Ask Pastor Scott - Jeremiah 29:11
I have many questions asked, emailed, or texted to me regularly. I always try to reply to these questions. However, if one person is asking the questions, others of you might be wondering the same thing without taking the time to ask. Because of that, I'm going to start occasionally publishing the question and my response to it on our website! I pray that this will be a blessing to you! (To protect the confidentiality of the person asking the question, some details of the original question or response may be changed.)
“How do we understand Jeremiah 29:11? It seems like it’s often used by those teaching a “prosperity gospel” to say that God wants to prosper us. Is that promise just for the Israelites who received Jeremiah’s words? or can it be applied to us today?”
"For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the Lord, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future." Jeremiah 29:11
This is a great question! Jeremiah 29:11 certainly is one of the most common passages to be misquoted or misapplied. I find it very helpful to think of it in terms of the immediate or primary audience. It's very common for Old Testament verses and promises to be run afoul here. Generally, the misapplication of the verse will skip the immediate or primary audience and try to apply the same exact promise to us, who are merely a secondary audience.
Given within the Old Covenant, a particular promise or declaration may have been conditional upon the Hebrew peoples’ obedience. And, the blessing and “prospering” was, generally, not for the people themselves, but as part of God’s plan to bring the savior of the world through Israel. God was promising to “prosper” the Hebrew people, NOT primarily for their enjoyment, but so that there would be a faithful remnant through whom Jesus would come.
2 Corinthians 1:20 reminds us that all of God’s promises from the past find their “Yes in Christ”. They were all pointing forward to him. So the Christian hears a promise like Jeremiah 29:11 and doesn’t say, “If I behave, God will bless me and make me succeed at everything.” Instead, we say, my true and eternal riches are in Christ — I’m a co-heir with him. I’ve been made a child of God, something far better than an Israelite could have hoped for. But it’s all based on the obedience of Christ. In the old covenant, Israel had obligations. In the new covenant, Christ has fulfilled all that is necessary and we are included based on his credentials, merit, and righteousness.
We don’t pretend like we are the recipient of the prospering that God promised to Israel, because we have something far better in Christ. Though now for a “little while” as Peter says, we may suffer and experience testing and trouble, we await our true and final union with the one to whom Jeremiah 29:11 points.
If you have a question that you'd like Pastor Scott to address, please email him today!
Unmarked Graves
With these words, Jesus lays upon the Pharisees a double insult: one obvious to us and one that might be hidden from us.
We continue in our Advent Bible Reading plan with our reading today in the Gospel of Luke, the 11th chapter. I want to share one brief insight that might give you a more complete understanding of our reading today.
Luke 11:44: “Woe to you, because you are like unmarked graves, which people walk over without knowing it.”
With these words, Jesus lays upon the Pharisees a double insult: one obvious to us and one that might be hidden from us.
The most obvious insult is the fact that Jesus called the Pharisees "unmarked graves." The offense of these words might be obvious since graves are the location that houses death. The Pharisees contain no life and are filled with death.
Understanding the context helps explain the rest of the verse, however. Why does it matter that people "walk over" the graves without knowing?
According to the Old Testament ceremonial law (Numbers 19:18), anyone who touches a grave is "defiled" and must undergo a ritual cleansing process. So, not only was Jesus saying that the Pharisees were empty and dead, but that they actually brought spiritual harm, defilement, and condemnation upon anybody they came in contact with.
In other words, the Pharisees weren't just misguided, they were spiritual poison.
On this side of the cross, we can give thanks that Jesus fulfilled and brought an end to the Old Covenant's ceremonial laws. Additionally, we give thanks to God that he has given us his Word so that we might be protected from false teachers who bring spiritual confusion, death, and condemnation.
Blessings as you spend this Advent season under the Word!
November 26, 2023
Be blessed by this Thanksgiving Prayer written by Pastor Scotty Smith.
Praise the Lord, my soul; all my inmost being, praise his holy name. Praise the Lord, my soul, and forget not all his benefits—who forgives all your sins and heals all your diseases, who redeems your life from the pit and crowns you with love and compassion, who satisfies your desires with good things so that your youth is renewed like the eagle’s. - Psalm 103:1-5
Dear heavenly Father, we praise, bless and worship you today, for the incalculable ways you demonstrate your love and care for us. On this Thanksgiving Day, we stop to give you thanks for many of the “benefits” that are ours, through your sovereign grace, inexhaustible mercy and boundless generosity. We are so grateful for…
The forgiveness of all our sins: Not just the sins up to the beginning of our life in Christ; not just the sins we acknowledge and confess; not just the sins we grieve and offer restitution for; not just the 4% of our sins we are actually aware of. NO! You have forgiven all our sins—past, present and future—through the work of Jesus. Hallelujah, for such lavish love!
The healing of all our diseases: Father, though it will take the 2nd coming of Jesus to complete, you have secured our complete healing—mind, body and spirit. The gospel is that big, good and comprehensive. One Day, we will dance and serve, in the new heaven and new earth—loving you with ALL our glorified heart, soul, mind and strength. Hallelujah, for such a living hope!
The redeeming of our lives from various pits: Father, through the gospel, you have rescued us from ALL kinds of pits. The pit of eternal separation from you; the pits of our own foolish designing and digging; the pits we have fallen into in a broken world; even the pits into which others have pushed us! Hallelujah, for all-pit redeeming grace!
The satisfaction of our desires with good things: O fountain of pleasures and source of all true delights, Father, you gave us our deep longings and have hard-wired us for wonder; you created our taste buds, auditory capacity, and nerve endings; you gave us our sense of smell and our passion to see; you designed us to come alive to the good, true and beautiful. And by your grace, you intend to satisfy every aspect of our being—with yourself, and with a myriad of good gifts—in this life, and the life to come.
Hallelujah! We shout with gratitude and joy, this Thanksgiving. Hallelujah, what a Savior Jesus is. Hallelujah, what a salvation you have given us. So very Amen we pray, in Jesus’ peerless name.
Asking For A Friend
After receiving numerous requests for printed copies of the sermon manuscripts for our Asking For A Friend series, we have decided to make the manuscripts available online in booklet form.
Please feel free to download the booklet below!
The Lord Has Spoken
Whenever the Bible declares "Thus saith the Lord" or "The Lord has spoken" we should listen up and pay attention. We encounter this in our reading from Isaiah 25:6-9 this week.
6 On this mountain the Lord Almighty will prepare
a feast of rich food for all peoples,
a banquet of aged wine—
the best of meats and the finest of wines.
7 On this mountain he will destroy
the shroud that enfolds all peoples,
the sheet that covers all nations;
8 he will swallow up death forever.
The Sovereign Lord will wipe away the tears
from all faces;
he will remove his people’s disgrace
from all the earth.
The Lord has spoken.
When a bereaved family asks me for a recommendation of an Old Testament passage to read during a funeral service for a loved one, this is almost always my first recommendation. Why? Because it, with great certainty, proclaims what God will do. It pulls back the curtain and gives us a glimpse of the fulfillment of God's work.
He will invite all who are in Christ to a great feast of victory.
He will destroy the shroud of death that covers and suffocates all people.
He will wipe away every tear from every face.
He will remove our disgrace.
The Lord has spoken. Thanks be to God!
The Bankruptcy of Secularism
Last week we lost one of the best Christian thinkers of our time. Pastor Timothy Keller's writing and preaching had an incredible influence on me and many other pastors and Christians of my generation.
Allow me to share one (of countless) quotes that I find so helpful:
“The secular framework . . . has nothing to give the wounded conscience to heal it. It has nothing to say to the self who feels it is unworthy of love and forgiveness. Anyone who has seen the depths of their sin and what they are capable of will never be mollified by the bromide of ‘Be nice to yourself—you deserve it.’”
If secularism is correct, then there is no factual and substantive hope for our suffering and despair. Why? Because we've all looked within our own hearts and felt the emptiness. We can, perhaps, will our minds into better thinking. We can numb or distract ourselves from the empty reality. But we know our own thoughts. We perceive our own desires. We've gone to the same well a thousand times hoping to find water, only to be reminded that it's dry.
Into that self-awareness, Jesus proclaims, "Let anyone who is thirsty come to me and drink." "Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest."
These are the Gospel realities that Tim was so gifted at unearthing and putting on display for us. Blessed be his memory!
Fasting…or a 40 day binge?
Our Scripture reading yesterday, for the first Sunday of Lent, was from Matthew 4:1-11 which details Jesus' fasting and temptation in the wilderness. Historically, Lent has been patterned after this 40-day period of fasting and temptation in the life of Jesus, leading us to the cross of Christ on Good Friday.
For many Christians, some form of fasting and self-denial has been a central part of their Lenten experience. The Old Testament speaks of fasting quite often, particularly during seasons of mourning and repentance. The New Testament also affirms the practice, although generally in a passing sense (Acts 13:1-3, Matthew 6:16-18).
Dr. Martin Luther had some fascinating comments on the theme as it relates to the season of Lent:
But the worst of all is that we have adopted and practiced fasting as a good work: not to bring our flesh into subjection; but, as a meritorious work before God, to atone for our sins and obtain grace. And it is this that has made our fasting a stench and so blasphemous and shameful, so that no drinking and eating, no gluttony and drunkenness, could have been as bad and foul. It would have been better had people been drunk day and night than to fast thus.*
According to Luther, fasting is valuable so long as it's used as a form of discipline to bring our flesh under control and to force our focus from the temporal to the eternal.
However, many have viewed fasting as a way to earn merit or favor with God -- even as a means to earn forgiveness. Luther speaks against this in the harshest of terms, saying that it would be better to go on a 40-day drinking binge than to try to fast your way into the forgiveness of sins.
Disciplines like fasting might flow from our salvation but are never the source of it. The forgiveness of sins might lead us to engage in disciplines that deepen our trust in the Lord and loosen our grip on the things of this world, but those practices can never be viewed as the means or currency by which we receive or earn God's grace.
Is it true that no gluttony or drunkenness would be as foul as fasting aimed at earning God's grace? Of course it's true! To attempt to earn what God freely gives is to turn our loving Father, Savior, and Lord into nothing more than a business partner. It means that we see God as someone who can be paid off; someone whose terms can be manipulated in our favor.
The good news is that Christ made full satisfaction for all of your sins, and it is received by faith alone. May this lenten season, whether it contains any form of self-discipline or not, be one of reflection and repentance, rooted deeply in the Word of God. May he show us the frailty of our humanity and the folly of our self-salvation efforts. May it be clear that there is no hope to be found in our efforts. Good Friday and Easter Sunday are much more meaningful when we know that there is simply no other way for our human existence to have lasting purpose and hope.
*Martin Luther, “First Sunday in Lent (Invocavit) (Matthew 4:1–11),” in Luther’s Church Postil: Gospels: Epiphany, Lent and Easter Sermons, ed. and trans. John Nicholas Lenker, vol. II, The Precious and Sacred Writings of Martin Luther (Minneapolis, MN: Lutherans in All Lands Co., 1906), 134–135.