Being Different Because We Are ‘in Christ’ is Seldom Easy

We are in Luke Chapter 22, and this week from verse 31. Jesus Christ is spending His last night on earth with His chosen men. That is significant.

Final words are always highly significant. They have been remembering the Passover, and Jesus has given new meaning and significance to the bread and the wine.

Then there arises that dispute. They squabble as they become so interested in what their place and position might be in the coming Kingdom, and Jesus has to tell them not to be like the world. Verse 26. Don't be like everybody else. Be different. That has its cost too. Being different is not easy, and being known for being different has its own difficulties, but this is part of our calling in Christ, and this is something we must face up to and confront.

Those who are not ‘in Christ’ may hate and detest us because of this, and others may wish they had the faith and assurance and peace which only Jesus Christ can give.

Jesus is teaching those men that they are to serve. Now, that is a word that has almost gone out of use. Serve, service and serving others – you do not see a lot of this in today’s world, and perhaps that is why Jesus had to take the time to teach its importance. Serving has never been popular!

Then Jesus indicates that these disciples are going to be sifted – put through a sieve – put through the mill – to be refined. That will remove the lumps, and knock off the rough edges.

The shewbread in the Tabernacle had to be made with refined flour.

Jesus looks at Simon Peter and spells it out clearly. “I have prayed for you, that your faith may not fail.” Jesus is very specific.

Peter was going to have a wild 24 hours, and be in turmoil over these next three days, but Jesus had prayed for him that his faith would not fail.

Peter is to be sifted and tested and put in the most awkward situations, and have it all written down for all to see. The wheat was being separated from the chaff, in the life of the man who was to arise and lead that young Church during the first few years of its dynamic exciting life.

In a sense it is not what you are that counts. It is what God can make of you. It is what God can do with you and in you, before He can work through you.

Originally here:
Word from Scotland

Author bio:
Alexander “Sandy” Shaw is pastor of Nairn Christian Fellowship in Nairn, Scotland. Nairn is 17 miles east of Inverness – on the Moray Firth Coast – not far from the Loch Ness Monster!
Gifted as a Biblical teacher, Sandy is firmly committed to making sure that his teachings are firmly grounded in the Word.
Sandy has a weekly radio talk which can be heard via the Internet on Saturday at 11:40 a.m., New Orleans time, at wsho.com.

The Jewish holiday of Passover for 2010 begins at sundown on Monday and lasts the next seven days. It is the celebration of the Israelites coming out of slavery in Egypt.

A properly set Passover Seder table. The Haggadah book is in foreground.

The biblical event takes place in Exodus 10 through 13 in the Old Testament.

God instructed the Jewish people to mark their doorposts with lamb’s blood so He would “pass over” them when slaying the first born of Egypt (the last of the “10 Plagues” causing Pharoah to release them from bondage).

Many Christian churches have begun incorporating a Passover “Seder” (say-der, meaning service) into their activities around Easter.

Passover is what Jesus and the apostles were celebrating at the Last Supper, because they were Jewish men with Jewish observances:

“This is a day you are to commemorate; for the generations to come you shall celebrate it as a festival to the Lord – a lasting ordinance.” (Exodus 12:14)

“Then came the day of Unleavened Bread on which the Passover lamb had to be sacrificed.  Jesus sent Peter and John, saying ‘go and make preparations for us to eat the Passover.’” (Luke 22:7-8)

Passover is also celebrated by “Jewish believers” – Jews who believe that Jesus is the Messiah of both the Jews and Christians. Psalm 22; Isaiah 11:1, 7:14; Zechariah 9:9, Matthew 1:1-16, 21:7; Mark 15; John 3:16 are a few parallel passages in the Old and New Testament supporting this belief.

Jesus’ Hebrew name is “Yeshua” – the Lord saves. Jewish believers attend Messianic Synagogues or Christian churches.

How is Passover celebrated?
The opening night Passover Service (“seder”) is usually held in family homes or in unison as entire congregations. A large meal is served, with some items representing the hardships faced in Egypt and in the desert.

Prior to the meal, attendees read from the Haggadah, which is the re-telling of the Exodus story. The Haggadah has existed for about 300 years and includes songs about the sacrificial lamb and the escape via the Red Sea.

How does the perspective differ for Christians and Messianic Jewish believers?
The story of the Exodus remains the same. But countless parallels exist for Christians and Jewish believers between the lambs sacrificed in the Old Testament, and Jesus as the “Ultimate Sacrifice.”

There are also striking prophetic similarities between the first Passover dinner in the book of Exodus, present-day Jewish Passover activities, and what Jesus did at the Last Supper:

• The Jews were told to take only unleavened bread on their journey.-Jesus broke unleavened bread with the disciples.
• The ceremony contains glasses of wine as an honor to the lamb’s blood and sweat of the Jews.-Jesus offered the disciples wine as a symbol of his blood, yet to be shed.
• The “matzo” crackers (today’s symbol of the Israelites’ unleavened bread) are dipped in bitter herbs and eaten to represent sorrow and hard labor.-The disciples dipped and ate unleavened bread to represent Jesus’ body.
• Lamb’s blood was shed at the first Passover to save the Jews from the plagues and free them from a seemingly never-ending bondage.-Jesus was “sacrificed” (crucified) soon after he celebrated Passover at the Last Supper.  His blood was shed to save us from our sins and free us from eternal death.
• The ceremonial matzo (“Afikomen”) is hidden under a cushion, not to be seen until the end, when the children uncover it and bring it out.-Jesus was entombed and wasn’t seen again for three days. At the end of three days he is seen alive outside by  the women, having shed his wrappings.
• There are 3 matzohs separated in different folds of a napkin, used in the ceremony at various intervals.-Jesus was born, died, and rose again. (3 stages).

About the author: Sheryl Young is a Jewish believer in Jesus and author of “What Every Christian Should Know about the Jewish People: Improving the Church’s Relationship with God’s Original Chosen Nation.” The book contains more information on Jewish Holidays.)

Scripture taken from the HOLY BIBLE, NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION®. Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984 Biblica. Used by permission of Zondervan. All rights reserved.

Would Jesus Christ Celebrate The Passover If It Were Not Historically True?

We are reading and studying in Luke 22 and we come to verse 24. What is the setting? Jesus and His disciples are in the process of observing The Passover Meal, and Jesus has taken the bread, and one of the Passover Cups which would have been on the table, and, Jesus gives them this new meaning and significance, for the Church, for believers, for His disciples.

The Passover is celebrated to remember that night in Egypt when the doors of the Hebrew slaves were marked with the blood of the lamb and they were inside the houses eating the lamb. They were in the lamb and the lamb was in them. What a significant picture!

One other lesson is this. There are people who question the reality of the Passover and what happened that night as recounted in Exodus Chapter 12. If that record of what took place were untrue, then why would Jesus Christ, the Son of God, be marking it on this His last night on earth?

Surely in this setting all would be peace and tranquillity and calm, but NO.

Judas Iscariot is there, waiting his moment to betray Jesus, and then an argument breaks out among some of the others. A row erupts, “as to which of them was to be considered the greatest”. Well, the Bible certainly does not disguise the sinfulness of human nature. The darkness deepens.

They had shared in this significant fellowship meal, with Jesus. They had had their feet washed, by Jesus, and that was the job of the lowliest servant. They had been listening to the teaching of Jesus all week. They had been with Jesus for three years. They knew something was going on in Jerusalem. They were aware that things were working up to some kind of climax. There was a tension in Jerusalem, physically and spiritually. They knew there was a battle going on, even from Jesus Words in verses 21 to 23.

There had been such opposition to Jesus, with people trying to trap Him. This desire to get rid of Him was strong. This man who was so popular with the people, and so despised by the religious leaders, was at the heart and centre of all that was going on.

And here they are – a group of proud men who are arguing and squabbling among themselves as to which of them was to be considered the greatest. They are jockeying for position.

They are after what might be considered the best jobs in The Kingdom, which they believed Jesus was about to usher in, and some wanted a higher place and position and rank in the Kingdom of God than some of the other brothers. And, the Bible doesn't hide this.

We find that as we study The Word of God, as we have it in the Scriptures of the Old and New Testaments, that it never shies away from revealing the sinfulness of the heart of man. Learn the lesson as we read of such a poignant moment in the life of Jesus Christ as He is about to face the cross within a few hours.

Originally here:
Word from Scotland

Author bio:
Alexander “Sandy” Shaw is pastor of Nairn Christian Fellowship in Nairn, Scotland. Nairn is 17 miles east of Inverness – on the Moray Firth Coast – not far from the Loch Ness Monster!
Gifted as a Biblical teacher, Sandy is firmly committed to making sure that his teachings are firmly grounded in the Word.
Sandy has a weekly radio talk which can be heard via the Internet on Saturday at 11:40 a.m., New Orleans time, at wsho.com.

When Jesus Speaks To His Disciples He is Clear And Specific

In Luke Chapter 22 at verse 7, Jesus asks Peter and John to go and prepare the Passover Meal. Jesus is aware of all that is going on, and the meeting place is to be kept as secret as possible. Jesus has to have one last evening with His disciples, and until the teaching has been given, nothing and no-one will be allowed to interfere.

Judas was not going to be informed; not too soon, just in case.

Peter and John are such a contrast to Judas. They are in the right place going the right way, in the right direction, in the right company, doing the right thing, and most importantly, obeying Jesus.

They find a man in a most unusual way. This man is prepared to give his best room to Jesus. They got things ready. They knew what to do. They were Jews.

They were going to remember that night, when God visited Egypt, 1,300 years previously, and the first born in every house was slain, except for those in the houses marked with the blood of the lamb, as commanded by Moses. And GOD came down and visited that land that night. You will find the text of this incident in Exodus Chapter 12.

We never know when God is going to come down and visit us in a new way, and do a new thing, and speak again. We never know when God is going to move again. During the 1960’s and 1970’s there was this amazing outpouring of the Holy Spirit, and the risen Jesus baptised me and anointed me with the Holy Spirit, as I was about to resign from the ministry of preaching and teaching the Word of God. We never know when God is going to come down!

This miraculous deliverance from Egypt was no problem to Jesus. Men question this all this; the angel of death and the opening of The Red Sea. Jesus didn't. Jesus acknowledged and remembered that night and observed the Passover, because it was real and true.

These men had the living Jesus with them, but they were going to remember the significance of the past too. What we believe affects how we behave.

O, to keep the balance. Remember what is important, and also be led by the risen and living Lord Jesus Christ and guided by the Holy Spirit. It was in the middle of this significant meaning remembrance, that Jesus did something new, when He took the bread and the wine, and gave these men such vital teaching.

You will find much of what Jesus said and taught in John Chapters 13,14, 15,16.

Jesus comes and takes the ordinary. He takes what was routine and which had been going on for 1,300 years, and He saturates it all with new meaning and significance.

We are reading in The Word of God, and all of a sudden He reveals something and He speaks. Have we not found that to be true as we read and study the Bible each day? We are reading a passage, and all of a sudden a light shines and God speaks so clearly and specifically. I have been reading part of the Bible every day since I was eight years old, I can testify to this being so true and so real.

Jesus is Master of this situation. He planned it. He controlled it. Jesus decides when and how and where. Normally only women would carry a jar of water.

Go. Meet this man. Follow him. Peter and John are even given the words to speak. This is wonderful.

Verse 22. Jesus mentions that someone is going to betray Him, and they begin to ask questions. Who could do something as horrid as this? Who would do something as horrid as this? It is someone to whom Jesus had given the bread and shared the cup.

Notice, they had to partake. You must accept it for yourself. They had to be involved, filled, fed, obedient. It looks so little, but the significance is immense. They were symbols and signs, and no more than that. His real body was there in front of them.

Jesus invites us. He takes us into that room. What a privilege, not only to be present there, overhearing and listening and watching, but to receive, as they did.

This is the New Covenant, a new relationship, and all of this has a forward look, to that day when we shall eat and drink with Jesus Christ in the Kingdom.

Originally here:
Word from Scotland

Author bio:
Alexander “Sandy” Shaw is pastor of Nairn Christian Fellowship in Nairn, Scotland. Nairn is 17 miles east of Inverness – on the Moray Firth Coast – not far from the Loch Ness Monster!
Gifted as a Biblical teacher, Sandy is firmly committed to making sure that his teachings are firmly grounded in the Word.
Sandy has a weekly radio talk which can be heard via the Internet on Saturday at 11:40 a.m., New Orleans time, at wsho.com.

Imagine Being This Close To Jesus Christ, And Yet So Far

We are in Luke Chapter 22. It is the Passover, a most holy and sacred time for every Jew, for every Israeli, and we read that Satan entered Judas Iscariot. He was one of the twelve, one of Jesus men; yet, his heart is open to evil. The enemy of our souls needs only a very narrow gap through which to squeeze, and once he gets in, havoc follows.

Unsurrendered sin takes over. Judas was the man who would never call Jesus LORD. He would call Him, Master and Teacher, but Lord, NO. You can question a man who is only a master. You can disagree with a teacher, but you never argue with the Lord. When Jesus is LORD, there has to be total surrender and obedience.

Judas was playing with fire in more ways than one. We cannot toy with sin and think we can control it. The only one thing we can do with sin is acknowledge it, and confess it, and get it washed away and forgiven, or it might powerfully spring to life.

Verse 4. Judas went to make plans as to how he could betray Jesus. He chose to be in company he should never been in. He was with the wrong crowd. It was not that he fell into wrong company. He chose wrong company, and that is the same today.

We do not fall into wrong company. We choose it. We decide.

Turn to the first Psalm and read of this basic spiritual principle. So often I have been told that so-and-so fell into bad company and that is what went wrong. No. We choose our company, and we need to teach our people that. They need to be made aware of this vital truth.

For Judas it was too late, and they were delighted. No wonder. Now they had somebody to do their dirty work for them, and it was someone on the inside.

Over these next hours Judas became a pathetic tool of hell, and soon he ends up hanging himself. He was leading a double life and it was discovered. He was found out. He appeared to be the same as the other disciples, but he wasn't, and soon it became obvious. Some things you cannot hide.

Oh what some people will do for money, but they do not keep their gains for very long. No, they cannot keep these kinds of riches for very long; just a few hours in this case; maybe a few years in some other cases.

Let this be a solemn warning to each of us. We dare not try to live a double life. We dare not try to play with fire. We will get burned. Make no mistake about that.

Unconfessed sin has a way of exploding, and it can damage us in all kinds of ways, and seldom is it superficial. It certainly was not superficial in the case of Judas.

Originally here:
Word from Scotland

Author bio:
Alexander “Sandy” Shaw is pastor of Nairn Christian Fellowship in Nairn, Scotland. Nairn is 17 miles east of Inverness – on the Moray Firth Coast – not far from the Loch Ness Monster!

Gifted as a Biblical teacher, Sandy is firmly committed to making sure that his teachings are firmly grounded in the Word.

Sandy has a weekly radio talk which can be heard via the Internet on Saturday at 11:40 a.m., New Orleans time, at wsho.com.

When we left George in Part 1, he needed answers to ten questions as a way to improve his friendship with Simon. It’s just the tip of a huge iceberg of information, but it would be so helpful if Christians could know these things before springing the gospel message on their Jewish friends. 

How good is my knowledge of the Old Testament compared to the New? I can relate a helpful story. My friend Betsy was raised in a “New Testament Christian” family. They believed the New Testament “overcame” the Old. But when she met and married a pastor, she discovered many Old Testament prophecies by comparing them to New Testament scriptures. The New Covenant between God and his people doesn’t overcome the Old; it enhances it.

By studying the Jewish portion of the Bible (“Torah”), Betsy learned more about who Jesus was, the relationship between Judaism and the first “Christ followers,” Jesus as the reason for an end to animal sacrifices, and Jesus’ own Jewish upbringing as part of our Christian heritage.

In what New Testament book and chapter does Paul concentrate on explaining God’s special place for the Jews to new Gentile believers? In Romans 10 and 11, Paul explains why many Jewish people are blinded to who Jesus really is. But he also warns Christians not to boast about being believers, comparing both Jews and Christians as branches being grafted on to an olive tree for salvation.      

Am I aware of how sensitive most Jewish people are to the mention of Jesus and the Gospel message? This goes with another question: Am I aware that Jewish people feel The Church in general supported Hitler’s actions? 

“Al S.” is a Jewish believer who accepted Jesus after being invited to a Christian church several times.  He described his initial feelings to me:

“I thought, how could I sit here listening to things about Jesus, a man who inspired the Christian faith that has caused so much persecution and pain among my own people?”

You see, Al had to learn about true Christianity to understand that not all “gentiles” are Christians—a common Jewish misconception. When I was growing up as a young Jewish girl, I thought anyone who wasn’t Jewish was a Christian. Even today, many Jewish people feel if someone doesn’t identify themselves as a Muslim, Buddhist or something else, they are a gentile and therefore a Christian!

This associates all Christians with heinous acts against Jews throughout the ages, especially the Holocaust. Was Hitler a Christian? Did all Protestants and Catholics ignore or take part in the crimes committed? This is in the back of every Jewish person’s mind when approached by a Christian with the gospel. They find it intrusive and frightening.

What’s another name for Jesus that I can use when speaking with Jewish people? It is better to just say “my Messiah” or “The Messiah” in initial conversations. Later, you can refer to Jesus as “Yeshua.”

Why is the phrase “Jewish person” more polite than the term “Jew”? The word “Jew” is offensive when referring to a single Jewish person because of the yellow stars and other labels forced onto Holocaust-era Jews in Hitler’s targeted countries. When talking about “Christians, Muslims and Jews,” the word “Jew” is alright. But one should never call a Jewish person “Jew.” Younger Jewish generations are not as sensitive to this as their baby boomer parents and grandparents.   

Am I aware of the significance of other Jewish holidays: Passover, Hanukkah and Purim – and their importance to Christians? Every Jewish holiday can have significance for Christians. Jesus celebrated them as was commanded by God. The Jewish High Holidays can be found in Leviticus 16 and 23; Passover in Exodus 12 and Luke 22; Purim in Esther 4, and also Sukkot (the “Festival of Booths” in October) in Leviticus 23 and Deuteronomy 16. Hanukkah didn’t make it into canonized Scripture, but the story of the Maccabees* and one day’s worth of oil that burned eight nights (circa 160 B.C.) is where the Bible derives being anointed with oil.

Is Judaism a nationality, a religion or a culture? Judaism is a religion and a cultural way of life, but it’s not a nationality. A Jewish person’s nationality is wherever they come from. Being Jewish by religion makes them American Jews, Russian Jews, Spanish Jews, African Jews, etc. All Jewish people don’t come from Israel, and all Israelites are not Jewish. A Jewish person may truly believe in God, or they may be “culturally Jewish,” observing Jewish traditions without holding fast to the Scriptures.

Do Jewish people need to be “converted” to Christianity? Jewish people need the knowledge of salvation by the grace of God, and that Jesus is the Messiah they are waiting for. A Jewish person doesn’t need to “convert” by leaving all Judaism behind; many actually feel a stronger love for their Jewish roots and culture once they’ve found Jesus.

What’s a “Messianic” Jewish person? A Jewish person who comes to believe in Jesus as Messiah will usually call themselves a “Messianic Jew,” a Jewish Christian or a Jewish believer in Jesus.

*Want to know more about the Jewish holidays and how to appreciate them from a Christian viewpoint? These answers are excerpts from Sheryl’s book “What Every Christian Should Know About the Jewish People.” See more excerpts and how to buy the book here.