Finding where you belong

So many folks spend a lifetime sorting out how to belong to this group or that one. Should I join the croquet club or the crocheting club? I like to swim, but the pool is always so crowded, how do I fit there? Understanding belonging is a big deal any time, but certainly, as you exit school and other required venues of belonging. And, if you are reading this blog at 72 years of age, it's not too late for you, either!

The Jewish New Year and the rest of the High Holidays are upon us. Next Friday evening, the ceremonies, the dinners, the gatherings, and the duties all begin again. And for many it's a chore, for others, it's simply repetition and tradition. But for some of us, it's a heartstring and a way of reconnecting with our place and our sense of belonging. 

How do we find our place? Is it on the pickleball court, in the library, with that person or those people? Do we have a revulsion of being with those work associates and cannot wait to move on? Finding your place-- that's a big part of maturation and personal growth. 

How do we find that place? I could describe it in this way. What are you finding yourself making happen just now? And what gives you a sense of pleasure? Is it your work? Your studies? Your time alone or your time with others? Is it sport? Is it food? Whatever is giving you that 'smile on the inside'... that's what you should continue. You should find ways in which to participate there with some semblance of regularity. 

Is it religion? Is it philosophy? At the end of each day, or at least today, if you could do something again, what would it be? OK, that's a single driver, but now expand that. What has given you joy this year? Did it involve others or were you completely isolated? 

Take an honest evaluation, use a journal if you can, look back through your photos on FB or Insta, how long did you spend watching reels on TikTok or bingeing on Netflix? What is it about that genre of comedy or movies or songs that gets you going? 

OK< you are finding out what's important to you. I interviewed a woman in Virgina on my podcast last week who is a financial helper to many. Suzanne Scullion runs GRACE Financial Coaching. She starts her initial meeting with folks with some questions about what their financial goals are, and then monitors their spending habits. She said basically, "If they tell me their goals are for sending children to college but they spent $1,400 on eating out last month, they are not being realistic." 

So, with Suzanne's advice in mind, what have you determined to be your real interests? That's the first 'port of call' in determining your place of belonging. 

Now, look around. and see who else is walking out at that same place. See who is near you, and they are doing what they enjoy. It could be the church, and you find out that this guy and that gal are also in your neighbourhood. You join them in their small group and you find out they have other similar interests. It could be as simple as an evening stroll at home after dinner. You meet someone or others who are also going out for their 'evening constitutional.' It starts with a greeting, "Evening, Joe." and progresses to deeper and meaningful conversations. 

Finding belonging matters. 

Finding others with whom you belong is essential for a meaningful life. It starts with self-evaluation and honesty. Start there, and let me know how you go. Maybe we belong together?

L'shana tovah!

The king of love my shepherd is (A study in Jeremiah 33)

 Truth and Consequences:    

A study in the prophecy of Jeremiah

Chapter 33

By Bob Mendelsohn

Given 12 August 2022

 

Lesson Thirty-three: The King of love my shepherd is

 

INTRODUCTION

  Springtime is a time of great hope and beauty; the winter’s chills and snow and ice are melting and the sun is lingering longer. For many, this is their favourite season. It won’t be long as summer’s heat will soon be on us, and the buds on the bushes and trees will soon be blossoming. Sheep have plenty of good grass to eat, and Bondi Beach is booming again with tumbling children and splashing surfers. The world will be wonderful for many; the promise of spring and thus summer was in us last week. We had temps in the 20s and the sun shone relentlessly. I thought winter was over; winter was not complete as this week has evidenced. 

Why am I giving you this meteorological report? That you and I might think thoughts of the promise of sunshine when the sun is not shining. We need to think of promises of warmth when baby, it’s cold outside. Promises are not to be held onto when they are fulfilled; you have to hold onto promises when they are oh, so far, far away.

That said, in today’s chapter, we hear a repeat of many of the promises God made to the Judeans in chapters 30 and 31, with a new promise about King David and about Levites. Stay tuned to hear what God will say, and remember, it’s not when they are fulfilled that you ponder them. 

Let’s hear what God is saying to us in this messed up and darkening world from chapter 33 of Jeremiah. 

Verse 1 tells us the timeline of this chapter, the same as last chapter. Jeremiah is still in prison, again, like house arrest, and in this whole chapter we don’t hear anything about his prayers or his response at all. It’s all “THUS SAYS GOD” and as such is a litany of God’s thoughts, not those of the prophet. 

Verse 2, God self-introduces as is his custom, as the God who created the world, and everything in it. And that would include Babylonians and Judeans and even Kiwis. 

Verse 3, call to me, and I will answer you. It’s particular. It’s personal. God is inviting us to listen and to pray and his promise is immediate. I will answer you, he says. Can you take comfort in that promise? Today? Are you currently asking God to accomplish something? He promises to hear us. Do you believe that?

What will he tell us, great and mighty things we don’t already know. Awesome, we will have wisdom granted. We will be alerted to his plans for our neighbours and our children. Things we do not know. Like the timing of his provision. Like the times he will answer in the affirmative and times in the negative. 

Verse 4, second time, “Thus says the Lord.” And what’s the subject of this word? The houses where we live and the houses of the leadership. The defences are broken down and the enemy will enter to ruin. God says that he is open to listen to us. There are walls around the city-- they are down; there are walls around God. They are also down, but open to us! It’s a brilliant image.

Verse 5, God has hidden himself, due to our sinfulness. Our ra’ah. Listen hell may well be defined as the ultimate isolation and loneliness, far not only from the madding crowd, but also far from the Living God. If heaven is relationship and fellowship and belonging, then hell is lack of relationship and loneness and not belonging. 

Verse 6 HINEY, Behold, don’t miss this. ‘Behold, I will bring to it health and healing, and I will heal them; and I will reveal to them an abundance of peace and truth. God will heal, three times in this one verse, healing is coming. Yes, admit you are sick and go to the doctor of life (God) so that your healing comes. No one gets well without such an admission. 

Arucha means ‘health’ and it comes from the root ERECH, like in Erech Apayim, long or slow to anger, and I’m glad God is perhaps slow to bring healing, but it will surely come. Also I cannot get away from the last word. Truth. Telling the truth about God. About you. About your relationship or lack of one. This promise is worth writing on a post, or on a post it, or on your wall in bright colours… God will reveal an abundance of peace and truth. 

Verse 7, we’ve seen this phrase before several times…

וַהֲשִֽׁבֹתִי֙ אֶת־שְׁב֣וּת

I will restore the fortunes. Restore the captivity (that is, to erase the captivity) Not in a permanent or conclusive way, but reset factory settings, take us back to where we were before we fell. Before we were tainted by idolatry in Judah and before we were taken into captivity. 

Verse 8, God says he will both make us pure (Taher) and forgive us (Salach) for both our sins and our transgressions. Look, so many of us use different words either to soften the reality of our sin or to excuse it, but 

“The three most familiar Hebrew terms for sin occur in this verse. The verbs ‏חטא‎, “sin” (twice), and ‏פשׁע‎, “rebel,” take singular and plural forms of the noun ‏עון, “iniquity,” as their objects (cf Hos 12:9). Every indictment in the book of Jeremiah contributes to the description of Israel’s and Judah’s iniquity.”

 

And don’t miss this object word “LI” in the text. 

מִכָּל־עֲוֹנָ֖ם אֲשֶׁ֣ר חָֽטְאוּ־לִ֑י

You sinned li, that is, against me. God takes our sins against people and against nature and against our families and against ourselves… he takes those sins personally and says you sin against me. That’s why fixing problems people-to-people is useful in social circumstances, but it doesn’t fix our lives. Only in repairing our relationship with God, in atonement, in blood-for-blood atonement, is our relationship fixable. Our lives are restored if we get right with God, and it won’t be good until then. 

“It will be to Me a name of joy, praise and glory before all the nations of the earth which will hear of all the good that I do for them, and they will fear and tremble because of all the good and all the peace that I make for it.’” (verse 9)

What is the ‘it’? It’s Jerusalem. That tells me that this is a prediction that will not take place until at least 70 years hence. And what are the three characteristics that define that new city? Joy, praise, and glory. Remember those from Jer. 13.11 and from Deuteronomy 26.19, God will fulfil his promises to make Jerusalem glorious, but not from military victories. Rather, this is from God being good to the peoples of the earth. Good is used twice in this sentence. God’s goodness leads people to repentance. God’s goodness leads us to thankfulness. 

Verse 10, Another “Thus says the Lord.” Third time. And through verse 11, the misfortunes of lack and of famine will be replaced with merriment and restoration. And the standard “Hodu” is sung, and is probably inserted by later authors to remind the people (“Sing God’s thanks as usual here.”)

Verses 12-13, there are five images of sheep and shepherds and if you think that’s about pastoral situations you are very close to right. It’s about the leadership of the ‘sheep of his pasture” namely the people of Israel and the kings. God will make those relationships back to ‘as in the beginning’ before the current kings had ruined things.

The verb ‘count’ surprised me, but when I think of the Lost items parables of Luke 15, that’s the only way the shepherd would know if there were 99 + 1. Only in counting his sheep did the shepherd know the flock. John 10 is where the apostle listed his “Jesus is the Good Shepherd” speech. And there we see that Jesus ‘knows his sheep’ and they ‘hear his voice and follow him.’ I identify with this notion. God made me one of his sheep and he loves and cares for me as a shepherd. The king of love, my shepherd is. No one “can take us out of his hand.”

Verse 14 introduces the promise he already gave us in chapter 23. The righteous branch, this one who is coming, will execute justice and that sounds royal and like a good king rather than the ones we’ve recently had to lead us. He will lead us to good, to holiness and purity. And in verse 15, another direct quote from the earlier chapter, the one who is born to us is named “Jehovah our righteousness.” Whoever this one is, he’s not only the rep of God; he IS God and that’s a massive surprise, eh?

Then verses 16 and 17, another Thus says the Lord (#4) the double surprise that only makes sense in terms of Yeshua, the greater Son of David. We read that there will never be a time without a Davidic king and without priests to perform sacrifices. This clearly is not fulfilled and we have an enigma.

Listen how Barnes solves this: “Read literally, these verses promise the permanent restoration of the Davidic throne and (of the Levitical priesthood. As a matter of fact Zedekiah was the last king of David’s line, and the Levitical priest-hood has long passed away. Both these changes Jeremiah himself foretold (Jeremiah 22:30; 3:16). In what way then is this apparent contradiction (compare Isaiah 66:20–23; Ezekiel 40–48) to be explained? The solution is probably as follows. It was necessary that the Bible should be intelligible to the people at the time when it was written, and in some degree to the writer. The Davidic kingship and the Levitical priest-hood were symbols, which represented to the Jew all that was most dear to his heart in the state of things under which he lived. Their restoration was the restoration of his national and spiritual life. Neither was so restored as to exist permanently. But that was given instead, of which both were types, the Church, whose Head is the true prophet, priest and King.”

Christopher Wright comments about Horizon 2 and 3. He says something similar to Barnes. “The NT affirms that the eternal nature of both the throne of David and the Leviti al priesthood was taken up and fulfilled by Jesus Christ. The angel declared the former (Luke 1.32-33) and Hebrews declares the latter (Heb. 8-10)”

This makes sense and we addressed it last week with the whole David restoration. It won’t be David himself, but the Greater Son of David who will make this happen and the priesthood of the Levites and their work in the Temple will terminate in 70 CE, BUT the Great High Priest Yeshua will take their place in substitution. 

Verse 20, Thus says the Lord, again. #5 in this chapter alone. If it’s possible that the sun and moon stop shining, then my covenant is breakable, BUT IT IS NOT. This will not happen as sure as I’m the Creator and SUSTAINER. Again the promises of God to Abraham and David are now reiterated and God will make this happen, for HIS NAME’s sake and in Yeshua they are fulfilled. 

Verse 24-26, people’s sins are apparent, AND YET, there it is…the interrupting grace of Almighty God. But I will ^crestore their ³fortunes and will have ^dmercy on them

God does this. Then. And in 70 years. And in Yeshua and in our lives. 

אָשׁוּב אֶת־שְׁבוּתָ֖ם וְרִחַמְתִּֽים

God, full of mercy and compassion. The Good Shepherd. Restoring the lost son to the Father, saving the 100^th sheep and bringing him back to himself. God doesn’t want any of us lost. He wants us restored. And he will do it. 

Have you encountered him yourself? Have you been born again?

 

CONCLUSION

God is calling each of us to know him and to walk with him, today and throughout our days. Have you received Yeshua as your messiah and Lord? He is risen from the dead! Have you renounced your sin, your idolatry, your forsaking God and given him First Place in your life? If not, please, do so now, just now, as we pray together. Use your own words, if you want, but yield, surrender, to the Lord of life. 

 

PRAYER

Then please write us (admin@jewsforjesus.org.au) to tell us what you have just done, and we will send you literature and encourage you. You are part of our family; we love and appreciate you. And we want you to enjoy the presence of the Lord who calls, who knows, who blesses and builds us up. 

We hope to see you again next week as we study chapter 34. Until then, Shabbat shalom!

 

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Barnes, Albert, Commentary on the Old Testament. (Published by many, from 1880 on)

Henry, Matthew, Commentary.

Keown, Gerald, Scalise, Pamela, Smothers, Thomas, Word Biblical Commentary. Book of Jeremiah (Part 2).  1995. 

McConnville, Gordon, Jeremiah, New Bible Commentary. 

Wright, Christopher, The Message of Jeremiah, The Bible Speaks Today. Intervarsity Press, Downers Grove, Illinois, 2014.

 

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ACTUAL TEXT

Restoration Promised

 

Jer. 33:1   Then the word of the LORD came to Jeremiah the second time, while he was still confined in the court of the guard, saying, ² “Thus says the LORD who made the earth, the LORD who formed it to establish it, the LORD is His name, ³ ‘Call to Me and I will answer you, and I will tell you great and mighty things, which you do not know.’ ⁴ “For thus says the LORD God of Israel concerning the houses of this city, and concerning the houses of the kings of Judah which are broken down to make a defence against the siege ramps and against the sword, ⁵ ‘While they are coming to fight with the Chaldeans and to fill them with the corpses of men whom I have slain in My anger and in My wrath, and I have hidden My face from this city because of all their wickedness: ⁶ ‘Behold, I will bring to it health and healing, and I will heal them; and I will reveal to them an abundance of peace and truth. ⁷ ‘I will restore the ¹fortunes of Judah and the fortunes of Israel and will rebuild them as they were at first. ⁸ ‘I will cleanse them from all their iniquity by which they have sinned against Me, and I will pardon all their iniquities by which they have sinned against Me and by which they have transgressed against Me. ⁹ ‘It will be to Me a name of joy, praise and glory before all the nations of the earth which will hear of all the good that I do for them, and they will fear and tremble because of all the good and all the peace that I make for it.’

 

Jer. 33:10   “Thus says the LORD, ‘Yet again there will be heard in this place, of which you say, “It is a waste, without man and without beast,” that is, in the cities of Judah and in the streets of Jerusalem that are desolate, without man and without inhabitant and without beast, ¹¹  the voice of joy and the voice of gladness, the voice of the bridegroom and the voice of the bride, the voice of those who say, 

            “Give thanks to the LORD of hosts, 

            For the LORD is good, 

            For His lovingkindness is everlasting”; 

            and of those who bring a thank offering into the house of the LORD. For I will restore the fortunes of the land as they were at first,’ says the LORD.

 

Jer. 33:12   “Thus says the LORD of hosts, ‘There will again be in this place which is waste, without man or beast, and in all its cities, a habitation of shepherds who rest their flocks. ¹³ ‘In the cities of the hill country, in the cities of the lowland, in the cities of the Negev, in the land of Benjamin, in the environs of Jerusalem and in the cities of Judah, the flocks will again pass under the hands of the one who numbers them,’ says the LORD.

 

The Davidic Kingdom

 

Jer. 33:14   ‘Behold, days are coming,’ declares the LORD, ‘when I will fulfil the good word which I have spoken concerning the house of Israel and the house of Judah. ¹⁵ ‘In those days and at that time I will cause a righteous Branch of David to spring forth; and He shall execute justice and righteousness on the earth. ¹⁶ ‘In those days Judah will be saved and Jerusalem will dwell in safety; and this is the name by which she will be called: the LORD is our righteousness.’ ¹⁷ “For thus says the LORD, ‘David shall never lack a man to sit on the throne of the house of Israel; ¹⁸ and the Levitical priests shall never lack a man before Me to offer burnt offerings, to burn grain offerings and to prepare sacrifices continually.’”

 

Jer. 33:19   The word of the LORD came to Jeremiah, saying, ²⁰ “Thus says the LORD, ‘If you can break My covenant for the day and My covenant for the night, so that day and night will not be at their appointed time, ²¹ then My covenant may also be broken with David My servant so that he will not have a son to reign on his throne, and with the Levitical priests, My ministers. ²² ‘As the host of heaven cannot be counted and the sand of the sea cannot be measured, so I will multiply the descendants of David My servant and the Levites who minister to Me.’”

 

Jer. 33:23   And the word of the LORD came to Jeremiah, saying, ²⁴ “Have you not observed what this people have spoken, saying, ‘The two families which the LORD chose, He has rejected them’? Thus they despise My people, no longer are they as a nation ¹in their sight. ²⁵ “Thus says the LORD, ‘If My covenant for day and night stand not, and the fixed patterns of heaven and earth I have not established, ²⁶ then I would reject the descendants of Jacob and David My servant, not taking from his descendants rulers over the descendants of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. But I will restore their fortunes and will have mercy on them.’” 

 

 

Lavish Grace

 Promises, Promises

lavish grace

 

A sermon given at LCM Anglican Churches

Sydney, Australia

1 November 2020

By Bob Mendelsohn

Bible readings: Jeremiah 31.1-34, Ephesians 1.7-8

 

Salutation to the pulpit

“…in Him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of trespasses, in accordance with the richness of his grace, which He lavished on us in all wisdom and insight…”

Shalom to my friends here at LCM and to those for whom this is your first-time meeting or hearing from me, I hope this will be a useful time for you also to consider Jewish people and the Gospel. And for each of us, may this be a significant time in the Word together. Thanks to Darren and all the staff for this kind and annual invitation.

Let’s pray….

Have you ever gone to the movies and arrived late? You have the feeling that some of the opening scenes might be crucial as you walk in and try to find both your assigned seat and the rhythm of the movie. Most of the time, missing the openings are not going to ruin it for you, but still, there’s something you wish you knew.

That’s the feeling I have this morning as I share with you from the two Bible verses that the pastoral staff here have assigned me. We enter into the middle of an apostolic sentence, of blessing and joyful recounting of God’s provision. So, if you don’t mind, I’ll read the opening and get to our text in its place. 

“Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly realms in Christ, ⁴  even as he chose us in him before the foundation of the world to be holy and blameless before him in love. ⁵  He has predestined us for adoption as his own sons through Jesus Christ, in accordance with his good pleasure and will, ⁶  to the praise of the glory of his grace with which he has highly favored us in the Beloved, ⁷  in whom we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of trespasses, in accordance with the richness of his grace ⁸ which He lavished on us. In all wisdom and insight.” By the way, the sentence keeps going, so I’ll have to let others who preach next week decide how much to retrace these steps.

Today we will talk about promises. My outline is: 1) The making of promises, 2) the fulfillment of promises, 3) the prevention of receiving promises and 4) the joy of extending promises to others.

Introduction 

Paul is full of thanksgiving and joy as he recounts the many blessings that God has given him and all of the Body of Messiah. This sermon is being given here in Sydney during November, and whenever I, as an American, reach this month, it means two things every year. One is my birthday, which is much less significant to celebrate as the years turn to decades. The other is American Thanksgiving. The fourth Thursday in November is marked with a feast like no other, as well as being the most traveled weekend of the year. Not this year, of course, but usually.

Oh, and every four years, a third thing happens in November. Americans stop and vote, not out of compulsion like we have here, for their favorite candidates for president and other offices in state and local government as well as any propositions on the ballot. You may have noticed that this year, over 75 million have already cast their votes. Amazing energy about this election. And yes, Patty and I already voted. Done and dusted. 

1.     The making of promises

Just like we have here in Australia, during the more reasonable five-week campaign cycles for public offices, politicians tend to make promises by which they hope to gain the favor and the requisite votes of the listeners. Promising a new tax cut or a new relief package, promising something to make everyone feel safer in their suburb or to make the environment a better place. American politicians are no different about making promises, and although some are laughable, others garner major network news beyond the 24-hour cycle in which they are spoken.

Here in both of our Bible readings, Jewish men pronounce promises to the Jewish people as if God himself were speaking through them. Jeremiah the prophet proclaimed God’s truths from about 620 BCE to just past 586 BCE; that’s about 30 years. Paul, who wrote the Ephesian letter ministered about the same length of time in Israel, but in the First Century. And yet, neither of them thought their own ministry was their own. They saw themselves as mouthpieces for the Almighty, so any promises they made were actually God’s promises to his people. That’s something not to miss.

Not that everything God promises to his people is to be desired. Jeremiah addressed judgment and God’s annoyances with Judah probably more than any other ancient prophet. Phrases like “I will pronounce my judgments on them concerning all their wickedness, whereby they have forsaken me and have offered sacrifices to other gods and worshiped the works of their own hands.” (1.16) and again “Why has this people turned away in continual apostasy? They hold fast to deceit and refuse to return.” (8.5)

But that same prophet says in today’s reading, “the people who survived the sword found grace in the wilderness” and “you will take up your tambourines and go forth to the dances of the merrymakers.” (31.2, .4) Jubilation and forgiveness, a serious reparation has taken place. At least the promise of repair is given and that’s an encouragement to the people of God. Later on in the chapter, beginning at verse 31 we hear how this will take place. God says, “I will make a new covenant with the [Jewish people], not like the covenant when they left Egypt…I will put my law on their hearts…I will be their God and they shall be my people.”

What a promise. More on that later.

Let’s talk about the Newer Testament promises as well.

2.     The fulfillment of promises

Back to Paul’s letter. He says we are being promised “according to the riches of His grace ⁸ which He lavished on us. In all wisdom and insight” Amazing grace. How sweet the sound. God’s riches, some say, the word GRACE, can be an acronym representing God’s riches at Christ’s expense. Pretty amazing. 

And Paul says that grace is lavished on us. Ponder that word lavish for a moment, will you? Lavish. Extravagant. Superb. Sumptuous, luxurious, lush, costly, opulent. You get it. It’s over-the-top. The hymn writer called grace Amazing. I get that. 

What other promises has the Almighty given us through Paul? Last week you learned about some in verses 4-6. And next week, more to come. Chosen. Predestined. Every spiritual blessing. Made known the mystery of his will. Obtaining an inheritance. 

The promises are fulfilled in Messiah. That’s what the text says. But exactly how does that work? What are the mechanisms? And what prevents those mechanisms from their purpose? 

I believe the answer is clear in the Bible. It’s our faith that welcomes the promise and which causes the promise to activate. Without faith, it’s impossible to please the Lord (Heb. 11.6), and faith is available for everyone, which makes the impossible possible. (Romans 10.17) We can experience chosenness and predestination by faith. We can have every spiritual blessing by faith. We obtain our inheritance by faith. You get it.

How did the promise of grace get enacted? What sealed the deal? 

Back to Jeremiah, verse 34 of chapter 31 nails it on the head. “For I will forgive their iniquity and remember their sin no more.” That’s it! That’s how we secure this heavenly promise. We are forgiven of our sins and receive God’s Holy Spirit in us. 

And how are we forgiven? Paul joins the Jewish chorus which would have understood the sacrificial system of the Tabernacle and later the Temple, where an animal’s blood substituted for the death of the sinner. Paul said 

^“In Him we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of His grace.” (Ephesians 1.7) We are forgiven because a sacrifice has been offered, once for all, and atonement was secured by that better blood, the blood that speaks better than the blood of Abel. It’s the death of Yeshua that made the covenant available.

It’s the blood of Jesus, the Jewish messiah, who suffered in Jerusalem at the hands of Roman sinners, that brought about the riches of God’s grace summed up in “the forgiveness of our trespasses.”

That’s what Jeremiah meant, and which would deliver the promise of the new covenant. 

Lavish.

I’m reminded of the story from England of a large prosperous suburban church that had planted three mission churches in some very tough, bad, city neighborhoods. Every January, the mission churches were invited to join with the posh mother church for a celebration communion service. The makeup of the mission churches was often criminals of all sorts, who had been converted after being in jail for a while. 

On one such occasion, a wealthy magistrate was seen taking communion at the rail right next to a former burglar. The judge had actually sentenced the thief to prison years before. Neither seemed to recognize each other. After the service, the magistrate was sharing with some others from his homegroup. “I was amazed at the grace of God this morning.” 

One of his home group said, “Yes, isn’t it amazing how the sinners from the slums can get saved?”

The judge replied, “I was not thinking of that burglar. I was thinking of me. Even though I had a great education and always attended Scripture in school and have been faithful in church attendance all these years, it took God’s amazing grace to forgive me of all my pride and self-deception, to get me to admit I was no better in the eyes of God than any convict that I had sent to jail.”

3.     The prevention of receiving promises

Grace is lavish. And yet, it’s able to be prevented from reaching us. How? By our pride like the judge said. By our self-centeredness. Jeremiah said, 

“ ‘Because of the lightness of her harlotry, she polluted the land and committed adultery with stones and trees. ¹⁰ Yet in spite of all this her treacherous sister Judah did not return to Me with all her heart, but rather in deception,’ declares the LORD.” (3.9-10)

That’s it. If we don’t return to God with all our hearts, that’s how we prevent the promises making their way into our lives. I’m ever amazed at God, the Sovereign of the universes who offers himself to us, who does not dominate us and mandate our submission. He offers us to love him with all our heart and soul. And we can stop that love. We can prevent those promises from being enacted. Wow. No wonder you hear the aching appeals of the Almighty throughout the Scripture. Consider the loving and longing of the Prodigal Father watching daily for his wayward son to return from his riotous living. Grace ready to be poured out, and the prevention of that grace by selfishness and pride. That was finally removed by an act of surrender to the Lord. That’s how I got in on the abundant and amazing grace of God. 

4.     The joy of extending promises to others

Finally, today we think about the joy of extending God’s promises to others. Jeremiah said, 

“They will not teach again, each man his neighbor and each man his brother, saying, ‘Know the LORD,’ for they will all know Me, from the least of them to the greatest of them,” (31.34)

The community of faith will be in relationship to the Almighty and to each other. We will all know him and his word of promise. We will all be beneficiaries of his blessings and promises. 

Jeremiah said it like this, “They will come and shout for joy on the height of Zion, and they will be radiant over the bounty of the LORD — over the grain and the new wine and the oil, and over the young of the flock and the herd; their life will be like a watered garden, and they will never languish again. Then the virgin will rejoice in the dance, and the young men and the old, together,” (31.12-13)

That’s mishpochah; that’s family; that’s community. Lavish grace. A society sinner and a society standard all under one roof, sharing in God’s love and grace. Prodigal father and prodigal son eating the fattened calf rejoicing together. 

Dear friends, today, that happens when we not only experience God’s grace by welcoming his forgiveness by the blood of Jesus and also when we pass it on to others. The house of the Lord is not a single-family home; it’s all of us together. Let’s be about sharing this message with others. Each of us who knows the Lord has had many people, significant people who helped shape us, who taught us the Word of God, who helped us see and appropriate God’s promises. Please, I urge you, as Paul tells the Ephesians that they and we are ‘his workmanship, created in Messiah Jesus, unto good works... that we should walk in them’ (2.10)

Let’s share this message.

Let’s share his promises. 

Let’s ask others to enter into the new covenant. 

If today, you are hearing this talk and this idea for the first time, if you haven’t yet received Jesus as your Lord and Messiah, please, right where you are seated, welcome him into your life. Repent of your own sin and receive Jesus as your Saviour. And please tell me or someone else here at church and let us help you walk this out with others in COVID time and long beyond.

Final thoughts

For those of you who don’t know, I’ve been a missionary with Jews for Jesus for 41 years and privileged to be working in Sydney the last 22 years. You have a white card on your pew [For those watching online or reading this online, just write me at bob@jewsforjesus.org.au ] and if you don’t mind, please fill that out, tear off the perforation, and give me the larger section so that you will either continue to receive or begin to receive our newsletter. We also send much more via email if you prefer things that way.

We have a resource table with books and CDs and such, great gifts for Hanukkah and Christmas, and some free literature also. And I have a Square by which you can either donate to our cause without cash, or you can buy products as well. 

Thanks, Darren, and Andy, Michael, Ken and all of you on staff… and all who volunteer and all of us at the parish who are recipients of God’s lavish and amazing grace, and who want to pass that on to others. 

Let us exalt his name together. Amen. Shalom.

Jeremiah 31

 “At that time,” declares the LORD, “I will be the God of all the families of Israel, and they shall be My people.”

 

Thus says the LORD, “The people who survived the sword found grace in the wilderness — Israel, when it went to find its rest.” The LORD appeared to him from afar, saying, “I have loved you with an everlasting love; therefore, I have drawn you with lovingkindness. Again, I will build you and you will be rebuilt, O virgin of Israel! Again, you will take up your tambourines, and go forth to the dances of the merrymakers. Again, you will plant vineyards on the hills of Samaria; the planters will plant and will enjoy them. For there will be a day when watchmen on the hills of Ephraim call out, ‘Arise, and let us go up to Zion, to the LORD our God.’”

 

For thus says the LORD, “Sing aloud with gladness for Jacob, and shout among the chief of the nations; Proclaim, give praise and say, ‘O LORD, save Your people, the remnant of Israel.’

 

“Behold, I am bringing them from the north country, and I will gather them from the remote parts of the earth, among them the blind and the lame, the woman with child and she who is in labour with child, together; a great company, they will return here.

 

“With weeping they will come, and by supplication I will lead them; I will make them walk by streams of waters, on a straight path in which they will not stumble; for I am a father to Israel, and Ephraim is My firstborn.”

 

Hear the word of the LORD, O nations, and declare in the coastlands afar off, and say, “He who scattered Israel will gather him and keep him as a shepherd keeps his flock.”

 

For the LORD has ransomed Jacob and redeemed him from the hand of him who was stronger than he. They will come and shout for joy on the height of Zion, and they will be radiant over the bounty of the LORD — Over the grain and the new wine and the oil, and over the young of the flock and the herd; and their life will be like a watered garden, and they will never languish again. Then the virgin will rejoice in the dance, and the young men and the old, together, for I will turn their mourning into joy and will comfort them and give them joy for their sorrow. I will fill the soul of the priests with abundance, and My people will be satisfied with My goodness,” declares the LORD. (1-14)

Sin: what's in it for me? A study in Romans chapter 6

The Book of Romans: A Bible study series in 17 parts

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

  

[To watch this on YouTube when it was first given live on Zoom, click https://youtu.be/nszHveFNes4  [The whole text is at the end of this blog]

Introduction

Welcome to those of you who are new to our class in this the 7^th lesson, as we take up Paul’s comments recorded in chapter 6 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 6^th chapter. It will only take 3 minutes. OK, welcome back.  

The overarching question of the day: Shall we continue in sin that grace may abound?

Paul will answer that as is his usual, with a loud, shout and declaration: Not on your life! And then he will explain how that works, and why. He will talk about four things, and they are my outline today, with the saint’s relationship to sin, to Messiah himself, to temptation and then to righteousness. Remember we defined ‘righteousness’, that very religious sounding word, as ‘being right with God.’ By unpacking each of these categories, Paul will answer that question he raised more clearly. 

A.             What is the saint’s relationship to sin? (2-5)

The question Paul raises is an odd one, unless you have been reading the whole epistle. His summary of the ‘grace of God abounded much more where sin abounded” (5.20) then begs the next question which Paul raises. Here’s the logic: if grace is more abundant, in fact, much more abundant, then let’s do whatever it takes to increase it yet again. What caused that grace to grow? Sin is the answer. Aha, then let’s sin all the more so that grace may abound further. See, that’s reasonable, isn’t it? The logic is obvious and has a certain perverse attraction.

Do you remember the real story of Rasputin? He was a Russian mystic and self-proclaimed holy man who befriended the family of Emperor Nicholas II, the last monarch of Russia, and gained considerable influence in late imperial Russia. He died by an assassin in 1916 or so, and had an association with the wife of Nicholas, Alexandra. In fact, of note at this time is that his adventures of faith are well chronicled as are his mistresses and money-grabbing among the elite of Russia. Briscoe says, “the most notorious proponent of this theological aberration was Rasputin. He defended his profligate lifestyle and scandalous behaviour by teaching that it was necessary for salvation.” (page 131)

We learned last week that sin has a consequence and that is death. Both sin and death reigned for a time, (5.21), but by the power of God, grace and more specifically Yeshua himself, has conquered all other fake rulers. 

B.              What is the saint’s relationship to Messiah? (4-10)

Paul’s argument continues beyond our relationship to sin, and now his answer includes a believer’s relationship with Messiah himself. It also includes the picture of the Messiah’s death and resurrection. Even our death and resurrection in baptism.[1] From the Jewish Learning website: “A major function of immersion in the mikveh is for conversion to Judaism. The sages declare that a gentile who wishes to become a Jew must undergo the identical process by which Jewish ancestors converted. As Jews performed immersion at Mt. Sinai to complete the conversion process they had begun with circumcision as they left Egypt, so converts in every age must immerse in a mikveh.” Baptism / mikveh is the final stage of conversion for a non-Jew.

Look at the way newly born-again people are baptised. A minister and the candidate enter the water. The minister then lays the candidate down in the water. They appear buried. Then they are raised up out of the water. They appear resurrected. It’s symbolic and reminds the viewers of the Messiah and what he went through in Jerusalem in his passion. 

Does baptism then save you? Is it required? Or is it merely a symbol? Yeshua taught “He that believes and is baptised is saved.” (Mark 16.16) Consider what they preached in the book of Acts and the results. Acts 2, 3,000 or so Jews came to faith and were baptised that same day. In Acts 8, Philip preaches Messiah and the Ethiopian eunuch says, “Look water! What prevents me from being baptised?” In Acts 16, after the jail house rock freed Rabbi Saul and Silas in Philippi, the jailer got saved and that hour of the night he and his household were baptised. Faith alone saved any of those folks and is what made them right with God, and their outward evidence was the immediate baptism in water.  If you haven’t yet been baptised, please after this teaching finishes in a few minutes, during our Zoom conversation, please let’s talk about when you will go into the water!

Remember, Yeshua died once and rose once. So it is with us, and then we are to ‘walk in the newness of life.” (6.4)

Look at verses 8-10. Yeshua died, he rose and he lives. Paul uses that to answer us, and he says in verse 6:

1)              our old man (Anthropos) [maybe better to say, ‘the man of old’] was crucified with Yeshua. 

2)              Our body of sin will be done away with

3)              We should no longer serve sin

C.              What is the saint’s relationship to temptation? (11-14)

Verse 11 and following: Look at those verbs: consider, presenting, present. Other Bible versions use reckon and let. All of which are words of permission. The reality is that we can permit or disallow things from happening in our world. Obviously there are limitations to this permission. For instance, none of you can permit or deny permission to covid-19. None of you can permit or deny permission to a hit-and-run driver in your neighbourhood. But when the word ‘temptation’ rears its ugly head, we move into a territory of permission or denial. 

In the words of Jesus’ prayer, we ask God to ‘lead us not into temptation but [to] deliver us from evil.” (Luke 11.4-5) In other words, we do something to prevent temptation from winning in our lives. We ask God to lead us elsewhere. God has some things to say to us about our leading ourselves there. For instance, in Proverbs 1.10, Solomon teaches us “If sinners entice you, do not consent.” What would be your motivation to join them? Verse 13 says, “We will find all kinds of precious wealth, we will fill our houses with spoil;” In other words, money and what it buys can be yours, if you will join us. Solomon says, ‘don’t go with them.’ Read verse 15 of Proverbs 1: do not walk in the way with them. Keep your feet from their path,”  Or what about this from  Deut. 13:6, the lure of your closest relative to commit idolatry should be rejected. Family pressure is often the hardest to resist, but Moses gives us the word. What do you do to accomplish this? I’ll tell you in a moment.

Again a woman luring a man into wayward sexual activity is described in Proverbs 7 and this then in verse 22 “Suddenly he follows her As an ox goes to the slaughter” The path of our feet can be towards a good place or towards slaughter. 

Here’s a key, again from Solomon: Prov. 4:27  Do not turn to the right nor to the left; Turn your foot from evil.” It’s not your feet; it’s your foot. Like a man who has a bathtub full of water. It’s hot. Is it too hot? What does he do? Jump in? Or put his toe or his foot in first? Like a mother readying the bottle for the new baby, a test on the wrist of the heat of the liquid will prevent the problems in the baby with a bottle too hot.

I believe the key to resisting temptation is threefold. 1) Go slowly towards it and realise what it is and what it can do. Jesus said, “Count the cost.” (Luke 12) and then 2) turn away in a heartbeat. Don’t give it a second look. Put down that addictive activity or desire. James said, “resist the devil and he will flee from you.” (4.7) But then there is a 3^rd key and it’s often missed by believers. Paul says here, “do not present your members as instruments of unrighteousness to sin, but present yourselves to God as being alive from the dead and your members as instruments of righteousness to God” (verse 13). Some make the law into their capacity to resist and that’s exactly what Paul is saying will not happen. The law brings us to the awareness of our sin as we read three weeks ago (Romans 3.20) through the Law comes the knowledge of sin. Or as Paul wrote the Corinthians “The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law” (1Cor. 15:56)

The key to victory is faith and surrender. Yielding. Or as Paul says here ‘presenting’ and ‘not presenting’. To whom we present ourselves is the one who is responsible for us and to whom we point our faith. (6.16)

I grew up an Orthodox Jew in the middle of the US and I knew right from wrong. I used to steal money from my dad’s dresser. OK, only 10 cent pieces but later I stole a bow and arrow set from the neighbourhood discount store. What about all the stealing I”ve done from other people who worked hard to make things and I took the credit for their work. What about stealing God’s honor from him when he deserves it all. All of these highlight to me that knowing the Law didn’t save me from the consequences of breaking it. It only highlighted to me the need for repair and the key is SURRENDER to the Lord. First, I admit that I cannot fix my own life. Second, I admit my need of him who alone can repair me. Then third, I acknowledge and surrender my weaknesses and my strengths. I turn things over to God. I verbalize this. I write it in my journal. God, lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. For yours is the kingdom and the power and the glory.

D.    What is the saint’s relationship to righteousness? (15-23)

We were slaves of sin; now we are free men. When someone else owned us, we had no control. When Yeshua bought us with his blood, we are not only forgiven; we are set free from our former master. Sin and death have no rights over us. We are not under their domain any longer. Oddly, Paul is going to link the Law with sin and death and we will look at that next week in detail. 

Verse 20: when we were slaves to sin, we could not practice being right with God. And what was the result? What was the fruit? (verse 21)… death! Spiritual separation from the Almighty. His love was unknown to us. 

Remember chapter 5, God demonstrated his own love toward us in that while we were yet sinners, Messiah died for us. WHAT LOVE! It would be like you going into a morgue, filled with corpses, and breathing into them, one by one, when we were dead in trespasses and sins, God, being rich in mercy, because of his great love with which he loved us, breathed into our lungs the breath of new and eternal life. He brought us to himself. Hallelujah! What a saviour!

Verse 23: And it is a Free gift. We had wages while we were under sin and under the domain of evil. Those wages were described as death. Now, in Messiah, because of what Yeshua did in dying on the cross and taking our sin, because of his rising from the dead, we can have eternal life.  

From Dunn: “The word “free gift” denotes that the eternal life is both an act of grace and itself an embodiment of that same grace. In other words, it is not an object which leaves the possession of the giver and becomes the possession of the believer. It is rather a relationship sustained by God’s outflowing power of goodness and embodying that same goodness in its whole character. As such it will still be in terms of Christ (life in Christ, life with Christ) and involve the believer’s obedient response to his lordship.”

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. 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 by your sacrifice. I receive Yeshua (Jesus) as my saviour 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 my Lord. Amen.”

NEXT WEEK we will look at the question of sin and specifically Torah in the life of Paul himself and its relation to grace and being right with God. Earlier, the law appeared on the side of sin and death rather than as a means of grace to life. Having gone some way to clarify the continuing role of sin and death in relation to the believer, with only a brief mention of the law (6:14–15), Paul next week will turn to the Torah itself and bring it center stage.

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

The actual text:

Rom. 6:1   What shall we say then? Are we to continue in sin so that grace may increase? ² May it never be! How shall we who died to sin still live in it? ³ Or do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus have been baptized into His death? ⁴ Therefore we have been buried with Him through baptism into death, so that as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, so we too might walk in newness of life. ⁵ For if we have become united with Him in the likeness of His death, certainly we shall also be in the likeness of His resurrection, ⁶ knowing this, that our old self was crucified with Him, in order that our body of sin might be done away with, so that we would no longer be slaves to sin; ⁷ for he who has died is freed from sin.

Rom. 6:8   Now if we have died with Christ, we believe that we shall also live with Him, ⁹ knowing that Christ, having been raised from the dead, is never to die again; death no longer is master over Him. ¹⁰ For the death that He died, He died to sin once for all; but the life that He lives, He lives to God. ¹¹ Even so consider yourselves to be dead to sin, but alive to God in Christ Jesus.

Rom. 6:12   Therefore do not let sin reign in your mortal body so that you obey its lusts, ¹³ and do not go on presenting the members of your body to sin as instruments of unrighteousness; but present yourselves to God as those alive from the dead, and your members as instruments of righteousness to God. ¹⁴ For sin shall not be master over you, for you are not under law but under grace.

Rom. 6:15   What then? Shall we sin because we are not under law but under grace? May it never be! ¹⁶ Do you not know that when you present yourselves to someone as slaves for obedience, you are slaves of the one whom you obey, either of sin resulting in death, or of obedience resulting in righteousness? ¹⁷ But thanks be to God that though you were slaves of sin, you became obedient from the heart to that form of teaching to which you were committed, ¹⁸ and having been freed from sin, you became slaves of righteousness. ¹⁹ I am speaking in human terms because of the weakness of your flesh. For just as you presented your members as slaves to impurity and to lawlessness, resulting in further lawlessness, so now present your members as slaves to righteousness, resulting in sanctification.

Rom. 6:20   For when you were slaves of sin, you were free in regard to righteousness. ²¹ Therefore what benefit were you then deriving from the things of which you are now ashamed? For the outcome of those things is death. ²² But now having been freed from sin and enslaved to God, you derive your benefit, resulting in sanctification, and the outcome, eternal life. ²³ For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.

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[1] Religious Functions of the Mikveh (From My Jewish Learning website)

Several religious functions are served by this powerful symbol of submerging in water. In the days of the ancient Temple in Jerusalem, the mikveh was used by all Jews who wanted to enter the precincts of the Sanctuary. The law required every person inside the Temple grounds to be in a spiritually pure state appropriate to the pristine spirituality of the Sanctuary itself.

Throughout Jewish history, unmarried women have immersed in the mikveh prior to their wedding; married women immerse at the end of seven days of stainless purity from the end of each monthly menstrual cycle, in preparation for the resumption of family relations in their most fertile days.

A major function of immersion in the mikveh is for conversion to Judaism. The sages declare that a gentile who wishes to become a Jew must undergo the identical process by which Jewish ancestors converted. As Jews performed immersion at Mt. Sinai to complete the conversion process they had begun with circumcision as they left Egypt, so converts in every age must immerse in a mikveh.