Daily Bible Study for Tuesday September 13, 2016
By: Hanny Lynn Stearns
Fish N Loaves
Ministries, Inc.
“Multiplying
God’s Word Around The Globe”
Chapter Reading
for Today: Please read in
your Bible before proceeding. Note that most translations are considered
paraphrases. The Young’s Literal Translation provides a more accurate
translation since he is the one who authored a concordance. Others are helpful
for seeing a different perspective, but we cannot always depend on their
wording. I hope this is helpful to you. If you are studying in another version,
that is fine. I am studying from the KJV, but for the purpose of this study, I
will keep it with the New King James Version.
One final note: I will put the scripture in italics to differentiate from my
own writing. I am adding red to the letters when
it is Jesus talking – just like the Bible. Thank you.
Bible
Gateway Verse of the Day
1 Peter 3:8
Finally, all of you be of one mind, having compassion for
one another; love as brothers, be tenderhearted, be courteous;
Psalm
100:4
Enter into His gates with thanksgiving,
and into His courts with praise.
Be thankful to Him, and bless
His name.
Song: Losing By:
Tenth Avenue North (You Tube)
Psalm 55
The Betrayal of a Brother
The Bible is an amazing account of our awesome God and
Savior! In this chapter we really see a prophetic Psalm. It can be applied to
all of us at some point in time or another. But this particular Psalm was
showing us a picture of what would one day happen to our Lord and Savior Jesus.
Let’s pray…
Heavenly Father:
Thank You for the depth and wonder of Your presence and Your
word! Lord, we cannot express our awe of You in written words, but we give You
our praise and adoration. Father, I ask You to give me the anointing and utterance
to bring forth Your truth from today’s lesson. May this go forth unhindered and
unchecked by any outside force or my flesh. Let it be used to change us. Show us
how we can apply it to ourselves. Cause us to be transformed by the renewing of
our minds and hearts as we study. Father, we purpose to honor Your word to us
by being doers of Your word and not forgetful hearers. Thank You for always
watching over Your word to perform it in our lives when we work it. Thank You
for the answers we will receive through this message – and the clarity. Give
glory to Yourself in our midst in Jesus precious and wonderful name!
We continue to learn a lot about prayer in the Psalms, don’t
we? As you could tell when you read the chapter, David was calling on the Lord
to help in a battle against many enemies once again. His heart was heavy, fear
and trembling had come upon him and the terror of death was all around. Yet he
knew where he could turn. All of us face circumstances where fear and terror
try to come on us. But the good news is that when it tries to come, we do not
have to accept it. He was so troubled he wanted to take flight and go away to a
place in the wilderness where he would be safe and at peace. I suppose the
majority of the planet has felt that way at some time in our lives – amen.
We know that we have a very real adversary and we will have
to deal with him as long as we are on the planet. He isn’t going to just
disappear because we want him to. He has a lot of demon cohorts working for him
and that only adds to the problem. Oh but Jesus is our solution, isn’t He
saints?! Amen! Hallelujah! We can live in victory all the days of our born
again lives on this earth. We never have to feel like we are the ones who need
to run to some far off place. He is the one that needs to “scat!” It is the
enemy who we can send “packing” because we have the authority over him given to
us personally by the Master. Glory to God and thank You Jesus!
David felt like he was surrounded. Everywhere in his city
there was evil. It seems that way for us in the world today too, doesn’t it?
Jerusalem was no different back then. They may have dressed differently, but their
trouble with the enemies from hell were still prevalent; no different than what
we face today. The battle has actually intensified for us because we are so
close to the very end of all things. The people then had to know where they
could go for help, just like us David always knew that he could go to God in
prayer and cry out to Him whenever a battle came against him. And there were
many.
In this life we will face many battles. It is inevitable. But
they do not have to take us down. We can come out on top every time. We have
the Lord – hallelujah! Jesus knows exactly what it is like to face these
battles from the enemy. Satan certainly knew that He was the Son of God so he
was ‘right on it’ wherever Jesus went. The devil actually was stupid enough to
think that he could stop the plan of God and take out the Redeemer before He
could do the effective work He had been sent to do. And satan thought he had
won when Jesus was headed to the cross. He moved in close to Jesus to try to
seal the deal by pitching one of His close followers against Him. Because of an
open door in this man’s life, satan was able to enter him and use him to come
against the Savior. Let’s look…
Matthew 26:14-25
14 Then one of the twelve, called Judas Iscariot,
went to the chief priests 15 and said, “What are
you willing to give me if I deliver Him to you?” And they counted out to him
thirty pieces of silver. 16 So from that time he
sought opportunity to betray Him.
17 Now on the first day of the Feast of Unleavened Bread the disciples came to
Jesus, saying to Him, “Where do You want us to prepare for You to eat the
Passover?”
18 And He said, “Go
into the city to a certain man, and say to him, ‘The Teacher says, “My time is
at hand; I will keep the Passover at your house with My disciples.”’”
19 So the disciples did as Jesus had directed them;
and they prepared the Passover.
20 When evening had come, He sat down with the
twelve. 21 Now as they were eating, He said, “Assuredly,
I say to you, one of you will betray Me.”
22 And they were exceedingly sorrowful, and each of
them began to say to Him, “Lord, is it I?”
23 He answered and said, “He who
dipped his hand with
Me in the dish will betray Me. 24 The Son of Man
indeed goes just as it is written of Him, but woe to that man by whom the Son
of Man is betrayed! It would have been good for that man if he had not been
born.”
25 Then Judas, who was betraying Him, answered and
said, “Rabbi, is it I?”
He said to him, “You have said it.”
Many think of Judas as having been a bad guy all along. But
he was no different than anyone else. He was a human who had some issues. Later
we will talk about Peter’s issues along with the rest of the disciples. But for
now, suffice it to say that Judas had been close to Jesus. When he had started
out with Him, he may have loved Jesus and truly desired to be included in the
twelve. When Jesus called him to join Him and follow after Him, He was not
calling him to failure. The Bible is not telling us the details per se of Judas
when he was initially called by the Master. What we do know is that Judas had a “heart
problem.” It was more specifically a money problem. He cared more about money
than he did the precious things of God.
He tried to cover it up by making it look like he was
concerned for the poor. Why? Because he was the one who had been entrusted with
the ministry funds. He thought that if the expensive perfume that had just been
poured out on Jesus had been sold, there would have been more money in the
collection plate giving him more to take for his own personal use.
Judas betrayed Jesus for a little chunk of change that would
never go very far to begin with. What it cost him would last for eternity. That
is a terrible loss of a soul over something as simple and foolish as money. We must know that this betrayal of a close
brother must have broken the Lord’s heart. He had invited Judas to come
alongside of Him and be a part of His inner circle – the highest privilege
anyone could possibly have! Judas would be trained by the Master so he could go
out and witness to the world of all the great things he had experienced with
Jesus, winning many lost souls for the kingdom. His rewards would have been so
great he would shudder at the thought of selling out for thirty pieces of
silver.
Luke 6:35
But love your enemies, do good, and lend, hoping for nothing
in return; and your reward will be great, and you will be sons of the Most High. For He is kind to the unthankful and evil.
None of us can fully know or understand
the great rewards we have waiting for us on the other side of this life when we
are faithful stewards to our Master. Judas was willing to forfeit it all. When
David said his heart was heavy in our chapter today, we can’t even begin to
image how this must have hurt the Lord’s heart. The betrayal of a brother –
someone within the church who He had sweet fellowship with had turned on Him,
selling out for something so worthless.
If you have ever been betrayed by someone
in the church, don’t be too shocked. We are dealing with human people, all of
whom have sinned and fallen short of God’s glory. There are many in the church
who are not even born again. Others are born again but still living like spiritual
newborns even after having accepted Jesus as their Savior 30 and 40 years or
more prior. This is really SADD-U-CEE because many think that when they go to
church that everyone is supposed to be acting perfect in every way and display
the full character of Christ. My friends, we are all in the process of being
perfected as we go through this life. None of us have hit the mark yet, but we
should all be well on the way.
Does it hurt when we go to church and get
to know someone, become friends and have fellowship with them, only later to
find out they have evil in their heart all along? Of course it does. Obviously
from our scriptures today, Jesus understands this. He experienced the same things
all those years ago. Friends, people will hurt us and disappoint us. That
should be no reason for anyone to stop going to church! It is a place where we
go to honor God. We go to worship Him, bring our tithes and offerings, have
fellowship, offer our services and listen to get fed the word so we can grow up
in our walk with the Lord. We should never be dependent on the preacher or
anyone else in the body for our joy and peace. All of that must come from the
Lord! We go to church for the Lord – not the people!
Listen to what someone recently said, “My
happiness does not reside in the minds of others.” So when we get hurt by a
brother within the church, we have to shake it off, forgive them and move on.
Period. We are not to drag it out, cause a scene, or hold them in our hearts
with bitterness and anger. We must forgive if we want our Father in heaven to
forgive us…
Matthew 6:14-15
14 “For if you forgive
men their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you. 15 But if you do not
forgive men their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses.
We can be sure that Jesus forgave Judas.
So must we forgive others when they hurt us, even those within the church. It
will happen, so do not be surprised. Forgive, shake it off and go on. I know it
hurts. I have experienced it too. Someone with whom I had been very close had
suddenly stopped talking to me. Instead of the sweet fellowship we had enjoyed
I got nothing but a cold shoulder. The Lord wanted to move this person out of
my close inner circle, but the way this person went about it was very painful
to me. I have experienced other such circumstances. The Lord showed me that
certain people had to be taken out for reasons I will not go into here. Others
would be brought in as He was teaching me new things and taking me to new levels
of understanding with Him.
When we face such things, we must always remember
we can take everything to the Lord in prayer. We can pray for the person
involved. We can seek the Lord for wisdom in the situation. Sometimes we will
be told by Holy Spirit why something happened and other times we won’t. That’s
OK. God has a reason for not telling us sometimes. We can imagine that at times
if we knew certain details it would be terribly hurtful. The Lord is never
about hurting us.
David cried out to the Lord in the
morning, at noon and in the evening. These verses show us that he was always
calling on the Lord. That’s the way we all need to be. Our fellowship with Him
should be around the clock. Even at night the Bible says our hearts can instruct
us. After all, we are spirit beings, like the Father, and we can still have
fellowship with Him, even while we sleep…
Psalm 16:7
I will bless the Lord who has given me counsel; my heart also instructs me in the night seasons.
Moving on, Jesus was not only
betrayed by Judas, but Peter quickly followed suit by denying Him…
Matthew 26:31-35
31 Then Jesus said to them, “All of
you will be made to stumble because of Me this night, for it is written:
‘I will
strike the Shepherd,
And the sheep of the flock will be scattered.’
And the sheep of the flock will be scattered.’
32 But after I have been raised, I will go before you
to Galilee.”
33 Peter answered and said to Him, “Even if all are
made to stumble because of You, I will never be made to stumble.”
34 Jesus said to him, “Assuredly,
I say to you that this night, before the rooster crows, you will deny Me three
times.”
35 Peter said to Him, “Even if I have to die with
You, I will not deny You!”
And so said all the disciples.
Do you see how they all had a
pride issue going on here? The Lord, who had heard very clearly from the Father
in the heaven that these men were all going to stumble just finished telling
them what they were going to do. But Peter rose up and denied it. Then the rest
of the disciples followed suit. So here we can see the difference between
sinful man and the Lord of glory in whom there was no deceit whatsoever. When
we go to church, we cannot walk in the door and expect everyone to be doing
everything right – it is not going to happen! In the same way that Jesus showed
us so much grace and mercy, so must we show the same to our brethren.
Peter went further than the others.
He did go on later that night to deny that he even knew this Jesus whom he had just
told that he would never stumble…
Matthew 26:69-75
69 Now Peter sat outside in the courtyard. And a
servant girl came to him, saying, “You also were with Jesus of Galilee.”
70 But he denied it before them all, saying, “I do not know
what you are saying.”
71 And when he had gone out to the gateway, another girl saw him and said to those who were there, “This fellow also was with Jesus of
Nazareth.”
72 But again he denied with an oath, “I do not know
the Man!”
73 And a little later those who stood by came up
and said to Peter, “Surely you also are one of them, for your speech betrays you.”
74 Then he began to curse and swear, saying, “I do not know the Man!”
Immediately a rooster crowed. 75 And
Peter remembered the word of Jesus who had said to him, “Before the
rooster crows, you will deny Me three times.” So he went out and wept
bitterly.
Now we see that Peter not only
had some pride issues that he was dealing with, but he had a “fear of man” problem
too! Do you see that even those closest to Jesus were a “work in progress?”
None of them had been perfected yet. They had a long way to go. Their journey’s
with the Master were just beginning. Jesus spent His life on the earth walking
and talking without sin. He denied Himself all the pleasures of this life so He
could be used to lay down His life for the sins of the world. Like we talked
about yesterday, while He was a friend of sinners, He Himself knew no sin.
There would be no greater friend to mankind than that which we find in Jesus.
His followers on the other
hand had just begun to learn about what it would mean to really be holy like
the Lord. Their final goal would be perfection – as should ours be. But they
had to overcome these things by what they suffered. Look at this…
Hebrews 5:8-9
though He was a
Son, yet He learned obedience by the things which He
suffered. 9 And having been perfected, He
became the author of eternal salvation to all who obey Him,
The disciples would later find
out what it meant to learn obedience through their suffering for the Lord’s
work. Peter, unlike Judas, cried bitterly over his denial of the Master. From
that time on he became rock sold in his faith and was determined to follow the
Christ with everything in him. Yes, he had messed up – big time! But he
repented. That is the key. Is it up to us to make a brother who hurts us repent
or apologize? No, it isn’t. It is up to the offender to make that decision.
Judas decided to just go call it quits rather than try to make things right. He
was overtaken by the evil one, and he let the evil one win in his case.
Can we assume that Peter’s
denial had hurt Jesus? Of course! Jesus has feelings too! We must never forget
that. He can be hurt, angry, sad and filled with joy. The Bible displays all of
these emotions and more in the Lord. That’s why He can relate to us so well. We
were made in His image. So He is like us and we are like Him – only we are not
God! But we are like Him. He made us that way – hallelujah!
After my painful experience
with a close sister in the Lord, I took it to Him in prayer. That was when He
told me that He was moving her out of my inner life because the season for that
relationship had expired. I told the Lord that I accepted that and understood
it, but I asked why it had to end the way it did. He reminded me that she has
flesh too. While He was moving things around, her flesh would be the
determining factor on how the separation would be handled. Let’s just say it
wasn’t handled in a way that I thought was very kind. But I forgave her.
Well here is the great
testimony I have about that. Praise God! I asked the Lord to restore our
friendship. I knew we were not supposed to be “that kind of close” any more. I
got that. But I didn’t see why we could not still be good friends, even at a
distance. I wanted to be able to say hi to her and have her be kind to me. After
all, as sisters in the Lord, it should be that way. So I prayed to the Lord,
just like we see David doing in our Psalm today. I cast my care of it onto Him
and asked for restoration.
Then I just waited and went
about my business. Many months later, the relationship was restored. We even
went to a function together and had a great time of fellowship. I was so
blessed! Praise the Lord. This woman had been very close to me. She knew me
better than anyone in the state of Florida including my own sister! It hurt my
heart not to be able to be at least on good speaking terms with her. I care
about her very much.
Glory to God! We have had
visits and conversations since then. We have prayed together and talked on the
phone. Not often, but now and then. It blesses my heart. I never want to have
anything between myself and a fellow member of the body of Christ in as much as
I have anything to do about it. In my case, I could not control her or how she
handled things. I had to take it to the Lord and ask Him to help. Then I had to
step back. When we do that, we give Him the chance to work in their heart. And
these things take time friends. This kind of thing doesn’t turn around overnight
in most cases. That is why we have need of patience.
In the chapter today, the
Psalmist tells us that the Lord had redeemed his soul in peace from the battle
that had been waged against him. The same could be said of Jesus. When He
stepped into His public ministry, all hell broke loose – literally, in a battle
against Him. Every demon out there was on high alert against the King of kings
and the Lord of Lords. But God would deal with them, we can be sure. He did it
for Jesus and henceforth, He has done it for us through Jesus – hallelujah!
Jesus took our chastisement so
we could have His peace. Praise His name forever. When cast our burdens on to
the Lord, He really does sustain us. But we have to believe it. We have to
receive it. He does not permit the righteous to be to be moved. Take heart my
friends. If you have been betrayed by a brother or sister within the church
walls, remember, the first thing that a person needs to do is to forgive them.
Jesus set the example for us in this. He still called Judas a friend to the
very end. He never gave up hope on him until it was over. He happened to know
in advance by revelation from the Father that his outcome would not be good.
But here is what Jesus did for Peter…
Luke 22:32
But I have prayed for you, that your faith should not fail; and when you
have returned to Me, strengthen
your brethren.”
Jesus did exactly what David was saying in
today’s chapter. He prayed for His offender. And He forgave. When someone hurts
us, our first defense is to forgive them and to follow up with prayer. It then
becomes an offensive weapon of restoration. After that, we cast the care of it
over to the Lord and go on in the joy of the Lord as our strength. He will not
allow us to be moved. Now we have to refrain from allowing ourselves to be
moved – amen?!
Questions:
What is the first thing we need to do when someone hurts us?
What is the second thing we need to do?
Are you carrying any bitterness in your heart over a
brother/sister in the Lord who has hurt you?
Take the time right now to forgive them. It does not mean
that what they did was OK. It means you are giving them grace – like the Lord
gave you through Jesus. In order to be forgiven of our sins, we must forgive others.
There are three main points to
consider from today’s study…
We can take every care to the Lord
Forgiveness is the first thing we
need to do when someone hurts us
The Lord will not allow His children
to be moved (or shaken) with the troubles of this life
Let’s
pray…
Heavenly Father:
Thank You for being there for me in every battle I face.
Father, thank You for forgiving me the many times I have made mistakes and hurt
others. I ask You to show me if I have any bitterness in my heart toward anyone
right now. If I do Lord, I will forgive them and pray for them. I will love
them in my heart anyway and trust You to work out the details in the right way
at the right time. Thank You for keeping me in peace through all the battles
this life brings. I will do like David did – I will trust You! Thank You Lord in
Jesus name. Amen.
Have
you truly forgiven anyone who has hurt you?
And God Said… You fill in the blanks.
Luke 23:3a
Then Jesus said, “Father,
forgive them, for they do not know what they do.”
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