Josh King

Matthew 14:13-21 & Mediate the Miracle

When the disciples come to Jesus and tell Him to send the crowds away, Jesus flips the table around on them and tells them to put food on it. Does Jesus really mean for them to feed the crowds? Absolutely, and they will. Their failure is that they come to Jesus seeking to be wise when they should come seeking a miracle. They come seeking to give an answer, instead of seeing the Answer. Do they think Jesus less concerned about the crowd’s need for food? Jesus is not only more compassionate, He is more capable. No sin of selfishness makes Him unwilling. No lack of power leaves Him unable. No lack of knowledge leaves Him in the dark.

The disciples think they have only five loaves and two fish. They have infinitely more than that, they have the Bread from heaven. John MacArthur writes, “They are like a person who stands in front of Niagara Falls and asks where he can get a drink.”

Jesus tells them to bring the bread, “to Me.” In all of this the disciples are active yet passive. They will distribute the bread, but Jesus does the miracle. Jesus means not only to be Bread for us, but to be Bread through us. Jesus means for His disciples to mediate the miracle. The task of ministry is impossible for us. We cannot regenerate. We cannot sanctify. We cannot create spiritual appetites. But as we obey, God mediates the miracle through us. We preach, God saves. Jesus is the Host and the Fare, we are waiters. The task is impossible for us, but we do not go it alone. The Great Commission is accompanied by the Great Promise; “I am with you always.”

Truly, he who writes this comment has often felt as if he had neither loaf or fish; and yet for some forty years and more he has been a full-handed waiter at the King’s great banquet. -C.H. Spurgeon

Tolle Lege: Father Hunger

Readability: 2

Length: 207 pp

Author: Douglas Wilson

Father famine is upon us. The hunger many suffer from is beyond the need for an after-school snack. If there were a camera that could capture the souls, a moving commercial could be made picturing gaunt souls.

Better to starve of food than of fathers. When famine strikes a land its peoples can relocate. Father famine though not only also causes a loss of food, with the loss following you wherever you go, but is also the scourge of a host of societal evils. Even if you are father fed, you cannot ignore this famine around you, it will impact you indirectly.

Father Hunger was my favorite book read in 2012. It was satisfying not simply because the need for such thinking is urgent, but because it is so well prepared. This isn’t a case of going to the grocery store hungry. This is a richly nutritious and exquisite feast.

All this is to say that fatherhood has a point, and that the point goes far beyond the services provided by a stud farm or a fertilization clinic. Fatherhood has a point that extends far beyond the moment of begetting. That point extends into everything, and if we are baffled by what the point might be, wisdom might dictate that we should read the manual—the Scriptures God gave to us. But modernists want to keep that intricate device we call fathers and, when stumped, consult a different manual entirely. This is akin to troubleshooting problems with your Apple laptop by consulting the Chilton manual for a ’72 Ford pickup truck.

Trying to fix society without addressing the central issues of worship is futile in the extreme. A comparable exercise would be somebody who tried to establish a new hive of bees without organizing the new colony around a queen bee. It is not possible to go out into a fresh meadow and organize the bees there by waving your arms. The queen is essential. In the same way, worship is an essential principle in establishing any human culture. Everything else is just waving your arms in a meadow.

Feminism is therefore, at its root, a Trinitarian heresy. God the Son is subordinate to God the Father, but subordination is not inequality of essence. Jesus Christ, the one who submitted and obeyed, was fully and completely God.

Christian men who are taught the ways of Christian masculinity are being taught to imitate Jesus Christ. But when Jesus taught us masculinity, He did this by submitting Himself to the point of death. Biblical authority knows how to bleed for others. So masculinity is the glad assumption of sacrificial responsibility, and this is what Jesus established for us.

The Pilgrim: The Magnitude of Sin

Sin turns all God’s grace into wantonness; it is the dare of his justice, the rape of his mercy, the jeer of his patience, the slight of his power, and the contempt of his love. -John Bunyan, Mr. John Bunyan’s Dying Sayings

Matthew 14:1-13a & The Heralded and Herod

Here we have a king who looks like one but isn’t, and another King who doesn’t look like one but is. Herein lies the truer contrast of this text. The primary contrast you are meant to make isn’t between John and Herod, but between the King John heralds, and Herod.

Herod technically isn’t a king and Matthew wants to remind you of this; that is why though he calls Herod a king later (v. 9), he begins by telling us he is a “tetrarch”. Technically this means a ruler of a forth part of a kingdom, but it came to mean simply a lesser ruler. Herod Antipas’ father, Herod the Great, received the title “king” from Rome, but not Antipas. Still in both cases they were vassal rulers, subject to the authority of Rome. So here we have a pretend king, who hears word of the fame of the real King and fails to recognize Him. This is the setting for the flashback that makes up the majority of the text.

But it isn’t just the beginning of the text that informs us where the true contrast lies, it’s also the end. At the beginning, Herod hears about Jesus. At the end, Jesus hears about John. In both instances a king receives news; one responds with speculation, the other with preparation.

Upon hearing about John, Jesus wishes to get away by himself to a desolate place. We see Jesus doing this often, and he often does it to pray. Why does Jesus wish to be alone? What is He thinking about? What is so heavy upon him that He desires to be alone in a desolate place? I think its simple – John’s death is a foreshadowing of His future. If this is how they treat the herald, it’s because of how they think of the King. Jesus’ future is determining the past. Jesus is thinking of the much more violent death He will face on the cross, not facing merely the limited frustration of any earthly potentate, but in addition the wrath of His Father against the sins of men.

So here we have a wicked king, who out of fear and in pride takes the life of his enemy, contrasted with the righteous King, who out of love and in humility prepares to give His life for His enemies.

May we now herald Him too, even unto death.

The Pilgrim: Thy Righteousness is in Heaven

But one day, as I was passing in the field, and that too with some dashes on my conscience, fearing lest yet all was not right, suddenly this sentence fell upon my soul, Thy righteousness is in heaven; and methought withal, I saw with the eyes of my soul, Jesus Christ at God’s right hand: there, I say, was my righteousness; so that wherever I was, or whatever I was doing, God could not say of me, He wants My righteousness; for that was just before Him. I also saw moreover, that it was not my good frame of heart that made my righteousness better, nor yet my bad frame that made my righteousness worse; for my righteousness was Jesus Christ Himself, The same yesterday, to-day, and for ever. Heb. xiii. 8.

Now did my chains fall off my legs indeed; I was loosed from my afflictions and irons; my temptations also fled away; so that from that time those dreadful scriptures of God left off to trouble me: now went I also home rejoicing, for the grace and love of God; so when I came home, I looked to see if I could find that sentence; Thy righteousness is in heaven, but could not find such a saying; wherefore my heart began to sink again, only that was brought to my remembrance, 1 Cor. i. 30, Christ Jesus, who of God is made unto us wisdom, and righteousness, and sanctification, and redemption; by this word I saw the other sentence true. -John Bunyan, Grace Abounding to the Chief of Sinners

Liberals and Conservatives

Liberals and conservatives both try to solve “sin” by law. Liberals think the solution is government, conservatives, a recovery of morality. Both are right and both are wrong. Liberals are right in recognizing that a solution needs to be found outside of us; conservatives are right in seeing that the problem is us, but the solution is further up, and the problem deeper within. The problem is the human heart, and the solution is the God of heaven. Only gospel light can eradicate the darkness.

The darkness in the hearts of men
Is not illuminated form within
It takes a sword to break the skin
And let the healing sunlight in
– Justin McRoberts, A Hope Deferred

The Pilgrim: Honey from the Lion

In the preface to his autobiographical Grace Abounding to the Cheifest of Sinners Bunyan wrote:

I have sent you here enclosed, a drop of that honey, that I have taken out of the carcase of a lion (Judg 14:5-9). I have eaten thereof myself also, and am much refreshed thereby. (Temptations, when we meet them at first, are as the lion that roared upon Samson; but if we overcome them, the next time we see them, we shall find a nest of honey within them.) The Philistines understand me not. It is ‘something of’ a relation of the work of God upon my own soul, even from the very first, till now; wherein you may perceive my castings down, and raisings up; for he woundeth, and his hands make whole. It is written in the Scripture (Isa 38:19), “The father to the children shall make known the truth of God.” Yea, it was for this reason I lay so long at Sinai (Deut 4:10,11), to see the fire, and the cloud, and the darkness, that I might fear the Lord all the days of my life upon earth, and tell of his wondrous works to my children (Psa 78:3-5).

Matthew 13:51-58 & Gospel Inoculation

Familiarity breeds contempt, but not really, at least when it comes to Jesus. Here we have two groups who were very well acquainted with Jesus; the residents of his hometown, and his disciples. For one group familiarity led to contempt, for the other, worship. But if you find Jesus familiar, common, and hold Him in contempt, it isn’t because you know so much of Him, but so little. You have a false familiarity.

I think many in evangelical churches suffer from this because they have heard preaching that is heavy on the imperative, and light on the indicative. The Bible contains both law and gospel, commands and declarations. And it is critical that we always remember that the law is given because of a prior gospel declaration. We are to act, and can act only because God has acted. This is as true in the Old Testament as it is in the New Testament. Just prior to the giving of the Ten Commandments we read, “I am the Lord your God who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery.” They act because God has acted. As we read through the epistles of Paul w see he always begins with the indicatives of the Gospel before he makes application. He tells us what God has done before he tells us what we should do. The imperatives should never be dissected from the indicatives. Such preaching is not gospel preaching.

Could it be that many are bored with Jesus and arrogantly think Him common because they have never heard the gospel? Oh, they know Jesus loves them, and that they must believe in Him to be forgiven their sins, but every Sunday they are told about seven tips to…, or three ways to…, or the five keys of…, instead of learning of propitiation, redemption, substitution, or other glories of the good news of Jesus Christ.

We have been gospel inoculated; receiving a deadened form of Christianity we are immune to the real thing.

If this is your condition, don’t assume you know Jesus. Examine the gospels for yourself. Look at the way the apostles look at Jesus and all the Old Testament. As you examine the treasure trove of Scripture ask God to open your eyes to see the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. And if He graciously grants your petition, you will not be bored or offended, you will worship.

Hero 2013: The Pilgrim

I don’t believe the Bible is a book of heroes. The Bible does have heroes in it, but that is not what it is about. It is a book about the Hero. Nonetheless, I do believe in having heroes, and I believe it is Biblical to have them.

Heroes are not perfect, and thus they point us to Christ in three ways. Their faults (weaknesses and sins) point us to the Savior that they, and we, all need. With this foundation we learn two further truths concerning their strengths. First, they are a result of God’s gifting and working in them such that He gets all the glory. Second, their strengths also point us to Jesus by whom they are graded – Jesus is the ultimate curve breaker. All heroes are judged in relation to Him.

Every year I single out one hero to study in particular. This year I will study the life and works of John Bunyan.

Every week I will post some gleanings from Bunyan. All such posts will be marked, “The Pilgrim,” a name easily understood by many as a reference to his famous Pilgrims Progress. The life of John Bunyan simply makes no sense unless He was living for another land in loyalty to a higher King.

Bunyan was born in 1628 at Elstow near Bedford. His father was a brazier. Though convicted at times, he was a foul-mouthed blasphemous youth. As a young man he joined Cromwell’s army. A year or two after being discharged from the army he married an unknown God-fearing woman. By her books and devotion he was convicted and attempted to stop swearing and attend church. Under the influence of his pastor, John Gifford, Christ called John Bunyan out of darkness, and into a kingdom of light.

In 1655 he began preaching. He was arrested in 1660 on the charges of preaching without official rights from the king. He was offered freedom if he promised not to preach. He refused and spent 12 years in prison. His second wife, Elizabeth, pled boldly and much before authorities for his release. These years were especially hard as one of his four children was blind. When released he enjoyed only a few years of freedom before he was arrested again. John Owen, known as the Prince of the Puritans, successfully pled for his release.

Bunyan was like Paul in prison. The prison confinement did not contain his influence, but multiplied as he wrote prolifically. But unlike Paul he had no formal education, no degrees, and knew nothing of Hebrew or Greek, and yet the Banner of Truth edition of his collected works is comprised of three large volumes in double-columned format with small print spanning 2,319 pages. His works are rich with the Word of God; as Spurgeon said, his blood was “Bibline.” These bible-saturated works show us his sustaining meditations during his imprisonments and trials. He, like father Abraham and the rest of the saints of Hebrews 11, lived upon the promises of another world.

Micah 5:1-5a & Disney Is a Cheap Knockoff

Once upon a time there was an enchanted kingdom, full of the deepest and purest of magic because loved by the highest of gods (Psalm 86:8). A great king was given to this people, and the magic was upon him heavily. Giants fell; enemies ran. But the end of his reign was marked by precursors of doom. The magic that once worked for him, now worked at times to reprove him. This was not a wieldable, tamable magic beneath him, but over him. The kingdom began to age and deteriorate with their king, for he was their shepherd. He carried them as a lamb on his shoulders. His fall would mean theirs. Yet the king was given a promise of a Son. A Son who not only would never go against the great magic, but who is Lord over it, for the great magic was simply His power, His desire. A Son would come, more ancient than His fathers.

Hopes were high in the king’s firstborn. The kingdom seemed to flourish as never before. Palaces were built, and an unequalled temple erected to God Most High. Yet the son’s kingdom was like a stack of Jenga blocks waiting to fall down. There was no spiritual cement to hold together the material prosperity. Walls were erected, but no longer enchanted. The son’s latter reign was more dismal than his father’s. To many wives with too many idols led his heart astray.

Sons were born and sons reigned, but never did any match the reign of the first king, most certainly none excelled it. Good kings would rise and rebuild, but a bad king would always follow who would tear down more than His predecessors could build up. This kingdom was destined to shine like the sun, but entropy and the law of thermodynamics seemed to set hard in just as this star was birthed. Walls cracked, gates splintered, the temple was burned, the line of kings was humiliated, hope was banished.

Then, as a shoot coming forth miraculously our of dry ground, came a Son of the sons. He too would be struck and humiliated by pagan rulers. Far deeper and harder would be His fall, for He would fall not for His own personal sins, for He had none, but for all the sins of His subjects, for He carried them as a lamb upon His shoulders.

The first king’s fall meant the ruination of the kingdom. The second king’s fall meant their salvation.The first king fell into sin precisely when he failed to war for his people (2 Samuel 11:1ff). The second king fell in battle for His people. He was the promised Warrior Prince born of Eve and Israel, born to kill the dragon and get the girl. He would rescue the prostitute and maker her His pure bride.

Wicked kings fell never to rise. This King rose never to fall, and He stands with His own as a lamb upon His shoulders. Darkness had fallen on the land, but it fell dead when the Dragon tried to consume the Morning Star. The bleak darkness only made the Son’s rising more brilliant. This Star will never dim, of His rule there will be no end. His eternal rule is His people’s everlasting peace. This is the only true “happily ever after.”