Commands of Christ-33a

Wednesday, December 7, 2022 Commands of Christ – 33

Wednesday, December 14, 2022 Commands of Christ – 33a

A Christian's Mission: Make disciples

Read: Matthew 28:18-20

Matthew 28:18–20 (LSB)

And Jesus came up and spoke to them, saying, “All authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth. 19 “Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, 20 teaching them to keep all that I commanded you; and behold, I am with you always, even to the end of the age.”

Purpose: To examine our motives for evangelism in light of Jesus’ teaching (and commands?) regarding the Father’s amazing love and grace.

Open:

India: Free Press Journal

Written Sunday evening by: Sumit Paul

Conversion is subversion; subversion of volition and also a perversion of religion. - M K Gandhi to his friend and Christian missionary Charles Freer Andrews, 1932

The Centre told the Supreme Court on Monday, November 28, that it's contemplating measures to “curb” the menace of conversion through “force, fraud, allurement and deception”, while arguing that the “right to freedom of religion doesn't confer a fundamental right to convert other people to a particular religion.”

Being a student of comparative religions and a complete apatheist (one who has gone beyond theism and atheism), I've always wondered why conversions from one faith to another do take place in the first place. A professor friend of mine would often say that a conversion is a commodification of religiosity. In other words, it's tantamount to selling one's own self for a perceived state of religious betterment provided by the new faith; a greater spiritual deal, to use a euphemism. Obviously, it's not something that's fundamentally desirable in the realms of religions. But unfortunately, it has been happening right from the advent of all man-made organised faiths. While this shifting and shuttling is not so common among other faiths, Semitic religions, esp. Christianity and Islam, have been into it since their inceptions. Islam's rather condescending Hidayat-e-Allah (god's prudence bestowed upon chosen human/s) and Dawat-e-Islam (Invitation to Islam) and Christianity's Spread the God's Word/Gospels have witnessed many dubious conversions in the annals of religion. Even Muhammad Iqbal once asked his favourite teacher and mentor Dr Thomas Arnold whether conversion was ever a wholly independent process of free will because Iqbal's Sapru Brahmin ancestors from Kashmir embraced Islam. Arnold told him that there was hardly a single completely free, cerebral and conscientious conversion in the history of mankind. There was always an element of doubt and dithering. Interestingly, Arnold had a secret desire to convert Iqbal to Christianity.

To convert is to condescend. It's the pontification, nay trivialisation, of a person's (earlier) faith so much that he or she is full of aversion to the primary or parental faith and full of euphoric enthusiasm for the new one, that's being drilled into his vulnerable self. The perpetrators of the new faith who want you to embrace it, leaving your old one will make you believe covertly as well as overtly that your earlier faith is useless and it has failed to deliver what you expected. Now our faith will give you what you've been looking for. This is spiritual snobbery and psychological beckoning that can bamboozle a weak-minded person, bemused and befuddled at the lowest ebb of his/her life and career. A drowning man will clutch at a straw and a circumstantially susceptible brain will fall for such rosy but dubious claims.

Missionaries have been doing this in all parts of the world for two millennia. There's a famous quote that underlines how missionaries christianised a huge chunk of the continent of Africa and enslaved its people: “When missionaries came, we had land and they had the Bible. When they left, we had the Bible and they had the land.”

With the passage of time, Christianity and Islam became recruitment agencies. Islam's regimentation and Christianity's recruitment converted people en masse. Look at the history of the subcontinent. Almost all Muslims and Christians had Hindu ancestry. Their Hindu ancestors were forcibly or 'affably' converted to Christianty and Islam. This has been going on and in recent years, this conversion spree has intensified. What's happening in Punjab is for everyone to see. Christianity is spreading in the hinterlands of Punjab and the poor pockets of Odisha, North East, MP, practically the length and breadth of the country. Here I'd like to make a little comparison in the religious approaches of Semitic faiths vis a vis Hinduism. Hinduism doesn't believe in the ritualistic conversion of Semitic faiths. It believes in the Vertical Conversion: Elevation of noble qualities at an individual level, unlike the Horizontal Conversion of the Semitic faiths, i.e, spreading the numbers. French dramatist, Novelist and Nobel laureate Romain Rolland rightly opined, "The best part of Hindu consciousness is that it encompasses all the world and its myriad and varied people belonging to all faiths. You could be a Christian or a Moslem, but your spirit remains dovetailed to Hindu consciousness." Conversion are needed when a faith is organised and structured like Judaism, Christianity or Islam. The very crux of Hinduism is assimilation, the religio-spiritual assimilation. If one's deeply drawn to this consciousness, one becomes one with the faith unlike the Semitic faiths that need proof in the form of a conversion. Someone beautifully put it, Conversions in Christianity and Islam are stamped, whereas it's subsumed in Hinduism. So very correct analysis!

Furthermore, why should you mislead a person and lead him/her up the garden path? My god is greater than yours and my scriptures are more correct and authentic than yours are puerile claims. If at all there's any god, he or she is immanent and within you and there's no religion greater than humanity. So, stop this head-hunting (a reverse euphemism for conversion) and be a good human. Lastly, psychologists have found a kind of religious dichotomy among people who convert to other faiths. They've found that the person is always torn between his former and latter faiths. This psychological oscillation is not good for an individual's mental as well as spiritual health.

Government must see to it that conversions, whether open or on the sly, must be stopped. Mankind has already had enough of God and religion. Give it breathing space.

Sumit Paul is a regular contributor to the world’s premier publications and portals in several languages

The lesson:

Why does the parable of the prodigal son, told by Jesus to orthodox Jewish believers over two thousand years ago, still pack such a wallop, even today?

Because Jesus taps into the deepest, most primal of human emotions: there’s a child in desperate trouble.

And as a result, relationships in the family have been broken, parents are grieving, anxiety abounds.

Will the lost child find his way home again? Will the parents’ broken hearts be mended? Will the child be restored and become whole?

The parable we are going to study tonight is set in a context of three stories.

First, Jesus tells us that a shepherd has lost one of his one hundred sheep.

He goes to great lengths to find that lost sheep and when he finds it he rejoices greatly.

Jesus then says, “There will be more joy in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine righteous persons who do not need to repent” (Luke 15:7). In other words, God’s desire to find sinners and bring them back into the fold is beyond what we could fathom.

Next, Jesus tells the story of the woman who lost a coin.

She searches thoroughly with the aid of a lamp until it turns up.

The implication is that disciples should diligently engage in the search for sinners on behalf of the Great Shepherd they serve.

In the parable of the prodigal son we continue to see the seeking-of-sinners theme that helps us understand our proper motive for sharing the good news.

We seek the lost, because that is what Jesus did.

Luke 19:2–10 (NASB95) And there was a man called by the name of Zaccheus; he was a chief tax collector and he was rich. 3 Zaccheus was trying to see who Jesus was, and was unable because of the crowd, for he was small in stature. 4 So he ran on ahead and climbed up into a sycamore tree in order to see Him, for He was about to pass through that way. 5 When Jesus came to the place, He looked up and said to him, “Zaccheus, hurry and come down, for today I must stay at your house.” 6 And he hurried and came down and received Him gladly. 7 When they saw it, they all began to grumble, saying, “He has gone to be the guest of a man who is a sinner.” 8 Zaccheus stopped and said to the Lord, “Behold, Lord, half of my possessions I will give to the poor, and if I have defrauded anyone of anything, I will give back four times as much.” 9 And Jesus said to him, “Today salvation has come to this house, because he, too, is a son of Abraham. 10 “For the Son of Man has come to seek and to save that which was lost.”

We seek to walk in His footsteps.

1 John 2:3–6 (LSB) And by this we know that we have come to know Him, if we keep His commandments. 4 The one who says, “I have come to know Him,” and does not keep His commandments, is a liar, and the truth is not in him; 5 but whoever keeps His word, truly in him the love of God has been perfected. By this we know that we are in Him: 6 the one who says he abides in Him ought himself to walk in the same manner as He walked.

1 Peter 2:21–25 (LSB) For to this you have been called, since Christ also suffered for you, leaving you an example that you should follow in His steps, 22 WHO DID NO SIN, NOR WAS ANY DECEIT FOUND IN HIS MOUTH; 23 who being reviled, was not reviling in return; while suffering, He was uttering no threats, but kept entrusting Himself to Him who judges righteously. 24 Who Himself bore our sins in His body on the tree, so that having died to sin, we might live to righteousness; by His WOUNDS YOU WERE HEALED. 25 For you were continually straying like sheep, but now you have returned to the Shepherd and Overseer of your souls.

John 13:12–17 (LSB) So when He had washed their feet, and taken His garments and reclined at the table again, He said to them, “Do you know what I have done to you? 13 “You call Me Teacher and Lord; and you are right, for so I am. 14 “If I then, the Lord and the Teacher, washed your feet, you also ought to wash one another’s feet. 15 “For I gave you an example that you also should do as I did to you. 16 “Truly, truly, I say to you, a slave is not greater than his master, nor is one who is sent greater than the one who sent him. 17 “If you know these things, you are blessed if you do them.

IF this ONLY applies to footwashing, yet it is still huge.

What is Jesus asking us to do?

What if it DOESN’T just apply to footwashing? We’ve already read other scriptures that seem to imply such.

If we are going to walk in the footsteps of Jesus, we MUST seek the lost.

There is NO way around it.

Read: Luke 15:1-2, 11-32. (several to read) PLEASE read with expression.

6. What do you think led this boy into sin and rebellion?

Question 6. The parable shows that sin is often due to willful choice and a desire for indulgence. Jesus is unrelenting in showing us sin’s deception, disillusionment, suffering, slavery and despair.

7. How does Jesus describe the nature of repentance?

Question 7. Jesus says that the son “came to his senses.”

In other words, he finally agreed with God’s view of reality.

Repentance involved two things: First, the boy’s perception of reality was altered from stubbornly insisting on self-rule to bowing to God’s rule.

Second, repentance involved a willed response. He didn’t just think differently, his change of heart manifested itself in definite action.

Although repentance is always a mystery in the end, what factors seemed to influence the son’s repentance?

Two things seemed to help him “come to his senses”:

disgust and homesickness.

He was no doubt appalled by how low he had sunk, and he had the memory of a former time of joy and plenty in his father’s home.

8. After hearing a story in which Jesus deliberately pressed all their buttons, what might the Pharisees and teachers of the law expect the father’s response to be?

Question 8. Many of the parables would have shocked their original audience because they were often designed to overthrow existing values and prejudices. In this case, they expected the father of the story to be harsh and expel the boy for such gross sin, whether he was repentant or not.

9. Jesus gives us one of the most beautiful portraits of God the Father seen in Scripture. Name everything that the father does (vv. 20-24).

The father listened to his son’s request.

He gave him his request.

The father gives the wealth, KNOWING it will be wasted.

He let him go (wonder how that went over with mom?).

While he was gone, the father kept up with his situation?

The father LOOKED for him to return.

The father felt compassion (not anger).

The father ran towards the lost son.

The father embraced

The father kissed

The father gave the BEST robe

The father gave a ring

The father gave him sandals to wear

The father held a lavish feast

The father expressed joy to the servants concerning the son’s return

Question 9. The description of the son’s return and the father’s welcome “is as vivid as that of his departure. . . .

Because his father saw him ‘while he was still a long way off’ (v. 20) has led many to assume that the father was waiting for him, perhaps daily searching the distant road hoping for his appearance. . . .

The father’s ‘compassion’ assumes some knowledge of the son’s pitiable condition, perhaps from reports.

Some have pointed out that a father in that culture would not normally run as he did, which, along with his warm embrace and kissing, adds to the impact of the story.

Clearly Jesus used every literary means to heighten the contrast between the father’s attitude and that of the elder brother (and of the Pharisees, cf. vv. 1-2). . . .

And then:

“The robe was a ceremonial one such as a guest of honor would be given, the ring signified authority, and the sandals were those only a free man would wear” (Walter L. Liefeld, Luke, in The Expositor’s Bible Commentary, ed. Frank E. Gaebelein [Grand Rapids, Mich.: Zondervan, 1976], 8:984).

10. Jesus’ point is that we are so precious to God and He is so loving by nature that the mere act of repentance brings an absolute reversal of status. The lost son has become a family member again. The father’s acceptance of the penitent son is total. How does this radical view of God’s grace square with your understanding of God’s attitude toward you?

Question 10. Sometimes we are motivated to share the gospel for the wrong reasons: guilt, duty, a sense of superiority and so on. We share the good news because someone very precious and of immense worth to God is lost and God is seeking to find them.

11. What was wrong with the elder son’s understanding and experience of faith that he refused to go the party (vv. 25-30)?

Serving the father is a duty NOT a joy.

Serving the father is about keeping “commands” (the letter of the law)

12. Why is a judgmental, critical spirit so frequently the “disease of the devoted,” as was the case of the Pharisees?

Questions 11-12. The elder son’s words describe the self-righteousness of some Pharisees who criticized Jesus.

The father’s words indicate the possibilities which the elder son (or Pharisees) had never appreciated and the privileges he had never enjoyed.

The elder son could have always enjoyed the grace and love of God.

Instead religion had been an activity of rites and duties done from a sense of burden rather than a joyful heart.

Instead of being grateful that God had pardoned his own sin and living in intimate relationship and devotion to his father, he obeyed his father’s command out of a weary joylessness.

13. Reflect on the father’s response of complete joy to his son’s return. How can you allow this attitude to shape your attitude toward people you find repelling?

Thank the Lord for the many ways he has delivered you from evil and shown you mercy in spite of your sins. Ask him to enlarge your heart so that his compassion and love will flow through you to those who have not found their way home yet.

Take time to thank God with your whole heart for your salvation. Try to imagine yourself as a “mouse in the corner” in heaven when God threw a celebration party for your conversion. Thank God for each person he used to reach you.

LifeGuide Topical Bible Studies - Evangelism: A Way of Life: 12 Studies for Individuals or Groups.

A Christian's Mission: Make disciples

LifeGuide Topical Bible Studies - Evangelism: A Way of Life: 12 Studies for Individuals or Groups.

Read: Matthew 28:18-20

Matthew 28:18–20 (LSB)

And Jesus came up and spoke to them, saying, “All authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth. 19 “Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, 20 teaching them to keep all that I commanded you; and behold, I am with you always, even to the end of the age.”

Purpose: To examine our motives for evangelism in light of Jesus’ teaching (and commands?) regarding the Father’s amazing love and grace.

Open:

On Monday I read an article in the The Free Press Journal is one of the oldest English daily newspapers. Established in 1928 by S. Sadanand, The Free Press Journal is the first Indian-owned English daily newspaper published from Mumbai.

Entitled: Freedom of religion is not right to convert

It was written Sunday night by Sumit Paul and begins with a quote from Ghandi:

Conversion is subversion; subversion of volition and also a perversion of religion. - M K Gandhi to his friend and Christian missionary Charles Freer Andrews, 1932

It goes on to say:

The Centre told the Supreme Court on Monday, November 28, that it's contemplating measures to “curb” the menace of conversion through “force, fraud, allurement and deception”, while arguing that the “right to freedom of religion doesn't confer a fundamental right to convert other people to a particular religion.”

Being a student of comparative religions and a complete apatheist (one who has gone beyond theism and atheism), I've always wondered why conversions from one faith to another do take place in the first place. A professor friend of mine would often say that a conversion is a commodification of religiosity. In other words, it's tantamount to selling one's own self for a perceived state of religious betterment provided by the new faith; a greater spiritual deal, to use a euphemism. Obviously, it's not something that's fundamentally desirable in the realms of religions. But unfortunately, it has been happening right from the advent of all man-made organised faiths. While this shifting and shuttling is not so common among other faiths, Semitic religions, esp. Christianity and Islam, have been into it since their inceptions.

To convert is to condescend. It's the pontification, nay trivialisation, of a person's (earlier) faith so much that he or she is full of aversion to the primary or parental faith and full of euphoric enthusiasm for the new one, that's being drilled into his vulnerable self. The perpetrators of the new faith who want you to embrace it, leaving your old one will make you believe covertly as well as overtly that your earlier faith is useless and it has failed to deliver what you expected. Now our faith will give you what you've been looking for. This is spiritual snobbery and psychological beckoning that can bamboozle a weak-minded person, bemused and befuddled at the lowest ebb of his/her life and career. A drowning man will clutch at a straw and a circumstantially susceptible brain will fall for such rosy but dubious claims.

Missionaries have been doing this in all parts of the world for two millennia. There's a famous quote that underlines how missionaries christianised a huge chunk of the continent of Africa and enslaved its people: “When missionaries came, we had land and they had the Bible. When they left, we had the Bible and they had the land.”

The author speaks of the superiority of Hinduism because:

Here I'd like to make a little comparison in the religious approaches of Semitic faiths vis a vis Hinduism. Hinduism doesn't believe in the ritualistic conversion of Semitic faiths. It believes in the Vertical Conversion: Elevation of noble qualities at an individual level, unlike the Horizontal Conversion of the Semitic faiths, i.e, spreading the numbers. French dramatist, Novelist and Nobel laureate Romain Rolland rightly opined, "The best part of Hindu consciousness is that it encompasses all the world and its myriad and varied people belonging to all faiths. You could be a Christian or a Moslem, but your spirit remains dovetailed to Hindu consciousness."

Furthermore, why should you mislead a person and lead him/her up the garden path? My god is greater than yours and my scriptures are more correct and authentic than yours are puerile claims. If at all there's any god, he or she is immanent and within you and there's no religion greater than humanity. So, stop this head-hunting (a reverse euphemism for conversion) and be a good human. Lastly, psychologists have found a kind of religious dichotomy among people who convert to other faiths. They've found that the person is always torn between his former and latter faiths. This psychological oscillation is not good for an individual's mental as well as spiritual health.

Because of the Father’s great love WE have been called out of darkness into light.

Ephesians 5:8 (LSB) for you were formerly darkness, but now you are light in the Lord; walk as children of light

Matthew 4:12–17 (LSB) Now when Jesus heard that John had been taken into custody, He departed into Galilee; 13 and leaving Nazareth, He came and lived in Capernaum, which is by the sea, in the region of Zebulun and Naphtali, 14 in order that what was spoken through Isaiah the prophet would be fulfilled, saying, 15 “THE LAND OF ZEBULUN AND THE LAND OF NAPHTALI, BY THE WAY OF THE SEA, BEYOND THE JORDAN, GALILEE OF THE GENTILES— 16 THE PEOPLE WHO WERE SITTING IN DARKNESS SAW A GREAT LIGHT, AND THOSE WHO WERE SITTING IN THE LAND AND SHADOW OF DEATH, UPON THEM A LIGHT DAWNED.” [Isaiah 9:1-2] 17 From that time Jesus began to preach and say, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.”

Acts 26:15–18 (NASB95) “And I [Paul] said, ‘Who are You, Lord?’ And the Lord said, ‘I am Jesus whom you are persecuting. 16 ‘But get up and stand on your feet; for this purpose I have appeared to you, to appoint you a minister and a witness not only to the things which you have seen, but also to the things in which I will appear to you; 17 rescuing you from the Jewish people and from the Gentiles, to whom I am sending you, 18 to open their eyes so that they may turn from darkness to light and from the dominion of Satan to God, that they may receive forgiveness of sins and an inheritance among those who have been sanctified by faith in Me.’