Tag Archives: marriage

A Second Chance

Christian Life, , ,

A SECOND CHANCE

“When the Feast of Pentecost came, they were all together in one place. Without warning there was a sound of a strong wind — gale force — no one could tell where it came from. It filled the whole building. Then, like a wildfire, the Holy Spirit spread through their ranks, and they started speaking in a number of different languages as the Spirit prompted them.” Acts 2:1-4 (The Message).

Such a familiar story! We know it so well, but do we? Funny how I have always taken for granted that the event took place in the upper room! But did it? They had met in a house for the Feast of Passover, hardly big enough to accommodate a hundred and twenty people! Luke said that they spend all their time in the Temple, praising God (Luke 24:53). Perhaps this happened in the Temple where people would have gathered for the Pentecost ceremony, led by the high priest.

Pentecost was a harvest festival, celebrating and giving thanks for the full harvest that had been gathered in. It was also the last of the spring feasts which Messiah was to fulfil, according to the ancient rabbis. It was the only feast in which bread was made with yeast, symbolising God’s willingness to dwell with imperfect people.

The high priest would take a loaf of leavened bread, symbolising the harvest, pour olive oil through it and offer it up to God, saying, “Now the Feast of Pentecost has fully come.” It was celebrated fifty days after Passover. The symbolism is beautiful. Jesus was the “seed” sown into the ground at Passover and fifty days later, the “harvest” of the church began to be gathered in when the Holy Spirit was poured out on imperfect people. God had now taken up permanent residence in His “temple”, the people of God.

Pentecost took place on the same day of the year that God met with Israel on Mount Sinai and entered into a marriage covenant with them. On that occasion His appearance was accompanied by noisy and visual confirmations. There was the blowing of a trumpet, voices and fire and smoke. He offered them a marriage proposal and entered into a marriage covenant which they failed to acknowledge or honour.

The same phenomena occurred when the Holy Spirit was poured out, wind (noise), fire and smoke (visuals) and voices. At Sinai, God’s people refused to respond to His marriage proposal — they were terrified at the sound of God’s voice and pleaded with Moses, not God, to speak to them. They did not want to hear God’s voice. At Pentecost they spoke back to God, in the languages of the astonished visitors from all over the Roman Empire.

At Sinai they rejected their status as the bride — at Pentecost the church was born, which is the Bride of Christ! Subsequent to Sinai, they proved their refusal to accept God’s marriage proposal by living in perpetual spiritual adultery, consorting with the idols of the surrounding nations and dishonouring the terms of the marriage agreement until God “divorced” them by sending them back into slavery in Babylon.

At Pentecost, Jesus sent His Spirit to betroth the church to Himself once again. She responded to His proposal. Now He has a bride who is learning to submit to her lover, getting to know Him and preparing herself for the day when He returns (Revelation 19:7, 8) to take her to His Father’s house (John 14:1-4) to become one with Him forever (John 17:20, 21). Together they will celebrate the Marriage Supper of the Lamb (Revelation 19:9).

Pentecost has great significance for us. It is much more than the justification for speaking in tongues or exercising spiritual gifts. The Holy Spirit is the inward presence of Jesus, representing Him to us, teaching us about Him, leading us into all truth, glorifying Jesus to us and through us and preparing us for the wedding when the Bridegroom comes to take us to Himself.

All Ecstasies and Intimacies

Christian Life, ,

ALL ECSTASIES AND INTIMACIES

“Jesus said, ‘Marriage is a major preoccupation here, but not there. Those who are included in the resurrection of the dead will no longer be concerned with marriage or, of course, with death. They will have better things to think about, if you can believe it. All ecstasies and intimacies then will be with God.'” Luke 20:34-36 (The Message).

Wrong perspective again! Would they never learn?

The Sadducees’ preoccupation was political rather than religious and they had no axe to grind with Jesus. However, they were prompted to get in on the act with their religious counterparts, the Pharisees, not realising that no-one could outsmart Jesus, least of all them with their superficial knowledge of the Scriptures.

So they came at Him with a question prompted by their ignorance, and received a profound response that gives us a chink of light into the life of the believer in the hereafter. It amazes me how much of Jesus’ teaching on the deepest truths about God and the relationship He has called us into, came out of conflict with His opponents.

The current concept and experience of marriage, both in the world and in the church, is a mess because we have failed to grasp God’s original intention, hence the soaring divorce rate, dysfunctional families and all the unhappiness that causes, and all the other deviations from this holy institution; sexual promiscuity, ‘shacking up’ and so-called ‘sexual orientation’. Although our way does not work, we have not yet learned that God’s way is the truth.

What is God’s way?

On one occasion the Pharisees were questioning Jesus about the legality of divorce. He swept aside their rationalising in one single statement, “‘Moses permitted you to divorce your wives because your hearts were hard, but it was not this way from the beginning.'” Matthew 19:8 (NIV).

God expressly stated that His intention was to create man in His own image. Israel’s statement of faith in Deuteronomy 6:4 gives us the essence of what that means: “Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one.” God’s oneness implies unity in diversity, unity of essence and nature but diversity in function.

The entire universe reflects God’s image in its interdependence and interaction. Nothing in the universe functions independently. The universe is one, unity in diversity. The pinnacle of the expression of that oneness is in man. God made man to be like Him in the unity of our being – body, soul and spirit functioning as one, and in our capacity to be spiritually one with Him.

After creating man and woman, His first action was to bring them together for one purpose: “The man said, ‘This is now bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh; she shall be called ‘woman’, for she was taken out of man.’ For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and they will become one flesh.” Genesis 2:23-24 (NIV).

Jesus made it clear that marriage was only for this life because, when a husband and wife learn to live together in unity, they will have a foretaste of the ecstasies and intimacies of unity with God in the life to come. Marriage is a picture of the real thing and will fall away when the real thing happens.

Selfishness and the power struggle that often happens between husband and wife ruin that picture. It can only become reality if they both understand what marriage is about and learn to live with each other in mutual submission (Ephesians 5:21), and self-sacrificing love. Jesus is our perfect role model. He gave His life for His bride, the church. The purpose of marriage is to be a mirror to the world of what Jesus did for His bride, so that the world may see what God is like and return to Him.