The Carpenter's Chapel (5)

Friday, 12th November, 2004

2 Corinthians 1v20
For all the promises of God in him are yea, and in him Amen, unto the glory of God by us.

Paul has just finished a brief discussion about the importance of being clear and straightforward in our words. He based this on verse 18 where he says clearly – “God is true,” and as a result our words are not to be a mixture of yea and no, or duplicitous. The Word of God is not a mixture of truth and error, what God says in always true – full stop.

We come now to verse 20. We read here that all of the promises of God are truly fulfilled in Christ. John MacArthur points it this way in his study Bible, “All Gods OT and NT promises peace, joy, love, goodness, forgiveness, salvation, sanctification, fellowship, hope, glorification, are made possible by and fulfilled in Jesus.” To make sure that his readers fully understand Paul says, “All the promises are true and affirmed (Amen). He leaves no doubt. The entire focus of the Word of God is Jesus Christ, and it is all to the glory of God “by us.”

What can we gleam from this passage. The Word of God is all about Christ and about how we glorify him. In too many circles today we get the idea that being a Christian is all about us and that we are the focus. Being a Christian is not about me – it is all about Christ and Christ in me. All of God’s Word is fulfilled only in Christ. In context Paul had earlier in the chapter the trials he had been through. He did not centre his thoughts there. He drew us to the fact that Jesus Christ IS the answer and glorifying Him is what should concern us, whether we do it through prosperity or struggles.

Lord, remind us that you are true and that all of your promises are fulfilled in Christ. Our lives are yours to control for His glory!

 

Thanks Jim,
I am not sure if this is the place to post this or not, but I think it fits. In regards to Remembrance Day, I saw a clip on TV where some High School students were questioning some of the older Vets about their fears. "Weren't you afraid of coming back maimed, a parapalegic with only two arms or two legs, or even die?
One old Vet answered (on CBC national TV), "You must have a strong faith in God, that that faith in God will bring you home. Without faith in God you remain a frightened soldier."
I thought that in a world of humanistic and secular thinking, how befitting it was on Remembrance Day, that there was at least one Vet who would acknowledge that it was his faith in God that kept him through the Second World War.
Praise God for the freedom we have to believe as we see fit to believe--the freedom of religion, one of the very freedoms these vets fought for, among others.
DHK

 

Saturday November 13, 2004

Chapter 4

“When therefore the Lord knew how the Pharisees had heard that Jesus made and baptized more disciples than John, (Though Jesus himself baptized not, but his disciples,) He left Judaea, and departed again into Galilee. And he must needs go through Samaria. (John 4:1-4)

As Jesus leaves Judea for Galilee, it says that "He must needs go through Samaria" (4:4). This is the second main discussion that will lead the reader to make a decision. In the last chapter, Jesus dealt with a self-righteous Pharisee who needed to see that he was blinded spiritually and lost. Now we listen as Jesus speaks to a worldly woman who has struggled with sin. It is important to note that Jews normally would take the long road around Samaria as Jews despised them. The Samaritans were people which had been relocated from other lands by the conquering Assyrians. The Assyrians later returned a few Israelites to the land.

2Kings 17:23: "Until the LORD removed Israel out of His sight, as He had said by all His servants the prophets. So Israel was carried away out of their own land unto Assyria unto this day. 24: And the king of Assyria brought men from Babylon, and from Cuthah, and from Ava, and from Hamath, and from Sepharvaim, and placed them in the cities of Samaria instead of the children of Israel: and they possessed Samaria and dwelt in the cities thereof. 25: And so it was at the beginning of their dwelling there, that they feared not the LORD: therefore the LORD sent lions among them, which slew some of them. 26: Wherefore they spake to the king of Assyria, saying, The nations which thou hast removed, and placed in the cities of Samaria, know not the manner of the God of the land: therefore He hath sent lions among them, and, behold, they slay them, because they know not the manner of the God of the land. 27: Then the king of Assyria commanded, saying, Carry thither one of the priests whom ye brought from thence; and let them go and dwell there, and let him teach them the manner of the God of the land. 28: Then one of the priests whom they had carried away from Samaria came and dwelt in Bethel, and taught them how they should fear the LORD. 29: Howbeit every nation made gods of their own, and put them in the houses of the high places which the Samaritans had made, every nation in their cities wherein they dwelt."

The Jews which survived in Judea considered themselves better than the mixed nationalities and mixed religion of the Samaritans. Look at the case of the remnant returning from captivity to rebuild the temple and the walls of Jerusalem. (Neh. 4:1-2; 13:28)
Peloubet's Bible Dictionary tells us that Sanballat's son-in-law (the priest rejected by Nehemiah) took refuge in Samaria. "A temple was built on Mt. Gerizim in which he and his family became high priests. This temple lasted until the time of the Maccabees, when it was probably destroyed by John Hycanus.

The animosity of the Samaritans became more intense than ever. They are said to have done everything in their power to annoy the Jews. Their own temple on Gerizim they considered to be much superior to that in Jerusalem. There they sacrificed a Passover. Toward the mountain, even after the temple had fallen, wherever they were they directed their worship. To their copy of the law they arrogated an antiquity and authority greater than attached to any copy in the possession of the Jews.
(I must interject here, having re-read what I have written: doesn’t that sound familiar? To this writer the whole argument about versions is rather frivolous. We do not have the autographs, so we have to settle for translations from old manuscripts. I think the arguing about “My Bible is better than yours” is rather silly; it is God’s Word! Certainly the foremost authority on this matter should not be one with a B.A. and M.A. in interior design!)
The Law, that is, the five books of Moses, was their sole code; for they rejected every other book in the Jewish canon." (p.582-584). The Jews were spiteful as well. Dr. Oliver B. Greene tells us that "the devout Jews prayed each morning that Jehovah would deliver them from the sight of the face of a Samaritan that day." (p.208)

 

Thank You Charles,

God Bless

Sheila

 

Sunday November 14, 2004

Then cometh he to a city of Samaria, which is called Sychar, near to the parcel of ground that Jacob gave to his son Joseph. Now Jacob's well was there. Jesus therefore, being wearied with his journey, sat thus on the well: and it was about the sixth hour. There cometh a woman of Samaria to draw water: Jesus saith unto her, Give me to drink. (For his disciples were gone away unto the city to buy meat.) Then saith the woman of Samaria unto him, How is it that thou, being a Jew, askest drink of me, which am a woman of Samaria? for the Jews have no dealings with the Samaritans. Jesus answered and said unto her, If thou knewest the gift of God, and who it is that saith to thee, Give me to drink; thou wouldest have asked of him, and he would have given thee living water. The woman saith unto him, Sir, thou hast nothing to draw with, and the well is deep: from whence then hast thou that living water? Art thou greater than our father Jacob, which gave us the well, and drank thereof himself, and his children, and his cattle?
Jesus answered and said unto her, Whosoever drinketh of this water shall thirst again: But whosoever drinketh of the water that I shall give him shall never thirst; but the water that I shall give him shall be in him a well of water springing up into everlasting life. The woman saith unto him, Sir, give me this water, that I thirst not, neither come hither to draw. Jesus saith unto her, Go, call thy husband, and come hither. The woman answered and said, I have no husband. Jesus said unto her, Thou hast well said, I have no husband: For thou hast had five husbands; and he whom thou now hast is not thy husband: in that saidst thou truly. The woman saith unto him, Sir, I perceive that thou art a prophet.
Our fathers worshipped in this mountain; and ye say, that in Jerusalem is the place where men ought to worship. Jesus saith unto her, Woman, believe me, the hour cometh, when ye shall neither in this mountain, nor yet at Jerusalem, worship the Father. Ye worship ye know not what: we know what we worship: for salvation is of the Jews. But the hour cometh, and now is, when the true worshippers shall worship the Father in spirit and in truth: for the Father seeketh such to worship him. God is a Spirit: and they that worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth. The woman saith unto him, I know that Messias cometh, which is called Christ: when he is come, he will tell us all things.
Jesus saith unto her, I that speak unto thee am he. (John 4:5-26)

The Woman at the Well

Jesus comes to a city of Samaria to Jacob's well and waits there. Being the sixth hour (noon), the well was deserted as a woman approached. Jesus began the conversation by asking her for a drink. She recognized Jesus as a Jew (He was not like the pictures of Jesus of Catholic origin) and immediately questioned why He was even speaking to her, a Samaritan. Jesus responds with three things to attract her attention.
First, He states that she need to know "the gift of God." This we know is in reference to the free gift of salvation (Eph. 2:8-9).
Second, she needs to realize to whom she is speaking.
(As for us, if we only had the spiritual sight to realize how many times we have talked with :angels unawares" Heb 13:2). She doesn't have a clue that she is speaking to the creator of the universe!
Third, she needs to taste "living water." Of these three "baits" she takes the third, living water. He did not speak of sin, but focused upon her thirst, offering living water. As with Nicodemus, this woman responded to the spiritual question with earthly terms. "Where' His bucket?" she thought. How are you going to get this "living water"? She wondered. "Art thou greater than our father Jacob, which gave us this well?
Her interest is peaked, though she is skeptical of how this Jewish man could have something greater than the Patriarch Jacob. As previously stated, the Samaritans accepted only the first five Books of the Bible written by Moses (the Pentateuch). Jesus could have discussed the Jewish and Samaritan claims of Jacob, but He keeps focused on her greater need, a well of water that brings everlasting life. Now she is really curious about what she has to say, she asks to have "this water."
However, Jesus knows that she is not ready to trust Him, so He must first reveal her need for salvation. "Go call thy husband" followed by "thou hast had five husbands" causes the woman to perceive that Jesus is more than a normal man. She is getting closer, but still skirts the issue as she tries to change the subject. She declares Him to be prophet and wants to discuss "religion." Like many today, she thinks that the location ("this mountain...Jerusalem") is the difference of their "religions." today people think that whether it's Rome, Mecca, or Jerusalem, it's all the same thing. They say whether it's Jehovah, Budda or Allah it's all the same! But God says, "Look unto me, and be ye saved, all the ends of the earth: for I am God, and there is none else." (Isa. 45:22; The phrase "none else" is used of God 10 times.) Also, notice he reference to Mount Gerizim.
Jesus directs the conversation back to the main issue, her need to seek God. The Samaritans had a copy-cat religion with a rival temple and priests, yet they did not know what they worshipped. Jesus declares "Salvation is of the Jews." He did not begin His conversation with this statement, but now she is willing to hear it. The Bible and the Saviour Himself came by the Jews. The key is not worshipping God in relation to some religious shrine, but rather worshipping "the Father in spirit and in truth." Dr. Greene says "To worship 'in spirit' is to worship from the heart - not in form, not a carnal worship consisting of ceremonies, offerings, sacrifices, feasts and keeping of days. To worship 'in truth' means to worship by and through the one way to God. We do not worship today through sacrifices of lambs, doves, bullocks; we worship God through truth." (p.223) We too must worship God on His terms: "in spirit and in truth."
Jesus has offered her "living water" and then revealed to her that He knew her secret sins. He told her that true worship involved more than buildings or sacrifices; true worship is in spirit and in truth. Now she has no more questions or excuses and she wants to know about the Messiah and Jesus is ready to reveal Himself to her. In 4:26 is one of the clearest declarations of Jesus' claim to be the Messiah. (Compare Mk. 14:62)
It is important to realize that Jesus did not claim to be a good man or a good teacher, He claimed to be God. To make Jesus to be anything less than God is not the truth. When a ruler addressed Jesus as "Good Master" Jesus rebuked him saying: "Why callest thou me good? There is none good but One, that is, God." (Mark 10:18). The Samaritan woman's response is not recorded, but her actions reveal her faith. She immediately went out to find others to meet the Saviour.
Would to God that all of us would follow her example!

 

Amen.

Thank you, Jim

God Bless

Sheila

 

Tuesday, 16th November, 2004

2 Corinthians 1v21-22
Now he which stablisheth us with you in Christ, and hath anointed us, is God; Who hath also sealed us, and given the earnest of the Spirit in our hearts.

Here we see a great example of how to handle trials. He explains the trial that he has been through, encourages the other believers about the purpose of trials, then he turns his focus to God. This them runs all throughout the Word of God. Here Paul explains three things that God has done.

1. God established us in Christ
2. God anointed us
3. God sealed us and gave us the Holy Spirit as our earnest

Here we find great comfort. No matter what trials we find ourselves in, no matter how dark the outlook, no matter how bad it may seem, we don’t have to be defeated or downhearted because God hasn’t changed.

· He is the One who established us in Christ. We could not establish ourselves in Christ. Our salvation was not based on our works or worthiness.

· We serve Him as He has anointed us for service.

· He has sealed us and given us the Holy Spirit as the proof, or “down payment” on that sealing.

Far to often Christians base their feelings on themselves. God’s view is different. There is no reason to become despondent or to despair over our situations.

Our trial have a purpose, to allow us to comfort others and the learn a “gratitude attitude”. In those trial we can rest I full assurance that no how bad it seems, we can cling to the fact that are established, anointed, and our eternity is sealed as a work of God Himself so in that we need never be moved.

 

Jim: Would to God that all M.D.'s were so minded!

Roger: How thankful I am to be secure in Him. Thanks.

 

And He is with us in our trials. We don't suffer alone.

Thank you Roger,

God Bless

Sheila

 

Thursday, 18th November, 2004

Not for that we have dominion over your faith, but are helpers of your joy: ... 2 Corinthians 1v24

There is a question being discussed on another forum about “How much does the 21st century church resemble the 21st century church?” Being something of a history fan this thought intrigues me.

If, by some miracle, we could travel back to Corinth in the 1st century I wonder if we would recognise a local church. If those folks could travel in time to today, would they recognise our churches?

Our facilities would surely be a shock to each other. Can you imagine one of them walking into one of our multi-million dollar mega-churches? Can you imagine visiting a service in the home of one of the believers?

Hopefully, once we got the language down we could fellowship around the preaching of the unchanging Word of God. What fun we could have sharing with each other about how God is working once we found this common ground.

There is another area that I hope we would find common ground, but fear that many times we would differ. Notice Paul’s spirit above. In spite of a very dynamic character we see in Paul’s comment an example of true Bible humility. He gives his instructions to the church throughout chapter 1. Here in the last verse he says, “Not that we would exercise dominion over you.” As an apostle, divinely appointed by God for a task, Paul would have had every right to lord this authority over them. Yet here, he chooses to remind them that he would rather not lord that authority. Instead, he desired that they would work together for the joy that is in Christ.

What would our fellowship be like if our motivation was to work together for the joy of each other? What would the discussions on the Baptist Board be like? Do you think that our first century brothers and sisters would recognise our fellowship as Christian?

 

Catching up on the posts here guys.
My thought Roger was that perhaps the biggest shock to first century Christians would be that we can come together without fear of either soldiers or the Jews.

 

Perhaps that is part of the reason that our fellowship is not a close at it might be. We have nothing to fear from the outside.

 

There are great treasures in the Bible, even if there is no money!
Thanks Jim.

 

But our greatest treasure is still in Heaven.

Thank you Jim,

God Bless

Sheila

 

Saturday November 20,

(John 4:31) In the mean while his disciples prayed him, saying, Master, eat.
(John 4:32) But he said unto them, I have meat to eat that ye know not of.

Spirtitual Food John 4:27-38

The narrative turns to the disciples, who have returned from eating lunch. It is interesting how that these prejudiced Jews, who didn't even want to come through Samaria in the first place, can't pass up a diner with the coffee pot on! They begin to ask amongst themselves if any had brought food for the Master. But He was more concerned with spiritual food and begins to look at the harvest fields Evidently, the people of Sychar are coming to the well as Jesus points to them and says, "Look on the fields, for they are white already to harvest." He then gives a principle about sowing and reaping. The key is not who sows and who reaps, but that the fruit (souls) is gathered. The portion ends with the account of the Samaritans coming to Jesus and so many believed on Him that Jesus abode two extra days with them.

(John 4:42) And said unto the woman, Now we believe, not because of thy saying: for we have heard him ourselves, and know that this is indeed the Christ, the Saviour of the world.
Savior
(John 4:39-42)
This unique title of the Lord Jesus Christ assures us that, when the Father sent His Son away from the glories of heaven down to a world lost in sin, it was not just to be the Messiah of the Jews, or to assume David's throne as King of Israel; or to punish the wicked Gentile nations.
This special title was not used by "His own" (the Jews), but by none other than the Samaritans, as we see here. They came to know Jesus as He ministered among them for two days. These people were mostly of Gentile background with a mixture of Israeli blood who had become adherents of a quasi-Jewish religion that was also part pagan.
But they were actually looking for a Saviour, and their testimony, here in our text was, "...we know that this is indeed the Christ, the Saviour of the world." They perceived what all too many of the Jews could not grasp, that He had come to bring salvation to lost sinners of every nation, not just to Israel or Samaria. As He said later:
"I did not come to judge the world, but to save the world. (John 12:47b)
And so He commanded His disciples:
"And that repentance and remission of sins should be preached in His name to all nations, beginning in Jerusalem." (Luke 24:47)

(John 4:53) So the father knew that it was at the same hour, in the which Jesus said unto him, Thy son liveth: and himself believed, and his whole house.
The Nobleman
(John 4:43-54)
As Jesus continues back to Galilee, a nobleman from Capernaum comes to meet Him and requests that Jesus come and heal his son. The man is confronted by Jesus Who challenges the ruler to not wait for a sign or miracle, but to trust God by faith. Jesus tells him, "Go thy way; thy son liveth." Would the man leave the only One Who could heal his son and trust Jesus' word? He does and as the nobleman returns home, he is met by his servants coming to find him. He finds the hour of his son's recovery was the hour that he had been with Jesus!

 

Sunday November 21, 2004

The Gospel According to John
Chapter 5

Intoduction

Chapter 5 can be divided into two sections: the healing of the lame man at the pool of Bethesda;
and the Lord's answer to His critics because he had done so on a Sabbath day.

What I would like for us to consider today, before we get to the Scripture narrative, is to have a look at this pool. This pool in Jerusalem is not mentioned anywhwere else in Scripture, though it has been identified and excavated several years ago.

We are told that the five porches which surrounded the pool were filled with a great multituded of those who needed to be healed. All of them had gathered at the pool as they heard word of the work of an angel who would come down and disturb the water.

The "troubled" waters of 5:3,4 is removed in some versions of the Bible. Dr. Henry Morris writes:
"This verse (5:4) is omitted in certain manuscripts, along with the last part of John 5:3. Because of what seems to be the unlikelihood of this cyclic miracle, a lot of versions have omitted it. The problem is, however, that John 5:7 (which is in all manuscripts) makes no sense without it. Furthermore, the great majority of the manuscripts do include all of these verses. Whether the miracle seems reasonable or not to our scientific minds, it is probable that it is recorded in John in his original text and was later deleted in some manuscripts because of the skepticism of the copyists. There is nothing impossible about the miracle no matter how unusual it seems. Perhaps God, in view of the long absence of a prophetical voice in Israel, elected to maintain this continuing witness to His grace and power in Jerusalem as a sort of perpetual Messianic promise to be repeated regularly until Christ would come." (p. 1140-1141)
There is a notable comparison to be made here:

Those that stepped into this pool at the right time were healed of whatever disease he/she had.

Those that are in Christ Jesus are "healed" of the worst affliction that everyone has: the loathsome malady of sin and its consequences. Here the Word of God also speaks of a time constraint to do this: NOW is the accepted time, NOW is the day of salvation.

We should believe in all the miracles recorded in the Bible. It is not for us to determine whether or not we understand or comprehend the workings of the all-powerful Creator of the universe!
His ways are far above our ways.