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Today’s devotion is based on the Message: Purpose Revealed (Watch Here)

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Sent to forgive!

What am I supposed to do?

This is an honest question when someone sends us someplace.

Go to the grocery store and pick up eggs and milk.

Go to the locker room and change your clothes for practice.

Go to the home improvement store and get a pipe to fix the sprinklers.

When we are sent, there is a purpose.

Go and forgive or not forgive sins.

Who?

Me?

Yes, you.  

Jesus sent his disciples, his followers with the following words:

John 20:21 Again Jesus said, “Peace be with you! As the Father has sent me, I am sending you.” 22 And with that he breathed on them and said, “Receive the Holy Spirit. 23 If you forgive anyone’s sins, their sins are forgiven; if you do not forgive them, they are not forgiven.”

What is implied in these words is the assumption they knew both what forgiveness was and when to forgive AND when not to forgive sins.

For us, perhaps the easier is knowing when to forgive sins.  In fact we are probably taught that whenever someone does sin against us, we are to forgive them their sins.

But what about times when we say to some, “Your sins are not forgiven.”

The times I’ve had to say this are rare, but the impact of the words are deep.

Who are we to announce to someone that their sin is not forgiven? Isn’t that being judgmental?

Is it judgmental to yell at a child running into the street after a ball, “Stop!  Don’t go into the street?”  Is it judgmental to tell someone that their drug addiction is going to eventually kill them and lose everything important to them?

No it’s not.  In love we warn these individuals because we know the path they are on are physically and emotionally destructive.  We LOVE them enough to warn them.  They may or may not listen, but the motivation is one of love.

When we withhold the pronouncement of forgiveness, we are doing so because someone is breaking the law of God, not our own preferences, or church traditions, but God’s holy law.  We know with certainty what Paul said in Galatians 5:19-21:

The acts of the sinful nature are obvious: sexual immorality, impurity and debauchery; 20 idolatry and witchcraft; hatred, discord, jealousy, fits of rage, selfish ambition, dissensions, factions 21 and envy; drunkenness, orgies, and the like. I warn you, as I did before, that those who live like this will not inherit the kingdom of God. 

“I warn you…” Paul says.

Warnings are given because love desires to prevent someone from harm.

When we, on the basis of God’s law, tell someone “Your sins are not forgiven,” we are warning them that if they are to persist in their sin, they will miss out on the kingdom of God, heaven.

That’s a big deal…a very big deal!

Jesus wants all to be saved and come to a knowledge of the truth.  He does not desire the death of the wicked, but that all would call on him and be saved.  The heart of Jesus is to guide people away from sin to the peace that only he can give.

To do that, we must be willing, in love, to not only say, “You are forgiven,” but also be willing to warn with the words, “You are not forgiven.”

Jesus sends us to do both because he loves us and every soul whom we meet.

Apply: How do these words of Jesus reframe your thoughts about withholding forgiveness from someone?

Prayer:  Lord Jesus, thank you for loving us enough to warn us of the serious consequences of sin and loving us enough to forgive our sins to give our hearts peace.  Help us with discernment and confidence to announce forgiveness or the lack there of. AMEN

Today’s devotion is based on the Message: Purpose Revealed (Watch Here)

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Sent.

Many of us have been sent to do something.

Your spouse is cooking and missing an ingredient…you are sent to the grocery store.

A family member is arriving at the airport…you are sent to pick them up.

A child is sick at school…you are sent to bring them home.

When someone sends us, they send us with a purpose…even if that purpose is to leave and never come back!

What is ironic about Jesus’ appearance to his disciples the night of the resurrection, is that the focus of his appearing was two-fold.  First to show concrete evidence that he was alive and second to send them.

John 20:19 On the evening of that first day of the week, when the disciples were together, with the doors locked for fear of the Jews, Jesus came and stood among them and said, “Peace be with you!” 20 After he said this, he showed them his hands and side. The disciples were overjoyed when they saw the Lord. 

21 Again Jesus said, “Peace be with you! As the Father has sent me, I am sending you.” 22 And with that he breathed on them and said, “Receive the Holy Spirit. 23 If you forgive anyone his sins, they are forgiven; if you do not forgive them, they are not forgiven.” 

The sending was predicated on the evidence.

They would not go if they were afraid.

They would not go if they were not convinced.

But with those things taken care of, Jesus sent them.

Yes, the disciples who fled in the garden…he sent.

The disciple who denied him…he sent.

The disciple that had cheated people…he sent.

The disciple who was an insurrectionist…he sent.

Why were they qualified?

Because they all had experienced the forgiving grace of God.  Jesus didn’t come to reprimand them (although he could have).  He came to send them.

To do what?

Forgive sins or withhold forgiveness.

Grounded in understanding and personal experience, they were being sent to warn the sinner of the seriousness of their sin and announce the joy of forgiveness to the one who was grieving because of their sin.

The cry of “It is finished!” from the cross was the assurance that the payment for sin was complete.  The resurrection of Jesus was the proof that the payment was accepted.

Romans 4:25 He was delivered over to death for our sins and was raised to life for our justification. 

Ones who had experienced the grace of God, Jesus now sent to proclaim the grace of God.

The same is true for us.

Jesus steps into our world to communicate peace, joy and grace.  He appears to us to give us peace of mind and then send us to bring peace through forgiveness to others.

Did you know this was your purpose?

After belief in the Lord Jesus as the Son of God, our Savior, the next purpose Jesus gives us is to proclaim his forgiveness to the world.

To whom will you go?

Apply: Think of one person in your sphere of influence who needs Jesus.  How might you begin a conversation of forgiveness and grace with them?

Prayer: Lord Jesus, thank you for your forgiving grace. Help me to confidently share that with others.  AMEN.

Today’s devotion is based on the Message: Purpose Revealed (Watch Here)

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The first and foremost purpose that God desires to happen in our lives is that we “believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God and that by believing we may have life in his name.”

Yet, this is challenging for some to do.

Why?

Let me address one of the reasons that people object to the Christian faith: I follow science, not faith.

A short devotion cannot fully explore this, but let me put forward one thing: Both are based on evidence.

When I was in elementary school, we learned that science is the practice of gaining knowledge through observation.  The scientific method consisted of the combination of observation, experimentation and conclusions.

I like science.  If I wasn’t a pastor, I’d probably have pursued something in math or science.  

But here’s what I’ve come to realize.  The things that the Bible invites us to believe are based on facts, based on evidence.

Just like in science, there are experiments and things that others have done in the past that are relied on for current activity and experimentation, so the evidences of the Christian faith have been well documented and recorded for us to put our confidence in today.

Jesus wanted to make sure that his followers had a belief that was firmly rooted in observable and personally experienced facts.

One of many examples is the disciple Thomas.

The evening of the resurrection, he wasn’t with the other disciples.  They reported that Jesus was alive.  He didn’t believe it.  He wanted to use his own senses to validate it…see it…touch it.

He certainly could have believed his fellow disciples, but for whatever reason he didn’t.

So Jesus came to Thomas to dispel his doubts.

John 20:26 A week later his disciples were in the house again, and Thomas was with them. Though the doors were locked, Jesus came and stood among them and said, “Peace be with you!” 27 Then he said to Thomas, “Put your finger here; see my hands. Reach out your hand and put it into my side. Stop doubting and believe.”

28 Thomas said to him, “My Lord and my God!”

This is just one example of the Lord Jesus ensuring that our faith is not a “blind faith” that is based on no evidence.  Who Jesus is and what he has done are well documented events of history.  The scientific evidence affirms he was dead and was alive.  These things were observed and although they defied the “laws” of life and death, this too is a strong evidence that Jesus was the Son of God.

But here’s Jesus’ words to us.  He wanted to Thomas to believe so he showed himself to him.  But in showing himself to Thomas, he was also giving evidence of his resurrection to all of us so that we can believe without personally seeing him or touching his wounds.

John 20:29 Then Jesus told him, “Because you have seen me, you have believed; blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed.”

So if you are a science, evidence, proof person…give the person and work of Jesus an honest look, and you will find I am sure, as I did, we have many strong proofs behind what we are invited to believe.

So believe and live in confidence.  Jesus is your living Savior!

Apply: What questions of faith do you have?  Feel free to email me at pastorgeiger@gmail.com and I’d be happy to help find an answer!

Prayer: Lord Jesus, thank you for connecting with all of the doubters with the evidence of your person and work so that we would believe with confident faith that you are the Christ, the Son of the Living God! AMEN

Today’s devotion is based on the Message: Purpose Revealed (Watch Here)

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John 20:30 Jesus performed many other signs in the presence of his disciples, which are not recorded in this book. 31 But these are written that you may believe[b] that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name.

Yesterday and today I have been enjoying a Pastor’s conference at Camp Shiloh Lutheran Retreat Center near Pittsburg Texas.  The theme of the conference centers on marking the 40 years of history of our South Central District of the WELS (Wisconsin Evangelical Lutheran Synod.)  Our essay today covered the history of the start of congregations in Dallas, Edna and others that were the foundation to the beginning of what we have today as over 7000 souls in our district.

As we discussed the paper, encouragement was given for us as individual congregations to save records and history to preserve the story of God’s grace and the spread of it in the communities around our areas.

One of the questions that was posed was this, “What should we save?”  Another person commented, “I have boxes of council minutes and bulletins from every week for years.  Do you want all that?

The one giving the essay said, “While the suggestion is to focus on the big events, you can send things in and let the archivist determine what is kept and what is discarded.

Any archivist or historian has to work their way through a lot of information to write the story of history.  Every history account has a purpose in writing.  (Which reminds me of a college assignment where we had to read five books or so on a part of Russian history and critically analyze the author’s purpose and bias.)  Every bit of history that is recorded probably has 5-10 other events that are lost to history.

So I wonder how many signs and wonders Jesus actually did.  How many did “not make the cut” of John’s Gospel?  We probably will never know unless we remember to ask John when we get to heaven.

However, what is not recorded is really not the point, because even if every sign that Jesus performed WERE recorded, it wouldn’t change anything about him and his teaching.  Each one of them had a singular purpose:

So that you may believe that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God and that by believing you may have life in his name.

John’s purpose was Jesus’ purpose.

Jesus performed signs so people would see the validation to his spoken message and believe he was the promised Messiah.

John recorded these signs so people would have evidence that Jesus was the promised Messiah and the Son of God.

It all had a purpose.

It all has a purpose.

John, under the direction of the Holy Spirit, wrote the things he did so that every one of us could be certain that he was who he said he was – the Messiah, the Son of God.

Our purpose for being on this earth and reading the Words of Jesus are to believe.  The Lord Jesus simply wants us to put our faith in him.  To trust him to be the Savior of our sin.

There is no greater thing that has been preserved for us to read: the account of Jesus our Savior, so we might read and believe!

 

Apply: What miracles of Jesus resonate most with you to validate he is the Messiah, the Son of God?

Prayer: Lord Jesus, thank you for not only performing the signs, but ensuring they were recorded in the history of the Gospels so that we too might believe you are the Messiah, the son of God, our Savior.  AMEN.

Today’s devotion is based on the Message: Purpose Revealed (Watch Here)

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Jesus knew he only had 40 days.

What would you do with 40 days if you knew at the end you would be headed to heaven?

You could check your “bucket list” and try to finish things that were on there.

You probably would spend as much time with your family and closest friends.

You would probably make sure your affairs were in order.

There would probably also be things you wouldn’t do.

You probably wouldn’t spend time work a job you weren’t interested in.

You probably wouldn’t spend a ton of time being angry about the past or people from the past.

You probably wouldn’t spend effort on people that had little impact in your life.

What we see in Jesus is a laser focus to do three things with the time he had before he went back to heaven.

1. Ensure his closest followers knew with certainty that he was alive.
2. Communicate clearly the teachings of the Scripture and his fulfillment of them.
3. Convey his trust and confidence on his disciples to carry the mission of the Gospel to the ends of the earth.

Jesus wanted his disciples to understand with clarity their purpose once he was gone.  When he appeared to his disciples, he made six statements of their purpose:

To the disciples in the upper room the evening of the resurrection:

John 20:21 Again Jesus said, “Peace be with you! As the Father has sent me, I am sending you.” 22 And with that he breathed on them and said, “Receive the Holy Spirit. 23 If you forgive anyone his sins, they are forgiven; if you do not forgive them, they are not forgiven.” 

To Peter personally:

John 21:17 Jesus said, “Feed my sheep.

To the disciples:

Luke 24:44 He said to them, “This is what I told you while I was still with you: Everything must be fulfilled that is written about me in the Law of Moses, the Prophets and the Psalms.” 

45 Then he opened their minds so they could understand the Scriptures. 46 He told them, “This is what is written: The Christ will suffer and rise from the dead on the third day, 47 and repentance and forgiveness of sins will be preached in his name to all nations, beginning at Jerusalem. 48 You are witnesses of these things. 

Matthew 28:18 Then Jesus came to them and said, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. 19 Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, 20 and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.” 

Mark 16:15 He said to them, “Go into all the world and preach the good news to all creation. 16 Whoever believes and is baptized will be saved, but whoever does not believe will be condemned.

Acts 1:8 But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.” 

He was done healing.  He was done teaching.  Jesus wanted to make sure his followers understood their purpose:  Be his witnesses that proclaim the Gospel.

His purpose for his followers hasn’t changed.

 

Apply: How can you embrace the purpose Jesus gives to be a carrier of the Gospel in your interactions today?

Prayer: Lord Jesus, thank you for entrusting me with the powerful message of your grace in the Gospel.  Help me to carry and proclaim it with clarity and confidence.  AMEN.