we were discussing a certain cult's propensity for extracting obscure verses from the Bible, twisting, torturing and reinterpreting them to come up with *voila* a "scriptural foundation" for various blasphemies. Such as baptism for the dead, celestial polygamy, eternal progression, blah blah blah. It turned into a minutae glutted linguistic slugfest and bickering session. Here is my final post.
TEXT: Christ Resurrected appears to the Twelve
John 20:19 On the evening of that day, the first day of the week, the doors being shut where the disciples were, for fear of the Jews, Jesus came and stood among them and said to them, "Peace be with you." 20 When he had said this, he showed them his hands and his side. Then the disciples were glad when they saw the Lord. 21 Jesus said to them again, "Peace be with you. As the Father has sent me, even so I send you." 22 And when he had said this, he breathed on them, and said to them, "Receive the Holy Spirit. 23 If you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven; if you retain the sins of any, they are retained." 24 Now Thomas, one of the twelve, called the Twin, was not with them when Jesus came. 25 So the other disciples told him, "We have seen the Lord." But he said to them, "Unless I see in his hands the print of the nails, and place my finger in the mark of the nails, and place my hand in his side, I will not believe." 26 Eight days later, his disciples were again in the house, and Thomas was with them. The doors were shut, but Jesus came and stood among them, and said, "Peace be with you." 27 Then he said to Thomas, "Put your finger here, and see my hands; and put out your hand, and place it in my side; do not be faithless, but believing." 28 Thomas answered him, "My Lord and my God!" 29 Jesus said to him, "Have you believed because you have seen me? Blessed are those who have not seen and yet believe." 30 Now Jesus did many other signs in the presence of the disciples, which are not written in this book; 31 but these are written that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that believing you may have life in his name."
1. Do we believe John when he says: "these are written that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that believing you may have life in his name."
2. If John was telling the truth, we can be assured that even if we had this and ONLY this Book of the New Testament it would be sufficient for us to believe in Christ, and receive eternal salvation.
3. Scripture never contradicts scripture. Is there any doctrine or belief in the Bible that contradicts John?
4. Add to that, our previous conversation about the thief on the cross and Christ's words: 43And Jesus said unto him, Verily I say unto thee, Today shalt thou be with me in paradise.
We begin to get a glimpse of the true glory, which is the beauty and simplicity of God's plan of salvation for us.
There was only, is only One Way of reconciliation.
On the cross, Christ forgave those who tortured him.
On the cross, Christ redeemed a sinner.
After resurrection, Christ reassured his followers with "peace be unto you".
He blessed Thomas for believing, he gave the disciples the Holy Spirit.
He blessed US when he said "blessed are those who have not seen, yet believe".
What did Jesus' persecutors do to earn his forgiveness?
What did the disciples do to earn his blessing of peace?
What did the disciples do to earn the gift of the Holy Spirit
What did Thomas do to earn his salvation?
What did the thief on the cross do to earn his salvation?
What have we done to earn our salvation?
Do you see and believe that everything depends on Christ alone?
This is the heart and soul of the Gospel.
We are powerless to help ourselves. Rituals cannot save us, water cannot save us, chanting cannot save us, producing signs and wonders can't save us, even resurrecting the dead and healing the sick can't save us. Membership to a church can't do it either. Our obedience is weak and pathetic and has no power to save. Our ability to keep the commandments and live a perfect life is beyond our grasp, for the bible teaches that no one is worthy, no not one. Our strength is in the Lord. Only. Period. End of story.
this is the way God PLANNED it and wants us to see it clearly, as it is recorded in scripture over and over: the only glory given, is to be given to God. Our only strength is in Him, not in our ability to follow prescribed rituals, pray five times a day, repent, or tithe, for our ability to do those things is unreliable. The only thing we can say of ourselves with any assurance is that we are sinners in need of a Savior. Christ's ability to save is forever constant and reliable.
Our only hope is in Him. He wants us to be humble and dependent. He wants us to forget about ourselves, our rituals, our human edifices, our good works, our worldly "sacrifices" and to focus on Him and what he has done for us. How else are we to remain humble, in all things praising and thanking him for all HE has done?
He will not honor our prentensions! He will not honor our laughable attempts to show him how good we are! I can only imagine how angry he is at our religiosity and rituals, which focus our minds and hearts on works rather than on Him.
Now, I'd call that plain and precious truth wouldn't you?
Meditation:
Do you know the joy of the resurrection? The Risen Jesus revealed the glory of his resurrection to his disciples gradually and over a period of time. Even after the apostles saw the empty tomb and heard the reports of Jesus' appearance to the women, they were still weak in faith and fearful of being arrested by the Jewish authorities. When Jesus appeared to them he offered proofs of his resurrection by showing them the wounds of his passion, his pierced hands and side. He calmed their fears and brought them peace, the peace which reconciles sinners and makes one a friend of God.
Jesus did something which only love and trust and can do. He commissioned his weak and timid apostles to carry the gospel to the ends of the earth. This sending out of the disciples is parallel to the sending out of Jesus by his Father. Jesus fulfilled his mission through his perfect love and perfect obedience to the will of his Father. He called his disciples, and he calls us to do the same. Just as he gave his first disciples the gift of the Holy Spirit, so he breathes on us the same Holy Spirit who equips us with power, grace, and strength.
The last apostle to meet the resurrected Lord was the first to go with him to Jerusalem at Passover time. The apostle Thomas was a natural pessimist. When Jesus proposed that they visit Lazarus after receiving news of his illness, Thomas said to the disciples: "Let us also go, that we may die with him" (John 11:16). While Thomas deeply loved the Lord, he lacked the courage to stand with Jesus in his passion and crucifixion. After Jesus' death, Thomas made the mistake of withdrawing from the other apostles. He sought loneliness rather than fellowship in his time of adversity. He doubted the women who saw the resurrected Jesus and he doubted his own fellow apostles. When Thomas finally had the courage to rejoin the other apostles, the Lord Jesus made his presence known to him and reassured him that he had indeed overcome death and risen again. When Thomas recognized his Master, he believed and exclaimed that Jesus was truly Lord and truly God!
Through the gift of faith we, too, proclaim that Jesus is our personal Lord and our God. He died and rose that we, too, might have new life in him. The Lord offers each of us new life in his Holy Spirit that we may know him personally and walk in this new way of life through the power of his resurrection. Do you believe in God's word and the power of the Holy Spirit?
"Lord Jesus Christ, through your victory over sin and death you have overcome all the powers of darkness. Help me to draw near to you and to trust in your life-giving word. Fill me with your Holy Spirit and strengthen my faith in your promises and my hope in the power of your resurrection."
AMEN.
Sunday, March 30, 2008
Saturday, March 22, 2008
Were You There When they Crucified My Lord?
The chief priests had Jesus tied in chains and they led him off to Pontius Pilate, the Roman governor of the city. “Are you the king of the Jews?” Pilate asked Jesus.
“So you say,” was all that Jesus would answer.
At the time of Passover, Pilate would set free any prisoner the people wanted. A crowd had gathered outside the governor’s palace, and so Pilate said to them, “Shall I set free this Jesus, your messiah?”
“We want Barabbas!” the crowd shouted back. Barabbas was a well known criminal.“What shall I do with Jesus then?”
“Crucify him!” the people shouted back.“But why?” Pilate pleaded. “What crime has he committed?”
“Crucify him!” the people cried out all the more.Pilate could see there was no use in arguing any more. The chief priests had convinced the crowd that Jesus had to die. And so he took a bowl and washed his hands. It was his way of saying he would have no part in it. “I find no reason to condemn this man!” he said.
“Let his blood be on us and on our children!” the crowd shouted back.
And so Pilate set Barabbas free. He escaped the sentence of death and Jesus took his place - just like Jesus would take the place of all sinners.
Pilate’s soldiers dragged Jesus inside of the palace.
They stripped off his clothes and whipped him. The metal barbs of the whips tore shreads of skin off his back. Then they put a purple robe on his back and made a crown out of thorny branches and pressed it into his head. They put a stick in his hands and knelt down in front of him. “Long live the king of the Jews!” they said, making fun of him. Then they spat in his face, and hit him over the head with the stick.
When that wasn’t fun anymore, they took the robe away and led him off to be crucified.They put a heavy cross on his bruised and bleeding back, and pushed him along, through the dusty streets of the city. Along the way the crowds pressed against the soldiers trying to get a better look. All the while they mocked him and spat on him as he passed by.
When Jesus could barely stumble another step, the soldiers took hold of a man from Cyrene named Simon, and forced him to carry the cross for him.
At last they came to the place called Golgotha, a hill they called the place of the skull. They offered Jesus a bitter wine mixed with a drug called myrrh, but he refused to drink it. Then the soldiers stretched Jesus out on the cross and drove heavy nails through his hands and feet.
And there they raised him up on the cross, and crucified him between two thieves.
The soldiers took his clothes and divided them among them. But his robe was made of one piece. “Let’s not tear it,” the soldiers said. And so they tossed dice to see who would get it.On his cross there was a sign that said, “Jesus, King of the Jews.” People passing by laughed at him and called out, “If you are God’s son, then save yourself, and come down off that cross!” At noon, a terrible darkness fell over the whole land.
For three hours the sun did not shine. At last, Jesus cried out in a loud voice filled with pain and anguish, “My God, my God, why did you leave me?”
The people standing nearby thought he was calling for Elijah.
One of the soldiers took a sponge and soaked it in vinegar and tried to make him drink it. “Wait! Let us see if Elijah will save him!” someone in the crowd shouted.
But Jesus cried, “It is finished!”And then, with a loud cry, he breathed his last and died.
It was as if the whole earth shuddered the moment Jesus died.
Mountains trembled.
Rocks split open.
And at that moment, the curtain that hung in the temple was torn in two from top to bottom.
That curtain was used to separate the people from the Holy of Holies, the sacred place in the temple where only the priests could enter. Only they could come before God and speak for the people.
Now that curtain had been torn apart.
It was as though God were saying there is no longer anything that separates God from his people.
--------------------------------
Mediatations for Holy Saturday
’Tis Love! ’tis Love! thou diedst for me,
I hear thy whisper in my heart.
The morning breaks, the shadows flee,
pure Universal Love thou art:
to me, to all, thy mercies move—
thy nature, and thy name is Love.
-Charles Wesley
Come, and let us return unto the LORD: for he hath torn, and he will heal us; he hath smitten, and he will bind us up. After two days will he revive us: in the third day he will raise us up, and we shall live in his sight. Hosea 6:1,2
The School of Jesus The word "disciple" has taken on not only a religious meaning, but a religious feel and tone. Our English word is faithful to the linguistic background of the word for being "under discipline" in the way that "discipline" is used in academic circles; that is, one who studies and learns. This learning is formal, guided and governed by standards that the learner cannot alter. The one who studies either passes or fails.
A German translation of μαθητής (mathētēs, that word we translate as "disciple") is the word Schüler. This comes from the same root, obviously, as the word "scholar," and also the word "school." To be a disciple of Jesus is to be in the school of Jesus.
The school of Jesus begins with one subject, and we never graduate in this life. We take our exams everyday, we are graded far more generously than we deserve by a merciful Teacher, and our studies continue.
The school of Jesus is the way of the cross.
"Whosoever doth not bear his cross, and come after me, cannot be my disciple." Luke 14:27
This is the way of death, a lesson we must learn everyday, if we follow Jesus. In order to follow him we must die everyday to our own will, our desires, our pride, our lust, our anger.
Jesus did not carry the cross only on Good Friday. He was ready to die that day because all of his life he had lived to do the will of his Father, not to please himself.
Beginning on Thursday night, we see how a lifetime of being in the form of a servant prepared him to carry the heavy wood of the cross, all the way up to Golgotha where he would be nailed to it, and would pour out his soul unto death.
With humility he washes the feet of the disciples. At that time he redirected the motives of his closest disciples, who were arguing until then about which of them should be the greatest.
"So after he had washed their feet, and had taken his garments, and was set down again, he said unto them, Know ye what I have done to you? Ye call me Master and Lord: and ye say well; for so I am. If I then, your Lord and Master, have washed your feet; ye also ought to wash one another's feet. For I have given you an example, that ye should do as I have done to you." John 13: 11-15
On several other occasions he had said such things to them."The disciple is not above his master, nor the servant above his lord. It is enough for the disciple that he be as his master, and the servant as his lord. If they have called the master of the house Beelzebub, how much more shall they call them of his household?" Matthew 10:24, 25
"Whosoever will be great among you, let him be your minister; And whosoever will be chief among you, let him be your servant: Even as the Son of man came not to be ministered unto, but to minister, and to give his life a ransom for many." Matthew 20:26-28
The school of Jesus is the way of the cross. He has no other course of study for us, for it is the only way of life and of peace.
-------------------------------------
The sun was just beginning to rise, and in the pale light, a group of women hurried along together.
The morning air felt cool against their skin.
They were on their way to the tomb of Jesus, with oils and perfume to properly bury the body.
Mary Magdalene was with them.
She walked with her head bowed, and tears still rolling down her cheek.
Mary the mother of James and Joseph was also there.
As they walked, they talked quietly with each other.
“But who will roll away the stone?” they wondered...
http://www.essex1.com/people/paul/lent4d.html
Many thanks to Paul Dallgas-Frey, brother in Christ
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)