Through receiving something which was undeserved people are changed

 

God’s grace changes everyone and everything. The message in this passage can be looked at in two related ways. Grace changes our relationship with God and, therefore, grace also changes the meaning and purpose of our lives.

Through receiving something which was undeserved, forgiveness, people are changed. Once not physically dead but dead to God …. not wanting a relationship with God …. they come from this darkness into the light of life in Christ.

In Christ ….. united to Him by faith ….. people find that their lives have new meaning and purpose. They have been ‘purchased’ by the death of Christ as a substitute and are now willingly dependent on Him. There is no room for boasting or thinking of being better than others. Grace leads to humility.

 

 

 

We must not forget that God has provided a perfect King and we must not fear His control of our lives

 

In this passage, the Old Testament prophet, Samuel, speaks to the people after God had provided them with a visible king. Samuel reminds them not to forget that God had delivered them in the past from their enemies when they had called upon Him.

He then points out to them that they had done evil by asking for a king. By doing this they had rejected God, the one who had delivered them from their enemies. In spite of this terrible thing they had done, Samuel tells them not to fear because they are God’s people. He also gives them a stern warning that if they persist in doing evil both them and their king will perish.

This message points forward to something marvelous ……. Jesus has come as both God and King for all those who turn to Him and trust in what He has done at the cross. They are not to forget Him and they are not to fear because He is in control.

 

 

 

Christians are not perfect, just forgiven

 

There are many misconceptions people have about the Church. Some forget or don’t realize that Christians are sinners like everyone else. The difference is that all those who are trusting in what Jesus has done for them, through His death and resurrection, are forgiven by God. There is a bumper sticker which is sometimes seen on cars and puts it well ……..’Christians are not perfect, just forgiven’.

 

With this background it becomes clear that Christians, who make up the church, should be growing in their faith which, in turn, will have an effect on their lives. In this passage we can see that the church’s greatest need is to know God better in their relationship with Jesus Christ. There are 2 parts to this. In the first part of the passage it’s that God’s people need to know Him better through prayer. In the second part it’s that God’s people need to know that Jesus Christ rules for His church.

 

 

Our deepest needs are satisfied through finding the purpose of our existence in the One who secures our future

 

This passage from the book of Ecclesiastes shows what to many is the ‘meaningless’ activity of our lives. There are two questions which the writer asks. The first is ‘What do people gain from all their labours at which they toil under the sun?’ He then describes the repetitive cycles of the created world …. ‘generations come and generations go’ ……. ‘the sun rises and sets’ ……. ‘the wind blows to the south and turns to the north’  ….’ the streams flow into the sea  yet the sea is never full’. He then concludes ‘all things are wearisome’.

The second question asks ‘Is there anything of which one can say, “Look! This is something new”?’ then the writer laments …….’it was here already, long ago; it was here before our time’ …….. ‘even those yet to come will not be remembered by those who follow them’.

This sadly leaves out the most wonderful part …. the marvelous plan of the Creator God and Saviour.  When we see Him by faith as the one who is perfectly ordering all these things, the unsatisfying becomes full of meaning and purpose. The knowledge and experience of His grace at the cross leads us into a new life which involves a relationship with Him that lasts for all eternity.

 

 

The death of the seed results in life for the woman

In these passages we find the first mention of the gospel (Genesis 3:15). We are told that ‘the seed of the woman will crush the serpent’s head’. This is a reference to Jesus’ death on the cross which made Satan a defeated enemy. It is also a reference to Mary the one to whom the baby Jesus was born.

The gospel message contained in all of this is that of a substitute for our wrongdoing who would provide us with a ‘righteousness’, received by faith alone, from his perfect life. The outworking of this is a life which is dependent on what he has done and not what we do. There is no place for self-righteousness in the lives of his people.

 

 

 

The disciples lacked understanding because their picture of God was too small

This passage is connected to the disciples in the upper room with Jesus celebrating the Passover. The significance here is that Jesus is the true Passover who would set his people free from their bondage to sin. This would come about through his death on the cross and resurrection as a substitute.

The disciples didn’t understand because Jesus said to them ‘where I am going you cannot come’. They were in a state of confusion and unrest wondering ‘we do not know where you are going, how do we know the way?’ Jesus tries to comfort them by saying ‘do not let your hearts be troubled … believe in God and also in me’.

Jesus further said to the disciples ‘I am the way, the truth and the life’. In saying ‘I am the way’ he was referring to his teaching, miracles and sacrificial love. In saying ‘I am the truth’ it means that he reveals to us the right way back to God and in saying ‘I am the life’ he points to himself as the source of life reversing the death which came into the world through Adam and Eve.

 

 

We are to worship God by resting

The fourth commandment has been widely misunderstood because of confusion over what is symbolic and what is moral. God himself lays down the pattern for it in his resting after the six days of creation. In these passages we find the outworking of this for his people both before and after the birth of Jesus.

It is important to remember that the fourth commandment, to keep the Sabbath holy, is relevant for all people because of the need for us to rest from our work. The most wonderful aspect of the Sabbath, however, is found in the rest that Jesus gives to His people through what he has accomplished in his death on the cross. The forgiveness of sins, which is received by faith alone, leads to holy living and rest from the consequences of our sins which he bore in his body at Calvary.

 

 

We all like sheep have gone astray because we want our own way

This passage speaks of the suffering and salvation of our Lord Jesus … the ‘good news’. Even though recorded about 700 years before Christ came it’s as though these words were written at the foot of the cross. Jesus suffering only increased with his age ‘he was despised and we held him in low esteem’. His opponents were constantly looking for a way to kill him and eventually they succeeded. Even though completely innocent, Jesus did not reply to any of the charges brought against him.

The horror of how he suffered helps us appreciate the why. Two reasons are given here. The first is that it was because of us … ‘he was pierced for our transgressions’. The second is that it was God’s will that he suffer. It was the Lord who laid the iniquity of us all upon him. If we cannot accept the horror of the solution then we cannot accept the ‘horror’ of God’s love.

It is hard to see how any good could come to the suffering servant but we find that he will be raised up and highly exalted. It is not only the Father himself who is pleased but the Servant also and, as believers, we share in the ‘spoils’ of his victory.

 

 

https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=John+15%3A26-16%3A15&version=NIV

 

 

 

A difficult teaching which caused many to turn away

When Jesus described himself as the ‘bread of life’ it would have sounded strange to many people. This, however, is really a wonderful pointer to what he was coming to do through his death on the cross. It is ‘food’ for all those who recognize that they are sinners and need God’s forgiveness.

Two aspects in particular can be hard for people to take in. Firstly is the fact of his incarnation. His taking on flesh and becoming like us … being born of a woman and living an earthly life. We are told in this passage (v33) that he is the ‘bread’ which came down from heaven.

The second thing is his being a substitute who would make things right between those who trust in him and God. He spoke of the ‘bread’ of his flesh which he gave for the life of the world. These difficult teachings caused many of his followers to leave him because they could not accept him in this way.

 

 

Jesus reveals what had been previously overlooked

Have you ever looked for something so intently that you completely missed it? That is similar to what happened to the Jewish leaders in Jesus’ day. They were familiar with the Law of Moses which had a vast number of rules and regulations but completely misunderstood the one to whom it all pointed … Jesus Christ.

In this passage we find Jesus teaching them about himself from an illustration about old and new wineskins. The Old Testament Jewish laws were like the old wineskins. Jesus himself is like the new wine. What he was coming to accomplish could only be fully understood in the light of his death on the cross as THE sacrifice. This was the new teaching of God’s grace which changed everything.