Tag Archives: head

SOME PUZZLES OF SCRIPTURE – 4

July 11, 2024Bible StudyChurch, head, poorLuella Campbell

It’s amazing how often Scripture read out of context takes one down the wrong road and ends up far from its intended destination. Take, for example, the teaching that Jesus was poor.

The idea is derived mainly from His comment to the man who requested to follow Him. His reply suggests that He was too poor to sustain another permanent follower.

Jesus was by no means poor. Firstly, He was a rabbi and would therefore have been well supported by his many followers.

Secondly, a group of wealthy women supported Him with their resources and adequately saw to His needs and the needs of His disciples.

‭Luke 8:1-3 NLT‬
[1] “Soon afterward Jesus began a tour of the nearby towns and villages, preaching and announcing the Good News about the Kingdom of God. He took his twelve disciples with him, [2] along with some women who had been cured of evil spirits and diseases. Among them were Mary Magdalene, from whom he had cast out seven demons; [3] Joanna, the wife of Chuza, Herod’s business manager; Susanna; and many others who were contributing from their own resources to support Jesus and his disciples.”

Thirdly, we must not take 2 Cor 8:9 necessarily to refer to material and financial wealth.

‭2 Corinthians 8:9 NLT‬
[9]” You know the generous grace of our Lord Jesus Christ. Though he was rich, yet for your sakes he became poor, so that by his poverty he could make you rich.”

It might, in the context of Paul’s teaching on giving, but Jesus’ wealth in heaven far outweighed anything He might have had on earth. His so-called poverty here was relative to His vast resources in the universe.

‭Psalms 50:9-12 NLT‬
[9]”But I do not need the bulls from your barns or the goats from your pens. [10] For all the animals of the forest are mine, and I own the cattle on a thousand hills. [11] I know every bird on the mountains, and all the animals of the field are mine. [12] If I were hungry, I would not tell you, for all the world is mine and everything in it.”

Here on earth, Jesus had enough to sustain His life. He could even multiply loaves and fishes to feed a multitude or send Peter to catch a fish to pay their temple tax!

Another suggestion was that Jesus was apparently homeless, moving around from place to place with no permanent address.

Said one interpreter,

“Those that followed him in this work required them to leave their families and not have a place to call home. This homeless state is not pleasant for humans. Even animals have a place to call home here on earth, but not the Son of God.”

And another,

“He does not own a home. He doesn’t even have one to use, as a slave would. Despite His humanity, He does not belong in this world and has no safe place to dwell. Jesus’ itinerant lifestyle acts like a metaphor for the world’s rejection.”

And a third,

“The implied statement Jesus makes here is something like “this is not going to make you rich and famous, nor is it going to be easy.” Would the scribe really follow Jesus everywhere once he saw how tough that journey could be? The lack of response or further information about this man suggests that he would not and did not.”

Contrary to the ‘prosperity gospel, the Bible does not teach that God wants us wealthy. Jesus spoke more about the dangers of money and wealth than any other subject.

For example,

‭Matthew 19:23-24 NLT‬
[23] Then Jesus said to his disciples, “I tell you the truth, it is very hard for a rich person to enter the Kingdom of Heaven. [24] I’ll say it again—it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich person to enter the Kingdom of God!”

Such a variety of interpretations hint at the fact that teachers and scholars don’t really understand what Jesus meant so they invented an explanation.

The first principle to understand is that the ancient Hebrew language, in which much of Scripture was written and in which Jesus would have thought, is very different from our own. Hebrews expressed themselves and originally wrote in picture langauge. Their pictures conveyed concrete ideas which formed comic-strip-like concepts. They did not think or write in the abstract. The meaning of their pictures is found in the context since one picture could convey more than one idea, depending on what was added to the root word.

To understand what Jesus was saying, we need to look at His pictures and find out what He was conveying.

‭Matthew 8:19-20 NLT‬
[19] Then one of the teachers of religious law said to him, “Teacher, I will follow you wherever you go.” [20] But Jesus replied, “Foxes have dens (to live in – writer’s brackets ), and birds have nests, but the Son of Man has no place even to lay his head.”

(The word ‘kephale’ translated ‘head’ can mean ‘cornerstone’, the place where two walls meet. Jesus is the cornerstone of the church).

‭Jesus contrasted Himself with foxes and birds. What do foxes do in dens? What do birds do in nests? Foxes do not live in dens nor do birds live in nests. They reproduce in dens or nests.

Jesus was referring to His own situation. By contrast to foxes and birds, He did not yet have a ‘body’ on which to lay His head. (He was not yet the cornerstone of the church). He was not yet spiritually complete to reproduce Himself in others. The day would come when His body, the church, would be born, on the day of Pentecost. From that moment on, Jesus was the head of His body, and He could begin to reproduce Himself through His people.

‭Ephesians 1:22-23 NLT‬
[22] “God has put all things under the authority of Christ and has made him head over all things for the benefit of the church. [23] And the church is his body; it is made full and complete by Christ, who fills all things everywhere with himself.”

For that reason, He was not ready to take on more followers than His twelve disciples whom He had chosen to train for the task of reproduction after His death and resurrection.

On the day of Pentecost, when the Holy Spirit fell on the Twelve in the presence of thousands, Jesus’ prophecy was fulfilled. Three thousand believed Peter’s message and became the first of multiple millions who are still coming to faith in Jesus.

To be continued…

THE CHURCH, GOD’S “BULLSEYE” – 10a

April 9, 2024Bible Studyauthority, body, headLuella Campbell

Ephesians 1:22-23 NLT‬
[22] “God has put all things under the authority of Christ and has made him head over all things for the benefit of THE CHURCH . [23] And the church is his body; it is made full and complete by Christ, who fills all things everywhere with himself.”

God has His eye on something and it’s definitely not the world! Eugene Peterson, in his paraphrase, The Message (MSG), put it this way…

Ephesians 1:20-23
[20-23] “All this energy issues from Christ: God raised him from death and set him on a throne in deep heaven, in charge of running the universe, everything from galaxies to governments, no name and no power exempt from his rule. And not just for the time being, but forever. He is in charge of it all, has the final word on everything. At the center of all this, Christ rules the church. The church, you see, is not peripheral to the world; the world is peripheral to the church. The church is Christ’s body, in which he speaks and acts, by which he fills everything with his presence.”

A clear and wonderful description of God’s plan!

Since it has always been God’s purpose for the church to share in Christ’s inheritance, God gave Jesus authority over the church to prepare her for co-rulership with Him over the nations.

The Bible often speaks of an inheritance we are to share with Jesus.

‭Romans 8:17 NLT‬
[17] “And since we are his children, we are his heirs. In fact, together with Christ we are heirs of God’s glory. But if we are to share his glory, we must also share his suffering.”

Our inheritance in Christ has many facets to it…eternal life (Luke 18:18)… all the blessings of God’s salvation (Eph 1:11)…the Holy Spirit (Eph1:14)…God’s promises (Heb 6:12)…a priceless inheritance, kept safe in heaven for us (1Peter1:4)…
and…and…!

In Psalm 2, God promises the nations to His King as His inheritance over which He will rule with justice and peace forever.

‭Psalms 2:7-8 NLT‬
[7] “The king proclaims the Lord’s decree: “The Lord said to me, ‘You are my son. Today I have become your Father. [8] Only ask, and I will give you the nations as your inheritance, the whole earth as your possession.”

‭Isaiah 9:6-7 NLT‬
[6] “For a child is born to us, a son is given to us. The government will rest on his shoulders. And he will be called: Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace. [7] His government and its peace will never end. He will rule with fairness and justice from the throne of his ancestor David for all eternity. The passionate commitment of the Lord of Heaven’s Armies will make this happen!”

Jesus, in turn, will share His inheritance with His church. Daniel saw this event in a vision centuries before it happens.

‭Daniel 7:13-14, 17-18 NLT‬
[13]” As my vision continued that night, I saw someone like a son of man coming with the clouds of heaven. He approached the Ancient One and was led into his presence. [14] He was given authority, honor, and sovereignty over all the nations of the world, so that people of every race and nation and language would obey him. His rule is eternal—it will never end. His kingdom will never be destroyed….
[17] “These four huge beasts represent four kingdoms that will arise from the earth. [18] But in the end, the holy people of the Most High will be given the kingdom, and they will rule forever and ever.”

Paul, in turn, confirms this promise.

‭1 Corinthians 6:2 NLT‬
[2]” Don’t you realize that someday we believers will judge the world? And since you are going to judge the world, can’t you decide even these little things among yourselves?”

It stands to reason, then, that the focus of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit would be on the church. God has planned to hone His people to rule with Jesus in eternity by putting us through a strenuous apprenticeship on this earth. He cannot entrust as great an eternal assignment to untrained and unequipped people.

God has left us in an evil and hostile environment to teach us…
To love Him…
To trust Him…
To obey Him…
To submit to Him…

And to train us to be holy…
And to overcome temptation by putting the flesh to death through the power of the Holy Spirit, by learning self-control, which is the fruit of the Spirit….

Despite the hostility of the unseen world and the opposition from the ungodly world around us.

All these qualities (of true sons) will be confirmed forever when we are glorified in heaven, when sin is eradicated from our lives.

The church is Jesus’ body of which He is the Head. Body and head can only live when they are joined and functioning in harmony. Is it any wonder, then, that Jesus should focus all His attention on every individual in His body. There is so much at stake as He personally supervises the preparation of each person for his/her place in eternity.

The goings-on in the world are not random and uncontrolled. If God uses the world’s rebellion and evil to train us, then surely He always has His finger on the pulse. He would never allow things to get out of control (as much as we think they are at times).

The hardships we experience, God calls discipline, training, learning to live under His authority. Unlike those who rebelled, from Adam on, we are to trust and obey God in EVERYTHING, good or bad. Why? Because He loves us! He is preparing us to reign by learning to reign over ourselves first through His grace in Christ.

‭Romans 5:17 NLT‬
[17] “For the sin of this one man, Adam, caused death to rule over many. But even greater is God’s wonderful grace and his gift of righteousness, for all who receive it will live in triumph over sin and death through this one man, Jesus Christ.”

‭Hebrews 12:10-11 NLT‬
[10] “For our earthly fathers disciplined us for a few years, doing the best they knew how. But God’s discipline is always good for us, so that we might share in his holiness. [11] No discipline is enjoyable while it is happening—it’s painful! But afterward there will be a peaceful harvest of right living for those who are trained in this way.”

It doesn’t matter that we don’t understand what is happening in the world. It doesn’t matter that we don’t know what tomorrow holds. What matters that we live every day with our eyes on Jesus. He is watching over us to perfect us for the great day when we take our place in His eternal kingdom to reign with Him.

‭Hebrews 12:1-2 NLT‬
[1] “Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a huge crowd of witnesses to the life of faith, let us strip off every weight that slows us down, especially the sin that so easily trips us up. And let us run with endurance the race God has set before us. [2] We do this by keeping our eyes on Jesus, the champion who initiates and perfects our faith. Because of the joy awaiting him, he endured the cross, disregarding its shame. Now he is seated in the place of honor beside God’s throne.”

To be continued…

The Highly Exalted Christ

December 19, 2015Bible Studyabove all rule, Church, head, mighty strength, raised from the dead, seated at His right handLuella Campbell

THE HIGHLY EXALTED CHRIST

That power is like the working of His mighty strength which He exerted in Christ when He raised Him from the dead and seated at His right hand in the heavenly realms, far above all rule and authority, power and dominion, and every title that can be given, not only in the present age but also in the one to come. And God placed all things under His feet and appointed Him to be head over everything for the church, which is His body, the fullness of Him who fills everything in every way (Eph. 1: 19b-23).

Jesus could go no lower than death. Death is the fate of the sinner; the body consigned to the dust from where it came and the soul consigned to eternal destruction, separated from God and never able to access Him again.

But it was impossible for death to hold Jesus because He had no sin of His own for which He had to pay. He suffered physical death and separation from the Father for the debt of the world, not for His own and, when the Father accepted the payment for sin’s debt, death could no longer hold Him captive.

It must have been the Father’s greatest moment when the Holy Spirit breathed life into Jesus again. He breathed life into the clay form of the first man, and that took power. But the power God used to raise Christ from the dead was the greater power because He lifted Him from the grave to the highest place in heaven and on earth. During His earthly life, Jesus was harassed by the devil who had the power to lure Him into independence from the Father and disobedience to His will. Jesus never succumbed to the devil’s temptations, but He willingly handed Himself over to death in obedience to the Father.

The Holy Spirit was there, in the tomb, waiting for the moment when He could release the life of God into Jesus’ physical body once again. Not only did He raise Jesus from death to life; He also raised Him from humiliation to exaltation. Jesus took His place at the right hand of the Father, carrying the position of all authority over every power that still claimed authority on earth. Every demonic being is subject to Him.

To be under His feet is a symbolic picture of the supreme power and authority Jesus has in the universe. In ancient times, a victorious king would put his foot on the neck of the vanquished ruler as a sign that he had conquered him (Josh. 10:24). Jesus has His feet on the necks of the devil and every demonic being under him. He has conquered them, and they are doomed. And He has His feet on the neck of death, the last enemy against us.

Jesus is the firstfruits of the resurrection, the guarantee that He will gather the harvest of men and women who have believed in Him and raise them up to share the glory of His resurrection with Him.

The Father also gave Jesus authority to rule the church. On one occasion a would-be disciple asked permission to follow Him. He wanted to be a part of the band of men who would accompany Him, night and day, year in and year out to learn from Him so that he could be like Him. Jesus declined his request with these words:

Foxes have holes and the birds of the air have nests, but the Son of Man has no place to lay His head (Matt. 8: 20).

As western-thinking people, we translate this statement to mean that Jesus was poor; He had no home and He could not, therefore, take on any more followers. Wrong!

Hebrew people would ask, “What do foxes do in dens; what do birds do in nests?” Dens and nests are used for reproduction. Jesus was talking about reproducing Himself in the world. He was the head, but He did not yet have a body on which to lay His head in order to reproduce Himself through it. Only after His death and resurrection, through the power of the Holy Spirit on the Day of Pentecost, was the church born.

Now He had a body, and the Father appointed Him to be head of this body, so that the church, under His authority, could be His representative on earth, reproducing Him in the lives of those who believe in Him.

Some spiritual leaders think that the church belongs to them. They treat the members as though they own them. They mistakenly believe that it is their job to build the church. But Jesus gave His disciples a mandate, and it was not to build His church. He informed them that He would build His church (Matt. 16:18). Their task was to make disciples (Matt 28: 19-20). They would be the living stones out of which He would build His church (1 Peter 2: 4-5).

We must beware of ministers, pastors and priests who lord it over the laity, who claim absolute authority over them and who bind people to themselves. They are wolves in sheep’s clothing. The shepherd’s job is to care for the sheep under the authority of the Chief Shepherd (1 Pet. 5: 1-4), not to own or control them.

Jesus is the head, and when the body and the head are fused together and functioning as one, He is complete.

ISBN: Softcover – 978-1-4828-0512-3, eBook 978-4828-0511-6

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

My second book, Learning to be a Disciple – The Way of the Master (Copyright © 2015, Partridge Publishing), a companion volume to Learning to be a Son – The Way to the Father’s Heart, has been released in paperback and digital format on www.amazon.com.

For more details, check my website:

http://luellaannettecampbell.com/

Have you read my blogs on www.learningtobeason.wordpress.com ?

Jesus Did Not Say That He Was Poor

September 22, 2015Apologeticsbirds, dens, foxes, head, nestsLuella Campbell

JESUS DID NOT SAY THAT HE WAS POOR

Now that we have completed our ramble through Mark’s gospel, where next?

Something has been troubling me for a while since I began to study the gospels nearly eight years ago. I have come to realise that, when we study the Bible from a Hebrew perspective, there are many things we take for granted as Greek-orientated western thinkers that are just not meant to be interpreted the way we do. Imagine opening a novel set in the American “wild west” and reading it as a story from eighteenth century England. It would make no sense at all.

But unfortunately, that’s the way we westerners read and interpret the Bible if we don’t take into consideration the language and culture of the people who wrote it. As a result, we have developed and passed on a traditional way of understanding passages in the Bible that were never intended to be read that way.

Take Jesus’ response to the man who requested to follow Him:

Jesus replied, ‘Foxes have dens and birds have nests, but the Son of Man has no place to lay His head.’ (Luke 9: 38)

We have “invented“ an interpretation that demands that Jesus was poor, of course backed up by Paul’s statement in 2 Cor. 8:9:

For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though He was rich, yet for your sake He became poor so that you, through His poverty might become rich.

Of course there can be no comparison between the riches Jesus enjoyed with the Father and His financial state here on earth, but that does not mean that He was a pauper during His time on earth. He was a Jewish rabbi. He would have been given many offerings by the people who followed Him and benefitted from His teaching. He was supported by wealthy women. After all, His seamless robe was the garment of a wealthy man for which the soldiers gambled as He hung dying on the cross.

Hebrew people used similes and metaphors to illustrate what a thing did rather than what it looked like. Take for example God’s instruction to Moses when he asked to see His glory.

When my glory passes by, I will hide you in a cleft in the rock and cover you with my hand until I have passed by. Then I will remove my hand and you will see my back; but my face must not be seen.

But wait a minute! God is spirit. Does He have a hand? No! Then what did He mean? We immediately interpret this to mean a literal hand. If that were true, then the many descriptions of God in the Bible would lead us to think that He is a grotesque-looking being! A Hebrew person would ask, “What does a hand do?” Their language was based on action and what they experienced with their senses. They would understand that God protected Moses from seeing His face.

That brings us to Jesus’ statement, Foxes have dens and birds have nests. For what purpose do these creatures have dens and nests? They do not live in them; they reproduce in them. What, then, did Jesus’ head have to do with reproduction?

One of Paul’s pictures of the church is a body. Jesus is the head of the church, the head of His body. But the church was only born on the day of Pentecost. Before that, He was a head without a body. But why did Jesus need a body?

He came to restore His estranged people to fellowship with the Father through His death and resurrection. It was His plan to reproduce Himself in the world through the church so that the unbelieving world would see what the Father is really like, not from the distorted picture of God presented by Jewish religion, but from His life and ministry and from His death and resurrection reproduced in His followers.

When this man came to request to be a part of the disciples, Jesus was not ready to take Him on. The time would come when he would be welcomed into the church as a believer, joined to Jesus as his head, and part of a reproducing body that Jesus would send into the world to “make disciples”. These disciples would in turn, follow Jesus and reproduce Him in the lives of others.

That’s how He intended to establish His kingdom on earth. It is a brilliant model, if only the church would do as He instructed instead of inventing its own model, which has, in the main, failed.

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

Watch this space. My second book, Learning to be a Disciple – The Way of the Master (Copyright © 2015, Partridge Publishing), companion volume to Learning to be a Disciple – The Way of the Master, will soon be on the bookshelves.

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

Happy Birthday, Herod!

July 2, 2015Bible Studydanced, head, Herodias, John the Baptist, opportune timeLuella Campbell

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, HEROD

Finally the opportune time came. On his birthday Herod gave a banquet for his high officials and military commanders and the leading men of Galilee. When the daughter of Herodias came in and danced, she pleased Herod and his dinner guests. The king said to the girl. ‘Ask me for anything you want, and I’ll give it to you.’ And he promised her with and oath, ‘Whatever you ask I will give you, up to half my kingdom.’ She went out and said to her mother, ‘What shall I ask for?’ ‘The head of John the Baptist,’ she answered (Mark 6: 21-24).

Happy birthday, Herod! Why the birthday party? Was this a “big” one, like sixty or seventy? Probably not. Just an opportunity to indulge all the lusts of the flesh with his bigwigs. Perhaps like the party Belshazzar threw in Babylon the night he lost his throne and his life. Birthday parties didn’t end well in the Bible, so it seems!

I guess Herodias’ daughter was as sensual as her mother. Her dance pleased the king and all his dinner guests. No responsible ruler in his right mind would offer a young girl a gift up to half his kingdom so, perhaps Herod wasn’t in his right mind. Perhaps he was so filled with the “spirit” that he promised what he promised, not realising that he was falling headlong into his wife’s trap.

Oh, I’m sure Herodias must have had it all planned. What an opportunity to get rid of her enemy! Get her husband drunk, send in her daughter to seduce him, and that was easy; and she had him in the bag. And it worked. Did you notice how quickly she had an answer for her child’s question? Not ‘Well . . . a-ah . . . now let’s see. What about a wardrobe of new clothes? No, perhaps a new car or a luxury mansion down by the sea? I know. That beautiful necklace and bracelet set we saw in the jeweller’s ship. Remember? The one with diamonds, emeralds and rubies . . .” No, emphatically no! She wanted John’s dead head on a platter, nothing less.

At once the girl hurried in to the king with the request: ‘I want you to give me right now the head of John the Baptist on a platter.’

The king was greatly distressed, but because of his oaths and his dinner guests, he did not want to refuse her. So he immediately sent an executioner with orders to bring John’s head. The man went, beheaded John in prison, and brought back his head on a platter. He presented it to the girl, and she gave it to her mother (Mark 6: 25-28).

Herod was trapped. This was definitely not what he meant. He was suddenly more sober than he had ever been. He had a decision to make. Would he refuse and look like a fool in front of his subjects? Would he give in and become a murderer? Who was boss in his house anyway? He knew very well who was behind this. Didn’t he have to listen to Herodias’ ranting and raving about John and his accusations all day long, day after day?

He could go with his conscience and put up with Herodias or he could silence his conscience, so he thought, and shut Herodias up once and for all. And what about his oath? After all, didn’t the Scriptures say you had to honour your oath, no matter what? Decision made, and the deed was done.

What did he think when the executioner brought him the bloodied head of John on a platter? What did he do when John’s sightless eyes stared back at him and his accusing mouth hung open but said nothing? He had listened to that mouth speak God’s word into his ears, even pleading with him to repent and receive the truth about the Messiah, but he had never done anything about it. Then there was Herodias. She would never tolerate a religious type for a husband. He could not imagine the strife in his life if he did what John said.

But now it was too late. He had added murder to his list of sins and he could not escape the torment of his guilt and shame. If he thought the dinner guests would mock him for not keeping his oath, what about the voice of the accuser that mocked him now?

Happy birthday, Herod! It was a birthday he would never forget because it marked the end for him, long before he had to face Jesus (Luke 22: 8-11), or before he himself died an ignominious and agonising death because he thought he was God (Acts 12: 23). From that day on it was all downhill. He had his opportunity; he made his decision. There was no turning back.

Strange, isn’t it, how our opportunities come when we least expect them! Unannounced, Unheralded. If we are as unprepared as Herod was, we will not notice, just as he did not, that this is a turning point and a decisive moment. Jesus warned us to be prepared.

On hearing this, John’s disciples came and took his body and laid it in a tomb (Mark 6: 29)

Where was John’s head? Sitting on Herodias’ dressing table, a trophy for her to gaze at, a symbol of her victory, rotting and stinking like her rotting and stinking soul? Really?