Tag Archives: angels

THE GOSPEL IN HEBREWS – 2

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The writer to the Hebrews set out to present evidence that Jesus is superior to the Old Covenant in every way. The worship system of priests and sacrifice was God’s method to prepare Israel for His Messiah’s coming. Jesus, God’s Son, would fulfill and replace all the rules and rituals of the Old Covenant.

His readers needed to be convinced of Jesus’ superiority over Judaism to halt any idea that obedience to the Old Covenant and its demands would satisfy God’s requirements for holiness.

The writer first presents Jesus as superior to angels.

Meta AI explains…

“Hebrews 1:6 and the surrounding context don’t explicitly state that Israel worshiped angels. However, the passage does mention the worship of angels as a potential issue.”…

“Hebrews 1:6 says, “And again, when God brings his firstborn into the world, he says, ‘Let all God’s angels worship him.'” (NIV)

“This verse doesn’t imply that Israel worshiped angels. Instead, it emphasizes that even angels are commanded to worship Jesus, highlighting His superiority.

“It’s possible that the author of Hebrews is addressing a potential issue in the early Christian community, where some individuals may have been tempted to worship or venerate angels (Colossians 2:18). However, this is not explicitly stated in Hebrews 1.

“Hebrews 1:6 does not provide evidence that Israel worshiped angels. Instead, it emphasizes the superiority of Jesus Christ and the command for angels to worship Him.” (Meta AI)

The writer’s presentation sets the scene to present Jesus’ superiority over the entire Old Covenant, the role of Moses, the Law, the tabernacle/temple worship, and the sacrifices which could never be a permanent solution to the problem of sin. Therefore, the writer urges, to go back to Judaism would cancel God’s acceptance of sinners through Jesus and put them back under divine judgment.

The writer first warns them, in case they were tempted, to revere Jesus above angels because He is superior to them as a son above servants.

Hebrews 1:7-8, 14 NIV
[7] “In speaking of the angels, he says, “He makes his angels spirits, and his servants flames of fire.” [8] But about the Son he says, “Your throne, O God, will last for ever and ever; a scepter of justice will be the scepter of your kingdom…
[14] Are not all angels ministering spirits sent to serve those who will inherit salvation?”

Jesus is as superior to angels as the Creator is above creatures, as God above serving spirits.

To be continued…

THE GOSPEL OF MARK – THE TIME HAS COME

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THE TIME HAS COME

At once the Spirit sent him out into the wilderness, 13 and he was in the wilderness forty days, being tempted by Satan. He was with the wild animals, and angels attended him.
14 After John was put in prison, Jesus went into Galilee, proclaiming the good news of God. 15 “The time has come,” he said. “The kingdom of God has come near. Repent and believe the good news!”
Mark 1:12-15

The evidence of Jesus’ absolute confidence in the Father’s love is startling. He was not fazed by the horrific experience He has just come through – forty days in an environment so hostile that no human being ever ventured there, at least not for an extended stay.  And, on top of that, a lone human being at the mercy of an angelic spirit who was unseen, elusive, and bent on destroying Him. On His own, He could not have survived. He had to lean hard on the Holy Spirit, His companion and comforter.

According to Luke, Jesus was FILLED with the Spirit prior to His wilderness experience but returned in the POWER of the Spirit. What made the difference? Forty days of leaning hard on God; forty days of moving from human to divine energy; forty days of the kingdom pressing in on His spirit, thinning the veil between flesh and spirit. What was it that so soaked into His being that it spilled out of His mouth when He opened it? “God is here!”

What was the impact of His announcement on the people? “After 400 years of hearing nothing from God, left to battle it out on our own, abandoned, misused, oppressed, is God really here?   Jesus, you must be joking. How can we believe you?” Jesus said, “I’ll show you.” and He did. Suddenly things began to happen that made them sit up and take notice, things God had promised long ago would happen, that would accompany His Messiah’s coming.

“God is here!” What difference would that make to the people around us if we were to announce it to them boldly? What difference would it make to the people in the church? Do we really, really believe that God is here, now? What difference does it make to you and me? Does it allay fear and anxiety and give us courage and confidence to face life head on? Yes! A thousand times, yes! The fact that God is here makes all the difference in the world. We have a freedom and a peace that carries us up above circumstances and steadies us all the time.

THE GOSPEL OF LUKE – SAVE YOUR SKIN – LOSE YOUR LIFE

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SAVE YOUR SKIN – LOSE YOUR LIFE

“‘Stand up for me among the people you meet and the Son of Man will stand up for you before all God’s angels. But if you pretend you don’t know me, do you think I’ll defend you before God’s angels?'”  Luke 12:8, 9.

What was Jesus getting at? Does He need people to defend Him? Is He like other religious groups that go hysterical and murder people who so-called ‘insult’ their religious leaders? Does He really want us to behave like that? Will it make any difference to His reputation if we don’t vehemently defend Him every time someone bad-mouths Him?

This is not so much about Jesus as it is about us. When we recognised and acknowledged that Jesus is Lord and that God raised Him from the dead, several things happened supernaturally.

Our dead spirits were made alive by God’s Spirit and He reconciled and reconnected us to God, our Father. We were rescued from the dominion of darkness and made citizens of God’s kingdom of light.  We became the slaves of a new Master, Jesus and set free from the law of sin and death. We were given a new nature and have a new destiny – life in the eternal realm of God’s presence.

All of these blessings are guaranteed and have already become ours because Jesus paid the debt of our sin on the cross to restore us to God and to His eternal purpose for us. God raised Him from the dead, gave Him a name above every other name and seated Him in the place of supreme authority above all the powers that have made a bid for His place and lost.

So why then, did Jesus insist that we must acknowledge Him before men? It will definitely not make a difference to Him or His position but it will make a difference to us. To acknowledge Jesus, even if it costs us to do so, is to acknowledge everything He has done for us and to take our stand on His promises and in our position in His eternal kingdom.

Once again, it is to take the long look at life. If our sights are only upon our safety and comfort in this life, to choose not to acknowledge Jesus will be the easiest way out to save our skin. But if we are secure in our awareness of who we really are, sons and daughters of the living God, we will be more troubled about dissociating ourselves from Jesus than about what people might say about Him or us.

Jesus is not giving a warning that He will treat us like we treat Him. It is much more than that. The choice to acknowledge who He is lies with us. If we choose to confess Him before men in our hostile earthly environment, He will affirm our sonship in the environment of heaven.  To deny Him is to cut ourselves off from everything He has done for us. He has no other alternative but to confirm our choice for or against Him.

The Gospel Makes the Difference

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THE GOSPEL MAKES THE DIFFERENCE

Keep on loving one another as brothers and sisters. Do not forget to show hospitality to strangers, for by so doing some people have shown hospitality to angels without knowing it. Continue to remember those in prison as if you were together with them in prison, and those who are mistreated as if you yourselves were suffering (Heb. 13:1-3).

As Jewish people, these readers were required to be kind to strangers. They were to treat the foreigners among them with generosity because they had been aliens many times in the course of their history. Abraham was an alien in the land of Canaan; Jacob and his family were aliens in Egypt; the Israelites were foreigners in Babylon. They, in turn had opportunity to show kindness to those who were not of them because it was the right thing to do.

God even made provision for foreigners within their economic system. After every harvest, they were to give the firstfuits to God, and bring a tithe of the remainder to the temple where it was stored and distributed to the priests and Levites to support them and their families. They also set aside another tenth to celebrate God’s goodness with their families. Every third year they brought their “family” tithe to the temple to be given the poor, the widow, the orphan and the alien because these people had no inheritance of their own and no one to support them.

In all their dealings with people – family, fellow Israelites or foreigners – they were required to treat people with mercy and compassion. This was Jesus’s issue with the Pharisees and religious leaders. They were such sticklers for the law as they interpreted it, that they ignored the spirit of the law which was mercy. This was the difference between Jesus’s interpretation of Torah and the rest of the rabbis whom they followed.

Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You give a tenth of your spices – mint, dill and cumin. But you have neglected the more important matters of the law – justice, mercy and faithfulness. You should have practised the latter without neglecting the former (Matt.23: 23).

The writer reminded his readers that taking care of strangers had a hidden blessing. They never knew if and when they had actually been generous to an angel.

Abraham had the unique opportunity of being host to God Himself. Three men came to his tent and he welcomed them and prepared a sumptuous meal for them, not knowing that one of them was God visiting him in human form, and that the other two were angels. What if Abraham had sent them on their way without showing kindness to them?

The angel of the Lord had a message for him that he had been longing to hear for twenty five years.

“I will surely return to you about this time next year, and Sarah your wife will have a son” (Gen. 18: 10).

God had promised the childless couple a son. God had promised Abraham offspring as numerous as the sand on the sea shore and the stars in the sky, but it did not happen. Was God having him on? Abraham had begged God for a son but twenty five years went by and no baby boy arrived. In any case the elderly couple was way beyond having kids. They knew the drill!

But God came when all hope was gone – a stranger materialising out of the summer heat to announce that it was time. What if Abraham has missed the cue?

“Suffer with those who suffer,” was the next instruction. Why? We should be grateful that we don’t have to face what some of our fellow believers are facing at the hands of religious barbarians who think they are pleasing their god by being murders. What kind of a god is that? But that is not enough. Our writers says, “Don’t forget them. Identify with them.” We can’t physically be with them and suffer alongside them but we can pour our energies into praying for them. What will that do?

Aside from God supplying grace to them in their time of need, being aware of their suffering will not only soften our hearts towards those in need, but also towards their persecutors. Have you thought about that? Are we to hate them? No! Jesus did not hate those who crucified Him. He prayed for them. They were in line for God’s judgment. Jesus said that we are not to fear those who can only kill our bodies. We are to fear God who has the power to throw both bodies and souls into hell.

When we think of the terrible consequences of their actions, our hearts should go out to God in prayer for His mercy to be revealed to them. “Father, forgive them. They do not know what they are doing.

It’s the power of the gospel that transforms us from revenge to forgiveness and from hatred to compassion.

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 or www.kalahari.com in paperback, e-book or kindle format, or order directly from the publisher at www.partridgepublishing.com.

Check out my blogsite at www.learningtobeason.wordpress.com

 

What Changed Everything?

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WHAT CHANGED EVERYTHING?

You have not come to a mountain that can be touched and that is burning with fire; to darkness, gloom and storm; to a trumpet blast or to such a voice speaking words that those who heard it begged that no further word be spoken to them, because they could not bear what was commanded: ‘If even an animal touches the mountain, it must be stoned to death.’ The sight was so terrifying that Moses said, ‘I am trembling with fear.’ (Heb. 12: 18-21).

Why did God reveal Himself to His people in such a terrifying way? Could He not have tempered His appearance to them and made it a little less majestic and frightening?

We must remember that this is the same person who met Moses at the burning bush; the one who called Himself “I AM”. He was the same one who, when He was here in the flesh, said, “Before Abraham was, I AM.” The pre-incarnate Jesus revealed Himself to people time and again before He came to earth as a man. He often appeared as “the angel of the Lord” and spoke as God. This was the majesty and glory of the one who was to become the Son of God, a humble servant who came as a man.

The people of God had lived under the shadow of the Egyptians who worshipped the heavenly bodies and multiple other gods which were represented by idols. How was God going to impress upon them who He was so that they would take Him seriously and obey the word that He spoke to them through Moses?

His appearance on top of the mountain in blazing fire and smoke so dense that it shrouded the mountain top with darkness and gloom, and the terrifying noise of the accompanying trumpet and the sound of His voice, was something they ought never to have forgotten. It should have been a reminder to them and to their children, that their God was not one to be trifled with. He was holy and untouchable, unlike the Egyptian gods who were just like them.

This spectacle should have been indelibly imprinted on their hearts. They should have   taught it to their descendants, that the God who visited them in the desert, and who came to dwell among them in the tabernacle, was real. He required them to obey Him because the consequences of disobedience would be in keeping with who He was.

Why are we no longer terrified of this God? Has He changed? Has He relented and down-scaled His glory? What changed everything? Where is the unapproachable, untouchable God? Where is the God who demanded the death of an animal who strayed too near the mountain? Where is the God who demanded blood for every infringement of His holy standards?

But you have come to Mount Zion, to the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem. You have come to thousands upon thousands of angels in joyful assembly, to the church of the firstborn, who names are written in heaven. You have come to God, the Judge of all, to the spirits of the righteous made perfect, to Jesus the mediator of a new covenant, and to the sprinkled blood that speaks a better word than the blood of Abel (Heb, 12: 22-24).

God has not changed, but He put in place, through Jesus, the plan He set up before the creation of the world, that would change the hearts of people. His appearance at Mount Sinai as the unapproachable God was the stark reality of the monstrous barrier of sin that separated people from Him. No amount of animal blood could remove that barrier. It could only remind them of the sin that stood between them and God as an insurmountable barrier.

The picture is different now – not terror but celebration; not fire and smoke and gloom and darkness and trembling and weeping and pleading with Moses to stop, but a huge party attended by angels and people of all races, languages and cultures. No longer Mount Sinai, but Mount Zion – the place where God has established His name forever. No longer a God who was hidden behind an impenetrable curtain but Emmanuel, God with us. No longer fear, but perfect love. No more guilt and shame but laughter and joy and worship and thanksgiving.

God has not changed. We have because He changed us. Abel’s blood cried for revenge. The blood of Jesus speaks mercy. Hallelujah!

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 or www.kalahari.com in paperback, e-book or kindle format, or order directly from the publisher at www.partridgepublishing.com.

 

Check out my blogsite at www.learningtobeason.wordpress.com