He Has Risen

This Easter I hope to invite you into refreshing your relationship with God.  To know that it was God the Father who sent his son Jesus, to die on the cross for our sins.  We deserve to perish because we disobey our heavenly father, but have been given a clean slate if we only trust that Jesus is our Lord and savior.  All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.  God is infinitely holy (Isa 6:3, Rev 4:8) and He is righteous (Neh 9:32-33, 2 Thes 1:6).  Since all of us have sinned and fallen short we must be punished for our sin (Ezek 18:4, Rom 4:15, Rom 6:23).  God could not be a just and righteous God if He did not hold us accountable for the wrong acts that we have done.  We cannot ourselves ever make up for the sins that we have committed against our holy Creator.  (Gal 2:16, 21, Rom 8:23)  This is why God sent his son to die on the cross.  This sacrifice was the highest form of love – agape.  We were promised that we will have a savior at the time of Adam and Eve just after the fall of man.  (Gen 3:15)  What an awesome God we have—one who loves us so much to die for us.  Keep from thinking that God loves us unconditionally.  This is a false pretense that can lead to destruction.  God loves us more than we can ever understand, but it is a conditional love.  Contrary to the many sermons and books and messages that are out there, God’s love is conditional—on the condition that you believe that Jesus is your Lord and Savior.  (John 3:36, Rom2:5,8, Eph 5:6)  There are some who believe that God will save all.  This is dangerous because the Bible does not teach this.  It is unbiblical to state that God will save us all no matter what.  We are a fallen race.  All humans are guilty of sin.

We must remember that the punishment for sin is death.  In the Old Testament, people were under the Mosaic Law.  This law entailed a lot of sacrifices of animals for sins.  You cannot pay for sins by means of sacrificing animals.  They knew as well as we know that these sacrifices were not to pay for their sin in full.  This was in essence a “down payment” until the Messiah came.  We need to know that these animals do not have a spirit.  They have the life blood, but when an animal dies it dies.  When people die, our fleshly body dies but our spirit does not.  We need to know that an animal’s blood could never and would never make atonement for our sins; only Jesus can atone for our sins.  (Rom 8:3) This is why Jesus is regarded as the Lamb of God.  (John 1:35-36)  Why is this?  This title is given because Jesus is sinless; He could not and did not sin.  (2 Cor 5:21, 1 Pet 2:22)  It is against God’s character to sin.  Jesus was tempted in every way.  (Matt 4:1, Heb 2:18, Heb 4:15)  But He never sinned.  When He died on the cross, all need for sacrifices ceased.  Jesus is the perfect and ultimate sacrifice for sin.  In Exodus 12:11-13, the spreading of the lamb’s blood over the door posts was used for a protection of the Hebrews.  This is an early depiction of how the lamb’s blood would save us from a spiritual death.  So when we think of sacrifices of the animals that were described in the Old Testament, we must know that this death is not of one of bleeding to death like the sacrifices described in the Old Testament, but for the soul to die.  The apostle John tells us that Jesus says “It is finished” while He was on the cross and then he gave up his spirit.  (John 19:30)  And Luke records Jesus’ spirit being released by saying “Father, into your hands I commit my spirit!” (Luke 23:46)  He gave up His spirit to propitiate, or to have God the Father appease the wrath and reconcile our sins.  (Rom 3:25, Heb 2:17, 1 John 2:2, 1 John 4:10)

So not only has Jesus ended sacrifices, paid for our sins in full, but he has allowed us to have a relationship with God the Father.  There were very strict commandments and instructions to be followed.  It was Aaron’s sons, Nadab and Abihu, who offered unauthorized fire before the Lord God and fire came out and consumed them.  (Lev 10:1-2)  They did not take God’s commandments seriously.  Remember that there were only very few people that were allowed access to the Holy Place in the Tabernacle Tent and let alone the Most Holy Place.  The Holy Place was where only few were permitted to go.  And it was in the Most Holy Place where the Ark of the Covenant was kept and where God would descend and dwell.  Only the High Priest was allowed to go into the Most Holy Place of the Tabernacle Tent and he was only allowed in there once a year—the Day of Atonement.  Jesus is the High Priest (Heb 5-6) and it was He who made atonement for our sins.  He fulfilled scriptures by tearing that veil.  This is crucial!  The veil that existed during the Old Testament days is no longer there for Christians.  God tore the veil from top to bottom.  (Luke 23:45)  Christianity is the only religion where God reaches down to man.  All other religions man tries to get to God; all other religions man tries to earn the way to heaven.  You cannot earn your way to heaven.  It is by grace and grace alone can you get to the heavenly God and it is He and only He that gives you that grace.  Because God ripped that veil, He allowed us to get to Him.

We are blessed to see the Old Testament and New Testament together.  We see what the Hebrews had to go through for their sin.  We actually have it easy.  I think that sometimes we forget about God because we don’t literally see His works.  But we must remember that God is still present in our daily lives.  We must continue to have a relationship with Him.  We need to remember that it was Jesus, His Son, who made that possible by dying a horrific death so we could live an eternal life with Him in heaven.  Please spread God’s word.  You are commanded to do so.  And let the truth be known.

-God Bless

His Word is Truth

How do we know that the Bible is true?  If we are to look at the Bible as a whole, how can we defend what is there?  The Bible consists of 66 books written in three different languages (Hebrew in the Old Testament and Greek and some Aramaic in the New Testament), written on three continents (Asia, Africa, and Europe), spanning about 1500 years, and consisting of about 40 authors.  However even with that much diversity in years, culture, backgrounds, generations, and languages, I truly believe that the Bible is inerrant—meaning without any error.  I believe that it is also inspired by God.  But how do we know that?  And how do we know that all of the books are true?  One of the bigger arguments is that of the apostles.  Who is qualified to be an apostle?

Before I begin I would like for you to identify what is your authority baseline.  If you say that you are the authority in your life, what happens when you go astray?  And if you say that history or perhaps government is your authority, for the most part it is sound, or science is sound and that is your authority for things in life.  What I am getting at is that when your authority in life is something that man is the headship then you will undoubtedly go astray at some point in your life.  However if you keep the Bible as your authority, since God is the author of the Bible, you will not go astray if you allow Him to be the authority of your life. 

First of all, scripture tells us that the scriptures are true.  One of my most favorite scripture is “All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness”.  (2 Tim 3:16)   So we know that it was God who breathed out the scriptures; He gave life to the scriptures.  He inspired man to write down His words into what we know as the Bible today, but it was Him through the Holy Spirit who gave man the words that He wanted to be written down.  When we say that it is inspired by God, we must not look at it like we say artists or musicians are inspired to create art or music.  It is God the Father who directed mortal man to write scripture by means of the Holy Spirit.  We also know that is against God’s character to lie.  He CANNOT lie.  (Titus 1:2, Heb 6:18)  So now that we know that it was God who breathed out the scriptures and that God cannot lie because it is against His character then we’re done.  See you next week.  Just kidding!  I would like to give you a bit more ammunition for.  I want you not only to spread the gospel, but to spread it with confidence amongst secularly educated people.  Not only are you commanded to spread the gospel (Matt 28:18-20, Mark 16:15) but you need to defend it and explain it properly according to His word. (2 Cor 4:2)  It’s important to not only understand the word, but to defend it by using apologetics – which simply means defending the faith.

So what about all of these authors, specifically speaking about the New Testament?  (The New Testament receives the most scrutiny, so I’ll focus on that for now.  The Old Testament will be saved for a later discussion.)  Most of the books in the New Testament were written by apostles.  However, the apostles weren’t the only ones who wrote books in the New Testament.  We know that Matthew was the tax collector and John was one of Zebedee sons (James being the other), who are two of the original twelve apostles.   So that’s two of the four gospels.  But what about Mark and Luke?  And Paul?  Mark studied and traveled with Peter while Luke was with Paul.  Mark and Luke weren’t apostles, but their authority of scriptures goes under Peter and Paul and ultimately God.  As for Paul, he wrote 13 letters also known as Epistles.  Is he an apostle too?  He claims he is but how do we know that he really is?  We need to know what makes an apostle an apostle.  The first qualification of being an apostle is seeing Jesus our Lord after his resurrection with their own eyes – “eyewitness of the resurrection”.  And the second is being commissioned by Jesus as His apostle.  In Acts 1:22, Peter is set out to replace Judas Iscariot and says “one of these men must become with us a witness to his resurrection” and we also see earlier in Acts, “He presented himself alive to them after his suffering by many proofs, appearing to them during forty days and speaking about the kingdom of God” (Acts 1:3).  This is a clear identifier of how the apostles were chosen.   Hence we know that Jesus called the twelve:  Peter, Andrew his brother, James and John the son of Zebedee, Philip, Bartholomew, Thomas, Matthew, James the son of Alphaeus, Thaddaeus, Simon the Zealot, and Judas Iscariot.  (Matt 10:1-4, Mark 3:13, Luke 6:12-16)  Judas Iscariot betrays Jesus and then hangs himself.  (Matt 27:3-8, Acts 1:18-19)  Second Peter picks Matthias to replace Judas.  (Acts 1:12-26)  And third, the other apostles are James (half brother of Jesus), Barnabas and Paul.  Acts 14:14 clearly states that Paul and Barnabas were both apostles while in Gal 1:19 Paul describes James has an apostle, Acts 15:13-21 where James and Peter fill major leader roles in the Jerusalem Council.

In almost every letter Paul claims it in the opening line of his letter.  “Paul, called by the will of God to be an apostle of Christ Jesus” (1 Cor 1:1), “Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God” (2 Cor 1:1, Eph 1:1), “Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus by command of God our Savior and of Christ Jesus our hope” (1 Tim 1:1) and in Gal 1:1 “Paul, an apostle—not from men nor through man, but through Jesus Christ and God the Father, who raised him from the dead”.  To me it’s clear; Paul claims to be an apostle. 

So you may be still saying “why Paul again?”  First Saul (before he was Paul) was on the road to Damascus and Jesus called out and asked “Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting me?” (Acts 9:5–6, Acts 26:15–18).  Jesus was not only asking why Saul was persecuting Him, but His Church.  Saul was having many early Christians killed.  Jesus picked Saul because he was a good man.  Even though he was having the early Christians killed, Saul was holding them to what he knew as true.  He didn’t know Jesus like Peter or John, for example.  He wasn’t one of the first apostles.  Paul most likely knew the Old Testament from memory and since he did not meet the Lord Jesus, he was holding them to what he knew was true.  Saul became Paul because of this “calling out” of his actions.  Paul was instructed by the Holy Spirit for three years (the number three is a number of completeness—the trinity, third day he rose, etc); this was a purification process for Saul in Damascus which interestingly enough was a place where they purified steel to make it strong.  Paul was obviously questioned about his apostleship.  He asks “Am I not an apostle? Have I not seen Jesus our Lord? Are not you my workmanship in the Lord?  If to others I am not an apostle, at least I am to you, for you are the seal of my apostleship in the Lord. (1 Cor 9:1-2)  And Paul confirms all of the apostles and identifies James, Jesus’ brother, by saying “Then he appeared to James then to all the apostles. Last of all, as to one untimely born, he appeared also to me. For I am the least of the apostles, unfit to be called an apostle” (1 Cor. 15:7–9).  Paul is saying that he is “unfit” because of his actions of the Christians he had killed.  However, keep in mind we do not choose God, but He chooses us (Eph 1:4) and since Paul was chosen then we need to accept him as an apostle.  And for when (I say when because you will) you encounter those who state that Paul could have just claimed that he was an apostle.  We need to look to Peter.  Peter is a main focus of all of the apostles in the gospels.  He is the one who God the Father chose to let him know that Jesus is the Christ (Matt 16:16-17, Mark 8:29) and Jesus says to Peter “on this rock I will build my church” (Matt 16:18).  Jesus was not saying upon this rock that He stood upon; he is referring to Peter.  Peter, as an apostle, confirms Paul’s words as Scripture.  (2 Pet 3:15-17)  The word Scripture used in this passage is the Greek word graphē (Strong’s G1124).  This is the same word in 2 Tim 3:16 (all scriptures are God breathed), Matt 22:29, Mark 12:24, and the other scriptures totaling 51 scriptures.  This word graphē is where we get the word autograph which means self written.

It’s important that we as Christians use the Bible which is the sword of the Spirit (Eph 6:17) against the enemy.  There are many who oppress and persecute us.  We need to know the scriptures; they are the truth and they carry the authority of the Living God, YAHWEH.  Keep the scriptures as the authority of your life.  It is He who breathed them out for us to learn, take to heart, and to spread His holy word to the world.

God Bless