Tag Archives: religious leaders

IT’S A DARK NIGHT

Christian Life, , ,

IT’S A DARK NIGHT

“Jesus spoke to those who had come — high priests, Temple police, religious leaders. ‘What is this, jumping me with swords and clubs as if I were a dangerous criminal? Day after day I’ve been with you in the Temple and you’ve not so much as lifted a hand against me. But do it your way — it’s a dark night, a dark hour.'” Luke 22:51-53 (The Message).

Darkness…night! It’s amazing what people will do under cover of darkness that they will not do in the daylight! What is there about darkness that affects the way we think? Darkness in the Bible means much more than the absence of light. The theme of darkness is introduced in the first chapter of the Bible and is carried through to the last book.

Before God stepped in to restore the earth after He had created it, it was shrouded in darkness. Even the light of His presence did not penetrate the darkness until He took positive action. Why was that? Lucifer and a third of the angels tried to dethrone God and take over His role as God, but God threw them out of heaven down to the earth (Revelation 12:7-9). The darkness over the earth was symbolic of the moral darkness that the presence of Satan brought.

What did God do? His first words to rectify the situation were: “‘Let there be light,’ and there was light.” Genesis 1:3 (NIV). But there is a problem. According to the Genesis account, He created the heavenly bodies on the fourth day. What was this light that shone on the earth on the first day?

John gives us the answer. “Through Him all things were made; without Him nothing was made that has been made. In Him was life and that life was the light of men. The light shines in the darkness, but the darkness has not understood it…The light that gives light to evey man was coming into the world. He was in the world, and though the world was made through Him, the world did not recognise Him….The Word became flesh and made His dwelling among us…” John 1:3-5, 9-10, 14a (NIV).

Just as God had confined Satan’s sphere of influence to the earth, so He assigned the earth to His Son before He began the work of restoration, to exercise His divine power and influence to win His erring sons and daughters back to Himself.

Darkness symbolises the state of mind that the devil’s deception brings. Satan is both deceived and the deceiver. Jesus called him “a murderer and the father of lies” (John 8:44). When human beings follow his lying suggestions, they lose their ability to think rationally and logically and are in a state of “darkness”. Moral darkness obsures the light of truth just as physical darkness hides people’s evil deeds.

There is no such thing as a battle between light and darkness. Wherever the light shines, darkness is dispelled. They cannot co-exist. Jesus is the light that brings light to every person who is born into the world, but ony those who receive Him are “enlightened” with the truth that God exists, that He is good and that He is in charge, not the devil.

Men are accountable to God and He has provided mercy and forgiveness through the sacrifice of His Son, Jesus. Every other philosophy and religion is a hoax to keep people in the darkness of deception that leads away from God to destruction.

Jesus and His opponents were entering the darkest hour in human history. Not even the holocaust can eclipse what men did to God on that day. Although His warning went unheeded, it had to be, and it happened because of the depth of the darkness that held those captive who wanted Him dead.

Jesus said to them, “This is your hour — when darkness reigns.” Luke 22:53b (NIV).  Darkness did not triumph over light; it only hid the light for a few hours but the rejoicing that men’s darkness brought in hell was premature and short-lived. It was temporary, for an “hour”. Three days afterwards, the light erupted from the tomb and lived again, and His light continues to shine on the earth and in the hearts of those who believe in him!

THE BOOK OF ACTS – WHO IS IN CHARGE?

Bible Study, ,

WHO IS IN CHARGE?

“The religious leaders renewed their threats, but then released them. They couldn’t come up with a charge that would stick, that would keep them in jail. The people wouldn’t have stood for it — they were all praising God over what had happened. The man who had been miraculously healed was over forty years old.

“As soon as Peter and John were let go, they went to their friends and told them what the high priests and religious leaders had said. Hearing the report, they lifted their voices in a wonderful harmony in prayer:” Acts 4:21-24a (The Message)

This was the acid test for the apostles. How would they respond to this new development? They were enjoying the favour of all the citizens of Jerusalem, believers and unbelievers alike. Now the Sanhedrin was taking them on, just as it had taken on their Master.

As followers of Jesus, they had watched and listened to His response to the irrational rage of the Jewish religious hierarchy. Even when they arrested, tortured and killed Him, He neither resisted nor bad-mouthed them. He was representative of another kingdom which overrode the worldly kingdom they represented.

Peter and John politely listened to the ranting of the religious rulers but made it clear that they had no intention of obeying them. They had a higher authority to which they were accountable and He was backing their obedience by replicating through them what He had done through Jesus.

There was a strong bond between the believers that was not only a unity of faith but also a bond strengthened by sharing their resources and doing life together. When they were in trouble, they had one another’s support in love and prayer. Peter and John went straight back to their ‘family’ to report what had happened and, no doubt, to discuss their response.

Their first recourse was to God. This is a reflection not only of how well they had learned their lessons from following Jesus but also how powerfully the Holy Spirit was leading and transforming them. The old Peter would have reacted as he did in the garden when the soldiers grabbed Jesus. He lashed out with his sword and slashed off Malchus’ ear. That was his natural human instinct, but not any more. The old Peter had been replaced by a new model, an imitator of Jesus.

They had learned from their Master that the kingdom of God, not their earthly circumstances, was central in their lives. Whatever was happening to them was serving God’s purposes in bringing “up there down here”. That’s how Jesus viewed life. He was never fazed by the imperfections He encountered. They always served a higher purpose — an opportunity for God to put His glory on display.

As leaders of the infant church, it was their opportunity to show their people how to deal with those who stood against them. Retaliate? No! Avenge? No! Resist? No! Stand? Yes. They had their mandate from Jesus. They were to be His witnesses to the world. As they stood firm in their commitment to obey Him, every obstacle would give way through His power in them.

That is the essence of ‘spiritual warfare’ — obedience to the Master in the confidence that His kingdom overrides the kingdom of darkness which will have to give way because Jesus is Lord.

Impasse!

Bible Study, , ,

IMPASSE!

They arrived again in Jerusalem, and while Jesus was walking in the temple courts, the chief priests, the teachers of the law and the elders came to Him. ‘By what authority are you doing these things?’ they asked Him. ‘And who gave you the authority to do this?’ Jesus replied, ‘I will ask you one question. Answer me, and I will tell you by what authority I am doing these things. John’s baptism – was it from heaven, or of human origin? Tell me!’

They discussed it among themselves and said, ‘If we say, “From heaven,” then He will ask, ‘Then why didn’t you believe him?’ But if we say, “Of human origin,” (they feared the people, for everyone held that John was really a prophet).

So they answered Jesus, ‘We don’t know.’ Jesus said, ‘Neither will I tell you by what authority I am doing these things.’  (Mark 11: 27-33).

“By what authority?” the religious leaders demanded. That was the burning question. S’mikah! No rabbi was permitted to make pronouncements regarding the understanding and interpretation of the Torah, the Law of Moses unless he had s’mikah, official recognition that he had authority to do so. From where did this s’mikah come? In the case of all other rabbis who had authority, it was conferred on them by those who had authority.

Jesus was continually a puzzle both to the religious leaders and the general public because He spoke and acted with authority like no other. Those with s’mikah would add to the top-heavy interpretations already recognised as authoritative. Jesus, on the other hand, swept aside everything the rabbis before Him had said and went back to God’s original intention, focussing on God’s mercy rather than on legalistic requirements.

What the merchants and money-changers were doing in the temple courts was blatantly evil, but they did it with the sanction of the religious hierarchy because it was another way of lining their pockets. These men should not have even needed to ask who gave Him the authority to drive out the wicked men. Without all the additions from the rabbis, the Torah said it was wrong to steal. But the religious leaders made it an issue of authority so that they could have a valid reason to indict Jesus. If He were acting without s’mikah, they could deal with it legally.

But Jesus was far too smart for them. It was legitimate for Him to answer a question with a question. This was a recognised rabbinic teaching method. On many occasions He had openly declared the origin of His authority. It came from the Father who sent Him. John the Baptist, whose s’mikah was acknowledged by the people, was a human witness to Jesus’ authority, as was the Father and the Holy Spirit at His baptism. Now He demanded to know whether they accepted the authority of John to baptise Him or not. Ceremonial washing was the act of officially conferring s’mikah on one whose authority was recognised.

They were caught! If they said, “Yes,” they would have acknowledged John’s authority to baptise Jesus, indicating that John recognised Jesus’ s’mikah. If they said, “No,” the people would have been in an uproar because they believer that John had s’mikah. They refused to commit themselves, and they walked away seething. This was another nail in Jesus’ coffin, as far as they were concerned.

Every time Jesus exposed them publicly, they lost more face with the people. By this time their reputation and their piety were in tatters. Their evil hearts were laid bare for the people, whose admiration and confidence they so desperately craved and did everything to protect, to see. This man had to go before they completely lost their control over and influence with the people. If this happened, the people would get out of hand and Rome would step in and crush them like pesky bugs.

This was a clash between the dominion of darkness and the kingdom of light. What the religious leaders planned to do with Jesus was evidence of the master they served. By serving themselves they served, not God but the enemy of everything that belonged to the light. Jesus was a representative of truth. No matter what they did to Him, they could not extinguish the light of truth. When the dust had cleared after the final showdown, the truth would finally be revealed.

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.

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How Many Bricks?

Bible Study, ,

HOW MANY BRICKS 

“The day on which this took place was a Sabbath, and so the Jewish leaders said to the man who had been healed, ‘It is the Sabbath; the law forbids you to carry your mat.’

“But he replied, ‘The man who made me well said to me, ‘Pick up your mat and walk.’ ‘So they asked him, ‘Who is this fellow who told you to pick it up and walk?’ “John 5:9-11 (NIV)

The Sabbath — a hot issue for the Pharisees, but why? Anyone who violated the Sabbath got them going. Was it because it was the one thing they could control? Breaking the Sabbath was an outward violation of the law and they could come down hard on the culprit to show him who was boss.

However, to them Sabbath-breaking wasn’t about “breaking” the fourth commandment as much as it was about contravening their petty laws which were added to the fourth commandment as their interpretation of God’s law. The fourth commandment was about keeping the Sabbath, not breaking it, and it all depended on what was meant by “keeping” the Sabbath!

In order to understand the Sabbath, we have to go back to when and where this commandment originated. It was part of God’s marriage covenant with them at Sinai when they came out of Egypt. Why was it necessary for God to give His people an instruction like this? Was it to put restrictions on them? No, it was to set them free.

The only life the Hebrews knew in Egypt was a life of slavery. Seven days a week they made bricks. Their value for their masters lay in what they could produce. God sent Moses to deliver them from Egypt and everything Egypt stood for. Without an instruction like that, they would have gone on thinking that their only worth to God lay in what they could achieve or produce and not in who they were.

They had to be reprogrammed to realize that their work did not make them who they were. They were of worth to God because He had created them in His image to be a reflection of Himself, not only for His own sake but also to train them to treat one another with dignity and respect.

When God’s work of creation was complete, He rested but He did not sit back, fold His arms and do nothing. He supervised what He had created to ensure that everything functioned together in perfect harmony. He wanted these newly-freed slaves to remember that it was He who set up the Sabbath as a legitimate day of rest and it was the Egyptians who had contradicted His instruction.

For the Jews the Sabbath was intended to be a gift from God to set them free from viewing themselves in terms of what they could produce, and to give them time and opportunity to catch their breath, recover their strength and get ready for another six days of labour. They were to remember that God set it up for them because He had rested on the seventh day after His work was complete. It was a “sign” of His covenant with them set up at Mount Sinai.

“Say to the Israelites, ‘You must observe my Sabbaths. This will be a sign between me and you for the generations to come, so you may know that I am the Lord, who makes you holy.'” Exodus 31:13 (NIV).

The religious leaders had turned the Sabbath into a day of restrictions and religious rules so that they could monitor what the people were doing and jump on them when they stepped out of line. They prescribed what “work” was in such petty detail that the people were hardly able to move.

Jesus refused to be dictated to by these religious slave-drivers. He was not intimidated by their accusations and threats. Carrying a mat was not work; it was part of legitimate daily activity. He insisted that the Sabbath was a gift of God’s love, not prison bars to dehumanize them, and that He was the author of the Sabbath, not some human rule-makers who failed to understand why it was needed in the first place.

The Sabbath was a visual aid of a rest that went much deeper that just one day of not working. It was prophetic of a day which God called “today” in which we would rest form every effort to please God by our own “work”. When we enter into Jesus, we enter into His rest, because He satisfied God’s requirement for a perfect life and then died to pay the debt of our imperfection. He calls us to enter that rest by trusting in His finished work.

Have you entered His rest?