FIT FOR PURPOSE
Luke 6:1-5 One Sabbath Jesus was going through the cornfields, and his disciples began to pick some ears of corn, rub them in their hands and eat the grain. Some of the Pharisees asked, "Why are you doing what is unlawful on the Sabbath?" Jesus answered them, "Have you never read what David did when he and his companions were hungry? He entered the house of God, and taking the consecrated bread, he ate what is lawful only for priests to eat. And he also gave some to his companions." Then Jesus said to them, "The Son of Man is Lord of the Sabbath." (NIV)
Christless religion always reduces relationship with God to rules. Of course, before Christ, apart from a few people who God filled with His Spirit, it was not possible to know Him personally. The Old Testament Law was clear about what God loved and hated, and how sacrifices could atone for unintentional sins; but there was no dynamic relationship with Father God. Without that personal fellowship, religious people compile rules for life; assuming that by keeping them, God's wrath will be appeased - the more intense that belief, the more rigorous the rules. It happened in Jesus' day with Pharisees adding many regulations to God's law ... and it still happens today.
Jesus brought a breath of fresh air. He said that God designed the Sabbath; a law which protected and provided for people. Nobody is designed to be a perpetual motion machine! We are also designed to worship God (and not our work or ourselves). So the Sabbath was one day away from work in order to be refreshed in body and in spirit - hearing God's Word and worshipping Him. But that relational purpose was obscured by legal definitions of what 'work' meant; to the point that rubbing grain in the hands to remove the husk and have a snack while on a country walk was declared illegal! Jesus pointed to (1 Samuel 21:1-9) where David's men were very hungry. Although the only bread available was specially consecrated and reserved for the priests, it was given to the group of bodyguards.
Of course, it was God who first defined the Sabbath (Genesis 2:2-3). So Jesus asserted His Deity by saying that He had the right to define what is acceptable to God on His special day. Because He is the Creator, He knows what is 'fit for purpose'. He knows when we are personally fulfilling the reason He placed us here; when we are in real relationship with Him and working with Him for the sake of His glory. Every day at work or at home is a divine assignment to work with God; so we must be careful that we do not constrict His plan for our daily lives by little rules which He has not given. At the same time, we must not be so arrogant as to ignore what the Bible clearly commands. God wants us to be 'fit for purpose': His Word and His Spirit will guide us securely and show us how to interact with our Maker.
Prayer: Holy God. Thank You for showing me, in the Bible, what pleases and displeases You. Forgive my small-mindedness, trying to keep myself 'spiritually safe' with my religious or personal rules when You have not commanded them. Forgive my 'spiritual shortcuts' to holiness when at the same time I am out of order with You and not living the life You have planned for me. Forgive me also for making up what I think will please You, while ignoring what You have clearly written in the Bible. Please help me to grow in a proper dynamic relationship with You so that my life will be fit for the purpose You have intended for me. In Jesus' Name. Amen.
Showing posts with label Sabbath Day. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Sabbath Day. Show all posts
Wednesday, 7 April 2010
Tuesday, 9 June 2009
Jesus on the Sabbath Day
Jerusalem's Damascus gate into the Old City at sunset
Jesus went to Jerusalem on the Sabbath.By the sheep gate in town was a pool, which in Hebrew is called Bethesda. The pool had five covered porches, where many sick, blind, lame and withered peope lived. One man had been there 38 years.
When Jesus saw him lying there, he said to the man:
Do you want to be healed?
The sick man said:
Sir, I don’t have anyone to put me into the pool when the waters are stirred. Someone always goes in ahead of me.
Jesus said:
Stand up, take up your bed and walk.
Just like that, the man was healed.
they asked:
Who is this man who told you to take up your bed and walk? They asked.
The healed man did not know because Jesus had left the area.
spring flowers in the Judean desert.
Afterwards, Jesus found the man in the temple and said to him:
Look, you are healed; do not sin anymore or else a worse thing will happen to you.
The man went away and found the Jews. He told them that it was Jesus who had healed him.
After learning this, the Jews began to persecute Jesus because he did this work on the Sabbath.
Jesus told them:
My Father is working even up until this moment, and I will work also.
The Jews took great insult at what Jesus said and became determined to kill him. They were angry because he made himself equal to God -- not just that he had healed a man on the Sabbath.
Jesus responded, at great length:
Listen carefully to the truth I am going to declare to you: The Son can do nothing by himself, but only what he sees the Father doing.
Whatever the Father does, the Son will do the same. The Father loves the Son and shows him all the things that he does, and even greater works than what you have already seen will be done so that you will marvel.
Just as the Father raises the dead and gives them life, in the same way the Son will also give life to whoever he will.
The Father is not going to judge any man, he has given the authority to judge to the Son, so that all may honor the Son, just as they honor the Father.
The person that does not honor the Son, does not honor the Father who sent him.
Listen carefully to the truth I am going to declare to you. Whoever hears my word and believes in the Father who sent me has eternal life.
This person does not come into judgment, but has passed from death to life.
The hour is coming and, and now is here, when the dead will hear the voice of the Son of God.
Those who hear will live. Just as the Father has life in himself, in the same way he gave to the Son life in himself, and the Father has given the Son authority to execute judgment because he is the Son of man.
Don’t be amazed at what I am saying to you: The hour is coming when all who are in the graves will hear his voice, and they will come out, those that have done good, to the resurrection of life; and those that have done evil to the resurrection of judgment.
By myself I can do nothing: I judge only according to what I hear from the Father.
My judgment is right and perfect because it expresses the will of my Father, and my Father is the one that sent me to do his will, and it is his will I seek, not my own.
If I bear testimony of myself, then my testimony is not true. It is the Father that bears testimony, and I know that his testimony is true.
You have inquired of John the Baptist, and he has borne witness to the truth. But the testimony that I receive is not from a man. I am telling you these things so that you will be saved.
John the Baptist was like an oil lamp that burns and shines light, and you were willing to rejoice for a short time in his light.
But the testimony that I have is greater and more convincing than that of John the Baptist; for the works that the Father has given me to accomplish are the very works that I do, and they testify of me, and they prove that the Father has sent me.
The Father that sent me has testified of me. But you have not heard his voice at any time.
You do not have his word living in you, and this is evidenced by the fact that you do not believe the one that the Father has sent.
You search the Scriptures, because you think that in them you will find eternal life. These are the very Scriptures that testify and bear witness about me, but you will not come to me in order that you might have life.
I do not receive glory from people. I know you, and you do not have the love of God living in you.
I have come in my Father’s name and you will not receive me. If someone else comes in their own name, you will receive them. How can you believe, when you receive glory from one another, but refuse to seek the glory that comes from God.
Don’t think that it is necessary for me to bring accusation against you to my Father. There is already one that accuses you and his name is Moses, the one on whom you have set your hopes.
If you really believed Moses, then you would believe me, because he wrote about me. But since you do not believe what Moses wrote, how can you believe my words?
Jesus went to Jerusalem on the Sabbath.By the sheep gate in town was a pool, which in Hebrew is called Bethesda. The pool had five covered porches, where many sick, blind, lame and withered peope lived. One man had been there 38 years.
When Jesus saw him lying there, he said to the man:
Do you want to be healed?
The sick man said:
Sir, I don’t have anyone to put me into the pool when the waters are stirred. Someone always goes in ahead of me.
Jesus said:
Stand up, take up your bed and walk.
Just like that, the man was healed.
they asked:
Who is this man who told you to take up your bed and walk? They asked.
The healed man did not know because Jesus had left the area.
spring flowers in the Judean desert.
Afterwards, Jesus found the man in the temple and said to him:
Look, you are healed; do not sin anymore or else a worse thing will happen to you.
The man went away and found the Jews. He told them that it was Jesus who had healed him.
After learning this, the Jews began to persecute Jesus because he did this work on the Sabbath.
Jesus told them:
My Father is working even up until this moment, and I will work also.
The Jews took great insult at what Jesus said and became determined to kill him. They were angry because he made himself equal to God -- not just that he had healed a man on the Sabbath.
Jesus responded, at great length:
Listen carefully to the truth I am going to declare to you: The Son can do nothing by himself, but only what he sees the Father doing.
Whatever the Father does, the Son will do the same. The Father loves the Son and shows him all the things that he does, and even greater works than what you have already seen will be done so that you will marvel.
Just as the Father raises the dead and gives them life, in the same way the Son will also give life to whoever he will.
The Father is not going to judge any man, he has given the authority to judge to the Son, so that all may honor the Son, just as they honor the Father.
The person that does not honor the Son, does not honor the Father who sent him.
Listen carefully to the truth I am going to declare to you. Whoever hears my word and believes in the Father who sent me has eternal life.
This person does not come into judgment, but has passed from death to life.
The hour is coming and, and now is here, when the dead will hear the voice of the Son of God.
Those who hear will live. Just as the Father has life in himself, in the same way he gave to the Son life in himself, and the Father has given the Son authority to execute judgment because he is the Son of man.
Don’t be amazed at what I am saying to you: The hour is coming when all who are in the graves will hear his voice, and they will come out, those that have done good, to the resurrection of life; and those that have done evil to the resurrection of judgment.
By myself I can do nothing: I judge only according to what I hear from the Father.
My judgment is right and perfect because it expresses the will of my Father, and my Father is the one that sent me to do his will, and it is his will I seek, not my own.
If I bear testimony of myself, then my testimony is not true. It is the Father that bears testimony, and I know that his testimony is true.
You have inquired of John the Baptist, and he has borne witness to the truth. But the testimony that I receive is not from a man. I am telling you these things so that you will be saved.
John the Baptist was like an oil lamp that burns and shines light, and you were willing to rejoice for a short time in his light.
But the testimony that I have is greater and more convincing than that of John the Baptist; for the works that the Father has given me to accomplish are the very works that I do, and they testify of me, and they prove that the Father has sent me.
The Father that sent me has testified of me. But you have not heard his voice at any time.
You do not have his word living in you, and this is evidenced by the fact that you do not believe the one that the Father has sent.
You search the Scriptures, because you think that in them you will find eternal life. These are the very Scriptures that testify and bear witness about me, but you will not come to me in order that you might have life.
I do not receive glory from people. I know you, and you do not have the love of God living in you.
I have come in my Father’s name and you will not receive me. If someone else comes in their own name, you will receive them. How can you believe, when you receive glory from one another, but refuse to seek the glory that comes from God.
Don’t think that it is necessary for me to bring accusation against you to my Father. There is already one that accuses you and his name is Moses, the one on whom you have set your hopes.
If you really believed Moses, then you would believe me, because he wrote about me. But since you do not believe what Moses wrote, how can you believe my words?
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