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I would like to make a case for you to really slow down this week.
Check out this episode of The Podcast.
Here are some helpful resources from this episode:
I have two series of messages focusing on the Passion Week that will help you go deeper in your Bible study time: Christ’s Passionate Journey (which I mentioned in this podcast) and Bold Claims.
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I’ve noticed over the years that some people get quite nervous—even fearful—with the thought of God coming close to then. Some people have told me, “I can’t go to church—the roof will fall in on me!”
If I’m honest, I had a time in my life when I feared God’s approach. I didn’t want to pray, “God, use me however You want to” because I just knew He was going to send me somewhere I didn’t want to go, or ask me to give up something that was special to me.
But from the the birth of Jesus until His ascension, the consistent message is: Fear not! and Rejoice!
Matthew 21:4 says that Christ’s arrival on a donkey was “to fulfill” another one of the jots and tittles. And John adds, “Jesus found a young donkey and sat upon it, as it is written, ‘Do not be afraid, O Daughter of Zion; see, your King is coming, seated on a donkey’s colt’” (John 12:14-15).
Typically, conquerors came with a show of overwhelming force, not a show of humility. But Jesus came to Jerusalem with the same message repeated at His birth, “Fear not.”
This is elaborated on in the original prophecy found in Zechariah 9:9-14, where the opening word is, “Rejoice!” We rejoice because He is coming to take away the instruments of war that the occupying forces used to keep the citizens in bondage. He is coming to bring freedom He is coming to announce hope and restoration.
With all of these jot-and-tittle prophecies, we have been asking three questions.
(1) What did it mean then? Quite simply, on that first Palm Sunday it meant that this was not the time for judgment.
(2) What does it mean now? Since the final judgment has not taken place, it must mean it still is not a time of judgment, but a time of favor. God is still drawing people to Himself by His kindness (Romans 2:4).
Zechariah 9:14 makes it clear that there will be a day of judgment. And Peter says that God’s not being slow about this, but He is demonstrating His patience so that none will have to perish without Him (2 Peter 3:9-10).
(3) What does it mean for me? It means that I don’t have to fear the approach of God.
First, there is no fear when God calls me to stand before Him because my sins have been forgiven (Romans 8:1).
Second, there is no fear when God asks me to give something to Him because God has equipped me ahead of time to respond obediently. When Jesus sent His disciples ahead of Him to bring back the donkey that He would ride into Jerusalem, Jesus must have already informed the donkey’s owners that this would be coming. The disciples were simply to say, “The Master needs the donkey now.”
God has already prepared me to say, “Yes” to whatever He calls me to do (Psalm 139:16).
Finally, there is no fear when God asks me to give something to Him because I’m only giving back to Him what is already His. You and I are just stewards of what God has given us. When the disciples talked to the steward of the donkey, they assured him, “The Lord needs it and will send it back here shortly” (Mark 3:11). And the prophecy in Zechariah, God says, “Now I announce that I will restore twice as much to you” (Zechariah 9:12). Maybe not here on earth, but the rewards in Heaven will be incalculable for His faithful servants!
Those who know Jesus as their Master can live as fearless stewards.
We don’t fear the requests of our King, but we rejoice to allow Him access. We don’t fear the approach of our Judge, but we rejoice to stand before Him forgiven and rejoicing!
We are to love the sinner but hate the sin. This is hard to do, especially when the sin they are doing is directed at us and making us angry! Jesus gave us a great example in these times of high anger: withdraw. Check out my full message “A Christlike Response to Skeptics.” I have lots of new content every week, which you can check out on my YouTube channel.
“In many pagan religions the purpose of worship is to placate the gods—to keep them happy and to stay on their good side, lest they mess with, you know, the harvest or procreation or whatever. Worship is thus a work pagans do to earn or keep the favor of their deity. Christians don’t worship to placate God or earn His favor. We don’t worship to make God happy or bring Him pleasure. God is all-satisfied, all-happy, and all-pleased in Himself alone. We add nothing to Him when we come together to worship. At the same time, as we worship, God adds Himself to us. He deigns to commune with us, inhabits our praises, and brings us into His presence and joy in ways that transform all we are, think, feel, value, say, and do. … In worship, rightly conceived and conducted, our minds and imaginations expand beyond their everyday thoughts and dreams, stretched and molded to fill up with the glory of the heavenly throne room, to be conformed to the mind of Christ, and to see the world as He does (1 Corinthians 2:16).” —T.M. Moore
J. Warner Wallace shares two reasons why we can still consider the Bible relevant today.
My grandpa had honey bees on his farm, and I’ve been intrigued by them ever since that time. In fact, honey bees were subject of my semester-long research project in my ecology class. So I’m always fascinated to read more discoveries about these amazing insects!
The level of a leader’s strength and courage is directly tied to the leader’s meditation upon God’s word. God’s wisdom transforms a leader’s heart and sharpens his thoughts. This is what gives the leader the necessary courage to lead people in a God-honoring way. I have a whole series of posts on godly leadership where I expand more on these thoughts.
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The men who were guarding Jesus mocked Him and beat Him. They blindfolded Him and hit Him again and then demanded, “Prophesy! Who hit You?” And it wasn’t just the physical abuse, but they heaped mocking insult upon mocking insult upon Jesus (Luke 22:64-65).
All four of the Gospel writers recount how Jesus responded to both the physical and verbal abuse:
To the false charges before the Sanhedrin, Jesus remained silent (Matthew 26:57-63)
To the spitting and hitting by the members of the Sanhedrin, Jesus remained silent (Matthew 26:67-68)
To the physical abuse of the guards, along with their mocking insults, Jesus remained silent (Mark 14:65; Luke 22:64-65)
To the mocking He endured before King Herod, Jesus remained silent (Luke 23:9-11)
To the false charges announced to Governor Pilate, Jesus remained silent (Matthew 27:12-14)
To the insults and mocking thrown His way as He hung on the Cross, Jesus remained silent (Matthew 27:38-44; Mark 15:29-32; Luke 23:35-36)
His only verbal response was after being slapped in the face by one of the officials in the Sanhedrin. Jesus said, “If I said something wrong, testify as to what is wrong. But if I spoke the truth, why did you strike Me?” (John 18:22-23).
These are what we call an ad hominem attack. That is attacking the person, instead of confronting the ideas or arguments the person is presenting.
The self-control of Jesus here is absolutely astounding! Peter records, “When they held their insults [and their fists and their spit] at Him, He did not retaliate; when He suffered, He made no threats. Instead, He entrusted Himself to Him who judges justly” (1 Peter 2:23).
Even as His trial got underway, Luke records, “the council of the elders of the people…met together, and Jesus was led before them” (Luke 22:66).
Dr. Henry Halley points out that extra-biblical sources have told us that this trial violated at least four of the Sanhedrin’s own rules:
Meeting on the morning of a festival
Meeting in Caiaphas’ personal residence
Trying a defendant without defense
Passing the verdict of a death sentence in one day instead of two days
I would add a fifth rule which is found in Scripture: At least two witnesses need to be in agreement with their testimony for there to be a death sentence (Deuteronomy 17:6, 19:5; Mark 14:55-59).
When the Sanhedrin then hauled Jesus before Pontius Pilate, even their charges made before the governor in Luke 23:1-2 were flimsy at best:
Subversion—there is no proof for this
Opposing taxes to Rome—this was false (see Luke 20:20-25)
Jesus was a rival to the Roman throne—not true
And still Jesus remained almost completely silent! He only spoke when asked a direct question, but He remained silent throughout the false accusations, the verbal taunts, and the physical abuse.
When I am treated unfairly, when the rules are bent against me, when false charges are lodged against me, I get angry! I want to defend myself! I want to put my accusers or abusers in their place!
Could Jesus have prevented His arrest? Yes (Matthew 26:53)!
Could Jesus have defended Himself before the Sanhedrin, Pilate, and King Herod? Yes!
Could Jesus have come down from the Cross to prove His power? Yes!
But Jesus wasn’t trying to win a momentary argument; He was winning souls for eternity!
Jesus came not to be served, but to serve, and to give His life as a ransom for many (Mark 10:45). So, “for the joy set before Him He endured the Cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.”
When anger boils up because of the mistreatment we are enduring, we must “consider Him who endured such opposition from sinners, so that you will not grow weary and lose heart” (Hebrews 12:2-3).
Like Jesus, let’s not try to win just a momentary argument that may result in the loss of a soul for all of eternity. There is a time to speak and there is a time for silence. As we keep our eyes on Jesus, we will know what time it is.
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One of the most effective leadership tools is, sadly, one of the tools that is used the least by most leaders. Let’s figure out how to make it work for you.
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God is precise in His promise making and promise keeping. He doesn’t just fulfill promises in a vague way or in “the spirit of the law,” but He attends to the jots and tittles of every single detail.
But people living in darkness sometimes don’t like the light.
When we feel like our message of hope is being ignored or rejected (or we’re even being persecuted for sharing the truth) we have a natural emotional response that begins to bubble up. That emotion is anger. How do I know this? Because Jesus experienced this too.
We can do two things with our anger:
We can blast skeptics with righteous judgment <or>
We can follow the example of Jesus
In The Pilgrim’s Progress, Faithful told how a man came and beat him because he had broken the law. Even when Faithful begged for mercy the man said, “I don’t know how to show mercy to anyone.” This man was Moses the Lawgiver. Faithful explained what finally gave him relief: “He would have finished me off, but then One came by, and told Him to stop. I did not know Him at first, but as He went by, I saw the holes in His hands and in His side and I concluded that He was Jesus.”
Moses had every right to be angry, and he expressed it a way that tried to finish off Faithful.
Jesus also got angry, but let’s see what He did with it.
In Matthew 12:9-10 we see the motive of the skeptics: catch Jesus doing something wrong. This opposition came from the religionists—they weren’t interested in the truth, they were interested in proving themselves right and righteous.
As they are asking their entrapping question, Luke tells us that “Jesus knew what they were thinking” (Luke 6:8). And Mark tells us that Jesus then asked a question of His own (Mark 3:4-5). These religionists refused to answer His question, and their stubborn hearts made Jesus deeply angry!
So Jesus answered His own question, concluding that the Sabbath was the day that god intended for healing and helping. To prove this point, Jesus then healed the shriveled hand of the man who stood before Him (Matthew 12:11-14). In response to this, the Pharisees plotted with the Herodians on how to kill Jesus (Mark 3:6).
Matthew then writes, “Aware of this, Jesus withdrew from that place (Matthew 12:15). He didn’t withdraw in fear, but in complete awareness of His Father’s plan. Part of that plan was not for Jesus to win argument, but for Him to win souls.
Perhaps in His anger in the moment, Jesus would have spoken words that were too harsh. There is a time to speak, but it’s usually not in the heat of the moment. In fact, Laurence J. Peter rightly said, “Speak when you are angry, and you will make the best speech you’ll ever regret.”
So in fulfillment of another prophetic word given in Isaiah 42, Jesus withdrew to continue His teaching and healing ministry (Matthew 12:17-21).
What does this mean for us today? I think we can see five important responses in these prophetic words:
I am to serve others as Jesus did—even those who want to silence me.
I can let the Holy Spirit use this opposition to bring greater fruitfulness out of my life (Galatians 5:19-26).
“Our human minds cannot comprehend the immensity of [Christ’s] task and His sacrifice. We simply know that it was to save us, and that Jesus’ suffering is the most blessed influence the world has ever known.” —Dr. Henry Halley, Halley’s Study Bible
The Hill, though high, I covet to ascend, The Difficulty will not me offend; For I perceive the Way to life lies here. Come, pluck up Heart, let’s neither faint nor fear;
Better, though difficult, the Right Way to go,
Than wrong, though easy, where the End is Woe. —Christian in John Bunyan’s The Pilgrim’s Progress
“Nearly half the Law of God is devoted to directing God’s people in how to worship Him. And while the specific practices of that portion of God’s Law have been replaced (Hebrews 7:11-18), the emphasis on worship and the idea that worship and life are related remains. The more faithful we are in worshiping the Lord the more we will love our neighbors with the justice His Law prescribes.” —T.M. Moore
The deaths of Nadab and Abihu is a tragic story, but I think there are some important leadership insights to be gleaned from it. I shared an exclusive video with my Patreon supporters. Will you prayerfully consider joining?
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Are you a person that likes to meticulously plan every detail, or are you more comfortable planning as you go? In this episode, Greg and I say leaders should strive for both! Join us as we discuss the art and science of balancing planning and spontaneity to hit the golden mean of the two.
[0:25] Most leaders haven’t thought through the balance between planning and spontaneity.
[1:46] This balance is usually more art than science.
[3:27] For some people, planning and spontaneity can be like trying to mix oil and water.
[5:43] Leaders need to work on flexibility in every situation.
[6:36] We need to know the temperament of our teammates so that we can keep everyone appropriately engaged.
[9:13] Regardless of whether you tend more toward planning or being spontaneous, you can supplement the others who are opposite of you.
[11:32] We can use the diversity on our teams to do amazing things for everyone.
[13:00] Debriefing with our teams after a spontaneous event can help prepare everyone for the next opportunity.
[13:45] Leaders need to learn how to read their teammates and the setting.
[16:08] Leaders need to earn trust with our teammates. One huge component in earning trusting is openness to input.
[18:05] Do we know what our teammates think of our leadership style? Are we willing to address this and make changes?
[22:00] Some important leadership takeaways.
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“Who gave You this authority,” the chief priests twice demanded of Jesus in Luke 20:1-8.
Worldly minded people are always looking for a résumé of accomplishments or the stamp of approval from a superior, so they can demand the unquestioned loyalty from those who report to them. In other words, they are looking for authority from their position that allows them to prove to others that they are in charge.
The “chief priests and the teachers of the law, together with the elders” (v. 1) had earned their positions, or so they thought. They are, therefore, asking Jesus to, “Prove it!” They want to know why Jesus gets to say and do the things He says and does.
Jesus had every right to flex on them! But He knew that His words and deeds spoke for themselves. He “knew that the Father had put all things under His power” (John 13:3) so there was nothing for Him to prove to anyone.
In my book When Sheep Bite, I have a chapter about sheep questioning the authority of their shepherd. In that chapter I wrote—
When our conversation with criticizing sheep hasn’t gone well, and when those unhealthy sheep begin to gossip and then slander, it’s inevitable that they will eventually began to question your authority as a shepherd. Perhaps they think you’re too young and naive, or too old and out of touch. They may question your motives, or the vision you’ve imparted for the church, or your ability to follow through on what you have already shared. Whatever the case, these biting sheep seem to be implying that they know better than you do how this pasture should be run. During times like these, it is tempting to want to “prove” that we are qualified, that we do know what we’re doing, and that we can indeed successfully pursue the vision we’ve articulated for them. Once again, it’s natural to want to say, “I’ll show you just how qualified I am!”
Before we respond, we need to recognize the source of our authority. … Far greater than positional authority is moral authority. This is authority that comes not merely from a title or position, but from who conferred that title or position on the leader. If God has called us and appointed us to this pasture, that is all the authority we need.
Jesus didn’t answer the “Prove it!” demand, but went right on teaching and serving. We need to remember that there is only One to whom we must give an answer. There is only One who can say to us either, “Depart for Me,” or “Well done, good and faithful servant!”
A mark of a godly leader is one who is quietly confident of his moral authority.
As a result, that leader no longer feels the need to prove anything.
This is part 78 in my series on godly leadership. You can check out all of my posts in this series by clicking here.
Craig T. Owens 