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Why does God sometimes say yes, sometimes wait, and sometimes no? In why doesn't God answer my prayers? Trusted Bible teacher Dr. Erwin Lutzer offers biblical wisdom for one of life's hardest questions. Through scripture, he reminds us that God's silence is never indifference. Request your copy today with a gift of any amount to Real Life, visit jackkibbs.com or call 877-777-2346. Real Life presents the Jack Hibbs Podcast. With intention and boldness to proclaim truth, equip the saints, and impact our culture.
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You are living right now at a time where God is dividing what is. Watch my fingers. The church from what is his church. That divide is happening right now. And right now we are in a time when I believe God is shaking the church to see what fruit hangs in there. Are you with me? Do you understanding that what stays on the tree versus what falls to the ground?
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You can get the outlines of this podcast by going to jackibbs.com podcast today. If this podcast lifts you up and encourages you to live a more fulfilled life in Christ, then make sure you leave us one of those five star ratings. To us, that's like saying amen or yes. Then that rating will encourage others to listen. Now open your hearts to what God's word has to say to you. Here is Jack Hibbs.
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We begin now here. Verse 3 says, for even Christ did not please himself, but as it is written, the reproach of those who reproached you fell upon me. I need all of you to circle that in your Bible. You ought to highlight that because this is a glorious declaration. It's extremely deep. And it is this according to Paul, who's writing the Book of Romans, chapter 15, verse 3. He knows exactly what he's talking about. And this speaks to us today, 21 centuries later, when he says, Christ did not please himself, but as it is written. And now he quotes the 69th Psalm. Write it down in your notes. Psalm 69 and verse 9 says this because the zeal of your house has eaten me up. This is speaking of the Messiah. So the Messiah is speaking to the Father because the zeal of your house has eaten me up. And the reproaches of those who reproach you have fallen upon me. Technically, the letter or the M in me should be capitalized as it is in my Bible. Me is Messiah, the anointed one. Jesus is saying it's referring to the Messiah, that the Lord's house, they have abused it and they've abused me. That's what the Messiah is saying, and this is very, very powerful. Psalm 69, verse 9. If you want to write that, write down in the margins next to verse three. It's valuable if you do that. But listen, how do we know? And this is a diagnostic question. It's very good for all of us. So I'm going to ask you, I'm going to be sarcastic deliberately, and you're going to forgive me in advance. We're just playing around right now. If Psalm 69 says that and Paul the Apostle, who was a Hebrew of the Hebrews quotes it, then how do we know in the 21st century if Jesus is truly the Messiah? And if our Bible is really real, should we even invest in our Bible? How do we know for sure? Listen, this is critical. You have no idea if the New Testament's true unless you've read and studied the Old Testament. Here's one of those dividing points in what is called Christianity. We are now in the days where God has waited and waited and waited, and he's given us time to study the full counsel of God. What does that mean? To read Genesis through Revelation? We're all supposed to know it. So that when an Old Testament verse is quoted like it is right here, right now, it should jump off the page of your Bible. Look at your Bible. It doesn't say in verse three. And so I, Paul, quote Psalm 69 in saying, the reproach of those who reproached you fell on me. You know what? Are you guys with me? You know what? He's assuming. He's assuming the reader already knows that today. You can stop by any church in America and ask or find out if they ever studied the Old Testament or do they reference the Old Testament. And if that church is ignorant to the Old Testament, they don't have any assurance that the New Testament is real. You've made an assumption that you can't support. The reason why we believe in the New Testament is because the Old Testament said, oh, by the way, look for this when the Messiah comes, and you'll be able to put one and one together, and you'll be able to come up with two. And this is critical because we have eyewitness accounts. So if the Old Testament said it and the New Testament recorded it, now we've got a case that we can enter into the hearing. The courtroom. John, chapter two, verse 13. Watch this. John, chapter two, verse thirteen. Now, the Passover of the Jews was at hand, and Jesus went up to Jerusalem and he found in the temple those who sold oxen and sheep. And doves and the money changers doing business. And when he had made a whip of cords, he drove them out of the temple with the sheep and the oxen and poured out the changers money and overturned the tables. And he said to those who sold doves, take these things away. Do not make my father's house a house of merchandise. Then his disciples remembered that it was written, the zeal for your house has eaten me up, you guys. The disciples by this, at this time were merely, most of them mere Galilean fishermen. But they were Jews who had been brought up in the Old Testament scriptures. And when they saw Jesus do that, they all concluded, oh my gosh, this is exactly what we were brought up on in synagogue every week. We recognize that. We recognize Christ through the scriptures. Think of that. This is very powerful. Listen to this. There's more. Isaiah 56, verse 7. Even them I will bring to my holy mountain and make them joyful over my house of prayer. Their burnt offerings and their sacrifices will be accepted on my altar. For my house shall be called a house of prayer for all nations. This is a huge statement by the way. It's not only God's house of prayer that this. It's more than the temple in Jerusalem. God is saying, yeah sure, go to the temple and pray. Just know this. It's a place of prayer for how many nations? Wow. Think of it. Does that mean gentile nations? Yeah, Gentile nations and Israel. Wow. Matthew 21:3. This is why we love our Bibles. Matthew 21:3. And if anyone says anything to you, Jesus is saying, you shall say the Lord has need of them and immediately he will send them. What is this? He is announcing the fact that the revelation of his Palm Sunday announcement was set up by the fact that God was at work putting these things together. Mark 11, verse 17. Then he taught saying to them, is it not written, my house shall be called a house of prayer for all nations? But you have made it into a den of thieves. Jesus said that. Quoting, you now know exactly the Old Testament. Wow. So Christ is announcing. And this is something that you have to. If you say Jesus is not Messiah, that Jesus is not the anointed one, you've got some explaining to do, Lucy. Because Jesus himself applies the Old Testament passage to himself. You got to get through that one. And then Paul the apostle, the great student of the word of God, and the disciples and the apostles also apply Jesus to that. Folks, it's time to change your mind about who Jesus is. Look at John, chapter five. This is awesome. John, chapter five. Are you guys still with me? John chapter five, verse 37 says, and the Father himself, Jesus is speaking. Who sent me has testified of me. You have neither heard his voice at any time nor seen his form, but you do not have his word abiding in you because whom he sent him, you do not believe. This is Jesus speaking of himself. You search the Scriptures for in them you think you have eternal life. And these are they which testify of me. But you are not willing to come to me that you may have life. Notice the connection here. He's speaking to the scribes and Pharisees, the professional religionists, and he's saying to them, God sent me to you as he foretold in the Scriptures. You search those Old Testament scriptures and you study them day and night, but you are refusing to recognize what they say. If you recognized what they said, you would know that the Father sent me to you. But you're not willing. That's about as crystal clear apologetic as you can get. Jesus is saying, hey, you know, you guys have been studying all your life. Yeah. And you guys know about the Anointed One, right? Yeah, that's the Messiah. That's right. You know all the miracles I've been doing? Opening the eyes of the blind, raising the dead, unloosening or untying people's tongues so they can speak, cleansing people of leprosy. Yeah, yeah, we saw that. They all said they saw it. All the guys that said, we don't believe you. Jesus says, why do you not believe me? Because of the miracles. He drew it right out of them. They said, no, we see the miracles. We see them. We recognize that. Man, that's amazing. The miracles that were awesome were the same miracles that condemned these guys to damnation because they wouldn't believe. Listen, it's not that they wouldn't believe in the miracles. They believed in the miracles. They said, no, no, the miracles are great, but we will not come to you because you have declared yourself to be God and that gets in our way. And Jesus is announcing to them, you're not willing to learn this out of his own mouth. This is one of my favorites. Luke, chapter 24. This is awesome. If I were to ever do a movie, which I never would, I would love to have this done just because it's awesome, holy. It's pure. It's very comical. It's precious. This is Sunday evening, after the resurrection morning. We would call it on Resurrection Day or Easter Day. Now, on the first day of the week, very early in the morning, they and certain other women with them came to the tomb bringing the spices which they had prepared. This is the morning hours of it. But they found the stone rolled away from the tomb. And when they went in and did not find the body of the Lord Jesus. And it happened as they were greatly perplexed about this, that, behold, two men stood by them in shining garments. Obviously they look like men, but they're wearing shining garments. I think they're angels. Then, as they were afraid and bowed their faces to the earth, they said to them, that is the two shining garment men here, angels. Why do you seek the living among the dead? Now, this is. I'm sorry, this is funny. The women went to the tomb in the morning to bring the embalming fluids, Remember? Because they didn't get a chance. We know from another gospel where it says that at the resurrection, Christ had been risen from the dead. And then there's a great earthquake. And it says that the stone was rolled away. Interesting. If you do the chronology of it, Jesus rose from the dead, and then the stone was rolled away. It's like Jesus didn't rise from the dead. And, like, can somebody move the stone away so I can get out of here? He rose from the dead. And then at some point later, an angel rolls the stone back. The Bible says it was like an earthquake. An angel rolls the stone back. And then the angel sits on top of the stone. And listen, if you go to the garden tomb, it is a big, big opening. So it had to be a big, big stone. And he's sitting there. What was he doing? He's sitting there. An angel is sitting there. And he's like. And they come running up and they see him. And there's numerous visitations by different groups of people on that morning. And there's various encounters with angels here. There's the two angels. But they say something awesome. This is a tomb where you put dead people. And the angels say, why are you here? Why are you here? Looking for somebody who's alive. Come on, Church. That's some great divine sarcasm. Angels can put it on when they want to. They can lay it down. The women are all there. They got all the spices. Where is he? What do you mean, where is he? Why are you here? Why are you looking for the living where the dead hang out? He's alive. This is for dead people. He's gone. He's not here. He's risen from the dead. I just love this. Now watch what happens. So it says, he's not here. He's risen. Remember how he spoke to you when he was in Galilee, saying, the Son of Man. This is what Jesus said. The Son of Man must be delivered into the hands of sinful man and be crucified, and on the third day rise again. Okay, so that plays out verse 13. Fast forward, same chapter. Now behold two of them. These are two disciples. Now, it's in the evening, were traveling that same day to a village called Emmaus, which was about seven miles from Jerusalem. And they talked together of how these things which had happened. And so it was while they conversed and reasoned that Jesus himself drew near and went with them. Okay, you got two guys walking along, and then here comes Jesus. Whoop. He just pulls alongside. Hey. And they're walking. You got it? You gotta put yourself in their sandals. This is epic. It's amazing. So Jesus draws near to them. He's. And he's with them. Verse 16. But their eyes were restrained so that they did not know him. And he said to them, what kind of conversation is this that you have one with another as you walk and are sad? This is Jesus asking them the question, hey, what are you guys bummed out about? And then verse 18, the one whose name Cleopas answered and said to him, are you the only stranger in Jerusalem? And have you not known the things which happened there in these days? Like, what's wrong with you? I mean, you've got to be some kind of stranger. I mean, everybody knows what happened. This is beautiful. I wonder if Jesus is like, kind of like holding back a smile. It's precious. And so he says in verse 19, what things? So they said to him, the things concerning Jesus of Nazareth, who was a prophet, mighty in deed and word before God and all the people, and how the chief priests and the rulers delivered him to be condemned to death and crucified him. But we were hoping. Listen. They lost hope. We were hoping that it was he who was going to redeem Israel. Indeed, besides all this, today's the third day since these things happened. Yes, and certain women of our company remember the earlier verse who arrived at the tomb earlier astonished us when they did not find his body. And they came saying that they. They had also seen a vision of angels who said he was alive. And as certain of those who were with us went to the tomb and found it, just as the women had said. That was James and John. But I'm sorry, Peter and John. But him they did not see. Then Jesus said to them, o foolish ones and slow of heart to believe in. All the prophets have spoken. Ought not the Christ to have suffered these things and enter into his glory. And beginning at Moses, that's Genesis and all the prophets. Jesus expounded to them all the scriptures, the things concerning himself. Then they drew near to the village where they were going, and he indicated that he would have gone on further, but they constrained him. They begged him, come inside. The sun is setting. We've got to come inside. Abide with us, for it is toward evening and the day is far spent. And he, that's Jesus went in to stay with them. Now it came to pass that as he sat at the table with them that he took bread. He, this is awesome. Okay, pause right there. This is not even his house. Notice he takes the bread. Do you love this? He didn't say, excuse me, but do you guys mind? I know it's not my house, but can I take the bread? He takes the bread. It's his house and it's his bread. If you're God, it's. Everything's yours. And so where was I? He sat at table. Verse 31. Then no, verse 30. Now it came to pass that as he sat at the table, he took the bread, blessed and broke it, and watch and gave it to them. Right, verse 31. Then their eyes were opened and they knew him. Now stop right there at that semicolon. Many scholars believe that their eyes were veiled from recognizing him because it wasn't like. It wasn't like, ooh, I'm gonna put smokescreen on you. It's because we know from other scriptures that when Jesus rose again from the dead, he bore his scars. Remember what they had done to him. They'd plucked out his beard. They had disfigured him terribly in his resurrected body. In the second Coming, the Bible tells us that Israel will question him as to the scars on his body. Isn't that wild, by the way? That that certainly and surely speaks of resurrection, not reincarnation. Somebody has lovingly said the only man made thing in heaven or scars upon the Lamb of God. But notice that their eyes were opened. Those same scholars believe that when Jesus stretched out to hand them the bread, that's when they saw the holes in his hands. And that's what would have caused them to recognize him. And then look, he vanished from their sight. Okay, that had to be awesome. Again, they probably look the hands and this. And they look at each other and they look back and he's gone. Then they slapped each other in the face. I'm making this up. Sorry. They had to slap each other around to see if they were sleeping. That's not in the Bible. I just made that part up. Verse 32. And they said to one another, here it is. Did not our heart burn within us while he talked with us on the road?
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And.
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And while he opened the Scriptures to us, the Jesus you and I worship. Those things written beforehand scream Jesus Christ. We like Peter, we join in and say we have not followed cunningly devised fables. We're not following stories here, we're following the facts. Christ has risen from the dead. That's what the New Testament reports. Because the Old Testament made the promise. That's how we know the Old Testament is true. Because the New Testament records what was written in advance. That's how certain your faith can be. Folks, that's amazing. It's not an experiment. It is absolute certainty that what you believe in can carry you all the way through death's door and into the presence of Almighty God. Safe and sound.
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