Tag Archives: message

Faith Comes By Hearing

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FAITH COMES BY HEARING

“How, then, can they call on the one they have not believed in? And how can they believe in the one of whom they have not heard? And how can they hear without someone preaching to them? And how can anyone preach unless they are sent? As it is written: “How beautiful are the feet of those who bring good news!”

“But not all the Israelites accepted the good news. For Isaiah says, ‘Lord, who has believed our message?’ Consequently, faith comes from hearing the message, and the message is heard through the word about Christ.” Romans 10:14-17.

What a gem of a chapter is Romans 10!

Paul, in this one chapter, sweeps away all the complicated arguments and explanations about religion, even the religion of the Jews, and reveals the simplicity of the message about Jesus. It’s all about believing – not just giving intellectual assent to, but entrusting oneself to the truth that Jesus is Lord, and He is the way to the Father.

You don’t have to search for Him. He is right here – wherever you are – as close as your breath and the words of your mouth. It doesn’t matter whether you are a Jew or a Gentile. There is no longer any distinction because the door is wide open for anyone who believes in Him to enter the kingdom of God and receive the gift of righteousness and eternal life.

To receive this gift and the assurance of eternal life takes nothing more that listening to  the message about Jesus and believing the good news that He has done everything to clear the way for us to return to the Father and be reconciled and restored to Him as His sons and daughters.

But, in order to receive the message, people have to hear it; and in order to hear it, someone must preach it; and in order to preach it, someone must be sent; and that means all of us. To His disciples Jesus gave the commission: “As the Father has sent me, I am sending you.” John 20:21.

Who are His disciples? Surely not only those who physically followed Him during the three years of His public ministry? He commissioned them to go and make disciples – followers who would make more disciples, who would make more disciples…right down to today. If you are a follower, the instruction is for you and for me to tell the message so that others can believe and tell the message.

But hearing the message is not enough. How many times did the Israelites hear the message in the Old Testament era? How many times did the Jews hear the message from the lips of Jesus and from the lips of the apostles and the early Christians, yet they still rejected it? Paul prayed for them and grieved over their stubborn unbelief but nothing would persuade the majority of them of the truth that is in the message about Jesus. But while they refuse to believe, there are many millions that have believed and have experienced the truth of the message.

In verse 17 Paul gives us a little gem about faith. What is the origin of faith? It doesn’t just drop out of the sky. Faith must have a foundation, a substance, some truth that generates confidence and gives us something stable to stand on. What is that foundation, that substance upon which we can pin our hope? It’s the message about Jesus. Every time we read or hear something more about Him, our confidence in Him can grow.

Like patience and all the other virtues we long to possess, faith can be cultivated by exposing ourselves to the message. The more we can discover about Jesus, the more we will be able to trust Him, not only with our eternal destiny but with the nitty-gritty of our everyday lives.

There is no one who cannot respond to the message in faith. It takes nothing more than hearing and believing. No ritual, performance, ceremony, offering, sacrifice or even a pastor or counsellor is necessary to facilitate believing. Just believe and Jesus Christ is yours.

Acknowledgement

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

 

The Lord Is One

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THE LORD IS ONE 

“‘My prayer is not for them alone. I pray also for those who will believe in me through their message, that all of them may be one, Father, just as you are in me and I am in you. May they also be in us so that the world may believe that you have sent me.

“I have given them the glory that you gave me, so that they may be one as we are one — I in them and you in me — so that they may be brought to complete unity. Then the world will know that you sent me and have loved them even as you have loved me.'” John 17:20-23 NIV.

This is the third of Jesus’ requests — for unity in His body throughout the ages. Why was unity so important to Jesus?

“Then God said, ‘Let us make man in our image, in our likeness so that they may rule…’ So God created mankind in His image, in the image of God He created them; male and female He created them.” Genesis 1:26a, 27 NIV.

Theologians have many ideas about what the image of God means — a moral being; self-conscious and self-determining; able to know and have fellowship with Him etc. Although these are all valid expressions of the image of God, there is one overriding characteristic that makes human beings uniquely created in His image. He created us to be one with Him and with one another so that we perfectly reflect Him in the world.

The Hebrew “creed” (Deuteronomy 6:4) or Shema which they repeated over and over every day, and which a Hebrew child learned at his mother’s breast, states: “Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is one.”

Misunderstood, this statement has caused confusion because “one” is understood to mean one in number rather than one in unity in diversity.

“Reading here that God is one, most Jews for centuries have ruled out the possibility that Jesus could be the Son of God, on the same divine plane as the Father…”

“The Hebrew word translated one in Deuteronomy 6:4 is echad. Its meanings include the number one but also has such associated meanings as “one and the same,” “as one man, together [unified],” “each, every,” “one after another” and “first [in sequence or importance]” (Brown, Driver and Briggs, A Hebrew and English Lexicon of the Old Testament, 1951, page 25). It can also be rendered “alone” as the New Revised Standard Version translates it here (William Holladay, A Concise Hebrew and Aramaic Lexicon of the Old Testament, 1972, page 9).The exact meaning is best determined by the context.”

(http://www.ucg.org/booklet/who-god/how-god-one/lord-our-god-one/)

Although “God is one” could mean “first in priority” or “alone”, Jesus gave substance to the New Testament truth that He and the Father are one in mind and heart, in essence and purpose, although two distinct persons. It was God’s original intention to create an entire universe that functioned as a unit to express the nature of the Godhead.

Marriage, according to Genesis 2:24, the most intimate of human relationships, was to mirror that oneness between a husband and wife. “That is why a man leaves his father and mother and is united to his wife, and they become one flesh,” because humans have the capacity to be one by choice and behaviour. The Bible is full on examples of the unity that mirrors the nature of God.

Adam’s disobedience disrupted the unity between God and man and in the entire cosmos, but God intervened through Jesus to reconcile everything to Himself and to restore the entire creation to the unity He established in the beginning.

“For God was pleased to have all His fulness dwell in Him, and through Him to reconcile to Himself all things, whether things on earth or things in heaven, by making peace through His blood shed on the cross.” Colossians 1:19, 20 NIV.

Unity between believers is a miracle that only God can create, but it is up to us to maintain that unity (Ephesians 43) by submitting ourselves to one another out of reverence for Christ (Ephesians 5:21).

Will Jesus’ prayer be answered? Most certainly because God has promised that what He began He will complete, but we must partner with Him to see the dream of Jesus being fulfilled.

Glimpses Of The Great God: Day Thirteen

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DAY THIRTEEN

 Who has believed our message

and to whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed?

He grew up before Him like a tender shoot,

and like a root out of dry ground.

He had no beauty or majesty to attract us to Him,

nothing in His appearance that we should desire Him.

He was despised and rejected by men,

a man of sorrows and familiar with suffering.

Like one from whom men hide their faces

He was despised and we esteemed Him not.

Surely He took up our infirmities

and carried our sorrows,

yet we considered Him stricken by God,

smitten by Him and afflicted.

Isaiah 53:1-4

 What proof do we have of God’s love for us?  “Greater love has no-one than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends.”  Read through this very familiar passage of Scripture again and again.  Jesus left the place where He was the darling and focus of all the attention of heaven to this – unknown, unrecognised, unappreciated, rejected, despised, scorned, humiliated and thrown away like a bit of garbage – and that by the very people He had created in His own image and for His glory.  Could He have stepped any lower?  And yet He did it for you and for me.  He absorbed all the blows that were meant for us so that we could walk free and be completely acceptable and accepted by God.  He was no “Mr Universe” or “Mr Sexy” as the world loves to categorise men. He was so ordinary that no-one recognised Him as God.  Even His miracles were misrepresented as the works of the devil.  For you and for me He became NOTHING.

Israel’s “Billy Graham”!

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ISRAEL’S “BILLY GRAHAM”

“When crowds of people came out for baptism because it was the popular thing to do, John exploded: ‘Brood of snakes! What do you think you’re doing slithering down here to the river? Do you think a little water on your snakeskin is going to deflect God’s judgment? It’s your life that must change, not your skin. And don’t think you can pull rank by claiming Abraham as “father”. Being a child of Abraham is neither here nor there — children of Abraham are a dime a dozen. God can make children of stones if He wants. What counts is your life. Is it green and blossoming? Because if it’s dead wood, if goes on the fire.'” Luke 3:7-9 (The Message).

Talk about a fiery preacher! John wasn’t exactly “seeker-friendly” and he was seriously lacking in people skills!

Who were the people who made up the crowds? From the other gospels we learn that there were people from among the religious hierarchy; there were taxmen and there were even Roman soldiers among them; the good, the bad and the ugly. What attracted them to John? Did they enjoy getting a tongue-lashing? Was it his brutal honesty? Were they fascinated by this wild man from the wilderness? Was it his message?

Perhaps the angel’s prediction before his birth may give us a clue – he was filled with the Spirit from birth. The Holy Spirit must have played a big part in the response to his preaching. Obviously there was a high expectation that Messiah was coming. The presence of the Romans was intolerable; like the Gestapo in Nazi Germany, they were everywhere, it seemed, breathing down people’s necks.

On top of that, John’s message was riveting. Isaiah’s prophecy was actually happening! ‘A voice thundering in the desert,’ is what John called himself. But isn’t that what Isaiah said would happen? “The voice of one crying in the wilderness: ‘Prepare the way of the Lord; make His paths straight.'” Luke 3:4b (NKJV). ‘Messiah is on the way!’

Did John really understand the hearts of these people or was he just having a bad day? ‘Basket of snakes!’ he called them, ‘slithering down to the water.’ Was there a subtle reference to their origin – children of the devil, as Jesus called them? Whatever John meant, it was enough to get their attention. Were they being like sheep, following one another out of curiosity and John knew it? It was time for them to wake up and think for themselves.

What was the point of John’s baptism? Baptism, or ritual washing, was a common practice in Jewish culture. It was called “mikvah”, washing. It was the prescribed way of “cleansing” after any period of ritual uncleanness; it was a form of initiation into a new function or office, for example, the priesthood; and it was a form of initiation into a new movement (Gentiles who adopted Judaism were baptised into their new religion).  Archaeological digs have uncovered ritual baths in many places in Israel.

John was calling people to return to their original purpose in God. This demanded a change of heart and a change of lifestyle. It was to be something much deeper than just a symbolic washing. It was to be a change that affected every part of their lives. John’s challenge was: ‘Are you in this for the ride or do you really mean business with God?’

God called Israel to be His representatives in a world of people who were in rebellion against Him; who were creating and worshipping gods in the form of His creatures rather than the Creator, and who were, in turn, being created to be just like the evil gods they were worshipping.

Israel was to be different. Their lives were to reflect the kindness and generosity of their God. God prescribed a lifestyle in His Word that taught them what He was like so that they could mirror His way of doing things that worked, bringing peace and harmony to the community. But it had not worked because the Jews had followed the ways of their heathen neighbours instead of God’s ways.

John’s message was ‘Return!’ It was a simple as that!

Confidence Worth Having

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CONFIDENCE WORTH HAVING

“When they got to Iconium they went, as they always did, to the meeting place of the Jews, and gave their message. The Message convinced both Jews and non-Jews — and not just a few, either. But the unbelieving Jews worked up a whispering campaign against Paul and Barnabas, sowing mistrust and suspicion in the minds of the people in the street. The two apostles were there a long time, speaking freely, openly and confidently as they presented the clear evidence of God’s gifts, God corroborating their work with miracles and wonders.” Acts 14:1-3 (The Message).

Wherever they went, Paul and Barnabas created a stir that affected the entire city. They were sowing into the soil of human hearts that were saturated with religion. There was no such thing as sacred and secular in the world view of their day.

In the Roman world, everyone was religious. They all believed in and worshipped someone or something. The Caesars insisted that they be worshipped as god, seeing themselves as invincible saviours and arrogantly elevating themselves to the level of deity to the extent that they slaughtered believers for refusing to confess “Caesar is Lord.”

In our world, everyone is also religious, though many deny that they worship anything. Superstition rules in societies where western scientific culture has not penetrated. Some people worship what they do not understand. Others insist that their ancestors or evil spirits are in control of their lives. In the western “developed” world, many people are self-made and worship themselves.

Whatever we look to as our source, is our god; money, education, image, position and prestige, achievements, or even other people — all these are things people believe in and rely on to keep them going.

The point is that man, in and of himself, is incomplete without someone or something greater than himself on which to rely. But we have to ask ourselves the questions, “Is the person or thing I rely on to complete me, worthy of my trust and confidence? Can I be sure that what I believe in will meet my need and complete my life when it comes to an end?”

When we examine the nature of our gods, we might find, to our horror, that we have placed our lives and our destiny in a mirage or a fantasy. On what authority do we base our trust? How can we be sure that the thing we worship will not fail us when we need it most?

Will my money, for example, be there to give me peace and hope when I am diagnosed with an incurable disease, when I lose a treasured child, or when my relationships fall apart? Can I go to my image or my achievements for comfort; will my possessions sustain me in trouble? Can my ancestors offer me strength to cope with cancer or permanent disability? Can my god take away my guilt, shame, fear, anxiety or even my fear of death?

When Paul and Barnabas delivered the good news of the forgiveness of sin through the death and resurrection of Jesus, the Son of God, they were not offering another religious hoax or pipe dream based on human imagination. They were relaying verifiable fact, based in history, and backed up by the power of God Himself. “…God corroborating their work with miracles and wonders,” and bringing peace and assurance of the truth to the hearts of those who believed.

“The proof of the pudding is in the eating,” the saying goes. To those who believed the apostles’ message, the proof came in the form of such joy and assurance that they were willing to lay down their lives rather than lose what they had received. To the Apostle Paul it meant, “To live is Christ and to die is gain.” Now that’s a confidence worth having!