Luke 11:1-13

The Best Teacher Is a Good Example
The essentials of prayer

The Parable of the Friend
God is our “go-to” friend!

Prayer is Urgent
It’s always midnight

(Some Ways Not to Pray….)

The best thing to ask for…?

Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your minds, so that you may discern what is the will of God—what is good and acceptable and perfect.

The setting:  Paul, the Pharisee-turned-evangelist, is very worried that someone has come in behind him to change the message from one of life-changing good news (gospel) to one of religious particularism (another gospel which is no gospel).

Paul’s Revelation

He makes it clear that the message he has been spreading through the world did not come to him from a human source, but “by revelation of Jesus Christ.”  Not that he had not, after his remarkable meeting with Christ on the Damascus road, checked in with those who had known Jesus during his earthly ministry; he had, and had found that his message was consistent with theirs.

Someone’s been messing with the message!

Some of the new believes in the Church at Jerusalem have not yet understood the scope of the message that gave them life, and want to impose additional conditions on the new-found faith of their non-Jewish counterparts out in the wide world, of whom the Galatian churches form a part.
This “other gospel which is not a gospel” makes the claim that while faith in Christ is a good start, it is incomplete without the entire traditional package —  we would now call it the “judeo-Christian tradition” — including rules about circumcision of males, dietary practices, and all the other things that go with their (superior [?]) religious tradition.
Later in the letter, Paul says that his Galatian friends have been “bewitched” by this alternate message:  one that relies on “the works of the law” rather than “the faith of Jesus Christ.”
In chapter 2 he gets down to cases:  even Peter (Cephas, the Rock), who should know better because he was among the first to whom God revealed clearly that the Gentiles (ethne, nations) are included in the scope of Christ’s message, having been shown in a vision that “what God has cleansed you must not call common”, is temporarily led astray by these well-intentioned preservers of their particularist tradition.  This had happened at Antioch, the first multi-ethnic, multicultural church,  one that could not be identified by the nationality of the members, because what brought them together was something else, namely Christ.  It was for this reason that “they were first called Christians (Christ-ones) at Antioch”.  There some were later persuaded to separate themselves from their brothers and sisters in faith, because of the social and political pressures of their more traditionalist friends from Jerusalem. Peter was one of those who changed position under such pressure.  For this, Paul had, he says, “opposed him to his face, because he was in the wrong.” So Paul recounts his argument to Peter, and makes it his argument to the Galatians as well.

The good news:

It’s not about religion

The Jews who have become believers in Christ know full well that their religious background and practice is insufficient to bring them into right relationship with God.  Why, then, impose those failed requirements on those who have come in to the faith from a different place?

It’s about life!

So for the punchline (v. 20) Paul does not speak about right or wrong, or morality, or the need to uphold good, traditional values; he speaks in personal terms about a transformed life.  Faith in Christ does not lead one to a life of continued bondage to sin, because that old life is over; neither does it lead to a life of religion (Latin: regulare, living by rule).  It leads to something else:  the death of the old self, and a new life that is intimately dependent on the life of the risen Christ “in me”.  The believer himself is a living incarnation of Christ, just as Jesus was a living incarnation of the Father.  It is this transformed and trans-formative life, not a tradition, however good and holy, nor a rule or religion, however superior, which saves.

We know that all things work together for good for those who love God, who are called according to his purpose.

Romans 8:28

Text: Revelation 21:10, 22 – 22:5

A heavenly vision: the New Jerusalem is God’s dwelling [tabernacle]  (v  2-3).   It is the church of God, descending from heaven to earth.
Evidence that this is the church:  it is the Bride: 21:9-10 (see Ephesians 5:25-33). It is the city with foundations, which is to come. Hebrews 11:10,16; 12:22-23; 13:14.

The description of this heavenly Jerusalem, which is the bride, the church, draws heavily from the description of a restored Jerusalem given in Ezekiel chapters 40-48. One clue that this vision of John is a re-presentation of Ezekiel’s vision is the guiding angel who carries a measuring rod (Revelation 21:15; Ezekiel 40:2-5).

It is also Ezekiel who gives us the original vision of the “river of the water of life.” John can use this shorthand because his scripture-savvy readers will understand that he is talking about the same vision which we find extensively described in Ezekiel 47:1-12.

The vision of life-giving water flowing from the place of God’s dwelling is much older, however; you see it in Genesis 2:10-14, where all the great rivers known to the ancient world are said to have first flowed from Paradise: so we have in this vision a sense of the restoration, at long last, of God’s original plan (although we should note that the benefits of Paradise 2.0, given here, include many enhancements over the original version: most especially the prominent place now given to the Tree of Life [22:2], which is no longer off limits).

This vision of the church is comprehensive and inclusive; the gates are the twelve patriarchs, representing the Old Covenant and God’s working in the physical, historical realm.  This indicates that all of us enter the City by means of s particular history, on this planet that boing fist of all a Jewish history, for as Jesus once said, “Salvation is of the Jews,” and as Paul liked to point out, the gospel is “for the Jew first.”  But the foundations are the twelve apostles, showing that there is no separation of the Old Covenant from the New, but in fact that the former is founded on the latter and could not stand without it. And this foundation, while also historical, is spiritual and represents the message that the apostles were commissioned to take with them to all the nations.

By the nature of this city, this river, and this Tree of Life, we also see what is to be the nature and destiny of the Bride, the church: it is a life-giving and a healing presence in the world. It comes to the world from God, and the kings of the earth bring their wealth into it; even though its own wealth already surpasses everything that they could bring.

There is therefore now no condemnation 
for those  who are in Christ Jesus.
— Romans 8:1

Easter, then, is not just one day, and it’s not all about eggs and rabbits and other signs of growth and fertility, borrowed from a more ancient series of observances that developed in Northern Europe.  For those of us who are Christians, the events commemorated by these springtime observances serve as parables written in nature itself that illustrate a spiritual truth at the heart of our faith:  that God’s greatest miracle is the bringing forth of life out of death.  Christ arose! says the hymn, and at least in the northern hemisphere, we find all nature joining in the chorus with an Amen that resounds with flowers and fruit, birds and bees, lengthening days and sunshine warming hearts and homes.

So we celebrate the Resurrection, not just one day a year, but throughout the season that leads to the celebration of the manifestation of the Holy Spirit: itself an unfolding of that great Christmas truth, that the one called Emmanuel, which means God with us, is really with us, and the prophecy of Christ to the Apostles, that this Spirit of Truth “shall be in you” is fulfilled.  We say, Christ is alive! and in faith we take that to mean that there is hope for our own life, our own renewal, not just seasonally either, but transformationally.  The One rejected by the political and religious leaders of the world, by the best religious system the world had yet produced, that of the Jews, and by the best legal system the world had yet seen, that of the Romans, is declared to be alive, offering a Way of living that surpasses those systems as the broad light of midday surpasses the light of a candle.  We celebrate his unstoppable life, and declare that his Way is better than the best, providing through repentance and forgiveness an avenue of change that gets to the heart of all the problems that exist in the world:  human nature.

Yes, Christ came, died, and rose again for no less of a reason than to change human nature.  Ah, but someone says, human nature is too corrupt, there is no hope of changing it; yet the gospel says, that it is this, and only this, that is the hope of the world.  It is the love of God that raised Jesus from the dead; and not just God’s love for his Son, but God’s love for all that has been made; for you, for me, for all that is yet to be redeemed, and the word has gone out into the world:  God was in Christ, reconciling the world to himself, and has entrusted to us the message of reconciliation.  We beg you on behalf of Christ:  Be reconciled to God! (2 Corinthians 5:19-20).  God, through His Son, bet His own life that human beings, such as you and I are, can change, in response to the love that raises the dead. We know that we have passed from death to life, because we love…. anyone that does not love is still dead (I John 3:14).

The Price

Isaiah 50:4-9a
50:4 The Lord GOD has given me the tongue of a teacher, that I may know how to sustain the weary with a word. Morning by morning he wakens– wakens my ear to listen as those who are taught.

50:5 The Lord GOD has opened my ear, and I was not rebellious, I did not turn backward.

50:6 I gave my back to those who struck me, and my cheeks to those who pulled out the beard; I did not hide my face from insult and spitting.

50:7 The Lord GOD helps me; therefore I have not been disgraced; therefore I have set my face like flint, and I know that I shall not be put to shame;

50:8 he who vindicates me is near. Who will contend with me? Let us stand up together. Who are my adversaries? Let them confront me.

50:9a It is the Lord GOD who helps me; who will declare me guilty?

The Ministry of the Messiah

By all accounts this is a messianic text, allowing us, through the inspired prophet, to gain a glimpse into the mind of Christ.  This we must do, because we are admonished: “let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus.” With what attitude did Jesus approach his ministry?
Isaiah 50:4-5:

Compare Luke 4:17-19 The spirit of the Lord God is upon me….

“the tongue of a teacher,” the tongue of one who is taught”…. the language here suggests that one who learns from God will be able to teach, to “sustain the weary with a word,” because he is also one who is able to learn continually, “morning by morning.  The best teacher is one who constantly learns, and the prophet here shows us that Jesus is that kind of teacher, as each of us is called to be.

Jesus followed His own teaching!  By doing so, He came to the Cross.
Isaiah 50:5-6 gives us the outcome of obedience:  a willingness to endure hardship, to stand strong in the face of adversity. This is in keeping with the instructions he gave his disciples; compare Matthew 5:38-48, Luke 6:22-38
1 Peter 2:20-23

“not alone”

Isaiah 50:7-9 Despite widespread misunderstanding of his use of the opening verse of Psalms 22 , we have Jesus’ own assurance:  “Yet I am not alone, for the Father is with me.” John 16:32.  A full reading of Psalm 22 will show that the entire experience of Christ is envisioned, from his anguished sharing in the human feeling of being forsaken,through the promise that this very suffering will lead to praise for generations to come.  We should take heart in the knowledge that the promise and presence of God is greater than our momentary anguish;

see also  2 Corinthians 5:19 which suggests that when he sweat drops of blood, when his soul was troubled and sorrowful even unto death, even when he recited the words of the Psalm, “My God, my God, why hast Thou forsaken me?” Scripture assures us that “God was in Christ, reconciling the world to himself.”  This says that all of these sufferings were endured by the Father as much as the Son, who was acting in obedience to the will of the Father whose desire was to “reconcile the world to himself.”  similarly in our worst moments, at those times when it feels like the ceiling is made of lead and our prayers appear to go nowhere, our loving God, who “has given to us the ministry of reconciliation” is even then closer to us than our very breath.  God did not change his mind, his purpose, or his character when Christ suffered on the cross; far from it; in Christ all of those aspects of God are revealed, because “God demonstrated his own love toward us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us” (Romans 5:8).  God’s love for us was complete before, during, and after Christ went to the Cross.  God does not change; but we, confronted with such great love, can be transformed. Hence even at such a moment we see words of triumph and victory, such as in Isaiah 50:9a

and Romans 8:31 .  Just as the presence of God remained with Christ even through the worst moments of suffering, as he fulfilled his Father’s plan for the redemption of the world, so the promise from the same Father to us that “I will never leave you nor forsake you” is assured.  Though he calls us to the cross, that call carries this same promise with it; and beyond all suffering is new life, victory over death.