21 Pentecost
– Sunday
posted
Isaiah 25:6-9 -- Communion, and
Lifting the Veil;
Psalm 23 -- The Good Shepherd;
Philippians 4:4-13 -- The Lord is at
Hand;
Matthew 22:1-10 (11-14) -- The
Marriage Feast;
Isaiah:
On Zion, the mountain of God, God is preparing a great feast of rich food and well-aged wine for all people. On this mountain God will destroy the veil which is over all peoples and all nations. Death and sorrow will be no more, and the reproach of the people of God will be removed from all the earth, as he promised.
In that day it will be said that he is our Lord and God. We have waited for him to save us; let us rejoice in our salvation.
My shepherd is the Lord. He will provide for all my true needs. He will
give me rest in "green pastures;" he will lead me to calm waters. He
restores my soul, my spiritual, eternal, being. He guides me to
know and do what is good, right and true, according to God's Word, for
the sake of his name: his essential character and nature.
Even though I pass through "the valley of the shadow of death" (Psalm
23:4a), I will not be afraid, because his power and authority protect
and reassure me. He is preparing a feast for me which will be fulfilled
in the presence of my enemies. The Lord anoints me with the oil of
spiritual healing and salvation; my blessings overflow. I can be
certain that goodness and mercy will be mine throughout my physical
lifetime, and I will live eternally in the house and the presence of
the Lord in his eternal kingdom.
The Church at Philippi was the first Christian Congregation in Europe,
and was founded by Paul. Paul continued to "disciple" the Philippian
Christians by letter. In his final instructions he urged them to
demonstrate their forgivness toward all people, to rejoice in all
things, and not to worry about anything. They were to make their needs
known to God, in prayer, with thanksgiving. Then the peace of God which
is beyond human comprehension would preserve their hearts and minds
through Jesus Christ. Paul urged his Philippian brethern to focus on
what is good, right and true, and to follow the example and teaching of
Paul; then they could be certain that God, who is the creator and
sustainer of peace would be with them.
Paul rejoiced that the Philippian Christians had expressed their
concern for Paul's circumstances (Paul was in prison, probably in Rome,
for proclaiming the Gospel of Jesus Christ) by the gift they had sent
him (from the congregation, by a member named Epaphroditus).
Paul appreciated the Philippian congregation’s concern, even though
Paul had learned to be content in any circumstances. Paul was able to
be content in any and every circumstance, whether abundance or want,
whether plenty or hunger. He was able to do this only by the indwelling
Holy Spirit of Christ (Romans 8:9), who gave him strength to endure and
overcome any and all things.
Jesus taught in parables: fictitious stories of common everyday
experiences, to express spiritual truth. Jesus said that the kingdom of
heaven is like a marriage feast for the son of a king.
The king sent his servants to call his invited guests on the wedding
day, but they refused to come. The king sent his servants a second
time, saying that the animals had been butchered and the feast was
prepared. But the invited guests made light of the invitation, and
offered various excuses. One had a farm to oversee; another had
merchandise. The others took the king's servants and beat some and
killed others.
When the king heard what they had done, he sent his armies and
destroyed the villagers and their city. Then the king told his servants
to go out into the surrounding region and invite all the people they
found. The servants did as they had been commanded, and the guests,
both good and bad, filled the hall.
When the king came in to meet the guests, he found a man who was not
wearing a wedding garment. He addressed the man as friend, and asked
how he had gained admittance without the wedding garment. The man was
speechless, so the king had him cast out into outer darkness, where
people will weep and gnash their teeth. Jesus declared that, similarly,
"many are called, but few are chosen" (Matthew 22:14).
From the very beginning of Creation, the Lord has been preparing a
“great feast” for his people in his eternal kingdom in heaven. God has
always intended to create an eternal kingdom of his people who
willingly choose to trust and obey God. God has designed this creation
with the freedom for us to choose whether to trust and obey God or not.
So this creation allows for the possibility of sin (disobedience of
God’s Word).
Jesus has been designed into this Creation. Jesus is the fulfillment,
embodiment and example of God’s Word, lived out in this world in human
flesh (John 1:1-5, 14).
At the perfect moment in history, Jesus came into the world to be the
only sacrifice acceptable to God, once for all time and all people who
are willing to receive it by faith (obedient trust), for the
forgiveness of our sins. Jesus instituted the great feast at his Last
Supper on the night he was betrayed.
God has been working to progressively reveal his plan for Creation from
the very beginning. Everything God has done, in relationship with
Israel and recorded in the Bible, has been to demonstrate his eternal
purpose for Creation.
God instituted the feast of Passover, when the destroying angel “passed
over,” by God’s power, the people of Israel, on the eve of the Exodus
of God’s people from slavery to sin and death in Egypt. The Lord’s
Supper (Holy Communion; the Eucharist), was established by Jesus as the
“New Passover.” Through faith (obedient trust) in Jesus, God passes
over our sin. Jesus is the “sacrificial lamb” of Passover, who provides
his flesh for the feast, and whose blood, shed on the Cross, marks his
believers and spares them from spiritual, eternal, death.
Jesus is the “New Moses” who leads us out of bondage to sin and death
in the “Egypt” of this world, through the “sea” of water baptism for
the forgiveness of our sins, through faith in Jesus Christ, through the
spiritual “wilderness” of this present lifetime, through the “river” of
physical death and into the “promised land” of eternal life in paradise
restored in heaven.
Jesus is the “Good Shepherd” (John 10:11), who meets all our needs and
satisfies our spiritual hunger and thirst. Jesus restores our souls,
our eternal essence, to eternal life, by the gift of his indwelling
Holy Spirit, which only Jesus gives (John 1:31-34), only to his
disciples who trust and obey Jesus (John 14:15-17).
The Holy Spirit is the pillar of fire and smoke (Exodus 13:21-22), who
leads us through the spiritual night and spiritual wilderness of this
temporal life. Only Jesus gives the gift of the indwelling Holy Spirit
((John 1:31-34), only to his disciples who trust and obey Jesus (John
14:15-17).
The Holy Spirit, the Spirit of God, the Spirit of Christ (Romans 8:9),
leads us through the valley of the shadow of death, through the “river”
of death, without getting our feet “wet” (Joshua 3:13-17). The Holy
Spirit is the “oil of gladness” (Psalms 45:7). The Holy Spirit is the
seal and guarantee that one is in Christ and has eternal life (2
Corinthians 1:22; Ephesians 1:13-14; Romans 8:9b, 11, 15-16).
The Lord was Paul’s “good shepherd” who was able to provide for Paul’s
needs in any circumstance. Paul didn’t need to worry about his next
meal. He had learned that the Lord is able and faithful to fulfill his
needs.
Jesus taught that the Kingdom of God will be like a wedding feast.
Jesus is the bridegroom and the Church is the bride. We’re all invited
to the wedding feast, but many will reject the invitation because they
care more for their own selfish interests than for God’s Will. Some
will hate and abuse his messengers.
The Lord invites all to come to his wedding feast, without
consideration of their worthiness, but all must accept the free gift of
a “wedding garment” of Jesus’ righteousness, through faith (obedient
trust). The Lord provides the garment for free, so there is no
excuse for appearing without it.
Anyone who comes without the free wedding garment is intending to steal
and rob. Anyone who refuses the free wedding garment will perish
eternally in outer darkness, separated eternally from the Lord and his
providence.
“Many are called, but few are chosen” (Matthew 22:14). We are all
called, but what we do with the invitation determines our eternal
destiny. If we refuse the invitation, or refuse the free wedding
garment of righteousness in Jesus Christ, we will perish eternally.
Is Jesus your Lord? Are you Jesus’ disciple? Are you trusting and
obeying Jesus? Have you received the indwelling Holy Spirit since you
first truly believed (Acts 19:2)? Are you making disciples of Jesus
Christ and teaching them to obey all that Jesus commands (Matthew
28:18-20)? Do you know with certainty where you will spend eternity (1
John 5:11-13; Ephesians 1:13-14)?
21 Pentecost
– Monday
posted
21 Pentecost
– Tuesday
posted
Isaiah 45:1-7 Commission of Cyrus
Cyrus was the king of Persia who conquered Babylon and allowed the
exiled remnant of Israel to return to the Promised Land after the
prophesied 70 years (Jeremiah 25:12).
Isaiah prophesied that God had taken Cyrus by the hand to subdue
nations and kings, to open doors, and keep them from closing. The Lord
promised to go before Cyrus and to level mountains, shatter bronze
doors, and cut through iron bars. God promised to give Cyrus the
treasures of darkness and secret hoards, so that Cyrus would know that
the Lord is God, the only true God, and has called Cyrus by name (to
accomplish God's purpose), although Cyrus didn't know God. God's call
was upon Cyrus for the sake of Israel and God's purpose to bring forth
the Messiah (eternal Savior and King) and from Israel.
The Lord God wants all people to know that he is the only true God. He
is the Creator of everything. He created light and causes darkness, he
creates wellbeing and he causes woe. He is Lord of all things.
Judah, the remnant of Israel, had turned from obedient trust in God to
idols, and had failed to heed the prophetic warnings of Jeremiah. They
could have avoided exile if they had repented and returned to obedience
to the Lord (2 Chronicles 36:11-17), up to the moment that the armies
of Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, conquered and destroyed Jerusalem
and the temple (2 Kings 24:10-14).
Cyrus didn't know or acknowledge God, but he accomplished God's purpose
nevertheless. God enabled Cyrus to conquer Babylon for the sake of
God's purpose for Israel, to restore them to the Promised Land. Cyrus
even returned the sacred vessels of the temple which had been looted by
Nebuchadnezzar's armies (Ezra 1:7-11), and Cyrus provided money and
authorization to rebuild the temple (Ezra 6:3-10). It was God who
opened the "doors of bronze" and cut the "bars of iron" which kept
Israel in bondage in Babylon.
Cyrus became a forerunner and illustration of the Christ, (Messiah;
both mean "anointed" in Greek and Hebrew, respectively) who delivered
God's people from bondage in Babylon and made it possible for
them to return to the Promised Land. Cyrus helped them rebuild the
walls of Jerusalem and the temple, seventy years after their
destruction, in fulfillment of God's Word.
The history of Israel's exile in Babylon is also intended to be a
parable and metaphor for eternal exile in hell. Those who do not heed
the warnings of God's prophets to repent and become obedient to God's
Word will be carried of to eternal exile in the "Babylon" of hell.
Seventy years is a virtual lifetime for adults at the time of the
Exile. The people who returned from Babylon were not the same ones who
went. Those who went into exile died there. It was a "reborn" Israel,
physically and spiritually, that returned.
In another sense, we are all born into the "Babylon" of slavery to sin
and death, and only Jesus Christ can release us and lead us to the
Promised Land of his kingdom in eternity. In Jesus, God opens the door
(John 10:7-9) and cuts the bars of iron which imprison us in "Babylon."
At Jesus' crucifixion the veil of the temple separating the presence of
God in the holy-of-holies from the people was supernaturally torn in
two (Matthew 27:51), signifying that Jesus had opened a new and better
way into God's presence (Hebrews 10:20).
Only Jesus can give us spiritual "rebirth" (John 3:3, 5-8). Only Jesus
gives the gift ("anointing," "baptism") of the indwelling Holy Spirit
(John 1:31-34), only to his disciples who trust and obey Jesus (John
14:15-17). The Holy Spirit is the seal and guarantee that one is in
Christ and has eternal life (2 Corinthians 1:22; Ephesians 1:13-14;
Romans 8:9b, 11, 15-16).
We've all sinned (disobeyed God's Word) and fallen short of God's
righteousness (doing what is right, good and true; Romans 3:23; 1 John
1:8-10), and the penalty for sin is eternal death (Romans 6:23). God
loves us and doesn't want anyone to perish eternally (Romans 5:8; John
3:16-17). Jesus is God's one and only provision for the forgiveness of
our sins and our salvation from God's eternal condemnation and our
eternal destruction in hell (Acts 4:12). Jesus is the only way to know
divine, eternal truth, the only way to be restored to fellowship with
God which has been broken by sin, and the only way to have eternal life
(John 14:6; see God's Plan of Salvation, sidebar, top right).
God's purpose will be accomplished whether we acknowledge him and
cooperate with his purpose or not. Judas Iscariot, who betrayed Jesus,
is another example. His betrayal accomplished God's purpose, although
it was spiritually disastrous for Judas, personally.
There is a day coming when everyone will bow and acknowledge that Jesus
is Lord (Philippians 2:10-11), but then it will be too late to change
our eternal destinies. Every one who has ever lived will be
accountable to the Lord for what we have done individually in this
lifetime, on the last day of our individual lives. Jesus will return on
the Day of Judgment to judge us. He has been given all power and
authority (Matthew 28:18), and he is the standard of judgment against
which all will be judged. Those who have accepted Jesus as their Lord
and Savior, and who have trusted and obeyed Jesus will have been
spiritually "reborn" (John 3:3, 5-8), and will enter eternal life in
God's eternal kingdom in heaven with the Lord; but those who have
refused to accept Jesus and have refused to trust and obey Jesus will
be condemned to eternal destruction in hell with all evil (Matthew
25:31-46; 2 Thessalonians 1:5-10).
Is Jesus your Lord? Are you Jesus’ disciple? Are you trusting and
obeying Jesus? Have you received the indwelling Holy Spirit since you
first truly believed (Acts 19:2)? Are you making disciples of Jesus
Christ and teaching them to obey all that Jesus commands (Matthew
28:18-20)? Do you know with certainty where you will spend eternity (1
John 5:11-13; Ephesians 1:13-14)?
21 Pentecost
– Wednesday
21 Pentecost
– Thursday
21 Pentecost
– Friday
posted
Hosea 13:14 Redeemed
from Death
Revelation
3:7-13
Shall the Lord ransom his people from the power of Sheol (Hell; the
grave; the land of the dead)? Will he redeem them from Death? Then
Death will no longer have the power of pestilence and destruction over
them. Shall the Lord not have compassion?
John, one of the Twelve disciples was in exile on Patmos, a tiny island
in the Aegean Sea, writing to the seven churches that are
representative examples of various types of spiritual conditions of
churches. (Angels are thought to be assigned to the churches.) John is
writing by the command and inspiration of Jesus Christ (Revelation
1:17-20). To the church in Philadelphia, in what is now modern Turkey,
John wrote the words of the Lord, the one who is holy and true, who has
the key (authority) of David. What he opens no one can shut, and what
he shuts no one can open.
The Lord knows the works of the church in Philadelphia, and has opened
a door of opportunity which no one can shut. The Lord knows they lack
power, but they have kept God’s Word and not denied the Lord’s name.
The Lord promised that he will make those of the synagogue of Satan,
who claim to be Jews but are lying, come to the church and bow down
before them, and they will learn that the Lord has loved his church.
The Lord promised that, because the church had Word, in patient
endurance, he will save them “from the hour of trial which is coming on
the whole world, to try those who dwell upon the earth. Jesus declares
that he is coming soon. He warns his Church to hold fast to the Gospel
they have received, so that no one can snatch the crown of glory from
them. The Lord will make those who endure in true faith, pillars in the
temple of God. And Jesus will mark them with the name of God and the
“New Jerusalem” which is coming down from God in heaven, and with
Jesus’ own new name (eternal Savior and King above all kings). We
should listen carefully and heed what the Spirit says to the churches.
The Lord has had compassion on us, and has ransomed his people from the
power of death and the grave, through Jesus Christ. Jesus came to give
his life on the cross to save and free us from eternal death and
destruction in hell (Hebrews 2:14-15). Jesus’ resurrection demonstrates
the reality of existence beyond physical death. His miracles of raising
the dead (for example: John 11:1-44) shows that he has the power to
raise us from physical death to eternal life.
Jesus is the “son of David,” the descendant of David and eternal heir
to the throne of David (Matthew 1:1-17; 21:9). He has been given the
authority of David, and more. He has been given all authority in heaven
and on earth (Matthew 28:18). He has the “keys” to heaven and to hell.
He can open the door to eternal life in paradise; and he can lock the
doors of hell so that no one can escape.
The Lord knows what we’re doing. The Lord can open doors of
opportunities for his churches that are steadfast and faithful in
living according to the full, true, scriptural (recorded in the Bible),
apostolic (as taught by the Apostles including John), Gospel and
proclaiming it accurately and fully.
The authentic Church is the “New Jerusalem,” the “New City of God” on
earth, and those who trust and obey Jesus with patient endurance are
the pillars of God’s temple. Christians are the “New Israel,” the “New
People of God.” Genuine Christians are disciples of Jesus Christ (Acts
17:26-27), who trust and obey Jesus and have been “born-again” (John
3:3, 5-8) by the gift of the indwelling Holy Spirit which only Jesus
gives (John 1:31-34), only to his disciples who trust and obey Jesus
(John 14:15-17). The Holy Spirit is the seal and guarantee that one is
in Christ and has eternal life (2 Corinthians 1:22; Ephesians 1:13-14;
Romans 8:9b, 11, 15-16). The Holy Spirit is the “mark” of God’s name
and Jesus’ name within us, which marks us as citizens of the “New
Jerusalem.” The Holy Spirit is the Spirit of God, the Spirit of Christ
(Romans 8:9).
Satan is a liar and deceiver; a counterfeiter. There are lots of
“nominal” Churches which claim to be the people of God who don’t live
and teach the scriptural, apostolic Gospel. They claim Jesus as Lord,
but actually serve Satan.
Judaism effectively ended at the crucifixion of Jesus Christ. The veil
of the temple separating the holy-of-holies of God’s presence from the
congregation was supernaturally torn in two from top to bottom (Matthew
27:51), signifying that Jesus had opened a new and better way into
God’s presence (Hebrews 10:19-22). Jesus had become the one and only
sacrifice acceptable to God for the forgiveness of our sins
(disobedience of God’s Word; Romans 3:23; 1 John 1:8-10) and our
salvation from eternal condemnation, eternal death and destruction
(Romans 6:23; see God’s Plan of Salvation, sidebar, top right).
God lifted his favor and protection from Israel and allowed Jerusalem
and the temple to be destroyed in 70 A.D. by the Romans. The Jews were
scattered throughout the world and Israel ceased to exist as a nation
until reestablished following World War II. The temple, essential for
the sacrificial system of the Old Covenant of Law, has never been
rebuilt.
I believe that the Lord will bring many Jews to salvation, but they
will have to bow to Jesus Christ (Luke 13:34-35; Acts 4:12; John 14:6;
Philippians 2:10-11), and accept him as their Lord and Savior, perhaps
during the time of the Great Tribulation which will precede Christ’s
return.
Is Jesus your Lord? Are you Jesus’ disciple? Are you trusting and
obeying Jesus? Have you received the indwelling Holy Spirit since you
first truly believed (Acts 19:2)? Are you making disciples of Jesus
Christ and teaching them to obey all that Jesus commands (Matthew
28:18-20)? Do you know with certainty where you will spend eternity (1
John 5:11-13; Ephesians 1:13-14)?
21 Pentecost
– Saturday
posted