Realizing The Love & Power! (Neh. 6:16)

Passage: Nehemiah 6:16

          And when all our enemies heard of it, all the nations around us were afraid and fell greatly in their own esteem, for they perceived that this work had been accomplished with the help of our God.

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Blessings my Friends
Pastor Rod

Let’s Stop Acting Like Teenagers! (Nehemiah 1:8-9 Part 2)

Remember the word that you commanded your servant Moses, saying, ‘If you are unfaithful, I will scatter you among the peoples, 9 but if you return to me and keep my commandments and do them, though your outcasts are in the uttermost parts of heaven, from there I will gather them and bring them to the place that I have chosen, to make my name dwell there.’

THE STUDY:

          Nehemiah is a man who knows scripture. He is also a man who knows the consequences of the sins of a nation. He is made aware of the consequences by knowing scripture. God speaks to Moses, “If you are unfaithful, I will scatter you among the peoples”! In verse 8 & 9 we see two human actions that have a divine reaction. One is negative and the other is positive. 1) If you are unfaithful God will scatter you about the world. But, 2) If you return to me & keep my commandments this relationship will be restored.

          The word “scatter” gives the impression, by its definition, as something that is shattered to pieces to a point that it could only be restored by divine intervention. God places himself in the position to be the only restoring possibility and so his conditions are as followed: return to me and keep my commandments. There is no time, distance, or space (uttermost parts of heaven) that can keep God from fulfilling His promise. The only thing that can keep God from restoring the broken pieces is the people themselves.

                  

WHAT WE CAN WALK AWAY WITH ….

• We walk away this morning with the understanding that this relationship with God is one that has conditions. These conditions are given to us so that we may be “His people” and have the life that was originally planned for us at the very beginning of time. If we dishonor these conditions there is a negative consequence.

APPLICATION:

          Teenagers seem to think parents are people who make their lives miserable and along the way get some type of enjoyment out of it. We tell them to do something or not to do something and if this goes against what the teenager had planned, we become the bad guy! I tell my children, all the time, their mother and I DO NOT lay in bed at night thinking of things to make their lives miserable. We tell them “do something” or “not to do something” for two reasons: 1) Because we know what’s best for them and we have their best interest at heart. 2) Because we love them more than anyone else on this earth.

          We can act like teenagers with God sometimes. Sometimes we believe God is trying to make our lives miserable instead of better and He sits on His throne and gets enjoyment out of our misery. He speaks to our heart, to “do something” or convicts our hearts to “not do something” and we get all bent out of shape about it.

          Today, we need to remember two things: First, God sees all, He knows all, and He has our best interest at heart. Secondly, HE LOVES US more than we can ever imagine. Let’s stop acting like teenagers and start acting like children of God who trust and obey, because there is no other way!

Blessings my friends

Pastor Rod

Caring enough to Intervene! (Jude 22-23 Part 2)

And have mercy on those who doubt; 23 save others by snatching them out of the fire; to others show mercy with fear, hating even the garment stained by the flesh.

THE STUDY:

Yesterday we looked at the first way of reaching out to the non-believers: having mercy. Today we are looking at the next way Jude describes for believers to reach out. Judes dear friends must snatch others from the fire and save them. Some people need to be helped directly and vigorously. Fire is used frequently in the Bible as an image of everlasting punishment (e.g., Matt 5:22; Mark 9:43, 48). The appeal is probably influenced by Zech 3:2, where Joshua the high priest is described as “a burning stick snatched from the fire.” Wesley understands fire as imagery for “sin and temptation.” These lead people to the fire of final judgment.

Those snatched from the fire are probably believers who have fallen into sinful behavior under the influence of the false teachers. They have not already fallen into the fires of hell through their sinful behavior. But they are on the brink of it and can be snatched back before they fall into it.

Snatching is a vivid word. It means “to seize upon with force.” The word suggests that an aggressive and direct path of action is required for the salvation of some people. The faithful Christians of the community were to snatch and save others before it was too late.^[1]

           

WHAT WE CAN WALK AWAY WITH ….

• We walk away with the understanding that believers are not only to show Mercy but there will come a time when we need a more drastic approach such as with force (Snatching).  

APPLICATION:

          Have you ever watched the show “Intervention?” It’s a program about the realities facing addicts of many kinds. Each program follows one or two participants, each of whom has an addiction or other mentally and/or physically damaging problem and believes that they are being filmed for a documentary on their problem.

An intervention is an orchestrated attempt by one or many, people – usually family and friends – to get someone to seek professional help with an addiction or some kind of traumatic event or crisis, or other serious problem.

As I read this passage this morning I thought about this show! Jude tells us that we must love the non-believers by displaying mercy. But there will come a time when are love must go to the next level which is by force. This is not promoting physical harm to someone but loving them enough to physically do something (Taking away their phones, their computers, their car, and the list could go on). We need to love them enough to say “it matters to me whether you spend eternity with Christ or not!” Let us care enough to intervene!

Blessings my friends

Pastor Rod

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^[1] Powers, D. G. (2010). 1 & 2 Peter/Jude: A Commentary in the Wesleyan Tradition. New Beacon Bible Commentary (295–296). Kansas City, MO: Beacon Hill Press.

What’s Your Goal? (Jude 20-21 Part 4)

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But you, beloved, building yourselves up in your most holy faith and praying in the Holy Spirit, 21 keep yourselves in the love of God, waiting for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ that leads to eternal life.

THE STUDY:

          Jude issues his last command: Believers must wait for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ that leads to eternal life. Mercy is the emotion that arises when one sees another person’s affliction. It is frequently used in Scripture to refer to the eschatological hope of God’s people (e.g., Matt 5:7; 2 Tim 1:18). The mercy of God as revealed through Jesus Christ enables believers to have hope for the future. Not even the faithful Christian escapes condemnation except by the Lord’s mercy. Our hope of salvation is based solely on mercy.

Waiting for (prosdechomenoi) is also used in eschatological contexts to describe the expectation of believers for the last day (e.g., Mark 15:43; Luke 2:25; 12:36; Acts 24:15; Titus 2:13). It connotes eager yet patient expectation and the kind of lifestyle that should accompany such hope for deliverance.

Believers have hope for the future because the Christian life has eternal life as its goal and the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ as its basis. Jude enjoins his readers to focus their attention beyond the disruption of the intruders to the glorious day of Christ. On that day, the Lord will return bringing judgment to the false teachers and eternal life to the faithful believers.^[1]

WHAT WE CAN WALK AWAY WITH ….

• We walk away this morning with the understanding that as believers we have a Goal and a basis for it! The goal is eternity with the Father and the basis is the mercy of Christ. Without Jesus we have no way of spending eternity with the Father, “I am the way, and 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 do know him and have seen him.” (John 14:6-7)

CONCLUSION:

           Dave, a childhood friend of mine, and I would lay in the back of his dads truck and answer the question that was on most of the kids of that age: “What am I going to be when I grow up?” Dave was going to work on cars and have his own business. I on the other hand was going to be an architect and have 2 kids named Danielle and Zack and live in North Carolina.

          To update you: Dave works as a Financial Loan Officer and I am a Minister with three kids, one is named Danielle, and living in Northeast Ohio.

          We all should have goals in life: goals in our marriage, goals for our kids, and goals for ourselves individually. But our ultimate goal should be eternity with the Father. We nurture this goal through Christ! As a matter of fact all of our life goals should be centered on the one who can, not only help make them come to fruition but exceed our greatest expectations: CHRIST! It is through His mercy, love, and grace that we will see these goals achieved.

          Today, let Christ be your goal and all the other goals will either fall to the way side or fall into place.

Blessings my friends

Pastor Rod

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^[1] Powers, D. G. (2010). 1 & 2 Peter/Jude: A Commentary in the Wesleyan Tradition. New Beacon Bible Commentary (293–294). Kansas City, MO: Beacon Hill Press.

Growing Apart! (Jude 20-21 Part 3)

Video Blog: Growing Apart! Jude 20-21 Part 3

But you, beloved, building yourselves up in your most holy faith and praying in the Holy Spirit, 21 keep yourselves in the love of God, waiting for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ that leads to eternal life.

THE STUDY:

          Jude reveals the foundation upon which believers should build: their faith and prayer. The third foundation we find Jude commanding his readers: keep yourselves in the love of God. This phrase represents the main imperative of vv 20–21. Jude described his readers as “kept by Jesus Christ” in v 1. But now he urges them to keep yourselves in the love of God.

          This is strikingly similar to Jesus’ instruction to his disciples to “remain in my love” (John 15:9). Jesus explains to his disciples that they remain in his love by obeying his commandments (15:10). It is precisely in the area of obedience to Christ’s commands that the false teachers erred so miserably. Jude reminds his readers that those who truly love God will keep themselves in God’s love. One of the ways believers keep themselves in God’s love is by obeying his commands (John 15:1–17).^[1]

WHAT WE CAN WALK AWAY WITH ….

• We walk away this morning with the understanding that as believers, we are to be actively involved in this relationship with Christ. This means to keep ourselves in God’s love. How do we do this? By Obedience!

CONCLUSION:

          Many of us have had relationships that didn’t last. Allowing time to distance ourselves from that relationship we have been able to learn what went wrong! Majority of time, the failure of that relationship was caused by us not continuing to be actively involved. I counsel couples who start the session off by saying, “We have grown apart!” Why have they grown apart? They stopped being actively involved.

          My wife and I go out on dates. Our friends believe it is because we want to get away from the kids. There is some truth in that but as for our marriage we want to stay active in the nurturing of our relationship. For many couples, the trouble begins when they stop actively nurturing their relationship.

          The same is true in our relationship with Christ. When we start disobeying God’s word we stop actively nurturing the relationship. This is when love dissipates and we are saying “We have grown apart!” Let today be a day that you actively nurture your relationship with Christ by doing what He wants you to do. Let’s show Christ our love by our obedience.    

Blessings my friends

Pastor Rod

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^[1] Powers, D. G. (2010). 1 & 2 Peter/Jude: A Commentary in the Wesleyan Tradition. New Beacon Bible Commentary (293). Kansas City, MO: Beacon Hill Press.

Humbling Session! (Jude 9)

But when the archangel Michael, contending with the devil, was disputing about the body of Moses, he did not presume to pronounce a blasphemous judgment, but said, “The Lord rebuke you.”

               

THE STUDY:

          The archangel Michael provides a brief contrast to the arrogant behavior of the slanderous false teachers. The archangel Michael is mentioned in the Bible (Dan 10:13, 21; 12:1; Rev 12:7). But there is no biblical record of a confrontation between Michael and the devil over the body of Moses.

Apparently, Jude drew this illustration from an apocryphal writing titled The Assumption of Moses or Testament of Moses, as the early Christian writers Clement, Origen, and Didymus claimed. Jewish tradition reports that the archangel Michael was sent by God to bury the body of Moses. But the devil disputed Michael’s right to provide him an honorable burial. Satan argued that Moses’ body belonged to him because he was the lord of “matter” and because Moses was a murderer (Exod 2:12).

Despite the devil’s provocation, Michael was not disrespectful to the devil. Jude writes that he did not presume to pronounce a blasphemous judgement. Instead, he left the matter in God’s hands, rebuking him with the words of Zechariah, The Lord rebuke you!

Two conclusions can be drawn from this illustration of the conflict between Michael and the devil. First, Jude assumed his readers were familiar with this apocryphal tradition.

Second, Jude uses this analogy to condemn the slanderous behavior of the false teachers. Michael refrained from uttering disrespectful words against Satan, despite his own status and Satan’s provocation. By contrast, the human intruders arrogantly slander, revile, and blaspheme angelic beings. If the greatest of the good angels refused to speak evil of the worst of the evil angels, surely no human being may speak evil of any angel.^[1]

WHAT WE CAN WALK AWAY WITH ….

• We walk away this morning with the understanding that as believers of Christ we should not speak evil of anyone! Let us remember who has the authority in this world: God! We are told in scripture how to deal with our enemies, “You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy.’ But I say to you, Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you ..” (Matt. 5:43-44)

CONCLUSION:

           I remember playing tennis with my pastor who at the time was pushing 60 years of age and he was running me around the court like a puppet on a string. My wife would calls these matches with my pastor the “humbling sessions.”

In one of our sessions (matches) I remember coming to the net and we stood and talked a few minutes. For me, this was a time of rest, but for him it was a time for mentoring! I asked him, how do I deal with someone in my life that I consider an enemy? He pointed me to Luke 6:27-28, “But I say to you who hear, Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, bless those who curse you, pray for those who abuse you.

Each one of us has someone who doesn’t like us! This is just human nature. We may not be able to control how they feel about us but we can control how we feel and react toward them. It is not for us to hate but to love. Let us take this day and love, do good, bless, and pray for those who we find as enemies.  

Blessings my friends

Pastor Rod

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^[1] Powers, D. G. (2010). 1 & 2 Peter/Jude: A Commentary in the Wesleyan Tradition. New Beacon Bible Commentary (278). Kansas City, MO: Beacon Hill Press.

Mercy, Peace, and Love! (Jude 2)

          May mercy, peace, and love be multiplied to you.

THE STUDY:

          Jude continues the threefold Scheme by stating mercy, peace, and love. Many translators give the reader a paraphrase of the text. They do so because the literal translation is difficult to comprehend and explain. The exact translation is, “May mercy and peace and love be multiplied to you” (NASB).^[1]

          Mercy and peace were part of typical Jewish blessings (see the priestly blessing of Num 6:22–26). Mercy (eleos) denotes God’s kindness toward his covenant people and peace (eirēnē), the resulting well-being. Mercy is rarely found in NT blessings (1 Tim 1:2; 2 Tim 1:2; 2 John 3). Usually, grace appears in its place. But “the meaning is much the same: God’s unmerited favor bestowed on sinners for their salvation.” The prayer-wish of love (agapē) reinforces the Christian character of the blessing. God’s love is a repeated theme in the letter (vv 1, 2, 21).

All three terms indicate what God does for believers. “Mercy is his compassion, peace is his gift of quiet confidence in the work of Jesus, and love is his generosity in granting us his favors and meeting our needs”. These virtues are neither attained nor sustained through self-effort. They are God’s gifts.^[2]

WHAT WE CAN WALK AWAY WITH ….

• What we can walk away with this morning is that mercy, peace, and love is not just an expression that is to be used out of habit but out of compassion, confidence and love. Compassion found in Christ, confidence in the work of Jesus, and love that is extended to us. God is good, all the time! All the time, God is good!

CONCLUSION:

          A Flemish sculptor was extremely poor. He frequently went without food and worked in a clammy studio. It was bitter cold the night he finished his masterpiece. The thoughtful and meticulous artist was concerned lest the firm, fresh clay of his creation should freeze and crack. He had too much of himself in the design to run the risk of its being ruined, so he wrapped it in his warmest coat.

The sculptor died from exposure during the night. His cherished statuette was found unharmed. The warmth of sacrifice had saved it. In some such thoughtful way, beyond our ability to conceive or comprehend, the cross is God’s voluntary cloak of sacrifice draped in mercy over His creation.

          Let today be a day we remember the mercy, peace and love of God for each one of us.

Blessings my friends

Pastor Rod

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^[1] Kistemaker, S. J., & Hendriksen, W. (1953-2001). Vol. 16: New Testament commentary : Exposition of the Epistles of Peter and the Epistle of Jude. New Testament Commentary (368). Grand Rapids: Baker Book House.

^[2] Powers, D. G. (2010). 1 & 2 Peter/Jude: A Commentary in the Wesleyan Tradition. New Beacon Bible Commentary (262). Kansas City, MO: Beacon Hill Press.

Truth sets free Love! (3 John 1)

The elder to the beloved Gaius, whom I love in truth.    

          .

THE STUDY:

Like 2 John, this letter begins with the usual A to B greeting formula in which the author identifies himself as the elder. John addresses his letter to the beloved Gaius. The name Gaius is found in four other places in the NT, and in each case the one bearing this name is associated with the apostle Paul.^[1]

The elder describes Gaius as one whom I love in truth (en alētheia). This expression can be understood in two ways: (1) ‘in the truth’ (as in the NIV); or (2) ‘truly’. In the first case, the elder would be saying that he loves Gaius, who, like him, is ‘in the truth’, that is, is one who continues faithful to the truth concerning Jesus Christ as it was heard at the beginning. In the second case the elder would be simply saying that he ‘truly’ loves Gaius. The first option almost certainly reflects what John intended; for in v. 3 he mentions reports he has heard from others of how Gaius continues ‘to walk in the truth’.^[2]

WHAT WE CAN WALK AWAY WITH ….

• We walk away with the understanding that, just like developing a love for a friend, John had a love for Gaius. WHY? Because they had a commonality; JESUS! The truth concerning Christ is the seed that helps grow our love among believers.

CONCLUSION:

I remember being approached by a man after a Sunday morning service. He asks to speak to me alone. We sat down in my office and he started out the conversation with this statement, “I love Jesus, but I hate that woman!” (Referring to a lady of the church). I have to admit, there are not too many times I am at a loss for words but this was one of those times. I was so taken back by the thought that as a believer and lover of the truth someone could actually say “I hate someone!”

What brings us together as believers is the Love of Christ. It’s not just the love that he has for us that binds us but the Love we have for our brothers and sisters in Christ. The scripture is very clear, For this is the message that you have heard from the beginning, that we should love one another. (I John 3:11) My prayer for us this morning is that we know the truth. Once we know IT, we will not be able to say, "I love Jesus but I hate that person." The truth is what will set us free to LOVE!

Blessings my friends

Pastor Rod

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^[1] Kruse, C. G. (2000). The letters of John. The Pillar New Testament commentary (220). Grand Rapids, Mich.; Leicester, England: W.B. Eerdmans Pub.; Apollos.

^[2] Kruse, C. G. (2000). The letters of John. The Pillar New Testament commentary (220). Grand Rapids, Mich.; Leicester, England: W.B. Eerdmans Pub.; Apollos.