gift

This week we begin worship with:

Ephesians 2:8-9

For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast.

This week I saw the license plate "TISAGIFT".  It was this week's verse reduced to 8 characters.

But what is that gift?  Simply said, it is that we are "saved".  But that word evokes all the thoughts of evangelistic services and walking the aisle or reading a tract and praying a prater.  What does it actually mean to be saved (sōzō)?  Let's go back a couple verses.

Ephesians 2:5

. . . even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ—by grace you have been saved—

To be "saved" is the Lazarus experience of being dead and completely incapable any effort, being regenerated, and then hearing your name (John 11).

This is what Jesus accurately described to Nicodemus.

John 3:3

Jesus answered him, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born again he cannot see the kingdom of God.”

 Our first spiritual heartbeat, our first spiritual breath 'tis a gift.

bread

 This week we begin worship with:

John 6:32-33

Jesus then said to them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, it was not Moses who gave you the bread from heaven, but my Father gives you the true bread from heaven. For the bread of God is he who comes down from heaven and gives life to the world.”

Jesus said this when speaking in the synagogue:

John 6:59

Jesus said these things in the synagogue, as he taught at Capernaum.

This was not done in one of the many corners of the temple on a random day of the week.  This was during the Torah Service on a typical Sabbath, of a small town synagogue, where guest rabbis were given the opportunity to read the scheduled passage and comment.  The Torah was read in a three year cycle and each Sabbath a "parsha" was read.  That week it was "Parasha Beshalach" (Exodus 13:17-17:16) that speaks of the manna in the wilderness (See "Bread from Heaven" by Peder Borgen).

Jesus took the opportunity to introduce Himself as "the true bread from heaven" that gives life.

The psalms were often written in a style where not the first, nor the last phrase is the most important but rather the central verse (See "for you are with me" of Psalm 23:4).  The style has the academic name of chiasmus or ring construction.

The early church fathers (Cyprian of Carthage, Origen, Augustine, John Chrysostom) understood the central petition of the Lord's prayer to be such a pinnacle.  It is not asking for lunch, or breakfast the next day.  Rather it is asking for what our passage today calls "the true bread from heaven", our LORD Jesus Christ.

Matthew 6:11

Give us this day our daily bread, . . .

power

 This week we begin worship with:

Ephesians 3:20-21

Now to him who is able to do far more abundantly than all that we ask or think, according to the power at work within us, to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, forever and ever. Amen.

Our verses are the doxology that occur at the end of larger prayer by Paul for the believers at Ephesus (Ephesians 3:14-21).  The prayer is Paul's heartfelt desire for the believers at Ephesus to experience and mature into the fullness of the love of Christ.

Ephesians 3:18

. . . may have strength to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth, . . .

To do that we need "strength" (exischyō).  The KJV uses the word "able".  In the Bible, the Greek word only appears here and is rarely in Greek literature as a whole.  It is a compound verb and the prefix "ex" makes it big and sufficient.  The Darby translation says it well "in order that ye may be fully able to apprehend".

Fortunately we are not the source of that much needed power.  Our verse explains that we have a "power as work within us"!

testify

 This week we begin worship with:

Acts 10:42-43

And he commanded us to preach to the people and to testify that he is the one appointed by God to be judge of the living and the dead. To him all the prophets bear witness that everyone who believes in him receives forgiveness of sins through his name.”

Peter is explaining that the resurrected Lord Jesus Christ gave them a command to "testify" (diamartyromai).  Yes, attempt to read that big Greek word and hear the word "martyr" in it!

They were to testify to that Jesus "is the one appointed by God".  

“Jesus” (iēsous) means “God Saves”.  That name is our testimony.

gave

This week we  begin worship with:

John 1:12-13

But to all who did receive him, who believed in his name, he gave the right to

become children of God, who were born, not of blood nor of the will of the

flesh nor of the will of man, but of God.

All the events in this verse are past tense: receiving, believing, giving, and becoming.  In His Gospel, John is narrating events that have occurred.

God is eternal, and we speak of His actions as having occurred in eternity-past.  His sovereign will has already occurred.  To align that timeline to that of man is a futile effort.  God's actions do not occur before or after man's actions, because God is not constrained (as we are) by His creation that we call time.

At the center of the verse is the phrase "to become" (ginomai), while that sounds like something that will occur in the future, while it sounds like something that is a process, the Greek tense describes a point in time (not a process) whose tense is borrowed from the prior verb "gave" so as to make it complete.

So the understanding here is that we were given the right in eternity past, but we became God's child as we receive and believe at the point God's sovereign will unfolds.

May God be praised that He has so willed.

that

This week we begin our worship with:

Psalm 119:17-18

Deal bountifully with your servant,

    that I may live and keep your word.

Open my eyes, that I may behold

    wondrous things out of your law.

The Psalmist is praying with purpose. The Hebrew construct has a big long name academic name and the translators add the word “that”.  It means “I want that!”.

The Psalmist wants two things: all that is necessary to live so that he could keep God’s word and the ability when doing so to see every incredible facet of it.

I want that. 

trusted

This week we begin worship with:

Psalm 13:5-6

But I have trusted in your steadfast love;

    my heart shall rejoice in your salvation.

I will sing to the Lord,

    because he has dealt bountifully with me.

This Psalm did not start well.

Psalm 13:1

How long, O Lord? Will you forget me forever?

    How long will you hide your face from me? 

But something happens.  A simply prayer is spoken in faith and is answered:

Psalm 13:3

Consider and answer me, O Lord my God;

    light up my eyes, lest I sleep the sleep of death, 

The Psalmist asks for and receives what we all need:

John 1:4

In him was life, and the life was the light of men. 

spirit

This week we begin worship with:

1 Peter 3:18

For Christ also suffered once for sins, the righteous for the unrighteous, that he might bring us to God, being put to death in the flesh but made alive in the spirit, . . .

This verse follows after Peter's encouragement for believers to keep a good reputation and to be willing to suffer for doing good.  Peter here, puts forward as our example, the one who "also suffered", Jesus Christ, our Lord, whose reputation was spotless, who was sinless, and who suffered to the point of death.

Jesus died at the hands of men, but better said He died within the sovereign will of the Father.  This is why Jesus, in His divinity as the Triune God could say:

John 10:17-18

For this reason the Father loves me, because I lay down my life that I may take it up again. No one takes it 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 charge I have received from my Father.”

Our passage goes on state what He did while in the spirit for the three days, prior to taking up His life again (1 Peter 3:19-20).

It is this transition from flesh to spirit, and from spirt to a new body that we await, and it is what Peter is encouraging us with here.  For it is not only Christ who will do this, but by His authority, He will "bring us to God", who is spirit (pneuma).

help

 This week we begin worship with:

Hebrews 2:17-18

Therefore he had to be made like his brothers in every respect, so that he might become a merciful and faithful high priest in the service of God, to make propitiation for the sins of the people. For because he himself has suffered when tempted, he is able to help those who are being tempted.

Without atonement, we would be met by the full wrath of God for sin, our sin.  A priest mediates atonement to prevent that wrath.  But to serve in that role, our LORD Jesus Christ had to become "in every respect" like His brothers.  For if in some respect He was not like His brothers, His divinity would have delivered wrath, rather than atonement.

The aspect most essential was that He "suffered" (paschō):

Isaiah 53:5

But he was pierced for our transgressions;

    he was crushed for our iniquities;

upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace,

    and with his wounds we are healed.

On the cross, His pain was real.  He suffered and died.  Sinless, He became the atonement. This is past tense (and so is the verb!).  It is done.  It is not ongoing.  It is never to be repeated for Christ.

We, however are "being" tempted.  And if we look, we find Jesus holding out His helping (boētheō) hand.

redeem

This week we begin worship with:

Psalm 130:7-8

O Israel, hope in the Lord!

    For with the Lord there is steadfast love,

    and with him is plentiful redemption.

And he will redeem Israel

    from all his iniquities.

This verse uses “he”, “him”, and “his”.  Most refer to God; the last does not!  The phrase “his iniquities” refers to the masculine collective noun “Israel”, and can be modernized into “their iniquities” (See NIV).

When we share our faith, there is a seed to plant.  Our verse this week does it so well.  We must convey to them that God loved them so much that He made them, and that if you hope in that He will redeem you.  When the false narrative of evolution fails in their mind, when they see design in nature rather than chaos, that seed will grow.

The phrase “steadfast love” (ḥeseḏ) is covenantal.  We never earned it.  We were chosen.  Better said, we were designed, loved, and then made.

Ephesians 1:3-5

Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places, even as he chose us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before him. In love he predestined us[a] for adoption to himself as sons through Jesus Christ, according to the purpose of his will, . . .

 

glory

 This morning we begin worship with:

Psalm 115:1

Not to us, O Lord, not to us, but to your name give glory,

    for the sake of your steadfast love and your faithfulness!

This is not a praise song.  This is a prayer.

Glory (kāḇôḏ) is weighty.  We cannot contribute to it.  For no matter who we are, we are but dust on the scale.

Psalm 62:9

Those of low estate are but a breath;

    those of high estate are a delusion;

in the balances they go up;

    they are together lighter than a breath.

So, we are asking the LORD to glorify Himself.

That glory occurs "for the sake of" (ʿal) or because of His unending, unfeigned, and for us His undeserved love.  

Yes, you should be picturing your Heavenly Father on the other end of the see-saw at the park.

May He indeed glorify Himself in our lives today.