“This Is The Free Food And Drink Of The Lord”

            Isaiah 55:1 “Come, everyone who thirsts, come to the waters; and he who has no money, come, buy and eat! Come, buy wine and milk without money and without price. 

            Food, wine, milk, and free!  Wow!  Sign me up; where do I go to get this?  You can try to interpret this statement many ways; however there is only one way to interpret this verse and it has nothing to do with physical food.   Chapters 40-49 is speaking of the end of the Babylonian Captivity for the Israelites, and chapters 50- 55 is speaking of the redemption of the Israelites.  After some years in captivity the Lord redeems His people and brings them out of their captivity and back into the Promised Land.  Like the Israelites God does the same for us daily.

            We are captive of our sin and it happens daily.  We might start off the day good, but by the end of the day we have been taken into custody and enslaved by our sinful nature.  Not you, you say?  Well all it takes is the first cuss word, or maybe a wrongful anger, or a little lie, and unfortunately the list of little things can go on.  You might start off with the little things, but as the day goes on it might grow into something more harmful like gossip.  Telling a few things here and there about somebody, or expressing your feeling about someone might not seem bad at the time, unless you meant to do them, and sometimes we do, but in the end what seemed so innocent becomes a captivity we can’t get out of on our own.  So, God offers you some free food and drink for good health and a beverage to lift one’s spirit.  It’s free, come eat, it comes from the love of God.

            Isaiah 55:2 Why do you spend your money for that which is not bread, and your labor for that which does not satisfy?

Listen diligently to me, and eat what is good, and delight yourselves in rich food.

            Does gossip bring you joy, does expressing your feeling, filling an agenda of mayhem fill you with true satisfaction?  Certainly when you hurt it does not feel good to you, and when you know you have hurt someone else that too does not feel good to you.  When one gets angry, they hurt themselves more than they hurt the one they stay angry at.  Sulking never brings satisfaction, and worrying never solves a problem or brings satisfaction.  And most of all not forgiving someone hurts the one who withholds the forgiveness many times more than the one you withhold the forgiveness from.  Do you realize that worrying and not being forgiving is a sin too?  Read Matthew 6:15 and 18:35 hearing God’s word is more than just hearing a sound.  The Greek word (Akouo) for listening means to hear, to know and understand, and to heed.  I wish everyone read and studied the bible in the Greek language.

            Isaiah 55:3 Incline your ear, and come to me; hear, that your soul may live; and I will make with you an everlasting covenant, my steadfast, sure love for David.

            David was with the lord long before Isaiah was born and the Israelites were coming out of the Babylonian captivity.  Redemption is promised, and more than just forgiveness, but also life, and more than just life, but also salvation.  God looks down on His people and through His mighty love He forgives them the sin that put them into the captivity.  The captivity punished one generation and through another generation God’s mercy and grace prevailed.  It is like a rebirth as the old Adam is replaced with the new creation, which comes from Christ’s work on the cross.

            Isaiah 55:4 Behold, I made him a witness to the peoples, a leader and commander for the peoples.

            Christ came and witnessed firsthand what it was like to feel the same temptations each one of us feels.  Jesus Christ also witnessed to all of the Israelites and continues to witness to all people of all nations.  What Jesus Christ witnessed then and witnesses now is God’s love for His chosen people then and all those He chooses now.  What Christ did on the cross was not just die, but He also invites us to be with Him in the paradise that He and the Father has created and prepared for us all.  I am speaking to you the believer in Christ’s gift for you know this gift is free and we did not have to pay for or purchase this gift of joy.  I also speak to those who do not believe for this gift is for you too and God’s Holy Spirit is speaking to you so that you too may become believers and have the same eternal life gift that we believers confess.

            Isaiah 55:5 Behold, you shall call a nation that you do not know, and a nation that did not know you shall run to you, because of the Lord your God, and of the Holy One of Israel, for he has glorified you.

            God invites all nations through the Holy One called Christ our risen Lord.  And the glory of the Lord is that Jesus Christ died for our sins so that the invitation of eternal life and relationship with God can be given to all people in all nations under the one kingdom of God.  This is the free food and drink of the Lord.  Amen.

“Christ Changes Weeds Into The Fruit Of Good Seed”

            Matthew 13:24–26 ²⁴[Jesus] put another parable before them, saying, “The kingdom of heaven may be compared to a man who sowed good seed in his field, ²⁵but while his men were sleeping, his enemy came and sowed weeds among the wheat and went away. ²⁶So when the plants came up and bore grain, then the weeds appeared also.

            Last week’s Gospel reading Matthew 13:1-9, 18-23 was about sowing seeds along the path, on rocky ground, among thorny plants, and in good soil.  This passage is about the faith of a Christian and why it is so important to understand the word of God.  There are some people who do devotional readings daily and you know who you are and I know who you are.  There are some who read and study the Holy Scriptures and you know who you are and I know who you are too.  And, God knows who takes the time to get to know Him through His word and who does not.  The truth is we all have the time to get to know God but don’t take the time to get to know our God.  And those who do have great joy added to their life, I know because it has added joy to mine.

            The first seed we read about in Matthew 13:4 and 18, 19 was thrown on a well beaten path, our world is that well beaten path.  Here we are on a path making decisions based on little or no information, and the evil one uses that to tempt our hearts to think that we have no need to understand God.  It is the hard truth, what you don’t know is a gamble of consequences.  The evil one says different, he says hey unless you see the problem slap you in the face then don’t worry about.  The evil one says if you do have a problem then blame God.  The evil one also says, life is short take all you can get now for you don’t know what tomorrow will bring or take away.  The evil one never considers the eternal salvation our God has gifted us with through His grace and mercy.

            We are the field of both good seed and weeds, and our weeds are working against God in us.  The world is also made up of good seed and bad weeds who can be changed by Christ into the fruit of the good seed.

            John 17:23 ²³ I in them and you in me, that they may become perfectly one, so that the world may know that you sent me and loved them even as you loved me.

            Without Jesus dying on the cross, that is to say, suffering the punishment for our sins, we would be all subject to the law.  The law demands the consequence of death for any and all sin, so we all stand as weeds condemned by the law.  Not one of us has held the up the law perfectly.  With the law we have no hope because we all stand condemned to eternal death.  But take heart. We have a God who loves us and through His works we are of good seed.

            John 17:26 ²⁶ I made known to them your name, and I will continue to make it known, that the love with which you have loved me may be in them, and I in them.”

            John 16:33 ³³ I have said these things to you, that in me you may have peace. In the world you will have tribulation. But take heart; I have overcome the world.”

            In this world we certainly have our tribulations, and in ourselves we have our weeds.  Our world is made up of good seed and bad weeds; we too are made up of good seed and bad weeds. Our weeds are our sin and the good seed is our Lord.  For the world the good seed is the believer, and the bad weeds are the unbeliever who can be changed by Christ and the Holy Spirit.  Christ is in us because He did die on the cross for our sins, and the forgiveness Christ has gifted us with is for all.  We cannot stand against the law on our own; Jesus Christ has given us that gift of forgiveness by His choice to die for our sins through His grace and mercy.

            Ephesians 2:8 ⁸ For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God,

            Titus 3:5 ⁵ he saved us, not because of works done by us in righteousness, but according to his own mercy, by the washing of regeneration and renewal of the Holy Spirit,

            Yes we have to believe to be saved, but that belief comes from the Holy Spirit working within us.  But we are not saved by our belief alone.  It is the works of our Lord Jesus Christ and the Holy Spirit that justifies our belief to the Father.  Without Christ dying on the cross for our sins we would have to be justified by the law through keeping it perfectly.  However we have Christ who died for our sins, who justifies us to the Father.  So through Christ first dying on the cross and the belief that we received through the regeneration of the Holy Spirit we are saved through the grace of God.

            See the good news is that Christ takes a weed and turns it to wheat, this is something we cannot do.  When you stop and really think about it Jesus is saving us everyday changing our weeds into wheat for the harvest that will put us in heaven.  Though the sad part is some will refuse the gift of God’s grace and mercy many will not refuse this gift.  This is awesome; our Christ Jesus who loves us all died on the cross for all, so that we may all have the hope of salvation and then brings us to believe in His salvation for us.

“Gangway to Galilee”

Isaiah 43:1 ¹But now thus says the Lord, he who created you, O Jacob, he who formed you, O Israel: “Fear not, for I have redeemed you; I have called you by name, you are mine.
            We sometimes might not realize that God has called everyone to be His, most of the time it is in our actions or rather in the lack of our actions.  Jesus called the twelve apostles from their place of work and asked them to follow Him.  Some of these workers were fishermen like Simon Peter, Andrew, James and John.

The people that Jesus called were not rich or well-known but rather they were much like you and me who have to work hard at making a living and to feed and clothe our families.  Ordinary people, that is who God calls, and through His call we become more than ordinary, we become the children of God.  Because we are the children of God we get to share in the same inheritance of our Lord Jesus Christ the only begotten Son of God, which is in the gift of eternal life and relationship with God.

Psalm 25:5 ⁵Lead me in your truth and teach me, for you are the God of my salvation; for you I wait all the day long.
            We also do not realize that God does give us the means to understand Him, which is through His Holy Scriptures.  Moses, the Prophets, and even our Lord Jesus Christ teaches us about God’s interaction with us.  Jesus especially teaches us of God’s great love for all of us who are descendants of Adam and Eve and also Noah and his wife.  Jesus teaches us about the great love of God and how salvation works to adopt us out of our captivity in sin and bring us into salvation as God’s children.

Jesus taught the fisherman to listen to God and they will be successful in all they do.  When Jesus told them to put their nets down in the same waters that did not allow them to catch fish the fisherman caught more than they could handle.  The other lesson was that the fish they caught were so many they had to share the load with other fishermen in other boats.

Romans 1:7 ⁷To all those in Rome who are loved by God and called to be saints: Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.
            Do you realize that God keeps us safe from the evil one and from our own sinful nature?  God gives us freedom to do as we will however sin takes some of that freedom away.  Because sin takes away part of our freedom sin is the major cause of our suffering.  It is the consequences of sin that we suffer sometimes being our own sin and sometimes being the sin of others.  In other words God does not punish us and make us suffer for our sins, the consequences of our sins do that.  God hopes that the consequence teach us so that we can work our way out of sin.

Unfortunately our sinful nature doesn’t go away, but the good news is that God knows this and delivers us peace.  The peace God delivers us is through the forgiveness that was bought by Jesus dying for our sins on the cross.    Christ’s death keeps us safe from the slavery we have to sin and its consequences.

Jesus calmed the storm for the apostles who were afraid they would perish.  We have a world that fears they will die and be forgotten.  The truth, with salvation Jesus has calmed the storm and gives safety from our fears.  Through eternal life we will be kept safe even from being forgotten.

Matthew 14:27 ²⁷But immediately Jesus spoke to them, saying, “Take heart; it is I. Do not be afraid.”
            Peter walked on water until he lost faith due to giving into his fears.  If Peter had not lost faith he would have reached Jesus and stood beside him as if he were on solid ground.  We all would love to have that great faith that we too could walk on water.  It must be possible to walk on water even for us because Peter did it even for a short time.  But we are very much like Peter our faith starts out strong and falters on the way.

Did you notice that Jesus rescued Peter?  Though Peter’s faith had faltered Jesus did not let Peter drown.  Jesus does the same for us too, if our faith should falter, and it does, Jesus is there to rescue us so that we too do not drown.  At the time of Noah many people did drown because they turned their back on God completely, but for Noah and his family God rescued them as He will do for us also.

Ephesians 2:8 ⁸For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God,
            Do you have any Fish?  Again the Apostles (Fishermen) listened to Jesus and caught many fish (153 to be exact).  When we listen to Jesus we will always find that He will provide what we are striving for.  What every person strives for is salvation whether they believe in that Christ is our savior or not.  Jesus Christ is our savior and what He wants us to listen to is this, Christ has saved us. He shows us the way to our salvation through Him.  Do you hear Him calling you by name?  Amen.

“Only one Master”

            Matthew 11:25–27 ²⁵At that time Jesus declared, “I thank you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, that you have hidden these things from the wise and understanding and revealed them to little children; ²⁶yes, Father, for such was your gracious will. ²⁷All things have been handed over to me by my Father, and no one knows the Son except the Father, and no one knows the Father except the Son and anyone to whom the Son chooses to reveal him.

            Isn’t it just awesome that we get to worship our Lord?  It’s great that we have such a wonderful, great and awesome Lord who deserves to be worshiped if for no other reason than the awesome gift of salvation He has bestowed on all believers.

            The only wisdom in this world is the one who has mastered the word of God.  I’m sure some might disagree with me on this analogy.  There are certainly those who might claim to be masters of God’s word, most of which might show you their degrees in theology.  Of course there are also many who do not read or study God’s word and think they are wise and even think they are wiser than God’s word.  But I stick to what I believe.  The only wisdom in this world comes from the one who has mastered God’s word and that is Jesus Christ.

            Jesus is the only wisdom in this world as He is the only person who has mastered God’s word.  I am not saying that there is no one who knows God’s word, certainly there are many who do know of God’s word, but there are no masters except one.  Jesus Christ the master of God’s word is thanking His Father Lord of heaven and earth that He has hidden all things from those who are conceited in what they think they know, that is, the self acclaimed wise.  Jesus is also thanking His Father that all is revealed to all of those who are humbled like a child who know that they do not know all things and certainly are not masters of anything.  Once all is revealed a child will remain humbled because they know they have not mastered the knowledge revealed to them.

            Who stays a child forever?  My wife might call out my name as one who is still a child, but the truth is like the rest of the world I am still a teenager.  Yes an old teenager, but the fact remains once we became teenagers we never stopped rebelling against God no matter how old we got.  Of course an adult, that is, one who has fully matured would not rebel, but which of us can claim to be a fully matured adult?  Saying we are a fully matured adult would be like saying we have no sin. (1 John 1:8)

            Matthew 11:28–30 ²⁸Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. ²⁹Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. ³⁰For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.”

            We look at taking our Lord Jesus Christ’s yoke and seldom think of it as something easy or that it is a light burden.  The truth is that our Lord Jesus Christ’s yoke is our salvation and what could be easier to take than something we do not have to work for because it is a Gift Christ has willingly given us?  Christ then talks about His burden which He has taken the weight of all of our burden of sin upon Himself and therefore made our burden light.  Christ has taken on our entire burden and this would appear to make His burden heavy.  However, it is His love for the Father and for us that make that burden He has lightened for us to be light for Him too.

            This is great and awesome; this is why it is so great that we get to worship our Lord and Savior.  Christ has done all of the work for our salvation, and now He calls us to learn from Him.  What shall we learn?  We should learn of His great love, want, and will for us all, that is for believers and those He is working to help become believers.  Our Father in heaven has given us His wisdom mastered in His Holy Scripture for us to glean all the joy He wants us to have through it.  But it’s like the old adage, “God inspired a Book, sent them to Sunday School, show them your love, and they still rebel and learn nothing.  We are certainly not the masters of God’s word.   However…

            Zechariah 9:11–12 ¹¹As for you also, because of the blood of my covenant with you, I will set your prisoners free from the waterless pit.  ¹²Return to your stronghold, O prisoners of hope; today I declare that I will restore to you double.

            The great news is Christ is the master of God’s word and through mastering God’s word Christ has brought us God’s love.  Christ mastered God’s word and bought us out of the bondage of sin and the law.  And, Christ mastered God’s word and gave us the gift of salvation through His very own body and blood.  Isn’t it great?  We get to worship our Lord.  We have much to thank our God for because He brings us joy in this life, Christ brings us salvation for the next life, and through the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit we will receive a joy restored double through a true eternal relationship and life with our God.  Amen.