Several years ago, I acquired a book entitled Understanding the Difficult Words of Jesus. One of its two authors, Dr. David Bivin, resides in Israel and is one of the founders of the Jerusalem School of Synoptic Research, a think tank in which Jewish and Christian scholars strive for a better understanding of the Synoptic Gospels, Matthew, Mark and Luke.  I had been an avid reader of Dr. Bivin’s teachings online.

In picking up the book, I learned a couple of things about Dr. Bivin I didn’t previously know. For one, he moved to Jerusalem in 1963 and actually served as a reservist in the Israeli military for 17 years. Yet, the most interesting thing I learned about him was his experience as a teenager reading the Bible. “My greatest difficulty,” he said, “was trying to understand the words of Jesus.” He would encounter passages such as these: “For if they do these things in a green tree, what shall be done in the dry?” (Luke 23:31) “From the days of John the Baptist until now the kingdom of heaven suffereth violence, and the violent take it by force.” (Matthew 11:12) As a youth, he would ask his pastor or seminary professors to interpret these passages. Here was their common response: “Just keep reading, son, the Bible will interpret itself.”

Does that answer sound familiar? I’ve encountered it in my own church experience. There are many people with autism in this world who can decipher words on a page, but lack even the remotest sense of what they mean. No matter how much they read, they don’t comprehend. Eventually, they shy away from reading altogether. Though he was not autistic, Bivin’s struggles with the words of Jesus caused him to drift from reading the Gospels: “By the time I went to Israel at the age of 24 to study at Hebrew University, I had almost stopped reading the Gospels. It wasn’t that I wasn’t reading the Bible. I was reading the Bible more than ever before, but I was unconsciously neglecting the Gospels; yet, here were the real words and teachings of Jesus.” Though he would one day take his place among the most respected of Bible scholars, the young Bivin did not find the answer, “just keep reading,” to be satisfying. No matter how much of the Scripture he read—and he read it all repeatedly—the meaning of Jesus’ words was often still unclear. He wrote: “The truth is that one can keep reading the Bible forever, and the Bible will not tell him the meaning of these difficult passages.” Despite that outlook, he kept striving to understand—for the words of God are too precious and important to simply disregard or to push away in the hope of some future understanding. If we want to be intimate with Jesus, we need to understand his words.

In 1969, Bivin joined the Narkis Street Congregation in Jerusalem whose pastor was another American scholar, Dr. Robert Lindsey. Dr. Lindsey had his own brush with the difficult words of Jesus. He was at one time attempting to translate the Greek text of Mark to Hebrew. As he did this, he noticed that the order or sentence construction (syntax) of the words in Greek—often sounding very odd in Greek itself—made perfect sense when translated in the same word sequence into Hebrew. It was almost as if someone in antiquity had placed the Greek words together from a Hebrew source. He recalled that in his own training, he had a similar experience trying to translate the classical Greek books of Homer and Plato into English. “What difficulty I had in making those ancient Greeks speak English!” he said.

One day, Lindsey was teaching a class on the Gospels when he encountered the Greek word ochloi, which when translated into English often is expressed as “crowds” or “multitudes.” This word appears in the New Testament 28 times, 25 of which are found in the Synoptic Gospels: Matthew, Mark and Luke. For instance, in Matthew 9:8, having seen Jesus heal a paralytic, the Greek text reads hoi ochloi ephobethesan—which when brought over literally into English would read—“the multitudes marveled.” The English of this verse is awkward, even tortured—you can have a multitude of people in one place, but not multitudes. In fact, multitudes renders to the word multitude in most English dictionaries. The use of ochloi—a plural in Greek—puzzled Lindsey. He mentioned this in a lecture. A young, Israeli woman in his classroom piped up that ochloi sounded to her very much like the Hebrew word, ochlosim, itself a plural, but also a Hebrew idiom used by the ancient rabbis of Jesus’ day to depict “the people of a locality.” Could it be that the Greek of Matthew borrowed an idiomatic Hebrew term? Lindsey thought yes.

Both Lindsey and his disciple, Bivin, were students of the Hebrew language, and as they read the Greek words of the Gospels, they began to detect a Hebrew “voice”—a Hebrew “undertext”—speaking to them. To these scholars, translating the Greek Gospels into Hebrew clarified many of the “difficult words” of Jesus that had at one time bewildered them.

The existence of a Hebrew undertext in the Gospels presupposes that Hebrew was widely spoken, or even the dominant language of 1st Century Judea. That presupposition collides with a strongly-held hypothesis in Christian scholarship that Aramaic, not Hebrew, was the language of the common man in that period. Aramaic, like Hebrew, was a Semitic language, commonly understood to have been introduced in various dialects to the people of Israel and Judea by the Assyrians and Babylonians who conquered them. By the 1st century, Judea was home to a mix of several tongues: Hebrew, Aramaic, and Greek and to a lesser extent, Latin. Based on what we discern from the Gospels, it’s likely that Jesus was familiar with all of them. There is no serious scholarship that contends that either Greek or Latin was the primary language of Judea. Of the remaining tongues: which language was dominant—Hebrew or Aramaic?

Bivin and his co-author, Dr. Roy Blizzard, provide abundant evidence. There are 12 different Aramaic words/phrases in the New Testament compared to at least 17 Hebrew words/phrases, one of which, amen, appears over 100 times. In 1947, the year of Israel’s rebirth as a country, the Dead Sea Scrolls were discovered in twelve caves near the site of Wadi Qumran in what is known as the West Bank today. Included among the findings were 179 manuscripts, some very fragmentary, of every Old Testament book except Esther. The vast majority were written in Hebrew. Also found were 10 non-Biblical texts specific to Qumran itself—a community that was wiped out by the Romans in 68 A.D. One was in Aramaic whereas the other nine were in Hebrew. 30% of the findings were commentaries on the Bible known as pesharim—all of these were in Hebrew. The importance of the pesharim is that they were the texts used to educate the Israeli population—ancient schools in Israel did not have the Greek structure of language, mathematics and the sciences—they were instead primarily focused on the Scriptures as the subject of learning. Therefore, the common man would need to be able to read the pesharim in order to gain an education.

Archeologically speaking, coins and inscriptions point to the prevalent use of Hebrew in 1st-Century Israel. Of the 215 types of coins minted in and around the time of Jesus, 99 are inscribed in Hebrew compared to just one in Aramaic. The rest were largely in Greek, owing to rule of the Roman puppet, Herod. During periods of Jewish independence—the Great Revolt of 66-70 A.D., and the Bar-Kochba Revolt of 132-135 A.D., a total of 68 different coins were minted, all inscribed in Hebrew. In terms of inscriptions, excavations beginning in 1968 at the Temple Mount in Jerusalem have yielded numerous inscriptions in Hebrew, Greek and Latin, but not a single one in Aramaic. Excavations conducted at Masada between 1963 and 1965 unearthed over 700 pottery fragments with inscriptions in Hebrew, Aramaic, Greek and Latin. The ratio of Hebrew to Aramaic exceeds nine to one.

We could go on and on supporting the preponderance of Hebrew over Aramaic in the remarks of Josephus, the Jewish historian, as well as rabbinic literature, rabbinic parables and Jewish prayer, all of which have a time reference that crosses over the 1st Century A.D. and all of which is amply documented by Bivin and Blizzard in their book. Importantly, they cite the testimony of the early Church fathers to the use of Hebrew in the time of Jesus, specifically with respect to the composition of the Gospel of Matthew.

“Matthew put down the words of the Lord in the Hebrew language, and others have translated them, each as best he could.”—Papias, mid-2nd Century A.D.

“Matthew, indeed, produced his gospel written among the Hebrews in their own dialect.”—Irenaeus, (120-202 A.D.)

“The first [gospel], composed in the Hebrew language, was written by Matthew. . .for those who came to faith from Judaism”—Origen, (first quarter of the third century)

These quotes were recorded by Eusebius, a Roman historian, in his book Ecclesiastical History. who would later become the Bishop of Caesarea in Palestine in 314 A.D. He made his own comment below:

“Matthew had first preached to the Hebrews, and when he was about to go to others also, he transmitted his gospel in writing in his native language.”

Among the later Church fathers (post-Nicean from 325 A.D.), we have the following:

“They have the entire Gospel of Matthew in Hebrew. It is carefully preserved by them as it was originally written, in Hebrew script.”—Epiphanius, Refutation of All Heresies.

“Matthew was the first in Judea to compose the gospel of Christ in Hebrew letters and words. . .Who it was that later translated it into Greek is no longer known with certainty. Furthermore, the Hebrew text itself is still preserved in the library at Caesarea which the martyr Pamphilus assembled with great care.”—Jerome, De Viris Inlustribus 3

Let’s now quickly identify a couple of “Hebraisms” in the Gospels as covered in Understanding the Difficult Words of Jesus. Bivin and Blizzard look at the Parable of the Prodigal Son—particularly honing in on the statements of the father character—detecting the repetitive use of the word “and” (Greek: kai):

“And the father saw him, and had compassion, and ran, and fell on his neck, and kissed him. . .And the father said to his servants ‘bring quickly the best robe, and put it on him, and put a ring on his hand and sandals on his feet, and bring the fattened calf, and kill it, and let us eat and make merry.” (Luke 15:20, 22, 23)

According to the authors, joining clauses together with the conjunction “and” is very strange Greek, but very good Hebrew. We see this pattern in Genesis 1:2-5:

“And the earth was without form and empty. And darkness was on the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God moved on the face of the waters. And God said, ‘Let there be light.’ And there was light. And God saw the light that it was good. And God divided between the light and the darkness. And God called the light Day. And He called the darkness Night. And there was evening, and there was morning—first day.”

It’s important that we learn as readers of the New Testament to identify the underlying Hebrew in the text. But, you ask, does it really matter insofar as our understanding of the text is concerned? The answer is a resounding yes! There are many examples in which discerning the Hebrew “undertext” has a bearing on the meaning we derive from the verse. One quick example cited by Bivin and Blizzard is found in Luke 10:9: “Heal the sick who are there and tell them ‘The Kingdom of God has come near you.’” (King James version) The phrase “has come near” is the Greek word enkigen. In English, as well as in Greek, “coming near” means that something is not yet here. Is that what we’re to understand about the Kingdom of God?

What, however, does “coming near” mean in Hebrew? The word for “come near” in Hebrew is karav. Bivin and Blizzard reference the Book of 2nd Kings which recounts an incident in which King Ahaz of Judah instructed the priest Uriah to construct an altar according to a design the king had seen in Damascus. Uriah complied and in Chapter 16, Verse 12 we read: “And when the king came from Damascus the king viewed the altar. Then the king drew near (karav) to the altar, and went up on it.” The king wasn’t merely “near” the altar, he was on it! That’s as near as it gets! The authors also reference Deuteronomy 22:13-14 which provides instructions for testing a wife’s virginity: “If any man takes a wife, and goes in to her, and then despises her, and brings false charges against her and maligns her, saying ‘I have taken this woman, and when I came near (karav) her, I did not find her a virgin, then. . .” In this case, “coming near”, that is, karav, is a Hebrew idiom for sexual relations. So, too, is it in Isaiah 8:3 in which we are told the prophet “came near (karav) the prophetess [who was his wife] and she conceived and bore a son.” When Jesus said that the Kingdom of God had “come near”, he was talking about something that had already arrived and that we were in intimate contact with. When we wish to be intimate with God, it first helps to know that He is telling us that He is already intimate with us.

Before we begin this study, we need to be aware of what the word hope means in both Greek and Hebrew to give us an appreciation what scripture is telling us. I will be using the NKJV unless otherwise noted in this lesson.

In today’s world, hope means something that may or may not happen. We sure hope today would be a good day. Or we hope our spouse washed the dishes before we arrive home. However, the word “hope” in the Bible means something totally different. It calls God “the God of hope”. Certainly, the Lord isn’t an undecided being. Instead, He’s extremely trustworthy and can be relied on. When we place our hope in God, we shouldn’t feel unsure of His actions and intentions. Let’s see exactly what the Bible means when it mentions the word “hope”.

Meaning Of the Word “Hope” In Greek

elpizo– this verb means “to hope”. The verb is accompanied by one of three prepositions:

• eis– “on”. Usually translated “in” and used in John 5:45:

“Do not think that I shall accuse you to the Father; there is one who accuses you—Moses, in (eis) whom you trust (elpizo). “

• epi- “on”. We find this in Romans 15:12:

“There shall be a root of Jesse; And He who shall rise to reign over the Gentiles, On (epi) Him the Gentiles shall hope (elpizo).“

• en- “in”. Used in 1 Corinthians 15:19:

“If in this life only we have hope (elpizo) in (en) Christ, we are of all men the most pitiable.”

These prepositions express that Christ is the sphere and element where this ‘hope’ is placed. Since hope is a verb, those who walk in this hope are considered “hopeful” and have a character of hope.

elpis– to anticipate, usually with pleasure. As a noun it means, “favorable and confident expectation, a forward look with assurance.” Elpis refers to the future and the unseen such as in Romans 8:24-25: “For we were saved in this hope, but hope that is seen is not hope; for why does one still hope for what he sees? But if we hope for what we do not see, we eagerly wait for it with perseverance.”

Elpis is found over 50 times in the New Testament. The apostle Paul was constantly talking about anticipating future events with joy, such as in these scriptures:

“And now I stand and am judged for the hope of the promise made by God to our fathers. -Acts 26:6

“For we through the Spirit eagerly wait for the hope of righteousness by faith.” -Galatians 5:5

“If indeed you continue in the faith, grounded and steadfast, and are not moved away from the hope of the gospel which you heard, which was preached to every creature under heaven, of which I, Paul, became a minister.” -Colossians 1:23

“Therefore, having been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom also we have access by faith into this grace in which we stand, and rejoice in hope of the glory of God. “-Romans 5:1-2

“That the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give to you the spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of Him, the eyes of your understanding being enlightened; that you may know what is the hope of His calling, what are the riches of the glory of His inheritance in the saints, and what is the exceeding greatness of His power toward us who believe, according to the working of His mighty power“ -Ephesians 1:17-19

Hope is a purifying power. It says so in 1 John 3:3: “And everyone who has this hope in Him purifies himself, just as He is pure.”

Conclusion

Since the term hope in Greek means anticipation, we could read all these scriptures with the replacement of those words (to get a deeper talking about expecting or waiting with absolute certainly for the Lord’s promises.

Meaning Of the Word ”Hope” In Hebrew

chacah– to flee for protection; to trust; confide in; to have hope; to make a refuge. This term is used when God is compared to a shield, a rock, or described as one with protective wings.

“He only is my rock and my salvation;
He is my defense; “ -Psalm 62:2

yachal– to be patient, hope, wait, trust, to stay in expectation.

“O Israel, hope in the Lord;
For with the Lord there is mercy,
And with Him is abundant redemption. “ -Psalm 130:7

“Therefore I will look to the Lord;
I will wait for the God of my salvation;
My God will hear me. “ -Micah 7:7

 mibtach– confidence; trust; assurance; hope. This word means “the act of confiding” as found in Proverbs 21:22, “A wise man scaleth the city of the mighty, and casteth down the strength of the confidence thereof.” (KJV) Mibtach is also used in Job 8:14 referring to the “object of confidence”: “Whose confidence shall be cut off, And whose trust is a spider’s web.” There’s another meaning of this term meaning, “the state of confidence or security.” Used in Proverbs 14:26, “In the fear of the Lord there is strong confidence, And His children will have a place of refuge. “

machaceh– a shelter; hope; a place of refuge, trust.

Sabar (shabar)– to scrutinize, to expect with hope and patience, hope.

“The eyes of all look expectantly to You,
And You give them their food in due season.“ -Psalm 145:15

towcheleth– expectation, hope.

“Hope deferred makes the heart sick,
But when the desire comes, it is a tree of life. “ -Proverbs 13:12

tiqvah– expectation; hope.

“The desire of the righteous is only good,
But the expectation of the wicked is wrath.” -Proverbs 11:23

Conclusion

The word ‘hope’ in Hebrew actually means ‘to expect’ or have some sort of ‘expectation’. This means we aren’t merely hoping it to be completely. We’re 100% expecting it to be completed. There should be no doubt anywhere in our mind concerning the Lord’s promises to us.

Now with this brief understanding of what Hope means in both Hebrew and Greek we can begin to understand more fully what we are reading in scripture.

Hebrews 6:17-20: ¹⁷ In the same way, when God desired to show even more clearly to the heirs of the promise the unchangeable character of his purpose, he guaranteed it by an oath, ¹⁸ so that through two unchangeable things, in which it is impossible that God would prove false, we who have taken refuge might be strongly encouraged to seize the hope set before us. ¹⁹ We have this hope, a sure and steadfast anchor of the soul, a hope that enters the inner shrine behind the curtain, ²⁰ where Jesus, a forerunner on our behalf, has entered, having become a high priest forever according to the order of Melchizedek.

It was a long time, or what seems like a long time since March 17, 2020, when everything was basically shut down in Nevada due to the Corona Virus (Covid-19). What people thought would be a few days or maybe a few weeks dragged into months: agonizingly long months. For some, it may have seemed that all hope was lost; maybe they lost their faith; when in fact God was choosing to give us this time to ponder how we, as Christians, could be more effective in our daily lives. How we could be more of a witness to others; even while staying at home. How you ask? When we ordered food for pick up or to be delivered; items we purchased online that were delivered to our homes; and while we attended to those things like a doctors’ appointment or grocery shopping?

Voluntarily staying at home during that time caused some of us to go “stir crazy” thinking we need to do something more normal. What we will have to learn and accept that what we used to accept as normal is no longer our normal. Society has dictated that we will have a “new normal” which will become our normal; different than what we knew previously; but nonetheless, just as exciting as God has determined it to be for ourselves. We will learn how to live this new normal life in family, business, church, and in everything we do. Our hope is being restored.

Hope is important because it gives us 3 things, we all need and that is something:

 1) To Talk About it,  

2) To Work Toward it,

3) To Hang Onto it.

Let’s look at each of these 3 things and discover what we really mean. What do we mean when we talk about hope?

People get together and because they love to talk about their plans for tonight, next week, next month or even next year.

Young people talk about their plans for going to college, where they are going to live after graduation, and, most importantly, where they are going to work.

Working people talk about their vacation plans of where they are going; or where they have just come back from, excited to share their experiences.

Older people talk about their retirement plans and what they are going to do with “all that time”; spend it with family, travel to places they always wanted to go to, buy that extravagant item they have always wanted, or just retire, basking in the sun and relaxing. Or, in some cases, doing more than they did when they had a full-time job, like becoming a pastor.

Jesus spoke of plans to his disciples. Jn 14:1-3, “Do not let your hearts be troubled. Believe in God, believe also in me. In my Father’s house there are many dwelling places. If it were not so, would I have told you that I go to prepare a place for you? And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and will take you to myself, so that where I am, there you may be also.”

Peter spoke about his hope for the resurrection. 1 Pet 1:3, 21, “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! By his great mercy he has given us a new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead…”

Paul spoke to the church at Thessalonica words of encouragement in 1 Thessalonians 4:13-18: ¹³ But we do not want you to be uninformed, brothers and sisters, about those who have died, so that you may not grieve as others do who have no hope. ¹⁴ For since we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so, through Jesus, God will bring with him those who have died. ¹⁵ For this we declare to you by the word of the Lord, that we who are alive, who are left until the coming of the Lord, will by no means precede those who have died. ¹⁶ For the Lord himself, with a cry of command, with the archangel’s call and with the sound of God’s trumpet, will descend from heaven, and the dead in Christ will rise first. ¹⁷ Then we who are alive, who are left, will be caught up in the clouds together with them to meet the Lord in the air, and so we will be with the Lord forever. ¹⁸ Therefore encourage one another with these words.

What do we mean when we say hope is what we work toward in our lives? Surprisingly it is hope that motivates us to work.

It is the expectant father with a new baby who is trying to ensure that his little one will be better off than he is in life; or the young person seeking to figure out how to pay for school loans or tuition; or the working man looking forward to his vacation and how he can make it the best one ever. Yes, hope motivates us to work.

Hope motivates Christians to work. We may have hopes for our future works here; if we take a mission trip, we elevate our hopes in how we can be effective in helping others; we plan to work for the congregation, we elevate our hopes

Paul spoke of his future work as well in his letter to the Romans when he wrote, “So when I have completed this, and have delivered to them what has been collected, I will set out by way of you to Spain.” (Romans 15:28)

He told Timothy: 1 Tim 3:14, “I hope to come to you soon, but I am writing these instructions to you so that….”

John wrote in, 3 Jn 14, “instead I hope to see you soon, and we will talk together face to face.”

But hope for Eternal Life should motivate us the most.

Paul states in Titus 1:1-2, “… In the hope of eternal life that God, who never lies, promised before the ages began…”

Peter said our hope motivates us to be sober and “…be sober and set your hope perfectly on the grace that is to be brought unto you at the revelation of Jesus Christ.” 1 Peter 1:13.

John reminds us that our hope motivates us to live pure and godly lives as he wrote in 1 Jn 3:2-3,” … And every man that has this hope in him will purify Himself, even as he is pure.”

Last, we have our hope to hang onto and God has given us that ability to trust Him in all things. God can and does get us through difficult things; we can see the “light at the end of the tunnel”; we can do the daily chores because of our hope for some future event; we raise our children in the hope that they have a good life; we can work through difficult times in marriage, if we have hope for better days ahead; hope provides a way for Christians to deal with life’s problems.

So, again I ask you why do we need hope? We need it to talk about it, to work toward it and to hang onto it. Our trust, faith and hope in God is our everything we need as Christians. It sustains us like nothing ever before and it keeps us focused on God knowing he answers all prayers all the time. God is good all the time; all the time God is good.

Sarado ang templo, ang Simbahan ay nasa ating tahanan, sapagkat ang Diyos ay nasa lahat ng dako. The temple is closed, church is in our home, because God is everywhere.

I would like to close by with a poem by Emily Dickinson, one that has meant a lot to me for so many years.

Hope

 by Emily Dickinson

“Hope” is the thing with feathers

That perches in the soul

And sings the tune without the words,

And never stops at all,

And sweetest in the gale is heard.

And sore must be the storm

That could abash the little bird

That kept so many warm.

I’ve heard it in the chilliest land

And on the strangest sea,

Yet never, in extremity,

It asked a crumb of me.

This word study centers on the term, “mind of Christ,” or “mindset of Christ.” Looking at its usage in Philippians 2:5, the King James version reads: “Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus.” The same verse in the NIV reads: “In your relationships with one another, have the same mindset as Christ Jesus.” The Greek word in this verse translated to either “mind” or “mindset” is phroneite, based on the word phren (pronounced “frane”) which literally and anatomically refers to “the midriff, or parts around the heart”–that is, the diaphragm. The diaphragm, physiologically, is a dome-shaped muscle under the rib cage that controls the breathing function from inside us (i.e., inhaling/exhaling) so that what takes place inside regulates what is observed about us externally. We can’t see the diaphragm nor can we even feel it–yet it’s still there performing its internal function. The diaphragm operates, therefore, from the inside out. And so does the meaning of phren–that which is “inside” us–our “mind” or “mindset” regulates our outward behavior. In the Septuagint, the Greek version of the Old Testament, the word phren is used several times to translate the Hebrew word, lev, meaning “heart.” Lev is spelled with two Hebrew letters–a lamed (the Hebrew L) and a bet (the Hebrew B). Pictographically, the ancient form of the lamed resembles a shepherd’s staff. A staff, from an Hebraic perspective, associates with the concept of “control” as in the Hebrew word for image, tselem, the word used in Genesis 1:26 referring to man being made in God’s image. Pictographically, tselem would read “the desire to control chaos,” the letter signifying control being the lamed.[1] This same shepherd’s staff, represented by the lamed, is also part of several Hebrew words translated as God: El, Elo’ah and Elohiym. Therefore, the lamed is also considered to be a symbol signifying “authority”. The bet, the second letter of the word, lev, is also Hebrew for “house”. Pictographically, it is considered to resemble the inside of a house, its “floor plan”. Therefore, the pictographic meaning of “lev” is “authority within”.

The “mind of Christ” is likened, using the Greek words as a guide, to a phren, a diaphragm inside us regulating our external behavior. When looked at through the filter of 1st Century Hebraic thought, the mind of Christ would be likened to a heart, an authority within us. Though this authority is represented by Christ, it ultimately is the authority of God (1 Corinthians 11:3). This authority (samak/exousia) is not a du jour authority–a set of rules enforced by power, though on occasion, God has resorted to this (i.e., the Flood, Sodom and Gomorrah, Tower of Babel). Primarily, it is a de facto authority–a relationship between God and man based on man’s voluntary submission to God’s rule/authority. As we exercise trusting obedience in God’s instructions, we willingly enter the “sphere” of God’s authority, the Kingdom of God; we’re not compelled at gunpoint to abide by God’s rules nor are we prodded like cattle into the sphere of His authority, His Kingdom.

There is another Hebrew word, translated on occasion as “mind”, that may supply an appropriate imagery of this matter of “voluntary submission.” Isaiah 26:1-18 is considered a “song of praise” that would one day be sung by the Jewish people upon their return to their own land, under the authority and governance of God’s rules and ordinances. Verse 3 reads that God “will keep in perfect peace (shalom shalom) those whose minds are steadfast” because they trust in God. What is it to have a “steadfast mind”? The Hebrew word translated as mind here is yetzer. This word has perhaps less to do with the mind, and much more to do with something formed. We first encounter the word in Genesis 2:7: “And Yehovah our God formed (yetzer) man from the dust of the ground.” The prophet Isaiah uses this word to describe the relationship of clay to its potter:  “Shall what is formed (yetzer) say to the one who formed (yetzer) it, ‘You did not make me?'” (Is. 29:16) The Creator formed (yetzer) man, not vice versa. The potter forms the pottery. Aside from a reference to something formed, the word yetzer also means “intent”, “inclination” or “purpose”. For instance, in Genesis 8:21, God told Noah that the “intent (purpose: yetzer) of man’s heart is evil from his youth.” We also find yetzer as purpose elsewhere in the Scripture including Genesis 6:5, Deuteronomy 31:21, 1 Chronicles 28:9 and 29:18.

Next, what is it to be steadfast? The word here is samak, the same Hebrew word signifying authority, and a word connoting the transfer of authority by the laying on of hands.[2] Moses did this to his successor, Joshua: “So the LORD said to Moses, ‘Take Joshua son of Nun, a man in whom is the spirit, and lay (samak) your hand on him. . .Give him some of your majesty so the whole Israelite community will obey him’. . . Moses did as the LORD commanded him. . .He laid (samak) his hands on him and commissioned him.” (Numbers 27:18-20, 22-23) This illustrates the transfer of authority via laying of hands (samak) from the standpoint of the giver, or in the Isaiah example, from the standpoint of the potter, the one who forms (yetzer) the clay. What is the meaning of samak from the standpoint of that which is formed, the clay, the receiver? First, it is useful to know that samak is also the root of the 15th letter of the Hebrew alphabet, pronounced samech. Pictographically, the samech resembles a staff with a hand resting on it. It means to “support,” “lean on” or “rest in”. The clay, therefore, rests in the hands of its potter, and willingly submits to its formation by the work of those hands.

What is it then for us to have a steadfast mind? Borrowing the prophet Isaiah’s potter/clay example, when we “rest in” (samak) the hands of the Master Potter, when we “lean” on (samak) our Creator, when we cease attempting to control our lives and rely on God as our support (samak), we enter the sphere of His samak/authority, submitting ourselves willingly to the work of His hands so that He will form (yetzer) us according to His purpose (yetzer). Likewise, when we “take on” the mindset of Christ, we enter the sphere of Christ’s authority, submitting ourselves to the authority of Christ, who is in turn under the authority of God, internalizing, leaning on, resting in and being supported by (samak) the instructions of Christ (in trusting obedience such that we allow God to fashion or mold (yetzer) our outward behavior, governing it according to His purpose (yetzer).

When we adopt the “mindset of Christ,” according to the Apostle Paul, we, like Christ, “do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit.” (Phil. 2:3) Rather, we “humble ourselves” (v.8) and in so doing, enable God to fashion us into the “pottery”, that is, the person, he intends/purposes us to be. And when we do this, we achieve, to again borrow the prophet Isaiah’s term, “perfect peace” (shalom shalom).

END NOTES

[1] For a more detailed explanation of tselem, see http://fojlv.org/?p=172.

[2] See https://odmlv.org/?p=231 for a more complete discussion of authority.

A–“This is My commandment, that you love one another (Gr. agapate allelous), just as I have loved you.” (John 15:12)

B–“Greater love (Gr. agapen) has no one than this, that one lay down his life for his friends (Gr. philon).” (John 15:13)

B–” You are My friends (Gr. philoi) if you do what I command you.” (John 15:14)

A–“This I command you, that you love one another (Gr. agapate allelous).”  (John 15:17)

During the week beginning April 16, 2017, I had the opportunity to travel through the beautiful country of Romania. There were two notable deaths that occurred in that week roughly ten years apart–one on April 16, 2007, and the other on April 19, 2017. I’d like to reflect on those incidents with you.

Let’s start with the more recent one. On April 19, 2017, during our stay in the city of Timisoara, I read a report on the internet that ex-NFL player, Aaron Hernandez, had committed suicide. In 2013, he was convicted of 1st-degree murder in the killing of Odin Lloyd, a man who was dating the sister of Mr. Hernandez’ fiancée. Before taking his own life, Mr. Hernandez reportedly wrote the words “John 3:16” in ink across his forehead and in blood on the wall of his prison cell. Under this was a Bible open to John 3:16 with the verse marked in blood.

On April 16, 2007, student Seung-Hui Cho went on a shooting rampage at Virginia Tech University, murdering teachers and students, 33 persons in all. There were many heroic persons who lost their lives trying to resist the shooter. Among those was one, Liviu Librescu, a Romanian, who served as Professor of Engineering Science and Mechanics at Virginia Tech since 1985. Before that, Dr. Librescu was a Holocaust survivor; he refused to pledge allegiance to the Romanian Communist Party; he lost his position as an academic due to his sympathies toward Israel and ultimately he emigrated to the Promised Land after Prime Minister Menachem Begin intervened on his behalf. He was a Jew. Upon hearing gunfire from other classrooms, Librescu held the door of his classroom shut while most of his students escaped through the windows. Cho, the shooter, fired bullets through the door, five of which hit Librescu, one fatally to the head.

There are some Christians, by no means all, who look at Aaron Hernandez and, in spite of his murderous way, see a “saved” man, a man who made a “decision for Christ,” albeit toward the latter stages of his life, perhaps even at the very end. On the other hand, in Liviu Librescu, they see an eternally condemned man, despite the righteous walk he walked, culminating in an heroic act that led to his death, all because he never, to anyone’s knowledge, made a “decision for Christ.” Personally, I do not presume to know the will of God in matters of one’s eternal destination. God’s grace is, after all, His.

There is an important instruction of Jesus found in John 15. It repeats in verses 12 and 17 forming a synonymous parallelism. What Jesus said to his disciples is this: “This is my commandment, that you love one another, just as I have loved you. (v. 12) “This I command you, that you love one another.” (v. 17) The words love one another are in Greek, agapate allelous, and they precisely repeat in those two verses. Jesus put these words forth, not as a suggestion, but as a command (Gr. entolay). We also find this same command in an earlier part of the same discussion between Jesus and His disciples in which our present literary structure is located. Verse 13:34 reads: “A new commandment I give to you, that you should love one another. As I have loved you, so you also should love one another.” The phrase “love one another” (agapate allelous) repeats in each line of this verse, forming yet another synonymous parallelism. The weight of repetition of the phrase “love one another” in repeating literary structures authored by John shows just how important this particular command was to Jesus.

Within our literary structure, the chiasm shown at the top of the article, verses 12 and 17 point to what it means to love one another in verse 13: “Greater love has no one than this, that one lay down his life for his friends.” The context here is that verse 13 “amplifies” verse 12 by referencing what is “the greatest love.” Verses 12 and 13, looked at together, form a synthetic parallelism since verse 13 “enlarges” upon verse 12. And what is “the greatest love?” To “lay down one’s life for one’s friends,” even unto death. And who are one’s friends? “You are my friends if you do what I command you.” (v. 14) The word friend (Gr. philoi) repeats in verses 13 and 14, two verses that yet form another synthetic parallelism in which Jesus explains in verse 14 what is meant by “friends” in verse 13.

When we look at the “end of life” experiences of Liviu Librescu and Aaron Hernandez, we can ask: who most closely modeled the behavior commanded by Jesus? Would the phrase, “love one another,” apply to Dr. Librescu? Could we fairly say that he modeled the “greatest love” by giving his life to save his students? If you were situated in his classroom on April 16, 2007, who would you say most closely followed the command of Christ–a Jewish professor who barricaded himself at the door to save his students, or the students who fled out the classroom windows to save themselves?

Let’s now turn our attention to Mr. Hernandez. Was killing himself an example of “loving one another?” Was it akin to laying his life down for his friends? Or was it a self-centered act to escape an existence that was displeasing to him? Mr. Hernandez once played football for the New England Patriots. In terms of football, he was considered a very talented player. The New England Patriots are considered one of the best, if not the best, team in the National Football League, having won more championships than any other franchise. The culture of the Patriots is known as the “Patriot Way.” It embodies dedication, commitment, and hard work toward unity and success on the field of play. Most of all, prioritizing the needs of the team over the needs of the individual player is at the core of the Patriot Way. Players who conduct themselves selfishly or with poor attitudes are quickly sent packing.

When Mr. Hernandez murdered Mr. Lloyd, was that an example of his hard work and dedication to the team’s success? When he was subsequently arrested for murder and, as a consequence, was removed from the field of play, did that prioritize the team over the individual? Were either of  these acts compatible with the Patriot Way? Apparently not, for 90 minutes after his arrest, Mr. Hernandez was cut from the team.

Over the years, there have been many players who have worn the Patriot uniform.  Those uniforms display the insignia of the team, its color scheme, its brand. However, putting on the uniform does not make you a Patriot. Only by following the “Patriot Way” do you become a Patriot, or remain one. Mr. Hernandez wore the uniform, but his behavior was not according to the Patriot Way. He was jettisoned off the team.

There are many Christians who wear the uniform of Christianity. They wear shirts with symbols and signs, tattoos of Bible verses or even the image of Jesus. They may memorize Bible verses and make professions of faith in Jesus. Wearing the uniform of Christianity may make one a Christian in some people’s eyes, but it does not, in and of itself, make one a follower of Jesus.

You see, like the Patriots, Jesus has a way. And to walk in that way is to behave according to the command He repeated over and over in our text from John 15 and 13, love one another. In Hebrew, the word for love is ahav, meaning “I give.” Being a follower of Jesus, in the context of our chiasm, a friend of Jesus, means to follow His commands, beginning again in our context, with “loving one another.” At its most amplified level, this means “to lay down one’s life for one’s friends.” (v. 13) Mr. Librescu gave his life for others, sacrificing his life to save the lives of his students, thereby aligning his behavior to the commands of Jesus. Mr. Hernandez, on the other hand, took his life, along with any possibility that he might be of service to others, to the grave. A person can wear the “uniform of Christianity”–write John 3:16 on his forehead, write it on a wall in blood, open the Bible to that verse with John 3:16 highlighted in blood–but only the person who conducts his life according to the way of Jesus is the follower of Jesus, the friend of Jesus.

Luke

It is generally accepted that this book was written by Luke; however, there is no reliable evidence that it is not a composite of several manuscripts by several different authors over time.

Many scholars believe that Luke, mentioned in Acts by Paul, is the author of the book bearing his name. If so, Luke was physician and sometime companion of Paul.

Luke was a Gentile and one of his central themes is that God’s salvation is for Gentiles as well as for Jews.

Luke was led to the faith through his relationship with the Apostle Paul with whom he served. Luke did not have an eyewitness account of Jesus’ work on earth but he is an astute and exacting historian.

He relied upon eyewitness accounts and on written and oral sources as he thoroughly investigated the events he reported.

Luke’s purpose was to write so that “you can be certain of the truth of everything you were taught”.

The book of Luke could have been written as early as AD 59-63 or as late as AD 66-70 depending on if you accept the ending of Acts with Paul alive and in prison in Rome for 2 years.

Some scholars believe it was written during the later date and Luke used some of the book of Mark as a source book for his writings.

Luke addressed his work to a man named Theophilus, most likely a patron, wealthy, and who sponsored the expensive task of writing the book. Theophilus was most likely a Christian and was looking for more detail and knowledge about Jesus and therefore underwrote the research and writing of the book, for his own edification as well as for other Gentile Christians and some Jewish Christians also.

Luke emphasizes that his book is historical and he assures his readers that the gospel message is authentic; he used reliable eyewitness testimony and meticulously dates Jesus’ ministry with reference to the rulers of his day.

Luke reflects Jesus as a theme of promise and fulfillment.

Jesus is introduced as the promised Savior; the Messiah descended from King David; born in Bethlehem the city of David; and will reign forever on David’s throne.

Jesus accomplished salvation, not by military might, but by suffering the fate of the prophets; he died as the servant of the Lord; fulfilling the promises of the OT.

Through his death and resurrection, Jesus became the Savior of the world.

Acts

Luke is considered to be the author of the book of Acts although there is no reference by name to him in the book just as there was no reference by name to him in the book of Luke.

However, Paul referred to a “beloved doctor” in Colossians and it was known that Luke was with Paul at that time and was a co-worker.

As we already know, Luke was a Gentile Christian.

Most scholars believe that Acts was written sometime between AD 70-80 after the death of Paul.

They believe that Luke used the book of Mark in his research.

If this date is correct, it is curious why there is no mention of the outcome of Paul’s trial (AD 62); the death of James, the Lord’s brother (early AD 60’s); the persecution of Christians carried out by Nero following the fire of Rome (AD 64); the deaths of Peter and Paul (about AD 64-65); and Nero (AD 68); the Jewish revolt (AD 66) or the destruction of Jerusalem (AD 70).

Since Acts ends with Paul under house arrest (AD 60-62), it would seem that the book would have been written before AD 64.

However, a case can be made that Luke may have considered these events to not be important and merely omitted them because they were not suited to his purpose in writing Acts and a date after AD 70 is the correct date.

Luke places emphasis in his writing of Acts showing that the Christian faith truly fulfills God’s promises in the Hebrew Scriptures. Christ brought salvation; prayer advances God’s Kingdom; all the while the Holy Spirit energizes and equips God’s people to carry out their mission.

Luke shows the importance of individuals that God has chosen to carry his message and testify about Christ.

Many persons became prominent during this time to include Paul, Stephen, Philip, and Peter. And, it was important enough for the Disciples to choose Matthias to replace Judas in the company of the twelve apostles.

Luke’s message was “believe in the Lord Jesus and you will be saved”.

“There is peace with God through Jesus Christ, who is Lord of all”.

John

This book was written by John, a Disciple of Jesus, and one of the twelve.

John, along with James his brother and Peter, formed an inner circle around Jesus.

This Gospel reflects this close perspective as it highlights Peter and John.

Most scholars believe that the book was written (completed) about AD 90.

John wrote for Jewish Christians. He stresses the divinity of Jesus more than any of the other Gospels, so much so that Jesus is presented as being alien to this world.

John, however, also stresses that the readers are to believe that Jesus is the Messiah and the Son of God.

This was probably intended to inspire the Christian members of the community to maintain their belief during a troubled time rather than to convert outsiders.

Due to the writing style of John, many of the things would have meaning only to Christians who were already believers.

John’s basic principles are as follows –

1. Those who embrace Christ’s revelation and redemption with faith will gain eternal life
2. Worship must take place in spirit and in truth and be energized and formed by the Spirit of God
3. Jesus affirmed his oneness with the Father and their unity of purpose, as well as their personal distinctiveness
4. The Holy Spirit is the central feature of Jesus’ human experience and of our lives.
5. God sent Jesus into the world to proclaim his glory and to testify to the Good News of redemption
6. When Jesus departed he passed this mission on to the Holy Spirit who in turn would fill the church and empower believers to fulfill the mission of Jesus in the world
7. John affirms the anticipated return of Jesus for the early Christians

2 John

The author of this book is held to be the same John as the author of the book of John supported by quotations by Papias, bishop of Hierapolis in Asia Minor (AD 100-130).

It is apparent that Papias personally heard John speak at some time and it is known that John lived to be a very old man.

Therefore, it is reasonable to believe that the Apostle John was the author of the book of John, 1 John, 2 John and 3 John.

It was probably written sometime around AD 90.

John wants Christians to live in the eternal truth and to continue to love one another.

He warns them about false teachers.

He encourages them to hold on to the teaching of the Apostles concerning Jesus Christ so that they will receive their full reward.

He warns them to avoid the false teachers as all costs, for to associate with them would be heresy.

1 John

The author of this book is held to be the same John as the author of the book of John supported by quotations by Papias, bishop of Hierapolis in Asia Minor (AD 100-130).

It is apparent that Papias personally heard John speak at some time and it is known that John lived to be a very old man.

Therefore, it is reasonable to believe that the Apostle John was the author of the book of John, 1 John, 2 John and 3 John.

It was probably written sometime around AD 90.

This book urges Christian readers to stay with that they have heard “from the beginning”.

This means believing in the physical, human Jesus with the divine Son of God and in the saving value of his death.

It also means keeping the commandment to love one another.

This book repeatedly insists that one cannot truly believe in Jesus Christ without truly and selflessly loving other believers.

God is love.

The author stresses that Christians must maintain loyalty to Jesus’ apostles – those who had followed Jesus during his life and had known him personally – in order to safeguard against pseudo-spirituality and heresy.

John urges his Christian reader to:

1. Maintain loyalty in fellowship toward the apostles and thus to have fellowship with God, who is light, by living in the light he gives us;
2. Confess their sins to God and thus know the advocacy of Jesus Christ, the righteous one;
3. Esteem Jesus Christ as the Word of life, the Son of God;
4. Love God, who is love, and love other Christians;
5. Remain in Christ, become like Christ, and purify themselves of worldly lusts;
6. Know and experience God Personally and understand the truth through the Spirit;
7. Discern false teaching by the aid of the Spirit and recognize the spirit of false prophets and of the antichrist;
8. And enjoy eternal life.

Christians at this time were facing immense persecution for their faith and public displays of Christianity were being met with severe consequences, particularly under the Emperor Nero.

Titus

This letter to Titus was written by Paul about AD 63 and Titus was known to be a co-worker of Paul’s.

There is no written record of Paul ever traveling to Crete, so it can only be explained that Paul charged Titus with the responsibility to reach the churches that had been established there and give them focus.

Paul outlines the following –

1. Leadership in Crete
2. Relationships in the Church
3. Relationship with Society

The situation in Crete was far different than in Ephesus. Crete was a new church, with new converts, and therefore Paul’s letter fed them slowly so they could understand.

He identified what leadership was needed, what the relationships in the church should be and what the relationship was with society as it related to the church.

Paul chose to walk slowly and nurture the new church and gave Titus the responsibility of doing so.

Paul still emphasized the saving grace of God which had been shown to the world in the person and work of Jesus Christ.

Paul tries to show the importance of remembering how God has dealt with us, has given us salvation, and has provided for our godliness. The new converts in Crete had difficulty in understanding what this meant

The fact that Paul’s letter to Titus was short demonstrates a virtue by Paul to Titus that did not require many words, but only an explanation of a short remembrance.

2 Timothy

This book was probably written during the time Paul was imprisoned in Rome in AD 64-65 just prior to his death.

Paul’s letter was the final letter he wrote as he anticipated his imminent death, and he was summoning Timothy to Rome to receive his mantle of leadership.

Paul was still proclaiming the Good News of Jesus Christ. His imprisonment is not clearly explained as to why, but it is possible that the heretical false teachers had something to do with it as Paul has disciplined some of them earlier.

The Good News gives rise to a way of life that takes up the cross and follows Jesus in the life-giving power of his resurrection. Paul had modeled his life after Christ’s and now his own death was at hand.

Paul was certain that God’s work would be completed right up to the day of Christ’s return, yet he also knew that the continuing responsibility of God’s servants is great.

Paul passed the torch to Timothy and challenged him to carry Paul’s work forward.

In this letter, all who take up the cross and follow Jesus are charged to complete the ministry that God has given them, through the life giving power of Christ’s resurrection.

1 Peter

The Apostle Peter is the author and the recipients are Christians living in Asia Minor, where Paul had established churches many years earlier.

Peter probably writes this letter while in Rome in AD 60-62.

There is no record that Peter ever traveled to or visited any of the Christians in Asia Minor, now called Turkey.

Peter’s travels remain a mystery to this day except for his initial ministry in Jerusalem and Judea.

He was also in Antioch at one time.

Peter discussed the following in his letter –

1. Salvation and the Call to Holiness
2. Living under Authority
3. Doing Good in the Face of Suffering
4. Concluding Exhortations

Peter challenges his readers to regard their present temporary suffering as strengthening their faith and preparing them to receive salvation.

The gift of salvation should result in a life of holiness that recognizes the cost at which God purchased our salvation.

Finally, we are to love and have patience toward fellow Christians.

Peter calls on Christians to live within recognized authority structures as a witness to a hostile world.

Christians are to accept the authority of government, Christian slaves are to accept the authority of their Masters and Christian wives are to accept the authority of their husbands.

Husbands are to respond by honoring their wives. Behave in a way that God rewards.

Peter issues a challenge to respond to social pressures with honorable and respectful behavior, even when it results in abuse.

Our hope of redemption is secure because of Christ’s life, death, resurrection, and ascension.

Finally, Peter call for standing firm in the midst of suffering. He charges Elders, younger men and the Church at large with specific responsibilities.

Mark

Mark is the author of this Gospel book and it was written in approximately AD 65-70.

Mark could have been a scribe for Peter and merely written the stories of Peter, but more than likely, the writing is of Mark himself due to the fact that the author appears to be bilingual in that he knew intimate details of the Aramaic phrases in the Greek text.

He was also Jewish, in that he was able to explain various Jewish customs to his Gentile readers.

Being a Gospel, this book centered on the life, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ.

This Gospel was written for the Christians who were familiar with gospel traditions.

The author does not explain such things as who John the Baptist was, who Isaiah the prophet was, where Capernaum was located, various OT references of who King Herod was, or who the Pharisees and teachers of religious law were.

It is also apparent the readers were Roman because of the “Latinisms” in the book. Examples are his using the Latin word meaning “soldier”, he uses a Roman coin (the quadran) to explain the meaning of “two lepta” (Greek coins), and he uses the Latin word “centurion” rather than the Greek word with the same meaning that other Gospel writers used (Matthew and Luke).

Mark wanted his readers to know that Jesus of Nazareth is “the Messiah, the Son of God”.

Mark uses the title “Son of God” to describe Jesus frequently throughout the book.

Mark’s major theological emphasis is the identity of Jesus of Nazareth. He is above all “the Messiah”, “the Son of Man”, “the Son of God”.

Mark’s book is a passion about Jesus because of Jesus’ passion – his suffering, death, and resurrection. The emphasis was that Jesus’ death was God’s plan for his life with His life being a divine necessity for God had willed it.

Mark also stressed the importance of denying one’s self and taking up one’s cross.

Christians are promised that endurance in faith means salvation and eternal life.

Throughout Mark’s Gospel, Jesus tells others to keep quiet about his true identity, but Mark says that is not possible given the magnitude of Jesus and the wonders he creates and the amazement he shows by His works.

Mark reiterates that the Kingdom of God has come and people need to repent and believe the gospel because it has arrived.

OT promises are fulfilled.

Life in the Kingdom is different from what it was during the time awaiting the Kingdom.

Matthew

The authorship of the book of Matthew is speculation according to some scholars.

Many think it is a book written by a multilingual man, probably an Israelite, with a rather sophisticated command of Israelite traditions and scribal argumentation in the late first century, possibly between AD 65-80.

Other scholars believe that Matthew is in fact the author and used the Gospel of Mark as a source document for his writings, justifying the fact that it would not be a conflict for one apostle (Matthew) to use the account of another apostle (Peter) as a convenient source from which to shape his own report.

Matthew’s Gospel is distinctive in its presentation of Jesus as Messiah and Teacher; its emphasis on the Kingdom of Heaven; its strong call to discipleship; its constant pattern of OT fulfillment; its incisive criticism of the Jewish religious leaders; and its universal outlook that includes Gentiles in the Kingdom.

Matthew focuses on Jesus as Messiah. Jesus fulfills the OT prophesy.

Matthew uses “Kingdom of Heaven” over 30 times; it is a roundabout way for Jews to say “Kingdom of God.”

Matthew does this for the following reasons –

1. The invisible but present rule of God on earth through the saving work of Jesus the Messiah
2. The fulfillment of OT promises
3. The saving activity of God, often through quiet and humble means
4. The power and strength of God’s activity
5. The coming of the Kingdom within a “generation”
6. The final, climactic judgment of God
7. The final, perfect fellowship of all God’s holy people with the Father

Matthew Gospel stresses Jesus’ call for all men and women to be baptized, to follow him as disciples, to obey his teachings and to enjoy fellowship with him.

Jesus summarizes the requirements for discipleship in His Sermon on the Mount.

Matthew focuses on the interrelationship of the OT impact on the NT through the expectations and promises and their fulfillment in Jesus.

Matthew baffles logic by including Gentiles in the book so strongly in spite of the emphasis on Jewish orientation in the writing.

This Gospel emphasizes the Good News is for all people, including Gentiles.

Romans

This letter was probably written about AD 57.

Paul learned while writing the letter that the Roman Christian community had split into two distinct factions.

The Gentile Christians had become the majority and they were not concerned about the writings of the OT or with the demands of the Law of Moses. They even looked down on Jewish Christians.

The Jewish Christians retaliated by insisting on adherence to certain aspects of the Law of Moses.

Paul was placed in a position of addressing both the theological and social division, a schism that had at its heart the question of continuity and discontinuity between Jewish and Christian faith.

Paul divided his letter into 4 major parts –

• 1-4 was about the Heart of the Gospel: Justification by Faith
• 5-8 was about the Assurance Provided by the Gospel: The Hope of Salvation
• 9-11 was about the Defense of the Gospel: The Problem of Israel
• 12-15 was about the Transforming Power of the Gospel: Christian Conduct

Paul further disclosed in his writing of Romans three additional specific purposes:

• To summarize Paul’s theology
• To solicit support for a future mission to Spain
• To bring unity to the church in Rome

Paul was at a crossroads in his ministry at this time. He had presented his ministry to a broad area of the eastern Mediterranean basin and he now believed it was time to move to the far end (western) of the Mediterranean, hence his desire to go to Spain to preach the Good News in a new territory.

Paul probably wrote his letter to the Romans with an underlying purpose of soliciting funds for his travels to Spain to further his ministry. He was also aware of the need to heal the rift between the Gentile Christians and Jewish Christians. He focused a great amount of time on the division of the part the OT played in the Good News teachings.

The Heart of the Good News is the offer of salvation in Christ for all who believe.

Paul explores the problem of human sin, the solution provided in the cross of Christ, and the assurance of glory that a living relationship with Christ provides.

The message of the cross of Christ stands both in continuity with the OT (because its promises are truly fulfilled in Christ) and in discontinuity with it (as God in Christ inaugurates a new covenant that transcends the OT law).

Paul was attempting to make clear that salvation was all inclusive and not exclusive (allowing only Jews to be saved) for all Christians at the time.

Paul shows how the Good News relates salvation through faith to the continuity of God’s people from the OT to the NT and to the relationship of Jews and Gentiles in his own day. His letter has a lot to say about including Gentiles in God’s people and the relationship between Jews and Gentiles in the church.

The book of Romans is about the Good News and how everyone can have a right relationship with God.

Philippians

 Paul’s letter to the Philippians was the result of his founding a church in Philippi years earlier along with Timothy, Silas and others, probably during his second missionary travels.

It was also his first church established on European soil, and whose members were predominately gentile and whom Paul had regarded with a special affection and deep longing.

Paul was in prison, but he does not say where. (He was in prison a lot).

The time of the writing can’t be determined precisely since there is no exact reference to where he was imprisoned. It could have been while in Ephesus (AD 53-57) or in Rome (AD 60-62 or AD 64-65). There is sufficient theological belief that it could have been either location or time.

The important theme of the letter is Paul’s writing to them to let them know how they are being persecuted and he has empathy for them.

The Philippian Christians had also been imprisoned and suffering and Paul is relating to them.

They responded by praying for his release and sending one of their own with gives to supply his needs.

Epaphroditus was sent to Paul and subsequently became ill. When he regained his health, Paul sent him back, along with Timothy, to Philippi with this letter.

Paul affirms his gratitude to God for the Philippians and prays for their spiritual growth. He talks about his own experience of imprisonment and the way it has resulted in the spread of the Good News.

Paul’s greatest desire is to live and die for Christ, whatever the situation. He tells the Philippians that they too must be strong in their faith as they suffer for Christ. They should support each other, remembering the example of Christ, who gave up everything in sacrificing his life for theirs.

He warns them of the Jewish Christian propaganda requiring adherence to the Law of Moses. He reminds them of his own conversion from Judaism and the Mosaic Law.

The only important thing now is Christ – knowing his righteousness, sharing in his suffering and death, and experiencing his resurrection power both now and in the future.

Single-mindedness in pursuing the full life in Christ is paramount.

Colossians

There is much disagreement as to the authorship of the book of Colossians.

Some scholars believe it was written after Paul’s death by a follower in the mid to late AD 60s.

Others believe that the letter is part of the “prison letters” written by Paul which include Colossians, Ephesians, Philemon and Philippians, probably in AD 60-62 or shortly before Paul’s death in AD 64-65 in Rome.

All of the letters share the same common themes and vocabulary and were written to people in the same part of the world. Paul mentions some of the same co-workers in each of the prison letters. Onesimus carried the letter to Philemon who lived in Colosse. Onesimus also traveled with the letter to the Colossians.

Paul related in both Colossians and Ephesians that Tychicus would give the churches more information about Paul’s situation. It would seem then, that Tychicus was the messenger carrying the letters to their destinations in Asia Minor.

Paul addressed the false teachers and their teachings strongly. He determined that they were following false teachers:

• The false teachers were apparently insisting on the observance of Sabbath and new moon festivals (suggesting Jewish input)
• They were preoccupied with following various rules, particularly pertaining to the body (asceticism)
• Their emphasis on spiritual beings was typical of many religious movements of the period.

The problem is clear – Jesus Christ was NOT the center and origin of all religious experience; therefore, any teaching or philosophy that fails to do so is not the Good News.

Paul insists that Jesus Christ is supreme over all beings in creation, both spiritual and physical. Jesus is the one in whom the very fullness of God resides.

Jesus is the only ultimate source of spiritual growth; the center from which all true spiritual experience must radiate.

Christ has reconciled us to God in whom we now live, so all of our spiritual needs are fulfilled by Christ.

We need no one else, nor is there anyone else, that will fulfill that need.

Ephesians

The book was written in approximately AD 53-57 while Paul was in prison, possibly in Ephesus.

Other scholars dispute the writing as Paul’s and believe that it was written by a disciple of Paul’s.

Paul spent 2-3 years in Ephesus during his 3^rd missionary journey and most likely penned this book during that time. Keep in mind that it could have been written by an early disciple.

Paul stresses God’s Amazing Grace in Ch. 1-3 and Living like Christ in Ch. 4-6.

The thoughts and structure are somewhat different from other Pauline writings, but the concepts are similar in nature to other prison writings of Paul, notably Philippians, Colossians and Philemon.

There is a marked contrast with the known and unquestionable writings of Paul’s letters to Romans, 1^st Corinthians, 2^nd Corinthians, Galatians, Philippians, 1^st Thessalonians and Philemon.

All of these are definitely written by Paul and agreed by upon by essentially all noted scholars.

Ephesians is filled with gratitude for the saving grace God has shown to those who believe in Jesus Christ.

Solely by grace, believers have been chosen, forgiven, called into his family, made his children, promised his eternal blessings, and given the gift of his Holy Spirit to mark them as belonging to him forever.

Salvation is never earned; it is always a gift from God.

Every human being stands guilty and condemned before the eternal judgment of God, who cannot tolerate sin.

Apart from Christ, human beings are by nature driven by sin and subject to the devil, evangelism is an urgent issue in the NT.

God includes Gentiles in his family and this supports the Unity of the Church as being all inclusive and not exclusive.

Ethnic distinctions mean nothing to God and as a result they should mean nothing to God’s people. Believers should respond in humility, grace, and love, without consideration of ethnic differences.

One’s identity is defined by only by one’s faith in God.

Living like Christ means to turn away from the darkness of their former lives and, filled with the Holy Spirit, to live as new people of light, seeking only what is “good and right and true.”

They should express gentleness, kindness, integrity, respect, and love to others.

In relation to God, their lives are to be filled with purity, praise, and thanksgiving.

Believers are to become like Christ and reflect him in all they do and say.

In Christ they have been created to be like God.

Paul stresses respect and love at home.

Wives are to respect their husbands, children are to honor their parents, and slaves are to obey their masters. Husbands are to love their wives, parents are to discipline their children gently, and masters are to be gracious to their slaves.

Believers must use the weapons provided by God to defend themselves against evil. All of the weapons described are defensive weapons, except the short-bladed sword.

Paul doesn’t believe that Christian life centers on spiritual warfare in an aggressive or offensive sense.

1Timothy

 Scholars disagree mightily about the authorship and period of when this book was written.

Many believe Paul penned the book while in prison about AD 63.

Other scholars believe that it was written by someone other than Paul between AD 100-120 and used Paul’s name to give more credibility to the writing.

Still other scholars believe that it is Paul’s letter and the scribe liberally inserted his own thoughts into the letter all the while attributing it to Paul.

Nonetheless, Paul addresses specific issues in the book. The book is a passionate and masterful advocacy for the Good News of Jesus Christ, its ongoing progress in the world, and the new life which it creates and promotes.

Paul highlights the following in the book –

1. Dealing with False Teachers
2. The Responsibility to Act
3. Right Conduct in God’s Household
4. Right Teaching and Timothy’s Task
5. Right Conduct In God’s Household (re-emphasized)
6. Dealing with False Teaching (re-emphasized)

Paul’s primary concern in this book was to promote the mission of the church and advance the Good News in the world and promote the will of God.

Introduction

This lesson is an introduction to a study of the New Testament and highlights the important scriptural concepts by each author of the New Testament writings along with the time frame in which the writings may have occurred. These writings were part of a class assignment in seminary for Introduction to New Testament to help narrow the focus of the respective books for independent study and are the personal opinion of the author. You, the reader, may come to further or additional opinions as you conduct your own personal study.

The most important points from each book are the focus for these lessons and are to be used in addition to individual study of the respective books to help in the understanding of scripture. This opinion of the author is not to be considered the final and authoritative manner in which to study scripture, but to assist the reader in forming a study procedure to help them comprehend the writings of the individual authors, the interrelationships of the books, and the context in which the books were written and the historical period.

Disclaimer: this summary of the New Testament books is not to be considered to be all inclusive nor used as a replacement for detailed independent eschatological study of any of the New Testament writings.

1Thessalonians

Considered the oldest book in the New Testament by some scholars.

This letter was written by Paul to the church at Thessalonica. The letter is Pastoral, warm in tone and affectionate throughout. No evidence of disunity or theological debate. Paul draws from the Greek language when speaking about marriage, community life, and engagement in civil life.

Paul, Silvanus (called Silas) and Timothy founded a church. Paul was the major writer but may have had input from both Silas and Timothy from manuscripts they had written at the same time. This was particularly true from Timothy when he met Paul in Corinth and related to Paul the condition of the Church in Thessalonica. It was not uncommon to have joint composition of letters in the ancient world.

This letter was written around AD 51.

This is a letter of thanksgiving to God for the faith, love, and hope of the young Thessalonian church. Paul also relayed his concern for the church. Paul, Silas and Timothy were forced to leave Thessalonica unexpectedly and Paul was never able to return even though he had a great love for the church that had been established.

Paul was unable to go back so he sent Timothy back to strengthen them and to learn of their welfare. He was comforted by Timothy’s report of the well-being of the church.

He tells of his thanksgiving to God for them and his prayer that he might see them again.

When Paul learned of the sexual immorality, he responded by emphasizing God’s will for them to be holy.

Since the Thessalonians are not Jewish converts, he refrains from quoting the OT in his writings, and does not refer explicitly to Judaism or any of the problems associated with it (e.g. Mosaic Law), or to any OT person, institution, or event (e.g. Abraham, Moses, the temple, or sacrifice).

While he does not quote the OT it is obvious it is the underlying basis for his writing since Paul was Jewish.

This book gives us the first insight of Paul’s missionary journeys and his teachings. It relates the problems early Christians faced living in Greek society and lets us see the inner life of the early church.

Paul wants them to put on the breastplate of faith and love, and for a helmet the hope of salvation.

He says to rejoice always, pray without ceasing, give thank in all circumstances, for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus.

1 Corinthians

The first letter was written by Paul around AD 54 to a congregation he had founded several years earlier.

Paul wrote the letter from Ephesus prior to arriving in Corinth.

Timothy was sent ahead of Paul.

Corinth was known as an important city full of vice. It was the crossroads of major trading for both overland routes and sea routes. It was widely known for prostitution and other vices.

There was even a verb in Greek (korinthiazomai or “to act like a Corinthian”) that referred to sexual immorality.

Paul arrived in Corinth about AD 50 and stayed for 18 months.

This letter is an exhortation and pastoral counsel. Hence, Paul invokes scripture, specifically Christian traditions, sayings of Jesus, his own apostolic authority and example, and also conventional practices and wisdom.

Paul deals with a wide range of problems and questions facing the young church – some reflecting the problems of the city itself – and he gives specific advice on dealing with them.

He addresses the following issues –

• Criticism of Paul’s non-intellectual approach to evangelism
• A flagrant case of sexual immorality in the church
• The practice of taking fellow believers to court before pagan judges
• Problems of sexual immorality
• Questions about marriage, divorce, and staying single
• The question of whether believers are allowed to eat meat sacrificed to pagan idols
• The question of appropriate dress for women who minister publicly
• Irreverent and disrespectful behavior in receiving the Lord’s Supper
• Distorted perspectives on spiritual gifts and their practice
• Skepticism about a future resurrection of the dead

2 Corinthians

Paul wrote 2 Corinthians about AD 56 when he was in Ephesus.

It is a disjointed letter compared to 1 Corinthians. In fact it is known that Paul actually wrote not less than 4 letters to the Corinthians. The first letter is apparently lost, the second letter became 1 Corinthians, the third letter apparently is lost, and the fourth letter is 2 Corinthians, somewhat disjointed. Chapters 1-9 appear to be consistent with Paul’s earlier writings while chapters 10-13 appear to be digressions or texts/manuscripts similar to the Dead Sea Scrolls.

There are multiple theories (at least 7) that discuss the nature and sequence of events during Paul’s time in Corinth, Macedonia and Ephesus. Each theory has a substantial basis for truth and acceptance and scholars will never be able to come to a complete agreement as to which is the most accurate.

Paul also sent Titus instead of Timothy to Corinth during the writing of 2 Corinthians and partially waited for his return and report, perhaps causing some of the disjointedness in the writing itself. He felt Titus would see things in a different light and the people would not know Titus as they had known Timothy.

Because of the time Paul wrote this letter, about Ad 54, it can probably be considered to be during his most effective and prestigious time of his life in his ministry. It was written after 1 Thessalonians but before Romans.

This letter expounds upon issues not addressed by Paul in 1Corinthians. Because of the complexity of the city, Corinth, being the center of trade and prosperity, the makeup of the population was diverse and the location was perfect for being a cosmopolitan society bringing with it all of its ills and pleasures.

The first part of this letter describes the Ministers Job Description (Ch. 1-7). It goes into detail the about the responsibilities and privileges of being a leader. Ch. 5 brings reconciliation into focus.

Philemon

Some question as to Paul’s situation when he wrote to Philemon.

It was written about AD 57-58.

Paul was in prison but it is not known exactly which prison.

The general consensus is that a slave, Onesimus, has run away from his master, Philemon. While this may not be exactly true, the resulting letter from Paul to Philemon would cover either set of circumstances.

Paul writes this letter in a differential way so as not to offend Philemon, but to ask also that Onesimus be treated “as more than a slave”.

It should be noted that Philemon was a respected Christian leader and a gracious loving person. This letter was sent by Paul through Onesimus to Philemon and was written in warm loving manner. It resembles a letter of recommendation and carries the full weight of Paul’s apostolic authority.

The outcome of Onesimus is unknown, but some 50 years later he could be the person referred to in the writings of Ignatius as the highly regarded bishop of the province of Asia. This would be a perfect example that class distinctions are of no significance in the church of Jesus Christ.

This letter illustrates the way that attitudes and relationships are transformed in Christ. Those who know Christ are to see people through the eyes of love and to express that love in their relationships with others.

Galatians

This letter doesn’t clearly explain to whom it is addressing, other than they are called Galatians. It probably more closely identifies those people whom Paul and Barnabas taught as they founded churches in the southern part of the country. However, there is substantial thought that the Galatians were of the northern part of the country and Paul and Barnabas are addressing these people.

References are made in the book of Acts to Galatia and would seemingly lean toward the northern part of the country for Paul and Barnabas to travel.

Differences of scholarly opinion also differ as to when Galatians was written, some believing it was in AD 48-49 while others believe it was AD 53-57. Since there are many thematic links with 2 Corinthians and Romans, it is more likely the latter period of time. However, there is also sound reasoning that because Paul makes no mention of the council of Jerusalem in AD 49-50, and he does not mentioned the result of the council in his travels, this would lend more credibility that it was written before the council in Jerusalem and the date would be AD 48-49. I personally support this theory as to the time it was written.

Paul is addressing rival missionaries and contested issues in Galatians. Paul believes these missionaries to be agitators and troublemakers, perverting the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Sadly, these agitators are Christian Jews who have decided that if you believe in Jesus as the Messiah, then you have to undergo circumcision as a sign of their inclusion in God’s covenant. Problem – should the marks of Jewish identity be imposed on gentile converts? It appears that the missionaries wanted gentile converts not just to be circumcised but to adopt comprehensive observance of Jewish law.

Paul preaches the Good News is states that it is the only true Good News, he (Paul) is a genuine apostle of Christ and his opponents will suffer God’s judgment for their false message.

Paul reminds the Galatians of who he used to be, his conversion experience and his calling by God. Paul received the Good News as a direct revelation from Christ rather than from other Apostles in Jerusalem.

Paul makes and argument that his presentation of the Good News is scriptural and true. The Galatians had experienced the Spirit by faith so they would experience the same blessing that Abraham received. Paul reminds them that God’s demand for righteousness was fulfilled by Christ, not by keeping the law, and those who have faith in Christ become recipients of God’s promise to Abraham.

There is no doubt that Paul is the author of Galatians as well as Romans, 1 Corinthians and 2 Corinthians and is the most genuine of all the letters attributed to Paul.

Scripture Verse

          Philippians 4:10-13 New Revised Standard Version (NRSV)

Acknowledgment of the Philippians’ Gift

                ¹⁰ I rejoice in the Lord greatly that now at last you have revived your concern for me; indeed, you were concerned for me, but had no opportunity to show it. ¹¹ Not that I am referring to being   in need; for I have learned to be content with whatever I  have. ¹² I know what it is to have little, and I know what it is to have plenty. In any and all circumstances I have learned the secret of being well-fed and of going hungry, of having plenty and of being in need. ¹³ I can do all things through him who strengthens me.

This week I made a list of things to worry about as we start the New Year. These things are not personal in nature; rather they touch on national and international issues that affect all of us.

The immigration crisis in this country

No one can say with certainty what will happen when all is said and done regarding immigration with rhetoric on both sides; pros and cons and no seeming resolution.

Continued fighting in Afghanistan and Iraq

This week the fighting rages on with seemingly no end in sight.

New tax laws

The lack of assurance as to the effect of the new tax laws that have recently been passed on each of us as individuals. The purported increase in wealth of each person and the creation of new jobs and the repatriation of cash from overseas by corporations. Believable or not.

Economic uncertainty throughout the world

Moderate stabilization of the economic situation at home but rampant inflation in other countries resulting in unstable governments and hardship on people.

Rising global tensions

A recent article in the newspaper begins with the world facing  an upsurge in wars around the world. “We’re not heading into  a new world order, but an age of chaos,’’ said Thomas Moore, director of international studies at The Heritage Foundation. Major flash points include Iraq, North Korea, Indonesia, the Middle East and the Balkans.

Workplace sexual harassment

All of the allegations of workplace sexual harassment that has already been disclosed and those to be forthcoming in the New Year.

Police brutality and profiling

The profiling and stopping by the police; of people who look different than us by their demeanor, race, culture, lifestyle, and appearance and responding with deadly force in some instances.

This week I have spent some time reading articles from USA Today, CNN, and MSNBC. It is obvious that we are living in a time of growing uncertainty and personal anxiety. One noted researcher argues that we are moving from a period of basic world stability to a period of global instability. Many people feel this in a very personal way. We have some concern for what will happen to us and to our families. I know I am speaking to people with health concerns, financial worries, career issues, marital problems, spiritual struggles, unanswered prayers, and serious concerns about what the New Year will bring for you and your loved ones.

You may not be worried about Iraq, Afghanistan or North Korea, but you have your own issues that keep you awake late into the night.

Often we say “Happy New Year” rather glibly—many times without any thought at all.

Perhaps we should make it a question—Will 2018 be a happy new year for you? In this lesson I want to give you some words of encouragement for the year that stretches before us.

Instability is nothing new for the people of God. In every generation, believers have faced moments when fear threatened to overwhelm faith. God’s word to his people is always “Fear not.” Years ago I remember reading that the phrase “Fear not” is repeated 365 times in the Bible—once for every day in the year. No matter what happens in 2018 —or in the years to come—God’s word to you is the same: “Fear not.”

Our text offers some practical help as we move forward. Philippians 4:10-13 is perhaps the greatest statement in the New Testament on the subject of Christian contentment. We need to hear God’s message to us in the midst of so much public and private uncertainty.

A Place to Begin …

I’d like to begin by offering my own three-part definition of contentment:

A) Contentment is the belief that I have everything I need at this present moment.

B) It is also the confidence that if I needed anything else, God would give it to me.

C) It is also the certainty that when I need anything else, God will give it to me.

The first part is the key. True contentment means understanding that at any given moment I have everything I truly need. I almost certainly don’t have everything I want. And I probably don’t have everything I think I need. This part of the definition means that God has so ordered the universe that no matter where you are right now you have everything you truly need to be content.

That’s an awesome statement—and I know its one thing to say that on Sunday morning, it’s something else to believe that when your doctor says, “I’m sorry. There’s nothing else we can do.”

How do we know this is true? We know it because God has said it is true. He has promised to supply our needs. He has guaranteed that he will feed and clothe us. He has promised to hear our prayers. He has given the Holy Spirit to lead us and the Word of God to guide us. He has redeemed us from our sins, given us new life, placed us in Christ, endowed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places, seated us with Christ in heaven, given us abundant life, filled us with his Spirit, placed us in the body of Christ, promised us a way of escape in the moment of temptation, sent his angels to encamp around us, translated us from the realm of darkness into the kingdom of his dear Son, sealed us with the Spirit who is the earnest of our salvation, caused us to pass from death to life, justified us while we were still ungodly, called us his children, caused us to be born again by the Spirit, adopted us into his family, sanctified us, promised never to leave us, set our feet on the road to heaven, broken Satan’s power, removed the fear of death, and guaranteed our future resurrection.

So, if all that is true how can we doubt that God will give us what we need when we need it? And if we truly need something else, he’ll give that to us too. Which means that if we don’t have something we think we need, it’s because our heavenly Father knows best and has chosen not to give it to us right now. If we truly need it later, he’ll see that we get it.

That applies to every area of life—to your finances, your job, your health, your marriage, your friendships, your children, your parents, every relationship of life, and to all your dreams for the future. You’ve got everything you need to be content right now—and if you’re not, please don’t blame God. It’s not his fault.

Let’s take a look and see how this principle works out in this passage.

Contentment is not automatic but must be learned over time.

Look how clearly Paul states this truth. In verse 11 he declares, “I have learned to be content” and in verse 12 he says, “I have learned the secret of being content.” Why did Paul have to learn contentment? Why wasn’t it just given to him as a gift from God?

The answer is that God is most glorified when we struggle through the process of being weaned from our dependence on the things of the world. The picture is one only a mother can fully understand. A child is born and for a long time he looks to his mother’s breast as the source of his nourishment. Breakfast, lunch and supper all come from the same place. When he is hungry, he cries and his mother knows exactly what to do. Her milk satisfies him and back to sleep he goes.

But the day comes when he has to learn how to take a bottle. He cries, big tears roll down his face, his arms reach out but his mother pushes them away. He fights, he pouts, he screams, all to no avail. What has happened to mom? She who used to be his friend has now become his enemy. If mom has a heart at all, she cries too because from now on things will be different.

When the battle is over, when the tears have stopped, when he learns to eat with his brothers and sisters, then the child comes, lays his head on his mother’s breast, not in order to be fed, but just because he wants to be near her.

Here is the truth: Unless a mother weans her child, he will never grow up. Though it may seem hard, and though the child misunderstands, if a mother truly loves her child, she will not stop until her child has been weaned from her breast. When the job is done, the child no longer begs for that which once seemed indispensable. Once he could not live without his mother’s milk; now he no longer needs it.

To be weaned is to have something removed from your life which you thought you couldn’t live without. Most of us live on the opposite principle. In our hearts we think, “I would be happy if only I had a new car or a new job or a new dress or a new husband or a new wife or all the money in the world.” Since life is hardly ever that simple, we stay frustrated when we ought to be happy.No wonder we are never satisfied. Instead of being weaned from the world, we are wedded to it. Or maybe I should say, welded to it.

Happiness depends on circumstances; Contentment comes from my confidence in God.

Verse 12 lays this out very clearly. “I know what it is to be in need, and I know what it is to have plenty.” In case we missed it he adds this phrase, “Whether well fed or hungry, whether living in plenty or in want.” It’s easy to assume Paul means being well fed is good and going hungry is bad. But that’s not correct.

Poverty and prosperity both have their good uses—and both can lead us astray spiritually. If we take the words of Jesus seriously, riches can wreck the soul much quicker than poverty (see Matthew 19:23-26).

The comedy film Cool Runnings is about the first Jamaican bobsled team to go to the Winter Olympics. John Candy plays a former American gold medalist who becomes a coach for the Jamaican team. The players grow to like the American coach and affectionately dub him “Sled-god.” Late in the story the coach’s dark history comes out. In an Olympics following his gold medal performance, he broke the rules by weighting the U.S. sled, bringing disgrace on himself and his team. One of the Jamaican bobsledders could not understand why anyone who had already won a gold medal would cheat. Finally he nervously asked Candy to explain.

“I thought I had to win,” said the coach. “But I learned something. If you are not happy without a gold medal, you won’t be happy with it, either.”

Paul knew that riches are not the way to contentment. So he was willing to hold material things with an open hand. He refused to become a slave to wealth. He could walk away from prosperity when service to the Lord demanded it. What about you? Are you killing yourself to get that gold medal? Let me remind you – if you’re not happy without it, you won’t be happy with it either.

III. Contentment rests on two great truths:

1) That God has ordained every circumstance of my life.

I know of no truth more important than this. This week I pondered why the wicked prosper while the righteous often suffer in this world. As a pastor I constantly face this question in dealing with the seeming inequities of life. Hardly a week goes by that I don’t hear about someone in our life who is battling with cancer. What I can’t explain is why it happens to one person and not to another.

Not long ago I was given a test in a hospital to see if I had a certain form of cancer. That’s a little scary no matter how healthy you feel. The results were good—no evidence of cancer. But as I thought about it, it occurred to me that from a human point of view I had simply dodged a bullet. And maybe only temporarily. After all, I am a 4 time cancer survivor and I praise God every day for a new lease on life.

You can go through life asking, Why did this happen? And you’ll end up frustrated and disappointed because in this life there is rarely a satisfactory answer to that question. We simply don’t know why some people live long and prosper while others never seem to catch a break. In the world’s terms, they are victims of bad luck.

From the standpoint of Holy Scripture, we can only say that God is working out his plan in ways we can’t see from our limited vantage point.

This becomes very personal when I pray with people as they face the uncertainties of life. One thing I’ve learned is that there are no guarantees, which is why a long time ago I stopped making promises about what God will do in a particular situation. Generally, I don’t know what God is going to do, and I’m content to leave matters in his hands.

In verse 12 Paul says “I have learned the secret of being content.” Don’t you love secrets? It’s always fun when anyone says, “Let me tell you a secret.” So what is the secret of contentment? I think the answer can be found in two phrases.

First, in verse 11 he mentions “whatever the circumstances,” and then in verse 12 he says “in any and every situation.”

Those two phrases would appear to cover all that life has to offer. The secret of contentment lies in understanding that nothing happens by chance, but everything is ordained by the hand of a loving God.

I like the word “ordained” because it is a very strong word. Some people may think it smacks of fatalism but to me it simply means that God is in charge of all the details of life—the good and the bad, the positive, the negative—and he has ordained not only what happens to us, but when it happens, how it happens, where it happens, what happens before it happens, and what happens after it happens.

I know it’s easy to get hung up on that, and to worry about things like predestination—which is a very biblical concept. It helps to remember that from our point of view we simply see events unfold topsy-turvy, almost like a handful of dice that come rolling out of the sky. Everything seems random; nothing seems to have a purpose. And so we react to life as it comes, not knowing what tomorrow will bring.

Here’s where biblical faith comes in. As I stand and watch those dice rolling all around me, I can look up and see the invisible hand of God blowing on the dice so that the numbers come up just the way he wants (see Proverbs 16:33).

Proverbs 16:33 New Revised Standard Version (NRSV)

³³ The lot is cast into the lap,
but the decision is the Lord’s alone.

Nothing happens by chance. There is no such thing as luck or fate or kismet or happenstance.

Contentment is possible when I realize that everything happens for a purpose—whether I see it or not. Usually I don’t see as it unfolds before me—and often I never fully understand it even in retrospect.

This is where the First Rule of the Spiritual Life becomes so helpful: He’s God and we’re not.

That leads me to a personal question. Are you willing to let God be God in your life in 2018? Or do you intend to tell him how to do his job? You can be God or he can be God—and there’s nothing in between those two options. As long as you try to be God, you’ll be miserable, frustrated, and very discontented because you were not made to run the universe—not even the little patch of it you call your life. Even that small patch belongs to God—and you’ll never be happy or content until you surrender your right to run your own life and let God be God in all things.

1. That God will give me strength in every circumstance to do his will.

This is the true meaning of Philippians 4:13, “I can do all things through Christ who gives me strength.” This verse, wonderful as it is, has sometimes been misused by well-meaning believers who make it say more than Paul intended. Occasionally people say things like “You can do whatever you want to do—Philippians 4:13″—as if it were a magic formula that could make me a millionaire or give me wings to fly through the air. The phrase “all things” must be defined by its context.

Paul is talking about being content in every circumstance—whether he had plenty or whether he had next to nothing. Verse 13 explains how he managed to live above his circumstances. He did it only by the power of Jesus Christ dwelling in him. For him, the secret of contentment was not a stiff upper lip or a positive mental attitude. He was content precisely because he had learned to rely completely on Jesus Christ.

This takes more than positive thinking. You’ve got to have Jesus Christ on the inside. Are we who believe we are better than other people? No. Do we suffer? Yes. What makes the difference? We have the power of the indwelling Christ who gives us the strength we need.

Is it enough? Is Jesus Christ enough for the problems of life? Is his broken body enough? Is his shed blood sufficient? Is his intercession in heaven able to sustain us? Can his power meet the problems of life? Yes, yes, a thousand times yes, and the saints across the ages testify that Jesus Christ is enough.

Show me a truly contented person and I’ll show you a miracle. In this fallen world contentment cannot be explained apart from the supernatural power of Jesus Christ. The beauty is that if you’re not a content person, if you haven’t experienced that miracle, you can – simply by learning to lean on the Lord.

Proverbs 3:5-6New Revised Standard Version (NRSV)

⁵ Trust in the Lord with all your heart,
and do not rely on your own insight.
⁶ In all your ways acknowledge him,
and he will make straight your paths.

I come now to the end of my message. What will this year mean for the world, for America, for your family, for you personally? No one but God can answer those questions. But there is one thing we know. God has given us everything we need for this New Year. Therefore we can be content whatever happens, and we need not fear the future.

On December 10th, 2017, I was invited by Pastor Blair Cuares of The Word fror Everyone church in Davao City, Philippines, to preach a message about the birth of Jesus. What follows, with the exception of the End Notes,  is the text of that preaching.

As we approach Christmas, the birth of Jesus takes center stage. Of the four Gospel accounts, only two speak about this event, Matthew and Luke. When Pastor Blair approached me last week about addressing you today, he mentioned that he wanted something “different.” Since he spent a good deal of his sermon last week examining the obedient behavior of Jesus’ parents, Joseph and Mary, in the Book of Luke, I’ll take that to mean that he’s leaving the Matthew account to me.

What Pastor Blair may also have meant when he wanted something “different” was that he wanted an “Hebraic” approach, and as such, the Book of Matthew is probably an excellent fit. There are over 5000 known Greek manuscripts of the Book of Matthew, compared to less than 30 written in Hebrew, mostly pertaining to a 14th-century Hebrew translation known as the Shem Tov Matthew. However, a number of early Church fathers–Papias, Origen and Eusebius–all considered the original Book of Matthew to have been authored in Hebrew.[1] Although there are differing views over the dominant language of 1st Century Judea–the land that Jesus walked–there has emerged mounting evidence that Hebrew, not Aramaic, was that language.[2] This evidence includes the vast majority of Biblical texts found in 1947 in the caves of Qumran, otherwise known as the Dead Sea Scrolls, that were printed in Hebrew. Also among the findings at Qumran were non-Biblical texts known as pesharim, used to teach the Scriptures to the common man of Jesus’ time. They are all in Hebrew. Of 100 Semitic-language coins in 1st Century Judea, 99 were minted in Hebrew compared to one in Aramaic. Of the 700 pottery fragments found at Mosada–the climactic battle location of the failed 70 A.D. Jewish revolt against the Romans–Hebrew inscriptions outnumber Aramaic ones by a ratio of 9 to 1.

So, with all this in view, we read Matthew primarily relying on the Greek text, with a keen eye for Hebrew word equivalents that may have been used by the earliest readers of the book.

One more thing before we launch into the Matthean text. . .all of us are seeking a connection with God. The paths we take can be different. Some of us connect with God primarily through prayer. Others, as Pastor Blair emphasized last week, make their connection with God primarily through obedience to God’s commands. Still others have dreams or visions or speak prophetically.

Many, including me, find their primary connection with God through the reading of His Word. I do not claim this to be a better connection, or more important than any of the others. Any connection to God is a great connection. However, when we seek to connect with God through His Word, then it’s important to allow the Word to speak to us. One way that we allow the God-inspired authors of Scripture to reveal what they intended us to understand is to identify how they arranged the text. We can start by looking at repeating words and ideas in the text of a passage. As we do this, we begin to cobble together the literary structure of a passage. Once we do that, we begin to discern what the God-inspired author intended for us to know.

The birth of Jesus is found in Matthew 1:25. Prior to that, in verse 24, Joseph, the earthly father of Jesus, awoke from a dream. The opening line of verse 24 reads: “And Joseph awoke from his sleep.” Question: is there a corresponding verse in which Joseph enters his dream? In verse 20, we find this:  “But when he had considered this [secretly sending away the pregnant Mary, his betrothed],  an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream, saying ‘do not be afraid to take Mary as your wife.'”  Is the angel of the Lord mentioned elsewhere? Returning to verse 24, after Joseph awoke, the verse continues that Joseph “did as the angel of the Lord commanded him, and took Mary as his wife.”

As we identify correspondences in the text, a literary structure begins to emerge. What are these correspondences? First, Joseph fell asleep and entered a dream; this corresponds to Joseph waking up from his dream. Next, during the dream, an angel of the Lord (Gr.: angelos Kyriou) appeared to him “saying, do not be afraid to take Mary as your wife.” This corresponds to Joseph obeying the command of that same angel of the Lord (Gr.: angelos Kyriou)  after he woke up and he “took Mary as his wife.” The word “take” appears in both corresponding verses. That word in Greek is paralambano meaning “aggressively taking from close alongside.” Joseph is portrayed here not as someone who gently acquiesced to the command of the angel, but rather as one who fully embraced the task assigned to him. What we’re observing in these correspondences is that the divinely-inspired author, in this case Matthew, has embedded a literary structure into the text of this passage about Jesus’ birth by first connecting what happened during Joseph’s dream to what happened after he awoke. And this literary arrangement points us toward other correspondences that ultimately lead toward the central meaning of the passage. 

As we continue reading, what is the next correspondence that we find? In verse 21, the angel told Joseph that Mary “will bear a son.” This corresponds to the birth of Jesus in verse 25 in which we read: “she bore a son.” The English “will bear” in verse 21 and “bore” in verse 25 derive from the same Greek root, tikto, meaning to bring forth or beget, essentially to give birth.

We now reach the next correspondence in this literary structure. After Joseph was told by the angel in verse 21 that Mary will bear a son, he was also told “to call (kaleo) his name (onoma) Jesus.” This corresponds to verse 25 in which, upon the birth of his son, Joseph “called (kaleo) his name (onoma) Jesus.” And this circles us back to something very Hebraic about this passage, because in Hebrew, names mean things.  A person’s Hebrew name reveals something very important about the person bearing the name–one’s name may point to a person’s origin, character and/or purpose. For instance, the name Adam means man but is very closely related to that from which man originated, the  Hebrew adamah, meaning ground for “the LORD God formed a man (adam) from the dust of the ground (adamah).” (Genesis 2:7) The Hebrew name of Abel is Hevel, meaning vapor.  Vapor does not attach to anything nor does it claim ownership of anything. That’s its “character.” This also being Abel’s character, he parted with the finest of his flocks when he made an offering to God. The Hebrew for Moses is Moshe, meaning to be “drawn out of water.” (Exodus 2:10) This not only looks back to his origin, having been drawn from the waters of the Nile River by Pharoah’s daughter, but also speaks to his divinely-set purpose, for it was Moses who would, as the agent of God, draw the nation of Israel from the waters of the parted sea, from enslavement to freedom.

One of the first usages of the Hebrew word for name, shem, is found Genesis 2:10, and reveals much about the meaning of the word. It reads: “Now a river flowed out of Eden to water the garden; and from there it divided and became four rivers.”  In this verse, the word shem is not translated as name, but is translated as “there.” “But from there (shem) the rivers divided. . .” Shem is a source of something.

Turning to Jesus, his Hebrew name also means something as well as representing a source of something. That name is Yeshua, short for Yehoshua, meaning “YHVH saves.” This very meaning of the name, Jesus, sits near the center of Matthew’s literary structure, for in verse 1:21, when the angel of the Lord instructed Joseph to name his son Jesus, he adds: “For he will save his people from their sins.” This, in turn, corresponds to another name by which the Messiah is known–Immanuel–and the Hebrew meaning of which is given in verse 23, “God with us.” Based on the meaning of the name Jesus–in Hebrew, Yeshua–and the corresponding name in Matthew’s literary arrangement, Immanuel, the purpose for which Jesus was born is revealed, and that is that the “God with us” is the God who will “save His people from their sins.” When we celebrate Christmas–the birth of Jesus–we celebrate, first and foremost, this purpose.

Next, let’s look a little more deeply at the meaning of Jesus’ name. In Hebrew, his formal name is Yehoshua. That name is found 218 times in the Old Testament, mostly in reference to Joshua, the successor to Moses as the leader of Israel. Yeho is an abbreviated form of Yehovah, God’s most essential name, mentioned 6828 times in the Hebrew Scriptures and translated in most Christian bibles as LORD, in all capital letters. It is also a common prefix of Hebrew names of kings such as Yehoshaphat (YHVH judges) and Yehoiachin (YHVH establishes), and Yehonathan (YHVH gives), who we know as Jonathan, the eldest son of King Saul and dear friend of David.

The remainder of Jesus’ Hebrew name is based on the word, yasha, meaning to save. What exactly does it mean to save? Most people, when asked this question, immediately associate the word save with going to heaven or eternal life. Those are outcomes of salvation, but it is less important to know what the word has come to mean today than to know what it likely meant to the divinely-inspired author and the audience to whom he was speaking in his day. For it is through the text of the divinely-inspired author that we connect with the Divine Being. So, to discern the meaning of save, we need to look at the word itself in the context of ancient Hebrew. Yasha consists of three Hebrew letters: a yod (pronounced in English like a y), a shin (pronounced in English as a sh) and an ayin, which looks like an English y but has no verbal pronunciation. The 22 letters of the Hebrew alphabet are considered divinely ordered and as such, have a particular purpose and meaning underlying the order in which they appear in a given word. In addition, each letter is considered to mean something relating to its ancient expression as a picture of something. Such is the case here. Pictographically, the yod resembles a hand–not surprisingly, the word for hand in Hebrew is yadah, or in its shortened form, yad, and in its most primitive meaning, denotes a deed or action. The shin resembles teeth, and its primitive meaning is to consume or destroy. The ayin was at one time drawn in the form of an eye–the word itself means eye–and the meaning therein is to look upon something. Taken together,  the yod is the hand that rescues, the shin is the teeth that destroy one’s enemy and the ayin is the eye of the rescued which gazes in reverence upon the one who rescues.

There are examples of the salvation “process” in both Testaments. One of the best is found at the end of Exodus 14. Here, as you well know, the Israelites were backed up against the sea with the Egyptian army, led by Pharaoh, in hot pursuit, seeking to destroy them. In verse 21, it reads that “Moses stretched out his hand (yad) over the sea” and the LORD parted the waters, providing safe passage for the nation of Israel. In verse 27, Moses again stretched out his hand, and the LORD caused the water to return, covering all the Egyptians so that in verse 28 it reads that “not even one of them remained.”  Not a single Egyptian who entered the sea survived. In verse 31, it reads “And Israel saw the great work the LORD did against the Egyptians and the people feared the LORD.” The word translated as work is in Hebrew, yad, that is, hand. The word translated as “feared” is yare, which in this context means “revered.” So the eyes of Israel gazed in reverence upon the great hand of the LORD that utterly destroyed their enemy. The hand that rescues, the destruction of the enemy, and the eye that gazes upon the rescuer, yod-shin-ayin, the letters of the word yasha, are all present in this passage. In verse 30, it states: The LORD saved Israel that day.” The word “saved” in that verse is based on the root word, yasha.

When Matthew, a 1st-Century Jew, likely authored his gospel in Hebrew and used the word yasha, this is what it meant to be saved. When he said that Jesus was born “to save his people from their sins,” it meant that by Jesus’ hand, his people would be rescued, by that same hand, the enemy, sin, that which aims to destroy us would itself be destroyed, and the people would look upon He who rescues with reverence as their savior. His very name, Yehoshua, given to him at birth, meant that he was the source of salvation for all mankind.  And he is the one we revere in this Christmas season.

END NOTES

[1] “Matthew put down the words of the Lord in the Hebrew language, and others have translated them, each as best he could.”—Papias, mid-2^nd Century A.D.

“Matthew, indeed, produced his gospel written among the Hebrews in their own dialect.”—Irenaeus, (120-202 A.D.)

“The first [gospel], composed in the Hebrew language, was written by Matthew. . .for those who came to faith from Judaism—Origen, (first quarter of the third century)

These quotes were recorded by Eusebius, a Roman historian, in his book Ecclesiastical History. who would later become the Bishop of Caesarea in Palestine in 314 A.D. He made his own comment below:

“Matthew had first preached to the Hebrews, and when he was about to go to others also, he transmitted his gospel in writing in his native language.”

[2] In 1947, the year of Israel’s rebirth as a country, the Dead Sea Scrolls were discovered in twelve caves near the site of Wadi Qumran in what is known as the West Bank today. Included among the findings were 179 manuscripts, some very fragmentary, of every Old Testament book except Esther. The vast majority were written in Hebrew. Also found were 10 non-Biblical texts specific to Qumran itself—a community that was wiped out by the Romans in 68 A.D. One was in Aramaic whereas the other nine were in Hebrew. 30% of the findings were  commentaries on the Bible known as pesharim—all of these were in Hebrew. The importance of the pesharim is that they were the texts used to educate the Israeli population—ancient schools in Israel did not have the Greek structure of language, mathematics and the sciences—they were instead primarily focused on the Scriptures as the subject of learning. Therefore, the common man would need to be able to read the pesharim in order to gain an education.

Archeologically speaking, coins and inscriptions point to the prevalent use of Hebrew in 1^st-Century Israel. Of the 215 types of coins minted in and around the time of Jesus, 99 are inscribed in Hebrew compared to just one in Aramaic. The rest were largely in Greek, owing to the rule of the Roman puppet, Herod. During periods of Jewish coins were minted, all inscribed in Hebrew. In terms of inscriptions, excavations beginning in 1968 at the Temple Mount in Jerusalem have yielded numerous inscriptions in Hebrew, Greek and Latin, but not a single one in Aramaic. Excavations conducted at Masada between 1963 and 1965 unearthed over 700 pottery fragments with inscriptions in Hebrew, Aramaic, Greek and Latin. The ratio of Hebrew to Aramaic exceeds nine to one.