On Sunday, Michael Rankins’ told us about how Jesus (The Master Teacher) went one-on-one with Peter, a challenging disciple. (Spoiler alert - the challenging disciple is probably you, too.) The “Three Lessons For Peter” were about Focus, Forgiveness, and Love.

First, from Matthew 14:22-33, was when Jesus walked on water out to the boat, and then Peter himself also started to walk on the water. But “...when he saw the wind, he was afraid and… cried out, Lord save me!” Peter could only walk on the water when he was focused on Jesus. He started to sink when he lost his focus. As Michael said, how many times have we cried out to the Lord when we’re already sinking? If only we had kept our focus on Jesus before the crisis.

The next lesson was about forgiveness. From Matthew 18:21-35, Peter asked Jesus how many times he should forgive someone and Jesus’ answer was seventy-seven times seven. Jesus wasn’t giving a specific number. He was endlessly multiplying the concept of forgiveness. Peter hadn’t seen the mercy behind the forgiveness. As God has forgiven us our sins, so we, too, must give others the mercy of forgiveness -- as many times as it takes.

The final lesson was about love. Taken from John 21:15-24, we learn that God’s endless love for us is a gift that comes with responsibility - responsibility to do as Jesus tells us and NOT question whether others have earned His love.

As we go about our lives, let us try to:

Maintain our faith in Christ by keeping our focus on him,

Accept God’s forgiveness without limits and forgive others without limits, and

Show our love for the Lord by upholding our responsibility to Him, and showing love to others.

John Mulligan's last lesson was about “A Blessed Assurance” -- that is, trusting in Jesus when you’re tempted to trust in yourself. Evil is all around us, always. With luck, we mature out of some sins but, soon enough, we find new temptations have appeared. Our modern lives almost guarantee that we will be tempted to sin. How can we cope with it all? Whether they are sins of commission or omission, our struggle against these temptations can create great anxiety and even depression. The answer to this struggle is found in Romans 7:14-25.

Verse 19 says, “For I do not do the good I WANT to do, but the evil I do NOT want to do - this I keep on doing.” (Emphasis mine.) If you’ve had similar thoughts, you’re in good company. This was the Apostle Paul himself speaking about his own “sinful nature”. Our saving grace, of course, is God.

If we walk in the light, seek forgiveness, and place our faith in Jesus, we will be cleansed of our sins. Fortunately, John gave us some practical tips on how to stay in the light:

Maintain a prayer life that includes confession.

Sing songs of faith.

Keep Scripture at the forefront of your mind.

Surround yourself with people of faith.

When you’re struggling, when you feel like you can’t trust in yourself, trust in Jesus instead and keep Romans 7:25 close to your heart: “Thanks be to God who delivers me through Jesus Christ our Lord!”

Michael Rankins’ message on Sunday, “Breaking the Mask”, was about hypocrisy -- that is, pretending to be something one is not, and especially the false appearance of religion. The lesson comes from Matthew 23:1-28 and the familiar phrase “practice what you preach” comes from verse 3 of that chapter.

Jesus is speaking to his disciples about the Pharisees. Everything they did was to make themselves look good - but they didn’t DO good. They made displays of their religion for visual impact when they should have been concerned with how God saw their true selves, on the inside. Verse 12 tells us, “For those who exalt themselves will be humbled, and those who humble themselves will be exalted.”

Verses 27 and 28 say it powerfully: “... you are like whitewashed tombs, which look beautiful on the outside but on the inside are full of the bones of the dead and everything unclean.” Do we appear outwardly righteous while on the inside we are judgmental and miserly with our mercy?

Michael said his challenge is to be more Christ-like in his heart. That challenge goes for us all. One problem with this challenge is that we are human. We want to be liked, to be respected, to “look the part”, but if we’re just wearing a mask to look good, we’ve missed the point. Let’s break the mask. Let’s allow our actions to be the product of right-thinking minds and honest hearts. When the inside is clean, the outside will take care of itself.

Sunday’s lesson was about The Day of Judgment: Facing the most fearful day we could ever imagine. As John Mulligan pointed out, this is not a comfortable topic. When we think about judgment day (OUR judgment day), we’re likely to feel nervous and uncertain. Will we pass the test? The time to consider how we will approach our spiritual destiny is now.

John told us the first thing we need to do is to accept that Judgment Day absolutely will come. But he also told us not to be fearful about the prospect, because we have time to prepare for it. The judgment won’t sneak up or trick us somehow. We know what to do.

The choices we make in our lives will determine if we have pleased God or not. As it says in Matthew 25:40-46, “‘Truly I tell you, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did for me.” The righteous shall go on to eternal life. And just as important, “...whatever you did not do for one of the least of these, you did not do for me.”

We will be held accountable for the things we did, and also for the things that we left undone. We can’t avoid judgment; it is a certainty. We just have to come to terms with it and prepare accordingly. 1 John 4:16-17 reads, “... God is love. Whoever lives in love lives in God, and God in them. This is how love is made complete among us so that we will have confidence on the day of judgment.”

The Bible tells us repeatedly, Fear Not. Let us rely on the love God has for us and know that if we live by His Word, we will certainly sit at His right hand on Judgment Day.

Michael Rankins’ lesson on Sunday was on Teaching Through Healing. He showed us how Jesus taught, not just with sermons, but by using specific circumstances.

In Matt. 8:1-4, a man with leprosy asks to be healed, saying, "Lord, if you are willing, you can make me clean." Jesus did cure the man, but Jesus also demonstrated grace in two ways: one, He reached out his hand and touched the man and, two, he said, "I am willing. Be clean!"

In Matt. 8:5-9, a Roman centurion asks Jesus to heal one of his servants. He came to Jesus, not to demand the healing, but to humbly ask for it. This centurion was not a Jew, and when Jesus heard his request, he said that this man has more faith than “anyone in Israel ''. Jesus granted his wish, showing that God’s people are everywhere.

In Matt. 9:1-8, Jesus physically healed the paralyzed man, but he also gave the man a much greater gift -- he forgave his sins and healed his spirit.

Jesus healed these men physically but he gave each man more. He gave the gift of grace to the man with leprosy. He gave the Roman centurion the gift of inclusivity. And with the paralyzed man, Jesus showed us that his “visible authority” (healing the body) is less important than his “invisible authority”, his power to heal the spirit.

Michael encouraged us to reflect on God’s grace this week. Remember that He gives us grace even though we don’t deserve it. Remember that our God is inclusive of all people. (Are we inclusive of others?) And let us remember that He can heal us if we come to Him, humbly, knowing that only He has that power.

John Mulligan's lesson on Sunday was about Taking On Anxiety in an Anxious World, so he gave us many relevant Bible readings to help us get through anxious times. Matthew 6:25-41 gives us several keys about how to starve anxiety, just one of which is verse 27 posing the simple question, “Can you add anything by worry?” Of course not, especially when we’re worrying about something over which we have no control.

One hard thing for us mortals to accept is that God allows bad things to happen: evil, accidents, conflict, pain, death. We must take heart from Mark 4:35-41. We must accept that He allowed the storm and, more importantly, remember that He stilled the storm.

When we’re facing one of life’s storms, we have to take our fears to the One who controls it all:

(1) Pray knowing God is aware and that He cares (1 Peter 5:7)

(2) Pray for situations you can do nothing about (I Timothy 2:1-4)

(3) Pray and wait for peace (Philippians 4:6-7)

As is mentioned so often in the Bible, be not afraid. John opened his lesson with one of my favorite quotes, Isaiah 41:10: “Fear not, for I am with you; be not dismayed, for I am your God. I will strengthen you, I will uphold you with my righteous right hand.” Calming words, indeed.

Michael Rankins’ lesson about the Sermon On the Mount used that line from the movie “The Princess Bride” so we could question our own understanding of Jesus’ messages. Are we taking the words strictly literally, or do we understand the deeper principle behind the words?

“You shall not murder” is crystal clear, but there’s more to it. In Matthew 5:21-24, Jesus tells us that if we are merely angry with someone, we are subject to judgment. “Therefore, if you are offering your gift at the altar and there remember that your brother or sister has something against you, leave your gift there in front of the altar. First go and be reconciled to them; then come and offer your gift.” Do the work to keep your relationships healthy - don’t get to the point where murder starts to seem to be a plausible solution.

Also, consider the verse about revenge - an eye for an eye. Further along in Matthew 5:38-42 it reads: “And if anyone wants to sue you and take your shirt, hand over your coat as well. If anyone forces you to go one mile, go with them two miles. Give to the one who asks you, and do not turn away from the one who wants to borrow from you.” The message behind the literal words is to do more than you have to. Be better than what is minimally necessary.

This flows right into “love your neighbor”. Don’t just love the people you like - learn to love everyone. The sun doesn’t pick and choose who to shine on. Neither does God; His love flows over us all. We are asked to do the same.

Michael’s challenge to us this week is to re-read this lesson in Matthew 5 and to look deeper. Don’t just skim over the words - look for the deeper message and see the spirit of His law. What message will you find that you didn’t see before?

We’ve all wondered about this at one time or another, but for those of us in faith, we know that death is not the end. In his lesson, John Mulligan reminded us that the time to make decisions for God, the time to shape our lives in God, is here and now. He then gave us three fundamental truths about death:

1. Our spirit leaves our body.

Eccl 12:6-7 and James 2:26 tell us “Our body returns to dust” and “Our spirit returns to God”.

2. Our spirit returns to God’s control.

The story of the rich man in Luke 16:14, 22-31, gives us a striking narrative about this.

3. Finally, our spirit goes to Jesus.

There are several Bible verses that give us this insight. Acts 7:59-8:1, Phil. 1:23, and Thess. 4:13-14 are a few.

The lesson we need to take from this is summed up in Hebrews 2:15, “Trusting and obeying Jesus eliminates the fear of death.” We can’t change our destiny after we die. We need to pay attention to our soul, our spirit, now. Living Godly lives now, and following Jesus now, is what will give us peace of mind when it comes time to leave this mortal plane.

Sometimes, rather than giving a lecture on a spiritual principle, Jesus would simply use silence and a very few well-chosen words. He used this technique well with the story from John 8:2-11.

A group of people brought an adulterous woman to Jesus and looked to him to confer judgment upon her. The law said clearly that she should be stoned, but Jesus stayed silent. When they pressed him for his decision, Jesus said “Let any one of you who is without sin be the first to throw a stone at her.” Slowly, as they thought about this, they all left. Jesus told the woman to go and leave her life of sin.

Jesus didn’t take the bait. He didn’t get pulled into an argument about crime and punishment. This is the kind of foresight few of us have at the ready. But if we think about some of our own past arguments, there were probably times when silence would have been the best answer. As it says in Proverbs 10:19, “Sin is not ended by multiplying words, but the prudent hold their tongues.”

Further, when we are quick to judge others, we surely miss our own faults. Our challenge, when we want to point fingers, is to simply show grace. We cannot know where people are on their paths. If we give them the gift of mercy, instead of criticism or judgment, they might take that mercy and “pay it forward” to someone else who needs it. God’s grace is available to anyone who will accept it. Let’s do our best to be good examples of that good news.

Jesus often used real world examples to explain spiritual concepts. Michael Rankins’ lesson on Sunday was a Study in Contrasts, using two parables. One parable (from Luke 18:9-14) was about the arrogant Pharisee bragging about how pious he is, whilst looking down at the tax collector who admitted that he was sinner and only prayed for mercy. “For all those who exalt themselves will be humbled and those who humble themselves will be exalted.”

The second parable was about the two sons (Matt. 21:28-32). A man asked his two sons to work in the vineyard. The first son refused at first, but later he did the work. The second son agreed to do the work, but he never did. The important thing in the father’s opinion was the sons’ actions, and the first son actually did the work. As Michael said, attitudes AND actions both matter. Right actions don’t make bad attitudes good (the Pharisee) -- and good attitudes don’t make bad actions good (the second son).

Fortunately for us, God doesn’t judge us on our past transgressions. It’s all about who we are now, today. Have we corrected our attitudes AND our actions? Michael's challenge to us is to study these two parables and ask ourselves: Who am I in these stories?