Are you being a disciple of Christ?

Matthew 9:9 (NLT)

As Jesus was walking along, He saw a man named Matthew sitting at his tax collector’s booth.  “Follow Me and be My disciple”, Jesus said to him.  So Matthew got up and followed Him.

 

Imagine the scene……Jesus is walking along the roads of Capernaum, He sees Matthew sitting at his tax collection booth, walks up to Matthew, likely exchanged more than is what is recorded in Scripture, and then simply said, “Come on, Matthew, get up and follow Me and be My disciple”.  And, apparently, Matthew got up and followed Him, leaving his business and everyone and everything else in his life behind.  How would you respond if Jesus gave you this same invitation?  Would you and I make the decision that Matthew did?

First, we really don’t know how we would have responded if we really were in Matthew’s situation.  It’s like when we see how people respond to tragedies that suddenly happen in their lives.  Some respond with wisdom and attitudes that we cannot fathom, others fall apart.  We just don’t know how we would respond until if and when it would happen to us.  Second, we are confronted with invitations and a need to respond to each one every time we open our minds and hearts to hear or read His word.  In the Scriptures, Jesus always calls people to make a decision.  So, you likely have a fair idea whether or not you are like Matthew by the way you know you respond to questions you read or hear from the reading and/or preaching/teaching from God’s word.

So, okay, you are not necessarily in Matthew’s situation, but the question and decision still exist—are you following Jesus as your Lord (assuming that you already have received Him as your Savior) and being His disciple?  By reading this, you have no excuse, you are being confronted by this question.  Are you being Jesus disciple?  Are you putting Him first in your life, are you doing your best to obey His commandments?  Jesus said that we prove our love for Him by keeping His commandments (John 14:21).     

Get up, take your mat, go home

Matthew 9:6 (NIV)

“But I want you to know that the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins.”  So He said to the paralyzed man, “Get up, take your mat and go home.”

Matthew 9 shares stories about Jesus that demonstrate His power over four satanic forces we all face---sin (verses 1-17), death (verses 18-26), darkness (verses 27-31), and demons (verses 32-38).  This study will focus on His power to forgive sins.    

When Jesus claimed that He had the authority on earth to forgive sins, He was accused of being a blasphemer (Matt 9:3).  A blasphemer is one who commits a contemptuous or profane act, utterance or writing concerning God or one who claims for himself the attributes and rights of God.   Blasphemy then and even today is a very serious offense.  The penalty for blasphemy was death (Leviticus 24:16).   What is the “unforgivable sin”?  Blasphemy against the Holy Spirit (the eternal sin) (Mark 3:29).  A modern example of blasphemy was when the writer Salman Rushdie was accused of blasphemy and given the death sentence by the Iranian Ayatollah Khomeini in 1989 for publishing a book entitled “The Satanic Verses”.

Jesus certainly knew the consequences of being labeled a blasphemer, yet He followed up with His promise in Matthew 9:2 to the paralytic that his sins were forgiven with this very emphatic claim in verse 6.  A claim like this brings to mind what CS Lewis wrote in his famous book “Mere Christianity”:

"A man who was merely a man and said the sort of things Jesus said would not be a great moral teacher. He would either be a lunatic - on the level with a man who says he is a poached egg - or he would be the devil of hell. You must take your choice. Either this was, and is, the Son of God, or else a madman or something worse. You can shut Him up for a fool or you can fall at His feet and call Him Lord and God. But let us not come with any patronizing nonsense about His being a great human teacher. He has not left that open to us."

Jesus has the authority to forgive sins.  You either believe this claim or you don’t.  This is manifested in the three commands Jesus gave to the paralytic man:

-  Get up

-- Take your mat

-- Go home

These three commands seem so simple that we overlook their underlying powerful meaning.  To get up means that the man needed to have faith that what Jesus claimed is true.  Do you have faith that what Jesus said about Himself and what the entire Bible says about Jesus are all true?  To take your mat means to move forward. The man’s faith—your faith—needs to be backed up by action.  It’s the faith and works principle described in James 2:14-26.  To go home means to accept responsibility, to take care of your household, your loved ones, and be a loving neighbor. 

Can you identify with this paralytic man?  It’s not his physical paralysis, it’s his paralysis to declare his faith and take action to prove his faith.  It’s his willingness to ask for forgiveness and believe that the Lord can and does forgive sins.  You may think that your sins are too great for the Lord to forgive you, but that is false thinking.  He is willing and has the power to forgive you of all your sins and cleanse your heart of all unrighteousness (Luke 5:13, I John 1:9).  But, you must be willing to accept his forgiveness through faith in Him.  Are you willing to believe in His power to forgive your sins and enable you to restart your life as a true follower?  

“What do you see in me, cause I'm just a man with all these insecurities.  How can I even speak when the words they seem to fall so far away from me.  All my life I have felt Your purpose bathed in me.  To you I'm crawling now so desperately.  I am willing to be anything you want from me cause you have given new life to me”  -- Jeremy Camp 

       

Answered prayers

Daniel 10:10-14 (NIV)

A hand touched me and set me trembling on my hands and knees. He said, “Daniel, you who are highly esteemed, consider carefully the words I am about to speak to you, and stand up, for I have now been sent to you.” And when he said this to me, I stood up trembling. Then he continued, “Do not be afraid, Daniel. Since the first day that you set your mind to gain understanding and to humble yourself before your God, your words were heard, and I have come in response to them. But the prince of the Persian kingdom resisted me twenty-one days. Then Michael, one of the chief princes, came to help me, because I was detained there with the king of Persia. Now I have come to explain to you what will happen to your people in the future, for the vision concerns a time yet to come.”

Daniel chapters 10-12 provide Daniel’s vision about the future of Israel that includes revelations about the roles of Persia (Iran), Greece, Egypt, Syria, and prophecies concerning the antichrist.  Well worth your time to study these chapters (with the help of some good commentaries) in light of all the current news about these nations.

No one knows who is the man speaking to Daniel.  Certainly an agent (angel?) of God, some scholars have suggested the angel Gabriel.  Daniel writes that this man’s hand touched him and he trembled on his hands and knees.  The Message Bible says that he fainted first before moving to his hands and knees.  A personal encounter with God or one of His messengers is not a superficial experience so don’t be misled if you think you or someone else has had such an encounter if the experience was not like that of Daniel’s. 

Daniel, like Joseph, is a supreme human example of having Christlike character.  Here he is described as highly esteemed, someone who set his mind to gain understanding about God and to humble himself before God.  Daniel prayed three times a day (6:10).  Of course, the Lord is going to hear and respond to his prayers.  Every time I am reminded of prayer warriors like Daniel, I feel guilty because I know that my prayer life could be better.  What about you?

After telling Daniel that the Lord has heard and will answer his prayers, the man explains why Daniel’s prayers have been delayed.  Who is the prince of the Persian Kingdom?  No, it’s not Jake Gyllenhaal in the movie “Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time”.  No one knows for sure other than this prince must have been an evil spirit.  Paul wrote about such spiritual forces in Eph 6:12:  “For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms.”  The fact that the archangel, Michael, had to intervene signifies that this resisting force was an evil spirit. 

This makes you wonder if the reason why your prayers are not yet answered is because of interference and resistance from spiritual forces of evil?  There are many reasons why prayer is not answered—e.g. sin (Psalm 66:18), not reading God’s Word (Prov 28:9), not praying fervently (Jer 29:12-13, James 5:16), asking for the wrong reasons (James 4:3), not yet God’s time (II Cor 12:8-12), insufficient faith (James 1;6-7, many of Jesus’ statements about lack of faith), husbands not treating your wives with honor (I Peter 3:7)---and spiritual conflict like that described in this passage.  Eph 6:13 says that you need to put on every piece of God’s armor so that you will be able to resist the enemy in the time of evil and you will be able to stand firm after this battle.  The armor of God includes being obedient, faithful, and standing on the Word of God.  This is what Daniel did and even though there was a battle with evil forces and a delay in answered prayer, his prayer about the future of his people was eventually answered.

If you are struggling currently with an unanswered prayer need, study your Bible and pray over these examples of why prayer is not answered.  Be strengthened and deepen your faith that if you live your life as Daniel lived his, doing all he could to be faithful and obedient, God will answer your prayer(s).  Yet, always be mindful that “not my will, but Thy will be done”.  Trust that God looks at things from an eternal perspective and will answer prayer according to that perspective. 

“I turned to the Master God, asking for an answer—praying earnestly, fasting from meals, wearing rough penitential burlap, and 4 kneeling in the ashes. I poured out my heart, baring my soul to God, my God.”---Daniel 9:3-

How we should praise the Lord

Psalm 150:1-6 (NASB)

Praise the Lord!  Praise God in His sanctuary.  Praise Him in His mighty expanse.  Praise Him for His mighty deeds; Praise Him according to His excellent greatness.  Praise Him with trumpet sound; Praise Him with harp and lyre.  Praise Him with timbrel and dancing;  Praise Him with stringed instruments and pipe.  Praise Him with loud cymbals;  Praise Him with resounding cymbals.  Let everything that has breath praise the Lord.  Praise the Lord! 

Psalm 150 is the last Psalm.  Since there are 150 psalms, you could read through the Book of Psalms in one month by reading 5 psalms a day for 30 days (although day 23 would be a challenge with Psalm 119 containing 176 verses!).  Appropriately, the 150^th Psalm focuses on praising God.  You might be able to find the “five Ws” of a good news story in this passage (what, when, where, why, and how).

What---Praise the Lord God.  Praising God involves thinking of Him rather than yourself.  Praising God involves thinking and meditating and acknowledging all that He has done for you.

When—As long as you are breathing.

Where---We praise God during a worship service in His sanctuary, but we also should praise God everywhere else (His mighty expanse).

Why—Because of His mighty deeds.  What are they in your life?  Think of all His creation including you and your loved ones; think of all the Bible says about Him, especially His power and miracles; think about all your blessings, especially health, home, family, and freedom; and think about His spiritual blessings, summarized in Ephesians 1:3-14.

How—With your voice, your body, your life, and with musical instruments; no need to be quiet about it.

Various biblical references and websites list seven Hebrew words for praise.  Carman  (http://www.geocities.com/ourallinall/sevenwaystopraise.htm) wrote the meaning of these seven words of praise.  I am repeating Carman’s words below along with some biblical verses (and other commentary) where each of these Hebrew words of praise are found.  

Seven Ways to Praise
 by Carman

Way back in the Bible, the Hebrew language says
 that we were taught that we could praise the Lord in seven ways.
 Seven great expressions, seven different flows, seven even ways to worship God and this is how it goes.

Number one is Towdah (e.g. Ps 50:14, 95:2; Jer 33:11 [second praise]).  It's the sacrifice of
praising God in spite the fact your world is in a vice. It's praise that pushes through the wall of all adversity 
an offering that flows to heaven in our time of need. Our word "hallelujah" comes from this base word.  New Testament verses that have this same meaning for praise: Col 4:2, I Tim 4:4-5.

Number two is Yadah (e.g. Ps 22:2, 27:1, 28:7, 33:2, 42:5, 44:8, 63:1,5, 69:30, 100:4, 134:2, 141:2, Jer 33:11 [first praise], II Chron 20:21) that means to lift your hands in response to what the Lord has done throughout the land. 
An outward sign of what's inside for all the world to see
a demonstration of our love so come praise the Lord with me.

Number three is Barak/Barouch (e.g. Psalm 34:1, 95:60, 23, 103:1-2, II Ch 29:20) that simply means to bow or kneel down
 in the awesome presence of the Lord and all His power, to just be overwhelmed cause you hardly can believe 
that you've been given favor by His Holy Majesty.

This fourth one is Shabach (e.g. Psalm 47:1, 63:1-4, 106:47,117:1,145:4, Isa 12:6).  It is what we call the shout. 
It's praise that's given way before the answer comes about 
a public testimony that drowns out all the noise
 of whiners and complainers, even the devil himself, as the saints all lift their voice.

Number five is Zamar (e.g. Psalm 21:13, 57:8-9, 66:2-4, 81:1-3, 92:1-3, II Chron 16:9).  This one you'll like for sure because it's playing any instrument that glorifies the Lord
.  Instruments that blast, instruments that strum
, instruments that keep the beat, so I'll praise Him on my drum.

Six we call Halell/Halal (e.g. Psalm 22:22-26, 113:1-3, 150:1, 104 though 106) that means to rave and boast
.  And praise the Lord in such a way that gets you on your toes.  
It's beyond just clapping hands,  The word “hallelujah” comes from this base word.  But best of all, this is the one that makes you want to dance.

Finally seven is the best--Tehillah (e.g. Psalm 22:3, 33:1, 34:1, 40:3, 66:2, 100:4, Isa 61:3, II Chron 20:22). 
It's the one that is the combination of the rest
.  It's singing and it's shouting, it's dancing and it's more.  
It's wild, it's fun so everyone rejoice before the Lord.

As you study and think about these different Hebrew expression for praising the Lord, what best describes your way of praising Him?  Also, reflect on this passage from Ephesians 3:20-21 that gives me great reason to praise the Lord: Now to Him who is able to do far more abundantly beyond all that we ask or think, according to the power that works within us, to Him be the glory in the church and in Christ Jesus to all generations forever and ever. Amen.