The Gospel
Luke 24:36b-48
Jesus himself stood among the disciples and said to them, “Peace be with you.” They were startled and terrified, and thought that they were seeing a ghost. He said to them, “Why are you frightened, and why do doubts arise in your hearts? Look at my hands and my feet; see that it is I myself. Touch me and see; for a ghost does not have flesh and bones as you see that I have.” And when he had said this, he showed them his hands and his feet. While in their joy they were disbelieving and still wondering, he said to them, “Have you anything here to eat?” They gave him a piece of broiled fish, and he took it and ate in their presence.
Then he said to them, “These are my words that I spoke to you while I was still with you—that everything written about me in the law of Moses, the prophets, and the psalms must be fulfilled.” Then he opened their minds to understand the scriptures, and he said to them, “Thus it is written, that the Messiah is to suffer and to rise from the dead on the third day, and that repentance and forgiveness of sins is to be proclaimed in his name to all nations, beginning from Jerusalem. You are witnesses of these things
Comment: Thus it is written, that the Messiah is to suffer and to rise from the dead on the third day, and that repentance and forgiveness of sins is to be proclaimed in his name to all nations.
Consider also, in addition to the Gospel reading for next week, this Word from the Epistle:
The Epistle
1 John 3:1-7
See what love the Father has given us, that we should be called children of God; and that is what we are. The reason the world does not know us is that it did not know him. Beloved, we are God’s children now; what we will be has not yet been revealed. What we do know is this: when he is revealed, we will be like him, for we will see him as he is. And all who have this hope in him purify themselves, just as he is pure.
Everyone who commits sin is guilty of lawlessness; sin is lawlessness. You know that he was revealed to take away sins, and in him there is no sin. No one who abides in him sins; no one who sins has either seen him or known him. Little children, let no one deceive you. Everyone who does what is right is righteous, just as he is righteous.
Comment : See what love the Father has given us, that we should be called children of God
What love, that we should be called children of God? That Christ was revealed to take away sins – Gospel truth.
And as I considered such love, this song came to into my heart, without any help on my part. Only God! It’s been years since I encountered that song. Quite a minute.
1. Such love, pure as the whitest snow;
such love weeps for the shame I know;
such love, paying the debt I owe;
O Jesus, such love.
2. Such love, stilling my restlessness;
such love, filling my emptiness;
such love, showing me holiness;
O Jesus, such love.
3. Such love, springs from eternity;
such love streaming through history;
such love, fountain of life to me;
O Jesus, such love.
The point here is that we have no liberty to speak about the love of God without any reference to the cost that it took for us to fully comprehend that kind of love -agape. A sacrificial love.
Which is the point Paul was getting at many years ago, and his prophetic words, which is why I have been led to write in this fashion this morning, are eerily, being, well, prophetic in this age, when some Christians would have us understand God’s unconditional love, God’s amazing love, without any reference to Sin.
THE WORD OF GOD
”“And now, compelled by the Spirit, I am going to Jerusalem, not knowing what will happen to me there. I only know that in every city the Holy Spirit warns me that prison and hardships are facing me. However, I consider my life worth nothing to me; my only aim is to finish the race and complete the task the Lord Jesus has given me—the task of testifying to the good news of God’s grace.“
Acts 20:22-24 NIV
Comment : what task? “the task of testifying to the good news of God’s grace.” And which grace is God’s unmerited love, grace, in dying for us, in Jesus Christ for our sins- of first priority.
”For what I received I passed on to you as of first importance: that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures,“
1 Corinthians 15:3 NIV
Paul continues:
”“Now I know that none of you among whom I have gone about preaching the kingdom will ever see me again. Therefore, I declare to you today that I am innocent of the blood of any of you. For I have not hesitated to proclaim to you the whole will of God.“
Acts 20:25-27 NIV
Comment : in order to understand fully what Paul meant by being “ innocent of the blood of anyone you, we have to go all the ay back to Ezekiel:
”“Son of man, I have made you a watchman for the people of Israel; so hear the word I speak and give them warning from me. When I say to a wicked person, ‘You will surely die,’ and you do not warn them or speak out to dissuade them from their evil ways in order to save their life, that wicked person will die for their sin, and I will hold you accountable for their blood.“
Ezekiel 3:17-18 NIV
So Paul could declare himself “ innocent of the blood of all of you”, because “ I have not hesitated to proclaim to you the whole will of God”. And what did Jesus say:
”For I have come down from heaven not to do my will but to do the will of him who sent me. And this is the will of him who sent me, that I shall lose none of all those he has given me, but raise them up at the last day. For my Father’s will is that everyone who looks to the Son and believes in him shall have eternal life, and I will raise them up at the last day.”“
John 6:38-40 NIV
Paul continues:
”Keep watch over yourselves and all the flock of which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers. Be shepherds of the church of God, which he bought with his own blood. I know that after I leave, savage wolves will come in among you and will not spare the flock. Even from your own number men will arise and distort the truth in order to draw away disciples after them. So be on your guard! Remember that for three years I never stopped warning each of you night and day with tears. “Now I commit you to God and to the word of his grace, which can build you up and give you an inheritance among all those who are sanctified.“
Acts 20:28-32 NIV
Finally all of this finds relevance in one of the most important passages of Scripture:
”And so it was with me, brothers and sisters. When I came to you, I did not come with eloquence or human wisdom as I proclaimed to you the testimony about God. For I resolved to know nothing while I was with you except Jesus Christ and him crucified. I came to you in weakness with great fear and trembling. My message and my preaching were not with wise and persuasive words, but with a demonstration of the Spirit’s power, so that your faith might not rest on human wisdom, but on God’s power.“
1 Corinthians 2:1-5 NIV
but with a demonstration of the Spirit’s power, so that your faith might not rest on human wisdom, but on God’s power.“
Our faith may not rest on human wisdom but on God’s power. And which is why the Lord woke me up last night to read this :
”Then Jesus said to them, “Suppose you have a friend, and you go to him at midnight and say, ‘Friend, lend me three loaves of bread; a friend of mine on a journey has come to me, and I have no food to offer him.’ And suppose the one inside answers, ‘Don’t bother me. The door is already locked, and my children and I are in bed. I can’t get up and give you anything.’ I tell you, even though he will not get up and give you the bread because of friendship, yet because of your shameless audacity he will surely get up and give you as much as you need. “So I say to you: Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives; the one who seeks finds; and to the one who knocks, the door will be opened. “Which of you fathers, if your son asks for a fish, will give him a snake instead? Or if he asks for an egg, will give him a scorpion? If you then, though you are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him!”“
Luke 11:5-13 NIV
Good and gracious Lord, in faith, and in obedience, I pray that we who know about your love in and through the death of your Son Jesus Christ for our many, many sins, may be filled more and more, day by day, by the same power that raised Jesus from the dead, so that we can, as a matter of first priority, call people to repentance and to escape from this evil generation, lest we be found, on the last day, to be guilty of the blood of anyone. And then all other things we know Lord will be granted unto us, in and through “ power from on high”. “ To love mercy, to do justice and to walk humbly with you O God. Amen.
In obedience
Shalom
LWJ
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