Sunday 23 August 2015

The Ministry of Reconciliation. ~ Ganeida

Before we begin I have word from the Lord to share.  This morning the Lord reminded me of Joshua & Caleb ~ the two spies that were not intimidated by the size of the people in the land the Lord had promised them & believed the Lord would deliver the land to them as promised.  I believe the Lord said we live in occupied territory ruled by a usurper but we are to occupy the land until He comes. Even take territory. The battle rages but we have not been called to lay down our weapons yet.

John 3:16-17New King James Version
16 For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life. 17 For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through Him might be saved

Romans 5:5New King James Version
Now hope does not disappoint, because the love of God has been poured out in our hearts by the Holy Spirit who was given to us.

2 Corinthians 5:18-19New King James Version
18 Now all things are of God, who has reconciled us to Himself through Jesus Christ, and has given us the ministry of reconciliation, 19 that is, that God was in Christ reconciling the world to Himself, not imputing their trespasses to them, and has committed to us the word of reconciliation.
Three verses, 3 words:
Shalom

Tov

Hesed




These are the 6 things the Lord gave me for today.  There is an interconnection but before we can see how they relate to each other & to us we have to look at them individually.

Let us start with John 3:16.  This is a very familiar verse but the Lord only highlighted one word for me.  Gave.  God gave.  God is love [1 jn 4:9] & love always gives.  As followers of Jesus our walk with God begins & ends with this verse.  God gave us His son & in Him we have salvation, redemption, provision, healing, joy, eternal life…& so much more. As it is explained in 2nd Corinthians… that is, that God was in Christ reconciling the world to Himself,

John 3:16 says very specifically God gave His only son. Now one of the names of Jesus is Sar Shalom, in English usually rendered, Prince of Peace.  As we keep finding this is not a terribly accurate rendering of the original Hebrew. Sar does not expressly imply royalty.  Rather it means an overseer, or one who rules over, is responsible for, something.  Jesus oversees, is responsible for, Shalom.

Shalom is one of those Hebrew words for which there is no good & accurate translation that carries the exact Hebrew meaning. Broken into it’s Hebrew components it implies teaching, learning, a direct connection between God & Torah. Bear in mind that Torah is nowhere mentioned in the New Testament.  The word is the Greek nomos.  In Scripture it is not a legal definition.  It means teaching & so the New Testament application is that Jesus’ teaching is our Torah, our teaching with the application of a better covenant based on better promises Hebrews 8:6. In the Greek use of nomos it is implied there is a normal or usual application of Torah but there are exceptions that are valid while still within the law.  For example the soul that sins shall die; the legal exception is Christ died for us so that we do not have to die.

Shalom is a word that expresses the fullness of God ~ what Moses was aware of when God’s glory passed before him. It includes contentment, completeness, wholeness, well being, harmony, health, welfare, safety, prosperity, fullness, rest, tranquillity ~ the fullness of God as expressed through the Ruach haKodesh in Jesus Christ.  This is not only the why but the how of *God with Us*. So when we have shalom we have all of God in Jesus Christ through His Holy Spirit.  When we bless using Numbers 6:24-26: YHWH bless you and keep you. YHWH make His face shine upon you and be gracious to you. YHWH lift up His face upon you and give you SHALOM

We invoke a very powerful blessing.  Remember there is death & life in the power of the tongue.  Shalom invokes the fullness of life in God.
The next word is Hesed, love.  Remember we said hesed is agape in the Greek & is talking about the way God loves.  It speaks not of feelings but an attitude of lovingkindness, mercy & loyalty. It also implies redemption from enemies & troubles, preservation of life, redemption from sin & keeping of the covenants.

 As I was thinking about Romans 5:5 Now hope does not disappoint, because the love of God has been poured out in our hearts by the Holy Spirit who was given to us, a verse that is used to teach we have God’s love abiding within us, The Holy Spirit showed me something. This is a verse that can be read to mean something completely different & I believe both readings are correct.

What is the very first of the 10 Commandments?

That’s right.  Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, with all thy mind, with all thy strength…the Holy Spirit enables us to love God with heart, mind & strength because Hebrews 8:10 says : For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, saith the Lord; I will put my laws into their mind, and write them in their hearts: and I will be to them a God, and they shall be to me a people:

Paul is quoting from both Jeremiah & Isaiah.  It is reiterated in Romans11:27 & Hebrews 10:16 & expanded upon in 2 Corintians 3:3 when Paul says: You show that you are a letter from Christ, the result of our ministry, written not with ink but with the Spirit of the living God, not on tablets of stone but on tablets of human hearts.

The result of this is Tov ~ a people who are functioning in the way that they were designed to operate.  The old Westminster Shorter Catechism puts it this way:  What is the chief end of man? Man's chief end is to glorify God, and to enjoy him for ever. ..

That is what Adam & Eve had.  That is what they lost. They were able to walk with God in the cool of the evening & enjoy His company.  As soon as they sinned they hid from Him, unable to enjoy His company because they were far more aware of their wrong than they were of God.

Which brings me to 2nd Corinthians…
2 Corinthians 5:18-19New King James Version
18 Now all things are of God, who has reconciled us to Himself through Jesus Christ, and has given us the ministry of reconciliation, 19 that is, that God was in Christ reconciling the world to Himself, not imputing their trespasses to them, and has committed to us the word of reconciliation.
Jesus told us to go into all the world & make disciples.  What we offer is the Ministry of Reconciliation. 

The church has a history of focusing only on salvation but to focus exclusively on salvation is to miss the mark.  It is certainly to miss what Jesus meant when he told us to make disciples.  Disciples are followers.  They exhibit the character of the one they follow.  If we are followers of Jesus we will exhibit His character. 

What did the character of Jesus look like?  He was Emmanuel, God with us, God made man, God clothed in flesh to walk amongst us & show us how it is done.

Ours is a broken world, a dysfunctional world, a world that knows neither peace nor wholeness. It has a distorted understanding of what it is to love & to be loved.  It has a distorted understanding of what it means to follow Jesus.  It has a distorted understanding of what it means to be useful & functional. We are a throw away society & one of the things we throw away is people.  We throw away babies in abortion; we through away the disabled, the mentally impaired, the mentally ill, the veteran, the homeless, the addict, pets for a holiday, children for a job, money on toys that will never satisfy the deep emptiness at the core of our being.

When we come into union with Christ a number of things happen but probably the most important is we stop arguing with God.  We agree we are sinners in need of a saviour.  As soon as we do that we come into agreement with God & He can begin to do something about it because all provision for us has already been made for us in Christ.

It is Jesus who said that He came that we might have life, & have it in abundance John10:10.  The life Jesus speaks of is the zoe life, the God~life, & we are meant to experience it in abundance, above & beyond what is natural, an extraordinary life, a life of excess ~ excess in God. That is the meaning of perissos.  This is our ministry.  No, it can’t be done without salvation but our lives are meant to be attractive, to declare the glory of God & what He has done for us & in us.  Our love for Jesus should be a consuming fire that draws others towards God.  We were never meant to go about *bible~bashing*. We are meant to live the gospel.


I have 2 thoughts to finish on.  Both come courtesy of Buddy Bell & though he was speaking on the Ministry of helps I believe both thoughts are pertinent here.

The first is this: People will never grow beyond the leadership.  Please pray for your leaders.  Leaders need to pray for each other that we will always to continue to grow, to be passionate followers of Christ, that we will grow to know Him more & more.  Passionate people who love God more than anything or anyone else are going to display more & more the zoe life of perissos & the ministry of reconciliation will flow naturally & abundantly out of that passion.  As the leadership, so the people.  It is mutually beneficial.

The 2nd thought is this: Sunday is meant to be, at least in part, a celebration of the life lived well for God.  When we arrive here on Sunday are we hoping for enough food to see us through the coming week or do we arrive excited to share how God has lived through us last week?  Hosea6:6 For I desired mercy, and not sacrifice; and the knowledge of God more than burnt offerings.

God gave that we might have life.  Let us go & do likewise.




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