That’s what Jesus says in John 3.

 

Some how we have gotten the idea that if I’m doing right, then my life ought to be amazing and trouble free. Paul’s wasn’t. He was considered the scum of the earth. I’ve never really looked up that word “scum.” It reminds me of mold in a locker room. When a teenager I worked in restaurant. One of my jobs was to take a huge pot full of grease and dump it in a dumpster. It was so heavy I could barely carry it. I’m certain today we would be in all kinds of environmental trouble for doing that. The grease was hot, smelled and had what I think was scum floating on the top. Another lovely summer Job I had was working in a fishery. Gold fish were raised in a hatchery and then shipped all over the world. It was an amazing process. The fish would be brought in from the many ponds. They were sorted out in troughs. Dead fish were tossed into a large trash can. When the can was full to the top of dead fish, it was loaded into a really old dumpy pickup. When the back of the pickup was full of a dozen or so trash cans full of dead fish, it became my job to drive it up to a trash heap and pour the dead fish out. There was a mountain of dead, smelly fish. I only did that one time. I told the boss it was more than I could handle. They laughed but I didn’t care. I have never smelled anything so bad as that mountain of dead fish. Scum. Paul told the Corinthians that he was the scum of the earth. God allowed that. There wasn’t universities named after Paul, not back then. He was a hunted man.

 

Let’s stop measuring how much we think God loves us by the quality of goodness in our lives. Paul had it tough, but the Lord sure loved him. The lovers of darkness may treat you like scum. That’s ok. God loves you.

 

Second, Paul tells us that God is able to guard what we have entrusted to Him. God is able. That’s the spirit of the three Jewish boys who stood before the Babylonian king. Our God is able to deliver us. Hebrews tells us that God is able to save those who draw near to Him. Jude tells us that God is able to keep you from stumbling. He is able. That’s a great thought. Again, we might limit God. We may think that He is not able. He won’t, we may say. But, He is able.

 

God is able to guard what we have entrusted to Him. What would that be? Our faith. Our hearts. Our soul. Our lives. God is able. God is able to help us. God is able to protect us.

 

The suffering Paul understood that God was able to guard that faith that he had. What was of most importance to Paul, was that faith. His life would be taken, but not his faith. His faith was securely rooted in the Most High.

 

A great passage about Paul. It helps us in troublesome times. We worry. We get scared. We wonder. Now, we know. We can know like Paul knew. We will suffer, but He is able to guard what we’ve entrusted to Him. We are not alone. We are not forgotten. What we are going through is not for naught. God knows.

 

Helpful thoughts.

 

Roger

 

29

Jump Start # 1505

Posted on December 29, 2015 by Jump Starts Daily in Jump Starts Daily | Tagged | Leave a comment

Jump Start # 1505

Matthew 5:47 “And if you greet your brothers only, what do you do more than others? Do not even the Gentiles do the same?”

  Recently, I talked about the sermon on the mount in a class. We were studying the Life of Jesus. The sermon on the mount is a defining declaration of the Lord. It stands as a document that identifies what citizens in the kingdom are like. Jesus was looking for something other than the norm. Average doesn’t impress the Lord. Multiple times in the sermon Jesus would say, “you have heard…but I say to you…” Jesus was raising the standard. Instead of quoting some dead rabbi or referring to some dusty documents, Jesus used Himself. “I say to you…” was revolutionary, radical and caught the attention of those in the audience. Here, a thirty-something, was telling them what to do. When the sermon ended, the reaction was, He speaks as one having authority.

 

Our verse is taken from that sermon. It is found in the section about treating others. Loving our enemies and praying for those who persecute us is from this setting. Again, don’t just do the norm. The standard is God. He sends His rain on the righteous and the unrighteous. The guy that curses God receives blessings from God, whether he realizes it or not. God is good to all. God loves all, even those that do not love Him.

 

It follows then, that the followers of God, would act like God. They are going to be fair, kind and generous, even to enemies and those who are not among them. Our verse deals with “greeting” one another. That was much more than simply saying, “Hi,” to someone. We do that to strangers all the time and nothing deeper is meant than, hi. The greetings that Jesus had in mind, included care, concern and including others. Throughout this sermon, Jesus often illustrated the negative side of what he was talking about by pointing out what others did. In the next chapter, He would tell His disciples not to pray like the Gentiles did. Here, in our verse, Jesus uses the Gentiles again. They will greet one another. They will shake hands and hug one another. They have a love for one another. This isn’t something that only God’s people do. Many do that. Doing that doesn’t indicate that one is close, right or even following God. What Jesus is interested in is doing more than the Gentiles. The Gentiles would never greet foreigners. They would not greet Jews. In developing this principle, we come across this profound question, “What do you do more than others?”

 

What do you do more than others? Ouch. That’s painful. That stops us and makes us think. What are we doing more than others. Others go to worship. Others are kind to neighbors. Others read their Bibles. Others support their congregations. What are you doing more than others?

 

Is my faith and my relationship any different from those that barely know the Lord? Am I consumed with fear, worry and bothered by stress like the world? What do you do more than others? Am I tripped easily by sin over and over again? What do you do more than others? Do I keep my faith to myself? What do you do more than others?

 

That question tends to shame us. It makes us wish that Jesus hadn’t said that. Most times that question makes us feel guilty and like we are not doing enough. That’s how I have looked at it for years. But there is another side to this. Here it is:

 

We are trusting the Lord when sailing through storms. Our times are troublesome. Many days, things look dark. But for the people of God, we hold to God’s unchanging hand. We know everything will be fine because God is upon the throne. We do not fear what man can do to us. Our hope is in the Lord.

 

We are busy worshipping God and raising Godly families. That’s what we are doing. We make sacrifices to put God first. We adjust our schedule to put God first. We are spending time developing character in the hearts of our children. We are seeing them grow up to be truthful, respectful and spiritual. We don’t have time for “children’s church,” nor entertainment driven worship services. We are serious about the Lord. We want to know and we want to grow.

 

We have set our eyes upon Heaven. We no longer fear death. We can’t wait to get there. We sing about Heaven often. We love to learn more and more about God and His will. Jesus fills our hearts. This isn’t a Sunday religion. Everyday we are found praying to the Lord. His way has become our way.

 

We are working hard in the kingdom. We are sharing the story with our friends. We are busy teaching, preaching and doing what we can in the kingdom. We support the kingdom generously. We want the kingdom to grow. We love God and His people.

 

What do you do more than others…don’t beat yourself up. Consider where you are and what you are doing. His disciples are doing more than others. His disciples have a heart like His.

 

Roger

 

28

Jump Start # 1504

Posted on December 28, 2015 by Jump Starts Daily in Jump Starts Daily | Tagged | Leave a comment

Jump Start # 1504

2 Kings 6:5 “But as one was felling a beam, the axe head fell into the water; and he cried out and said, ‘Alas, my master! For it was borrowed.’”

  Sandwiched between Naaman’s miraculous healing from leprosy and the Syrian plot to capture Elisha is a rather odd story about a floating axe head. Elisha seems to have been teaching young prophets. Their living quarters were too cramped. They wanted to spread out and so they went down to the Jordan River to cut some timber so they could build a more spacious place to live. Elisha was with them. As one of these young prophets was chopping away, the axe head flew off and sank into the Jordan River.

 

I could see that happening. It sounds funny. It is definitely something that I could see happening to me. The axe head sunk and so did the spirit of the young prophet. He cried out to Elisha. He proclaimed that it was borrowed. Elisha cuts a stick and throws it into the water about where the axe head sank. The iron axe head floated and the young prophet was able to retrieve it.

 

The fact that this story is in our Bibles is interesting. Aside from Elisha and these young prophets, no one else was there to witness this. This miracle doesn’t seem to really point to a principle or a message of God. The fact that Elisha could make the axe float makes us remember that later on Jesus would save a sinking Peter who walked on the water. I don’t see a connection between the two miracles. One doesn’t point to the other.

 

The young prophet using the axe seemed upset when it flew off into the water. He seemed more upset that it wasn’t his. He declared that it was “borrowed.” He did not take care of something that had been loaned to him. This young prophet didn’t deliberately throw the axe into the river. He wasn’t carelessly playing around and lost it by neglect. It just seemed to come off. And now, it was lost. It belonged to someone else.

 

He was hurting because he hadn’t taken good care of what was someone’s property. What would he say? He didn’t mean for it to happen, yet it did. He would return with a story and not the axe. He would be apologetic but he had no where to point fingers but at himself. The axe was lost.

 

What Elisha did saved the young prophet from a lot of apologizing and feeling sorry for what he had done. He rescued him from embarrassment and shame.

 

Can we stand in the shadow of this young prophet and learn some lessons?

 

We too, have lost things that were loaned to us. You might be thinking about library books or tools from the neighbor. That might be true. I have a deeper thought in mind.

 

  • Haven’t we lost or more accurately, wasted a day that was given to us by the Lord. Time is precious. We each have the same amount every day. Those who seem to do so much do not have 30 hours in a day. They have the same amount as the rest of us. I wonder how many hours have been wasted doing “nothing.” There has been times when I have been so busy that I wished I had a bank of time that so that I could withdraw a few hours. You can’t do that. I suppose some have wasted a lifetime doing nothing. Sure they had jobs and even raised a family, but they didn’t do much. They didn’t make a difference for anyone. They never left any positive footprints for others to follow in. Their days were spent on doing what they wanted to do. They did what made them happy.

 

  • I suppose we could say the same thing about money. Most of us have wasted money on things that we didn’t need. Buyer’s remorse is a very true feeling that comes after one regrets buying something.

 

The one talent man illustrates one who wasted what was given to him. He didn’t lose it, but neither did he do anything positive with it. He dug a hole and buried the talent. His master was furious with him. He called him, lazy, worthless and wicked. Powerful words. Something was given to him and he didn’t do anything with it.

 

  • The greatest thing given to us is our souls. It is even greater than our bodies or our life here. Those will end, our soul doesn’t. We haven’t done anything to earn our soul. It is a gift of the Lord. It is what makes us in His image. It is what distinguishes us from the animal world. Solomon as he described death, said, “the spirit will return to God who gave it” (Ecc 12:7). Our souls are a gift from God.

 

Fewer things are more wasted than our souls. God wants us to honor Him through our souls. We do this as we worship Him and praise Him. We do this as we obey Him. We do this as we do His will. We do this as we are busy in His work. Souls are lost by sin. Souls are ruined by sin. God never paints a pretty picture of sin. He uses words such as abomination to describe the terrible consequences of sin in our hearts.

 

Souls lost. That’s why Jesus came. He came to seek and save that which was lost. Elisha was able to raise that axe head out of the water by the power of God. Jesus is able to redeem our lost souls through His death and resurrection. We are raised up through water, baptism, for the remission of sins.

 

This story of Elisha is a future picture of what Jesus did for us. He saved us. He rescued us. We were gone. We were lost in the mire and muck of sin. We were sunk. Nothing could be done for us. Jesus redeemed us. We were brought back to usefulness because of the sacrifice of Jesus.

 

Is this why this story about a lost axe head is in our Bibles? I’m not sure about that, but one certainly can’t miss the similarities. It’s a wonderful reminder of what our Lord has done.

 

I once was lost, but now I’m found—not just the words of a hymn, but the story of our lives.

 

Thanks be to God, for His indescribable gift!

 

Roger

 

24

Jump Start # 1503

Posted on December 24, 2015 by Jump Starts Daily in Jump Starts Daily | Tagged | Leave a comment

Jump Start # 1503

Luke 2:10-11 But the angel said to them, “Do not be afraid; for behold, I bring you good news of great joy which will be for all the people; for today in the city of David there has been born for you a Savior, who is Christ the Lord.

NOTE: Tomorrow is a holiday. There will be no Jump Start tomorrow. We will catch up with you on Monday. Enjoy time with your family. Worship the Lord this Sunday. Be thankful.

  Tomorrow is Christmas. It is a time of gift giving, family, food and fun. Was Jesus born on December 25th? Probably not. Luke 2 opens with, “Now it came about in those days that a decree went out from Caesar Augustus, that a census be taken of all  the inhabited earth.” The Roman emperor would not call for an empire wide census to be taken, which required people to travel to their place of birth, during a season in which it is very rainy and travel is difficult. That would defeat what he was hoping to accomplish. Jesus was probably born sometime in the Spring. We also notice the silence in the Bible regarding the celebration of Jesus’ birthday. The apostles are not recorded doing anything to remember Jesus’ birth. The early church left no record of anything being done. Interesting, every holy day that God wanted His people to celebrate and remember, the specific day, and activities are spelled out. This is true of Passover, Pentecost and even the Lord’s Supper in the N.T. God never left it up to our guesses. When it comes to the birth of Jesus, God never left any instructions. Are we to sing “Happy Birthday?” Are we to make a cake? Are we to buy presents? What are we to do? There is no example of the early church celebrating the birth of Jesus.

 

Churches interested in following that primitive pattern left in the Scriptures understand that it wasn’t a baby in a manger, but a Savior upon the cross that changed eternity. A baby in a manger is cute. A dying Savior on the cross is bloody. The emphasis in the N.T. is the death, burial and resurrection of Christ.

 

Having said all of that, Christians today ought to be able to talk about any aspect of Jesus’ life no matter what the calendar says. Since so many are stuck on the baby Jesus, I thought I would share a few thoughts about the angels declaration to the shepherds on the day Jesus was born. Our verse is what was said to the shepherds in the field. Good news came. This was a message from Heaven, delivered by the angel. The news that they brought was immediate. They said, Today, in the city of David, there is born a Savior for you. Those shepherds may not have realized that they needed a Savior, but they did. The angels acknowledge that this birth is the Messiah. The Messiah has come.

 

God came to earth. He didn’t come for a quick walk through. He didn’t come disguised as an under cover boss. He wasn’t here for a weekend. He didn’t come as an adult. He was born as we are. He grew up, as we did. He had to comb His hair, brush His teeth, put on His clothes, go to the bathroom, eat and even sleep. He went through what you’ve gone through. He did all of this without sin.

 

His coming meant three things.

 

1. God wants you to know Him. If you want to know someone you have to spend some time with them. If you want to know me, then we have to get together. God wanted man to know Him, so He came to earth. He came so we could trust Him. He came so we would see Him. He came so we would understand Him. To see Jesus, is to see the Father. They saw His compassion. They saw what was important to Him. They saw how open He was. The expression, “God moves in mysterious ways,” is not found in the Bible. It implies that we do not know God. It implies that God does things that are mysterious, unknown and baffling to us. That’s not what happened. God showed Himself to the world. This is how God is. We can know God.

 

2. God wants to be with you. The word, ‘Immanuel,’ means, “God with us.” That’s what happened when Jesus came to earth. God was with us. He was not far away. He wasn’t unavailable. He was with man. He saw. He understood. Can you imagine what it would be like if God was with you today? What would it be like for God to sit at your desk where you worked? Would He get more done? What would it be like for God to send the text, instead of you? What would it be like for God to talk to your teenager, instead of you? God with us. That means we are never alone. God is with us. There are times when it seems we are alone. We may feel that no one really understands. Worse, you may think, no one really cares. God does. God is with you. Even through those long dark valleys, God is with us. There is great hope and encouragement in knowing this. God came to be where man was.

 

3. God wants to save you. This is why Jesus came. He came to save us from our sins. He came to do what we cannot do. There are some things that are beyond us. There are some problems that are greater than we are. Sin tops the list. We can’t be good enough to erase the damage that sin has caused. We can’t save ourselves. We need Jesus. We need His sacrifice. It is His blood that washes away our sins. God came to do what we couldn’t. This act demonstrates what God thinks of you.

 

Today, the angel declared, a Savior is born for you. God has sent rain. God has sent food. God has sent prophets, judges and later, apostles. But this was the first time that God sent a savior. Our greatest need is salvation. If we needed information, God could have sent a teacher. If we needed direction, God could have sent a guide. If we needed happiness, God could have sent a comedian. He didn’t send a coach, a therapist, a scientist, a doctor or a financial planner. He sent a savior. He sent Jesus. He sent the best of Heaven for the likes of us.

 

He came to our world so we could live in His world. He became like us, so we would follow Him and become like Him. Jesus came. Will you come to Him?

 

Roger