Daily Archives: July 18, 2015

On This Rock

Bible Study, , ,

ON THIS ROCK

Jesus replied, ‘Blessed are you, Simon son of Jonah, for this was not revealed to you by flesh and blood, but by my Father in heaven. And I tell you that you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of Hades will not overcome it. I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven; whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven.’ Then He ordered His disciples not to tell anyone that He was the Messiah (Matt. 8: 17-20).

What a golden moment . . . and what a mess we westerners have made of it! 

Before Jesus’ words can make real sense to us, we need to put ourselves into His sandals and the sandals of His disciples, taking note of where they were and what His words meant in the language and culture of first-century Hebrews and not twenty-first-century western Greek-thinking so-called theologians.

Where were they? They were in the middle of the “red-light” district of northern Israel. There were sexual orgies going on of the most depraved kind – people co-habiting with goats to worship their god. This was not the place for Jews to get their entertainment. Jesus deliberately took His disciples there to give them a taste of what went on in the real world and then to ask them an in-you-face question, “Who do you say that I am?” If they thought He was just a human, albeit a mighty spiritual one like their prophets of old, then He would be powerless to make an impression on the godless world.

Peter blurted it out. “You are the Messiah.” Well done, Peter! In a rare flash of insight, which Jesus acknowledged as from the Father, he recognised in Jesus something far more than just a man. Now the disciples were ready to receive the next part of their commission to continue the work that Jesus had begun.

No need to spiritualise here. The very environment provides the explanation of Jesus’ words.

“You are Peter – just a little stone, powerless in yourself to do anything. You cannot change what you see going on here. Look around you, Peter. What do you see? Terrible things happening because people have rejected the knowledge of the true God, and created their own gods as an excuse to indulge the lusts of their sinful natures? Yes, Peter, but right here, on this huge rock where the images of their gods are displayed, I will build my church. Nothing will be able to withstand the power of the truth, not even their stupid idea that the cave over there from which water flows is the gate of Hades.”

What will make the difference? Well-meaning but misinformed Christians have latched onto Jesus’ words and turned them into the fanciful doctrine about “spiritual warfare”. Binding the devil and loosing the Holy Spirit! Really? Yes, this is spiritual warfare but not the kind that is carried on in the name of truth.

It was every rabbi’s right, whose s’mikah – authority – was recognised and acknowledged, to teach his own yoke – his understanding of what the Torah permitted or did not permit as a way of life. A rabbi with authority taught his disciples his yoke and expected them in turn to continue to teach his yoke to their disciples without changing it in any way. They were given the authority to interpret the Torah in the disposition of their rabbi.

Jesus was a rabbi with authority to teach His yoke. Instead of interpreting the Torah in the tradition of the other rabbis with authority who had gone before Him, men like Gamaliel, Hillel and Shammai who added rules to rules, making their yoke impossibly enslaving because of their legalism, Jesus said that His yoke was easy and His burden was light (Matt. 11: 28-30) because He was gentle and humble in heart. He taught and practised the mercy and compassion of God in place of the rules of a demanding God who punished those who broke them.

Jesus clashed with the religious authorities who did not like the God He represented. But, His yoke of mercy would break down the hardest resistance, transforming the hearts and lives of people, and replacing their godless ways with loyalty and obedience to Him as His followers accurately represented Him and practised His yoke.

At that moment, when Peter confessed his recognition of Jesus as the Messiah, Jesus conferred on His disciples the authority to interpret His yoke (the keys of the kingdom) and to teach His would-be followers what the Torah meant according to the disposition of Messiah. They were to “bind” on people the truth which had already been authorised in heaven and “loose” them from the lies which kept them in bondage to legalism which was not the true message of the Torah.

In this way, through the work of the Holy Spirit in them, not by praying “binding and loosing” prayers, people would be rescued from the dominion of Satan. Jesus said that it is the truth that sets people free. The Holy Spirit convinces people of the truth and brings life to their dead spirits.

Real “spiritual warfare” takes place through the truth. We do not fight by shouting at the devil or doing imaginary “binding and loosing”. Jesus waged war with error by speaking the truth and so must we. Our most powerful weapon, the sword of the Spirit, is the yoke of Jesus taught in the disposition of Jesus, gentle and humble in heart.

Scripture taken from THE HOLY BIBLE, NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION®, NIV® Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.® Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.

Have you read my new book, Learning to be a Son – The Way to the Father’s Heart (copyright 2015, Partridge Publishing)? You’ll love it!

Available on www.amazon.com in paperback, e-book or kindle version or order directly from the publisher at www.partridgepublishing.com.

Check out my Blog site – www.learningtobeason.wordpress.com

 

 

Who Is He?

Bible Study, , ,

WHO IS HE?

Jesus and His disciples then went on to the villages around Caesarea Philippi. On the way He asked them, ‘Who do people say I am?’ They replied, ‘Some say John the Baptist; others say Elijah; and still others, one of the prophets.’

‘But what about you?’ He asked. ‘Who do you say I am?’ Peter answered, ‘You are the Messiah.’ Jesus warned them not to tell anyone about Him (Mark 8: 27-30). S

What an environment for a question like that! Idol worship and sexual orgies with goats were going on all around them. This was Caesarea Philippi, headquarters of the worship of the goat-god, Pan and a host of other gods. In the city itself, Caesar was worshipped as God. “Jesus, why on earth did you bring your disciples here of all places?” This was an evil and disgusting place, abhorrent to a group of Jewish men.

Jesus knew very well what He was doing, so it seems. Rather than shield His disciples from what went on in the real world, He exposed them to it in this instance, for a very good reason. Soon enough He would leave them. His physical presence gone, they would be thrown back on their conviction of His true identity. When they were faced with situations just like this, how would they react? Would they fall apart and make a run for it or would they stand their ground, knowing that they had the backing of the Son of God?

Enough time had passed for them to reach a conviction about who He was. Being with Him day and night, they could not escape the truth that Jesus was no ordinary man. The Pharisees may argue and deny that He was more than a man, but they lived with the glaring truth that He was different.

“What do the people say about me?” He enquired. They had their ear to the ground. They listened to people talk. Jesus Himself must have been aware of the various opinions about Him but He wanted them to verbalise what people were saying. Why? Did they agree or disagree? John the Baptist? Elijah? One of the prophets? Really? Did people really believe that Jesus was a resurrected saint from way back when? What kind of faith was that?

“And you? What do you say?” Of course Jesus was going somewhere with this discussion. “Do you agree with them? Is that all you think of me – some unidentified old bones come back to life?” Did it really matter what they thought of Him?  There at Caesarea Philippi – among the pagans?

Peter’s bold declaration came like a bolt of lightning – a flash of inspiration straight from heaven. How many times had the disciples discussed this very issue among themselves? Every time He did stuff that was beyond their understanding, they were shaken to the core. “Who is this man?” The presence of Jesus there, at that moment – at Caesarea Philippi – obscured every evil thing their eyes had seen as He stood out as pure and holy, untouched and untouchable by the filth of the world. Messiah! That’s who He was!

If He was truly the Messiah, then even the worst of sin that ungodly people could produce would not be able to stand against His purity or His power. This was the conviction they needed to take on the world. Matthew recorded that Jesus’ response to Peter assured them that not even the power of the dark underworld itself would be able to overcome the truth that He was Messiah, the Son of God. He would set up His church in the darkest places on earth and nothing would stop Him.

I wonder how many times the disciples returned to this place and to this incident in their imagination when they were surrounded by pagans and their lives threatened by hostile mobs. “Not even hell’s gates . . .” was the promise that would ring in their ears. How strong and bold they could be because their Master was the supreme overcomer, and they went in His name.

Peter answered the question on behalf of his fellow disciples. No one argued or disagreed with him but it would take much more for Jesus to fine-tune their understanding of the implications of Peter’s confession. At this point they were convinced that He was God’s Messiah but they would need a far deeper understanding to carry them through the hazards and dangers of their mission when He was no longer with them. They had to stake their very lives on who He was.

Have you answered the question, “Who do you say I am?” Your life and your destiny depend on it.

Scripture taken from THE HOLY BIBLE, NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION®, NIV® Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.® Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.

Have you read my new book, Learning to be a Son – The Way to the Father’s Heart (copyright 2015, Partridge Publishing)? You’ll love it!

Available on www.amazon.com in paperback, e-book or kindle version or order directly from the publisher at www.partridgepublishing.com.

Check out my Blog site – www.learningtobeason.wordpress.com