Partakers Christian Podcasts

The Big Story - Part 2

 

Big Story - Act 2 - The Fall

with Roger Kirby

 

Question: what has been your biggest disappointment, the moment when something really special you had planned, or made, or hoped for did not work out and your dreams came crashing to the ground?

It seems rather extraordinary but that seems to be what happened to God, the Designer and Creator of all that is. He had planned and built the perfect world for Adam and Eve and their descendants, put them in the most perfect garden ever, and they – the two of them – had immediately spoiled it and brought the whole scheme crashing to the ground. I know we say God knows everything including the future but in the introduction to the story of the Flood we read that the LORD regretted that he had made human beings on the earth and his heart was deeply troubled. God was disappointed – whatever the systematic theologians may say are his attributes.

Adam and Eve were the first to get it wrong and therefore most at fault. Genesis 3: 1 – 11 says: “Now the serpent was more crafty than any of the wild animals the Lord God had made. He said to the woman, “Did God really say, ‘You must not eat from any tree in the garden’?” The woman said to the serpent, “We may eat fruit from the trees in the garden, but God did say, ‘You must not eat fruit from the tree that is in the middle of the garden, and you must not touch it, or you will die. ’” “You will not certainly die,” the serpent said to the woman. “For God knows that when you eat from it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.”
When the woman saw that the fruit of the tree was good for food and pleasing to the eye, and also desirable for gaining wisdom, she took some and ate it. She also gave some to her husband, who was with her, and he ate it. Then the eyes of both of them were opened, and they realized they were naked; so they sewed fig leaves together and made coverings for themselves.”

So Paul says: sin entered the world through one man, and death through sin, and in this way death came to all people. But that is not the end of the problem. We have 3 more accounts of the sinful nature of people in the next 8 chapters. First: Cain and Lamech commit murder. Second: things get so universally bad that God sends the great Flood. Third: mankind, again in the plural, get so above themselves God has to organize the confusion of languages at Babel. Not a good set of stories!

But we need to start at the beginning. The story of Adam is important for many reasons. The one I would highlight as very significant but often overlooked is the fact that we are being told humankind started in just one place with just one person. Men and women did not become spiritual beings made in the image of God through the slow evolution and development of many people. No. Only one person, Adam, was created as a true fully human being. Because he was male there was a problem! In most ancient stories of the beginning of humanity the first person was female, which made things much easier because then others could be born from that first person. But Adam was male so Eve was made from his side. That is realistic because the human world is a male dominated world simply because men tend to be stronger than women. We may not like that – particularly if we are female – but that is the way it is. Only with Jesus, the way he treated women, and the early church, and the way they gave women an equal status with men, do we begin to see the raising of women towards equality with men. Then in the last few decades with the increasing sophistication of modern machinery needing brains and skills of dexterity rather than strength, women have started to equal men in their work place skills – but that is another story!

When Paul said “all have sinned” he made the most accurate statement ever of the nature of men and women. Sin and evil cover this world of ours as we can see from any daily newspaper or TV news bulletin. Some try to say mankind is getting better and better but there have been more terrible wars and more ghastly treatments of man by man in the last 100 years than ever before.

The Bible story continues with the murder of Abel by Cain. “Am I my brother’s keeper” asked Cain thinking the answer was “no”. Jesus pointed out that the much better answer is “yes” by telling the story of the Good Samaritan.

To emphasize that the problem was, and is, a worldwide problem we have the story of the Flood in Genesis chapters 6 to 8. Although, like Creation, that is much argued over, the message of the story is quite clear: sin and evil are a world wide problem and yet God has promised never again to deal with it on a worldwide basis. Our world will only come to an end when it is replaced by the new heavens and the new earth. Paul says: “the creation waits in eager expectation for the children of God to be revealed. For the creation was subjected to frustration, not by its own choice, but by the will of the one who subjected it, in hope that the creation itself will be liberated from its bondage to decay and brought into the freedom and glory of the children of God.”

The fourth and final story of the descent of the human world into the mess of sin and evil that became its standard state is the story of Babel. The multiplication of languages is depicted in this striking image. Biblically the reversal of this commenced at Pentecost when we read in Acts 2 : “When the day of Pentecost came, they were all together in one place. Suddenly a sound like the blowing of a violent wind came from heaven and filled the whole house where they were sitting. They saw what seemed to be tongues of fire that separated and came to rest on each of them. All of them were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other tongues as the Spirit enabled them.

Now there were staying in Jerusalem God- fearing Jews from every nation under heaven. When they heard this sound, a crowd came together in bewilderment, because each one heard their own language being spoken. Utterly amazed, they said we hear them declaring the wonders of God in our own tongues!” Amazed and perplexed, they asked one another, “What does this mean?”

Then Peter stood up with the Eleven, raised his voice and addressed the crowd:“Fellow Jews and all of you who live in Jerusalem, let me explain this to you; listen carefully to what I say. These people are not drunk, as you suppose. It’s only nine in the morning! No, this is what was spoken by the prophet Joel:

“‘In the last days, God says, I will pour out my Spirit on all people. Your sons and daughters will prophesy, your young men will see visions, your old men will dream dreams. Even on my servants, both men and women, I will pour out my Spirit in those days, and they will prophesy.”

Practically, on a world wide view not much changed – until now – leading to our present dependence on the World Wide Web and the consequent dominance of the English language.
So what?

We live in surprising and exciting days. Babel is not, and never will be, completely reversed. But in our lifetimes one language, English, has become more widely understood than any other ever has been since Babel. More people speak Mandarin or Spanish as their first language – their mother tongue as we call it – than do English. But the effect of the Internet has been that more people can now understand or even speak English than have ever been able to do so with any other language.

A good example of that is what you are listening to or watching right now. Dave Roberts is one of those who have caught the vision of what is possible today, in English, through his Partakers site. Make sure that you make the most of these opportunities. If your mother tongue is not English you may struggle a bit to follow all he, and we, say or write. Persevere – use a dictionary if we get above ourselves and use unusual words. Sorry!

Just one question – who do you share it with? It doesn’t matter if your translation is not perfect. Make the most of it you can. Turn it into the language of those of your friends who have less English than you have. Share the glorious news of the Good news of Jesus as much as you can and the LORD will bless your every word. WOW.

 

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The Big Story - Part 1

 

Big Story - Act 1 - Creation

with Roger Kirby

Question: which is your favourite television programme?

Very probably your answer is either a “soap” (a series of episodes telling the story of a family or a group of people) or a series of linked episodes solving various crimes, containing the same central characters. Both of these are stories – and we love stories. When a girl meets a new fellow she may well ask “ tell me about yourself”, by which she does not mean the sort of list of accomplishments that would be appropriate in a job application. She wants to hear about things he has been involved in, people he knows or has met, strange things that have happened to him. Quite how we come to understand someone on the basis of disconnected small stories like that is not at all obvious.
In His wisdom God has told us about himself through stories, some connected, some disconnected, some big, some small. Quite how we can come to understand something about God this way is not clear but we do. By story I do not mean some thing that is not true. Scholars call true stories ‘narratives’ but that is too posh a word for us!
The Bible is one huge story, the greatest story ever told. But we tend to read it and hear about it only in small disconnected chunks and have never heard any attempt to put the most important parts of it together as a big, continuous story. This set of studies aims to put that right! (Even although much modern thinking rejects the idea of big stories, thinking they only function as a method of control. But then perhaps God knows better than the moderns.) at best this story will only partly succeed because the Bible is so infinitely varied everyone sees different, hidden depths in it.
There are 5 major parts to the story – I will call them Acts, as in a play, some of them subdivided into Scenes. These are headed: the Creation, the Fall, Israel, Jesus and the Church. I am going to tell the story as I see it. There must be a nearly infintite number of ways the Story could be told. This is mine. I hope you enjoy and learn from it.
Very obviously the first one is Creation. In 5 days God created the non-human world. Here that is in Genesis 1: 1 – 23: “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. Now the earth was formless and empty, darkness was over the surface of the deep, and the Spirit of God was hovering over the waters.
And God said, “Let there be light,” and there was light, then a separation on the second day, vegetation on the third day, visible lights on the fourth day, living creatures on the sea and the air on the fifth day and on the ground on the sixth day. And – we are told of all these things that - God saw that it was good..
No part of Scripture has been subjected to more argument than these verses. I am not going to get into that argument. Just let me say that it is not true that we have but one God-given source of information about what happened. We have two: this scripture and the natural world round about us, both God-given as Psalm 19 clearly says: Psalm 19: 1, 4, 7, 8a: It starts off saying “The heavens declare the glory of God; the skies proclaim the work of his hands. Day after day they pour forth speech; night after night they reveal knowledge. Yet their voice goes out into all the earth, their words to the ends of the world.”
But then it goes on to say: “The law of the Lord is perfect, refreshing the soul. The statutes of the Lord are trustworthy, making wise the simple. The precepts of the Lord are right, giving joy to the heart. The commands of the Lord are radiant, giving light to the eyes.”
There is no conflict between Science and the Bible, as is often suggested. There cannot be because they are different sorts of things. Science is man’s understanding of the raw data of the natural world. The Bible is also raw data. Theology and Bible Study are man’s understanding of what the Bible says. Science certainly can, and does, conflict with theology and our understanding of the Bible. The natural world and the Bible are two different types of raw data, both God-given and therefore not in conflict. The natural world is our best source of information about how and when God created. The Bible is our only source of information about by whom and why. Hundreds of years ago they used to talk about the ‘perspicuity of scripture’. By that they meant that it was easy to understand, transparent to everyone, even every ordinary person. You don’t have to be a theological genius to know what it is saying to you. (Obviously the more you know about the context of scripture the better, but you don’t have to go to Bible College to work out what it is all about.) The same thing is true of the natural world. You don’t have to be a scientific genius to know what the world is telling us about God. It is not immediately obvious that we ordinary, created human beings can understand the ways of the Lord, in both his written word and his created world, but it is so. It is important to keep a balance between these two so different lines of thinking about the creation of the world and all that is in it.
In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth and everything that is in them. So the answer to “by whom” is God, though what exactly that means we shall only get a glimpse of even when we have looked at all the Big Story of the Bible. This is emphasized in quite a subtle way when those first few verses refer to the sun and the moon as just ‘those lights in the sky’ not even giving them names. That is clearly done to avoid any least suggestion that they had anything to do with the creation, since they were considered to be gods in most ancient religions.
“Why” is answered in the remainder of Genesis Chapter 1: verses 24 – 31. It is for the glory of God and then, quite astonishingly, for us, for mankind. We are not just specially developed animals who happen to have developed much further than any other creature. We are those for whose blessing and enjoyment everything was created. Wow!
But don’t jump to the wrong conclusion. It is still God’s world. Sadly, mankind seems to have decided that it can do what it likes with it: rip it apart, use it up, dirty it, pollute it, empty chemicals into its rivers etc. in the hope that it will all work out all right in the end. One day the day of reckoning will come.
We, and we alone, are made in the image and likeness of God. That means, I think, many things. We alone can reason, can think, can understand – amongst other things that death lies inescapably ahead of us – can love beyond the bounds of sexual desire, can think a long way ahead of the consequences of our actions – at least when we want to do so.
To put it in very modern language, our brains, unlike those of any other creature on this earth, are, in computer speak, almost completely full of RAM, not the ROM that fills animal heads. RAM is random access memory where there is no information until some is put there; ROM is read only memory where the information has already been put there and cannot be changed or developed much. We humans, on the other hand, have to learn to speak, to walk, to understand just about everything concerning the world around us. Our brains have to learn, to be filled with knowledge. Animals are born with most of the things they need to know already implanted in their brains. That is a huge and wonderfully significant difference.

So what?

Those two words signal my comment as to what the immediate practical implication of the this passage, this part of the Big Story, means for us – for you and me – today.
We are created in the image of God. Sometimes Christians get so excited by the next two chapters of Genesis that they think of everybody as simply “sinners” to the exclusion of these important and thrilling facts. Those who are not Christians, just like those who are, have these two directly conflicting aspects to their lives. We are both made in the image of God and fallen sinners. Sometimes one dominates; sometimes the other. So your unbelieving neighbour one side may be the most delightful, helpful, loving person you could wish to meet. Your unbelieving neighbour the other side may be the most unpleasant character, impossible to carry out any sort of decent conversation with, always getting into arguments and fights and probably a thief. Those are the ways we naturally are. Neither person is acceptable to the LORD God if they have made no attempt to enter into relationship with Him. That is the way we naturally are. We need to hold firmly in our minds our understanding of human beings as both God images and sinners and be careful to understand our world in the light of those two facts.
Only as a consequence of the death, and resurrection of Jesus and the gift of the Holy Spirit to those who have set out to follow him can we be any different.

 

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Jesus Who - Pulp Theology 09

PulpTheology Books

Jesus Who?

Available on Amazon in Paperback and Kindle

The title "Jesus Who?" was a question put to me by my father many years ago. He was asking me which Jesus I was talking about. The Jesus of Islam? The Jesus of the Anglicans or the Jesus of the Baptists? The Jesus of the imagination?

In this little book, we look at who I think Jesus was and is... It acts as a brief introduction to the greatest man who ever lived: Jesus Christ. Who was he? Why does he matter? What has he got to do with each of us? Jesus Christ. The name which is on everybody's lips at Christmas. But who was this man and so what? When the human we know as Jesus Christ was born, his name imbued the very reason he was born. His conception and birth were extraordinary at every level. Jesus very name, means “one who saves” and the entirety of his birth, life and death were centred on this very role. His role was to save all those who would follow Him.

Almost everyone has an opinion about Him. Jesus was born to confirm God's promises, to reveal God as a loving Father, invite people into His Sonship, and to be our representative before Almighty God. He gave us an example of how to live a holy life to the full. Jesus was not merely a man who received some special power, nor was he some strange creation that was half man and half God. As we will see together inside, He was much more than those ideas.

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Psalm On Demand - Psalm 75

Psalm 75

For the Chief Musician. To the tune of “Do Not Destroy.” A Psalm by Asaph. A song.

75:1 We give thanks to you, God.

We give thanks, for your Name is near.

Men tell about your wondrous works.

75:2 When I choose the appointed time, I will judge blamelessly.

75:3 The earth and all its inhabitants quake. I firmly hold its pillars.

Selah.

75:4 I said to the arrogant, “Don’t boast!”

I said to the wicked, “Don’t lift up the horn.

75:5 Don’t lift up your horn on high. Don’t speak with a stiff neck.”

75:6 For neither from the east, nor from the west,

nor yet from the south, comes exaltation.

75:7 But God is the judge. He puts down one, and lifts up another.

75:8 For in the hand of Yahweh there is a cup,

full of foaming wine mixed with spices.

He pours it out.

Indeed the wicked of the earth drink and drink it to its very dregs.

75:9 But I will declare this forever:

I will sing praises to the God of Jacob.

75:10 I will cut off all the horns of the wicked,

but the horns of the righteous shall be lifted up.

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Romans 12 - Living Life - Part 24

Romans 12: Living Life

Study 24: Humility of mind and spirit

v16 - Don’t be too proud to enjoy the company of ordinary people. And don’t think you know it all!

Here are two of the main reasons that churches lack harmony – pride and know-it-alls!! Do you think that may describe somebody that you know? Or even yourself?

There is to be no place in the Gospel, and therefore the Church itself, for pride and conceit. There is to be no favouritism within the life of the Church. Love does not show favouritism or partiality but love treats all people equally. The best person for the job, is the best person for the job – not the one shown favouritism. That isn’t to say we can’t have some people as friends and others not! But we are not to make differences between people based on things such as bank balances, social status, education, birthplace etc. Let not the educated look down upon the uneducated. Let not the financially rich not look down on the poor & homeless. Let males not look down upon females or females look down on males.

Structure within Churches is important or there would be chaos. Remember a Church is to be harmonious – and those of higher importance in Church structures are to associate & work with those of the least importance in Church structures. Why?

Because of Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ, being the Son of God, made Himself nothing in order to become a human being. Jesus, the Lord of the Church, was willing to do everything possible, so that you and I may be able to become children of God. Jesus Christ, and therefore God Himself, treats equally all sections of society, and so must those who claim to follow Him.

And we all know somebody who is a know-it-all – they have an answer to every question and like to let everybody know that they do! Now it is good to be wise in the ways of God but let not that lead to pride! Such a person is hard to teach – hard even to God. Wisdom comes from studying God’s word, being willing to be changed by the Spirit who lives within all believers without distinction. The so-called uneducated are usually more willing to be wise from this method than the educated.

Go! Be practical in your love of God to all people without partiality or distinction. And don’t think you know it all – coz you don’t!

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Romans 12 - Living Life - Part 22

Romans 12: Living Life

Study 22: Rejoice and sorrow

v15 Be happy with those who are happy, and weep with those who weep.

I wonder if some times you are like me –you are sad when people you know have reason to be happy! We are like that as people! Jesus in Luke 15:25-30 indicates that this behaviour comes from envy! Or you are happy when people have reason to be sad or in trouble – your attitude is “They deserve it!” This is nothing short of malice. And unsurprisingly, it can come quite naturally to us! Paul here challenges the Roman readers and by proxy, us, with something totally alien to our natural way of behaving! Paul goes “be happy to the happy and weep with the weeping!”


That is a counter to the way the world we live in operates. Sure some people who are not Christian may do it Paul’s way but in general they don’t. But that is not the way it is to be with the Church! We are to love others as we would want to be loved. Love is not detached or ignorant of other people’s joys and sorrows. Love does not simply ignore or bear malice. Love lifts, encourages, embraces and emboldens! Love in action is offering a shoulder to cry on to somebody in need of help. Love in action is rejoicing with that brother or sister who has cause for celebration. Love offers solidarity with the other person, regardless of mood or emotion.


So how can we show this love to others? We maybe able to do it in our own strength, but we assuredly can by using the power of the Holy Spirit! Oh how easily we forget He is living within us! WOW! If we ask for His help, He will help – often in the most amazing ways. Let the Holy Spirit stimulate your imagination as to how you can practically rejoice and be happy with those who are rejoicing or to show you how you can weep with those who are weeping and in sorrow. And if we have reason to rejoice, let us not forget to be so overcome that we neglect to weep with those who are weeping. Or conversely, if we have good reason to be weeping, let us now forget to somehow rejoice with that brother or sister who has reason to be happy!


Go! Let your love for others be practically seen – whether with smiles or with tears!

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Romans 12 - Living Life - Part 21

Romans 12: Living Life

Study 21: Bless and pray

v14 Bless those who persecute you. Don’t curse them; pray that God will bless them.

Paul here seems to have had some teaching about what Jesus taught for here he echoes Jesus, who is now His master. (Matthew 5:43-44 and Luke 6:27-28.)


To bless means to show kindness and love. Do you have enemies – people who don’t like you or loathe you because you are a Christian or for some other reason? I know some people who have been totally disowned by their own families because they became Christians. How are we to react? Paul here, echoes Jesus, commands that we are to show kindness and love. That is what bless means here - seeking the welfare of those that would cause us harm. It is a challenge to us because our natural reaction is usually to fight back or to ignore - that is curse. But we are challenged to pray for those who would wish us harm. Praying for their welfare is showing love for those who wish us harm. How can this be done? It can only be done using the power and strength of the Holy Spirit within us rather than attempting to do it in our own strength.


Paul here is a good example. Just a few years ago, Paul was going around persecuting the church. The first Christian Martyr was Stephen, as told to us in Acts 7:59-60. “While they were stoning him, Stephen prayed, ‘Lord Jesus, receive my spirit.’ Then he fell on his knees and cried out, ‘Lord, do not hold this sin against them.’ When he had said this, he fell asleep.”


Saul was standing there watching. Saul who we know now became Paul – our writer! Shortly after this event, Saul was arrested by Jesus whom He was persecuting. Paul has changed! His motto now is “bless those who persecute you.” Whereas his motto before was “Love your neighbour but hate your enemy!” What a change under the power of the Holy Spirit!


This is of course a picture of the Gospel. God showed love for His enemies, by sending His Son Jesus to die, so that all of humanity could change from being enemies of God to being friends of God.


Go! Bless others who are against you. Go and also pray for the persecuted church around the world – for they are your Christian family.

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Consequences 07 - Jesus The God-Man Who Suffered

Consequence 07

Jesus - The God-Man Who Suffered

In this brief series called Consequences, we are looking together at 7 consequences of Jesus’ death and resurrection. Today we continue to look a bit deeper into that God-man, Jesus Christ and in particular His relevancy today in regards to suffering.~

Ever since the first time humanity sinned against God, there has been death and suffering. Suffering was not part of God’s original creation and only came in after this event. God had a plan to alleviate this. As part of this plan, throughout his ministry Jesus said that he would suffer, die and be raised back to life again. Jesus went about alleviating the suffering of people – whether from physical, mental or spiritual suffering. Quite possibly the biggest question we ask ourselves, or is asked of us by others, concerns the problem of suffering.

I will start out by saying I don’t have all the answers, but I do know that I have suffered and still suffer today. I have died twice and been resuscitated twice. I also know that it was humanity’s sin which was and is the creator of all kinds of suffering, not God, as critics of the church maintain. I also know that Jesus the Son of God suffered. Indeed Jesus the Son of God died. Therefore God Himself knows what it is like to suffer. We know that God is personal and we know that as Jesus was both fully God and fully human, that God has suffered. God who is without sin became sin, when Jesus the Son of God died on the cross.

Through the life of Jesus Christ and His cross and resurrection, we see that the Almighty and Eternal God entered the time and space of His creation, even though He Himself is outside of time and space. God intimately knows what suffering is like, because of the suffering Jesus endured. Sufferings such as when he wept at the death of Lazarus his friend.

Suffering such as before He was arrested, Jesus suffered such anxiety that he perspired blood (Luke 22:44). On his way to crucifixion, Jesus was beaten and whipped so badly that He was disfigured and malformed, God suffered. When He was nailed to the cross, God suffered. When on the cross, and endured the insults hurled at him – God suffered. Jesus died on the cross, and for the first time in eternity, Jesus the Son of God was separated from God the Father.

WOW! That is suffering. That is why we have a hope. The God who calls us into relationship with Himself knows intimately what suffering is like. He endured all kinds of suffering just like us. That is why we know God is a personal God. An implacable statue is not personal and cannot have sympathy with us in our sufferings, but the living God can – because the living God died!

But Jesus’ death on the cross was not the end! Three days later Jesus was resurrected in the power of the Father! Jesus death and resurrection show that sin, suffering and death have been conquered! When the Holy Spirit comes and lives within, one of His main roles is as the great Comforter who provides comfort and consolation during the times when we suffer. I don’t know how you are suffering today. I do know that I suffer every day in some way. I have died twice in the past and been resuscitated. You may be suffering in someway and I wish I could take it from you, but I am unable to. And this may sound glib, but I know that because God suffered when He died on the cross, God is with you and knows intimately what suffering is like. But there is one thing I do know and hold onto.

This Jesus is coming back again, this time as the Almighty King of Glory! One glorious day every kind of suffering will be banished for those of us who love Him.

Revelation 21:4: “God will wipe away our tears. There will be no more death, nor sorrow, nor crying and no more pain, for former things have passed away.”

What a glorious day it will be for those of us who love Him now. God Himself, with our face in His hands, wiping away our tears… When our King returns, there will be no more terrorism, missiles, guns, wars or bombs. No more will man’s inhumanity to man be allowed. No more torture, rapes, muggings or robberies. No more poverty or famine. No more religion, idols or icons. No more gossip, fornication, adultery, lying or debauchery. No more cowardice. No more pain. No more death. No more suffering. No more sin. Jesus wiping the tears of sorrow and joy from our eyes as He takes our head in his hands… WOW!

Have you asked this Jesus to be your Saviour and King yet? Jesus – the God-man who conquered sin, suffering and death who died and was raised to new life again by God. When you allow Jesus to be your Saviour and rely on him for your salvation, you become spiritually alive! Until then, you are spiritually dead. But you can have spiritual life! Come and follow this personal and personable God who knows what suffering is about. What are you waiting for? Again, I ask, who do you say the Jesus is? you have a choice to make. Deny Jesus know and he will deny you. Accept Jesus now and He will accept you. It is not too late! Today can be the day of your salvation and new life!

~

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Consequences 06 - Jesus the Object of our Faith

Consequence 06

Jesus - the Object of our Faith

In this brief series called Consequences, we are looking together at 7 consequences of Jesus’ death and resurrection. Today we continue to look a bit deeper into that God-man, Jesus Christ!

John 1:1 & 18“In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was with God in the beginning… No one has ever seen God, but God the One and Only, who is at the Father's side, has made him known.”

Why would God become a man?

We see through the Cross and Resurrection of Jesus Christ that God himself has taken on the responsibility for our sins. Jesus, the Son of God, bore our sins on the cross, became sin for us, even though he was without sin. By doing this we are drawn to God in a personal way through Jesus Christ. God has shown that he loves us and wants us in a relationship with himself. Through Jesus, God has bridged the gap between the supernatural and the natural, the infinite and the finite, to show us what He is like. Jesus as God in person gives humanity a focal point to respond to.

In Jesus Christ, we see that by becoming a man, He humbled Himself (Philippians 2v8) in order to confirm God's promises (Genesis 3v15) and reveal God the Father (John 1v18, 14v9)! We see that Jesus came to become our high priest (Hebrews 8v1)intercessor, mediator and representative before God (1 John 2v1)! J

esus, the Son of God, became human so as to destroy all the works of satan (1 John 3v8, Hebrews 2v14), to give humanity an example of living a holy life (1 Peter 2v21, 1 John 1v6) and to prepare for the redemption of all creation (1 John 2v2)! WOW! This Jesus was both fully God and fully human. This unity of divine and human nature is called ‘hypostatic union‘. Let us look briefly at this Jesus!

Jesus Was Fully Human

Jesus was fully human! We know this because He is explicitly called a man (John 8v40; 1 Timothy 2v5), was born of a woman (Galatians 4v4), so at least in a prenatal state he was nurtured and formed as any other male baby was and is. Jesus exhibited normal human emotions such as love, sorrow, anger and anguish. Jesus wept tears of sorrow. Jesus ate and drank as any normal human did and He had a body and a soul (Matthew 26v26-38). He had normal human experiences – tiredness, sleeping, perspiration, temptations (Hebrews 2v18); hunger (Matthew 4v12). Jesus died just as all people do. Jesus was human in every way that we are - physically, mentally and emotionally. The only exception to this is that He was sinless (2 Corinthians 5v21; Hebrews 2v26). He was the Son of Man and Son of God and did not inherit the carnal nature that all humans have.

But why does Jesus need to be fully human? Firstly, so Jesus death could appease God’s anger with us. Secondly, so that Jesus can empathize and pray for us in our own sufferings. Thirdly, Jesus exhibited true and perfect humanity and therefore is an example to follow. Fifthly, while God is both above and beyond creation, by becoming human, this shows that He is not so far removed from us, that He cannot interact with his creation.

Jesus Was Fully God

Not only was Jesus fully human but He was simultaneously fully God! He is expressly called God - (John 1v1) The Word was God; (John 1v14), the only begotten God (John 20v28) and He accepted titles from others such as when the Apostle Thomas exclaimed “My Lord and my God”.

Additionally Old Testament descriptions of God were applied to Jesus. (Matthew 3v3) 'Prepare ye the way of Jehovah!’ Jesus possessed the attributes of God - (John 14v6) Life; (John 8v58) Eternal; (John 14v6) Truth! The works of God are ascribed to Jesus - (Col 1v16) and Jesus receives honour worship and glory belonging to God alone.Jesus had equality with God - (John 10v30, 33) I and the Father are One; John 5v18)!

 Jesus in His very nature was God; (1 Timothy 6v15) and King of Kings and Lord of Lords! Jesus was and is the Alpha and Omega! Jesus was the Christ; (John 8v58) and much to the chagrin of the Jewish religious leaders declared frequently that He was the great “I AM”, an explicit claim to be God!

Jesus - fully God and fully human - the object of our faith! Tomorrow we look even closer at this man and in one particular aspect of his relevancy today - our suffering - in the next of our series, “Consequences”! See you soon at Partakers!

~

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Consequences 05 - Message 2 The Resurrection

Consequence 05

The Message 2 – The Resurrection

In this brief series called Consequences, we are looking together at 7 consequences of Jesus’ death and resurrection. Today we continue to look at the message of the early church regarding this Jesus – a message which is also relevant to us today! Yesterday we looked at the Cross and today we will look at the Resurrection.

1 Corinthians 15:12-14 But if it is preached that Christ has been raised from the dead, how can some of you say that there is no resurrection of the dead? If there is no resurrection of the dead, then not even Christ has been raised. And if Christ has not been raised, our preaching is useless and so is your faith.~

Significance of the Resurrection

That was the Apostle Paul, writing to the Corinthian church about the crucified Jesus having been physically raised from the dead! What significance is there in Jesus’ resurrection, that the early church afforded such great value in it as part of their message? The resurrection of Jesus Christ provided the central theme for the sermons and teaching in the early church (Acts 1:22; Acts 4:33, Acts 17:18). Certainly within Paul-ine theology, but what significance is there in Jesus’ resurrection?

The Solution!

The resurrection proved and vindicated all of Jesus’ teaching and claims as the suffering Servant and attested to His being fully God, fully human and the last Judge of all mankind (Isaiah 53:10-12; Acts 2:36; Acts 3:13-15; Romans 1:4). The resurrection, declared God’s approval of Jesus’ obedient service and the fulfilment of Old Testament promises as well as Jesus’ own words about it! The cross and resurrection of Jesus results in forgiveness of sins and salvation being only found in and through Jesus Christ.

This was the prime motive for evangelism in the early church (Acts 2:32, Romans 4:24-25). Jesus’ resurrection is a sign of the bodily resurrection for all believers in Him, giving a new attitude to death and transforming hopes (1 Corinthians 15:12-58, Romans 8:10, 2 Corinthians 4:14; 1 Peter 1:3 & 21). As the resurrected King, Jesus now intercedes for us and has perfected the redemption of all those who choose to follow Him (Romans 5:10; Hebrews 6:20, 1 Peter 1:21).

Finally the Cross and resurrection ensure victory over satan, sin and death – they are conquered and squashed. Satan is a defeated creature and will do anything to drag people into defeat with him. The power of sin is conquered, and sin’s grip is overcome if you are a believer in Jesus Christ. Finally, as I said earlier, death has been beaten, because those who believe and trust in Jesus Christ will live forever with him – death is not the end but a beginning. if Jesus Christ did not physically rise from the dead, we as Christians are the product of the greatest delusional lie and are the most foolish of all people.

Our Resurrection

Jesus’ resurrection is the guarantee that all humans also will be resurrected (1 Corinthians 15:20-22)… Amazing love… There will be a bodily resurrection of the dead, those who are saved and those who are unsaved (John 5:28-29; Acts 24:15). What will our resurrected bodies be like? We get a good glimpse from the Bible writers. The resurrected body of believers, those who are truly disciples of Jesus Christ will be:

• Like Christ’s glorious body (1 Corinthians 15:49; Philippians 3:21; 1 John 3:2)
• Not just flesh and blood (1 Corinthians 15:50ff)
• Not just spiritual (Luke 24:39; 1 Corinthians 15:42, 53)
• They were only always going to be a temporary measure as they pointed forward to Jesus' sacrificial death on the cross.

Those who are, or were, non-believers will also be resurrected (John 5:28-29), but will not have the new glorious bodies of believers, nor will they enter into heaven. It makes the work of evangelism for all Christians, all the more imperative.

Ultimately Jesus gives all humanity a choice. You can choose to deny the cross and resurrection of Jesus Christ and say it doesn’t matter. You can say that it is an irrelevance and that is your right. God’s love is compelling and amazing but He does not force anyone to love Him in return, because love never forces! Such is the enormity of the love of God that each person has a choice to make – follow Jesus and accept His cross and resurrection or not to do that. God will not force you to accept it, but he will keep on calling you back to the cross and resurrection of Jesus.

Jesus death on the cross and His resurrection was the central message of the early church! That is also to be our message as church in the 21st century! Tomorrow we look even closer at the man central to this extraordinary message in the next of our series, “Consequences”! See you soon at Partakers!

 

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