20051007 Bible Study
Friday, October 7th, 2005
41
This thing is steeped in prayer. You have no idea how many people are praying for God to work in this bible study.
Formal worship is hearing and collectively expressing “How Great is Our God!”. Bible study is people coming together in fellowship sharing how great God is. Service is going out and LIVING how great God is through our actions and words, through His love in us.
Last week we talked about the Greek understanding of man. The intellectual thinking at the time of the New Testament was matter bad, thought or idea good. In taking that paradigm to religion, man was divided into three parts: body, soul, and spirit. A couple of examples of this are in 1st Thessalonians 5:23-24
23 May God himself, the God of peace, sanctify you through and through. May your whole spirit, soul and body be kept blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.
and Hebrews 4:12
12 For the word of God is living and active. Sharper than any double-edged sword, it penetrates even to dividing soul and spirit, joints and marrow;[1]
The body is the physical, and contrasting the thinking of the time, the body is not bad or evil. Jesus performed healing miracles on the body (the woman that touched His robe and the man born blind since birth.) At the last supper, He broke bread symbolizing His body as a sacrifice signifying the covenant God was fulfilling to send a Savior to come back for us all. His followers didn’t leave His body up on the cross; He didn’t leave His body in the tomb. I love James and Paul talking about the physical manifestation of our faith in James
15 Suppose a brother or sister is without clothes and daily food. 16 If one of you says to him, “Go, I wish you well; keep warm and well fed,” but does nothing about his physical needs, what good is it?[2]
and Paul in Romans 12:1
12 Therefore, I urge you, brothers, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God—this is your spirituala act of worship[3]
The soul is the intellectual and emotional part of us. The Greek word is psyche from which we derive psychology. The soul is often referred to as “life” in the New Testament and is the battleground of our salvation. We talk about saving souls. Two passages that illustrate this are Mark 10:45
45 “For even the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.”[4]
and John 14:14-15
14 “I am the good shepherd; I know my sheep and my sheep know me— 15 just as the Father knows me and I know the Father—and I lay down my life for the sheep.”[5]
The spirit is the part of us designed to communicate with God, it gives man God consciousness. It is the divine nature in us. When the bible speaks of us being born dead, our spirit is what they are talking about. Our spirit is made alive when we accept Christ. Proverbs 20:27 says
27 The lamp of the Lord searches the spirit of a manp;
it searches out his inmost being. [6]
and Romans 8:16 says
16 The Spirit himself testifies with our spirit that we are God’s children. [7]
We then discussed the notion of love in Greek and the three words typically used: eros, phileo, and agape. Eros denotes physical love and is never used in the New Testament. That fact however does not designate it as bad or immoral, only that it has its proper place. Phileo is brotherly love as Philadelphia actually means brotherly love. Phileo designates a familiar love. Agape is a selfless love and is used almost exclusively (at least in this time period) in Christian writings. We discussed Beuchner’s definition of love: to submit your will to work in someone else’s best interest even to the detriment of your own best interest. From that definition, you do not have to like the people you love, but after some time of working in their best interest, you almost can’t help but begin to like them.
We then looked at who God loved: the whole world. No qualifications. No changes. Nothing we can do to deserve it. He so loved the whole world that before we even entered it He had a plan to save us, and God paid the whole price to bring us home, to bring us back to Him. All we have to do is accept it.
We also talked about the truth, the truth of God’s word and His view on us. Times will come in our lives that the only thing we have to hold onto is the truth; our feelings will deceive us; our reason will leave us as we are tempted to make crazy choices. But if we know the Truth, if we understand what’s going on in light of God’s plan and salvation, we can make it through those 40 minutes or 40 days or 40 weeks or 40 months and know there is always a 41 – always.
So now we have an understanding of man and how love relates to that understanding. So how important is this stuff in the Christian worldview? Very important. In Matthew chapter 22, beginning in verse 34, Christ says
34 Hearing that Jesus had silenced the Sadducees, the Pharisees got together. 35 One of them, an expert in the law, tested him with this question: 36 “Teacher, which is the greatest commandment in the Law?”
37 Jesus replied: “‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’a 38 This is the first and greatest commandment. 39 And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’b 40 All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments.”[8]
The core of Christianity is not what you do, it’s who you love. David says that we become like what we worship. If the god you worship is not loving, you will become that way. If you god can’t feel, can’t empathize, you too will become unfeeling and uncaring. We are defined by what we love. We are defined by what we hate. I read a book about 9 things you must do, by Cloud I think, one of them is hate well. You will be defined by the polarizing emotions of love and hate.
This is the third question in a seat where the Jewish leaders were questioning Jesus, trying to trap Him into various political or theological positions. Each time they are amazed at Jesus’ answers. He not only gets to the heart of the question they are asking, but sheds light on the intentions behind those that were asking the question.
Sadducees and Pharisees were leaders of different sects of Judaism. Let’s discuss Judaism in VERY brief terms. The Old Testament is made up of four parts: the Torah (the first five books), the history, the wisdom literature, and the prophets. The Torah contains the law, and the law is a set of rules you have to follow to make it to heaven, to save yourself. The history contains the stories of God working through His people, the Israelites. They were chosen as a nation, not individually, to have God work through them. The wisdom literature is thoughts on how to apply these biblical principles to your life. The prophets are the telling of the coming of the Savior, of the characteristics of Him, and of how to recognize the one and true Christ.
The Law contains 613 commandments, 248 positive and 365 negative. No one could hope to know much less obey all 613 laws, so the “experts” divided the law into “heavy” (important) and “light”(unimportant.) A person could concentrate on the “heavy” commandments and not worry as much about the “light” ones. They were so legalistic, so focused on the rules, they worshiped the law and their religious establishment rather than the God that gave them the law. The law became an end in and of itself, so much so that they began not associating with anyone who was not of their religious group. Who would want to contaminate God with sinners?
The problem is violating the least of these commandments, “heavy” or “light”, makes us guilty before God. James 2:10 says
10 For whoever keeps the whole law and yet stumbles at just one point is guilty of breaking all of it.[9]
This statement is actually a conviction of the Sadducees and Pharisees idolatry. The Old Testament law says to love your neighbor, yet they were already plotting how to kill Christ. They put the Law, the very path to God, and worshiped it instead of the God that gave it to them. Even in that, they were hypocritical and did not follow their own beliefs!
Another side of this passage is completeness. “Love your neighbor as yourself.” So how do you love yourself? What is the proper response when someone compliments you? Generally we dismiss it with “that was nothing.” We don’t recognize the gifts and abilities that God has given us to use for His kingdom purposes.
We are children of God, made in His image. He formed us. He breathed life into us. He made us in His image. In Christ, He has seated us at the right-hand of His throne, the place of highest honor. We were not just restored, we have much more!
So in loving God with all we have, with are we are, we can’t help but love our neighbor. That love comes from the overflow of God’s love within us. It’s amazing the change when you have the freedom to love like that. You can take risks in following God that you would never have the courage to do. The hope in your life becomes aligned with God’s. His plan for you comes to fruition on your life.
How on earth do we do this? Romans 12:9-19 says
9 Love must be sincere. Hate what is evil; cling to what is good. 10 Be devoted to one another in brotherly love. Honor one another above yourselves. 11 Never be lacking in zeal, but keep your spiritual fervor, serving the Lord. 12 Be joyful in hope, patient in affliction, faithful in prayer. 13 Share with God’s people who are in need. Practice hospitality.
14 Bless those who persecute you; bless and do not curse. 15 Rejoice with those who rejoice; mourn with those who mourn. 16 Live in harmony with one another. Do not be proud, but be willing to associate with people of low position.a Do not be conceited.
17 Do not repay anyone evil for evil. Be careful to do what is right in the eyes of everybody. 18 If it is possible, as far as it depends on you, live at peace with everyone. 19 Do not take revenge, my friends, but leave room for God’s wrath, for it is written: “It is mine to avenge; I will repay,”b says the Lord. [10]
1st Thessalonians 4:11-12 says
11 Make it your ambition to lead a quiet life, to mind your own business and to work with your hands, just as we told you, 12 so that your daily life may win the respect of outsiders and so that you will not be dependent on anybody.[11]
So how do we love – lead your life so that people see Christ in you. Lead a life to win the respect of outsiders. Show Christ in your life. No position, no promotion, no raise is worth compromising your witness. This is incredibly hard to live.
Your spiritual life – your spiritual witness – is the life you lead every day. It’s not something separate, contained by a day or a time or a place. It’s you. It’s God through you. It’s loving God, and loving you neighbor as yourself.
Fellowship with others, studying God’s word, worshiping Him in a group setting, these are all important, but where we stand as we walk our faith is how close we really are to Christ. I love the passage in Isaiah 52:7
7 How beautiful on the mountains
are the feet of those who bring good news,
who proclaim peace,
who bring good tidings,
who proclaim salvation,
who say to Zion,
“Your God reigns!”[12]
Blessed be the feet. If you want to know who you are, as opposed to who you think you are, look at where your feet take you.
Postscript:
Sin begins in desire. It does not start in being tempted – Jesus was tempted. Sin begins when we desire and start imagining what it would be like if… From there, our will begins to use the eyes (the window to the soul) to find opportunity to commit the sin. Eventually you can find what you want, to commit nearly any sin. But you will never find truth in sin.
Let’s look at Eve’s temptation in Genesis 3:6.
6 When the woman saw that the fruit of the tree was good for food and pleasing to the eye, and also desirable for gaining wisdom, she took some and ate it. She also gave some to her husband, who was with her, and he ate it. [13]
She saw the fruit and it look appealing – see where it starts! The window to the soul takes in the temptation. She reasons (using her mind) that it would be nourishing, would be good for food. Now she has an excuse! In her heart, she wanted God’s wisdom, she wanted to know what God knows. This is the same sin we commit every time we put something else in God’s place in our lives. We want something else to be our god, and again we will get what we want and the consequences that come with it.
To battle temptation, Christ used the Word – specifically Deuteronomy – to deal with the temptations. That’s why what we are doing here, studying the Word, is so important. This knowledge, with our faith, helps us get through situations in life.
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[1]The Holy Bible : New International Version. 1996, c1984 . Zondervan: Grand Rapids
[2]The Holy Bible : New International Version. 1996, c1984 . Zondervan: Grand Rapids
a Or reasonable
[3]The Holy Bible : New International Version. 1996, c1984 . Zondervan: Grand Rapids
[4]The Holy Bible : New International Version. 1996, c1984 . Zondervan: Grand Rapids
[5]The Holy Bible : New International Version. 1996, c1984 . Zondervan: Grand Rapids
p Or The spirit of man is the LORD~s lamp
[6]The Holy Bible : New International Version. 1996, c1984 . Zondervan: Grand Rapids
[7]The Holy Bible : New International Version. 1996, c1984 . Zondervan: Grand Rapids
a Deut. 6:5
b Lev. 19:18
[8]The Holy Bible : New International Version. 1996, c1984 . Zondervan: Grand Rapids
[9]The Holy Bible : New International Version. 1996, c1984 . Zondervan: Grand Rapids
a Or willing to do menial work
b Deut. 32:35
[10]The Holy Bible : New International Version. 1996, c1984 . Zondervan: Grand Rapids
[11]The Holy Bible : New International Version. 1996, c1984 . Zondervan: Grand Rapids
[12]The Holy Bible : New International Version. 1996, c1984 . Zondervan: Grand Rapids
[13]The Holy Bible : New International Version. 1996, c1984 . Zondervan: Grand Rapids