Week of 1 Lent -
Odd
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*Lutheran Book of Worship, Daily Lectionary, p. 179-192, Augsburg Publishing House, Minneapolis, 1978.
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Podcast Download: Week of 1 Lent - Odd
Sunday 1 Lent - Odd
First posted 02/12/05;
Podcast: Sunday 1 Lent - Odd
This is the Church Season of Lent, forty days from Ash Wednesday to Easter (not counting Sundays) of self-examination, fasting and repentance.
Jeremiah 9:23-24 - True Glory;
1 Corinthians 1:18-31 - The Wisdom of God;
Mark 2:18-22 - New Wine;
Jeremiah Paraphrase:
“Thus says the Lord: ‘Let not the wise man glory in his wisdom, let not the mighty man glory in his might, let not the rich man glory in his riches; but let him who glories glory in this, that he understands and knows me, that I am the Lord who practice steadfast love, justice, and righteousness in the earth; for in these things I delight, says the Lord’” (Jeremiah 9:23-24).
1 Corinthians Paraphrase:
Those who are spiritually lost and perishing regard the Gospel of the Cross as folly, but it is God’s power manifested to the world and working in us who are being saved. God has declared in his Word that man’s wisdom will be destroyed, and man’s cleverness will be thwarted. The wise and clever pass away, and what is regarded as wisdom is later shown to be wrong. God’s wisdom makes worldly wisdom foolish. It pleased God in his wisdom to design creation so that man cannot come to know and have a personal relationship with God through worldly wisdom, so that what is regarded as folly by those who have worldly wisdom would save those who believe (trust and obey) God.
Jews (the “religious”) seek miraculous proof, and Greeks (the “educated”) seek (worldly) wisdom, but Christians proclaim Christ crucified, which is an obstacle to Jews, and folly to the “wise and educated.” “But to those who are called (who know and respond to God’s call upon them), both Jews and Greeks, Christ is the power of God and the wisdom of God” (1 Corinthians 1:24). God’s “foolishness” is wiser than man’s highest wisdom, and God’s “weakness” is greater than man’s greatest might.
Not many followers of Jesus were wise, or powerful or of noble birth by worldly standards. God uses what is foolish, weak, and humble in the world to put to shame the wise, powerful and proud. God even uses what is regarded as nothing, to bring to nothing the things we regard as important. No human has anything to boast about in God’s presence. Jesus Christ is the source of our physical and spiritual life, Jesus is “our wisdom, our righteousness, our sanctification (cleansing; spiritual maturity; completion of spiritual rebirth; the result of entire consecration to God) and our redemption (ransom from sin and death); therefore let him who boasts, boast of the Lord” (1 Corinthians 1:30-31).
Mark Paraphrase:
John’s disciples and the Pharisees (strict legalistic Jews) were fasting, and people asked Jesus why his disciples weren’t fasting also. Jesus compared the situation to that of a wedding feast, and himself as the bridegroom and his followers (the Church), the bride. While Jesus is present with them they cannot fast, but the time would come when Jesus will be taken from them and then they would fast.
Jesus said one cannot patch an old garment with new, unshrunk cloth, because the first time it was washed the patch would shrink and tear the garment. So also, one does not put new wine into old wineskins, because the old skins aren’t elastic enough to handle the pressure of the fermenting wine; they will burst and both the wine and the skins will be lost. New wine requires fresh skins.
Commentary:
It doesn’t matter how much we know if we haven’t come to know the Lord personally through his indwelling Holy Spirit. All our human accomplishments become meaningless and pass away, if we haven’t used the opportunity of this lifetime to come into personal fellowship with God through Jesus Christ. No one can come to God except through Jesus Christ (John 14:6).
The Creator of the universe has designed it with the plan of creating an eternal kingdom of his people. This lifetime is our only opportunity to seek and find the Lord, and come into fellowship with him (Acts 17:26-27). God designed us to be eternal, and he designed creation so that we could have fellowship with him. Man lost that fellowship through disobedience (Genesis Chapter 3), but God’s creation was planned with that possibility in mind.
God’s plan of salvation through Jesus Christ existed at creation (John 1:1-5, 14; see God’s Plan of Salvation, sidebar, top right, home). Jesus is God’s only provision for our forgiveness and salvation (Acts 4:12). This lifetime is our opportunity to prepare for eternity. Are we using our lifetimes wisely, or are we pursuing things which will not exist in eternity?
People wanted to know why Jesus did not require his disciples to keep the Jewish religious rituals and traditions. Judaism represented the Old Covenant of Law which was intended to be the guardian of God’s people until the coming of Jesus Christ (Galatians 3:24-25). Jesus didn’t come to patch up the old covenant, but to mediate a New Covenant of Grace (the free gift of salvation) through faith (obedient trust) in Jesus (Ephesians 2:8-9; Hebrews 9:15). Jesus is the fulfillment of God’s promise of a redeemer (see Genesis 49:10-11, and compare Matthew 21:5). Jesus came to provide the “New Wine” of cleansing and spiritual rebirth through the gift of the indwelling Holy Spirit (Acts 2:13).
Wine is a great symbol because it contains “spirit” (alcohol); it lifts our mood which is why it is used at celebrations. New wine is active and powerful due to fermentation. It is the spiritual “blood” of Jesus of the Sacrament of Communion which Jesus instituted at his Last Supper (Mark 14:24).
Blood was believed by ancient people to contain the spirit of the animal, and Jews were forbidden to drink blood or eat flesh with its blood (Genesis 9:4). [However, one does not receive the fulness of the indwelling Holy Spirit just by showing up for Communion on Sunday morning.] New wine requires fresh skins. Likewise we must repent and turn to Jesus in obedient trust to be reborn so that we can contain his Holy Spirit. Then we individually become the spiritual Temple of the Lord, and collectively the reborn Christians are the Church, the bride of Christ.
Is Jesus your Lord (Matthew 7:21-23; Luke 6:46)? Are you Jesus' disciple (John 8:31)? Are you trusting and obeying Jesus (John 14:21)? 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)?
Monday 1 Lent - Odd
First posted 02/13/05;
Podcast: Monday1 Lent - Odd
Deuteronomy 8:1-20 - The Sin of Pride and Self-sufficiency;
Hebrews 2:11-18 - Jesus’ Suffering;
John 2:1-12 - The Wedding at Cana;
Deuteronomy Paraphrase:
Through Moses, the Lord warned his people to be careful to keep the commandments God had given them so that they would live and prosper and possess the Promised Land. They were warned to remember the lessons learned in their forty years of being led by the Lord in the wilderness, where they were tested to see if they would follow and obey the Lord.
The Lord humbled them in the wilderness and allowed them to experience hunger, and he fed them with manna, which they had never known, so that they “would know that man does not live by bread alone, but by every word which proceeds out of the mouth of God” (Deuteronomy 8:3). During the forty years of wandering their clothes didn’t wear out and their feet didn’t swell.
The Lord disciplines his people like a good father disciplines his children, so his people are to keep his commands and follow his ways, in healthy fear of God’s power and respect of his authority. The Lord is bringing them into a good land which is fertile and abundant in water and natural resources, where they will have plenty to eat and will lack nothing. God’s people are warned not to forget the Lord by neglecting to keep his commandments, or by forgetting all that the Lord has done to bring them out of bondage in Egypt, through the hardships and dangers of the wilderness and into their Promised Land.
When God’s people have become settled and prosperous they are to remember that it is the Lord who has given them the land, and has blessed and prospered them, so that they won’t yield to the temptation to think that they have become successful by their own abilities. If the people forget the Lord and pursue and worship other gods, God warns that they will surely perish, as God has promised to cause the nations who possessed the land before Israel to perish.
Hebrews Paraphrase:
Jesus, our sanctifier (the one who cleanses our sins), and we, who have been cleansed [through faith (obedient trust) in Jesus Christ], have the same origin: God, our spiritual father. So Jesus is not ashamed to call us his brethren, as in Psalm 22:22, and his children, as in Isaiah 8:17-18. “Since therefore the children share in flesh and blood, he (Jesus) himself likewise partook of the same nature (came and lived in flesh and blood among us, subject to physical death), that through (physical) death he might destroy him who has the power of death, that is the devil (Satan), and deliver all those who through fear of death were subject to lifelong bondage” (Hebrews 2:14-15).
Jesus did this for us, the spiritual descendants of Abraham (through faith in Jesus). He had to be fully human, like us, so that he could be our merciful and faithful high priest in God’s service, so that he could reconcile us to God by paying the penalty for our sins. Since Jesus has experienced every temptation we face, he is able to sympathize with us and faithful to help us resist temptation and to forgive our sins.
John Paraphrase:
Jesus was invited to a wedding at Cana (near Capernaum in Galilee) with his disciples. His mother was also invited. The bridegroom ran out of wine, and Jesus’ mother told this to Jesus. Jesus addressed his mother respectfully, and asked why she was telling him this, since Jesus’ hour (God’s perfect timing for Jesus’ self-disclosure) had not yet come.
His mother told the bridegroom’s servants to do whatever Jesus might tell them. There were 6 jars, each holding about 25 gallons, at hand for the Jewish purification ritual, and Jesus told the servants to fill the jars to the brim with water, and then take some to the steward of the feast. They did as Jesus had told them.
When the steward tasted the sample of the water that had become wine, and not knowing where the wine had come from, although the servants did, the steward called the bridegroom and told him that everyone knows that one should serve the good wine first, and then the lesser wine after the guests’ senses have become dulled, but this bridegroom had apparently saved the best wine for last. This was the first manifestation of Jesus’ glory, done in Galilee, and his disciples’ faith in Jesus was strengthened. After the wedding Jesus went with his disciples and his mother and brothers to Capernaum, and they stayed there a few days.
Commentary:
It is so easy and tempting for us, individually and collectively, to forget what God has done for us, and to imagine that our individual success and the prosperity of our land is the result of our own effort. America’s situation is similar to that of Israel’s when they entered the Promised Land. Our first settlers were aware of their dependence upon God’s providence, but now having become “great” we’ve forgotten how we got here.
We imagine that we can provide our own daily bread; we’re “self-sufficient,” not realizing that it is not just by physical “bread” that we have life, but by God’s Word. We must live by (in obedience to) God’s Word if we want real life now and eternally. Those who live by God’s Word will be led by his Holy Spirit through the wilderness of life in this world, through the river of physical death, and enter into the eternal Promised Land in Heaven. Those who pursue and worship other gods, such as wealth, power, ambition, pleasure, or any thing or person that interferes with our worship and obedience of the Lord, will perish eternally.
Jesus Christ is God’s Word made visible in human flesh (John 1:1-5, 14). The whole fullness of God dwelt bodily in Jesus (Colossians 2:8-9) but Jesus was fully human, so that he could show us how to live in our flesh, and through his resurrection and his assurance of eternal life, to deliver us from the power of Satan and the fear of physical death. Jesus is the merciful and faithful High Priest of those who trust and obey him, making intercession to God for us through his blood sacrifice on the Cross for the forgiveness of our sin. Jesus is the one who baptizes us with his Holy Spirit, our Counselor and Helper, who strengthens our faith and gives us the power to resist sin and temptation.
Jesus didn’t change the water into wine at Cana because his mother asked him to, nor to impress others and build his own reputation. He did so by God’s will and timing. His mother told Jesus about the lack of wine because she believed that Jesus could remedy the situation. Even when Jesus told her that it was not God’s will and timing, she believed that he would, and she told the servants to be ready to do whatever he asked. Do we believe that Jesus can do what we ask in God’s will and timing? Are we ready to do whatever Jesus asks us to do? (See Conditions for Answered Prayer, sidebar, top right, home)
Jesus is the bridegroom and his followers are his Church, his Bride. Jesus is the only one who can change the water of our worldly situation into the New Wine of spiritual rebirth and the celebration of our “marriage” to the Lord through his indwelling Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit is the New Wine that cheers us, strengthens our faith, empowers us, and gives us real, eternal life (see also entry for yesterday, Sunday, 1 Lent, odd year). Jesus saves the best wine for last, but we can begin to taste it now.
Is Jesus your Lord (Matthew 7:21-23; Luke 6:46)? Are you Jesus' disciple (John 8:31)? Are you trusting and obeying Jesus (John 14:21)? 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)?
Tuesday 1 Lent - Odd
First posted 02/14/05;
Podcast: Tuesday1 Lent - Odd
Deuteronomy 9:(1-3) 4-12 - Temptation to Self-righteousness;
Hebrews 3:1-11 - Christ Superior to Moses;
John 2:13-22 - Cleansing the Temple;
Deuteronomy Paraphrase:
As Israel prepared to pass over the Jordan River to enter the Promised Land, Moses told them that they would take the land from nations and peoples greater than themselves. It was by the power of God that Israel would destroy and drive them out.
Israel was warned not to think that it was because of their righteousness that God was giving them victory and possession of the land. Instead, it was because of the wickedness of the people who occupied the land, and because of God’s faithfulness to keep his promise to the patriarchs of Israel, Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. Israel was not being given the land because they deserved it, because Israel had demonstrated their stubbornness and rebelliousness against the Lord since they left Egypt during forty years in the wilderness.
Moses reminded them that while he was on Mt. Horeb, when God manifested himself to Israel and gave Moses the Ten Commandments written by the finger of God on stone tablets, Moses stayed on the mountain for forty days and nights, and ate and drank nothing. The tablets contained the Laws of the Covenant which God had spoken to Israel on the day God came down upon Mt. Horeb, manifesting himself to Israel (Exodus 19:16-20:20). While Moses was on Mt. Horeb receiving the tablets of the Covenant, the people, after seeing God come down on Mt Horeb and hearing him speak to them, had become impatient when Moses didn’t return, and had made themselves a molten image (an idol).
Hebrews Paraphrase:
Followers of Jesus are a holy (consecrated to God) brotherhood, sharing a heavenly call (not just an earthly one). We are to remember Jesus, the apostle (the original messenger of the Gospel, from God in heaven), and high priest of our Christian faith. Jesus was faithful to God’s call as Moses was. But Christ is as much greater than Moses, as the builder of a house has more honor than the house he builds (and God is the ultimate builder of all things). Moses was faithful as a servant in God’s house, but Jesus is the Son and heir of the builder and Master of God’s house.
We are members of his household, if we hold firmly to our faith (obedient trust) and hope in Jesus. The Holy Spirit says, through the scripture, “Today, when you hear his voice, do not harden your hearts as in the rebellion (“Meribah”) on the day of testing (“Massah”) in the wilderness” (Hebrews 3:7-8; compare Psalm 95:8; Exodus 17:7).
Israel saw God’s faithfulness and providence during their forty years of wandering in the wilderness, and yet were still rebellious and demanded proof of God. God was provoked with that generation, because they didn’t learn God’s ways from their many opportunities, and thus were forbidden to enter the rest God had promised in the Promised Land.
John Paraphrase:
At the time for the celebration of the Passover, Jesus went to Jerusalem. Jesus entered the temple, and found moneychangers (Roman coins had to be exchanged for Jewish coins to pay the temple tax) and merchants selling animals for temple sacrifice. Jesus made a whip of cords, and drove the merchants and their livestock out of the temple; he dumped the coins and overturned the vendors’ tables, and ordered the sellers of birds to take them away. Jesus said, “…you shall not make my Father’s house a house of trade” (John 2:16).
His disciples recalled that the scriptures (Psalm 69:9) had foretold that the Messiah would be zealous for the purity of God’s house. The Jews asked Jesus to prove his authority for doing this by some miraculous demonstration. Jesus told them “Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up” (John 2:19).
The Jews pointed out that it had taken forty-six years to build the temple, and they could not believe that Jesus could rebuild it in three days, but Jesus was referring his body as the temple of God, not the building. After Jesus had been resurrected from the dead, his disciples remembered this saying, and they believed the scriptures and Jesus’ words.
Commentary:
The people of Israel had seen the plagues God brought upon Egypt, and the parting of the Sea when God delivered them from Egypt. They had seen God descend on Mt. Horeb, and heard him speak, and yet within forty days, while Moses was on the mountain receiving the stone tablets of the Commandments, Israel had turned from faith in God to the worship of idols.
Israel didn’t trust and obey God’s command to enter the Promised Land the first time, so God made them wander in the wilderness for forty years until all that generation which had rebelled had died in the wilderness, except for Joshua and Caleb, who had trusted the Lord and had been ready to obey (Numbers 13:25-14:25). God’s people are warned not to imagine that our personal success and the prosperity of our land is because we’re righteous and worthy of God’s blessings.
We are all like “Israelites” in the wilderness of this earthly life. We are to learn to trust and obey God and be led by him. Jesus is our “Moses” who leads us by his indwelling Holy Spirit, but in one sense, he is away on the mountain of God, and we are awaiting his return.
God’s people are to remember that we are to be consecrated to God’s service, and that we have a heavenly calling, not just an earthly one. We are to be obedient to God’s Word; not rebellious. There are many signs of the truth and faithfulness of God’s Word which we can see during this lifetime if we look in trust and obedience.
If we don’t learn to trust and obey the Lord in this lifetime we will die in this wilderness and not be allowed to enter God’s rest in the Promised Land of his kingdom in Heaven. Believers in Jesus haven’t received forgiveness, salvation and eternal life because we’re righteous and worthy, but because of God’s love, mercy and faithfulness through Jesus Christ (Ephesians 2:8-9).
Jesus is God’s only provision for our forgiveness and salvation (Acts 4:12; John 14:6). Those who refuse to accept God’s forgiveness and salvation through Jesus Christ will perish eternally because of their own wickedness and rebelliousness. Are we continuing to trust and obey Jesus while he’s “on the mountain,” or are we turning to idols of our own making?
It was the time of the Passover celebration, when Israel was to remember their deliverance by God from slavery and death in Egypt. The Jews were supposed to be looking for the coming of the Messiah (who would be the new “Moses” to lead them into the heavenly Promised Land of the kingdom of God).
While they had been awaiting the coming Messiah, they had turned to “other gods;” materialism, wealth, and power, for example. They didn’t remember what God had done for them in giving them the Promised Land. They didn’t appreciate their release from slavery and death in Egypt. They didn’t remember the lessons their people should have learned in the wilderness.
They were still rebellious and still demanding that God prove himself to them. They demanded miraculous demonstration, when there were miraculous demonstrations all around for them to see. Jesus told them he was going to rise from the dead, but his word was not understood because of their unwillingness to hear and believe.
Jesus did rise on the third day; they had their sign, but they still didn’t believe. They had come to believe that they were God’s chosen people and had inherited the Promised Land because of their own righteousness, as Moses had warned; they were unwilling to acknowledge their sinfulness.
Have we as individuals and America as a nation forgotten who brought us into this land; have we forgotten our own wilderness experience? Have we forgotten what Jesus did for us on the Cross? Are we learning God's ways during our earthly wilderness experience?
Do we realize that our bodies are to be temples of the Lord through his indwelling Holy Spirit? Have we allowed the Church to become a “business” or a social organization? Are we seeking signs from God to prove himself to us, when they’re all around us? Are we holding firmly to our faith and waiting expectantly for Jesus’ return, or are we turning to idols of our own making?
Is Jesus your Lord (Matthew 7:21-23; Luke 6:46)? Are you Jesus' disciple (John 8:31)? Are you trusting and obeying Jesus (John 14:21)? 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)?
Wednesday 1 Lent - Odd
First posted 02/15/05;
Podcast: Wednesday1 Lent - Odd
Deuteronomy 9:13-21 - Israel’s stubbornness;
Hebrews 3:12-19 - Warning against rebelliousness;
John 2:23-3:15 - Nicodemus;
Deuteronomy Paraphrase:
While Moses was on the mountain receiving the covenant of law from God, the people had turned to idolatry. The Lord knew and told Moses (Deuteronomy 9:12). The Lord was angry at the people and was ready to destroy them and start over with Moses and his descendants.
Moses came down, carrying the stone tablets of the law, and he saw that the people had turned from the Lord and had made an idol. So Moses threw down the stone tablets and broke them. Moses prostrated himself before the Lord and fasted for forty days seeking God’s forgiveness for Israel, and the Lord forgave them and did not destroy them. Moses also prayed for God’s forgiveness of Aaron (at the time, Moses’ spokesman who was in command during Moses’ absence and who facilitated the idolatry of the people).
Hebrews Paraphrase:
Christians are warned to take care that they not allow evil and unbelief to lead them away from the Lord. We are to exhort one another daily so that our consciences will not be hardened by the deceptive nature of sin. Remaining in Christ requires perseverance, so that we don’t lose the confidence in Christ we had when we first believed in him.
The scriptures warn us to learn from the experience of Israel and not let our hearts become hardened and rebellious as Israel did. Those who were rebellious had all been led out of Egypt, and they continued in rebelliousness throughout the forty years of wandering in the wilderness. They perished in the wilderness because of their sin. God swore that those who were disobedient would never enter God’s rest (settlement in the Promised Land). Those who were disobedient were unable to enter because of unbelief.
John Paraphrase:
Jesus was in Jerusalem for the celebration of Passover. Many people believed in Jesus because of the “signs” (miracles revealing who Jesus is) which Jesus did. But Jesus understood our human nature, and he did not trust himself to them.
Nicodemus was a Pharisee (the strictest, most legalistic group of Jews), and he was a member of the Sanhedrin (the Jewish court). Nicodemus went to visit Jesus after dark, and he addressed Jesus as “Teacher” (Rabbi) and acknowledged that Jesus must have come from God and been doing God’s will or Jesus could not do the miracles he had done. Jesus answered that one cannot see the kingdom of God unless one is “born anew” (or “born from above;” thus “born again”).
Nicodemus asked Jesus how one could be born again; could a person have a second physical birth? Jesus replied that one needs to be born by the water of Baptism and by (the "baptism;" indwelling; anointing of; see Acts Chapter 2) the Holy Spirit or else one cannot enter the kingdom of God.
Commentary:
Our physical bodies are born physically; our spirits are born by the Holy Spirit within us. Do not be amazed about spiritual rebirth. “The wind (the same word means both wind and spirit) blows where it wills, and you hear the sound of it, but you do not know whence it comes or whither it goes; so it is with every one who is born of the Spirit” (John 3:9).
Nicodemus asked Jesus how this could be, and Jesus asked how Nicodemus could be a teacher of Israel and not understand this. Jesus was testifying to what he knew and had seen, but Nicodemus was not believing Jesus’ testimony. If Nicodemus could not understand the parable of the wind, a familiar earthly experience, how could he understand spiritual things Nicodemus had never experienced?
No one on earth has ever experienced heaven, except Jesus, who came from heaven. Jesus declared that he would be lifted up (on the Cross), and would be like the bronze serpent which Moses raised up on a pole, during the wilderness wandering (Numbers 21:9). As snake-bitten Israelites who looked at the bronze serpent were saved from physical death, so Jesus would be lifted up on the Cross so that those who believe in Jesus will be saved from eternal spiritual death and instead receive eternal life.
God knows the sin of his people. The penalty for sin is eternal death (Romans 6:23). Moses trusted and obeyed God and he found the situation just as God had said. Moses broke the stone tablets of the Ten Commandments, because the people had “broken” the covenant with God. Moses interceded for the people for forty days of fasting and prayer. Because of Moses’ intercession God was willing to forgive their sin.
Jesus is the “New Moses” who leads us through the wilderness of this world and intercedes for us to God for our forgiveness. Until his return from the "mountain of God" in Heaven, those who are the Lord's interim spokesmen and leaders of the people of God must be careful not to facilitate disobedience and idolatry among God’s people.
Disobedience of God’s Word is rebellion and unbelief. Sin is deceptive; the serpent in the Garden of Eden told Eve she wouldn’t die as God had said she would if she disobeyed God’s command not to eat the forbidden fruit (Genesis 3:3-4). Eve didn’t die physically when she disobeyed, but she lost eternal life and became subject to physical death.
Christians need to examine ourselves to see if we are allowing sin (disobedience) and unbelief to grow within us. The generation of Israelites who God freed and led from bondage in Egypt perished in the wilderness because of disobedience and disbelief despite many “signs” which God had done for them: the plagues in Egypt, crossing through the Sea, manna, and water from the rock, for example.
Many people believed in Jesus because of the miracles they saw him do. Do we seek “signs” in order to believe? Do we only believe in Jesus as long as he does what we ask of him? Nicodemus came to Jesus because Nicodemus saw “signs” which indicated that Jesus had come from God and was doing miracles by God’s power and approval, but Nicodemus came by night because he was not ready to commit publicly to believing, and he wasn’t sure that Jesus was the Messiah. Jesus told him that one must be reborn spiritually through the gift of the indwelling Holy Spirit for one to see the kingdom of God which is all around us right now, and also to enter the eternal kingdom of God in heaven.
Nicodemus saw “signs” but wanted more information before making a commitment; he wanted to understand everything first. Jesus tried to explain spiritual rebirth in terms Nicodemus could understand, but Nicodemus was still not willing to commit.
We don’t need to understand what causes the wind to blow in order to believe in wind; we can see and hear its effects. We cannot fully understand everything spiritual now. We have to decide whether to trust and obey Jesus based on the Biblical record of his earthly ministry. Jesus foretold his crucifixion (and resurrection) and his prophecy was fulfilled. He promised that those who believe in him will have eternal life.
Seeking “signs” won’t save us. All the information we need in order to come to salvation and eternal life is in the Bible. We need to read it and act on it in faith. Jesus is God’s only provision for our forgiveness and salvation; Jesus is our only intercessor who can save us from God’s wrath and condemnation.
Is Jesus your Lord (Matthew 7:21-23; Luke 6:46)? Are you Jesus' disciple (John 8:31)? Are you trusting and obeying Jesus (John 14:21)? 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)?
Thursday 1 Lent - Odd
First posted 02/16/05;
Podcast: Thursday1 Lent - Odd
Deuteronomy 9:23-10:5 - Moses the Intercessor;
Hebrews 4:1-10 - God’s Promise of Rest;
John 3:16-21 - God’s Saving Purpose;
Deuteronomy Paraphrase:
The people of Israel have rebelled and disobeyed God from the day they left Egypt. Israel had refused God’s command at Kadesh-barnea to enter the Promised Land (Numbers Chapters 13-14). Moses prostrated himself before the Lord for forty days and nights interceding with God not to destroy the Israelites. Moses recalled the mighty acts of God in bringing them out of Egypt. Moses asked God to remember Abraham, Isaac and Jacob and to forget the stubbornness, wickedness and sin of Israel for the sake of God’s name, so that the Egyptians wouldn’t be able to say that God didn’t fulfill his promise, or that God hated Israel and planned to kill them in the wilderness.
The Israelites are God’s people and his heritage, who he delivered by his great power. The Lord commanded Moses to prepare two new stone tablets (like the previous ones which had been broken; Deuteronomy 9:12-17) and to make a wooden ark (chest) to contain the tablets. The Lord would again write on the tablets the Ten Commandments which had been spoken by God to the people on the day of assembly when God came down upon the mountain (Exodus 19:16-20:26). So Moses prepared the tablets and ark, and he ascended the mountain with the tablets. God wrote the commandments again on the new tablets. Then Moses brought the tablets down and put them in the Ark.
Hebrews Paraphrase:
God has promised that his people will enter his rest [from their wilderness wandering, in the Promised Land; also the Sabbath rest, when God rested from the work of creation on the seventh day (Genesis 2:2) and the eternal rest in heaven after the toils of this life] . The Israelites who didn’t obey God’s Word were not allowed to enter the Promised Land (Hebrews 3:7-11, quoting Psalm 95:7-11). God’s promise will be fulfilled, but must be appropriated by Christians by faith (obedient trust). We have heard the same good news that the Israelites heard, but they received no benefit from it because they didn’t believe and obey.
John Paraphrase:
“For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life. For God sent the Son into the world, not to condemn the world, but that the world might be saved through him. He who believes in him (Jesus) is not condemned; he who does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only Son of God” (John 3:16-18).
Jesus is the light of the world (John 8:12; the light of righteousness) who came into the world. Mankind loved darkness (unrighteousness) instead of light, because their deeds were evil. Those who do evil hide in the darkness hoping that their sins will not be exposed (but our sins cannot be hidden from God). Those who do what is right come to the light so that it can be clearly seen that their deeds have been done in accord with God’s will and nature.
Commentary:
The Israelites who had been led out of Egypt had the opportunity to enter the Promised Land directly but they lost that opportunity through disobedience. After seeing God’s mighty acts of deliverance from slavery in Egypt, they still didn’t trust and obey God’s Word to enter and take possession of the Promised Land. So God allowed that generation to wander in the wilderness for forty years until all those who had rebelled and disobeyed God were dead. Moses interceded for them to God, and God spared them from immediate destruction, and God renewed his covenant with the people who had broken it.
God’s promises will be fulfilled, but it is up to us to claim them for ourselves by faith (obedient trust). We should learn from the example of Israel’s history that it is not those who call themselves God’s people who receive his promises, but those who trust and obey God’s Word. It’s not those who call Jesus their Lord who are saved, but those who are obedient to God’s Word through Jesus Christ (Matthew 7:21-24; Luke 6:46; Jesus is God’s Word in human flesh: John 1:1-5, 14). Jesus is the New Covenant whose blood intercedes for us to God to forget our sins for Jesus’ name’s sake, provided that we trust and obey Jesus. Jesus is the name of the Lord!
God sent his only Son, Jesus Christ, into the world to save us from condemnation and give us eternal life. We have all sinned and fall short of God’s righteousness (Romans 3:23; 1 John 1:8-10). The penalty for sin (disobedience of God’s Word) is eternal death (Romans 6:23). We are all under condemnation except those who believe in (trust and obey) Jesus.
Jesus didn’t come to condemn the world but to save us from God’s righteous condemnation. God promised that those who trust and obey Jesus will not be condemned to eternal death but will instead receive eternal life in the Promised Land of his eternal kingdom in heaven. Jesus is God’s only provision for our forgiveness and salvation (Acts 4:12; John 14:6; see God’s Plan of Salvation, sidebar, top right, home). Jesus is our intercessor to God for the forgiveness of our sins, and he’s our leader who will lead us into the Promised Land if we trust and obey him.
Is Jesus your Lord (Matthew 7:21-23; Luke 6:46)? Are you Jesus' disciple (John 8:31)? Are you trusting and obeying Jesus (John 14:21)? 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)?
Friday 1 Lent - Odd
First posted 02/17/05;
Podcast: Friday1 Lent - Odd
Deuteronomy 10:12-22 - What the Lord requires;
Hebrews 4:11-16 - Jesus our high priest;
John 3:22-36 - John’s further testimony;
Deuteronomy Paraphrase:
God’s people are to fear (respect the power and authority of) God, to conform to his ways, to love and serve him with all our hearts and souls, and to keep all his commands. God’s requirements are for our own benefit. Everything in heaven and on earth belongs to God, but in love God has chosen us above all people. We are to stop being disobedient and rebellious, and to open our innermost self to trust and obey him, fulfilling our responsibility of our covenant with God.
The Lord is God of gods and Lord of lords, whose glory and might are unrivaled, and who is impartial, just, and cannot be bribed. God upholds the rights of the poor and helpless; widows, orphans and sojourners. God loves and cares for the sojourner and so must we, remembering that we were sojourners in the land of Egypt.
We are to fear, serve, trust and obey the Lord faithfully without wavering. He is the one we praise, our God, who has done great things for us, which we have seen and experienced. The Lord has kept his promise to make the descendants of Abraham a vast multitude beyond counting.
Hebrews Paraphrase:
Believers are to make every effort to enter God’s rest which God has promised (the rest in the Promised Land from the wilderness wandering; the Sabbath rest: Genesis 2:2; the final rest from the toils of earthly life in the Promised Land of his eternal kingdom in heaven), so that we don’t fail by disobedience and unbelief as the Israelites did (Hebrews 3:15-19).
“God’s Word is living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing to the division of soul and spirit, of joints and marrow, and discerning the thoughts and intentions of the heart” (Hebrews 4:12). No one can hide anything from God, and everyone will be accountable to God for what they have done in life (John 5:28-29).
Jesus Christ is our great high priest who has ascended into heaven (to intercede for us in God’s presence; in the heavenly temple), so let us hold firmly to our faith in the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Jesus is able to help us in our weaknesses, because he has been tempted in every way as we are, but without sinning, so he can sympathize with us and he can give us his power to resist temptation. So let us come to the Lord in trust and confidence through Jesus Christ and receive mercy (forgiveness) and find grace (unmerited favor) to help us as we have need.
John Paraphrase:
Jesus and his disciples were in Judea (southern Israel) baptizing. John was also baptizing at Aenon near Salim (between Samaria and Galilee, north of Judea). John had baptized Jesus and had testified that Jesus was the Son of God (the Messiah) who would baptize with the Holy Spirit (John 1:32-34). John’s disciples got into a discussion with a Jew over Jewish purifying rituals, and the disciples went to John and told him that Jesus was baptizing and that all the people were going to Jesus.
John told them “No one can receive anything except what is given him from heaven” (John 3:27). John had told his disciples that he wasn’t the Christ, but the messenger sent ahead to announce him. Jesus is the bridegroom to whom the bride (Israel; God’s people) belongs. John was like the “Best Man;” the groomsman. He hears the bridegroom and rejoices in his coming. When the bride and bridegroom are united the groomsman's role has been accomplished, and the bridegroom begins his role. Jesus is from heaven and he is above all. Those who are of earth have only earthly experience and knowledge; Jesus testifies to what he has seen and heard in heaven, but many don’t believe him.
Those who have believed in Jesus testify that God is true and that Jesus, whom God sent, speaks God’s Word. God didn’t just give a little bit of his Spirit, but its fullness, to Jesus (John 1:33; Colossians 2: 8-9), and Jesus baptizes his disciples who trust and obey him with the fullness of the Holy Spirit.
God loves his Son, Jesus, and has given him authority over all things (Matthew 28:18). Those who believe (trust and obey) God’s Son, Jesus Christ, have eternal life. Those who do not obey God’s Son will never know what is truly life, because they are under the condemnation of God’s wrath.
Commentary:
God requires obedience and respect from his people. Do we understand the concepts of God and Lord, or do we imagine God as some guy in a bottle that we can summon to do our bidding? Physical circumcision was the requirement and sign of the Old Covenant of Law between God and Israel, but the covenant also required obedience to the Law.
Circumcision of the heart (our obedient submission to God in our innermost being) is the requirement and sign of the New Covenant of Grace through faith (obedient trust) in Jesus Christ. God’s people are not those who are only outwardly, nominally God’s people. God’s people are to care for and uphold the rights of the poor and helpless and sojourners because God does. We are to remember that we were once sojourners in the bondage of sin and death of the “Egypt” of this earthly life. Christian disciples are the spiritual descendants of Abraham.
God has promised rest, now and eternally. We are to appropriate that promise for ourselves through trust and obedience of Jesus Christ. The Israelites who perished in the wilderness were not allowed to enter the Promised Land because of unbelief and disobedience. God’s Word is not like our word; God’s Word is unfailingly true and it has creative power. God’s Word will either give us life or condemn us.
God knows our innermost thoughts and intentions, and each one of us will be personally accountable to God for what we have done in our earthly life. Jesus Christ is God’s only provision for our forgiveness and our salvation from eternal condemnation and destruction (Acts 4:12; John 14:6). Jesus Christ is God’s Word in human flesh (John 1:1-5, 14), demonstrated through his life. We must hold onto our faith in Jesus and come to him to receive his help.
Jesus is the only one who baptizes with Holy Spirit. John baptized with water for people’s repentance to prepare them to receive Jesus who baptizes with the Holy Spirit. John was just doing what God had given him to do; forgiveness and salvation are not from John (or any mortal), but from God through his Son Jesus Christ. Those who have trusted and obeyed Jesus can testify to the truth of God’s Word, Jesus Christ, and the baptism of the Holy Spirit. They have experienced the fulfillment of promises we see in the Bible.
Those who trust and obey Jesus have eternal life and personal fellowship with the Lord through his indwelling Holy Spirit, which is the seal and guarantee of that salvation and eternal life (2 Corinthians 1:22; Ephesians 1:13-14; Romans 8:9b, 11, 15-16). Those who do not have the indwelling Spirit of Christ do not belong to him (Romans 8:9b). It is possible to know with certainty for oneself whether one has received the gift of the indwelling Holy Spirit (Acts 19:2).
Those who do not trust and obey Jesus (regardless of whether they call themselves Christians or profess faith in Jesus or not) are under eternal condemnation. Faith in Jesus is not a matter of outward appearance but of inner submission. Obedience to God’s Word must be understood from the perspective of Jesus’ teachings.
Is Jesus your Lord (Matthew 7:21-23; Luke 6:46)? Are you Jesus' disciple (John 8:31)? Are you trusting and obeying Jesus (John 14:21)? 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)?
Saturday 1 Lent - Odd
First posted 02/18/05;
Podcast: Saturday1 Lent - Odd
Deuteronomy 11:18-28 - Blessing and Curse;
Hebrews 5:1-10 - Jesus Our High Priest;
John 4:1-26 - The Samaritan Woman;
Deuteronomy Summary:
God's people are to lay up God’s Word in their hearts and in their souls, so that God’s Word will be available at all times in our daily lives. We are to use God’s Word to guide us constantly, so that we will be obedient to God’s will in all things, and we are to teach obedience of God’s Word to our children. The blessing of obedience to God’s Word is long life, “as long as the heavens are above the earth” (Deuteronomy 11:21 RSV), in the land God has promised us.
The Lord promised Israel that if they were obedient in all things to God’s Word, that God would drive out the great and powerful heathen nations which occupied the Promised Land so that Israel could occupy it. God promised to give Israel everything from the wilderness (in the south) to the Lebanon (in the northwest) and the Euphrates River (in the northeast) to the Mediterranean Sea. The Lord promised that no person could withstand Israel and that God would cause the occupants of the land to be afraid of Israel. The Lord gave his people a blessing if they chose to obey him and a curse if they chose not to obey and turned to idols.
Hebrews Summary:
A high priest is appointed by God, as Aaron was (Hebrews 5:4), as a mediator between the people and God, to offer gifts and sacrifices for sin. He is able to sympathize and gently correct those who are straying because he also suffers temptation and human weakness. Thus he needs to offer sacrifices for his own sins as well as for the people. So Christ also was appointed, not by his own choice, but by God, who declared (in Psalm 2:7) that he was the (only) begotten Son of God, and (in Psalm 110:4) that he is priest forever according to the priesthood of Melchizedek.
Jesus learned spiritual discipline through obedience from his suffering unto his death on the Cross. Jesus trusted that God was able to save him from physical death and his prayer was heard because of his godly (reverent) fear (appropriate respect for God’s power and authority). By persevering in obedience Jesus came to spiritual maturity and completion of his qualifications for priesthood and Jesus “became the source of eternal salvation to all who obey him” (Hebrews 5:9).
John Summary:
On the way from Judea to Galilee, Jesus and his disciples passed through Samaria and stopped around noon to rest at Jacob’s Well near Sychar. (Jesus' disciples had gone into the city to buy lunch; John 4:27). A Samaritan woman came to draw water, and Jesus asked her for a drink. She asked Jesus why he was asking her, since Jews ostracized Samaritans as racial and religious “mongrels” (and Rabbis did not speak to women in public; John 4:27). Jesus replied that if she knew the “gift of God” and who was asking her for water, she would have asked Jesus for “living water” (John 4:10).
The woman noted that Jesus wasn’t equipped to draw water from Jacob’s Well, and asked where one gets living water. She asked if he were greater than the patriarch, Jacob, who had given them the well and had used it himself. Jesus told her that those who drink from Jacob’s Well will soon be thirsty again, but those who drink the living water Jesus gives will never thirst again; the living water Jesus gives becomes a spring of water within the recipient which wells up into eternal life. The woman addressed Jesus as “Sir” and asked him to give her that living water, so that she wouldn’t have to keep coming to Jacob’s Well for water.
Jesus told the Samaritan woman to go and fetch her husband, and the woman replied that she had no husband. Jesus said he knew that she had been married five times, and was now living with a man who was not married to her. The woman now acknowledged that Jesus was a prophet, and she asked him to settle a controversy between Jews and Samaritans over where one should worship God.
The Jews worshiped in the temple in Jerusalem, but Samaritans had not been allowed to worship there, and had instead worshiped on Mt Gerizim in the Samaritan temple. Jesus told her to believe him that the time was coming when she wouldn’t worship God in Jerusalem or on Mt. Gerizim. “You worship what you do not know; we worship what we know, for salvation is from the Jews. But the hour is coming and now is, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for such the Father seeks to worship him. God is spirit and those who worship him must worship in spirit and truth. The woman declared that she believed the Messiah was coming, “and that “he will show us all things” (John 4:25). Jesus told her that he was the Messiah.
Commentary:
God’s people are to store up God’s Word in their hearts and souls, so that it will be constantly available to guide us, and we must be obedient to God’s Word. We’re to teach God’s Word and obedience to God’s Word to our children. We need to read the whole Bible, and we need to read the Bible daily. God promises eternal life in the Promised Land of his kingdom in heaven to those who trust and obey his Word, but warns that those who do not trust and obey God will be cursed. Jesus Christ is God’s Word in human flesh (John 1:1-5, 14). Jesus is the fulfillment of God’s promise of salvation and eternal life, and he is the example of a life lived in trust and obedience to God’s Word.
Jesus is the source of eternal salvation to all who obey him (Hebrews 5:9). He is God’s only anointed Savior and eternal Priest, who offered once for all the sacrifice of his death on the Cross for the forgiveness of our sins (Acts 4:12; John 14:6). Jesus’ life demonstrates how to live as a son or daughter of God. We are to grow in spiritual discipline to spiritual maturity by persevering in trust and obedience to Jesus. We are to be Jesus’ disciples.
Jesus is the only source of “living water.” The living water he is referring to is the gift of the indwelling Holy Spirit (John 7:37-39). Jesus is the only one who baptizes with the Holy Spirit (John 1:32-34; Matthew 3:11). Jesus told the woman that if she realized who Jesus was she would ask him and he would give her that “living water.”
During her conversation, she had a growing awareness of who Jesus was. First she thought of him as a Jew (John 4:9). Then she called him “Sir” (John 4:11). Then she declared him a prophet (John 4:19). Then she confessed her belief in the Messiah (John 4:25), and Jesus revealed himself to her (John 4:26).
God’s Word is eternally true. When we trust in it and act upon it we receive what God promises. These texts are an illustration of Christian discipleship and spiritual growth. As we begin to lay up God’s Word in our hearts and to apply it in our daily lives, we grow in understanding of who Jesus really is. If we commit to believe in him, he will reveal himself to us. If we trust Jesus and obey him, he will give us the “living water” of the Holy Spirit (John 14:15-17).
The Holy Spirit is the seal and guarantee that we are in Christ and have eternal life (2 Corinthians 1:22; Ephesians 1:13-14; Romans 8:9b, 11, 15-16). Those who do not have the indwelling Spirit of Christ do not belong to him (Romans 8:9b). It is possible to know with certainty for oneself whether one has received the gift of the indwelling Holy Spirit (Acts 19:2). True worship of God isn’t just matter of Church attendance, but also of our trust and obedience of Jesus and the anointing of his Holy Spirit.
Is Jesus your Lord (Matthew 7:21-23; Luke 6:46)? Are you Jesus' disciple (John 8:31)? Are you trusting and obeying Jesus (John 14:21)? 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)?
