Partakers Christian Podcasts

Marriage

The Christian Disciple and Marriage

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After the Creation, and mankind had rebelled against God, Genesis 3v17-18 “God told the Woman: "I'll multiply your pains in childbirth; you'll give birth to your babies in pain. You'll want to please your husband, but he'll lord it over you." He told the Man: "Because you listened to your wife and ate from the tree that I commanded you not to eat from, 'Don't eat from this tree,' the very ground is cursed because of you; getting food from the ground will be as painful as having babies is for your wife;"

Perhaps no relationship epitomises the entrance of sin into the world, as that of marriage, as we have just seen in the short bible passage I have just read! I realise of course that is a very sensitive area for some people and it is my aim to be as sensitive towards you as I can be whilst remaining faithful to Scripture. What does the rest of the Bible have to say about marital relationships?

The Song of Solomon is a book which tells of a love story between a woman (the Beloved) and a man, the man probably being Solomon. It proceeds through a courtship and culminates in the union between the man and woman!

Wives, you are to submit and respect your husbands (Col.3:18ff; 1Pet.3ff)! However, submit in this context means how authority is given and received. It does not mean slavery, as has been used by males, to their shame, down through the centuries and today!! Just as the word authority does not mean authoritarian, but rather headship. Why is this so? It is so, because of the overwhelming lordship of Christ over all and His headship over the man (Ephesians 5:22-3).

I know that some men out there will be rubbing their hands with glee, goading their wife about “Submit to me!” However, Husbands, you are to love and respect your wives (Colossians 3:18ff; 1 Peter 3ff). So that does not mean bossing and domineering. Rather, the love of the husband must contain three aspects according to Ephesians 5: Love is sacrificial - a giving unselfish love as Christ loves the church (Ephesians 5:25); Love is sanctifying love - a love set apart from all others (Ephesians 5:26-27); Love is satisfying love - a love that satisfies both people (Ephesians 5:28-30). If the husband’s love is sacrificial, sanctifying and satisfying, then submission by the wife will be natural!

Photo courtesy of Jan

So wives and husbands have mutual roles to play in a marriage. But why did God institute marriage? Well, He established it for at least 4 reasons. Firstly for emotional needs (Genesis 2:18). Then for mutual fulfilment of physical & sexual needs (1Corinthians 7:1-3). Thirdly, for the reason of procreation, whereby the birth of children populates and spreads humanity across the earth (Genesis 1:28). Fourth and finally, to fulfil spiritual needs. Just as the husband and wife experience intimacy and life together, they also share in the submission to, and love of, Jesus Christ.

As Paul wrote to the Ephesians, husbands are to love their wives as Jesus loves His church. How did and does Jesus love the church? We have seen already that this love involves sacrifice, sanctification and satisfaction. But what other symbols of Jesus' relationship with His church do we have in the New Testament?

Jesus Himself began the wonderful relationship that exists between Himself and the church. The tremendous intimacies of this relationship are described 7 times in the New Testament.

· The shepherd and his sheep, emphasizes both the warm leadership and protection given by Jesus to a helpless and dependent church. (John 10:1-18)

· The vine and the branches, points out the necessity of all Christians to depend on Jesus' for strength to grow. (John 15:1-8)

· Jesus as high priest and the church as a kingdom of priests, stresses the joyful worship, fellowship and service which the church gives to God through Jesus (Hebrews 5:1-10; 1 Peter 2:5-8; Revelation 1:6)

· The cornerstone and the building stones, accentuates Jesus as the foundation of the church (1 Corinthians 3:9, 13:1-13; Ephesians 2:19-22; 1Peter 2:5)

· The head and many member body, is often used in the Bible to show the Church as a living thing, drawing its life from Jesus the head, and each believer is unique and necessary to the growth of the whole church (1Corinthians 12:12,13,27; Ephesians 4:4)

· The last Adam and the new creation presents Jesus Christ as the beginning of a new creation of believers as Adam was of the old creation (1Corinthians 15:22; 2 Corinthians 5:17)

· The bridegroom and the bride showing the intimate fellowship and co-ownership between Jesus and the church (Ephesians 5:25-33; Revelation 19:7-8, 21:9)

For more to think about please do read 1 Peter 3v1-7. Ask yourself the following questions, writing them down if you can, and see how you respond or react to them. Why not share your answers with your spouse or a close friend, so that you can pray over any issues together.

Photo courtesy of Janeice

Q1 – What areas of my marriage in can I improve upon, particularly in relation to the needs of my wife or husband?

Q2 – If Jesus loves the church so much, how much more should I love my partner?

Q3 – How can I help and support others to improve their marriages?

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Love

Christian disciple is a Lover

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Mark 12vv28-31: One of the teachers of the law came and heard them debating. Noticing that Jesus had given them a good answer, he asked him, "Of all the commandments, which is the most important?" "The most important one” answered Jesus, "is this: 'Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is one. Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with your entire mind and with all your strength.' The second is this: 'Love your neighbour as yourself.' There is no commandment greater than these."

G’day!! I wonder how you would describe “sin”? Well in the bible verses I just read, is my definition of sin. Can you tell what it is? For me it is a failure to love God and a failure to love others. To further back my case on this definition, read what the fruit of the spirit is again from Galatians chapter 5 and you will note that love is the first mentioned fruit in evidence of the Holy Spirit’s presence in the disciple.

How do we love God?

The primary way of loving God, is to love others, says the Apostle John in 1 John 4 verse 20. It is easiest to love your friends. It is easier to love those around you. It is even easy to love those you don’t know! But Jesus commanded that we love our enemies! Now that is very difficult and very radical! We see constantly in the media and elsewhere, that regards our enemies, we are to be confrontational or at best to just ignore them! How is it possible to love our enemies? It is only with the help of God and His abundant grace towards us, as we depend on the Holy Spirit to empower us. To only love those who love us, is what those outside the church expect as normal behaviour. But as a Christian disciple, we are to do more and to be seen to love more than any other people! Dietrich Bonhoeffer, said that what makes the Christian disciple different from other humans, is that the Christian disciple is “extra-ordinary”, compelled as they are to reflect their love for God by loving others. We don’t have to like others as friends, but we do have to love them as fellow human beings!

But what kind of love is this?

Is it a friendly love or perhaps a romantic love? By all means, no! It is an agape love – a love that is sacrificial and self-less. This is no soppy plastic Hollywood love! This is tough love! It is a love that is giving of ones very self, in order that the Christian disciple is of service to other people regardless of any relationship between them. The Christian disciple loves other sacrificially, echoing the very way that God loved and continues to love the Christian disciple. The Christians disciple is to be so filled and magnetized with God’s love and grace, that it is an magnetic attraction to others to the majestic goodness of the awesome God that they serve and obey. By loving others in this way, the Gospel becomes attractive and undeniable! The prime hallmark of being a Christian disciple is to love! Can we run out of this type of love? No because it is always topped up by the grace of the God we love, adore and worship.

Finally, love has the primacy over such wondrous gifts like faith, prophecy, and knowledge: for without love, the Christian disciple “is nothing” writes Paul to the Corinthians. Our motive for all things is to be love. Why do you do the things you do? Is it out of self interest or is it out of sacrificial love? Are there any attitudes that you need to change, in order to show the love you have for the God you love and serve?

Remember: your ability to love God and love other people is only limited by your imagination or lack thereof...

For more to think about please read the letter of 1 John chapter 4 verses 7-19. If you have any comments to make on this or any other podcast of mine, please do contact me at www.davegroberts.podbean.com I would love to hear from you and if these are making any difference at all to your continual Christian discipleship! Thank you.

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ADD - Angels

Christian Disciple and Angels

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The Psalmist writes in Psalm 148v2-5 :

Praise him, all his angels, praise him, all his heavenly hosts.

Praise him, sun and moon, praise him, all you shining stars.

Praise him, you highest heavens and you waters above the skies.

Let them praise the name of the LORD, for he commanded and they were created.

There has risen, in the Western world over the last few years a great deal of interest in angels! Any bookstore will have hundreds of books written by people claiming to either be some form of authority on angels or as a messenger relaying a message from angels for us humans. Amazon.com had over 20,000 different titles when I did a search on there about angels, with the vast majority of these would not be written from a Christian or even a biblical viewpoint. So what does the Christian Disciple’s authority, the Bible, say about angels.

1. What Bible says -

Angels are mentioned frequently in the Bible; at least one hundred times in the Old Testament and 175 times in the New Testament.

We know that they are created beings (Psalm 148v2-5) possibly created before humanity (Job38v7). Hebrews 1v14 tells us that these spiritual beings also serve humans who are inheriting salvation! They appear in human form, as in Abraham’s visitor (Genesis 13 - Angel of the Lord). They do not die (Luke 20v36), and they do not marry(Mark 12v25).

From the information we have, we know that they are personal, intelligent & able to communicate with humans. They have a will (2 Peter 2v4), are separate from humanity (1 Corinthians 6v3) and powerful yet also finite. There are large companies of angels (Revelation 5v11), and they do not naturally increase unless God creates more. They are organized and there are ranks of angels. For example: Michael the archangel (Jude 9) and legions of angels (Matthew 26v53). Cherubim are another class of angel. Their job was to protect (Genesis 3v24) and also were seen on the Ark of the Covenant (Exodus 25v17-22).

2. Their service

As the Greek word Angelos means Messenger, we know that they carry God’s message in times such as at the birth of John the Baptist and Jesus (Luke 1). For Elijah, they provided food (1 Kings 19); for Daniel they protected him from the lions (Daniel 6) and ministered to Jesus after the temptations in the wilderness (Matthew 4v11). This personal service however does not justify the thinking that some people have, that we all have a “guardian angel”. We also know that they were created to be holy (Matthew 8v38), and that they praise & worship God (Psalm 89v7). This is seen in their rejoicing at God’s work (Revelation 5v11-12); rejoicing in a sinner’s conversion (Luke 15v10); and they rejoiced in the birth of Jesus (Luke 2v13). They watch over Christians (Hebrews 1v14; Psalm 24v7; Psalm 91v11) and carry out God’s judgments (2 Kings 19v35; Matthew 16v27). Daniel 10-12 would seem to intimate that they also guide nations and the early chapters of the Book of Revelation seems to indicate that churches have angels to watch over them.

Finally, the job of spreading the Gospel is not for angels. It is for Christian Disciples to do as commanded by Jesus (Matthew 28). God obviously thinks it is a much more efficient and effective method, than getting angels to do it!

Fallen Angels

At some point in time, some obviously chose to rebel against God (2 Peter 2v4; Jude 6). Their leader is Satan and these fallen angels are called wicked (Matthew 12v45) and evil (Acts 19v13). We know that they know Jesus and His authority and that they know their eternal fate is destruction and torment (Matthew 8v29-31). Because of this, they want to take as many humans with them as possible. So they tempt humans to disobey God (Genesis 3); possess people (Mark 5) and give inspiration to false teachers (Galatians 1v8).

How can we know the difference between unfallen angels and fallen angels? We listen to what they are telling us. If what they say is bringing all glory to God, then they are truly from God, for in the Biblical accounts, they always give the glory to God. If they don’t, then they cannot be from God.

Two dangerous teaching about fallen angels are these. Firstly, we forget they are not our only enemy as Christian Disciples. There is also our old nature trying to rear its ugly head (Ephesians 2v3) and the world (James 4v4). Of course satan and his fallen angels can use our old nature and the world to tempt us to disobey God, but the old nature and the world are also two of our foes. Secondly there is the danger that fictional Christian novels concerning the spiritual world and satanic darkness, can be turned into factual doctrine, regardless of the lack of biblical warrant.

Our interaction with Angels.

If you seen an angel, how would you react? Would you be afraid, as the women at Jesus’ tomb seemingly were when the angel told them about Jesus having risen from the dead (Matthew 28v5)? Would you bow to worship them like the Apostle John endeavoured to do, before the angel rebuked him and said "Do not do it! I am a fellow servant with you and with your brothers the prophets and of all who keep the words of this book. Worship God!" (Revelation 22v9)?

We know from these and other Bible stories that humans have seen angels. Jacob did when on his way to meet Esau (Genesis 32v1) as did those who witnessed Jesus’ ascension (Acts 1v10). As they are God’s messengers, they need to be listened to as well as allowing them to serve and minister.

By practising hospitality, particularly to those we don’t know, we may well be unaware that we are entertaining angels according to Hebrews 13v2. We know that Angels are not to be worshipped, both according to Paul (Colossians 2v18) and to angels themselves (Revelation 22v8-9). Also, according to Paul, we will be judging the angels (1 Corinthians 6v3)!.

Perhaps one of the best book on this subject is “Angels: God's Secret Agents” by Billy Graham. It is well worth a read.

For more to think about please do ask your self the following questions, writing them down if you can, and see how you respond or react to them. Then why not share your answers with your spouse or a close friend, so that you can pray over any issues together.

Q1. Read Revelation 7v11-12. How does this encourage me to worship the Lord even more than I currently do?

Q2. Read Hebrews 13v2. What change could I make in regards to offering hospitality?

Q3. Read Psalm 91v11-12. How does that encourage me in my day to day life as a Christian Disciple?

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ADD - Home Life

Christian Disciple and Home Life!

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Paul writing in Titus 2vv11-13 “For the grace of God has been revealed, bringing salvation to all people. And we are instructed to turn from godless living and sinful pleasures. We should live in this evil world with wisdom, righteousness, and devotion to God, while we look forward with hope to that wonderful day when the glory of our great God and Saviour, Jesus Christ, will be revealed.”

 

Photo courtesy of Jan

 

I wonder what you are like on a Sunday at church. I know some Christians who like to be all holy and proper on a Sunday at church, but can’t wait to get home and start living again! Have you ever wondered just why you have to live a holy life at home, work or play 24 hours of the day, 7 days a week as a Christian disciple? Well Paul writing here, explains that doctrine is learning and duty is living. We are to learn it in the Church then put it into practise at home. Why do we do this? We do this in order that the wondrous message of Jesus Grace can be dispersed.

 

 

So what does Paul expect of the different groups of people that he lists in the verses before those I read out at the beginning?

Firstly he speaks to the older men (Titus 2:2). They are to be temperate, dignified, self-controlled, faithful, loving and persistent. All this without drinking too much wine!!

Then for the older women, (Titus 2:3) they are to live a holy life, teaching what is good. They aren’t to speak badly of others and they are not to indulge in gossip. They also are not to drink too much wine. They are to do this so that they can be good examples and teach the younger women how to behave appropriately.

Ah the younger women! They are commanded to listen to the older women (Titus 2:4-5). They also must love their family, be self-controlled and pure. They are to be hospitable at home treating others with kindness & goodness. Why? So the Word of God is not maligned or harmed.

Younger men however are to be self-controlled and follow Titus’ example (Titus 2:6). And just what is the example to be set by Titus?? Well he is to be an example by doing good works, in a serious manner with integrity. He is to be courageous and with good speech. He is commanded to rebuke others with Paul’s authority. Why do these things? So that nobody has the chance to despise him. (Titus 2:1,7-8, 15)

Finally, slaves are to obey their master and return any items that they may have stolen! (Titus 2:9-10) Why do this? So as to make the Gospel more attractive to those outside of Christianity and to be seen as being deemed worthy of being trusted.

However the overall reason to live a holy life is because it is only due to the grace of Jesus as Saviour, that we live at all! So if He is the only reason we are living at all, then as Christian disciples, we need to live a life that is worthy of Him! In the passage I read out at the beginning, there are 3 reasons as to what Jesus grace does for us, especially those who have chosen to be His followers.

 

Firstly, Jesus’ Grace redeems us and is available to all!! We are all slaves to sin and unable to set ourselves free (Titus 3:3). Jesus Christ gave himself as the price for all the things we have done wrong – past, present and future sins. By His death on the cross, He met the just demands of God's holy law, so that God in His grace could forgive and free all those who believe in Him as Saviour.

Secondly, His Grace reforms us. Not only is our status before God changed to that of being His child, but He reforms our lives in order to make the Christian disciple more godly! When Paul talks about temperance, self-control, prudence and restraint, this is to accentuate the Christian disciple's relationship with their own self, whilst dealing with people in a wise and godly manner. In so doing, God purifies us and makes us His very own possession (2:15b).

Then lastly, Jesus’ Grace rewards us as we are looking for Jesus Christ to return! This is our hope, so we are to live lives worthy of the gospel of Jesus’ Grace.

 

For more to think about, please do read for yourself Titus 2:1-15 and ask yourself the following questions, writing them down if you can, and see how you respond or react to them. Then why not share your answers with your spouse or a close friend, so that you can pray over any issues together.

Q1 – What areas of my life do I need to be changed, in order that I can live a life worthy of Jesus’ Grace that is full of wisdom, righteousness, and devotion to God?

Q2 – In what ways has God purified me and made me, His child and possession?

Q3 – List the things you are thankful to Jesus for due to His grace and mercy and give Him thanks for His grace.

Thank you.

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