The Holy Scriptures

Comment: Various religious traditions and ethnic groups consider different writings to be sacred or holy. These writings are valued because they provide instruction for life. Wikipedia lists 47 such groups. Probably none of these writings have been as widely circulated as have the Christian Scriptures. Jesus and the apostles based their faith on the Jewish Septuagint (LXX), the Greek translation of the Hebrew Scriptures completed about 300 BC.  Note their use by Jesus in the following story. (Luke 24:13-35)

Reader: Behold, two of them were going that very day to a village named Emmaus, which was sixty stadia^] from Jerusalem. They talked with each other about all of these things which had happened. While they talked and questioned together, Jesus himself came near, and went with them. But their eyes were kept from recognizing him.

Reader: He said to them, What are you talking about as you walk, and are sad?

Reader: One of them, named Cleopas, answered him, Are you the only stranger in Jerusalem who doesn’t know the things which have happened there in these days?

Reader: He said to them, What things?.

Reader: They said to him, The things concerning Jesus, the Nazarene, who was a prophet mighty in deed and word before God and all the people; and how the chief priests and our rulers delivered him up to be condemned to death, and crucified him. But we were hoping that it was he who would redeem Israel. Yes, and besides all this, it is now the third day since these things happened. Also, certain women of our company amazed us, having arrived early at the tomb; and when they didn’t find his body, they came saying that they had also seen a vision of angels, who said that he was alive. Some of us went to the tomb, and found it just like the women had said, but they didn’t see him.

Reader: He said to them, Foolish men, and slow of heart to believe in all that the prophets have spoken! Didn’t the Christ have to suffer these things and to enter into his glory? Beginning from Moses and from all the prophets, he explained to them in all the Scriptures the things concerning himself.

Reader: They came near to the village, where they were going, and he acted like he would go further. They urged him, saying,

Readers: Stay with us, for it is almost evening, and the day is almost over.

Reader: He went in to stay with them. When he had sat down at the table with them, he took the bread and gave thanks. Breaking it, he gave to them. Their eyes were opened, and they recognized him, and he vanished out of their sight. They said to one another,

Readers: Weren’t our hearts burning within us, while he spoke to us along the way, and while he opened the Scriptures to us?

Reader: They rose up that very hour, returned to Jerusalem, and found the eleven gathered together, and those who were with them, saying,

Reader: The Lord is risen indeed, and has appeared to Simon!

Reader: They related the things that happened along the way, and how he was recognized by them in the breaking of the bread..

Comment: What are those ancient Hebrew writings that foretold the coming of the Messiah and how he would live and die for the sins of the human race?  They are the 39 books of what we call the Old Testament

Narrator: First there are the 5 Books of Moses, Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, Deuteronomy. They are also called the Pentateuch (5 books) or the Torah (law).

Narrator: Genesis, the book of beginnings, recounts the stories of creation week, the fall of Adam and Eve, the flood and the call of Abram. God makes a promise to him that through his seed the entire world would be blessed. Then God predicts that Abram’s descendents would be oppressed as slaves for 400 years. Genesis ends with the story of Joseph and his family all going to Egypt.

Narrator: Exodus and Leviticus tell the story of how God used Moses to deliver the children of Israel from Egyptian slavery. God then gave them laws at Mount Sinai that would govern this new nation of over 1 million people and instructed them as to how they were to worship Him.

Narrator: In the book of Numbers the Israelites come to the border of Canaan, the land God had promised to give them, but they refused to trust him to deliver it into their hands. As a result they wandered in the wilderness for 40 years until that generation died. God provided water from a rock and manna to eat.

Narrator: Deuteronomy is Moses’ final instruction for the people he had led for 40 years. He recounts their wanderings, repeats God’s commandments, and tells them of the blessings they would experience if they obeyed God and the curses if they did not.  He gives the leadership to Joshua who will lead them into the Promised Land.

Comment: These books are foundational not only to the Jewish faith but also for Christians. They are cited many times in the New Testament.

Narrator: The Books of History follow the Pentateuch. They are-Joshua, Judges, Ruth, First.Samuel, Second.Samuel, First & Second Kings, First & Second.Chronicles, Ezra, Nehemiah, Esther

Narrator: These books trace the history of this new nation from the time that Joshua led them across the Jordan River (about 1500 BC) to their return to Canaan after 70 years of Babylonian captivity (About 538 BC)

Narrator: The Books of Poetry are Job, Psalms, Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, Song of Songs,

Narrator: The book of Job reveals in a dramatic way how the lives of people can be involved in the struggle between God and the rebel angel, Satan. Both of them are seeking our allegiance.

Narrator: The book of Psalms consists mostly of song lyrics written by King David.  Most of his life he lived close to God and God honored him be giving him insights into the plan of Salvation.  So there are many prophetic references to Jesus the Messiah.

Narrator: The books of Proverbs, Ecclesiastes and the Song of Songs were by Solomon, son of David.  He was the third king of Israel and noted for his wisdom, wealth and the construction of a magnificent temple.

Narrator:  Isaiah, Jeremiah, Lamentations, Ezekiel, and Daniel are the Major Prophets. They lived and served just before and during the Babylonian exile. Their writings deal largely with the sins of Israel in their day but they also contain insights into the origin of evil and the plan of Salvation.

Narrator: Hosea, Joel, Amos, Obadiah, Jonah. Micah, Nahum, Habakkuk, Zephaniah, Haggai, Zechariah, and Malachi are the Minor Prophets and they conclude the Old Testament. These prophets lived and served during the time when the kingdoms of Israel and Judah were disintegrating. As such they gave repeated calls for God’s people to repent and return to worshiping the true God instead of the gods of the heathen around them.

 

Comment: You will notice that there were many different authors of the books of the Old Testament and they lived at different times.  As their writings were passed down from generation to generation they became established as valid communications from God.  In a similar way the writings that make up the New Testament were mostly written before 150 AD. They were circulated among the churches and those deemed to be faithful to Jesus and the rest of Scripture were collected into one volume.  This became our New Testament.

Narrator: Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John are called the Gospels because they contain the good news about the kingdom of God that Jesus brought to our world. Written by 4 different authors they give slightly different accounts of the life and death of Jesus but they are in agreement about whom Jesus is - the Creator, Son of God.

Narrator: The Acts of the Apostles and the book of Romans trace the development of the church during the first century. The Church grew out of Judaism and the doctrines that distinguish Christianity from Judaism are best articulated by Paul in the book of Romans.

Narrator: The remainder of the New Testament consists of letters that further develop these doctrines. They are; 1. Corinthians, 2. Corinthians, Galatians. Ephesians, Philippians, Colossians, 1. Thessalonians, 2. Thessalonians, 1. Timothy, 2. Timothy, Titus, Philemon, Hebrews, James, 1 Peter, 2 Peter, 1. John, 2. John, 3. John, Jude, Revelation.

Narrator: The book of Revelation is a special letter written to the 7 churches in Asia.  It was written by John the Apostle about 100 AD.  It contains admonition not only for the churches to which it was addressed but also for the churches to the end of time. It’s highly symbolic visions have brought hope for believers ever since it was written for it clearly portrays Jesus as the ultimate victor over all evil.

Comment: So why should this collection of writings be considered sacred? What makes them different from other stories and essays? What identifies this as The Word of God? The very first verse introduces a Creator God who is present in all of these sacred Scriptures and whose Word has infinite power.

Reader: Genesis:1:1   says, In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth..

Reader: And The apostle John wrote in John:1:1-3; In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. The same was in the beginning with God. All things were made through him. Without him was not anything made that has been made.

Reader: The Psalmist agrees – Ps 33:6-9   By Yahweh’s word, the heavens were made;
    all their army by the breath of his mouth.
He gathers the waters of the sea together as a heap.
    He lays up the deeps in storehouses.
Let all the earth fear Yahweh.
    Let all the inhabitants of the world stand in awe of him.
For he spoke, and it was done.
    He commanded, and it stood firm..

Comment:  Clearly God’s Word is powerful so that Jesus himself is called the Word. But how is that power manifest in people’s lives. Hear the story of Philip, one of the first deacons in Acts 8:26-40  

Reader: But an angel of the Lord spoke to Philip, saying, Arise, and go toward the south to the way that goes down from Jerusalem to Gaza. This is a desert.

Reader: He arose and went; and behold, there was a man of Ethiopia, a eunuch of great authority under Candace, queen of the Ethiopians, who was over all her treasure, who had come to Jerusalem to worship. He was returning and sitting in his chariot, and was reading the prophet Isaiah..

Reader : The Spirit said to Philip, Go near, and join yourself to this chariot.

 Reader: Philip ran to him, and heard him reading Isaiah the prophet, and said, Do you understand what you are reading?

Reader: He said, How can I, unless someone explains it to me? He begged Philip to come up and sit with him. Now the passage of the Scripture which he was reading was this,

Reader: He was led as a sheep to the slaughter.
    As a lamb before his shearer is silent,
    so he doesn’t open his mouth.
In his humiliation, his judgment was taken away.
    Who will declare His generation?
    For his life is taken from the earth.

Reader: The eunuch answered Philip, Who is the prophet talking about? About himself, or about someone else?

Reader: Philip opened his mouth, and beginning from this Scripture, preached to him Jesus.

Reader: As they went on the way, they came to some water, and the eunuch said,

Reader: Behold, here is water. What is keeping me from being baptized?

Reader: Philip said, ‘If you believe with all your heart, you may.’

Reader: He answered, ‘I believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God.’

Reader: He commanded the chariot to stand still, and they both went down into the water, both Philip and the eunuch, and he baptized him.

Reader: When they came up out of the water, the Spirit of the Lord caught Philip away, and the eunuch didn’t see him any more, for he went on his way rejoicing. But Philip was found at Azotus. Passing through, he preached the Good News to all the cities, until he came to Caesarea.

Comment: In this account an angel and the Spirit led Philip to one who was seeking to know God.  In a similar way God chose people to be his spokespersons and they wrote what God had communicated to them. This is what Peter had in mind in 2 Peter:1:20,21,  

Reader: knowing this first that no prophecy of Scripture is of private interpretation. For no prophecy ever came by the will of man: but holy men of God spoke, being moved by the Holy Spirit.

Reader: Paul wrote to Timothy (2 Tim.:3:16,17) Every Scripture is God-breathed and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for instruction in righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, thoroughly equipped for every good work.

Comment: This Scripture tells us not only how it came to be but it also suggests what it can do for us, that the man of God may be complete.. Since Scripture is God-breathed we need God’s Spirit to open our understanding and our wills so that we will allow Him to transform us into the kind of people He wants us to be.  This process can be likened to a dark path that is illuminated by His Word. As seen in the following verses David and Solomon both recognized this...

Reader: Your word is a lamp to my feet and a light for my path.  (Ps. 119:105)

Reader:  For the commandment is a lamp, and the law is light. Reproofs of instruction are the way of life, Proverbs:6:23   

Reader: When accepted into our hearts as a guide for life we find with Solomon that, every word of God is flawless. He is a shield to those who take refuge in him.  (Prov. 30:5)

Comment: The Holy Scriptures reveal to us His will. Our characters and experience are judged by them and through them we can learn sound doctrine and come to appreciate God’s love for humankind.

 Reader : Turn to the law and to the testimony! If they don’t speak according to this word, surely there is no morning for them.  (Isa. 8:20)

Comment: This is a clear call to test everything by the Scriptures. It implies that there will be writings and teachings that are not from God and must be identified and rejected.

Reader: Jesus prayed, Sanctify them in your truth. Your word is truth.. ( John 17:17)

Reader: For this cause we also thank God without ceasing, that, when you received from us the word of the message of God, you accepted it not as the word of men, but, as it is in truth, the word of God, which also works in you who believe..  (1 Thess. 2:13)

Reader:  For the word of God is living and active, and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the dividing of soul and spirit, of both joints and marrow, and is able to discern the thoughts and intentions of the heart. (Heb. 4:12)

Comment: Jesus’ prayer for our sanctification is answered when we accept the messages of the Bible not as men’s words and thoughts but rather as the very Word of God. For those words are powerful. By them God created the universe by them our innermost thoughts and intentions are revealed. Not only do His words convict us of sin but they lead us to repentance. By accepting His gift of grace we are forgiven, cleansed and empowered to walk in paths of righteousness for His Name’s sake.

Note: The Psalmist said,” I have hidden your word in my heart, that I might not sin against you. Ps. 119:11 Therefore the readers of this collection of Bible readings are encouraged to memorize choice promises and instructions. A good starting point is to memorize the Books of the Bible in order.

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The Trinity

Reader:  In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth. (Gen. 1:1)

Comment: Moses, the author of Genesis, grew up in the courts of Pharaoh in a culture that worshiped many gods. So which God created the heavens and the earth? What is He like? Later on in the creation story after He had created the animals we find God creating human beings.

Reader:  God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness: and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the birds of the sky, and over the livestock, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth. (Gen: 1:26 )

Comment: Suddenly we find that God is not alone in His creative activities. In fact there was a hint of that in Gen. 1:2.

Reader:  The earth was formless and empty. Darkness was on the surface of the deep and God’s Spirit was hovering over the surface of the waters.

Comment:  Let’s look for other places in Scripture where God talks with himself.

Reader:   Yahweh came down to see the city and the tower, which the children of men built. Yahweh said, Behold, they are one people, and they have all one language, and this is what they begin to do. Now nothing will be withheld from them, which they intend to do. Come, let’s go down, and there confuse their language, that they may not understand one another’s speech. So Yahweh scattered them abroad from there on the surface of all the earth. They stopped building the city. (Gen. 11:5-8)

Reader:    In the same way, the Spirit also helps our weaknesses, for we don’t know how to pray as we ought. But the Spirit himself makes intercession for us with groanings which can’t be uttered. He who searches the hearts knows what is on the Spirit’s mind, because he makes intercession for the saints according to God..(Rom. 8:26)

Comment: Here we find the Spirit of God interceding with God for the saints who desire to do God’s will.  Then there is the classic intercession of Jesus for his children just before his trial and crucifixion.

Reader:  Jesus said these things, and lifting up his eyes to heaven, he said, Father, the time has come. Glorify your Son, that your Son may also glorify you; (John 17:1 )

Comment: After praying for his disciples he prayed for us like this.

Reader:  .  Not for these only do I pray, but for those also who believe in me through their word, that they may all be one; even as you, Father, are in me, and I in you, that they also may be one in us; that the world may believe that you sent me. The glory which you have given me, I have given to them; that they may be one, even as we are one; I in them, and you in me, that they may be perfected into one; that the world may know that you sent me, and loved them, even as you loved me. (John 17:20-23 )

Comment: In that prayer we find the key to understanding Deut. 6:4-7

Reader:    Hear, Israel: Yahweh is our God. Yahweh is one.

Reader:  You shall love Yahweh your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your might. These words, which I command you today, shall be on your heart; and you shall teach them diligently to your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, and when you walk by the way, and when you lie down, and when you rise up.

Comment: God is one in character, in love and in purpose. If God were only one being how could love be expressed? So we find Jesus invoking all three beings in the baptismal rite.

Reader:   Go, and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all things that I commanded you. Behold, I am with you always, even to the end of the age. Amen. (Matt. 28:19-20 )

Comment: What do the events around Jesus’ baptism tell us about God? The Gospels record this event as follows. (Selected from Matthew, Mark, Luke and John)

Reader:  Now in the fifteenth year of the reign of Tiberius Caesar, Pontius Pilate being governor of Judea, and Herod being tetrarch of Galilee, and his brother Philip tetrarch of the region of Ituraea and Trachonitis, and Lysanias tetrarch of Abilene, in the high priesthood of Annas and Caiaphas, the word of God came to John, the son of Zacharias, in the wilderness. He came into all the region around the Jordan, preaching the baptism of repentance for remission of sins. (Luke 3:1-3)

Reader: He said,  Repent, for the Kingdom of Heaven is at hand!

Reader: . For this is he who was spoken of by Isaiah the prophet, saying, (Matt. 3:2,3)

Reader:  (Luke 3:4-6) The voice of one crying in the wilderness,
    ‘Make ready the way of the Lord.
Make his paths straight.
     Every valley will be filled.
Every mountain and hill will be brought low.
    The crooked will become straight,
    and the rough ways smooth.
 All flesh will see God’s salvation.’

Reader:  Now John himself wore clothing made of camel’s hair, with a leather belt around his waist. His food was locusts and wild honey.  Then people from Jerusalem, all of Judea, and all the region around the Jordan went out to him. They were baptized by him in the Jordan, confessing their sins. But when he saw many of the Pharisees and Sadducees coming for his baptism, he said to them, (Matt.3:4-7)

Reader:  You offspring of vipers, who warned you to flee from the wrath to come? Therefore produce fruit worthy of repentance! Don’t think to yourselves, ‘We have Abraham for our father,’ for I tell you that God is able to raise up children to Abraham from these stones. Even now the ax lies at the root of the trees. Therefore every tree that doesn’t produce good fruit is cut down, and cast into the fire. (Matt 3:7-10)

Comment: The following dialogue is from Luke 3:7-18.

Reader:  The multitudes asked him, What then must we do?-

Reader:  He answered them, He who has two coats, let him give to him who has none. He who has food, let him do likewise.

Reader:  Tax collectors also came to be baptized, and they said to him, Teacher, what must we do?

Reader:  He said to them, Collect no more than that which is appointed to you..

Reader:  Soldiers also asked him, saying, What about us? What must we do?

Reader:  He said to them, Extort from no one by violence, neither accuse anyone wrongfully. Be content with your wages..

Reader:  As the people were in expectation, and all men reasoned in their hearts concerning John, whether perhaps he was the Christ, John answered them all

Reader:  I indeed baptize you with water, but he comes who is mightier than I, the strap of whose sandals I am not worthy to loosen. He will baptize you in the Holy Spirit and fire, whose fan is in his hand, and he will thoroughly cleanse his threshing floor, and will gather the wheat into his barn; but he will burn up the chaff with unquenchable fire. Then with many other exhortations he preached good news to the people,

 Reader: Then Jesus came from Galilee to the Jordan to John, to be baptized by him. But John would have hindered him, saying,

Reader: I need to be baptized by you, and you come to me?.

Reader:  But Jesus, answering, said to him, Allow it now, for this is the fitting way for us to fulfill all righteousness. Then he allowed him. (Matt. 3:13-17),

Reader:   Jesus, when he was baptized, went up directly from the water: and behold, the heavens were opened to him. He saw the Spirit of God descending as a dove, and coming on him. Behold, a voice out of the heavens said,

Reader:  This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased. (Matt. 3:16, 17).

Comment:  In another account of John’s testimony we find the following exchange (John 1:19-36).

Reader:  This is John’s testimony, when the Jews sent priests and Levites from Jerusalem to ask him, Who are you?

Reader:   He declared, and didn’t deny, but he declared, I am not the Christ.

Reader: They asked him, What then? Are you Elijah?.

Reader: He said, I am not.

Reader:. Are you the prophet?

Reader:  He answered, No.

Rader:  They said therefore to him, Who are you? Give us an answer to take back to those who sent us. What do you say about yourself?

Reader:   He said, I am the voice of one crying in the wilderness, ‘Make straight the way of the Lord,

Reader:  . The ones who had been sent were from the Pharisees. They asked him, Why then do you baptize, if you are not the Christ, nor Elijah, nor the prophet?

Reader:  John answered them, I baptize in water, but among you stands one whom you don’t know. He is the one who comes after me, who is preferred before me, whose sandal strap I’m not worthy to loosen.

Reader: These things were done in Bethany beyond the Jordan, where John was baptizing.,

Reader:  The next day, he saw Jesus coming to him, and said, Behold, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world! This is he of whom I said, ‘After me comes a man who is preferred before me, for he was before me.’ I didn’t know him, but for this reason I came baptizing in water: that he would be revealed to Israel. John testified, saying, I have seen the Spirit descending like a dove out of heaven, and it remained on him. I didn’t recognize him, but he who sent me to baptize in water, he said to me, ‘On whomever you will see the Spirit descending, and remaining on him, the same is he who baptizes in the Holy Spirit.’ I have seen, and have testified that this is the Son of God.

Reader: The Son of God!!

Reader:  Again, the next day, John was standing with two of his disciples,  and he looked at Jesus as he walked, and said, Behold, the Lamb of God!

Comment: In these accounts we have seen God the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Spirit clearly portrayed as working together for the salvation of mankind.  It is not surprising then that in the rest of the New Testament we find repeated references to all three. Paul writing to the Corinthians said:

Reader:  The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, the love of God, and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit, be with you all. Amen. (2 Cor. 13:14 )

Comment: And yet when writing to the Ephesians he emphasized the oneness of God and of believers with God.

Reader:  There is one body, and one Spirit, even as you also were called in one hope of your calling; one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all, who is over all, and through all, and in us all (Eph. 4:4-6 )

Comment: And in his letter to Timothy he prayed

Reader:  Now to the King eternal, immortal, invisible, to God who alone is wise, be honor and glory forever and ever. Amen. (1 Tim.: 1:17)

 Comment: Peter opened his first letter by recognizing the roles of all three members of the Godhead in calling believers to follow Jesus.

Reader: Peter, an apostle of Jesus Christ, to the chosen ones who are living as foreigners in the Dispersion in Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia, and Bithynia, according to the foreknowledge of God the Father, in sanctification of the Spirit, that you may obey Jesus Christ and be sprinkled with his blood: Grace to you and peace be multiplied. (1 Peter: 1:1-2 )

Comment: On several occasions in the apostolic days believers received the Holy Spirit in connection with baptism.  Let’s look at two of them in Acts 19:1-7 we read:

Reader:  While Apollos was at Corinth, Paul, having passed through the upper country, came to Ephesus, and found certain disciples. He said to them,

Reader: Did you receive the Holy Spirit when you believed?

Reader:  They said to him, No, we haven’t even heard that there is a Holy Spirit.

Reader:  He said, Into what then were you baptized?

Reader:  They said, Into John’s baptism.

Reader:   Paul said, John indeed baptized with the baptism of repentance, saying to the people that they should believe in the one who would come after him, that is, in Jesus.

Reader:  When they heard this, they were baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus

Reader:  When Paul had laid his hands on them, the Holy Spirit came on them, and they spoke with other languages and prophesied. They were about twelve men in all.

Comment: Another event is recorded in the story of Cornelius and Peter in Acts 10.

Reader:  Now there was a certain man in Caesarea, Cornelius by name, a centurion of what was called the Italian Regiment, a devout man, and one who feared God with all his house, who gave gifts for the needy generously to the people, and always prayed to God. At about the ninth hour of the day, he clearly saw in a vision an angel of God coming to him, and saying to him, Cornelius!

Reader:  He, fastening his eyes on him, and being frightened, said, What is it, Lord?

Reader:  . He said to him, Your prayers and your gifts to the needy have gone up for a memorial before God. Now send men to Joppa, and get Simon, who is also called Peter. He lodges with a tanner named Simon, whose house is by the seaside.

Reader:  When the angel who spoke to him had departed, Cornelius called two of his household servants and a devout soldier of those who waited on him continually. Having explained everything to them, he sent them to Joppa.

Comment: The following day Peter had a dream and God told him What God has cleansed, you must not call unclean.

Reader:  While Peter was pondering the vision, the Spirit said to him, Behold, three men seek you. But arise, get down, and go with them, doubting nothing; for I have sent them.

Reader:   Peter went down to the men, and said, Behold, I am he whom you seek. Why have you come?

Reader:  They said, Cornelius, a centurion, a righteous man and one who fears God, and well spoken of by all the nation of the Jews, was directed by a holy angel to invite you to his house, and to listen to what you say. So he called them in and provided a place to stay.

Reader: On the next day Peter arose and went out with them, and some of the brothers from Joppa accompanied him. On the next day they entered into Caesarea. Cornelius was waiting for them, having called together his relatives and his near friends.

Reader: When Peter entered, Cornelius met him, fell down at his feet, and worshiped him. But Peter raised him up, saying,.

Reader:  Stand up! I myself am also a man.

Reader:  As he talked with him, he went in and found many gathered together. He said to them, You yourselves know how it is an unlawful thing for a man who is a Jew to join himself or come to one of another nation, but God has shown me that I shouldn’t call any man unholy or unclean.

Reader:  Peter opened his mouth and said, Truly I perceive that God doesn’t show favoritism; but in every nation he who fears him and works righteousness is acceptable to him.  ^{. . .} you yourselves know what happened,  . . .  John preached; even Jesus of Nazareth, how God anointed him with the Holy Spirit and with power, who went about doing good and healing all who were oppressed by the devil, for God was with him. We are witnesses of everything he did both in the country of the Jews, and in Jerusalem; whom they also killed, hanging him on a tree.

Reader:  While Peter was still speaking these words, the Holy Spirit fell on all those who heard the word. They of the circumcision who believed were amazed, as many as came with Peter, because the gift of the Holy Spirit was also poured out on the Gentiles. For they heard them speaking in other languages and magnifying God.

Reader:  Then Peter answered, Can anyone forbid these people from being baptized with water? They have received the Holy Spirit just like us. He commanded them to be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ. Then they asked him to stay some days.

Comment: Before his crucifixion in John 14:12-18 Jesus told his disciples that he was going to the Father.

Reader: Most certainly I tell you, he who believes in me, the works that I do, he will do also; and he will do greater works than these, because I am going to my Father. Whatever you will ask in my name, that will I do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son. If you will ask anything in my name, I will do it.   

Comment: He also promised to send a Counselor.

Reader: If you love me, keep my commandments. I will pray to the Father, and he will give you another Counselor, that he may be with you forever,— the Spirit of truth, whom the world can’t receive; for it doesn’t see him, neither knows him. You know him, for he lives with you, and will be in you. I will not leave you orphans. I will come to you..

Comment: God spoke audibly of Jesus as His Son at His baptism and on two other occasions. One of these is found In Matthew 17:1-8.

Reader: After six days, Jesus took with him Peter, James, and John his brother, and brought them up into a high mountain by themselves. He was transfigured before them. His face shone like the sun, and his garments became as white as the light..

Reader: Behold, Moses and Elijah appeared to them talking with him..

Reader:  Peter answered, and said to Jesus, Lord, it is good for us to be here. If you want, let’s make three tents here: one for you, one for Moses, and one for Elijah.

Reader:  While he was still speaking, behold, a bright cloud overshadowed them. Behold, a voice came out of the cloud, saying, This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased. Listen to him.

Comment: This clearly portrays an intimate relationship between Jesus and God the Father and Jesus repeatedly affirms that relationship. So when the angel of revelation calls us to worship God it is to acknowledge all Three as Creator. (Rev. 14:7)

Reader:  He said with a loud voice, Fear the Lord, and give him glory; for the hour of his judgment has come. Worship him who made the heaven, the earth, the sea, and the springs of waters!

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The Father

Reader: In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth. (Gen. 1:1 )

Comment: Here we are back at the beginning.  The beginning of what?  Who is God?  We have already established that there are 3 Beings who work together so closely, like a hand in a glove, that they are said to be One.  But Jesus spoke of the Father in this way

Reader:  My Father, who has given them to me, is greater than all. No one is able to snatch them out of my Father’s hand. I and the Father are one. John 10: 29, 30

 Comment: Clearly while he lived on this earth, Jesus looked to the Father as supreme. And the vision given to John reveals an awesome Being seated on a throne in heaven surrounded by awesome creatures praising Him. Let us, in our imagination, share in this experience as recorded in Revelation 4;

 Reader: After these things I looked and saw a door opened in heaven, . . . Behold, there was a throne set in heaven, and one sitting on the throne that looked like a jasper stone and a sardius.

Reader: There was a rainbow around the throne, like an emerald to look at. ^{. . .}  Out of the throne proceed lightnings, sounds, and thunders. There were seven lamps of fire burning before his throne, which are the seven Spirits of God.

Reader: Before the throne was something like a sea of glass, similar to crystal.

Reader: In the middle of the throne, and around the throne were four living creatures . . . . They have no rest day and night, saying,

Reader: “Holy, holy, holy is the Lord God, the Almighty, who was and who is and who is to come!”

Reader: When the living creatures give glory, honor, and thanks to him who sits on the throne, to him who lives forever and ever, the twenty-four elders fall down before him who sits on the throne, and worship him who lives forever and ever, and throw their crowns before the throne, saying,

Reader: Worthy are you, our Lord and God, the Holy One, to receive the glory, the honor, and the power, for you created all things, and because of your desire they existed, and were created!”

Comment: We find further evidence, that it is God the Father who is the center of worship and praise.  In 1 Corinthians 15.22-28.we find-

Reader: For as in Adam all die, so also in Christ all will be made alive. But each in his own order: Christ the first fruits, then those who are Christ’s, at his coming.

Reader  Then the end comes, when he will deliver up the Kingdom to God, even the Father; when he will have abolished all rule and all authority and power. For he must reign until he has put all his enemies under his feet. The last enemy that will be abolished is death. For, “He put all things in subjection under his feet.

Reader:. But when he says, “All things are put in subjection”, it is evident that he is excepted who subjected all things to him. When all things have been subjected to him, then the Son will also himself be subjected to him who subjected all things to him, that God may be all in all.

 

Comment: So we see that even Christ after his ascension looks to the Father as Supreme.  When faced with such a being our first response is fear. But while we owe Him all due respect and honor, are there reasons for us to have different kinds of emotional responses?  Certainly the message of John 3:16 is one of love.

Reader:  For God so loved the world, that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish, but have eternal life.

Reader: And 1 John 4:7-9 reads Beloved, let us love one another, for love is of God; and everyone who loves has been born of God, and knows God. He who doesn’t love doesn’t know God, for God is love.

Reader: By this God’s love was revealed in us, that God has sent his one and only Son into the world that we might live through him.

Comment: Surely these testimonies by one of the disciples who was closest to Him gives us reason to want to be near Jesus’ Father. But it doesn’t appear that all the disciples had clear understanding of the Father.  Notice this dialogue that took place the evening before his betrayal and recorded in John 14:1-25.

Reader: “Don’t let your heart be troubled. Believe in God. Believe also in me. In my Father’s house are many homes. If it weren’t so, I would have told you. I am going to prepare a place for you. If I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again, and will receive you to myself; that where I am, you may be there also. Where I go, you know, and you know the way.

Reader: Thomas said to him, “Lord, we don’t know where you are going. How can we know the way?

 Reader: Jesus said to him, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father, except through me. If you had known me, you would have known my Father also. From now on, you know him, and have seen him.”

Reader: Philip said to him, “Lord, show us the Father, and that will be enough for us.”

Reader: Jesus said to him, “Have I been with you such a long time, and do you not know me, Philip? He who has seen me has seen the Father. How do you say, ‘Show us the Father?’ Don’t you believe that I am in the Father, and the Father in me? The words that I tell you, I speak not from myself; but the Father who lives in me does his works. Believe me that I am in the Father, and the Father in me; or else believe me for the very works’ sake.

Reader:  Most certainly I tell you, he who believes in me, the works that I do, he will do also; and he will do greater works than these, because I am going to my Father. Whatever you will ask in my name, that will I do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son. If you will ask anything in my name, I will do it.

Reader:  If you love me, keep my commandments. I will pray to the Father, and he will give you another Counselor, that he may be with you forever,— the Spirit of truth, whom the world can’t receive; for it doesn’t see him, neither knows him. You know him, for he lives with you, and will be in you. I will not leave you orphans. I will come to you. Yet a little while, and the world will see me no more; but you will see me. Because I live, you will live also. In that day you will know that I am in my Father, and you in me, and I in you. One who has my commandments, and keeps them, that person is one who loves me. One who loves me will be loved by my Father, and I will love him, and will reveal myself to him.”

Reader: Judas (not Iscariot) said to him, “Lord, what has happened that you are about to reveal yourself to us, and not to the world?”

Reader:  Jesus answered him, “If a man loves me, he will keep my word. My Father will love him, and we will come to him, and make our home with him. He who doesn’t love me doesn’t keep my words. The word which you hear isn’t mine, but the Father’s who sent me.

Reader: I have said these things to you, while still living with you.

Comment: In that exchange Jesus clearly wanted his disciples to love and trust his Father just as they had learned to love and trust Him. Now consider Moses and his relationship to God. It is recorded in Exodus 33:7-23, 34

Reader:  Now Moses used to take the tent and to pitch it outside the camp, far away from the camp, and he called it “The Tent of Meeting.” Everyone who sought Yahweh went out to the Tent of Meeting, which was outside the camp. When Moses went out to the Tent, that all the people rose up, and stood, everyone at their tent door, and watched Moses, until he had gone into the Tent. When Moses entered into the Tent, the pillar of cloud descended, stood at the door of the Tent, and spoke with Moses. All the people saw the pillar of cloud stand at the door of the Tent, and all the people rose up and worshiped, everyone at their tent door.

Reader: Yahweh spoke to Moses face to face, as a man speaks to his friend. He turned again into the camp, but his servant Joshua, the son of Nun, a young man, didn’t depart from the Tent

Reader: Moses said to Yahweh, “Behold, you tell me, ‘Bring up this people:’ and you haven’t let me know whom you will send with me. Yet you have said, ‘I know you by name, and you have also found favor in my sight.’ Now therefore, if I have found favor in your sight, please show me now your way, that I may know you, so that I may find favor in your sight: and consider that this nation is your people.”

Reader: He said, “My presence will go with you, and I will give you rest.”

Reader:   He said to him, “If your presence doesn’t go with me, don’t carry us up from here. For how would people know that I have found favor in your sight, I and your people? Isn’t it that you go with us, so that we are separated, I and your people, from all the people who are on the surface of the earth?”

Reader: Yahweh said to Moses, “I will do this thing also that you have spoken; for you have found favor in my sight, and I know you by name.”

Reader: He said, “Please show me your glory.

Reader: He said, “I will make all my goodness pass before you, and will proclaim Yahweh’s name before you. I will be gracious to whom I will be gracious, and will show mercy on whom I will show mercy.” He said, “You cannot see my face, for man may not see me and live.

Reader:  Yahweh also said, “Behold, there is a place by me, and you shall stand on the rock. It will happen, while my glory passes by, that I will put you in a cleft of the rock, and will cover you with my hand until I have passed by; then I will take away my hand, and you will see my back; but my face shall not be seen.

Reader: (Exodus 34:1-9) Yahweh said to Moses, “Chisel two stone tablets like the first: and I will write on the tablets the words that were on the first tablets, which you broke. Be ready by the morning, and come up in the morning to Mount Sinai, and present yourself there to me on the top of the mountain. No one shall come up with you or be seen anywhere on the mountain. Do not let the flocks or herds graze in front of that mountain.”

Reader:  He chiseled two tablets of stone like the first; and Moses rose up early in the morning, and went up to Mount Sinai, as Yahweh had commanded him, and took in his hand two stone tablets. Yahweh descended in the cloud, and stood with him there, and proclaimed Yahweh’s name. Yahweh passed by before him, and proclaimed, “Yahweh! Yahweh, a merciful and gracious God, slow to anger, and abundant in loving kindness and truth, keeping loving kindness for thousands, forgiving iniquity and disobedience and sin; and that will by no means clear the guilty, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children, and on the children’s children, on the third and on the fourth generation.”

Reader: Moses hurried and bowed his head toward the earth, and worshiped. He said, “If now I have found favor in your sight, Lord, please let the Lord go among us; although this is a stiff-necked people; pardon our iniquity and our sin, and take us for your inheritance.

Comment: In writing to Timothy, Paul, the apostle, gives great honor to God the Father, while clearly making a distinction between Jesus and the Father. Compare the following 2 quotations.

Reader: Now to the King eternal, immortal, invisible, to God who alone is wise, be honor and glory forever and ever. Amen. (1 Timothy 1:17)

Reader: Fight the good fight of faith. Take hold of the eternal life to which you were called, and you confessed the good confession in the sight of many witnesses. I command you before God, who gives life to all things, and before Christ Jesus, who before Pontius Pilate testified the good confession, that you keep the commandment without spot, blameless, until the appearing of our Lord Jesus Christ; which in its own times he will show, who is the blessed and only Ruler, the King of kings, and Lord of lords; who alone has immortality, dwelling in unapproachable light; whom no man has seen, nor can see: to whom be honor and eternal power. Amen. (1Timothy 6:12-16)

Reader: And in Romans 15:5&6 he wrote, Now the God of patience and of encouragement grant you to be of the same mind one with another according to Christ Jesus, that with one accord you may with one mouth glorify the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.

Comment: Finally Jesus himself makes a distinction between himself and God the Father in John 16:22-32.

Reader:  Therefore you now have sorrow, but I will see you again, and your heart will rejoice, and no one will take your joy away from you. “In that day you will ask me no questions. Most certainly I tell you, whatever you may ask of the Father in my name, he will give it to you.

Reader:  Until now, you have asked nothing in my name. Ask, and you will receive, that your joy may be made full. I have spoken these things to you in figures of speech. But the time is coming when I will no more speak to you in figures of speech, but will tell you plainly about the Father. In that day you will ask in my name;

Reader:  I don’t say to you, that I will pray to the Father for you, for the Father himself loves you, because you have loved me, and have believed that I came from God. I came from the Father, and have come into the world. Again, I leave the world, and go to the Father.”

Reader: His disciples said to him, “Behold, now you speak plainly, and speak no figures of speech. Now we know that you know all things, and don’t need for anyone to question you. By this we believe that you came from God.”

Reader: Jesus answered them, “Do you now believe? Behold, the time is coming, yes, and has now come, that you will be scattered, everyone to his own place, and you will leave me alone. Yet I am not alone, because the Father is with me.

Comment: So we have the assurance that even though God is an awesome God we can approach Him with our heart’s desire without fear.  Of course we will want to let the Holy Spirit direct our desires and translate our requests.

Reader: (Romans 8;26, 27) In the same way, the Spirit also helps our weaknesses, for we don’t know how to pray as we ought. But the Spirit himself makes intercession for us with groanings which can’t be uttered. He who searches the hearts knows what is on the Spirit’s mind, because he makes intercession for the saints according to God.
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The Son
Bible Reading from the World English Bible
Comments by Paul McMillanComment: God the eternal Son became incarnate in Jesus Christ. He became a man, a human being, beginning where all of us begin, in our mother’s womb.  Reading from Luke 1&2 we have this story.

Reader:   There was in the days of Herod, the king of Judea, a certain priest named Zacharias, . . . He had a wife . . .  and her name was Elizabeth. They were both righteous before God, walking blamelessly in all the commandments and ordinances of the Lord. But they had no child, because Elizabeth was barren, and they both were well advanced in years..

Reader:  Now while he executed the priest’s office before God . . .  his lot was to enter into the temple of the Lord and burn incense. The whole multitude of the people were praying outside at the hour of incense. An angel of the Lord appeared to him, standing on the right side of the altar of incense. Zacharias was troubled when he saw him, and fear fell upon him. But the angel said to him,

Reader: ““Don’t be afraid, Zacharias, because your request has been heard, and your wife, Elizabeth, will bear you a son, and you shall call his name John. You will have joy and gladness; and many will rejoice at his birth.  For he will be great in the sight of the Lord, and he will drink no wine nor strong drink. He will be filled with the Holy Spirit, even from his mother’s womb. He will turn many of the children of Israel to the Lord, their God. He will go before him in the spirit and power of Elijah, ‘to turn the hearts of the fathers to the children,’ and the disobedient to the wisdom of the just; to prepare a people prepared for the Lord.”

Reader:  Zacharias said to the angel, “How can I be sure of this? For I am an old man, and my wife is well advanced in years.”

Reader:  “The angel answered him, “I am Gabriel, who stands in the presence of God. I was sent to speak to you, and to bring you this good news. Behold, you will be silent and not able to speak, until the day that these things will happen, because you didn’t believe my words, which will be fulfilled in their proper time.”

Reader:  The people were waiting for Zacharias, and they marveled that he delayed in the temple. When he came out, he could not speak to them, and they perceived that he had seen a vision in the temple. He continued making signs to them, and remained mute.

Reader:  When the days of his service were fulfilled, he departed to his house. After these days Elizabeth, his wife, conceived, and she hid herself five months, saying,

Reader: “Thus has the Lord done to me in the days in which he looked at me, to take away my reproach among men..”

Reader  Now in the sixth month, the angel Gabriel was sent from God to a city of Galilee, named Nazareth, to a virgin pledged to be married to a man whose name was Joseph, of David’s house. The virgin’s name was Mary. Having come in, the angel said to her,”,

Reader: “Rejoice, you highly favored one! The Lord is with you. Blessed are you among women!”

Reader:  But when she saw him, she was greatly troubled at the saying, and considered what kind of salutation this might be. The angel said to her,

Reader: ““Don’t be afraid, Mary, for you have found favor with God. Behold, you will conceive in your womb, and give birth to a son, and will call his name ‘Jesus.’ He will be great, and will be called the Son of the Most High. The Lord God will give him the throne of his father, David, and he will reign over the house of Jacob forever. There will be no end to his Kingdom..”

Reader: Mary said to the angel, “How can this be, seeing I am a virgin?”

Reader:  “The angel answered her, “The Holy Spirit will come on you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you. Therefore also the holy one who is born from you will be called the Son of God. Behold, Elizabeth, your relative, also has conceived a son in her old age; and this is the sixth month with her who was called barren. For nothing spoken by God is impossible.”

Reader: Mary said, “Behold, the servant of the Lord; let it be done to me according to your word.”

Reader: The angel departed from her.

Reader: Now in those days, a decree went out from Caesar Augustus that all the world should be enrolled. This was the first enrollment made when Quirinius was governor of Syria. All went to enroll themselves, everyone to his own city. Joseph also went up from Galilee, out of the city of Nazareth, into Judea, to David’s city, which is called Bethlehem, because he was of the house and family of David; to enroll himself with Mary, who was pledged to be married to him as wife, being pregnant.

Reader:  While they were there, the day had come for her to give birth. She gave birth to her firstborn son. She wrapped him in bands of cloth, and laid him in a feeding trough, because there was no room for them in the inn.

Reader: . In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. The same was in the beginning with God. All things were made through him. Without him was not anything made that has been made. (John 1;1-3)

Reader:  The Word became flesh, and lived among us. We saw his glory, such glory as of the one and only Son of the Father, full of grace and truth.. (John 1:14)

Comment: So who is this Son?  Is he somehow like a son of man with no prior existence?  Could He be the first of God’s creation?  Study carefully the following inspired testimony by Paul the apostle.  It is apparent in Col. 1:13-20 that Paul sees Jesus as eternally coexistent with God the Father

Reader: “who delivered us out of the power of darkness, and translated us into the Kingdom of the Son of his love; in whom we have our redemption, the forgiveness of our sins; who is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation. For by him all things were created, in the heavens and on the earth, things visible and things invisible, whether thrones or dominions or principalities or powers; all things have been created through him, and for him.

Reader: He is before all things, and in him all things are held together. He is the head of the body, the assembly, who is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead; that in all things he might have the preeminence. For all the fullness was pleased to dwell in him; and through him to reconcile all things to himself, by him, whether things on the earth, or things in the heavens, having made peace through the blood of his cross.

Reader: John the Disciple quoted Jesus as saying, “ I and the Father are one..” John 10:30

Comment: Before and during the Passover meal Jesus had been telling his disciples that he would not be with them much longer. Now he seeks to comfort them. Let’s read from John 14:1-10.

Reader: “Don’t let your heart be troubled. Believe in God. Believe also in me. In my Father’s house are many homes. If it weren’t so, I would have told you. I am going to prepare a place for you. If I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again, and will receive you to myself; that where I am, you may be there also. Where I go, you know, and you know the way.”

Reader: Thomas said to him, “Lord, we don’t know where you are going. How can we know the way?”

Reader:  Jesus said to him, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father, except through me. If you had known me, you would have known my Father also. From now on, you know him, and have seen him.”

Reader: Philip said to him, “Lord, show us the Father, and that will be enough for us.”

Reader:  “ Jesus said to him, “Have I been with you such a long time, and do you not know me, Philip? He who has seen me has seen the Father. How do you say, ‘Show us the Father?’ Don’t you believe that I am in the Father, and the Father in me? The words that I tell you, I speak not from myself; but the Father who lives in me does his works.

Comment: Mark 14:60-64 records that just a few hours after this conversation Jesus stood before the high priest while false witnesses testified against Him but Jesus did not respond.   Then the high priest stood up before them and asked Jesus,

Reader: “Have you no answer? What is it which these testify against you?”

Comment: But Jesus remained silent and gave no answer.  Again the high priest asked him,

Reader: “Are you the Christ, the Son of the Blessed?”

Reader:  Jesus said, “I am. You will see the Son of Man sitting at the right hand of Power, and coming with the clouds of the sky.”

Comment: The high priest tore his clothes and asked;

Reader: “What further need have we of witnesses? You have heard the blasphemy! What do you think?”

Comment: They all condemned him to be worthy of death.

Reader: For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord. (Rom. 6:23)  

Reader: For him who knew no sin he made to be sin on our behalf; so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.(2 Cor. 5:21)  

Reader: But he was pierced for our transgressions. He was crushed for our iniquities. The punishment that brought our peace was on him; and by his wounds we are healed.. (Isa. 53:5)

Comment: That passage found in Isa. 53:5 is only one of many in the Old Testament that clearly foretell the coming of Jesus.  Here are a few.

Reader:  Gen.49:10  The scepter will not depart from Judah.

Reader: Job 19:20 I know my Redeemer lives

Reader: Psalm 22:My God, my God why have you forsaken me?

Reader: Psalm 16:Will not abandon Me in the grave nor let my body see corruption.

Reader: Psalm 119 You are a priest forever.

Reader: Isa 7:14 The virgin will give birth to a son.

Reader: Isa. 9:6 For unto us a Son is given

Reader: Isa. 42:1-9;Here is my servant . . .

Reader: Isa 52:13-15 Suffering Servant

Reader:  Micah 5:2 to be born in Bethlehem.

Reader: Therefore if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old things have passed away. Behold, all things have become new. But all things are of God, who reconciled us to himself through Jesus Christ, and gave to us the ministry of reconciliation;  (2 Cor. 5:17-19)

Reader:  For as the Father raises the dead and gives them life, even so the Son also gives life to whom he desires. For the Father judges no one, but he has given all judgment to the Son, that all may honor the Son, even as they honor the Father. He who doesn’t honor the Son doesn’t honor the Father who sent him. (John 5:21-23)

Reader: Have this in your mind, which was also in Christ Jesus, who, existing in the form of God, didn’t consider equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied himself, taking the form of a servant, being made in the likeness of men. And being found in human form, he humbled himself, becoming obedient to death, yes, the death of the cross.

Reader: Therefore God also highly exalted him, and gave to him the name which is above every name; that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of those in heaven, those on earth, and those under the earth, and that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father. (Phil. 2:5-11)

Comment: Jesus – all these prophecies were fulfilled in Jesus.  He was the coming Messiah, Redeemer.   Reading from Heb. 2:9-18

Reader: But we see him who has been made a little lower than the angels, Jesus, because of the suffering of death crowned with glory and honor, that by the grace of God he should taste of death for everyone.

Reader: For it became him, for whom are all things, and through whom are all things, in bringing many children to glory, to make the author of their salvation perfect through sufferings. For both he who sanctifies and those who are sanctified are all from one, for which cause he is not ashamed to call them brothers, saying,

Reader: “I will declare your name to my brothers. Among of the congregation I will sing your praise.”

Reader: Again, “I will put my trust in him.”

Reader: Again, “Behold, here I am with the children whom God has given me.”

Reader: Since then the children have shared in flesh and blood, he also himself in the same way partook of the same, that through death he might bring to nothing him who had the power of death, that is, the devil, and might deliver all of them who through fear of death were all their lifetime subject to bondage.

Reader: For most certainly, he doesn’t give help to angels, but he gives help to the offspring of Abraham. Therefore he was obligated in all things to be made like his brothers, that he might become a merciful and faithful high priest in things pertaining to God, to make atonement for the sins of the people. For in that he himself has suffered being tempted, he is able to help those who are tempted.

Reader:  For I delivered to you first of all that which I also received: that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures, (1 Cor. 15:3, 4)

Reader:  Now in the things which we are saying, the main point is this. We have such a high priest, who sat down on the right hand of the throne of the Majesty in the heavens, a servant of the sanctuary, and of the true tabernacle, which the Lord pitched, not man (Heb. 8:1, 2)

Comment: Following His resurrection Jesus appeared to many of his followers, as many as 500 at one time.(1 Cor. 15:6) On one of those occasions some of his discouraged disciples had gone fishing.  John records the story in John 21:1-14. It happened like this.

Reader:  After these things, Jesus revealed himself again to the disciples at the sea of Tiberias. He revealed himself this way.

Reader: Simon Peter, Thomas called Didymus, Nathanael of Cana in Galilee, and the sons of Zebedee, and two others of his disciples were together. Simon Peter said to them, “I’m going fishing.”

Reader: They told him, “We are also coming with you.” They immediately went out, and entered into the boat. That night, they caught nothing.

Reader: But when day had already come, Jesus stood on the beach, yet the disciples didn’t know that it was Jesus. Jesus therefore said to them, “Children, have you anything to eat?”

Reader: They answered him, “No.”

Reader: He said to them, “Cast the net on the right side of the boat, and you will find some.”

Reader: They cast it therefore, and now they weren’t able to draw it in for the multitude of fish. That disciple therefore whom Jesus loved said to Peter, “It’s the Lord!”

Reader: So when Simon Peter heard that it was the Lord, he wrapped his coat around him (for he was naked), and threw himself into the sea. But the other disciples came in the little boat (for they were not far from the land, but about two hundred cubits away), dragging the net full of fish. So when they got out on the land, they saw a fire of coals there, and fish laid on it, and bread. Jesus said to them,

Reader:  “Bring some of the fish which you have just caught.”

Reader: Simon Peter went up, and drew the net to land, full of great fish, one hundred fifty-three; and even though there were so many, the net wasn’t torn.

Reader: Jesus said to them, “Come and eat breakfast.”

Reader: None of the disciples dared inquire of him, “Who are you?” knowing that it was the Lord. Then Jesus came and took the bread, gave it to them, and the fish likewise.

Reader: This is now the third time that Jesus was revealed to his disciples, after he had risen from the dead.

Comment: In Acts 1 Luke gives this account of Jesus’ last appearance to his disciples.

Reader: The first book I wrote, Theophilus, concerned all that Jesus began both to do and to teach, until the day in which he was received up, after he had given commandment through the Holy Spirit to the apostles whom he had chosen.

Reader: To these he also showed himself alive after he suffered, by many proofs, appearing to them over a period of forty days, and speaking about God’s Kingdom. Being assembled together with them, he commanded them,

Reader: “Don’t depart from Jerusalem, but wait for the promise of the Father, which you heard from me. For John indeed baptized in water, but you will be baptized in the Holy Spirit not many days from now.” Therefore when they had come together, they asked him,

ALL:“Lord, are you now restoring the kingdom to Israel?”

Reader: He said to them, “It isn’t for you to know times or seasons which the Father has set within his own authority. But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you. You will be witnesses to me in Jerusalem, in all Judea and Samaria, and to the uttermost parts of the earth.”

Reader: When he had said these things, as they were looking, he was taken up, and a cloud received him out of their sight. While they were looking steadfastly into the sky as he went, behold, two men stood by them in white clothing, who also said,

Reader: “You men of Galilee, why do you stand looking into the sky? This Jesus, who was received up from you into the sky will come back in the same way as you saw him going into the sky.”

Comment: Jesus, eternally one with the Father, was given by God the Father to become forever one of us.. He will forever bear the marks of his crucifixion. He lived a life totally in harmony with the Father but bore our sin and its consequence so that we can be forgiven and transformed to live as he lived totally in harmony with the Father. He promised to come again and take his children to dwell with him. Do you believe this? Is that belief transforming your life? Then turn your back on the attractions of this world and look up for your redemption is nearer than you think.

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The Holy Spirit

Comment:   God the eternal Spirit was active with the Father and the Son in Creation, incarnation, and redemption.

Reader:   IN CREATION:  In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth. The earth was formless and empty. Darkness was on the surface of the deep and God’s Spirit was hovering over the surface of the waters. (Gen. 1:1,2)

Reader:   IN INCARNATION:  The angel said to her, “Don’t be afraid, Mary, for you have found favor with God. Behold, you will conceive in your womb, and give birth to a son, and will call his name ‘Jesus.’ He will be great, and will be called the Son of the Most High. The Lord God will give him the throne of his father, David, and he will reign over the house of Jacob forever. There will be no end to his Kingdom.” Mary said to the angel, “How can this be, seeing I am a virgin?” The angel answered her, “The Holy Spirit will come on you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you. Therefore also the holy one who is born from you will be called the Son of God.  (Luke 1:30-35)

Reader:   IN REDEMPTION:  Jesus read from Isaiah, “The Spirit of the Lord is on me, because he has anointed me to preach good news to the poor He has sent me to heal the broken hearted, to proclaim release to the captives, recovering of sight to the blind, to deliver those who are crushed, and to proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord.” (Luke 4:18, 19)

Comment: So we have seen that the Holy Spirit is one with the Father and the Son – the Trinity. Now let’s explore in some detail Scriptural references to events in which actions of the Holy Spirit are identified.  Following the involvement of God’s Spirit at creation we find Him striving with humans before the flood.

Reader:   When men began to multiply on the surface of the ground, and daughters were born to them, God’s sons saw that men’s daughters were beautiful, and they took any that they wanted for themselves as wives. Yahweh said, “My Spirit will not strive with man forever, because he also is flesh; so his days will be one hundred twenty years. (Gen. 6:1-3)

Reader:   Yahweh saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every imagination of the thoughts of man’s heart was continually only evil. Yahweh was sorry that he had made man on the earth, and it grieved him in his heart. Yahweh said, “I will destroy man whom I have created from the surface of the ground—man, along with animals, creeping things, and birds of the sky—for I am sorry that I have made them.” But Noah found favor in Yahweh’s eyes. (Gen. 6:5-8)

Comment:  This is the first place in the Bible to reveal one part of the work of the Holy Spirit.  It says that God’s Spirit “strives” with humans.  Let’s discover how this played out in the lives of people recorded in scripture. First look at the story of Cain and Abel in Gen. 4:1-10

Reader: The man knew Eve his wife. She conceived, and gave birth to Cain, and said, “I have gotten a man with Yahweh’s help.” Again she gave birth, to Cain’s brother Abel.

Reader: Abel was a keeper of sheep, but Cain was a tiller of the ground. As time passed, Cain brought an offering to Yahweh from the fruit of the ground. Abel also brought some of the firstborn of his flock and of its fat.

Reader: Yahweh respected Abel and his offering, but he didn’t respect Cain and his offering. Cain was very angry, and the expression on his face fell.

Reader:  Yahweh said to Cain, “Why are you angry? Why has the expression of your face fallen? If you do well, won’t it be lifted up? If you don’t do well, sin crouches at the door. Its desire is for you, but you are to rule over it.”

Reader: Cain said to Abel, his brother, “Let’s go into the field.” While they were in the field, Cain rose up against Abel, his brother, and killed him.

Reader: Yahweh said to Cain, “Where is Abel, your brother?”

Reader: He said, “I don’t know. Am I my brother’s keeper?”

Reader: Yahweh said, “What have you done? The voice of your brother’s blood cries to me from the ground.

 Comment: Clearly, God the Spirit, is here striving with Cain, seeking to convince him of the sin that he was cherishing in his heart. Refusing to repent of that sin it grew until he murdered his brother. Now consider the story of David and Bathsheba recorded in 2 Sam. 11

Reader: At the return of the year, at the time when kings go out, David sent Joab, and his servants with him, and all Israel; and they destroyed the children of Ammon, and besieged Rabbah. But David stayed at Jerusalem.

Reader: At evening, David arose from his bed and walked on the roof of the king’s house. From the roof, he saw a woman bathing, and the woman was very beautiful to look at. David sent and inquired after the woman.

Reader: One said, “Isn’t this Bathsheba, the daughter of Eliam, Uriah the Hittite’s wife?”

Reader: David sent messengers, and took her; and she came in to him, and he lay with her (for she was purified from her uncleanness); and she returned to her house. The woman conceived; and she sent and told David, and said, “I am with child.”

Reader: David sent to Joab, “Send me Uriah the Hittite.” Joab sent Uriah to David. When Uriah had come to him, David asked him how Joab did, and how the people fared, and how the war prospered. David said to Uriah, “Go down to your house and wash your feet.

Reader:” Uriah departed out of the king’s house, and a gift from the king was sent after him. But Uriah slept at the door of the king’s house with all the servants of his lord, and didn’t go down to his house.

Reader: When they had told David, saying, “Uriah didn’t go down to his house,” David said to Uriah, “Haven’t you come from a journey? Why didn’t you go down to your house?”

Reader: Uriah said to David, “The ark, Israel, and Judah, are staying in tents; and my lord Joab and the servants of my lord, are encamped in the open field. Shall I then go into my house to eat and to drink, and to lie with my wife? As you live, and as your soul lives, I will not do this thing!”

Reader: David said to Uriah, “Stay here today also, and tomorrow I will let you depart.” So Uriah stayed in Jerusalem that day, and the next day. When David had called him, he ate and drink before him; and he made him drunk. At evening, he went out to lie on his bed with the servants of his lord, but didn’t go down to his house. 

Reader: In the morning, David wrote a letter to Joab, and sent it by the hand of Uriah. He wrote in the letter, saying, “Send Uriah to the forefront of the hottest battle, and retreat from him, that he may be struck, and die.”

Reader: When Joab kept watch on the city, he assigned Uriah to the place where he knew that valiant men were. The men of the city went out, and fought with Joab. Some of the people fell, even of David’s servants; and Uriah the Hittite died also.

Reader: Then Joab sent and told David all the things concerning the war; and he commanded the messenger, saying, “When you have finished telling all the things concerning the war to the king, it shall be that, if the king’s wrath arise, and he asks you, ‘Why did you go so near to the city to fight? Didn’t you know that they would shoot from the wall? Who struck Abimelech the son of Jerubbesheth? Didn’t a woman cast an upper millstone on him from the wall, so that he died at Thebez? Why did you go so near the wall?’ then you shall say, ‘Your servant Uriah the Hittite is also dead.’”

Reader: So the messenger went, and came and showed David all that Joab had sent him for. The messenger said to David, “The men prevailed against us, and came out to us into the field, and we were on them even to the entrance of the gate. The shooters shot at your servants from off the wall; and some of the king’s servants are dead, and your servant Uriah the Hittite is also dead.”

Reader: Then David said to the messenger, “Tell Joab, ‘Don’t let this thing displease you, for the sword devours one as well as another. Make your battle stronger against the city, and overthrow it.’ Encourage him.”

Reader: When Uriah’s wife heard that Uriah her husband was dead, she mourned for her husband. When the mourning was past, David sent and took her home to his house, and she became his wife, and bore him a son. But the thing that David had done displeased Yahweh

Comment: Where was the Holy Spirit in all this or was the Spirit striving with him all along? Did David do all that without any twinge of guilt? How could he suddenly follow such a path of adultery and murder? Bathsheba was a granddaughter of Ahitophel, one of David's chief advisors and daughter of Eliam, one of David's thirty.  This young woman was not a stranger to him.  He had watched her grow up.  Was this the first time he had entertained lustful thoughts toward her? But the thing David had done displeased the Lord and by the Holy Spirit the Lord sent Nathan to David. 2 Sam. 12

Reader: Yahweh sent Nathan to David. He came to him, and said to him, “There were two men in one city; the one rich, and the other poor. The rich man had very many flocks and herds, but the poor man had nothing, except one little ewe lamb, which he had bought and raised. It grew up together with him, and with his children. It ate of his own food, drank of his own cup, and lay in his bosom, and was like a daughter to him.

Reader: A traveler came to the rich man, and he spared to take of his own flock and of his own herd, to prepare for the wayfaring man who had come to him, but took the poor man’s lamb, and prepared it for the man who had come to him.”

Reader:  David’s anger burned hot against the man, and he said to Nathan, “As Yahweh lives, the man who has done this deserves to die! He must restore the lamb fourfold, because he did this thing, and because he had no pity!”

Reader: Nathan said to David, “You are the man. This is what Yahweh, the God of Israel, says: ‘I anointed you king over Israel, and I delivered you out of the hand of Saul. I gave you your master’s house, and your master’s wives into your bosom, and gave you the house of Israel and of Judah; and if that would have been too little, I would have added to you many more such things.

Reader: Why have you despised Yahweh’s word, to do that which is evil in his sight? You have struck Uriah the Hittite with the sword, and have taken his wife to be your wife, and have slain him with the sword of the children of Ammon. Now therefore the sword will never depart from your house, because you have despised me, and have taken Uriah the Hittite’s wife to be your wife.’

Reader: This is what Yahweh says: ‘Behold, I will raise up evil against you out of your own house; and I will take your wives before your eyes, and give them to your neighbor, and he will lie with your wives in the sight of this sun. For you did this secretly, but I will do this thing before all Israel, and before the sun.’”

Reader: David said to Nathan, “I have sinned against Yahweh.”

Reader: Nathan said to David, “Yahweh also has put away your sin. You will not die. However, because by this deed you have given great occasion to Yahweh’s enemies to blaspheme, the child also who is born to you will surely die.”

Comment: The Holy Spirit once again had access to David’s heart giving him heartfelt contrition and true repentance for his sins. His sincere expression of repentance, given him by the Spirit, is recorded in Psalm 51:1-15

Reader: Have mercy on me, God, according to your loving kindness. According to the multitude of your tender mercies, blot out my transgressions.

Reader: Wash me thoroughly from my iniquity. Cleanse me from my sin. For I know my transgressions. My sin is constantly before me. Against you, and you only, have I sinned, and done that which is evil in your sight; that you may be proved right when you speak, and justified when you judge.

Reader: Behold, I was born in iniquity. In sin my mother conceived me. Behold, you desire truth in the inward parts. You teach me wisdom in the inmost place. Purify me with hyssop, and I will be clean. Wash me, and I will be whiter than snow

Reader: Let me hear joy and gladness, That the bones which you have broken may rejoice. Hide your face from my sins, and blot out all of my iniquities.

Reader:  Create in me a clean heart, O God. Renew a right spirit within me. Don’t throw me from your presence, and don’t take your holy Spirit from me. Restore to me the joy of your salvation. Uphold me with a willing spirit.

Reader: Then I will teach transgressors your ways. Sinners shall be converted to you. Deliver me from the guilt of bloodshed, O God, the God of my salvation. My tongue shall sing aloud of your righteousness. Lord, open my lips. My mouth shall declare your praise

Comment: Jesus was conceived by the Holy Spirit and it was in the spirit and power of the Spirit that he lived and ministered so that following his baptism we are told in Luke 4:1-12

Reader: Jesus, full of the Holy Spirit, returned from the Jordan, and was led by the Spirit into the wilderness for forty days, being tempted by the devil. He ate nothing in those days. Afterward, when they were completed, he was hungry.

Reader:  The devil said to him, “If you are the Son of God, command this stone to become bread.”

Reader: Jesus answered him, saying, “It is written, ‘Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word of God.’

Reader: The devil, leading him up on a high mountain, showed him all the kingdoms of the world in a moment of time. The devil said to him, “I will give you all this authority, and their glory, for it has been delivered to me; and I give it to whomever I want. If you therefore will worship before me, it will all be yours.”

Reader: Jesus answered him, “Get behind me Satan! For it is written, ‘You shall worship the Lord your God, and you shall serve him only.’

Reader: He led him to Jerusalem, and set him on the pinnacle of the temple, and said to him, “If you are the Son of God, cast yourself down from here, for it is written,  ‘He will put his angels in charge of you, to guard you;’ and, ‘On their hands they will bear you up, lest perhaps you dash your foot against a stone.’

Reader: Jesus answering, said to him, “It has been said, ‘You shall not tempt the Lord your God.’

Comment: Jesus lived among us by the power of the Holy Spirit and in the upper room the evening before his crucifixion he promised the disciples that they too would be empowered by the Holy Spirit.  We read in John14:15-21

Reader: If you love me, keep my commandments. I will pray to the Father, and he will give you another Counselor, that he may be with you forever,— the Spirit of truth, whom the world can’t receive; for it doesn’t see him, neither knows him.

Reader: You know him, for he lives with you, and will be in you. I will not leave you orphans. I will come to you. Yet a little while, and the world will see me no more; but you will see me. Because I live, you will live also. In that day you will know that I am in my Father, and you in me, and I in you.

Reader: One who has my commandments, and keeps them, that person is one who loves me. One who loves me will be loved by my Father, and I will love him, and will reveal myself to him.

Reader: I have said these things to you, while still living with you. But the Counselor, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, he will teach you all things, and will remind you of all that I said to you. Peace I leave with you. My peace I give to you; not as the world gives, give I to you. Don’t let your heart be troubled, neither let it be fearful.  (John 14:25-27)

Comment: Jesus had already promised the Spirit to his disciples. It is recorded in Luke 11:11-13

Reader: Which of you fathers, if your son asks for bread, will give him a stone? Or if he asks for a fish, he won’t give him a snake instead of a fish, will he? Or if he asks for an egg, he won’t give him a scorpion, will he? If you then, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him?

Comment: So then 50 days after Jesus’ resurrection we find the disciples in the upper room.  The Spirit is at work among them. As they come into harmony with one another, they lay aside those things that divide them, no longer seeking first place.  Desiring above everything else the Spirit of Jesus, they repent of sins against each other and God. And as they experience the reality of God’s forgiveness they begin to know what it means to have the mind of Jesus and crucify self.  It is then that they are prepared to receive the Holy Spirit in abundance.  We read about it in Acts 2:1-4.

Reader: Now when the day of Pentecost had come, they were all with one accord in one place. Suddenly there came from the sky a sound like the rushing of a mighty wind, and it filled all the house where they were sitting. Tongues like fire appeared and were distributed to them, and one sat on each of them. They were all filled with the Holy Spirit, and began to speak with other languages, as the Spirit gave them the ability to speak.

Comment: From that upper room they went out filled with the Spirit.  In the face of death they preached boldly a crucified but risen Savior who would return and make all things right.  Thousands were converted and miracles wrought. As the work grew it was necessary to appoint some to perform special tasks.  Deacons were appointed from among those who were filled with the Spirit.  Read about it in Acts 6:1-7.

Reader: Stephen, full of faith and power, performed great wonders and signs among the people. But some of those who were of the synagogue called “The Libertines”, and of the Cyrenians, of the Alexandrians, and of those of Cilicia and Asia arose, disputing with Stephen. They weren’t able to withstand the wisdom and the Spirit by which he spoke.

Reader: Then they secretly induced men to say, “We have heard him speak blasphemous words against Moses and God.” They stirred up the people, the elders, and the scribes, and came against him and seized him, and brought him in to the council, and set up false witnesses who said,

Reader: “This man never stops speaking blasphemous words against this holy place and the law. For we have heard him say that this Jesus of Nazareth will destroy this place, and will change the customs which Moses delivered to us.” All who sat in the council, fastening their eyes on him, saw his face like it was the face of an angel.

Reader:   The high priest said, “Are these things so?”

Comment: Stephen responded to this question without fear and with great boldness even though he knew it could cost him his life.  His Spirit inspired sermon recorded in Acts 7 ended in this way. (Acts 7:51-60)

Reader: “You stiff-necked and uncircumcised in heart and ears, you always resist the Holy Spirit! As your fathers did, so you do. Which of the prophets didn’t your fathers persecute? They killed those who foretold the coming of the Righteous One, of whom you have now become betrayers and murderers. You received the law as it was ordained by angels, and didn’t keep it!”

Reader: Now when they heard these things, they were cut to the heart, and they gnashed at him with their teeth. But he, being full of the Holy Spirit, looked up steadfastly into heaven, and saw the glory of God, and Jesus standing on the right hand of God, and said, “Behold, I see the heavens opened, and the Son of Man standing at the right hand of God!”

Reader: But they cried out with a loud voice, and stopped their ears, and rushed at him with one accord. They threw him out of the city, and stoned him. The witnesses placed their garments at the feet of a young man named Saul. They stoned Stephen as he called out, saying,

Reader: “Lord Jesus, receive my spirit!” He kneeled down, and cried with a loud voice, “Lord, don’t hold this sin against them!” When he had said this, he fell asleep.

Comment: No doubt the Spirit had been striving with Saul for some time before this but this event really got to Saul.  He became even more angry with the Christians and refused to give in to the Spirit’s pleadings.  So it was that Jesus intervened and met him on the road to Damascus. The story is recorded in Acts 8:1-3 & 9:1-19

Reader:   But Saul, still breathing threats and slaughter against the disciples of the Lord, went to the high priest,  and asked for letters from him to the synagogues of Damascus, that if he found any who were of the Way, whether men or women, he might bring them bound to Jerusalem.

Reader: As he traveled, he got close to Damascus, and suddenly a light from the sky shone around him. He fell on the earth, and heard a voice saying to him, “Saul, Saul, why do you persecute me?”

Reader: He said, “Who are you, Lord?”

Reader: The Lord said, “I am Jesus, whom you are persecuting.  But rise up, and enter into the city, and you will be told what you must do.”

Reader: The men who traveled with him stood speechless, hearing the sound, but seeing no one. Saul arose from the ground, and when his eyes were opened, he saw no one. They led him by the hand, and brought him into Damascus. He was without sight for three days, and neither ate nor drank.

Reader: Now there was a certain disciple at Damascus named Ananias. The Lord said to him in a vision, “Ananias!”

Reader: He said, “Behold, it’s me, Lord.”

Reader: The Lord said to him, “Arise, and go to the street which is called Straight, and inquire in the house of Judah for one named Saul, a man of Tarsus. For behold, he is praying, and in a vision he has seen a man named Ananias coming in, and laying his hands on him, that he might receive his sight.”

Reader:  But Ananias answered, “Lord, I have heard from many about this man, how much evil he did to your saints at Jerusalem. Here he has authority from the chief priests to bind all who call on your name.”

Reader: But the Lord said to him, “Go your way, for he is my chosen vessel to bear my name before the nations and kings, and the children of Israel. For I will show him how many things he must suffer for my name’s sake.”

Reader: Ananias departed, and entered into the house. Laying his hands on him, he said, “Brother Saul, the Lord, who appeared to you on the road by which you came, has sent me, that you may receive your sight, and be filled with the Holy Spirit.” Immediately something like scales fell from his eyes, and he received his sight. He arose and was baptized. He took food and was strengthened.

Comment: Saul became Paul who, filled with and taught by the Spirit, brought to the early church important understandings about the inclusiveness of the gospel.  The apostles liberated from the restrictions of Judaism carried the gospel as far as England and India.  All, except John, endured martyr’s deaths.  They were filled with the Spirit. John, also filled with the Spirit, endured torture and exile to the island of Patmos.  It was there that the Spirit revealed to him God’s plans for his church. Those visions have encouraged believers ever since and carried them through all that the Devil has brought on them.  John concluded his letter in the following way.(Rev. 22:16-20)

Reader:  I, Jesus, have sent my angel to testify these things to you for the assemblies. I am the root and the offspring of David; the Bright and Morning Star.”

Reader: The Spirit and the bride say, “Come!” He who hears, let him say, “Come!” He who is thirsty, let him come. He who desires, let him take the water of life freely.

Reader: I testify to everyone who hears the words of the prophecy of this book, if anyone adds to them, may God add to him the plagues which are written in this book. If anyone takes away from the words of the book of this prophecy, may God take away his part from the tree of life, and out of the holy city, which are written in this book.

Reader: He who testifies these things says, “Yes, I come quickly.”

Reader: Amen! Yes, come, Lord Jesus.

Comment: Do you want to be filled with the Spirit? Are you active in a community of faith? Take time now to express appreciation for your fellow believers. Let the Spirit, through the blood of Jesus, purge you of all selfishness that keeps us from being united in faith.
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Creation

 Comment:   The writers of the Bible speak with one voice – they all proclaim that God is the Creator. Listen carefully to the Psalmist in Psalm 100.

Reader:  Shout for joy to Yahweh, all you lands! Serve Yahweh with gladness.  Come before his presence with singing. Know that Yahweh, he is God.

Reader: It is he who has made us, and we are his.  We are his people, and the sheep of his pasture.

Reader: Enter into his gates with thanksgiving,  into his courts with praise.  Give thanks to him, and bless his name.

Reader: For Yahweh is good.  His loving kindness endures forever,  his faithfulness to all generations.

Comment: And again in Psalm 95:3-7

Reader : For Yahweh is a great God,  a great King above all gods. In his hand are the deep places of the earth.

Reader : The heights of the mountains are also his. The sea is his, and he made it.  His hands formed the dry land.

Reader : Oh come, let’s worship and bow down.  Let’s kneel before Yahweh, our Maker, for he is our God.  We are the people of his pasture,  and the sheep in his care.

Comment: Jeremiah contrasts the gods of the heathen with the One and Only God – the Creator God in Jeremiah 10:1-16.

Reader: Hear the word which Yahweh speaks to you, house of Israel! Yahweh says,

Reader: Don’t learn the way of the nations, and don’t be dismayed at the signs of the sky; for the nations are dismayed at them. For the customs of the peoples are vanity; for one cuts a tree out of the forest, the work of the hands of the workman with the ax.

Reader: They deck it with silver and with gold; they fasten it with nails and with hammers, that it not move. They are like a palm tree, of turned work, and don’t speak: they must be carried, because they can’t go.

Reader: Don’t be afraid of them;

Reader: for they can’t do evil,

Reader: neither is it in them to do good.

Reader: There is no one like you, Yahweh; you are great, and your name is great in might. Who should not fear you, King of the nations? For it belongs to you; because among all the wise men of the nations, and in all their royal estate, there is no one like you.

Reader: But they are together brutish and foolish: the instruction of idols! it is but a stock. There is silver beaten into plates, which is brought from Tarshish, and gold from Uphaz, the work of the artificer and of the hands of the goldsmith; blue and purple for their clothing; they are all the work of skillful men.

Reader: But Yahweh is the true God; he is the living God, and an everlasting King: at his wrath the earth trembles, and the nations are not able to withstand his indignation.You shall say this to them: The gods that have not made the heavens and the earth, these shall perish from the earth, and from under the heavens.

Reader: He has made the earth by his power, he has established the world by his wisdom, and by his understanding has he stretched out the heavens: when he utters his voice, there is a tumult of waters in the heavens, and he causes the vapors to ascend from the ends of the earth; he makes lightnings for the rain, and brings the wind out of his treasuries.

Reader: Every man has become brutish and without knowledge; every goldsmith is disappointed by his engraved image; for his molten image is falsehood, and there is no breath in them. They are vanity, a work of delusion: in the time of their visitation they shall perish.

Reader: The portion of Jacob is not like these; for he is the former of all things; and Israel is the tribe of his inheritance: Yahweh of Armies is his name.

Comment:  Psalm 33 is a call for the righteous to praise the Lord because of his justice and creative power.

Reader: Rejoice in Yahweh, you righteous!  Praise is fitting for the upright. Give thanks to Yahweh with the lyre.  Sing praises to him with the harp of ten strings.

Reader: Sing to him a new song.  Play skillfully with a shout of joy! For Yahweh’s word is right.  All his work is done in faithfulness. He loves righteousness and justice.  The earth is full of the loving kindness of Yahweh.

Reader: By Yahweh’s word, the heavens were made;  all their army by the breath of his mouth. He gathers the waters of the sea together as a heap.  He lays up the deeps in storehouses. Let all the earth fear Yahweh.  Let all the inhabitants of the world stand in awe of him.

Reader: For he spoke, and it was done.  He commanded, and it stood firm.

Comment: Now lets listen to the creation story as recorded in Genesis 1 & 2.

Reader:  In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth. The earth was formless and empty. Darkness was on the surface of the deep and God’s Spirit was hovering over the surface of the waters.

Reader:  God said, “Let there be light,” and there was light. God saw the light, and saw that it was good. God divided the light from the darkness. God called the light “day”, and the darkness he called “night”.

Reader:  There was evening and there was morning, the first day.

Reader: God said, “Let there be an expanse in the middle of the waters, and let it divide the waters from the waters.” God made the expanse, and divided the waters which were under the expanse from the waters which were above the expanse; and it was so. God called the expanse “sky”.

Reader:   There was evening and there was morning, a second day.

Reader: God said, “Let the waters under the sky be gathered together to one place, and let the dry land appear”; and it was so. God called the dry land “earth”, and the gathering together of the waters he called “seas”. God saw that it was good.

Reader: God said, “Let the earth yield grass, herbs yielding seeds, and fruit trees bearing fruit after their kind, with their seeds in it, on the earth”; and it was so. The earth yielded grass, herbs yielding seed after their kind, and trees bearing fruit, with their seeds in it, after their kind; and God saw that it was good.

Reader: There was evening and there was morning, a third day.

Reader: God said, “Let there be lights in the expanse of sky to divide the day from the night; and let them be for signs to mark seasons, days, and years; and let them be for lights in the expanse of sky to give light on the earth”; and it was so. God made the two great lights: the greater light to rule the day, and the lesser light to rule the night.

Reader:  He also made the stars. God set them in the expanse of sky to give light to the earth, and to rule over the day and over the night, and to divide the light from the darkness. God saw that it was good.

Reader: There was evening and there was morning, a fourth day.

Reader: God said, “Let the waters abound with living creatures, and let birds fly above the earth in the open expanse of sky.” God created the large sea creatures and every living creature that moves, with which the waters swarmed, after their kind, and every winged bird after its kind. God saw that it was good.

Reader: God blessed them, saying, “Be fruitful, and multiply, and fill the waters in the seas, and let birds multiply on the earth.” There was evening and there was morning, a fifth day.

Reader: God said, “Let the earth produce living creatures after their kind, livestock, creeping things, and animals of the earth after their kind”; and it was so. God made the animals of the earth after their kind, and the livestock after their kind, and everything that creeps on the ground after its kind. God saw that it was good.

Reader: God said, “Let us make man in our image, after our likeness: and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the birds of the sky, and over the livestock, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.” God created man in his own image. In God’s image he created him; male and female he created them. God blessed them.

Reader:   God said to them, “Be fruitful, multiply, fill the earth, and subdue it. Have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the sky, and over every living thing that moves on the earth.”

Reader:   God said, “Behold, I have given you every herb yielding seed, which is on the surface of all the earth, and every tree, which bears fruit yielding seed. It will be your food.

Reader: To every animal of the earth, and to every bird of the sky, and to everything that creeps on the earth, in which there is life, I have given every green herb for food;” and it was so.

Reader: God saw everything that he had made, and, behold, it was very good. There was evening and there was morning, a sixth day.

Reader: The heavens, the earth, and all their vast array were finished. 

Reader: On the seventh day God finished his work which he had done; and he rested on the seventh day from all his work which he had done.

Reader: God blessed the seventh day, and made it holy, because he rested in it from all his work of creation which he had done

Comment: For what purpose did God bless and sanctify the seventh day? It must be that He intended humans to rest from their work on that day to have special time with Him, their Maker.  The Sabbath was to be a perpetual reminder of our Creator. We read in Exodus 20:8-11

Reader: Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy. You shall labor six days, and do all your work, but the seventh day is a Sabbath to Yahweh your God.

Reader: You shall not do any work in it, you, nor your son, nor your daughter, your male servant, nor your female servant, nor your livestock, nor your stranger who is within your gates;

Reader: for in six days Yahweh made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that is in them, and rested the seventh day; therefore Yahweh blessed the Sabbath day, and made it holy.

Comment: In the remainder of the Scriptures we are reminded repeatedly that there is only one Creator God and therefore we are admonished to worship Him. This is especially true in the Psalms.

Reader:  (Psalm 121:1,2) I will lift up my eyes to the hills.  Where does my help come from?

Reader: My help comes from Yahweh,  who made heaven and earth.

Reader: (Psalm 146:5, 6) Happy is he who has the God of Jacob for his help,  whose hope is in Yahweh, his God: who made heaven and earth,  the sea, and all that is in them;  who keeps truth forever.

 Reader: (Psalm 19:1-6) The heavens declare the glory of God.  The expanse shows his handiwork. Day after day they pour out speech,  and night after night they display knowledge. There is no speech nor language, where their voice is not heard. Their voice has gone out through all the earth, their words to the end of the world. In them he has set a tent for the sun,

Reader: which is as a bridegroom coming out of his room,  like a strong man rejoicing to run his course. His going out is from the end of the heavens,  his circuit to its ends;  There is nothing hidden from its heat.

Reader: (Psalm 8) Yahweh, our Lord, how majestic is your name in all the earth,
    who has set your glory above the heavens!
From the lips of babes and infants you have established strength,
    because of your adversaries, that you might silence the enemy and the avenger.

Reader: When I consider your heavens, the work of your fingers, the moon and the stars, which you have ordained;
what is man, that you think of him?
    What is the son of man, that you care for him?

Reader: For you have made him a little lower than God,
    and crowned him with glory and honor.
You make him ruler over the works of your hands.

Reader: You have put all things under his feet:
All sheep and cattle,
    yes, and the animals of the field,
The birds of the sky, the fish of the sea,
    and whatever passes through the paths of the seas.
Yahweh, our Lord,
    how majestic is your name in all the earth!.

Comment: (Psalm 104:1-33): is devoted to praising the Creator God who not only creates but also sustains and provides for His Creation.

Reader: Bless Yahweh, my soul.

Reader: Yahweh, my God, you are very great.  You are clothed with honor and majesty. He covers himself with light as with a garment.  He stretches out the heavens like a curtain.

Reader: He lays the beams of his rooms in the waters.  He makes the clouds his chariot.  He walks on the wings of the wind. He makes his messengers winds; his servants flames of fire.

Reader: He laid the foundations of the earth,  that it should not be moved forever. You covered it with the deep as with a cloak.  The waters stood above the mountains. At your rebuke they fled.  At the voice of your thunder they hurried away.

Reader: The mountains rose,  the valleys sank down,  to the place which you had assigned to them. You have set a boundary that they may not pass over; that they don’t turn again to cover the earth.

Reader: He sends springs into the valleys.  They run among the mountains. They give drink to every animal of the field.  The wild donkeys quench their thirst. The birds of the sky nest by them.  They sing among the branches. He waters the mountains from his rooms.

Reader: The earth is filled with the fruit of your works. He causes the grass to grow for the livestock,  and plants for man to cultivate,  that he may produce food out of the earth, wine that makes glad the heart of man,  oil to make his face to shine,  and bread that strengthens man’s heart.

Reader: Yahweh’s trees are well watered,  the cedars of Lebanon, which he has planted; where the birds make their nests.  The stork makes its home in the cypress trees. The high mountains are for the wild goats.  The rocks are a refuge for the rock badgers.

Reader: He appointed the moon for seasons.  The sun knows when to set. You make darkness, and it is night,  in which all the animals of the forest prowl. The young lions roar after their prey,  and seek their food from God. The sun rises, and they steal away,  and lay down in their dens. Man goes out to his work,  to his labor until the evening.

Reader: Yahweh, how many are your works!  In wisdom have you made them all.  The earth is full of your riches. There is the sea, great and wide,  in which are innumerable living things,  both small and large animals. There the ships go, and leviathan, whom you formed to play there.

Reader: These all wait for you, that you may give them their food in due season. You give to them; they gather.  You open your hand; they are satisfied with good. You hide your face: they are troubled;  you take away their breath: they die, and return to the dust. You send out your Spirit and they are created.  You renew the face of the ground.

Reader: Let Yahweh’s glory endure forever.  Let Yahweh rejoice in his works. He looks at the earth, and it trembles.  He touches the mountains, and they smoke.

Reader: I will sing to Yahweh as long as I live.  I will sing praise to my God while I have any being.

Comment: In an age when skepticism concerning a Creator God abounds we must acknowledge that it is only by faith that we can know this as truth. In Hebrews 11:1-3 we read:

Reader: Now faith is assurance of things hoped for, proof of things not seen. For by this, the elders obtained testimony. By faith, we understand that the universe has been framed by the word of God, so that what is seen has not been made out of things which are visible.

Comment: But that faith is grounded in the person of Jesus Christ whose life, death, resurrection and ascension are proclaimed by many reliable witnesses. Perhaps the most articulate of these is His beloved disciple, John.  He affirmed in John 1:1-5 & 14:

Reader: In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. The same was in the beginning with God. All things were made through him. Without him was not anything made that has been made. In him was life, and the life was the light of men. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness hasn’t overcome.

Reader: The Word became flesh, and lived among us. We saw his glory, such glory as of the one and only Son of the Father, full of grace and truth.

Comment: One of the final messages to a doomed world calls for us to worship the One who created all things in heaven and in earth. We find it in Revelation 14:6,7.

Reader: I saw an angel flying in mid heaven, having an eternal Good News to proclaim to those who dwell on the earth, and to every nation, tribe, language, and people. He said with a loud voice, “Fear the Lord, and give him glory; for the hour of his judgment has come. Worship him who made the heaven, the earth, the sea, and the springs of waters!”

Comment: Reader, friend whoever you are won’t you choose to be among those who worship the only true God, Creator of heaven and earth? 
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Nature of Man

Comment: Man and woman were made in the image of God with individuality, the power and freedom to think and to do. Though created free beings, each is an indivisible unity of body, mind, and spirit, dependent upon God for life and breath and all else. Genesis 1:26-28 gives this account of the creation of people,

Reader: God said, “Let us make man in our image, after our likeness: and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the birds of the sky, and over the livestock, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.”

Reader: God created man in his own image. In God’s image he created him; male and female he created them.

Reader: God blessed them. God said to them, “Be fruitful, multiply, fill the earth, and subdue it. Have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the sky, and over every living thing that moves on the earth.”

Comment: This simple account establishes, for those who will believe, the origin of mankind and explains our capacity to think, feel and create.  But what is the source of life? Gen. 2:7 says

Reader:  Yahweh God formed man from the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul.

Comment: Without that breath of life we would be nothing more than a very detailed manikin. The breath of life was originally given by God and He continues to give it to every living being. Paul acknowledged this when he visited Athens as recorded in Acts 17:22-31.

Reader: Paul stood in the middle of the Areopagus, and said, “You men of Athens, I perceive that you are very religious in all things. For as I passed along, and observed the objects of your worship, I found also an altar with this inscription: ‘TO AN UNKNOWN GOD.’ What therefore you worship in ignorance, this I announce to you.

Reader: The God who made the world and all things in it, he, being Lord of heaven and earth, doesn’t dwell in temples made with hands, neither is he served by men’s hands, as though he needed anything, seeing he himself

ALL Readers:  gives to all life and breath, and all things.

Reader: He made from one blood every nation of men to dwell on all the surface of the earth, having determined appointed seasons, and the boundaries of their dwellings, that they should seek the Lord, if perhaps they might reach out for him and find him, though he is not far from each one of us.

All Reader: For in him we live, and move, and have our being.

Reader: As some of your own poets have said, ‘For we are also his offspring.’ Being then the offspring of God, we ought not to think that the Divine Nature is like gold, or silver, or stone, engraved by art and design of man.  The times of ignorance therefore God overlooked. But now he commands that all people everywhere should repent, because he has appointed a day in which he will judge the world in righteousness by the man whom he has ordained; of which he has given assurance to all men, in that he has raised him from the dead.

Comment: Adam and Eve chose to follow the “Serpent’s” suggestion and thus isolated themselves from God, the source of life. We find the story in Genesis 3.

Reader:   Now the serpent was more subtle than any animal of the field which Yahweh God had made. He said to the woman,

Reader: “Has God really said, ‘You shall not eat of any tree of the garden?’”

Reader: The woman said to the serpent,

Reader: “We may eat fruit from the trees of the garden, but not the fruit of the tree which is in the middle of the garden. God has said, ‘You shall not eat of it. You shall not touch it, lest you die.’”

Reader: The serpent said to the woman, “You won’t surely die, for God knows that in the day you eat it, your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.”

Reader: When the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was a delight to the eyes, and that the tree was to be desired to make one wise, she took some of its fruit, and ate; and she gave some to her husband with her, and he ate it, too.

Reader: Their eyes were opened, and they both knew that they were naked. They sewed fig leaves together, and made coverings for themselves.

Reader: They heard Yahweh God’s voice walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and the man and his wife hid themselves from the presence of Yahweh God among the trees of the garden.

Reader: Yahweh God called to the man, and said to him, “Where are you?”

Reader: The man said, “I heard your voice in the garden, and I was afraid, because I was naked; and I hid myself.”

Reader: God said, “Who told you that you were naked? Have you eaten from the tree that I commanded you not to eat from?”

Reader: The man said, “The woman whom you gave to be with me, she gave me fruit from the tree, and I ate it.”

Reader: Yahweh God said to the woman, “What have you done?”

Reader: The woman said, “The serpent deceived me, and I ate.”

Reader: Yahweh God said to the serpent,

Reader: “Because you have done this,     you are cursed above all livestock,     and above every animal of the field. You shall go on your belly     and you shall eat dust all the days of your life. I will put hostility between you and the woman,     and between your offspring and her offspring. He will bruise your head,     and you will bruise his heel.”

Reader: To the woman he said,

Reader: “I will greatly multiply your pain in childbirth.     In pain you will bear children. Your desire will be for your husband,     and he will rule over you.”

Reader: To Adam he said,

Reader: “Because you have listened to your wife’s voice,     and ate from the tree,     about which I commanded you, saying, ‘You shall not eat of it,’     the ground is cursed for your sake. You will eat from it with much labor all the days of your life.    It will yield thorns and thistles to you;     and you will eat the herb of the field. By the sweat of your face will you eat bread until you return to the ground,     for out of it you were taken. For you are dust,     and to dust you shall return.”

Reader: The man called his wife Eve because she would be the mother of all the living. Yahweh God made coats of animal skins for Adam and for his wife, and clothed them.

Reader: Yahweh God said, “Behold, the man has become like one of us, knowing good and evil. Now, lest he reach out his hand, and also take of the tree of life, and eat, and live forever...”

Reader: Therefore Yahweh God sent him out from the garden of Eden, to till the ground from which he was taken. So he drove out the man; and he placed cherubim at the east of the garden of Eden, and a flaming sword which turned every way, to guard the way to the tree of life

Comment: All of Adam’s descendants share in Adam’s fate – lacking access to the tree of life we all die.   But when considering all God’s created works the Psalmist declared in Ps. 8:3-9.

Reader: When I consider your heavens, the work of your fingers,     the moon and the stars, which you have ordained;

Reader: what is man, that you think of him?     What is the son of man, that you care for him?

Reader: For you have made him a little lower than God,     and crowned him with glory and honor.

Reader: You make him ruler over the works of your hands.     You have put all things under his feet:

Reader: All sheep and cattle,     yes, and the animals of the field,  The birds of the sky, the fish of the sea,     and whatever passes through the paths of the seas.

Reader: Yahweh, our Lord,     how majestic is your name in all the earth!

Comment: This marvelous view of humanity’s place in creation must be kept in perspective, for we are fallen, sinful creatures.  So much so that after the flood God said- (Gen. 8:21)

Reader: “I will not again curse the ground any more for man’s sake because the imagination of man’s heart is evil from his youth. I will never again strike every living thing, as I have done.

Comment:  David acknowledged the same thing in his payer for forgiveness in Ps. 51:1-5

Reader: Have mercy on me, God, according to your loving kindness.     According to the multitude of your tender mercies, blot out my transgressions.

Reader: Wash me thoroughly from my iniquity.     Cleanse me from my sin. For I know my transgressions.     My sin is constantly before me.

Reader: Against you, and you only, have I sinned,     and done that which is evil in your sight; that you may be proved right when you speak,     and justified when you judge.

Reader: Behold, I was born in iniquity.     In sin my mother conceived me

Comment: In Romans 5:12-21 Paul contrasts the hopelessly sinful condition of humanity and its consequence, death, with the hope of deliverance from both sin and its consequence through Jesus.

Reader:  Therefore as sin entered into the world through one man, and death through sin; and so death passed to all men, because all sinned.

Reader:  For until the law, sin was in the world; but sin is not charged when there is no law. Nevertheless death reigned from Adam until Moses, even over those whose sins weren’t like Adam’s disobedience, who is a foreshadowing of him who was to come.

Reader:   But the free gift isn’t like the trespass. For if by the trespass of the one the many died, much more did the grace of God, and the gift by the grace of the one man, Jesus Christ, abound to the many.  

Reader:  The gift is not as through one who sinned: for the judgment came by one to condemnation, but the free gift came of many trespasses to justification. For if by the trespass of the one, death reigned through the one; so much more will those who receive the abundance of grace and of the gift of righteousness reign in life through the one, Jesus Christ.

Reader:  So then as through one trespass, all men were condemned; even so through one act of righteousness, all men were justified to life.

Reader:  For as through the one man’s disobedience many were made sinners, even so through the obedience of the one, many will be made righteous.

Reader:   The law came in besides, that the trespass might abound; but where sin abounded, grace abounded more exceedingly; that as sin reigned in death, even so grace might reign through righteousness to eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.

 Comment:  That deliverance is clearly portrayed in 2 Corinthians 5:14-21

Reader: For the love of Christ constrains us; because we judge thus, that one died for all, therefore all died. He died for all, that those who live should no longer live to themselves, but to him who for their sakes died and rose again.

Reader: Therefore we know no one after the flesh from now on. Even though we have known Christ after the flesh, yet now we know him so no more.

Reader: Therefore if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old things have passed away. Behold, all things have become new.

Reader: But all things are of God, who reconciled us to himself through Jesus Christ, and gave to us the ministry of reconciliation; namely, that God was in Christ reconciling the world to himself, not reckoning to them their trespasses, and having committed to us the word of reconciliation.

Reader: We are therefore ambassadors on behalf of Christ, as though God were entreating by us: we beg you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God. For him who knew no sin he made to be sin on our behalf; so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.

Comment:  We were created for the glory of God, and are called to love Him and one another, and to care for our environment. However because of our sinful nature we naturally live contrary to that ideal.  Consider Jesus’ disciples, James and John.   In Mark 3:17 Jesus called them “sons of thunder” Why? Notice Jesus’ instructions in Luke 9:1-6, when he sent them out to share the good news.

Reader: He called the twelve together, and gave them power and authority over all demons, and to cure diseases. He sent them out to preach God’s Kingdom and to heal the sick. He said to them, “Take nothing for your journey—neither staffs, nor wallet, nor bread, nor money; neither have two coats apiece. Into whatever house you enter, stay there, and depart from there. As many as don’t receive you, when you depart from that city, shake off even the dust from your feet for a testimony against them.”

Reader: They departed, and went throughout the villages, preaching the Good News, and healing everywhere.

Comment:  Notice their response when a few days later a Samaritan town rejected them. (Luke 9:51-56)

Reader: It came to pass, when the days were near that he should be taken up, he intently set his face to go to Jerusalem, and sent messengers before his face. They went, and entered into a village of the Samaritans, so as to prepare for him. They didn’t receive him, because he was traveling with his face set towards Jerusalem.

Reader:  When his disciples, James and John, saw this, they said, “Lord, do you want us to command fire to come down from the sky, and destroy them, just as Elijah did?”

Reader: But he turned and rebuked them, “You don’t know of what kind of spirit you are. For the Son of Man didn’t come to destroy men’s lives, but to save them. They went to another village.

Comment:  Not many days later we find this episode recorded in Mark 10:35-45

Reader:  James and John, the sons of Zebedee, came near to him, saying, “Teacher, we want you to do for us whatever we will ask.”

Reader: He said to them, “What do you want me to do for you?”

Reader: They said to him, “Grant to us that we may sit, one at your right hand, and one at your left hand, in your glory.”

Reader: But Jesus said to them, “You don’t know what you are asking. Are you able to drink the cup that I drink, and to be baptized with the baptism that I am baptized with?”

Reader: They said to him, “We are able.”

Reader: Jesus said to them, “You shall indeed drink the cup that I drink, and you shall be baptized with the baptism that I am baptized with; but to sit at my right hand and at my left hand is not mine to give, but for whom it has been prepared.”

Reader: When the ten heard it, they began to be indignant towards James and John.

Reader: Jesus summoned them, and said to them, “You know that they who are recognized as rulers over the nations lord it over them, and their great ones exercise authority over them. But it shall not be so among you, but whoever wants to become great among you shall be your servant.

Reader: Whoever of you wants to become first among you, shall be bondservant of all. For the Son of Man also came not to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.”

Comment:  John, Jesus’ disciple, one of the sons of thunder, was so transformed by Jesus’ love and grace that in his later years he could write the following in First John 4:7-21.

Reader:  Beloved, let us love one another, for love is of God; and everyone who loves has been born of God, and knows God. He who doesn’t love doesn’t know God, for God is love.

Reader: By this God’s love was revealed in us, that God has sent his one and only Son into the world that we might live through him.

Reader: In this is love, not that we loved God, but that he loved us, and sent his Son as the atoning sacrifice for our sins.

Reader: Beloved, if God loved us in this way, we also ought to love one another. No one has seen God at any time. If we love one another, God remains in us, and his love has been perfected in us.

Reader: By this we know that we remain in him and he in us, because he has given us of his Spirit. We have seen and testify that the Father has sent the Son as the Savior of the world.

Reader: Whoever confesses that Jesus is the Son of God, God remains in him, and he in God. We know and have believed the love which God has for us. God is love, and he who remains in love remains in God, and God remains in him.

Reader: In this love has been made perfect among us, that we may have boldness in the day of judgment, because as he is, even so are we in this world.

Reader: There is no fear in love; but perfect love casts out fear, because fear has punishment. He who fears is not made perfect in love.

Reader: We love him, because he first loved us.

Reader: If a man says, “I love God,” and hates his brother, he is a liar; for he who doesn’t love his brother whom he has seen, how can he love God whom he has not seen?

Reader: This commandment we have from him, that he who loves God should also love his brother.

Comment: This does not come naturally, however by spending time with Jesus we too can experience that transformation. Friend won’t you make it a priority in your life to live and walk with Jesus every day?
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The Great Controversy

Comment: All humanity is now involved in a great controversy between Christ and Satan regarding the character of God, His law, and His sovereignty over the universe.  How did it all start? We read in Revelation 12:1-9

Reader:  A great sign was seen in heaven: a woman clothed with the sun, and the moon under her feet, and on her head a crown of twelve stars. She was with child. She cried out in pain, laboring to give birth.

Reader:   Another sign was seen in heaven. Behold, a great red dragon, having seven heads and ten horns, and on his heads seven crowns. His tail drew one third of the stars of the sky, and threw them to the earth.

Reader:  The dragon stood before the woman who was about to give birth, so that when she gave birth he might devour her child. She gave birth to a son, a male child, who is to rule all the nations with a rod of iron.

Reader:   Her child was caught up to God, and to his throne.

Reader:   The woman fled into the wilderness, where she has a place prepared by God, that there they may nourish her one thousand two hundred sixty days.

Reader:  There was war in the sky. Michael and his angels made war on the dragon. The dragon and his angels made war. They didn’t prevail, neither was a place found for him any more in heaven. The great dragon was thrown down, the old serpent, he who is called the devil and Satan, the deceiver of the whole world. He was thrown down to the earth, and his angels were thrown down with him.

Comment: Isaiah tells us about this fallen creature in chapter 14:12-14

Reader:   How you have fallen from heaven, morning star, son of the dawn! How you are cut down to the ground, who laid the nations low! You said in your heart,

Reader:  “I will ascend into heaven! I will exalt my throne above the stars of God! I will sit on the mountain of assembly, in the far north! I will ascend above the heights of the clouds! I will make myself like the Most High!”

Comment: Ezekiel, in his prophecy against the king of Tyre, describes a being that could not have been the king of Tyre. Instead this narration clearly describes God’s antagonist, where he came from (he was created), his ambitions and his ultimate fate (reduced to ashes). Reading from Ezekiel 28:11-18

Reader:  Moreover Yahweh’s word came to me, saying, Son of man, take up a lamentation over the king of Tyre, and tell him,

Reader:   Thus says the Lord Yahweh: You seal up the sum, full of wisdom, and perfect in beauty. You were in Eden, the garden of God; every precious stone adorned you: ruby, topaz, emerald, chrysolite, onyx, jasper, sapphire,^[a] turquoise, and beryl. Gold work of tambourines and of pipes was in you. In the day that you were created they were prepared.

Reader:   You were the anointed cherub who covers: and I set you, so that you were on the holy mountain of God; you have walked up and down in the middle of the stones of fire. You were perfect in your ways from the day that you were created, until unrighteousness was found in you.

Reader:  By the abundance of your traffic they filled your insides with violence, and you have sinned: therefore I have cast you as profane out of the mountain of God; and I have destroyed you, covering cherub, from the middle of the stones of fire.

Reader:  Your heart was lifted up because of your beauty; you have corrupted your wisdom by reason of your brightness: I have cast you to the ground; I have laid you before kings, that they may see you. By the multitude of your iniquities, in the unrighteousness of your traffic, you have profaned your sanctuaries; therefore have I brought out a fire from the middle of you; it has devoured you, and I have turned you to ashes on the earth in the sight of all those who see you.

 Comment: What did this proud, self-centered being find on the earth?  He found a new creation where he led Adam and Eve to sin.  Genesis chapter 4 tells the result of their tragic choice.

Reader:  The man knew Eve his wife. She conceived, and gave birth to Cain, and said, “I have gotten a man with Yahweh’s help.” Again she gave birth, to Cain’s brother Abel. Abel was a keeper of sheep, but Cain was a tiller of the ground.

Reader:   As time passed, Cain brought an offering to Yahweh from the fruit of the ground. Abel also brought some of the firstborn of his flock and of its fat. Yahweh respected Abel and his offering, but he didn’t respect Cain and his offering.

Reader:  Cain was very angry, and the expression on his face fell. Yahweh said to Cain,

Reader:  “Why are you angry? Why has the expression of your face fallen? If you do well, won’t it be lifted up? If you don’t do well, sin crouches at the door. Its desire is for you, but you are to rule over it.”

Reader:   Cain said to Abel, his brother, “Let’s go into the field.” While they were in the field, Cain rose up against Abel, his brother, and killed him.

Reader:  Yahweh said to Cain, “Where is Abel, your brother?”

Reader:  He said, “I don’t know. Am I my brother’s keeper?”

Reader:  Yahweh said, “What have you done? The voice of your brother’s blood cries to me from the ground. Now you are cursed because of the ground, which has opened its mouth to receive your brother’s blood from your hand. From now on, when you till the ground, it won’t yield its strength to you. You will be a fugitive and a wanderer in the earth.”

Reader:  Cain said to Yahweh, “My punishment is greater than I can bear. Behold, you have driven me out today from the surface of the ground. I will be hidden from your face, and I will be a fugitive and a wanderer in the earth. Whoever finds me will kill me.”

Reader:  Yahweh said to him, “Therefore whoever slays Cain, vengeance will be taken on him sevenfold.” Yahweh appointed a sign for Cain, so that anyone finding him would not strike him.

Reader:   Cain left Yahweh’s presence, and lived in the land of Nod, east of Eden. Cain knew his wife. She conceived, and gave birth to Enoch. He built a city, and called the name of the city, after the name of his son, Enoch.

Reader:   To Enoch was born Irad. Irad became the father of Mehujael. Mehujael became the father of Methushael. Methushael became the father of Lamech.

Reader:   Lamech took two wives: the name of the first one was Adah, and the name of the second one was Zillah. Adah gave birth to Jabal, who was the father of those who dwell in tents and have livestock. His brother’s name was Jubal, who was the father of all who handle the harp and pipe.

Reader:   Zillah also gave birth to Tubal Cain, the forger of every cutting instrument of brass and iron. Tubal Cain’s sister was Naamah. Lamech said to his wives,

Reader:  “Adah and Zillah, hear my voice.
You wives of Lamech, listen to my speech,
for I have slain a man for wounding me,
a young man for bruising me.
If Cain will be avenged seven times,
truly Lamech seventy-seven times.”

Reader:  Adam knew his wife again. She gave birth to a son, and named him Seth, saying, “for God has given me another child instead of Abel, for Cain killed him.” A son was also born to Seth, and he named him Enosh. At that time men began to call on Yahweh’s name.

Comment: From that beginning there have always been two groups of people – those who follow God’s ways and those who follow the “Serpent.” In Romans 1:18-32  Paul, the Apostle, describes the progression of the lives of those who reject the evidence of God’s love seen in nature

Reader: For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who suppress the truth in unrighteousness, because that which is known of God is revealed in them, for God revealed it to them.

Reader:   For the invisible things of him since the creation of the world are clearly seen, being perceived through the things that are made, even his everlasting power and divinity; that they may be without excuse. Because, knowing God, they didn’t glorify him as God, neither gave thanks, but became vain in their reasoning, and their senseless heart was darkened.

Reader:   Professing themselves to be wise, they became fools, and traded the glory of the incorruptible God for the likeness of an image of corruptible man, and of birds, and four-footed animals, and creeping things.

Reader:  Therefore God also gave them up in the lusts of their hearts to uncleanness, that their bodies should be dishonored among themselves, who exchanged the truth of God for a lie, and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever. Amen.

Reader:  For this reason, God gave them up to vile passions. For their women changed the natural function into that which is against nature. Likewise also the men, leaving the natural function of the woman, burned in their lust toward one another, men doing what is inappropriate with men, and receiving in themselves the due penalty of their error.

Reader:  Even as they refused to have God in their knowledge, God gave them up to a reprobate mind, to do those things which are not fitting; being filled with all unrighteousness, sexual immorality, wickedness, covetousness, malice; full of envy, murder, strife, deceit, evil habits, secret slanderers, backbiters, hateful to God, insolent, haughty, boastful, inventors of evil things, disobedient to parents, without understanding, covenant breakers, without natural affection, unforgiving, unmerciful; who, knowing the ordinance of God, that those who practice such things are worthy of death, not only do the same, but also approve of those who practice them.

Comment: But Paul also speaks in Romans 8:19-25 of the grand hope that we can have in the restoration, in the deliverance of creation and of humanity from the blight of sin.

Reader: For the creation waits with eager expectation for the children of God to be revealed. For the creation was subjected to vanity, not of its own will, but because of him who subjected it, in hope that the creation itself also will be delivered from the bondage of decay into the liberty of the glory of the children of God.

Reader:   For we know that the whole creation groans and travails in pain together until now. Not only so, but ourselves also, who have the first fruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves groan within ourselves, waiting for adoption, the redemption of our body.

Reader:   For we were saved in hope, but hope that is seen is not hope. For who hopes for that which he sees? But if we hope for that which we don’t see, we wait for it with patience

Comment: It only took 11 generations of long-lived people for the degradation of most to be so great that God decided to destroy almost all of them in a great world-wide flood.  The account is found in Genesis 6-8.

Reader: (Gen 6:5-22) Yahweh saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every imagination of the thoughts of man’s heart was continually only evil. Yahweh was sorry that he had made man on the earth, and it grieved him in his heart. Yahweh said, “I will destroy man whom I have created from the surface of the ground—man, along with animals, creeping things, and birds of the sky—for I am sorry that I have made them.” But Noah found favor in Yahweh’s eyes.

Reader: This is the history of the generations of Noah: Noah was a righteous man, blameless among the people of his time. Noah walked with God. Noah became the father of three sons: Shem, Ham, and Japheth. The earth was corrupt before God, and the earth was filled with violence. God saw the earth, and saw that it was corrupt, for all flesh had corrupted their way on the earth.

Reader:  God said to Noah, “I will bring an end to all flesh, for the earth is filled with violence through them. Behold, I will destroy them and the earth. Make a ship of gopher wood.

Reader:  You shall make rooms in the ship, and shall seal it inside and outside with pitch. This is how you shall make it.

Reader:  The length of the ship shall be three hundred cubits, its width fifty cubits, and its height thirty cubits. You shall make a roof in the ship, and you shall finish it to a cubit upward. You shall set the door of the ship in its side. You shall make it with lower, second, and third levels.

Reader:   I, even I, do bring the flood of waters on this earth, to destroy all flesh having the breath of life from under the sky. Everything that is in the earth will die. But I will establish my covenant with you. You shall come into the ship, you, your sons, your wife, and your sons’ wives with you.

Reader:   Of every living thing of all flesh, you shall bring two of every sort into the ship, to keep them alive with you. They shall be male and female. Of the birds after their kind, of the livestock after their kind, of every creeping thing of the ground after its kind, two of every sort will come to you, to keep them alive. Take with you of all food that is eaten, and gather it to yourself; and it will be for food for you, and for them.”

Reader:  Thus Noah did. He did all that God commanded him.

Reader: (Gen. 7)Yahweh said to Noah, “Come with all of your household into the ship, for I have seen your righteousness before me in this generation.

Reader:  You shall take seven pairs of every clean animal with you, the male and his female. Of the animals that are not clean, take two, the male and his female. Also of the birds of the sky, seven and seven, male and female, to keep seed alive on the surface of all the earth.

Reader:   In seven days, I will cause it to rain on the earth for forty days and forty nights. Every living thing that I have made, I will destroy from the surface of the ground.”

Reader:  Noah did everything that Yahweh commanded him.

Reader:  Noah was six hundred years old when the flood of waters came on the earth. Noah went into the ship with his sons, his wife, and his sons’ wives, because of the floodwaters. Clean animals, unclean animals, birds, and everything that creeps on the ground went by pairs to Noah into the ship, male and female, as God commanded Noah.

Reader:  After the seven days, the floodwaters came on the earth. In the six hundredth year of Noah’s life, in the second month, on the seventeenth day of the month, on the same day all the fountains of the great deep were burst open, and the sky’s windows were opened. It rained on the earth forty days and forty nights.

Reader:  In the same day Noah, and Shem, Ham, and Japheth—the sons of Noah—and Noah’s wife and the three wives of his sons with them, entered into the ship— they, and every animal after its kind, all the livestock after their kind, every creeping thing that creeps on the earth after its kind, and every bird after its kind, every bird of every sort. Pairs from all flesh with the breath of life in them went to Noah into the ship.

Reader:  Those who went in, went in male and female of all flesh, as God commanded him; then Yahweh shut him in.

Reader:  The flood was forty days on the earth. The waters increased, and lifted up the ship, and it was lifted up above the earth. The waters rose, and increased greatly on the earth; and the ship floated on the surface of the waters. The waters rose very high on the earth. All the high mountains that were under the whole sky were covered.

Reader:   The waters rose fifteen cubits^[a] higher, and the mountains were covered. All flesh died that moved on the earth, including birds, livestock, animals, every creeping thing that creeps on the earth, and every man. All on the dry land, in whose nostrils was the breath of the spirit of life, died.

Reader:   Every living thing was destroyed that was on the surface of the ground, including man, livestock, creeping things, and birds of the sky. They were destroyed from the earth. Only Noah was left, and those who were with him in the ship. The waters flooded the earth one hundred fifty days.

 Reader: God remembered Noah, all the animals, and all the livestock that were with him in the ship; and God made a wind to pass over the earth. The waters subsided. The deep’s fountains and the sky’s windows were also stopped, and the rain from the sky was restrained. The waters continually receded from the earth.

Reader:  After the end of one hundred fifty days the waters decreased. The ship rested in the seventh month, on the seventeenth day of the month, on Ararat’s mountains. The waters receded continually until the tenth month. In the tenth month, on the first day of the month, the tops of the mountains were visible.

Reader:  At the end of forty days, Noah opened the window of the ship which he had made, ⁷ and he sent out a raven. It went back and forth, until the waters were dried up from the earth. He himself sent out a dove to see if the waters were abated from the surface of the ground, but the dove found no place to rest her foot, and she returned to him into the ship, for the waters were on the surface of the whole earth.

Reader:  He put out his hand, and took her, and brought her to him into the ship. He waited yet another seven days; and again he sent the dove out of the ship. The dove came back to him at evening and, behold, in her mouth was a freshly plucked olive leaf. So Noah knew that the waters were abated from the earth. He waited yet another seven days, and sent out the dove; and she didn’t return to him anymore.

Reader:   In the six hundred first year, in the first month, the first day of the month, the waters were dried up from the earth. Noah removed the covering of the ship, and looked. He saw that the surface of the ground was dried. In the second month, on the twenty-seventh day of the month, the earth was dry.

Reader:   God spoke to Noah, saying, “Go out of the ship, you, and your wife, and your sons, and your sons’ wives with you. Bring out with you every living thing that is with you of all flesh, including birds, livestock, and every creeping thing that creeps on the earth, that they may breed abundantly in the earth, and be fruitful, and multiply on the earth.”

Reader:   Noah went out, with his sons, his wife, and his sons’ wives with him. Every animal, every creeping thing, and every bird, whatever moves on the earth, after their families, went out of the ship.

Reader:   Noah built an altar to Yahweh, and took of every clean animal, and of every clean bird, and offered burnt offerings on the altar. Yahweh smelled the pleasant aroma. Yahweh said in his heart,

Reader:  “I will not again curse the ground any more for man’s sake because the imagination of man’s heart is evil from his youth. I will never again strike every living thing, as I have done. While the earth remains, seed time and harvest, and cold and heat, and summer and winter, and day and night will not cease.”

Comment: Jesus and the apostles taught that the world was indeed cleansed by such a flood.  Peter wrote in 2 Peter 3:1-10:

Reader:  This is now, beloved, the second letter that I have written to you; and in both of them I stir up your sincere mind by reminding you; that you should remember the words which were spoken before by the holy prophets, and the commandments of us, the apostles of the Lord and Savior: knowing this first, that in the last days mockers will come, walking after their own lusts, and saying,

Reader:   “Where is the promise of his coming? For, from the day that the fathers fell asleep, all things continue as they were from the beginning of the creation.” For this they willfully forget, that there were heavens from of old, and an earth formed out of water and amid water, by the word of God; by which means the world that then was, being overflowed with water, perished.

Reader:   But the heavens that now are, and the earth, by the same word have been stored up for fire, being reserved against the day of judgment and destruction of ungodly men.

Reader:   But don’t forget this one thing, beloved, that one day is with the Lord as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day. The Lord is not slow concerning his promise, as some count slowness; but is patient with us, not wishing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance.

Comment: When Jesus sent his disciples out to proclaim the good news of His kingdom he gave them power over evil spirits. We read in Luke 9:1, 2

Reader:  He called the twelve together, and gave them power and authority over all demons, and to cure diseases. He sent them out to preach God’s Kingdom and to heal the sick.

Comment: It should not surprise us then that, after Jesus’ ascension into heaven, his followers would continue to have encounters with evil spirits. Here is the story of one such encounter in Acts 16:16-34

Reader: As we were going to prayer, a certain girl having a spirit of divination met us, who brought her masters much gain by fortune telling. Following Paul and us, she cried out, “These men are servants of the Most High God, who proclaim to us a way of salvation!” She was doing this for many days.

Reader:  But Paul, becoming greatly annoyed, turned and said to the spirit, “I command you in the name of Jesus Christ to come out of her!” It came out that very hour.

Reader:   But when her masters saw that the hope of their gain was gone, they seized Paul and Silas, and dragged them into the marketplace before the rulers. When they had brought them to the magistrates, they said,

Reader:   “These men, being Jews, are agitating our city, and advocate customs which it is not lawful for us to accept or to observe, being Romans.”

Reader:  The multitude rose up together against them, and the magistrates tore their clothes off of them, and commanded them to be beaten with rods. When they had laid many stripes on them, they threw them into prison, charging the jailer to keep them safely,  who, having received such a command, threw them into the inner prison, and secured their feet in the stocks.

Reader:  But about midnight Paul and Silas were praying and singing hymns to God, and the prisoners were listening to them. Suddenly there was a great earthquake, so that the foundations of the prison were shaken; and immediately all the doors were opened, and everyone’s bonds were loosened. 

Reader:  The jailer, being roused out of sleep and seeing the prison doors open, drew his sword and was about to kill himself, supposing that the prisoners had escaped. But Paul cried with a loud voice, saying, “Don’t harm yourself, for we are all here!”

Reader:  He called for lights, sprang in, fell down trembling before Paul and Silas, brought them out, and said, “Sirs, what must I do to be saved?”

Reader:  They said, “Believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, and you will be saved, you and your household.” They spoke the word of the Lord to him, and to all who were in his house.

Reader:  He took them the same hour of the night, and washed their stripes, and was immediately baptized, he and all his household. He brought them up into his house, and set food before them, and rejoiced greatly, with all his household, having believed in God.

Comment: Observed by the whole creation, this world became the arena of the universal conflict, out of which the God of love will ultimately be vindicated. The Apostle Paul  expressed this in 1 Cor. 4:9.

Reader:  For, I think that God has displayed us, the apostles, last of all, like men sentenced to death. For we are made a spectacle to the world, both to angels and men.

Comment: To assist His people in this controversy, Christ sends the Holy Spirit and the loyal angels to guide, protect, and sustain them in the way of salvation. This is clearly stated in Heb.1:13,14.

Reader: But which of the angels has he told at any time,

Reader:  “Sit at my right hand, until I make your enemies the footstool of your feet?” Aren’t they all serving spirits, sent out to do service for the sake of those who will inherit salvation?

Comment:  The conflict between Christ and Satan is real and involves everyone of us. We are either disciples of Jesus or followers of Satan.  There are no spectators!  Now is the time to make our commitment to be a full-time disciple of Jesus.
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Jesus: Life, Death and Resurrection

Comment: .Jesus Christ is not doubt the most influential and yet the most controversial person who ever lived on planet earth. Why? Who is He? He was miraculously conceived so that he was both the Son of God and the Son of Man.  The story, his birth and childhood, is briefly told by Luke in chapters 1-3. He records the message of the angels to the shepherds in Luke 2:10-12 in this way:

Reader: Don’t be afraid, for behold, I bring you good news of great joy which will be to all the people. For there is born to you today, in David’s city, a Savior, who is Christ the Lord. This is the sign to you: you will find a baby wrapped in strips of cloth, lying in a feeding trough.

Comment: When he was 12 years old his parents took him to the temple. His encounter  with the teachers left all who heard him amazed. Luke 2:47-52

Reader: All who heard him were amazed at his understanding and his answers. When they saw him, they were astonished, and his mother said to him,

Reader: “Son, why have you treated us this way? Behold, your father and I were anxiously looking for you.”

Reader: He said to them, “Why were you looking for me? Didn’t you know that I must be in my Father’s house?”

Reader: They didn’t understand the saying which he spoke to them. And he went down with them, and came to Nazareth. He was subject to them, and his mother kept all these sayings in her heart.

Reader: And Jesus increased in wisdom and stature, and in favor with God and men.

Comment: Luke continues the story in chapters 3 & 4. He began his ministry by being baptized by John and then going to the wilderness where he was tempted by Satan.  This encounter, recorded in Luke 4:1-13, highlights how he met those temptations without sinning.

Reader: Jesus, full of the Holy Spirit, returned from the Jordan, and was led by the Spirit into the wilderness for forty days, being tempted by the devil. He ate nothing in those days. Afterward, when they were completed, he was hungry. 

Reader: The devil said to him, “If you are the Son of God, command this stone to become bread.”

Reader: Jesus answered him, saying, “It is written, Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word of God.”

Reader: The devil, leading him up on a high mountain, showed him all the kingdoms of the world in a moment of time. The devil said to him,

Reader: “I will give you all this authority, and their glory, for it has been delivered to me; and I give it to whomever I want. If you therefore will worship before me, it will all be yours.”

Reader: Jesus answered him, “Get behind me Satan! For it is written, ‘You shall worship the Lord your God, and you shall serve him only.’”

Reader: He led him to Jerusalem, and set him on the pinnacle of the temple, and said to him, “If you are the Son of God, cast yourself down from here, for it is written,

Reader: ‘He will put his angels in charge of you, to guard you; and,
On their hands they will bear you up,
lest perhaps you dash your foot against a stone.’

Reader: Jesus answering, said to him, “It has been said, ‘You shall not tempt the Lord your God.’”

Reader: When the devil had completed every temptation, he departed from him until another time.

Comment:  Luke 4:16-30 also records how Jesus began his ministry by going home.

Reader: Jesus returned in the power of the Spirit into Galilee, and news about him spread through all the surrounding area.  He taught in their synagogues, being glorified by all.

Reader: He came to Nazareth, where he had been brought up. He entered, as was his custom, into the synagogue on the Sabbath day, and stood up to read. The book of the prophet Isaiah was handed to him. He opened the book, and found the place where it was written,

Reader: “The Spirit of the Lord is on me,
because he has anointed me to preach good news to the poor.
He has sent me to heal the broken hearted,^[e]
to proclaim release to the captives,
recovering of sight to the blind,
to deliver those who are crushed,
and to proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord.”

Reader He closed the book, gave it back to the attendant, and sat down. The eyes of all in the synagogue were fastened on him. He began to tell them, “Today, this Scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing.”

Reader: All testified about him, and wondered at the gracious words which proceeded out of his mouth, and they said, “Isn’t this Joseph’s son?”

Reader: He said to them, “Doubtless you will tell me this parable, Physician, heal yourself! Whatever we have heard done at Capernaum, do also here in your hometown.’”

Reader: He said, “Most certainly I tell you, no prophet is acceptable in his hometown. But truly I tell you, there were many widows in Israel in the days of Elijah, when the sky was shut up three years and six months, when a great famine came over all the land. Elijah was sent to none of them, except to Zarephath, in the land of Sidon, to a woman who was a widow. There were many lepers in Israel in the time of Elisha the prophet, yet not one of them was cleansed, except Naaman, the Syrian.”

Reader: They were all filled with wrath in the synagogue, as they heard these things.  They rose up, threw him out of the city, and led him to the brow of the hill that their city was built on, that they might throw him off the cliff. But he, passing through the middle of them, went his way.

Comment:  From beginning to end Jesus was faced with opposition and after three and a half years it came to a climax at the cross. Multiple prophecies in the Old Testament predicted so many unique aspects of Jesus’ life and death that one is almost forced to conclude that He was the Promised One. The graphic portrayal of his death in Isaiah 53 is especially moving.

Reader: Who has believed our message?
    To whom has the arm of Yahweh been revealed?
For he grew up before him as a tender plant,
    and as a root out of dry ground.
He has no good looks or majesty.
    When we see him, there is no beauty that we should desire him.

Reader: He was despised,
    and rejected by men;
a man of suffering,
    and acquainted with disease.
He was despised as one from whom men hide their face;
    and we didn’t respect him.

Reader: Surely he has borne our sickness,
    and carried our suffering;
yet we considered him plagued,
    struck by God, and afflicted.
But he was pierced for our transgressions.
    He was crushed for our iniquities.

Reader: The punishment that brought our peace was on him;
    and by his wounds we are healed.
All we like sheep have gone astray.
    Everyone has turned to his own way;
    and Yahweh has laid on him the iniquity of us all.

Reader: He was oppressed,
    yet when he was afflicted he didn’t open his mouth.
As a lamb that is led to the slaughter,
    and as a sheep that before its shearers is silent,
    so he didn’t open his mouth.

Reader: He was taken away by oppression and judgment;
    and as for his generation,
    who considered that he was cut off out of the land of the living
    and stricken for the disobedience of my people?
They made his grave with the wicked,
    and with a rich man in his death;
although he had done no violence,
    nor was any deceit in his mouth.

Reader: Yet it pleased Yahweh to bruise him.
    He has caused him to suffer.
When you make his soul an offering for sin,
    he will see his offspring.
He will prolong his days,
    and Yahweh’s pleasure will prosper in his hand.

Reader: After the suffering of his soul,
    he will see the light and be satisfied.
My righteous servant will justify many by the knowledge of himself;
    and he will bear their iniquities.

Reader: Therefore will I give him a portion with the great,
    and he will divide the plunder with the strong;
because he poured out his soul to death,
    and was numbered with the transgressors;
yet he bore the sin of many,
    and made intercession for the transgressors.

Comment:  Jesus summarized his mission when speaking with Nicodemus in John 3:16, 17.

Reader:  For God so loved the world, that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish, but have eternal life. For God didn’t send his Son into the world to judge the world, but that the world should be saved through him.

Comment:  Peter in his first letter chapter 2 verses 18-25 gave counsel to slaves who had become believers in this way showing how Jesus did not sin even when tormented.

Reader: Servants, be in subjection to your masters with all fear; not only to the good and gentle, but also to the wicked. For it is commendable if someone endures pain, suffering unjustly, because of conscience toward God.

Reader: For what glory is it if, when you sin, you patiently endure beating? But if, when you do well, you patiently endure suffering, this is commendable with God. For to this you were called, because Christ also suffered for us, leaving you an example, that you should follow his steps, who did not sin, “neither was deceit found in his mouth.”

Reader: Who, when he was cursed, didn’t curse back. When he suffered, didn’t threaten, but committed himself to him who judges righteously; who his own self bore our sins in his body on the tree, that we, having died to sins, might live to righteousness; by whose stripes you were healed. For you were going astray like sheep; but now have returned to the Shepherd and Overseer of your souls.

Comment:  The Apostle Paul in 1 Cor. 15:1-23 summarizes what he considered to be the most important realities of the gospel. The following are excerpts from that chapter.

Reader: Now I declare to you, brothers, the Good News which I preached to you, which also you received, in which you also stand, by which also you are saved, if you hold firmly the word which I preached to you—unless you believed in vain.

Reader: For I delivered to you first of all that which I also received: that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures, and that he appeared to Cephas, then to the twelve.

Reader: Then he appeared to over five hundred brothers at once, most of whom remain until now, but some have also fallen asleep. Then he appeared to James, then to all the apostles, and last of all, as to the child born at the wrong time, he appeared to me also.

Reader: For I am the least of the apostles, who is not worthy to be called an apostle, because I persecuted the assembly of God. But by the grace of God I am what I am. His grace which was given to me was not futile, but I worked more than all of them; yet not I, but the grace of God which was with me. Whether then it is I or they, so we preach, and so you believed.

Reader: Now if Christ is preached, that he has been raised from the dead, how do some among you say that there is no resurrection of the dead? But if there is no resurrection of the dead, neither has Christ been raised. If Christ has not been raised, then our preaching is in vain, and your faith also is in vain.

Reader: Yes, we are found false witnesses of God, because we testified about God that he raised up Christ, whom he didn’t raise up, if it is so that the dead are not raised. For if the dead aren’t raised, neither has Christ been raised. If Christ has not been raised, your faith is vain; you are still in your sins. Then they also who are fallen asleep in Christ have perished. If we have only hoped in Christ in this life, we are of all men most pitiable.

Reader: But now Christ has been raised from the dead. He became the first fruits of those who are asleep. For since death came by man, the resurrection of the dead also came by man. For as in Adam all die, so also in Christ all will be made alive. But each in his own order: Christ the first fruits, then those who are Christ’s, at his coming.

Comment:  In writing his second letter to the Corinthians chapter 5 verses 13 to 21 Paul gives his reason for his unquenchable excitement for telling about Jesus. In so doing he affirms that Jesus lived a sinless life.

Reader:  For if we are beside ourselves, it is for God. Or if we are of sober mind, it is for you. For the love of Christ constrains us; because we judge thus, that one died for all, therefore all died. He died for all, that those who live should no longer live to themselves, but to him who for their sakes died and rose again.

Reader: Therefore we know no one after the flesh from now on. Even though we have known Christ after the flesh, yet now we know him so no more. Therefore if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old things have passed away. Behold, all things have become new.

Reader: But all things are of God, who reconciled us to himself through Jesus Christ, and gave to us the ministry of reconciliation; namely, that God was in Christ reconciling the world to himself, not reckoning to them their trespasses, and having committed to us the word of reconciliation.

Reader: We are therefore ambassadors on behalf of Christ, as though God were entreating by us: we beg you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God. For him who knew no sin he made to be sin on our behalf; so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.

Comment:  In his letter to the Romans Paul repeatedly emphasizes the theme that we can be given the righteousness of God because Jesus lived a sinless life but died for us the death we deserve, total and eternal separation from God. But because He was sinless the grave could not hold him.  Nowhere is that more clear than in Romans 4:18-25

Reader:  Besides hope, Abraham in hope believed, to the end that he might become a father of many nations, according to that which had been spoken,

Reader: “So will your offspring be.”  Without being weakened in faith, he didn’t consider his own body, already having been worn out, (he being about a hundred years old), and the deadness of Sarah’s womb. Yet, looking to the promise of God, he didn’t waver through unbelief, but grew strong through faith, giving glory to God, and being fully assured that what he had promised, he was also able to perform.

Reader: Therefore it also was “credited to him for righteousness. Now it was not written that it was accounted to him for his sake alone, but for our sake also, to whom it will be accounted, who believe in him who raised Jesus, our Lord, from the dead, who was delivered up for our trespasses, and was raised for our justification.

Comment:  The apostle John begins the 2^nd chapter of his first letter with the very same message, that by transforming faith in Jesus anyone in the entire world can be saved. He wrote in verses 1-6.

Reader: My little children, I write these things to you so that you may not sin. If anyone sins, we have a Counselor with the Father, Jesus Christ, the righteous. And he is the atoning sacrifice^[b] for our sins, and not for ours only, but also for the whole world.

Reader: This is how we know that we know him: if we keep his commandments. One who says, “I know him,” and doesn’t keep his commandments, is a liar, and the truth isn’t in him. But whoever keeps his word, God’s love has most certainly been perfected in him.

Reader:  This is how we know that we are in him: he who says he remains in him ought himself also to walk just like he walked.

Comment:  John explains what this means in practical terms in 1 John 4:7-15.

Reader: Beloved, let us love one another, for love is of God; and everyone who loves has been born of God, and knows God. He who doesn’t love doesn’t know God, for God is love.

Reader: By this God’s love was revealed in us, that God has sent his one and only Son into the world that we might live through him. In this is love, not that we loved God, but that he loved us, and sent his Son as the atoning sacrifice for our sins.

Reader: Beloved, if God loved us in this way, we also ought to love one another. No one has seen God at any time. If we love one another, God remains in us, and his love has been perfected in us.

Reader: By this we know that we remain in him and he in us, because he has given us of his Spirit. We have seen and testify that the Father has sent the Son as the Savior of the world. Whoever confesses that Jesus is the Son of God, God remains in him, and he in God.

Comment: Paul shows in Colossians 2:6-15 that just as circumcision was given to Abraham as a sign of his faith relationship with God those who accept Jesus as Lord are circumcised in the heart being delivered from bondage to their sinful nature.

Reader:  As therefore you received Christ Jesus, the Lord, walk in him, rooted and built up in him, and established in the faith, even as you were taught, abounding in it in thanksgiving. Be careful that you don’t let anyone rob you through his philosophy and vain deceit, after the tradition of men, after the elements of the world, and not after Christ.

Reader: For in him all the fullness of the Godhead dwells bodily, and in him you are made full, who is the head of all principality and power; in whom you were also circumcised with a circumcision not made with hands, in the putting off of the body of the sins of the flesh, in the circumcision of Christ; having been buried with him in baptism, in which you were also raised with him through faith in the working of God, who raised him from the dead.

Reader: You were dead through your trespasses and the uncircumcision of your flesh. He made you alive together with him, having forgiven us all our trespasses, wiping out the handwriting in ordinances which was against us; and he has taken it out of the way, nailing it to the cross; having stripped the principalities and the powers, he made a show of them openly, triumphing over them in it.

Comment: The hymn of praise in Philippians 2:5-11 written by Paul under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit proclaims that in the end Jesus will be Lord of all.

Reader:  Have this in your mind, which was also in Christ Jesus, who, existing in the form of God, didn’t consider equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied himself, taking the form of a servant, being made in the likeness of men.

Reader: And being found in human form, he humbled himself, becoming obedient to death, yes, the death of the cross.

Reader: Therefore God also highly exalted him, and gave to him the name which is above every name; that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of those in heaven, those on earth, and those under the earth, and that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.

Comment: This is the fulfillment of Isaiah’s prophesy-(Isa. 53:12)

Reader: Therefore will I give him a portion with the great,
    and he will divide the plunder with the strong;
because he poured out his soul to death,
    and was numbered with the transgressors;
yet he bore the sin of many,
    and made intercession for the transgressors.

Comment:  Friend, how is it with you? Have you given yourself, your inner most self, fully to Him? If you have, then please share that with someone near you and pray together for the filling of God’s Spirit. If you haven’t, but want to, now is the time. Tell someone of your decision and pray together for Jesus to strengthen your resolve to follow Him.
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Experience of Salvation

Comment: Adam and Eve had experienced walking and talking with God. Then after they sinned they experienced the rupture of that relationship. They lost not only a loving relationship but also their home and livelihood. Let’s read about their loss in Gen 3:9-18

Reader: Yahweh God called to the man, and said to him, “Where are you?”

Reader: The man said, “I heard your voice in the garden, and I was afraid, because I was naked; and I hid myself.”

Reader: God said, “Who told you that you were naked? Have you eaten from the tree that I commanded you not to eat from?”

Reader: The man said, “The woman whom you gave to be with me, she gave me fruit from the tree, and I ate it.”

Reader: Yahweh God said to the woman, “What have you done?”

Reader: The woman said, “The serpent deceived me, and I ate.”

Reader: Yahweh God said to the serpent,

Reader: “Because you have done this,
    you are cursed above all livestock,
    and above every animal of the field.
You shall go on your belly
    and you shall eat dust all the days of your life.
I will put hostility between you and the woman,
    and between your offspring and her offspring.
He will bruise your head,
    and you will bruise his heel.”

Reader: To the woman he said,“I will greatly multiply your pain in childbirth.
    In pain you will bear children.
Your desire will be for your husband,
    and he will rule over you.”

Reader: To Adam he said, “Because you have listened to your wife’s voice,
    and ate from the tree,
    about which I commanded you, saying, ‘You shall not eat of it,’
    the ground is cursed for your sake.
You will eat from it with much labor all the days of your life.
   It will yield thorns and thistles to you;
    and you will eat the herb of the field.
By the sweat of your face will you eat bread until you return to the ground,
    for out of it you were taken.
For you are dust,
    and to dust you shall return.

Comment: Notice there were both immediate and long lasting consequences, physical and spiritual. The immediate consequences were the loss of their Eden home, painful child bearing and lives of hard toil to win a lively hood from the soil. The delayed consequences are summarized by Paul in Romans 5:12

Reader: “Therefore as sin entered into the world through one man, and death through sin; and so death passed to all men, because all sinned.”

Comment:  In addition to the consequences there was a promise of deliverance –victory over the serpent. .That victory would come, but at a cost, here represented by a bruised heel. In the meantime God’s faithful ones lived in expectancy expressing faith in the coming Deliverer through animal sacrifices. The most exquisite sense of that deliverance experienced by the Israelites of old was when they faithfully observed the Day of Atonement. We read in Leviticus 16:29, 30

Reader: It shall be a statute to you forever: in the seventh month, on the tenth day of the month, you shall afflict your souls, and shall do no kind of work, the native-born, or the stranger who lives as a foreigner among you: for on this day shall atonement be made for you, to cleanse you; from all your sins you shall be clean before Yahweh.

Comment:  This experience of being clean before the eternal God was what David longed for when he confessed his great sin in Ps. 51;1,2

Reader: Have mercy on me, God, according to your loving kindness.
    According to the multitude of your tender mercies, blot out my transgressions.
Wash me thoroughly from my iniquity.
    Cleanse me from my sin.

Comment:  Jesus, the Son of God, (the Lamb of God) gave himself as the Sacrificial Lamb to make atonement for the sins of all human beings. But to experience the cleansing of His atonement we must recognize our need of His forgiveness and cleansing. We read in 1 John 1:5-10

Reader:  This is the message which we have heard from him and announce to you, that God is light, and in him is no darkness at all. If we say that we have fellowship with him and walk in the darkness, we lie, and don’t tell the truth. But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus Christ, his Son, cleanses us from all sin.

Reader: If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, he is faithful and righteous to forgive us the sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. If we say that we haven’t sinned, we make him a liar, and his word is not in us.

Comment:  Those who truly get to know Jesus as their Savior and Lord will have a life-changing experience. The Apostle Paul described that transformation in his second letter to the Corinthians. (2 Cor. 5:17-21)

Reader: Therefore if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old things have passed away. Behold, all things have become new.

Reader: But all things are of God, who reconciled us to himself through Jesus Christ, and gave to us the ministry of reconciliation; namely, that God was in Christ reconciling the world to himself, not reckoning to them their trespasses, and having committed to us the word of reconciliation.

Reader: We are therefore ambassadors on behalf of Christ, as though God were entreating by us: we beg you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God. For him who knew no sin he made to be sin on our behalf; so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.

Comment:  What does it mean to “become the righteousness of God?” How can we get that righteousness?  The apostle John tells us in John 3:16.

Reader 1:  For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.  

Comment:  And Paul gives us additional explanation in Gal. 1:3-5 and 4:4-7.

Reader: Grace to you and peace from God the Father, and our Lord Jesus Christ, who gave himself for our sins, that he might deliver us out of this present evil age, according to the will of our God and Father— to whom be the glory forever and ever. Amen.

Reader: But when the fullness of the time came, God sent out his Son, born to a woman, born under the law, that he might redeem those who were under the law, that we might receive the adoption of children.

Reader: And because you are children, God sent out the Spirit of his Son into your hearts, crying, “Abba, Father!” So you are no longer a bondservant, but a son; and if a son, then an heir of God through Christ.

Comment:  Being a child of God brings with it many privileges and responsibilities. Paul spelled some of these out in his instructions to Titus. Titus 3:3-7.

Reader:  For we were also once foolish, disobedient, deceived, serving various lusts and pleasures, living in malice and envy, hateful, and hating one another.

Reader: But when the kindness of God our Savior and his love toward mankind appeared, not by works of righteousness, which we did ourselves, but according to his mercy, he saved us, through the washing of regeneration and renewing by the Holy Spirit, whom he poured out on us richly, through Jesus Christ our Savior; that, being justified by his grace, we might be made heirs according to the hope of eternal life.  

Comment: Jesus tried to prepare those who would be his disciples for the trying time they would face but at the same time He told them that He would provide resources to help them.  We read this in John 16:1-11.

Reader: “These things have I spoken to you, so that you wouldn’t be caused to stumble. They will put you out of the synagogues. Yes, the time comes that whoever kills you will think that he offers service to God.

Reader: They will do these things because they have not known the Father, nor me. But I have told you these things, so that when the time comes, you may remember that I told you about them. I didn’t tell you these things from the beginning, because I was with you.

Reader: But now I am going to him who sent me, and none of you asks me, ‘Where are you going?’ But because I have told you these things, sorrow has filled your heart. Nevertheless I tell you the truth: It is to your advantage that I go away, for if I don’t go away, the Counselor won’t come to you. But if I go, I will send him to you.

Reader: When he has come, he will convict the world about sin, about righteousness, and about judgment;  about sin, because they don’t believe in me; about righteousness, because I am going to my Father, and you won’t see me anymore; about judgment, because the prince of this world has been judged.

Comment: Judgment has to do with the law and Paul deals with the role of the law in the Christian believer’s life in Gal. 3:10, 11.  He categorically states that those who rely on the works of the law for salvation are “under a curse.”

Reader:  For as many as are of the works of the law are under a curse. For it is written, “Cursed is everyone who doesn’t continue in all things that are written in the book of the law, to do them.”  Now that no man is justified by the law before God is evident, for, “The righteous will live by faith.”

Comment:  What does it mean to live by faith?  Remember in 2 Cor. 5 Paul says that ‘in him we might become the righteousness of God.” Then in Galatians 3:13-14 he says:

Reader: Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law, having become a curse for us. For it is written, “Cursed is everyone who hangs on a tree,” that the blessing of Abraham might come on the Gentiles through Christ Jesus; that we might receive the promise of the Spirit through faith.

Comment:  Abraham’s failure to trust God resulted in the loss of domestic tranquility. But when Jesus came He showed us what is possible when we trust God completely. He gave us an example of selfless service that, by His grace, we can follow. Notice how Peter says it in 1 Peter 2:20-25

Reader:   For what glory is it if, when you sin, you patiently endure beating? But if, when you do well, you patiently endure suffering, this is commendable with God.

Reader: For to this you were called, because Christ also suffered for us, leaving you an example, that you should follow his steps, who did not sin, “neither was deceit found in his mouth.”

Reader: Who, when he was cursed, didn’t curse back. When he suffered, didn’t threaten, but committed himself to him who judges righteously; who his own self bore our sins in his body on the tree, that we, having died to sins, might live to righteousness; by whose stripes you were healed.

Comment:  What is the means that God uses to invite the lost to come to the Good Shepherd? See Romans 10:13-21.

Reader: “Whoever will call on the name of the Lord will be saved.” How then will they call on him in whom they have not believed? How will they believe in him whom they have not heard? How will they hear without a preacher? And how will they preach unless they are sent? As it is written:

Reader: “How beautiful are the feet of those who preach the Good News of peace,
    who bring glad tidings of good things!”

Reader: But they didn’t all listen to the glad news. For Isaiah says, “Lord, who has believed our report?” So faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God.

Comment:  Jesus gave some very pointed instruction as to how we can live in harmony with our brothers and sisters. (Luke 17:3-5)

Reader:  Be careful. If your brother sins against you, rebuke him. If he repents, forgive him. If he sins against you seven times in the day, and seven times returns, saying, ‘I repent,’ you shall forgive him.”

Reader: The apostles said to the Lord, “Increase our faith.”

Comment: While following Jesus sometimes we lack faith and don’t experience the power of the Spirit.  That happened to the 9 disciples while Peter, James and John were on The Mount of Transfiguration with Jesus. What did Jesus say was the cause of their failure? (Mark 9:14-29)

Reader:  Coming to the disciples, he saw a great multitude around them, and scribes questioning them. Immediately all the multitude, when they saw him, were greatly amazed, and running to him greeted him. He asked the scribes, “What are you asking them?”

Reader: One of the multitude answered, “Teacher, I brought to you my son, who has a mute spirit; and wherever it seizes him, it throws him down, and he foams at the mouth, and grinds his teeth, and wastes away. I asked your disciples to cast it out, and they weren’t able.”

Reader: He answered him, “Unbelieving generation, how long shall I be with you? How long shall I bear with you? Bring him to me.”

Reader: They brought him to him, and when he saw him, immediately the spirit convulsed him, and he fell on the ground, wallowing and foaming at the mouth.

Reader: He asked his father, “How long has it been since this has come to him?”

Reader: He said, “From childhood. Often it has cast him both into the fire and into the water, to destroy him. But if you can do anything, have compassion on us, and help us.”

Reader: Jesus said to him, “If you can believe, all things are possible to him who believes.”

Reader: Immediately the father of the child cried out with tears, “I believe. Help my unbelief!”

Reader: When Jesus saw that a multitude came running together, he rebuked the unclean spirit, saying to him, “You mute and deaf spirit, I command you, come out of him, and never enter him again!”

Reader: Having cried out, and convulsed greatly, it came out of him. The boy became like one dead; so much that most of them said, “He is dead.” But Jesus took him by the hand, and raised him up; and he arose.

Reader: When he had come into the house, his disciples asked him privately, “Why couldn’t we cast it out?” He said to them, “This kind can come out by nothing, except by prayer and fasting.”

Comment: Prayer and fasting are disciplines practiced by faithful, earnest believers, not as a means to win God’s favor but to fully open their hearts to receive His Spirit. For without God’s transforming Spirit in our lives we are doomed to be under the control of our sinful natures. In writing to the Ephesians Paul describes that transformation (Eph. 2:1-10).

Reader: You were made alive when you were dead in transgressions and sins, in which you once walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit who now works in the children of disobedience; among whom we also all once lived in the lust of our flesh, doing the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, even as the rest.

Reader: But God, being rich in mercy, for his great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead through our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ (by grace you have been saved), and raised us up with him, and made us to sit with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, that in the ages to come he might show the exceeding riches of his grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus; for by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God, not of works, that no one would boast.

Reader: For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared before that we would walk in them.

Comment: Paul, here, has clearly differentiated between working to obtain salvation and the good works of those who are recreated by the power of God’s grace. This distinction is easily confused so that the role of the law is lost and many conclude that the law (10 commandments) no longer applies to those who are saved by grace.  So what is the role of the 10 commandments in the born again Christian’s life? Let’s read Rom. 3:19-27.

Reader: Now we know that whatever things the law says, it speaks to those who are under the law, that every mouth may be closed, and all the world may be brought under the judgment of God. Because by the works of the law, no flesh will be justified in his sight.

Reader: For through the law comes the knowledge of sin. But now apart from the law, a righteousness of God has been revealed, being testified by the law and the prophets;  even the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ to all and on all those who believe.

Reader: For there is no distinction, for all have sinned, and fall short of the glory of God; being justified freely by his grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus; whom God sent to be an atoning sacrifice, through faith in his blood, for a demonstration of his righteousness through the passing over of prior sins, in God’s forbearance; to demonstrate his righteousness at this present time; that he might himself be just, and the justifier of him who has faith in Jesus.

Reader: Where then is the boasting? It is excluded. By what kind of law? Of works? No, but by a law of faith. We maintain therefore that a man is justified by faith apart from the works of the law.

Comment:  And James said in James 1:21-25:

Reader: Therefore, putting away all filthiness and overflowing of wickedness, receive with humility the implanted word, which is able to save your souls. But be doers of the word, and not only hearers, deluding your own selves.

Reader: For if anyone is a hearer of the word and not a doer, he is like a man looking at his natural face in a mirror; for he sees himself, and goes away, and immediately forgets what kind of man he was. But he who looks into the perfect law of freedom, and continues, not being a hearer who forgets, but a doer of the work, this man will be blessed in what he does.

Comment:  We see then that to remain in grace and grow in grace we must continue to look into that mirror, the law, that brought us to Jesus in the first place. What then is the result of accepting Jesus into our lives? See Rom. 8:10-15.

Reader: If Christ is in you, the body is dead because of sin, but the spirit is alive because of righteousness. But if the Spirit of him who raised up Jesus from the dead dwells in you, he who raised up Christ Jesus from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through his Spirit who dwells in you.

Reader: So then, brothers, we are debtors, not to the flesh, to live after the flesh. For if you live after the flesh, you must die; but if by the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the body, you will live. For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, these are children of God.

Reader: And in Rom. 12:1,2 Paul writes; Therefore I urge you, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which is your spiritual service. Don’t be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, so that you may prove what is the good, well-pleasing, and perfect will of God.

Comment:  This is possible as a fulfillment of the promise recorded for us in Eze. 36:25-27;

Reader: I will sprinkle clean water on you, from all your idols, will I cleanse you. I will also give you a new heart, and I will put a new spirit within you; and I will take away the stony heart out of your flesh, and I will give you a heart of flesh. I will put my Spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes, and you shall keep my ordinances, and do them.

Comment:  With God’s Spirit dwelling within us we have the assurance of God’s love and will radiate hope and love to all around us. That assurance is magnificently expressed by Paul in Romans 8:1-5 & 31-39;

Reader: There is therefore now no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus, who don’t walk according to the flesh, but according to the Spirit. For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus made me free from the law of sin and of death.

Reader: For what the law couldn’t do, in that it was weak through the flesh, God did, sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and for sin, he condemned sin in the flesh; that the ordinance of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit.

Reader: For those who live according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh, but those who live according to the Spirit, the things of the Spirit.

Reader: What then shall we say about these things? If God is for us, who can be against us? He who didn’t spare his own Son, but delivered him up for us all, how would he not also with him freely give us all things?

Reader: Who could bring a charge against God’s chosen ones? It is God who justifies. Who is he who condemns? It is Christ who died, yes rather, who was raised from the dead, who is at the right hand of God, who also makes intercession for us.. . .

Reader: Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Could oppression, or anguish, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword?

Reader: Even as it is written, “For your sake we are killed all day long. We were accounted as sheep for the slaughter.” No, in all these things, we are more than conquerors through him who loved us.

Reader: For I am persuaded, that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor any other created thing, will be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.

Comment: Dear Reader, Dear Listener, you too, can have the same joyful, confident spirit. God loves you. God who said, “let us make man in our image” eagerly awaits your confession of faith and acceptance of Jesus as your Savior. You can be born again, a child of God, living a transformed life totally in harmony with the Spirit of God.
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Growing in Christ

Comment: The person who has accepted Jesus as their personal Savior recognizes that on the cross Jesus was victorious over all evil forces. Even though He was sinless He refused to save himself choosing rather to die the sinner’s eternal death. This makes it possible for the believer to be freed from the condemnation of their past sins to walk in a new way. Ps 1:1, 2 says

Reader: Blessed is the man who doesn’t walk in the counsel of the wicked,
 nor stand on the path of sinners,
 nor sit in the seat of scoffers;

Reader: but his delight is in Yahweh’s law.
 On his law he meditates day and night.
 He will be like a tree planted by the streams of water,
 that produces its fruit in its season,

Comment: This new relationship with Jesus is a daily, moment by moment walking with Him. The Psalmist describes that relationship in Ps. 23:3,4.

Reader: He restores my soul.
 He guides me in the paths of righteousness for his name’s sake.
Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death,

Reader: I will fear no evil, for you are with me.
Your rod and your staff,
 they comfort me.

Comment: Sometimes our relationship with Jesus is strained and our experience might be like that described in Ps.77:7-12.

Reader: Will the Lord reject us forever?
 Will he be favorable no more?
Has his loving kindness vanished forever?
 Does his promise fail for generations?
Has God forgotten to be gracious?
 Has he, in anger, withheld his compassion?”
Selah

Reader:Then I thought, “I will appeal to this:
 the years of the right hand of the Most High.”
I will remember Yah’s deeds;
 for I will remember your wonders of old.
I will also meditate on all your work,
 and consider your doings.

Comment: The apostle Paul was filled with love for people desiring that everyone would have the opportunity to know Jesus as Savior and Lord. This was especially true for those who had accepted Jesus through his preaching and teaching. Notice how many aspects of the Christian’s life he touches in his instructions to the Colossians in chapter 1:13-15 and 2:6,7.

 Reader: For this cause, we also, since the day we heard this, don’t cease praying and making requests for you, that you may be filled with the knowledge of his will in all spiritual wisdom and understanding,

Reader: that you may walk worthily of the Lord, to please him in all respects, bearing fruit in every good work, and increasing in the knowledge of God; strengthened with all power, according to the might of his glory, for all endurance and perseverance with joy;

Reader: giving thanks to the Father, who made us fit to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints in light; who delivered us out of the power of darkness, and translated us into the Kingdom of the Son of his love; in whom we have our redemption, the forgiveness of our sins; who is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation.

Reader: As therefore you received Christ Jesus, the Lord, walk in him, rooted and built up in him, and established in the faith, even as you were taught, abounding in it in thanksgiving.

Comment: One time Jesus sent 70 of his disciples out, two by two, to the towns and villages where He was about to visit. They were to proclaim that the Kingdom of God was near. The results are recorded in Luke 10:17-20.

Reader: The seventy returned with joy, saying, “Lord, even the demons are subject to us in your name!”

Reader: He said to them, “I saw Satan having fallen like lightning from heaven. Behold, I give you authority to tread on serpents and scorpions, and over all the power of the enemy. Nothing will in any way hurt you.

Reader: Nevertheless, don’t rejoice in this, that the spirits are subject to you, but rejoice that your names are written in heaven.”

Comment: In this we are assured that in the name of Jesus we can have victory over all the forces of evil in our lives. But this does require watchfulness and the encouragement of others as we share in the recounting of how God has helped us. See Eph. 5:15-21 and 6:10-20.

Reader: Therefore watch carefully how you walk, not as unwise, but as wise; redeeming the time, because the days are evil. Therefore don’t be foolish, but understand what the will of the Lord is.

Reader: Don’t be drunken with wine, in which is dissipation, but be filled with the Spirit, speaking to one another in psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs; singing, and making melody in your heart to the Lord; giving thanks always concerning all things in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, to God, even the Father; subjecting yourselves to one another in the fear of Christ.

Reader: Finally, be strong in the Lord, and in the strength of his might. Put on the whole armor of God, that you may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil.

Reader: For our wrestling is not against flesh and blood, but against the principalities, against the powers, against the world’s rulers of the darkness of this age, and against the spiritual forces of wickedness in the heavenly places.

Reader: Therefore put on the whole armor of God, that you may be able to withstand in the evil day, and, having done all, to stand.

Reader: Stand therefore, having the utility belt of truth buckled around your waist, and having put on the breastplate of righteousness, and having fitted your feet with the preparation of the Good News of peace; above all, taking up the shield of faith, with which you will be able to quench all the fiery darts of the evil one.

Reader: And take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God; with all prayer and requests, praying at all times in the Spirit, and being watchful to this end in all perseverance and requests for all the saints: on my behalf, that utterance may be given to me in opening my mouth, to make known with boldness the mystery of the Good News, for which I am an ambassador in chains; that in it I may speak boldly, as I ought to speak.

Comment: Notice that as we pray for one another (the saints) we should especially remember those who are leaders in the church. Jesus prayed for the unity of believers and in 1 Thess. 5:13-23 we are instructed to be at peace with each other.

Reader: Be at peace among yourselves. We exhort you, brothers, admonish the disorderly, encourage the faint-hearted, support the weak, be patient toward all. See that no one returns evil for evil to anyone, but always follow after that which is good, for one another, and for all.

Reader: Rejoice always. Pray without ceasing. In everything give thanks, for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus toward you. Don’t quench the Spirit. Don’t despise prophesies. Test all things, and hold firmly that which is good. Abstain from every form of evil.

Reader: May the God of peace himself sanctify you completely. May your whole spirit, soul, and body be preserved blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.

Reader: and in 2 Peter 2:4-9 we read; For if God didn’t spare angels when they sinned, but cast them down to Tartarus, and committed them to pits of darkness, to be reserved for judgment; and didn’t spare the ancient world, but preserved Noah with seven others, a preacher of righteousness, when he brought a flood on the world of the ungodly;

Reader: and turning the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah into ashes, condemned them to destruction, having made them an example to those who would live ungodly; and delivered righteous Lot, who was very distressed by the lustful life of the wicked

Reader: (for that righteous man dwelling among them, was tormented in his righteous soul from day to day with seeing and hearing lawless deeds): the Lord knows how to deliver the godly out of temptation and to keep the unrighteous under punishment for the day of judgment;

Comment: Following this introduction Peter draws this valuable conclusion in 2 Peter 3:14-18.

Reader: Therefore, beloved, seeing that you look for these things, be diligent to be found in peace, without defect and blameless in his sight. Regard the patience of our Lord as salvation; even as our beloved brother Paul also, according to the wisdom given to him, wrote to you; as also in all of his letters, speaking in them of these things.

Reader: In those, there are some things that are hard to understand, which the ignorant and unsettled twist, as they also do to the other Scriptures, to their own destruction. You therefore, beloved, knowing these things beforehand, beware, lest being carried away with the error of the wicked, you fall from your own steadfastness.

Reader: But grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. To him be the glory both now and forever. Amen.

Comment: In writing to the Corinthians and the Philippians Paul picks up on this theme of growing in Christ. He identifies the Spirit as being the transforming agent and the glory and love of Christ as the motivating power. Reading 2 Cor. 3:17, 18, and Phil. 3:7-14 we find

Reader: Now the Lord is the Spirit and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty. But we all, with unveiled face seeing the glory of the Lord as in a mirror, are transformed into the same image from glory to glory, even as from the Lord, the Spirit.

Reader: However, I consider those things that were gain to me as a loss for Christ. Yes most certainly, and I count all things to be a loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus, my Lord, for whom I suffered the loss of all things, and count them nothing but refuse, that I may gain Christ and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own, that which is of the law, but that which is through faith in Christ, the righteousness which is from God by faith;

Reader: that I may know him, and the power of his resurrection, and the fellowship of his sufferings, becoming conformed to his death; if by any means I may attain to the resurrection from the dead. Not that I have already obtained, or am made perfect ; but I press on, if it is so that I may take hold of that for which also I was taken hold of by Christ Jesus.

Reader: Brothers, I don’t regard myself as yet having taken hold, but one thing I do. Forgetting the things which are behind, and stretching forward to the things which are before, I press on toward the goal for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus.

Comment: As Jesus was preparing his disciples to be the leaders of His fledgling Church He gave them this instruction in Matt 20:25-28.

Reader: But Jesus summoned them, and said, “You know that the rulers of the nations lord it over them, and their great ones exercise authority over them. It shall not be so among you, but whoever desires to become great among you shall be your servant. Whoever desires to be first among you shall be your bondservant, even as the Son of Man came not to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.”

Comment: Then He personally demonstrated this principal of leadership when they were all together at His last Passover meal with them. We read in John 13:1-17

Reader: Now before the feast of the Passover, Jesus, knowing that his time had come that he would depart from this world to the Father, having loved his own who were in the world, he loved them to the end.

Reader: During supper, the devil having already put into the heart of Judas Iscariot, Simon’s son, to betray him, Jesus, knowing that the Father had given all things into his hands, and that he came from God, and was going to God, arose from supper, and laid aside his outer garments.

Reader: He took a towel, and wrapped a towel around his waist. Then he poured water into the basin, and began to wash the disciples’ feet, and to wipe them with the towel that was wrapped around him. Then he came to Simon Peter. He said to him,

Reader: “Lord, do you wash my feet?”

Reader: Jesus answered him, “You don’t know what I am doing now, but you will understand later.”

Reader: Peter said to him, “You will never wash my feet!”

Reader: Jesus answered him, “If I don’t wash you, you have no part with me.”

Reader: Simon Peter said to him, “Lord, not my feet only, but also my hands and my head!”

Reader: Jesus said to him, “Someone who has bathed only needs to have his feet washed, but is completely clean. You are clean, but not all of you.” For he knew him who would betray him, therefore he said, “You are not all clean.”

Reader: So when he had washed their feet, put his outer garment back on, and sat down again, he said to them, “

Reader: Do you know what I have done to you? You call me, ‘Teacher’ and ‘Lord.’ You say so correctly, for so I am. If I then, the Lord and the Teacher, have washed your feet, you also ought to wash one another’s feet.

Reader: For I have given you an example, that you also should do as I have done to you. Most certainly I tell you, a servant is not greater than his lord, neither one who is sent greater than he who sent him. If you know these things, blessed are you if you do them.

Comment: On the evening of the day of His resurrection Jesus appears to his disciples and conveys on them the same mission that He had received from His Father. He also empowers them with the Holy Spirit. John 20:19-22

Reader: When therefore it was evening, on that day, the first day of the week, and when the doors were locked where the disciples were assembled, for fear of the Jews, Jesus came and stood in the middle, and said to them, “Peace be to you.”

Reader: When he had said this, he showed them his hands and his side. The disciples therefore were glad when they saw the Lord. Jesus therefore said to them again, “Peace be to you. As the Father has sent me, even so I send you.” When he had said this, he breathed on them, and said to them, “Receive the Holy Spirit!

Comment: Gal 5:19-26 contrasts the deeds of the flesh and the fruit of the Spirit.

Reader: Now the deeds of the flesh are obvious, which are: adultery, sexual immorality, uncleanness, lustfulness, idolatry, sorcery, hatred, strife, jealousies, outbursts of anger, rivalries, divisions, heresies, envy, murders, drunkenness, orgies, and things like these; of which I forewarn you, even as I also forewarned you, that those who practice such things will not inherit God’s Kingdom.

Reader: But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faith, gentleness, and self-control. Against such things there is no law. Those who belong to Christ have crucified the flesh with its passions and lusts. If we live by the Spirit, let’s also walk by the Spirit. Let’s not become conceited, provoking one another, and envying one another.

Comment: Those who are fully committed to Jesus will have the same confidence expressed by Paul in Rom 8:35-39:

Reader: Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Could oppression, or anguish, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? Even as it is written, “For your sake we are killed all day long. We were accounted as sheep for the slaughter.”

Reader: No, in all these things, we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. For I am persuaded, that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor any other created thing, will be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.

Reader: And in Heb 10:19-25.- Having therefore, brothers, boldness to enter into the holy place by the blood of Jesus, by the way which he dedicated for us, a new and living way, through the veil, that is to say, his flesh; and having a great priest over God’s house, let’s draw near with a true heart in fullness of faith, having our hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience, and having our body washed with pure water, let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering; for he who promised is faithful.

Reader: Let us consider how to provoke one another to love and good works, not forsaking our own assembling together, as the custom of some is, but exhorting one another; and so much the more, as you see the Day approaching.

Comment: In this new freedom in Jesus, we are called to grow into the likeness of His character, communing with Him daily in prayer, feeding on His Word, meditating on it and on His providence, singing His praises, gathering together for worship, and participating in the mission of the Church. What can you do to be more fully engaged with your church family?
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The Church

Comment: Even though Adam and Eve sinned and were banished from their garden home, they and some of their descendents were loyal to God. Before the flood they were called the” Sons of God” in contrast to the “Sons of Men” Noah and his family were part of those loyal to God and were the only ones who survived the flood. Others were laid to rest or translated (Enoch) before the flood. God has always had his faithful ones and one of those was Abram. We read in Genesis 12:1-3:

Reader: Now Yahweh said to Abram, “Leave your country, and your relatives, and your father’s house, and go to the land that I will show you. I will make of you a great nation. I will bless you and make your name great.

Reader: You will be a blessing. I will bless those who bless you, and I will curse him who curses you. All the families of the earth will be blessed through you.”

Comment: You can say that those faithful ones make up His church – the called out ones. What is God’s purpose for calling out His faithful ones? He calls them so that “All the families of the earth will be blessed through” them. Notice how Stephen, in his last sermon recorded in Acts 7:35-40, presents Moses as a type of Christ, a ruler and deliverer. Moses, as God’s representative called the Israelites out of Egyptian bondage. (The World English Bible uses the word assembly for church.)

Reader: This Moses, whom they refused, saying, ‘Who made you a ruler and a judge?’—God has sent him as both a ruler and a deliverer by the hand of the angel who appeared to him in the bush.

Reader: This man led them out, having worked wonders and signs in Egypt, in the Red Sea, and in the wilderness for forty years. This is that Moses, who said to the children of Israel, ‘The Lord our God will raise up a prophet for you from among your brothers, like me.’

Reader: This is he who was in the assembly in the wilderness with the angel that spoke to him on Mount Sinai, and with our fathers, who received living revelations to give to us, to whom our fathers wouldn’t be obedient, but rejected him, and turned back in their hearts to Egypt, saying to Aaron, ‘Make us gods that will go before us, for as for this Moses, who led us out of the land of Egypt, we don’t know what has become of him.’

Comment: It seems that God’s “called out ones” have a hard time remaining faithful. It is for this reason that He places within the church individuals with spiritual gifts. (Eph. 4:11-16)

Reader: He gave some to be apostles; and some, prophets; and some, evangelists; and some, shepherds and teachers; for the perfecting of the saints, to the work of serving, to the building up of the body of Christ;

Reader: until we all attain to the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to a full grown man, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ; that we may no longer be children, tossed back and forth and carried about with every wind of doctrine, by the trickery of men, in craftiness, after the wiles of error;

Reader: but speaking truth in love, we may grow up in all things into him, who is the head, Christ; from whom all the body, being fitted and knit together through that which every joint supplies, according to the working in measure of each individual part, makes the body increase to the building up of itself in love.

Comment: The human body appropriately illustrates how the church consisting of many different members can be united in purpose and love for Jesus. This becomes especially important when people of different languages, ethnicities and cultures are brought together. Reading from Eph 3:1-21:

Reader: For this cause I, Paul, am the prisoner of Christ Jesus on behalf of you Gentiles, if it is so that you have heard of the administration of that grace of God which was given me toward you; how that by revelation the mystery was made known to me, as I wrote before in few words, by which, when you read, you can perceive my understanding in the mystery of Christ;

Reader: which in other generations was not made known to the children of men, as it has now been revealed to his holy apostles and prophets in the Spirit; that the Gentiles are fellow heirs, and fellow members of the body, and fellow partakers of his promise in Christ Jesus through the Good News, of which I was made a servant, according to the gift of that grace of God which was given me according to the working of his power.

Reader: To me, the very least of all saints, was this grace given, to preach to the Gentiles the unsearchable riches of Christ, and to make all men see what is the administration of the mystery which for ages has been hidden in God, who created all things through Jesus Christ;

Reader: to the intent that now through the assembly the manifold wisdom of God might be made known to the principalities and the powers in the heavenly places, according to the eternal purpose which he purposed in Christ Jesus our Lord; in whom we have boldness and access in confidence through our faith in him. Therefore I ask that you may not lose heart at my troubles for you, which are your glory.

Reader: For this cause, I bow my knees to the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, from whom every family in heaven and on earth is named, that he would grant you, according to the riches of his glory, that you may be strengthened with power through his Spirit in the inward man;

Reader: that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith; to the end that you, being rooted and grounded in love, may be strengthened to comprehend with all the saints what is the width and length and height and depth, and to know Christ’s love which surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled with all the fullness of God. 

Reader: Now to him who is able to do exceedingly abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that works in us, to him be the glory in the assembly and in Christ Jesus to all generations forever and ever. Amen.

Comment: While traveling with his disciples in a foreign country Jesus told his disciples that His church would be formed by those who confess that Jesus is the Christ. (Matt. 16:13-21)

Reader: Now when Jesus came into the parts of Caesarea Philippi, he asked his disciples, saying, “Who do men say that I, the Son of Man, am?”

Reader: They said, “Some say John the Baptizer, some, Elijah, and others, Jeremiah, or one of the prophets.”

Reader: He said to them, “But who do you say that I am?”

Reader: Simon Peter answered, “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.”

Reader: Jesus answered him, “Blessed are you, Simon Bar Jonah, for flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but my Father who is in heaven.

Reader: I also tell you that you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my assembly, and the gates of Hades will not prevail against it. I will give to you the keys of the Kingdom of Heaven, and whatever you bind on earth will have been bound in heaven; and whatever you release on earth will have been released in heaven.”

Reader: Then he commanded the disciples that they should tell no one that he was Jesus the Christ. From that time, Jesus began to show his disciples that he must go to Jerusalem and suffer many things from the elders, chief priests, and scribes, and be killed, and the third day be raised up.

Comment: However the Christian church was not really launched until the eleven disciples were finally converted after Jesus’ resurrection. In Matt. 28:16-20 we read that Jesus met them after His resurrection, as He had promised, and sent them to all the world with His gospel of peace.

Reader: But the eleven disciples went into Galilee, to the mountin where Jesus had sent them. When they saw him, they bowed down to him, but some doubted.

Reader: Jesus came to them and spoke to them, saying, “All authority has been given to me in heaven and on earth. Go, and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all things that I commanded you. Behold, I am with you always, even to the end of the age.” Amen.

Comment: Jesus not only offers His church salvation but gave practical ways for a diversity of believers to be united in peace. In Matt. 18:15-20 we read:

Reader: If your brother sins against you, go, show him his fault between you and him alone. If he listens to you, you have gained back your brother. But if he doesn’t listen, take one or two more with you, that at the mouth of two or three witnesses every word may be established.

Reader: If he refuses to listen to them, tell it to the assembly. If he refuses to hear the assembly also, let him be to you as a Gentile or a tax collector. Most certainly I tell you, whatever things you bind on earth will have been bound in heaven, and whatever things you release on earth will have been released in heaven.

Reader: Again, assuredly I tell you, that if two of you will agree on earth concerning anything that they will ask, it will be done for them by my Father who is in heaven. For where two or three are gathered together in my name, there I am in the middle of them.”

Comment: At first the church was made up of Jews but very soon Gentiles, who were shunned by Jews, were accepted into the fellowship of believers in Jesus. In Eph. 2:11-22 Paul explains how this is possible.

Reader: Therefore remember that once you, the Gentiles in the flesh, who are called “uncircumcision” by that which is called “circumcision”, (in the flesh, made by hands); that you were at that time separate from Christ, alienated from the commonwealth of Israel, and strangers from the covenants of the promise, having no hope and without God in the world.

Reader: But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far off are made near in the blood of Christ.

Reader: For he is our peace, who made both one, and broke down the middle wall of partition, having abolished in the flesh the hostility, the law of commandments contained in ordinances, that he might create in himself one new man of the two, making peace; and might reconcile them both in one body to God through the cross, having killed the hostility thereby.

Reader: He came and preached peace to you who were far off and to those who were near. For through him we both have our access in one Spirit to the Father.

Reader: So then you are no longer strangers and foreigners, but you are fellow citizens with the saints, and of the household of God, being built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Christ Jesus himself being the chief cornerstone; in whom the whole building, fitted together, grows into a holy temple in the Lord; in whom you also are built together for a habitation of God in the Spirit.

Comment: An important function of the church is to encourage one-another. In Eph. 1:15 - 23 Paul gives us an example of how to do this. We should express appreciation for each other in our diversity and pray for one another.

Reader: For this cause I also, having heard of the faith in the Lord Jesus which is among you, and the love which you have toward all the saints, don’t cease to give thanks for you, making mention of you in my prayers, hat the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give to you a spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of him;

Reader: having the eyes of your hearts enlightened, that you may know what is the hope of his calling, and what are the riches of the glory of his inheritance in the saints, and what is the exceeding greatness of his power toward us who believe, according to that working of the strength of his might

Reader: which he worked in Christ, when he raised him from the dead, and made him to sit at his right hand in the heavenly places, far above all rule, and authority, and power, and dominion, and every name that is named, not only in this age, but also in that which is to come. 

Reader: He put all things in subjection under his feet, and gave him to be head over all things for the assembly, which is his body, the fullness of him who fills all in all.

Comment: Christ is the head of the church (the assembly) and gave himself totally so that she will be “holy and without defect. Let’s read Eph.5:25-27.

Reader: Husbands, love your wives, even as Christ also loved the assembly, and gave himself up for it; that he might sanctify it, having cleansed it by the washing of water with the word, that he might present the assembly to himself gloriously, not having spot or wrinkle or any such thing; but that it should be holy and without defect.

Comment: Praying for one another is a vital function of the church. In Col. 1:9-20 we find Paul’s testimony.

Reader: For this cause, we also, since the day we heard this, don’t cease praying and making requests for you, that you may be filled with the knowledge of his will in all spiritual wisdom and understanding,

Reader: that you may walk worthily of the Lord, to please him in all respects, bearing fruit in every good work, and increasing in the knowledge of God; strengthened with all power, according to the might of his glory,

Reader: for all endurance and perseverance with joy; giving thanks to the Father, who made us fit to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints in light; who delivered us out of the power of darkness, and translated us into the Kingdom of the Son of his love;

Reader: in whom we have our redemption, the forgiveness of our sins; who is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation. For by him all things were created, in the heavens and on the earth, things visible and things invisible, whether thrones or dominions or principalities or powers; all things have been created through him, and for him.

Reader: He is before all things, and in him all things are held together. He is the head of the body, the assembly, who is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead; that in all things he might have the preeminence.

Reader: For all the fullness was pleased to dwell in him; and through him to reconcile all things to himself, by him, whether things on the earth, or things in the heavens, having made peace through the blood of his cross.

Comment: The Body of Christ, His Church, has the privilege and responsibility of being Jesus’ representative in a broken world. United in love and open to His Spirit’s convicting and cleansing power the Church will fulfill its mission. See Heb. 10:16-25.

Reader: This is the covenant that I will make with them: After those days,’ says the Lord,
‘I will put my laws on their heart,
 I will also write them on their mind;’ “then he says,

Reader: I will remember their sins and their iniquities no more.”

Reader: Now where remission of these is, there is no more offering for sin. Having therefore, brothers, boldness to enter into the holy place by the blood of Jesus, by the way which he dedicated for us, a new and living way, through the veil, that is to say, his flesh; and having a great priest over God’s house,

Reader: let’s draw near with a true heart in fullness of faith, having our hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience, and having our body washed with pure water, let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering; for he who promised is faithful.

Reader: Let us consider how to provoke one another to love and good works, not forsaking our own assembling together, as the custom of some is, but exhorting one another; and so much the more, as you see the Day approaching.

Comment: How is it with you, dear friend? Are you a full participant in a fellowship in which you not only receive encouragement but are also encouraging others to “love and good works?” Do you take every opportunity to worship with others? Do you arrive early for your appointments with your Creator God? When you do this you will know great joy in your walk with Jesus.

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Remnant and its Mission

Comment: When wickedness abounds God always has those who are faithful to Him, Noah is one and then there is the story of Elijah. He had cooperated with God in announcing a great famine and for 3 years it did not rain. At the end of that time God sent him to King Ahab to confront the king and the priests of Baal. On Mount Carmel, before all the people, God showed his power and the people once more acknowledged Yahweh as the true God and the priests of Baal were killed. Let’s pick up the story in 1 Kings 19.

Reader: Ahab told Jezebel all that Elijah had done, and how he had killed all the prophets with the sword. Then Jezebel sent a messenger to Elijah, saying,

Reader: “So let the gods do to me, and more also, if I don’t make your life as the life of one of them by tomorrow about this time!”

Reader: When he saw that, he arose, and ran for his life, and came to Beersheba, which belongs to Judah, and left his servant there. But he himself went a day’s journey into the wilderness, and came and sat down under a juniper tree.

Reader: Then he requested for himself that he might die, and said, “It is enough. Now, O Yahweh, take away my life; for I am not better than my fathers.”

Reader: He lay down and slept under a juniper tree; and behold, an angel touched him, and said to him, “Arise and eat!”

Reader: He looked, and behold, there was at his head a cake baked on the coals, and a jar of water. He ate and drank, and lay down again. Yahweh’s angel came again the second time, and touched him, and said, “Arise and eat, because the journey is too great for you.”

Reader: He arose, and ate and drank, and went in the strength of that food forty days and forty nights to Horeb, God’s Mountain. He came to a cave there, and camped there; and behold, Yahweh’s word came to him, and he said to him,

Reader: “What are you doing here, Elijah?”

Reader: He said, “I have been very jealous for Yahweh, the God of Armies; for the children of Israel have forsaken your covenant, thrown down your altars, and killed your prophets with the sword. I, even I only, am left; and they seek my life, to take it away.”

Reader: He said, “Go out, and stand on the mountain before Yahweh.”

Reader: Behold, Yahweh passed by, and a great and strong wind tore the mountains, and broke in pieces the rocks before Yahweh; but Yahweh was not in the wind. After the wind there was an earthquake; but Yahweh was not in the earthquake. After the earthquake a fire passed; but Yahweh was not in the fire.

Reader: After the fire, there was a still small voice. When Elijah heard it, he wrapped his face in his mantle, went out, and stood in the entrance of the cave. Behold, a voice came to him, and said,

Reader: “What are you doing here, Elijah?”

Reader: He said, “I have been very jealous for Yahweh, the God of Armies; for the children of Israel have forsaken your covenant, thrown down your altars, and killed your prophets with the sword. I, even I only, am left; and they seek my life, to take it away.”

Reader: Yahweh said to him, “Go, return on your way to the wilderness of Damascus. When you arrive, anoint Hazael to be king over Syria. Anoint Jehu the son of Nimshi to be king over Israel; and anoint Elisha the son of Shaphat of Abel Meholah to be prophet in your place.

Reader: He who escapes from the sword of Hazael, Jehu will kill; and he who escapes from the sword of Jehu, Elisha will kill. Yet I reserved seven thousand in Israel, all the knees of which have not bowed to Baal, and every mouth which has not kissed him.”

Comment: In times of great apostasy the remnant is relatively small and sometimes easily overlooked. Even prophets, as great as Elijah, can be so egocentric that they fail to see the true in heart. In modern times the universal church is composed of all who truly believe in Christ, but in the last days, a time of widespread apostasy, a remnant has been called out to keep the commandments of God and the faith of Jesus. In Revelation. 12:13-17; we see how, in the Middle Ages, the faithful church (the woman) was to be persecuted but preserved.

Reader: When the dragon saw that he was thrown down to the earth, he persecuted the woman who gave birth to the male child. Two wings of the great eagle were given to the woman, that she might fly into the wilderness to her place, so that she might be nourished for a time, and times, and half a time, from the face of the serpent.

Reader: The serpent spewed water out of his mouth after the woman like a river, that he might cause her to be carried away by the stream. The earth helped the woman, and the earth opened its mouth and swallowed up the river which the dragon spewed out of his mouth.

Reader: The dragon grew angry with the woman, and went away to make war with the rest of her offspring, who keep God’s commandments and hold Jesus’ testimony.

Comment: Revelation 14:1-16 describes a remnant of “called-out-ones” who had gone through great trials but who had been victorious.

Reader: I saw, and behold, the Lamb standing on Mount Zion, and with him a number, one hundred forty-four thousand, having his name, and the name of his Father, written on their foreheads.

Reader: I heard a sound from heaven, like the sound of many waters, and like the sound of a great thunder. The sound which I heard was like that of harpists playing on their harps. They sing a new song before the throne, and before the four living creatures and the elders. No one could learn the song except the one hundred forty-four thousand, those who had been redeemed out of the earth.

Reader: These are those who were not defiled with women, for they are virgins. These are those who follow the Lamb wherever he goes. These were redeemed by Jesus from among men, the first fruits to God and to the Lamb. In their mouth was found no lie, for they are blameless.

Comment: John continues by recording the messages of three angels who were announcing the time of the judgment and directing everyone who dwells on the earth to worship the Creator. They proclaim the fall of “Babylon” and the appearance of a remnant “who keep the commandments of God, and the faith of Jesus.”

Reader: I saw an angel flying in mid heaven, having an eternal Good News to proclaim to those who dwell on the earth, and to every nation, tribe, language, and people. He said with a loud voice,

Reader: “Fear the Lord, and give him glory; for the hour of his judgment has come. Worship him who made the heaven, the earth, the sea, and the springs of waters!”

Reader: Another, a second angel, followed, saying, “Babylon the great has fallen, which has made all the nations to drink of the wine of the wrath of her sexual immorality.”

Reader: Another angel, a third, followed them, saying with a great voice,

Reader: “If anyone worships the beast and his image, and receives a mark on his forehead, or on his hand, he also will drink of the wine of the wrath of God, which is prepared unmixed in the cup of his anger. He will be tormented with fire and sulfur in the presence of the holy angels, and in the presence of the Lamb.

Reader: The smoke of their torment goes up forever and ever. They have no rest day and night, those who worship the beast and his image, and whoever receives the mark of his name. Here is the patience of the saints, those who keep the commandments of God, and the faith of Jesus.”

Reader: I heard the voice from heaven saying, “Write, ‘Blessed are the dead who die in the Lord from now on.’”

Reader: “Yes,” says the Spirit, “that they may rest from their labors; for their works follow with them.”

Comment: This is followed by a brief representation of the harvest. That is the time when the remnant of “called-out-ones,” the wheat, are separated from the tares.

Reader: I looked, and behold, a white cloud; and on the cloud one sitting like a son of man, having on his head a golden crown, and in his hand a sharp sickle.

Reader: Another angel came out of the temple, crying with a loud voice to him who sat on the cloud, “Send your sickle, and reap; for the hour to reap has come; for the harvest of the earth is ripe!” He who sat on the cloud thrust his sickle on the earth, and the earth was reaped.

Comment: Revelation 18:1-5 in graphic detail characterizes the wickedness of Babylon and its fall. Then, the remnant, those who are loyal to God are urged to come out of Babylon.

Reader: After these things, I saw another angel coming down out of the sky, having great authority. The earth was illuminated with his glory. He cried with a mighty voice, saying,

Reader: “Fallen, fallen is Babylon the great, and she has become a habitation of demons, a prison of every unclean spirit, and a prison of every unclean and hateful bird! For all the nations have drunk of the wine of the wrath of her sexual immorality, the kings of the earth committed sexual immorality with her, and the merchants of the earth grew rich from the abundance of her luxury.”

Reader: I heard another voice from heaven, saying, “Come out of her, my people, that you have no participation in her sins, and that you don’t receive of her plagues, for her sins have reached to the sky, and God has remembered her iniquities.

Comment: Paul in 2 Cor. 5:10,11; and Jude both remind us that we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ. Paul wrote –

Reader: For we must all be revealed before the judgment seat of Christ; that each one may receive the things in the body, according to what he has done, whether good or bad. Knowing therefore the fear of the Lord, we persuade men, but we are revealed to God; and I hope that we are revealed also in your consciences.

Comment: And Jude 3-15 says-

Reader: Beloved, while I was very eager to write to you about our common salvation, I was constrained to write to you exhorting you to contend earnestly for the faith which was once for all delivered to the saints. 

Reader: For there are certain men who crept in secretly, even those who were long ago written about for this condemnation: ungodly men, turning the grace of our God into indecency, and denying our only Master, God, and Lord, Jesus Christ.

Reader: Now I desire to remind you, though you already know this, that the Lord, having saved a people out of the land of Egypt, afterward destroyed those who didn’t believe. Angels who didn’t keep their first domain, but deserted their own dwelling place, he has kept in everlasting bonds under darkness for the judgment of the great day.

Reader: Even as Sodom and Gomorrah, and the cities around them, having, in the same way as these, given themselves over to sexual immorality and gone after strange flesh, are shown as an example, suffering the punishment of eternal fire. 

Reader: Yet in the same way, these also in their dreaming defile the flesh, despise authority, and slander celestial beings. But Michael, the archangel, when contending with the devil and arguing about the body of Moses, dared not bring against him an abusive condemnation, but said, “May the Lord rebuke you!” 

Reader: But these speak evil of whatever things they don’t know. They are destroyed in these things that they understand naturally, like the creatures without reason.

Reader: Woe to them! For they went in the way of Cain, and ran riotously in the error of Balaam for hire, and perished in Korah’s rebellion. These are hidden rocky reefs in your love feasts when they feast with you, shepherds who without fear feed themselves; clouds without water, carried along by winds; autumn leaves without fruit, twice dead, plucked up by the roots; wild waves of the sea, foaming out their own shame; wandering stars, for whom the blackness of darkness has been reserved forever.

Reader: About these also Enoch, the seventh from Adam, prophesied, saying, “Behold, the Lord came with ten thousands of his holy ones, to execute judgment on all, and to convict all the ungodly of all their works of ungodliness which they have done in an ungodly way, and of all the hard things which ungodly sinners have spoken against him.”

Comment: Since we are living in the time of atonement, Peter gives us some very practical advice on holy living. We read in 1 Peter 1:3-21-

Reader: Therefore prepare your minds for action, be sober, and set your hope fully on the grace that will be brought to you at the revelation of Jesus Christ— as children of obedience, not conforming yourselves according to your former lusts as in your ignorance, but just as he who called you is holy, you yourselves also be holy in all of your behavior;

Reader: because it is written, “You shall be holy; for I am holy.” If you call on him as Father, who without respect of persons judges according to each man’s work, pass the time of your living as foreigners here in reverent fear: knowing that you were redeemed, not with corruptible things, with silver or gold, from the useless way of life handed down from your fathers,

Reader: but with precious blood, as of a faultless and pure lamb, the blood of Christ; who was foreknown indeed before the foundation of the world, but was revealed at the end of times for your sake, who through him are believers in God, who raised him from the dead, and gave him glory; so that your faith and hope might be in God.

Comment: Peter continues his advice in 2 Peter 3:1-14 by reminding us to pay attention to what happened in the past and how God has dealt with wickedness. By doing so the remnant will not be caught be surprise when Jesus comes.

Reader: This is now, beloved, the second letter that I have written to you; and in both of them I stir up your sincere mind by reminding you; that you should remember the words which were spoken before by the holy prophets, and the commandments of us, the apostles of the Lord and Savior:

Reader: knowing this first, that in the last days mockers will come, walking after their own lusts, and saying, “Where is the promise of his coming? For, from the day that the fathers fell asleep, all things continue as they were from the beginning of the creation.”

Reader: For this they willfully forget, that there were heavens from of old, and an earth formed out of water and amid water, by the word of God; by which means the world that then was, being overflowed with water, perished. But the heavens that now are, and the earth, by the same word have been stored up for fire, being reserved against the day of judgment and destruction of ungodly men.

Reader: But don’t forget this one thing, beloved, that one day is with the Lord as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day. The Lord is not slow concerning his promise, as some count slowness; but is patient with us, not wishing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance.

Reader: But the day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night; in which the heavens will pass away with a great noise, and the elements will be dissolved with fervent heat, and the earth and the works that are in it will be burned up.

Reader: Therefore since all these things will be destroyed like this, what kind of people ought you to be in holy living and godliness, looking for and earnestly desiring the coming of the day of God, which will cause the burning heavens to be dissolved, and the elements will melt with fervent heat? But, according to his promise, we look for new heavens and a new earth, in which righteousness dwells.

Reader: Therefore, beloved, seeing that you look for these things, be diligent to be found in peace, without defect and blameless in his sight.

Comment: Finally, in Revelation. 21:1-14, a wonderful promise is made to the faithful “called-out-ones.”

Reader: I saw a new heaven and a new earth: for the first heaven and the first earth have passed away, and the sea is no more. I saw the holy city, New Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared like a bride adorned for her husband. I heard a loud voice out of heaven saying,

Reader: “Behold, God’s dwelling is with people, and he will dwell with them, and they will be his people, and God himself will be with them as their God. He will wipe away from them every tear from their eyes. Death will be no more; neither will there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain, any more. The first things have passed away.”

Reader: He who sits on the throne said, “Behold, I am making all things new.” He said, “Write, for these words of God are faithful and true.” He said to me, “It is done! I am the Alpha and the Omega, the Beginning and the End. I will give freely to him who is thirsty from the spring of the water of life. 

Reader: He who overcomes, I will give him these things. I will be his God, and he will be my son. But for the cowardly, unbelieving, sinners, abominable, murderers, sexually immoral, sorcerers, idolaters, and all liars, their part is in the lake that burns with fire and sulfur, which is the second death.”

Reader: One of the seven angels who had the seven bowls, who were loaded with the seven last plagues came, and he spoke with me, saying, “Come here. I will show you the wife, the Lamb’s bride.”

Reader: He carried me away in the Spirit to a great and high mountain, and showed me the holy city, Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, having the glory of God. Her light was like a most precious stone, as if it were a jasper stone, clear as crystal; having a great and high wall; having twelve gates, and at the gates twelve angels; and names written on them, which are the names of the twelve tribes of the children of Israel.

Reader: On the east were three gates; and on the north three gates; and on the south three gates; and on the west three gates. The wall of the city had twelve foundations, and on them twelve names of the twelve Apostles of the Lamb.

Comment: Friend, won’t you choose to be a follower of the Lamb? Jesus promised that whoever comes to Him he will not cast out. The path will not be easy. There will be much self-denial but the reward is certain and worth it all.

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Unity in the Body of Christ

Comment: God’s church, the called-out-ones, is as diverse as are all the peoples of the earth. It includes the poor and the rich, the sighted and the blind, the healthy and the infirm, the mentally endowed and the mentally challenged, it includes all who will respond to God’s call. Because these called-out-ones are responding to God’s love as manifest in Jesus’ sacrifice they are bound together in love for God and one another. In Rom. 12:1-19 we read what it takes to be united in spite of this diversity.

Reader: Therefore I urge you, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which is your spiritual service.

Reader: Don’t be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, so that you may prove what is the good, well-pleasing, and perfect will of God.

Reader: For I say, through the grace that was given me, to every man who is among you, not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think; but to think reasonably, as God has apportioned to each person a measure of faith. For even as we have many members in one body, and all the members don’t have the same function, so we, who are many, are one body in Christ, and individually members one of another.

Reader: Having gifts differing according to the grace that was given to us, if prophecy, let us prophesy according to the proportion of our faith; or service, let us give ourselves to service; or he who teaches, to his teaching; or he who exhorts, to his exhorting: he who gives, let him do it with liberality; he who rules, with diligence; he who shows mercy, with cheerfulness.

Reader: Let love be without hypocrisy. Abhor that which is evil. Cling to that which is good. In love of the brothers be tenderly affectionate to one another; in honor preferring one another; not lagging in diligence; fervent in spirit; serving the Lord; rejoicing in hope; enduring in troubles; continuing steadfastly in prayer; contributing to the needs of the saints; given to hospitality.

Reader: Bless those who persecute you; bless, and don’t curse. Rejoice with those who rejoice. Weep with those who weep. Be of the same mind one toward another. Don’t set your mind on high things, but associate with the humble. Don’t be wise in your own conceits.

Reader: Repay no one evil for evil. Respect what is honorable in the sight of all men. If it is possible, as much as it is up to you, be at peace with all men. Don’t seek revenge yourselves, beloved, but give place to God’s wrath. For it is written, “Vengeance belongs to me; I will repay, says the Lord.

Comment: That unity of spirit is possible because everyone in the church is endowed to serve by one Spirit. In 1 Cor. 12:1-31 we read

Reader: Now concerning spiritual things, brothers, I don’t want you to be ignorant. You know that when you were heathen, you were led away to those mute idols, however you might be led.

Reader: Therefore I make known to you that no man speaking by God’s Spirit says, “Jesus is accursed.” No one can say, “Jesus is Lord,” but by the Holy Spirit. Now there are various kinds of gifts, but the same Spirit.

Reader: There are various kinds of service, and the same Lord. There are various kinds of workings, but the same God, who works all things in all. But to each one is given the manifestation of the Spirit for the profit of all.

Reader: For to one is given through the Spirit the word of wisdom, and to another the word of knowledge, according to the same Spirit; to another faith, by the same Spirit; and to another gifts of healings, by the same Spirit; and to another workings of miracles; and to another prophecy; and to another discerning of spirits; to another different kinds of languages; and to another the interpretation of languages.

Reader: But the one and the same Spirit produces all of these, distributing to each one separately as he desires.

Reader: For as the body is one, and has many members, and all the members of the body, being many, are one body; so also is Christ. For in one Spirit we were all baptized into one body, whether Jews or Greeks, whether bond or free; and were all given to drink into one Spirit.

Reader: For the body is not one member, but many. If the foot would say, “Because I’m not the hand, I’m not part of the body,” it is not therefore not part of the body. If the ear would say, “Because I’m not the eye, I’m not part of the body,” it’s not therefore not part of the body.

Reader: If the whole body were an eye, where would the hearing be? If the whole were hearing, where would the smelling be? But now God has set the members, each one of them, in the body, just as he desired.

Reader: If they were all one member, where would the body be? But now they are many members, but one body. The eye can’t tell the hand, “I have no need for you,” or again the head to the feet, “I have no need for you.” No, much rather, those members of the body which seem to be weaker are necessary. Those parts of the body which we think to be less honorable, on those we bestow more abundant honor; and our unpresentable parts have more abundant propriety; whereas our presentable parts have no such need.

Reader: But God composed the body together, giving more abundant honor to the inferior part, that there should be no division in the body, but that the members should have the same care for one another. When one member suffers, all the members suffer with it. Or when one member is honored, all the members rejoice with it.

Reader: Now you are the body of Christ, and members individually. God has set some in the assembly: first apostles, second prophets, third teachers, then miracle workers, then gifts of healings, helps, governments, and various kinds of languages.

Reader: Are all apostles? Are all prophets? Are all teachers? Are all miracle workers? Do all have gifts of healings? Do all speak with various languages? Do all interpret? But earnestly desire the best gifts. Moreover, I show a most excellent way to you

Comment: After his resurrection Jesus commissioned His disciples and through them His church to carry on the work He had begun. We read in Matt. 28:16-20:

Reader: But the eleven disciples went into Galilee, to the mountain where Jesus had sent them. When they saw him, they bowed down to him, but some doubted.

Reader: Jesus came to them and spoke to them, saying, “All authority has been given to me in heaven and on earth. Go, and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all things that I commanded you. Behold, I am with you always, even to the end of the age.” Amen.

Comment: The Psalmist in Ps. 133 expresses the delight of those who dwell together in unity in this way.

Reader: See how good and how pleasant it is
 for brothers to live together in unity!
It is like the precious oil on the head,
 that ran down on the beard,
 even Aaron’s beard;
 that came down on the edge of his robes;
 like the dew of Hermon,
 that comes down on the hills of Zion:
 for there Yahweh gives the blessing,
 even life forever more.

Comment: The secret of genuine, lasting unity Paul shares in 2 Cor. 5:14-17. Notice how it arises out of love that can only come from hearts in which self no longer lives.

Reader: For the love of Christ constrains us; because we judge thus, that one died for all, therefore all died. He died for all, that those who live should no longer live to themselves, but to him who for their sakes died and rose again.

Reader: Therefore we know no one after the flesh from now on. Even though we have known Christ after the flesh, yet now we know him so no more. Therefore if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old things have passed away. Behold, all things have become new.

Comment: In his sermon to the Athenians Paul identifies another basis for unity. In this sermon recorded in Acts 17:24-28 he clearly states that even though we may look different on the outside, inside we‘re not so different. In fact all of us depend on the same God who gives us life and sustains us.

Reader: The God who made the world and all things in it, he, being Lord of heaven and earth, doesn’t dwell in temples made with hands, neither is he served by men’s hands, as though he needed anything, seeing he himself gives to all life and breath, and all things.

Reader: He made from one blood every nation of men to dwell on all the surface of the earth, having determined appointed seasons, and the boundaries of their dwellings, that they should seek the Lord, if perhaps they might reach out for him and find him, though he is not far from each one of us. ‘For in him we live, and move, and have our being.’

Comment: While it is not always true, the bonds of family relationships are, perhaps, the strongest bonds that hold human beings together. However there is an exception and that is to be drawn together as children of God. John 1:10-13 says

Reader: He was in the world, and the world was made through him, and the world didn’t recognize him. He came to his own, and those who were his own didn’t receive him.

Reader: But as many as received him, to them he gave the right to become God’s children, to those who believe in his name: who were born not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God.

Comment: This reality was further developed by Paul in Gal. 3:23-29.

Reader: But before faith came, we were kept in custody under the law, confined for the faith which should afterwards be revealed. So that the law has become our tutor to bring us to Christ, that we might be justified by faith. But now that faith has come, we are no longer under a tutor. For you are all children of God, through faith in Christ Jesus.

Reader: For as many of you as were baptized into Christ have put on Christ. There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free man, there is neither male nor female; for you are all one in Christ Jesus. If you are Christ’s, then you are Abraham’s offspring and heirs according to promise.

Reader: And then Col. 3: 1-3 says: “If then you were raised together with Christ, seek the things that are above, where Christ is, seated on the right hand of God. Set your mind on the things that are above, not on the things that are on the earth. For you died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God.

Comment: Eph. 4:1-16 is the second place in Paul’s writings where he uses the metaphor of the human body to illustrate the unity of the church. Read the following slowly and carefully seeking to discover how God has gifted you to serve his body, the Church.

Reader: I therefore, the prisoner in the Lord, beg you to walk worthily of the calling with which you were called, with all lowliness and humility, with patience, bearing with one another in love; being eager to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace.

Reader: There is one body, and one Spirit, even as you also were called in one hope of your calling; one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all, who is over all, and through all, and in us all.

Reader: But to each one of us was the grace given according to the measure of the gift of Christ. Therefore he says, “When he ascended on high, he led captivity captive, and gave gifts to men.” Now this, “He ascended”, what is it but that he also first descended into the lower parts of the earth? He who descended is the one who also ascended far above all the heavens, that he might fill all things.

Reader: He gave some to be apostles; and some, prophets; and some, evangelists; and some, shepherds and teachers; for the perfecting of the saints, to the work of serving, to the building up of the body of Christ; until we all attain to the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to a full grown man, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ;

Reader: that we may no longer be children, tossed back and forth and carried about with every wind of doctrine, by the trickery of men, in craftiness, after the wiles of error; but speaking truth in love, we may grow up in all things into him, who is the head, Christ; from whom all the body, being fitted and knit together through that which every joint supplies, according to the working in measure of each individual part, makes the body increase to the building up of itself in love.

Comment: While living among His people Jesus repeatedly said that He and His Father were one. He said that his words and his acts were not His own but those of His Father. So closely did he live to His Father that He could tell His disciples ” if you have seen me you have seen the Father”. And it is for this kind of unity that He prays will be experienced by His followers. Here it is in John 17:15-26.

Reader: I pray not that you would take them from the world, but that you would keep them from the evil one. They are not of the world even as I am not of the world. Sanctify them in your truth. Your word is truth. As you sent me into the world, even so I have sent them into the world. For their sakes I sanctify myself, that they themselves also may be sanctified in truth. ²⁰ 

Reader: Not for these only do I pray, but for those also who believe in me through their word, that they may all be one; even as you, Father, are in me, and I in you, that they also may be one in us; that the world may believe that you sent me. 

Reader: The glory which you have given me, I have given to them; that they may be one, even as we are one; I in them, and you in me, that they may be perfected into one; that the world may know that you sent me, and loved them, even as you loved me.

Reader: Father, I desire that they also whom you have given me be with me where I am, that they may see my glory, which you have given me, for you loved me before the foundation of the world. Righteous Father, the world hasn’t known you, but I knew you; and these knew that you sent me. I made known to them your name, and will make it known; that the love with which you loved me may be in them, and I in them.

Comment: Through the revelation of Jesus Christ in the Scriptures we share the same faith and hope, and reach out in one witness to all. This unity has its source in the oneness of the triune God, who has adopted us as His children.”

Friend how is it with you? Have you accepted Jesus into your life? Are you bound in love to the family of God? Do you die to self daily? Do you use your gifts to serve others and thus build up the body of Christ? Remember there is no joy like that of belonging to a family and especially the family of God.
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Baptism

Comment: It is appropriate for us to begin our Bible reading on baptism by reading Mark 1:1-8

Reader: The beginning of the Good News of Jesus Christ, the Son of God.  As it is written in the prophets,

Reader: “Behold, I send my messenger before your face,
    who will prepare your way before you.
 The voice of one crying in the wilderness,
    ‘Make ready the way of the Lord!
    Make his paths straight!’

Reader: John came baptizing in the wilderness and preaching the baptism of repentance for forgiveness of sins. All the country of Judea and all those of Jerusalem went out to him. They were baptized by him in the Jordan River, confessing their sins. 

Reader: John was clothed with camel’s hair and a leather belt around his waist. He ate locusts and wild honey. He preached, saying, “After me comes he who is mightier than I, the thong of whose sandals I am not worthy to stoop down and loosen. I baptized you in water, but he will baptize you in the Holy Spirit.”

Comment: For the Israelites the ritual use of water for cleansing began when God through Moses taught them about literal and spiritual uncleanness. A person could become physically and thus ceremonially unclean when they had a disease or touched a dead body. One of the things they were to do to be cleansed was to bathe in water. We read in Leviticus 15:13-15:

Reader: When he who has a discharge is cleansed of his discharge, then he shall count to himself seven days for his cleansing, and wash his clothes; and he shall bathe his flesh in running water, and shall be clean.

Reader: On the eighth day he shall take two turtledoves, or two young pigeons, and come before Yahweh to the door of the Tent of Meeting, and give them to the priest: and the priest shall offer them, the one for a sin offering, and the other for a burnt offering. The priest shall make atonement for him before Yahweh for his discharge.

Comment: We see then that both water and blood were included in this ritual of cleansing. These symbolically pointed forward to the coming of Jesus who came by ‘water (baptism) and by blood (crucifixion). We read about Jesus’ baptism in Matthew 3:13-17

Reader: Then Jesus came from Galilee to the Jordan to John, to be baptized by him. But John would have hindered him, saying, “I need to be baptized by you, and you come to me?”

Reader: But Jesus, answering, said to him, “Allow it now, for this is the fitting way for us to fulfill all righteousness.” Then he allowed him

Reader: Jesus, when he was baptized, went up directly from the water: and behold, the heavens were opened to him. He saw the Spirit of God descending as a dove, and coming on him.  Behold, a voice out of the heavens said, “This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased.”

Comment: When Jesus was about to leave his disciples He gave them this instruction in Matt. 28:16-20

Reader: But the eleven disciples went into Galilee, to the mountain where Jesus had sent them.  When they saw him, they bowed down to him, but some doubted.  Jesus came to them and spoke to them, saying,

Reader: “All authority has been given to me in heaven and on earth.  Go, and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit,  teaching them to observe all things that I commanded you. Behold, I am with you always, even to the end of the age.” Amen.

Comment: It is helpful to understand the significance and meaning of each of the rituals that we, as Christians, practice. In Rom 6:1-18 Paul clearly shows how through the symbol of baptism we share in the life, death, burial and resurrection of Jesus.

Reader: What shall we say then? Shall we continue in sin, that grace may abound?  May it never be! We who died to sin, how could we live in it any longer?

Reader: Or don’t you know that all we who were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? We were buried therefore with him through baptism to death, that just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, so we also might walk in newness of life.

Reader: For if we have become united with him in the likeness of his death, we will also be part of his resurrection; knowing this, that our old man was crucified with him, that the body of sin might be done away with, so that we would no longer be in bondage to sin.

Reader: For he who has died has been freed from sin. But if we died with Christ, we believe that we will also live with him; knowing that Christ, being raised from the dead, dies no more. Death no more has dominion over him!

Reader: For the death that he died, he died to sin one time; but the life that he lives, he lives to God. Thus consider yourselves also to be dead to sin, but alive to God in Christ Jesus our Lord.

 Reader: Therefore don’t let sin reign in your mortal body, that you should obey it in its lusts. Also, do not present your members to sin as instruments of unrighteousness, but present yourselves to God, as alive from the dead, and your members as instruments of righteousness to God.

Reader: For sin will not have dominion over you. For you are not under law, but under grace.  What then? Shall we sin, because we are not under law, but under grace?

Reader: May it never be! Don’t you know that when you present yourselves as servants and obey someone, you are the servants of whomever you obey; whether of sin to death, or of obedience to righteousness?

Reader: But thanks be to God, that, whereas you were bondservants of sin, you became obedient from the heart to that form of teaching to which you were delivered. Being made free from sin, you became bondservants of righteousness.

Comment: On the day of Pentecost the apostles, following Jesus’ instruction, baptized about 3,000 new believers. Peter’s sermon is recorded in Acts 2:22-47.

Reader:  Men of Israel, hear these words! Jesus of Nazareth, a man approved by God to you by mighty works and wonders and signs which God did by him among you, even as you yourselves know, him, being delivered up by the determined counsel and foreknowledge of God, you have taken by the hand of lawless men, crucified and killed; whom God raised up, having freed him from the agony of death, because it was not possible that he should be held by it. For David says concerning him,

Reader: I saw the Lord always before my face,
    For he is on my right hand, that I should not be moved. Therefore my heart was glad, and my tongue rejoiced.    Moreover my flesh also will dwell in hope; because you will not leave my soul in Hades,  neither will you allow your Holy One to see decay. You made known to me the ways of life.    You will make me full of gladness with your presence.’

Reader: Brothers, I may tell you freely of the patriarch David, that he both died and was buried, and his tomb is with us to this day.

Reader: Therefore, being a prophet, and knowing that God had sworn with an oath to him that of the fruit of his body, according to the flesh, he would raise up the Christ to sit on his throne,  he foreseeing this spoke about the resurrection of the Christ, that neither was his soul left in Hades, nor did his flesh see decay.

Reader: This Jesus God raised up, to which we all are witnesses. Being therefore exalted by the right hand of God, and having received from the Father the promise of the Holy Spirit, he has poured out this, which you now see and hear. For David didn’t ascend into the heavens, but he says himself,

Reader: ‘The Lord said to my Lord, “Sit by my right hand, until I make your enemies a footstool for your feet.”

Reader: Let all the house of Israel therefore know certainly that God has made him both Lord and Christ, this Jesus whom you crucified.”

Reader: Now when they heard this, they were cut to the heart, and said to Peter and the rest of the apostles, “Brothers, what shall we do?”

Reader: Peter said to them, “Repent, and be baptized, every one of you, in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of sins, and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. For the promise is to you, and to your children, and to all who are far off, even as many as the Lord our God will call to himself.” With many other words he testified, and exhorted them, saying, “Save yourselves from this crooked generation!”

Reader: Then those who gladly received his word were baptized. There were added that day about three thousand souls.

Reader: They continued steadfastly in the apostles’ teaching and fellowship, in the breaking of bread, and prayer. Fear came on every soul, and many wonders and signs were done through the apostles.

Reader: All who believed were together, and had all things in common. They sold their possessions and goods, and distributed them to all, according as anyone had need.

Reader: Day by day, continuing steadfastly with one accord in the temple, and breaking bread at home, they took their food with gladness and singleness of heart, praising God, and having favor with all the people. The Lord added to the assembly day by day those who were being saved.

 Comment: Notice how, following their baptism, the new believers, “continued steadfastly in the apostles’ teaching and fellowship, in the breaking of bread, and prayer.” They had a new life that totally replaced the old. The apostle Paul described that new life in Col. 2:6-15.

 Reader: As therefore you received Christ Jesus, the Lord, walk in him, rooted and built up in him, and established in the faith, even as you were taught, abounding in it in thanksgiving.

Reader: Be careful that you don’t let anyone rob you through his philosophy and vain deceit, after the tradition of men, after the elements of the world, and not after Christ.

Reader: For in him all the fullness of the Godhead dwells bodily, and in him you are made full, who is the head of all principality and power; in whom you were also circumcised with a circumcision not made with hands, in the putting off of the body of the sins of the flesh, in the circumcision of Christ;

Reader: having been buried with him in baptism, in which you were also raised with him through faith in the working of God, who raised him from the dead. You were dead through your trespasses and the uncircumcision of your flesh.

Reader: He made you alive together with him, having forgiven us all our trespasses, wiping out the handwriting in ordinances which was against us; and he has taken it out of the way, nailing it to the cross; having stripped the principalities and the powers, he made a show of them openly, triumphing over them in it

Comment: The great apostle Paul tells the story of his own conversion and baptism in Acts 22:9-16.

Reader:  Those who were with me indeed saw the light and were afraid, but they didn’t understand the voice of him who spoke to me. I said,

Reader: ‘What shall I do, Lord?’ The Lord said to me,

Reader:  ‘Arise, and go into Damascus. There you will be told about all things which are appointed for you to do.’

Reader: When I couldn’t see for the glory of that light, being led by the hand of those who were with me, I came into Damascus. One Ananias, a devout man according to the law, well reported of by all the Jews who lived in Damascus, came to me, and standing by me said to me,

Reader: ‘Brother Saul, receive your sight!’ In that very hour I looked up at him. He said, ‘The God of our fathers has appointed you to know his will, and to see the Righteous One, and to hear a voice from his mouth. For you will be a witness for him to all men of what you have seen and heard. Now why do you wait? Arise, be baptized, and wash away your sins, calling on the name of the Lord.’

Comment: Wherever the gospel was preached new believers were baptized. In Acts 16:13-33 we read the story of Paul and his traveling band of missionaries when they arrived in Philippi.

Reader: On the Sabbath day we went outside of the city by a riverside, where we supposed there was a place of prayer, and we sat down, and spoke to the women who had come together.

Reader: A certain woman named Lydia, a seller of purple, of the city of Thyatira, one who worshiped God, heard us; whose heart the Lord opened to listen to the things which were spoken by Paul. When she and her household were baptized, she begged us, saying, “If you have judged me to be faithful to the Lord, come into my house, and stay.” So she persuaded us.

Reader: As we were going to prayer, a certain girl having a spirit of divination met us, who brought her masters much gain by fortune telling. Following Paul and us, she cried out, “These men are servants of the Most High God, who proclaim to us a way of salvation!” She was doing this for many days.

Reader: But Paul, becoming greatly annoyed, turned and said to the spirit, “I command you in the name of Jesus Christ to come out of her!” It came out that very hour.

Reader: But when her masters saw that the hope of their gain was gone, they seized Paul and Silas, and dragged them into the marketplace before the rulers. When they had brought them to the magistrates, they said, “These men, being Jews, are agitating our city, and advocate customs which it is not lawful for us to accept or to observe, being Romans.”

Reader: The multitude rose up together against them, and the magistrates tore their clothes off of them, and commanded them to be beaten with rods. When they had laid many stripes on them, they threw them into prison, charging the jailer to keep them safely, who, having received such a command, threw them into the inner prison, and secured their feet in the stocks.

Reader: But about midnight Paul and Silas were praying and singing hymns to God, and the prisoners were listening to them. Suddenly there was a great earthquake, so that the foundations of the prison were shaken; and immediately all the doors were opened, and everyone’s bonds were loosened.

Reader: The jailer, being roused out of sleep and seeing the prison doors open, drew his sword and was about to kill himself, supposing that the prisoners had escaped. But Paul cried with a loud voice, saying, “Don’t harm yourself, for we are all here!”

Reader: He called for lights, sprang in, fell down trembling before Paul and Silas, brought them out, and said, “Sirs, what must I do to be saved?”

Reader: They said, “Believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, and you will be saved, you and your household.” They spoke the word of the Lord to him, and to all who were in his house.

Reader: He took them the same hour of the night, and washed their stripes, and was immediately baptized, he and all his household. He brought them up into his house, and set food before them, and rejoiced greatly, with all his household, having believed in God.

Comment: The story of the Ethiopian eunuch illustrates the need for Bible instruction before baptism. It is recorded in Acts 8;26-40.

  Reader: But an angel of the Lord spoke to Philip, saying, “Arise, and go toward the south to the way that goes down from Jerusalem to Gaza. This is a desert.”

Reader: He arose and went; and behold, there was a man of Ethiopia, a eunuch of great authority under Candace, queen of the Ethiopians, who was over all her treasure, who had come to Jerusalem to worship. He was returning and sitting in his chariot, and was reading the prophet Isaiah.

Reader: The Spirit said to Philip, “Go near, and join yourself to this chariot.”

Reader: Philip ran to him, and heard him reading Isaiah the prophet, and said, “Do you understand what you are reading?”

Reader: He said, “How can I, unless someone explains it to me?” He begged Philip to come up and sit with him. Now the passage of the Scripture which he was reading was this,

Reader: “He was led as a sheep to the slaughter.
    As a lamb before his shearer is silent,
    so he doesn’t open his mouth.
In his humiliation, his judgment was taken away.
    Who will declare His generation?
    For his life is taken from the earth.”

Reader: The eunuch answered Philip, “Who is the prophet talking about? About himself, or about someone else?”

Reader: Philip opened his mouth, and beginning from this Scripture, preached to him Jesus. As they went on the way, they came to some water, and the eunuch said, “Behold, here is water. What is keeping me from being baptized?”

Reader: He commanded the chariot to stand still, and they both went down into the water, both Philip and the eunuch, and he baptized him.

Reader: When they came up out of the water, the Spirit of the Lord caught Philip away, and the eunuch didn’t see him any more, for he went on his way rejoicing. But Philip was found at Azotus. Passing through, he preached the Good News to all the cities, until he came to Caesarea.

Comment: In conclusion we can say that baptism (immersion in water) is a symbol of one’s union with Christ, the forgiveness of sins, and the reception of the Holy Spirit. It follows a confession of faith in Jesus with evidence of repentance of sin. Every aspect of the “born-again” Christian’s new life is in harmony with Jesus. New believers become full-time disciples of Jesus with the goal of inviting others to know Jesus too.

Dear friend, if you have not experienced that new life, filled with the Holy Spirit, determine now that you will make that transforming confession of faith in Jesus as your Savior.
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Lord’s Supper

Comment: When God delivered the children of Israel out of Egyptian bondage, He instructed them through Moses how to form a united nation. Among the many laws that He gave them were guidelines for a variety of religious practices and observances. The first of these was that of the Passover. We read in Exodus 12:1-14

Reader: Yahweh spoke to Moses and Aaron in the land of Egypt, saying, “This month shall be to you the beginning of months. It shall be the first month of the year to you. Speak to all the congregation of Israel, saying,

Reader: On the tenth day of this month, they shall take to them every man a lamb, according to their fathers’ houses, a lamb for a household; and if the household is too little for a lamb, then he and his neighbor next to his house shall take one according to the number of the souls; according to what everyone can eat you shall make your count for the lamb.

Reader: Your lamb shall be without defect, a male a year old. You shall take it from the sheep, or from the goats: and you shall keep it until the fourteenth day of the same month; and the whole assembly of the congregation of Israel shall kill it at evening.

Reader: They shall take some of the blood, and put it on the two door posts and on the lintel, on the houses in which they shall eat it. They shall eat the flesh in that night, roasted with fire, and unleavened bread. They shall eat it with bitter herbs. Don’t eat it raw, nor boiled at all with water, but roasted with fire; with its head, its legs and its inner parts. You shall let nothing of it remain until the morning; but that which remains of it until the morning you shall burn with fire.

Reader: This is how you shall eat it: with your belt on your waist, your shoes on your feet, and your staff in your hand; and you shall eat it in haste: it is Yahweh’s Passover. For I will go through the land of Egypt in that night, and will strike all the firstborn in the land of Egypt, both man and animal.

Reader: Against all the gods of Egypt I will execute judgments: I am Yahweh. The blood shall be to you for a token on the houses where you are: and when I see the blood, I will pass over you, and there shall no plague be on you to destroy you, when I strike the land of Egypt.

Reader: This day shall be to you for a memorial, and you shall keep it a feast to Yahweh: throughout your generations you shall keep it a feast by an ordinance forever.

Comment: The Passover had a dual significance. It was a memorial of deliverance from Egypt and pointed forward to the coming Messiah who would deliver from bondage to sin. When Jesus is called the Lamb of God it is in reference to the Passover lamb whose blood on the doorposts delivered from the destroying angel. Jesus was the perfect lamb who was crucified on Passover. We read in Matt. 26:17-30  how Jesus, at the last Passover meal, introduced a new symbolic meal to be shared by His followers to the end of time.

Reader: Now on the first day of unleavened bread, the disciples came to Jesus, saying to him, “Where do you want us to prepare for you to eat the Passover?”

Reader: He said, “Go into the city to a certain person, and tell him, ‘The Teacher says, “My time is at hand. I will keep the Passover at your house with my disciples.”’”

Reader: The disciples did as Jesus commanded them, and they prepared the Passover. Now when evening had come, he was reclining at the table with the twelve disciples. As they were eating, he said,

Reader: “Most certainly I tell you that one of you will betray me.”

Reader: They were exceedingly sorrowful, and each began to ask him, “It isn’t me, is it, Lord?”

Reader: He answered, “He who dipped his hand with me in the dish, the same will betray me. The Son of Man goes, even as it is written of him, but woe to that man through whom the Son of Man is betrayed! It would be better for that man if he had not been born.”

Reader: Judas, who betrayed him, answered, “It isn’t me, is it, Rabbi?”

Reader: He said to him, “You said it.”

Reader: As they were eating, Jesus took bread, gave thanks for it, and broke it. He gave to the disciples, and said,

Reader: “Take, eat; this is my body.”

Reader: He took the cup, gave thanks, and gave to them, saying,

Reader: “All of you drink it, for this is my blood of the new covenant, which is poured out for many for the remission of sins. But I tell you that I will not drink of this fruit of the vine from now on, until that day when I drink it anew with you in my Father’s Kingdom.”

Reader: When they had sung a hymn, they went out to the Mount of Olives.

Comment: In John’s account of this Passover meal he records an additional practice that Jesus introduced, that of washing one another’s feet. It is a practice that, when properly observed, gives believers, who participate, the opportunity to lay aside pride and selfishness and be united to each other. All differences that separate believers will be confessed and forgiven. Reading from John 13:1-17

Reader:  Now before the feast of the Passover, Jesus, knowing that his time had come that he would depart from this world to the Father, having loved his own who were in the world, he loved them to the end.

Reader: During supper, the devil having already put into the heart of Judas Iscariot, Simon’s son, to betray him, Jesus, knowing that the Father had given all things into his hands, and that he came from God, and was going to God, arose from supper, and laid aside his outer garments.

Reader: He took a towel, and wrapped a towel around his waist. Then he poured water into the basin, and began to wash the disciples’ feet, and to wipe them with the towel that was wrapped around him. ⁶ Then he came to Simon Peter. He said to him,

Reader:  “Lord, do you wash my feet?”

Reader: Jesus answered him, “You don’t know what I am doing now, but you will understand later.”

Reader: Peter said to him, “You will never wash my feet!”

Reader: Jesus answered him, “If I don’t wash you, you have no part with me.”

Reader: Simon Peter said to him, “Lord, not my feet only, but also my hands and my head!”

Reader: Jesus said to him, “Someone who has bathed only needs to have his feet washed, but is completely clean. You are clean, but not all of you.”For he knew him who would betray him, therefore he said, “You are not all clean.”

Reader: So when he had washed their feet, put his outer garment back on, and sat down again, he said to them,

Reader:  “Do you know what I have done to you? You call me, ‘Teacher’ and ‘Lord.’ You say so correctly, for so I am. If I then, the Lord and the Teacher, have washed your feet, you also ought to wash one another’s feet. For I have given you an example, that you also should do as I have done to you. Most certainly I tell you, a servant is not greater than his lord, neither one who is sent greater than he who sent him. If you know these things, blessed are you if you do them.

Comment:  In reflecting on the significance of the communion meal, the apostle Paul, reminds those who would read his first letter to the Corinthians  that all the Israelites of old experienced God’s miraculous care but most of them failed to honor Him in their lives. Then he urges those who partake of the communion meal to totally separate themselves from the idolatry of the world. 1 Cor. 10:1-24.

Reader: Now I would not have you ignorant, brothers, that our fathers were all under the cloud, and all passed through the sea; and were all baptized into Moses in the cloud and in the sea; and all ate the same spiritual food; and all drank the same spiritual drink. For they drank of a spiritual rock that followed them, and the rock was Christ.

Reader: However with most of them, God was not well pleased, for they were overthrown in the wilderness. Now these things were our examples, to the intent we should not lust after evil things, as they also lusted.

Reader: Don’t be idolaters, as some of them were. As it is written, “The people sat down to eat and drink, and rose up to play.” Let us not commit sexual immorality, as some of them committed, and in one day twenty-three thousand fell.

Reader: Let us not test Christ, as some of them tested, and perished by the serpents. Don’t grumble, as some of them also grumbled, and perished by the destroyer.

Reader: Now all these things happened to them by way of example, and they were written for our admonition, on whom the ends of the ages have come. Therefore let him who thinks he stands be careful that he doesn’t fall.

Reader: No temptation has taken you except what is common to man. God is faithful, who will not allow you to be tempted above what you are able, but will with the temptation also make the way of escape, that you may be able to endure it.

Reader: Therefore, my beloved, flee from idolatry. I speak as to wise men. Judge what I say. The cup of blessing which we bless, isn’t it a sharing of the blood of Christ? The bread which we break, isn’t it a sharing of the body of Christ? Because there is one loaf of bread, we, who are many, are one body; for we all partake of the one loaf of bread. Consider Israel according to the flesh. Don’t those who eat the sacrifices participate in the altar?

Reader: What am I saying then? That a thing sacrificed to idols is anything, or that an idol is anything? But I say that the things which the Gentiles sacrifice, they sacrifice to demons, and not to God, and I don’t desire that you would have fellowship with demons.

Reader: You can’t both drink the cup of the Lord and the cup of demons. You can’t both partake of the table of the Lord, and of the table of demons.  Or do we provoke the Lord to jealousy? Are we stronger than he?  “All things are lawful for me,” but not all things are profitable. “All things are lawful for me,” but not all things build up. Let no one seek his own, but each one his neighbor’s good.

Comment:  In 1 Cor.11:17-33 Paul continues his plea for believers to be united as they share in the eating of meals (both the communion meal and fellowship meals) in God’s presence. There is to be no partiality or selfish gluttony.

Reader:  But in giving you this command, I don’t praise you, that you come together not for the better but for the worse.

Reader: For first of all, when you come together in the assembly, I hear that divisions exist among you, and I partly believe it. For there also must be factions among you, that those who are approved may be revealed among you.

Reader: When therefore you assemble yourselves together, it is not the Lord’s supper that you eat. For in your eating each one takes his own supper first. One is hungry, and another is drunken. What, don’t you have houses to eat and to drink in? Or do you despise God’s assembly, and put them to shame who don’t have? What shall I tell you? Shall I praise you? In this I don’t praise you.

Reader: For I received from the Lord that which also I delivered to you, that the Lord Jesus on the night in which he was betrayed took bread. When he had given thanks, he broke it, and said,

Reader: “Take, eat. This is my body, which is broken for you. Do this in memory of me.”

Reader: In the same way he also took the cup, after supper, saying, “This cup is the new covenant in my blood. Do this, as often as you drink, in memory of me.” For as often as you eat this bread and drink this cup, you proclaim the Lord’s death until he comes.

Reader: Therefore whoever eats this bread or drinks the Lord’s cup in a way unworthy of the Lord will be guilty of the body and the blood of the Lord. But let a man examine himself, and so let him eat of the bread, and drink of the cup.

Reader: For he who eats and drinks in an unworthy way eats and drinks judgment to himself, if he doesn’t discern the Lord’s body. For this cause many among you are weak and sickly, and not a few sleep. For if we discerned ourselves, we wouldn’t be judged. But when we are judged, we are punished by the Lord, that we may not be condemned with the world. Therefore, my brothers, when you come together to eat, wait for one another.

Comment:  Early in Jesus’ ministry He laid the foundation for instituting the communion meal. He clearly says that He, not the manna, is the true Bread that came down from heaven. We read this discourse in John 6:22-69..

Reader: On the next day, the multitude that stood on the other side of the sea saw that there was no other boat there, except the one in which his disciples had embarked, and that Jesus hadn’t entered with his disciples into the boat, but his disciples had gone away alone.

Reader: However boats from Tiberias came near to the place where they ate the bread after the Lord had given thanks. When the multitude therefore saw that Jesus wasn’t there, nor his disciples, they themselves got into the boats, and came to Capernaum, seeking Jesus. When they found him on the other side of the sea, they asked him, “Rabbi, when did you come here?”

Reader: Jesus answered them, “Most certainly I tell you, you seek me, not because you saw signs, but because you ate of the loaves, and were filled. Don’t work for the food which perishes, but for the food which remains to eternal life, which the Son of Man will give to you. For God the Father has sealed him.”

Reader: They said therefore to him, “What must we do, that we may work the works of God?”

Reader: Jesus answered them, “This is the work of God, that you believe in him whom he has sent.”

Reader: They said therefore to him, “What then do you do for a sign, that we may see, and believe you? What work do you do? Our fathers ate the manna in the wilderness. As it is written, ‘He gave them bread out of heaven to eat.’”

Reader: Jesus therefore said to them, “Most certainly, I tell you, it wasn’t Moses who gave you the bread out of heaven, but my Father gives you the true bread out of heaven. For the bread of God is that which comes down out of heaven, and gives life to the world.”

Reader: They said therefore to him, “Lord, always give us this bread.”

Reader: Jesus said to them, “I am the bread of life. He who comes to me will not be hungry, and he who believes in me will never be thirsty. But I told you that you have seen me, and yet you don’t believe. All those whom the Father gives me will come to me. He who comes to me I will in no way throw out.

Reader: For I have come down from heaven, not to do my own will, but the will of him who sent me. This is the will of my Father who sent me, that of all he has given to me I should lose nothing, but should raise him up at the last day. This is the will of the one who sent me, that everyone who sees the Son, and believes in him, should have eternal life; and I will raise him up at the last day.”

Reader: The Jews therefore murmured concerning him, because he said, “I am the bread which came down out of heaven.” They said, “Isn’t this Jesus, the son of Joseph, whose father and mother we know? How then does he say, ‘I have come down out of heaven?’”

Reader: Therefore Jesus answered them, “Don’t murmur among yourselves. No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him, and I will raise him up in the last day. It is written in the prophets,

Reader: ‘They will all be taught by God.’ Therefore everyone who hears from the Father, and has learned, comes to me. Not that anyone has seen the Father, except he who is from God. He has seen the Father. Most certainly, I tell you, he who believes in me has eternal life. ⁴⁸

Reader: I am the bread of life. Your fathers ate the manna in the wilderness, and they died. This is the bread which comes down out of heaven, that anyone may eat of it and not die. I am the living bread which came down out of heaven. If anyone eats of this bread, he will live forever. Yes, the bread which I will give for the life of the world is my flesh.”

Reader: The Jews therefore contended with one another, saying, “How can this man give us his flesh to eat?”

Reader: Jesus therefore said to them, “Most certainly I tell you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you don’t have life in yourselves. He who eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up at the last day.

Reader: For my flesh is food indeed, and my blood is drink indeed. He who eats my flesh and drinks my blood lives in me, and I in him. As the living Father sent me, and I live because of the Father; so he who feeds on me, he will also live because of me. This is the bread which came down out of heaven—not as our fathers ate the manna, and died. He who eats this bread will live forever.” He said these things in the synagogue, as he taught in Capernaum.

Reader: Therefore many of his disciples, when they heard this, said, “This is a hard saying! Who can listen to it?”

Reader: But Jesus knowing in himself that his disciples murmured at this, said to them, “Does this cause you to stumble? Then what if you would see the Son of Man ascending to where he was before?

Reader: It is the spirit who gives life. The flesh profits nothing. The words that I speak to you are spirit, and are life. But there are some of you who don’t believe.” For Jesus knew from the beginning who they were who didn’t believe, and who it was who would betray him. He said, “For this cause have I said to you that no one can come to me, unless it is given to him by my Father.”

Reader: At this, many of his disciples went back, and walked no more with him. Jesus said therefore to the twelve, “You don’t also want to go away, do you?”

Reader: Simon Peter answered him, “Lord, to whom would we go? You have the words of eternal life. We have come to believe and know that you are the Christ, the Son of the living God.”

Comment: Paul reminds us in 1 Cor. 10:15-17 that whenever we share a meal together and give thanks for our drink and bread we are celebrating our Lord’s sacrifice for us.

Reader:  I speak as to wise men. Judge what I say. The cup of blessing which we bless, isn’t it a sharing of the blood of Christ? The bread which we break, isn’t it a sharing of the body of Christ? Because there is one loaf of bread, we, who are many, are one body; for we all partake of the one loaf of bread.

Comment:  Finally in the message to Laodicea we find Jesus knocking at the heart’s door seeking to share in communion with His children. (Rev. 3:14-22)

Reader: To the angel of the assembly in Laodicea write:

Reader: “The Amen, the Faithful and True Witness, the Head of God’s creation, says these things:

Reader: I know your works, that you are neither cold nor hot. I wish you were cold or hot. So, because you are lukewarm, and neither hot nor cold, I will vomit you out of my mouth. Because you say, ‘I am rich, and have gotten riches, and have need of nothing;’ and don’t know that you are the wretched one, miserable, poor, blind, and naked;

Reader: I counsel you to buy from me gold refined by fire, that you may become rich; and white garments, that you may clothe yourself, and that the shame of your nakedness may not be revealed; and eye salve to anoint your eyes, that you may see.

Reader: As many as I love, I reprove and chasten. Be zealous therefore, and repent. Behold, I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, then I will come in to him, and will dine with him, and he with me. ²¹

Reader: He who overcomes, I will give to him to sit down with me on my throne, as I also overcame, and sat down with my Father on his throne. He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the assemblies.”

Comment:  Friend, won’t you purpose in your heart to never choose to absent yourself from participating in the communion service  (including foot washing) with your church family?
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Spiritual Gifts and Ministries

Comment: Those who respond to God’s call to come out from the world’s culture He sends, and those He sends He equips. Let’s first consider how He called and sent His disciples.