To listen, click here.
Thursday, February 20, 2025
Monday, February 3, 2025
Carrying Christ's Cross; Luke 23:26, Mark 15:21, Acts 13:1-3, Romans 16:13
Jesus
said, “If anyone would come after Me, let him deny himself, take up his cross
daily, and follow Me.” We all have a
cross we are called to bear—to die to self.
When we suffer, we know that God is with us in our suffering. In Isaiah 41, God promises us that when we
pass through the water or the fire, He is with us “for I am the Lord your God,
the Holy One of Israel, your Savior.”
God commands, “Do not fear.” In
the New Testament, we hear again and again how Jesus has compassion on the
people and is compassionate toward us.
The word compassion literally means “to suffer with.” Because Christ is fully human and suffered so
much Himself, He can identify with us in our sufferings, so that when we
suffer, Jesus suffers with us. But we are also called to carry Christ’s
cross. We participate with Him in His
sufferings.
Today we look at Simon of Cyrene,
the man who literally helped Christ carry His cross. Simon was pulled from the crowd by the Roman
soldiers and compelled to help Jesus carry His cross. Jesus was too weak to carry His own
cross. He was bruised and battered and
had already lost a lot of blood. He had
been up all night. Jesus was physically
incapable of carrying His own cross.
Without Simon’s help, He may have died prior to being crucified, but
that wasn’t God’s plan for Jesus. As
Simon carried the cross with Jesus, he would’ve gotten Jesus’s blood on
him. He would have seen the pain in
Jesus’s face and the wounds in His flesh.
In his small, but crucial way, Simon participated in the sufferings of
Christ. I don’t think he slinked away in
the crowd when they got Golgotha. I
think he would’ve continued to watch the Man on the cross.
When we suffer, we are carrying
Christ’s cross. Peter tells us in I
Peter 4:12-13, “Beloved, do not be
surprised at the fiery trial when it comes upon you to test you, as though
something strange were happening to you. But rejoice insofar as you share
Christ's sufferings, that you may also rejoice and be glad when his glory is
revealed.” Suffering should dive us to
keep looking at Jesus. In the letter to
the Colossians, Paul tells us that our suffering is a continuation of Christ’s
suffering, not necessarily for our own sake, but on behalf of the Church. Colossians
1:24 “Now I rejoice in what I am suffering for you, and I fill up in my
flesh what is still lacking in regard to Christ’s afflictions, for the
sake of his body, which is the church.”
When we see our suffering as Christ’s suffering, instead of asking, “Why
me?”, we might ask, “Why not me?”. I’ve
seen people who have endured what seems to be more than their fair share of
suffering, and I wonder why my life is so easy in comparison. I had a man in one of the churches I served
who knew the Bible very well. He had
large chunks memorized. He knew how much
the Bible talks about suffering and not being surprised when it occurs, but
rather that we should expect it. He
confessed that he felt he hadn’t had to suffer much in his life. He wasn’t particularly wealthy, but he had
plenty because he lived simply and frugally.
He lived John Wesley’s words, “Make all you can, save all you can, give
all you can.” He was incredibly
generous. He took Jesus’s words literally
about taking the homeless into your home, something he did at least 4 different
times. But as he was nearing the end of
his life, he realized that his life had been relatively easy, and it caused
some discomfort in him. Now I don’t know
that he prayed to suffer, but God definitely took his discomfort away. In his final 5 years, he saw one of his sons
die from cancer. He lost his mobility
and eventually lost both legs to lack of circulation, but he never acted like
he was miserable in suffering. He
embraced it, and he joyfully embraced when it came his time to die and meet
Jesus face to face. I don’t think we
have to pray for suffering to enter our lives, although I have heard of people
doing that. Then there are the ascetics
who caused themselves suffering to identify more with Christ. Rather, we shouldn’t be surprised at
suffering when it comes, and when it does come, if we think about our
sufferings as Christ’s sufferings, we can better endure it, and even know that
there is meaning in our suffering.
We don’t know if Simon knew much about
Jesus at all. He was a pilgrim to
Jerusalem, coming for the Passover feast.
He was from Cyrene, a city in northern Libya, less than 6 miles from the
Mediterranean Sea. He was a Jew. He could’ve come from a family that had been
part of an exiled group long ago, but if we think Simon is the same as Simeon
Niger from the book of Acts, which many scholars do, then he would have been a
convert to Judaism, part of a long-standing Jewish community in that city. His dark skin may have been a factor in the
soldiers pulling him from the crowd as he would have stood out. He was the father of two sons—Alexander and
Rufus.
Why do scholars think Simon of
Cyrene is Simeon Niger? Simon and Simeon
are the same name—one is Greek and the other Hebrew. It’s no different than Joe/Joseph, Jim/James,
Dot/Dorothy, Jen/Jennifer. One reason is
that Lucius of Cyrene is also named in Acts 13.
Both men were from the same city.
They had probably been part of the same synagogue, but now they are in
Antioch. Simeon obviously is
dark-skinned and perhaps Lucius was not.
Along with Barnabas, and Manaen, who grew up in a completely different
environment with Herod the tetrarch and Saul, whom Barnabas had brought to
Antioch were the prophets and teachers of the church. If we go back to Acts 11 we find more proof
that Simeon is Simon of Cyrene. After
Stephen was martyred, persecution against Christians in Jerusalem began to be more
intense. In verse 19 we read that
believers went to Phoenicia, Cyprus, and Antioch. Verse 20: “But there were some of them, men
of Cyprus, and Cyrene, who came to Antioch and began speaking to the Greeks
also, preaching the Lord Jesus.” In
other words, these Jewish background believers who had been in Jerusalem, but
who were originally from Cyprus, and Cyrene went to Antioch and started the
church there. The Jerusalem church sent
Barnabas to check it out. He did, and he
rejoiced at the thriving community in Christ he found there, so he went to
Tarsus, and got Saul, who had now become a believer and who had already spent 3
years in the desert being taught by Jesus, and took him to Antioch. They spent a year meeting and teaching with
the community at Antioch, and in verse 26, we read that “the disciples were
first called Christians at Antioch.” At
the end of the year, the Antioch Church took up an offering for the church in
Jerusalem because there was a famine in Judea.
They returned to Antioch with John
Mark. Mark is the one who tells us in
his gospel that Simon is the father of Rufus and Alexander. He would have met Simeon Niger in Antioch, so
again, more evidence that this is the same person. Paul also knows this family well, so when he
sends greetings to Rufus and his mother, who by the time Paul writes Romans,
they are in Rome, it is likely that this is now Rufus, Simon’s son, who is
grown. Paul writes Romans around 57 AD,
11 years after starting his first missionary journey. Somehow Rufus and his mom had already gone to
Rome, carrying on in the missionary tradition of Simon. Perhaps, he himself had gone, but had died by
the time Romans is written. We don’t
know what happened to Alexander. The
only Alexander mentioned is one in Ephesus, a coppersmith, who did Paul wrong,
and also was a false teacher. Hopefully,
this is not the other son of Simon!
After Paul and Barnabas return to
Antioch with John Mark, the church leaders including Simon of Cyrene, discern
through the Holy Spirit that Paul and Barnabas should be set apart for
missionary work.
We can see that Simon’s life was
radically changed from his carrying Christ’s cross. By the time we get to Acts 13, it is 13-16
years after the crucifixion of Jesus.
Simon chose not to return to Cyrene after that Passover feast. He may have been one of the 500 in the crowd
to whom Jesus appeared after He was raised from the dead. Obviously, Simon had embraced the
resurrection. He was probably a witness
at Pentecost and may have been filled with the Holy Spirit himself. He obviously had at some point. He was compelled to take the gospel to a
different place when persecution came.
Instead of going back home, he went north to Antioch taking the gospel
with him. Simon’s suffering with Christ gave him a missionary zeal to
share the gospel. It caused him to dive
deep into God’s word. It was something
that gave him a starting platform to tell others about Jesus.
When we carry the cross of Christ,
we are changed as well. It is in knowing
that our suffering is Christ’s suffering that we can better understand the
power of the resurrection. This is what
Paul says in Philippians 3:10-11. “I want to
know Christ—yes, to know the power of his resurrection and participation
in his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, 11 and
so, somehow, attaining to the resurrection from the dead.” Paul had suffered so much, and yet he was
still pressing into knowing Christ in both his death and resurrection. Sometimes it is the suffering itself that
changes us and makes us more effective witnesses for Christ. In II Corinthians 1:3-5, Paul writes, “Blessed
be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies and God
of all comfort, who comforts us in all our affliction, so that we may be able
to comfort those who are in any affliction, with the comfort with which we
ourselves are comforted by God. For as we share abundantly in Christ's
sufferings, so through Christ we share abundantly in comfort too.” Maybe you have had this experience where
coming through a major trial or tribulation, you say, “I wouldn’t want to go
through that ever again, but if I had to do my life over, I wouldn’t change
that because without that experience, I wouldn’t be who I today. Because I went through X, I can help people
who are struggling with the same thing or similar thing. I can share how God brought me through that,
and how God is faithful and never gives up on us.” Our sufferings can give us the same zeal to
tell others about Christ. We can even be
witnesses in the midst of suffering by the way we offer our sufferings in
solidarity with Christ, by not becoming bitter or vengeful or blaming God even
in the midst of pain and grief.
Finally,
when join our cross to Christ’s we can look forward to the same joy that Christ
had which is our eternal life with Him in the new heavens and new earth. The writer of Hebrews puts it this way in
Hebrews 13:12-14, “And so Jesus also suffered outside the city
gate to make the people holy through his own blood. 13 Let us, then, go to him outside the
camp, bearing the disgrace he bore. 14 For
here we do not have an enduring city, but we are looking for the city that
is to come.” We don’t get to choose what
cross we bear. We may be compelled to
carry the cross, like Simon was, but whatever our cross, we can know that
Christ is with us in our suffering, and we are with Him in His. Jesus didn’t bear the cross alone, and
neither do we. We can offer our suffering
up to God. In carrying our cross, which
is really Christ’s cross, we become more like Him.
Sunday, January 26, 2025
Tuesday, January 7, 2025
God's Guidance; Psalm 19, Matthew 2
When
we think of astrology verses astronomy, we think of the latter as scientific
and objective, and the former as mystical, superstitious or downright demonic. These divisions aren’t as clear as we might
think. Early astrologists made some
incredible scientific observations and discoveries, and modern astronomy isn’t
so divorced from religion. On my
conspiracy theory rabbit trail, I discovered that occultists were heavily
involved in the origins of NASA. Let me just say, Jack Parsons, and leave it at that. People
have worshipped the stars and planets as gods.
Others have tried to discover the mysteries of the stars so that they
could be gods. And many have looked to
the stars to know the will of God.
The stars do tell a story. The
constellations of the northern hemisphere have been recognized the same way
across cultures of the world but with different names. The Hebrew term for constellations of the
Zodiac is Mazzaroth. The Jewish calendar
is based on them. Each of the 12 tribes
of Israel were identified by one of them.
Psalm 19:1-4
says, “The
heavens declare the glory of God.
The skies proclaim the work of his hands. Day after day they pour forth speech; night
after night they reveal knowledge. They have no speech; they use no
words. No sound is heard from them, yet their voice goes out
into all the earth, their words to the ends of the world.” The heavens tell the
story from Creation to the new creation, and the ancient Israelites understood
them as such. It’s not so surprising
then that God would use the stars to tell of the birth of Jesus, since the
coming of Jesus to earth was always a part of God’s plan for the redemption of
humankind. God speaks through the heavenly bodies.
But the story found in the skies is not separate from God’s Word.
The second half of Psalm 19 speaks
of God’s law. For a long time, I thought
the jump from a psalm about creation to David abruptly switching subjects was
strange, almost as if they should be 2 different psalms, but it makes
sense. We can’t know what the stars mean
apart from the word, and creation adds a visual representation to what we hear
in the Word. In our gospel reading
today, we see God using both creation and word to guide the magi to Jesus. And the magi responded to God’s guidance
because they were seeking it. In their
conversation with Herod, and Herod’s consultation with the chief priests and
scribes we can see that both the stars and the word were used to determine
where the King of the Jews was to be born.
The magi clearly tell Herod that they have come to worship the new king,
who was not just a king, but Messiah.
Herod knows that this is a prediction of Messiah. The difference is that the magi were
expecting and looking for the Messiah and Herod and the chief priests and
scribes, who knew the prophecy about the Messiah weren’t looking for Him. They weren’t paying attention to the stars,
nor were they excited about His birth, but fearful. God was speaking all along. Those who were seeking His guidance heard and
followed.
God still speaks. The book of Hebrews opens with the words,
“God, after He spoke long ago to the ancestors in the prophets, at many times
and in various ways, in these last days has spoken to us through His Son whom
He appointed heir of all things, and through whom He made the world.” Jesus is the revelation of God. He is the One
to whom the stars point. He is the one
of whom the Scriptures speak. I had a
Bible teacher once whose answer to people who want to know what God’s will for
their life was would say, “Jesus Christ is God’s will for your life.” What does that mean? Obviously, it is to believe in Him for
salvation, but it is more than that.
Romans 8:29 says that God has planned for us to be “conformed to the
image of His Son.” In Philippians 2,
Paul exhorts us to have the mind of Christ, which in I Corinthians 2:16 he says
we already have. In other words, we are
to think like Christ, which we can do because He has given us His mind. We are also to act like Christ. What does it mean to act like Christ? We go back to the Scriptures, particularly
the gospels to see how lived. Jesus
Himself told us to do things like love one another—His most repeated command,
forgive one another, serve one another, love our enemies and bless them. It’s not always that hard to figure out what
God is saying to us.
Jesus also said He and the Father would speak to
us by the Holy Spirit whom Jesus sent to live in us. Jesus told us that the Holy Spirit would lead
us into all truth. The Holy Spirit also
guides us by convicting us when we are not doing what God is telling us to
do. How do we hear what the Holy Spirit
is saying to us? We hear through the
Spirit illuminating our consciences. We
hear through the same communication channels that God used to guide the wise
men—the written word and creation and through other people. I was visiting
George this week, and we were talking about God speaking to us. He mentioned how God has used His word to
speak to him, when he has run across the right verse at the right time or how
sometimes it’s just a little phrase, maybe of 4 words that sticks out. He talked how a verse can have one
application at one time and a different application at another time. When it comes to God speaking through people,
we can infer that the magi consulted with each other as to what star meant and
the way they should go. We also seeing
them consulting with the Jewish religious leaders through Herod. Sometimes God speaks through people who
aren’t seeking Him, and in fact, are resistant to Him. God can speak through anyone or
anything. It is the Holy Spirit who
helps us to hear the message God is speaking through an unknowing or even
hostile messenger without their knowledge.
Have you ever heard God speak through an unlikely person? Of course, God speaks through other believers
as well. Proverbs speaks of getting
counsel from other people. Proverbs 11:14, “Where there is no guidance, a people falls, but in an
abundance of counselors there is safety.”
Proverbs 12:15 “The way of a fool is right in his own eyes, but a wise
man is he who listens to counsel.” And Proverbs 15:22 “Without consultation,
plans are frustrated, but with many counselors they succeed.”
Another way we can hear God speak to us is through prayer. Our text doesn’t tell us that the magi
prayed, but it is certainly a communication channel offered to them. We do see them worshipping Jesus. Worshipping is a form of prayer but prayer
also involves listening to God.
Sometimes God speaks to us in prayer through silence. Sometimes God speaks to us in prayer through
action, by answering our prayer even in the moment. Sometimes God speaks to us in prayer through
our own words that as we speak, we get clarification for God’s direction for
our lives.
God also speaks to us through circumstances. There are events in our lives where things
come together in such a way that we know God is speaking to us. The right opening comes at the right time. Sometimes God speaks to us to take an
action. Sometimes God speaks to us so
that we will stop and rest in Him. Sometimes
God speaks to us through circumstances just so that we will know His love and
care for us. I have God use
circumstances in all three ways at various times.
You really know God is speaking to you when multiple things come
together at once. You read something in
Scripture, then you might hear something about what you read on a radio program
or in conversation with a friend, then circumstances come together to reinforce
it, then you pray about it, and it is very clear what God is up to in your
life.
There is a saying that you often see on Christmas cards or bumper stickers that says, “Wise men still seek Him.” This is true! Those who are wise seek God and those who want to be wise will seek God. God is still speaking. God isn’t silent. God wants to be found. God reveals Himself in various ways, but we have to be paying attention. Probably most of us do not make New Year’s resolutions anymore, but one thing we can commit to seeking to be more like Jesus, which we can do when we follow God’s guidance. May we always to listen to God’s voice. To that end, I have made us star words for this year. Each has a Scripture verse and a word. Maybe God will speak to you through the verse, the word, or both as you meditate on it. You might want to put it on your refrigerator or mirror or keep it in your Bible. Let God guide you this year through the Word, Creation, prayer, circumstances, and people.