Biblical Thoughts

Wednesday, October 2, 2013

THE BODY OF CHRIST--17

In 1 Corinthians 1.4-6 Paul narrates the profile of the Corinthian church. He thanks God for the grace of God, for the enrichment in Him by the Corinthians in all speech and all knowledge, even the testimony of Christ. The Corinthians are not lacking in any gift, waiting eagerly for Jesus to come again in great power and glory.

These are great compliments and an insightful comment. Paul must've known the church and the members well. If they are not lacking in any gift, what was their worship like? What was their church structure like?

The question behind those questions is, how did God lead that church?

Paul does not give a detailed answer. He doesn't talk about bishops and popes, elders and deacons, committee meetings, associate pastors, or congretational leaders. What does he talk about?
God is faithful, through whom you were called into fellowship with His Son, Jesus Christ our Lord, 1 Cor. 1.9.

What we need to do is look into what those few, simple words mean to the Christians at Corinth, to the NT writers and to us.

First, he says Christ is not divided so the church should not be, either. His advice to avoid divisions is through baptism. Then he says he came to preach the word of the cross. Then he says no man should boast before God, because it is by His doing that the Corinthians are in Christ Jesus, who is wisdom, righteousness, sanctification and redemption to the Corinthians.

Now this is a great deal to contemplate. What we can notice immdiately is the emphasis on the individual soul. If every Corinthian comes to church through the word of the cross, they will be in harmony. They won't all have the same level of knowledge but they will all know that it is the blood of Christ through the preaching of the cross which brings them into the presence of the Lord. By this, there is no boasting.
When Paul finishes chapter 1 of Corinthians with--Let him who boasts, boast in the Lord--he is telling us all that we are not to boast of our tradition, our structure, our knowledge but only of our position in the Lord. When that is true, the formal structure almost doesn't matter.

Is there a way to keep that relationship with Christ in our church matters?
Paul says yes, through wisdom. In chapter 2 he says he does not speak with the wisdom of men, which might simply refer to Greek philosophy. He says he came to the Corinthians--on the power of God, 1 Cor. 2.5. Yet, there is the wisdom of God by which the church can operate.

God reveals this wisdom through the Spirit, as the Corinthians have received the Spirit of God. In fact, Paul says the Corinthians have received the mind of Christ, 1 Cor. 1.31. This would not make them infallible, it would make them humble as Paul said to the Philippians--He humbled Himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross, Phil. 2.8. There we are, back at the preaching of the word of the cross.

What all of this comes to is the structure of the church is the nature of our redeemed souls. If we have been humbled by the preaching of the cross, if we have been filled with the power of God through God the Spirit, if we know Christ as we are known, the structure of the church is all right.

Wednesday, September 25, 2013

KEEPING THE FAITH--Week 16
According to Jesus, Christian spirituality is the belief that as Jesus says in John 10.38--the Father is in Me and I in the Father.

In this same passage Jesus says--If I do not do the works of the Father, do not believe Me; but if I do them, though you do not believe Me, believe the works, that you may know and understand that the Father is in Me and I in the Father, John 10. 37,38.

Jesus is indicating that for those Jews who might have stoned Him, if they would believe the works He does, they can believe that He is in the Father and the Father in Him. So what work has He done?

Just before John 10, in chapter 9 Jesus heals a blind man. Let's look at this account. In John 9 a blind man had been healed by Jesus. The Pharisees did not believe the blind man when he said Jesus healed him. So they put the blind man out of their presence.
The blind man had told them Jesus healed him. He then tells them the great insight--If this man were not from God, He could do nothing, John 9.33. With that in mind, the Pharisees don't think the Father would speak to Jesus, whom they call a sinner. The blind man retorts--if anyone is God-fearing and does His will, He hears him.

Before that the Pharisees had said--we do not know where He is from, John 9.29. This brings us to the point that the Pharisees do not believe that Jesus could be from the Father.

We can conclude that the Jews did not believe Jesus was from the Father. Since they didn't believe that, they could not accept Jesus doing anything which could only come from the Father.
Therefore, in the next chapter, Jesus calls Himself, The Door, 10.7. He calls Himself, the Good Shepherd, John 10.14. The door is the entrance to a belief that He and the Father are one; the shepherd is the one who keep the sheep in the belief that He and the Father are one. Jesus says this in John 10.27, 28--My sheep hear My voice and I know them and they follow Me and I give eternal life to them and they shall never perish..

This section of John 10 is the bridge from unbelief with the Pharisees into belief with the blind man.
The Jews continue in unbelief, making the accusation--You, being a man, make Yourself out to be God, John 10.33. But the man who was born blind had already turned away from them, he has turned to Jesus in belief. When Jesus comes to him afterward He asks the man--Do you believe in the Son of Man?

The man said--Lord I believe, John 9.38.

For us in this day and age, Christian spirituality begins with the blind man's expression--if anyone is God-fearing and does His will, He hears him. God-fearing is belief, doing His will is acting on belief. There is no nationality here, no gender, no race...only belief.

To be God-fearing is to take pleasure in pleasing God. It is the pleasure which God brings to a soul that inspires one to do His will. That is the beginning which this passage brings out in chapter 9.
Chapter 10 takes us further into God. Speaking of a good shepherd, He says in John 10.4--When he puts forth his own, he goes before them and the sheep follow hhim because they know his voice. In Christian spirituality that voice is the Holy Spirit, that shepherd is Jesus Christ.

We enter into Christian spirituality when we know that to have a relationship with the Father, we must realize He is in the Son and the Son is in Him. This understanding is by the Holy Spirit.

We can conclude that Christian spirituality is the Trinity.
Jesus asks the blind man--Do you believe in the Son of Man?' He is asking the blind man, do you recognize Me as the God in whom you believe? The blind man sees Jesus and sees that He is God--'Lord I believe.' And he worshiped Him.

Tuesday, September 17, 2013

WHY DIE?--Week 15

In Luke 23, the account of the crucifixion of Christ is narrated. Luke describes the soldiers, Pilate, Herod and Jesus in their actions and decisions. We know that historically all their actions did occur, that history records the crucifixion of Jesus.

Now, 20 centuries later, in a culture which is not religious--as ours--how can we see this?

Most people around the world can imagine a man bringing an animal to a place to be sacrificed as a religious rite. We identify that as religion, as sacrifice, as an oblation. We might not ever know what it accomplished, but we accept it as religion.
Jesus had said in John 15.13--Greater love has no man than this, that he lay down his life for his friend. And we know that in war, men often have taken the spear for their fellow soldier, dying in his place.

But to see a man die so that all men and women can go to heaven, is that understandible?

Pilate said he found no fault with Jesus, acknowledging this trial is about guilt and innocence. So Pilate has him punished and released, implying innocence in Roman law. Later Jesus is put on a cross, a crucifixion--an instrument of death for traitors and criminals. Soldiers take him, like a war prisoner rather than an animal to be burned. He is put with two criminals, having been sentenced.

But He doesn't talk about some crime He might have committed--the other criminals do. He does mention Paradise to one of the criminals. So Jesus is called King of the Jews, as if He threatens the crown of Rome. He is killed with criminals, sacrificed like a war criminal by the Romans.
Does He yell at the Romans, like a convicted prisoner? No, He forgives those who had Him killed--Father, forgive them; for they do not know what they are doing, Luke 23.34.

Hamlet, Othello and MacBeth died for their country, Sidney Carton dies for old Dr. Manette in A Tale of Two Cities and Achilleus dies in the Iliad. So we can see that the ancient cultures around Jerusalem could conceive of a man dying for another man or a country. In the case of Hamlet, Othello, MacBeth and Achilleus, their death cleansed the country. But all of them were fictitious characters who couldn't forgive their enemies.

What would it take to change the world from darkness to light?

To forgive takes power over the soul. If Jesus does not have power over our soul, He can be a martyr--but not a savior.

Hamlet, MacBeth, Achilleus, they are all fictitious characters who never lived. Religious men like Mohammed, Confucious, Luther have all died. One could go find their graves and remains. But if you tried to go to the tomb in which Jesus was buried, you would not find Him there. He is not dead, having been resurrected from the dead.

If you want to find the body of Christ, you must go to a Christian church, as it is His body. You will find Him there.
And He put all things in subjection under His feet, and gave Him as head over all things to the church, which is His body, the fullness of Him who fills all in all, Ephesians, 1.22, 23.

Tuesday, September 10, 2013

HOW DO YOU KNOW--Week 14
In Philippians 2.6 Paul wrote--althought He existed in the form of God, did not regard equality with God a thing to be grasped...

How do we understand this?

If someone from another planet came to one of us, and we said, 'Jesus forgives you your sins', how would they understand it? Would they say, what is sin? Would they say, so what? Would they say, what advantage is it that some man died for me? Why should I care?

This brings up the question we have posed, how do we understand even the simplest statement about God?

Some of us will want knowledge. We will want God to come to us through propositions and creeds, but does God come to us that way? Some of us will have a religious imagination, trying to imagine how it must have been centuries ago, when a man is crucified. But what of those of us who do not have a religious imagination? Are we being left out? Some of us will want to go to church because we think it's a good thing to do, it's good behavior.

So we will have to come asking, how do we understand God? Is there anything in us that enables us to understand Him? We might not be very religious, we might not have any interior qualities, we might be just a bystander in life.
Is there an answer in this particular passage in Philippians 2? When Jesus humbled Himself--becoming obedient to the point of death...he was highly exalted by God the Father. In Phil. 2.12 Paul then makes his application to all of us when he says--just as you have always obeyed...work out your salvation with fear and trembling. Notice that the word 'obey' is in both passages.

This seems to indicate that Paul does not say go back into the OT to try to relate to Passover, but go on to work out your own salvation with fear and trembling. That requires the Holy Spirirt in someone's life.
I think any soul would benefit by reading the OT about Passover and the sacrifices of the Law, but evidently it is the Holy Spirit by which we understand God in our lives. Paul does say--it is God who is at work in you, both to will and to work for His good pleasure, Phil. 2.13.

This means it is about how we listen to God the Spirit.

Normally an author will say, listening to God is prayer.

But then Paul says three things. First--do all things without grumbling or disputing, 2.14. Second--hold fast to the Word of Life, 2.16. Third--rejoice, 2.18.
Paul says to do all things without grumbling so that we would prove ourselves to be blameless in the midst of our own generation. That might indicate God wants His Holy Spirit to be seen in us by others. We hold fast to the Word of Life so that when Christ returns we might glory in His appearing since we did not fail Him. We can study to show ourselves approved. His Word is a lamp unto our feet and a light to our path. That means it lights the way God has us go. And we should rejoice even if we are being--poured out--as a drink offering. God will use us for His purposes, we are to rejoice in that, whatever His purposes come to be.

Paul has not mentioned the Holy Spirit specifically but he has shown us how to exhibit the Spirit in our life.