This is a Three-Year Lectionary based on the Lutheran Book of Worship 3-year Lectionary (for public worship), "Prayers of the Day..." (Propers), p. 13-41, Augsburg Publishing House, Minneapolis, 1978. It is based, with only minor variations, on the Revised Common Lectionary, used by many denominations, including the Episcopal, Lutheran, Presbyterian, and Methodist churches:
http://www.commontexts.org/
and:
http://www.commontexts.org/rcl/usage.html
The daily readings are the Propers (Lections) for the following Sunday, so that the daily devotions can prepare us for worship. Additional lections are from Common Service Book of the Lutheran Church, "Scripture lessons for Matins and Vespers," United Lutheran Church of America, General Rubrics VIII. Scripture lessons for Matins and Vespers, p. 299 - 304, Philadelphia, 1918.
The previous 2- year Bible Study based on the Lutheran Book of Worship, Daily Lectionary for personal devotions p.179-192, Augsburg Publishing House, Minneapolis, 1978, is available at:
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1 Lent - Sunday B
First posted March 1, 2009
Genesis 22:1-18 -- Abraham Tested;
Psalm 6 -- Prayer for Healing;
Romans 8:31-39 -- More than Conquerors;
Mark 1:12-15 -- Jesus Tested in the Wilderness;
Genesis:
Abraham (Abram) and his household were dwelling in Beer-sheba (on the southern border of Israel. God tested Abraham's faith (obedient trust) in God's Word. Isaac was the promised son of Abraham through whom God had promised to make Abraham the father of a great nation and through whom all the people of the earth would be blessed (Genesis 12:1-3). God asked Abraham to go to the “land of Moriah” (some authorities believe that Mt Moriah, the temple mount in Jerusalem, is place referred to; others believe it was Mt Gerazim in Samaria) to offer Isaac as a sacrificial burnt offering on the mountain God would show Abraham. So Abraham got up early the next morning, saddled his donkey, cut wood for the burnt offering, and took Isaac and two of Abraham's servants and went to Moriah as God had told him.
On the third day, with the Mountain visible in the distance, Abraham left his servants with his donkey, and gave the wood for the fire to Isaac to carry, and Abraham took the fire-making equipment and the knife. As they went, Isaac asked his father where the lamb for the sacrifice was, observing that it was the one essential that was missing. Abraham told Isaac that “God will provide himself the lamb for a burnt offering” (Genesis 22:8).
When they arrived at the spot God had designated, Abraham built an altar, laid on the wood for the fire, and then tied up Isaac and laid him on the altar. When Abraham took the knife to kill his son, the angel (or spirit) of God called him by name and stopped him, warning him not to harm his son. God knew that Abraham had truly feared (had appropriate respect for the power and authority of) God, since Abraham had not withheld his only son of the promise from God. Abraham noticed that a ram was caught in a thicket by his horns, so Abraham went and slaughtered the ram and made the burnt offering with it instead of his son. So Abraham named the place “the Lord will provide” (Jehovah–jireh; in acknowledgment of the fulfillment of his faith, in Genesis 22:8).
The angel of the Lord again called to Abraham from heaven, declaring that the Lord would indeed bless Abraham and multiply his descendants to be more numerous than the stars in the sky or the sands of the sea. Abraham's descendants “will possess the gates of their enemies” (Genesis 22:17b; compare Matthew 16:18-19), and all the nations of the earth will bless themselves because of Abraham's faith in God's Word.
Psalm:
Lord, don't rebuke me in anger or punish me in wrath. Lord, I am languishing, I am troubled to my very bones; in my very soul. Please be gracious to me and heal me. Help me soon.
Turn not away from me; save me and deliver me in your steadfast love. The dead have no remembrance of the Lord; how can they praise the Lord in their graves.
I am exhausted with moaning and crying; I drench my bed with tears. My eyes are worn out with weeping. I grow weak because of my enemies.
Let evildoers depart from me. The Lord has heard my cry and my supplication; he has accepted my prayer. All my enemies will soon experience trouble and be put to shame.
Romans:
We can be confident that the Lord is working in all things for our eternal salvation, and if God is for us who can successfully oppose us? God gave us his most precious gift, his only begotten Son to die for us; if he didn't withhold his Son, is there any other thing he wouldn't give for us? Who can accuse God's chosen people? It is God who judges; who will condemn us? Jesus died for us, was raised from the dead, ascended into heaven and is at the right hand of God our Father, making intercession with God on our behalf.
Who can remove us from the love of Christ? No tribulation, distress, persecution, famine, nakedness, danger, or sword can separate us from Christ's love and power. As the psalmist has said, we are like sheep to be slaughtered, being killed all day long for Jesus' sake (Psalm 44:22), but we have overcome all that through the Lord who loves us. “For I am sure that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor anything else in all creation will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord” (Romans 8:38-39).
Mark:
After Jesus' baptism by John the Baptizer, Jesus was driven by the Holy Spirit into the wilderness, where he was tempted by Satan for forty days. Jesus was alone among the wild beasts, and the angels ministered to him.
After John the Baptizer was arrested, Jesus began to preach the Gospel of God in Galilee (the northernmost Roman province of Israel). Jesus announced that the time of God's promise (of a Savior) was fulfilled, God's eternal kingdom is at hand, and Jesus urged the people to repent and believe in the Gospel.
Commentary:
Abraham (Abram) had complete faith (obedient trust) in God. He had been walking in fellowship with God for many years, since God first called him to leave his home to go to the land God promised to give to his descendants (Genesis 12:1-7). Abraham had learned by experience that God's Word is absolutely dependable and true.
Isaac was Abraham's only son by his wife, Sarah, and the one through whom God's promise to make Abraham the father of a great nation depended. But Abraham was willing to sacrifice the son of the promise, at God's Word.
Abraham believed “that God would provide himself the lamb for the sacrifice.” God did stop Abraham from sacrificing Isaac and provided a substitute, a ram caught in a thicket.
God's Word is eternal and eternally true; it is fulfilled over and over as the conditions for its fulfillment are met. Jesus is the ultimate literal fulfillment of Abraham's faith that God would provide himself the lamb for the sacrifice through whom all the promises of God's Word are fulfilled. God didn't require Abraham to sacrifice his son Isaac, but God did sacrifice God's only Son of the promise for us.
Jesus is God in human flesh. The entire fullness of God dwelt in Jesus in human flesh (Colossians 2:8-9; John 20:28) Those who have “seen” or known Jesus have “seen” or known God John 14:8-11). Jesus' word is the Word of God (John 14:10, 24), with the creative force of God's Word (Mark 4:39-41; compare Genesis 1:3, 9). God sent Jesus into the world to die on the cross as the one and only sacrifice acceptable to God for the forgiveness of our sins (Acts 4:12), so that we wouldn't have to die eternally for them ourselves.
The Lord knows our need before we ask. God knows, as many of us do not, that our most urgent need is for spiritual healing and feeding. God knew our need for a Savior before we knew we were sinners (Romans 5:8). God designed Christ into the very structure of Creation (John 1:1-5, 14).
God has no obligation to be all that a good, loving, almighty God implies unless we are willing to be his obedient, trusting people (Jeremiah 7:23; Ezekiel 11:20; Leviticus 26:3, 12; see also Jeremiah 11:4c-5). God is not obligated to hear and answer our prayers unless we are willing to hear and obey God's Word (see Conditions for Answered Prayer, sidebar, top right).
God raised Jesus from physical death to eternal life, revealing that there is existence after physical death, as God's Word declares (Hebrews 9:27). Jesus came to free us from slavery to sin and fear of physical death (Hebrews 2:14-15). Through obedient trust in Jesus Christ we are spiritually “born-again” (John 3:3, 5-8) to eternal life by the gift of the indwelling Holy Spirit, which only Jesus gives (John 1:31-34), only to his disciples who trust and obey Jesus (John 14:15-17).
Every truly born-again Christian can personally testify that Jesus is risen and is eternally alive. The Holy Spirit is the seal and guarantee that one is in Christ and has eternal life (2 Corinthians 1:22; Ephesians 1:13-14; Romans 8:9b, 11, 15-16). The gift of the indwelling Holy Spirit is a personally discernible ongoing event. We can know with certainty by our own experience that we are in Christ and have eternal life (Acts 19:2).
There is a Day of Judgment coming when Jesus returns in glory and power to judge the living (“quickened”) and the dead in both physical and spiritual senses (1 Peter 4:5). Those who have accepted Jesus as Lord and have trusted and obeyed Jesus will have been reborn by the gift of the indwelling Holy Spirit and will enter God's eternal kingdom in heaven. Those who have rejected Jesus and have refused or failed to trust and obey Jesus will be condemned to eternal death and destruction in hell with all evil (Matthew 25:31-46; 2 Thessalonians 1:5-10).
Is Jesus your Lord? Are you Jesus’ disciple? Are you trusting and obeying Jesus? Have you received the indwelling Holy Spirit since you first truly believed (Acts 19:2)? Are you making disciples of Jesus Christ and teaching them to obey all that Jesus commands (Matthew 28:18-20)? Do you know with certainty where you will spend eternity (1 John 5:11-13; Ephesians 1:13-14)?
1 Lent – Monday B
First posted March 2, 2009
Psalm 115:1, 9-18 -- Trust in the Lord;
Lord, for the sake of your steadfast love and faithfulness, glorify not us but your name.
The Lord is the help and shield of Israel (God's people; the Church); let us trust in him. May the house of Aaron (the priesthood; Christian clergy) trust in the Lord. Trust in the Lord, all who fear (have appropriate awe and respect for the power and authority of) the Lord.
The Lord will bless us; he has not forgotten us. He will bless the people of Israel and the priesthood of Aaron. He will bless all who fear the Lord, regardless of their worldly status; whether lowly or great.
The Lord will bless and prosper you and your children. The Creator of heaven and earth will bless you.
To the Lord belong the heavens; but he has given the earth to the children of man. The dead cannot praise the Lord; those in the grave are silenced. But we will praise the Lord now and forever. Praise the Lord.
Commentary:
Jesus is the fulfillment, embodiment and example of God's Word, lived in human flesh in this world (John 1:1-5, 14). Through faith (obedient trust) in Jesus, all the promises of God's Word of steadfast love, faithfulness, help, salvation, and blessing are fulfilled. Jesus is the ultimate illustration of God's steadfast love and faithfulness. God loves us, even when we are yet sinners (Romans 5:8). He doesn't want anyone to perish eternally (John 3:16-17; see God's Plan of Salvation, sidebar, top right).
The meaning and purpose of life is to seek and come to personal fellowship with God our Creator (Acts 17:26-27). This is only possible through faith (obedient trust) in Jesus Christ by the gift of the indwelling Holy Spirit, which only Jesus gives (John 1:31-34), only to his disciples who trust and obey Jesus (John 14:15-17). As we walk in obedient trust in Jesus Christ we will learn to trust and obey him. We will experience his faithfulness and power to help and shield us.
Only by the indwelling Holy Spirit can we personally experience the steadfast love and faithfulness of God. Only by the indwelling Holy Spirit can we personally experience God's glory, and be enabled to desire the glory of God's presence and to glorify him in our words and deeds (Galatians 4:6; Romans 8:14-16).
We are all born physically alive but spiritually dead. This lifetime is our only opportunity to be spiritually “born-again” (John 3:3, 5-8) to eternal life. The dead, in both physical and spiritual senses, cannot praise and glorify God. Without faith (obedient trust; in Jesus Christ) it is impossible to please God (Hebrews 11:6).
God is the Creator of heaven and earth. He is the owner of all Creation, but has given the earth to mankind, by allowing us free will and the possibility of sin (disobedience of God's Word) in this world. But God won't tolerate rebellion and disobedience forever, or at all in his heavenly kingdom, or it wouldn't be heaven. This Creation and we ourselves are limited by time. Now is our only time to seek the Lord, to learn to trust and obey the Lord, and to be spiritually reborn to eternal life.
Is Jesus your Lord? Are you Jesus’ disciple? Are you trusting and obeying Jesus? Have you received the indwelling Holy Spirit since you first truly believed (Acts 19:2)? Are you making disciples of Jesus Christ and teaching them to obey all that Jesus commands (Matthew 28:18-20)? Do you know with certainty where you will spend eternity (1 John 5:11-13; Ephesians 1:13-14)?
1 Lent – Tuesday B
First posted March 3, 2009
Genesis 28:10-17 (18-22) -- Jacob's Ladder;
Background:
Jacob had tricked his brother Esau out of his birthright, and his mother sent him to Aram in Mesopotamia (Chaldea; present-day Syria), their ancestral homeland, to avoid his brother's retribution, and to take a wife from his relatives (Genesis 28:6-7).
Genesis:
Jacob left his father's house in Beer-sheba and went toward Haran, the city in Aram where his relatives lived. At sunset he had come to a place to camp for the night. He slept on the ground with a rock for a pillow for his head. Jacob had a dream of a ladder set up on earth reaching to heaven, and the angels of God were ascending and descending by it.
The Lord stood above it (or him) and said that he was the Lord, the God of Abraham (Abram), and the God of Isaac (Abraham's son of the promise and Jacob's father). God promised to give the land on which Jacob was lying to Jacob and his descendants. Jacob's descendants would be as numerous and uncountable as the dust of the earth. Jacob's descendants would spread north and south, east and west. All the families of earth would bless themselves and be blessed by Jacob and his descendants. God promised to be with Jacob wherever Jacob went and would bring him back to that spot. God promised to be with Jacob until everything God had said of him had been accomplished. Jacob awoke from the dream and realized that God was in that place, and that it was the gate of heaven.
Jacob got up early in the morning and anointed the rock he had used for a pillow and set it up as a pillar, for a memorial to God. Jacob named the place Bethel (meaning house of God), although the earlier Canaanite name for it was Luz. Jacob vowed that the Lord would be his God if God would keep him safe, would provide his food and clothing for Jacob's journey and would bring him safely home again to his father's house. Jacob declared that the pillar he had set up would mark God's house, and that Jacob would give a tenth of all he had to God.
Commentary:
People in that time believed that a god was local, and that other gods were in other places. The Lord revealed himself to Jacob as the God of his father and grandfather. God had called Jacob's grandfather, Abraham, to leave Aram and go the this place, which God promised to give to Abraham and his descendants. When Abraham came into the land his second encampment was between Bethel (Luz) and Ai which were about two miles apart. Abraham had built an altar there (Genesis 12:8. God had appeared to Abraham at the oak of Moreh at Shechem, his first encampment and had built an altar there also).
God was revealing himself as not just a “local god,” and not just the “god” of certain people. He is God of all people who allow him to be their God, and who trust and obey God's Word (Jeremiah 7:23; Ezekiel 11:20; Leviticus 26:3, 12; see also Jeremiah 11:4c-5). Jacob became the heir of the promise of God to Abraham, by accepting the God of his forefathers.
God did keep Jacob, throughout his journey. God prospered and provided for Jacob during his extended stay in Aram, and brought him back to Bethel. After Jacob had been reconciled with his brother, Esau, Jacob again came to Bethel and set up an altar to God. God appeared to Jacob and changed his name to Israel (Genesis 35:1-15; Jacob's twelve sons became the heads of the twelve tribes of Israel).
The ladder into heaven is the reversal of the tower of Babel the which ancient people had built in Chaldea (southern Babylonia). The people had learned to make bricks and thought that they could built a stairway into heaven by their own power and resources, so God had thwarted their plans by disrupting their language so that they could not communicate among themselves.
Jesus Christ is the fulfillment of the promise to bless all the people of earth through Abraham's descendants. Jesus is the gate to heaven; no one can enter God's eternal kingdom in heaven except through Jesus (John 14:6; see God's Plan of Salvation, sidebar, top right). Jesus is the fulfillment of the dream of Jacob's ladder through whom God's blessings descend to earth and through whom we can ascend into heaven (John 1:51).
Jesus declares that one must be spiritually “born-again” (John 3:3: 5-8) by the “baptism” of the Holy Spirit in order to see the kingdom of God, which is all around us now, and to see and enter it ultimately in eternity. Only Jesus baptizes with the Holy Spirit (John 1:31-34), only his disciples who trust and obey Jesus (John 14:15-17). The Holy Spirit is the seal and guarantee that one is in Christ and has eternal life (2 Corinthians 1:22; Ephesians 1:13-14; Romans 8:9b, 11, 15-16).
The Church was spiritually “born” on the Day of Pentecost, with the outpouring of the Holy Spirit upon his disciples (Acts 2:1-13), after Jesus' resurrection and ascension (Acts 1:9-11). On that day, God reversed the confusion of languages of the people at the tower of Babel (Acts 2:6-11). The gift of tongues (languages) was given so that the disciples could communicate the Gospel of Jesus Christ to all nations and people. (There is another form of the “gift of tongues,” incoherent speech, which Paul dealt with in the Corinthian Church (1 Corinthians 14:1-33).
God is God of all people and all nations whether we acknowledge him as our God or not. The gift of the indwelling Holy Spirit makes it possible for us to have personal fellowship and communication with God the Father, like the patriarchs had, wherever we go, through faith (obedient trust) in Jesus Christ. Through faith in Jesus Christ we become the spiritual descendants of Abraham (Galatians 3:6-9).
We become the heirs of God's promise of eternal life in the eternal Promised Land by accepting, trusting and obeying Jesus as our Lord. Jesus is God in human flesh (John 14:8-11; John 20:28). In him God dwelt bodily (Colossians 2:8-9). Jesus is the fulfillment, embodiment and example of God's Word, lived in human flesh in this world (John 1:1-3, 14). Jesus word is the Word of God (John 14:10b; 24), Jesus' words have the creative force of God's Word (Mark 4:39-41; compare: Genesis 1:3, 9).
Through the gift of the indwelling Holy Spirit we can have God's presence and providence in our journey though this life, and he promises to bring us back safely to God's house in the “Promised Land” of God's eternal kingdom in heaven.
Is Jesus your Lord? Are you Jesus’ disciple? Are you trusting and obeying Jesus? Have you received the indwelling Holy Spirit since you first truly believed (Acts 19:2)? Are you making disciples of Jesus Christ and teaching them to obey all that Jesus commands (Matthew 28:18-20)? Do you know with certainty where you will spend eternity (1 John 5:11-13; Ephesians 1:13-14)?
1 Lent – Wednesday B
First posted March 4, 2009
Romans 5:1-11 -- Reconciliation with God;
Paul had just explained that believers are justified (judged righteous) in God's judgment, by faith obedient trust) in Jesus Christ (not by “works;” not by doing “good deeds” Romans 4:1-25).
Because we are justified, we have peace with God through Jesus Christ our Lord. We have obtained grace (unmerited favor; a free gift) through which we stand justified through Jesus, and we share in the hope of sharing the glory of God. We can even rejoice in suffering (for the Gospel) because we learn endurance through suffering, by endurance we develop character, character produces hope, and our hope will not disappoint us, because we experience God's love through the Holy Spirit which we have been given.
While we were ungodly and helpless to change, Christ died for us. We would hardly be willing to die even for a righteous person, though we might be willing to die for someone who we considered good. “But God shows his love for us in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us” (Romans 5:8). Since we have been justified by Christ's blood, we can be sure that we will be saved from God's wrath. If Jesus' death on the cross reconciled us to God, now that we are reconciled we will most surely be saved by his life. So we can rejoice in God, through Jesus Christ, by whom we have received reconciliation.
Commentary:
When Adam and Eve disobeyed God's Word (Genesis 3:2-3, 6) in the Garden of Eden, they became separated from close, daily fellowship with God. They hid themselves from God (Genesis 3:8) because they knew that they had sinned, and feared God's judgment. Nevertheless, they were required to face God's judgment (Genesis 3:9-13), and God rendered the verdict: they were expelled from paradise and from God's presence (Genesis 3:22-24). God's warning that disobedience would result in death (Genesis 3:3) was fulfilled, not by immediate or eventual physical death, but by the loss of spiritual, eternal life (Genesis 3:22).
We have all been separated from God by sin (Romans 3:23; 1 John 1:8-10). The penalty for sin is eternal death (Romans 6:23). We have all been enslaved by sin and death (Hebrews 2:14-15), and are helpless to free ourselves, and save ourselves from God's righteous judgment of eternal condemnation.
God hasn't provided forgiveness of our sins (disobedience of God's Word) and salvation from eternal condemnation because we deserve or are worthy of it. God loves us and doesn't want anyone to perish eternally (2 Peter 3:9b). Forgiveness and salvation are by God's grace, a free gift, to be received by faith (obedient trust) in Jesus Christ (Ephesians 2:8-9; see God's Plan of Salvation, sidebar top right).
God wasn't surprised that mankind disobeyed God's Word. God designed this world to allow us the freedom to choose for ourselves whether or not to trust and obey God's Word, and to allow us to learn by trial and error. Jesus is not an afterthought; God has designed Creation with Jesus Christ, the eternal Savior, “built-in” from the very beginning (John 1:1-5, 14).
When we accept Jesus as our Lord by faith in God's promise and begin to trust and obey Jesus, we will be spiritually “reborn” (John 3:3, 5-8) to eternal life by the gift (baptism; anointing; infilling) of the Holy Spirit. Only Jesus gives the gift of the Holy Spirit (John 1:31-34) only to his disciples who trust and obey Jesus (John 14:15-17). The Holy Spirit is the seal and guarantee that one is in Christ and has eternal life (2 Corinthians 1:22; Ephesians 1:13-14; Romans 8:9b, 11, 15-16).
Through the gift of the indwelling Holy Spirit, we are restored to the presence of God within us and to personal daily fellowship with God and with our Lord Jesus Christ. Through the Holy Spirit we experience God's love for us personally and individually. Only by the gift of the indwelling Holy Spirit are we truly able to rejoice and praise our Lord (Romans 8:15-17). The indwelling Holy Spirit sustains us and encourages us in what we suffer for Jesus' sake. Through the indwelling Holy Spirit we are guided and empowered to do what God calls us to do.
Our hope of being in the presence of God and sharing in his glory in paradise restored in heaven is not “blind.” We have the “security deposit” binding and ensuring that hope through the indwelling Holy Spirit.
Faith is not “blind,” either. Faith is not wishful thinking; faith is not getting whatever we believe if we believe “hard enough.” It is not true that we can't know for sure whether our faith is confirmed until we die and face God's judgment. The only people who don't know for sure whether God's Word is true are those who are lost and perishing eternally.
Faith is trusting and obeying God's Word, in the Bible and in Jesus Christ, who is the fulfillment, embodiment, and example of God's Word lived in human flesh in this world. As we begin to trust and obey God's Word we will come to know with certainty, by personal experience (John 6:68-69 RSV), that God's Word is absolutely true and reliable.
Every truly “born-again” Christian testifies from personal experience that Jesus is risen from physical death and is alive eternally. If we are certain of this, we can be certain that we will also rise from physical death to eternal life.
Is Jesus your Lord? Are you Jesus’ disciple? Are you trusting and obeying Jesus? Have you received the indwelling Holy Spirit since you first truly believed (Acts 19:2)? Are you making disciples of Jesus Christ and teaching them to obey all that Jesus commands (Matthew 28:18-20)? Do you know with certainty where you will spend eternity (1 John 5:11-13; Ephesians 1:13-14)?
1 Lent – Thursday B
First posted March 5, 2009
Mark 8:31-38 -- On Discipleship;
Once Jesus was sure that his disciples understood who he was (Mark 8:27-30), he began to prepare them for Jesus' crucifixion. Referring to himself as the Son of man, Jesus said that he must suffer many things, and that he would be rejected by the elders, priests, and scribes (teachers of the Law of Moses). He would be killed, and then after three days he would rise again. He said this plainly (not figuratively). Peter began to rebuke Jesus, but looking at his disciples Jesus rebuked Peter, saying that Peter was siding with Satan and worldly people, rather than with God.
Jesus called the multitude that followed him and began to teach them that anyone who wants to follow Jesus must deny his own will and take up his own cross and follow Jesus' example. Those who want to save their life will lose it, but those who are willing to lose their life for the sake of Jesus and the Gospel will save it.
What benefit would it be for a person to own everything in this world at the cost of his life? What can a person give in return for his life? “For whoever is ashamed of me and of my words in this adulterous and sinful generation, of him the Son of man also will be ashamed when he comes in the glory of his Father with the holy angels” (Mark 8:38).
Commentary:
The disciples were convinced that Jesus was the Christ (Messiah; both words mean “anointed” in Greek and Hebrew respectively), but they didn't realize that the Christ must be crucified in order to bring about God's eternal kingdom. They thought that the death of the Messiah would end their messianic hope. So Peter did not want to accept that Jesus would have to suffer and die. The disciples also didn't understand what Jesus meant about rising from the dead (although they had seen Jesus raise the dead; Mark 9:10; see 5:35-43).
The Old Testament has two different illustrations of the Messiah. One is the exalted Lord who would come in glory and power to establish his kingdom. The other is the “Suffering Servant.” Both illustrations are true. Jesus' first coming was humbly, as a suffering servant. He has promised to return again at the end of time in glory and power to judge the living (“quickened”) and dead, in both the physical and spiritual senses (John 5:28-29). That Day of Judgment is not far off; it will come for each of us at the moment of our physical death (Hebrews 9:27).
Jesus' crucifixion was prophesied in the Old Testament scriptures: Psalm 22 describes crucifixion (the first line of which Jesus quoted from the cross; see Mark 15:34), although crucifixion was unknown to Israel until the Roman empire around the time of Jesus' physical ministry. Isaiah 53:1-12 is another example of the prediction of the Messiah as the suffering servant (written around 539 B.C., according to The Oxford Annotated Bible, Revised Standard Version, Ed. by Herbert G. May and Bruce M. Metzger, Introduction to Isaiah, p. 822, New York, Oxford University Press, 1962. ).
The disciples hoped that the Messiah would come in power and glory and would restore the political kingdom to Israel by delivering them from the Roman government. After Jesus' resurrection they hoped that he would immediately restore Israel (Acts 1:6).
Jesus was completely human but also completely God (Colossians 2:8-9; John 20:28). He had the natural human desire to avoid pain and physical death. On the eve of his arrest he prayed that, if possible, that he not suffer and die, but he submitted to God's will (Mark 14:36). Peter wasn't helping by trying to talk Jesus out of what God had sent Jesus to do.
Jesus warned that his disciples would suffer similar abuse from worldly people. If the world hated Jesus they will hate his disciples also (John 15:18, 20). Christians must be willing give up their lives and their desires in this world in order to follow Jesus.
This world is still a spiritually and physically adulterous and sinful world. People who love their lives now in this world don't have the right heart attitude; they don't have the Word of God within them. One cannot love God's Word and love the things and ways of this world (Matthew 6:24). Jesus teaches that it is those who mourn now (for the fallen condition of mankind) who will be blessed, but woe to those who are comfortable and satisfied now (Luke 6:24-26).
The material things of this world will perish, and we ourselves will die physically sooner or later. Jesus' miracles of raising the dead and his own resurrection demonstrate that there is existence beyond physical death. Instead of accumulating what we can't take with us into eternity, we should be pursuing spiritual treasure which will give us eternal life. Jesus warns us to seek God's eternal kingdom first, ahead of even material necessities because God is the provider of everything. He will provide us with the material necessities (Matthew 6:25-33).
What if eternal life in paradise was a commodity of this world that could be purchased? How much would it be worth? People are trying to find ways to extend life in their physical bodies through drugs like human growth hormone and cryogenics (freezing the body).
There is a way to obtain eternal life that's been known for over two thousand years, since the resurrection of Jesus Christ. Jesus demonstrated it to the world. Jesus warns us that one must be spiritually “born-again” (John 3:3, 5-8), in order to see the eternal kingdom of God which is all around us now, and to see and enter it ultimately in eternity.
We are all born physically alive but spiritually dead (unborn). This lifetime is our only opportunity to be spiritually reborn. Spiritual rebirth is only possible through faith (obedient trust) in Jesus Christ, by the gift of the indwelling Holy Spirit, which only Jesus gives (John 1:31-34), only to his disciples who trust and obey Jesus (John 14:15-17). The Holy Spirit is the seal and guarantee that one is in Christ and has eternal life (2 Corinthians 1:22; Ephesians 1:13-14; Romans 8:9b, 11, 15-16).
We are literally wasting our lives if we are not using them to seek God and his eternal kingdom now while it is possible (Acts 17:26-27) and this is possible through faith in Jesus Christ. Jesus is the only way to know God, to know divine eternal truth, and to have eternal life in God's heavenly kingdom (John 14:6, 8-11; Matthew 11:27).
The Gospel is offensive to many people today. Jesus promised that those who are not offended by Jesus and his Gospel will be blessed (Matthew 11:6). Many “church people” feel uncomfortable when the Gospel is fully and accurately proclaimed in the Church and in the world. Some people withhold Christian testimony in public because of what “people” will think.
The Apostle Paul boldly proclaimed the Gospel despite persecution and suffering for it. He said that he was not ashamed to proclaim the Gospel because it is the power of God that provides eternal salvation to all who believe (trust and obey Jesus; Romans 1:16). Jesus warns that those who are made ashamed and uncomfortable by Jesus and his Gospel, will be really and eternally ashamed at the Day of Judgment (Matthew 13:50-51), and Jesus will be ashamed of those who called themselves Christians but failed to trust and obey Jesus (Matthew 7:21-23).
Is Jesus your Lord? Are you Jesus’ disciple? Are you trusting and obeying Jesus? Have you received the indwelling Holy Spirit since you first truly believed (Acts 19:2)? Are you making disciples of Jesus Christ and teaching them to obey all that Jesus commands (Matthew 28:18-20)? Do you know with certainty where you will spend eternity (1 John 5:11-13; Ephesians 1:13-14)?
1 Lent – Friday B
First posted March 6, 2009
Exodus 33:12-23 -- God's Glory;
Background:
Moses was the mediator of the Old Covenant of Law between God and his people. When the people broke the Covenant by making a golden idol, Moses interceded on their behalf. God said that he would no longer be present among Israel (Genesis 33:3), but Moses pleaded that God not take his presence from Israel.
Text:
God had told Moses to lead the people into the Promised Land, but Moses wanted to know who God would send with Moses (Genesis 33:2). God had told Moses that he knew Moses by name (knew his character) and that Moses had found favor in God's judgment. Moses asked, therefore, that God would show him God's ways, so that Moses would know God more fully and would continue and grow in God's favor. Moses asked God to remember that the Israelites were God's (particular) people.
God replied “My presence will go with you and I will give you rest” (Exodus 33:14). Moses replied that he would rather not go, if God was not with him. It was by the presence of God that the people of Israel realized that Moses had God's favor, and it was the presence of God among his people which distinguished them from all the other people of earth.
The Lord promised to do what Moses asked, because God knew Moses' character, and Moses had favor in God's judgment. Then Moses asked God to show him God's glory. God told Moses that he would cause God's goodness to pass by Moses and God would proclaim his name, the LORD (Yahweh). God is sovereign; he will be gracious or not and merciful or not as he chooses. God told Moses that Moses could not see the face of God and continue living. So God told Moses that there was a place nearby where Moses could stand upon a rock, and that while God's glory passed by, God would put him in a cleft of the rock (a cave) and cover him with the hand of God until God had passed by. Then God would remove his hand, and Moses could see the Lord's back, but not God's face (compare 1 Kings 19:9-18).
Commentary:
Moses had a close personal relationship with God which qualified him to lead God's people through the wilderness and into the Promised Land. The people of Israel were God's distinctive people among all the people of the earth because their God was the one and only true God and because God was present among them.
God is a divine eternal person. We can have a close personal daily relationship with him through the gift of the indwelling Holy Spirit. God wants us to seek and find him (Acts 17:26-27). But sin (disobedience of God's Word) separates us from his presence, as idolatry of Israel separated them from God's presence.
God designed a Savior, the Messiah, Jesus Christ, into Creation from the very beginning (John 1:1-5, 14; see God's Plan of Salvation, sidebar, top right). God sent Jesus into the world to be the one and only sacrifice acceptable to God for the forgiveness of sin, once for all time for all people who are willing to receive it by faith (obedient trust) in Jesus Christ. Jesus' sacrifice on the cross cleanses us of sin through faith, so that God's Holy Spirit, the Spirit of Christ (Romans 8:9), can dwell within us.
It is only by the indwelling Holy Spirit that we can be freed from bondage to sin and death in the “Egypt” of this present world, go through the “wilderness” of this lifetime, pass through the “river” of physical death (“without getting our feet wet;” Joshua 3:14-17) and enter into the eternal Promised Land of God's eternal kingdom in heaven. Jesus is the mediator of the New Covenant (of Grace), received through faith (obedient trust) in Jesus (Ephesians 2:8-9; Hebrews 12:24). Jesus is our “Moses” and our “Joshua” (Jesus is the Greek equivalent of the Hebrew name, “Joshua;” Jeshua; Joshua, the son of Nun, led Israel across the Jordan River and into the Promised Land), and the indwelling Holy Spirit is our “pillar of cloud and fire” to lead us through the spiritual darkness of this world (Exodus 13:21-22).
Only Jesus baptizes with (“anoints;” gives the gift of) the indwelling Holy Spirit (John 1:31-34), only to his disciples who trust and obey Jesus (John 14:15-17). The Holy Spirit is the seal and guarantee that one is in Christ and has eternal life (2 Corinthians 1:22; Ephesians 1:13-14; Romans 8:9b, 11, 15-16).
The Holy Spirit is the Lord and Giver of (spiritual, eternal) Life, as in the words of the Nicene Creed. Jesus warns us that one must be spiritually “born-again” (John 3:3, 5-8) by the gift of the indwelling Holy Spirit in order to see God's eternal kingdom all around us now, and see and enter it ultimately in eternity.
The Holy Spirit is given so that we might know God's ways more fully and so that we can remain and grow in God's favor. The Holy Spirit within us reassures us that God is with us. We experience a glimpse of God's glory through his indwelling Holy Spirit. It is the presence of the Lord within us by the indwelling Holy Spirit which distinguishes us as the particular people of God, and what qualifies us to be ordained or lay (unordained; church “members”) leaders of God's people. Moses didn't want to go through the wilderness and didn't want to lead God's people without the presence of the Lord with him and neither should we.
Too often this qualification is absent in the nominal Church today. Often the only “anointing” clergy receive is the sanction of church denominational administration authorizing them to be ordained. Too often, the nominal Church has failed to make “born-again” disciples and to teach them to know, trust and obey Jesus' teachings. Instead, they have settled for making “members” and building buildings.
Some major denominations are teaching contrary to discipleship and obedient trust in Jesus' teachings. Some nominal Churches are teaching that the Holy Spirit is conferred upon a candidate at baptism (John 1:12-13); some are teaching Salvation by grace (true) without the requirements of discipleship and obedience to Jesus' teachings (false; Matthew 28:19-20; see false teachings, sidebar top right).
If congregations don't make “born-again” disciples there won't be any “born-again” leaders to lead them. In many instances the Holy Spirit has departed from nominal congregations and the leaders and members have not even noticed.
Is Jesus your Lord? Are you Jesus’ disciple? Are you trusting and obeying Jesus? Have you received the indwelling Holy Spirit since you first truly believed (Acts 19:2)? Are you making disciples of Jesus Christ and teaching them to obey all that Jesus commands (Matthew 28:18-20)? Do you know with certainty where you will spend eternity (1 John 5:11-13; Ephesians 1:13-14)?
1 Lent – Saturday B
First posted March 7, 2009
1 Thessalonians 4:1-7 -- Christian Growth;
Mathew 15:21-28 -- The Canaanite Woman;
1 Thessalonians:
Paul urged the new Christians at Thessalonica (in Macedonia) to learn to live according to God's Word in order to please God, as Paul had taught them. They were doing so, and Paul urged them to continue and grow spiritually. They were to remember Paul's teaching. God's will for them was their sanctification: the process consecration and purification; of discipleship and spiritual growth to spiritual maturity.
We need to learn to abstain from immorality. Christian marriage is to be lived in holiness and honor; not in lust and licentiousness like heathens who do not know God. Let no one sin and wrong his brother or sister in marriage (or any other matter), because God is the avenger of such things. God has not called us to sinfulness but to holiness.
Gospel:
Jesus had left Galilee and gone into the region of Tyre and Sidon, in the Roman province of Syria north of Galilee. A Canaanite woman (a Gentile) came to Jesus and asked him to have mercy upon her, calling him Lord, the Son of David (the Messiah; Christ; both words mean “anointed,” God's eternal Savior and King). She told Jesus that her daughter was possessed by
a demon, but Jesus didn't answer her. The woman followed Jesus, crying out to him, and his disciples asked Jesus to send her away. Jesus said that he had been sent only to the “lost sheep” of Israel. The woman came to him and knelt down and, addressing him as Lord, begged him to help her.
Jesus told her that it wasn't fair to give the children's bread to dogs. She acknowledged that Jesus said was true, but said that even dogs eat crumbs that fall from their master's table. Jesus declared that she had great faith, and told her that it would be done for her as she had asked, and her daughter was healed immediately.
Commentary:
Saving faith is trusting and obeying God's Word, in the Bible and in Jesus Christ, who is the fulfillment, embodiment and example of God's Word, lived out in human flesh in this world (John 1:1-5, 14). If we believe the Gospel of Jesus Christ we will learn to live according to it.
Faith in Jesus is a discipleship process. Jesus demonstrated the process so that his disciples would continue that process. Jesus commanded his disciples to wait in Jerusalem (the Church is the New Jerusalem) until they had received spiritual “rebirth,” guidance and empowerment by the gift of the indwelling Holy Spirit (Luke 24:49; Acts 1:4-5, 8). Then they were to go into the World with the Gospel to make “born-again” disciples and teach them to trust and obey all that Jesus taught (Matthew 28:19-20).
Only Jesus gives the gift (baptism, anointing) with the Holy Spirit (John 1:31-34), only to his disciples who trust and obey Jesus (John 14:15-17). The Holy Spirit is the seal and guarantee that one is in Christ and has eternal life (2 Corinthians 1:22; Ephesians 1:13-14; Romans 8:9b, 11, 15-16). The gift of the indwelling Holy Spirit is a personally discernible ongoing event (Acts 19:2).
Paul (Saul of Tarsus), the author of the Letter to the Thessalonians, is the prototype and example of a “modern,” “post-resurrection,” “born-again (John 3:3, 5-8) disciple (student) and apostle (messenger; of the Gospel) of Jesus Christ, as all of us can and should be. Paul hadn't known Jesus during Jesus' physical ministry on earth. Paul was confronted by the Holy Spirit of Jesus on the road to Damascus where he intended to persecute Christians (Acts 9:1-4). Paul confessed his sin and repented, accepted Jesus as his Lord (Acts 9:5a) and began to trust and obey Jesus (Acts 9:5b-9). Paul was discipled by a “born-again” disciple, Ananias (Acts 9:10-17), until Paul was “reborn” through the gift of the indwelling Holy Spirit (Acts 9:18). Then he began to be guided and empowered to proclaim the Gospel and make “born-again” disciples of Jesus Christ Acts 9:20-22).
Paul's conversion exceptional for its speed. The original Twelve disciples of Jesus had spent all their time with Jesus for three years, and still weren't ready to fulfill the Great Commission (Matthew 28:19-20), until they had received the fulfillment of the promise of the indwelling Holy Spirit.
The role of the Church is to proclaim the Gospel of Jesus, to call people to repent and be baptized with water for repentance in preparation to receive the coming of Jesus, personally and individually, by the “baptism” of the Holy Spirit. The Church is to make disciples of Jesus Christ, to teach them to know, trust and obey all that Jesus teaches. As Jesus' disciples do that, Jesus will “baptize” them with the Holy Spirit, who will continue to disciple them to spiritual maturity and sanctification at the Day of Jesus' return (John 14:26).
Paul was carrying out the Great Commission. He was discipling new Christians at Thessalonica, teaching them to apply the Gospel in their daily lives; to learn to know and live according to God's Word. We are no longer to live according to the standard of the society around us.
We are all like the Canaanite woman and her daughter. We have a spiritual illness: bondage to sin and death. Jesus is the only one who can heal us. We can only receive his healing by faith and persistence. We must be willing to hear Jesus' rebuke and accept his convicting word.
The woman acknowledged that she was a Gentile and a heathen, a “dog” as Jesus had said, but she accepted Jesus as her Lord and the promised Messiah, the eternal Savior and King. She had faith that he would heal her even though she was not a member of God's “chosen” people. She received spiritual healing that many Jews failed to receive because they didn't accept Jesus as their Lord and Messiah.
Paul had been rebuked by Jesus on the Damascus road. Paul had been formally educated in Judaism. He could have considered himself as righteous and above reproach, as did the Jewish religious leaders of that time. But because he accepted Jesus' rebuke, repented and became obedient to Jesus, Paul received spiritual healing and eternal life.
The Church has the responsibility to hold its members accountable to the Word of God. By confronting its members the Church makes it possible for them to repent, turn to obedient trust in God's Word so that they will receive spiritual healing and eternal salvation.
Many today in the world and in the Church don't want to hear about sin and eternal condemnation. They only want to hear the parts of the Gospel that make them feel good (2 Timothy 4:3-4). Jesus knew that his message would be offensive to many. He said that those who mourn (for the fallen condition of this world and the spiritually “lost” and “dead”) would be blessed (Matthew 5:4), but woe to those who are comfortable and satisfied now in this sinful generation (Luke 6:24-26)
Is Jesus your Lord? Are you Jesus’ disciple? Are you trusting and obeying Jesus? Have you received the indwelling Holy Spirit since you first truly believed (Acts 19:2)? Are you making disciples of Jesus Christ and teaching them to obey all that Jesus commands (Matthew 28:18-20)? Do you know with certainty where you will spend eternity (1 John 5:11-13; Ephesians 1:13-14)?
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