Hearts United in Love

June 23, 2019 Background Scripture: Colossians 2:1 – 15 Lesson Passage: Colossians 2:1 – 15 There is always a danger of watering down the gospel by mixing it with something else that is not of Christ. Christ is sufficient. This is a simple concept that is often difficult to grasp—even for believers. It just seems natural to want to find something else to add to the gospel narrative. We use philosophy, religion, civil law, and a host of other things in our attempt to augment the gospel. Philosophy, legalism, and religious rituals can be the greatest threat to the growth of a believer’s faith. The more we depend on other things to support the gospel, the further we move away from depending on God. We like to feel self-sufficient. This is not a recent phenomenon or development. The Apostle Paul struggled with this same behavior in some of the first century congregations. Paul labored in prayer and teaching the scriptures to strengthen them. Paul acknowledged working hard on behalf of the congregation that was at Colossae—although he had not met some of them personally. He prayed earnestly for them that they would be joined together in the love of Christ. True knowledge of Christ gives understanding that is wealth, which consists of wisdom and knowledge found in Christ. Paul desired for all Christians, everywhere, to come into the sincere knowledge of Christ. He even prayed earnestly for those he had not met personally, such as the congregation of Colossians. The lack of scriptural knowledge concerning Christ was causing many to become unstable in their faith. This was not good during a time when Christians were enduring much persecution. Stability of faith is based on the assurance that comes from understanding who Christ is and not based on persuasive arguments. New believers need to be well grounded in their faith. Afterwards, they need to grow spiritually and become part of the ministry of making disciples for Christ. The believer’s faith in Christ establishes a root but walking in the knowledge of Christ builds the believer up. When we walk in the knowledge of Christ, we continuously acknowledge him as our Lord. Believers should seek to know more about Christ and to continuously experience his presence. All fullness for a believer is found only in Christ. Philosophy can be a powerful attractant and people are often drawn to it. Our flesh revels in philosophy. Paul warned the Colossians that being drawn to philosophy and away from the centrality and all-sufficiency of Christ was dangerous for them as believers. Those warnings still hold true today. Another threat to new believers involves moral law. Part of the Law God gave Israel through Moses was a moral law. All of the demonic forces that could come against a believer could only do so because of the Law. Sin gives strength to the Law. Christ took on the Law by meeting its righteous demands and was made sin by being nailed to the cross. Through his actions, Christ canceled the sin debt for all believers who put their faith in him and the finished work on Calvary’s cross. Today, it could be said that the greatest enemy of the believer is false teaching. False teaching causes believers to become sidetracked from true spiritual growth in Christ. Like the first century believers, we must strive to resist false teaching, philosophy, and legalism. As we do so, we will find our hearts united together in love. Robert C. Hudson May 16, 2019

Right Attitudes

June 30, 2019 Background Scripture: Matthew 5:1 – 12 Lesson Passage: Matthew 5:1 – 12 Matthew 5 is the beginning of the narrative that is often referred to as the Sermon on the Mount. The bible records that large crowds started to follow Jesus at this point in his ministry. The people came from all of the regions where Jesus had been teaching and performing miracles. One day as Jesus was looking at the crowd, he went to the side of a hill and sat down. His disciples came to him and he started teaching them about many principles of the kingdom of heaven. This is the beginning of what Jesus said to them. There is a series of nine statements that declare a blessing for various people who are described within the statements. This series of statements has come to be known as the beatitudes—or as some will say, these are the attitudes that followers of Jesus should have. This list describes situations and attitudes that individuals do not seek to become or experience. So, it is significant that Jesus said there is a blessing for those who are so. I don’t know of anyone who wants to be poor in spirit or mourning. Nor do I know of anyone who doesn’t naturally believe that to be gentle, a peacemaker, or merciful is to set one’s self up to be taken advantage of by aggressive and unmerciful people. Jesus’ words must have been like music to the ears of those who were already enduring such things. In spite of their current situation, Jesus was assuring them that there was a blessing in it for them. No one had taught such things. There is little wonder that some would dare to teach that religion is the opium of the people. Any teaching that would have people become comfortable in such situations rather than incite them to riot or struggle to rise up from such things, was certainly seen as intoxicating them to the point of becoming unaware of their present state. But Jesus was not teaching about earthly outcomes for earthly living. Jesus taught about heavenly rewards for enduring earthly conditions for the sake of God. It is unfortunate that some today teach about earthly outcomes as the only meaningful aspiration of a person’s faith. Jesus taught his followers to look at the outcome of life on an eternal level. Life should not be lived simply based on what a person can obtain or attain to. Life for a child of God should be lived with eternal rewards and consequences in mind. That is one of the things that makes this list that Jesus gave so profound. Many people who understood very little about life were being inspired to have aspirations for eternal things beyond life. The assurance that Jesus gave them was that God is the guarantor of the outcome. In other words, the outcome is in God’s hands and so too are the eternal rewards. There are consequences to be faced for the actions we take in this life. Before there are human actions, there are attitudes. And before there are human attitudes, there are human thoughts. Jesus’ approach to corrective action was to help people have the right thoughts and that would lead them to have the right attitude. Jesus’ teaching on this was made complete by teaching them God’s role in determining the rewards resulting from those outcomes. Robert C. Hudson May 15, 2019

Jesus Institutes the New Covenant

June 2, 2019 Background Scripture: Mark 14:12 – 31; Hebrews 8 Lesson Passage: Mark 14:17 – 25; Hebrews 8:6, 7, 10 – 12 This next series of studies will focus on the New Covenant. During the days of the patriarchs of Israel, people were tribal and often entered into pacts or agreements that were binding between the covenant groups. With no general laws governing all people, other than the laws of nature, such as survival of the fittest, these mutual agreements were very important for the safety and well-being of families. Covenants were important for families and tribes who lived in close proximity to other tribes. It was during the time of the patriarchs that God entered into covenant with the Hebrew, Abram. God made grand and eternal promises to Abram and his offspring after him. This was remarkable on many levels. First, it was unheard of that God would enter into a covenant with a man—or people for that matter. Secondly, the covenant covered the offspring of Abram, who at the time was aged and without a single child. The covenant even covered that as well. There were a number of provisions in the covenant that were somewhat obscure and some seemed impossible to fulfill. One of those provisions stated that all families of the earth would be blessed through Abram’s seed. This unique covenant remained relatively unchanged for about two thousand years. Then came the incarnation of the Christ-child. A baby was born to a virgin and declared to be the Messiah who would bring fulfillment of the covenant God made with Abram. After thirty years of remaining rather inconspicuous, the man, Jesus, was introduced to Jewish society through the preaching of John the Baptist. Jesus had a three-year public ministry whereby he gave overwhelming evidence of his true identity. He was unlike anyone known to Israel throughout their history as a people descended from Abram. Jesus did what Israel’s prophets of old did and more. What Jesus did not do was confront the Roman Empire as a military leader of Israel. A military leader is who the Jewish leadership was looking for at that time. Nevertheless, Jesus demonstrated that he met all of the provisions of God’s promise to Abram and he was now presenting himself to Israel as their long-awaited Messiah. The Jewish leaders convinced the Jews to reject Jesus as one who did not meet their expectations of how God would fulfill His promises. It was this rejection that led to the events in our text. The rejected Messiah would now become the sacrificial lamb who would lay down his life for the salvation of many. On the night that he was going to be betrayed and arrested, Jesus established a memorial for his followers to observe in remembrance of him. He used some leftovers from the Passover Supper that he and his disciples had just shared in. The Passover Supper commemorated the deliverance of the Jews out of Egypt and it was a required meal for Israel. In Egypt, the Passover lamb was killed and its blood applied over the doors where the Jews resided in Egypt. The blood kept the death angel from entering their dwellings the night the Egyptians were punished into setting the Jews free. The Passover lamb foreshadowed the offering of Jesus in exchange for the sins of the world. As the Passover Supper was ending, Jesus took some of the unleavened bread and wine and used them as elements to institute a remembrance of him. This was the institution of the New Covenant. Robert C. Hudson May 10, 2019

The New Covenant’s Sacrifice

June 16, 2019 Background Scripture: Hebrews 9:11 – 28 Lesson Passage: Hebrews 9:11 – 22 The writer of the epistle to the Hebrews had a thorough knowledge of the Levitical priesthood God established with Israel through Moses. Through salvation in Christ and teaching of the Holy Spirit, the author provides explanations and/or meanings to the various sacrifices prescribed in the book of Leviticus. The many offerings and sacrifices were not just meaningless religious rituals. Those sacrifices provided some understanding to Israel of the holiness of God and the sinfulness of people. Likewise, those sacrifices also prescribed some acts of sanctification—or setting apart—of the people of God from the customs and norms of the world. There were offerings required of Israel that covered sin, peace or fellowship, guilt, and even unintentional sin. The offerings required the giving of grains, or the lives of birds, or certain specified unblemished animals. Because of the continuous presence of sin in people and the eternal holiness of God, the offerings were repeated many times. Sin is offensive to God. The peace offerings are a reminder of that. The annual sacrifice for sin recognized the continuous presence of sin in the lives of the people of God. Most things pertaining to the relationship between God and His chosen people required the sacrificial death of a living creature in place of the person. When living creatures were sacrificially put to death in faith—based on the instructions God gave them, God accepted those sacrifices for the purpose in which they were offered. However, as stated previously, those sacrifices had to be offered over and over. Even the sacrifice of the paschal lamb for atonement had to be offered every year for the people of God. During those sacrifices, God accepted the blood of the unblemished animal in exchange for the soul(s) of the one for whom it was offered. Once a year, Israel looked to God for the forgiveness of sin; and throughout the year, Israel offered sacrifices to maintain a proper fellowship with God as He prescribed for them. The writer of this epistle made it clear that those sacrifices were a foreshadow of the ultimate sacrifice that was to come. Jesus offered his sinless soul and his unblemished public life as the ultimate sacrifice to God on behalf of the people of God. Because of Jesus’ perfection, he was only sacrificed once for all times. There is no need for Jesus to die once a year for the sins of the people. Likewise, there is no need for Jesus to constantly return and present himself publicly as an unblemished sacrifice. The New Covenant is the ultimate covenant. It fulfills all of God’s requirements for holiness and fellowship with Him. The offerings/sacrifices of the Old Covenant included a long list of grains, bulls, sheep, goats, and birds—depending on the nature of the offering. The New Covenant only required one sacrifice; that sacrifice is the life of Jesus. In Jesus’ death on the cross of Calvary, all of God’s requirements for righteousness are fulfilled. Jesus is the New Covenant’s sacrifice. Robert C. Hudson May 15, 2019

Jesus Seals the New Covenant

June 9, 2019 Background Scripture: Mark 14:32 – 50; 15 Lesson Passage: Mark 15:6 – 15, 25, 26, 33 – 39 The basis of the New Covenant is the covenant God made with Abram. As we continue our discussion of that original covenant, we note that it was a blood covenant. Blood covenants are sealed, or endorsed, with blood. The blood that is used to endorse the covenant represents the lives of the ones who pledge to be parties to the covenant. God instructed Abraham (God changed his name from Abram) to kill some specific animals and to divide the carcasses in half. The halves were to be placed opposite each other so as to create a path between the pieces. The parties to the covenant were then required to walk between the pieces to indicate they were pledging their lives to uphold the provisions of the covenant. This was the nature of a blood covenant. The parties to the covenant pledged their allegiance to it by declaring that they would literally put their lives on the line to uphold the provisions of the covenant. This was the ultimate covenant that was ratified in blood. Abraham observed that God passed between the carcasses alone. This indicated to Abraham that God was unilaterally pledging His life to uphold the provisions of the covenant He made, irrespective of Abraham. The New Covenant that Jesus introduced is a fulfillment of the Old Covenant. Therefore, it must also be the same type of covenant as the old—a blood covenant. For the New Covenant that Jesus instituted to be ratified, it would therefore require blood. However, this covenant would not be ratified with the blood of animals as in the case with God and Abraham. The New Covenant would be ratified with the lifeblood of Jesus. This would signify that the covenant was now put into effect and Jesus had given his life to uphold the provisions of it. Today, we can note the similarities between a blood covenant and the provisions in a “last will and testament” that are prescribed by western law. The provisions in a last will and testament are only put into effect when the testator dies. Upon the death of the testator, the will becomes the legal document that outlines the steps to take in regard to the disposition of the estate of the deceased. If the will names an executor, that person becomes the legal representative for the estate of the deceased. Jesus’ death on the cross of Calvary put all of the provisions of the New Covenant into effect. In a word, Jesus’ death sealed the New Covenant. A “last will and testament” can be amended and changed as long as the testator is alive. Heirs can be added or deleted and the provisions changed however the testator desires. Once the testator dies, the heirs and provisions in the will at the time of death are sealed and there can be no other amendments to it. All that remains is for the executor of the estate to execute the provisions in the will. The lifeblood of Jesus sealed the New Covenant. Jesus told his followers that he was giving his life to uphold the provisions of the covenant. The resurrection of Jesus did not reverse the seal of the New Covenant. Rather, Jesus rose from the grave to take the office of executor of his own estate. The provisions of the New Covenant are now in effect throughout eternity. Robert C. Hudson May 10, 2019