9/6/13

From Gary... For the birds...


Lunchtime, but not for everybody.  Talk about a "put down".  One is filled and the other goes hungry.  If birds have feelings, then I would guess someone is very unhappy right about now!!!  If we take this concept into the first century world, then I wonder how the gentiles felt when they encountered a Jew.  Resentful- you bet!!! But, that was to come to an end.  Here is the story:

Acts, Chapter 10

 1 Now there was a certain man in Caesarea, Cornelius by name, a centurion of what was called the Italian Regiment,  2 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.  3 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!” 


  4  He, fastening his eyes on him, and being frightened, said, “What is it, Lord?” 

He said to him, “Your prayers and your gifts to the needy have gone up for a memorial before God. 5 Now send men to Joppa, and get Simon, who is also called Peter.  6 He lodges with one Simon, a tanner, whose house is by the seaside.  

  7  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.  8 Having explained everything to them, he sent them to Joppa.  9 Now on the next day as they were on their journey, and got close to the city, Peter went up on the housetop to pray at about noon.  10 He became hungry and desired to eat, but while they were preparing, he fell into a trance.  11 He saw heaven opened and a certain container descending to him, like a great sheet let down by four corners on the earth,  12 in which were all kinds of four-footed animals of the earth, wild animals, reptiles, and birds of the sky.  13 A voice came to him, “Rise, Peter, kill and eat!” 

  14  But Peter said, “Not so, Lord; for I have never eaten anything that is common or unclean.” 

  15  A voice came to him again the second time, “What God has cleansed, you must not call unclean.”   16 This was done three times, and immediately the vessel was received up into heaven. 17 Now while Peter was very perplexed in himself what the vision which he had seen might mean, behold, the men who were sent by Cornelius, having made inquiry for Simon’s house, stood before the gate,  18 and called and asked whether Simon, who was also called Peter, was lodging there. 19 While Peter was pondering the vision, the Spirit said to him, “Behold, three  men seek you. 20 But arise, get down, and go with them, doubting nothing; for I have sent them.” 

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

  22  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.”  23 So he called them in and lodged them. On the next day Peter arose and went out with them, and some of the brothers from Joppa accompanied him.  24 On the next day they entered into Caesarea. Cornelius was waiting for them, having called together his relatives and his near friends.  25 When Peter entered, Cornelius met him, fell down at his feet, and worshiped him.  26 But Peter raised him up, saying, “Stand up! I myself am also a man.”  27 As he talked with him, he went in and found many gathered together.  28 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.  29 Therefore also I came without complaint when I was sent for. I ask therefore, why did you send for me?” 

  30  Cornelius said, “Four days ago, I was fasting until this hour, and at the ninth hour, I prayed in my house, and behold, a man stood before me in bright clothing,  31 and said, ‘Cornelius, your prayer is heard, and your gifts to the needy are remembered in the sight of God.  32 Send therefore to Joppa, and summon Simon, who is also called Peter. He lodges in the house of Simon a tanner, by the seaside. When he comes, he will speak to you.’  33 Therefore I sent to you at once, and it was good of you to come. Now therefore we are all here present in the sight of God to hear all things that have been commanded you by God.” 

  34  Peter opened his mouth and said, “Truly I perceive that God doesn’t show favoritism;  35 but in every nation he who fears him and works righteousness is acceptable to him.  36 The word which he sent to the children of Israel, preaching good news of peace by Jesus Christ—he is Lord of all— 37 you yourselves know what happened, which was proclaimed throughout all Judea, beginning from Galilee, after the baptism which John preached;  38 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.  39 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.  40 God raised him up the third day, and gave him to be revealed,  41 not to all the people, but to witnesses who were chosen before by God, to us, who ate and drank with him after he rose from the dead.  42 He commanded us to preach to the people and to testify that this is he who is appointed by God as the Judge of the living and the dead.  43 All the prophets testify about him, that through his name everyone who believes in him will receive remission of sins.” 


God doesn't play favorites. Right in heart and right in action is always right (correct).  It doesn't matter who you are, where you come from, what size you are or the color of your skin.  If verse 35 can be rightly applied to you- you are in.  Leave even the concept of favoritism out of the picture- its for the birds!!!

From Jim McGuiggan... Matthew 12:1-8: The Sabbath's a Person

Matthew 12:1-8: The Sabbath's a Person

Matthew 12:1-8 shows Jesus coming into conflict not with the commands of God but with an established understanding of God’s command. Christ loved the Sabbath because it came from the heart of his Holy Father whose unfathomable generosity and righteousness is expressed in the Sabbath command. 
The Sabbath expressed God-given freedom and release from bondage and Jesus embodied the very heart of God in that respect. He himself was all that the Sabbath stood for and expressed, only he said it better than the Sabbath and in him the truth in the Sabbath plumbed greater depths.
Matthew 11:28 is followed by 12:1-8 for perfectly good reasons. The Jewish scholar, Jacob Neusner in his Introduction to Judaism well expresses the difference between the Jewish Sabbath and a gloomy “Christian” Sunday when he speaks of its pleasures and joy and Bible reading and praise.
For hardworking peasants under Roman taxation and domination the Sabbath was a godsend. It was assurance and hope and the thought of downing tools and enjoying the provision God had given them was something to look forward to. The Sabbath would remind them of Egyptian slavery and domination and of God’s rescue—Rome would be no different for God was the God of Rome. Leaders took this gift that God gave to his people and made it a burden, a yoke that rubbed them raw. The Sabbath lost what the Sabbath meant. Looking at such people Jesus said in Matthew 11:28, “I’m the Sabbath!” 
And that’s something like what he meant when he said in 12:8 that he was the Lord of the Sabbath. He wasn’t saying that the Sabbath meant one thing but that he as the Messiah was claiming executive privilege for himself and his disciples (as Calvin claimed he was doing). He was claiming that the Sabbath was to be understood in light of him. He was not putting a new interpretation on the Sabbath and much less was he saying something like, “I make laws; I don’t obey them.” No, Jesus said he came to fulfil the law and the prophets (compare Matthew 5:17).  
These leaders should have known that the disciples were guiltless and they would have known it if they had understood Hosea 6:6. It wasn’t the case that Christ’s Messiahship trumped the Pharasaic authority. It wasn’t a case of them saying, “Here’s our authoritative ruling” and Jesus saying, “I’m the Messiah and I outrank you so your rules don’t apply to me or mine.”  He said something like, “If you had understood Hosea 6:6 you wouldn’t have made such rulings.” Their conflict was not with Jesus alone but with the God of the prophets. Their conflict was not with a new interpretation but with an old and abiding truth. 
So when Rendel Harris years ago said that the disciples in Matthew 12 were plucking freedom and eating liberation he didn’t mean they were gaining freedom from God’s Sabbath. God’s Sabbath never stood for anything else but freedom and joyful release and God’s Son in his very person and work embodied that for poor souls that were captive in all the ways that a poor soul can be captive! 

©2004 Jim McGuiggan. All materials are free to be copied and used as long as money is not being made.

Many thanks to brother Ed Healy, for allowing me to post from his website, the abiding word.com.

From Mark Copeland... From Heirs Apparent To Heirs Actual (Galatians 4:1-7)



                     "THE EPISTLE TO THE GALATIANS"

              From Heirs Apparent To Heirs Actual (4:1-7)

INTRODUCTION

1. In his epistle to the churches of Galatia, Paul...
   a. Opposed those teaching that Gentiles must be circumcised and keep
      the Law of Moses
   b. Presented a series of five arguments contending that we are
      justified by faith in Christ

2. We have seen Paul make three of these arguments so far...
   a. The personal argument - Ga 3:1-5
      1) How they received the Spirit
      2) From whom they received the Spirit
   b. The scriptural argument - Ga 3:6-25
      1) The example of Abraham
      2) The curse of the Law
      3) The priority of the Promise over the Law
      4) The purpose of the Law
   c. The practical argument - Ga 3:26-29
      1) In Christ they are one, as children of God, Abraham's seed
      2) As such they are heirs of the promise regarding the Seed

3. As we begin the fourth chapter, Paul continues with his practical
   argument...
   a. Under the Law they were simply "heirs apparent"
   b. In Christ Jesus they have become "heirs actual"

[That we might appreciate our blessings in Christ, especially the
earnest of our inheritance, let's examine Paul's explanation of how they
went "From Heirs Apparent To Heirs Actual"...]

I. UNDER THE LAW AS HEIRS APPARENT

   A. THEY WERE NO DIFFERENT THAN SLAVES...
      1. They were still children - Ga 4:1-2
         a. Heirs, yet no different from slaves regarding inheritance
         b. Masters, yet still under guardians and stewards
      2. They were in bondage under the elements of the world - Ga 4:3
         a. "The word rendered 'elements' (stoicheion), properly means a
            row or series; a little step; a pin or peg, as the gnomen of
            a dial; and then anything 'elementary,' as a sound, a
            letter. It then denotes the elements or rudiments of any
            kind of instruction, and in the NT is applied to the first
            lessons or principles of religion; He 5:12." - Barnes
         b. "Here the figure is kept up of the reference to the infant
            (Ga 4:1,3); and the idea is, that lessons were taught under
            the Jewish system adapted to their nonage - to a state of
            childhood. They were treated as children under tutors and
            governors." - Barnes, ibid.

   B. THEY WERE UNDER GUARD...
      1. They were kept under guard by the Law - cf. Ga 3:23
      2. The Law had been their tutor, schoolmaster (paidagogos) - cf.
         Ga 3:24
         a. "a tutor, i.e. a guardian and guide of boys. Among the
            Greeks and the Romans the name was applied to trustworthy
            slaves who were charged with the duty of supervising the
            life and morals of boys belonging to the better class.  The
            boys were not allowed so much as to step out of the house
            without them before arriving at the age of manhood."
            - Thayer
         b. "paidagogos; from pais (G3816), a child, and agogos, a
            leader, which is from ago (G71), to lead. An instructor or
            teacher of children, a schoolmaster, a pedagogue (1Co 4:15;
            Ga 3:24-25). Originally referred to the slave who conducted
            the boys from home to the school. Then it became a teacher
            or an educator." - Complete Word Study Dictionary

[Such was the condition of those under the Law of Moses.  But now in
Christ things are dramatically different...]

II. IN JESUS CHRIST AS HEIRS ACTUAL

   A. THEY ARE NOW SONS...
      1. They are no longer under a tutor
         a. The Law had served its purpose as tutor well - cf. Ga 3:
            23-24a
         b. But now they were called to be "justified by faith" - cf. Ga 3:24b-25
      2. They are now sons of God
         a. Through faith in Christ Jesus - cf. Ga 3:26
         b. For those baptized into Christ have put on Christ - cf. Ga 3:27
         c. They have been "born again" - cf. Jn 3:5

   B. THEY HAVE RECEIVED THE ADOPTION OF SONS...
      1. They have been redeemed - Ga 4:4-5
         a. By the Son sent by His Father
            1) When the fullness of time had come (when conditions were
               just right)
            2) Born of a woman (Mary), born under the Law (of Moses)
         b. For the purpose of:
            1) Redeeming those under the Law (Jews)
            2) Receiving the adoption as sons (both Jews and Gentiles)
      2  They have received the Spirit of God in their hearts - Ga 4:6
         a. By whom they cry out "Abba, Father!" - cf. Ro 8:15
         b. Who bears witness with their spirit that they are children
            and heirs of God, joint heirs with Christ - cf. Ro 8:16-17
         c. Who pours out the love of God in their hearts - cf. Ro 5:5
         d. As explained by others:
            1) "And being made sons by the Son through the operation of
               faith (Jn 1:12), the Spirit of Christ is bestowed upon us
               to bring us to blissful realization of our son ship, so
               that we may speak to God, calling him Abba, Father.  Abba
               is the Syriac for father. The Syriac and Greek names are
               both used by Paul, probably that all the tender
               associations which, to either Jews or Greeks, clustered
               around the paternal name, might be, at the sound of the
               sacred word, transferred to God. Thus, by the blessed
               ministration of Christ, all who believed on him in
               Galatia passed from servitude and wardship to the estate
               of sons and heirs - Ro 8:17." - McGarvey on Ga 4:6
            2) "For ye did not receive the spirit of bondage. The time
               is referred to when they were born again, and entered the
               kingdom of God. They did not receive the spirit of
               bondage, of slavery to sin, so that they would obey its
               dictates, and thus be in fear of death. Instead, they
               received the Holy Spirit according to promise (Ac 2:38)."
               - B. W. Johnson on Ro 8:15
            3) "The Spirit of adoption. The Spirit God bestows upon
               those who are accepted as his children. Paul was writing
               to the Romans, among whom the adoption of children, not
               their own by nature, was common. They would understand
               this to mean that those converted, or born again, are
               adopted as children of God; upon those thus adopted he
               bestows his Spirit; this Spirit in their hearts produces
               a loving trust that enables them to address God as
               Father." - Johnson, ibid.
      3. They are heirs of God through Christ - Ga 4:7; cf. Ro 8:16-17
         a. Receiving the Spirit as a guarantee (arrabon) - cf. Ep 1:
            13-14; 2Co 1:22; 5:5
            1) "An earnest; money which in purchases is given as a
               pledge or down payment that the full amount will
               subsequently be paid." - Thayer
            2) "A pledge, something which stands for part of the price
               and paid beforehand to confirm the transaction. Used in
               the NT only in a figurative sense and spoken of the Holy
               Spirit which God has given to believers in this present
               life to assure them of their future and eternal
               inheritance." - Complete Word Study Dictionary
         b. The Spirit is but the first fruits - cf. Ro 8:23
            1) With the redemption of the body (the resurrection) yet to
               come - cf. Ep 4:30
            2) Until the redemption of the purchased possession - cf. Ep 1:14
            3) When we will receive the ultimate inheritance:  "God is
               with us!" - Re 21:1-7

CONCLUSION

1. To seek justification by the works of the Law is to return to being
   "heirs apparent"...
   a. In which one is but a child under a guardian
   b. In which one is still in bondage to basic elements of religion

2. To be justified by an obedient faith in Christ is to become "heirs
   actual"...
   a. In which one has begun to receive the inheritance as sons of God
   b. The first fruit being the Spirit of God, who is a guarantee of
      that which is to come

3. Are we benefiting from the blessing of the Spirit in our lives...?
   a. Promised to those who believe? - Jn 7:37-39
   b. Given to those who become children of God? - Ga 4:6
   c. Whose indwelling should engender a strong affection for God as our
      Father? - Ga 4:6; Ro 5:5

Paul will have much more to say about the Spirit in the life of the
Christian in his epistle to the Galatians (cf. Ga 5:5,16-25; 6:8).  For
now, let Peter remind you how to receive the Spirit... - cf. Ac 2:38-39

Executable Outlines, Copyright © Mark A. Copeland, 2011

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