On This Day: I Heard the LORD Call My Name

   Then they said to him, “What must we do, to be doing the works of God?” Jesus answered them, “This is the work of God, that you believe in him whom he has sent.” So they said to him, “Then what sign do you do, that we may see and believe you? What work do you perform? (John 6:28-30)

   Every day, as I spend time with my Father in his word and talk to him in prayer, there is a weaving together of his world and mine. He is not outside my world speaking in, but “God with us” in everything.

   Today, this ministered to me in another journey with God from one thought to another. Each discovery is an experience of knowing, and each truth known prepares for the next truth to be told.

   One of the most notable experiences of my present journey through John’s gospel is noticing themes that have not stood out before. And one of the most glaring is hearing Jesus teaching the same things to different groups in different words. It is like I am hearing a rhyming of thoughts emphasizing the realities of God for all people.

   For example, when Jesus talked with Nicodemus (John 3), he went straight to, “You must be born again”. No new birth, no kingdom of God experience.

   Then, in talking with the Samaritan woman (John 4), Jesus told her that if she had known who he was, she would have been asking him for living water, and that this living water would well-up within a person to eternal life.

   When Jesus got in trouble for healing an invalid on the Sabbath (John 5), he told the Religious Elite, “Truly, truly, I say to you, whoever hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life. He does not come into judgment, but has passed from death to life.” Being born again, drinking the living water, hearing and believing Jesus’ words, are rhyming thoughts emphasizing the need to trust in Jesus for eternal life.

   And today, I’m in the midst of Jesus’ dialogue with the multitude that had experienced him feeding them with a miraculous distribution of bread and fish. First he confronted them with the fact that he knew they were looking for him only because he had filled their stomachs and they wanted more of the same.

   But what stood out was that it was the same kind of response as Nicodemus and the Samaritan woman. Nicodemus wondered how in the world he was to re-enter his mother’s womb so he could be born again. The Samaritan woman wondered how Jesus could give her this living water so she could stop coming to the well.

   And when Jesus began telling the multitude how “This is the work of God, that you believe in him whom he has sent”, and the people wanted to know what works they were to do “to be doing the works of God”, Jesus reiterated, “This is the work of God, that you believe in him whom he has sent.”

   And when they continued presenting their queries, he told them “Truly, truly, I say to you, it was not Moses who gave you the bread from heaven, but my Father gives you the true bread from heaven. For the bread of God is he who comes down from heaven and gives life to the world.” As with the new birth, and the living water, the bread from heaven was all about Jesus.

   However, when the people replied, “Sir, give us this bread always,” it was the same as the Samaritan woman asking for the earthly version of the living water.

   In other words, Jesus kept speaking to the people the truth of God and watching the crowd to see who heard him. He would so often say something like, “He who has ears to hear, let him hear.” All seven letters to the churches in Revelation end with the same appeal of, “He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches.”

   We cannot escape the fact that faith comes from “hearing”, not from “seeing”. The people all wanted to see signs. Even the religious elite who were bothered that Jesus gave the sign of healing an invalid couldn’t accept it because (to them) it was a violation of the law to heal on the Sabbath and so they asked for more signs. The multitude who went out to see Jesus because of his signs, concluded he was the Messiah because of his signs, and wanted a relationship with him based on his signs. However, he was only using the signs to reveal his glory so people would hear his voice and follow his words!

   And that’s when God took me back to seven years of age. I was in the front yard in Sandspit BC. Something made me suddenly look up at the sky and know God was watching me, and that it was good. Except that I didn’t “see” anything. No signs. But what God clarified this morning was that my experience was not of me thinking about him. It wasn’t me asking for or responding to a sign. Rather it was me hearing him call my name. In that childhood moment, I was responding to his thoughts about me as he chose to make them known right then and there.

   My next memory was of “hearing” my mom teaching our Sunday School class in Sandspit about Jesus. At twelve years of age, it was “hearing” the gospel and believing. At fourteen years it was “hearing” a certain facet of the finished work of Christ that settled that Jesus’ “once for all” death gave me my “once for all” salvation. And from there, the hearing and believing has continued to grow.

   I love what I have been able to share with you this morning as a golden thread in the divine tapestry, connecting the new birth, the living water, and the bread from heaven as God’s provision of salvation in Jesus Christ.

   But the greater thing is a testimony that if we will have a daily time with God in his word and prayer, and listen to sermons, Bible studies, biblical podcasts, Bible-centered videos, and even the Scriptures while driving places, we who belong to Jesus will constantly hear his voice, know what he is saying, and discern how to join him in his work.

   And, in doing so, we will keep getting to know the Triune God better every day than we have ever known him before.

 

© 2025 Monte Vigh ~ Box 517, Merritt, BC, V1K 1B8

Email: in2freedom@gmail.com

Unless otherwise noted, Scriptures are from the English Standard Version (The Holy Bible, English Standard Version. ESV® Text Edition: 2016. Copyright © 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers.)

 

On This Day: Surprising Evidence that Jesus is God

   So they called them and charged them not to speak or teach at all in the name of Jesus. But Peter and John answered them, “Whether it is right in the sight of God to listen to you rather than to God, you must judge, for we cannot but speak of what we have seen and heard.” (Acts 4:18-20)

   I have had JW’s come to the door and tell me that Jesus is not God (I must be a marked man because I see them come to our neighbourhood, but no longer to my house!). I have watched videos of Muslims demanding that the Christians show where Jesus ever said the words, “I am God”. I have seen atheists defending their faith that there is no God. And I grew up with the agnostic claim that we can’t ever know if there is a God for certain.

   From a young age, I knew there was a God and that he was watching over me in a good way, so that ruled out atheism and agnosticism.

   Over the subsequent decades, I have seen the Triunity of God all through the pages of Scripture. It has been amazing to me how people can claim otherwise when it is so clearly revealed.

   A big part of the focus on the Trinity is whether the Bible ever presents Jesus as God. To me, that’s a silly question. Read your Bible. It presents Jesus as God.

   However, the older I get, and the better I get to know the Bible, the more delightful it is when God completely surprises me with something I have never noticed before. And all the more so when it is in a familiar section of Scripture!

   When Peter and John said, “Whether it is right in the sight of God to listen to you rather than to God,” I suddenly saw two persons. The apostles first pointed upwards (with their words) to “in the sight of God”. For their Jewish listeners, in God’s sight meant in the sight of the God of Israel, the one we call “Yahweh”. God was in heaven above, so to be in his sight meant he was looking down on the proceedings, evaluating what both parties were doing (the apostles vs the religious elites).

   The second person was the one the apostles had listened to as “to God”. We could fill pages upon pages with examples of Jesus identifying himself as God, with the apostles and prophets revealing him as God, and how Jesus was the one who told the apostles to teach the “good news of great joy” announced by angels and fulfilled in the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ the Lord.

   After the apostle John told us that “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God” (John 1:1-2), he added, “And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth” (vs 14). This is what the apostles had seen.

   The apostle Peter wrote of himself, “as a fellow elder and a witness of the sufferings of Christ” (I Peter 5:1). And, of course, Peter’s witness of the sufferings of Christ included the unforgettable experience of denying his Savior three times while Jesus was suffering on his way to the cross!

   There are such good resources online addressing Jesus’ deity in general, but also in specific response to Muslims, JW’s, Jews, and Mormons who all claim Jesus was not God. However, today God had a very personal ministry to me (after asking him to make my time with him feel like I was with him, not just me trying to understand his word), showing me afresh the multi-faceted revelation of his word that doesn’t require the exact words from Jesus, “I am God”, to show he, his Father, and the Scriptures, all bear witness to the deity of Jesus Christ our Lord.

   Did you need to see this treasure of wisdom and knowledge as much as I did? I certainly hope so. But if not, part of the lesson in sharing this is that God speaks through his word, so make sure you are in God’s word each day, hearing what the Spirit is saying to the churches. Whatever God shows each of us will be equally delightful in ministering to our souls exactly what we need in Jesus’ name.

 

© 2025 Monte Vigh ~ Box 517, Merritt, BC, V1K 1B8

Email: in2freedom@gmail.com

Unless otherwise noted, Scriptures are from the English Standard Version (The Holy Bible, English Standard Version. ESV® Text Edition: 2016. Copyright © 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers.)

 

On This Day: When Jesus Calls for Change

   And Levi made him a great feast in his house, and there was a large company of tax collectors and others reclining at table with them. And the Pharisees and their scribes grumbled at his disciples, saying, “Why do you eat and drink with tax collectors and sinners?” And Jesus answered them, “Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick. I have not come to call the righteous but sinners to repentance.” (Luke 5:29-32)

   Think about it: what do you feel when you hear Jesus calling you? Is it a suggestion? Is it a demand? Is it a trailer for something ahead? Or is it the scene you are entering right then and there and your surrender to the script of God (in Scripture) is required?

   Just by looking up the meaning of words, I find that they come to mean so much more to me than English brings out. In today’s case, Jesus clarifying who he came to “call” means “to summon v. — to authoritatively communicate a demand for the presence or participation of” (Bible Sense Lexicon).  

   Everything about God says he should be the one in charge, not us. When we hear the call of God through his word and Spirit, it is the Father calling his children to walk in the obedience of faith. It is the Shepherd calling his sheep to follow him home. It is the Master calling his servants to know and do his will. It is the Creator calling his creatures to leave their sin and come to him. Everything about God makes him the one in charge over everything about us. 

   This is why Jesus calls us to “repentance”, which means, “repentance ⇔ reconsideration n. — a change of self (heart and mind) that abandons former dispositions and results in a new self, new behavior, and regret over former behavior and dispositions” (Bible Sense Lexicon).

   In other words, repentance is a change of a person’s heart that results in a change of a person’s actions. When the Psalm-writer asked, “Who shall ascend the hill of the LORD? And who shall stand in his holy place?” the answer began, “He who has clean hands and a pure heart” (Psalm 24:3-4). “Cleans hands” signifies righteous actions coming from a “pure heart”. Sinners can only receive a pure heart expressed in clean hands when they repent and replace their love of sin with the love of God in Jesus Christ our Lord.

   Over the decades, I have been hurt by enough narcissists who refuse to admit their need of change that I want to be changing daily in the newest installment of how to be more like Jesus. I believe God calls us every day as we spend time with him in his word and then seek to put what we learn into practice. 

   And since the aim of our salvation is to make us like Jesus, we must expect every day to feel like we “are being transformed into the same image from one degree of glory to another” (II Corinthians 3:18). 

   For me, that includes what God started yesterday in the “he would withdraw to desolate places and pray” (Luke 5:16) combined with today’s calling to repent and believe like never before and join God’s work in anyone else he shows me is hearing Jesus’ call to turn around and follow him. 

© 2025 Monte Vigh ~ Box 517, Merritt, BC, V1K 1B8

Email: in2freedom@gmail.com 

Unless otherwise noted, Scriptures are from the English Standard Version (The Holy Bible, English Standard Version. ESV® Text Edition: 2016. Copyright © 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers.)

On This Day: The Word Who Amazes with His Words

  And he went down to Capernaum, a city of Galilee. And he was teaching them on the Sabbath, and they were astonished at his teaching, for his word possessed authority. And in the synagogue there was a man who had the spirit of an unclean demon, and he cried out with a loud voice, “Ha! What have you to do with us, Jesus of Nazareth? Have you come to destroy us? I know who you are—the Holy One of God.” But Jesus rebuked him, saying, “Be silent and come out of him!” And when the demon had thrown him down in their midst, he came out of him, having done him no harm. And they were all amazed and said to one another, “What is this word? For with authority and power he commands the unclean spirits, and they come out!” And reports about him went out into every place in the surrounding region. (Luke 4:31-37)

   As I look back over my six decades since knowing God was watching over me, it is clear that God’s grace has enabled me to hear his “Word” and his “word” as his word. 

   In fact, whenever I hear the professional skeptics claiming they have proved the Bible is not God’s word, I see a group of blind people trying to convince me that what I see doesn’t exist. It makes me sad for them, but I have never once heard anything that disqualifies God’s word from being God’s word, or disqualifies Jesus Christ as “the Word” who “became flesh and dwelt among us”. 

   In my current journey through Luke’s detailed account of Jesus’ life, death, and resurrection, I am on heightened alert for things he says that could have been tested for their truthfulness. With this radar-on mindset, the things that stand out are impacting me deeply. 

   What’s the point for you and me? That we are being given a witness to Jesus’ authority. He was “the Word” who “was with God, and the Word was God.” He was “the Word” through whom “all things were made”. In fact, “without him was not any thing made that was made.” In Jesus as the Word “was life, and that life was the light of men” (John 1:1-5). 

   Knowing that Jesus is “the Word” makes it stand out all the more meaningfully that “his word” impacted people with a sense of authority. He spoke like he had the authority to tell people what was true and how to live by that truth. And my sense is that, if the people knew that about him in person, it is no wonder that it feels that way to me when I read what God’s word says about his word! 

   I have shared this many times, that in 1992 I went from thinking of my morning time of reading the Bible as “my devotions” to considering it as “spending time with God”. My mind changed from me looking for what I could get out of Scripture to me listening for what God was saying to me. Once I knew that God was speaking through his word, whatever I read, whatever I learned, whatever stood out as God’s teaching to my heart, had authority over me. Even if I was the only one who knew it, I would be measured that day by whether I was receiving and obeying what God spoke to me about, or neglecting and rejecting God’s word.

   This morning was another reminder that, in the same way the people who heard Jesus in person recognized the authority of “his word”, we are to come to the Bible as “the word of Christ” and “Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly, teaching and admonishing one another in all wisdom, singing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, with thankfulness in your hearts to God” (Colossians 3:16). 

   If I added up all my negative experiences in the church, they could all be categorized as scenarios where church folk acted as the authority over God’s word. The toddlers and teens of the church (in maturity, not age) acted like they knew everything so that even what was written in Scripture had no authority over what they did or said. 

   On the other hand, my very best memories of life with God’s people have been when people were sharing with joy what they were learning from God’s word, and everyone was testifying to the grace of God in how he was working those things into our lives.

   Today reminds me that God’s word through his Son has authority over us all. We can either use God’s word for our own selfish purposes as Satan did in tempting Jesus, or we can imitate Jesus and “live by every word that comes from the mouth of God”. There is a day of reckoning and rewarding on its way. Jesus himself said so in his own words. As it is written, “Blessed is the one who reads aloud the words of this prophecy, and blessed are those who hear, and who keep what is written in it, for the time is near” (Revelation 1:3).

© 2025 Monte Vigh ~ Box 517, Merritt, BC, V1K 1B8

Email: in2freedom@gmail.com 

Unless otherwise noted, Scriptures are from the English Standard Version (The Holy Bible, English Standard Version. ESV® Text Edition: 2016. Copyright © 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers.)

The Harmonies of God’s Coming Kingdom

THE MORE I meditate on what it means to pray, “your kingdom come,” the more layers of meaning come to the surface of my mind. And just now, at this moment, I heard them in harmony. 

WHAT I MEAN is that there are so many different thoughts about God’s kingdom coming, and so many ways it affects everything about life, and for a moment (in my early morning brain fog) I was struggling to try to hold on to all the thoughts. But suddenly I was hearing them all at the same time without any discord in my mind. They were in harmony. They blended into one beautiful expression of God’s rule and reign over the universe and filled my heart with hope about how to pray for God’s kingdom to come, and how to live in light of this coming. 

SO, WHAT harmonies of the kingdom do I hear this morning? 

I HEAR the “good news of great joy” that God has given us his Son to be the Savior of the world. I hear the “gospel of the kingdom”, that “the time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand,” so we must “repent and believe in the gospel”, or, “repent and believe the good news” of the kingdom of God’s beloved Son!  

I HEAR the wonderful good news that the blessings of God are seen in the poor in spirit, and those who mourn, and the meek, and those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, and the merciful, and the pure in heart, and the peacemakers, and those who are persecuted for the sake of the righteousness of Jesus’ kingdom. 

I HEAR that the righteousness of Jesus’ kingdom makes his brothers the salt of the earth and the light of the world. I hear Jesus singing out how the righteousness in his kingdom exceeds the righteousness of the religious elite, the religious hypocrites who do all their good deeds for show. The righteousness of Jesus’ kingdom is a real, genuine experience of the activity of God in our hearts. God gives us the new hearts he promised to the prophets. We can now be righteous by faith in Jesus Christ in ways that could never happen by keeping laws and rules, even the very best system of laws and rules the world has ever known, what is now the old covenant. 

I HEAR how the stanza of the song of the kingdom is now playing out the glorious harmonies of how to pray according to the righteousness of faith so that we are filled with the knowledge that our heavenly Father knows everything we need before we ask him for a thing, and so we are not going to babble on in prayer hoping our many words will get us what we want, but we attach to “our Father in heaven,” and then ask that his name would be hallowed, honored, and revered in our lives, that his kingdom would come both now and at the end of the age, and that his will would be done here on earth in the same ways it is done in heaven. 

AND BECAUSE we are those who are always seeking first the kingdom and righteousness of God instead of the things of the world, we ask him to “give us this day our daily bread” knowing that he will give us what we need, sometimes through our own employment, and sometimes through the sharing of the body of Christ. We pray that the church would be a place where we are always confessing our sins to one another (however it is needed where we have wronged someone or they have wronged us) so that we keep being forgiven as we keep on forgiving. And we are always seeking God to “lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil”, or from the evil one and his evil ways. 

I ALSO HEAR the harmony of how Jesus concludes his Sermon on Mount where he gives the illustration of the wise and foolish builders. I hear the beautiful sound of the wise builder who hears Jesus’ words and puts them into practice, and I hear the mournful sounds of the foolish builder who hears Jesus’ words but does not      put them into practice, and so I know how to pray that God’s kingdom would come to us in power and glory so we would be known as those who love to do God’s will just like Jesus. 

AND I HEAR the realities of the new covenant that tell me that there is also a future aspect to the coming of God’s kingdom. I know that God has already “made us a kingdom, priests to his God and Father,” and that we are to live accordingly right now in every aspect of our lives. But I also know that we are always waiting for Jesus’ “appearing and his kingdom”. We are looking forward to when we will have our “entrance into the eternal kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ” in a way that can only happen at Jesus’ return when he comes to judge the lost and gather the elect to himself. 

I HEAR how Jesus could say as with one set of instruments in the orchestra, “And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age”, and with another set promise, “Surely I am coming soon”! to which the rest of us harmonize with our brother John, “Amen. Come, Lord Jesus!”

MY POINT is that God’s kingdom is always coming. It is coming near to people all the time through the presence of the church Jesus is building, and through the ongoing proclamation of the “good news of great joy” that God has given us his Son, our Savior, Jesus Christ our Lord. 

BUT GOD’S KINGDOM is still to come. It is coming. It is on its way. It has not yet arrived. The final consummation of all God’s work in the coming of Jesus Christ is yet to happen, and we are constantly asking Father, “your kingdom come!” “Come, Lord Jesus!” 

OH, AND one more thing: you and I are adding our own harmonies to Jesus’ teaching on prayer. If we are in Christ, we are equipped with new hearts and new minds and new life that is fully able to pray as Jesus instructed. We can pray from our new hearts with the righteousness of faith that wants everything Jesus taught in his model prayer. When we pray it, it is our prayer. It is our harmony to the “golden bowls full of incense, which are the prayers of the saints.” 

AND EVEN if we all were to pray the exact words of Jesus’ model prayer all at the same time, guess what: it would sound like the most beautiful harmony in the world to hear the voices of “a great multitude that no one could number, from every nation, from all tribes and peoples and languages, standing before the throne and before the Lamb, clothed in white robes, with palm branches in their hands, and crying out with a loud voice, ‘Salvation belongs to our God who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb!’”

AND SO, we pray as Jesus taught. We pray this model prayer in our own words, describing our own situations and circumstances, praying each request for the people in our lives, and the things we are going through, so that all our thoughts and prayers rise up to the Father in harmony with one another so that our Father in heaven is always hearing us praying together that his name would be hallowed, and his kingdom would come, and his will would be done on earth as it is done in heaven, and that he would provide the daily bread for all his children throughout the whole world, and that he would forgive us our sins as we confess them to him just as we forgive everyone who confesses their sins to us, and that he would lead us not into temptation but deliver us from evil and the evil one, because, after all, HIS is the kingdom, and HIS is the power, and HIS is the glory for ever and ever, Amen! 

SO, LET’S raise our crescendo of prayer like we believe and know that everything Jesus taught us is TRUE!

 

© 2024 Monte Vigh ~ Box 517, Merritt, BC, V1K 1B8

Email: in2freedom@gmail.com

Unless otherwise noted, Scriptures are from the English Standard Version (The Holy Bible, English Standard Version. ESV® Text Edition: 2016. Copyright © 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers.)

 

Branches that Shine the Light of the Vine

This morning, I began with Jesus’ next declaration in the Sermon on the Mount: “You are the light of the world.”[1] This is an identity-statement about all believers in Jesus Christ our Lord. Because he is the light of the world, we are the light of the world in him, and so we must shine the life of Christ everywhere we go. 

However, we aren’t to picture this as the moon reflecting the light of the sun. That’s too impersonal. It makes us a passive reflector of light when Jesus said we ARE the light of the world. 

A much better image is the one Jesus gave us when he said, “I am the vine; you are the branches. Whoever abides in me and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit, for apart from me you can do nothing.”[2] In the same way as we are extensions of Christ as branches of his vine, we are the light of the world shining the light of Christ. 

One of the places where Jesus referred to himself as the light of the world was this one in John 8:12 where Jesus said, “I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will not walk in darkness, but will have the light of life.” Jesus as the vine IS the light of the world, and Jesus’ disciples “have the light of life” in them as the branches, which also makes us the light of the world in Christ. 

However, what God had in mind for me this morning was in the context of this passage in John 9:3-5. 

Jesus answered, “It was not that this man sinned, or his parents, but that the works of God might be displayed in him. We must work the works of him who sent me while it is day; night is coming, when no one can work. As long as I am in the world, I am the light of the world.” 

This is jam-packed with things to talk about! It begins with the disciples asking Jesus whether a blind man had his ailment because of his sin or his parents’ sin. Jesus’ reply answers their specific question, but then elaborates on the work of God in this very situation. 

One thing that stood out was that Jesus’ light would be useless to a blind man who couldn’t see it, so he used the miracle of healing to show that his light not only illuminates the darkness, but it gives sight to the blind so they can see it! This is true of the church as we are the ambassadors of the good news of great joy. The gospel gives sight to the blind so they can see “the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.”[3] 

But the bigger thing that stood out for me personally was that I am not to define God’s work in my life by my sins, or by my parents’ sins. It doesn’t matter what we have done, and it doesn’t matter what anyone has done to us, all the effects of living in a sinful world merely set the stage for God’s work. The man’s situation was not about sin, but about the stage that was set that “the works of God might be displayed in him.” 

Suddenly it was so clear. My life is what it is so God can show his works to the world through me in the very story that is mine and no one else’s. And that tied right in with how Jesus elaborated on us being the light of the world back in the Sermon on the Mount: 

 A city set on a hill cannot be hidden. 15 Nor do people light a lamp and put it under a basket, but on a stand, and it gives light to all in the house. 16 In the same way, let your light shine before others, so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father who is in heaven. (Matthew 5) 

Part of us shining as the light of the world is that people “may see your good works and give glory to our Father who is in heaven.” Jesus as the vine showed how he was doing the works of the Father, and we as the branches show how we are doing the works that give glory to the Father. 

And today, God’s encouragement turns me from feeling down on myself because of my sins, or from depressing myself with things that have been done to me, to looking at the way my weaknesses in life are the stage on which he can show himself strong and faithful. And so, I eagerly look for what God is doing in me that I can shine into the lives of others around me so that people would be blessed with my good works, and God would be glorified in the bearing of much fruit.

 

© 2024 Monte Vigh ~ Box 517, Merritt, BC, V1K 1B8

Email: in2freedom@gmail.com

Unless otherwise noted, Scriptures are from the English Standard Version (The Holy Bible, English Standard Version. ESV® Text Edition: 2016. Copyright © 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers.)

 

 

---

[1] Matthew 4:14

[2] John 15:5

[3] II Corinthians 4:6

The Blessed Realness of a Pure Heart

If the Beatitudes were based on works, “Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God” would be the most hopeless of them all. 

Why? 

Because I don’t have a lot of problem admitting things about being poor in spirit. And it seems to come naturally to me to mourn my sins and offences against God. And feeling meek in relation to fixing things myself (impossible) and knowing I must surrender to the authority of Christ seems to happen without resistance. Hungering and thirsting after righteousness in the belief that I will be satisfied by faith instead of good works seems to happen without much trying. And even feeling merciful towards others is something I’m always learning to work into my daily life with a sense that I really want this and know God will help me do it. 

But “pure in heart”? That seems to trigger so much guilt, shame, and fear, that it would be easy to let a good-works mindset tell me I am a hopeless scumbag of sin who could never expect to see a smile on God’s face because of all the impurities within me! 

And that is why I love using the term “good news” more than its counterpart, “the gospel”. In English, “the gospel” is the term we typically use to speak of the message of salvation. However, in the Greek we are translating from, the word translated “the gospel” sounds like “euangelion”. It is where we get our word “evangelism”. And the primary meaning of the word is “good news”, specifically, the good news of the kingdom of God in Jesus Christ our Lord. 

In the familiar account of an angel announcing the birth of Jesus Christ, the expression “good news of great joy” is used. Here the “good news” comes from the same Greek word that is elsewhere translated “gospel”. And my point is that many of us understand that “the gospel” is about Jesus Christ saving us from our sins, but we don’t naturally hear it as “good news of great joy”, often because we have so much negative baggage about our sins and failings that we simply don’t think of it that way. 

However, when we come to the Beatitudes, we must have an understanding that they are taught to people who had already heard the gospel, the good news of great joy that God has given us his Son as our Savior. Jesus had already made it clear that, “The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand; repent and believe in the gospel.” Or, repent and believe in the good news of great joy that the Savior has come! 

How does this help us who often feel like failures in our walk with God hear the blessing of “the pure in heart” as good news? After all, if it is only with a pure heart that we “shall see God”, and we know there is that “if people really knew us they would hate us” part of ourselves lurking deep within, how could we ever have the purity of heart that will see God? After all, God’s own word says, there is “the holiness without which no one will see the Lord.” To have a heart that is pure-heartedly holy seems completely out of reach. At least to me. 

That is where we must do a double-check that we are hearing Jesus’ Beatitudes through the good news of great joy that we have a Savior who is Jesus Christ our Lord. It is in this good news that we can acknowledge that we are sinners in need of a Savior because we have a Savior who came into the world to save sinners! 

And, it is in this good news of great joy that we can understand and accept that it is “by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast.” I am totally fine with the idea that I have nothing to boast about. But without the gospel that would be hopeless. However, in the gospel, not having works to add to my salvation is not hopeless. Having an impure heart that needs saving is not hopeless. Having a salvation that “is not your own doing” IS… NOT… HOPELESS!!! 

One thing we must never forget is that our salvation is three-dimensional. These three dimensions of salvation are referred to as justification, sanctification, and glorification. Justification declares us righteous in God’s sight at the moment of our new birth. Sanctification works righteousness into us as we grow up in Christ. And glorification prefects righteousness in us so that every child of God will be as righteous as Jesus in eternity. 

We must apply this to “blessed are the pure in heart” so that we see all three of these dimensions at the same time. This is where our hope lies, in a salvation that sees us as pure in heart now, that helps us grow to be purer in heart every day, and that guarantees our perfect purity of heart when we see Jesus. 

Let’s apply the justification side of our salvation to “blessed are the pure in heart”. Paul said that all those who are disciples of Jesus Christ have “the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ”. He adds that for anyone who “believes in him who justifies the ungodly, his faith is counted as righteousness.” This is what makes the good news “of great joy”. This is why the prostitutes and tax-collectors were entering the kingdom of God while the religious elite were not. These sinners understood something of this message that they were received by faith in a way they would never be welcomed by good works. 

And now, after the evidence of the crucifixion of Christ, it is abundantly clear that God “made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.” And that is why our faith is counted as righteousness. That is why our faith is counted as “pure in heart”. That is why “If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.” This happens in our justification by faith as we trust in Jesus Christ and “become the righteousness of God” in our Savior. 

And then it continues in our sanctification as we constantly keep short accounts with God about our sins, always confessing them to God whenever we fail him, and always knowing that he is always forgiving us, and always cleansing us of our sins. 

Paul described this sanctification dimension of our growth in righteousness so beautifully when he wrote that we are “being transformed into the same image” as our Savior “from one degree of glory to another.” We are already “the righteousness of God” in Christ according to our justification by grace through faith, but every day we are BEING transformed into the same image of our Savior in degree after degree of glory. And that is why we can have daily hope of being “the pure in heart” because we know we are seen that way by God in our justification, and we know God is purifying our hearts every day in our sanctification. 

And that brings us to the third dimension, the “living hope” of one day feeling completely pure in our hearts without any fear of ever having impurity within us ever again. Here we look to the apostle John as he describes the return of Christ and says, “we know that when he appears we shall be like him, because we shall see him as he is.” That is what the Bible calls our “glorification”. It may feel utterly unbelievable that we could ever be fully like Jesus in righteousness, particularly in purity of heart, but that is what is promised to us in our so great salvation. We SHALL be like him. Period. No exceptions for anyone who has received Jesus Christ as their Lord and Savior. 

A very necessary aspect of us relating to God in our salvation is described like this, 

Therefore, my beloved, as you have always obeyed, so now, not only as in my presence but much more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling, for it is God who works in you, both to will and to work for his good pleasure. 

Knowing that our justification by grace through faith has already made us “the righteousness of God” in one way, and our glorification by grace through faith will complete the pure-hearted work of God in another, our daily focus must be on how we join God’s work of making us more like Jesus every day of our lives. If God is daily working to transform us into the image of his Son from one degree of glory to another, what are we to do to attach to him in what he is doing? 

Paul’s answer is that we must work out our own salvation with fear and trembling based on the fact that God is already working in us so that we would both will the things he wills by his good pleasure and do the things he is pleased to lead us to do. God is at work first, and he is at work now, so we actively look at how we are to work these things out into our lives in joyful fellowship with our Father. 

And the way John told us to join God in his work is, “everyone who thus hopes in him purifies himself as he is pure.” In other words, everyone who knows we have been made pure in heart in our justification, and that we will be made completely pure in heart in our glorification, joins God’s work in the present by constantly purifying ourselves as we keep seeing the glory of the purity of God. We confess our sins to God every time we fall into them because we truly want purity of heart rather than the corruption of sin. 

The bottom line is that all the Beatitudes are a description of what it looks like in our lives when God is blessing us with his grace. Our faith will feel poor in spirit. Our faith will mourn our sin. Our faith will meekly surrender to the authority of Christ as our Savior. Our faith will hunger and thirst for the righteousness of God offered to us in the gospel as a free gift of grace. Our faith will begin expressing itself in mercy to others as we have experienced the abundance of God’s mercy towards us. And our faith will delight to grow in pure-hearted righteousness from one degree of glory to another in the safety that we are already the righteousness of God in Christ, and will most definitely be as pure-heartedly righteous as Jesus when he returns and we see him as he is.

Today, let’s expect to see God call us to greater steps in purity of heart than we have ever taken, and praise him for the so great salvation that enables us to take those steps. 

And because this good news is received and experienced by grace through faith, let’s rejoice in the hope we have in Christ that we can become more pure-heartedly like him today than we have ever been before.

The words of the LORD are pure words,

like silver refined in a furnace on the ground,

purified seven times.

(Psalm 12:6)

 

 

© 2024 Monte Vigh ~ Box 517, Merritt, BC, V1K 1B8

Email: in2freedom@gmail.com

Unless otherwise noted, Scriptures are from the English Standard Version (The Holy Bible, English Standard Version. ESV® Text Edition: 2016. Copyright © 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers.)

 

 

 

The Big Picture of the Savior

This morning, I was more drawn to a summary of the next few paragraphs that end Matthew 4 than to focus on any one of them. It is like watching God set the scene for the next three years of Jesus’ life and ministry, along with his training of the Twelve. 

First, I love the way Matthew regularly refers to prophecy. In this case, “that what was spoken by the prophet Isaiah might be fulfilled”, meaning that Jesus was the light of the world the prophets had spoken about. He is still the light of the world today, and we who believe in him are the light of the world in him, branches of light shining from the vine of Christ. 

Second, this has really been settling in for me, that Jesus’ message was, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.” Some people downplay repentance in the mistaken idea that it is a “good work” that can’t be added to faith. However, when the proclamation of the gospel is, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand,” our faith says, “I believe I need to repent and trust in Jesus in order to enter the kingdom”, and so “the obedience of faith” does so! 

Third, Matthew doesn’t speak of Jesus’ first encounter with Peter and Andrew, and James and John, so we are picking up after they had already spend some time with him in what is sometimes called the “Come and See” phase of discipleship. After some weeks or months of getting to know Jesus, they had returned to their careers as fishermen, and now Jesus finds them and calls them to “Follow me, and I will make you fishers of men”. Peter and Andrew “Immediately they left their nets and followed him,” and James and John, “Immediately they left the boat and their father and followed him.” They left their possessions, they left their livelihood, and they left their family to follow Christ. And they did so… IMMEDIATELY! 

One of the biggest conflicts in church life for me has been dealing with professing Christians who are not willing to leave their “nets” (possessions) to follow Jesus, they are not willing to leave their “boats” (livelihood plans) to follow Christ, and they are not willing to leave their “father” (parents, family, friends) to follow the Savior. What is particularly sad about watching people forsake Jesus (while maintaining good church appearances) is that the family members and friends they follow instead never see someone truly living by faith so they can hear the “good news of the kingdom” and know what it looks like to have eternal life. 

Fourth, Matthew then adds a note that we must factor in to every scene that follows throughout the rest of the gospels, that everywhere Jesus went, and in every town or place he did ministry, he was “proclaiming the gospel of the kingdom”. As I have seen a few times recently, “the gospel” of North American Christianity is not “the gospel of the kingdom” as Jesus taught it. It is the individualistic invite-Jesus-into-your-heart message that makes it sound like Jesus comes to us instead of us being “delivered out of the domain of darkness and transferred into the kingdom of God’s beloved Son.” Because this view of the gospel is so me-centered, people find it easy to make a profession of “accepting Christ” into their lives without actually leaving their lives of sin and entering Jesus’ kingdom! They also find it easy to walk away when it is no longer helping the me-centered person feel satisfied in their flesh. 

Fifth, we can’t get past this reality that everywhere Jesus went he was “healing every disease and every affliction among the people.” Peter would say in his Day of Pentecost sermon that Jesus was “a man attested to you by God with mighty works and wonders and signs that God did through him in your midst, as you yourselves know”. That was the purpose of the signs then, to attest to Israel that Jesus was the Messiah God had promised. I believe that God can and will do this whenever he pleases, but I do not believe it is an on-demand thing. And it definitely does not belong in money-making religious ventures that give Christianity a bad name. 

At the end of Matthew 4, I find it interesting that we go from this brief description (3 paragraphs) of Jesus starting his ministry, and then we move into the 3 chapters of the Sermon on the Mount. Since the Beatitudes Jesus uses to introduce that message are so familiar to me, I am curious how God will lead me through this section so I am called to put it into practice in Higher-and-Deeper ways. I trust he still has some surprises for how he will apply this to my life! 

For today, I know that I truly want to be a disciple who follows Christ in everything, who keeps learning to fish for men by faith even when sight is a bit discouraging, who proclaims the “good news of the kingdom” no matter what hateful laws governments make to stop us, and who lives as the light of the world and the salt of the earth that Jesus is just about to talk about. And all while knowing that the days are growing dark and short until the return of our Savior, and I want people to hear about my Savior by whatever means we have at our disposal to share the good news.

 

© 2024 Monte Vigh ~ Box 517, Merritt, BC, V1K 1B8

Email: in2freedom@gmail.com

Unless otherwise noted, Scriptures are from the English Standard Version (The Holy Bible, English Standard Version. ESV® Text Edition: 2016. Copyright © 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers.)

 

 

 

 

The People Who Are God’s Sons

As I meditate my way through the gospel of Matthew, I am now looking at how Jesus was “led up by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil.” As this is quite familiar territory, I have been eager to discover what new things God wants me to see. Sometimes this means discovering something I haven’t noticed before, and other times it comes in the way of understanding how something applies to my life further than I have ever taken it. So far, I can say that I am not being disappointed with my journey! 

I am now at the second temptation of Jesus that revolved around Satan’s challenge, “If you are the Son of God…” In other words, the devil was telling Jesus what he would have to do to prove he was the Son of God. Jesus had nothing to prove so it was a short conversation![1] 

However, although Jesus would not prove he was the Son of God on Satan’s terms, God’s plan of salvation would make it abundantly clear who Jesus of Nazareth really was. When Jesus completed his work of redemption on the cross, he “was declared to be the Son of God in power according to the Spirit of holiness by his resurrection from the dead”. 

The only reason worldlings can’t see this is, “In their case the god of this world has blinded the minds of the unbelievers, to keep them from seeing the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God.” 

And the reason it is crystal clear to Jesus’ disciples is, “For God, who said, ‘Let light shine out of darkness,’ has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.” 

Now, while it is abundantly settled that Jesus Christ is the Son of God, I began wondering what proof there is that someone like me is a son of God. So, I looked up the verse that popped into my mind right away. In the 7^th Beatitude, Jesus said, “Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called sons of God.” 

The term “sons of…” isn’t specifically male or female. It indicates those who are like God, the children who are known by the fact that they look like their Father. This is why Paul could say, “in Christ Jesus you are all sons of God, through faith.” And “There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is no male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus.” His point is that being a “son” means a child who looks like his/her Father, not specifically being a male. 

I have often complained about the way some of the new translations put “sons and daughters” in place of “sons” and “brothers and sisters” in place of “brothers”. Aside from the fact that God didn’t breathe out those words, I hate the way it steals the point God himself is making, that his people are “one”. We are all sons of God. The male-and-female and son-and-daughter is still there in the sense of our earthly design. Everything the apostles taught about men and women, and husbands and wives, still applies. But the point in the kingdom is that there is only one people who are all sons of God, meaning all the offspring who look like our Father. 

So, being a peacemaker makes us look like our Father because everything about God is aimed at bringing his lost sheep to have peace with him through faith in Christ, and, if we are like our Father, we will want others to have peace with God along with us. 

We can’t escape that we honor God as a people when we are busy trying to lead others to have peace with God through the gospel. While that easily can turn into “blessed are those who are persecuted for the sake of righteousness”, that, too, is like our God who knew that his own Son would be hated by the world, disowned by his own people, and deserted even by his own disciples. 

But we have our so great salvation that gives us “peace with God” because Jesus is the “Prince of Peace” who “is our peace”. Jesus has created in himself “one new man in place of the two, so making peace,” and that’s why “he came and preached peace to you who were far off (us Gentiles) and peace to those who were near (the Jews).” 

Therefore, as the body of Christ is made up of members who are all sons of God, Paul tells us about the “full armor of God” we are to wear to maintain our victory in Christ. This includes “as shoes for your feet, having put on the readiness given by the gospel of peace.” 

And in that readiness, we make the gospel of peace known to everyone so we keep growing up in Christ as peacemakers who are just like our Savior, the “sons of God” who are looking and acting like the “Son of God”. Or, as Paul put it, “Therefore be imitators of God, as beloved children. And walk in love, as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us, a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God.” That is what the sons of God look like.

 

© 2024 Monte Vigh ~ Box 517, Merritt, BC, V1K 1B8

Email: in2freedom@gmail.com

Unless otherwise noted, Scriptures are from the English Standard Version (The Holy Bible, English Standard Version. ESV® Text Edition: 2016. Copyright © 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers.)

 

---

[1] “‘If you are the Son of God, throw yourself down, for it is written, ‘He will command his angels concerning you,’ and ‘On their hands they will bear you up, lest you strike your foot against a stone.’” Jesus said to him, ‘Again it is written, ‘You shall not put the Lord your God to the test.’” (Matthew 4:6-7)

When Jesus was Tempted to Save Me

My time with God this morning only got one verse into Matthew 4: “Then Jesus was led up by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil.” 

One of the things that is exciting about retraveling through familiar territory is the expectation of finding new treasures in old places. This morning was no exception! 

When Matthew writes that Jesus was “tempted by the devil”, “tempted” means: “to be tested v. — to be put to the test in order to ascertain the nature of someone, including imperfections, faults, or other qualities.”[1] 

So, the primary focus was not that Jesus needed to be tempted to show that he could resist anything the devil could dish out. It is more than that. 

Giving the supreme tempter the opportunity to go at Jesus when Jesus was at an incredible point of weakness (40 days of fasting), was to reveal to us what Jesus was made of. 

As this began to sink in, I found myself traveling back in time to my early teen years. When I knew for certain I believed in Jesus and needed to confess him as my Lord and Savior in baptism, I also faced a testing. However, what it showed me about myself was nothing to be proud of. There was such an angry backlash against me getting baptized that I caved to the fear-based pressure and didn’t do what I knew was God’s will. I know God was merciful and forgave me, but I live with the regret of knowing I missed whatever God would have done if I had confessed Christ as Lord through baptism four years earlier than I finally did. How many people in the church I was attending would have been blessed to see me experiencing “the obedience of faith” from a young age.[2] 

On the other hand, right after Jesus was baptized “to fulfill all righteousness”, the Holy Spirit immediately led him out to the wilderness to show what he was made of. And what he was made of was truth, and holiness, and righteousness, and faithfulness, and purity, and love that Satan could not change no matter what tactics he tried. 

In fact, me failing my testing as a young teen (and many others since) makes Jesus’ perfection in his temptations stand out all the more clearly as something of personal concern to me. I needed a Savior who wasn’t… SINFUL!!! And God has been showing believers for centuries that Jesus absolutely passed that test! This meditation on God’s word also took me to what it will be like in the new heavens and the new earth when we will be like Jesus. I was thinking of how horribly easy it is to sin. Even when no one else sees us doing anything at all we can be sinning with resentment, jealousy, envy, coveting, pride, lust, hatred, and the like. 

But eternity will be us feeling like Jesus. Feeling pure. Feeling holy and righteous. Feeling good in the most real of ways. We will have no sarky flesh wanting to do what is wrong and disobey what is right. We won’t battle temptation. We will love love, and we will love goodness, and we will love holiness and righteousness. We will so love being like God as originally designed that we will not ever want to be our old selves. 

Seeing Jesus today in this new light (how he was shown through his testing to be the Son of God of whom the Father was well pleased, and the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world) makes me realize that his temptations by the devil weren’t primarily an example of how to resist temptation by using the word of God. That is there, and it is invaluable to see that. 

But Jesus’ testing was meant to show us who he was. He was “the Word who became flesh to dwell among us”. And it was that identity that proved through his temptations that he would never do anything sinful, and that he would never fail to save completely all those who would believe in him. 

I have shared in other posts about how I often see God working in the Higher-and-Deeper way I first noticed in Jesus’ encounter with the Samaritan woman.[3] As I interact with him in his word, he will show me something Higher and more glorious about himself than I have ever realized before, and something Deeper about myself that needs to know the glorious thing revealed to me about God. 

Today’s Higher was seeing how Jesus went from his baptism to be tested and proven to be my Savior. The Deeper was being reminded of how I failed the test at my baptism and denied my Savior’s worthiness to be loved and obeyed no matter how scary the opposition. 

And, because of seeing Jesus the way he is, I know without a doubt that my sins and failures are all covered by the new covenant in Jesus’ blood. Not because I never fail him, but because he cannot fail to be himself. 

Since then we have a great high priest who has passed through the heavens, Jesus, the Son of God, let us hold fast our confession. For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but one who in every respect has been tempted as we are, yet without sin. Let us then with confidence draw near to the throne of grace, that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need.[4]

 

© 2024 Monte Vigh ~ Box 517, Merritt, BC, V1K 1B8

Email: in2freedom@gmail.com

Unless otherwise noted, Scriptures are from the English Standard Version (The Holy Bible, English Standard Version. ESV® Text Edition: 2016. Copyright © 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers.)

 

 

---

[1] Bible Sense Lexicon, Logos Bible Systems

[2] Paul introduced and concluded his letter to the Romans with this expression (Romans 1:5; 16:26)

[3] John 4

[4] Hebrews 4:14-16