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
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.
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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