Tag Archives: greet

THE GOSPEL OF LUKE – YOU ARE THE MESSAGE

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YOU ARE THE MESSAGE

“When you enter a home, greet the family, ‘Peace.’ If your greeting is received, then it’s a good place to stay. But if it’s not received, take it back and get out. Don’t impose yourself.

“Stay at one home, taking your meals there, for a worker deserves three square meals. Don’t move from house to house looking for the best cook in town.

When you enter a town and are received, eat what they set before you, heal anyone who is sick, and tell them, ‘God’s kingdom is right on your doorstep!'” Luke 10:5-9.

As one reads Jesus’ instructions over and over, something begins to emerge about His strategy for infiltrating a community with the good news of God’s kingdom. The first thing one notices is His respect for people’s right to choose. He didn’t insist that His disciples bulldoze their way in and force the message on people whether they wanted to listen or not. Everyone had the right to choose whether they accepted or rejected the messengers and their message.

‘Test the water,’ He said. How were they to do that? They were to do it in the disposition of Messiah. ‘Say hello,’ He said but, at the same time, their “hello” conveyed something far deeper than just a causal “hi”. “Shalom”, translated “peace” was both a greeting and a prayer. Shalom is the essence of what God desires and does for those who believe in Him and entrust their lives to Him. His work of restoration produces an inner peace and a wholeness that He intended everyone to experience from the beginning when He created mankind.

If a family responded positively to their greeting, they were to stay there and share the life of that family for the duration of their stay. It was part of Hebrew culture to show hospitality to strangers. It was accepted that a friendly greeting would indicate an open door and a family’s generous attitude towards their guests.

Should the greeting not be returned, they were to move on without making a fuss. It was everyone’s right to choose, and they were not to react ungraciously by retaliating when they were refused hospitality.

They were to receive what was given to them as graciously as their hosts gave and not move on if they were not satisfied with the quality of the hospitality. Being in a home gave them opportunity to interact with the family and minister to their needs, including healing their sick and sharing the good news of God’s kingdom.

The overall impression one gets from Jesus’ instruction is that He was advocating personal interaction with the people of that community. He was not about setting up a big healing and preaching campaign, inviting people to a gathering in the village square. It was about spending time in people’s homes and entering into the family’s life for a while, infiltrating the community with more than just preaching. He was always about being the message, not just telling it.

One cannot dissociate the message from the messenger. Jesus’ way is so unlike the ways of the world, and especially the ways of religion which tries to impose and force its ideas on people whether they like to or not. The message and the messenger are inseparable. It was the message personified in the life of the messenger that would persuade people of the truth, not force it on reluctant or sceptical hearers.

Jesus illustrated the kingdom’s power to infiltrate and transform society in His story of the women who mixed yeast into a lump of dough. He didn’t tell His disciples to leave it to the suitably qualified “professionals” to preach the gospel. He sent all His followers out to spread the good news everywhere that God’s way is the best way to live.

It’s by both life and lip that God’s kingdom comes alive in a community and brings it closer to God’s original idea of a family living together in “shalom” – harmony and wholeness.

Are you doing that?

Greetings – But Who Wrote It?

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GREETINGS – BUT WHO WROTE IT?

Brothers and sisters, I urge you to bear with my word of exhortation for, in fact I have written to you quite briefly. I want you to know that our brother Timothy has been released. If he arrives soon, I will come with him to see you. Greet all your leaders and all the Lord’s people. Those from Italy send you their greetings. Grace be with you all (Heb. 13: 22-25).

The final paragraph and greeting ties this letter to the real world. The writer began his letter by launching straight into his topic as though it were too important to bother with hellos and introductions. He assumed that they knew him as he obviously knew them. The content of the letter with its urgent request for them to reconsider indicates that these people were in a relationship with the writer which made it even more unthinkable that they should go back to Judaism.

Many theologians insist that Paul wrote the letter, but this cannot be true because our writer inadvertently dropped clues all along the way that hint at the fact that this is not typically Pauline. It is very different in style and content from the other thirteen letters where Paul identified himself as the author. Why would he choose to be anonymous in this one? The content is obviously different for a reason. The writer was dealing with a different situation from Paul’s letters. But, at the same time, the personal snippets do not point to Paul.

It’s not my purpose, in this final meditation, to set out a reasoned theory about who wrote it. I only suggest that it was not Paul because of the hints – for example, in his farewell greeting he referred to Timothy as a “brother”. To Paul, Timothy was always his son in the faith.

To Timothy, my true son in the faith (1 Tim. 1: 2).

Our writer was obviously writing from somewhere in Italy. We have no clue as to the destination of the letter. Perhaps it was a church of believers who were predominantly Jewish, or perhaps he wrote to a group of churches in which there were Jewish Christians. It was common, it seems, to write to more than one group of people and have the recipients circulate the letter. Paul’s letter to the Ephesians was a circular letter to the churches in Asia Minor. Perhaps the letter was copied before it was passed on so that each church would be able to refer back to its content.

If this was a “brief” letter, one wonders what a long letter would look like! Our writer had a brilliant mind and an excellent grasp both of Judaism and its fulfilment in Christ. He must have been a Jew to have been able to present his case as thoroughly and convincingly as he did. He was more than a theologian. He was probably also a pastor because he evidenced a shepherd’s heart for the people. He knew the people to whom he wrote and he also knew those in Italy from where the letter came.

He referred to Timothy as a brother. Timothy had often visited Paul in prison and been a messenger for him from time to time. This is the first and only hint in the New Testament writings that he was also in prison.  As Paul’s understudy, he must have been a prominent figure in the early church and also a marked man from the Roman government’s point of view. It was inevitable that he, too, had to put up with being harassed and incarcerated for his faith and his activities in spreading the gospel.

What can we take away from this letter? I believe that it stands side-by-side with Paul’s letter to the Romans as one of the two most important interpretations of the cross. Where Paul presented the work of Jesus as the culmination of God’s justice and righteousness – setting forth the death of Jesus as the answer to the dilemma of human sin and God’s justice, Hebrews presents the work of Jesus as the fulfilment of all the types and pictures of the Old Covenant.

These two letters are like the two sides of a coin. Each compliments the other and together they present a full-orbed picture of both the intention of the Father and its fulfilment in the Son. Both the Greek and the Jewish mind would be satisfied that Jesus is a perfect and sufficient Saviour of sinners.

Does it really matter who wrote it? The truth is in what he wrote and of that we can be assured.

And so we can leave this letter for the moment with a feeling of contentment because we know that God has taken care of every detail and wrapped up His case for both His justice and mercy by the death of His Son. Once again, just as Paul had presented his side of the story, to the Hebrew writer Jesus comes up trumps. He is the focal point of everything God promised and did through the history of His people, to bring them to this point where His Messiah stepped in to complete what He started in the Garden of Eden.

The writer urges us, then:

Let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us, fixing our eyes on Jesus, the pioneer and perfecter of our faith (Heb. 12: 2b-3a).

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

 

Doing Life Together

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DOING LIFE TOGETHER 

“Greet all God’s people in Christ Jesus. The brothers and sisters who are with me send greetings. All God’s people here send you greetings, especially those who belong to Caesar’s household.

“The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with your spirit. Amen.” Philippians 4:20-23.

After all that Paul had written about, perhaps some of his most significant words come at the end of his letter in his “signing off” statement. Once again he gives us a glimpse of the true meaning of “Christian” – people who belong to Christ – family! Paul was a catalyst – keeping people in touch with one another and fostering the family spirit by connecting the people in the churches and by constant interaction with them.

Paul was in prison in Caesar’s palace awaiting trial and possible execution, but that did not deter him from keeping the family together and urging them to support one another. He was the one who initiated the collection of money to help believers in Judea who were suffering because of famine in their area. He urged the churches in Greece to show their love by helping them in their need.

He constantly sent fellow workers to check on the believers in other places when he was unable to go himself. He often concluded his letters with greetings from individuals and church groups even though they did not know each other personally. Paul was a family man. He understood how important it was for God’s family to stand together because it was them against the world.

How many churches today are run more like a business than a family! We live in our little isolated islands, meeting together on a Sunday and perhaps once during the week, but for the most part not really involved in the lives of the other members of the family of God. Of course the church is now worldwide and too big and scattered for us to be connected across the board. But what about the local congregation of which we are members?

Not all churches are groups of impersonally disconnected individuals. Thank God for those who take their responsibility of doing life together seriously! Jesus said that the mark of true discipleship that will convince the world far more than doctrine or success is the love of the disciples for one another.

“One another” is a recurring phrase that sets the church apart from the world. That does not mean that life in the body of Christ is idyllic – far from it. We still drag our old fleshly nature around with us and will do so until we shed this body and step into the presence of Jesus. In the mean time we learn to overcome our natural selfishness and self-centredness by serving one another. We learn to love by loving. We learn to give by giving. Little by little, deed by deed, we subdue our old “man” by putting on the new man.

Doing life together can be messy at times. Conflicts will happen, but how we deal with them reveals how real our determination is to follow our Master. That’s why we forgive – four hundred and ninety times a day if necessary. Who is going to keep a record, anyway? Jesus’ prescription for harmony in the family is very simple – die! Dead people don’t quarrel. Dead people are not selfish. A truly “dead’ believer has no personal agenda because his life is inextricable intertwined with his Lord’s.

How we do life together in our church family is a good test of how dead we really are. We can either withdraw and distance ourselves from the mess, even if we are part of it or we can get in there, get dirty and help clean it up. Paul put it in a nutshell:

“Therefore, as God’s chosen people, holy and dearly loved, clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience. Bear with one another and forgive one another if any of you has a grievance against someone. Forgive as the Lord forgave you. And over all these put on love, which binds them all together in perfect unity.” Colossians 3:12-14.

Did you get that? Put on these attitudes as you would your clothing in the morning. Keep putting on the behaviour until you become what you do. Why must we do that? Because we may! We are no longer the slaves of our old sinful, selfish selves. We are free to love and loving is the most liberating way to live. Loving our brothers and sisters in the Lord by meeting their needs at our expense moves us closer to the image of Jesus.

And that’s what it’s all about!

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.

 

You Are The Message!

Bible Study, , , ,

YOU ARE THE MESSAGE

“When you enter a home, greet the family, ‘Peace.’ If your greeting is received, then it’s a good place to stay. But if it’s not received, take it back and get out. Don’t impose yourself.

“Stay at one home, taking your meals there, for a worker deserves three square meals. Don’t move from house to house looking for the best cook in town.

When you enter a town and are received, eat what they set before you, heal anyone who is sick, and tell them, ‘God’s kingdom is right on your doorstep!'” Luke 10:5-9 (The Message).

As one reads Jesus’ instructions over and over, something begins to emerge about His strategy for infiltrating a community with the good news of God’s kingdom. The first thing one notices is His respect for people’s right to choose. He didn’t insist that His disciples bulldoze their way in and force the message on people whether they wanted to listen or not. Everyone had the right to choose whether they accepted or rejected the messengers and their message.

‘Test the water,’ He said. How were they to do that? They were to do it in the disposition of Messiah. ‘Say hello,’ He said but, at the same time, their “hello” conveyed something far deeper than just a causal “hi”. “Shalom”, translated “peace” was both a greeting and a prayer. Shalom is the essence of what God desires and does for those who believe in Him and entrust their lives to Him. His work of restoration produces an inner peace and a wholeness that He intended everyone to experience from the beginning when He created mankind.

If a family responded positively to their greeting, they were to stay there and share the life of that family for the duration of their stay. It was part of Hebrew culture to show hospitality to strangers. It was accepted that a friendly greeting would indicate an open door and a family’s generous attitude towards their guests.

Should the greeting not be returned, they were to move on without making a fuss. It was everyone’s right to choose, and they were not to react ungraciously by retaliating when they were refused hospitality.

They were to receive what was given to them as graciously as their hosts gave and not move on if they were not satisfied with the quality of the hospitality. Being in a home gave them opportunity to interact with the family and minister to their needs, including healing their sick and sharing the good news of God’s kingdom.

The overall impression one gets from Jesus’ instruction is that He was advocating personal interaction with the people of that community. He was not about setting up a big healing and preaching campaign, inviting people to a gathering in the village square. It was about spending time in people’s homes and entering into the family’s life for a while, infiltrating the community with more than just preaching. He was always about being the message, not just telling it.

One cannot dissociate the message from the messenger. Jesus’ way is so unlike the ways of the world, and especially the ways of religion which tries to impose and force its ideas on people whether they like to or not. The message and the messenger are inseparable. It was the message personified in the life of the messenger that would persuade people of the truth, not force it on reluctant or sceptical hearers.

Jesus illustrated the kingdom’s power to infiltrate and transform society in His story of the women who mixed yeast into a lump of dough. He didn’t tell His disciples to leave it to the suitably qualified “professionals” to preach the gospel. He sent all His followers out to spread the good news everywhere that God’s way is the best way to live.

It’s by both life and lip that God’s kingdom comes alive in a community and brings it closer to God’s original idea of a family living together in “shalom” — harmony and wholeness.

Are you doing that?