Partakers Christian Podcasts

God Gets His Hands Dirty 03

God Gets His Hands Dirty

03. Jesus' Mission

 

In Isaiah 49:1-13, we have it is universally called the second Servant song, and here the Servant Himself is speaking! We have no idea of his actual name, but He does have a name (Isaiah 49:1)! In the first Servant song, with the dispensing of justice as part of His identity, the Servant is a King!

But not just a King, something more as well! In this song, the Servant appears as if He is a prophet by the things He is saying. He was called Isaiah 49:1) just as Jeremiah was. The words He speaks are as if a double-edged sword (Isaiah 49:2). Despite the opposition (Isaiah 49:4), He perseveres to gain the reward and to glorify God (Isaiah 49:3).

What is His name? We find His name is Israel! Not the nation of Israel itself, but as a person who embodies all that Israel was meant to be and do. This Servant would glorify God in all His ways. This servant is a Prophet who is also a King. This Servant is a perfect incarnation of God’s light, covenant and salvation.

To find out more about this Servant's Mission, download the mp3 using the links below.

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Psalm On Demand - Psalm 42

Psalm 42

1 As the deer pants for the water brooks,
so my soul pants after you, God.

2 My soul thirsts for God, for the living God.
When shall I come and appear before God?

3 My tears have been my food day and night,
while they continually ask me, “Where is your God?”

4 These things I remember, and pour out my soul within me,
how I used to go with the crowd, and led them to God’s house,
with the voice of joy and praise,
a multitude keeping a holy day.

5 Why are you in despair, my soul?
Why are you disturbed within me? Hope in God!
For I shall still praise him for the saving help of his presence.

6 My God, my soul is in despair within me.
Therefore I remember you from the land of the Jordan, the heights of Hermon, from the hill Mizar.

7 Deep calls to deep at the noise of your waterfalls.
All your waves and your billows have swept over me.

8 Yahweh will command his loving kindness in the daytime.
In the night his song shall be with me: a prayer to the God of my life.

9 I will ask God, my rock, “Why have you forgotten me?
Why do I go mourning because of the oppression of the enemy?”

10 As with a sword in my bones, my adversaries reproach me,
while they continually ask me, “Where is your God?”

11 Why are you in despair, my soul?
Why are you disturbed within me? Hope in God!
For I shall still praise him, the saving help of my countenance, and my God.

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God Gets His Hands Dirty 02

God Gets His Hands Dirty

02. Jesus' Identity

In Isaiah 42, we have what is almost universally called “The 1st Servant Song”. In this book of Isaiah, one of the key words is “Servant”. In Isaiah 41, the nation of Israel is also called a “Servant of God”. Isaiah himself has been called a servant of God (Isaiah 20:3).

However, here in Isaiah 42, it is as if the phrase “Servant of God” has taken on a new meaning – someone who is unique, special. God Himself is speaking, and announcing “my Servant”. By looking further into what God says, we know it cannot be Israel. If anything, Israel is the bruised reed or dimly burning wick. Remember Israel was to be a light to the nations and reflect God to the whole world. In chapter 41, Isaiah describes Israel as always complaining resentfully, fearful, discouraged and embittered.

Later in Isaiah 42, we see Israel described as blind, deaf and disobedient. This is not the ideal that Israel was to aspire to, but rather one person who would be God’s response to Israel’s failure and weakness. So, what does the rest of this passage tell of the identity of the Servant, the Messiah whom God would send?

To find out what we think the answer to this question is, please do download the mp3 using the links below...

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Psalm On Demand - Psalm 114

Psalm 114

(Read by Heather)

114:1 When Israel went forth out of Egypt,
the house of Jacob from a people of foreign language;
114:2 Judah became his sanctuary,
Israel his dominion.
114:3 The sea saw it, and fled.
The Jordan was driven back.
114:4 The mountains skipped like rams,
the little hills like lambs.
114:5 What was it, you sea, that you fled?
You Jordan, that you turned back?
114:6 You mountains, that you skipped like rams;
you little hills, like lambs?
114:7 Tremble, you earth, at the presence of the Lord,
at the presence of the God of Jacob,
114:8 who turned the rock into a pool of water,
the flint into a spring of waters.

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God Gets His Hands Dirty 01

God Gets His Hands Dirty

01. Introduction

The birth of Jesus Christ is the most celebrated around the world. These celebrations are diverse and transcend cultures, peoples, and languages. Of course, most people stop with Jesus being a baby and continue no further with Him. Jesus Christ is the most unique person in history. Jesus Christ is also the most divisive person to be found at anytime and anywhere.

Almost everyone has an opinion about Him, even if that opinion is based on ignorance, silence or misinformation. Christians believe that Jesus’ birth was the culmination of thousands of years of God telling the world that He was coming. From the time of the Fall when people showed active rebellion and disobedience towards God in Genesis 3, God was planning the time when He would step into history as a saviour or messiah. Christians believe that Jesus Christ is this messiah.

Throughout the Old Testament, we see that the birth, life and mission of this Messiah is the aim and focus of attention. We see it in the stories of people such as Abraham and Moses. We see it in the nation of Israel, which was to be God’s light to all the nations. We see it in the Israelite sacrificial system and law. We see it during the time of the Judges and the Kings. We especially see it through the prophets. The whole Old Testament is joined together, because it all speaks about this Messiah baby, Jesus Christ. This baby, who was both 100% human and 100% divine, grew in wisdom and stature. This baby was born in order that He would die on a cross some 33 years later. He did not die for his own sins, but for the sins of the entire world – all past, present and future sins. This baby was born to die so that the entire world may have life and life everlasting, if an individual chooses to accept it.

As we go through this adventure, we start together, by looking only at what two people from the Old Testament, had to say about Jesus Christ. These two people we know as Isaiah and Zechariah. Let’s start the adventure together by looking at an introduction to these two books of the Bible.

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New Year 2024 Bible Thought - Prayer of Joy Psalm 66

Psalm 66 - A Prayer of Joy

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In the podcast today, we look together at Psalm 66, which is a prayer of joy. The reason for this is, because where ever hope can be found, there is always joy. This is particularly true of the Christian life. As christians, our great hope is knowing that through the Lord Jesus Christ we will have salvation. Salvation is freedom. Freedom from injustice, freedom from sin. It is freedom from our prison of looking after our self, to a new life of entrance into self-forgetful worship & service to God. It is freedom from the limits of pain, decay, death, and entrance into a new world of life, immortality, beauty and joy without end. That is the hope of the Christian, and that is why we can have joy as Christians. But joy, is not just for the future. Joy is also for the present, for the here and now.  What is joy, and what place should joy take in our life today? Let's look into Psalm 66, and see where joy fitted into the life of the Psalmist.

1. Psalm 66 and joy

a. Joy and the Earth (vs. 1-4) 

b. Joy and the nation of Israel (vs. 5-12).

c. Joy and the psalmist (vs. 13 -20)

2. Applying it to ourselves.

As we have just seen the psalmist's joy involved sacrifice, testimony and praise, So how can we apply these things to ourselves?

a. Sacrifice

b. Testimony

c. Praise

Conclusion

Now that is all very well you may be thinking, but just what is joy? Is joy happiness, or is it more?

Here are what some people have said of joy. "We are all strings in the concert of God's joy" - Leon Bloy.

"The joy that Jesus gives is the result of our being at one with Him" - Oswald Chambers.

Many people, including some Christians confuse joy with happiness, however there is a vast difference. As C.S. Lewis once wrote: "Joy is never in our power, and pleasure is. I doubt whether anyone who has tasted joy would ever, if both were in his power, exchange it for all the pleasure in the world."

As humans we only feel happiness or pleasure depending on our circumstances, while joy is always separate from our circumstances. Happiness is a surface emotional response to good things; while joy is a deep-down heartfelt response that endures whether good or bad things happen to us. The world says happiness is looking out for number one and negotiating your personal good in all you do. The greatest good is their own happiness, however the happiness doesn't last long so the search for happiness continues in its circle. Joy however, is the result of sacrificial love. It is for the good of others, not for ourselves, which is to be our judge of joy. When we give away our will, for the sake of others, we receive the joy that Jesus desired for us. Happiness and joy are radically different.

Joy, unlike happiness, is never an end in itself. It is only as we make Christ our overwhelming first priority that joy, almost without our knowing it, comes. If we seek joy, we will lose it, because it cannot be caught. People of the world seeks happiness not joy. Joy is given only by Christ and serving him.

Jesus had the endurance to go through the pain and suffering because he had the end in view. He was affirming his purpose for the redemption of the world, and so he never lost sight of the joy that was set before him. Joy would come to him out of suffering because he gave himself for the redemption of mankind. Jesus prayed that his disciples would have joy: "I say these things while I am still in the world, so that they (his disciples) may have the full measure of my joy within them." (John 17:13).

The joy of Christ is transferred to us as we go about the task of serving him in this world. Joy is the second fruit of the Spirit. Joy is to be a quality about us just as it was a quality of the Lord Jesus Christ. However, sometimes we don't feel as if joy is part of us. We begin to ask ourselves if we have lost the joy of our Christian lives. We look around at the world we live in and see all the misery and injustices; we see the waste of human life in cancer and HIV Aids, and we don't feel very joyful. But when we do that, we are confusing happiness and joy. If we have lost the joy of our Christian life, we need to put back into perspective what God is calling us to do and consider if Christ is still truly first in our lives. Joy is Jesus Over Yourself. We can never truly lose joy, but we can misplace it if our priorities get out of line. Joy is not something to be worked at or toward. It is not a goal to be reached, nor is it an end in itself. Joy is the result of our relationship with Christ. A relationship of Jesus Over Yourself. Joy was sacrifice, testimony and praise to the Psalmist. It is for us too in the last days before His coming again.

Go out with joy, today into the New Year of 2024!

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Bible Thought - Worlds in Conflict Daniel 8

 Daniel 8 - Worlds In Conflict

We are looking today at an intriguing piece of Scripture - Daniel 8! In Chapter 7, the prophet Daniel had a dream of 4 animals, which were a winged lion, a bear, a winged leopard and a beast.  So let us read together Daniel 8.

v1-4 In the third year of the reign of king Belshazzar a vision appeared to me, even to me, Daniel, after that which appeared to me at the first. I saw in the vision; now it was so, that when I saw, I was in the citadel of Susa, which is in the province of Elam; and I saw in the vision, and I was by the river Ulai. Then I lifted up my eyes, and saw, and behold, there stood before the river a ram which had two horns: and the two horns were high; but one was higher than the other, and the higher came up last. I saw the ram pushing westward, and northward, and southward; and no animals could stand before him, neither was there any who could deliver out of his hand; but he did according to his will, and magnified himself.

v27 I, Daniel, fainted, and was sick certain days; then I rose up, and did the king's business: and I wondered at the vision, but none understood it.

Here in Chapter 8, we look at the bear, which is described here as a ram, and a winged leopard that is described as a goat. Unlike his previous two visions which occurred at night, this one occurs during the day. Daniel was transported in the Spirit to Susa, a major city of the Babylon & Persian empires. He sat down beside the Ulai canal, nine hundred feet wide and connected two large rivers so that boats could easily pass from one to the other. Spiritually seated by the river, he lifted up his eyes. He saw a ram, a male sheep, that had two horns, and as he watched, one of its horns became larger than the other.

Grab your Bible, and listen to the podcast to find out more about this intriguing and wonderful piece of Scripture!

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Jesus Humanity Hebrews 2 - Partakers Bible Thought

 

The Humanity of Jesus Christ

Hebrews 2:5-18 (NIV)

5 It is not to angels that he has subjected the world to come, about which we are speaking. 6 But there is a place where someone has testified:
‘What is mankind that you are mindful of them, a son of man that you care for him?
7 You made them a little lower than the angels; you crowned them with glory and honour
8 and put everything under their feet.’
In putting everything under them, God left nothing that is not subject to them. Yet at present we do not see everything subject to them. 9 But we do see Jesus, who was made lower than the angels for a little while, now crowned with glory and honour because he suffered death, so that by the grace of God he might taste death for everyone.
10 In bringing many sons and daughters to glory, it was fitting that God, for whom and through whom everything exists, should make the pioneer of their salvation perfect through what he suffered. 11 Both the one who makes people holy and those who are made holy are of the same family. So Jesus is not ashamed to call them brothers and sisters. 12 He says,
‘I will declare your name to my brothers and sisters;
in the assembly I will sing your praises.’
13 And again,
‘I will put my trust in him.’
And again he says,
‘Here am I, and the children God has given me.’
14 Since the children have flesh and blood, he too shared in their humanity so that by his death he might break the power of him who holds the power of death – that is, the devil – 15 and free those who all their lives were held in slavery by their fear of death. 16 For surely it is not angels he helps, but Abraham’s descendants. 17 For this reason he had to be made like them, fully human in every way, in order that he might become a merciful and faithful high priest in service to God, and that he might make atonement for the sins of the people. 18 Because he himself suffered when he was tempted, he is able to help those who are being tempted.

1. Jesus made fully human

• Be focussed only upon Him

2. Humanity of Jesus Christ

• Jesus the man
• Major Errors Concerning
• Jesus’ Humanity
• Why would Jesus become a man?

Conclusion

As Christians, because of God the Son becoming a human, in the man we know as Jesus Christ:

• we were bought at a price
• we have a new position before God
• we were bought out of slavery to sin, into being servants to, of and for God the Son, Jesus Christ alone
• we are Jesus’ personal possession and family
• we are in an amazingly intimate and dynamic relationship with God.

Let’s go tell and show others about this Jesus and how he can help people – just as he has helped you and I and countless others today and down through history. Will there be one other person in heaven because of you and what you have said or done?

If you are not a Christian yet, and you want to hear more about becoming a follower of this Jesus, do ask somebody here to help you. Jesus is calling you by name to be in a loving, dynamic and intimate relationship with God. Jesus died so that you could be.  Jesus, the ideal man, the God-man says: “Come and follow me.” Will you start following him, even from right now?"

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Psalm On Demand - Psalm 21

Psalm 21

(as read by Richard A)

For the Chief Musician. A Psalm by David.

1 The king rejoices in your strength, Yahweh! How greatly he rejoices in your salvation!
2 You have given him his heart’s desire, and have not withheld the request of his lips. Selah.
3 For you meet him with the blessings of goodness. You set a crown of fine gold on his head.
4 He asked life of you, you gave it to him, even length of days forever and ever.
5 His glory is great in your salvation. You lay honor and majesty on him.
6 For you make him most blessed forever. You make him glad with joy in your presence.

7 For the king trusts in Yahweh. Through the loving kindness of the Most High, he shall not be moved.
8 Your hand will find out all of your enemies. Your right hand will find out those who hate you.
9 You will make them as a fiery furnace in the time of your anger. Yahweh will swallow them up in his wrath. The fire shall devour them.
10 You will destroy their descendants from the earth, their posterity from among the children of men.
11 For they intended evil against you. They plotted evil against you which cannot succeed.
12 For you will make them turn their back, when you aim drawn bows at their face.
13 Be exalted, Yahweh, in your strength, so we will sing and praise your power.

 

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Psalm On Demand - Psalm 50

Psalm 50

A Psalm by Asaph.
50:1 The Mighty One, God, Yahweh, speaks, and calls the earth from sunrise to sunset.
50:2 Out of Zion, the perfection of beauty, God shines forth.
50:3 Our God comes, and does not keep silent. A fire devours before him. It is very stormy around him.
50:4 He calls to the heavens above, to the earth, that he may judge his people:
50:5 “Gather my saints together to me, those who have made a covenant with me by sacrifice.”
50:6 The heavens shall declare his righteousness, for God himself is judge.
Selah.
50:7 “Hear, my people, and I will speak; Israel, and I will testify against you. I am God, your God.
50:8 I don’t rebuke you for your sacrifices. Your burnt offerings are continually before me.
50:9 I have no need for a bull from your stall, nor male goats from your pens.
50:10 For every animal of the forest is mine, and the livestock on a thousand hills.
50:11 I know all the birds of the mountains. The wild animals of the field are mine.
50:12 If I were hungry, I would not tell you, for the world is mine, and all that is in it.
50:13 Will I eat the flesh of bulls, or drink the blood of goats?
50:14 Offer to God the sacrifice of thanksgiving. Pay your vows to the Most High.
50:15 Call on me in the day of trouble. I will deliver you, and you will honor me.”
50:16 But to the wicked God says, “What right do you have to declare my statutes, that you have taken my covenant on your lips,
50:17 since you hate instruction, and throw my words behind you?
50:18 When you saw a thief, you consented with him, and have participated with adulterers.
50:19 “You give your mouth to evil. Your tongue frames deceit.
50:20 You sit and speak against your brother. You slander your own mother’s son.
50:21 You have done these things, and I kept silent. You thought that I was just like you. I will rebuke you, and accuse you in front of your eyes.
50:22 “Now consider this, you who forget God, lest I tear you into pieces, and there be none to deliver.
50:23 Whoever offers the sacrifice of thanksgiving glorifies me, and prepares his way so that I will show God’s salvation to him.”

 

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