Reason to rejoice

29/11/14

S: Luke 10:1, 17-20 The Lord now chose seventy-two other disciples and sent them ahead in pairs to all the towns and places he planned to visit. ... When the seventy-two disciples returned, they joyfully reported to him, “Lord, even the demons obey us when we use your name!” “Yes,” he told them, “I saw Satan fall from heaven like lightning! Look, I have given you authority over all the power of the enemy, and you can walk among snakes and scorpions and crush them. Nothing will injure you. But don’t rejoice because evil spirits obey you; rejoice because your names are registered in heaven.”

O: We as human beings like to have power and authority, so when the 72 disciples saw that they had power & authority over demons, they were understandably happy about it. But Jesus put things in perspective. Power and authority is temporal. God's gift of salvation is eternal.

A: In response to God's amazing grace — His undeserved favour to us — in appreciation, we are motivated to follow Him — all the more so since following His directives for us benefits us in the long run.

P: Father, when I am tempted to do what is wrong, remind me of this. Not by might, not by power, but by Your Spirit, O Lord. In Jesus' name, amen.

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Note: this is using the SOAP method. For more information, see this page (not written by me.)

His body broken for us. His blood poured out for us.

22/11/14

S: Mark 14:22-25 As they were eating, Jesus took some bread and blessed it. Then he broke it in pieces and gave it to the disciples, saying, “Take it, for this is my body.” And he took a cup of wine and gave thanks to God for it. He gave it to them, and they all drank from it. And he said to them, “This is my blood, which confirms the covenant between God and his people. It is poured out as a sacrifice for many. I tell you the truth, I will not drink wine again until the day I drink it new in the Kingdom of God.”

Mark 14:34-36 He told them, “My soul is crushed with grief to the point of death. Stay here and keep watch with me.” He went on a little farther and fell to the ground. He prayed that, if it were possible, the awful hour awaiting him might pass him by. “Abba, Father,” he cried out, “everything is possible for you. Please take this cup of suffering away from me. Yet I want your will to be done, not mine.”

O: In the Old Testament, there are regular animal sacrifices to atone for sins. An year-old (i.e. young adult) male sheep with no defects would be slaughtered, the blood poured out as an offering to God, and the body burnt on the altar. A part of it would be eaten.

This prefigures the ultimate sacrifice that the Messiah Jesus would make on the cross.

Before he went to the cross, he instituted what we now call Holy Communion or Eucharist. He took the bread and wine at the passover supper and, in some mystical way, it became his body and blood, broken and poured out for us, for our sins. What a great sacrifice he made for us! (For a discussion about this matter in more detail, see http://ianjuliane.blogspot.com/2011/02/and-now-for-something-completely.html and http://ianlifejournal.blogspot.com/2011/07/god-gives-grace_13.html)

It was not easy for Jesus to do this for us, as we read in Mark 14:34-36. Jesus Christ is fully God and fully man, so his humanity dreaded the horrible death on the cross. But nonetheless, he went ahead with it for our sake.

A: Christ's great sacrifice for us should motivate me to live for him. Yet time and time again I give in to temptation and sin. Yet God's grace through Christ's sacrifice means that there is room for repentance.

So, when I am tempted, I must remind myself what Christ has done for me. And if I do sin, I must repent and turn back to him, because he has provided a sacrifice for my sins.

P: Father in heaven, thank you for your provision. Jesus, thank you for your great sacrifice. Holy Spirit, thank you for quickening my conscience when I am tempted. In Jesus' name, amen.

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Note: this is using the SOAP method. For more information, see this page (not written by me.)

We are family!

8/11/14

S: Mark 3:31-35 Then Jesus’ mother and brothers came to see him. They stood outside and sent word for him to come out and talk with them. There was a crowd sitting around Jesus, and someone said, “Your mother and your brothers are outside asking for you.” Jesus replied, “Who is my mother? Who are my brothers?” Then he looked at those around him and said, “Look, these are my mother and brothers. Anyone who does God’s will is my brother and sister and mother.”

O: I used to think, "How rude of Jesus! His family came to see him and he ignored them" before the Jesus film pointed it out to me that it's quite likely that he took the opportunity to make this a teaching moment before he got up to go see his family.

Given that, what was Jesus trying to teach here? Our family is no longer only our biological family. Our brothers and sisters in Christ are also our family. That's why the early Christians started the tradition of calling each other brother and sister, to the point that the Romans, when persecuting Christians, accused us of incest — because they misunderstood when a "brother" and a "sister" were husband and wife.

A: Being family, we ought to love one another and help one another like family should. "If one member suffers, all suffer together; if one member is honored, all rejoice together." (I Corinthians 12:26)

P: That's why the early Christians in Jerusalem lived communally like a family and shared everything. (Acts 2:44-45, Acts 4:32-37) Of course, as the body of believers grew, this became impractical. They had to deal with the fact that there would be people who sought to take advantage of the system (Acts 5:1-11) and just the fact that with a large number of people, someone could fall through the cracks (Acts 6:1-7) However, the spirit of all of us being adopted into God's family remained and the idea that we should look out for each other like family remained, e.g. believers outside Judea gathering money to support the believers in Judea due to the famine. (1 Corinthians 16:1–4; 2 Corinthians 8:1–9:15; Romans 15:14–32)

So, we should likewise not only be concerned for ourselves and our own biological family, but also for our brothers & sisters in Christ. "If one part suffers, all the parts suffer with it, and if one part is honored, all the parts are glad." (1 Corinthians 12:26).

P: Father, help me to be sensitive to the needs of others and not just be concerned for myself. In Jesus' name, amen.

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Note: this is using the SOAP method. For more information, see this page (not written by me.)

The Abomination of Desolation

1/11/14

S: Matthew 24, Luke 21:5-36, Mark 13

O: In the last century, there has been much confusion about what the "the abomination of desolation" refers to. Many Evangelicals interpret it as something to do with the Antichrist which many Evangelicals believe is coming in the future, after or around the time of the Rapture.

However, the Matthew and Mark passages aren't the only testimonies of this discussion. Luke also records it, but he never mentioned "the abomination of desolation".

These parallel passages describe the same incident: the disciples are admiring the grandeur of the Temple in Jerusalem, which prompted Jesus to predict its destruction.

The sign that people should flee from Jerusalem to the hills, as stated in Luke 21:20, is "when you see Jerusalem surrounded by armies", instead of "when the abomination of desolation stands in the Holy Place".

The rest of the passages seem to be so much in congruence that it suggests that these two signs are the same thing. Luke was written to a Gentile audience while Matthew was written to a Jewish audience. As Gentiles ourselves, we can get confused by what the "the abomination of desolation" means, so Luke explains it for us, "when you see Jerusalem surrounded by armies".

To a Gentile, Jerusalem being surrounded by armies isn't a sign of "abomination of desolation stands in the Holy Place". But to the Jews of Jesus' time, it could well mean that.

History tells us that before A.D. 70, as Roman armies surrounded Jerusalem, the Christian Jews in Judea heeded Jesus' warning and fled. The non-Christian Jews did not, and were massacred. The Romans destroyed Jerusalem and the Temple so completely that it was said that you couldn't even tell that there was once a city there. Decades later, the Romans under Emperor Hadrian rebuilt as a totally Gentile city and renamed it Aelia Capitolina. Jerusalem remained non-Jewish for almost two millennia after that.

A: When we find things that are confusing and unclear in the Bible, if we can find clarifications from other parts of scripture, it is better to look at that instead of making up fanciful imaginations of our own.

P: Father, thank You for preserving for us Your written Word. Help us to understand it. In Jesus' name, amen.

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Note: this is using the SOAP method. For more information, see this page (not written by me.)