NORTHSHORE CHURCH OF CHRIST

Jannet and Carrie live next door to one another. Both have husbands and three children, and they both enjoy roughly the same level of income.

Jannet wonders why her life is so hard. She wishes she had more help with washing dishes and clothes. She wonders why her husband doesn’t bring flowers more often and why he gets to be the one who goes to work every day, leaving her to the drudgery of home life. She scrolls through Facebook and looks with envy on the picture-perfect lives of friends and neighbors.

Carrie wonders why she is so blessed. When she does the dishes, she thanks God for the food which dirtied them and the fellowship her family enjoyed while eating together. She washes her kids’ clothes looking forward to full closets and being ready for the week. When her husband leaves the house, she is grateful for a man who takes care of his family. She enjoys giving.

From the outside, Jannet and Carrie are physically blessed in almost identical ways, but their attitudes are almost opposite. One sees her job as drudgery and remains discontent with the things in her life, always wishing for something different, something more. The other loves her life, enjoys her family, and sees her work in the home not as endless toil but as a gift and an honor.

The difference between these two women is not one of circumstance but rather one of perspective. Many people fall on both sides of this attitude spectrum. What makes the difference?

Are happy people happy because of their pleasant circumstances? Miserable people think so. They see everyone else’s life through rose colored glasses while seeing their own life through gray-tinted spectacles. They become like Job’s accuser, saying things like, “He is only jolly because things always go well for him.”

But happy people are disposed to joy often despite their circumstances. They understand that life on this earth (“under the sun” as Solomon wrote) is not and never will be perfect. Evil comes upon the righteous and the wicked alike. Blessings come from the Lord. The secret to a contented life is to thank God for all things and to never quit thanking Him. Endure the bad, and enjoy the good, knowing that God is with you through all of it. This is the way to true joy.

When you find yourself falling to depression, feeling miserable and discontent, ask yourself whether you have thanked God recently for His gifts. It’s probably time to count your many blessings and remind yourself all that God has done for you. We have so many reasons to be thankful!

Rejoice always, pray without ceasing, give thanks in all circumstances; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you. (1 Thessalonians 5.16–18)

John 6.26 Jesus answered them and said, “Truly, truly, I say to you, you seek Me, not because you saw signs, but because you ate some of the loaves and were filled. 27 Do not work for the food that perishes, but for the food that lasts for eternal life, which the Son of Man will give you, for on Him the Father, God, has set His seal.” 28 Therefore they said to Him, “What are we to do, so that we may accomplish the works of God?” 29 Jesus answered and said to them, “This is the work of God, that you believe in Him whom He has sent.”

Jesus baffled these Jews with His talk of food that lasts for eternal life. That sounds lovely, doesn’t it? So they wanted to know how they could accomplish the works of God. Jesus said the work of God was that “you believe in Him whom He has sent.”

I thought Paul, especially, pointed out that faith and works are not the same. How is believing a work?

This is a good question out of this context.

Notice Jesus did not say just “a work” but “the work.” And it is singular, so He’s not talking about all the possible good works we can do but only the primary work. And that work is “of God,” meaning it either belongs to God or comes from Him. The context shows their question is about doing “the works of God” (verse 28), so when they said, “of God,” they meant the works belonging to Him. It’s not the work that God does, but the work we do which is from Him, commanded by Him, pertaining to Him.

It is THE WORK because faith in Jesus as the one the Father sent is the key to eternal life, the food that endures to eternal life. You can perform no good work outside of faith by which you can earn eternal life. Even as you obediently do the good works which God commanded and created you to do, it is not the doing of those works which saves you. On the other hand, you are not saved without doing good works because they are the fruit of your genuine faith, just as you bear fruit when you genuinely repent.

In this way, we understand we are saved by faith apart from works (Eph. 2.8-9; Tit. 3.5).

As Jesus calls faith “the work of God” here, He differentiates it from other works. Belief is a work done internally, in our minds and hearts. It’s a change of attitude when one graduates from unbelief to belief, and it is not simply our human effort of trying really hard to believe. God breaks into our lives in some way, breaks us down, knocks us off our donkey (like Paul), shows us His glory (like Peter in the boat), shines the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ (2 Cor. 4.6). In other words, God always acts first in some way to call us, and all who are converted to Him can look back and see God’s work in our lives and give Him the glory for our faith and salvation.

Do you want to know God? Get to know Jesus. Do you want to see God? Look at Jesus. Do you want to be saved? Believe in Jesus as the one whom God made both Lord and Christ. Do you want eternal life? Work for the food which lasts unto eternal life. Feed on Jesus.

Life is all about Jesus!

Are you a rule-follower? Do you hate it when someone fudges, breaks in line, bends the rules?

The Pharisees hated rule-breaking so much they piled rules on top of rules just to make sure no one broke the rules. The worst sin, for the Pharisee, was rule-breaking, and they came up with lists of over 600 laws which they fastidiously kept before the people. Not only did they keep the laws themselves but they laid their standards on the backs of their brethren. In other words, they believed and taught salvation by rule-keeping.

The Pharisees scoured God's laws to figure out how to stay absolutely spotless.

God commanded priests to wash before they ministered in the tabernacle. To mirror that, the Pharisees required the washing of the hands before eating anything--and the washing of all vessels and utensils--so they wouldn't ingest any unclean thing and thereby defile themselves. That's why they became upset when Jesus' disciples "broke the tradition of the elders" by eating with unwashed hands (Matt. 15.2).

God clearly required the Jews to rest on the Sabbath Day, to cease from their daily labors. They were not allowed to build a fire or gather firewood on the Sabbath. Taking it just a step further, the Pharisees wrote a few extra laws (which logically flowed from God's, right?), which included no picking of grain (harvesting!), no rubbing grain together in the hands (threshing!), and no chewing freshly-picked grain (grinding!). That's why they accused Jesus' disciples of law-breaking when they did all three of these things (Matt. 12.1-2).

Holy men and women of old fasted and prayed to the Lord and gave alms to the poor. The Pharisees then, in order to plumb the depths of righteousness and holiness, gave to the poor (Matt. 6.1-4), prayed (Matt. 6.5-6), and fasted (Matt. 6.16-18) to be seen by men. After all, what good were those holy activities if no one knew how incredibly holy they had become?

Much to their dismay, Jesus spoiled their scene and began to peel the outer layers of their so-called righteousness to reveal empty, dark, and rebellious hearts. Jesus told the Jews their righteousness had to exceed the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees (Matt. 5.20)! How could one possibly out-righteousness a Pharisee? They were the self-appointed keepers of the Law. They sat in the seat of Moses, claiming to speak for God.

One of the leading Pharisees of Jesus' day was Nicodemus, who approached Jesus by night with great praise, calling Jesus "Rabbi" and affirming his belief that Jesus was from God because of the signs He was performing. Did Jesus welcome Nicodemus with open arms? To the contrary, He answered him rather roughly, questioning the Israelite teacher's basic understanding of spiritual things! Don't you know you must be born again before you can see the kingdom of God? Why don't you understand these things? (John 3)

The major point was this--Nicodemus needed JESUS to reveal the heavenly things. Nicodemus could not approach Jesus as a fellow Rabbi. He couldn't think of Him as simply one sent from God. He would have to accept Jesus as God. He would have to accept his own sinfulness before the Almighty One, no matter how carefully he had kept the Law of Moses all his life, no matter how pure he thought his hands and feet and eyes were, no matter how many righteousness points he felt he had racked up over the years. In truth, unless he looked to CHRIST, Nicodemus stood no closer to God than a tax collector or prostitute!

Can we be so in love with God's LAW that we totally miss HIM? In reality, the Pharisees didn't love the law in the same way they might love a person. They really loved themselves. They loved the idea of showing God how righteous they really were. They loved being more righteous than everyone else around them (Luke 18.9).

Yes, we can fall into this trap--quite easily, in fact. Have I done this myself--thought of myself as a gatekeeper of God's law, an interpreter who really knows what God means about almost everything (admitting a few nooks and crannies I haven't totally figure out yet...)? Is my standing before God based on how well I understand His laws and how well I keep them? Is my standing in His kingdom based on my outstanding performance? Is my purity some great gift I give to God, which places me above my peers and gives me something to boast about?

If we think like that, we sit in the camp of the Pharisees. We love law, not Christ. We love ourselves, not our brethren. Examine the gospels and you'll find the Pharisees persecuted and oppressed their own brethren because of their self-righteousness, and worst of all they rejected and slaughtered their own Messiah.

Brothers and Sisters, don't get me wrong--we should love God's law--but for the right reason. We should love God's law because it's God's law. We should love His commandments because they come from Him and we love to obey Him. We shouldn't love the law apart from Him. We shouldn't look to the law to do for us what only God can.

Here's the point: The law does not and cannot save us! Jesus saves

My children hold my heart in many ways. I feel their failures and successes as my own. I want them to thrive and grow and progress in this life well beyond my own wisdom and stature. I want them to hold firm their faith stronger than I have. I’m sure that is the desire of every Christian parent.

John wrote, “I have no greater joy than to hear that my children are walking in the truth” (3 John 4). Amen.

A man named Jonah had two sons who decided to follow a new Jewish Rabbi all over Galilee and Judea. I wonder what Jonah thought about that. As a good Jewish father (I’m assuming, since his sons seem spiritually-minded and kingdom-seeking), I imagine he had misgivings. Who is this teacher? He makes bold claims and performs great signs, they say. He continually challenges the Jewish religious leaders. Could such a man really be from God? Are my boys safe in His care and under his direction?

After three years of following Jesus, what did Jonah think when Jesus was crucified? His boys’ hopes and dreams were dashed. They had been fools to trust in the promises this man continually made them. He had heard there was to be a kingdom, and not just any kingdom but the one the prophets of old had foretold. He had heard his boys were in line to be major leaders in that kingdom. Jesus had said something about them sitting on thrones and judging the people! Why had he dared to hope in those promises, which all were snuffed out in a single day.

But THEN! What did Jonah think when his boys came home and told him, “Jesus is not dead, but risen!” Did he believe? Did he come to faith in Jesus Christ? Did hope spark new in his breast?

I wonder if he ever got to read the words Matthew wrote?

He 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. I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven, and whatever you bind on earth shall be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven.” (Matthew 16.15–19)

What a blessing to have your son praised in such a way. Of course, if he read that, he would also have read of Peter’s several foibles, too, and possibly cringed and cried as he saw how Peter had denied Jesus in a moment of weakness. But knowing how the story unfolded, he could breathe easy and rejoice in the new kingdom and the precious gospel which Peter and Andrew continued to preach until the end of their lives.

I hope nothing more for my children than they continue in their faith in Jesus Christ and have Him present them with a crown of victory! Like Peter, they will have moments of weakness and fail and fall at times, but I hope Jesus prays for them as He prayed for Peter, that their faith may not fail. That is my prayer. I hope that is your prayer for your own children.

Let our sons and daughters be like Jonah’s sons.

“When Adam had lived 130 years, he fathered a son in his own likeness, after his image, and named him Seth.” — Genesis 5.3

My son is my image passed down to the next generation. He was brought into the world with great anticipation and hope. As a man holds his baby boy, he sees energy to direct, power and potential, endless possibilities.

Sons can make or break a father.

A wise son makes a glad father, but a foolish son is a sorrow to his mother. (Prov 10.1)

A foolish son is a grief to his father and bitterness to her who bore him. (Prov 17.25)

A foolish son is ruin to his father (Prov 19.13)

The one who keeps the law is a son with understanding, but a companion of gluttons shames his father. (Prov 28.7)

Discipline your son, and he will give you rest; he will give delight to your heart. (Prov 29.17)

Holding our little baby, we have only sweet thoughts of his great achievements, brilliant mind, and generous heart, but as he matures and falls to sins (just as have we—but we forget), that little boy can tear us up.

I imagine Simon felt sweet, swelling emotions as he held his little son for the first time, saw his precious wrinkled face, and showed him off to his friends. “This is my boy!”

Was Simon still alive when his son joined a band of followers who travelled all over Galilee and Judea with a new Rabbi? Did Simon think well or ill of his son’s decision to throw in his lot with Jesus? Perhaps he was conflicted, wondering how it would turn out but glad his son was doing something positive and possibly great. Perhaps Simon told his wife, “I have my concerns, but let’s see where this takes him.”

Was Simon still alive when everything fell apart for Jesus and His disciples on that consequential Passover night? Did he receive the news from some of the other disciples about what had happened to Jesus…and what had happened to his son? Did John later show Simon what he had written?

During supper, when the devil had already put it into the heart of Judas Iscariot, Simon’s son, to betray him… (John 13.2)

For he knew who was to betray him; that was why he said, “Not all of you are clean.” (John 13.11)

I am not speaking of all of you; I know whom I have chosen. But the Scripture will be fulfilled, ‘He who ate my bread has lifted his heel against me.’ (John 13.18)

After saying these things, Jesus was troubled in his spirit, and testified, “Truly, truly, I say to you, one of you will betray me.” (John 13.21)

Jesus answered, “It is he to whom I will give this morsel of bread when I have dipped it.” So when he had dipped the morsel, he gave it to Judas, the son of Simon Iscariot. Then after he had taken the morsel, Satan entered into him. Jesus said to him, “What you are going to do, do quickly.” Now no one at the table knew why he said this to him. Some thought that, because Judas had the moneybag, Jesus was telling him, “Buy what we need for the feast,” or that he should give something to the poor. So, after receiving the morsel of bread, he immediately went out. And it was night. (John 13.26–30)

I don’t know how Simon raised Judas, but my heart goes out to him, especially if Simon learned later of the great forgiveness of Christ and that his boy could have repented and been restored to the Lord. Instead of reconciliation, Judas’ story ended in bitter suicide.

What a tragedy! I do not want my father to be in the same place as Simon, and I strongly hope none of my sons puts me in that place. Tragedies stand as warnings; they show us what to avoid. It would have been better for Simon’s son had he never been born. But he was born, and he lifted his hand against the most magnanimous friend, the most powerful Lord, the most generous King.

Lord, protect us from an end like Simon’s son!