The psalmist encourages us to give thanks to the Lord for He is good, for His steadfast love, compassion, goodness, lovingkindness, grace and mercy never ends (Psalm 107:1). After this encouragement to give thanks to the Lord, the psalmist mentions four different groups of people who are returning from exile. We looked at the first of these four groups a few weeks ago, but since I missed the past two weeks, we will be looking at the other three groups today. Just like we saw with the first group of returning exiles in Psalm 107, each of these groups find themselves in a difficult situation, then they cry out to the Lord in their trouble, and the Lord delivers them from their distress. Each time, the psalmist follows this up with these words: “Let them thank the Lord for his steadfast love, for his wondrous works to the children of man!” (Psalm 107:8).
We will be continuing our study from Psalm 107 today—focusing in on the concept of the Lord’s HESED to those who have been exiled from the Promised Land. The concept of restoration is a big part of Psalm 107. In this psalm, the author declares that the restoration is available through God’s HESED even to those in despair.
For the next six weeks, we will be studying through Psalm 107 with a particular focus on the steadfast love (HESED) of God. This Hebrew word is one of the most difficult words to translate because of the depth and breadth of its meaning. This Hebrew word carries the sense of an enduring connection that brings life and all good things into a relationship. In Psalm 107:1, HESED is translated thirteen different ways in English Bibles—love, favor, grace, mercy, kindness, goodness, loyal-love, compassion, benevolence, faithful-love, gracious-love, steadfast-love, and lovingkindness. HESED means all of those things and even more!
My goal today is to focus on some of the events from the last half of the week, but I hope to do this by seeing these events through the eyes of one of Jesus’ closest followers—Simon Peter. Throughout the Passion Week, Simon Peter seems to be involved in everything that is happening—which is sometimes good and sometimes not so good. As we consider all these things that he said and did during these last few hours of Jesus’ life, I hope to be able to portray not only his words and actions but also his implied thoughts and feelings. I will not overly-dramatize the text of Scripture to make it say something that it does not say, but I will attempt—when possible—to analyze the text of these gospels to help us see and feel what Simon Peter is experiencing. We’ll begin where Pastor John left off last week—in the Upper Room where Jesus and His disciples celebrated the Passover on Thursday evening.
Jesus knew when, where, and how we was going to die. Which meant that Jesus would have been intentional with the time He spent on this Earth. And you have to think that the closer that He came to this week, he’d really be intentional with who He spent with and what He said and did. Today we are going to explore the time he spent Zacchaeus, as well as, His actions on Palm Sunday.
In this final section of our study, we will be dealing with some practical instructions for the Christian life. The author addresses several topics in this passage—such as not growing weary in living for Christ, but persevering; living a life of peace, holiness and grace, not allowing bitterness to take root in your heart; and avoid sexual immorality and any instant gratification.
In every generation Christians face opposition that works against lifelong perseverance in following Jesus. Sometimes the “hostility of sinners” is expressed verbally and socially. Sometimes matters escalate to financial hardship, physical harm, imprisonment, and even death. But God gives us strong reasons to run with endurance the race of faith laid out in front of us: the abundant testimony of those who ran ahead of us; the courageous example and loving self-sacrifice of faith’s founder and perfecter, Jesus; and the Father’s encouragement that our present pains as we struggle to hold fast to faith signal his loving acceptance and fit his flawless plan for our eternal well-being. Looking to Jesus and recalling our Father’s encouragement supply the stamina to run the race to the finish line. (Excerpt from the ESV Expository Commentary, Volume 12)
Last week, we finished up Hebrews 11—the Faith Chapter. So, today we will be studying from Hebrews 12:1-2. In order to discover what the Bible is teaching us from this passage to be able to apply these truths to life, I will be utilizing our six interrogative words—who, what, when, where, why and how. The first thing we see in verse one is the word “therefore.” So, as always, anytime we see the word “therefore,” we need to remember all that the author has just written and consider what is coming in light of everything he has just said. So, in light of this synopsis of the lives of many great heroes of the faith, God wants us to live our lives by faith. Let’s dive into these two verses to discover six essential components for living by faith.
We have been walking through what is commonly known as the Faith Chapter—Hebrews 11. Before we get to today’s passage, I want to take just a few minutes to think back on the last three weeks of study from chapter eleven. The chapter begins by defining what faith is. The author states: “Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen.” He goes on to explain: “For by it the people of old received their commendation.” The rest of the chapter focuses on those people of old—who by their faith—were made right with God.
In Deuteronomy 34:10-12—the epitaph to the Books of Moses—an unidentified author closes this section of Scripture with the final events of Moses’ life that included a sort of eulogy, or obituary, for Moses. R. Kent Hughes wrote: “To all Jews, Moses was the greatest of all men… He was Israel’s greatest prophet. God communicated directly to him… This is why his face was luminous when he descended Mt. Sinai with the Ten Commandments. He was Israel’s greatest lawgiver. Virtually everything in their religion recalled his name. He was Israel’s great historian. Moses authored everything from Genesis to Deuteronomy. He was considered Israel’s greatest saint, for Scripture says he was “very meek, more than all people who were on the face of the earth” (Numbers 12:3). This is perhaps most amazing of all because often those who have accomplished great things are anything but humble. But Moses was the humblest of the entire human race! He was Israel’s greatest deliverer. His feats are wonderfully chronicled throughout the book of Exodus.