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Tag: Christ

  • An Acceptable Sacrifice

    An Acceptable Sacrifice

    Psalm 50

    The Acceptable Sacrifice

    A Psalm of Asaph.

    1 The mighty one, God the Lord,
        speaks and summons the earth
        from the rising of the sun to its setting.
    2 Out of Zion, the perfection of beauty,
        God shines forth.

    3 Our God comes and does not keep silence,
        before him is a devouring fire,
        and a mighty tempest all around him.
    4 He calls to the heavens above
        and to the earth, that he may judge his people:
    5 “Gather to me my faithful ones,
        who made a covenant with me by sacrifice!”
    6 The heavens declare his righteousness,
        for God himself is judge. Selah

    7 “Hear, O my people, and I will speak,
        O Israel, I will testify against you.
        I am God, your God.
    8 Not for your sacrifices do I rebuke you;
        your burnt offerings are continually before me.

    John 10: 17-18 For this reason the Father loves me, because I lay down my life that I may take it up again. 

    No one takes it from me, but I lay it down of my own accord.

    I have authority to lay it down, and I have authority to take it up again. This charge I have received from my Father.”

    Though Israel understood the power of the Lord to deliver them from Egypt and potentially from Rome, they did not understand the power of the King of the Jews to deliver them from sin.

    “Forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those who trespass against us.

    triumphal-entryMark 11:

    8 And many spread their cloaks on the road, and others spread leafy branches that they had cut from the fields. 9 And those who went before and those who followed were shouting,“Hosanna! Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord! 10 Blessed is the coming kingdom of our father David! Hosanna in the highest!”

    11 And he entered Jerusalem and went into the temple. And when he had looked around at everything, as it was already late, he went out to Bethany with the twelve.

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    The LORD does not establish His Kingdom on earth (as it is in heaven) in the same sinful ways as man!

    Psalm 50: 

    16 But to the wicked God says:
        “What right have you to recite my statutes
        or take my covenant on your lips?
    17 For you hate discipline,
        and you cast my words behind you.
    18 If you see a thief, you are pleased with him,
        and you keep company with adulterers.

    19 “You give your mouth free rein for evil,
        and your tongue frames deceit.
    20 You sit and speak against your brother;
        you slander your own mother’s son.
    21 These things you have done, and I have been silent;
        you thought that I was one like yourself.
    But now I rebuke you and lay the charge before you.

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     Mark 11:

    Jesus Cleanses the Temple

    15 And they came to Jerusalem. And he entered the temple and began to drive out those who sold and those who bought in the temple, and he overturned the tables of the money-changers and the seats of those who sold pigeons. 16 And he would not allow anyone to carry anything through the temple. 17 And he was teaching them and saying to them,

    “Is it not written, ‘My house shall be called a house of prayer for all the nations’? But you have made it a den of robbers.”

    18 And the chief priests and the scribes heard it and were seeking a way to destroy him, for they feared him, because all the crowd was astonished at his teaching. 19 And when evening came they went out of the city.

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    Psalm 51: 

    13 Then I will teach transgressors your ways,
        and sinners will return to you.
    14 Deliver me from bloodguiltiness, O God,
        O God of my salvation,
        and my tongue will sing aloud of your righteousness…

    17 The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit;
        a broken and contrite heart, O God, you will not despise.

    Psalm 68:

    19 Blessed be the Lord,
        who daily bears us up;
        God is our salvation. Selah
    20 Our God is a God of salvation,
        and to God, the Lord, belong deliverances from death…

    24 Your procession is seen, O God,
        the procession of my God, my King, into the sanctuary—

    Psalm 69:

    9 For zeal for your house has consumed me,
        and the reproaches of those who reproach you have fallen on me.

    19 You know my reproach,
        and my shame and my dishonor;
        my foes are all known to you.
    20 Reproaches have broken my heart,
        so that I am in despair.
    I looked for pity, but there was none,
        and for comforters, but I found none.
    21 They gave me poison for food,
        and for my thirst they gave me sour wine to drink.

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    To be continued…

  • Conquest of Love; Sin Slain at the Gate

    Conquest of Love; Sin Slain at the Gate

    Philippians 2:

    overlooking jerusalem  And being found in human form,
    8     he humbled himself
        and became obedient to the point of death—
        even death on a cross.

    9 Therefore God also highly exalted him
        and gave him the name
        that is above every name,

    10 so that at the name of Jesus
        every knee should bend,
        in heaven and on earth and under the earth,
    11 and every tongue should confess
        that Jesus Christ is Lord,
        to the glory of God the Father.

    It was neither the conquest nor the King Jerusalem expected. The Messiah would surely take back the Temple and the City centered on the worship of God. He must by His miraculous power from Almighty God reclaim the promise and the land.

    Herod had rebuilt the Temple, just as Nehemiah had prevailed in the land conquered by gentile invaders, evil unbelievers who destroyed the House of worship and enslaved the people once more.

    Centuries had passed with silence from the Lord – not one Prophet until just this time when John had proclaimed the coming of the Messiah.

    Yet Rome would have nothing of trouble-makers like John, though he hid in the desert. And Herod could not remain King with another King of the Jews at the gate.

    A Conqueror greater than David was poised to ride into Jerusalem. He had been there before, a faithful Rabbi who taught with authority. His miracles were well documented and witnessed by many. Now the crowds followed.

    And the gates could not be closed for the most profitable festival of the entire Jewish year. Many would come to the Temple and buy their kosher food for the Seder, overpriced animals required for the sacrifice and souvenirs of the Temple to take back home throughout Judea, Samaria, Asia and even Rome itself.

    Another zealot insurrection could not be tolerated by Centurions guarding the gate and controlling the crowds.

    And Jesus of Nazareth rides a colt down the hillside to the very gate of Jerusalem with thousands shouting: HOSANNA! HOSANNA! SON OF DAVID!

    Five centuries earlier Zechariah had prophesied:

    Zechariah 9

    9 Rejoice greatly, O daughter Zion!
        Shout aloud, O daughter Jerusalem!
    Lo, your king comes to you;
        triumphant and victorious is he,
    humble and riding on a donkey,
        on a colt, the foal of a donkey.
    10 He will cut off the chariot from Ephraim
        and the war-horse from Jerusalem;
    and the battle bow shall be cut off,
        and he shall command peace to the nations;
    his dominion shall be from sea to sea,
        and from the River to the ends of the earth.

    11 As for you also, because of the blood of my covenant with you,
        I will set your prisoners free from the waterless pit.
    12 Return to your stronghold, O prisoners of hope;
        today I declare that I will restore to you double.
    13 For I have bent Judah as my bow;
        I have made Ephraim its arrow.
    I will arouse your sons, O Zion,
        against your sons, O Greece,
        and wield you like a warrior’s sword.

    The stage of all history is set, the battle prepared, the King has come to Jerusalem.

    To be continued…

  • Reflections: Jerusalem – a city of sacrifice

    Reflections: Jerusalem – a city of sacrifice

    siloette of jesus on cross[ Lament over Jerusalem ]

    “O Jerusalem, Jerusalem,

    the city that kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to it!

    How often would I have gathered your children together as a hen gathers her brood under her wings, and you were not willing!

    – words of Christ Jesus – Mathew 23:37

    destruction-of-jewish-temple-70-ad-lgThe Temple of Herod would be destroyed when Jerusalem again fell in the year of our Lord 70, not even four decades after the Crucifixion and Sacrifice of Jesus on the Cross; followed by His glorious resurrection of the body, appearances to many believers and physical ascension into the clouds.

    Yet prior to the controversial proclamations of John the baptizer and miracles of Jesus in the Temple and throughout Judah and many places, God had remained silent for centuries while Jerusalem suffered the consequence of a disobedient people who always rejected God and ridiculed or killed the Prophets of the LORD.

    TempledestructionCaptive Jerusalem before Christ lay vulnerable to the swords of the nations, even prior to the conquests of Rome. The LORD allowed its fall into ruin, for His people had not listened to their Prophets; therefore the LORD kept silence beyond their generations into the centuries.

    These are the words of Jeremiah the Prophet, after the LORD had warned the people… after the people refused to listen… after the LORD allowed the calamity of which His Prophet had warned:

    Lamentations 1 

    How Lonely Sits the City

    1 How lonely sits the city
        that was full of people!
    How like a widow has she become,
        she who was great among the nations!
    She who was a princess among the provinces
        has become a slave.

    2 She weeps bitterly in the night,
        with tears on her cheeks;
    among all her lovers
        she has none to comfort her;
    all her friends have dealt treacherously with her;
        they have become her enemies.

    3 Judah has gone into exile because of affliction
        and hard servitude;
    she dwells now among the nations,
        but finds no resting place;
    her pursuers have all overtaken her
        in the midst of her distress.

    4 The roads to Zion mourn,
        for none come to the festival;
    all her gates are desolate;
        her priests groan;
    her virgins have been afflicted,
        and she herself suffers bitterly.

    …

     18 “The Lord is in the right,

        for I have rebelled against his word;
    but hear, all you peoples,
        and see my suffering;
    my young women and my young men
        have gone into captivity.

    19 “I called to my lovers,
        but they deceived me;
    my priests and elders
        perished in the city,
    while they sought food
        to revive their strength.

    20 “Look, O Lord, for I am in distress;
        my stomach churns;
    my heart is wrung within me,
        because I have been very rebellious.
    In the street the sword bereaves;
        in the house it is like death.

    Minor-Prophets-TimelineBy the time Ezra and Nehemiah returned to the site of the destroyed Temple, God’s chosen people had completely forgotten the Law.

    For a time they repented. Then once more God was forgotten in the land and Jerusalem remained only a dark shadow of promise once made to a people who failed to keep the Law in the words of their mouth and meditate on it every day and every night.

    Have contemporary believers in Jesus Christ also done what is evil in the eyes of the LORD in these last days?

    Hear the hastening approach of our Lord, King of the New Jerusalem…