Archives for May 2015

With My Son at Caesarea Philippi

The place called Banias in the far northern region of Palestine was originally named Paneas by the Greeks, for here, in a magnificent cave, they built a shrine to the pagan nature god Pan. The nearby city of Caesarea Philippi was also the site of a beautiful temple of white stone built by Herod the Great to the honor and glory of the Roman Emperor. The location has significant connections to the false gods and idols of this world.

Jesus Christ chose this pagan region as the place where He would speak to His disciples about the most important question anyone can ever ask regarding Christ: “Whom say ye that I am?” Peter, illuminated by God, was enabled to confess, “Thou are the Christ, the Son of the living God.” The Lord Jesus declared, “I will build my church; and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it” (Matt. 16:15–18). Perhaps as He spoke of the “gates of hell,” the disciples involuntarily shuddered at the thought of the nearby idols devoted to the wicked pleasures and powers. Christ faced them unafraid, confident that He would build a solid church that Satan could not overthrow. Yet Christ also knew, as He proceeded to explain to His disciples, that this victory would require Jesus to “go unto Jerusalem, and suffer many things of the elders and chief priests and scribes, and be killed, and be raised again the third day” (Matt. 16:21).

If we are going to be Christians, then we must confront the idols of this evil world, and set our faces against them. There can be no faithfulness to God without conflict with the gods of this world. The only way that we can win this spiritual war is by faith in Jesus Christ (1 John 5:5). Everything hinges upon Jesus’ question, “Whom say ye that I am?” If your heart rests upon Jesus as the Son of God, sent by His Father to be the Christ, the anointed prophet, priest, and king of His people, then you have a rock on which to stand that the whole world cannot shake.

Faith in Christ is not easy, but He is worthy. It is not a matter of merely confessing Christ with our lips, but of believing in Him with our hearts. In the shadow of pagan idols and human empires, it would have been easy for the disciples to look at the son of a carpenter and think, “Him? The Son of God?” Similarly today, false religion and secular powers may hang like mountains over the little flock of God’s faithful, ready to crush God’s church. And indeed, we must take up our crosses to follow Christ. But if we are convinced that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of the living God, then all earthly powers are as grasshoppers before Him.

With My Wife at the Jordan River (human water usage has greatly reduced its flow in modern times)

Drawing from the melting snow atop Mt. Hermon, the Jordan River rushes from the Huleh (or Hula) Lake into the Sea of Galilee, and then meanders southward to the Dead Sea. Though not a large river, the Jordan figures prominently in many parts of Holy Scripture, especially in its lower regions. Often it is the location of a new beginning in the life of a nation or individual.

The people of Israel crossed the Jordan River on dry ground, for the Lord cut off the waters of the river, even at flood stage (Josh. 3). In this way, the Lord showed them that the God who had split the Red Sea was still with them as they entered the Promised Land—a major support for their faith as they went from wandering in the wilderness to the battle to take the land of their inheritance.

Six centuries later, the prophet Elisha told a Syrian leper that he must wash in the Jordan seven times, and the Lord would heal him (2 Kings 5:10). This offended Naaman at first, for though a leper he was a rich and powerful military commander. Didn’t Syria have better rivers? Yet by God’s grace, he humbled himself, and in the waters of the Jordan his flesh became like that of a little child again—a physical picture of being born again.

Over eight more centuries passed, and at the Jordan River we find John baptizing large number of Jews as they confess their sins and profess repentance towards God (Mark 1). John preached a new beginning to them too: the forgiveness of sins for who repent of sin and hope in the coming Messiah. Yet when Jesus Christ appeared on the shores of the river, He shocked John by seeking baptism Himself. Our new beginning depends upon Christ taking the place of sinners in order to fulfill all righteousness. As Jesus came up out of the water, God publically declared Him to be His beloved Son, and visibly anointed Him with the Holy Spirit, so that Christ would baptize His people in the same Spirit (Mark. 1:8–11).

Have you experienced the new beginning Christ can give by His Spirit? Have you been washed of your spiritual leprosy, and been born again as a child of God? If not, then let the waters of the Jordan remind you that Christ can wash your heart clean by the gift of saving faith. Trust in the Lord Jesus Christ, and be saved. If you have been washed by the Spirit, then give glory to God, for your new beginning would never have happened apart from Jesus Christ.

View from Possible Location of the Sermon on the Mount

While we cannot be sure where the Lord Jesus delivered His famous Sermon on the Mount, we do know that His teaching astonished people for its authority (Matt. 7:28). Christ called people to a way of life radically different than the religion popularized by the Pharisees (Matt. 5:20).

Matthew had summarized Christ’s preaching with the words, “Repent: for the kingdom of heaven is at hand” (Matt. 4:17). In the Beatitudes, Christ gave us eight pithy sayings that capture what repentance looks like. They are the Beatitudes, or declarations of the kind of person God has blessed with membership in His kingdom, both now and forever (Matt. 5:3–10). Rather than looking at each Beatitude distinctly, let’s use them like eight colors to paint a picture of what our Lord calls us to in discipleship, and what He promises.

Who are the people who have truly repented? They are a broken and humbled people in their relationships with God and man. They are not rich in their own estimation, but poor; not boasters, but mourners over their sins; not graspers and controllers, but meek and gentle. They long to be holy and to do the Father’s will. They do not simply clean up their external morality, but their hearts are cleansed by faith in Christ so that they sincerely love God and people. This love shows itself in mercy when they encounter people in misery and trouble. They have been reconciled to God, and so they seek to make peace among men. Yet their lives are so different from the world, especially the world of religious hypocrites, that they suffer hostility, slander, and all kinds of persecution. They are heavenly pilgrims in this world.

What blessing does the Lord promise them? It is the kingdom of heaven, where Christ will reign in His glory and His people will shine like the sun. No longer will they sorrow over sin, for all their sins will be gone, and they will be filled like golden cups with the wine of holiness. God will not give them what they deserve, but will show them mercy and openly declare them to be His beloved children in Christ. Though they were the most humble and gentle of men and women, they will rule as conquering kings and queens over the new creation. Best of all, they will directly see the glory of God shining in Jesus Christ, in each other, and in the new heavens and earth. Therefore, Christ says to them, “Blessed, blessed, blessed, blessed, blessed, blessed, blessed, blessed!” If you are a Beatitude person, then you are blessed indeed.

Elders Sitting on the Elders’ Seats in the Gates of the City of Dan

The city of Dan was the northern extreme of the kingdom of Israel, and so the entire land could be described as “from Dan even to Beersheba” (Judg. 20:1; 1 Kings 4:25). Originally known by its Canaanite name “Laish,” the tribe of Dan conquered and renamed the city. Tragically, idol-worship and false religion characterized the city of Dan throughout its history.

When the children of Dan marched on the city of Laish to take it, along the way they obtained the idols and priest of a man named Micah. Though God’s law strictly prohibits divine images and requires us to worship only in the way God commands, these Israelites did not hesitate to set up their own form of worship, man-made idols served by a man-made priesthood (Judg. 18:29–31). Apostasy like this moved the author of Judges to write, “Every man did that which was right in his own eyes” (Judg. 17:6; 21:25). Let us learn never to base our worship of God upon the ideas and preferences of man, but always upon the Word of God.

Many years later, when King Jeroboam set up his own religion of the gold calves for the breakaway kingdom of the ten northern tribes of Israel, he placed one idol in Bethel, and another in Dan (1 Kings 12:29–31). This man-made religion clung so closely to the people that even when King Jehu brought religious reform and removed Baal worship from the land, he still did not get rid of the horrible idols of Bethel and Dan (2 Kings 10:29). They led Israel into sin, and provoked the Lord to send the nation into exile and captivity (1 Kings 14:16).

Let us never forget that we worship a holy God. Many churches have a careless attitude toward worship. They replace the pure worship revealed in the Bible with human traditions, human innovations, and human images. Like the sons of Aaron, they bring God worship He has not authorized, and dishonor His holiness (Lev. 10).

However, let us remember as well that the Lord is a God who saves sinners from their idols. The genealogies of Chronicles and the list of tribes in Revelation 7 omit the tribe of Dan, perhaps as a testimony against its wicked departure from true worship. Yet Ezekiel’s symbolic vision of the future of God’s people includes Dan in the land and the holy city (Ezek. 48:1–2, 32). Perhaps Ezekiel is reminding us here that Christ has redeemed worshipers from false religion just as surely as He redeemed sinners from moral corruption. If Christ can save Dan, then He can save anyone from false worship. Let us therefore repent and have hope.

Dr. Halvor Ronning at Ancient Synagogue in Capernaum

Capernaum, which means “village of Nahum” (with no apparent connection to the prophet by that name) was chosen by the Lord Jesus as the strategic center of His ministry in Galilee (Matt. 4:13). This made Capernaum a privileged place indeed. Christ may have had some family connections there (John 2:12). Simon Peter’s home was in Capernaum, and there Christ healed Peter’s mother-in-law of a severe fever, and many others (Luke 4:31–41).

It was in Capernaum that Christ was teaching in a house when four men brought a paralyzed man to Him by cutting a whole in the roof and lowering the man down. Christ used this is an opportunity to declare His authority to forgive sins, which shows that Christ is God (Mark 2:1–12).

Christ taught in Capernaum’s synagogue and cast an evil spirit out of a demonized man (Mark 1:21; Luke 4:31–37; John 6:59). The synagogue building had been constructed through the generosity of a Gentile centurion who proved to be a man of great humility and faith in Christ (Luke 7:1–10). However, Christ refused to settle His ministry in Capernaum, but traveled as an itinerant preacher throughout Galilee (Luke 4:42–44).

God blessed Capernaum with great gospel privileges, and from its people the Lord drew men like Peter, Andrew, James, and John to be Christ’s disciples (Mark 1:16–21). Yet sadly, most of its people did not repent of their sins, though they heard Jesus Christ’s preaching and saw His miracles (Matt. 11:20). Later in Christ’s ministry, He pronounced this curse upon them: “And thou, Capernaum, which art exalted unto heaven, shalt be brought down to hell… it shall be more tolerable for the land of Sodom in the day of judgment, than for thee” (Matt. 11:23–24).

Capernaum should sober us. Great gospel privileges bring great gospel responsibilities. Every sermon we hear, if we are not believers, heats hell’s fires hotter for us. How hard is the heart of mankind, that the very presence of the living Jesus was not enough to turn us back to God! Whenever the Lord gives someone us a new heart that is humble and contrite at His Word, then we should profusely thank Him. We should join Jesus in saying, “I thank thee, O Father, Lord of heaven and earth, because thou hast hid these things from the wise and prudent, and hast revealed them unto babes. Even so, Father: for so it seemed good in thy sight” (Matt. 11:25–26). Thank God for saving grace!

Fish Dinner in Israel

Tabgha is an Arabic name derived from the Greek word for “seven springs” (heptapegon). Christians have traditionally associated this location with two events in the life of Jesus Christ: the feeding of the five thousand and the threefold re-commissioning of Peter to feed Christ’s sheep after the Lord rose from the dead. Both of these events remind us of the insufficiency of man and the sufficiency of Christ.

One wonders what kind of expression was on the apostles’ faces after Jesus told them, “Give ye them [something] to eat” (Mark 6:37). Five thousand men plus women and children—a veritable army—surrounded them. In their hands were five loaves and two fish, a mere snack for the twelve apostles, much less for the crowds milling around them. They blurted out, “Shall we go and buy two hundred pennyworth of bread?” (Mark 6:37). Translated into modern terms, “Should we spend over eight months of wages to give this crowd a single meal?” Surely Jesus was asking them to do the impossible. They were inadequate for the job.

Fast-forward past Christ’s resurrection, when He appeared to seven of his disciples as they were fishing on the Sea of Galilee (John 21). The disciples fished all night, and caught nothing. Once again, they were confronted by their inadequacy, here even to provide for their own needs. Later they met Christ on the shore, and three times He asked Peter, “Simon, son of Jonas, lovest thou me?” (John 21:15–17). Like a doctor debriding a wound, his three questions painfully cleansed Simon Peter of his three denials of Christ. How utterly humbled he must have felt, totally unworthy to serve the Lord as one of His apostles.

However, at each point, just as Christ uncovers our insufficiency He reveals His all-sufficiency. In the hands of Jesus, the five loaves and two fish multiply to feed the thousands, with baskets left to spare. At the command of Jesus, the fisherman cast the net on the right side of the boat, and hauled in 153 large fish. And each time Peter answered Christ’s probing questions with a humble, “Thou knowest that I love thee,” Jesus answered not with a rebuke or accusation, but with a fresh calling to ministry: “Feed my sheep.” Our insufficiency opens the door for the entrance of Christ’s sufficiency so that we can serve Him with confident faith.

This is a lesson that must be experienced: I am weak, but Thou art everything. Only when we have learned the lesson of the fish are we prepared to serve Christ by His grace alone.

With My Family on the Sea of Galilee

The Sea of Galilee will always be a favorite place for Christians touring Israel, for it was here that so much of our Lord’s ministry took place. Here He taught the people from a boat just offshore. Here He walked on the water. Here He calmed the raging storm.

The region of Galilee was the place where our Lord began His ministry of public teaching and preaching. It was here that His teaching dawned upon the world like the rising of a sun after a night that lasted millennia. Galilee is rarely mentioned in the Old Testament, and generally only as a point of geography, but there is one beautiful promise made about Galilee in the prophecy of Isaiah 9. We find it quoted in the Gospel of Matthew:

That it might be fulfilled which was spoken by Esaias the prophet, saying, The land of Zabulon, and the land of Nephthalim, by the way of the sea, beyond Jordan, Galilee of the Gentiles; the people which sat in darkness saw great light; and to them which sat in the region and shadow of death light is sprung up. From that time Jesus began to preach, and to say, Repent: for the kingdom of heaven is at hand. (Matt. 4:14–17).

When Isaiah spoke that prophecy, the nation of Assyria was poised to seize the northern kingdom of Israel (Isa. 7:16–17; 8:3–4). God fulfilled His words in 733–732 BC, when King Tiglathpileser of Assyria conquered Galilee and the surrounding regions and carried their people into captivity (2 Kings 15:29). A decade later the northern kingdom of Israel was destroyed. The darkness of Israel’s idolatry had overwhelmed the land. As E. J. Young said, “Darkness without and darkness within, ignorance, distress, misery, and sin.”

What a picture this is of our natural condition since the fall: darkness. The Bible not only says that we live in darkness, but that darkness is inside of us, yes, that we are darkness until God saves us (Eph. 4:18; 5:8). Unconverted sinners love the darkness and hate the light, because their deeds are evil (John 3:19).

Over seven centuries after Isaiah died, the Roman Empire ruled a mixture of Jews and Gentiles in Galilee through its appointed tetrarch, Herod Antipas. In the midst of the darkness, a brilliant light began to shine. Jesus, the Light of the world, had come (John 8:12). His coming as light into darkness reminds us of God’s word spoken into the primeval darkness, “Let there be light.” Christ’s preaching heralded the beginning of a new creation. Has the light of Christ shone into your heart? If so, then you are a new creation too.

Sunrise over the Sea of Galilee

Touring Nazareth

Dr. Beeke is presently in Israel with a tour group. Here are some devotional thoughts about locations he is visiting.

Though the name of the town Nazareth is well known to us today as the hometown of Jesus, it was an obscure village in the ancient world. It was located a few miles off the main road to the south, and a few miles from Sepphoris, a Roman city, to the north. When Philip told Nathanael that the promised Christ came from Nazareth, Nathanael exclaimed, “Can there any good thing come out of Nazareth?” (John 1:46). It did not have much of a reputation.

Yet it was in Nazareth that the angel Gabriel appeared to a young woman named Mary to announce the conception and coming birth of Jesus, the Son of David and the Son of God (Luke 1:26). After their registration in Bethlehem and sojourn in Egypt, Joseph and Mary returned to Nazareth and raised their family here (Matt. 2:23). This little village, of perhaps a hundred people, was the hometown of our Lord until He began his public ministry (Mark 1:9; Luke 2:51). Thus to His dying day (and beyond), Christ was known as “Jesus of Nazareth” (Luke 18:37; Acts 2:22), and even called Himself such when He appeared to Saul of Tarsus as the Lord of glory (Acts 22:8). Early Christians were even sometimes mockingly called “Nazarenes” (Acts 24:5).

It is exceedingly precious to us to know that the King of kings and Lord of Lords would become Jesus of Nazareth. He could have chosen to live anywhere. His hometown of choice speaks of His humiliation for our sins. Paul wrote, “For ye know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that, though he was rich, yet for your sakes he became poor, that ye through his poverty might be rich” (2 Cor. 8:9). The God of all the earth decided to live most of His life in a poor village that few knew, and that those who did know despised. What amazing mercy!

Man’s pride does not welcome such mercy. Ironically, the very people of Jesus’ hometown rejected Him when He announced in their synagogue that Isaiah’s ancient prophecies were fulfilled in Him (Luke 4:16–30). People do not want a humble Savior who ministers to those who are broken over their sins. We are too committed to our pride and righteousness.

Are we willing to become Nazarenes in order to follow Christ? Will we lower ourselves, yes, admit that we deserve to be lower than the lowest on earth? If we will follow Jesus, we must follow Him on the path downward in humility. We must accept rejection by this world, sometimes by our own families. Yet if we do so, then we may glory in the name, Jesus of Nazareth.

Caesarea Maritima on the Coast of Israel

Dr. Beeke is presently in Israel with a tour group. Here are some devotional thoughts about locations he is visiting.

At Caesarea Maritima once stood the magnificent man-made harbor that Herod the Great had constructed. We must remember to distinguish this Caesarea on the shore of the Mediterranean Sea from the inland Caesarea Philippi. Caesarea Maritima, or Caesarea by the sea, was once a center for trade and the Roman army and administration of Palestine. However, for Christians, we remember Caesarea especially for its connection to the great mission of the gospel.

It was here that Philip the Evangelist settled after the Lord sent him to preach the good news of Jesus Christ to the Ethiopian eunuch, using the prophecy of Isaiah 53 (Acts 8:40; 21:8). Thus Caesarea reminds us that faithful evangelism is done by the preaching of the Scriptures.

It was here in Caesarea that the apostle Peter, directed by the Spirit of God, preached the gospel of salvation to the household of Cornelius, a devout centurion of the Roman army (Acts 10). Thus Caesarea reminds us that the gospel is not for any one nation, but under the new covenant overflowed all national boundaries to reach people of all kinds and colors.

It was here that the apostle Paul was imprisoned after being attacked by a mob in Jerusalem (Acts 23:23, 33). On the one hand, this reminds us that the gospel will only advance through the suffering of God’s people. On the other hand, we see here how God’s providence uses even wicked men to extend the gospel mission. For in taking Paul to Caesarea, the Romans saved his life. And while here, Paul preached the gospel to Festus, King Agrippa, Bernice, Felix, and the officials attending them (Acts 24:24—26:32).

As we think of the ruins of Caesarea Maritima, and the vast expanse of the Mediterranean Sea, let us consider the great call of gospel missions that God has placed upon His people. Philip, Peter, and Paul were faithful servants to spread the gospel. Likewise, we must serve the cause of the gospel today. People must hear the preaching of Christ from the Scriptures in order to be saved. The gospel is God’s message of hope for people who are very different in color, culture, and location. The gospel will reach people who have never heard of the Savior only at great cost to faithful Christians. May God use our time here to impress us all with the fact that the great construction projects of men will crumble into ruins, but the kingdom of Christ will triumph and remain, as Christ works mightily through faithful men and women.