No graven image-- really?

The second commandment reads, "You shall not make for yourselves an idol, nor any image of anything that is in the heavens above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth: you shall not bow yourself down to them, nor serve them, for I, the Lord your God, am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the..."

Many of you will know that I"m a keen photographer and have more than 65,000 images on my Flickr site. I've taken photos since I was a kid and appreciate the beauty and the scenery, the people, and the moments I often capture.

One of the reasons we have to be careful about imagery is highlighted in the 10 Commandments. God says not to make imagery so that we bow down to them and serve them. In other words, having a photo of an elephant is ok, but making it into an idol is not ok. Having a sculpture of an angel is ok, but bowing to it is not. Sensible.

Thinking about bowing and/ or serving, I consider the images you might see on your televisions or YouTube feeds today. Some of you have seen a video that went viral of police in Australia, but the context is missing and the scene has nothing to do with anything in 2021. Such is the case of a video (an image) taken out of its context that we ascribe to the category of 'truth' and thus 'bow' to it.

Even today a clash between some gang members and police in Sydney's west may well go viral as well. Without context, it could appear that the police are simply keen to brutalize some non-offenders. It's the whole story that is missing and who these men are and why they are going into police custody that fills in the gaps.

Some avoid this problem of imagery altogether by saying we should have no images at all. Among those are certain sects of the Amish and some ultra-Orthodox Jews. Of course, like with Bing Lee, everything is negotiable. For instance, even though Lubavitch Jews officially refuse to allow themselves to be photographed there are hundreds of official photos listed on their website. And they then make a big deal about 3-dimensions vs 2-dimensions in the unpacking of the 2nd commandment.

And this is from a Lubaticher rabbi in Canada.

"People who interacted with the Rebbe during his lifetime walked away feeling empowered to reach their fullest potential; not to be satisfied with past accomplishments or to be lured into mediocrity. By virtue of his holiness and sensitivity, the Rebbe was able to activate the inner spark in people he met, and inspire them to have an eternal flame burning in their hearts, to grow and grow, then grow some more.

When a Chabad family hangs a picture-- or several pictures-- of the Rebbe in their home, they are making an effort to invigorate themselves with the Rebbe's message, and instead of seeing how they appear currently and superficially, they want to see their soul's potential and strengthen their resolve to actualize it all." (https://www.chabad.org/library/article_cdo/aid/614937/jewish/Why-the-Rebbe-pictures.htm)

So having an image, which is inspirational in the Chabad house, is acceptable. And thus it is different than the inspiration of the Catholic prayer beads or the Greek icons in their parish church. 2-dimensional vs 3-dimensional. If only the Lord had been so clear on Mt Sinai.

Obviously the problem is played out in what we call worship, idolatry, the bowing down, and serving the other gods. But how you respond to television and youtube imagery may well be at risk if you get my drift.

God is Light: The mystery of 1 John for today

 The Book of 1 John: Stay the Love Course Together

A study in five weeks

By Bob Mendelsohn

Given in September and October 2021

 

LESSON One: God is Light

INTRODUCTION 

Thank you, Jimmy, and thanks to each of you who is joining us on this foray into the letter of John’s writing which is labeled 1 John. Americans say “First John” to distinguish it from John chapter 1 in the Gospel of the same author.   For those on YouTube, if you haven’t yet read this chapter of the book, please pause your playback, read chapter 1, and then re-join us. Thanks. 

Welcome back. 

We studied the book of James in the last month as if it were a sermon given by Ya’akov to his flock in Jerusalem. That’s exactly how I see 1 John as well. It’s not really a letter as such to Gaius (compare 3 John) or to the Ephesians (where most of John’s interest seems to lie). But it’s likely a sermon that he gave and gave and gave and someone recorded for him. 

I’m titling this series, “Stay the Love Course Together” because there are two major themes I see coming out of this Bible sermon book. One is the confrontation with the false teachings and I guess by implication the false teachers who are rejecting some authorized aspects of the question, “Who is Yeshua?” The other major theme I see in anything John writes is the love of God. The true and real God is known as love, his desire for us as his followers is love from a pure heart and a sincere faith. The course laid out for us by the Messiah is to love one another. Anything less than that, …is less than that. 

This John who wrote this book, by the way, is the son of Zebedee, one of the original 12 disciples. Most commentators agree that he wrote this in the 90s of the Common Era. That’s at least two decades after the Temple was destroyed. That helps us understand why there are zero references to sacred Jerusalem and priesthood and no mention of offerings and Levites. It’s post-exilic writing and if you will, the first book of what we might call the Christian Talmud. Remember, Yavneh takes place in 90 CE, when the leading rabbis of the day gathered and tried to sort out what to do as Jews, now that the Temple was destroyed. Without the Temple, we needed a new definition, even a reboot to our religion. Talmud of course, the Jewish interpretation book, really books, of the Older Testament, foist themselves upon history as the authorized interpretation. It’s the answer to the question, “Now what?” after 70 CE. But with this first series of books (along with 2 and 3 John), John is giving us a more authorized view of Judaism, of Yeshua, of the world after the Temple is gone. What does God want from us now?

Those of you who like linear studies, one verse leading to the next verse to the next verse are going to be disappointed with old man John’s writing. He doesn’t write in a linear fashion. As we saw in the study of the Gospel of John, he compiles his writing like a scrapbook. Paul’s analytical style shown most clearly in the book of Romans is significantly different. I like that. 

People argue about the Bible a lot as you would know. They say, “How can God be the author when he used ordinary people who wrote in such different styles.” I say that actually adds to the beauty and the magnificence of the Bible. When Patty and I were in Japan we went to the Shinjuku Gardens in Tokyo among other fantastic sites. There the chrysanthemums are the feature, and they abound. Every 50 metres or so is another patch of another color pattern or another size or another mum altogether. But the whole place is abundant with mums. I enjoyed the day, mostly because I was with my wife, but I don’t know about you… I prefer a variety of plants, bushes, trees, flower types altogether. Beauty to me is the different colors, the different shapes and sizes and … You get it. 

And some people prefer paintings in the gallery which are all purple or black-and-white or TALL or certain animals or… And that’s just fine, of course. Beauty, they say, is in the eye of the beholder. 

What I’m trying to say is that God uses the people who wrote the Bible’s books, all 66 books, and their personality, their language, their understanding, their views of life and compiled them into his autobiography. What we read in the Bible is what God wanted others to say about him. 

John’s simplicity and Paul’s erudition combine into part of what I appreciate so much about the beauty of this book.

With that as an introduction, let’s dive into chapter one today.

Prologue (.1-.4)

There are two major overriding themes John will cover, but like I’ve just done in this Bible study series, John starts with a prologue. He started with a prologue in the Gospel of John. And there were some major thoughts in that Gospel’s prologue that he repeats in this entire letter. The theme of light is the first concept he writes about there, and it’s the first he draws on here. God is light. The world is dark. Light shines in the dark. IF light shines in the light, no one would notice. But God shines his light in the darkened world in which John lived and in which we still live.

So what? Why does he write a philosophical term like light vs dark to believers nearby? The point is he’s trying to keep the believers on the right path. He wants us to stay the love course. How will he do that?

Verse one to four, the prologue. “What existed from the beginning…” Like in the Gospel, John starts with Creation. He’s not giving us a new-fangled idea like personal computers or closed-circuit television surveillance; he’s telling us that what he’s telling us has been around a long time. It’s trustworthy. I remember a television advertisement from years ago about the financial advisory company named Smith Barney. They used the tagline, “We make money the old-fashioned way; we earn it.”  Old fashioned means still here and still worth your money. Still worth your trust. We existed then; we’re still here. That’s part of the reason some companies say on their logo, “Established 1960” or such. You do know that Jews for Jesus has this plate on any of the buildings we own worldwide: “Jews for Jesus: Established 32 AD, give or take a year.”

John’s appeal is clear. After his appeal to Creation, he appeals to the living witnesses of the life of Jesus. Oh yeah, himself! And four times in three verses he says “I SAW IT ALL!”  Verse one, “we have seen”, and again, “looked at with our eyes”, verse two, “we have seen”, verse three “we have seen.” You seriously cannot miss that. The people to trust are the eyewitnesses. I like this and maybe this which I’ll tell you will help you as well.

When my sister and I speak, which is generally weekly, for an hour, we tell stories sometimes with other cousins on our call. It’s a lot of fun, and sometimes we go back a long way telling stories about events from decades ago. But sometimes, those stories have morphed into fanciful tales of falsehood, over time. What I mean is that history tends to get edited when staged in fading memories. That’s why the telling of stories, history, needs to be regularly corroborated. I know that John Kennedy was shot in November 1963. I saw that video played over and over. I read the newspaper the next day. I watched the evening news as they talked about things. The doctors gave reports. The testimony was corroborated and thus validated. That’s the good thing about current history. We can get to the rub; we can know the truth. 

John is saying, “I was there. I heard and saw this which I’m going to tell you, for myself. And there might be others around who can corroborate this.” Now here’s a help for you about the accuracy of the Bible. The writers, especially of the Newer Testament, wrote their books quickly in time, and there were many folks around who could have knocked back the data as wrong. Think of the Gospels, all but John’s written before the Temple was destroyed. Plenty of people, even hostile witnesses, could have spoken up and said, “That’s not what happened!” But that didn’t happen. The events were seen and heard; people recorded that history; no one knocked it back. What we have therefore is accurate. 

John is saying, “I was there. I saw this. I heard this. I touched him. I ate with him. I saw him die. I ate with him for nearly 6 weeks after he died. I saw him ascend while I watched.” You can trust me!

What’s the point of his telling us this? 

That we might “so that you too may have fellowship with us;” The NAB translates that as “so that you may share life with us.” I really like that. “Fellowship” is a great term, if we get it, but so many use it for so many things, we can miss it. Koinonia in Greek means to share life. It’s about community; it’s about love in a congregation and in relationships with others. You cannot have fellowship alone. 

I appreciate that some of you are living in a remote place, and what’s glorious since Covid hit us 20 months ago is the capacity we all have to meet together on Zoom, or those watching this lecture on YouTube. In a way, we have fellowship together as a result. And it goes well beyond this moment in time, of course. I’m privileged to know some of you in person for decades and others to meet only this month! The end result, John says, of our sharing, of my sharing in this teaching section, and in the 30 minutes we will share after the lecture part of this class, is that we might share life together. 

Yes, there are exceptions and exceptional circumstances, but the ordinary way of God in this transitory world is that we have others with whom to share. And then he tells us that this is not just that we play sport together, or have joined a book club. He is insisting that our shared life is similar to and in fact based on the shared life of the Father and the Son.

What we have is what God has in himself; deep fellowship and shared life. Remember Yeshua said, “Truly, truly, I say to you, the Son can do nothing of Himself unless it is something He sees the Father doing; for whatever the Father does, these things the Son also does in like manner.” (John 5.19) And again, “As the living Father sent Me, and I live because of the Father, so he who eats Me, he also will live because of Me.” (John 6.57)

And the life which we share is defined in verse 1 as the Word of Life. Just like he said in the prologue of the Gospel. The Word was with God and the Word was God.

The life is also in verse 2 as ‘eternal life.’ God’s word is not only information. It’s long-lasting, in fact, it will outlive me, he says, it will outlast the dynasty of the Mings in China or the Bronx Bombers in NY in the 1920s and 1930s. It will outlast the Dragons of St George or anything else that we think will never end. Even the Rolling Stones will one day stop performing. The life of God is eternal. It’s perpetual. It had no beginning and will have no end. Thus it’s true. It’s reliable. It’s trustworthy. John is appealing beyond his own witness. He’s saying that God is true and life and you can count on him. That will build the faith of every hearer, even you and me!

In the Gospel, John uses seeing and hearing as helps toward faith. Paul the apostle picks that up as well in Romans and elsewhere.

What will be the result of our faith and our sharing life? Of taking this on board? He says in verse 4: our joy will be complete. He’s not saying only his and a companion. He’s saying OUR joy, yours and mine and everyone who is sharing this life of God. We will be more complete in our joy, that fruit of the Spirit that grows each time a believer brings God into our conversation and rejoices with others. Have you felt that at times? When you hear a believer share their story, doesn’t it help your joy to grow? When another shares a tough time through which they are traveling, and then you hear them say, “Yet I know that God has been with me the whole time” don’t you internally smile and share that strength with them? That’s what John is meaning here.

Here then is the message: God is light

Verse five: This is it… God is light. Don’t miss this. The first of the two great “HERE IS THE MESSAGE” sentences. It’s like the ‘subject’ line on this original email of the apostle John. God is light. 

John says he heard it from him. 

John says he told me to tell you.

In other words, the information that follows is from God himself. And it has a purpose, which I will unveil in a short while. It’s light vs darkness. It’s Beowulf. It’s Star Wars. It’s the dark side against the heroes of the tale. In fact, almost every story, whether a fairy tale from Aesop or Grimm, Disney or Spielberg or JK Rowling has this basic plot: Light vs Dark. Who will win? What happens if dark wins? What will I do if I’m wrong… you get it.

So in verse 5, God has no darkness at all. Ya’akov said that in our last series. Chapter 1 of James said that God is the “father of lights in whom there is no shadow of turning (no variation).”  That means he is reliable and consistent. 

Listen everything in our world today is striving for consistency. We want reliable 5G internet. We want a reliable prime minister or president. We want our car to start when we turn the key, and our kids to turn out the way we set them in their course. If you want reliable, John says, look to God; he’s reliable.

Then the question arises of our lack of faith in the Messiah. After all the Jewish believers to whom John is writing were copping it hard after Yavneh. They were being outed as heretics, MINIM, they were called. And persecution was coming from Rome as well as from the synagogues. John is calling us to continued faith. To eternal life. Don’t replace your faith and love and life with temporary acceptance. He calls that “darkness.”

Verse six says we are not practicing the truth (of the Messiahship of Yeshua) if we walk in that darkness of disregard, the darkness of rejection of King Jesus. 

Verse seven, says we can have this shared life, even if we have sinned because we come to God to ask for forgiveness. That’s such an awesome reality. I wonder if you’ve considered that during the last fortnight. The 10 days of awe, from Rosh Hashanah to Yom Kippur are the time when we Jews ponder sin and atonement, getting right with each other and with God. We chant viddui and al khet. We pray all day hoping, maybe God will hear us and forgive us. And if you had conducted an exit poll yesterday after Ne’ilah asking Jewish people if they felt forgiven, you would have found 99% who had no guarantee that their names were written in the Book of Life. Assurance doesn’t exit there. But if you ask Jewish believers in Yeshua if we are forgiven, we will shout “Hallelujah!” because the blood of Yeshua, God’s Son cleanses us from all sin.” (verse 7)

Verse 8, if we say we don’t sin, we are deceiving ourselves. Of course we did sin and we still sin. The more you know God, the more you know how far short you fall of his standards. John in his typical exaggeration says ‘the truth is not in” those who talk like that. What he is saying is that those who walk away from the forgiveness and love and light that God extends to us in the Messiah.

Verse 9: One of those memorized Bible verses for many of us is verse 9. If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. Our forgiveness is not based on our Ashamnu confessions or the fasting on Yom Kippur. It’s based on two things. 1) The grace of God in his own faithful and righteousness and 2) our confession of our sins. End of story. God has done it. We enter into that by agreeing with him. 

Confession doesn’t wake God up to the substance of our failures. He wasn’t ignorant of our sins. Confession means to agree together with him that we have sinned and what he calls sin is sin. We agree. That agreement is our salvation. 

If we say we haven’t sinned, we call God a liar, because he has declared his standards and thus our failures, and if we say ‘no’ to that, we are calling him a liar. And thus his word, which is the word of life, is not in us. 

What do we learn? That God wants us to have life and to share that life with others. He wants us to stay the course until the end. We can count on his faithfulness because he was there in the beginning and will be to the non-end. 

I hope this book will deepen your joy and your pleasure in learning more about the Living God, and that this Shabbat and Sukkot which begins on Monday night, will find you sharing that life with more and more folks, until Yeshua returns.

INVITATION

Dear friends, if you’d like to have the forgiveness and the fellowship about which I spoke, you can do so today. Just now you can pray and find that the God of love extends his life to you in giving you pardon for all your sins. That forgiveness will usher you into the freedoms of knowing the God of love. Isn’t that a wonderful idea?

If you’d like that, please pray and ask God to forgive you your sins and to make you born again. 

Then let us know you have done this, won’t you? Write to us (admin@jewsforjesus.org.au) and tell us you have prayed for the first time. We want to send you some literature and welcome you to the family.  

And if you have any questions, use that same address, ok?

And join us next week as I continue the new 5-part series from the first letter of John. 

Until then, Shabbat shalom.

----------------------------------------

 

Bibliography

 To see the whole book in one short graphic and wonderful summary, watch this video:

https://www.thegospelcoalition.org/course/1-john-introduction/#overview

Actual text

 1John 1:1    What was from the beginning, what we have heard, what we have seen with our eyes, what we ^dhave looked at and touched with our hands, concerning the ^fWord of Life — ² and ^athe life was manifested, and we have ^bseen and ^ctestify and proclaim to you ^dthe eternal life, which was ^ewith the Father and was ^amanifested to us — ³what we have ^aseen and ^bheard we proclaim to you also, so that you too may have fellowship with us; and indeed our ^cfellowship is with the Father, and with His Son Jesus Christ. ^4 aThese things we write, so that our ^bjoy may be made complete.

 

1John 1:5   ^aThis is the message we have heard from Him and announce to you, that ^bGod is Light, and in Him there is no darkness at all. ^6 aIf we say that we have fellowship with Him and yet walk in the darkness, we ^blie and ^cdo not practice the truth; ⁷ but if we ^awalk in the Light as ^bHe Himself is in the Light, we have fellowship with one another, and ^cthe blood of Jesus His Son cleanses us from all sin. ^8 aIf we say that we have no sin, we are deceiving ourselves and the ^btruth is not in us. ^9 aIf we confess our sins, He is faithful and righteous to forgive us our sins and ^bto cleanse us from all unrighteousness. ^10 aIf we say that we have not sinned, we ^bmake Him a liar and ^cHis word is not in us.

The prophet Jonah and lessons in 2021

 Yesterday's Guilt...Tomorrow’s Fear:

The time is now!

Jonah and 2021

 

Yom Kippur 2021

 

Thank you for joining us on Zoom again for another year in Covid lockdown and its commensurate curiosity, uncertainties, and frustrations. Amid this 2^nd year of the global pandemic, we are fatigue fatigued, tired of being tired, you know? 

I pray you have an easy fast. Sorry to mention fasting again… in case you are having a tough time. I often wonder if fasting is all that the Lord wants from us on this 25-hour period we call Yom Kippur. Let’s ponder the famous story of Jonah, not the whale bit, but the rest of the story, and see if it has anything to say to us as 21^st century people in lockdown again. I pray that the eyes of your heart may be opened as we share in this section of the service. Thanks.

My friend John lives in Melbourne. He wrote me this week as he will not be able to be with us live but will watch this YouTube video later. He asked if he could share his “own special Yom Kippur memory.” He said, “I grew up in Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe). We had a wonderful community of 750 (Jewish) families mostly of Litvak origin. The most prestigious honor of the year was to read Maftir Yonah on Yom Kippur, and this was done by a prominent member of our shul.

In Herman Wouk's beautiful book This is my God, this honor fell to his father who was an immigrant of modest means. Many years before, in a shul in the Bronx, his father had outbid the more affluent members by offering $200, a fortune in those days when they used to auction off the Aliyah.

In Wouk's own words "My father made this .... costly beau geste because his own father, a shamas in Minsk, had had the privilege of reading the Book of Jonah ....”

I share this memory from John of Melbourne to highlight the significance of the reading as we approach the end of the years’ worth of readings as well as one other consideration. You see, the story of Jonah is often merely the story of a whale and a reluctant prophet. But on Yom Kippur we keep reading the story to find the prophet no better off than when we meet him at the beginning of the short, four-chapter book, but also, we find a group of questionable people, who meet the Almighty and have their own ‘Yom Kippur’ of sorts. What is the Almighty to do with such a mob? That’s our story tonight.

I’ve heard some of you are making changes around your home, buying stuff to build from Bunnings or Miter 10, inspired by The Block. Who has time to do only one thing at a time, just now? Many here will attempt to multi-task, keeping their cell phones on, writing notes about this talk and about their shopping list at the same time. We are a time-strapped city in a time-poor country, with less time to do only one thing. Please, that said, please try to stay with me for the next while. I believe it will be worth your while. And let the cell phone vibrate all it wants. Let it be. By the way, if you haven’t turned your phone off or to silent, please do so now. Thanks.

Back in the 1960s Paul Simon and Art Garfunkel sang, “Time, time, time, see what’s become of me, while I looked around for my possibilities. I was so hard to please but look around, leaves are brown, and the sky is a hazy shade of winter.” Simon’s lyrics told me back then to make the most of my life, both when I was a travelling hippie and later when I lived in New York City, now 23 years here in Sydney, and throughout my days.

 

John Kennedy said, “Change is the law of life. And those who look only to the past or present are certain to miss the future." And I appreciate Kennedy’s forward thinking. I’m a man of hope as well. And I’m grateful that 57 years after President Kennedy was shot, I’m still alive to carry on bringing hope to many.

But let’s not get ahead of ourselves.

There are some things that stop us. If ‘the time is now’ then what gets in the way of our living, there?

I believe we can miss ‘now living’ by three things: 1) crippling guilt from the past, 2) tormenting fears about the future, and 3) wrong living for today in a self-consumptive way. Let’s see if we can unpack these and to assist us, I want to remind us of the story we just read, about Jonah the reluctant prophet.

Guilt that cripples us

First the past. Depending on your self-image you may think of your past as either a glorious memory or as one that is full of regrets. Some will not attend any of their high school reunions because they don’t esteem their status as significant; they say they have no life. Others can’t wait to sign up to the reunion to show off their university degrees, their trophy spouse and children, their loss of the high school overweight kilograms, whatever shows their significance. But most of us are not so trophied; most of us are not so epes as my grandfather would say. Our significance pales compared to the latest celebrity or the best sportsman in the State of Origin. We think we are something, but we are not so epes. And the thing that knocks us back so often is regret and failures from the past. 

I know I’m going against the grain here in a Jewish setting. How can we think of a Jewish mother and not hear the episodes of guilt-sharing, which seem so endemic to her role? For instance, consider this case. The woman is very hungry and answers the phone from her distant son with a “So glad to hear from you.” “How are you?” he asks. “Fine, a little hungry,” his mother replies. “Nu, have you eaten today?” the son asks. “No, not in days,” his mother answers. “What! Why not? What’s wrong?” The mother’s guilt-filled answer rips to his heart, “I didn’t want to have my mouth full of food if you would ever call.”

Guilt can be a form of manipulation as the telephone story evidences or a real help to correct things, we do wrong. But either way, thinking and living in the past, with its commensurate regrets and pains, with wishes that didn’t work out and with a massive inability to repair anything, will only serve to prevent your living in the now, and not help it along at all.

Guilt cripples an otherwise-able walker. It’s near-to-impossible to walk forward if you are always looking backwards. The nearby building or the approaching pedestrian will be your landing pad, and no one will find peace. Living in the now is substantially weakened by backwards pondering. The regrets of not taking that position when the boss offered it, or of taking that little pill at university can be equally damaging to healthy living in the now. I feel so badly, you might be thinking, about some event, some excessive drinking party, an abortion, a divorce, typing an email on someone else’s email account… you get it. All probably bad. It’s probably that each of these memories brings you pain. We must find a way out of the unrelenting tyranny of the haunting past. 

That said, this group of people here tonight on the Zoom call believes that guilt can be overcome. And we will see that in the story of Jonah, long after the whale gets him.

Terrorism and tomorrow: Tormenting fear

I want to take that idea and expand it to include you and to many watching us on the Internet.  Not only do we have yesterday’s guilt crippling us, but also tomorrow’s fears. I’m not talking about plans, but about the inordinate worries and anxieties, which cause us to stop in those very plans. Fears, which torment us and prevent our living in the now. Add on personal trauma, and most comprehensively that which those 19 hijackers wanted to do on 9/11, to bring terror to many. Thus, terrorism has been a fact of life for 20 years in New York City and around the globe in measure.

Consider fear of the unknown, so marvelously underscored in Hollywood B-grade horror movies and in books that pre-dated them by hundreds of years. This continues to be the major preventative of growth and now-living in these days. HP Lovecraft wrote, “The oldest and strongest emotion of mankind is fear, and the oldest and strongest kind of fear is fear of the unknown” ―  Supernatural Horror in Literature .  

In fact, I found list after list of hundreds of fears, including Triskaidekaphobia. (Fear of the number 13)
Hexakosioihexekontahexaphobia. (Fear of the number 666) and what this entire visit to the Jews for Jesus Yom Kippur service might be for some of you, Neophobia, the fear of anything new.

“A man who fears suffering is already suffering from what he fears.” (Michel de Montaigne)

The Bible uses the term “Fear” 295 times, with 52 of those in the writings of King David in the Psalms. It is akin to our word ‘apprehension’ but can thwart any kind of living in the now with its anxiety. I was speaking to a man a while back who wanted more information from us but couldn’t quite figure out how to get it since he neither gave out his email nor his home address. His fears whether warranted or not prevented his receiving what he might have really wanted.  

Either living in the past and being tripped up by guilt or living in the future with its commensurate terror and worries… neither is where God wants us to live. Haz’man achshav. The time is now.

The prophet who brings a city to the now

We heard the story again of the prophet Jonah and his response to going to the Ninevites. You must understand that the Ninevites were the sworn enemies of the Jewish people in those days, Assyria was the evil empire, and they had declared war with regularity against us. They occupied territory which God had promised Abraham.

So that Jonah is called by God to go and talk to them about him… that’s just too much for a normal fellow like Jonah. He booked passage on the next ship, going the opposite direction. He thought they were not worthy of his information. He was above them. They were certainly God’s enemies and thus his enemies. They didn’t deserve to hear of God’s love and redemption.

He ended up being tossed overboard and immediately the sea calmed. That’s not a little creek. That’s the Mediterranean Sea!

In fact, he would have been a dead man, but for that sea monster, the whale which swallowed him whole. 

Jonah is in the belly of the whale for 3 days and nights and then he prays. I’m not a very smart man, but I would have recommended that he pray a couple of days earlier. 

He says he will get on with God’s business if he’s given another chance. In chapter two he says, probably of the mariners who rescued him, “Those who regard vain idols forsake their faithfulness, but I will sacrifice to you.” In other words, if you get me out of this mess, I’ll serve you forever. 

What does God do? He causes the whale to vomit and out comes Jonah onto dry ground. That’s quite a hurl! God again reminds Jonah of the mission to the Gentiles, and off he goes. It’s a three-day journey across town, like the distance across 12 LGAs, and on the first day he declares, “In 40 days Nineveh will be overthrown, or in our terms, you are going down!” He’s almost jubilant. 

But the mayor of Nineveh heard the message and sent out an edict that everyone, including the cattle should fast and cry out to God and perhaps God, meaning the God of the Hebrews, yes, our God, would relent and save them.

That’s not a dream or a fanciful power message. He’s living in the now and looking to the God of all time to save him and all his people.  He’s not boastful and confident in his own righteousness or divine power; he’s humble and asks the people to join him in that humility.

What will God do? His nature is to forgive and to be merciful. That’s who he is. That’s what he does. And Jonah knew that, too. He said later in chapter four, “Please LORD, was not this what I said while I was still in my own country? Therefore, to forestall this, I fled to Tarshish, for I knew that You are a gracious and compassionate God, slow to anger and abundant in lovingkindness, and one who relents concerning calamity.”

God doesn’t want us to live in shame and guilt from our past. He doesn’t want us to live in the fanciful future where there is much to fear, where nothing is sure, and COVID will kill us, or the pandemic is a lie and Bill Gates created 5G to put chips in us running magnets and changing our DNA and… see, this is a horror movie of fear. 

God wants us, and he wanted the Ninevites to live in now. Not the now of self-consumption and lavish ‘devil may care’ attitude. Those hooligans who drive at 125 kph on the streets of Canterbury and crash into each other or innocent bystanders…they are living in now, for themselves. 

Rather, I’m calling us to live in the now of forgiveness and confidence in who he is. God also wanted that for Jonah and ends the story with an appeal to the prophet, but we don’t see Jonah’s final response. It feels almost Jeffrey Archer-esque. But there is no denouement. The knot never unknots. 

Except for the Assyrians. They find forgiveness. Jonah finds turmoil, living in resentment and fear, living in hostility and racism. 

 

Yesterday’s guilt: tomorrow’s fear, all crashed into those Iraqis of their day, and they chose the God who is present.

They must cry Abba, and they must ask for mercy, and they must acknowledge that without him, they would have no future, they would have no hope from their guilt and shame. They like King David in the Psalms would declare, “If Thou, LORD, should mark iniquities, O Lord, who could stand? But there is forgiveness with Thee, that Thou may be feared. (Psalm 130.3-4)

Guilt. Yesterday. Check.

Fear. Tomorrow. Check.

What happens to the Gentiles in Nineveh?  

Back to our lives today, we could be full of self-consumption and pompous assurance that things will be fine all day, or as we say, ‘she’ll be right, mate.’  But that may be ill-informed. 2008 a global financial crisis crashed onto our lives, our wallets, our superannuation, and many have still not recovered. My friend Tim was 67 and was living just fine, thank you very much. But four months ago, was diagnosed with COVID and only 13 died days later. We think we are untouchable. We think we are in the now, but honestly, without the presence of Rabbi Yeshua, whom some call Jesus, without Him, the Messiah of Israel, and the Savior of those Assyrians, without him, our lives would be empty and worrisome. 

With him, we can live in the now. 

With him, we can be forgiven of our guilt and our sin.

With him we can be assured of a bright tomorrow without fear, because perfect love casts out all fear and those who know Him, who walk with him, who have received Yeshua as the Truth and the Way to the Father, know the truth, and the truth has set us free from worry and fears. 

Dear friend, if you are cowering from possible terror tomorrow or crippled by the guilt of our ever-present sins in the past, then may I ask you to consider Yeshua, the Messiah of Israel, and hope of the world?

He was the one who told a group of Jewish leaders in his day who had been monitoring his activities throughout Israel and demanded a ‘sign.’ 

He told them that no sign would be given them, even though he had already performed many such miraculous deeds, cleansing a leper, raising a paralytic, walking on the Sea of Galilee in the middle of the night, raising from the dead a woman, and giving sight to a blind man. But hey, how about another sign, they demanded.

He told them no sign would be given them except the sign of Jonah who was basically as good as gone, three days and nights, gone. And yet, he came back and was with us and the Gentiles in Assyria.

That’s the Yeshua who himself was put into a new grave in Jerusalem, as good as gone, and yet, he also came back from the dead. That’s the sign of Jonah. 

His dying on the cross looked like hopelessness for the waiting world, but in his rising from the dead on the 3^rd day, Yeshua brought us eternal life. It can begin today. It can begin for you today. I invite you to confess him Lord and Savior not only of the world, but also of your world. You will never be the same again. 

True Religion brings blessedness (James 5)

To watch this on video,  https://youtu.be/MobsjHezAio

INTRODUCTION 

We have studied this letter as if it were a sermon given by Ya’akov to his flock in Jerusalem. Remember, he’s the younger half-brother of our messiah, having the same mother but a different father. He has been teaching us for four chapters that we should be doers of the Word, having learned well, we need to be good practitioners of the Word. He calls it ‘pure and undefiled religion.’ We have called it ‘true religion.’ 

1.     The wealthy are not blessed, the rich oppress (1-6)

In today’s final, we see that no matter what else is going on around you, in your troubled and transitory life, we can be blessed. And that notion of blessedness is not a new one in the Scripture. Nor to the hearers of Ya’akov’s brother. The public ministry of Yeshua began with what we call the Sermon on the Mount. That sermon, which probably was a compilation of many sermons, recorded for us by Matthew and by Luke, begins with the Beatitudes, a simple and powerful compilation of countercultural thoughts by our righteous messiah.

Listen to these first few:

Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted.

Blessed are the gentle, for they shall inherit the earth.

Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be satisfied.

Blessed are the merciful, for they shall receive mercy.

Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God.

Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called sons of God. (Matthew 5.3-9)

There is nothing at all wrong with these thoughts, of course, but by counterculture I mean this. As Job’s friends advised him after sitting shiva with him for those 7 days, and after the loss of his 10 children and all his property and finances, Job still endured. His three friends gave him counsel that obviously Job had sinned in some way. His ‘blessedness’ was now gone, and if he wanted to please God again, then he had to repent.  Nothing happens like all his misfortune without his being somewhat responsible, you know?

Into that situation and against that backdrop of wrong guidance, Yeshua says blessings come to poor people, those who are mourning and not rejoicing. He says if you want to be blessed, make peace with those who intimidate and harass you. Those who have plenty of food and drink are not the blessed ones, but those who hunger and thirst. This is 100% counterculture, or as we used to call this, the Upside-Down Kingdom of the Lord.

This is not new information. Consider Deuteronomy 14.28 and following. 

“At the end of every third year you shall bring out all the tithe of your produce in that year and shall deposit it in your town. The Levite, because he has no portion or inheritance among you, and the alien, the orphan and the widow who are in your town, shall come and eat, and be satisfied, in order that the LORD your God may bless you in all the work of your hand which you do.

 

At the end of every seven years, you shall grant a remission of debts. This is the manner of remission: every creditor shall release what he has loaned to his neighbour; he shall not exact it of his neighbour and his brother, because the LORD’S remission has been proclaimed.” (14.28-15.2)

I mention this passage for two reasons. First, we entered into a 7^th year, the Sabbatical year on Monday evening. And for the last year leading up to this week and going forward 12 months, there are regulations in the Scripture about what we should do and not do. And the use of the term ‘brother’ which stood out as I read it last week.

Be prayerful in economic troubles         

The other reason I want you to hear this passage is found in verse 29. Note the care the Lord has for the leftovers, the not-usually-considered. He names them: alien, orphan, widow. Of course, he also mentions priest, but that’s for another lesson. 

Ya’akov of course, mentions the same two categories in his description of pure and undefiled religion. And I must say that I’ve gotten this wrong the last few weeks. I have said our religion is to ‘care for the widows and orphans in their distress and to keep oneself unstained by the world.’ What I got wrong was the order of the ones for whom we are to care. Yes, widows. Yes, orphans. But note the order please. Orphans, then widows. 

Let me explain how I see this. As winter ended here a week ago or so, I noted again the order of God’s care. The grass came back to life on my lawn, and then the shorter plants and bushes. Then the large trees began to bud and leaf again, and finally the tallest trees reaching to the heavens began to leaf. 

For me this was symbolic of God’s care. He tends to the humble and the lowly, long before he gives sunshine and photosynthetic activity to the high and mighty. He gives sunshine to the grass first. If he gave such to the largest trees, there would not be any left for the grass, and none would grow. 

So in this regard, the orphans need to be cared for first, and then the widows. Obviously, these 2^nd category are women without anyone at home, otherwise they would be counted as a household that needed the care and attention of Yaakov’s audience. 

OK, back to chapter 5 after that excurses of self-correction. Thanks for indulging me as we all get this right. 

Chapter 5 struck me with the call to patience as well as the rehearsal of the people in the audience. Listen how many times, throughout the whole letter, Ya’akov uses the term ‘brother’ or ‘brethren.’  17 by my count. (1.2, .9, .16, .19, 2.1, .9, .14-15,3.1, .10,.12, 4.11, 5.7, .9-10,.12,.19). And three of those included the word ‘beloved’ as its adjective. If you don’t hear a tenderness when you read this book, you are missing something major.

Authority and power are just words to many, but as I ponder the world and the polarity of strident conversations, I think I’m seeing something. And maybe you see it as well. Why are there so many conspiracists? What are so many believing the most amazing ‘shake my head’ misinformation? It’s due to the desire for power; a way to control what is out of the control of any of us. 20 years ago, tomorrow was 9/11. The terrorists from the Middle East flew four airplanes into buildings and an open field 

And why am I mentioning this just now? If anyone had the right to claim authority and dominance, it was the half-brother of Yeshua, and the first bishop of the community of faith in the centre of faith, in Jerusalem. But his use of appeal to the brotherhood is landmark. He is tender and rich in love. 

Yeshua taught this. Ya’akov taught this. We need to learn this and live in this. Amen?

2.     The blessing of patience (Chapter 5:7-12)

In light of the condemnation on the rich, Ya’akov says, ‘therefore’. Why is that here? Because the rich are going to cop it hard. Therefore, be patient. When you are not given what you think you deserve. When you imagine yourself getting basic considerations, look up to the Lord. Why?

Cole Porter wrote another song, and yet I hear it when I read this section. Patience? Farmers do it. The prophets of old did it. Job did it. Let’s be patient! 

Be prayerful in physical troubles

Instead of grumbling or arguing, let’s be patient. Let’s strengthen our hearts and speak in the name of the Lord. Why? Because God is full of compassion and merciful. Sounds like Ex. 34:6 doesn’t it?

Ya’akov even repeats himself from verse 7 and again in verse 8.  Why? Because the Lord is drawing near. Due to the return of Yeshua, we need to be patient. Fascinating motivation. It’s like the men’s marathon runners in the Olympics a few weeks back. Yes, Kipchoge of Kenya won, easily actually. What I remember more was the man who came in 2^nd cheered on his birth-country buddy who was in 4^th place and finished 3^rd. Nageeye (Dutch) and Abdi (Belgium) were both born in Somalia and now race for others, but that day as I watched them finish, 2-3, they were on the same team. 

	A. Nageeye Netherlands
	B. Abdi Belgium

 

The idea that we are all in this together really helps me, pastorally, personally, as I read the book of Ya’akov. You on this Zoom call, men and women, each of you is cheering me on. I’m cheering you on. We are not isolated; we should not be insulated from one another. The apostle is cheering us all on, one by one, to be patient when the rich, the government, the powerful, the media all mistreat us. When we feel powerless. When we are empty. When we are but dust. 

God says ‘be patient. Trust me.’ And don’t miss this one… “trust each other in the Body of Messiah.” 

That’s why he adds this in verse 12. Don’t swear. Now in modern days our parents told us that swearing was the same as cursing. Using naughty language was swearing. But that’s not the word as Ya’akov uses it.  He’s talking about making oaths and vows. Yeshua also made those clearly out of bounds, didn’t he? He was the one whom his brother seems to be quoting, almost directly. 

“Again, you have heard that the ancients were told, ‘YOU SHALL NOT MAKE FALSE VOWS, BUT SHALL FULFILL YOUR VOWS TO THE LORD.’  But I say to you, make no oath at all, either by heaven, for it is the throne of God, or by the earth, for it is the footstool of His feet, or by Jerusalem, for it is THE CITY OF THE GREAT KING. Nor shall you make an oath by your head, for you cannot make one hair white or black. But let your statement be, ‘Yes, yes’ or ‘No, no’; anything beyond these is of evil.” (Matt.5.33-37)

Remember we learned that in last week’s lesson, to the merchants we heard not to make plans that are based on you, but rather, to say you are going here or there and will trade and conduct business, unless the Lord wills. Make your plans to follow God, and you will never be disappointed.

3.     The blessing of prayer (Chapter 5:13-18)

Next we switch gears to the problem of suffering and the role of prayer. And if you think we’ll sort this out in 5 minutes, you have never either been a suffering one nor a prayer warrior. One of the main themes in this letter is trouble, tsuris, real deep feelings and situations which overwhelm us and dominate our thoughts and raise our anxiety. In the beginning, the apostle told us to consider it all joy when you fall into such troubles, knowing the result will be that we are better people. 

Then he makes clear some situations which would cause us to fret or be angry, to be frustrated or grieve. The money problems and the lack-of-wisdom problems, the misuse of tongue and the war we have with each other. 

He wraps that up in this sermon with ‘is any of you suffering?’ That is the summary statement. The big question… who in here is suffering, from ANYTHING? The apostolic answer—prayer.

Martin says this, 

“The two verbs in this verse span the spectrum of emotions. In the first part of v 13, James refers to those who are suffering, κακοπαθεῖν means “to suffer” some type of misfortune. The parallel NT references (in 2 Tim 2:9; 4:5) suggest nothing of illness, and it seems better not to restrict the adversity mentioned in our present verse to physical maladies. James will deal with physical problems in v 14. Rather, κακοπαθεῖν is used here to show that James’ readers are afflicted by hardship, probably as a direct consequence of their faith (cf Josephus, Against Apion 2.203). Moreover, his concern is to highlight [vol. 48, p. 206] the need to bear up under this burden with patience (BGD, 397). The noun form related to κακοπαθεῖν is in v 10, where the prophets are cited as illustrating those who were persevering in the midst of suffering. James is not exhorting his readers to pray (προσευχέσθω, signifying “the natural reaction of a Christian in distress”; Pss 30:2, 8, 10; 50:15; 91:15; cf PssSol 15:1; J. Herrmann, TDNT 2:798) for the removal of trouble as much as he is urging them to seek the strength to endure it (Michaelis, TDNT 5:937), but not in a stoical way.”

Then the rest of verse 13 asks the question… “did it work?” In other words, “Is anyone cheerful?” The Greek is euthumeo, and often is translated as encouraged. In other words, did it work? Are you heartened, knowing that your brothers elsewhere have it as bad and they are carrying on. It does not carry the notion of polyana sentimentality or disregard of problems. Rather, it is putting God in his place over our problems. It’s not Christian Science’s idea of ‘there is no problem’ but rather the apostolic idea that DURING our troubles, God is walking with us. He will never leave us or forsake us, amen?

If you are cheerful, then sing praises. Like Paul and Silas in the Philippian jail (Acts 16). They were in jail for goodness’ sake, and they had the worst day of their natural lives, but they sang praises because no matter what else was going on, and it was going on, they knew who would sort things out to his purposes and for his own glory. They knew the Lord. So they sang praises. (Prov. 15.15)

Ya’akov asks in verse 14 if any is sick. Call for the elders and they will come and pray. This sounds like a big one. It’s not related to a flu bug or a cough. This sounds like a person in the hospital on Covid who is on a ventilator. This sounds like a real biggie. Does that mean God is not concerned about the minor illnesses? The apostle is not addressing that situation. He’s addressing the major one. When a person is on his death bed, like Jairus’ daughter or Dorcas or others in early Church history, these are episodes designed to build our faith. Does that mean that every person in every age will always be healed? Not even close. Everyone will die and often of a death-bed-malady. 

Listen to how James builds the case for sin and what to do with it, as it relates to physical sickness. 

Sin caused death, he already established that in chapter 1. We have to be ruthless with sin. Get rid of it. Be doers of the word, not judges of it. That’s chapter 2. Speak the word, not misuse of our tongue, that’s chapter 3. We fight too often, and don’t live out the godly life in community; that’s chapter 4. So here again, as he summarizes his sermon, he brings in sin and confession of sin TO ONE ANOTHER. 

My friends, the sickness that leads to death is the unrepentance in our lives, the very issue that the elders would be processing with this hospitalized person. The Greek says, “If he has been constantly sinning.” This parallels 1 Cor. 11.30 “For this cause many are weak and sickly among you, and many sleep”. So it’s not only that this person is unable to get to the church; it’s that he is prevented by sin weighing him down that causes him to call on the elders. He wants to be restored!

I am 100% convinced that confessing our sins to each other makes a massive difference to overcoming. Yes, Yeshua died for our sins. Yes, if we confess our sins to the Lord, he will forgive us (1 John 1.9) as we will learn next week in 1 John, but if you want to win over plaguing sins in your life just now, you have to admit to God, to yourself, and to at least one other person the exact nature of your sin and failure. You will find victory in the admission of your failure. 

I know, that sounds ridiculous especially for macho men and people who simply don’t trust each other, but when you find a mate, a real accountability partner, you will win. 

4.     Blessing those who fail (Chapter 5:19-20)

Be prayerful in church troubles

Then, Ya’akov says, pray for one another. It will cover a multitude of my sins, and their sins, too. Isn’t that the point of our pure and undefiled religion? To restore those who fail. Let others confess to you their sins. Find others with whom you can share your failings and let them restore you.

Restore such a one who is unwell, whether in physical sickness or spiritually separate (of late) from the Lord.

Next week we will begin a new series, studying the letter by the Apostle of Love, John, in what is called 1 John. I hope you will join me and all of us then.

INVITATION

Dear friends, if you’d like to have true religion; if you want to have that peace and right standing with God, and if you want to know Messiah personally like we do, then why not pray with us right now? If you’ve never given your life to Yeshua, he longs to be with you just now. Come and be cleansed from your sin.

Pray and ask God to show you how to have true religion. Ask him to forgive you your sins and to make you born again. 

Then let us know you have done this, won’t you? Write to us (admin@jewsforjesus.org.au) and tell us you have prayed for the first time. We want to send you some literature and welcome you to the family.  

And if you have any questions, use that same address, ok?

And join us next week as we start a new 5-part series from the letter of 1 John. 

Until then, L'shana tovah and Shabbat shalom.

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Bibliography

Dickson, John (and Simon Smart), Vital Signs, Aquila Press, Sydney, 2006.

Martin, Ralph P., James, Word Biblical Commentary Series, Nelson Publishing, Nashville, 2006.

Ryken, L., Wilhoit J., Longman T., Dictionary of Biblical Imagery, Intervarsity Press, Downers Grove, 1998.

Wiersbe, Warren, Be Mature, SP Publications, Wheaton, IL, 1978.

 

Actual text

James 5:1   Come now, you rich, weep and howl for your miseries which are coming upon you. ² Your riches have rotted and your garments have become moth-eaten. ³ Your gold and your silver have rusted; and their rust will be a witness against you and will consume your flesh like fire. It is in the last days that you have stored up your treasure! ⁴Behold, the pay of the laborers who mowed your fields, and which has been withheld by you, cries out against you;and the outcry of those who did the harvesting has reached the ears of the Lord of Sabaoth. ⁵ You have lived luxuriously on the earth and led a life of wanton pleasure; you have fattened your hearts in a day of slaughter. ⁶ You have condemned and put to death the righteous man; he does not resist you.

 

James 5:7   Therefore be patient, brethren, until the coming of the Lord. The farmer waits for the precious produce of the soil, being patient about it, until it gets the early and late rains. ⁸ You too be patient; strengthen your hearts, for the coming of the Lord is near. ⁹ Do not complain, brethren, against one another, so that you yourselves may not be judged; behold, the Judge is standing right at the door. ¹⁰ As an example, brethren, of suffering and patience, take the prophets who spoke in the name of the Lord. ¹¹ We count those blessed who endured. You have heard of the endurance of Job and have seen the outcome of the Lord’s dealings, that the Lord is full of compassion and ismerciful.

 

James 5:12   But above all, my brethren, do not swear, either by heaven or by earth or with any other oath; but ¹your yes is to be yes, and your no, no, so that you may not fall under judgment.

 

James 5:13   Is anyone among you suffering? Then he must pray. Is anyone cheerful? He is to sing praises. ¹⁴ Is anyone among you sick? Then he must call for the elders of the church and they are to pray over him, anointing him with oil in the name of the Lord; ¹⁵ and the prayer offered in faith will ^2brestore the one who is sick, and the Lord will raise him up, and if he has committed sins, they will be forgiven him. ¹⁶ Therefore, confess your sins to one another, and pray for one another so that you may be healed. The effective ¹prayer of a righteous man can accomplish much. ¹⁷ Elijah was ^aa man with a nature like ours, and he prayed earnestly that it would not rain, and it did not rain on the earth for three years and six months. ¹⁸ Then he prayed again, and the sky poured rain and the earth produced its fruit.

 

James 5:19   My brethren, if any among you strays from the truth and one turns him back, ²⁰ let him know that ¹he who turns a sinner from the error of his way will save his soul from death and will cover a multitude of sins.