If God be for us, who can (successfully) be against us? A study in Romans chapter 8

Book of Romans: A Bible study series in 17 parts

The general theme of Romans: How to be right with God.

Lesson nine:  If God is for us, who is against us? (Romans 8)

[To watch this on YouTube as it was given live on Zoom and on Facebook Live, click    https://youtu.be/58iFt7FKYO4 ].  [The whole biblical text is at the end of this blog]

Introduction

Happy Shavuot to all my Jewish mates. Did you stay up all night and read the book of Ruth? Did you eat a cheesecake yet or a blintz? No matter, on to our study today. Welcome to those of you who are new to our class in this the 9^th lesson, as we take up Paul’s comments recorded in chapter 8 of The Book of Romans. If you are watching this video on YouTube long after our class ended today, then please pause the recording and read the 8^th chapter. It will only take 3 minutes, or maybe 4 if you get a wee bit confused, then push play again, and come back as we will try to bring meaning to it all. OK, welcome back.  For those of you on the Zoom call just now, have your Bible open, will you? And next week, please read the chapter before you come to ‘class.’ Thanks.

   This chapter is mammoth and worthy of weeks of study. But in our rendering, this will take the usual time today as I’m going to highlight aspects of the chapter and you will get to read, mark, inwardly digest it for another few days, or at least until tonight. Please muse on this, on all the promises, on the lavish grace that Paul writes about here, as it will bring deep gladness to your heart and spirit. The purpose of this letter is to help you get right with God and to remind you that YOU ARE right with God by faith in Yeshua. 

The overview of God’s promises

This chapter alone carries the bulk of that purpose.

Listen to the results of being right with God.

Verse 1: No condemnation

Verse 2: Set free from the law of sin and death

Verse 4: The requirement of the Law is fulfilled in us

And we walk in the Spirit

Verse 5: We set our minds on the things of the Spirit

Verse 6: This brings life and peace

Verse 10: Our spirit is alive

Verse 11: God will quicken our mortal body

Verse 13:  We will live!

Verse 14: We are called ‘the sons of God.’

Verse 15: We have received a spirit of adoption as sons and cry ‘Abba”

Verse 17: We are heirs of God and fellow heirs with Yeshua and we will be glorified with him

Surprisingly, in 

Verse 23: We groan like creation for the complete restoration of all things

And

Verse 25: We hope for the redemption of our bodies

Verse 26: We have the Holy Spirit who intercedes for us with groanings too deep for words

Verse 28: God causes all things to work together for the good

Verse 31: God is for us; who can be against us (successfully)?

Verse 32: God will give us all things (needed to get there)

NO MATTER WHAT!

If you are not yet feeling confident and assured, it’s time for a reality check. 

The contrasts

The chapter makes all these promises and assurances come to light against the backdrop of the comparisons of the other guys if you will, your past life, and those who still resist the love of God. You are adopted, but others are still outside. You are free, but others are still in chains. 

Look at the list from verse 2:

The law of sin and death. This is not Torah, of course, but the guiding principle he has clarified for several chapters that our sin and our flesh (Greek: sarx) is opposed to the Lord and results in death. 

Verse 3: The Law was weak because of our flesh

Verse 4: We walked in the flesh (that is, the system by the which we thought we were acceptable to God)

Verse 5: Our minds were set on fleshly (carnal) things

Verse 6: The result of carnal thinking was death

Verse 7: Carnal thinking was hostile to God, incapable of right-thinking

Verse 8: Carnal thinking prevented right relationship with God

Verse 9: Don’t belong to God (orphans)

Verse 13:  Death is the winner

Verse 15: Spirit of slavery which leads to fear

This list summarizes the failings of the carnal mind, the flesh-oriented person in Rome who wants his cake and to eat it, too. He has rejected God’s standards and God’s Son. He either thinks he will make it on his own religious path and he can earn God’s favor. Or he has dismissed God altogether and considers himself above the need for repair. Both the self-possessed and the self-righteous are going to fail. 

Family (.12-17)

The words in the chapter highlight family relationship. Sons, adoption, Abba. 

Paul is not being capricious, but he’s helping the believers in Rome to get it, to understand his compelling argument that the loving Father shown in the story of the Prodigal is your Father.  Most Jewish people would not have ever thought of God as Father in First Century terms. That came later. But Jesus and Paul certainly take no small pleasure in showcasing the Almighty as giving us sonship, we are children of God, heirs, joint-heirs with Yeshua. 

Adoption may mean different things in those days and in these days, but honestly, an adopted child is chosen and that’s more significant than one born naturally. We could say that an adopted child is favored, almost more than the natural born one. 

The excurses on suffering (.18-27)

Paul’s imagery of suffering in the few verses from verse 18 stands out to me in the reading. He puts the groaning of creation and the personal groaning of the believer in context. We are suffering in this mortal body and aching to be fully redeemed. We long for the fulfillment of the final restoration of body, soul, and spirit at the return of Jesus to establish his kingdom. And Paul helps us see our aching in light of Creation itself. Since Adam failed in the Garden, and brought sin to the planet, and thus the curse of Genesis 3, the entire creation longs for that same redemption that we await. 

We groan, we ache, we anticipate, but are we worried? That’s the key in this paragraph. He wants us to groan, if you will, in faith, because God has the whole world in his hands. Nothing will surprise him. In fact, he has sent us the down payment, the Holy Spirit to help us in our weaknesses in light of our sufferings. Groanings too deep for words might be praying in the Spirit. 

What God did (.28-31)

Some of you will be mad at me. You may have been waiting for this section since we announced the study on Romans. You long to hear your own convictions about predestination and justification. Call, glorification, and foreknowledge. Great… I’m glad you have such convictions. And I hope we can talk about those in due course, but for today, these grand topics are going to be only markers for us as we visit chapter 8. They can best be summarised as “What God did for us.” 

If you are new to these biblical words, no worries, they will come up again and again for you in further readings and in sermons down the track. For now, let me say this, “God knew all things from the beginning (foreknowledge) and he laid out a course of action and circumstances (predestination) so that we would end up living a holy life and represent Yeshua well. (verse 29). God made sure we would be aware of this reality by calling us (verse 30) and making justification happen. (Isaiah 53.11) Glorification is the final result of that and it’s already done (in a spiritual sense) and has not yet happened (in the temporal world of the flesh). (verse 30)

Remember before we were put in the Garden, God made man in his image and wanted us to be regents on the planet under his lordship. We failed back then, and God enacted Plan A to get us back into right relationship with him. That’s called “the plan of salvation” and is what God did as I just laid out in those heavy theological terms. But making us be together the imago dei (image of God) according to his purpose…that’s what this whole story is about. 

Please don’t get caught up in the controversy about Calvin vs Wesley and ‘inexperienced people’ or ‘the learned author’… the issues here are not designed for us to be perplexed, but rather to be comforted. God’s got this. Relax!

The summary

Verse 33: Look at the judicial charges. Who has anything to say against you?  His implication is that NO ONE does. He’ll detail this in a moment. 

Verse 34: No condemnation. You are set free; liberated, and acquitted. Made right with God.

Verse 35: Who will separate us from God’s love? There are 7 candidates. 

Will tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? There is a certain rhythm to this sequence. The ‘or’ between each word is like a drumbeat. And within the sentence, I want to hear you say, “NO”. Will tribulation? NO. Will distress? NO! Will persecution? NO. Will famine? NO. Will nakedness. NO? Will peril. NO. Will sword. NO!!! All these imposters to the plan of God will fail.  Will Covid-19? NO. Will the failing of your superannuation? NO. 

PSALM 44.22.

Just as it is written, “FOR YOUR SAKE WE ARE BEING PUT TO DEATH ALL DAY LONG; WE WERE CONSIDERED AS SHEEP TO BE SLAUGHTERED.”

 This quoted verse probably had already been used of martyrs of the Jewish people. 

Just mentioning the 7 attack dogs of peril and tribulation etc might hearken the reader of the letter back to the mood, the somber mood of chapter 7. “Who will save me from the body of this death?” BUT against that, immediately, Paul launches one of the greatest return-of-fires recorded in the Scripture, “We are more than conquerors.” 

But in all these things we overwhelmingly conquer through Him who loved us. (verse 37)

We are conquerors. We are MORE than conquerors. Overwhelmingly. This is not a slight victory in extra time. This is not eeking out a one-point win in overtime. This is the conquest and overwhelmingly so because of Yeshua, who loved us. We know that love (chapter 5) in that while we were yet sinners, Messiah died for us. We win because HE WON!

For I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor any other created thing, will be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord. (38-39)

These 10 things are going to try to prevent our victory. 10 things are going to weigh in psychologically or sociologically. All these realities are aiming to stop your celebration… they don’t want you to remember the love of God. They want your failure. God, however, wants your success. 

Paul says he is convinced. He wants you to be convinced. The word is often translated “persuaded” (Luke 16.31, Acts 18.4, 19.8, .26) Are you?

Look at this list of the Top 10: And this list is not exhaustive. Neither death, the ultimate finality of death cannot separate us from God’s love because it was in death that Yeshua showed us that great love at Calvary. Can life separate us? By that he probably means the regular, ordinary role of living, going to work, riding the train, mowing your lawn, buying groceries, regular ordinary life. Can that separate us? Not at all.. in our ordinary life, God’s love can shine and be manifest. He shows up in ordinary circumstances like sticks that blossom in Aaron’s day or ravens that feed prophets, like an ordinary fishing expedition that nets 153 fish after an empty catch all night. God shows his light all the more in the darkness of ‘life.’ Angels—can they separate us? Gabriel and Michael called us to God; Satan’s empty beckoning is vain and empty when shown against the glory of the call of God. Can principalities prevent the love of God? Greek word ‘arche’ like ‘heads’ or ‘rulers’ like in Colossian 1.16, 2.10, 2.15, 1 Cor. 15.24, especially Ephesians 6.12). All governments, all authorities, all powers… he is above them all! 

What about things present? You know, situations in which I find myself. Loneliness, despair. What about anxieties or worries. What about the Romans ruling over us and we have no freedom. What about I want to open up my village or city or state and the government is not letting me. Things present.  Things to come? Our future, the stock market, impending troubles from China aggravating our relationships with Australia or in the USA. 

What about powers (Greek word: dunamis)? People who are stronger than me, and I worry they will hurt me.  What about height or depth…Paul is moving into every considered discipline of conversation… can anything of these 10 or your next 10 or the media or the duopoly of Coles and Woolies…can anything separate us from God’s love. 

His unequivocal answer is NO. Nothing can separate us from the love of God. 

Hallelujah is our answer and our response. 

Is that your response?

If so, you are right with God and that’s nothing to shake a stick at. It’s something about which to sing and rejoice. For those watching this video later, I’m going to put a song into the video that I heard for the first time the other day. It was made during COVID lockdown in the UK and celebrates the reality of this conclusion. Nothing can separate us from God’s love. If God be for us, who or what can be against us? NOTHING else will win; He has won it all. Enjoy that song. But first, 

Dear friends on Facebook and on this zoom call, if you are not yet a believer in Yeshua, I urge you today, call on him while he is near. If you know your Torah, and you know yourself, you know you need a Saviour. Whoever calls on the name of the Lord will be rescued, will be saved will be made to be in right relationship with God. It’s worth all the social distancing people will give you when you tell them about God. It’s worth all the rejection of others who don’t want to know about God’s love in Messiah Yeshua. 

If you want, you can pray a prayer with me just now to solidify your choice. Something like this, “Father in Yeshua’s name, thank you for loving me. Thank you for sending Yeshua to save me from myself, from my selfishness, from my despair, and the harm I cause so many. Thank you for making me right with God through your sacrifice. I receive Yeshua (Jesus) as my savior and the lover of my soul. He frees me to love others. I repent of my sins and ask for God’s forgiveness to be my portion. I receive the free gift of God, eternal life in Messiah Jesus our Lord. Amen.”

If you prayed that prayer, will you let us know via the messages or write me directly? I would appreciate that.

NEXT WEEK we will look at the 9^th chapter and find some of the most difficult passages in the Bible about Jewish people and about the Sovereignty of God. If nothing can separate us from God’s love, what about the Jewish people… that will be Paul’s major question. 

To all my Jewish mates, Chag Shavuot s’meach, and to all my Christian friends, happy Pentecost on Sunday.

I’m delighted to be able to read and help us understand this book each Friday here from my home in Sydney.  Shabbat shalom!

The actual text:

Rom. 8:1   Therefore there is now no condemnation for those who are ^bin Christ Jesus. ² For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has set you free from the law of sin and of death. ³ For what the Law could not do, weak as it was through the flesh, God did: sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and as an offering for sin, He condemned sin in the flesh, ⁴so that the requirement of the Law might be fulfilled in us, who do not walk according to the flesh but according to the Spirit. ⁵ For those who are according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh, but those who are according to the Spirit, the things of the Spirit. ⁶ For the mind set on the flesh is death, but the mind set on the Spirit is life and peace, ⁷because the mind set on the flesh is hostile toward God; for it does not subject itself to the law of God, for it is not even able to do so, ⁸ and those who are in the flesh cannot please God.

Rom. 8:9   However, you are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, if indeed the Spirit of God dwells in you. But if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he does not belong to Him. 10 If Christ is in you, though the body is dead because of sin, yet the spirit is alive because of righteousness. ¹¹ But if the Spirit of Him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, He who raised Christ Jesus from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through His Spirit who dwells in you.

Rom. 8:12   So then, brethren, we are under obligation, not to the flesh, to live according to the flesh — ¹³ for if you are living according to the flesh, you must die; but if by the Spirit you are putting to death the deeds of the body, you will live. ¹⁴ For all who are being led by the Spirit of God, these are sons of God. ¹⁵ For you have not received a spirit of slavery leading to fear again, but you have received a spirit of adoption as sons by which we cry out, “Abba! Father!” ¹⁶ The Spirit Himself testifies with our spirit that we are children of God, ¹⁷ and if children, heirs also, heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ, if indeed we suffer with Him so that we may also be glorified with Him.

Rom. 8:18   For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory that is to be revealed to us. ¹⁹ For the anxious longing of the creation waits eagerly for the revealing of the sons of God. ²⁰ For the creation was subjected to futility, not willingly, but because of Him who subjected it, in hope ²¹ that the creation itself also will be set free from its slavery to corruption into the freedom of the glory of the children of God. ²² For we know that the whole creation groans and suffers the pains of childbirth together until now. ²³ And not only this, but also we ourselves, having the first fruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves groan within ourselves, waiting eagerly for our adoption as sons, the redemption of our body. ²⁴ For in hope we have been saved, but hope that is seen is not hope; for who hopes for what he already sees? ²⁵But if we hope for what we do not see, with perseverance we wait eagerly for it.

Rom. 8:26   In the same way the Spirit also helps our weakness; for we do not know how to pray as we should, but the Spirit Himself intercedes for us with groanings too deep for words; ²⁷ and He who searches the hearts knows what the mind of the Spirit is, because He intercedes for the saints according to the will of God.

Rom. 8:28   And we know that God causes all things to work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to His purpose. ²⁹ For those whom He foreknew, He also predestined to become conformed to the image of His Son, so that He would be the firstborn among many brethren; ³⁰ and these whom He predestined, He also called; and these whom He called, He also justified; and these whom He justified, He also glorified.

Rom. 8:31   What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who is against us? ³² He who did not spare His own Son, but delivered Him over for us all, how will He not also with Him freely give us all things? ³³ Who will bring a charge against God’s elect? God is the one who justifies; ³⁴ who is the one who condemns? Christ Jesus is He who died, yes, rather who was raised, who is at the right hand of God, who also intercedes for us. 

³⁵ Who will separate us from the love of Christ? Will tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword?

³⁶  Just as it is written, “FOR YOUR SAKE WE ARE BEING PUT TO DEATH ALL DAY LONG; WE WERE CONSIDERED AS SHEEP TO BE SLAUGHTERED.”

³⁷ But in all these things we overwhelmingly conquer through Him who loved us. ³⁸ For I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, ³⁹ nor height, nor depth, nor any other created thing, will be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.

Pondering God (Part 5)

5 May. Continuing our study of the being whom we name God. God is Spirit. Not only spiritual. Not only spirited. He's a spirit, and He's The Spirit. Ponder with me the nature of spirituality. It's other than physical. It's another dimension. Factors that prevent bodies from certain motion or activity are not the same in a spiritual realm. 

Isaiah the prophet wrote this amazingly perceptive and declarative statement from the being we know as God. Seems that the people who talk about God as Tri-une (3 in one) are not off at all. 

"Come near to Me, listen to this: From the first (Creation), I have not spoken in secret, From the time it took place, I was there. And now the Lord God has sent Me, and His Spirit.” (Chapter 48, verse 16)
Yeshua said, "God is spirit, and those who worship Him must worship in spirit and truth.” (John 4.24)
He's not in our league; He's outside our dimensions and perceptions. And yet, God, by His Spirit, invites us to know Him personally. Spiritually. Deeply. Personally. 

To the 'other side.'

The Spirit and the Word bring life: A Pentecost message

A sermon by Bob Mendelsohn

Given at Servants of Jesus

10 May 2015
To watch the video check Video

Greetings

            Shalom to all my friends here at Servants of Jesus, to your leadership, to Simon,  to Joseph and Julie especially, both for this kind invitation to return to speak to you here at the community today, and for your love and friendship over the last 16 years or so… my tenure in Australia. I moved here to Sydney in 1998 from New York and may I say, your community has been continually supportive of our work and our life …for that I’m very grateful.

Introduction

Today I’m going to speak about the Jewish holiday of Pentecost, and we will look at the history of the holiday and its impact in our lives as 21^st Century people.

Outside Kathmandu, Nepal was rocked with a 7.9 magnitude earthquake on 24 April, leaving over 6,000 dead and in villages 50 miles from the capital, nothing remains. The global response reminded me of Christchurch in February 2011 and of the deep human commitment, what I call the will to live. Devastation. Earthquake. And tremors that will continue for months. That quake in Christchurch was the most expensive natural disaster, in our sense of history, in New Zealand at 15 billion dollars. In total, 183 people were killed in the earthquake, making the earthquake the second-deadliest natural disaster recorded in New Zealand (after the 1931 Hawke's Bay earthquake), and fourth-deadliest disaster of any kind recorded in New Zealand.

Do you remember that only weeks later we saw the same thing in Fukishima Japan. Earthquake and tsunami. The nuclear reactor is still in danger some say. The people of Tokyo are only 170 kilometres south and often worried of the situation.

I don’t have to remind us here in Australia of the devastating floods in our state in April, and in Queensland a couple years ago. The floods forced the evacuation of thousands of people from towns and cities. At least seventy towns and over 200,000 people were affected. Damage initially was estimated at around 1billion. The estimated reduction in Australia's GDP is about A$30 billion. Three-quarters of the state of Queensland was declared a disaster zone.

For most of us, the will to live is a driving force, keeping and getting life, almost whatever the cost. That’s a prime driver for humanity and for us as humans, amen?

In a fortnight in Bondi and in Jerusalem and in New York City Jews will celebrate the Jewish holiday of Pentecost and eat blintzes and cottage cheese. They will stay up all night reading and praying and learning Bible, including the Book of Ruth.

What is their motivation and what can we learn from their busy-ness and their thinking? And what does God have to say to us as 21^st century people about what gives us life?

Images of Mount Sinai

For that, we have to return 3,500 years to the point in Jewish and really world history, where God gave the Torah (the first five books of the Bible) to mankind, specifically to the Jews, then that the Jews might pass on the information to the rest of humanity. Pentecost is called the ‘Time of the Giving of the Torah.” Why ‘giving’ and not ‘receiving?’ Because every time we listen to the Bible read here at church or in our private devotions, on Christian radio, or wherever, we ‘receive’ the Bible’s truths. One time, God gave it, but each time we can receive it again.

The scene in Sinai was raucous to say the least. The book of Exodus unveils the scene as one of chaos. What’s there? Look, there  is fire and wind and a voice. Ezekiel 1 is read on Shavuot and it’s designed to link with and show us the exaggerated activity of a storm, a wild storm, uncharacteristic storms of high energy and God’s voice coming from within it.

Ezekiel says, “And as I looked, behold, a storm wind was coming from the north, a great cloud with fire flashing forth continually and a bright light around it, and in its midst something like glowing metal in the midst of the fire.”(Ezek. 1.4)

Later on in the Bible, the writer of Hebrews shows us even more of that scene and contrasts it with our Mt of Revelation. Listen to this quote from Hebrews chapter 12. “For you have not come to a mountain that may be touched and to a blazing fire, and to darkness and gloom and whirlwind, and to the blast of a trumpet and the sound of words which sound was such that those who heard begged that no further word should be spoken to them. For they could not bear the command,  “If even a beast touches the mountain, it will be stoned.” And so terrible was the sight, that Moses said,  “I am full of fear and trembling.”

But you have come to Mount Zion and to the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and to myriads of angels, to the general assembly and church of the first-born who are enrolled in heaven, and to God, the Judge of all, and to the spirits of righteous men made perfect, and to Jesus, the mediator of a new covenant, and to the sprinkled blood, which speaks better than the blood of Abel. … For if those did not escape when they refused him who warned them on earth, much less shall we escape who turn away from Him who warns from heaven. And His voice shook the earth then, but now He has promised, saying,  “Yet once more I will shake not only the earth, but also the heaven… Therefore, since we receive a kingdom which cannot be shaken, let us show gratitude, by which we may offer to God an acceptable service with reverence and awe; for our God is a consuming fire.” (Heb 12.18-29)

What a scene of awe and fear. This is stuff Spielberg would love to create. This is massive cyclone like we saw thundering across the plains in the US this year, even in my  “state of origin,” Missouri, where the tornadoes came through and many died.

The scene is described in Exodus chapter 19 as follows: “And Moses brought forth the people out of the camp to meet with God; and they stood at the nether part of the mount. And Mount Sinai was altogether on a Smoke, because the LORD descended upon it in Fire: and the smoke thereof ascended as the smoke of a furnace, and the whole mount quaked greatly. And when the voice of the trumpet sounded long (Tekiah Gedolah), and waxed louder and louder, Moses spake and God answered him by a voice. And the LORD came down upon Mount Sinai, on the top of the mount: and the LORD called Moses up to the top of the mount; and Moses went up.” (Exodus 19)       You get it.

With all of Israel standing, quaking, and basically traumatized after 400 years of slavery, terror at the Red Sea, a narrow escape, and a month and a half of wandering in the wilderness, building the Golden Calf and thinking it’s all lost, then they saw the lightning and thunder and great wind, and wondered if it was all over. I would have been afraid, and I imagine I’m not alone in this auditorium.

Fear was on them. Moses returned and brought 2 tablets of stone. On them were 10 phrases. And God used those 10 commandments to define a constitution for the former slaves.

Listen, fire shakes things up. Earthquakes shake things up.  We all need a good shake up now and then, don’t we? I even heard some news presenter reviewing why the tornadoes happen in the US…he refered to Global Warming.

I believe that Sinai was one of the first places of Global Warming ever recorded. And God was heating things up for Israel and on Israel that we as Jews might take a renewed, invigorated, ‘on fire’ religion and go to the nations.

The Spirit came on the church as a fire; he came onto Jesus as a dove. Jesus needed no cleansing;  we are desperate for it.

Go to the Nations with God’s Tongue

                The story is told about who got offered the Torah. “God offered the Word to 70 nations, but each said no. He came to the Jewish people and offered us the Torah. Moses said, “How much for the 5 commandments?” God said, ‘they are free.” Moses replied, “I’ll take 10.” By the way, I can say that joke; I get worried if a Gentile does.

 Luke tells us at the beginning of Acts 2 that there were people from every nation. This would reflect the 70 nations believed to exist. And sometimes they were called 70 tongues, since a nation usually is defined not by geographic borders, but by its language.

70 nations were offered the Torah; they refused. But as a result of Pentecost, those same 70 nations will hear the Gospel.

It is significant to note that a Jewish commentary on Exodus, recalling chapter 10 of Genesis, which sketches a map of the 70 nations which were then thought to comprise humanity as a whole, leads them back to Sinai to hear the word of God:  "At Sinai the Lord's voice was divided into 70 languages, so that all the nations could understand" (Exodus Rabbah 5, 9). So too in Luke’s description of Pentecost, the Word of God is addressed to humanity through the Apostles, in order to proclaim "the mighty works of God" (Acts 2:11) to all peoples even with their differences. A clear overcoming not only of national differences, but of the Tower of Babel problem resident on humanity, the inability to speak at peace with one another.

You might think I have an acccent, but I’ve lived and worked in Sydney for 17 years having moved from New York City. And four years ago I became an Aussie citizen. So this is now officially an Australian accent.

A few years ago I was in Melbourne, and upon arrival at the airport I rang a Jewish woman I’d met on the phone a year before. She is a Mendelsohn and when our team was cold calling Jewish surnames, I rang her and dozens of others. She seemed interested and I marked her name as such on our computer. So on arrival I wanted to meet up with her. She was open and had a friend, Alice, come by from next door. Alice is a Baptist, and wanted to know how Jews, Jesus and Jews for Jesus went together.

Now my new Jewish contact is originally from Scotland, and although I’ve traveled the world, I had a very difficult time understanding her accent. I was recently in Scotland and this trouble with understanding Scottish people diminished, but I’m talking about a story from a few years back. Sure, her words were English words, but they were foreign sounding to me. It was her dialect (a Greek word meaning ‘tongue’ and used in Acts 2 of what the disciples received that day) that threw me off.

Long story short, Jane prayed with me to accept Jesus that afternoon.  She is reading her Bible now and Alice is helping her. She is being looked after by a church which meets just around the corner from their flats. God is good!

What the Tower of Babel evidences, the inability of people to speak with each other, Pentecost overcomes as people from 70 nations can hear the same words in their own language and respond in faith, amen?

Tongues divided the world in Babel; tongues unite the world in the Holy Spirit’s anointing in Pentecost.

And remember what the 120 did when they received the Holy Spirit that Pentecost day? They went downstairs and outside and preached so that the 3,000 could find eternal life. We hear the Gospel; we respond and believe and then, we go to preach it.

What is in our hearts comes out our mouths. Jesus said, “For the mouth speaks out of that which fills the heart.“ (Matthew 12.34) In fact 15 times in the Newer Testament, the phrase is used of people being “filled (or baptized) with the Spirit” and each time what follows is speaking. If you believe in Jesus and have a relationship with him you will speak about him to others. And they will hear and learn and some will come to faith in Jesus.

Conversion and Pentecost

One point to mention about this holiday is its uniqueness in relation to sin. At every Jewish festival the Torah informs us that one has to bring a sin offering. Only on the festival of Shavuot is the word 'sin' not mentioned. Why? “For on the festival of Shavuot, the day of the receiving of the Torah, all Jews are like the convert "newborn", and so free of all sin.” (R Levi Yitschak of Berditchev)

What R Levi Yitschak means and what we mean may be different. Let’s be clear. We all need to be cleansed of sin. We all need shaking up. And in Pentecost we have God calling us to listen, to hear his words in whatever languages, and to be born from above. He wants to fulfill His words of Jeremiah 31. There God predicts through the ancient prophet,

 “Behold, days are coming,” declares the LORD,  “when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah, not like the covenant which I made with their fathers in the day I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt, My covenant which they broke, although I was a husband to them,  “declares the LORD.  “But this is the covenant which I will make with the house of Israel after those days,” declares the LORD,  “I will put My law within them, and on their heart I will write it; and I will be their God, and they shall be My people.

 “And they shall not teach again, each man his neighbor and each man his brother, saying,  ‘Know the LORD,’ for they shall all know Me, from the least of them to the greatest of them,” declares the LORD,  “for I will forgive their iniquity, and their sin I will remember no more.” (31.31-34)

This new covenant is God’s promise. This new covenant was enacted on Passover,  7 weeks before Pentecost when Yeshua took up the 3^rrd cup during the seder and initiated it. And in his dying and rising from the dead, we can all be forgiven of our sins, we can all be converted, we can all know God. It’s a new covenant, not like the covenant of Moses (the Old covenant). This is conversion in the best sense of the word.

And why do we read the Book of Ruth? The rabbis say we read Ruth because King David, her descendant, died on Shavuot and because Ruth was a convert and at Sinai we were like converts.  God transformed us from ordinary people to a special nation.

And why do we eat dairy products? In exilic Judaism the word of God is likened to “milk and honey” and we eat to remind ourselves of the sweetness and refreshment found in the Word of God.

Conversion brings life, not death

In Exodus 32 we read of the return of Moses with the Two Tablets of the Law. And the Jewish populace was behaving riotously and the brother of Moses, Aaron, lied about how the Golden Calf incident happened. He said, “I put the gold in and look what came out!” Moses was angry and invited the people to join him in opposition to the rioting. The sons of Levi did (Moses’ tribe too) and that day the text tells us,  “So the sons of Levi did as Moses instructed, and about three thousand men of the people fell that day.” (Exodus 32.28)

Now if you know much about Bible, you know the precision of biblical numbers is a worthy study itself. For instance, exactly how many men came out of Egypt from each family and each tribe? No round numbers here; no approximations. Even after the Resurrection, Peter goes fishing and catches 153 fish. (John 21.11)

So it’s very surprising to read the phrase “about 3,000 men” in Exodus. Is it random? Not at all.

Acts chapter two, which I encourage you to read when you get home today, shows us that as a result of the preaching of Peter, Jewish people interrupted his sermon and said, “What shall we do?” (Acts 2.37) and Peter told them to repent and get baptized and get filled with the Holy Spirit, for the ‘promise is for you, and your children, and all who are far off” (This means the Jews, the Jewish families, and Gentiles). And who responded?  “So then, those who had received his word were baptized; and there were added that day about three thousand souls.” (Acts 2.41)

No coincidence here. What brought death in Moses’ day brought life in Peter’s day. And to the exact number of people.

And Paul made a point of this in 2 Corinthians 3.

“Not that we are adequate in ourselves to consider anything as coming from ourselves, but our adequacy is from God, who also made us adequate as servants of a new covenant, not of the letter, but of the Spirit; for the letter kills, but the Spirit gives life. But if the ministry of death, in letters engraved on stones, came with glory, so that the sons of Israel could not look intently at the face of Moses because of the glory of his face, fading as it was, how shall the ministry of the Spirit fail to be even more with glory?” (3.5-8)

So the Spirit brings life and the Law brings death. But let’s be too simple here. What we mean by Spirit always contains Scripture. What we mean by Law contains more than Scripture. Here’s what I mean.

Paul’s use of the term, The Law may better for us be described as a checklist system, with requirements, and guilt for failure and pride for satisfaction. It starts in the Scripture, but goes past its intent. The Spirit (as Paul used the term) is God’s word enabled in our lives. It’s the requirements of the Law put into our hearts of flesh. (Jer. 31).

Spirit without the Word is Emotionalism; Word without Spirit is legalism.

But together, they are what Paul calls “Spirit” and we could say “The Spirit and the Word bring Life.” Jesus said “It is the Spirit who gives life; the flesh profits nothing; the words that I have spoken to you are spirit and are life.” (John 6.63)

That’s it…that’s how we win in this transitory life. We trust the Spirit and God’s Words, they bring us life.  Fukishima plant technicians and US tornado survivors, and Nepalese earthquake survivors all share victories of still breathing, but what you and I can count on is that those who trust Jesus and are anointed with his fire and word, enter into life and live it to the fullest.

About 3000 folks can live; 5,000 the next day (Acts 4) and who knows how many in Sydney or Jerusalem or around Australia will hear God’s word and live, even today?

Pentecost is not Passover. On Passover we are forgiven. On Pentecost we are empowered to proclaim the Gospel. Let’s be out sharing this message. Let’s go out and tell.