HF091 - The Nature of the Child (of God)
To: Hebraic-Foundations@yahoogroups.com
From: "Pastor Buddy Martin" <Bro.Buddy@ChristianChallenge.org>
Date: Fri, 11 Jul 2003 16:04:21 -0500
Subject: Bible Study HF091 - The Nature of the Child (of God)
Hebraics,
When Jesus commanded the seas to be still, the disciples were amazed, and said, "What kind of a man is this, that even the winds and the sea obey Him?"
When temple servants were sent to apprehend Jesus, they came back empty handed. Their only response was, "Never has a man spoken the way this man speaks."
The list goes on and on. Jesus was so different. Little children wanted to be near Him. He broke traditions. He had meals with those considered the most defiled of peoples. He openly challenged and even rebuked their religious leaders.
And the parables --- They were unlike anything the people had ever heard. Not only were they mysterious and compelling, but He spoke as the One who had authority in Himself. No rabbi ever dared speak that way.
What they didn't realize at the time was that Jesus was drawing attention to spiritual issues that would come into place with the new covenant. One of the issues had to do with the very nature of those who would be born into the kingdom of the beloved Son. These people would be very much like Jesus. They too would be different.
This is what we want to look at in this study. This is Bible Study HF091 - The Nature of the Child (of God).
As a backdrop for the study I want to draw attention to a story Jesus told a Jewish lawyer, who wished to justify himself himself in his being a keeper of the Law. When Jesus told him to love his neighbor as himself, the man quirped, "And who is my neighbor."
The story Jesus shared with this man struck at the heart of what Judaism had become. Jesus exposed the self-centeredness that Judaism had taken to itself. Let's listen to the story.
"A man was going down from Jerusalem to Jericho, and fell among robbers, and they stripped him and beat him, and went away leaving him half dead. And by chance a priest was going down on that road, and when he saw him, he passed by on the other side. Likewise a Levite also, when he came to the place and saw him, passed by on the other side."
"But a Samaritan, who was on a journey, came upon him; and when he saw him, he felt compassion, and came to him and bandaged up his wounds, pouring oil and wine on them; and he put him on his own beast, and brought him to an inn and took care of him."
"On the next day he took out two denarii and gave them to the innkeeper and said, 'Take care of him; and whatever more you spend, when I return I will repay you.' Which of these three do you think proved to be a neighbor to the man who fell into the robbers' hands? And he said, 'The one who showed mercy toward him.' Then Jesus said to him, 'Go and do the same.'" (Luke 10:30-37)
What is not said but can be assumed is that the man left half dead was himself a Jew. But for the priest and Levite, this mattered little. They dared not touch the man because it would made them ritually unclean. In this story Jesus is doing something that we don't readily see. He is showing how religion can become distorted to where it only becomes a system of self-righteousness.
It could also be said in this story, that Jesus is reaching back to time to when there was no such thing as ritual impurity. There was no ritual impurity with Adam and Eve. There was no ritual impurity with Noah or Abraham. And something very much the same would be in place in the new covenant.
Time after time Jesus spoke to the Jewish religious leaders about their lack of compassion. Consider a couple of these:
"But go and learn what this means: 'I desire compassion, and not sacrifice,' for I did not come to call the righteous, but sinners." (Matt 9:13)
"But if you had known what this means, 'I desire compassion, and not a sacrifice,' you would not have condemned the innocent." (Matt 12:7)
God had long rebuked this 'holier than thou' attitude that had arisen in Judaism. Speaking through the prophet Amos, He said, "I hate, I reject your festivals, nor do I delight in your solemn assemblies. Even though you offer up to Me burnt offerings and your grain offers, I will not accept them ... Take away from Me the noise of your songs ... let justice roll down like waters and righteousness like an everflowing stream." (Cf. Amos 5:21-24)
Back to the story --- There is no question that Jesus had concern over holiness issues. But holiness speaks of that which belongs to God. What had happened with the Pharisaic system is that what they called holiness had become a stench before God. This is why you find Jesus rebuking the Jewish leaders to much. The religious minded leadership had lost all compassion for those around them. They had become 'touch me nots.'
However, the focal point of the story is not simply about the good deeds of the Samaritan. It is about the good heart of the Samaritan. The focal point is the Samaritan himself.
To the Jews there was no such thing as a 'good' Samaritan. Samaritans were considered half breeds and heretics. To even use a Samaritan in such positive way was an affront to the religious Jew. But Jesus kept doing this time after time. The Jewish leaders had long become blind to God's love for all people. This blindness had cast a shadow over the peoples by and large. It needed to be dealt with.
A good example of this is when Jesus was ministering in His
hometown synagogue. He drew attention to God's love for all
men, by bringing attention to how the Lord healed Naaman the
leper, when many lepers in Israel were not healed. Naaman was
a Syrian. He also spoke of the widow of whom Elijah had
blessed, and the widow was of the
land of Sidon. Yet there were many widows in Israel.
Rather than having their hearts pricked, the result was quite different than one would expect. It says "The people in the synagogue were filled with rage as they heard these things; and they got up and drove Him out of the city, and led Him to the brow of the hill ... in order to throw Him down the cliff." (Cf. Luke 4:16- 30)
Now we see the spirit (religion) that crucified Jesus. Could it happen today? Do we still have the 'touch me not for I am holy' attitude among certain ones today? We will always have them, but there isn't much to do in their case. We must get on with what the Lord has for us.
I really don't mean become negative with this study. Let's
come to the heart of the Samaritan story. The kingdom of God
is to be made up of 'we' Samaritans, so to speak. This was the
shocker to the Jews. And this was a primary reason that many
totally rejected Jesus. It took away from their being a
privileged class. They always wanted to be
held in high honor above all other peoples.
Even the early Jewish church had a struggle over the idea that salvation is for peoples of all cultures, and that the Jew had no special place nor privilege in the new covenant. The Pharasaic teachings had to be processed out of their own lives.
Peter was afraid to enter the house of a Gentile because of defilement. The Lord had to give him a vision, and also put things together so that Peter could not deny the hand of the Lord at work.
This is also the major reason Paul suffered so much by the hands of Jewish peoples, and why the Judaisers followed behind him and tried to destroy his work. But it didn't matter. What the Lord was doing was never in the control of man. He would call to Himself peoples of all the earth.
Paul explained it this way: "But God has chosen the foolish things of the world to shame the wise, and God has chosen the weak things of the world to shame the things which are strong, and the base things of the world and the despised God has chosen, the things that are not, so that He may nullify the things that are, so that no may may boast before God." (1 Co 1:27,28)
Now let's take the story of the good Samaritan a step further. It is in this story that we catch a glimpse of a character trait to be found in those born from the above. When a person is born again, they lose their self-centeredness and take on a new center of life. We hear the apostle say, "For the love of Christ controls us ... so that they who live might no longer live for themselves, but for Him who died and rose again on their behalf." (2 Co 5:14,15)
True Christians do not recluse or isolate themselves from the world. They insulate themselves by virtue of their nature. They are different from the world.
But why is it that Christians feel compelled to go into all the world, to share the the love of Jesus on the streets, in parks, and in remote villages? They go on to build hospitals and orphanages, to gather in the poor and despised, and to do such things without asking for government assistance. Could this be what Christ like really means. Think about it.
Jesus said that the strongest testimony of His disciples would be the outflow of their love. Paul said that the love of God has been poured into our hearts by the Holy Spirit. This can only mean that God has give us a capacity to love as Christ loved, and to have compassion as He had compassion.
There is much more to be said, but let's open the study for discussion. Feel free to make contributions.
The Lord bless you,
Buddy
Lawrence E. (Buddy) Martin, HF Host
email: Bro.Buddy@ChristianChallenge.org
Web: http://www.christianchallenge.org/
"See to it that no one comes short of the grace of God; that no root of bitterness springing up causes trouble, and by it many be defiled." (Heb12:15)