Daily Archives: December 16, 2013

Why Did He Come?

Christian life, ,

Ebenezer Family Church

Sunday 15th December, 2013

            WHY DID HE COME?

INTRODUCTION

Everyone knows that Nelson Mandela passed away last Thursday night. I heard the news early on Friday morning from a friend in California who heard it on the news from President Obama! Since then there have been snippets of his life and achievements on every TV channel and every newspaper around the country.

People everywhere are urged to celebrate his life and honour him for what he did for the country but I have read not one word about his birth! Funny, isn’t it? Every time I log in to FNB, the first page I have to get past has a picture of Nelson Mandela’s face with these words written across  his forehead – SACRIFICE, FORGIVENESS, FREEDOM.

Don’t these words sound familiar? They belong to someone else who is worthy to wear them.

When the apostles went out to take the good news of God’s kingdom to the world, they had to contend with claims made by the Roman rulers of their day. Because they refused to honour Caesar as Lord, and preached that Jesus, not Caesar, is the Son of God and the Prince of Peace, they lost their lives, as did thousands of people who believed their message and followed Jesus.

Without detracting anything from the greatness of the man who is being buried today, I want us to focus on the One whose sacrifice brings true forgiveness and freedom. Madiba may have modelled and propagated forgiveness and freedom because he was prepared to make sacrifices to bring about political transformation in South Africa but he could never do anything to effect change in the hearts of the people.

At this time of the year the people of the world, even those who do not acknowledge Jesus, celebrate the birth of a baby in Bethlehem by the worst of human behaviour — overindulgence, debt, carnage on the roads, suicide etc., without ever realising why He came. Now South Africa is celebrating the life of a man who made sacrifices, forgave and was part of the initiation of political freedom in this country. But none of this would be possible without the sacrifice that Jesus made that brought the forgiveness of sin and freedom from our worst enemy, ourselves to become sons and daughters of God.

1. SACRIFICE

Nelson Mandela made many sacrifices to achieve his dream of political freedom for his country. He spent 27 years behind bars because he believed in what he was doing. No one can play down what he did or what he suffered to make the day possible when he stood before the nation to take the oath of office as president of a new South Africa. Everything he suffered was geared towards one goal, the right of his people to vote. On 28th April, 1994, in spite of the fear of civil war and a bloodbath in South Africa, the people voted and a new era began in this country.

But Nelson Mandela’s sacrifice could never pay for the sin of the world. Even if he had shed his blood, it would not have brought us back to God. He was a human being like us. He was responsible for his own debt of sin he could never pay. What did his sacrifice achieve?

Now, after almost 20 years of so-called democarcy, what do we have? We have a nation that is free to vote in the same corrupt government run by the same corrupt politicians and civil servants as we voted in in 1994. Nelson Mandela’s sacrifice won political freedom but it did not change a single heart. It could not because Nelson Mandela was only a man.

The world also celebrates at this time of the year — with trees and ornaments and tinsel, and turkeys and ham, and snow and reindeers and sleighs and presents, and Santa Claus and toys! What are they celebrating? A baby born in a stable and asleep in a feed trough! Shepherds and wise men and a star!  And we hear Christmas carols blaring out in the supermarket while people shop to indulge their children and their appetites with money they need to pay their bills and buy school uniforms and books for next year, all in the name of Jesus!

Is that why Jesus was born?

In a few months time the world will celebrate Easter. How will they celebrate Easter? With Easter bunnies and Easter eggs, with crosses and mournful songs, with communion or mass. Some will even carry crosses and beat themselves. But what will that accomplish? Most will carry on as usual the next day, no different from the day before.

Is that why Jesus came?

We can celebrate great people’s lives and even learn lessons from them; we can celebrate great religious events and even go to church but unless the meaning of Jesus’ sacrifice enters our souls and changes our lives, it will mean no more in the end than the sacrifice Madiba made to give his people political freedom.

2. FORGIVENESS

The world also admires and celebrates the forgiveness Madiba exended to those who arrested, tried, and had him incarcerated for 27 years, sometimes in solitary confinement and sometimes doing hard labour for his crimes. I often wonder whether there was a Gideon Bible beside his bed. Did he pick it up and read it when he sat alone in his prison cell,? Did he capture the heart of Jesus when He said, “Father, forgive them; they don’t know what they are doing?”

The debt South Africa owed Madiba is a drop in the ocean compared with the debt the world owed God because of its offences against Him. No one person could pay that collective debt. We all have to pay our own. But God’s solution was to send His own Son to live as a human being, debt free in His relationship to God and then to pay our debt so that we can go free.

This is the miracle of God’s forgiveness. There is no longer any debt to pay. Jesus paid for all  the sin of all people for all time. The means that there is nothing we owe God, not even the debt we owe Him for the sins we will commit in the future. That clears the obstacle between us and God forever. That means that Madiba owes God nothing, whether he knew it or not.

Jesus made the ultimate sacrifice. He didn’t spend 27 years in prison to pay for our sin. He shed His blood and gave up His life as an atoning sacrifice to satisfy God’s wrath and the settle the debt we owed Him so that we can go free.

But He was not only a sacrifice of atonement to guarantee our forgiveness. He was also a terumah offering, the firstfruits offering which belongs to God, guaranteeing our resurrection. Let me explain.

God requries the first portion of everything we gain through our work. In the old Testament that meant that the first portion of their crops and the firstborn of their flocks and herds belonged to God. It became an offering when it was given to Him and was His guarantee that the rest of their crops and animals would be blessed. For it to become ‘terumah” or an offering, it had to to lifted up, i.e., offered to God and then given to the high priest for him and his family to live on.

When Jesus was crucified, He was “lifted up” on the cross, and He placed His spirit into the hands of His Father. Paul, in 1 Corinthians, explained the significance and implications of what He did. “But Christ has indeed been raised from the dead, the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep…for as in Adam all die, so in Christ all will be made alive. But each in turn; Christ the firstfruits; then, when He comes, those who belong to Him.” 1 Corinthians 15:20,22-23 (NIV).

Jesus’ sacrifice not only made provision for the debt we owe the Father; His resurrection also guarantees that we will be resurrected when He comes again, to live with Him in perfected human bodies.

But what about the debt we owe one another? Are we still liable for the offenses we commit against each other? Can we still demand payment from those who are indebted to us?

Unless we realise that all sin is against God, we will think that those who have offended us owe us. When we refuse to forgive, we don’t understand that the debt someone else owes us had already been paid. We allow our feelings to dictate to us because what we believe is false.

The first miracle is that God has forgiven us.

The second miracle is even bigger, not that we HAVE TO forgive, but that we MAY forgive. We have the privilege and honour of forgiving any debt against us because Jesus has cleared it away and the other person owes us nothing. The opposite is equally true. Whatever debt we owe others has also been paid. We owe no one anything and, if he or she refuses to forgive, they pay the penalty, not we.

3. FREEDOM

This leads to the third word  written on Madiba’s forehead – freedom. What is freedom? Is it freedom from all laws and restrictions? Are people free when they can do as they like? No! This is what the Hebrew people called hell. Hell is a situation where there are no boudaries. Your home can be hell if the members of your family live as though there were no boundaries. Society can be hell if everyone does as he pleases without considering anyone else.

I drove to East London in the pouring rain on Wednesday. It was a nightmare trip. In spite of the poor visibility, many of the drivers, especially those with red number plates, drove at breakneck speed. As if that were not bad enough, instead of staying in the fast lane after they had passed another car to stop the spray from making visibilty worse, they pulled in front of the car they had just passed, shooting up a cloud of water on his windscreen. Thoughtless and careless — the attitude of many people who think they are free..

The forgiveness Jesus bought for us provided freedom from guilt and the pernalty of our sin but that is only half of the story. How can we enjoy the freedom God gives us through His forgiveness when we still hold other people accountable for the debt they owe us? When we try to make others pay for what had already been paid, we are out of sync with God; we are sinning and God’s forgiveness no longer applies.

My friends, the greatest freedom we can ever experience is not the freedom to vote, or the freedom to do as we like. It is the freedom to forgive because that is the only thing that sets us free to enjoy the blessing of fellowship with God. Jesus paid all debt but He said that we can only enjoy the benefit of God’s forgiveness when we forgive others.

Madiba experienced that because he forgave, even if he may not have understood why he was free to forgive. He sat in prison a free man long before he came out of prison a free man, He would have been free had he been in jail for the rest of his life. It was not what he did for South Africa or what FW de Klerk did for him that set him free. It was Jesus, who died on the cross to pay his debt that set him free.

Madam Jeanne Marie de la Motte-Guyon was imprisoned for her faith in France in the seventeenth century. She wrote these words in her prison cell:

“A little bird I am,

Shut from the fields of air;

And in my cage I sit and sing,

To Him who placed me there;

Well pleased a prisoner to be,

Because, my God, it pleases Thee.

 

Naught have I else to do;

I sing the whole day long;

And He whom most I love to please

Doth listen to my song;

He caught and bound my wandering wing,

But still He bends to hear me sing.

 

Thou hast an ear to hear,

A heart to love and bless;

And though my notes were ere so rude,

Thou would’st not hear the less;

Because Thou knowest, as they fall,

That love, sweet love, inspires them all.

 

My cage confines me round;

Abroad I cannot fly;

But though my wing is closely bound,

My heart’s at liberty.

My prison walls cannot control

The flight, the freedom of the soul.

 

O, it is good to soar

These bolts and bars above,

To Him whose purpose I adore,

Whose providence I love;

And in Thy mighty will to find

The joy, the freedom of the mind.

CONCLUSION

Today a great man is being laid to rest at Qunu but we need to understand that without Jesus, Madiba could never have achieved greatness. However, his greatness has all the limitations of his frail humanity.

Whatever he may have sacrificed could achieve only one thing, the right of his people to cast their vote and choose their government. After that they were and are at the mercy of those who rule.

He could only forgive those who were indebted to him because Jesus paid the debt of all people including the debt Madiba owed others.

The freedom Madiba enjoyed was only his own. He could do nothing to set another single person free. The freedom he experienced was the freedom he gained from the privilege of forgiving his debtors.

Today is decision day. There are people in your life that you think still owe you. There are people you are still trying to punish when their punishment has already been taken by Jesus.

Start with your father. Will you recognise today that Jesus has paid the debt your father owes you for not being a perfect father. Will you look him in the face and tell him, “Dad, you owe me nothing?” When you do that, you will be free to embrace your heavenly Father as a perfect father.

What about your mother, your siblings, your teachers, your friends, your colleagues at work, whoever has wronged you? Will you look them in the eyes and say, “You owe me nothing?” When you do that. you will step into freedom you never would have believed possible.

Jesus’ sacrifice paid your debt so that God could forgive you and so that you can forgive others. When you do that you will step through the door into real freedom, freedom from bitterness, resentment, and anger, from being a slave to yourself; freedom to be kind and generous and to love.

Soaked In The Spirit

Bible Study, , ,

SOAKED IN THE SPIRI 

“The next day John saw Jesus coming toward him and said, ‘Look, the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world! This is the one I meant when I said, ‘A man comes after me who has surpassed me because He was before me.’ I myself did not know Him, but the reason I came baptising with water was that He might be revealed to Israel.’

“Then John gave this testimony, ‘I saw the Spirit come down from heaven as a dove and remain on Him. And I myself did not know him, but the one who sent me to baptise with water told me, ‘The man on whom you see the Spirit come down and remain is the one who will baptise with the Holy Spirit.’ I have seen and I testify that this is God’s Chosen One.'” John 1:29-34 (NIV)

There you have it, straight from John’s mouth! It seems that John and Jesus, although they were relatives, had no connection with one another until this moment. Jesus grew up in the northern province of Galilee and John in Judea in the south. There were no motor vehicles to make the trip to Galilee or Judea easy for a family holiday, and besides that, John’s parents were elderly and probably not given to travelling around.

Naturally John knew about Jesus — had his father not prophesied over him at his birth that he would be a prophet and forerunner of the Messiah? Had he himself not leapt for joy in his mother’s womb when she came face to face with Mary, mother of the Messiah? Would his parents not have thoroughly prepared him for the day when he would begin his role as priest-prophet in Israel, the first after 400 years of prophetic silence?

And what about the time he spent in the wilderness with God, soaking up the Word he had studied and memorised during his years of preparation to be a rabbi? Of course John was a rabbi! Only rabbis had disciples — and John had his disciples as did Jesus. So crucial was John’s ministry to be that God would not have left his first meeting with Jesus to chance.

God gave John a clear sign to identify Jesus as the Messiah from among the many Jewish men he would encounter in his ministry. How would he recognise Him? Would He be wearing special clothing, have a distinguishing mark on His face or on His body, have a specific hair style, wear a name tag on His chest? Of course not! Nothing as silly as that!

The Spirit! The Holy Spirit was the key, but how would John know that the Holy Spirit was on Him? God told him that he would see the Holy Spirit descend and remain on Jesus and that would be the sign that He was the Messiah. And it happened!

This was the first and only time in Scripture that the Holy Spirit was visible to human eyes. Matthew and Mark wrote that Jesus saw the Spirit descending while Luke simply related the fact that the Spirit descended on Him in bodily form, like a dove. That must have been visible to someone who either wrote it down or told Luke about it.

But John saw the Holy Spirit and to him this was a sign of great significance because it showed him exactly who the Messiah was. From that moment he used every opportunity to point out to those who followed him or came to listen to him that Jesus of Nazareth was God’s Chosen One. That was his job and he did it with great delight and with all his heart.

The apostle John, with hindsight after decades of contemplation, weighing up the evidence of John’s ministry and his years with Jesus, recognised in John the qualities that made him a truly great prophet. After His baptism when John the Baptist knew who the Messiah was by the visible presence of the Holy Spirit coming upon Him, he used every opportunity to point Him out to the people. ‘Look, there’s the One I keep telling you about, God’s Lamb who is to be sacrificed for the world’s sin.’

John was not intent on drawing attention to Jesus to make Him popular but to introduce Him in His true role as God’s sacrificial Lamb, not just for the sin of Israel alone but for the sin of the world. Jesus cautioned those who were healed not to speak about it because He did not want to be known as the miracle-worker who did things for people. That was evidence of the real reason why He came, to take away the sin of the world so that God’s wayward sons and daughters could return home to the Father.

The Holy Spirit was crucial to Jesus who laid aside His deity to live as a man, and He is crucial to every believer. Without the Holy Spirit in us, we are as vulnerable as the Israelites were who failed to keep the covenant God made with them at Sinai. It was His death and resurrection that cleared the way for the Holy Spirit to saturate every believer just as He saturated Jesus and empowered Him to live as a true Son and to lay down His life for us.

Are you drenched in the Holy Spirit?

What’s Your Take?

Bible Study, , ,

WHAT’S YOUR TAKE? 

“Now the Pharisees who had been sent questioned him. ’Why then do you baptise if you are not the Messiah, nor Elijah nor the Prophet?’ ‘I baptise with water,’ John replied, ‘but among you stands one you do not know.

“‘He is the one who comes after me, the straps of whose sandals I am not worthy to untie.’ This all happened at Bethany on the other side of the Jordan where John was baptising.” John 1:24-28 (NIV).

Did John, the apostle, ever have an opportunity to chat to John the Baptist? This conversation between John the Baptist and the Pharisees who were sent to interrogate him does not appear in the other gospels. so how did the writer know about it? It was not curiosity or interest that prompted their questions. They wanted to know because they had to report back to the powers-that-be.

Why did John baptise? First of all we need to dissociate baptism from Christianity as an exclusive rite. Baptism was a common practice in Judaism. They practised mikvah, ritual washing, for many different reasons. Before a groom-to-be formally proposed to his bride-to-be, he instructed her to wash (mikvah) which indicated his intention and ritually prepared her for his proposal.

A young priest was initiated into the priesthood in the footsteps of his father by being acknowledged by his father (“This is my son”) and by being baptised into his office.

Why was John baptising? He was initiating people into the new era of Messiah, preparing the way by calling people to repentance and identity with Messiah and what He stood for through baptism. They were “washing away” the old life and taking on a new role, just as a bride-to-be was washing away her single life and taking on the role of the betrothed and soon-to-be wife. Through baptism she was separating herself from all other men to the one man who had chosen her.

Unfortunately, those who “baptise” infants have placed a different meaning on the ritual and have missed the real significance of both John’s and Jesus’ baptism. Baptism is not a new kind of circumcision. God has given us His Spirit as the sign of the New Covenant — the counterpart of circumcision, if you like. “When you believed, you were marked in Him with a seal, the promised Holy Spirit.” Ephesians 1:13b (NIV).

Just as circumcision was a sign of belonging to Israel and the guarantee of participation in God’s covenant, so also the Holy Spirit is the sign and guarantee that we belong to God, that we are His children and have the right to share in the blessings of the New Covenant.

“For those who are led by the Spirit of God are the children of God. The Spirit you received does not make you slaves, so that you live in fear again; rather, the Spirit you received brought about your adoption to sonship. And by Him we cry, ‘Abba, Father.’ The Spirit Himself testifies with our spirit that we are God’s children.” Romans 8:13-16 (NIV).

Baptism is also a sign of separation. A young woman separated herself from other men. A priest was separated to his priestly office. A believer is separated from his old life by a ritual dying, to his new life in Christ. Jesus was separated to His Messianic office and finally separated through His baptism of suffering and death to His eternal high priestly office for us.

Baptising babies to include them in the covenant people of God cannot do that because the Holy Spirit takes up residence in those who believe, not those who are sprinkled with water. Paul even made it clear that the children of Abraham are not those who are natural descendants of the patriarch but spiritual descendants who have become part of spiritual Israel because of the their faith.

“Understand, then, that those who have faith are children of Abraham. Scripture foresaw that God would justify the Gentiles by faith, and announced the gospel in advance to Abraham, ‘All nations will be blessed through you.’ So those who rely on faith are blessed along with Abraham, the man of faith.” Galatians 3:7-9 (NIV).

Why was John baptising? There was one coming, right on his heels, to whom he was pointing. He was alerting the Pharisees and religious leaders as well as all who would heed his message, that He was here to usher in the new era of God’s rule in the hearts of His people. If they responded by trusting Him, they would have the privilege of becoming a part of an entirely new way of doing life, God’s way energised by God’s Spirit.

Are you in or out?

 

 

Words To Rattle Your Cage Or Give You Hope

Christian life, , ,

WORDS TO RATTLE YOU CAGE OR GIVE YOU HOP 

“Now this was John’s testimony when the Jewish leaders in Jerusalem sent priests and Levites to ask him who he was. He did not fail to confess but confessed freely, ‘I am not the Messiah.’

“They asked him, ‘Then who are you? Are you Elijah?’ He said, ‘I am not.’ ‘Are you the prophet?’ He answered, ‘No.’ Finally they said, ‘Who are you? Give us an answer to take back to those who sent us. What do you say about yourself?’ John replied in the words of Isaiah the prophet, ‘I am the voice of one calling in the wilderness, ‘Make straight the way of the Lord.'” John 1:18-23 (NIV).

John caused a real stir! People flocked from all over to listen to the fiery preacher who emerged out of nowhere. The religious leaders were getting worried. Their comfortable lives were being shaken up and they didn’t like it — especially because of what he had to say about them!

They sent their representatives to interrogate John. ‘Who are you?’ There were two things on their minds. Elijah or ‘the prophet’. Why Elijah? They knew what the prophet Malachi had said about Elijah — not necessarily Elijah come back from the dead but another prophet in the disposition and ministry of Elijah.

“See, I will send the prophet Elijah to you before that great and dreadful day of the Lord comes. He will turn the hearts of the parents to their children, and the hearts of the children to their parents, or else I will come and strike the land with total destruction.” Malachi 4:5, 6 (NIV).

Malachi, like all the other prophets, was calling God’s people to return to Him. Judgment day was coming and only those who turned back to the Lord and showed their sincerity by doing whatever they could to restore the family unity would escape the “flames” of the refiner’s fire.

A symptom of the depth to which God’s people have fallen is evident in the disintegration of the family unit. Even so-called believers are abandoning marriage through divorce, or “shacking up” so that they can walk away if it doesn’t work. There is very little commitment and children are left fatherless, without security and without identity. God said, ‘It’s got to stop! Get the family back on track. That’s the first step towards restoration.’

Who was “the prophet”? Moses reminded the people, “‘For this is what you asked of the Lord your God at Horeb on the day of the assembly when you said, ‘Let us not hear the voice of the Lord our God nor see this great fire any more, or we will die.’ The Lord said to me, ‘What they say is good. I will raise up for them a prophet like you from among their fellow Israelites, and I will put my words in His mouth. He will tell them everything I command Him.'” Deuteronomy 18:18 (NIV).

The people were waiting for this special prophet to come. It is quite natural that they thought that John was he. But John denied it.

Then how did John view himself? The apostle John, looking back, saw John the Baptist as a man who understood who he was and what his role was in this crucial time in Israel’s history. He made no extravagant claims for himself, and yet his very words set him apart as a prophet with a unique ministry. He was a voice proclaiming the beginning of a new era for which God’s people had waited for four long centuries after the last prophet.

‘I am the one who is telling you that the Messiah is here.’ What an astonishing declaration! After all this long time, God was actually doing what He said He would do. He would send His representative, the Messiah to put everything right that had gone wrong since the beginning of their existence as a nation. They could hardly believe it.

What do you suppose the priest and Levite contingent told the Jewish leaders when they got back to Jerusalem? ‘This man says he is the prophet God promised He would send as the forerunner of the Messiah,’ or something like that? Possibly! Did the Jewish leaders believe them? Not likely.

All the evidence, in their attitude to and treatment of Jesus suggests that they rejected John’s response and were ready with their campaign to deal with any challenge to their comfortable position as spiritual leaders of the people. When Jesus came along, they were ready to use their power and influence to maintain their authority, whatever the cost.

Do John’s words, ‘I am the voice,’ rattle your cage or give you hope?