4 Pentecost

4 Pentecost - Sunday B

First Posted June 28, 2009

Psalm 92:1-5 (6-10) 11-14 -- The Righteous Flourish in God’s House

Ezekiel 17:22-24 -- The Lord’s Planting in Zion

2 Corinthians 5:1-10 -- Longing for our Heavenly Home

Mark 4:26-34 -- Seeds of the Kingdom

Psalm:

Those who recognize and experience the works of God, and God’s love and faithfulness, will be glad to rejoice and praise him. The wicked, who reject and deny the works of God, are spiritually ignorant. God’s word declares that the enemies of God are doomed to eternal destruction, although they may seem to flourish now for a while.

The wicked will be destroyed, but God is eternal. The people of God have seen and heard the doom of the wicked (because they have heard and believed God’s Word). The righteous will flourish and be sustained eternally in God’s House.

Ezekiel:

The Lord promised to take a cutting from the lofty Cedar of Lebanon (Israel; Judaism) and cause it to root and grow in Zion (Jerusalem; the City of God), the Hill of God in Israel. God will cause the sprig to grow, produce branches and bear fruit, becoming a place of rest and shelter for God’s People. All the people of the world will come to know that God raises up and sustains the lowly tree and brings down the haughty tree.

2 Corinthians:

“Born-again” (John 3:3, 5-8) Christians have fellowship with the Lord now, through the gift of the indwelling Holy Spirit, but that is only a small sample of the fellowship we will have with the Lord in his eternal heavenly kingdom. Here, we live as in a tent, awaiting the time we can occupy our heavenly home. We long to exchange our fleshly garments for heavenly garments, exchanging mortality for what is truly eternally life. This is what God has intended for us from the beginning of Creation, and the Lord gives the gift of his indwelling Holy Spirit as the guarantee.

While we live in this world we live by faith in God’s Word. Being with the Lord in heaven will be better than being in this world, so we can endure our present circumstances, making our goal to serve and please the Lord. Every one who has ever lived in this world will face judgment before Jesus Christ, and will receive eternal good or evil, according to what we have done in this lifetime.

Mark:

Jesus described the kingdom of God in two parables (stories of common earthly experiences to teach spiritual truths). First, the kingdom of God is like a wheat field. The farmer can scatter the seed at the right time, but the germination and growth is provided by God. The farmer only needs to watch and be ready for the harvest at the right time.

The Kingdom of God is also like a tiny mustard seed, representing faith; our assent to God’s will; our “yes.” As we trust and obey God he causes our faith to grow to spiritual maturity at the Day of the Lord, where we will find rest and security in it.

Commentary:

God’s Word is in parables so that we are free to accept or reject it for ourselves. The Lord explains these parables to his disciples who trust and obey him and seek to understand his Word (Mark 4:34; Luke 24:45).

This Creation is God’s “garden,” and his intention from the very beginning has been to “grow” an eternal kingdom of his people who willingly trust and obey him. God has given us his Word and revealed his plan in the Bible and in the coming, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. Jesus is the fulfillment, embodiment and demonstration of God’s Word in human flesh (John 1:1-5, 14). We are free to accept or reject God’s Word for ourselves but our choice will have personal and eternal consequences.

Jesus is the sprig which God planted in Zion, which alone provides eternal rest and protection. We are all the trees of God’s forest (whether we acknowledge him or not). We will all come to know in the Day of Judgment that the Lord exalts the lowly and brings down the haughty, but by then it will be too late to change our eternal destiny.

If we are willing to seek the truth God will reveal it to us. We can know, now, with certainty, where we will spend eternity. If we will provide the “mustard seed” of faith, our “yes” to God’s will, he will cause it to grow to spiritual maturity, salvation from eternal condemnation, and to eternal life. If we have been “born-again,” and have experienced the love and faithfulness of God in Jesus Christ, he will provide the seed of the Gospel, and will cause it to germinate and bear fruit; all we need to do is scatter it at the right time and then watch for and help with the harvest.

Is Jesus your Lord? Are you Jesus’ disciple? Are you trusting and obeying Jesus? Have you received the indwelling Holy Spirit since you first truly believed (Acts 19:2)? Are you making disciples of Jesus Christ and teaching them to obey all that Jesus commands (Matthew 28:18-20)? Do you know with certainty where you will spend eternity (1 John 5:11-13; Ephesians 1:13-14)?

4 Pentecost - Monday B

First Posted June 29, 2009

Psalm 107:1-3, 23-32 -- Our Deliverer from Evil

This is a call to all God’s people to give thanks for his goodness and steadfast love. God has gathered his people from the four corners of the earth (originally in pilgrimages to Jerusalem, but now into the Church throughout the world).

The Psalmist expresses thanks for God’s deliverance of his people from various dangers. Seamen had the opportunity to see the great works of God in the oceans. They recognized their dependence upon God to deliver them from the great perils of wind and wave. When they were frightened and storm-tossed, they prayed for God’s deliverance and he delivered them from their distress. “He made the storm be still, and the waves of the sea were hushed. Then they were glad because they had quiet, and he brought them to their desired haven” (Psalm 107:29-30; compare with Matthew 8:23-27 and John 6:16-21).

Commentary:

God has revealed and demonstrated his goodness, power and faithful love to his people who trust and obey him, in the Biblical record of his dealing with Israel, and in his Son, Jesus Christ, who fulfills, embodies and illustrates God’s Word in human flesh (John 1:1-5, 14). Jesus is the fulfillment of this text, in the days of his earthly ministry, and today, and eternally. I have personally experienced his deliverance several times. God delivers his people from the storms and perils of life, including physical death, by his anointed Savior and eternal King, Jesus Christ. There is no other name which we can call upon and be delivered (Acts 4:12).

4 Pentecost - Tuesday B

First Posted June 30, 2009

Job 38:1-11 -- Knowing God

God revealed himself to Job in a whirlwind, as he had to Elisha when he took Elijah into heaven (2 Kings 2:11). Job had questioned why God allowed misfortune to happen to Job, because Job had considered himself righteous.

Job and his counselors all were trying to understand God from human wisdom. They all thought they knew God but they really only knew “about” God. All their words “about” God darkened their counsel rather than providing the light of insight.

Job was challenging God to defend God’s position in allowing Job to have misfortune, but it isn’t man’s right to question God’s motives. We need to understand that God’s wisdom and motives are far beyond human understanding. God is the creator of earth and sea. He didn’t need human advice to design and create this world. God doesn’t have to account to us; it is we who have to give account to God.

Through Job’s suffering he began to examine his faith, and through that examination, came to a personal knowledge of and relationship with God. Job came to realize that he had formerly only known “about” God, but as he searched for God, God revealed himself to Job, and Job came to know God personally (Job 42:1-6 RSV).

Commentary:

God doesn’t have to account to mankind, but he is willing to reveal himself to us, when we earnestly seek him, so that we can learn to trust and obey him. God began to reveal himself to mankind when he called Abraham to be the father of a great nation of God’s people. God has been revealing himself through his dealing with Israel as recorded in the Bible.

God’s plan for Creation has always been to create an eternal kingdom of his people who willingly trust and obey God. This temporal world is our opportunity to seek and come to personal knowledge of and fellowship with God (Acts 17:26-27); to learn to trust and obey God. Jesus Christ is God’s only provision for forgiveness of our sin (disobedience of God’s Word) and salvation from eternal condemnation and eternal death (Acts 4:12; John 14:6; see God’s Plan of Salvation, sidebar, top right). Jesus has been designed into Creation from the very beginning (John 1:1-5, 14).

In God’s perfect timing, Jesus Christ came into the world in human flesh. Jesus is the fulfillment, embodiment and demonstration of God’s Word in human flesh (John 1:1-5, 14). Jesus is the further revelation of God to us (John 8:19; John 14:9-10; Matthew 11:27). We first come to know Jesus from the Bible. When we decide and begin to trust and obey Jesus, Jesus reveals himself and God the Father to us personally and individually by the gift of his indwelling Holy Spirit, which only Jesus gives (John 1:31-34) only to his disciples who trust and obey Jesus (John 14:15-17, 21, 23). The Holy Spirit is God’s fullest revelation of himself to us personally and individually.

Do you know Jesus? Is Jesus your Lord? Are you Jesus’ disciple? Are you trusting and obeying Jesus? Have you received the indwelling Holy Spirit since you first truly believed (Acts 19:2)? Are you making disciples of Jesus Christ and teaching them to obey all that Jesus commands (Matthew 28:18-20)? Do you know with certainty where you will spend eternity (1 John 5:11-13; Ephesians 1:13-14)?

4 Pentecost - Wednesday B

First Posted July 1, 2009

2 Corinthians 5:14-21 -- Ministry of Reconciliation

Christians are guided and motivated by the love Christ had for us (manifested in his crucifixion and experienced personally through the gift of his indwelling Holy Spirit). Since he died for us all (who are willing to receive his sacrifice) we consider ourselves also as dead to sin and self-will, so that we might live henceforth no longer for ourselves, but in new life for him who died for us and made that new life possible.

Because we know and experience new spiritual eternal life, we no longer view this Creation from a worldly point of view. We have a new understanding of Christ (not merely that he was a man, or a teacher, but that he is the Lord and Savior of the world, the first to rise from physical death to eternal life). So “born-again” (John 3:3, 5-8) Christians are new creatures, a new Creation. The old physical worldly way of living has passed away, and we live the new spiritual life we have in Christ by the gift of his indwelling Holy Spirit.

Commentary:

Our spiritual new birth and restoration to fellowship with God is his gift to us; it was God’s initiative that reconciles us to himself through Christ. God decided not to count the sins (disobedience of God’s Word) against anyone who is willing to accept his forgiveness in Jesus Christ (see God’s Plan of Salvation, sidebar, top right). Christians have been reconciled to God through Jesus, and are given the message of reconciliation to the world. Christians are to be ambassadors for Christ; God makes his offer of reconciliation through us. We urge others to accept God’s offer of forgiveness and reconciliation through Jesus Christ. Although sinless, Jesus bore and paid for our sins on the Cross so that we could receive and become the righteousness of God.

Christians are disciples of Jesus Christ who trust and obey Jesus. Jesus gives the gift of the Holy Spirit to his disciples who trust and obey Jesus (John 14:15-17). It is possible for one to know with certainty when one has received the indwelling Holy Spirit (Acts 19:2). The gift of the Holy Spirit is what gives us spiritual, eternal life, and personal fellowship with God the Father and Jesus Christ. The Holy Spirit is the seal and guarantee that one is in Christ and has eternal life (2 Corinthians 1:22; Ephesians 1:13-14; Romans 8:9b, 11, 15-16).

When we are “reborn” we’re to be guided and empowered by the Holy Spirit to carry on the mission of reconciliation which God began in Jesus Christ. Those who have experienced God’s forgiveness and our restoration to personal fellowship with him are to be ambassadors of Christ to the world. We’re no longer to live for ourselves, or from our old worldly perspective, but rather in the new life and mission we have in Jesus Christ.

Christian evangelism is not about “recruiting” church members. It’s about making “born-again” disciples, and “witnessing” implies that the “witnesses” have experienced the truth of Jesus’ resurrection and the promise of the indwelling Holy Spirit. Jesus told his disciples, whom he had personally discipled twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week for about three years, not to begin their ministry of the Gospel of reconciliation, but to stay in Jerusalem (the Church is the New Jerusalem), until they had received and been empowered and guided by the indwelling Holy Spirit (Luke 24:49; Acts 1:3-4-8).

4 Pentecost - Thursday B

First Posted July 2, 2009

Mark 4:35-41 -- Lord of Creation

Jesus asked his disciples to come with him to the other side of the Sea of Galilee. A great storm arose, but Jesus was asleep in the stern. Jesus knew God’s will for him was to be crucified, so he didn’t need to worry that he might drown. Jesus accepted God’s will, and trusted God to accomplish it. The disciples could be confident that they were safe with Jesus in their boat, but they thought Jesus was unaware of their circumstances.

When disciples are following Jesus’ commands they will encounter spiritual storms in life, but if Jesus is with them through the gift of his indwelling Holy Spirit they can be confident that they will accomplish what Jesus called them to do, and will survive and reach the eternal shore of God’s kingdom in Heaven, even though we may not sense his conscious presence at the moment.

Commentary:

Jesus’ commands have the creative force of God’s Word. God brought this present creation into existence by the power of his Word. “And God said ‘Let there be light,’ and there was light” (Genesis 1:3). When Jesus said “Peace! Be Still!” even the winds and waves obeyed him, and there was a great calm.

Jesus could command our obedience and we would have to obey, but he prefers to invite rather than command us, so that we have the freedom to choose during this lifetime whether to trust and obey him or not. For the same reason, Jesus often referred to himself as the “Son of man,” which is true but which allows us to decide for ourselves who Jesus really is (with a hint from Daniel 7:13). When we respond to his invitation with obedient trust, we will experience his power to preserve and deliver us from the storms of life.

Our lives are like the disciples’ boat. When Jesus is in our “boat” through the gift of his indwelling Holy Spirit, we can be confident that we can pass through the storms of life and arrive safely on the heavenly shore of eternal life. Only Jesus gives the gift of the Holy Spirit (John 1:31-34), only to his disciples who trust and obey Jesus (John 14:15-17). The Holy Spirit is the seal and guarantee that one is in Christ and has eternal life (2 Corinthians 1:22; Ephesians 1:13-14; Romans 8:9b, 11, 15-16). Jesus calls us to go with him to the “other side.”

There is a day coming when everyone who has ever lived will be accountable to the Lord for what they have done in this lifetime (John 5:28-29). Jesus will command, and there will be no choice but to obey. Those who have refused to trust and obey Jesus during this lifetime will be condemned to eternal death in Hell, but those who have trusted and obeyed Jesus, will be welcomed and received into God’s eternal kingdom in Heaven (Matthew 25:31-46; see God’s Plan of Salvation, sidebar, top right).

4 Pentecost - Friday B

First Posted July 3, 2009

Romans 8:18-23 -- First Fruits

Disciples of Jesus Christ must be willing to bear suffering for the Gospel. The world hated and persecuted Jesus and we cannot expect better treatment (John 15:18; Matthew 10:22), but our suffering is momentary and slight in comparison to the glory of eternal life in paradise in God’s kingdom.

All Creation waits with longing for the revealing of God’s kingdom of his people. This Creation has been subjected to bondage to futility and decay according to God’s will and purpose, but with the coming of God’s eternal kingdom, Creation will be freed from that bondage, no longer subject to the forces of decay and the constraints of time.

All Creation suffers with God’s people as we wait for God’s kingdom; our suffering is like “birth-pains,” which we must go through to bring the New Creation to birth. As Christians suffer, we have the Holy Spirit, who is the “first-fruits,” the “security deposit” God gives us to guarantee that we are his children and have eternal life; that our mortal bodies will be transformed into eternal ones.

Commentary:

“Born-Again” (John 3:3, 5-8) Christians begin to experience the glory of God’s eternal kingdom now, through the gift of the Holy Spirit. We have access to and fellowship with the Lord. We feel his goodness and love; and the presence of the Holy Spirit assures us that we are children of God and have eternal life (2 Corinthians 1:22; Ephesians 1:13-14; Romans 8:9b, 11, 15-16).

Christians will suffer for the Gospel, although not many will have to shed their own blood. For many, suffering for the Gospel is simply self-denial, where we choose not to do what is contrary to God’s Word, even though our society disagrees. We may suffer social ostracism, or discrimination against us in our job. But we are more than compensated by the comfort, counsel, and encouragement of the Holy Spirit.

The Holy Spirit equips, empowers and guides us so that we can confront our persecutors in the Spirit and power of the Lord rather than our own strength, and we will be victorious. I have personally experienced and testify to encounters with powerful opponents of the Gospel, where the Lord led me to those encounters, and gave me what to say to be victorious over them. The Lord can provide the spiritual weapons and give us the victory just like the Lord gave David, the shepherd boy, victory over Goliath.

4 Pentecost - Saturday B

Written Saturday, July 8, 2006
First Posted July 4, 2009

Luke 6:36-42 -- Higher Righteousness

We are to be merciful to others as God has been merciful to us. We are not to be judgmental and condemning of others, but forgiving, since God has not judged or condemned us but has forgiven our sins.

We should be generous and give to others as they have need (since all that we have is the gift of God). As we give, it shall be given to us.

Jesus uses a series of parables to warn about spiritual teachers. Watch out for “blind guides;” the blind cannot lead the blind, or they will all fall into the pit (the grave of eternal death in Hell). A disciple is not greater than his teacher; the best one can hope for is to become like his teacher.

It is easier to see small flaws in others than to admit large flaws in ourselves. How can we hope to “fix” someone else’s small flaw, while we ourselves have greater flaws. Let’s work on getting our own flaws fixed, so that we may actually be able to help others.

Commentary:

Authentic Christians are, by definition, disciples of Jesus Christ. We are to learn to live according to Jesus’ teaching and example. In our sinful human nature, we want mercy (undeserved lenience; forgiveness) for ourselves, but “justice” (maximum punishment) for our enemies. When we realize how much God has forgiven us we will be willing to forgive others.

Society today, particularly in America, thinks of itself as generous. When disaster happens we give large amounts of material and physical resources. But we only give from our abundance, and not according to the need; we only give until it (begins to) “hurt” (us), way before actual hardship, not until it really “helps.”

We’re living in an age when the “bottom line,” “profit,” is everything! Jobs are given to illegal immigrants, or to workers in foreign nations who are willing to work for less than our minimum wage. The current minimum wage in America does not afford enough to live on; it takes two minimum wage workers to make what one minimum wage worker earned four decades ago.* While Congress adjusts their pay to keep up with the cost of living, the minimum wage is stuck at $5.15 since 1997; adjusted for inflation it would have to be $9.31 to match the minimum wage of 1968.*

Anyone who can and does read the newspaper must be aware that workers retirement plans are collapsing and being eliminated while corporate executives are negotiating and receiving multi-million dollar retirement packages. I can’t understand how the majority of Americans can vote so consistently against their own best interest. If we were a truly generous society we wouldn’t permit such a disparity of income between the rich and the rest of us.

We had a recent President who professed to be a “born-again” Christian, and yet he gave the rich a tax break, while pursuing control of Mid-East oil under the guise of a “war on terrorism,” the cost of which, in lives and taxes, will have to be borne by our children.

The Church is commanded to make disciples of Jesus Christ, but church “members” don’t want to be disciples. We want to be leaders without having been “followers” of Jesus’ teaching and example. We want to be “teachers” of disciples without having been “born-again” (John 3:3, 5-8, and note v.10). We want to be “witnesses” without having experienced the 4ift of the Holy Spirit and a personal fellowship with Jesus.

*Holly Sklar: “Congress’ paycheck focus,” The Daily Debate at Sacbee.com, June 21, 2006