Ministry of Love

The intention of this blog is to share Biblical messages at least on a weekly basis. Any response is appreciated. I do not expect everyone to agree with my interpretation of Biblical passages. I will try to respond with love and thoughtfulness.

Saturday, August 16, 2008

Musings;08/16/08, Satan Versus Jesus, by John.

Satan versus Jesus
Matthew 4:1-11

1. All of us are tempted to sin now and again, aren't we? I Corinthians 10:13 says, "No temptation has seized you except what is common to man. And God is faithful; he will not let you be tempted beyond what you can bear. But when you are tempted, he will also provide a way out so that you can stand up under it."
2. The same Greek word was used for "temptation" in I Corinthians 10:13 and in Matthew 4:1.
(1) Jesus was tempted in every way just as we are, but without sin.
(2) I Corinthians emphasizes that temptations are able, and do, grab us like a trap snaps shut on a mouse!
(3) The word used in I Corinthians 10 is translated a number of different ways in the New Testament. It is "lambano".
(4) The word "seized" in Revelation 20:1 is different. It is "krateo". There, Satan is seized by an angel and bound for a 1,000 years.
(5) When we are seized by temptation, we have a way to escape. When Satan is seized, he is helpless!
(6) When Satan tempted Jesus, his temptations were useless! Jesus refused each one and used Scripture to rebuke Satan. He always did the Father's will! And He gives us the power to resist!
2. All temptation comes from Satan. He knows mankind. He knows what makes us tick and what will make us explode into sin unless we look to God to show us how to escape it.
3. Do you sometimes feel like confessing? When we were out to supper the other night, someone shared that tomatoes and potatoes aggravate arthritis. I decided to test that out, and I haven't had any of either until yesterday at McDonald's. Dolores got french-fries and she took a slice of tomato off of her sandwich and laid it on a napkin on the tray. I was immediately tempted! Those fries smelled so good! And that slice of tomato was just going to lie there and go to waste! I took two fries, but I turned the tomato down. It was still crying out, "Eat me!" when I dumped the tray into the garbage.
4. How does Satan tempt you?
5. Well, lets look at how Satan tempted Jesus.

I. His First Temptation Was to Misuse Power.

1. Satan timed his temptation to have the greatest possible effect.
2. V. 3. He knew how hungry and thirsty Jesus was. He appealed to Jesus' hunger, and tempted Him to use His power for personal satisfaction.
a. That might not be wrong for you and me, but it was for Him.
b. The Father intended for Jeus to use His power for others. Such misuse makes it easier to please yourself more and more. I don't think Satan realized how Jesus would accomplish the Father's will, but that was his goal.
3. V 4: His Father gave Him an escape, Deuteronomy 8:3; "Man does not live on bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God."
4. The Bible state's we have an escape route for every temptation! You may need the Holy Spirit to direct you to it, but it is already there.

II. His Second Temptation Was Designed to Put His Father on the Spot.

1. V 6; Satan appealed to His human desire to prove His Father doesn't lie.
2. When someone taunts us about our faith, don't we want to accept the challenge?
Satan knows, and he misused Psalm 91:11,12 to convince Jesus it was okay to accept the challenge.
(1) You can misuse the Scripture to prove anything!
(2) For instance, you can use the Bible to prove killing your brother is all right! Genesis 4:8 says, "Cain attacked his brother Abel and killed him." In Luke 10: 37, Jesus says, "Go and do thou likewise." That's misuse of the Scripture! And Satan does that constantly!
3. When someone challenges God, don't you want to defend God? Satan knows we do.
4. Instead, Jesus looked for the escape route, and answered Satan with Deuteronomy 6:16, (v. 7), "Do not put the Lord your God to the test."
4. We don't need to protect or prove God. He is capable of handling every situation that rises.
4. We do need to avoid trying to put God on the spot. Remember Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego? When Nebuchadnezzar challenged them with the fiery furnace, they did not put God on the spot. Daniel 3:16-18; "O Nebuchadnezzar, we do not need to defend ourselves before you in this matter. If we are thrown into the blazing furnace, the God we serve is able to save us from it, and he will rescue us from your hand. O King. But even if he does not, we want you to know, O king, that we will not serve your gods or worship the image of gold you have set up."

III. Satan's Third Temptation Is An Appeal to Take the Easy Way.

1. You Can Rule the World Now.
2. I like to get things done quickly, don't you? Take fasting for instance. I wouldn't mind fasting if it didn't go so slowly!
3. Jesus had to wait for the right time to die in order to accomplish His Father's will.
4. Satan lied! He has never owned God's creation, and he may rule the world, but he could not do what he was suggesting.
5. He may rule lost people, but he does not rule saved people, and creation belongs to the Creator!
6. Jesus answered him with Deuteronomy 6:13 (v 10); "Worship the Lord your God, and serve him only."
7. With that quotation from the Old Testament, He also commanded, "Away from me, Satan!" and that proved He already controlled Satan!

Conclusion:

1. Satan will use every trick and resource he has to lead us into sin, and you may have noted all of these temptations were to self-gratification.
2. God has already made a way to escape! We do not have to sin!
3. Satan is powerful, but Jesus has always been and always will be more powerful by far.
4. Ordinarily I would say "we" right here, but I have to use the pronoun "you" because this is so personal. Can you overpower Satan? How?
5. James 4:7; "Submit yourselves, then to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you."
(1) First, submit yourself to God.
(2) Second, Resist the devil.
(3) Look to God's Spirit to guide you as you resist Satan. Satn has no choice! He must leave you!
8. And God will make you the victor!
S

Friday, August 01, 2008

Musings;07/31/08, "Jehovah" Revisited, by John.

Musings;07/31/08, "Jehovah" Revisited.

Jesus in John 16:7,13 said, “I tell you the truth: It is for your good that I am going away. Unless I go away, the Counselor will not come to you; but if I go, I will send him to you.... When he, the Spirit of truth, comes, he will guide you into all truth.” The term translated “Counselor” is “paraclete.” It means literally, “One called to stand alongside of.” Jesus in John 14:6 said that He is the way, the truth and the life. The Holy Spirit is the Spirit of Jesus and God the Father of all. That shows that He is also God. If you believe in the Holy Trinity, people label you Trinitarian. I am a Trinitarian, I suppose, but labels generally are not accurate where spiritual issues are concerned, and I don't care for them.

We cannot conceive of God in three persons because we are in the physical realm. In our minds we can illustrate the trinity with our own families, but we carry that too far when we see God as being a separate Father, Son and Spirit. By faith, we can leap across that chasm to believe they are One God.
The word, “Jehovah,” has been used to designate the name of God for many, many years, but it is not a Biblical word at all. It is a combination of two, sometimes three, Biblical words joined together by the Jews themselves. The ancient Hebrew language did not have written vowels. Their alphabet letters are called radicals instead of consonants. Here's an English sentence written without vowels. Try to decipher it: bght n nn t th str. It is, “I bought an onion at the store.” Did you manage to work it out? If you did, you are better at language than most of us are.

Hebrew became very hard for native Israelites to pronounce as the Aramaic language began to be widely used in the Promised Land. We believe Jesus and His disciples spoke Aramaic. We know most of Israel did after the captivity and during the occupation by Rome, and there are Aramaic words in the New Testament.

The Masoretes, a group of extremely religious scholars, became concerned because Hebrew was not being used enough for the populace to remember how to pronounce the words. The Masoretes were so named from the Hebrew word “masorah.” It means “tradition.” These scribes intended to preserve their tradition. They developed a way to write vowel sounds, and carefully added them to the Scripture texts including the marginal notes made by other scribes of the past. They began their work about the second century.

Jews believed a person who added to or subtracted from God’s word would immediately fall under the wrath of God. If they made a mistake in copying the text, they destroyed that copy and started anew. Their reason for that is stated clearly in Revelation 22:18,19. It says, “I warn everyone who hears the words of the prophecy of this book: If anyone adds anything to them, God will add to him the plagues described in this book. And if anyone takes words away from this book of prophecy, God will take away from him his share in the tree of life and in the holy city, which are described in this book.”

Because of that belief, the Masoretes used the area above and below the line of print to provide guides to pronunciation. That technique satisfied their fears. The Hebrew text we use today contains those markings. They were also used by all of the translators of the middle ages. Without them today, we would have an even more formidable task in determining a correct translation.

That prepares us to see that the Masoretes are responsible for readers today using the word, “Jehovah.” It is a combination of YAHVEH and the vowel sounds of ADONAI, or ELOHIM. Using our English alphabet, I am printing the first two words below to illustrate what the Masoretes used:
YHWH, ADONAI.

When Jews encountered YHWH in the Scripture, they read it either as ADONAI or ELOHEM.

The Masoretes were aware the readers never spoke the word YHWH. They thought a person with unforgiven sin pronouncing God's holy name would die instantly. The Masoretes placed the vowel markings below the radicals of YHWH, so the people would say adonai (Lord) or elohim (Divine Being). When the Jews saw YHVH with ADONAI vowels, they said ADONAI! If they saw it with the vowels of Elohim, they pronounced it as Elohim. The earliest European translators, other than Jerome, did not have any document that dated back beyond about 1000 A.D. That meant they were looking at the Masoretes’ vowel markings, and they are the ones who translated YHVH as “Jehovah.” At that time they knew nothing of what the Israelites said when they saw it.

Many people acknowledge that God is our Heavenly Father. Christians believe the New Testament, and we stand in opposition to any who disregard it. To disregard the New Testament also means ignoring, or failing to understand, the thousands of prophecies of the Old Testament concerning the Messiah. It is plain that Jesus was and is the Messiah. If you have any doubt about it, study of the Old Testament prophecies. Below are several that should whet your appetite to look for more.

In Genesis 3:14,15, God spoke to the serpent and in the latter part of verse 15 said, “I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and hers; he will crush your head, and you will strike his heel.” This is the first reference to the coming Messiah sent by God the Father to save the world. It also tells us that He would be virgin born and that He would conquer Satan.

In Isaiah 53:1-12, the prophecy of the Messiah (Jesus) was not a winsome looking man. At best, He was ordinary in appearance. He was despised and rejected by human beings. He was a man of sorrows, familiar with suffering. People considered Him condemned and afflicted by God, but the prophet knew those afflictions were placed on Him for our salvation. Jesus went to the cross just as a lamb is led to slaughter without any sound of complaint. He died for our transgressions. He was given a grave with wicked people. He was buried in a rich man’s grave although He Himself was never rich in a worldly sense. He was innocent, but He took our sins on Himself. Even the prophets did not have a full knowledge of eternal life, but there is an intimation of Christ becoming the first-fruit of eternal life in the latter part of the chapter. In verse 10 these words appear, “He will see his offspring and prolong his days.” Jesus arose from the dead, and He is now in the presence of His Father making intercession for us according to I John 2: 1, “We have one who speaks to the Father in our defense--Jesus Christ, the Righteous One.”

In conclusion, we believe in the Holy Trinity, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. We believe they are One God! This belief seems mathematically impossible to many people, but it isn’t. For instance, I have one telephone number. It is made up of a triple digit area code, a triple digit prefix and a final four digits. Altogether, it is one number. Why is it so hard to believe that we have one God Who is Father, Son and Holy Spirit?

In John 10:27-30 Jesus said, “My sheep listen to my voice; I know them, and they follow me. I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish; no one can snatch them out of my hand. My Father, who has given them to me, is greater than all; no one can snatch them out of my Father’s hand. I and the Father are one.” It is impossible to separate the Father and the Son in this passage. They are, as stated in verse 30, One!

Jesus in John 16:7,13 said, “I tell you the truth: It is for your good that I am going away. Unless I go away, the Counselor will not come to you; but if I go, I will send him to you.... When he, the Spirit of truth, comes, he will guide you into all truth.” The term translated “Counselor” is “Paraclete.” It literally means, “One called to stand alongside of.” Jesus in John 14:6 said, that He is the way, the truth and the life. The Holy Spirit is the Spirit of Jesus and of God. That reinforces the truth that He is also God.

We cannot conceive of God in three persons in our minds without equating it with our own families, but we carry that too far when we see God as being a separate Father, Son and Spirit. By faith, we can leap across that chasm to believe they are One God. The Bible's statement of earliest time states that the Spirit of God hovered over the waters. Then God spoke. In those words, we can see the Spirit, the Father, and the Word. That Word according to John 1:1 was God and was with God at creation. Verse 14 tells us that the Word became flesh, and we human beings beheld His glory, the glory of God's only born Son. That satisfies me, and I believe it should satisfy everyone.