Schmutz, Satan and a Saviour? (Zechariah chapter 3)

 OUT OF THE CHAOS: A study in the book of Zechariah

Chapter 3: Problems solved (Schmutz, Satan and a Saviour)

Given 5 May 2023

By Bob Mendelsohn

Sydney, Australia

Shalom and welcome to our class today. We are continuing in this prophetic book written by a young Jewish man living in Jerusalem about 500 BCE as he writes to his people, those living there in Judah and also to those living in Babylon. To each of those groups, he has some clear words and I trust that those words he spoke 2500 years ago will speak to you and to me as we will consider what God meant as he used that young man. And we will try to learn what God has to say to us as 21st Century people. 

As per usual, my method will take us through a chapter each Friday morning, and then we will have plenty of time for discussion and questions in the final half-hour. If you are watching this teaching on YouTube after our class, please feel free to write me (bob@jewsforjesus.org.au) and I will try to answer queries if I’m able. 

If you don’t already receive the email invitations to join this class live, please enter your email address just now, type it into the chat box or write our office (admin@jewsforjesus.org.au) and ask to be invited. Thanks. 

Also if you don’t mind, please read the chapter before you come to the class live, and if you are watching YouTube, pause your playback, read chapter 3 and then rejoin us. Thanks. Welcome back.

Let’s jump in. Today’s lesson is titled, “Problems solved (Schmutz, Satan and a Saviour)” This is vision #4 of the night visions of Zechariah, bunched here at the beginning of his prophecy. And it features, unlike the previous three which left us with a desire to go rebuild the Temple in Jerusalem, a person. The man Joshua, not the military conqueror and apprentice of Moses of the Torah, but rather a man who lived in those days and was the High Priest. 

It makes sense to me that when we consider the rebuild of the Temple that we next have to move to the next major resource and that is, who will serve there? The personnel that will make the Temple a safe and sacred space. So, we zoom in on Joshua, the main man. 

The rabbis teach that Joshua had sons who married Gentile women and thus brought shame and this filth (the Hebrew is pointed; it’s excrement) onto their father’s priestly garments. Most Christian interpreters see the filth as the result of the sins of the entire populace of the Jewish people. But the angel seems to be showing a more localized problem. Joshua has schmutzik clothing, filthy, dirty, and only can be cleaned by the removal of sin. See verse 4. Sin removed; garments cleansed. Simple. Only there is a problem. 

The Satan, yes, there is a definite article in every use of Satan in the OT (except in 1 Chronicles 21.1). It’s his calling card, what’s on his CV, his main duty—to accuse. Oppose. Resist. Be the enemy. In this case, the court has a prosecuting attorney and that’s the role he takes here. Accuse. 

I don’t usually use Wikipedia for a reference guide, but this one is worth reading and noting. It’s from an article written at the end of the 19th century in France. The setting is the miscarriage of justice about Alfred Dreyfuss.

I quote it in almost its entirety.  

"J'Accuse...!" ( "I Accuse...!") is an open letter that was published on 13 January 1898 in the newspaper L'Aurore by Émile Zola in response to the Dreyfus affair. Zola addressed the President of France Félix Faure and accused his government of antisemitism and the unlawful jailing of Alfred Dreyfus, a French Army General Staff officer who was sentenced to lifelong penal servitude for espionage. Zola pointed out judicial errors and lack of serious evidence. The letter was printed on the front page of the newspaper and caused a stir in France and abroad. Zola was prosecuted for libel and found guilty a month later (on 23 February 1898.) To avoid imprisonment, he fled to England, returning home in June 1899.

Other pamphlets proclaiming Dreyfus's innocence include Bernard Lazare's A Miscarriage of Justice: The Truth about the Dreyfus Affair (November 1896). As a result of the popularity of the letter, even in the English-speaking world, J'accuse! has become a common expression of outrage and accusation against someone powerful, whatever the merits of the accusation.”

 

The reason I flashed back on that scene from 130 years ago is that I hear the word ‘accuse’ and most of us would see it as a legal term, as it is, and often in connection with Satan, we think it’s about wrong accusations. We remember Revelation chapter 12, and that Satan is introduced there again as “the accuser of the brethren.” (.10). And that we are able to ‘overcome’ the ministry of Satan by three things, “the blood of the Lamb, the word of our testimony, and not loving our life even when faced with death.”  But in both the injustice in the Dreyfuss affair and in the case of Joshua, the High Priest here, the accusations are accurate. So, we need to think rightly. The accusations are not misplaced, but well-placed. Even so, we need a fix, and thus we need a fixer. Schmutz can be overcome. Satan can be set down. How will that happen? We’ll get back to that.

Let’s talk a bit more about the Satan. He is a main player in the drama of the book of Job. There in chapters 1 and 2 he is introduced as able to stand in God’s presence and even carry on a conversation with the Almighty. He challenges the Lord and intimates that God is not playing fair. You might remember that story and that God takes Satan’s challenge and in the end, apparently Job and God win in the battle. 

Warren Wiersbe says this. “When Satan talks to us about God, he lies, but when he talks to God about us, he tells the truth.” (page 115) I like that. Satan is not a font of truth-telling. He seriously wants us to walk away from the Lord, AND he wants us to dismiss his own reality and his own personhood. 

Remember the book by CS Lewis called, “The Screwtape Letters?” There Lewis helps us see the inner workings of the Kingdom of Darkness and he highlights this in the preface where we read, “There are two equal and opposite errors into which our race can fall about the devils. One is to disbelieve in their existence. The other is to believe, and to feel an excessive and unhealthy interest in them. They themselves (the devils) are equally pleased by both errors and hail a materialist or a magician with the same delight.”

I love this quote also in Screwtape’s 7th letter to Wormwood, “I wonder you should ask me whether it is essential to keep the patient in ignorance about your own existence. …Our policy, for the moment, is to conceal ourselves. Of course, this has not always been so. We are really faced with a cruel dilemma. When human beings disbelieve in our existence, we lose all the pleasing results of direct terrorism, and we make no magicians. On the other hand, when they believe in us, we cannot make them materialists and sceptics - at least not yet.    I have great hopes that we shall learn in due course how to emotionalise and mythologise their science to such an extent that what is, in effect, a belief in us, (though not under that name), will creep in while the human mind remains closed to belief in the Enemy. The ‘Life Force’, the worship of sex, and some aspects of Psychoanalysis may here prove useful. If once we can produce our perfect work – the Materialist Magician, the man, not using, but veritably worshipping what he vaguely calls ‘Forces’ while denying the existence of ‘spirits’ – then the end of the war will be in sight. In the meantime we must obey our orders.    I do not think you will have much difficulty in keeping your patient in the dark. The fact that ‘devils’ are predominantly comic figures in the modern imagination will help you. If any faint suspicion of your existence begins to arise in his mind, suggest to him a picture of something in red tights, and persuade him that since he cannot believe in that (it is an old textbook method of confusing them) he therefore cannot believe in you.” (Screwtape Letters)

When I speak today about Satan, I don’t want you to miss the overreach of the two prongs that Lewis highlights. Either a complete dismissal of the spirit world and the Devil’s capacities or a complete overindulgence and obsession with its realities. Keep your mind of Yeshua, and don’t be unaware of Satan’s (that’s the Hebrew word; the Greek is diabolos (or Devil))devices. (For those watching this on YouTube, please check the manuscript (link in the notes of the show) and you will find a long list of Bible verses related to the Satan and what we are to know about him and the kingdom of darkness. Now, back to Joshua.

Joshua is schmutz-covered. He is guilty. The Jewish people are in Babylon as a true carriage of justice. We are wrong. The scene is not necessarily on Yom Kippur, but it reflects it, to be sure. The accusation is accurate. What are we to do? This vision doesn’t look good.

Verse 2: God Himself enters the courtroom. He doesn’t rid the court of Satan because he likes the Jewish people, but because He has chosen the Jewish people. He calls his own election to the witness stand as the defense attorney would do, and he rebukes the Satan. Begone, as Yeshua would later say, time and again. God’s choice of the Jewish people (Deut. 7.7, Psalm 33.12, 132.13, etc) is fixed. He cannot deny himself so he has to act on our behalf for his own name’s sake. And with whom are we left?

Joshua, Zechariah, the Lord, and some angels. But Joshua still has filthy garments. The angel of the Lord speaks in verse 4, “Remove” The action required both a removal of the problem and a fixing again of the place of Joshua in the camp of Israel. Removal and replacement. But verse 4 makes clear that removal of the clothing and the accompanying smell was only part of the problem. The rest is titled ‘sin’ (note: not sins). Removing clothing without taking away the iniquity is a half-done job. It’s the same issue a rabbi asked me to explain last week. I’ll get to that soon.

I wonder if you have walked past homeless people and noted an odor on some of them. Even if they have new garments given them from the Vinnies or the Talbot? That’s because they need a scrub themselves. New garments without a bath are almost a waste, almost. 

The angel of the Lord wants Joshua to get a good scrub. Inside. Then when iniquity is removed, then the new garments (even the new turban as Zechariah reminds them in the scene) make sense. The turban is part of the high priest’s garb (Exodus 28.36-38, 39.30-31) and cried “Holiness to the Lord.” In other words, the completion of the task brought glory again to the Lord, the Lord of mercy and election, the Lord of love and the Lord of hosts. 

Not only did he suffer accusation, and find the answer in the forgiveness and reclothing of the angel, but Zechariah’s vision gave assurance to him, to Joshua, and dare I say, to us as well. Remember our title today included schmutz, Satan and a saviour. 

Verse 5 includes the verb “admonish” and thus Joshua is charged to represent well the Lord who cleansed and appointed him. Verse 6, two ifs (protasis) and three thens (apodosis). If you walk and perform, then you will govern, have charge, and have good access (goings) among those standing here. By the way, note how many folks are standing and to whom or against whom they are doing so throughout this chapter. Satan always stands to accuse, yet the angel of the Lord stands to oppose, like J’accuse was made by Emile Zola or Bernard Lazare back in the 1890s. 

I’m here because someone stood up to the wiles and devices of the enemy of God, stood tall, declared the blood of the Lamb and got me to have a word of testimony. But I advance this thought too soon.

God promises through the angel of the Lord to Joshua that he will have three results of his two conditional actions. Walk in God’s ways and perform God’s service. Simple. The rabbis teach that he instructed his own sons to divorce foreign wives and go back to Jerusalem. That’s not so clear in this text. What is clear is that Joshua is being given a glimpse into the character of a gentle and lowly God who cares about us and will come to defend us when required.

Look at the fulfilment promise in verses 8 through 10. The accusation is answered by an Advocate, and he gives both an assurance in the moment and an announcement of what or rather who is to come. 

Verse 8. The men/ angels who are there at this vision #4 are a symbol. That means they represent something else. And in this case, God says, “I am going to bring in…” which speaks to the future. Beyond this moment with Joshua and the garments. There is something or someone more. What? Branch. My servant. A person of significance. Like Jeremiah predicted decades before. (23.5-6)

Jer. 23:5    “Behold, the days are coming,” declares the LORD, 

“When I will raise up for David a righteous Branch; 

And He will reign as king and act wisely 

And ddo justice and righteousness in the land.

6  “In His days Judah will be saved, 

And Israel will dwell securely; 

And this is His name by which He will be called, 

‘The LORD our righteousness.’

This stick, this branch of Jeremiah, is Yahweh or Jehovah our righteousness. He’s not a junior in the company; he’s God himself. The restoration and the promises God made 70 years before under Jeremiah, these are renewed in the night vision of Zechariah here in chapter 3. The Branch is the hope of Israel. That’s the real hope. 

And like the late-night infomercial, wait, there’s more. Verse 9, I have set on one stone 7 eyes. That means a complete view. Nothing will be left out. Seven facets with the engraved inscription, and it’s a promise of land cleansing. The Branch, or in this 2nd picture, the Rock, will cleanse the land of iniquity. God did that in Yeshua a few hundred years later in his dying for us on the cross. Calvary is the fulfilment of this promise. And in that day, the day of the death of the Son of Man, verse 10, we can have peace and hope in our own land. Under our vine and fig tree, in the place we have been promised. The result of this forgiveness is a looking forward to the work of Branch and the Rock, two great titles of our Messiah, who will bring in everlasting righteousness.

Last week a rabbi asked me a question about peace and the promise of messiah. He told me that since there is no global peace that Yeshua could not be the messiah. That’s fairly simple. But I answered with the old fable of the invention of sandals in Mongolia. You can make the world a calm place, but if individuals don’t take this peace on board, there remains internal strife and conflict. Without individual peace, global peace is never going to happen. Messiah had to bring peace to people, one by one, and when we take him on board as Messiah and SAVIOUR from our own sins, then global peace can eventuate.

Giving out new clothing without cleansing us on the inside… that never takes away the problem. We need an inside wash, then the world will work well.

Under your own vine, and your own fig tree. Do you want that?

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Remember, you who are watching today, if you are not yet a follower of Yeshua, and see his love for you, his kindness extended, his offer of forgiveness available, right where you are, submit to him, to his lordship, to his care, and your life will take on new meaning, new substance, and you will have mates on this call, and in your neighbourhood and wherever you travel… the Kingdom is advancing under the King. Chaos is subjugated, life is available. Pray and receive Jesus as your Messiah and Saviour.

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Resource on video

To see a fun video overview of the book of Zechariah see this from Bible Project:

https://bibleproject.com/explore/video/zechariah/

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Bibliography:

Smith, Ralph, Micah to Malachi: Word Biblical Commentary (Volume 32), Thomas Nelson Publishers, Nashville, 1984.

Stead, Michael, Zechariah: The Lord Returns, Aquila Press, Sydney, 2015.

Webb, Barry, The Message of Zechariah: Your Kingdom Come, Intervarsity Press, Nottingham, 2003.

Wiersbe, Warren, Be Heroic: Demonstrating Bravery by your Walk, David C. Cook Press, Colorado Springs, 1997.

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ACTUAL TEXT

Zech. 3:1   Then he showed me Joshua the high priest standing before the angel of the LORD, and Satan standing at his right hand to accuse him. 2 The LORD said to Satan, “The LORD rebuke you, Satan! Indeed, the LORD who has chosen Jerusalem rebuke you! Is this not a brand plucked from the fire?” 3 Now Joshua was clothed with filthy garments and standing before the angel. 4 He spoke and said to those who were standing before him, saying, “Remove the filthy garments from him.” Again he said to him, “See, I have taken your iniquity away from you and will clothe you with festal robes.” 5 Then I said, “Let them put a clean turban on his head.” So they put a clean turban on his head and clothed him with garments, while the angel of the LORD was standing by.

Zech. 3:6   And the angel of the LORD admonished Joshua, saying, 7 “Thus says the LORD of hosts, ‘If you will walk in My ways and if you will perform My service, then you will also govern My house and also have charge of My courts, and I will grant you free access among these who are standing here. 8 ‘Now listen, Joshua the high priest, you and your friends who are sitting in front of you — indeed they are men who are a symbol, for behold, I am going to bring in My servant the Branch. 9 ‘For behold, the stone that I have set before Joshua; on one stone are seven eyes. Behold, I will engrave an inscription on it,’ declares the LORD of hosts, ‘and I will remove the iniquity of that land in one day. 10 ‘In that day,’ declares the LORD of hosts, ‘every one of you will invite his neighbour to sit under his vine and under his fig tree.’”

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Other Bible references to The Devil:

Matt. 4:1   Then Jesus was led up by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil.

Matt. 4:5   Then the devil *took Him into the holy city and had Him stand on the pinnacle of the temple,

Matt. 4:8   Again, the devil *took Him to a very high mountain and *showed Him all the kingdoms of the world and their glory;

Matt. 4:11 Then the devil *left Him; and behold, angels came and began to minister to Him.

Matt. 13:39 and the enemy who sowed them is the devil, and the harvest is the 1end of the age; and the reapers are angels.

Matt. 25:41   “Then He will also say to those on His left, ‘Depart from Me, accursed ones, into the eternal fire which has been prepared for the devil and his angels;

Luke 4:2 for forty days, being tempted by the devil. And He ate nothing during those days, and when they had ended, He became hungry. 3 And the devil said to Him, “If You are the Son of God, tell this stone to become bread.”

Luke 4:6 And the devil said to Him, “I will give You all this domain and 1its glory; for it has been handed over to me, and I give it to whomever I wish.

Luke 4:13   When the devil had finished every temptation, he left Him until an opportune time.

Luke 8:12 “Those beside the road are those who have heard; then the devil comes and takes away the word from their heart, so that they will not believe and be saved.

John 8:44 “aYou are of your father the devil, and you want to do the desires of your father. dHe was a murderer from the beginning, and does not stand in the truth because there is no truth in him. Whenever he speaks 1a lie, he speaks from his own nature, for he is a liar and the father of 2lies.

John 13:2 During supper, the devil having already put into the heart of bJudas Iscariot, the son of Simon, to betray Him,

Acts 10:38 “1You know of aJesus of Nazareth, how God anointed Him with the Holy Spirit and with power, and how He went about doing good and healing all who were oppressed by the devil, for dGod was with Him.

Acts 13:10 and said, “You who are full of all deceit and fraud, you son of the devil, you enemy of all righteousness, will you not cease to make crooked the straight ways of the Lord?

2Cor. 2:11 so that no advantage would be taken of us by Satan, for we are not ignorant of his schemes.

Eph. 4:27 and do not give the devil 1an opportunity.

Eph. 6:11 aPut on the full armour of God, so that you will be able to stand firm against the schemes of the devil.

1Tim. 3:6 and not a new convert, so that he will not become conceited and fall into the condemnation 1incurred by the devil. 7 And he must have a good reputation with those outside the church, so that he will not fall into reproach and the snare of the devil.

2Tim. 2:26 and they may come to their senses and escape from the snare of the devil, having been bheld captive 1by him to do his will.

Heb. 2:14   Therefore, since the children share in flesh and blood, bHe Himself likewise also partook of the same, that through death He might render powerless him who had the power of death, that is, the devil,

James 4:7 aSubmit therefore to God. bResist the devil and he will flee from you.

1Pet. 5:8 Be of sober spirit, be on the alert. Your adversary, the devil, prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour.

1John 3:8 the one who practices sin is of the devil; for the devil 1has sinned from the beginning. bThe Son of God appeared for this purpose, to destroy the works of the devil.

1John 3:10 By this the children of God and the children of the devil are obvious: anyone who does not practice righteousness is not of God, nor the one who does not love his brother.

Jude 9 But Michael the archangel, when he disputed with the devil and argued about the body of Moses, did not dare pronounce against him a railing judgment, but said, “dThe Lord rebuke you!”

Rev. 2:10 ‘Do not fear what you are about to suffer. Behold, the devil is about to cast some of you into prison, so that you will be tested, and you will have tribulation for ten days. 1Be faithful until death, and I will give you the crown of life.

Rev. 12:9 And the great adragon was thrown down, the bserpent of old who is called the devil and cSatan, who ddeceives the whole 1world; he was ethrown down to the earth, and his angels were thrown down with him.

Rev. 12:12 “For this reason, arejoice, O heavens and byou who 1dwell in them. cWoe to the earth and the sea, because dthe devil has come down to you, having great wrath, knowing that he has only ea short time.”

Rev. 20:2 And he laid hold of the adragon, the serpent of old, who is the devil and Satan, and bbound him for a thousand years;

Rev. 20:10 And athe devil who adeceived them was thrown into the blake of fire and 1brimstone, where the cbeast and the cfalse prophet are also; and they will be dtormented day and night forever and ever.

The world will hate you: Lessons in 1 John 3

 The Book of 1 John: Stay the Love Course Together

 

LESSON Three: The world will hate you

To watch this on video: https://youtu.be/NDtOu_QndSI

INTRODUCTION 

We are 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 John has 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. 

Today we see another hodge-podge of data designed to continue the theme of God is Light and we are his children, children of light, and thus we should act like it. Remember, when some of you hear that, you are thinking, oh, I need to get my act together. I need to be more in the light side of life than the dark side. I get that. And I’m all in favour of your being on the correct side of things. 

What John would tell you is that you ARE on the light side already, and actually you are LIGHT. Paul and John were on the same wavelength when Paul said something similar. In Ephesians chapter 5 we read, 

“You were formerly darkness, but now you are light in the Lord; walk as children of Light, for the fruit of the Light consists in all goodness and righteousness and truth, trying to learn what is pleasing to the Lord. Do not participate in the unfruitful deeds of darkness, but instead even expose them…all things become visible when they are exposed by the light, for everything that becomes visible is light.” (5.7-13)

Paul doesn’t say you were IN the darkness; he says you were darkness. He doesn’t say you are now in the light; he says you are the Light. That’s exactly what Yeshua taught in the Sermon on the Mount in Matthew chapter 5. “You are the light of the world…”(verse 14). Yes, he claimed that title for himself to be sure (John 8.12), and yet he also notified the believers that we had a light vs darkness ministry. We are called to be the light. Let’s talk about what that looks like.

We saw in chapter one of 1 John that God is light. OK. What does light actually do or how does it behave? What benefits are there to light anyway?

1)     Light wins in the battle with darkness. They don’t actually go hand in hand. When light enters a room, darkness retreats. There is no relationship between the two. Paul mockingly and rhetorically asked the Corinthians, what fellowship has light with darkness? (2 Cor. 6.14) John tells us that our fellowship is with the Father and the Son. (1 Jn. 1). If you are having a battle with darkness, with sins of commission like with alcohol or drugs, with lusting and acting out with prostitutes, or in other illicit sexual activity, if your sins of commission involve lying or stealing, all of these need a healer to attend. That’s Yeshua. He wants to surround you with light and make you light instead of darkness. Will you surrender yourself to the Lord of Light so that you will become light in the Lord?

What about sins of omission? Not loving the guy you walk by every week on the train platform—the guy who smells bad and who needs special clothing to get a good job. What about your not praying when you should or not fasting as often as you think you are being called to do. Sins of not tithing or not being generous to the congregation or your favourite Jewish mission. What about leading others in prayer or in Bible study? Should you not be leading others by now? 

Whether sins of commission where we do things God has said no to, or sins of omission, where we don’t perform what God has asked, both alike need the healer, the Messiah to come along and save us. We need Light to expose the darkness. 

2)     Light brings comfort. Late at night, the body wakes up and you cannot sleep. You lie in the dark. You consider rising. Then you do, and suddenly you slip as you step on the shoes you wore yesterday and didn’t tuck into their proper place. The things you would see in the light, you don’t see, because you are in darkness. And you are discomforted by your inability to see. When you turn on the light, you bring comfort to yourself.  Think of information coming to you when you are disoriented. You don’t know which way to go, or which turn to take, and suddenly, you see the road ahead and the map helps you to know that you should be turning right in 200 metres, and you are glad, you are comforted, the light has advised you and you are better for it. 

3)     Light warms us. You will know we just passed the equinox, that time in September and again in March, when the day and the night have equal lengths. Here in Australia, the solstice we don’t like is the winter solstice, towards the end of June, when we have the least amount of sunshine each day. Of course you may like the winter solstice if you are a Thredbo person and downhill skiing is your sport of choice. It’s cold. It’s winter. It’s dark, and the favorite place in our house for my wife is the fireplace. Right next to it is the gas heater, and either or both working together make her life that much better. She’s warmed by the sight of the fire, no matter how many layers she has to wear. I too find great comfort in the warmth of the hearth. 

When all else seems ice cold and frozen away from the love of God, the light of his glory, of his gospel of forgiveness and grace, brings a warmth like a hot chocholate in a steaming mug in the midst of a 3 degree evening, and my hands, my whole body warm up. From the inside. God’s light gives warmth to our whole being. 

 

We saw in chapters one and two references to God as Father. In our modern world, we are used to that nomenclature. Not only among Christians, but among Jews and Muslims and even naturalists in a way. God’s relationship with us as Father however, is very new in John’s day. Jews would never title him “Father” but rather the Almighty, the Glorious One, and then list his attributes. But ‘father?’ no way! When Yeshua taught that he was the Son of God and called God his “Father” the hearers were shocked.

Now John brings us this Father of Lights (James 1) and brings us into the understanding that we are his children. That’s huge. I don’t know what religion you had when you were a child, but mine was significantly rich in symbolism and Torah and dressing up on the Holidays and on Shabbos and full of wonder about a God who is far, far away. No distant galaxy could contain him, but he could withdraw himself beyond any of those. His rules were severe; his eyes ever dashing to and fro to catch me out in my sin. 

John says, nope, that’s not God. He calls us to marvel. Look at verse 1.

“See” or “Consider”. This is a plural command. Y’all, note this. Horao. It’s used of things actually visible. Like ‘see with what large letters I write to you.” (Gal. 6.11). And then the word “bestowed” or other versions say “lavished”. This word is another rarely used word in the NT, and ‘introduces a sense of wonder” (Smalley) Then one more in verse 1, the word “how great” which is found in Matthew and Peter meaning “what a great kind” of healer or teacher (Matt. 8.27, 2 Peter 3.11) , but here it’s more like Mark used in Yeshua’s words about the massive stones at the Temple site (“How great!”- Mark 13.1)

            I’m saying, that this opening line is a call to wonder, to be amazed, to shout, “Glory!” because God has been revealed to us as Father and we are therefore his sons and daughters. We are family. Thanks, Sly, we are family. And we are welcomed and not cast aside. We are insiders, and never again to be wondering if we are worthy. The Prodigal Father has welcomed us and forgiven us, and we are HIS!

I know some of you don’t want to hear this, but there is a great divide between believers and non-believers. The world will hate us, Yeshua said, because it didn’t know him. John repeats that thought in chapter three. He already said it in chapter 2 in “the love of the Father is not in him.” (2.15) Here he reiterates “the world does not know us because it did not know him.” (verse 1)

Does that mean we should only huddle with ourselves and never intermingle with the other? Of course not. Paul wrote the Corinthians about that (1 Cor. 5), but we should always know who is our real Family. 

Back in the turn of the 20^th century, there was a modern movement labelling God as Father. And the “fatherhood of God” movement was a sentimental washout and a misunderstanding of this reality. It labelled all of us as God’s children. It diminished the cross. It diminished sin’s reality. Listen how Oswald Chambers addressed that error here:

“The modern view of the death of Jesus is that He died for our sins out of sympathy. The New Testament view is that He bore our sin not by sympathy, but by identification. He was made to be sin. Our sins are removed because of the death of Jesus, and the explanation of His death is His obedience to His Father, not His sympathy with us. We are acceptable with God not because we have obeyed, or because we have promised to give up things, but because of the death of Christ, and in no other way. We say that Jesus Christ came to reveal the Fatherhood of God, the lovingkindness of God; the New Testament says He came to bear away the sin of the world.”

 

John is emphasizing three things in this chapter. The family relationship (Father and sons), the love of God that is his ever-present basis of all his enterprise and thus should be ours, and the separation of believers from the world. These are not unique to this chapter, but they bulge out of the manuscript, don’t they?

Verse two—we are not yet revealed. Think of it; we are not done. We are progressing toward spiritual maturity; we are not the finished product. He says in verse 3 when he appears, when he returns to set up his throne in Jerusalem, we will be like him. WOW—finally! The hope of Psalm 17.15 will be realized. “Then I will be satisfied, when I awake in your likeness.” I’m content now, but I will be satisfied then!

How will that change happen? Paul said, it will be in an instant, in the twinkling of an eye, and John says that everyone who has this hope, this anticipation of the return of Yeshua, this hope on him, purifies himself, even as he is pure.

 Verse 4, we see the topic of sin again. The one who practices in a continual way, the one who sins again and again and again, because his nature is sinful and he desires to live in those wrong actions, he’s a sinner in John’s world. He says “sin is lawlessness.” Remember, Torah is light and rejection of that light leads to darkness. Sin is darkness and walking away from the Father of Lights. It’s a defiant walk away from the Lord of Light. And from our new nature. We are light in the Lord!

There are other definitions of sin in the Scripture: Romans 14.23 (not of faith), Prov 24.9 (the thought of foolishness), and later in this book John will say that “all unrighteousness” is sin. (5.17)

John says in verse 5, Yeshua appeared in order to take away sins, and in him there is no sin. That’s the reason Yeshua came. Again in verse 8, Yeshua came to destroy the works of the devil. Satan is real. John says Yeshua won the battle, and by that the word translated ‘destroy’ should be rendered “to render inoperative” or “to rob of power.” Satan is not annihilated and his works like Covid 19 are not gone, but his power has been reduced. He is no match for the God of all power.

Verse 9 will confuse some of us. “No one who is born of God practices sin.” For that, we have to look to the Lord of Light to help us see him in our struggles to overcome, in our desire to live as John says ‘in righteousness.’

John is not teaching sinless perfectionism; we have an advocate (2.1). He is teaching that the general reality, the main life we are to live is to represent Yeshua, and live a life of right standing. 

Verse 11: we are to love one another. It’s the message we have said since the beginning. In contrast to Cain. Did you know that Cain’s deeds were evil? He brought an offering, but it was not in faith. Using Cain’s name brings to the mind of the Ephesians to whom John is writing that there are those who were close, but didn’t make it. 

Verse 13… don’t be surprised. The world hates you. How do you know love? How are you sure that you are an insider? You love the brothers. How do we know love? Verse 16. Yeshua died for our sins. He laid down his life for us. We ought to love one another. LIKE HE LOVED. Like James said, “so speak and so act” (2.12) It’s got to be working out in your ethics as well as your theology.

Verse 21, if you don’t let your heart condemn you, you will have confidence before God and pray and He will hear and answer you. What’s it based on? Our faith? Our love? Nope—his love! And because he has loved us and welcomed us into his family, I respond to that. That’s FAITH. It’s a response to what God has initiated. 

And as is typical of John’s writing, at the end of the day, “FAITH”, verse 23: ‘believe in the name of his son Yeshua the Messiah, and love one another.”  He uses the term ‘abide’ as is his custom. See John 15. There is a relationship. The branch abides in the trunk of the tree, and they share sap, which produces fruit. Branches don’t struggle to exist or to accomplish tasks. They remain. The sap of the tree produces fruit on the branches. 

So God wants us to stay the love course together with one another until Messiah returns. Will you join us? Will you be confident in the Lord? God’s promise is eternal life (Chapter 2: 25). Let’s live in that today.

 

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 5-part series from the first letter of John. 

Until then, Shabbat shalom.

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Bibliography

Smalley, Stephen, 1 John, Word Biblical Commentary Series, Thomas Nelson, Grand Rapids, 1973. 

Weirsbe, Warren, Be Real, Victor Books, David C. Cook, Colorado Springs, 1972. 

Also, 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 3:1   See ^1ahow great a love the Father has bestowed on us, that we would be called ^bchildren of God; and such we are. For this reason the world does not know us, because ^cit did not know Him. ^2 aBeloved, now we are ^bchildren of God, and ^cit has not appeared as yet what we will be. We know that when He ^dappears, we will be ^elike Him, because we will ^fsee Him just as He is. ³ And everyone who has this ^ahope fixed on Him ^bpurifies himself, just as He is pure.

 

1John 3:4   Everyone who practices sin also practices lawlessness; and ^asin is lawlessness. ⁵ You know that He ^aappeared in order to ^btake away sins; and ^cin Him there is no sin. ⁶ No one who abides in Him ^asins; no one who sins has seen Him or ^1bknows Him. ^7 aLittle children, make sure no one ^bdeceives you; ^cthe one who practices righteousness is righteous, just as He is righteous; ⁸ the one who practices sin is ^aof the devil; for the devil ¹has sinned from the beginning. ^bThe Son of God ^cappeared for this purpose, ^dto destroy the works of the devil. ⁹ No one who is ^1aborn of God ^bpractices sin, because His seed abides in him; and he cannot sin, because he is ¹born of God. ¹⁰ By this the ^achildren of God and the ^bchildren of the devil are obvious: ¹anyone who does not practice righteousness is not of God, nor the one who ^cdoes not love his ^dbrother.

 

1John 3:11   ^aFor this is the message ^bwhich you have heard from the beginning, ^cthat we should love one another; ¹² not as ^aCain, who was of ^bthe evil one and slew his brother. And for what reason did he slay him? Because ^chis deeds were evil, and his brother’s were righteous.

 

1John 3:13   Do not be surprised, brethren, if the world hates you. ¹⁴ We know that we have passed out of death into life, ^bbecause we love the brethren. He who does not love abides in death. ¹⁵ Everyone who ^ahates his brother is a murderer; and you know that ^bno murderer has eternal life abiding in him. ¹⁶ We know love by this, that ^aHe laid down His life for us; and ^bwe ought to lay down our lives for the ^cbrethren. ¹⁷ But ^awhoever has the world’s goods, and sees his brother in need and closes his heart against him, ^chow does the love of God abide in him? ¹⁸ Little children, let us not love with word or with tongue, but in deed and truth. ¹⁹ We will know by this that we are of the truth, and will assure our heart before Him ²⁰ in whatever our heart condemns us; for God is greater than our heart and knows all things. ²¹ Beloved, if our heart does not condemn us, we have confidence before God; ²² and whatever we ask we receive from Him, because we keep His commandments and do the things that are pleasing in His sight.

 

1John 3:23   This is His commandment, that we believe in the name of His Son Jesus Christ, and love one another, just as He commanded us. ²⁴ The one who keeps His commandments abides in Him, and He in him. We know by this that He abides in us, by the Spirit whom He has given us.

Terrorism: How shall we respond?

We awoke this morning to the news of another apparently terrorist attack in Ottawa, Canada, near the Parliament House and War Memorial. That follows the news from this week of the 17-year-old Bankstown native (pictured) who joined ISIS and is their new poster boy in a unison mob of hostility against all things Western. Forget grease--terrorism is the word.

And it’s a new word in terms of the dictionary, but not in terms of history. Throughout the ages, people have tried to traumatize their enemies and make them cringe at their sight or even the possibility of encounter.

Last night at our OneNewMan gathering in Sydney, we discussed terrorism and how we should respond and how we should live without fear. Or is that possible?

Here were some highlights:

1)   Behind this terrorist attack lurks the one described in the Bible as "the Evil One"—Hasatan, (Satan), the one whose ministry is to steal, kill and destroy. (John 10.10) The devil and the hosts of hell are ultimately behind all terrorist attacks. Paul wrote, “Our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against principalities and powers, against the world forces of this darkness, against the spiritual forces of wickedness in the heavenly places.” (Ephesians 6.12) and "the weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but mighty through God for the tearing down of strongholds...raised up against the knowledge of God." (2 Corinthians 10.4) Therefore we ought to be people of prayer.

2)   Paul the apostle said this:  “in no way alarmed (terrorized) by your opponents — which is a sign of destruction for them, but of salvation for you, and that too, from God.” (Philippians 1.28) In other words, our not being terrified is a sign of our enemies' destruction or non-salvation.  God's calm in our lives is evidence of our salvation and evidence of their perdition.

3)   King David said in the psalms: “From the end of the earth I call to Thee, when my heart is faint; lead me to the rock that is higher than I. For Thou hast been a refuge for me, a tower of strength against the enemy. Let me dwell in Thy tent forever; let me take refuge in the shelter of Thy wings." (Psalm 61:2-4) So for the believer, when terror comes, our first port-of-call needs to be the shelter of the Almighty and run to Him. Solomon said the same with “The name of the Lord is like a strong tower; the righteous runs into it and is safe.” (Proverbs 19.10) We pray, we hide, we eavesdrop on the plans and words of God. We turn to the Scripture for assurance and life abundant.

4)   “God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble. Therefore we will not fear, though the earth should change, and though the mountains slip into the heart of the sea; though its waters roar and foam, though the mountains quake at its swelling pride.” (Psalm 46.1-3). Thus, no matter what troubles there are, in natural circumstances like tsunamis or earthquakes, or whatever the terrorists throw at us, we draw close to God, who is very present and the help in time of all trouble.

5)   Faith is the real and foremost response of a believer. We trust God. That doesn’t mean we will not experience pain or beheading or ebola or other assaults. (‘in time of trouble.’) What it does mean is that no matter what we experience, that God Himself is the One whom we approach and from whom we draw great comfort, no matter what. Mark 11.22 says, “Have faith in God.” Yeshua said, “You believe in God; believe also in me.” (John 14.1) The writer of Hebrews said, “without faith it’s impossible to please Him, for he who comes to God must believe that He is and that He is a rewarder of those who diligently seek Him.” (Hebrews 11.6)