I always enjoy the first and last of any writing; the first page of a good book...and certainly the last page. When we look at the sayings of Jesus, it is interesting to see His first words and His last.
His very first recorded words were recorded in Luke 2, where at the age of 12, He had gotten separated from His parents on a trip to Jerusalem. They looked for 3 days, then found Him in the temple conversing with a group of teachers. His mother said to Him, "Son, why have you done this to us?" He answered, "Why did you seek Me? Did you not know that I must be about My Father's business?" That is a fascinating story and exchange.
The very last words of Jesus before He dies are: "It is finished." This is a very powerful statement that carries a lot of meaning with it. Rather than just His life being finished and the suffering that He endured being finished, it is likely a statement with much broader significance. Throughout time, in all of the buildup to this great event, considering all of the prophesies of the prophets that Jesus fulfilled, all of this comes down to this last moment on the cross when Jesus finally says, "It is finished." But we know that the story was not over at that point; in fact, it marked a great beginning where Jesus would triumph over death, walk on the earth for 40 days (Acts1:3), ascend to heaven, and following all of this, the apostles would be visited by the Holy Spirit (Acts 2), and the church would be established. So we see that there is great meaning to Jesus' last words on the cross.
This leaves us with a discussion of Jesus' last words before He leaves the earth. Perhaps we will discuss this next week in the blog entry then. These are powerful and meaningful as well. Hope you have a great and meaningful week yourself!
Sunday, April 15, 2012
Sunday, April 8, 2012
Easter
Celebrating the Easter holiday is a fun time and a meaningful thing for many Christians. Easter is the traditional remembrance of Jesus' resurrection. Starting with Palm Sunday, when Jesus rode into Jerusalem past cheering crowds and continuing through the death, burial and Resurrection, this is a powerful series of events to recall.
Easter creates a problem for many Christians in that there is no mention of this in the Bible. It has its origins in Pagan religion, is named after Pagan figures, and only got its American beginnings in the 1870's. Some would say, "Well, that doesn't matter. The death, burial and resurrection are surely in the Bible." And that is certainly true. But it is also true that neither Jesus, nor any Bible character, ever made any reference to celebrating Easter as a religious holiday. Now many would say, "Well, it doesn't matter. It still is a good thing to celebrate." And that may be true; it is not for me to say. I'm just giving a few facts here.
What we do see in the Bible is a clear teaching by Jesus to remember his death; this is recorded in Matthew 26, Mark 14 and Luke 22. This is where Jesus, at the time of taking the Passover feast, institutes the Lord's Supper, telling them to take bread to remember His body and juice of the vine to remember His blood being sacrificed. Then we see in the book of Acts, after Jesus has left them, that the Apostles and other Christians were keeping this Lord's Supper remembrance each Sunday. Thus, many Christians today celebrate this remembrance every week; kind of an "Easter" every week.
But what does God want? You will have to answer this for yourself. All I see is that Jesus taught nothing about an annual celebration, but was very specific about keeping the Lord's Supper...and it seems to be a regular weekly thing in the early church. For sure, these are powerful events and deserve to be remembered.
Have a great week!
Easter creates a problem for many Christians in that there is no mention of this in the Bible. It has its origins in Pagan religion, is named after Pagan figures, and only got its American beginnings in the 1870's. Some would say, "Well, that doesn't matter. The death, burial and resurrection are surely in the Bible." And that is certainly true. But it is also true that neither Jesus, nor any Bible character, ever made any reference to celebrating Easter as a religious holiday. Now many would say, "Well, it doesn't matter. It still is a good thing to celebrate." And that may be true; it is not for me to say. I'm just giving a few facts here.
What we do see in the Bible is a clear teaching by Jesus to remember his death; this is recorded in Matthew 26, Mark 14 and Luke 22. This is where Jesus, at the time of taking the Passover feast, institutes the Lord's Supper, telling them to take bread to remember His body and juice of the vine to remember His blood being sacrificed. Then we see in the book of Acts, after Jesus has left them, that the Apostles and other Christians were keeping this Lord's Supper remembrance each Sunday. Thus, many Christians today celebrate this remembrance every week; kind of an "Easter" every week.
But what does God want? You will have to answer this for yourself. All I see is that Jesus taught nothing about an annual celebration, but was very specific about keeping the Lord's Supper...and it seems to be a regular weekly thing in the early church. For sure, these are powerful events and deserve to be remembered.
Have a great week!
Sunday, April 1, 2012
The Christian Walk
We know that Jesus said in Matthew 11, "..My yoke is easy and My burden is light." And yet it can be quite a challenge to resist the devil and walk the Christian walk. We get some help and guidance from Ephesians chapter 4. Note that the first 3 chapters of Ephesians tells us about the great gifts that we have gotten from God. The last 3 chapters talk more about how we are to live.
Note these thoughts in Ephesians 4:
verse 1, "walk worthy of the calling." We got a great gift from God; now we need to live it.
verse 2, "...with all lowliness and gentleness, with longsuffering, bearing with one another in love."
verse 3, "endeavoring to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace." There is the stress on "unity." He follows this with, "There is one body and one Spirit, just as you were called in one hope of your calling; one Lord, one faith, one baptism; one God and Father of all, who is above all, and through all, and in you all."
verse 12, gifts were given "for the edifying of the body of Christ.." He is talking about the church, the body of Christ. Following this, the primary emphasis is on the individual. The church is important, but the individual is critical; that is us.
verse 14, "..we should no longer be children, tossed to and fro and carried about with every wind of doctrine....grow up in all things into Him who is the head--Christ..."
verse 17, "This I say, therefore, and testify in the Lord, that you should no longer walk as the rest of the Gentiles walk, in the futility of their mind.....be renewed in the spirit of your mind, and that you put on the new man..."
And so, we are challenged to walk the walk, talk the talk, live as Jesus would have us to live, challenging as that may be. Let's try to live it this week. Have a good one!
Note these thoughts in Ephesians 4:
verse 1, "walk worthy of the calling." We got a great gift from God; now we need to live it.
verse 2, "...with all lowliness and gentleness, with longsuffering, bearing with one another in love."
verse 3, "endeavoring to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace." There is the stress on "unity." He follows this with, "There is one body and one Spirit, just as you were called in one hope of your calling; one Lord, one faith, one baptism; one God and Father of all, who is above all, and through all, and in you all."
verse 12, gifts were given "for the edifying of the body of Christ.." He is talking about the church, the body of Christ. Following this, the primary emphasis is on the individual. The church is important, but the individual is critical; that is us.
verse 14, "..we should no longer be children, tossed to and fro and carried about with every wind of doctrine....grow up in all things into Him who is the head--Christ..."
verse 17, "This I say, therefore, and testify in the Lord, that you should no longer walk as the rest of the Gentiles walk, in the futility of their mind.....be renewed in the spirit of your mind, and that you put on the new man..."
And so, we are challenged to walk the walk, talk the talk, live as Jesus would have us to live, challenging as that may be. Let's try to live it this week. Have a good one!
Saturday, March 24, 2012
New Creature
When a person becomes a Christian, he becomes a new creature. A change takes place where the person is no longer the same, no longer lives as he once did, is transformed into someone new. There are some passages that give further explanation of this change; we'll look at a few here.
In 2 Peter 1, we read that the Christian should have faith, virtue, knowledge, self-control, perseverance, godliness, brotherly kindness, and love. Verse 9, "..he who lacks these things is short-sighted, even to blindness, and has forgotten that he was cleansed from his old sins." The Christian is not committing his "old sins."
Romans 6, talking about grace and sin: "What shall we say then? Shall we continue in sin that grace may abound? Certainly not! How shall we who died to sin live any longer in it? Or do you not know that as many of us as were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into His death? Therefore we were buried with Him through baptism into death.." Verse 7, "For he who has died has been freed from sin." When we become a Christian, we are baptized into Jesus' death and come forth a new creature.
Ephesians 4:22 says that we are to "put off, concerning your former conduct, the old man which grows corrupt according to the deceitful lusts, and be renewed in the spirit of your mind, and that you put on the new man which was created according to God, in true righteousness and holiness."
When we become a Christian, we become a new creature, one committed to serving God. And I might add, serving Him in His way; not our way; not in what seems right to us, but in His way. His way is found clearly in the Bible, there for us to learn and to follow.
Thanks for reading again. Have a great week!
In 2 Peter 1, we read that the Christian should have faith, virtue, knowledge, self-control, perseverance, godliness, brotherly kindness, and love. Verse 9, "..he who lacks these things is short-sighted, even to blindness, and has forgotten that he was cleansed from his old sins." The Christian is not committing his "old sins."
Romans 6, talking about grace and sin: "What shall we say then? Shall we continue in sin that grace may abound? Certainly not! How shall we who died to sin live any longer in it? Or do you not know that as many of us as were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into His death? Therefore we were buried with Him through baptism into death.." Verse 7, "For he who has died has been freed from sin." When we become a Christian, we are baptized into Jesus' death and come forth a new creature.
Ephesians 4:22 says that we are to "put off, concerning your former conduct, the old man which grows corrupt according to the deceitful lusts, and be renewed in the spirit of your mind, and that you put on the new man which was created according to God, in true righteousness and holiness."
When we become a Christian, we become a new creature, one committed to serving God. And I might add, serving Him in His way; not our way; not in what seems right to us, but in His way. His way is found clearly in the Bible, there for us to learn and to follow.
Thanks for reading again. Have a great week!
Sunday, March 18, 2012
Denominations
We should note right up front that the discussion of denominations cannot be furthered by looking for them in the Bible. It never was God's intention that His people find a way to divide, to form various churches with different names and individual beliefs, however minor the differences may be.
In fact, what we see in the NT is a lot of teaching regarding unity. Jesus, praying right before His arrest (John 17), went to the Father and prayed that His disciples "may be one." This is repeated several times in this one prayer, showing that Jesus was concerned about His followers splintering after He left them.
We see this very same problem occurring in Corinth, causing Paul to have to address this matter to the Christians in his letter of 1Cor. In 1:10, Paul says, "Now I plead with you, brethren, by the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that you all speak the same thing, and that there be no divisions among you, but that you be perfectly joined together in the same mind and in the same judgment." He goes on to say that some were saying "I am of Paul," or others, "Apollos" or "Cephas" etc. In 3:3, he continues the discussion by saying, "For where there are envy, strife, and divisions among you, are you not carnal and behaving like mere men?"
But this is exactly what has evolved in Christendom today; and for the most part, nobody really sees a problem with it. The common answer is: "We are all headed for the same place; we just are getting there a little differently." But that isn't the attitude of the Bible, which is God's Word to us. The Bible attitude is clearly: "NO!" Christians are to be one; just Christians.
Ephesian 4, (read chapter 3 also) says, "...keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace. There is one body" (church), one Spirit, one hope, one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all. Oneness, unity, means a great deal to God....and thus, it needs to be important to us. The denominational setup that we men have created is not right, not Biblical, not pleasing to God.
Thanks for reading. Have a great week!
In fact, what we see in the NT is a lot of teaching regarding unity. Jesus, praying right before His arrest (John 17), went to the Father and prayed that His disciples "may be one." This is repeated several times in this one prayer, showing that Jesus was concerned about His followers splintering after He left them.
We see this very same problem occurring in Corinth, causing Paul to have to address this matter to the Christians in his letter of 1Cor. In 1:10, Paul says, "Now I plead with you, brethren, by the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that you all speak the same thing, and that there be no divisions among you, but that you be perfectly joined together in the same mind and in the same judgment." He goes on to say that some were saying "I am of Paul," or others, "Apollos" or "Cephas" etc. In 3:3, he continues the discussion by saying, "For where there are envy, strife, and divisions among you, are you not carnal and behaving like mere men?"
But this is exactly what has evolved in Christendom today; and for the most part, nobody really sees a problem with it. The common answer is: "We are all headed for the same place; we just are getting there a little differently." But that isn't the attitude of the Bible, which is God's Word to us. The Bible attitude is clearly: "NO!" Christians are to be one; just Christians.
Ephesian 4, (read chapter 3 also) says, "...keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace. There is one body" (church), one Spirit, one hope, one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all. Oneness, unity, means a great deal to God....and thus, it needs to be important to us. The denominational setup that we men have created is not right, not Biblical, not pleasing to God.
Thanks for reading. Have a great week!
Saturday, March 10, 2012
The Resurrection
Nothing stands out as the theme of the New Testament like the subject of the resurrection. Jesus taught His disciples that He would have to die and be raised again the third day. And He made sure that they understood that even though He would leave them, they would be resurrected as well; that they would join Him in heaven, "I go to prepare a place for you. and if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you to Myself; that where I am, there you may be also" (John 14:2,3).
After Jesus leaves this earth to return to heaven to reign over the kingdom, the apostles begin teaching about Jesus. The main point of their teaching is the resurrection. An example of this is Acts 3 where Peter and John healed a lame man. This got them in trouble with the Jewish leaders as we read in Acts 4: "Now as they spoke to the people, the priests, the captain of the temple, and the Sadducees came upon them, being greatly disturbed that they taught the people and preached in Jesus the resurrection from the dead." We find this theme all through the book of Acts...and all through the NT.
Especially note 1Corinthians 15. This whole chapter is emphasizing the resurrection; of Jesus and of us as we pass from this life. Verse 4: "...that He was buried, and that He rose again the third day according to the Scriptures.." Verse 12: "Now if Christ is preached that He has been raised from the dead, how do some among you say that there is no resurrection of the dead?" And he goes on from here to show that if there is no resurrection from the dead, no life after death, we Christians have nothing except what happens in this life; verse 19: "If in this life only we have hope in Christ, we are of all men the most pitiable."
The significant point about Jesus, the proof that He is the Son of God, that what He taught is what we should follow, is that He has power over death. And since He has power over death, He has power over our death; i.e., we don't have to die and be like Rover, "dead all over," but instead, we can live, and live forever! Be sure and read all of 1Corinthians 15 and see this full description of the resurrection process.
Jesus saves. Thank you for reading again. If you are not already a "follower," sign on for automatic notification. And feel the love!
Good reading: http://thepreachersword.com/2012/03/10/what-cancer-cannot-do/
After Jesus leaves this earth to return to heaven to reign over the kingdom, the apostles begin teaching about Jesus. The main point of their teaching is the resurrection. An example of this is Acts 3 where Peter and John healed a lame man. This got them in trouble with the Jewish leaders as we read in Acts 4: "Now as they spoke to the people, the priests, the captain of the temple, and the Sadducees came upon them, being greatly disturbed that they taught the people and preached in Jesus the resurrection from the dead." We find this theme all through the book of Acts...and all through the NT.
Especially note 1Corinthians 15. This whole chapter is emphasizing the resurrection; of Jesus and of us as we pass from this life. Verse 4: "...that He was buried, and that He rose again the third day according to the Scriptures.." Verse 12: "Now if Christ is preached that He has been raised from the dead, how do some among you say that there is no resurrection of the dead?" And he goes on from here to show that if there is no resurrection from the dead, no life after death, we Christians have nothing except what happens in this life; verse 19: "If in this life only we have hope in Christ, we are of all men the most pitiable."
The significant point about Jesus, the proof that He is the Son of God, that what He taught is what we should follow, is that He has power over death. And since He has power over death, He has power over our death; i.e., we don't have to die and be like Rover, "dead all over," but instead, we can live, and live forever! Be sure and read all of 1Corinthians 15 and see this full description of the resurrection process.
Jesus saves. Thank you for reading again. If you are not already a "follower," sign on for automatic notification. And feel the love!
Good reading: http://thepreachersword.com/2012/03/10/what-cancer-cannot-do/
Sunday, March 4, 2012
The Lord's Supper/Passover Feast
We read in the Gospels of Matthew, Mark and Luke where Jesus instituted the Lord's Supper. He had gathered in the upper room in Jerusalem with the apostles to partake of the Passover feast. But while doing that He told them that He would be leaving them, and to remember His death through the eating of bread and juice of the vine.
There are 4 places in the Bible where an account of the beginnings of this observance by Jesus and His apostles is given. The first 3 are 2 chapters back from the end of Matthew (chap. 26), Mark (chap. 14), and Luke (chap. 22). Then Paul gives an account in 1Corinthians 11.
The church that I am a part of observes the Lord's Supper every Sunday. The reason for this is that it appears that the early church, the church in the days of the apostles, partook every Sunday. Note Acts 20:7, "Now on the first day of the week, when the disciples came together to break bread, Paul, ready to depart the next day, spoke to them and continued his message until midnight." Note that the purpose of their coming together was to "break bread;" not to sing, or preach or pray, though these things are valuable. But the primary purpose was to break bread, to partake of the Lord's Supper and to remember His death. It seems that should be our focus today.
Let us be sure that we don't forsake this important remembering of the Lord's sacrifice for us. It was a direct command of Jesus that this be done by His followers...so we know it is important.
Thanks for reading, and have a great week!
There are 4 places in the Bible where an account of the beginnings of this observance by Jesus and His apostles is given. The first 3 are 2 chapters back from the end of Matthew (chap. 26), Mark (chap. 14), and Luke (chap. 22). Then Paul gives an account in 1Corinthians 11.
The church that I am a part of observes the Lord's Supper every Sunday. The reason for this is that it appears that the early church, the church in the days of the apostles, partook every Sunday. Note Acts 20:7, "Now on the first day of the week, when the disciples came together to break bread, Paul, ready to depart the next day, spoke to them and continued his message until midnight." Note that the purpose of their coming together was to "break bread;" not to sing, or preach or pray, though these things are valuable. But the primary purpose was to break bread, to partake of the Lord's Supper and to remember His death. It seems that should be our focus today.
Let us be sure that we don't forsake this important remembering of the Lord's sacrifice for us. It was a direct command of Jesus that this be done by His followers...so we know it is important.
Thanks for reading, and have a great week!
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