Luther's first lecture were on the book of Psalms. We must bear in mind his method of reading the Psalms. and the Old Testament as a whole for him, as for his time, it was a Christian book foreshadowing the life and death of the Redeemer.
The reference to Christ was unmistakable when he came to the twenty- second psalm, the first verse of which was recited by Christ as he expired on the cross.. " My God. My God, why hast thou forsaken me.?" What could be the meaning of this? Christ evidently felt himself to be forsaken, abandoned by God, deserted. The utter desolation which Luther said he could endure for more than a tenth of an hour and live, had been experienced by Christ himself as he died. Rejected of men, he was rejected also of God. How much worst this must have been than the scourging, the thorns and nails!
In the garden he sweat blood as he did not upon the cross. Christ descend into hell was nothing other than this sense of of alienation from God. Christ had suffered, even as Albrecht Durer painted himself as the Man of Sorrows.
Why should Christ have known such desperation's? Luther knew perfectly well why he himself had had them: he was weak in the presence of the mighty; he was impure in the presence of the Holy: he had blasphemed the Divine majesty. But Christ was not weak; Christ was not impure; Christ was not impious. Why then should he have been so overwhelmed with desolation? The only answer must be that Christ took to himself the iniquity of us all. He who was without sin and so identified himself with us at as to participate in our alienation. He who was truly man so sensed his solidarity with humanity as to feel himself along with mankind estranged from all Holy. what new picture this is of Christ! Where, then, is the judge, sitting upon the rainbow to condemn sinners? He is still the judge, as truth judges error and light darkness; but in judging he suffers with those whom he must condemn
and feels himself with them subject to condemnation. The judge upon the rainbow has become the derelict upon the cross.
The hideousness of sin cannot not be denied or forgotten; but God, who desires not that a sinner should die but that he should turn and live has found reconciliation in the pangs of bitter death.
It is not that the son by his sacrifice has placated the irate father; it is not primarily that the Master by his self-abandoning goodness has made up for our deficiency . It is that in some inexplicable, in utter desolation of the forsaken Christ, God was able to reconcile the world to himself. This does not mean that all mystery is clear. God is still shrouded at times in thick darkness. There are almost two Gods, the inscrutable God whose ways are past finding out. and the God made known to us in Christ.
He is still a consuming fire, but he burns that he may purge and chasten and heal. He is not a God of idle whim, because the cross is not the last word. He who gave up his son unto death also raised him up and will raise us with him, if with him we die to sin that we may rise to newness of life. Who can understand this? Philosophy is unequal to it. Only faith can grasp so high a mystery. This is foolishness of the cross which is hid from the wise and prudent. Reason must retire. She cannot understand that "God hides his power in weakness, his wisdom in folly, his goodness in severity, his justice in sins, his mercy in anger."
How amazing that God in Christ should do all this; that the most High, the most Holy should be the all loving too; that the ineffable Majesty should stoop to take upon himself our flesh, subject to hunger and cold, death and desperation. We see him lying in the feed- box of a donkey, laboring in a carpenter's shop, dying a derelict under the sins of the world. The gospel is not so much a miracle as a marvel, and every line is suffered with wonder.
What God first worked in Christ, that he must work in us. If he who done no wrong was forsaken on the cross, we who are truly alienated from God must suffer a deep hurt. We are not for that reason to upbraid, since the hurt is for our healing
Repentance which is occupied with thoughts of peace is hypocrisy. there must be a great earnestness about it and a deep hurt if the old man is to be put off. When lighting strikes a tree or a man it does two things at once- it rends the tree and swiftly slays the man. But it also turns the face of the dead man and the broken branches of the tree itself toward heaven... We seek to be saved, and God in order that he may save rather damns... They are damned who flee damnation, for Christ was of all the saints the most damned and forsaken.
The contemplation of the cross had convinced Luther that God is neither malicious nor capricious. If, like the Samaritan, God must first pour into our wounds the wine that smarts, it is that he may thereafter use the oil that that soothes. But their still remains the problem of the justice of God. Wrath can melt into mercy, and God will be all the more the Christian God; but if justice be dissolved in leniency, how can he be a just God whom Scriptures describes? The study of the Apostle Paul proved at this point of inestimable value to Luther and at the same time confronted him with the final stumbling block, because Paul unequivocally speaks of the justice of God. At the very expression Luther trembled. Yet he persisted in grappling with Paul, who plainly had agonized over precisely his problem and had found a solution. Light broke at last through the examination of exact shades of meaning in the Greek language. One understands why Luther could never join those who discarded the humanist tools of scholarship. In the Greek of the Pauline epistles the word " justice" has a double sense, rendered in English by "Justice." and "justification." The former is a strict law enforcement of the law, as when a judge pronounces the appropriate sentence.
But from here on any human analogy breaks down. God does not condition his forgiveness upon the expectation of future fulfillment. A man is not put right with God by achievement, whether present or foreseen. Yet it comes only through hearing and studying the word, Luther took over the terminology From Paul of " Justification by faith."
These are Luther's own words:
I greatly longed to understand Paul's Epistle to the Romans and nothing stood in the way but that one expression, "the justice of God," because I took it to mean that justice where by God is just and deal justly in punishing the unjust. My situation was that, although an impeccable monk, I stood before God as a sinner troubled in conscience, and I had no confidence that my merit would assuage him.
Therefore I did not love a just and angry God, but rather hated an murmured against him. Yet I clung to the dear Paul and had a great yearning to know what he meant
Night and day I pondered until I saw a connection between the justice of God and the statement that "The just shall live by his faith". Then I grasped that the justice of God is that righteousness by which through grace and sheer mercy God justifies us through faith. Thereupon I felt reborn and to have gone through open doors into paradise. The whole of Scripture took on new meaning, and whereas before the "justice of God" had filled me with Hate, now it became to me inexpressibly sweet in greater love. This passage of Paul became to me a gate to heaven.
If you have true faith that Christ is your Savior, then at once you have a gracious God, for faith leads you in and opens God's heart and will, that you should see pure grace and overflowing love. This it is to behold God in faith that you should look upon his fatherly, friendly, heart, in which there is no anger nor ungraciousness, He who sees God as angry does not see him rightly but looks only on a curtain, as if a dark cloud had been drawn across his face.
Luther had come to a new view of Christ and a new view of God.
He had come to love the suffering Redeemer and the God unveiled on Calvary. But were they after all powerful enough to deliver him From all the hosts of hell? The cross had resolved the conflict between the wrath and mercy of God, and Paul had reconciled for him the inconsistency of the justice and the forgiveness, but what of the conflict between God and the Devil? Is God Lord of all, or is he himself impeded by demonic hordes? Such questions a few years ago would have seen to modern man but relics of medievalism, and fear of demons was dispelled simply by denying their existence.
Today so much sinister has engulfed us that we are prone to wonder whether perhaps there may be malignant forces in the heavenly places. All those who have known the torments of mental disorder well understand the imagery of satanic hands clutching to pull them to their doom. Luther's answer was not scientific but religious. He did not dissipate the demons by turning on an electric light
, because for him long ago they had been routed when the veil of the temple was rent and the earth quaked and darkness descended upon the face of the land. Christ in his utter anguish had fused the wrath and the mercy of God, and put to flight all the legions of Satan.
In Luther's hymns one hears that tramp of marshaled hordes, the shouts of battle, and the triumph
song.
In the Devil's chained I lay
The pangs of death swept over me.
My sin devoured me night and day
In which my mother bore me.
My anguish ever grew in my rife
I took no pleasure in my life.
And sin had made me crazy.
Then was the Father troubled sore
To see me ever languish.
The everlasting Pity swore
To save me from my anguish
He turned to me his father heart
And chose himself a bitter part,
His dearest did it cost him.
Thus spoke his Son, " Hold thou to me.
From now on thou will make it
I Gave my very life for thee
And for thee I will stake it.
For I am thine and thou art mine,
And where I am our lives entwine
The Old Fiend cannot shake it. "
Saturday, July 30, 2016
Wednesday, July 13, 2016
"What Christ thinks of his Church." [Text addresses 3 chapters of Revelation]
What Christ thinks of the Church is a question no Christian can ignore. What do unbelievers think of it from the outside, and what Christians think of it from the inside are both important? But far more significant is the opinion of Jesus Christ himself, the founder and Lord of the Church? We must be thankful that, in seeking to discover Christ's view, we don't have to work in the dark. Seem's like
the New Testament supplies us with much information concerning our Lord's purposes for His Church. We may get a glimpse from some of His own words recorded in the Gospel's, from the description of the primitive church given us in Act's and from the epistles to various churches in the rest of the New Testament just what His plan is for the Church which is His body. No passage, in the New Testament, however, contains more clear, concise and comprehensive instruction on the Church's life, and work than the second and third chapters of the "Book of Revelation." Here are written messages to Seven most prominent of the Roman Province of Asia.
( Their names are: Troas, Pergamum, Thyatira, Sardis, Philadelphia, Smyma, Ephesus, Laodica, Colssae, Miletus, Patmos.
Though written by St. John, it is claimed that these letters came directly from the lips of the ascended and glorified Christ. In them by praise and censure, warning and exhortation, he makes plain much of his will for his people, and more so, when his letters are read not in isolation, but in the context of the first seven chapters of Revelations in which they are embedded. We shall find much in Christ's letters
to the first century Asian churches, call to repentance and renewal and will stir us Christians to examine the life of the Church in Christ name. May our ears be opened to hear " what the spirit says to us, to humble us, and warn us of the wiles of the enemy.
The average christian fights to shy away from the book of Revelations. It seems to them well nigh incomprehensible. He is skeptical of some of the fanciful interpretations he has heard, and cannot
accept the books bizarre imagery. To start reading the book of revelation is to step into a strange, unfamiliar world of angels, and demons, of lambs, lions horses and dragons. seals are broken, trumpets blown and the contents of seven bowls poured out on the earth. Two violet, malicious
beasts appear, one emerging out of the sea with ten horns and seven heads, and the other rising from the earth with a lamb's horn and a dragons voice. There is thunder, lighting, hail, fire, blood, and smoke.The whole book appears at first sight to contain weird and mysterious visions. We can not leave the matter there. The "Book is a Divine revelation" given by God to his servants (1:1). It promises at the beginning a special blessings to him who reads it aloud in church and to those who listen (1:3). It also adds a solemn warning to anyone who dares tamper with its message (22: 18-19).
Besides this last book of the "Bible" has been cherished by Christ's church in every generation and has bought its challenge and its comfort to thousands of Christian believers. We would be foolish to neglect it. We are concerned with this text today with the book's three chapters, in particular with the second and third chapters which contain the seven letters addressed by the ascended Christ to seven Asian churches. Chapter one is introductory to the whole book. Some important clues, to the interpretation are given us in its very first verse: " the Revelation of Jesus Christ, which God gave him to show to his servants what soon must take place; and be made known by sending his angel to his servant John. The whole book of "Revelations is an unveiling by God's hand which otherwise would have remained hidden. The first of the seven letters is addressed to Ephesus if for no other reasons,because it was nearer to the Island Patmos then the other six cities. (Rev.2:1-7). A straight sail of sixty-miles would bring the bearer of this letter to the port of Ephesus at the mouth of the river cayster. In each of the seven letters Jesus Christ passes moral judgment, upon the church concerned.
To the church at Smyrna Jesus gives unmixed praise, but to the church at Laodicea He expresses unrelieved condemnation. The Philadelphian church is more praised and the church at Sardis more blamed than praised.
It is clear that the risen Lord is in a position to evaluate the condition of each church and to commend or condemn them, for He knows. As He says here: it is He who holds the seven stars in His right hand, who walks among the seven golden lamp stands (v.1). The claim is even stronger here than the earlier one in the first chapter, He not only "has" the stars; He holds them. He not only stands in the midst of the lamp stands; He walks among them He is the divine overseer of the churches. Did he not say " where two or three are gathered in my name, there " am I." in the midst of them. Christ visits his people. he dwells with us. He walks with us, He expect us to talk to him through "prayer." The Ephesian church was an active one, The church was an active one and they exhibited (3) virtues:which Jesus Christ could could commend. (1) Their toil: The Ephesian church was an active one, busy in the service of God and man. They were fully occupied entertaining the lonely, and nursing the sick, teaching the young. and visiting the aged.. Their toil was famous. They were a beehive of activity, always doing something for Christ. (2). Their endurance: Ephesians had been exposed to some fierce local opposition, for Ephesus was a meeting place for many religions and a great center for emperor worship in the province. Some inhabitants practiced magical arts from the orient, while everybody had a profound reverence for the Great Diana of the Ephesians, the mother goddess of Asia. The city was put into uproar through St.Paul's preaching. Craftsmen feared for theirs sales of silver shrines., their vested interest and they were totally opposed to Paul, who had left Ephesus and died long ago. Christians in Ephesus knew what it was liked to be hated, to be snubbed. They found shopping a problem, for tradesmen would not sell to Christians.
(3). What a splendid church was the church at Ephesus! It appeared to be a model church in every way. Its members were busy, in their service, patient in their sufferings, and orthodox in their belief. Only one thing was lacking. Jesus reminded them:" I have one thing against you, that you have abandoned the love you had a first! They had fallen from great devotion to Christ, and went back to mediocrity. In other words back sliders. Didn't Jesus himself prophesy, that when the wickedness multiplies, " Most men's love will grow cold.
Certainly the hearts of the Ephesians Christians had chilled. The words of Christ complaint do not themselves make clear whether the first love which they had abandoned was love for himself or for their fellow man?
Jesus solemnly declare to everyone who reads this book. If anyone adds to what is written here. God shall add to him the plagues described in this book. If anyone subtracts any part of these prophesies, God shall take away his share in the "Tree of Life," and in the Holy City just described.
He who has said all these things declares: Yes I am coming soon! (suddenly). Amen! come, Lord Jesus. The early devotion to Christ had cooled, the flush of ecstasy had passed. They had fallen out of love with him . The grace of the "Lord Jesus Christ be with you all."
the New Testament supplies us with much information concerning our Lord's purposes for His Church. We may get a glimpse from some of His own words recorded in the Gospel's, from the description of the primitive church given us in Act's and from the epistles to various churches in the rest of the New Testament just what His plan is for the Church which is His body. No passage, in the New Testament, however, contains more clear, concise and comprehensive instruction on the Church's life, and work than the second and third chapters of the "Book of Revelation." Here are written messages to Seven most prominent of the Roman Province of Asia.
( Their names are: Troas, Pergamum, Thyatira, Sardis, Philadelphia, Smyma, Ephesus, Laodica, Colssae, Miletus, Patmos.
Though written by St. John, it is claimed that these letters came directly from the lips of the ascended and glorified Christ. In them by praise and censure, warning and exhortation, he makes plain much of his will for his people, and more so, when his letters are read not in isolation, but in the context of the first seven chapters of Revelations in which they are embedded. We shall find much in Christ's letters
to the first century Asian churches, call to repentance and renewal and will stir us Christians to examine the life of the Church in Christ name. May our ears be opened to hear " what the spirit says to us, to humble us, and warn us of the wiles of the enemy.
The average christian fights to shy away from the book of Revelations. It seems to them well nigh incomprehensible. He is skeptical of some of the fanciful interpretations he has heard, and cannot
accept the books bizarre imagery. To start reading the book of revelation is to step into a strange, unfamiliar world of angels, and demons, of lambs, lions horses and dragons. seals are broken, trumpets blown and the contents of seven bowls poured out on the earth. Two violet, malicious
beasts appear, one emerging out of the sea with ten horns and seven heads, and the other rising from the earth with a lamb's horn and a dragons voice. There is thunder, lighting, hail, fire, blood, and smoke.The whole book appears at first sight to contain weird and mysterious visions. We can not leave the matter there. The "Book is a Divine revelation" given by God to his servants (1:1). It promises at the beginning a special blessings to him who reads it aloud in church and to those who listen (1:3). It also adds a solemn warning to anyone who dares tamper with its message (22: 18-19).
Besides this last book of the "Bible" has been cherished by Christ's church in every generation and has bought its challenge and its comfort to thousands of Christian believers. We would be foolish to neglect it. We are concerned with this text today with the book's three chapters, in particular with the second and third chapters which contain the seven letters addressed by the ascended Christ to seven Asian churches. Chapter one is introductory to the whole book. Some important clues, to the interpretation are given us in its very first verse: " the Revelation of Jesus Christ, which God gave him to show to his servants what soon must take place; and be made known by sending his angel to his servant John. The whole book of "Revelations is an unveiling by God's hand which otherwise would have remained hidden. The first of the seven letters is addressed to Ephesus if for no other reasons,because it was nearer to the Island Patmos then the other six cities. (Rev.2:1-7). A straight sail of sixty-miles would bring the bearer of this letter to the port of Ephesus at the mouth of the river cayster. In each of the seven letters Jesus Christ passes moral judgment, upon the church concerned.
To the church at Smyrna Jesus gives unmixed praise, but to the church at Laodicea He expresses unrelieved condemnation. The Philadelphian church is more praised and the church at Sardis more blamed than praised.
It is clear that the risen Lord is in a position to evaluate the condition of each church and to commend or condemn them, for He knows. As He says here: it is He who holds the seven stars in His right hand, who walks among the seven golden lamp stands (v.1). The claim is even stronger here than the earlier one in the first chapter, He not only "has" the stars; He holds them. He not only stands in the midst of the lamp stands; He walks among them He is the divine overseer of the churches. Did he not say " where two or three are gathered in my name, there " am I." in the midst of them. Christ visits his people. he dwells with us. He walks with us, He expect us to talk to him through "prayer." The Ephesian church was an active one, The church was an active one and they exhibited (3) virtues:which Jesus Christ could could commend. (1) Their toil: The Ephesian church was an active one, busy in the service of God and man. They were fully occupied entertaining the lonely, and nursing the sick, teaching the young. and visiting the aged.. Their toil was famous. They were a beehive of activity, always doing something for Christ. (2). Their endurance: Ephesians had been exposed to some fierce local opposition, for Ephesus was a meeting place for many religions and a great center for emperor worship in the province. Some inhabitants practiced magical arts from the orient, while everybody had a profound reverence for the Great Diana of the Ephesians, the mother goddess of Asia. The city was put into uproar through St.Paul's preaching. Craftsmen feared for theirs sales of silver shrines., their vested interest and they were totally opposed to Paul, who had left Ephesus and died long ago. Christians in Ephesus knew what it was liked to be hated, to be snubbed. They found shopping a problem, for tradesmen would not sell to Christians.
(3). What a splendid church was the church at Ephesus! It appeared to be a model church in every way. Its members were busy, in their service, patient in their sufferings, and orthodox in their belief. Only one thing was lacking. Jesus reminded them:" I have one thing against you, that you have abandoned the love you had a first! They had fallen from great devotion to Christ, and went back to mediocrity. In other words back sliders. Didn't Jesus himself prophesy, that when the wickedness multiplies, " Most men's love will grow cold.
Certainly the hearts of the Ephesians Christians had chilled. The words of Christ complaint do not themselves make clear whether the first love which they had abandoned was love for himself or for their fellow man?
Jesus solemnly declare to everyone who reads this book. If anyone adds to what is written here. God shall add to him the plagues described in this book. If anyone subtracts any part of these prophesies, God shall take away his share in the "Tree of Life," and in the Holy City just described.
He who has said all these things declares: Yes I am coming soon! (suddenly). Amen! come, Lord Jesus. The early devotion to Christ had cooled, the flush of ecstasy had passed. They had fallen out of love with him . The grace of the "Lord Jesus Christ be with you all."
Sunday, July 10, 2016
"An Eternal Promise": Genesis 9: 8-17. [ O.T the . Bible Jesus read].
This text and reading centers on the conclusion to the flood story; The Lord destroys the earth by flood, except for Noah, his family, and the animals on the Ark. Yet, divine, destruction, because of human sinfulness, gives way to divine commitment. God blessed Noah and his sons and told them to have many children and to repopulate the earth. "All wild animals and birds and fish will be afraid of you." God told him; " for I have placed them in your power, and they are yours to use for food, in addition to grain and vegetables. But never eat animals unless their blood has been drained off. To eat blood is to eat life, ( for blood is life)! The life of the flesh is in the blood. . The principle is reverence for life, God's gift. It is also given at the Altar to make atonement for the soul. A murder is forbidden. Man-killing animals must die.and any man who murders shall be killed; for to kill a man ( who is made in the image of God requires the murderer to be put to death. Yes, have many children and repopulate the earth, and subdue it. Some certain individuals came down from Jerusalem and were teaching the brothers" unless you are circumcised according to the custom of Moses, you cannot be saved." For they belonged to a sect called Pharisees, who lived under the law. So the apostles and the elders met together to consider the matter. Peter wants to know why the Jewish church is putting God to the test by placing on the neck of the disciples a yoke that neither our ancestors nor we have been able to bear. Paul says he has reached a decision that we should not trouble those gentiles who are turning to God, but we should write to them to abstain only from things polluted by Idols and from fornication and from whatever has been strangled and from blood. Then God told Noah and his sons, " I solemnly promise you and your children, and the animals you brought with you-all these birds and cattle and wild animals- that I will never again send another flood to destroy the earth, and I seal this promise until the end of time.I have placed my rainbow in the clouds as a sign of my promise. If we look at 1st Peter {3:18-22} In his reading the author emphasizes God's action on behalf of Noah, his family and the creatures. this saving presence continues to be manifested through Christ in the act of baptism.
God's covenant which binds himself with Noah and His people including non-humans, which is held to serve him in Holiness and righteousness, calling this the moral aspect of the covenant. (cf. Rom. 9:4), where the gift of the covenant and the law are joined together); " we can also find the same fundamental meaning found in (Acts 3:25); the expression "sons of the covenant" underlies the creative power of the covenant which has brought into being in history a people which owes its existence entirely to it.
Everything in this is wrapped up in the coming of Jesus Christ. all of the law and prophets are fulfilled in Jesus, as we know from the transfiguration. The spirit that comes to Jesus at his baptism sustains him when he is tested by Satan so that he might proclaim the gospel of God's reign.
Jesus is Baptized. The next thing we hear is that "the spirit is immediately driven into the wilderness to be tempted by Satan for forty days Interesting choice of words. Matthew's and Luke's version of this story describe the spirit as " leading," into the wilderness, but, Mark's
account the spirit's action is much more forceful than that. The spirit drove Jesus out into the wilderness sharply by the neck, like a bouncer does. It is the operative word in all exorcism stories, when Jesus confronts the unclean spirits The (Greek) "ekballo's" them, means to grab roughly, forcefully,He throws them out of the people they inhabit. So often we fail to recognize Jesus in those we encounter and for the same reason- we don't take time to look. Take a look at Mark's Gospel (1:9-15)
God's covenant which binds himself with Noah and His people including non-humans, which is held to serve him in Holiness and righteousness, calling this the moral aspect of the covenant. (cf. Rom. 9:4), where the gift of the covenant and the law are joined together); " we can also find the same fundamental meaning found in (Acts 3:25); the expression "sons of the covenant" underlies the creative power of the covenant which has brought into being in history a people which owes its existence entirely to it.
Everything in this is wrapped up in the coming of Jesus Christ. all of the law and prophets are fulfilled in Jesus, as we know from the transfiguration. The spirit that comes to Jesus at his baptism sustains him when he is tested by Satan so that he might proclaim the gospel of God's reign.
Jesus is Baptized. The next thing we hear is that "the spirit is immediately driven into the wilderness to be tempted by Satan for forty days Interesting choice of words. Matthew's and Luke's version of this story describe the spirit as " leading," into the wilderness, but, Mark's
account the spirit's action is much more forceful than that. The spirit drove Jesus out into the wilderness sharply by the neck, like a bouncer does. It is the operative word in all exorcism stories, when Jesus confronts the unclean spirits The (Greek) "ekballo's" them, means to grab roughly, forcefully,He throws them out of the people they inhabit. So often we fail to recognize Jesus in those we encounter and for the same reason- we don't take time to look. Take a look at Mark's Gospel (1:9-15)
Saturday, July 9, 2016
" New Testament.
" He left Nazareth and went down to live in Capernaum by the sea...
A people living in darkness has seen a great light" (Mt 4:13, 16).
Through the Prophets, of whom Malachi was the last in the traditional lists, the Eternal never stop talking through the Holy Spirit to men to announce the coming of His Kingdom. Through the prophets God also gradually delineated the features of His anointed , " His Christ"; the Messiah.
Through the "people of Moses," the desert community, as well as through the civilized people of the return from exile, God also laid the foundations of the future Messianic community, the community of the New covenant: the "Church", (the family of believers). in the fullness of time, the "Son of man" who is also the "Son of God." invited all men to share, through faith in His person and His mission, the very life of the heavenly Father, in the power and fire of the Spirit.
Jesus life was short.. The three or so years that are generally attributed to His preaching and apostolate had as their immediate result of training only a few men, who were sent out on a mission to bear witness and transmit a call. However till the end of time all men will continue to be invited to take sides: "and you, who do you say that I am?" (Matthew 16:15). For the Kingdom is far from being completed, and what is ahead for the Church of Christ is not repose but suffering and persecution. There were times when even the first Christians already asked themselves: "How Long?"
Yet hope has continued to triumph, for the eyes of Christ's disciples remained focused on the final certitude: " I saw a new Jerusalem, the holy city, coming down out of heaven from God, beautiful as a bride prepared to meet her husband (Revelation 21:2). " the light of the world (Jesus)" Said I am the light of the world, he who will follow me will not be in darkness, but shall have the light of lift." (John 12:8) and He dwelt among us, and the example of that life shines forth today. the four Gospels reveal the essentials of the life of Christ; the Acts of the apostles give the history of the primitive Church; twenty-one letters, the Epistles, of which fourteen were written or inspired by Paul the so-called "Catholic" letters, are attributed to James, Peter, Jude, and John, clarify or complement the teaching collected. Finally, a prophetic book explains the Church's "expectation": The Book of Revelation. ( I pray for them) "John 17:9"
We are told in Johns text of something that Jesus does for us. Did I say rightly that "He" does for us? He said, "I pray for them", and He was speaking immediately of the little company of men who were right around him, the disciples. On the evening before the crucifixion, at the close of His fare well address, he said, " I pray for them," but you remember how a little later he said, neither do I pray for these alone, but for them also which shall believe on me through the word; that they all may be one."
( Lord we need them prayers now down here, for your world and your creation, is falling apart).
I invite you dear Christian friends, to take this prayer in the 17th chapter of John as giving you an idea of what sort of things the Lord Jesus Christ is asking for now in your behalf. Oh, that it may come home to us as downright reality that the Savior who ever lives, prays for you and me, knowing us better then we knows ourselves and that such things for which he prays.
first then, notice this petition: " I pray not that you should take them out of this world, but keep them from evil. What a common mistake it is among men to think that the only object Jesus Christ has with The reference to the human race is to gather a few of them out of this worlds destruction and carry them to a better world. But He said, " I pray not that you should take them out of the world. He was going out of the world, and His heart longed after those who had been with him. They wondered why they could not go with him, and one even said, in self-confidence fervor, " I am ready to die with you to death. Many good people think hard of themselves because they do not want to die. I have heard some people, so unwilling to die, I think anyone that loves God ought to be willing to die." Well, that is against nature. It is impossible; it is wrong. The Lord Jesus Christ proposes not merely to rescue some souls from this world's ruin, but to rescue them in this world and make them live in this world, as they were meant to live. "The first book of the New Testament opens with a genealogy that poses many problems. actually it is Joseph's genealogy and not Mary's. and Joseph's was only Jesus legal father. Besides, this genealogy is in most respects different from that given in Luke's Gospel. Some critics go so far to look upon Matthew's genealogy as purely an apologetic fantasy, intended to provide Jesus with a Davidic ancestry. Such a view really makes the authors of the Gospels very naive people, to have been flagrantly mistaken. So wrote the Cardinal Danielou, in his work on the childhood of Jesus. He offers to the readers this article, a brief preview in this article that follows.
To begin with, we must note that the purpose of the first chapter of Matthew's Gospel is not merely to give Jesus genealogy. The text begins with the words: " a family record [literally, 'Book of the Genesis'] of Jesus Christ son of David, son of Abraham (Matthew 1:1). We do not find an equivalent anywhere else in Scripture, except in Genesis (5:1). " This the record of the descendants of Adam," and in Genesis (2:4).: such is the story of the heavens and the earth at their creation. The similarity cannot be accidental. Matthew establishes a parallelism between the creation of Adam and the incarnation of the word. For the incarnation is the creation of a new humanity, a renewal of the first creation of a new humanity, a renewal of the first creation. So, just as the creation of Adam was the work of God, so the creation of the new Adam was the work of God. The parallelism implies the affirmation of the virginal conception. What follows makes the authors intentions clear.
Thus in verse 18, Matthew repeats: Now this is how the birth of Jesus Christ came about [ this is how the Genesis of Jesus Christ came about] " And this sentence introduces the account of the angel's apparition to Joseph announcing that Mary had conceived by the Holy Spirit (1;20). So the first half of the chapter shows Jesus as the one who comes at the end of the Old Testament and inaugurates a new humanity.The second portion shows that the Genesis of the New Adam is the work of the Holy Spirit, that is to say, this new humanity also receives its existence from God alone.
If we consider the genealogy itself, we find it contains three groups of fourteen persons. This was obviously a significant number for the author. The best proof of this is that to come up with the number fourteen he had to perform several subtractions and additions. This solves the difficulty: the alleged "errors" in the text were really intentional. The Evangelist was not interested in genealogy per
se. he was well aware that the genealogies he was using were historical documents. But he assumed he was addressing himself to intelligent people who would grasp his way of using these documents.
when he grouped and rearranged them to achieve his two fold purpose. On the one, the genealogy points out the continuity between Christ and the Old Testament. On the other, it reveals a rupture. It is limited to Joseph, and Jesus is not his, but Mary's son according to the flesh. Now, we know nothing of a Davidic ancestry of Mary, although some overzealous critics have tried to invent one. Therefore God's power alone has brought forth Isaac, the offspring of Abraham and David. He is at the same time the absolute beginning of the human race regenerated by Him. The preparations are now complete, and the hour of fulfillment had arrived.The incarnation was the "Kairos," the decisive moment when God intervened personally in the history of salvation.The incarnation is the center of this Divine intervention, as shown in the "genealogies" presented by both Matthew, and Luke. The Old Testament led up to it. The Church was born of it. This perspective makes of the Gospel the center of history and not merely a private individual experience. Any other view would make the enumeration of "Christ's ancestors " simply a ridiculous piece of folklore
A people living in darkness has seen a great light" (Mt 4:13, 16).
Through the Prophets, of whom Malachi was the last in the traditional lists, the Eternal never stop talking through the Holy Spirit to men to announce the coming of His Kingdom. Through the prophets God also gradually delineated the features of His anointed , " His Christ"; the Messiah.
Through the "people of Moses," the desert community, as well as through the civilized people of the return from exile, God also laid the foundations of the future Messianic community, the community of the New covenant: the "Church", (the family of believers). in the fullness of time, the "Son of man" who is also the "Son of God." invited all men to share, through faith in His person and His mission, the very life of the heavenly Father, in the power and fire of the Spirit.
Jesus life was short.. The three or so years that are generally attributed to His preaching and apostolate had as their immediate result of training only a few men, who were sent out on a mission to bear witness and transmit a call. However till the end of time all men will continue to be invited to take sides: "and you, who do you say that I am?" (Matthew 16:15). For the Kingdom is far from being completed, and what is ahead for the Church of Christ is not repose but suffering and persecution. There were times when even the first Christians already asked themselves: "How Long?"
Yet hope has continued to triumph, for the eyes of Christ's disciples remained focused on the final certitude: " I saw a new Jerusalem, the holy city, coming down out of heaven from God, beautiful as a bride prepared to meet her husband (Revelation 21:2). " the light of the world (Jesus)" Said I am the light of the world, he who will follow me will not be in darkness, but shall have the light of lift." (John 12:8) and He dwelt among us, and the example of that life shines forth today. the four Gospels reveal the essentials of the life of Christ; the Acts of the apostles give the history of the primitive Church; twenty-one letters, the Epistles, of which fourteen were written or inspired by Paul the so-called "Catholic" letters, are attributed to James, Peter, Jude, and John, clarify or complement the teaching collected. Finally, a prophetic book explains the Church's "expectation": The Book of Revelation. ( I pray for them) "John 17:9"
We are told in Johns text of something that Jesus does for us. Did I say rightly that "He" does for us? He said, "I pray for them", and He was speaking immediately of the little company of men who were right around him, the disciples. On the evening before the crucifixion, at the close of His fare well address, he said, " I pray for them," but you remember how a little later he said, neither do I pray for these alone, but for them also which shall believe on me through the word; that they all may be one."
( Lord we need them prayers now down here, for your world and your creation, is falling apart).
I invite you dear Christian friends, to take this prayer in the 17th chapter of John as giving you an idea of what sort of things the Lord Jesus Christ is asking for now in your behalf. Oh, that it may come home to us as downright reality that the Savior who ever lives, prays for you and me, knowing us better then we knows ourselves and that such things for which he prays.
first then, notice this petition: " I pray not that you should take them out of this world, but keep them from evil. What a common mistake it is among men to think that the only object Jesus Christ has with The reference to the human race is to gather a few of them out of this worlds destruction and carry them to a better world. But He said, " I pray not that you should take them out of the world. He was going out of the world, and His heart longed after those who had been with him. They wondered why they could not go with him, and one even said, in self-confidence fervor, " I am ready to die with you to death. Many good people think hard of themselves because they do not want to die. I have heard some people, so unwilling to die, I think anyone that loves God ought to be willing to die." Well, that is against nature. It is impossible; it is wrong. The Lord Jesus Christ proposes not merely to rescue some souls from this world's ruin, but to rescue them in this world and make them live in this world, as they were meant to live. "The first book of the New Testament opens with a genealogy that poses many problems. actually it is Joseph's genealogy and not Mary's. and Joseph's was only Jesus legal father. Besides, this genealogy is in most respects different from that given in Luke's Gospel. Some critics go so far to look upon Matthew's genealogy as purely an apologetic fantasy, intended to provide Jesus with a Davidic ancestry. Such a view really makes the authors of the Gospels very naive people, to have been flagrantly mistaken. So wrote the Cardinal Danielou, in his work on the childhood of Jesus. He offers to the readers this article, a brief preview in this article that follows.
To begin with, we must note that the purpose of the first chapter of Matthew's Gospel is not merely to give Jesus genealogy. The text begins with the words: " a family record [literally, 'Book of the Genesis'] of Jesus Christ son of David, son of Abraham (Matthew 1:1). We do not find an equivalent anywhere else in Scripture, except in Genesis (5:1). " This the record of the descendants of Adam," and in Genesis (2:4).: such is the story of the heavens and the earth at their creation. The similarity cannot be accidental. Matthew establishes a parallelism between the creation of Adam and the incarnation of the word. For the incarnation is the creation of a new humanity, a renewal of the first creation of a new humanity, a renewal of the first creation. So, just as the creation of Adam was the work of God, so the creation of the new Adam was the work of God. The parallelism implies the affirmation of the virginal conception. What follows makes the authors intentions clear.
Thus in verse 18, Matthew repeats: Now this is how the birth of Jesus Christ came about [ this is how the Genesis of Jesus Christ came about] " And this sentence introduces the account of the angel's apparition to Joseph announcing that Mary had conceived by the Holy Spirit (1;20). So the first half of the chapter shows Jesus as the one who comes at the end of the Old Testament and inaugurates a new humanity.The second portion shows that the Genesis of the New Adam is the work of the Holy Spirit, that is to say, this new humanity also receives its existence from God alone.
If we consider the genealogy itself, we find it contains three groups of fourteen persons. This was obviously a significant number for the author. The best proof of this is that to come up with the number fourteen he had to perform several subtractions and additions. This solves the difficulty: the alleged "errors" in the text were really intentional. The Evangelist was not interested in genealogy per
se. he was well aware that the genealogies he was using were historical documents. But he assumed he was addressing himself to intelligent people who would grasp his way of using these documents.
when he grouped and rearranged them to achieve his two fold purpose. On the one, the genealogy points out the continuity between Christ and the Old Testament. On the other, it reveals a rupture. It is limited to Joseph, and Jesus is not his, but Mary's son according to the flesh. Now, we know nothing of a Davidic ancestry of Mary, although some overzealous critics have tried to invent one. Therefore God's power alone has brought forth Isaac, the offspring of Abraham and David. He is at the same time the absolute beginning of the human race regenerated by Him. The preparations are now complete, and the hour of fulfillment had arrived.The incarnation was the "Kairos," the decisive moment when God intervened personally in the history of salvation.The incarnation is the center of this Divine intervention, as shown in the "genealogies" presented by both Matthew, and Luke. The Old Testament led up to it. The Church was born of it. This perspective makes of the Gospel the center of history and not merely a private individual experience. Any other view would make the enumeration of "Christ's ancestors " simply a ridiculous piece of folklore
Thursday, July 7, 2016
"SYNOPTIC "GOSPELS" MATTHEW.
Christ left behind only memories. He wrote nothing at all, nor did He explicitly ask His Apostles to write down any thing what ever. He simple commanded them to proclaim the Good News of salvation throughout the world And that's what they did. But, as the Church grew, the need arose to put clearly in writing, what had been until then only an oral teaching. Then the foundations of the Christian faith would be clear, solid, and could be transmitted, without danger of distortion. That is when the four Gospel appeared. The first three form an integral whole distinct from the fourth Gospel of John. They are called Synoptics, from a a Greek word meaning to embrace the whole at a single glance. These three Synoptic Gospels can be set aside in three columns, enabling us to see the parallel unfolding of the accounts at a glance, and compare the terms dealing with the same subjects. However they are not so similar as to exclude any difference. A reading of the Gospels as presented in the New Testament their original character of each of the three inspired works which make up the Synoptic Gospels.
The Gospel according to Matthew is the first of the Synoptic in the traditional order. It was also the first to be written( about the year 50 A.D.) in its Aramaic version, which preceded the Greek version,
the source of the text we now use. Let us keep in mind that Matthew's Gospel was addressed first of all to the Jews of Palestine, ( and also the Bible Jesus read). The Semitic and Palestinian background appears in many details, Thus Matthew uses with out any explanation such words as "raca," that is "empty head" (5;22) " Bind and loose" 16:19 and 18:1); "yoke" (11:29-30) "reign of God" (13:11,etc); condemnation to Gehenna (23:33); "holy city" to designate Jerusalem (4:5) "flesh and blood" (16:17); " eternal darkness" and grinding teeth"(18:12; 13:42 and 50; 22:13; 24:51; 25:30).
Perhaps we should also add the play on words on Beelzebul and the master of household(11:25).
All these terms are fully intelligible only in the light of the vocabulary of late Judaism with which Matthew was familiar, as were no doubt those to whom his Gospel was addressed.
Regarding the customs of the Palestinian Jews, Matthew is the only Evangelist to mention the gift for the Altar (5:23), the customs of the priests on the Sabbath (12:5), the ostentatious piety of certain ones 6:1-6), the wearing of phylacteries (23:5), proselyting (23:15), tithes, ( 23:23). according to Matthew also, Jesus was sent at first only to Israel (15:24), and He sent His disciples on their first missions to the cities of Israel (10: 5 and 23).
The "First Gospel, " which gives an impression of order, sobriety, and balance, is much less colorful than Mark's. It does not have the delicacy of Luke's Gospel in describing person's or events. But it is successful in presenting the vital sequence of events, discourses, syntheses and analyses. The Sermon on the Mount and the long chapters on the parables clearly show the perfection of his literary style.
In Matthew, nothing is surprising or shocking. Graphic details do not divert our attention from the main points. his Gospel is like powerful, flowing with serene majesty. It has been said of Matthew's Gospel that it is like a temple because it is permeated with the sacred. The author seems to have the gift of maxims (3:12); 5: 3-12; 6:23,etc). He can give solemn descriptions (9:16-17); ((35-38), and he can make impressive declarations (16: 17-19; 9:35-38), His citations Scripture are admirably chosen.
The art of using key words gives the work as a whole serious tone, like a Eastern rhythmic chant. From the start his Gospel inspires us to reverence and meditation. That is perhaps why the Church- until recent reforms- had given Matthew's Gospel first place in its liturgy.
Matthew does not set out to write a biography of Christ the way Mark and Luke do. He wants to give believers testimony on the Son of God, who is the fulfillment of the prophecies and the Founder of the Church. His witness inevitably tends to reduce the temporal importance of past events, and to give them an eternal dimension.
The Gospel according to Matthew is the first of the Synoptic in the traditional order. It was also the first to be written( about the year 50 A.D.) in its Aramaic version, which preceded the Greek version,
the source of the text we now use. Let us keep in mind that Matthew's Gospel was addressed first of all to the Jews of Palestine, ( and also the Bible Jesus read). The Semitic and Palestinian background appears in many details, Thus Matthew uses with out any explanation such words as "raca," that is "empty head" (5;22) " Bind and loose" 16:19 and 18:1); "yoke" (11:29-30) "reign of God" (13:11,etc); condemnation to Gehenna (23:33); "holy city" to designate Jerusalem (4:5) "flesh and blood" (16:17); " eternal darkness" and grinding teeth"(18:12; 13:42 and 50; 22:13; 24:51; 25:30).
Perhaps we should also add the play on words on Beelzebul and the master of household(11:25).
All these terms are fully intelligible only in the light of the vocabulary of late Judaism with which Matthew was familiar, as were no doubt those to whom his Gospel was addressed.
Regarding the customs of the Palestinian Jews, Matthew is the only Evangelist to mention the gift for the Altar (5:23), the customs of the priests on the Sabbath (12:5), the ostentatious piety of certain ones 6:1-6), the wearing of phylacteries (23:5), proselyting (23:15), tithes, ( 23:23). according to Matthew also, Jesus was sent at first only to Israel (15:24), and He sent His disciples on their first missions to the cities of Israel (10: 5 and 23).
The "First Gospel, " which gives an impression of order, sobriety, and balance, is much less colorful than Mark's. It does not have the delicacy of Luke's Gospel in describing person's or events. But it is successful in presenting the vital sequence of events, discourses, syntheses and analyses. The Sermon on the Mount and the long chapters on the parables clearly show the perfection of his literary style.
In Matthew, nothing is surprising or shocking. Graphic details do not divert our attention from the main points. his Gospel is like powerful, flowing with serene majesty. It has been said of Matthew's Gospel that it is like a temple because it is permeated with the sacred. The author seems to have the gift of maxims (3:12); 5: 3-12; 6:23,etc). He can give solemn descriptions (9:16-17); ((35-38), and he can make impressive declarations (16: 17-19; 9:35-38), His citations Scripture are admirably chosen.
The art of using key words gives the work as a whole serious tone, like a Eastern rhythmic chant. From the start his Gospel inspires us to reverence and meditation. That is perhaps why the Church- until recent reforms- had given Matthew's Gospel first place in its liturgy.
Matthew does not set out to write a biography of Christ the way Mark and Luke do. He wants to give believers testimony on the Son of God, who is the fulfillment of the prophecies and the Founder of the Church. His witness inevitably tends to reduce the temporal importance of past events, and to give them an eternal dimension.
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