Suffering seems to be an important part of Jesus’ coming to earth. Just as Jesus told his disciples in Luke 9:22, “The Son of Man must suffer many things and be rejected by the elders, the chief priests and the teachers of the law, and He must be killed and on the third day be raised to life.”
Oddly enough, His suffering would be part of the proof that He was the Messiah, although people didn’t grasp that as they studied the prophecies prior to Jesus’ resurrection and the establishment of the church. For instance, in Isaiah 53:3-5, “He was despised and rejected by mankind, a man of suffering, and familiar with pain. Like one from whom people hide their faces He was despised, and we held Him in low esteem. Surely, He took up our pain and bore our suffering, yet we considered Him punished by God, stricken by Him, and afflicted. But He was pierced for our transgressions, He was crushed for our iniquities; the punishment that brought us peace was on Him, and by His wounds we are healed.”
This was the very scripture that the Ethiopian Eunuch was studying when Philip came alongside of him to share Christ with him. The man asked Philip, “Is he talking about Himself or someone else?” And we read in Acts 8:35, “Then Philip began with that very passage of Scripture and told him the good news about Jesus.”
David also “suffered” a lot after his anointing but before he took the throne. (He would suffer after he inherited the kingdom, but that was primarily due to consequences he brought upon himself.) Before David reigned, King Saul sought to kill him.
It was during this dark time in his life that we read many of his Psalms written to express his fears and his frustrations. Psalms 28:1-2, “I pray to you, O Lord, my rock. Do not turn a deaf ear to me. For if you are silent, I might as well give up and die. Listen to my prayer for mercy as I cry out to you for help, as I lift my hands toward your holy sanctuary.”
Similarly, we read in Hebrews 5:7-9, “During the days of Jesus’ life on earth, He offered up prayers and petitions with fervent cries and tears to the one who could save Him from death, and He was heard because of His reverent submission. Son though He was, He learned obedience from what He suffered and, once made perfect, He became the source of eternal salvation for all who obey Him….”
David, too, would express what he learned from the situations that forced him to rely on God. Psalms 27:11-13, “Teach me how to live, O Lord. Lead me along the right path, for my enemies are waiting for me. Do not let me fall into their hands. For they accuse me of things I’ve never done; with every breath they threaten me with violence. Yet I am confident I will see the Lord’s goodness while I am here in the land of the living.”
The nation of Israel was surely thankful for David’s commitment to God during that time, because through his reign would be the new standard of a Godly king. In the same way, that we are glad for the Word becoming flesh and dwelling among us (John 1).
Friday, November 23, 2018
Friday, November 16, 2018
Understanding Jesus' Connections
Have your eyes ever glazed over when reading the genealogical records in the Bible? For the most part, it’s a list of names you can’t even begin to pronounce,
besides being somebody else’s family tree (which usually isn’t all that exciting to look at anyway).
God isn’t wanting to torture us by throwing large chunks of weird names at us for no reason. These names are designed to connect people with a family – Jesus’ family to be specific. But why is that important?
Matthew begins his Good News story with a list of names that show how Jesus connects with some of the biggest names in the Bible. Jesus didn’t appear out of nowhere, nor was His ministry completely new. It seemed new, but to those who realized His connections, He was the promised one of God, the rightful heir to the best king Israel ever had – David, the man after God’s own heart (1 Samuel 13:14).
Paul makes it clear that Jesus’ relationship to David is essential to the story of the Gospel itself. Romans: 2-3, “…the gospel He promised beforehand through His prophets in the Holy Scriptures regarding his Son, who as to His earthly life was a descendant of David, and who through the Spirit of holiness was appointed the Son of God in power by his resurrection from the dead: Jesus Christ our Lord!”
Some of the obvious connections are: they were both born in Bethlehem (Micah 5:2, Matthew 2, Luke 2), both shepherds (1 Samuel 17, John 10:14), and both would be the standard for the new kingdom.
1 Chronicles 22:10, “He is the one who will build a house for my Name. He will be my son, and I will be his father. And I will establish the throne of his kingdom over Israel forever.’”
Revelations 11:15, “The kingdom of the world has become the kingdom of our Lord and of his Messiah, and he will reign for ever and ever.”
But there are other similarities that all point to the fact that God was helping us get a glimpse of the kind of kingdom (and king) that He had in mind from the beginning. Hebrews 1:8-9, “Your throne, O God, will last for ever and ever; a scepter of justice will be the scepter of your kingdom. You have loved righteousness and hated wickedness; therefore God, your God, has set you above your companions by anointing you with the oil of joy.”
There is a constant reminder throughout the New Testament of the kingdom God has ushered in through Jesus. What a wonderful thing to be a citizen of His kingdom, an everlasting kingdom! So, just as the Israelites honored David’s legacy for generations after his reign, the church will honor Jesus' legacy for all eternity.
Acts 2:30-33, “[David] was a prophet and knew that God had promised him on oath that he would place one of his descendants on his throne. Seeing what was to come, he spoke of the resurrection of the Messiah, that He was not abandoned to the realm of the dead, nor did His body see decay. God has raised this Jesus to life, and we are all witnesses of it. Exalted to the right hand of God, He has received from the Father the promised Holy Spirit and has poured out what you now see and hear.”
God isn’t wanting to torture us by throwing large chunks of weird names at us for no reason. These names are designed to connect people with a family – Jesus’ family to be specific. But why is that important?
Matthew begins his Good News story with a list of names that show how Jesus connects with some of the biggest names in the Bible. Jesus didn’t appear out of nowhere, nor was His ministry completely new. It seemed new, but to those who realized His connections, He was the promised one of God, the rightful heir to the best king Israel ever had – David, the man after God’s own heart (1 Samuel 13:14).
Paul makes it clear that Jesus’ relationship to David is essential to the story of the Gospel itself. Romans: 2-3, “…the gospel He promised beforehand through His prophets in the Holy Scriptures regarding his Son, who as to His earthly life was a descendant of David, and who through the Spirit of holiness was appointed the Son of God in power by his resurrection from the dead: Jesus Christ our Lord!”
Some of the obvious connections are: they were both born in Bethlehem (Micah 5:2, Matthew 2, Luke 2), both shepherds (1 Samuel 17, John 10:14), and both would be the standard for the new kingdom.
1 Chronicles 22:10, “He is the one who will build a house for my Name. He will be my son, and I will be his father. And I will establish the throne of his kingdom over Israel forever.’”
Revelations 11:15, “The kingdom of the world has become the kingdom of our Lord and of his Messiah, and he will reign for ever and ever.”
But there are other similarities that all point to the fact that God was helping us get a glimpse of the kind of kingdom (and king) that He had in mind from the beginning. Hebrews 1:8-9, “Your throne, O God, will last for ever and ever; a scepter of justice will be the scepter of your kingdom. You have loved righteousness and hated wickedness; therefore God, your God, has set you above your companions by anointing you with the oil of joy.”
There is a constant reminder throughout the New Testament of the kingdom God has ushered in through Jesus. What a wonderful thing to be a citizen of His kingdom, an everlasting kingdom! So, just as the Israelites honored David’s legacy for generations after his reign, the church will honor Jesus' legacy for all eternity.
Acts 2:30-33, “[David] was a prophet and knew that God had promised him on oath that he would place one of his descendants on his throne. Seeing what was to come, he spoke of the resurrection of the Messiah, that He was not abandoned to the realm of the dead, nor did His body see decay. God has raised this Jesus to life, and we are all witnesses of it. Exalted to the right hand of God, He has received from the Father the promised Holy Spirit and has poured out what you now see and hear.”
Friday, November 9, 2018
The Power of the Passover
A special meal was inaugurated on the night before the nation of Israel would be freed from Egyptian slavery. It was a meal about a sacrificial lamb that would atone for their sins. It was to be eaten in a certain way and commemorated on a certain day of the year– it was Passover. Even though there were a lot of “rules” about eating this special meal, it served as a perpetual reminder of something to come. Basically, this meal represented HOPE.
The Passover was a high point in a typical Jewish family, and it served as an opportunity to explain how the God of Heaven, the Creator of the universe, saved His people who were in distress.
Exodus 12:24-27, “Obey these instructions as a lasting ordinance for you and your descendants. When you enter the land that the Lord will give you as He promised, observe this ceremony. And when your children ask you, ‘What does this ceremony mean to you?’ then tell them, ‘It is the Passover sacrifice to the Lord, who passed over the houses of the Israelites in Egypt and spared our homes when He struck down the Egyptians.’”
In time the Jews neglected this celebration, and by doing so, the story of Israel’s deliverance was virtually forgotten. They knew of God, but their lifestyle proved that they didn’t really know God. For instance, in the New Testament we read of a dispute between the religious leaders and Jesus over His identity and therefore His purpose. It's in this scene where the Pharisees reject Jesus' statement: (John 8:12) “I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will never walk in darkness but will have the light of life.”
In John 8:19 they ask, “Where is your father?” To which Jesus replies, “You do not know me or my Father, if you knew me, you would know my Father also.”
All the festivals and ceremonies God that instituted at the beginning were intended to help later generations to recognize God’s power and therefore have hope.
1 Peter 1:10-12 describes how the prophets searched the Scriptures to find the hope of salvation, but it wasn’t going to be revealed until Jesus life, death, burial, and resurrection.
In the Hebrew, the words used for HOPE are Yakhal (to wait for) and Qavah (tension/ a tight cord). Both words are used periodically throughout Scriptures illustrating waiting on God and the tension that comes with waiting.
We need hope to stay faithful. Proverbs 13:12 says, “Hope deferred makes the heart sick, but a longing fulfilled is a tree of life.” So, hope and faith fit well together, and we know from Hebrews 11:6 that “without faith it is impossible to please God, because whoever comes to him for salvation must believe that he is indeed God, the one able to save from sins, and that he righteously rewards those who sincerely seek him.”
God has left many nuggets of hope packed away in Scriptures that help us maintain hope, build our faith, or even begin having faith. The more we know the Scriptures, the better the story is seen and our opportunities to share our faith are more obvious.
The Passover was a high point in a typical Jewish family, and it served as an opportunity to explain how the God of Heaven, the Creator of the universe, saved His people who were in distress.
Exodus 12:24-27, “Obey these instructions as a lasting ordinance for you and your descendants. When you enter the land that the Lord will give you as He promised, observe this ceremony. And when your children ask you, ‘What does this ceremony mean to you?’ then tell them, ‘It is the Passover sacrifice to the Lord, who passed over the houses of the Israelites in Egypt and spared our homes when He struck down the Egyptians.’”
In time the Jews neglected this celebration, and by doing so, the story of Israel’s deliverance was virtually forgotten. They knew of God, but their lifestyle proved that they didn’t really know God. For instance, in the New Testament we read of a dispute between the religious leaders and Jesus over His identity and therefore His purpose. It's in this scene where the Pharisees reject Jesus' statement: (John 8:12) “I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will never walk in darkness but will have the light of life.”
In John 8:19 they ask, “Where is your father?” To which Jesus replies, “You do not know me or my Father, if you knew me, you would know my Father also.”
All the festivals and ceremonies God that instituted at the beginning were intended to help later generations to recognize God’s power and therefore have hope.
1 Peter 1:10-12 describes how the prophets searched the Scriptures to find the hope of salvation, but it wasn’t going to be revealed until Jesus life, death, burial, and resurrection.
In the Hebrew, the words used for HOPE are Yakhal (to wait for) and Qavah (tension/ a tight cord). Both words are used periodically throughout Scriptures illustrating waiting on God and the tension that comes with waiting.
We need hope to stay faithful. Proverbs 13:12 says, “Hope deferred makes the heart sick, but a longing fulfilled is a tree of life.” So, hope and faith fit well together, and we know from Hebrews 11:6 that “without faith it is impossible to please God, because whoever comes to him for salvation must believe that he is indeed God, the one able to save from sins, and that he righteously rewards those who sincerely seek him.”
God has left many nuggets of hope packed away in Scriptures that help us maintain hope, build our faith, or even begin having faith. The more we know the Scriptures, the better the story is seen and our opportunities to share our faith are more obvious.
Friday, November 2, 2018
Jesus & Self Esteem
Some psychologists suggest low self esteem is a contributor to many of the social disorders facing younger generations today.
Whether or not that’s completely true could be debated, but there is one thing to acknowledge – our image of self can alter how we
perform.
It’s said that to be a good athlete you have to be a little arrogant. I'm not advocating an unhealthy pride in our performance on any level, but there is some truth to that. While self-image impacts a lot of people’s life choices, we can realize that Jesus came to give us a new perspective on our own life.
2 Corinthians 5:16-17, “So from now on we regard no one from a worldly point of view. Though we once regarded Christ in this way, we do so no longer. Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come: The old has gone, the new is here!”
One person in particular in the congregation at Corinth was especially glad that his past wasn’t continuing to define his future – the man from 1 Corinthians 5. He had been involved in sexual immorality and had been rebuked and disciplined because of it (after prompting from Paul). But in 2 Corinthians 2:6-8, “The punishment inflicted on him by the majority is sufficient. Now instead, you ought to forgive and comfort him, so that he will not be overwhelmed by excessive sorrow. I urge you, therefore, to reaffirm your love for him.”
The love Paul encouraged the congregation to show to the man after a period of time would be the compelling reason to not go back to that old lifestyle. Therefore, it could probably never be adequately expressed the importance of each of those members of the body of Christ in Corinth. Who were they? We don’t know, but he knew. They each contributed to his new self-image; something that had been buried under a load of sin and guilt, shame, and reproach. But Paul had reminded them, after the instruction for them to reprimand the man, in 1 Corinthians 6:11, “And that is what some of you were. But you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God.”
2 Corinthians 1:4, “Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of compassion and the God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our troubles, so that we can comfort those in any trouble with the comfort we ourselves receive from God. For just as we share abundantly in the sufferings of Christ, so also our comfort abounds through Christ.”
Each of us have a special design in God’s kingdom to do. As Paul said in 1 Thessalonians 5:12-14, “acknowledge those who work hard among you, who care for you in the Lord and who admonish you. Hold them in the highest regard in love because of their work. Live in peace with each other. And we urge you, brothers and sisters, warn those who are idle and disruptive, encourage the disheartened, help the weak, be patient with everyone.”
It’s said that to be a good athlete you have to be a little arrogant. I'm not advocating an unhealthy pride in our performance on any level, but there is some truth to that. While self-image impacts a lot of people’s life choices, we can realize that Jesus came to give us a new perspective on our own life.
2 Corinthians 5:16-17, “So from now on we regard no one from a worldly point of view. Though we once regarded Christ in this way, we do so no longer. Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come: The old has gone, the new is here!”
One person in particular in the congregation at Corinth was especially glad that his past wasn’t continuing to define his future – the man from 1 Corinthians 5. He had been involved in sexual immorality and had been rebuked and disciplined because of it (after prompting from Paul). But in 2 Corinthians 2:6-8, “The punishment inflicted on him by the majority is sufficient. Now instead, you ought to forgive and comfort him, so that he will not be overwhelmed by excessive sorrow. I urge you, therefore, to reaffirm your love for him.”
The love Paul encouraged the congregation to show to the man after a period of time would be the compelling reason to not go back to that old lifestyle. Therefore, it could probably never be adequately expressed the importance of each of those members of the body of Christ in Corinth. Who were they? We don’t know, but he knew. They each contributed to his new self-image; something that had been buried under a load of sin and guilt, shame, and reproach. But Paul had reminded them, after the instruction for them to reprimand the man, in 1 Corinthians 6:11, “And that is what some of you were. But you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God.”
2 Corinthians 1:4, “Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of compassion and the God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our troubles, so that we can comfort those in any trouble with the comfort we ourselves receive from God. For just as we share abundantly in the sufferings of Christ, so also our comfort abounds through Christ.”
Each of us have a special design in God’s kingdom to do. As Paul said in 1 Thessalonians 5:12-14, “acknowledge those who work hard among you, who care for you in the Lord and who admonish you. Hold them in the highest regard in love because of their work. Live in peace with each other. And we urge you, brothers and sisters, warn those who are idle and disruptive, encourage the disheartened, help the weak, be patient with everyone.”