King David

There are volumes that could be written about King David, but in this post I will be focusing on the way that the Bible references David as a type of Christ, a pre-Christ.  We will examine a few of the verses that show the importance that David had in leading up to the Christ coming.

One of the things that we note about David and Jesus is that they were both of the Israelite tribe of Judah.  This is not coincidence; the OT follows the descendants of the person Judah, son of Jacob, down through the generations to King David and on down finally to Jesus.

David has to be considered the greatest king of all time up until the coming of Jesus.  But Daniel in Dan. 2:44 pointed out that there was a kingdom coming that would never be destroyed.  Kings always came and went; but there was one coming that would never go; a kingdom that would last forever.

This subject is referenced in Acts 2, where Peter and the other apostles stand up and make the first gospel sermon.  Note the words of Peter as he quotes David from the OT scriptures, where David was speaking of Jesus to come:  " I foresaw the Lord always before my face, for He is at my right hand, that I may not be shaken.  Therefore my heart rejoiced, and my tongue was glad; moreover my flesh also will rest in hope, for You will not leave my soul in Hades, nor will You allow Your Holy One to see corruption.  You have made known to me the ways of life; You will make me full of joy in Your presence."  Peter goes on to explain that David, as great as he was, is dead and buried.  But Jesus, the greater king, is reigning in heaven.

David is described in the Bible as a "man after God's own heart." (1Samuel 13:13-14).  But we know that Jesus is the greatest of all kings, Lord of Lords.  Praise be to God.....and His Son!

Have a great week!

The Prophet Joel

In this week's article, I want to focus just a little on the prophet Joel.  As a prophet, he was a spokesman for God; he brought a message to the people from the Lord.  You will recall that the nation of Israel split into 2 parts: the northern kingdom, Israel, and the southern kingdom, Judah.  The north kept following idols and got further and further away from God; thus, God allowed them to be taken into captivity to the Assyrian Empire, never to return again to their homeland.  The southern kingdom, Judah, had periods of failing, but also periods of following God.  Therefore, the Lord allowed them time to get their act together.  Eventually, the southern kingdom of Judah failed the Lord and ended up in Babylonian captivity.  The Lord did allow a remnant to return at a later date to rebuild. 

Joel did his work, his prophesying, to the nation of Judah, apparently after the fall of Israel.  One of the significant statements made by him is recorded in Joel 2, beginning in verse 27.  He speaks here of a time to come when God will "pour out My Spirit in those days."  If we did not have further instruction as the the meaning of this, we couldn't be sure of what Joel was saying.  But the Bible is very clear on this meaning, since it is quoted over in the NT, in Acts chapter 2. 

Acts 2 tells of the occurrences soon after Jesus has left this world, ascended into heaven.  Peter stands with the other apostles and delivers the first gospel sermon.  This is one of the most fateful days in the history of the world.  Standing here in Jerusalem, the apostles kick off the beginnings of the church; the church for which Jesus died.  This is the day of which the prophet Joel was speaking; Listen to the words of Peter as he quotes Joel and makes this famous speech:
     Acts 2:16:  "But this is what was spoken by the prophet Joel:  'and it shall come to pass in the last days, says God, that I will pour out of My Spirit on all flesh; your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, your young men shall see visions, your old men shall dram dreams.  And on My menservants and on My maidservants I will pour out My Spirit in those days; and they shall prophesy.  I will show wonders in heaven above and signs in the earth beneath; blood and fire and vapor of smoke.  The sun shall be turned into darkness, and the moon into blood, before the coming of the great and awesome day of the Lord.  And it shall come to pass that whoever calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved.' "

In this same speech, Peter quotes king David twice and concludes by telling these Jewish people that they have crucified the Messiah, the very Messiah that they had been waiting on.  Verse 27, "...when they heard this, they were cut to the heart, and said to Peter and the rest of the apostles, 'Men and brethren, what shall we do?'  The Peter said to them, 'Repent, and be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins; and you shall receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.' "

The prophet Joel played a key role in foretelling the coming events, events to occur in the "last days." 

Ok, enough for now.  Have a great week....and thanks for reading!

Jesus and the Government

There is a question about how Jesus would handle or feel about the government's dealing with the poor; i.e., who should be responsible for the poor; the government, the church, the individuals?  And would Jesus weigh in on the Republican/Democrat wrangling over how the government should budget and assist the poor, lower and even middle classes?

I can't say that I have all the answers on this one.  Of course, we always want to go to the Bible to get our answers.  The best way to solve this is to look at what Jesus said, and what He did during His time on earth.  Note these passages:

Matthew 22:17  Jesus was asked, "Is it lawful to pay taxes to Caesar, or not?  He realized that they were trying to trap Him, so He called them "hypocrites."  Then He said, "Render unto Caesar that which is Caesar's, and render unto God that which is God's." 

Matthew 26:8  The woman came and anointed Jesus' feet with expensive perfume.  His disciples asked, "Why this waste."  Jesus answered, "..the poor you have with you always; you will not always have me."  This is just one of the many passages that show that Jesus was not about the physical...but the Spiritual.

Matthew 6:34  Jesus told them not to worry about what they would eat, or drink or wear.  Here again, Jesus is putting the emphasis on the Spiritual, not the physical.

In all of Jesus teaching, He showed that He was not interested in the actions of government.  His interest was in the soul, in serving God, in preparing for the next life.  He did teach about the good Samaritan who reached out to the injured man; taught us to help our "neighbor." 

Jesus lived during the oppression of the Roman Empire.  He could have railed against the abuses; but rather, He showed respect for the government and impressed upon us the need for individual responsibility.

Thanks for reading.  Have a God filled week. 

Last Words-Part 2

We read in Acts 1 that Jesus stayed on the earth for 40 days after He rose from the dead. He showed Himself to many people including the Apostles during this time. The last words that He spoke to the Apostles, at least those recorded, are as follows:

Matthew 28:18-20 "All authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth. Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all things that I have commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age."

Mark 16:15-18 "Go into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature. He who believes and is baptized will be saved; but he who does not believe will be condemned. And these signs will follow those who believe: in My name they will cast out demons; they will speak with new tongues; they will take up serpents; and if they drink anything deadly, it will be no means hurt them; they will lay hands on the sick, and they will recover."

Luke 24:46-49 "Thus it is written, and thus it was necessary for the Christ to suffer and to rise from the dead the third day, and that repentance and remission of sins should be preached in His name to all nations, beginning at Jerusalem. And you are witnesses of these things. Behold, I send the Promise of My Father upon you; but tarry in the city of Jerusalem until you are endued with power from on high."

And finally, in Acts 1 He was asked, "Lord, will You at this time restore the kingdom to Israel?" He replied, "It is not for you to know times or seasons which the Father has put in His own authority. But you shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you shall be witnesses to Me in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth."

These are the last recorded words of Jesus before He left the earth. To me this is powerful; who else have you ever heard of that had their last words recorded and remembered for all time? And here we have four different accounts of it! It says that we should take note of these last words and make sure that we do our part to see that His wishes are carried out.

As always, thanks for reading. Have a great week!

First and Last Words of Jesus

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!

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!

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!