saved

This week we begin worship with:

Deuteronomy 33:29a

Happy are you, O Israel! Who is like you, a people saved by the LORD, the

shield of your help, and the sword of your triumph!

This verse comes at the end of the blessing that Moses spoke to the tribes of Israel, just before his death in Moab.  Moses had led his people out of slavery and stood at the very edge of the promised land. From this vantage point he was permitted to see the Promised Land but not enter it (Deuteronomy 34:1-8).

Yes, Israel was at that moment free from the tyranny of Pharaoh, but they were also homeless and vulnerable!

Yet, Moses blessed them as "saved" (yāšaʿ), shielded, and triumphant.  

Unlike English, Hebrew does not have past, present, and future tense.  The verb describes the ongoing but sure salvation, whose certainly rests on God alone and it was being used as their identity -- "Saved by the LORD".

Now look back at the Hebrew for that word, try to pronounce it.  Then read the angel's announcement to Joseph:

Matthew 1:21

She will bear a son, and you shall call his name Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins.”

The name Jesus comes from yâ, which is a shortened name for God that you hear at the end of "Hallelujah", and today's word yāšaʿ.  Literally, the name Jesus means "God Saves".

Now reread the angel's announcement and hear in the name "Jesus" that this baby would be divine!  God himself will save us.  So, we too are "Saved by the LORD".  

steadfast love

This week we begin our worship with:

Lamentations 3:22-23

The steadfast love of the LORD never ceases; his mercies never come to an end;

they are new every morning; great is your faithfulness.

We use the adage, "You can't tell a book by its cover.".  Well in this case, the cover of this book has the title "Lamentations".  This is not a happy time.  

Because of Judah's continued idolatry, God permitted the Babylonians to invade, destroy Jerusalem, and destroy the temple.  The book even speaks of cannibalism during the siege (Lamentations 4:10) and in disgrace the Jews were exiled to Babylon.

With that in mind, reread our verse.

In the midst of this pain, the author (possibly Jeremiah) cried out to God and experienced His "steadfast love" (ḥeseḏ):

Lamentations 3:55-57

“I called on your name, O Lord,

    from the depths of the pit;

you heard my plea, ‘Do not close

    your ear to my cry for help!’

You came near when I called on you;

    you said, ‘Do not fear!’

So, from whatever pit we are in today, let us cry our to our Heavenly Father, and hear the words:

John 14:27

Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you. Not as the world gives do I give to you. Let not your hearts be troubled, neither let them be afraid.

obtaining

 This week we begin worship with:

1 Peter 1:8–9

Though you have not seen him, you love him. Though you do not now see him,

you believe in him and rejoice with joy that is inexpressible and filled with glory,

obtaining the outcome of your faith, the salvation of your souls.

This is the second of two "though"s that Peter acknowledges.  The first is that we are being tested by various trials (1 Peter 1:6).  The second is our passage today that the Ascension has already occurred, and we no longer see our Lord.  Neither, however, should prevent joy.

Think of the best gift ever.  When we had only a few nickels to rub together my wife bought me an iPod for Christmas.  I was stunned.  Being stunned, being unable to speak (aneklalētos), is the level of joy described here.

Joy is over the destination; happiness is over arrival.  Compare getting in the car because you are going on vacation with settling down into the chair on the beach once you arrive.

Our destination here is the salvation (sōtēria) of our soul.  This has been said to be a mixture of "rescue, restoration, and purpose".  In Greek, it is the result of having a savior (sōtēr).

The only way to have this joy is the "ing" of "obtaining" (v. 9).  We have two "though"s to endure but we are on our way.  

You-all packed?   Let's go.

created

 This week we begin worship with:

Colossians 1:15-16

He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation. For by him all

things were created, in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether

thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities—all things were created through

him and for him.

Both invisible and visible, both creator and creation, both God and man, is our Lord Jesus Christ.

And what was created by him is not limited to what can be touched.  Each "new" area of math exists before the mathematician discovers it.  Each "new" law of physics is not written by the physicist, they too are simply discovered.  

And what is created by Him, is not limited to the past, for He is not limited by time.

• In 1961, R. E. Simon sold his share of Carnegie Hall and bought ten and a half square miles of land (6,750 acres) in then rural Virginia.  He then designed and developed a fully planned community, and used his own initials to name it Reston.
• In 1959, Walt Disney set his sights on Florida, and accumulated 27,433 acres of land and developed not only a theme park, but also the "Experimental Prototype Community of Tomorrow" (EPCOT).  All to be named "Walt Disney World".

Our verse today tells us that neither of these visionaries created anything.  No area of thought or action is outside the creative act of our Lord and sovereignty of our Lord Jesus Christ.

attain

 This week we celebrate Assension Sunday and begin worship with:

Ephesians 4:11–13

And he gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the shepherds and teachers, to equip the saints for the work of ministry, for building up the body of Christ, until we all attain to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to mature manhood, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ.

We often confuse "faith" (pistis) and "knowledge" (epignōsis).  Knowledge is what we know about something.  Faith is what we trust about something.  

It has been said that faith starts where knowledge ends, but that divides the two. Instead, I would offer that faith is knowledge acted upon.  One may be taught that ropes used by rock climbers can lift a car, it is another thing to rappel down a sheer cliff!

So then, faith and knowledge represent two parts of the job of any leader.  They should teach their witnessed and tested knowledge to those that have yet to experience it.  But then they must also encourage them to act upon it.

For to achieve "mature manhood" (teleios anēr) one must leave the bench at the altar-call (Harry Krien encouraged me), take one's place in the family of God (George Coonrod encouraged me) and begin a family of your own (Norm Ducharme encouraged me).

I have taught rappelling, and have seen many a boy start with timid steps and grimaced faces as they go over the edge, but finish their decent bounding down the cliff with broad smiles.  I would have failed as a teacher had I not encouraged them over the edge.

Paul wrote the entire book of Romans to get us over the edge.  That is to sacrifice ourselves.  Take an opportunity to read three of the last chapters of the book (Romans 12-15) and go find a cliff.

our

What leads up to our verse is a very candid section that explains there is nothing special about us that we should be chosen:

1 Corinthians 1:26-27

For consider your calling, brothers: not many of you were wise according to worldly standards, not many were powerful, not many were of noble birth. 

But God chose what is foolish in the world to shame the wise; God chose what is weak in the world to shame the strong . . . so that no human being might boast in the presence of God.

With that in mind, our verse this week reads:

1 Corinthians 1:30

And because of him [God] you are in Christ Jesus, who became to us wisdom from

God, righteousness and sanctification and redemption,

The phrase "became to us" in Greek is two words "made" (ginomai) "our" (hēmin).  Yes, that second word is the possessive pronoun "our".

What God did was satisfy all the reasons that would have disqualified us, by giving us in the person of Jesus Christ all the things necessary.  The NIV makes this very clear.

1 Corinthians 1:30 (NIV)

It is because of him that you are in Christ Jesus, who has become for us wisdom from God—that is, our righteousness, holiness and redemption.

authority

 This week we begin worship with:

John 10:18

No one takes [my life] from me, but I lay it down of my own accord. I have

authority to lay it down, and I have authority to take it up again.

This was a dividing word.  The very next verse reads:

John 10:19
There was again a division among the Jews because of these words.

Yes, there was already division over the resurrection.  The Pharisees and the Sadducees took every opportunity to argue over it.  But that was not the really tough word.  

The tough word was "authority" (exousia).  A rabbi taught.  A priest had jurisdiction to assign the required atonement.  The king had the authority to administer the death penalty.  But in this verse, Jesus declared his authority over life itself.

This appeared madness to some that listened.  But others saw the evidence of the miracles.

John 10:21
Others said, “These are not the words of one who is oppressed by a demon. Can a demon open the eyes of the blind?”

So, in the very next chapter, Jesus proved it by using His quickening word to raise Lazarus (John 11).

Praise be to God that we too will hear that voice!

eyewitness

Coincidentally we begin our worship this week with:

2 Peter 1:16

For we did not follow cleverly devised myths when we made known to you the

power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, but we were eyewitnesses of his

majesty.

I say "coincidentally" because it was also the passage that we providently studied at this week's Friday morning mens group (See Week 12 - 2 Peter 1:16-21 - The Confirmed Word).

Not only was Peter one of the first disciples called (Matthew 4:18-20), Peter was a witness of the transfiguration (Matthew 17:1-9) and heard the voice of God.

Matthew 17:5

He was still speaking when, behold, a bright cloud overshadowed them, and a voice from the cloud said, “This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased; listen to him.”

But he knew this eyewitness would soon be gone.  So he did something.  He wrote this letter.

2 Peter 1:15

And I will make every effort so that after my departure you may be able at any time to recall these things.

 Let's read this with the importance that Peter placed on it.

upon

On this Easter morning, we begin our worship with:

Isaiah 60:1-3

Arise, shine, for your light has come, and the glory of the LORD has risen upon

you. For behold, darkness shall cover the earth, and thick darkness the peoples;

but the LORD will arise upon you, and his glory will be seen upon you. And

nations shall come to your light, and kings to the brightness of your rising.

Our time in darkness is over!  The glory of the LORD has come.  

And the commands to us are:

• "arise" (qûm) - We are no longer to be in the ashes of mourning, in the slumber of sleep, in the filth of sin . . . 
• "shine" ('ôr) - We are not simply to reflect God's glory, we are to be so intimate with it, that we too are told to participate and shine.

These commands imply that we could choose to do the opposite.

1 Thessalonians 5:19 
Do not quench the Spirit.

It is too easy, when the moment is inconvenient, to blow out the flame of the prompting Holy Spirit, to not reach out the hand, to not say the word, to not shine.

Holy Spirit come upon me.

stones

 As we prepare for Holy Week on this Palm Sunday, we begin worship with:

Luke 19:33-40

And as they were untying the colt, its owners said to them, “Why are you untying

the colt?” And they said, “The Lord has need of it.” And they brought it to

Jesus, and throwing their cloaks on the colt, they set Jesus on it. And as he rode

along, they spread their cloaks on the road. As he was drawing near—already on

the way down the Mount of Olives—the whole multitude of his disciples began

to rejoice and praise God with a loud voice for all the mighty works that they

had seen, saying, “Blessed is the King who comes in the name of the Lord! Peace

in heaven and glory in the highest!” And some of the Pharisees in the crowd

said to him, “Teacher, rebuke your disciples.” He answered, “I tell you, if these

were silent, the very stones would cry out.”

Heading west, as you crest the Mount of Olives, Jerusalem comes into view only 3/4 of a mile away across the Kidron Valley.

As they make the descent, his disciples giving testimony of the works of Christ in loud voice and being of sufficient number to be called a multitude, they would have been easily visible and within the hearing of those at the temple, particularly those on Solomon's Portico that faces east, high above them.

When rebuked, Jesus responds from the prophet Habakkuk:

Habakkuk 2:9,11,14
“Woe to him who gets evil gain for his house,
    to set his nest on high,
    to be safe from the reach of harm!  

For the stone will cry out from the wall,

    and the beam from the woodwork respond. 

For the earth will be filled

    with the knowledge of the glory of the Lord
    as the waters cover the sea.

What was being done could not be stopped.  It could not be held back!  It would be  like trying to hold back a great river that wants to join the sea.

So, let us not hold back either.  As we come to worship today, let us recall all the mighty works that we have seen.

practice

This week we begin worship with:

Psalm 111:10

The fear of the LORD is the beginning of wisdom; all those who practice it have

a good understanding. His praise endures forever!

Most avoid fear and strive toward courage.  This verse asks us to go in the opposite direction.  

This is not an emotion, rather it is something we do.  We are to "practice" it (ʿāśâ).  The ESV is nearly alone in this translation.  Most others add "his commandments" or "his precepts" or "his will" to give an object to the verb.

If we follow a rule, we vault ourselves as having accomplished the task.  If we practice fear, we are never vaulted in front of our Lord.

Practice the fear the Lord and the rest falls into proper perspective.