Our situation now appears desperate in this place isolated from the world. In the past three years we have come to know what to expect, but now it seems that everything will change.
Can you relate?
In case you missed it, Church.., we’ve reached a pivotal point in the history of the world where the Lord will change all of our relationships to God and to each other.
The Gospel of John
The Apostle John now looks back on a pivotal moment in Jerusalem with the Lord Jesus in the seclusion of an upper room. He teaches the church the New Covenant relationship with God our Father, Jesus the Son our Lord and the Holy Spirit of the LORD God.
This is His commandment, that we believe in the name of His Son Jesus Christ, and love one another, just as He commanded us.
The one who keeps His commandments abides in Him, and He in him. We know by this that He abides in us, by the Spirit whom He has given us.
John asks a persecuted church to love one another, as the Lord Jesus commanded us. (By this time all other Apostles of Jesus except John had already suffered death by the hand of this world’s powers and principalities.)
The early church, a mere remnant of the unsettled sojourners of Abraham joined by faith in the Messiah, Son of David, with those of the world adopted in love by a New Covenant of forgiveness — these Christians also needed a helper just as you and I cry out for help. John’s Good News assures those who believe that in the Lord Jesus Christ we have help from above.
Recalling Jesus’ ascent into Jerusalem
Briefly recalling some of John’s journey with Jesus and the Apostles into Jerusalem, which would lead to the Lord’s trial after this pivotal moment before Jesus’ crucifixion, resurrection and ascension:
In the third year of Jesus’ teaching on earth after having made many proofs of His Authority from God through the witness of many signs and wonders, the Messiah Jesus(John’s Teacher and Lord):
Came to Bethany and commanded Lazarus to come out of the grave after four days! John 11:
The High Priest Caiaphas prophesied that Jesus would ‘die for the people.’ John 11:47-53
Jesus and the Apostles travel to Ephraim then return to dine with Lazarus and his sisters before entering Jerusalem. John 12
… the chief priests planned to put Lazarus to death also; because on account of him many of the Jews were going away and were believing in Jesus.
Jesus Enters Jerusalem
12 On the next day the large crowd who had come to the feast, when they heard that Jesus was coming to Jerusalem, took the branches of the palm trees and went out to meet Him, and began to shout, “Hosanna! Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord, even the King of Israel.”
27 “Now My soul has become troubled; and what shall I say, ‘Father, save Me from this hour’? But for this purpose I came to this hour. Father, glorify Your name.” Then a voice came out of heaven: “I have both glorified it, and will glorify it again.”
31 Now judgment is upon this world; now the ruler of this world will be cast out. And I, if I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all men to Myself.”
These things Jesus spoke, and He went away and hid Himself from them.
44 And Jesus cried out and said, “He who believes in Me, does not believe in Me but in Him who sent Me.
Before continuing with Jesus’ New Commandment and promise of help, let us briefly witness from the Psalms of Ascent.
Jesus and the Apostles and crowds would have sung these Psalms on ascent of Mount Zion, approaching Jerusalem from the valley below. The words of praise to the LORD would no doubt have been fresh in the memory of each Apostle later in the upper room.
Psalms of Ascent
As worshipers recognized their Messiah on the foal of a donkey, a sign of Jerusalem’s King, they near Zion’s gate.
Recall now John’s Jewish understanding of these annual songs of worship as they now apply to the Messiah of Israel, our Lord Jesus.
שִׁ֗יר הַֽמַּ֫עֲלֹ֥ות
Woe is me, that I sojourn in Mesech, that I dwell in the tents of Kedar!
The LORD shall preserve thee from all evil: he shall preserve thy soul.
I was glad when they said unto me, Let us go into the house of the LORD.
We will go into his tabernacles: we will worship at his footstool.
Arise, O LORD, into thy rest; thou, and the ark of thy strength.
אָרוֹן
So Joseph died, being an hundred and ten years old: and they embalmed him, and he was put in a coffin in Egypt. - Gen 50:26
And thou shalt put into the ark the testimony which I shall give thee. Exodus 25:16
Let thy priests be clothed with righteousness; and let thy saints shout for joy.
I will also clothe her priests with salvation: and her saints shall shout aloud for joy.
Lift up your hands in the sanctuary, and bless the LORD.
The LORD that made heaven and earth bless thee out of Zion.
Hosanna!
“Hosanna! Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord, even the King of Israel.”
Now that we recall the events leading up to Jesus’ New Commandment; NEXT, God-willing, we will return to the upper room where the Lord Jesus promises us HELP.
Life has not been progressing even remotely how we had planned.
Here we are locked up as if in the prison of death. All normal life interrupted by events of recent days. Yet what next — what now?
For the church in the year of our Lord, 2020 of these last days, it was Easter we could not celebrate in our familiar gathering of all who believe (as well as some who would like to hope in something other than death).
In the first century, this waiting by the Apostle Thomas to see Jesus once more was somewhat different. For the other Disciples had given reliable first-hand witness of the Good News of the resurrection of the Messiah Jesus, their friend and Lord!
Many of us have recently taken an entire day to worship the Lord Jesus on Resurrection Sunday or Easter Sunday.
We have watched (even online) a sermon entirely dedicated to the Gospel of Jesus Christ being raised by God the Father from the tomb after His Sacrifice — His real and human suffering in the flesh –His sacrificial spilling of His Blood on the Cross for our sins.
He IS risen indeed!
Yet what now? What in this long time of waiting will happen next? God only knows.
And what, for Christ’s sake (yes, for the Messiah’s sake), must we do?
My own study of the Gospel of John in the year of our Lord, 2020, has reached briefly into the doubting thoughts of all concerning death and what does follow.
Today is the eighth day since Thomas received the reliable Good News that Jesus had appeared to the other Disciples after DEATH.
The Apostle Thomas must have greatly anticipated the time (whenever it might finally come) to witness the risen Lord Jesus in person. (Most of us know the story already mentioned from the Gospel of John.)
It’s just been eight days of the fifty days during which the risen Lord Jesus bodily appears at various times to more than 500 witnesses. For Thomas, just about six more weeks to once again personally see and hear the Lord, the Son of Man risen from the grave.
If you follow talkofJesus.comdid eight days seem like a long wait after the rapidity of the events leading up to the Crucifixion and Resurrection of Jesus?
And if you’re anything like me (and likely Thomas) even eight days, thirty or forty days must seem like an eternity. Remember, it is not.
Today we take not the liturgical path leading to Pentecost, the chronological path of detailed witness of the Apostles, nor do we simply return to what we did before, recognizing that things have changed since we planned our year.
Like Thomas and the Disciples, we did not come to this day anticipating it to be any different than the last three years.
Life changed for the Apostles once Jesus rose from death.
And now life changes for the 21st century church caught in a diaspora of faith and witness.
All seems lost for the Lord’s chosen Disciples once Jerusalem’s religious authorities and powerful Roman governor crucify the Messiah Jesus. Even those who had believed, been healed and followed Jesus to Jerusalem’s gates were left in despair. But then prophecy is fulfilled.
The Sacrificial Lamb for our sin completes that for which the Son of Man was sent by God the Father.
Jesus IS risen!
After instructing the Disciples to take the Gospel into all the world, He ascends into the heavens from which He came. He will return once again in glory at the end of the age!
Those same men who sought to preserve their own flesh by cowering behind locked doors now boldly witness the risen Lord Jesus in the public place.
All the Apostles would eventually be martyred for their witness of Jesus Christ, except John (though he would be tortured and exiled). For now and until their earthly deaths the Apostles’ witness and preaching, emboldened by the Spirit of God, convicted sinners and attracted believers by faith in the Lord Jesus.
Peter and the Apostles, filled with the Holy Spirit of the Lord God, preach to the crowds in the Jerusalem!
The crowds are amazed, then Peter directs his preaching directly to the Jews, a remnant of faithful Jews recognizing the fulfillment of prophecy in what they have just witnessed.
Acts 2:
‘In the last days,’ God says, ‘I will pour out my Spirit upon all people. Your sons and daughters will prophesy.
Take now to heart, fellow 21st c. believer, that which Peter preached to those who had not seen the Lord raised from death on the Cross.
Most had not been among the more than five hundred to witness the risen Christ Jesus, before His ascension on Pentecost just a few days prior to Peter’s preaching.
23 But God knew what would happen, and his prearranged plan was carried out when Jesus was betrayed. With the help of lawless Gentiles, you nailed him to a cross and killed him. 24 But God released him from the horrors of death and raised him back to life, for death could not keep him in its grip.
Isolated, then sent out
Do you suppose that the locked doors of your church surprise God?
Could the Lord have a purpose in all of this — a purpose central to the Gospel of Jesus Christ crucified, buried, risen and returning again in glory?
Of course God knew it! – the Lord God knows everything that has happened and will happen, even those unseen things which require our faith and glorious things beyond our grasp.
Peter now recognizes this through the Holy Spirit of God, the same Holy Spirit he witnessed in Christ Jesus our Lord.
God the Father and the Son of Man are ONE in the Same with the Holy Spirit!
And Peter preaches the GOOD NEWS with anointed confidence to those with ears to hear.
Son of David, Son of God!
31 David was looking into the future and speaking of the Messiah’s resurrection. He was saying that God would not leave him among the dead or allow his body to rot in the grave.
“God raised Jesus from the dead, and we are all witnesses of this.
33 Now he is exalted to the place of highest honor in heaven, at God’s right hand. And the Father, as he had promised, gave him the Holy Spirit to pour out upon us, just as you see and hear today.
34 For David himself never ascended into heaven, yet he said,
‘The Lord said to my Lord, “Sit in the place of honor at my right hand until I humble your enemies, making them a footstool under your feet.”’
36 “So let everyone in Israel know for certain that God has made this Jesus, whom you crucified, to be both Lord and Messiah!”
37 Peter’s words pierced their hearts…
His words pierced their hearts
Do they pierce yours?
Does the Gospel of Christ Jesus, sent to save sinners from death ring out to the crowds beyond the locked doors of a church building where once you gathered?
A response of faith
… and they said to him and to the other apostles, “Brothers, what should we do?”
What must we do?
If now the Holy Spirit finally pierces our own tech-brittled 21st century hearts, what is our response while we wait for the LORD’s return?
Or even our response in this brief time before our own inevitable DEATH?
For like this time of waiting for the Apostles, this life will no longer be the same for you and me.
A former perspective of Church
We have put on our ‘Sunday best’ for Easter for all these years. And we call ourselves, “Christian.”(Always from within the walls of our ‘church,’ and occasionally even in this world where we live, work and play.)
What witness of Jesus yet resounds in the hearts of those who hear us claim — the Holy Name of the Lord?
For they no longer may enter the building of our gathering, the place to which we once gladly invited:
“Let’s go to church.“
It seems that everything has changed and our vision for the church building no longer applies.
Could a prosperous and comfortable church of these recent centuries have wandered aimlessly into a by-path meadow? It has remained an enduring challenge to the church.
May God’s Grace preserve you from straying into Bypath Meadow!
The man who professes to be a Christian must not expect God’s angels to keep him if he goes in the way of worldliness. There are hundreds, and I fear thousands, of church members who say that they are the people of God, yet they appear to live entirely to this world. The great aim is moneymaking and personal aggrandizement—just as much as it is the aim of altogether ungodly men.
The Acts of the Apostles witnesses the boldness of the early church even in the face of DEATH for their confidence and love in Christ.
Unbeliever you know in this 21st century world of chaos look near and far for an example of men and women who exemplify the ‘god’ we claim by the witness of our lives.
We tell some that Jesus died on a Cross for our sins.
While our witness makes them wonder of YOU ‘so love the world’ that YOU would die for THEM.
‘Where is the Christian who does not fear death,’ they ask?
Yet when some agendized so-called ‘christians’ act boldly in ways repugnant to their own ideals, good-seeking souls of this world ask,
‘Why would I want to be a fool like THEM?’
IF GOD SO LOVED THE WORLD, WHY DON’T I SEE IT IN CHRISTIANS?
THEY are after our money to build their grand cathedrals of prosperous vanity.
How are their corporate jets any different than those of the world’s great philanthropists who would save our world for another generation?
Are these so-called ‘christians’ banned from their big gatherings any better than the man isolated in a cave or on a mountaintop?
Really, are Christians any different than me?
Fair questions of the world to any who claim faith.
In our witness they observe a discrepancy between claim of Christ and our inability to differentiate between you and the world, because of Christ.
Assuming God (against Whom the world rebels), how must those obedient to the Lord act when the world seemingly slips rapidly back into the chaos preceding creation?
Fortunately, scripture provides not only answers, but also direction. For we are SINNERS LIKE THEM seeking justice, yet offering solace in LIFE after DEATH.
Are you the Christian who fears not DEATH (yet is no fool)?
Proverbs & Prophecy
When the wicked die, their hopes die with them, for they rely on their own feeble strength.
We find that those who do not believe may well accept the comfort of Scripture as hope for their own future. Proverbial advice, however, need not come exclusively from scripture.
Others may have it right as well, so our random words of wisdom from scripture may make no more difference than those from a worshiper of stone living in the lies of idolatry. The Lord our God is One!
The Prophet Isaiah, who we so often quote concerning the Messiah of God also promises a glorious future:
Behold, a king will reign righteously…
No longer will the fool be called noble, Or the rogue be spoken of as generous.
For a fool speaks nonsense, And his heart inclines toward wickedness: To practice ungodliness and to speak error against the LORD, To keep the hungry person unsatisfied And to withhold drink from the thirsty.
33 Little children, I am with you a little while longer. You will seek Me; and as I said to the Jews, now I also say to you, ‘Where I am going, you cannot come.’
“A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another, even as I have loved you, that you also love one another.
35 By this all men will know that you are My disciples, if you have love for one another.”
Does the church obey this new commandment of Jesus?
IF YOU HAVE LOVE FOR ONE ANOTHER…
Is this not the witness of Christ which builds His CHURCH — soul by sinful redeemed soul?
Has the world not seen our white-washed building without seeing Christ?
“Go into all the world,” the Lord commanded the disciples. Yet Jesus never suggested that we bring all of the world into our building of worship.
Let your hearts, imprisoned in cells away from each other, hear what the Lord through Scripture says to the Church.
For when once more we gather together, to ask the Lord’s blessing, perhaps those wandering lost souls of our neighbors will see that Christ’s Church is in fact, us.
Observe how some react to isolation (as in #StayatHome #Pandemic etc.) and you might just wonder how any wall of separation can exist between mankind. Human beings made in the inage of God are social. We must live and work together as families, as neighbors and as citizens of nations, even the world.
So how does separation from those crucial to our lives work?
And who makes the rules?
In fact we currently see several struggles between many authorities of this world, nations, states, media, social and professional organizations, international corporations, wealthy philanthropists and more.
Of course few in this world will first ask,
‘What is the will of the LORD for our interactions with others?‘
Festivals of the LORD
Now Jews and Christians alike must ask additional relational questions of gathering to worship the Lord God. Add to the urgency of questions in the year of our Lord 2020:
How will I celebrate Passover?
How will I celebrate Easter?
We enter a HOLY WEEK in A.D. 2020 without possibility of practical obedience to traditional scriptural worship of the Lord God.
Roger Harned – talkofJesus.com
We must realize that obedient worship of the Lord has changed at times. Congregational worship began with a traveling Tabernacle, pointed to an established Temple, reinstituted in a rebuilt Temple, then dispersed into an unclean world.
The Messiah of Israel, the Son of Man and Son of God offered a New Covenant of worship between God our Father and the world through the Holy Spirit of God given to those who believe in Jesus the Son.
Regardless of which tradition of Judaism or Christianity you came to know you likely do not completely grasp the holiness of the Lord God and without the Lord’s mercy your sin before God fails to keep you appropriately distanced from the Very Holiness of the LORD GOD.
We might easily become sidetracked in religious discussions about festivals and traditions, but more germain to our relationship to the Lord God is a brief look at holiness.
You likly know the first use of this word Holy from when Moses approached the LORD in a burning bush. It’s used more than a hunded times in just Exodus and Leviticus to describe detail concerning worship.
‘On the first day you shall have a holy assembly, and another holy assembly on the seventh day; no work at all shall be done on them, except what must be eaten by every person, that alone may be prepared by you.
Outline of Biblical Usage to consecrate, sanctify, prepare, dedicate, be hallowed, be holy, be sanctified, be separate
קָדַשׁqâdash, kaw-dash’; a primitive root; to be (causatively, make, pronounce or observe as) clean (ceremonially or morally):—appoint, bid, consecrate, dedicate, defile, hallow, (be, keep) holy(-er, place), keep, prepare, proclaim, purify, sanctify(-ied one, self), wholly.
Then Moses said to Aaron,
“It is what the LORD spoke, saying, ‘By those who come near Me I will be treated H6942 as holy, H6942 And before all the people I will be honored.’” So Aaron, therefore, kept silent.
Leviticus 10:3 NASB
Do you recall from Scripture what had just taken place?
Before the Lord our God you must: consecrate, sanctify, prepare, dedicate, be hallowed, be holy, be sanctified, be separate — precisely as the LORD instructs. Even Priest and prophet, pastor and teacher (these perhaps moreso) — all must be Holy, because the Lord our God is Holy.
“BUT THE LORD SAID TO HIM, ‘TAKE OFF THE SANDALS FROM YOUR FEET, FOR THE PLACE ON WHICH YOU ARE STANDING IS HOLY G40 GROUND.
Acts 7:33 Stephen, quoting Moses before the Sanhedrin
Holiness does not change from the Old Testament to the New – different word, same meaning. Stephen also uses it as Jesus did to describe the Holy Spirit of the Lord God.
“You men who are stiff-necked and uncircumcised in heart and ears are always resisting the Holy G40 Spirit; you are doing just as your fathers did. – Acts 7:51
Outline of Biblical Usage
most holy thing, a saint
Saints & Sinners
Are you Holy to the Lord — separated to the Most High from the commonness of worldly sin?
Dare you enter the Holy of Holies into the Presence of Almighty God?
IF NOT, hear just a bit more about the Messiah Jesus to understand about the Holiness of Holy Week.
For dogs have surrounded me; A band of evildoers has encompassed me; They pierced my hands and my feet… – Psalm 22:16
I can count all my bones.
They look, they stare at me;
They divide my garments among them,
And for my clothing they cast lots.
the amen
“Who will not fear, O Lord, and glorify Your name? For You alone are holy; For ALL THE NATIONS WILL COME AND WORSHIP BEFORE YOU, FOR YOUR RIGHTEOUS ACTS HAVE BEEN REVEALED.”
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