Peace to the One Whom Jesus Loved

I wrote the following quite a while ago, and if you have been on my facebook page, you may have read it; but I think it is something that we need to be reminded of from time to time, so I am posting it here. My hope is that we begin to take seriously the words of Christ, because that is when we begin to have ears to actually hear him. So hear are some of those words with the commentary of someone who is merely trying to figure things out:

I get so frustrated sometimes. I mean, I get so scuffed. I struggle deeply when others don't get it...When I don't get it...When we just don't get it…when we actually begin to believe that God is angry with us before he loves us. I was reading my Bible today, and I just finished reading the gospel written by the apostle John. It is quite a wonderful book, and it has caused me to think about some things in my own life and in the way I carry myself. A particular passage has struck my attention today, and I propose that we ought to think about this, and allow the passage to change our lives.
So, beginning in 16:33, Jesus says this to the disciples, "I have told you these things so that in me, you may have peace. In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world." This verse is the last thing that Jesus says to his disciples before he is arrested, tried, flogged, and crucified. Now let me jump ahead to chapter 20. What is the first thing that you might suppose Jesus says to the disciples after being raised from the dead? Well, 20:19 says this, "Peace be with you!" When the disciples realize it is Jesus, they are totally stoked, and Jesus says it again, "Peace be with you! As the Father has sent me, I am sending you." And it goes on to say "he breathed on them and said, 'Receive the Holy Spirit.'" Again, when Jesus reveals himself to Thomas, who was doubting the disciple's witnesses of Jesus' resurrection. The scripture says that Thomas locked himself in the house, but Jesus some how came in, and the first thing that Jesus says to Thomas is "Peace be with you!"

Now put yourselves in the shoes of these disciples...Your leader, who you believed to be the one from God, who would save the world from death, has been utterly shamed by the cross--the most unhonorable death. Who ought you to follow now? You put all of your trust in him. You dedicated your whole life to being exactly like him. You followed him everywhere, slept where he slept, ate wherever he ate; you were troubled with whatever he was troubled with. You actually became homeless just to follow this guy, and ultimately you suck without him. You were a nobody before you met him. You were merely an average person learning from your parents how to make a living and get by in life, and he came along and told you that you were worth teaching and he made you into a completely new person.

Now he is gone, and you don't know who you are any more. Everything that you believed about him and the things that he told you were crushed. So, you hang your head in grief and despair; and you lock yourself in your house because you too are ashamed to be seen by anyone—for you might be seen as a nobody once again.

Sometimes we get so down. So low. We are dealing with so much crap in life, that we feel abandoned by everyone and everything that has ever been important to us. We have reoccurring doubt in God like Thomas had. Our home life has completely fallen apart, or a relationship with another has caused so much pain. Possibly, we are so ashamed of who we are or where we’ve been that we go home and lock the doors so we don’t have to deal with life’s curses anymore. And we think to ourselves at times, “I can’t go to God, he is angry and frustrated with who I am and what I have done. I always let him down. I am tired of asking for what I truly do not deserve—forgiveness.”

Here’s what Jesus says to you. It is not “I am so ashamed of you.” It is not “You need to get it together.” He says, “Peace be with you!” Even though you lock the doors and give up, he finds a way in, and he says again, “Peace be with you.” He looks at you and he breathes on you saying, “Receive the Holy Spirit.” He remembers the day he created you; and just like he breathed life into Adam and Eve when they were created, he did the same when he created you. And now Jesus is breathing new life into you. It is life that brings peace beyond understanding.

I wanted to share this with you all because I have gone through so much of my life feeling like I have let God down, and that I could never live up to his sacrifice. But I am learning that Jesus truly gives peace. He does not desire for us to be burdened by our failures. If you are beating yourself up over your struggles or your failures, that is not what Jesus desires. Sure, you ought to be sorry, but Jesus’ ultimate concern is that you receive his grace, and spread it to others. He loves you, and he desires to have you as his own. I ask you not to shove away the love of Jesus, and the peace he desires for you to have. You must trust in that promise, and live by the grace of Jesus. He died to take away your sin, shame, and guilt…that is true love.

I have just one last closing thought. Allow me to jump around the text once more. Throughout the entire gospel of John, there is this anonymous guy mentioned. He is referred to as the “other disciple” sometimes, or the “disciple who was with them” other times. But the name that this guy is given throughout the gospel is “The one whom Jesus loved” or the “Beloved disciple.” And now, when we think about it, we think…did Jesus love this guy more than he loved the other disciples? Or we might be tempted to think that this guy was better than the other disciples in some way shape or form. Maybe he did something that was great, or he understood concepts of truth to a fuller extent than any of the other disciples, or…We could go on and on. But as we read at the very end of the gospel, this is what John says about this anonymous character: “This is the disciple who testifies to these things and who wrote them down.” This guy that John leaves anonymous throughout the entire book ended up being John! Now, if this is John, then we kinda get a picture of how he views himself—he believes that he is “the one whom Jesus loved.” He knew it. He claimed it. He could not get away from it. He identified himself fully in Jesus’ love. That is how he wanted people to know him. When will we be so bold in our faith in Jesus Christ that we claim to be “The one whom Jesus loved?” Find your identity in Christ and live grace. In closing, I will say to you on behalf of Jesus, “Peace be with you!”

--The One Whom Jesus Loves

The Angry Christian

Welcome friends, today’s sermon will focus on the passage of Matthew chapter 5 verses 21 through 26. It says,

“You have heard that it was said to the people long ago, 'Do not murder, and anyone who murders will be subject to judgment.' But I tell you that anyone who is angry with his brother will be subject to judgment. Again, anyone who says to his brother, 'Raca,' is answerable to the Sanhedrin. But anyone who says, 'You fool!' will be in danger of the fire of hell. "Therefore, if you are offering your gift at the altar and there remember that your brother has something against you; leave your gift there in front of the altar. First go and be reconciled to your brother; then come and offer your gift. "Settle matters quickly with your adversary who is taking you to court. Do it while you are still with him on the way, or he may hand you over to the judge, and the judge may hand you over to the officer, and you may be thrown into prison. I tell you the truth, you will not get out until you have paid the last penny (NIV).”

This is a hard passage for us to contemplate because most, if not all of us, have been angry with another person. We have been angry with our parents, siblings, co-workers, and even people in this church. Sometimes we can be hard on ourselves when we are angry, because as a Christian we are supposed to love everyone and never be angry…ever. Well friends, today we are going to try to figure out this passage together and try to make sense out of it.

First, we must look at our example, Jesus. Did Jesus ever get angry with anyone? Let’s take a look at John chapter 2 verses 13 through 16.

“When it was almost time for the Jewish Passover, Jesus went up to Jerusalem. In the temple courts he found men selling cattle, sheep and doves, and others sitting at tables exchanging money. So he made a whip out of cords, and drove all from the temple area, both sheep and cattle; he scattered the coins of the money changers and overturned their tables. To those who sold doves he said, "Get these out of here! How dare you turn my Father's house into a market (NIV)!”

Here we see Jesus getting angry about the selling of sacrifices in the temple. The temple was supposed to be a place of worship, but it was changed into a marketplace. So the Jesus who said, if we were to be angry at our brother or sister will face judgment, is the same Jesus who got angry with those in the temple. If we continue to read this passage in John, we do not see Jesus reconciling with those men. In fact, the bible does not say if he did or not. How do we view this? There are two ways we can go from here. One way we can see this is that Jesus contradicted himself or the other way is that we have been misinterpreting Jesus’ preaching on murder.

Looking at different English translations of this passage, most of them are similar to the NIV. However, the ones that are different have the words, “without cause” in regards to anger. It made me think that sometimes we get angry at someone and there is no cause for the anger. When I was younger, I had anger issues. I can remember times when I would get mad at a classmate and try to pick a fight with them without recalling any reason why I was mad at them. Sometimes I would get mad at someone because a friend was mad at them or I just did not like them. If we look back to biblical history, God would get angry at the Israelites because they would worship other gods and would not recognize God as their one and only god. Jesus got angry at those men selling sacrifices in the temple because they turned a place of worship into a marketplace. I think that it is okay to get angry as long as there is a legitimate reason for the anger. However, there is the second half to this teaching.

When we are angry at someone, it is extremely important to be reconciled with that person. The writer of Matthew wanted to emphasis that believers must strive to be reconciled with fellow believers so that the church can be a community of love.[1] Imagine a church where everyone was angry, frustrated, and hurting one another; would this be a Christian community that you would want to be a part of? The church should be a safe place for believers to worship God and to be comfortable with each other. It is also important that we reconcile things with those who are not Christians. One day, my dad was at work and had a heated conversation with another co-worker. During that conversation, he said some unkind things to that person. After the conversation my dad was working and realized what he had said and felt bad about them. He went to the co-worker’s office and apologized and asked for forgiveness. The co-worker though it was weird that my dad wanted forgiveness from him, but he forgave him anyway. I believe that it is important to reconcile things with both believers and non-believers because it shows the love of Christ to them.

Some of us in this room has been hurt or has hurt someone. Maybe it was another believer. Maybe it was someone who does not know Christ. If you can relate to this then you must reconcile things with that person. If not, then God will judge you, plus you will also store up a lot of negative feelings in you which could damage you physically, mentally, and spiritually. So while the music is playing, I want you to ask the Holy Spirit to search you and help you reconcile things with someone you have affected.

---

[1] Reginald H. Fuller, Matthew, Harper’s Bible Commentary, James L. Mays, Gen. Ed. (San Fransico: Harper & Row, 1988), 957.

Update, Apology, Opportunity

Hello Friends,

The past summer has been busy for the writer(s) of this blog. We would like to apologize for not keeping up with this blog. We would also like to have you submit questions to us for us to address on our blog so it can benefit you, the readers, then us. The questions can be anything you wanted to know about God or anything religious. We hope that everyone has had a wonderful summer.

Did Moses really die?

1 After the death of Moses the servant of the LORD, the LORD said to Joshua son of Nun, Moses' aide: 2 "Moses my servant is dead. (Joshua 1:1-2a NIV)

Reading the above verse, the issue of Moses' death has never been brought up because God himself told Joshua he is dead. However, I think that Moses did not "die."

5 And Moses the servant of the LORD died there in Moab, as the LORD had said. 6 He buried him in Moab, in the valley opposite Beth Peor, but to this day no one knows where his grave is. (Deuteronomy 34:5-6 NIV)

Here we have another account of Moses' death where God buried him. However, no one knows where he is buried at (except God). It's kind of like the saying, "if a tree falls and no one is around, did it make a sound?" Now before I get accused of calling God a deceiver or liar, let me continue my case and throw some of my questions regarding my case.

As they were walking along and talking together, suddenly a chariot of fire and horses of fire appeared and separated the two of them, and Elijah went up to heaven in a whirlwind. (2 Kings 2:11 NIV)

Why bring Elijah into this mess? Well he along with Enoch, were the only people in the old testament that did not die. Elijah was the one who was walking with Elisha and then got taken up to heaven in a whirlwind. However, the next point I'm about to make will show the importance of Elijah in regards to Moses death.

After six days Jesus took Peter, James and John with him and led them up a high mountain, where they were all alone. There he was transfigured before them. 3His clothes became dazzling white, whiter than anyone in the world could bleach them. 4And there appeared before them Elijah and Moses, who were talking with Jesus. (Mark 9:2-4 NIV)

So here we have the account of Jesus' transfiguration. Jesus is talking to Elijah and Moses. Here is where I have some questions concerning my thought process

Questions:

From a Christian viewpoint, death with Christ means eternal Life where Death without Christ means death. Since Moses Did not know Jesus that would mean he would have died. Plus, I do not recall reading about Moses atoning for his sins which lead to him not entering the promise land. So if he didn't atone for his sins and died, how did he get to talk to jesus with elijah?

Second, what is the Hebrew's viewpoint of Moses' death?

I know there are some holes in my presentation but I did that on purpose to have discussion. The game of Backgammon is a game of going back and forth trying to get to the other side of the board. Thus is theology, People talking back and forth trying to figure things out regarding God and religion. The only difference is that their is a winner in backgammon but theology is always a ongoing game until death.

Introduction

Theology and Backgammon is an idea that spawned off Ryan and I having theological discussions while playing a game of backgammon. The purpose of this blog is for us to write about our theological thoughts and hopefully have some discussion with others. I hope you enjoy this while playing a game of backgammon.