Truth For Life Program
Alistair Begg Devotional
C. H. Spurgeon Devotional
One-Year Bible Reading Plan
Audio PlayerThe Bible is clear that God is not indifferent to our prayers. So why are we so often indifferent in our praise? Explore Psalm 8 to learn how to move from apathy to worshipping God as He intended—and deserves. Join us on Truth For Life with Alistair Begg.
From the Sermon
The Foundation for Praise
Psalm 8:1–9 Sermon • Includes Transcript • 33:10 • ID: 3349
Audio PlayerA New Kind of Peace
Many of us who have lost someone dear can recall evenings in the aftermath of loss when it felt difficult even to breathe. We sat there with others, grieving in a silence punctuated every so often by reflection.
On the Sunday evening following Jesus’ death, we can imagine His disciples going through a similar experience. Maybe one said, Do you remember how excited and hopeful we were when He walked on water? Perhaps another added, I remember Him weeping at the tomb of Lazarus. I won’t ever forget it. In all their reminiscence, they doubtless felt a stabbing awareness that they would never again on earth see Jesus’ face. Of that they were convinced. They were fearful of the future. They had just witnessed Christ’s execution, and they had locked the door behind them (John 20:19), worried that they would be the next targets.
Jesus knew this. Therefore, when He appeared quietly among them that night, the first word to come out of His mouth was “Peace,” or Shalom. This was a customary Semitic greeting that came with warmth and without rebuke, blame, or disappointment. Then He showed them His hands and His side. It was Him. The Jesus whom they were convinced they would never see again was actually standing among them!
“Peace be with you” gave the disciples an indication not simply that their gladness should be prompted by the awareness that He was no longer dead but of something far greater: that by His resurrection, Jesus had now come to bestow a new kind of peace as a result of His blood shed upon the cross. And the peace with which He greeted them is the same peace that He gives to every pardoned sinner.
Shalom takes on a whole new meaning for those who discover this peace. In our weary world, bowing under the weight of all that is difficult and broken, tainted by indifference toward or denial of Almighty God in all His majesty, we know that He still seeks us out. Just as He came up behind Mary Magdalene at the open tomb (John 20:11-18) and the two disciples on the road to Emmaus (Luke 24:13-35), so He pursues you and me in love, bidding us find peace in Him, the one at whose birth the angels sang, “Peace on earth” (Luke 2:14, CSB).
In the face of fear, our world aches for peace. But longing for it and singing about it will not create it. Peace can only be found in Jesus’ words: “In me you may have peace” (John 16:33; emphasis added). The resurrection doesn’t simply mean there is a Christ. It means that Christ is alive forever and that He gives us peace with the Father and peace in ourselves, today and forever. Whatever storms are raging around you or inside you, make sure you hear the voice of your risen Savior today, saying, “Peace be with you.”
How is God calling me to think differently?
How is God reordering my heart’s affections — what I love?
What is God calling me to do as I go about my day today?
Jesus Appears to Mary Magdalene
11But Mary stood weeping outside the tomb, and as she wept she stooped to look into the tomb. 12And oshe saw ptwo angels in white, sitting where the body of Jesus had lain, one at the head and one at the feet. 13They said to her, q“Woman, why are you weeping?” She said to them, r“They have taken away my Lord, and I do not know where they have laid him.” 14Having said this, she turned around and ssaw Jesus standing, tbut she did not know that it was Jesus. 15Jesus said to her, u“Woman, why are you weeping? vWhom are you seeking?” Supposing him to be wthe gardener, she said to him, “Sir, if you have carried him away, tell me where you have laid him, and I will take him away.” 16Jesus said to her, “Mary.” She turned and said to him in Aramaic,2 x“Rabboni!” (which means Teacher). 17Jesus said to her, “Do not cling to me, for I have not yet ascended to the Father; but go to ymy brothers and say to them, z‘I am ascending to my Father and your Father, to amy God and your God.’” 18Mary Magdalene bwent and announced to the disciples, “I have seen the Lord”—and that he had said these things to her.
Jesus Appears to the Disciples
19cOn the evening dof that day, the first day of the week, ethe doors being locked where the disciples were ffor fear of the Jews,3 Jesus came and stood among them and said to them, g“Peace be with you.” 20When he had said this, hhe showed them his hands and his side. Then ithe disciples were glad when they saw the Lord. 21Jesus said to them again, “Peace be with you. As jthe Father has sent me, keven so I am sending you.” 22And when he had said this, he lbreathed on them and said to them, m“Receive the Holy Spirit. 23nIf you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven them; if you withhold forgiveness from any, it is withheld.”
Devotional material is taken from the Truth For Life daily devotionals by Alistair Begg, published by The Good Book Company, thegoodbook.com. Used by Truth For Life with permission. Copyright © 2021, 2022, The Good Book Company.
Will You Flee?
Then all the disciples left him and fled.
He never deserted them, but they in cowardly fear of their lives fled from Him at the very outset of His sufferings. This is but one instructive instance of the frailty of all believers if left to themselves; they are but sheep at best, and they flee when the wolf appears. They had all been warned of the danger and had promised to die rather than leave their Master; and yet they were seized with sudden panic and took to their heels.
It may be that I, at the opening of this day, have braced myself to bear a trial for the Lord’s sake, and I imagine myself able for the challenge; but let me be careful in case with the same evil heart of unbelief I should depart from my Lord as the apostles did. It is one thing to promise, and quite another to perform. It would have been to their eternal honor to have stood manfully at Jesus’ side; they fled from honor. May I be kept from imitating them! Where else could they have been so safe as near their Master, who could presently call for twelve legions of angels? They fled from their true safety.
O God, let me not play the fool also. Divine grace can make the coward brave. The smoking flax can flame forth like fire on the altar when the Lord wills it. These very apostles who were timid as hares grew to be bold as lions after the Spirit had descended upon them, and even so the Holy Spirit can make my wretched spirit brave to confess my Lord and witness for His truth. What anguish must have filled the Savior as He saw His friends so faithless! This was one bitter ingredient in His cup; but that cup is drained dry; let me not put another drop in it.
If I forsake my Lord, I shall crucify Him afresh and put Him to an open shame. Keep me, O blessed Spirit, from such a shameful end.
Devotional material is taken from Morning and Evening, written by C. H. Spurgeon, revised and updated by Alistair Begg. Copyright © 2003, Crossway, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers, Wheaton, IL 60187, www.crossway.org. Used by Truth For Life with written permission.
Daily Bible Reading for March 27
Making the Altar of Burnt Offering
1zHe made the altar of burnt offering of acacia wood. Five cubits1 was its length, and five cubits its breadth. It was square, and three cubits was its height. 2He made horns for it on its four corners. Its horns were of one piece with it, and he overlaid it with bronze. 3And he made all the utensils of the altar, the pots, the shovels, the basins, the forks, and the fire pans. He made all its utensils of bronze. 4And he made for the altar a grating, a network of bronze, under its ledge, extending halfway down. 5He cast four rings on the four corners of the bronze grating as holders for the poles. 6He made the poles of acacia wood and overlaid them with bronze. 7And he put the poles through the rings on the sides of the altar to carry it with them. He made it hollow, with boards.
Making the Bronze Basin
8aHe made the basin of bronze and its stand of bronze, from the mirrors of the bministering women who ministered in the entrance of the tent of meeting.
Making the Court
9cAnd he made the court. For the south side the hangings of the court were of fine twined linen, a hundred cubits; 10their twenty pillars and their twenty bases were of bronze, but the hooks of the pillars and their fillets were of silver. 11And for the north side there were hangings of a hundred cubits; their twenty pillars and their twenty bases were of bronze, but the hooks of the pillars and their fillets were of silver. 12And for the west side were hangings of fifty cubits, their ten pillars, and their ten bases; the hooks of the pillars and their fillets were of silver. 13And for the front to the east, fifty cubits. 14The hangings for one side of the gate were fifteen cubits, with their three pillars and three bases. 15And so for the other side. On both sides of the gate of the court were hangings of fifteen cubits, with their three pillars and their three bases. 16All the hangings around the court were of fine twined linen. 17And the bases for the pillars were of bronze, but the hooks of the pillars and their fillets were of silver. The overlaying of their capitals was also of silver, and all the pillars of the court were filleted with silver. 18And the screen for the gate of the court was embroidered with needlework in blue and purple and scarlet yarns and fine twined linen. It was twenty cubits long and five cubits high in its breadth, corresponding to the hangings of the court. 19And their pillars were four in number. Their four bases were of bronze, their hooks of silver, and the overlaying of their capitals and their fillets of silver. 20And all the pegs for the tabernacle and for the court all around were of bronze.
Materials for the Tabernacle
21These are the records of the tabernacle, dthe tabernacle of the testimony, as they were recorded at the commandment of Moses, the responsibility of the Levites eunder the direction of Ithamar the son of Aaron the priest. 22fBezalel the son of Uri, son of Hur, of the tribe of Judah, made all that the Lord commanded Moses; 23and with him was fOholiab the son of Ahisamach, of the tribe of Dan, an engraver and designer and embroiderer in blue and purple and scarlet yarns and fine twined linen.
24All the gold that was used for the work, in all the construction of the sanctuary, the gold from the offering, was twenty-nine talents and 730 shekels,2 by gthe shekel of the sanctuary. 25The silver from those of the congregation who were recorded was a hundred talents and 1,775 shekels, by the shekel of the sanctuary: 26a gbeka3 a head (that is, half a shekel, by the shekel of the sanctuary), for everyone who was listed in the records, from twenty years old and upward, for h603,550 men. 27The hundred talents of silver were for casting the ibases of the sanctuary and the bases of the veil; a hundred bases for the hundred talents, a talent a base. 28And of the 1,775 shekels he made hooks for the pillars and overlaid their capitals and made fillets for them. 29The bronze that was offered was seventy talents and 2,400 shekels; 30with it he made the jbases for the entrance of the tent of meeting, kthe bronze altar and the bronze grating for it and all the utensils of the altar, 31the lbases around the court, and the mbases of the gate of the court, all the npegs of the tabernacle, and all the pegs around the court.
The High Priestly Prayer
1When Jesus had spoken these words, mhe lifted up his eyes to heaven, and said, “Father, nthe hour has come; oglorify your Son that the Son may pglorify you, 2since qyou have given him authority over all flesh, rto give eternal life to all swhom you have given him. 3tAnd this is eternal life, uthat they know you, vthe only wtrue God, and xJesus Christ whom you have sent. 4I yglorified you on earth, zhaving accomplished the work that you gave me to do. 5And now, Father, aglorify me in your own presence with the glory bthat I had with you cbefore the world existed.
6d“I have manifested your name to the people ewhom you gave me out of the world. fYours they were, and you gave them to me, and they have kept your word. 7Now they know that everything fthat you have given me is from you. 8For I have given them gthe words that you gave me, and they have received them and have come to know in truth that hI came from you; and ithey have believed that you sent me. 9I am praying for them. jI am not praying for the world but for those kwhom you have given me, for lthey are yours. 10mAll mine are yours, and yours are mine, and nI am glorified in them. 11And I am no longer in the world, but othey are in the world, and pI am coming to you. qHoly Father, rkeep them in your name, swhich you have given me, tthat they may be one, ueven as we are one. 12vWhile I was with them, I kept them in your name, which you have given me. I have wguarded them, and xnot one of them has been lost except ythe son of destruction, zthat the Scripture might be fulfilled. 13But now aI am coming to you, and these things I speak in the world, that they may have bmy joy fulfilled in themselves. 14cI have given them your word, and dthe world has hated them ebecause they are not of the world, fjust as I am not of the world. 15I gdo not ask that you htake them out of the world, but that you ikeep them from jthe evil one.1 16kThey are not of the world, just as I am not of the world. 17lSanctify them2 in the truth; myour word is truth. 18nAs you sent me into the world, so I have sent them into the world. 19And ofor their sake pI consecrate myself,3 that they also qmay be sanctified4 in truth.
20“I do not rask for these only, but also for those swho will believe in me through their word, 21tthat they may all be one, just as you, Father, are in me, and I in you, that uthey also may be in vus, so that the world wmay believe that you have sent me. 22xThe glory that you have given me yI have given to them, tthat they may be one even as we are one, 23zI in them and you in me, athat they may become perfectly one, bso that the world may know that you sent me and cloved them even as dyou loved me. 24Father, I desire that they also, whom you have given me, may be ewith me fwhere I am, gto see my glory that you have given me because you loved me hbefore the foundation of the world. 25iO righteous Father, even though jthe world does not know you, I know you, and these know that you have sent me. 26kI made known to them your name, and I will continue to make it known, that the love lwith which you have loved me may be in them, and mI in them.”
1eThe wisest of women fbuilds her house,
but folly with her own hands gtears it down.
2Whoever hwalks in uprightness fears the Lord,
but he who is idevious in his ways despises him.
3By the mouth of a fool comes ja rod for his back,1
kbut the lips of the wise will preserve them.
4Where there are no oxen, the manger is clean,
but abundant crops come by the strength of the ox.
5lA faithful witness does not lie,
but ma false witness breathes out lies.
6nA scoffer seeks wisdom oin vain,
but pknowledge is easy for a man of understanding.
7Leave the presence of a fool,
for there you do not meet words of knowledge.
8The wisdom of the prudent is to discern his way,
but the folly of fools is deceiving.
9qFools mock at the guilt offering,
but the upright enjoy acceptance.2
10The heart knows its own rbitterness,
and no stranger shares its joy.
11sThe house of the wicked will be destroyed,
but the tent of the upright will flourish.
12tThere is a way that seems right to a man,
but uits end is the way to death.3
13Even in laughter the heart may ache,
and vthe end of joy may be wgrief.
14The backslider in heart will be xfilled with the fruit of his ways,
and ya good man will be filled with the fruit of his ways.
15zThe simple believes everything,
but the prudent gives thought to his steps.
16aOne who is wise is cautious4 and bturns away from evil,
but a fool is reckless and careless.
17A man of cquick temper acts foolishly,
and a man of evil devices is hated.
18The simple inherit folly,
but the prudent are crowned with knowledge.
19dThe evil bow down before the good,
the wicked at the gates of the righteous.
20eThe poor is disliked even by his neighbor,
fbut the rich has many friends.
21Whoever gdespises his neighbor is a sinner,
but hblessed is he who is generous to the poor.
22Do they not go astray who idevise evil?
Those who devise good meet5 jsteadfast love and faithfulness.
23In all toil there is profit,
but mere talk ktends only to poverty.
24The crown of the wise is their wealth,
but the folly of fools brings folly.
25A truthful witness saves lives,
but one who lbreathes out lies is deceitful.
26In the fear of the Lord one has mstrong confidence,
and nhis children will have oa refuge.
27The fear of the Lord is pa fountain of life,
that one may qturn away from the snares of death.
28In ra multitude of people is the glory of a king,
but without people a prince is ruined.
29Whoever is sslow to anger has great understanding,
but he who has a hasty temper exalts folly.
30A tranquil6 heart gives tlife to the flesh,
but uenvy7 makes vthe bones rot.
31Whoever oppresses a poor man winsults his xMaker,
ybut he who is generous to the needy honors him.
32zThe wicked is overthrown through his evildoing,
but athe righteous finds refuge in his death.
33Wisdom brests in the heart of a man of understanding,
but it makes itself known even in the midst of fools.8
34Righteousness exalts a nation,
but sin is a reproach to any people.
35A servant who deals wisely has cthe king's favor,
but his wrath falls on one who acts shamefully.
Greeting
1Paul and Timothy, servants1 of Christ Jesus,
To all the asaints in Christ Jesus who are at Philippi, with the boverseers2 and cdeacons:3
2dGrace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.
Thanksgiving and Prayer
3eI thank my God fin all my remembrance of you, 4always in every prayer of mine for you all making my prayer with joy, 5gbecause of your partnership in the gospel from the first day until now. 6And I am sure of this, that he who began ha good work in you iwill bring it to completion at jthe day of Jesus Christ. 7It is right for me to feel this way about you all, because I hold you kin my heart, for you are all lpartakers with me of grace,4 both min my imprisonment and in nthe defense and confirmation of the gospel. 8For oGod is my witness, phow I yearn for you all with the affection of Christ Jesus. 9And it is my prayer that qyour love may abound more and more, rwith knowledge and all discernment, 10so that you may approve what is excellent, sand so be pure and blameless tfor the day of Christ, 11filled uwith the fruit of righteousness that comes vthrough Jesus Christ, wto the glory and praise of God.
The Advance of the Gospel
12I want you to know, brothers,5 that what has happened to me has really xserved to advance the gospel, 13so that it has become known throughout the whole imperial guard6 and yto all the rest that zmy imprisonment is for Christ. 14And most of the brothers, having become confident in the Lord by my imprisonment, are much more bold ato speak the word7 without fear.
15bSome indeed preach Christ from envy and rivalry, but others from good will. 16The latter do it out of love, cknowing that I am put here for dthe defense of the gospel. 17The former proclaim Christ eout of selfish ambition, not sincerely but thinking to afflict me in my imprisonment. 18What then? Only that in every way, whether in pretense or in truth, Christ is proclaimed, and in that I rejoice.
To Live Is Christ
Yes, and I will rejoice, 19for I know that fthrough your prayers and gthe help of hthe Spirit of Jesus Christ this will turn out for my deliverance, 20as it is my eager expectation and hope ithat I will not be at all ashamed, but that with full jcourage now as always Christ kwill be honored in my body, lwhether by life or by death. 21For to me mto live is Christ, and to die is gain. 22If I am to live in the flesh, that means fruitful labor for me. Yet which I shall choose I cannot tell. 23nI am hard pressed between the two. My desire is oto depart and pbe with Christ, for that is far better. 24But to remain in the flesh is more necessary on your account. 25qConvinced of this, rI know that I will remain and continue with you all, for your sprogress and tjoy in the faith, 26so that in me uyou may have ample cause to glory in Christ Jesus, because of my coming to you again.
27Only vlet your manner of life be wworthy8 of the gospel of Christ, so that whether I come and see you or am absent, I may hear of you xthat you are standing firm in one spirit, with yone mind zstriving side by side for the faith of the gospel, 28and not frightened in anything by your opponents. This is aa clear sign to them of their destruction, but bof your salvation, and that from God. 29For cit has been granted to you that for the sake of Christ you should not only believe in him but also bsuffer for his sake, 30engaged in the same dconflict that eyou saw I had and now hear that I still have.
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