Demand #50: Make Disciples Of All Nations, For The Mission Cannot Fail

I tell you, many will come from east and west and recline at table with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob in the kingdom of heaven, while the sons of the kingdom will be thrown into the outer darkness. In that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth . — Matt. 8:11-12


But before all this they will lay their hands on you and persecute you, delivering you up to the synagogues and prisons, and you will be brought before kings and governors for my name’s sake. This will be our opportunity to bear witness. — Luke 21:12-13


They will fall by the edge of the sword and be led captive among all nations, and Jerusalem will be trampled underfoot by the Gentiles, until the times of the Gentiles are fulfilled. — Luke 21:24


Excerpts from book

Page 369 - We must not stumble over God’s unusual way of pursuing the nations for the glory of his Son.

Page 370 - But he did not intend to bring the kingdom the way they thought. His intention was to suffer and die for their sins before he would reign as their king. This was their only hope of eternal life. Jesus focused his mission on the Jews, giving them every opportunity to know him and believe in him.......And at one point he said, “I was sent only to the lost sheep of the house of Israel” (Matt. 15:24).

We may think this a roundabout way to reach the nations. But God has his reasons. There are lessons the nations must learn from the failure of Israel to trust God and welcome a suffering Messiah......In the Jewish Scriptures that Jesus knew and loved, the prophecy was clear: The Son of God would one day inherit the nations.

Page 371 - Again and again in these Scriptures we read the promise that all the nations would one day bow down and worship the true God, and that his Servant-Son would be a light to the nations....When Jesus came as the light of the world, though his focus was on Israel, he began to make it clear that the kingdom he was bringing through suffering would bless the nations and that Israel herself would be, for a season, left to the side.

The mystery is opening. Gentiles—the nations—are going to inherit the blessings of Israel. Jesus had signaled this in his very first sermon in his hometown of Nazareth.

Page 372 - More and more it became clear, for those who had ears to hear, that Jesus had come to save all the nations as well as Jews.....There is no maybe here. The mission that he gives to his followers to go and make disciples of all nations will come to pass. “I will build my church” (Matt. 16:18). “I have other sheep that are not of this fold. I must bring them also, and they will listen to my voice” (John 10:16).....The mission to make disciples of all nations will succeed.


Page 373 - So even though God focused his redeeming work on Israel for many centuries, everything was preparation for the global mission to the nations. This was there from the first promise to Abraham....This is the promise that is coming true in Jesus’ command, “Go therefore and make disciples of all nations.”... This is what Jesus meant in Matthew 21:43 when he said, “Therefore I tell you, the kingdom of God will be taken away from you [Israel] and given to a people producing its fruits.” That new “people” is the church gathered from
all the nations.

His Final Demand: “Make a Global Claim on My Behalf” Jesus’ final demand is that we never lose sight of the global scope of his claim on the human race. He is not a tribal deity. He is the Lord of the universe. Every knee will one day bow either willingly or unwillingly (Matt. 25:31-32). All judgment is given to him (John 5:22). The demand is that his followers reach the nations with “all that he has commanded.”.

Page 374 - The certainty of success is guaranteed (Matt. 24:14). Jesus will see that it gets done. But it is in our hands to do it. We do it by prayer and by the word and by suffering for others. Jesus said, “The harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few. Therefore pray earnestly to the
Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into his harvest” (Luke 10:2). We must earnestly pray that God will do what he promised he would do. Promises do not make prayer superfluous; they make the answer certain.

Then we must open our mouths and speak the truth of Jesus to all nations..... And don’t be ashamed.....Finally, in all our praying and speaking we must be ready to suffer....Jesus was sent to suffer. We will not be able to make disciples of all nations without taking up our cross and following Jesus on the Calvary road of sacrificial love (Mark 8:34). This is the light of Jesus that the world can most clearly see (Demand #48).

Jesus does not call us to an easy life or an easy mission. “They will lay their hands on you and persecute you,......

Page 375 - .....This will be your opportunity to bear witness” (Luke 21:12-13). There will be no wasted suffering. In the short run, it will always be an occasion to speak and show the reality of Jesus. In the long run, it will lead to eternal life.....Therefore, in all your suffering for the advance of Jesus’ mission you are increasingly rewarded.

That reward is the enjoyment of the inexhaustibly glorious Jesus forever and ever.

Demand #49: Make Disciples Of All Nations, For All Authority Belongs To Jesus

All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age. — Matt. 28:18-20

The harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few; therefore pray earnestly to the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into his harvest. — Matt. 9:37-38

Go out to the highways and hedges and compel people to come in, that my house may be filled. — Luke 14:23

I tell you, there will be more joy in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine righteous persons who need no repentance. — Luke 15:7

As the Father has sent me, even so I am sending you. — John 20:21

Page 363-364: Before Jesus demanded that his followers go make disciples of all nations, he gave the justification for this seemingly presumptuous mission.

Authority refers to the right and the power to hold sway in a given relationship. So a father has authority over his children, but not necessarily over his neighbor. An army lieutenant has authority over his platoon, but not over the company commander.....We see a picture of the meaning of authority in the story of Jesus’ encounter with the Roman centurion. This officer wanted Jesus to heal his servant but did not feel worthy to have Jesus come into his home. .... (Matt. 8:8-9). In other words, authority is the right and power to have your subordinates do what you choose for them to do. That is the authority Jesus has over everyone and everything.....Therefore, everyone and everything is subordinate to Jesus. Every human. Every angel. Every demon. The devil himself. And all the natural world and what happens in it.

We see this illustrated even during Jesus’ earthly ministry. (Mark 2:7-12). We see it in the way he taught the people and the way he handled the Jewish Scriptures: (Mark 1:22; Matt. 5:17-18). We see it in the way he rebuked the devil (Matt. 4:10) and commanded unclean spirits: (Mark 1:27). We see it in the way he commanded the forces of nature by healing all kinds of diseases (Matt. 4:23) and turning water into wine (John 2:9; 4:46) and calming the storm:(Mark 4:39).
He raised people from the dead (Mark 5:41-42; Luke 7:14-15; John 11:43-44) and ruled over his own death and resurrection: (John 10:18). And he holds full sway in the final judgment. He said that God the Father “has given him authority to execute judgment, because he is the Son of Man” (John 5:27). And God has “given him authority over all flesh, to give eternal life to all whom [God has] given him” (John 17:2).....there is nothing outside the authority of Jesus. He has the right and the power to demand allegiance from every soul that exists. ..... The way Jesus pursues this universal claim on every soul is by sending his followers to make disciples from all the nations. After saying that all authority in heaven and earth is his, he says, “therefore . . .” This word shows not only that his universal authority is the basis of his universal claim on every person, but also that the way he lays claim to those persons follows in the next verse.

Page 366: He lays claim on people through his followers. He laid down the principle while he was still here: “Truly, truly, I say to you, whoever receives the one I send receives me, and whoever
receives me receives the one who sent me” (John 13:20; Matt. 10:40). Yes, he is doing it himself. But he did not mean that he would do it directly from heaven without emissaries. We know this because when he prayed for the future church in John 17:20, he described them as “those who will believe in me through their word.”

Jesus builds his church and gathers his flock from the nations of the world through the word of those he sends......The words “to the end of the age” show that the mission should last till Jesus comes back.....The mission lasts as long as the mission-sustaining promise lasts. And that
promise is:.....“to the end of the age.”

This implies several things. First, it implies that Jesus’ exclusive claim will be made not just by him, but by his followers.

Page 367: A second implication of Jesus’ universal mission is that Jesus cares for all ethnic groups and intends to have disciples from every “nation.”

Page 368: There is no partiality with Jesus in this mission. He is not western, and he is not eastern. He is utterly committed to ethnic diversity and unity in the truth of his supremacy. In fact, the word from which we get “ethnic” is the word for “nations” in Matthew 28:19, e[qno~.
It has not always seemed as though God were pursuing all the nations. At times he seemed to be committed to his people Israel, but not the nations. His way has been indirect and at times
inscrutable. How shall we understand this roundabout way toward a global church of worshipers from all the nations? That is what we turn to in the final chapter.

Demand #48: let Your Light Shine Before Others - The Joyful Sacrifice Of Love In Suffering

Blessed are you when others revile you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely on my account. Rejoice and be glad, for your reward is great in heaven, for so they persecuted the prophets who were before you. You are the salt of the earth, but if salt has lost its taste, how shall its saltiness be restored? It is no longer good for anything except to be thrown out and trampled under people’s feet. You are the light of the world. A city set on a hill cannot be hidden. 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. 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. — Matt. 5:11-16

Excerpts from book (free download of book at link on right):

Page 356 - In the previous chapter we focused on the supreme passion of Jesus, his Father, and the Holy Spirit.....Which brings us now to the demand, “Let your light shine before others, so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father who is in heaven” (Matt. 5:16).

Page 357 - What people see from the outside is our “good works.” But that is not who we are. The good works have a light source from inside. The key to understanding what the light is that shines out through good works is the aim of the works, namely, that people see and give glory to God......What Actually Is the Light That People See? So what does it mean then that we are the light of the world? How do good deeds grow from who we are in such a way that they make God look glorious?

Page 358 - Therefore, I conclude that what is most salty and bright in this insipid and dark world is the almost incomprehensible joy of Jesus’ followers in the midst of persecution
and the hardships of life.......In order to waken people to consider God as an explanation for our good works there generally must be an obstacle of suffering that would ordinarily cause them to be angry or despairing, but does not have that effect on us. Rather they see us “rejoice” in hardship....this hardship does not make us self-centered and selfpitying and mean-spirited......they see our joy and wonder what we are hoping in when ordinary props for hope have been knocked away. The answer.......we have great reward in heaven (Matt. 5:12) ......when persecution take natural pleasures away, we still have Jesus......joy......when our good works get their flavor from this salt and glow with this light, the world may well be awakened to taste something they have never tasted before.......the glory of God in Jesus.

Page 359 - The supremacy of the value of the glory of God is seen in the way Jesus makes the demand of Matthew 5:16......He explicitly says that our aim in doing good works for others is that they might glorify God......people who talk much of love but are not God-centered the way Jesus is say things like, “If you do good to people to get them to glorify your God, you are not loving them, for you have ulterior motives.” This kind of criticism results from a failure to experience the glory of God as the greatest gift and highest joy imaginable.

In his darkest hour he let his light shine most brightly in a “good work.”

Page 360 - From beginning (John 2:11) to end (John 12:28) Jesus let his light shine—did his
good works—to vindicate and display the glory of God.......This was the final, greatest, and most satisfying gift obtained by Jesus in the “good work” that he did on the cross. This will make no sense at all to a person who does not see and savor the glory of God above all other gifts. But for those who have renounced all that this world offers (Luke 14:33) and set their heart on the “great reward” in heaven, namely, the enjoyment of the glory of Jesus, Jesus’ purchase of this reward at the cost of his life will be the greatest act of love imaginable. When Jesus calls us to let our light shine that others may see our good deeds and glorify God, he is calling us to join him in the work he came to do.......Jesus simply takes it for granted that his disciples will make God look good in the way they die. The only question is, how will we die?

Page 361 - In other words, if God rules over how the birds die, how much more surely will he govern your death..........The final great historical display of Jesus’ shining light—and ours—
happens at his second coming. ......What about for us? What will his second coming mean for us?
It turns out that letting our light shine will be our eternal vocation. We will never cease to have this calling. This is why we were created: to be so satisfied with our great reward, the glory of God in Jesus, that we reflect his infinite worth in acts of love that cause others to see and savor and show more of the glory of God.....This is our final destiny. Beholding the glory of Jesus (John 17:24), we will shine with the beauty and the love that he has.

Page 362 - Jesus’ demand to the world is that all human beings find in him the all-satisfying glory for which we were made.....that we turn from trusting in anything else and bank our hope on the great reward of everlasting joy in him.....that we let that light shine in sacrificial good deeds of love, so that others will see and savor and spread the glory of God.

Demand #47: Let Your Light Shine Before Others That They May Glorify Your Father Who Is In Heaven

You are the salt of the earth, but if salt has lost its taste, how shall its saltiness be restored? It is no longer good for anything except to be thrown out and trampled under people’s feet. You are the light of the world. A city set on a hill cannot be hidden. 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. 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. — Matt. 5:13-16

Salt is good, but if the salt has lost its saltiness, how will you make it salty again? Have salt in yourselves, and be at peace with one another. — Mark 9:50

Exerpts:

The demand that we let our light shine before the world has a goal: that people might give glory to our Father who is in heaven. So ultimately, the demand is that we seek to glorify God by
letting our light shine.

Page 351 - The first thing that Jesus demands that we pray is that our Father’s name be hallowed. (Matt. 6:9). In saying this, Jesus signals that his first passion is—and our first passion should be—the manifest holiness of God.....the Greek word behind “hallowed be” is built on the word for “holy” (ag{ io~)...when you turn the word “holy” into a verb like this, it means to “show
yourself holy”—hence the idea of manifest holiness....another way to speak of the manifest holiness of God is to speak of his glory.

Nothing in the universe is more valuable than the glory of God. Seeing the connection between the hallowing of God’s name as the first passion of Jesus and the glory of God as the supreme value in the universe shows that there is no conflict between these two.

What Is the Glory of God? God’s glory is the radiance of his manifold perfections. Those are
poor words for the richest reality of all....God’s glory is the outshining of the infinite value of all that God is....It is visible to the physical eye only as the glorious created world points to its invisible but more glorious Maker. “Consider the lilies of the field. . . . "

Page 352 - It is meant to get our attention and waken us to a glory of which lily-glory is only a likeness. We love to look at glory. We were made to enjoy seeing it. This is why Jesus came into the world. He came to reveal the glory of God more fully than nature ever had (John 1:14)..to die in our place so that we could be saved from God’s wrath...to awaken in us a desire for that glory... Jesus consciously aimed to reveal the glory of God. His actions and words were designed to fulfill prophecies...(Matt. 4:16)...(John 9:5; cf. 8:12)....he revealed the brightness of God’s glory as never before and by this light put everything in truthful perspective.

How Jesus Glorified God Jesus displayed the glory of God in accomplishing what God had
given him to do..... So he prayed to his Father at the end of his life, “I glorified you on earth, having accomplished the work that you gave me to do” (John 17:4). That work included many miracles during his life and the great final work of redemption when he died and rose
again....when Jesus did his first public miracle by turning water into wine, John says, he “manifested his glory” (John 2:11)....When Jesus healed a paralytic and forgave his sins, “the crowds saw it [and] were afraid, and they glorified God” (Matt. 9:8). When the people saw “the mute speaking, the crippled healthy, the lame walking, and the blind seeing . . . they glorified the God of Israel” (Matt. 15:31). When ten lepers were cleansed, one grateful man “turned back, glorifying God with a loud voice” (Luke 17:15, NASB). When a woman who was bent over for eighteen years was touched and straightened, “she glorified God” (Luke 13:13).

Page 353 - Everything Jesus did was done with a view to making God look great. His work was to display the greatness and the beauty of the full range of God’s perfections. But the greatest miracle of all was Jesus’ death and resurrection so that we might be redeemed from the guilt and power of sin (Mark 10:45) and have forgiveness (Matt. 26:28) and eternal life (John 3:14-15). In this great act of substitution—the guiltless for the guilty—Jesus displayed the glory of the wrath of God and the glory of the love of God.

God’s wrath is a glorious wrath (Luke 21:23; John 3:36). He could have no other kind. And God’s love is a glorious love. When Jesus came to die, as the climax of his earthly work, there was a huge sense that this was the moment of greatest groaning and greatest glory.... The glory of Jesus was manifested both in the suffering and in the triumphal resurrection afterward. (Luke 24:26). The sufferings were the pathway to glory.

But they were not just the path. They were an essential part of his glory. (John 13:31)....God is shown to be gloriously worthy in Jesus’ willingness to die so that God would be just to remove the wrath that rightly falls on sinners. And when the Father is thus glorified in the Son, he then
undertakes to glorify the Son with a mighty display of approval in the resurrection.

Page 354 - Back and forth goes the work of the Father and the Son in glorifying each other in the act of salvation. If we have seen that the Son glorifies the Father, and the Father responds by glorifying the Son, the reverse is also true. “Father,” Jesus says, “the hour has come; glorify your Son that the Son may glorify you” (John 17:1; 12:27-28). When Jesus is glorifying the Father in his death, it is the Father at work glorifying the Son as well; and when the Father glorifies the Son in his resurrection and exaltation, it leads to the Son glorifying the Father as well. This mutual display of the glory of God in the work of the Father and of the Son is the supreme passion of their hearts.

And the good news is that this is the very essence of their love for us. They are displaying their glory not only to make it visible for the enjoyment of soul-hungry creatures like us who were made to find ultimate satisfaction in it, but also in a way that pays for our failures to treasure God’s glory so that we can escape judgment (John 5:29).... He gives us his glory, and he pays
for it with his Son’s life. There is no greater gift than God himself in all his glory. There is no greater price than the death of God’s Son. Therefore, there is no greater love than God’s glorifying himself in the death and resurrection of Jesus.

Page 355 - The central work of the Spirit is to continue the great work of glorifying the Father and the Son. He does that by opening our spiritual eyes to see the truth and beauty of who Jesus is and what he has already done in his life and death and resurrection (John 3:3, 8; Matt. 16:17).

Now, in view of the passion for God’s glory, what does it mean to “let your light shine” for the glory of God? That’s the focus of the next chapter.

Demand #46: Do This In Remembrance Of Me - Baptize Disciples And Eat The Lord's Supper

If your brother sins against you, go and tell him his fault, between you and him alone. If he listens to you, you have gained your brother. But if he does not listen, take one or two others along with you, that every charge may be established by the evidence of two or three witnesses. If he refuses to listen to them, tell it to the church. And if he refuses to listen even to the church, let him be to you as a Gentile and a tax collector. — Matt. 18:15-17

And [ Jesus] said to them, “I have earnestly desired to eat this Passover with you before I suffer. For I tell you I will not eat it until it is fulfilled in the kingdom of God.” And he took a cup, and when he had given thanks he said, “Take this, and divide it among yourselves. For I tell you that from now on I will not drink of the fruit of the vine until the kingdom of God comes.” And he took bread, and when he had given thanks, he broke it and gave it to them, saying, “This is my body, which is given for you. Do this in remembrance of me.” And likewise the cup after they had eaten, saying, “This cup that is poured out for you is the new covenant in my blood.” — Luke 22:15-20

Excerpts from the book:


Page 344 -In addition to providing his church with the Spirit and the word ......Jesus also provided guidelines for how to handle sin in the flock. In one sense, all of his teachings do this. They are the charter for how his followers are to live in the church and in the world. But he gave more specific guidelines for what has come to be called church discipline in Matthew 18:15-17.

Page 344 - The word “church” signals the fact that Jesus is preparing his followers for the ongoing fellowship of his band of followers in his absence. The implication of the teaching is that persistent, unrepented sin—a refusal to take sin seriously and make war against it in our own lives—will mean we are not really followers of Jesus. In other words, even though Jesus knew that the church would always have false believers in it (Matt. 13:30, 48), nevertheless he made provision for a kind of careful, loving, patient discipline that would not tolerate blatant unwillingness to repent. Treating an unrepentant “brother” like a “Gentile and tax collector” did not mean treating him with hostility. Jesus had said plainly that such people are to be loved: ..... (Matt. 5:47). ..................This would include not sharing, for example, in the Lord’s Supper together.

Page 345 - In other words, part of becoming a disciple or a follower of Jesus is being baptized. This is the outward mark of the inward change that has happened to bring one under the lordship of Jesus as a forgiven sinner...................... Therefore, already in John’s baptism we see how it functioned to distinguish true believers from mere descendants of believers. Now Jesus chooses this sign as the mark of his own followers in his absence.......... My simple point here is that this act, practiced by almost all Christian churches today, was not invented by the churches. Jesus put this in place before he left...

Page 346 - ....This is part of becoming his disciple and becoming a part of his church. The other ordinance that Jesus provided for his church is the Lord’s Supper. I am calling baptism and the Lord’s Supper ordinances to signify that Jesus ordained them. That is, he established the pattern of their observance....... Jesus did not give this ordinance a name....... Since everything about Jesus’ last evening and the following trial and crucifixion was planned by God and followed
obediently by Jesus, it would be folly to think his last supper was only coincidentally a Passover meal....... Therefore, it is not surprising that the earliest Christian document that refers to this ordinance not only calls it “the Lord’s Supper” (kuriako;n dei`pnon; 1 Cor. 11:20), but also refers to Jesus as “our Passover lamb” (to; pavsca hJmw`n; 1 Cor. 5:7).

Page 348 - Therefore, it seems wise to understand the words “this is my body” and “this is my blood” to mean: “The cup and bread represent my physical body and blood offered up for you in death as a sacrifice for your sins.”

Page 349 - What we have seen in this chapter is that the church is not an afterthought created by the followers of Jesus because his message of the coming kingdom did not materialize. No, the church did not replace the kingdom. The church is created and sustained by the kingdom. The church was planned by Jesus, and he provided for her in every way. “I will build my church” is the banner that flies over the gatherings of Jesus’ followers today. He is building his people. He is gathering his flock. He is fulfilling his promise to be with her to the end of the age. He is teaching her by his Spirit and through his word. And he is marking her off from the world through the sign of baptism and by making himself remembered and known and enjoyed in the
Lord’s Supper. “Do this” is a demand of the Lord that calls us today to be not just individual followers but a flock, a gathering, a community, and a church.

Demand #45: Do This In Remembrance Of Me, For I Will Build My Church

[ Jesus] said to them, “But who do you say that I am?” Simon Peter replied, “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.” And Jesus answered him, “Blessed are you, Simon Bar-Jonah! For flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but my Father who is in heaven. And I tell you, you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it. — Matt. 16:15-18

Make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. — Matt. 28:19

And behold, I am sending the promise of my Father upon you. But stay in the city until you are clothed with power from on high. — Luke 24:49

Excerpts from book

Page 336-337: Jesus promised to build his church. By “church” he did not mean a building. That is never the meaning of church (ekj klhsiav ) in Greek. He means he will build a people. He will gather a people who trust him as their Lord (John 13:13; 20:28) and Savior (John 3:17; 10:9) and who love each other (John 13:34-35) and their enemies (Matt. 5:44). Jesus describes himself as “the good shepherd” who gathers his sheep into a flock. “I am the good shepherd. I know my own and my own know me, just as the Father knows me and I know the Father; and I
lay down my life for the sheep. And I have other sheep that are not of this fold. I must bring them also, and they will listen to my voice. So there will be one flock, one shepherd” (John 10:14-16).

Page 337: Jesus knew and taught that between his first and second coming to earth there would be a lapse of time................(Luke 20:9). This is one of the clearest statements indicating that Jesus expected the time before his second coming to be substantial. He knew that he would be away from his “flock,” and therefore he made provision for them while he is gone.

Page 337-338: This provision includes the sending of the Holy Spirit, the preservation of inspired truth in the writings of his apostles and their close associates, guidelines for how to handle sin in the flock, and the ordinances of baptism and the Lord’s Supper. Jesus was keenly aware of what it would mean to leave his “little flock” (Luke 12:32) in a hostile world and return to the Father.


Page 338: How were they to live without his physical presence?..... Who would teach them? Who would guide and protect them? How were they to live in his absence? ...............“I will not leave you as orphans; I will come to you” (John 14:18)..................he would send the Holy Spirit and that this Spirit of God would be his own presence among them........................(John 14:16-17).........
“He dwells with you, and will be in you.” .........Jesus comforts his followers with the truth that he himself will be present in the church by the Spirit whom he sends in his place.

Page 338: Jesus intends for these promises to give strong encouragement to his followers when he leaves. (John 14:27). Therefore, even though the church is destined for trouble in a hostile world of unbelief (John 15:20), they should be encouraged because Jesus promises to send the Holy Spirit who will help them and will, in fact, prove to be a manifestation of the presence of Jesus himself.

Page 339: “But take heart; I have overcome the world” (John 16:33). “I will build my church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it” (Matt. 16:18). Therefore, in view of this crucial role of the Holy Spirit in Jesus’ absence, Jesus demands that his followers wait for the Spirit and
not blunder ahead into ministry without this gift.

Page 339: Not only does Jesus provide for his flock after his departure by sending them the Holy Spirit, but also by preparing for the preservation of inspired truth in the writings of his apostles .....The fact that there were twelve apostles—just as there were twelve tribes of Israel—and that the word apostle carries the implication of special authority to represent him suggests that Jesus intended for the apostles to be the foundation for the true Israel,the church.....This new “Israel” would have its foundation in the twelve apostles. They will represent Jesus’ authority as they lay the foundation for this new people. To secure the future truthfulness of the teaching of the Twelve,Jesus promised to send the Spirit of truth to preserve his teaching and lead them into crucial truth that he had not yet given them.

Page 340: Speaking to the eleven apostles, after Judas had left them on the night before he was crucified, Jesus said:.....(John 16:12-14).....John 14:26)

Page 341: This is Jesus’ way of caring for his flock after he is gone. He provides an authoritative band of representatives and then gives them the assurance that in their teaching office they will have divine assistance to provide the church with the truth it needs for all of life and godliness. He intends that the teaching of these authoritative spokesmen be preserved for later generations.

Page 342: In this way Jesus has provided for his church both the Spirit and the word. His Spirit and his teaching are inseparable. He would be critical of any who try to separate the word and the Spirit. The objective teachings of Jesus, brought to memory by the Spirit and recorded for following generations, are the standard for the church. Any attempt to abandon or distort this objective, historical, once-for-all deposit of teaching will go astray from what Jesus demands and teaches and promises.

Page 342: But it is also true that without the Spirit, no one will receive, or properly grasp, these historical teachings. By nature we are all simply human with no spiritual life. But without spiritual life we do not have eyes to see truly what Jesus taught. The remedy for this blindness and spiritual deadness is to be born again by the Spirit.

Demand #44: RenderTto Caesar the Things That Are Caesar's As An Act Of Rendering To God What Is God's

Then the Pharisees went and plotted how to entangle [ Jesus] in his talk. And they sent their disciples to him, along with the Herodians, saying . . . “Tell us, then, what you think. Is it lawful to pay taxes to Caesar, or not?” But Jesus, aware of their malice, said, “Why put me to the test, you hypocrites? Show me the coin for the tax.” And they brought him a denarius. And Jesus said to them, “Whose likeness and inscription is this?” They said, “Caesar’s.” Then he said to them, “Therefore render to Caesar the things that are Caesar’s, and to God the things that are God’s.” — Matt. 22:15-21

Excerpts from the book:

Page 329 - I said in the previous chapter that Jesus demands absolute allegiance to himself and his ownership and authority. All other allegiances are warranted and limited and shaped by this supreme allegiance to Jesus as the King of kings. We have seen how they are warranted. Now we turn to see how they are limited and shaped.

Page 329 - All our earthly allegiances are limited by what God’s supreme authority accomplished through Jesus (see John 5:27; Matt. 28:18).

Page 330 - Rendering to Caesar the things that are Caesar’s does not include rendering obedience to Caesar’s demand that we not render supreme allegiance to God. God’s supreme authority limits the authority of Caesar and the allegiance we owe to him.

Page 330 - All our earthly allegiances are not only warranted and limited by the supreme authority of God but are also shaped by that authority. In other words, even the duty we properly render to Caesar is rendered differently because Caesar is not absolute.

Page 330 - We view all our serving of Caesar as serving his owner and Lord, Jesus. There is, therefore, no whiff of worship toward Caesar. He is stripped of his claim to divinity in the very act of submitting to his laws. Even our submission is therefore seditious toward rulers with pretensions of deity.

Page 331 - Jesus illustrates this shaping of submission by the supremacy of God’s authority in Matthew 17:24-27.

Page 331 - The principle is this: There are at times reasons to submit to an authority that arise not from the intrinsic right of the authority, but from a principle of freedom and what would be for the greater good. So, applying this to Caesar, the principle would go like this: God owns Caesar. God has absolute authority over Caesar. This all-authoritative God is our Father. We are his children. Therefore, the demands of Caesar to fund his government are not absolutely binding on us. Our Father owns the government. We are free. In fact, the whole earth is ours as heirs of our Father, and we will one day inherit it completely (Matt. 5:5).

Page 332 - How Jesus’ Authority Shapes Our Disobedience to Caesar: That shaping effect of Jesus’ supreme authority extends even to the way we disobey Caesar. That is, even our disobedience, when it must be, is not indifferent to the proper authority of Caesar. Even our disobedience will be shaped by Jesus’ supremacy over, and endorsement of, the perverted authority of Caesar.

Page 332 - Jesus modeled and demanded some civil disobedience. And it is his life and teaching and authority that shape what that disobedience looks like.

Page 332 - We have already devoted whole chapters to Jesus’ demands for servanthood (Demand #17) and love of our enemies (Demands #28, 29, 32, 33, 34) and care of our neighbors (Demand #21). These and other demands will profoundly shape the way Jesus’ followers engage in civil disobedience.

Page 332 - Shaping Civil Disobedience by the Demands of Jesus: Matthew 5:38-48 contains strong words about non-resistance and active love for your enemy (see Demand #30). What we saw, and now see again, is that non-resistance and active love are not always the same.


Page 333 - All of those demands call for compliance to one who mistreats you or asks you for something. This looks like the opposite of resistance. But then, in the flow of Jesus’ sermon, comes something a little different in verses 43-48, namely, more active love rather than non-resistance.

Page 333 - Here a different note is struck. The emphasis falls on seeking the good of the enemy. Love your enemy. Pray for your enemy—presumably that he would be saved and find hope and life in Jesus. Do good to your enemy the way God does with rain and sunshine.

Page 333 - Now this raises the question of whether the non-resistance and compliance of verses 38-42 is always the best way to love others and do them good as prescribed in verses 43-48. One focuses on passivity—don’t retaliate, be willing to suffer unjustly. The other focuses on activity—seek to do good for your enemy. Is passivity always the best way to do good?

Page 334 - ....how do you love two people if one is the criminal and the other is the victim....? Is love passive when it is not only your cheek that is being smacked but someone else’s—and repeatedly? Or what about the command to give to the one who asks? Is it love to give your coat to a person who will use it to strangle an infant? And how do you go the extra mile (lovingly!) with a person who is taking you along to support his bloodshed? Do you go the extra mile with a person who is making you an active accomplice to his evil? The point of these questions is this: In these verses Jesus is giving us a description of love that cuts to the depth of our selfishness and fear. If selfishness and fear keep us from giving and going the extra mile, then we need to be broken by these words.........

Page 334 - The Greatest Battle Is to Be Brokenhearted in Our Resistance: What guidelines are there, then, for how a follower of Jesus will perform civil disobedience? The words of Jesus rule out all vindictiveness.....................expediency of personal safety.......cuts away our love for possessions..........love for convenience. That’s the point of Matthew :38-42. Don’t act merely out of concern for your own private benefit, your clothes, your convenience, your possessions, your safety.

Page 335 - ..........The greatest battle we face is not overcoming unjust laws, but becoming this kind of people.

Demand #43: Render To Caesar The Things That Are Caesars's And To God The Things That Are God's

Then the Pharisees went and plotted how to entangle [ Jesus] in his talk. And they sent their disciples to him, along with the Herodians, saying . . . “Tell us, then, what you think. Is it lawful to pay taxes to Caesar, or not?” But Jesus, aware of their malice, said, “Why put me to the test, you hypocrites? Show me the coin for the tax.” And they brought him a denarius. And Jesus said to them, “Whose likeness and inscription is this?” They said, “Caesar’s.” Then he said to them, “Therefore render to Caesar the things that are Caesar’s, and to God the things that are God’s.” — Matt. 22:15-21

Excerpts from the book:

Page 324 - I don’t think Jesus dodged the question. I think he answered it in a way that forces us to think; and in the end the answer demands radical allegiance to God’s supreme authority over all things. The first command, “Render to Caesar the things that are Caesar’s” gets its meaning from the second one, “Render to God the things that are God’s.” It’s the juxtaposition of these two commands that gives the first one its proper scope.

Page 325 - Jesus wisely left the scope of these two ownerships and authorities for the listener to answer. Whether this is a compromise with Rome will depend on how a person understands the scope and nature of God’s ownership and authority in relation to Caesar’s scope of ownership and authority. That is what he forces us to think about. The starting point for this thinking is the unmistakable assumption of the second command, “Render to God the things that are God’s.” That assumption is: Everything is God’s. If a person does not hear that in Jesus’ command, he would say, “Hearing they do not hear. They have ears, but they do not hear.” In other words, the allimportant fact is unspoken and obvious to all who are willing to hear
the obvious. By being unspoken, it accomplishes more than getting Jesus out of a trap; it leads to an answer to the question that is far deeper and more far-reaching than what his adversaries were asking.


The fact that God owns everything and has all authority in the universe puts the first command under the second: “Render to Caesar the things that are Caesar’s” becomes a subcategory of “Render to God the things that are God’s.” All is God’s. Therefore what is Caesar’s is God’s.

Page 326 - Even though the power of Caesar stood behind the crucifixion of Jesus, Jesus is the supreme Lord over Caesar. Jesus knows this. He is consciously abstaining during his earthly life from exercising the right and power to subdue his enemies. He is choosing to lay down his life. “I lay down my life that I may take it up again. No one takes it from me, but I lay it down of my own accord. I have authority to lay it down, and I have authority to take it up again” (John
10:17-18). Therefore, when he had risen from the dead he said, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me” (Matt. 28:18). That means that he is above all of Caesar’s authority.
“Render to Caesar the things that are Caesar’s” means, therefore: In all your rendering to Caesar, render to Jesus the full honor of the absolute authority that he has over Caesar.


It was fitting during Jesus’ earthly ministry that he not draw excessive attention to his universal ownership and authority. He was here to suffer and die. He knew that the day would come when he would rule openly over the nations.

Page 327 - Therefore, Jesus is demanding absolute allegiance to himself and his ownership and authority. All other allegiances are relativized by this supreme allegiance. All other allegiances are warranted and limited and shaped by this first allegiance..............They are warranted because the subordinate authorities in the world, like Caesar, are owing to God’s authority. Jesus said to Pilate, who seemed to have authority over Jesus at his trial, “You would have no authority over me at all unless it had been given you from above” (John 19:11).

Page 327 - But pride and rebellion is what sends everyone to hell who doesn’t have a Savior. Therefore, the subordinate authorities of the world are warranted by God’s will in two senses. On the one hand, he wills that we recognize that these authorities are indeed subordinate and that we glorify him as the only supreme sovereign. On the other hand, he wills that we recognize these authorities as God-ordained and that we not proudly kick against what he has put in place.

(for a free download of this book, see the link at http://whatdoesjesusdemandfromtheworld.blogspot.com/

Demand #42: What God Has Joined Together Let No Man Separate - One Man, One Woman, by Grace, Till Death

The disciples said to him, “If such is the case of a man with his wife, it is better not to marry.” But he said to them, “Not everyone can receive this saying, but only those to whom it is given. For there are eunuchs who have been so from birth, and there are eunuchs who have been made eunuchs by men, and there are eunuchs who have made themselves eunuchs for the sake of the kingdom of heaven. Let the one who is able to receive this receive it. — Matt. 19:10-12

Excerpts from the book:

Page 318 - Jesus’ response is not to lower the bar so that marriage becomes less risky. Instead, he says, in essence, that the ability to remain single if necessary and the ability to stay in a hard marriage if necessary are both a gift of God.

Page 318 - “Not everyone can receive this saying [the saying that marriage is permanent], but only those to whom it is given” (Matt. 19:11). The point is not that some disciples are given the grace and some are not. The point is that this grace (or faithfulness in singleness and marriage) is the mark of a disciple. “Those to whom it is given” are followers of Jesus.1 God gives the grace or what he demands.

Page 318 - The words “Let the one who is able to receive this receive it” are like the words “He who has ears, let him hear” (Matt. 13:9, 43; 11:15). That is, whether you have ears to hear—or whether you have grace to receive this call to radical respect for marriage—is the mark of being a follower of Jesus.

Page 319 - Marriage is a great work of God........Jesus would grieve over the cavalier way that marriage is treated in our day. He would be appalled at any thought of two men or two women calling their homosexual union marriage. He would not call it marriage. As much pity as he may feel for the sexual brokenness, he would call the practice of homosexuality sin and the attempt to sanctify it with the word marriage folly.

Page 319 - (on homosexuality).....He would respond to this folly the same way he responded to
the Pharisees’ justification of divorce with Moses’ teaching. He would go back to the beginning. Only this time he would underline the words male and female. “Have you not read that he who
created them from the beginning made them male and female, and said, ‘Therefore a man shall leave his father and his mother and hold fast to his wife, and they shall become one flesh’?” (Matt. 19:4-5).

Page 319 - Are Divorce and Remarriage the Unforgivable Sins? But as great as marriage is, divorce followed by remarriage is not the unforgivable sin. Sometimes I am asked whether my understanding of Jesus implies that divorce is the unforgivable sin. The answer is no. Jesus said that his blood will be the basis of forgiveness for all sins (Matt. 26:28). Therefore he is able to say, “Truly, I say to you, all sins will be forgiven the children of man, and whatever blasphemies they utter, but whoever blasphemes against the Holy Spirit never has forgiveness, but is guilty of an eternal sin” (Mark 3:28-29).

Page 320 - Forgiveness is received freely through trusting Jesus to forgive our sins. This implies that we see sin as sin and hate it as a dishonor to Jesus. The only unforgivable sin is the sin that we refuse to confess and forsake.

Page 320 - Marital sin is in the same category as lying and killing and stealing. If someone has lied, killed, stolen, or illegitimately left a marriage, the issue is not, can they be forgiven? The issue is, do they admit that what they did was sin? Do they renounce it? And do they do what they can in order to make it right if possible?

Page 321 - What then would Jesus expect from one of his followers who has sinned and is divorced and remarried? He would expect us to acknowledge that the choice to remarry and the act of entering a second marriage was sin and to confess it as such and seek forgiveness. He would also expect that we not separate from our present spouse. I base this on at least five observations.

First, Jesus seemed to regard multiple marriages as wrong but real. He said to the woman at the well in John 4:18, “You have had five husbands, and the one you now have is not your husband.”.......

Second, Jesus knew that Deuteronomy 24:4 spoke against going back to a first husband after marrying a second. He did not go out of his way to qualify this provision.

Third, covenant-keeping is crucial to Jesus as we saw in the previous chapter (also see Demand #23). Therefore, even though the current covenant is adulterous in the making, it is real and should be kept. Its beginning in sin does not have to mean that it is continuously sinful and without hope of purification.

Fourth, there are illustrations of God taking acts of disobedience and turning the result into God-ordained plans. One example is the fact that it was sin for the people of Israel to ask for a king to be like the nations (1 Sam. 12:19-22). Nevertheless, God turned the sinfully instituted kingship into the origin of the Messiah and the kingship of Jesus. Another example would be the sinful marriage of David to Bathsheba. The adultery with her, the murder of her husband, and the marriage “displeased the LORD” (2 Sam. 11:27). So the Lord took the life of the first child of this union (2 Sam. 12:15,18). But the second child, Solomon, “the LORD loved” and chose him as ruler over his people (2 Sam. 12:24).

Fifth, through repentance and forgiveness on the basis of the blood of Jesus and through the sanctifying work of the promised Holy Spirit, a marriage that was entered sinfully can be consecrated to God, purified from sin, and become a means of grace. It remains less than ideal, but it is not a curse. It may become a great blessing.

Page 322 - There is no doubt that Jesus’ demand for faithfulness in marriage is a radical word to our modern culture. Here is a test for his lordship over our lives. His standards are high. They do not assume that this earth is our final home. He makes it very clear that marriage is an
ordinance for this age only.................Jesus’ standards are high because marriage does not and should not meet all our needs. It should not be an idol. It should not and cannot take the place of Jesus himself. Marriage is but for a moment. Jesus is for eternity.

Demand #41: What God Has Joined Together Let No Man Separate, For Whoever Divorces and Marries Another Commits Adultery

Whoever divorces his wife and marries another commits adultery
against her, and if she divorces her husband and marries another, she
commits adultery. — Mark 10:11-12

Everyone who divorces his wife and marries another commits adultery,
and he who marries a woman divorced from her husband commits
adultery. — Luke 16:18

It was also said, “Whoever divorces his wife, let him give her a certificate
of divorce.” But I say to you that everyone who divorces his
wife, except on the ground of sexual immorality, makes her commit
adultery. And whoever marries a divorced woman commits
adultery. — Matt. 5:31-32

And I say to you: whoever divorces his wife, except for sexual
immorality, and marries another, commits adultery. — Matt. 19:9

Excerpts from the book (note - free download available in at www.desiringgodo.com - see link on posting site(

Page 307-308: Jesus set a higher standard for marital faithfulness than Moses or the Jewish teachers of his day. He did not affirm the permission for divorce found in Deuteronomy 24. He said it was owing to the hardness of the human heart (Matt. 19:8) and implied that he was here to change that. In this chapter we will try to discern just how high Jesus’ standard of marital faithfulness is.

Page 308: I suspect that Jesus saw a higher standard for marriage implied not only in the creation account of Genesis 2:24 but also in the very wording of Deuteronomy 24:1-4, which shows that the one-flesh relationship established by marriage is not completely nullified by
divorce or even by remarriage.........


Therefore, it may well be that when the Pharisees asked Jesus if divorce was legitimate, he based his negative answer not only on God’s original intention expressed in Genesis 1:27 and 2:24, but also on the implication of Deuteronomy 24:4, that remarriage after divorce, while permitted, nevertheless defiles a person.


In other words, there were clues in the writings of Moses that the divorce concession was on the basis of the hardness of man’s heart and did not make divorce and remarriage the most God-honoring path.

Page 309: Moses’ prohibition of a wife returning to her first husband even after her second husband dies (because it is an “abomination,” v. 4) suggests that today no second marriage should be broken in order to restore a first one. I will return to this issue later on. But for now I would say that even a disobedient second or third marriage should not be broken, but confessed as less than ideal and yet sanctified by God’s mercy. It is better in God’s eyes than more broken covenants.

Pge 309: Twice in the Gospels Jesus expresses with no exceptions his prohibition of divorce followed by remarriage...

Luke 16:18 - Here Jesus seems to call all remarriage after divorce adultery. These are strong words. Evidently the reason a second marriage is called adultery is because the first one is considered to still be valid. So Jesus is taking a stand against the Jewish culture at the time in which all divorce was considered to carry with it the right of remarriage.

Page 310: Since there are no exceptions mentioned in the verse, and since Jesus is evidently rejecting the common cultural conception of divorce as including the right of remarriage, the first readers of Luke’s Gospel would have been hard-put to see any exceptions on the basis that Jesus shared the cultural acceptance of divorce.

Page 310: The other instance of Jesus’ unqualified rejection of remarriage after divorce is found in Mark 10:11-12....These two verses repeat the first half of Luke 16:18 but go further and say that not only the man who divorces, but also a woman who divorces and then remarries is committing adultery.

Page 311: But what makes the matter more controversial is that in Matthew 5:32 and 19:9 there seems to be an exception to the rule of no remarriage after divorce. Both these verses are generally interpreted to say that Jesus allowed divorce and remarriage where there has been “sexual immorality” by one of the partners. Is that what the “exception clauses” mean?

Page 311: So Matthew 5:32 does not teach that remarriage is lawful in some cases. Rather, it reaffirms that to remarry after divorce is to commit adultery, even for those who have been divorced innocently, and that a man who divorces his wife is guilty of the adultery of her second marriage, and that a man who marries a woman who is put away by her husband, even innocently, commits adultery.

Page 312: All of my adult life I assumed that adultery and desertion were two legitimate grounds for divorce and remarriage. This was the air I breathed, and I saw a confirmation of this in the exception clause in Matthew 19:9, even though, as I see it now, the rest of the New Testament pointed in the other direction.2 But there came a point when this assumption began to crumble.

Page 312: I was initially troubled that the absolute form of Jesus’ denunciation of divorce and remarriage in Mark 10:11-12 and Luke 16:18 is not expressed by Matthew, if in fact his exception clause is an opening for divorce and remarriage.

Page 313: The second thing that began to disturb me was the question, why does Matthew use the Greek word porneiva (porneia, “sexual immorality”) instead of the word moiceiva (moicheia) which means adultery? Sexual immorality in marriage would naturally be adultery. But the word Matthew uses to express Jesus’ meaning is one that usually means fornication or sexual immorality without reference to marital unfaithfulness.........The question nagged at me why Matthew would not use the word for adultery (moicheia), if that is in fact what he meant.

Page 313: Then I noticed something very interesting. The only other place besides Matthew 5:32 and 19:9 where Matthew uses the word porneia is in Matthew 15:19 where it is used alongside moicheia......Could this mean, then, that in Matthew’s record of Jesus’ teaching he is thinking of porneia in its more usual sense of fornication or incest or prostitution that does not denote marital unfaithfulness, that is, adultery?

Page 314: The next clue in my search for an explanation came when I noticed the use of porneia in John 8:41 where Jewish leaders indirectly accuse Jesus of being born of porneia. In other words, since they don’t accept the virgin birth, they assume that his mother Mary had committed fornication and that Jesus was the result of this act.

Page 314: Matthew 1:18-20....The Relevance of the Exception Clauses for Joseph’s Betrothal to Mary....In these verses Joseph and Mary are referred to as husband (anj hrv ) and wife (gunhv). Yet they are described as only being betrothed to each other.

Page 314: In Matthew 1:19 Joseph resolves to “divorce” Mary though they were only betrothed and not yet married.........But most important of all, Matthew says that Joseph was “just” in making the decision to divorce Mary.....In other words, this “divorce” was permitted according to Matthew.........In handling this crisis he called Joseph “just” in the plan to “divorce” her. That means that Matthew, as a follower of Jesus, would not consider this kind of “divorce” wrong. It would not have prevented Joseph (or Mary) from marrying another.

Page 315: Since only Matthew had told this story and raised this question, he was the only Gospel writer who would feel any need to make clear that Jesus’ absolute prohibition of divorce followed by remarriage did not include a situation like Joseph and Mary’s. That is what I think he does with the exception clauses.

Page 315: A common objection to this interpretation is that both in Matthew 19:3-9 and in Matthew 5:31-32 the issue Jesus is responding to is marriage, not betrothal. The point is pressed that “except for fornication” is irrelevant to the context of marriage. My answer is that this irrelevancy is precisely the point of the exception clause........I don’t think it sounds pointless if you hear it the way I just suggested or if Matthew 5:32 goes like this: “But I say to you that everyone who divorces his wife—excluding, of course, the case of fornication [porneiva] during betrothal—makes her commit adultery.” In this way Jesus makes clear that the action his earthly father almost took—to “divorce” Mary because of porneiva—would not have been unjust. It would have been right. That is the kind of situation the exception clause is meant to exclude.


Page 315-316: This interpretation of the exception clause has several advantages:
• It does not force Matthew’s Gospel to disagree with the seemingly plain, absolute meaning of Mark and Luke.
• It provides an explanation for why the word porneia is used in Matthew’s exception clause instead of moicheia.
• It squares with Matthew’s own use of porneia (for fornication) in distinction from moicheia (for adultery) in Matthew 15:19.
• It fits Matthew’s wider context concerning Joseph’s contemplated “divorce” from Mary (Matt. 1:19).

What are the implications of this high standard of marriage?

To this we turn in the next chapter.

Demand #40: What God Has Joined Together Let No Man Separate, For Marriage Mirrors God's Covenant With Us

Have you not read that he who created them from the beginning made them male and female, and said, “Therefore a man shall leave his father and his mother and hold fast to his wife, and they shall become one flesh”? So they are no longer two but one flesh. What therefore God has joined together, let not man separate. — Matt. 19:4-6

Your Maker is your husband, the LORD of hosts is his name. — Isa. 54:5

Excerpts from the book (see link on right for free download of complete book)


Page 301 - Jesus demands that husbands and wives be faithful to their marriages. He does not assume this is easy.....Against all the diminished attitudes about marriage in our day, Jesus’ message is that marriage is a great work of God and a sacred covenant breakable only by death.

Page 302 - Jesus knew his Jewish Scriptures and saw them as coming to fulfillment in himself and his work (Matt. 5:17-18). This includes his awareness of what God had said about his relationship with his people when he portrayed it as marriage. For example, God said, “Your Maker is your husband, the LORD of hosts is his name” (Isa. 54:5)...(Hos. 2:16, 19-20)...(Ezek. 16:8)...(Jer. 3:20)...With these Scriptures as the backdrop, it is inevitable that Jesus would see God’s creation of marriage in the beginning as a means of portraying his relationship with his people. So Jesus read in Genesis 2:24, “Therefore a man shall leave his father and his mother and hold fast to his wife, and they shall become one flesh.” When God said this—and Jesus explicitly says that God said this, not just Moses, the writer of Genesis (Matt. 19:4-5)—he had in view (as he has all things in view) that he would call his people his wife and himself her husband. Therefore, the union between a man and a woman is uniquely God’s creation with a view to portraying the relationship between himself and his people.

Jesus is explicit about marriage as God’s creation. He does not leave
us to figure this out from the Scriptures, and he does not limit the creMarriage
ation to the first marriage between Adam and Eve.

Page 303 - And as a God-created union of “one flesh” this man and this woman are in a covenant analogous with God’s covenant with Israel. Through marriage God fills the earth with (mostly unwitting) witnesses to the relationship between him and his covenant people. This is one of the main reasons that divorce and remarriage are so serious. They tell a lie about God’s relationship to his people.

Page 304 - They had come to him with a question: “Is it lawful to divorce one’s wife for any cause?” (Matt. 19:3). Jesus answers them not by reference to the Mosaic law but by reference to the Mosaic creation account. In other words, he intends to root the meaning of marriage in its original design, not in the way marriage is managed by the law in view of sin.

Now the Pharisees think they have Jesus trapped. He seems to
have just taken a position contrary to the Law of Moses. So they ask,
“Why then did Moses command one to give a certificate of divorce
and to send her away?” (Matt. 19:7)


In other words, Jesus is raising the standard of his
disciples above what Moses allowed. He puts it like this: “And I
say to you: whoever divorces his wife, except for sexual immorality,
and marries another, commits adultery” (Matt. 19:9).

Page 305 - We are now at a point where we need to tackle the question, did Jesus make provision for his disciples to divorce and remarry? Are there situations in which he would sanction this? There is no consensus on the answer to this question today among his followers. I want to say clearly from the beginning that I am aware that men more godly than I have taken different views than the one I will give here.

I realize that simply saying this will feel devastating to some, adding more misery to the injury of what they did not want to happen....Divorce is painful. It is often more emotionally wrenching than the death of a spouse...often long years in coming...long years in the settlement and in the adjustment.....upheaval of life...sense of failure...guilt....fear....torture the soul. Like the psalmist, night after night a spouse falls asleep with tears (Ps. 6:6). Work performance is hindered. People draw near or withdraw with uncertain feelings. Loneliness can be overwhelming. A sense of a devastated future can be all-consuming. Courtroom controversy...And then there is often the agonizing place of children. Parents hope against hope that the scars will not cripple them or ruin their own marriages someday. Tensions over custody and financial support deepen the wounds. And then the awkward and artificial visitation rights can lengthen the tragedy over decades.

Page 306 - In Matthew 19:3-9 and Mark 10:2-12 Jesus rejected the Pharisees’ justification of divorce from Deuteronomy 24 and reasserted the purpose of God in creation that no human being separate what God has joined together. He said that Moses’ handling of divorce was owing to the hardness of the human heart and then implied that he had come to do something about that. His aim was that the standard of his followers would be higher than what the Law allowed.
How high? That’s the question I try to answer in the next chapter.

Demand #39: Do Not Take An Oath - Let What You Say Be Simply "Yes" or "No"

And do not take an oath by your head, for you cannot make one hair white or black. Let what you say be simply “Yes” or “No”; anything more than this comes from evil. — Matt. 5:36-37

But Jesus remained silent. And the high priest said to him, “I adjure you by the living God, tell us if you are the Christ, the Son of God.” Jesus said to him, “You have said so.” — Matt. 26:63-64

Excerpts from the book:

Page 294: A New Standard of Truthfulness.....In other words, Jesus now goes beyond the Old Testament standard of keeping our oaths to not using any. His reason seems to be that with the arrival of the kingdom of God in his ministry (Luke 11:20; 17:21) and the presence of the King himself (Matt. 21:15-16) and the sending of the Spirit of truth (John 15:26) and the inauguration of the new covenant (Luke 22:20; see Demand #23), the standards of truthfulness should rise and the measure of compromise with evil in this world should decrease.

Page 295: Therefore, truth is in jeopardy all the time. But life in community cannot survive without truth. There must be some measure of trust in marriages and businesses and schools and governments and in the vast realm of contractual agreements, not to mention the precious fabric of personal friendships. Therefore, the evil of lying and falsehood and deceit that pervades the human heart and society has been restrained by devices called oaths.

Page 295: We Look to Oaths to Do What Love Does Not Do - The evil that ruined trust is essentially selfishness and ill-will. We distort the truth to get what we want, even if it hurts others. Which implies that, for truth to hold sway, love must hold sway. If we were not selfish or unloving to others, we would not break our word or tell lies or act hypocritically. Truth would hold sway. But love does not hold sway in the world, and so oaths have arisen to compensate for what love should do.

Page 298: Jesus Simply Said, “You Have Said So”Jesus was saying, “.................Let your integrity be unimpeachable. Look the court clerk in the eye when she asks you, ‘Do you swear to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth, so help you God,’ and say, ‘I will tell the truth.’” When Jesus was adjured by the high priest at his court appearance the night before he died, the priest said, “I adjure you by the living God, tell us if you are the Christ, the Son of God” (Matt. 26:63). In other words, he demanded that Jesus call God to witness with an oath as he made his claim to messiahship. Jesus would not yield. He answered, in accord with his own command in Matthew 5:37, “You have said so.” This is Jesus’ simple yes: “You have said it, and you are right” (Matt. 26:64; see Mark 14:62). There was no need for an oath.

Page 298-299: Should the Followers of Jesus Ever Take an Oath?.......To answer this it may be helpful to note that the question can be asked another way. Not only did Jesus say, “Do not take an oath at all” (Matt. 5:34), he also said the positive counterpart, “Let what you say be simply ‘Yes’ or ‘No’”—or literally, “Let your word be ‘yes, yes,’ ‘no, no’” (Matt. 5:37).

Page 299:.........So the question of application can also be put this way: Should the followers of Jesus ever make a promise or answer a question or make an assertion with any other words than “yes” and “no”? The reason it may be helpful to consider this second question is that there are exceptions in Jesus’ ministry that would warn us against saying followers of Jesus may not add any words to “yes” and “no” to emphasize the speaker’s truthfulness. The most prevalent is Jesus’ use of the phrase, “Truly” or “Truly, truly.” Over fifty times in the Gospels Jesus says something like, “Truly, I say to you,” or “Truly, I tell you.” And over twenty-five times he uses the even stronger phrase “Truly, truly I say to you.”

Page 299: This gives me pause, therefore, that I should be slow to say that a follower of Jesus may have such integrity that there is no situation in which love may not demand some reinforcing expression for the sake of the listeners. Add to this that Jesus knew that God himself, who is the essence of integrity, confirmed his word at times with oaths. This was not to make up for untrustworthiness on his part, but to give multiple encouragements to help us believe him (see Luke 1:73; Gen. 22:16). It seems, then, that Jesus’ argument aims at absolute integrity and truthfulness but does not intend to stipulate absolutely the wording that expresses this truthfulness.

Page 300: Some Oaths May Be Permitted - Returning then to the seemingly absolute prohibition, “Do not take an oath at all,” should we infer from these thoughts that there are exceptions to the prohibition? I am inclined to think we should be open to the possibility that the wording of an oath .......... In other words, Jesus’ absolute prohibition relates to the abuses of oaths referred to in Matthew 5:35-36 and 23:16-22, and the principle that is absolute across all time and culture is the demand that we be people of absolute truthfulness and honesty.

Page 300:....Our new inclination should be, my oath is not necessary. I should be slow to use an oath. An oath will very likely (if not necessarily) communicate something about the weakness of my trustworthiness that may dishonor Jesus. One of the glories of Jesus is that he frees me from the need to lie and from the need to prove that I don’t lie. The followers of Jesus are not just honest, they are moving toward a condition in which protections against being thought dishonest will not be necessary. Therefore, they will find countercultural ways of declaring the lordship of Christ over their minds and mouths. In the end Jesus aims to be known as the way, the truth, and the life. He demands that we live and speak in a way that will make that glory known.

Demand #38; Do Not Take An Oath - Cherish The Truth And Speak It Simply

Again you have heard that it was said to those of old, “You shall not swear falsely, but shall perform to the Lord what you have sworn.” But I say to you, Do not take an oath at all, either by heaven, for it is the throne of God, or by the earth, for it is his footstool, or by Jerusalem, for it is the city of the great King. And do not take an oath by your head, for you cannot make one hair white or black. Let what you say be simply “Yes” or “No”; anything more than this comes from evil. — Matt. 5:33-37

Excerpts from the book:

Page 290: Jesus teaches that truth is precious. All of us agree with this when we are being lied about. The most relativistic professor in the university, who scoffs at the concept of truth in the classroom, will be indignant if his electricity bill is false to his disadvantage. He will call the utility company and complain that there is some mistake. He will not think it funny if the voice on the other end says, “It’s a mistake in your view, but not in our view.”

Page 291: Those who mock the concept of truth are people with power who do not (at the moment) need to appeal to truth for their lives. Totalitarian despots do not care about truth, because they have power to create the reality they want—for a fleeting moment in history. Tenured professors may not care about truth in the classroom because they have the power and security to entertain their students with academic games without being forced to apply their
foolishness to their own real lives after they go home at night. But for most of the world, truth matters. And they know it. It matters ultimately. Their lives depend on it.

Page 291: Jesus loved truth and hated deceit. He confirmed the ninth commandment, “Do not bear false witness” (Mark 10:19). He warned that “deceit” comes out of the heart and defiles a person (Mark 7:21-22). He considered religious hypocrisy a hellish form of lying (Matt. 23:15) ................Lying originates with the devil, and those who turn away from speaking truth join forces with Satan....... Jesus came into the world to reveal the truth about God and man and salvation and what is right and wrong.

Page 291: At the end of his ministry, when he was on trial for his life, he said to Pontius Pilate, “For this purpose I was born and for this purpose I have come into the world—to bear witness to the truth. Everyone who is of the truth listens to my voice” (John 18:37). Like many modern cynics, Pilate responded, “What is truth?” and turned to go without waiting for an answer.

Page 292: But we know the answer he would have received....... “I am . . . the truth” (John 14:6).......... When he speaks, there is no error or falsehood. He said of himself, “The one who seeks the glory of him who sent him is true, and in him there is no falsehood” (John 7:18)............. when others did not believe what he said, he did not consider changing the message to win a better hearing. If truth was met with unbelief, the problem lay with the unbelieving heart, not the truth. “Because I tell the truth, you do not believe me” (John 8:45). Jesus said that people turn away from the light not because they think it’s false, but because they love darkness (John 3:19).

Page 292: When Jesus left the earth he promised to send a Helper. He called him “the Spirit of truth.” “When the Helper comes, whom I will send to you from the Father, the Spirit of truth, who proceeds from the Father, he will bear witness about me” (John 15:26). This Spirit of truth will help us know the truth and be changed by the truth. So Jesus prays before he leaves and asks the Father to make the truth effective in our lives: “Sanctify them in the truth; your word is truth” (John 17:17). So we can see how supremely important truth is to Jesus, and how destructively evil is the impulse to deceive and mislead and speak in devious ways.

Page 292: ......Therefore, it is not surprising that in the Sermon on the Mount Jesus overturned one of the subtle practices of his day to avoid truthtelling and promise-keeping. When a promise is not kept, it becomes a lie. And when a promise made with a public oath is not kept, we call it perjury.

Page 293: When I was growing up we joked that if you had your fingers crossed when you made a promise, you didn’t have to keep it. We also had our own youthful ways of reinforcing our distrusted word: We said, “Cross my heart and hope to die.” What we meant was: I am speaking from my heart, not just my lips, and if what I say is not true let me die. Jesus was not happy about either of these devices—the crossing of the fingers to escape a promise and the crossing of the heart to reinforce a promise. (Matt. 5:33-37)

Page 293: Jesus is demanding two things here: First, he demands that we not use verbal evasions to escape promise-keeping; second, he demands that we be so truthful that oaths are superfluous.

Page 294: Jesus rejects that kind of evasion. He points out that everything you swear by has God behind it one way or the other. Heaven is his throne. Earth is his footstool. Jerusalem is his city...........your problem is your small view of God and truth. You think truth is insignificant and can be manipulated to your liking. And you think God is off in a corner with little concern for your truthfulness until his name is mentioned. In these two things you are wrong. Truth is precious beyond your ability to imagine, and God is behind every molecule in the universe and is always concerned that his creatures be truthful.

Page 294: Jesus encountered this evasive strategy in the Pharisees in Matthew 23:16-22. His indignation is unmistakable.......It is almost incredible that the Pharisees not only use evasions like this, but teach them...........Perhaps it is not a direct quote but rather the upshot of what they say. In either case, Jesus is furious at the way truth and God are belittled here. Gold is esteemed above God’s temple. Sacrifices are esteemed above God’s altar. Heaven is esteemed above God who dwells there. All this evasiveness ignores the fact that the holiness of heaven, altar, and temple come from their connection with God.

Page295: But this means little to those who are bent on finding ways to make peace with falsehood. What alternative did Jesus demand to these manifold ways of evading the binding claims of truth on our lives? To that we turn in the next chapter.

Demand #37: Lay Up For Yourselves Treasures In Heaven - "It Is Your Father's Good Pleasure To Give You The Kindom"

Fear not, little flock, for it is your Father’s good pleasure to give you the kingdom. Sell your possessions, and give to the needy.Provide yourselves with moneybags that do not grow old, with a treasure in the heavens that does not fail, where no thief approaches and no moth destroys. For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also. — Luke 12:32-34


Excerpts from the book

Page 287 - Jesus knows that the flock of God struggles with fear about selling what we don’t need and giving sacrificially and generously to the poor.

Page 281 - Before looking at the ground of our giving in the goodness of God, there is a pressing question that rises whenever the motivation of rewards is mentioned. I turn first to that question and then to the goodness of God beneath all our giving. Why would this motivation for giving—to enlarge the measure of our joy in heaven—not turn our giving from an act of love into an act of prudential self-regard? The reason is that in all our giving our aim is that the beneficiaries—whether enemies or brothers—will be helped, by our giving, to see more of the beauty of Jesus so that they are drawn with us into the heavenly reward. No genuine follower of Jesus wants to enjoy Jesus alone.

Page 282 - What sort of love would it be if in giving generously to others we did not want to share in the joy we want for them?

Page 282 - I think some people entangle themselves in a contradiction here because they think it is loving to give to the needy without regard to the eternal joy of the needy. They think that simply giving to the poor without aiming at their conversion, so that Jesus becomes their treasure, is a loving thing to do. It is not. If we are indifferent to whether our generosity leads the beneficiary to love Christ, we are not acting in love. I do not mean we must succeed in order for our generosity to be love. Our aim may not be attained. They may reject Jesus while accepting our generosity. We will not stop loving them for that—as long as they live. But not to aim at their eternal joy in Jesus is not a loving way to give.

Page 282/283 - His demand is that we use what we have to bless others. It may be money (Matt. 19:21) or healing (Matt. 10:8) or a cup of cold water (Mark 9:41) or time and effort like the Good Samaritan’s (Luke 10:34-35) or your home and hospitality (Luke 14:13-14). The point of Jesus’ “It Is Your Father’s Pleasure to Give You the Kingdom” demand is that we be radically free from the love of money and what it can buy, and from the fear of losing the security and comforts it affords.

Page 283 - Money enslaves either by greed or fear. We are greedy for more of it and fearful of losing what we have. Jesus wants us free. Sacrificial giving is one evidence that we have been liberated from the idols that money provides.

Page 283 - Luke 12:32 is the key to being liberated from our fearful slavery to possessions. It is the dynamite that can demolish the house of materialism that we live in. Luke 12:32 is a powerful word from Jesus about the nature of God. It’s about what kind of heart God has—what makes God glad, not merely what he has or does.

Page 284 - Notice every amazing part of this extravagantly gracious verse: “It is your Father’s good pleasure to give you the kingdom.” In other words, God is not acting in this generous way in order to cloak and hide some malicious motive.

Page 284 - Jesus’ meaning is inescapable: God is acting here in freedom. He is not under constraint to do what he doesn’t really want to do. At this very point, when he gives his flock the kingdom, he is acting out of his deepest delight.

Page 284 - Then consider the phrase “your Father’s.” “Fear not, little flock, it is your Father’s good pleasure to give you the kingdom.” Jesus does not say, “It is your employer’s good pleasure to pay you your salary.” He does not say, “It is your slavemaster’s good pleasure to provide your lodging.” He does not even say, “It is your king’s good pleasure to bestow the kingdom.” He chooses every word in this sentence to help us get rid of the fear that God is ill-disposed to us. So
he calls God our “Father.”.....God Is the Best of Fathers—Far Better Than the One You Had!

Page 285 - Jesus says, “What do you think, Simon? From whom do kings of the earth take toll or tax? From their sons or from others?” And when he said, “From others,” Jesus said to him,
“Then the sons are free.” God does not levy taxes against his children.

Page 285 - Then consider the word “give.” “It is your Father’s good pleasure to give you the kingdom.”

Page 286 - Then consider the word “flock.” “Fear not, little flock, for it is your Father’s good pleasure to give you the kingdom.” Jesus is piling up the metaphors. God is our Father. And since he gives us a kingdom, he must be a King. And since we are his flock, he must be a Shepherd. Jesus is at pains to choose every word he can to make his point clear: God is not the kind of God who begrudges his blessings.

Page 286 - Then ponder the word “little.” “Fear not, little flock, for it is your Father’s good pleasure to give you the kingdom.” Why does he say “little flock”?........ but I will use all my power to take care of you because you are precious to me. So “little flock” carries the connotation of affection and care.

Page 287 - Finally, consider the word “kingdom.”.....He doesn’t promise to give money (Luke 18:25)....He doesn’t promise popularity or fame or admiration among men (Luke 6:22).... He doesn’t even promise security in this life. (Luke 21:16).... What does he promise to give to his little flock—to prove once and for all that it is not only his good pleasure to give, but that it is
his good pleasure to give big? He promises to give them the kingdom of God.

Page 287 - It means simply and staggeringly and unspeakably that the omnipotent rule and authority of the King of the universe will be engaged forever and ever on behalf of the little flock of God. Who can describe what it will be like when that saying comes to pass that Jesus spoke at the Last Supper, “I assign to you as my Father has assigned to me a kingdom, that you may eat and drink at my table in my kingdom” (Luke 22:29-30)?

Page 287/288 - Jesus knows that the flock of God struggles with fear about selling what we don’t need and giving sacrificially and generously to the poor...... Therefore, the Lord is at pains in Luke 12:32 to free us from this fear by telling us the truth about God. He has chosen every word to help liberate us from the love of money and satisfy us with all that God promises to be for us in Jesus. Every word counts. Always read it slowly.


Fear not,
little
flock,
for it is your Father’s
good pleasure
to give you
the kingdom!

Note: Dr. Piper ends this chapter with a very good story of "The Simplicity and Generosity of William Carey." Mr. Carey was a worker, a missionary....a devoted man to practicing his Christianity as he engaged in "affairs of the trade."

To that end....

Demand #36: Lay Up For Yourselves Treasures In Heaven And Increase Your Joy In Jesus

How difficult it is for those who have wealth to enter the kingdom of God! For it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich person to enter the kingdom of God. — Luke 18:24-25

One who is faithful in a very little is also faithful in much, and one who is dishonest in a very little is also dishonest in much. If then you have not been faithful in the unrighteous wealth, who will entrust to you the true riches? And if you have not been faithful in that which is another’s, who will give you that which is your own? — Luke 16:10-12


Excerpts from the book:

Page 274 - Emerging in the previous chapter were two controversial claims that I will try to support from Jesus’ teaching in this chapter. First, the claim that a selfish spirit will keep us out of heaven. Second, the claim that there are degrees of reward, or degrees of joy, in heaven, depending on how sacrificially generous we were on earth. First, Jesus implies, again and again, that a selfish spirit will keep us out of heaven. Here are five examples to show this truth.

Page 274 - The Rich Ruler and Eternal life: First, when the rich ruler asked Jesus what he must do to inherit eternal life, Jesus responded......

Page 275 - The Rich Man, the Beggar, and Two Destinies: A second example is the story of the rich man and the beggar at his gate. Jesus said.....

Page 276 - Failure to Love and Final Judgment: Third, similarly, in Matthew 25:31-46 Jesus warns that a professing follower of Jesus who is indifferent to the needs of the poor will endure “eternal punishment.”...

Page 276 - The Rich Fool Who Loses His Soul: Fourth, again Jesus tells a parable of a rich fool. The man’s fields prosper, and he has more than he can use. Instead of thinking generously he says.....

Page 276 - How to Lose True and Lasting Riches: Fifth, here is one last illustration of how a selfish spirit keeps us out of heaven. After the parable of the dishonest manager (Luke 16:1-9), Jesus draws out these conclusions:.....

Page 277 - It is fairly clear that “true riches” and “that which is your own” refer to the treasures of heaven—the pleasures of the age to come when we enjoy unbroken fellowship with Jesus. Therefore, Jesus is saying that we will not get these true riches if we have not been faithful with
what we were given to use in this fallen world.

Page 277 - The Ground of Our Acceptance with God: That is one implication of what I said in the first sentence of this chapter: A selfish spirit will keep us out of heaven entirely. I hope it is plain by now in this book that I do not believe a sacrificially generous spirit is the ground of our acceptance with God. When Jesus says that a selfish spirit keeps us out of heaven, he does not mean that God watches to see if we show ourselves to be generous before he accepts us into his everlasting favor.

Page 278 - Greater Sacrifices of Love Lead to Greater Joy in Heaven: The other controversial claim emerging in the previous chapter and mentioned in the first paragraph of this chapter is that the degree to which we overcome our selfishness determines, in some measure, the degree of our reward—our joy—in heaven. The more sacrificially generous you are on earth, the greater will be your enjoyment of heaven. The first indication that Jesus means this is found....

Page 279 - The Measure You Use Will Be Used to Measure You: Another indication that Jesus thinks this way about heaven is the way he speaks in Luke 6:37-38:....

Page 279 - First, he confirms what we saw before, that a selfish spirit will rob us of all blessing: “Give, and it will be given to you.” He is not speaking of mere human relations here. He is speaking of the final reckoning with God.

Page 280 - The point I am stressing here is that there are differences in the fullness of delight that each of us enjoys in heaven. Each will be full in heaven, for there are no frustrations there. But the fullness of each will not be the same since the measure that we used to bless others on earth, and that God will use to bless us in heaven, are different for different people.

Page 280 - We will see in the next chapter that this kind of sacrificial generosity is grounded in the goodness of God to us before and while we are generous to others. We are able to love and give because he has already given freely to us and promises to meet every need we have in a lifetime of generosity (Matt. 6:33; 7:7-12; Luke 12:32).

To that end.....

God Bless

(see links on right to download a free copy of the book)

Demand #35: Lay Up for Yourselves Treasures In Heaven By Giving Sacrificially And Generously

Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal, but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys and where thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also. — Matt. 6:19-21

You received without paying; give without pay. — Matt. 10:8

One who is faithful in a very little is also faithful in much, and one who is dishonest in a very little is also dishonest in much. If then you have not been faithful in the unrighteous wealth, who will entrust to you the true riches? And if you have not been faithful in that which is another’s, who will give you that which is your own? — Luke 16:10-12

Excerpts from the book -

Page 267 - The more sacrificially generous you are on earth, the greater will be your enjoyment of heaven. Therefore, since Jesus loves us and summons us to maximize our eternal joy in heaven, he demands radical freedom from the love of money and radical generosity....

Page 268 - Sacrifice Is the Measure of a Gift’s Size - The reason I say, “the more sacrificially generous you are” is because of what Jesus said about the widow’s offering...... The point here is that the value of a gift is not measured by its size but by its sacrifice...... But if you sacrifice for Jesus and have little left, then the heart has less to rest in. The heart is more likely to be resting in the hope of heaven. It is more likely to be depending on Jesus than on money.

Page 268 - It is astonishing how much Jesus deals with money and what we do with it. Randy Alcorn reckons that “15 percent of everything Christ said relates to this topic—more than his teachings on heaven and hell combined.”1

Page 272 - Why does Jesus express such a remarkable concern with what we do with our money? The reason for this, it seems, is the basic principle that Jesus laid down.....

Page 272 - Now Jesus says, “You cannot serve God and money.” The meaning of “serve” would, presumably, be the same in these two relationships. So what Jesus is saying is that we should serve God not in the sense of providing a service or giving him help, but the opposite: We look to God to be our helper, our benefactor and treasure. To serve him would be to plan and dream and strategize and maneuver to be in a position to maximize our enjoyment of God and what he alone promises to be for us. God then, not money, becomes the giver and the benefactor in this servant-master relationship. You don’t meet God’s needs (he has none!). You look to God to meet yours.

Page 273 - Therefore, it represents the great alternative to God in our hearts. This is why what we do with our money is so crucial to Jesus.

Page 273 - Selfishness Separates from Heaven, and Sacrifice Heightens Joy in It.... There are two things being said here. One is that a selfish spirit will keep us out of heaven. And the other is that there are degrees of reward, or degrees of joy, in heaven, depending on how sacrificially generous we were on earth. Both of these claims are controversial.....

Demand #34: Love Your Neighbor As Yourself and As Jesus Loved Us

But he, desiring to justify himself, said to Jesus, “And who is my neighbor?” — Luke 10:29

Whatever you wish that others would do to you, do also to them, for this is the Law and the Prophets. — Matt. 7:12

A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another: just as I have loved you, you also are to love one another. By this all people will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another. — John 13:34-35

And Piper begins the chapter.................I don’t presume in the previous chapters to have solved all perplexities in the life of love. There are competing claims on our limited time and resources. There are hard choices about what to give up and what to keep. There are different interpretations of what is good for another person. I don’t mean that all of that becomes simple.

Radical Command and Radical Provision - What I do mean is this: Loving God sustains us through all the joy and pain and perplexity and uncertainty of what loving our neighbor should be. When the sacrifice is great, we remember that God’s grace is sufficient. When the fork in the road of love is unmarked, we remember with joy and love that his grace is sufficient. When we are distracted by the world and our hearts give way temporarily to............to finish reading what Dr. Piper has to say about this "demand," click the following link to download this book free of charge -
http://www.desiringgod.org/ResourceLibrary/OnlineBooks/ByTitle/1822_What_Jesus_Demands_from_the_World/

Questions from the workbook - Chapter 34

To what does Jesus change the lawyer’s question in Luke 10:29? What implication does this have on our lives?

What was the lawyer’s question really an attempt at doing? Why does Jesus refuse to address such a question?

What role does Jesus’ death play on our obedience to the command to love?

What’s “new” about the new commandment? How is the new commandment harmonious with he “old” commandment?

How was Jesus “loving himself perfectly” (p. 268) when he died for us? Is it loving for him to ursue his own joy? Why or why not? Should you follow this example (i.e., pursuing your own joy in your loving others)? Why or why not?

*Next week - Laying up treasures for ourselves in heaven!

To that end.............

Demand #33: Love Your Neighbor With The Same Commitment You Have To Your Own Well-Being

. . . as yourself. — Matt. 22:39

From the workbook (click link below to read and/or download a free copy of the book and workbook)


Explain why Jesus assumes we love ourselves. Is he right? Why or why not? How is this profoundly counter-cultural for 21st century America?

When does self-love become sinful pride and selfishness?

Why is the second commandment threatening to our desires to be happy? How is this threat averted?

What, according to Jesus, is to be the new form of our self-love?

Reflect upon the various expressions of neighbor-love that are listed in the final section of the
chapter.

Describe how an authentic love for God will overflow in love for neighbor in each of these ways. Which people in your life could you put some of these suggestions into practice for?

Demand #32; Love Your Neighbors As Yourself, For This Is The Law and The Prophets

“Teacher, which is the great commandment in the Law?” And he said to him, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the great and first commandment. And a second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself. On these two commandments depend all the Law and the Prophets.” — Matt. 22:36-40

So whatever you wish that others would do to you, do also to them, for this is the Law and the Prophets. — Matt. 7:12


From the Workbook: (complete book and workbook available from Desiring God at "no charge" via download at right)


What observations help us see the weightiness and magnitude and seriousness of Jesus’ second commandment in Matt. 22:39?

Why can’t we say that the “Golden Rule” in Matt. 7:7–11 is proof that Jesus was simply a moral teacher whose teaching wasn’t primarily about God?

Explain how the second commandment (to love your neighbor) is the fulfillment or demonstration of the first commandment (to love God).

How can love of neighbor both be the law and the prophets (Matt. 7:12) and be what the law and
the prophets hang on?

When Jesus tells us to love our neighbor as ourselves, who does he have in mind? What is his primary concern and ultimate goal in this demand? Are you failing to be a good neighbor to anybody in your life?

Demand #31: Love Your Enemies To Show That You Are Children Of God

To one who strikes you on the cheek, offer the other also, and from one who takes away your cloak do not withhold your tunic either. Give to everyone who begs from you, and from one who takes away your goods do not demand them back. — Luke 6:29-30

Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, so that you may be sons of your Father who is in heaven. — Matt. 5:44-45

Be merciful, even as your Father is merciful. — Luke 6:36

Love your enemies, and do good, and lend, expecting nothing in return, and your reward will be great. — Luke 6:35

From the Workbook

What is Jesus after in his demands to turn the other check and to give to the one who asks and to not withhold our tunics? Why? How does this help us define love?

Thinks of some circumstances where what love calls for might not be clear. What does Piper say
should be our default in situations where we are not sure what love calls for? Do you agree with this assessment? Why or why not?

Why is Jesus not saying, in Matt. 5:44–45, “You must first become a person who loves his enemies before you can be a child of God”?

How do we obtain the ability to love our enemies the way Jesus demands?

Think of the three sources of power for love that Piper talks about in this chapter. Have these truths, or other biblical truths, been a source of life and power to love others, even enemies, in your life? If so, describe. If they haven’t, why do you think they haven’t produced Christ- honoring love for enemies?