Daily Archives: April 2, 2013

God of the Living

Christian Life, , ,

GOD OF THE LIVING

“‘Even Moses exclaimed about resurrection at the burning bush, saying, ‘God: God of Abraham, God of Isaac, God of Jacob!’ God isn’t the God of dead men but of the living. To Him all are alive.’

“Some of the religion scholars said, ‘Teacher, that’s a great answer!’ For a while, anyway, no one dared put questions to Him.” Luke 20:37-40 (The Message).

Hidden truths! Did anyone notice that the truth about resurrection is hidden in that short and seemingly insignificant statement – “God of Abraham”?

Every Jewish boy would have known that because his text book from birth was the Torah, the five books of Moses. He would have heard the Shema – “Hear O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one,” (Deuteronomy 6:4) – every time he suckled at his mother’s breast. By the age of six he would have memorised the book of Leviticus and by twelve, the whole Torah. In the Torah are the seeds of every major doctrine in the Bible, including the truth about the resurrection.

God created time and lives in a realm which is not subject to time. Unlike Him, human beings are not eternal. Our existence begins at a point in time but, from that point, we never cease to exist.

Because of Adam’s choice, we are subject to death, but death is not the end. It is the transition from time to eternity, from the realm of the physical to the realm of God where we shed all the imperfections of our fallen humanity and stand before God in the perfection of Jesus which He gave to us because of His death on the cross.

Because Jesus came from that realm, He could speak of as fact, that which we receive by faith, that God is the God of the living because Abraham, Isaac and Jacob are still alive in His presence.

Had the Sadducees paid a little more attention to the Torah, they would not have made fools of themselves by posing a question to Jesus that revealed their ignorance.

In His reply, Jesus shows us how we can find the answer too many of the questions that puzzle us about our faith. There is a principle of Biblical interpretation that will help us, called the Law of First Mention. The first time something is mentioned in the Bible is the key to understanding what it means in the rest of the Bible.

There is an example of this principle that will help us to understand God’s original intent about prayer. The first mention of prayer is found in Genesis 4:26: “At that time men began to call on the name of the Lord.” In the original Paleo (picture) Hebrew, the word for “call” meant “to turn the head to face the One who can bear the burden.”

That’s it! We have made prayer into something quite complicated whereas the Bible presents prayer as the simple act of changing our awareness! When Adam and Eve chose to ignore God’s command, they lost their God-awareness and became self-aware, (“’…I was afraid because I was naked, and so I hid.’ And He said, ‘Who told you that you were naked?'” – Genesis 3:10b-11a), a preoccupation that has never changed

To change our awareness means to recognise and acknowledge God in the centre of whatever our concern is. We don’t have to bring God into our situations – He’s already there! When we change our awareness, we move from worry and panic to peace because He is there, He is good and He is in charge.

Jesus was saying, in essence, ‘Go back to the beginning where God has revealed His original intent. That’s where you’ll find His answers to your questions.’

Give God What is His

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GIVE GOD WHAT IS HIS

“Watching for a chance to get Him, they sent spies who posed as honest enquirers, hoping they could trick Him into saying something that would get Him in trouble with the law. So they asked Him,…’Is it lawful to pay taxes to Caesar or not?’

“He knew they were laying for Him and said, ‘Show me a coin. Now this engraving, who does it look like and what does it say?’

“‘Caesar,’ they said.

“Jesus said, ‘Then give Caesar what is his and give God what is His.’

Try as they might, they couldn’t trap Him into saying anything incriminating. His answer caught them off guard and left them speechless.” Luke 20:20-26 (The Message)

Got them again!

Jesus was no push-over. These so-called ‘spiritual’ men had still not learned not to mess with Him. They always came off second best. This time it was about taxes. The Jewish people chafed at their Roman overlords’ taxation on top of the tithes, offerings and temple taxes they had to pay. It was a heavy burden on them and brought many of them into poverty.

But there was a more sinister issue at stake. Jesus was a rabbi with authority which meant that His disciples were obliged to copy everything He said and did. What He said about paying taxes would reveal His heart attitude to the Roman government which He would pass on to His disciples with possible serious results.

If He showed any antagonism towards Rome, He would be suspected of treason. His opponents were trying to catch him off guard so that He would unwittingly incriminate Himself and open Himself to arrest by the Roman soldiers.

But Jesus was too smart to be caught out. His response was not a spur-of-the-moment reaction. He was not only on guard; He was also well-prepared because of His complete understanding of God’s kingdom and how to live in it in the earthly environment. In every situation He faced as an earthling, He viewed His life from God’s perspective and taught His disciples to do the same.

Unlike us, who easily forget God, He lived His life with His Father in the centre. Everything He thought and did came out of His union with the Father. His answer to their question gives us insight into the way we should live in the kingdom of God so that we best represent Him in an ungodly environment.

In His high-priestly prayer He put in a nutshell what our attitude should be to the world system in which we live. “‘My prayer is not that you take them out of the world but that you protect them from the evil one. They are not of the world, even as I am not of it.'” John 17:15-16 (NIV).

As long as we live in the world, we are subject to the systems humans have put in place, including submission to earthly government, and God expects us to fulfil our obligations as unto Him. However, we have a different disposition from the people of the world, the nature and presence of God infused into us by the Holy Spirit. Not to be ‘of the world’ implies that we bring the disposition of Jesus into the way we live.

He showed us how by the way He honoured and respected all people, treating them with compassion and generosity and revealing the love of the Father by His loving and caring attitude.

To ‘give to Caesar’ implied civil obedience while to ‘give to God’ meant not only submitting to His supreme authority over everything, but also living in such a way that we make ‘up there’ come ‘down here’. We are, first and foremost, representatives of the way God runs things, and that includes loyally submitting to the government in everything that does not clash with God’s kingdom and His ways.

For the Last time

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FOR THE LAST TIME

“When it was time, He sat down, all the apostles with Him, and said, ‘You’ve no idea how much I have looked forward to eating this Passover meal with you before I enter my time of suffering. It’s the last one I’ll eat until we all eat it together in the kingdom of God.'” Luke 22:14-16 (The Message).

Was Jesus crazy? It almost sounds as though He was looking forward to His coming crucifixion. He had shared Passover meals with them in the past. He knew this was the last one He would eat with them as a human being. He referred to other Passover celebrations in the future but they would take place “in the kingdom of God”.

In spite of the glimpses He gives us into the significance of His suffering, both to Him and to the Father, we will never fully understand what the cross meant – neither the experience nor the outcome.

The cross of Jesus – the pinnacle of history and the dividing line for all people for all eternity! For every person, the cross determines our eternal destiny, depending on our choice.

It was because of the cross that God’s plan to build a family of people just like His Son was put back on track. Satan’s deception in the Garden of Eden derailed it for a season, but Jesus paid the debt of man’s sin, reconciled His alienated human race and reinstated every son and daughter into His family through faith in Him.

It was through the cross that Jesus exposed the devil for the liar he is. In spite of the injustice of His trial and death sentence for who He was – the Son of God and the king of the Jews, He submitted Himself to their cruelty and to the Father’s will without a murmur. His death spelt the end for Satan. His judgment was coming and he knew it!

“When they hurled their insults at Him, He did not retaliate. When He suffered, He made no threats. Instead, He entrusted Himself to Him who judges justly. He Himself bore our sins in His body on the tree so that we might die to sins and live for righteousness; by His wounds you were healed. For you were like sheep going astray, but now you have returned to the Shepherd and Overseer of your souls.” 1 Peter 2:23-25 (NIV).

Jesus looked forward to the cross because it would be the completion of His mission on earth, the culmination of His revelation of the Father and the cue for His return to His place in glory with the Father and the Holy Spirit. So great was His love for the Father that He even relished His suffering because it was the Father’s will to rescue mankind from death and bring them back home to Himself.

“Let us fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith who, for the joy set before Him, endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of God.” Hebrews 12:3 (NIV).

For Jesus, this Passover meal would be the opportunity to reveal the full significance of the historical event they were celebrating. Passover was a picture of the greater redemption from slavery to sin and Satan that He was about to accomplish as the sacrificial Lamb of God whose blood on the lives of those who believe in Him would protect them from death and open the door to everlasting life.

No, Jesus was not crazy! Once again, in His self-forgetful love for human beings, He relished the outcome of His suffering – redemption, rescue and reconciliation and the door to eternal life flung open to anyone who will receive His forgiveness and His invitation to return to the Father’s house and the Father’s arms to be a beloved member of His forever family.

Everything Written

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EVERYTHING WRITTEN

“Then Jesus took the Twelve off to the side and said, ‘Listen carefully. We’re on our way up to Jerusalem. Everything written in the Prophets about the Son of Man will take place. He will be handed over to the Romans, jeered at, made sport of, and spat on. Then, after giving Him the third degree, they will kill Him. In three days, He will rise, alive.’ But they didn’t get it, could make neither head nor tail of what He was talking about.” Luke 18:31-34 (The Message).

Every belief system has a source from which it gets its information and upon which it bases its authority. For any information affecting life and destiny to be valid, it would be wise for those who receive it to ask two simple questions: ‘Who said it?’ and ‘What authority does that person have to say it?’

Jesus made some startling and outrageous claims which we must either dismiss as the ravings of a madman, or believe and receive as the truth, depending on the source and authority of His statements. There is one fool proof way of putting His words and His authority to the test – prophecy!

In the Old Testament, God used this criterion to challenge the claims of false prophets and the idols they represented. He made fun of the foolish notion that a craftsman could take a log of wood, trim it and use the offcuts to warm himself and cook his food, and carve the rest into a god and then bow down and worship it! Can people be so deceived as to think that, because they attribute characteristics and abilities to a block of wood or stone, that makes it reality?

“‘Who then is like me? Let him proclaim it. Let him declare and lay out before me what has happened since I established my ancient people, and what is yet to come — yes, let him foretell what is to come.'” Isaiah 44:7 (NIV).

“All who make idols are nothing, and the things they treasure are worthless. Those who would speak up for them are blind; they are ignorant to their own shame. Who shapes a god and casts an idol which can profit him nothing?” Isaiah 44:9, 10 (NIV).

God is really smart! There is one fool proof test that authenticates His authority and His power to pull off what He claims – lay it all out in detail before it happens and then carry it out just as He said it would happen. He did not speculate, guess or prophesy in vague generalities. He set it out, step by step and then fulfilled it to the letter.

On this occasion Jesus did just that – alerting His disciples to what lay ahead for Him in the near future, drawing the spotlight onto Himself as the fulfilment of the mysterious words of the Old Testament prophets. How important this was for His disciples even though they did not get it at that moment! He was sowing the seeds of faith that would burst into life after everything that He had spoken about was fulfilled.

It is important to note that He was making no new predictions. He was drawing their attention to their own ancient, sacred writings. He was no upstart prophet. He was not only thoroughly steeped in the Torah, the Prophets and the Writings, but He also knew that He was the topic and focus of everything that was written. He was sharpening their vision, so that they would know, when it happened, that He was the one of whom their Scriptures spoke.

It was this incontrovertible proof that Jesus was their Messiah that gave them the courage to stand by their witness even to the death. What fools would give their lives for a pipe dream or a hoax? Jesus said He would die and rise again, just as the Scriptures had predicted, and He did it, and they saw it and they staked their very lives on the truth.

God’s challenge still stands today. If you are going to stake your life on the belief system set up by some human being, on what authority does he make his claim and what proof can he give that his claims are authentic?

After two thousand years of trying, unbelieving people have yet to disprove Jesus’ identity and His claims, and millions down the generations bear testimony that He is who He said He is, that He is alive, and that He is perfectly capable of fulfilling all His promises just as He did when He said He would die and rise again. Our faith is based on solid, indisputable, historically verifiable truth and not on the pitiful fancies of depraved imaginations!

Doomsday to the Traitor

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DOOMSDAY TO THE TRAITOR

“‘Do you realise that the hand of the one who is betraying me is at this moment on the table? It’s true that the Son of Man is going down a path already marked out — no surprises there. But for the one who turns Him in, turns traitor to the Son of Man, this is doomsday.’

“They immediately became suspicious of each other and began quizzing one another, wondering who might be about to do this.” Luke 22:21-23 (The Message).

What a disconcerting experience this must have been for Judas! His “secret” plot was right out in the open. Jesus was actually advertising it to the whole group without disclosing the traitor’s identity. Why did He do this?

Was He wanting Judas to know that He was fully aware of what he was up to, and giving him an opportunity to back out of his plan, own up and save himself from the terrible judgment that awaited a traitor? The very fact that He had eaten a meal with him, treating him as the honoured guest, suggests that Jesus was offering Judas a way out and full forgiveness and restoration if he was willing to change his mind.

Was He indicating to Judas, ‘I know what you are up to and, boy, am I going to get you back!’? Would Jesus ever do a thing like that? No, that was not His yoke. His yoke was to show mercy and compassion and He was extending mercy to His enemy right up to the moment when Judas finished his dastardly deed with a kiss.

It was certainly not intended to make the disciples suspicious of one another. But, true to human nature, that is exactly how they reacted. Instead of taking stock of their own intentions, they became suspicious of one another which ended in their quizzing one another instead of searching their own hearts.

Jesus had spent more than three years with this bunch of men. He had handpicked them after a night in prayer with the Father. He had lived in intimate fellowship with them, day and night, teaching and modelling a true son of God, and giving them every opportunity to become like Him.

He had spent precious hours with them in the upper room, sharing a meal with all its rich symbolism, establishing a new covenant which He would sign with His own blood, pleading with them to model His love for them as the hallmark of His disciples and praying for their protection from the evil one and their unity with Him and with one another.

How much fruit had all His efforts borne? Seemingly nothing at this point! A lesser man would have given up, walked away and gone to his death a broken and disillusioned loser. But not Jesus! Even at this eleventh-hour apparent failure, Jesus demonstrated His absolute confidence in the success of His mission and the power of God to transform losers into winners and a messed up, self-centred, bickering bunch of men into passionately loyal, single-minded apostles who would turn the world upside down.

Jesus had painstakingly sown the seed of God’s word. Although it was lying dormant then, given the circumstances that were about to unfold in the next few days, that seed would begin to germinate and grow. These same men, except Judas, would be transformed by the power of the Holy Spirit into fearless witnesses of the resurrection, living and working together in unity and taking on the greatest power of their day, Caesar and the Roman Empire.

Once again, because Jesus looked beyond the present circumstances to the predetermined outcome of His suffering, He could go with confidence into the fire, knowing that He would emerge the victor, not those who were scheming to eliminate Him. Instead of planning and carrying out their extermination plot, Judas and his accomplices were playing right into God’s hands! But they would still have to take responsibility and pay the price.