Greenlakes Baptist

Matthew 2:1-8 Unwelcome Guests

When you are king it is never good when folks show up looking for the king and insist you are not him. Wise men from the east, astrologers (probably not claiming to be psychics but definitely claiming the ability to predict the future) arrive at king Herod's court looking for a baby crown prince and find no one fitting at description. If the one born king is not of Herod's line that means someone else gets to be king. No king wants to hear that. The time in relation to the prophecies of the Old Testament has any one who knows anything about Judaism looking under every rock for the Messiah. So when he sends for the priests they pinpoint Bethlehem. What I wonder is why none of the priests tagged along or why Herod didn't just send a spy to track the wise men. It is obvious form the text and following section that Herod had no good plans for the child in question. And it seems silly the priests were not underfoot everywhere in Bethlehem checking out every baby boy as he was being born, looking for the Messiah. God does not tell us what they were thinking here, just what happened. Te men found Jesus, gave Him expensive gifts, and left. Right after which God gave Joseph another dream and they Hijra led it out of Herod's jurisdiction.

Without Wax,

Dr. Dwight
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Matthew 1:20-25 God and the Good Man

Joseph is a good man. He knows Mary is not pregnant with his baby because He was honoring and respecting her by not sleeping with her before marriage. So he deduced she has been with someone else while they are engaged. Within the culture he has the right to have her treated like an adulterous wife. (this includes Mary getting killed) instead he decided to quietly divorce her, deflecting suspicion upon himself and giving her the opportunity start over with the man she obviously prefers. Joseph tries to preserve her life and her reputation at cost to himself and that is good. Then God gives him the best news of all. Mary is not crazy, God really did put the baby there, and she has been faithful to Joseph all along. He marries Mary, scandal and all obeying God and rejoicing in the truth.

Without Wax,

Dr. Dwight
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Matthew 1:18-19 The Scandal of Jesus

God did not send His son into a marriage relationship. Mary was engaged, but not married when Jesus is miraculously conceived. Everyone then thought what everyone would think now. Obviously she had been having sex. Obviously her explanation that God did it was either a lie or she needed serious mental help. No one believed her and no one would. We know, because of the person Jesus was and the things He did and said that she was telling the truth. During her pregnancy only two people believed her that we know of. One was her cousin Elizabeth when John the baptist,still in her womb, recognized Jesus, still only a month in existence in Mary's womb. The other was Joseph and he needed some extra convincing...

Without Wax,

Dr. Dwight
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Matthew 1:1-17 The Heritage of Jesus

Genealogies are boring. Unless they are your own usually. Even so most of us lose interest unless someone in our family was famous or notorious. Here Jesus is traced back to Abraham. On the one hand that seems kind of silly, of course a Jew is a descendant of Abraham, every Jew in the tribes was. But the track to Judah, the one abut whose line predictions of kingship had been made is more telling. Even more specific is the tracing back to David as whose descendant Jesus fulfills prophecy after prophecy. Matthew is situating Jesus in the world, and, even here, showing that He is the fulfillment of generations of prophets predictions. Matthew is also violating the patriarchal narrative by including four women, three of them problematic, into the genealogy. Go Matthew.

Without Wax,

Dr. Dwight
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2 Peter 3:17-18 Staying Secure

There is a constant pull against God in our lives. On the one hand there is that traitor self that wants to disobey the rule just because it is there, to thumb our nose at authority. On another hand there a the temptations of what we want in this world. The more, the tastier, the distractions that masquerade as meaningful that pull us away from those we love and away from God. Finally there is the active work of the Devil, a spiritual being determined to drag us down with him, depriving God of a child He loves. The only defense against all this drag is a settled decision to stay close to Jesus. How? Te answers are so well known they seem trite. Go to church and really get to know folks, read your Bible and ask questions about anything you don't understand, pray every day in conversation with Jesus, practice the life God shows us in the Bible. It's simple, not easy. But it is life worth the effort.

Without Wax

Dr. Dwight
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2 Peter 3:14-16 Sometimes God is Hard to Understand

The Bible is not an easy read. No matter how accessible a translation is, the Bible remains a long book, full of many types of literature. In our limited ways we try to understand and correlate it's various passages, but sometimes that's quite difficult. Paul writes about how we do not get right with God through works and James writes that faith skylit works is useless. It requires reading pretty closely and thinking about what they are saying to see past an apparent conflict and realize they are not disagreeing but talking about two different things. Then we have the ethical questions where we think our moral judgment seems to be better than God's. This comes into play whenever the Bible contradicts our contemporary norms. It is only through digging beneath the surface and studying what the Bible actually says that we can resolve some of the situations in which we are confused.

Without Wax,

Dr. Dwight
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2 Peter 3:10-13 A Brighter Promise

God will destroy the world. This only makes sense if it is actually broken. According to the Bible, God made the world perfect and we broke it. This should come as no surprise to any environmentalist in the group. Or anyone working with poverty for that matter. The underlying causes of the problems are human in the making whatever angle you look. So God promises that one day he will wad up and destroy the world we have, then make it again, as it was meant to be. No one will die in the destruction because it occurs at the end of time, after all of us have lived our lives and made our decisions. We are either with God and able to survive the destruction and recreation of the world, or apart from God forever and too occupied with Hell to care.

Without Wax,

Dr. Dwight
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2 Peter 3:8-9 Why Wait

So if the world will be perfect and pain will be over when Jesus comes back, why wait? Why not stop the hurting now? God gives us only one reason, so that more people can get into heaven. He waits for as many as possible to answer the plea for reconciliation. How we get to heaven is simple. First we admit that we are rebels against God. We have all done what we knew was wrong or not done what we know we should have. This wrongdoing, which is called sin, separates us from God. God is not content to remain apart from us so He sends Jesus to pay the price for our reconciliation to God. Sin breaks our relationship and it costs to fix things that are broken. In this case the death of Christ is the cost of reunion. But God does not force Himself upon us. He gives us a choice. If we choose Jesus His payment brings us to heaven. If we try to do it on our own we can never pay off all the wrong we have done, because we can never eliminate any sin we have already committed. We have only the ability to break the relationship, not to restore it. If you decide to trust in Jesus He will forgive you and get you into heaven.

Without Wax -- Dr. Dwight
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2 Peter 3:3-7 Crackpots and Cracked Pots

I am sure that no one has forgotten the idiot who said Jesus was taking his church away with the rapture May 21. On the one hand I feel like shouting, "Shut up! You are making me look stupid!". On the other I am just relieved that it wasn't just some Jehovahs Witness twist on some bizarre suicide cult. Anyone with a rudimentary exposure to the Bible knows Jesus himself said no one could know when He was coming back. Silly crud like this, however, sometimes makes it seem stupid to believe He is coming back at all. He Peter assures us that this same Jesus whom he saw float up into the sky will be back and that His return will necessarily result in a sorting out process for the whole world. It is not that Christians a eager to see people judged, it's that we are eager for a world where no one is abused, or raped, or murdered. When Jesus comes He will put an end to that and it will be perfection (without boredom) forever. I know because this guy who rose from the dead said so...

Without Wax--Dr. Dwight
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2 Peter 3:1-2 Provoked to Wholesome Thoughts

When I think of the word wholesome, alas, Glee comes to mind. Forced to endure part of an episode by my daughters I saw the principal hand the teacher a list of "wholesome" songs approved by the principal's pastor. As a pastor I do resent being characterized as someone who only thinks wholesome songs are children's songs and those with Jesus in the title (in a good way). We think wholesome is about some never existed dream of the supposedly happy 50s suburban family. The word is a joke, so I wish the translator had made better translation choice, such as useful for making us better or thoughts worthy of thinking or something like that. Peter is, in this letter, trying to get our minds off of our temptations and onto God. When we keep in mind the amazing free gift of forgiveness He gives, or how much Jesus loves us it is easier to listen to Him and live the abundant life He gives. So yeah, I want Peter here to help me think thoughts that will lift up the "whole" of me in good ways. Which is, I guess, wholesome.

Without Wax -- Dr. Dwight
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