The
Old Testament prophets all proclaim of how God tells His people that he
will bless them if they do what He wants them to do, and how He will
punish them if they do what He tells them not to do. Blessings follow
obedience, and punishment follows disobedience. It is God's way of
assuring us that He will always keep his word, and is always just.
In
this passage God declares that He is going to pour out his blessings of
peace and prosperity on His people as a way of displaying to the rest
of the world that He is a great God. He tells His people not to be
afraid or discouraged for any reason. And He instructs them to get on
with the business of re-building the temple. God promises that if they
do this He will bless them.
Based on the idea given to us by
Paul that we are the living temple of God, what does this message mean
to us? It should have a physical, mental, and spiritual meaning. For,
as a complete person, we are a sort of temple complex composed of three
parts: body, mind, and spirit. Therefore, a complete temple rebuilding
effort must include all aspects of God's living temple.
The
rebuilding of the physical temple might include a change in diet and
activities. It could be we have allowed God's temple to become weak and
flabby. This is not a true representation of a great and mighty God.
God's temple should be a reflection of His strength and greatness. It
should be healthy and strong, just as God's grace toward His people is
healthy and strong. It should be attractive and inviting, encouraging
strangers to want to come close to God. God's temple should represent
His awe inspiring appearance, His life sustaining healthiness, and his
dependable strength.
God's temple should also be a place of
knowledge and wisdom. It should be a place where people with questions
and problems can go to with confidence that they will be able to
receive sound, reliable answers and advice. This may mean that the
living temple you are responsible for needs so upgrading. Maybe some
time needs to be spend reading. Perhaps a seminar or retreat is in
order. It could be attending a new class or subscribing to a new
magazine will facilitate a rebuilding of your temple.
The temple
of God is also a residence of His Holy Spirit. It is a place from which
His Spirit can communicate with others. It is a tool that His Spirit
can use to do His will. The temple of God should be a place which those
seeking communion with and comfort from His Spirit can go to and find
solace. This means spending a disciplined amount of time in communion
with God through prayer and meditation on a regular basis. As a result
of that relationship with God, the Holy Spirit will abide in His
Temple, available and ready to minister to all who seek Him at His
temple.
At the end of our reference passage God says, "OK. I
have promised to do my part. Now, here is your part. Tell the truth. Be
fair. Live at peace with everyone. Don't plot harm to others, don't
swear that something is true when it isn't. How I hate all that sort of
thing, says the Lord." (Zechariah 8:16-17 TLB) In other words, live the
simple command Jesus gave us; "Love one another as He has loved us."
That is our part in our relationship with God. And we can be assured
that we will be blessed by doing our part. We can be equally assured
that a lack of blessings will result from us not doing our part. For
God always keeps His promises. The resurrection of Christ is proof of
that.
May God bless you and guide you on your way. Amen.
According to the Baptist Press, the
Southern Baptist Convention (SBC) is a loosing team. The number of new
members has dropped again for the third year in a row. The number of
new members, registered by the number of baptisms performed, was nearly
19,000 fewer in 2007 than in 2006. This in spite of the fact that they
built 473 new churches. Apparently they were simply re-arranging deck
chairs on a sinking ship.
Up until a month ago I was a member of
a SBC church in San Antonio, TX. I left it because, quite frankly, it
was a dead church. I think it had was dead when it was formed simply to
give its members a place to worship that was closer to the new
neighborhoods they had moved to. The majority of the membership was
over fifty years old, and their ideas of church were even older. There
was no understanding of anyone born after 1955, and no attempt to reach
out to anyone younger than the youngest deacon. The youth department
had fewer than twenty active members, despite the fact that thousands
of children lived within a two mile radius of the church. And the
pastor, rather than being a leader, allowed himself to be controlled
completely by the stale old traditions of the stale old membership. The
entire church was like a loaf of bread that had a growing amount of
mold on it.
The Church of Jesus Christ is supposed to be a
living, healthy body. It should always be as fresh as a loaf of bread
right out of the oven. For the Church is the body of Christ; and He is
a living person. And His message is just as fresh today as it was
two-thousand years ago. It is healthy, life giving nourishment food for
a starving world. It should not be a stale left over from years gone
by. It should not be an old, dry biscuit you throw to a spiritually
hungry person just because it is what you have had in your cupboard
since your father's days. What the Church presents to the world should
be like the wine Jesus presented to the steward at the wedding in Cana;
it should be the finest and best any man has ever tasted.
The
problem the SBC and many other churches fail to recognize is that the
environment they present is one of old, faded traditions, rather than
an atmosphere of vibrant life. Walking into many churches is like
walking into the lobby of a funeral home. The mood is somber almost to
the point of being depressing. The behavior of the occupants is
restrained rather than exuberant. And the sermon is an expository
description of a life which has very little if any resemblance to that
experienced by ordinary, modern man. There is a complete absence of the
abundant life promised and practiced by Jesus.
For the church to
be a living, growing body, it must be a storehouse of fresh bread of
life. It must be a place where the spiritually hungry, tired, unhappy,
lonely, and lost know they can go to and always find high quality food
for their soul. It should be a place alive with a celebration of life;
a place filled with exuberant people joyfully rejoicing and praising
God for the great life He has given them. It should be a place where
the occupants can't wait for the opportunity to share the bread of life
with others. It should be the very real living body of Christ.
If
our faith is really alive, then our expression of our faith will be
truly alive. If we truly have the abundant life of Jesus in us, then we
will abundantly share that life with other. If we are always refreshing
and renewing our minds with the Holy Spirit, then we will always have a
fresh, new message to present to those seeking to satisfy their hunger
and quench their thirst. We will always have a fresh loaf of the bread
of life to break with anyone who comes to His table.
Paul
always emphasized that what he preached was not taught to him by any
man and did not come from himself. It is not man's wisdom, but a
demonstration of the power of God that was revealed in Paul's
teachings. And it was not with what the world considered wise and fancy
words that Paul sought to persuade people to accept the gospel, but the
power of the Holy Spirit that touched men's soul's and spoke to men's
hearts.
Paul tells us that it is the Holy Spirit that knows the
secrets of the depths of God's spirit, and can reveal those secretes to
the man who has accepted Jesus as Christ and has received the baptism
of the Holy Spirit. But the man who does not have the Spirit of God in
him cannot understand the wisdom of God, because it is only the Holy
Spirit that can reveal it to him, not some man using man's wisdom and
man's eloquent speech. This is why Paul made sure that he spoke plainly
to ordinary men. So that there would be no doubt that what he said was
of God, and not just his ideas.
Today America is filled with men
in pulpits filled with self-confidence presenting sermons based on
man's wisdom using man's eloquent words. They present "culturally
relevant" topical messages on issues every man can understand without
the aid of the Holy Spirit. They speak of having an uncluttered life,
having a good marriage, having a successful career, and having
material, worldly prosperity. They speak the words of man with the
wisdom of man so that they can receive man's approval. The Holy Spirit
is not in them, not in the words they speak, and not in the audience
that hears them.
It needs to be remembered that the church is
not going to be a place attractive to all men because it reveals the
truth many men want to hide from. And the job of the preacher is not to
gain the approval of men, but to be a voice for the Holy Spirit to
communicate His message to the hearts and souls of those called of God
according to His purpose. The message which come from the pulpit will
be a mystery, foolishness, and a stumbling block for some; for others
it will be the bread of life. Some with have no idea what the preacher
was talking about, but those to whom the secretes are revealed by the
Holy Spirit will receive the wisdom of God. And in that wisdom is the
power of God.
I agree that we need to try to reach the
un-churched and the seekers, but that is exactly what Paul did. He was
speaking to people for whom his message was something brand new and
completely different from every other message they had ever heard. And
because his words came from and were directed by the Holy Spirit, they
were just the right words delivered in just the right way to reach the
ones called by God. Paul did not have to preach sermons that made
people feel good, dealt with current issues, or promised material
prosperity. Paul proclaimed Jesus Christ, and him crucified for the
propitiation of sins. It was the plain, simple gospel of Jesus Christ
which touched men's hearts and soul's. It was the Word of God's grace
through Christ Jesus which won the approval of men, not Paul's word.
And that is how it should be today.
May the Grace of God, the love of Jesus Christ, and the peace of the Holy Spirit be with you.
If you carefully study the book of
Acts, as well as study the early history of the Church and the last
years of Jewish Jerusalem, you will discover that the greatest threat
to followers of Jesus were orthodox Jews. Just as the Pharisees,
Scribes, and members of the Priesthood clan opposed Jesus during his
life, and then persecuted his disciples (to the point of death were
Stephen and James the Just were concerned) after Christ's death within
the scope of Israel, they then persecuted Paul and tried to destroy the
young Church in Asia. The orthodox Jews saw the young Church of the
gospel of Jesus Christ as a threat to their power and favored
lifestyle. Its message of equality of all in the eyes of God, and its
emphasis on humility and service, was in complete opposition to the
view taught and tightly held by the Jewish ruling class. As a result,
the orthodox Jews sought to assure the teachings of Jesus were
completely excluded from Jewish life.
If you closely study the
society of the current State of Israel, you will discover that nothing
has changed. The ruling orthodox Jews of Israel still want to keep the
teachings of Jesus and its followers out of Israel. Christians who
visit Israel are told not to display crosses, because the cross is seen
a symbol of hatred in Israel. Christian are forbidden by law to do
missionary work in Israel. And Jews who believe Jesus is the promised
Messiah, are persecuted today just as they were two-thousand years ago.
As an example, check out this news article the Baptist Press.
According to Baptist Press,
the Supreme Court of Israel has ruled that Messianic Jews have the same
rights regarding automatic citizenship as Jews who do not believe in
Jesus as the Messiah. The case was brought by 12 applicants who had
been denied citizenship primarily because they were Jewish believers in
Jesus. Most of them had received letters saying they would not receive
citizenship because they "commit missionary activity," according to an
e-mail circulated by Calev Myers, founder and chief counsel of The
Jerusalem Institute of Justice. A clerk at the Ministry of Interior
reportedly had told one of the applicants that because she was
committing missionary activity, she was acting against the interests of
the state of Israel and the Jewish people. Israel's Supreme Court ended
the two-and-a-half-year legal battle April 16 by ruling that Messianics
should receive equal treatment under the Israeli law of return, which
says that anyone who is born Jewish can immigrate from anywhere in the
world to Israel and be granted citizenship automatically. "This is yet
another battle won in our war to establish equality in Israel for the
Messianic Jewish community just like every other legitimate stream of
faith within the Jewish world," Myers wrote.
As
much as many Americans like to think that Christians and Jews should be
friends, and Christians should always support Jews, the reality of
Jewish persecution of believers in Jesus as the Messiah should not be
lost in a spirit of Political Correctness. The Jews still resist the
truth of God, are still in rebellion against God, and still see
Christianity as a threat. The attitude of the privileged Jews who cling
desperately to their power and positions of authority over the common
Jews are the same now as in the days when Jesus walked the country
roads of Israel. They still see gentiles as unclean and not equal to
them in the eyes of God.
There have been legal cases here in the
United States based on Jewish claims that the attempt of Christians to
convert Jews to Christianity is a hate crime. And, although a Christian
would be instantly fired for making fun of Judaism on national radio,
Denis Miller's partner had no problem calling Jews for Jesus a cult of
kooks. Even a high school student sharing his faith with a fellow
Jewish student is seen by Jews as persecution of the Jewish child.
Regardless
of the objections of Jews, as followers of Jesus, we are still under
His command to preach His teachings to all the world. He told us we
would be persecuted for doing this. And he did not make any exception
for the children of Israel. It is still our duty to God and our Lord
Jesus Christ to tell everyone everywhere about the saving Grace of God
revealed to all mankind through the person of Jesus. It is a message
which is a stumbling block to those who resist it, and a message of
life to those who are called of God to receive it. We should never be
ashamed of the Gospel of Christ, and never be convinced that we should
not share it will Jews.
Therefore, friends, go forth into all
the world and tell the Good News of Jesus Christ. Be bold. Be brave.
And remember His promise to be with you alway.
Scripture references: Exodus 12:1-20, Mark 14:22-25
This
is the week of Passover; the annual event during which the Jews
remember and commemorate the night God performed the final miracle in
Egypt which finally caused Pharaoh to let the Israelites leave. It was
his final Passover meal that Jesus ate with his disciples in an upper
room the night he was betrayed by Judas. It is this meal from which we
Christians get our ordinance we call Communion or The Lord's Supper.
The
important element of the Passover meal, the one which is the symbol of
the Christ, the Savior, is the first born lamb without blemish of any
kind. It is to be sacrificed and consumed, while wearing traveling
clothes. That last part is something that is never mentioned in
Communion services, but it is very important; it is of great symbolic
significance for the Christian. It is something Paul understood quite
clearly.
First, we are not to nibble at the teachings of Christ,
like a little child playing with his meal. Nor are we to treat the
message of Jesus as a buffet or cafeteria line from which we can select
what pleases us and ignore the rest. The instructions God gave to Moses
concerning the Passover lamb was that it was to be consumed completely.
They were to eat the whole thing in one meal. Likewise, we are expected
to consume the message, the gospel of Jesus Christ completely. We are
to make every part of it a part of us. This was the message Jesus game
us himself in the symbolism of declaring the bread his body and the
wine his blood. He said it was giving for us, and we were to eat and
drink all of it; for it was giving for our salvation, just as the blood
of the sacrificial Passover lamb was for the salvation of the
Israelites.
An important instruction from God to Moses
concerning the eating of the Passover lamb which is often completely
overlooked by pastors during the Communion service is that the meal was
to be eaten while wearing traveling clothes. That is because the
Israelites were to be prepared to travel as soon as the night was over.
As soon as the Passover was concluded, they were to pack up their stuff
and be ready to take off for the Promised Land immediately. Likewise,
as soon as we have accepted the Lamb of God into our lives, and have
consumed his teachings and made all of him a total part of our lives,
we are to set out into the world to spread his word to all creation. We
are not supposed to partake of the sacrifice just for ourselves, and
then sit back and relax. We are to remember that the final instructions
from Jesus were to go into all the world baptizing and teaching
everything that he taught to all the the world. Remember that he will
be with us alway.
So, this week of Passover, let us put on our
traveling clothes, have a meal together, and then go forth to spread
the Good News. The Lamb of God has been sacrifice for the propitiation
of sins, and has been risen from the dead as God's sign that the
sacrifice has been accepted by Him, and our sins are forgiven. And, as
Jesus promised, all who give up their old lives and ask him to give
them a new life, will receive life; a real life of abundance that will
last forever. For now we will have the presence of the Holy Spirit,
which Jesus promised to send to us as a guarantee of our resurrection,
as our comforter and guide while we are still in this world. And then,
we shall live with our savior in his father's kingdom forever. Praise
God.
May God's Holy Spirit be with you and strengthen you now and always. Amen.
