The Feasts of the Passover, Unleavened Bread and WaveSheaf of Firstfruits
Leveticus 23
4These are the feasts of the LORD, even holy convocations, which ye shall proclaim in their seasons.
5In the fourteenth day of the first month at even is the LORD’S passover.
6And on the fifteenth day of the same month is the feast of unleavened bread unto the LORD: seven days ye must eat unleavened bread.
7In the first day ye shall have an holy convocation: ye shall do no servile work therein.
8But ye shall offer an offering made by fire unto the LORD seven days: in the seventh day is an holy convocation: ye shall do no servile work therein.
9And the LORD spake unto Moses, saying,
10Speak unto the children of Israel, and say unto them, When ye be come into the land which I give unto you, and shall reap the harvest thereof, then ye shall bring a sheaf of the firstfruits of your harvest unto the priest:
11And he shall wave the sheaf before the LORD, to be accepted for you: on the morrow after the sabbath the priest shall wave it.
12And ye shall offer that day when ye wave the sheaf an he lamb without blemish of the first year for a burnt offering unto the LORD.
13And the meat offering thereof shall be two tenth deals of fine flour mingled with oil, an offering made by fire unto the LORD for a sweet savour: and the drink offering thereof shall be of wine, the fourth part of an hin.
14And ye shall eat neither bread, nor parched corn, nor green ears, until the selfsame day that ye have brought an offering unto your God: it shall be a statute for ever throughout your generations in all your dwellings.
In Leveticus 23, we have the Lord setting down feasts, which are dates to be observed. The first of such feasts mentioned is a weekly feast, the Sabbath. It is held on what we call Saturday, the last or seventh day of the week. God created the heavens and the earth in 6 days, and He rested on the seventh day. (The Sabbath is not to be confused by what the New Testament calls the Lord’s day, which is observed by Christians on the first day of the week, the Sunday.)
Then the rest of the chapter was about annual feasts, not weekly. There are seven annual feasts, they were set up for the Jews, but as in so many Old Testament scriptures, they are shadows and types of the One to whom they speak about. And beginning at Moses and all the prophets, he expounded unto them in all the scriptures the things concerning himself (Luke 24:27).
Lets consider the first three feasts, which actually happen in continuity. The 14th day of the first Jewish month is the Passover (v5 of our text, which is also a Sabbath day), the 15th-21st day of that month is the Feast of the Unleavened Bread (v6), and on the 15th day they also observe the Sheaf Waving Feast of the Firstfruits (which is the day after the Sabbath of the 14th day of the first month, v11: on the morrow after the Sabbath).
The Passover
Observe how the Passover took place on the 14th day of the first month, not the 1st day. What shall such timing remind us of? It speaks to us of men’s failure, from the ages of innocence (Adam), conscience (Cain), human government (the tower of Babel), promises (Abraham), laws(the Jews) and then we read in
Hebrews 9:26 But now once in the consummation of the ages he has been manifested for [the] putting away of sin by his sacrifice.
Romans 5:6 For when we were yet without strength, in due time Christ died for the ungodly. (in due time)
Galatians 4: 4But when the fulness of the time was come, God sent forth his Son, made of a woman, made under the law, 5To redeem them that were under the law, that we might receive the adoption of sons.
The Passover lamb reminds us of an escape from God’s judgement because a sacrifice has taken our place. Blood was sprinkled upon door posts and lentils. He took our sins, he took them all away. How we are thankful that Isaiah could say the Lord has laid upon Him the iniquity of us all. If we were to lay our sins upon Him, how much would we have not brought to Him? Our unreliable memories, ignorance of sins and trespasses, pride and self righteousness would ensure that we only bring a small portion of our sins to Him. There is therefore NO condemnation to them that are in Christ, because the Lord has laid upon Him the iniquity of us ALL.
The feast of the unleavened bread
Observe how this feast starts immediately after the Passover. The Jews are to live on unleavened bread for the next 7 days. The number 7 speaks of a full cycle, and it reminds us of our entire life.
1 Corinthians 5: For even Christ our passover is sacrificed for us: 8Therefore let us keep the feast, not with old leaven, neither with the leaven of malice and wickedness; but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth.
Those that have their sins forgiven should live a life of sincerity and truth. Our Lord did not just pay the price of sins for us, He has empowered us to fight the power of sin.
Romans 4: Know ye not, that so many of us as were baptized into Jesus Christ were baptized into his death? 4Therefore we are buried with him by baptism into death: that like as Christ was raised up from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life.
Let us walk in the newness of life, with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth.
The feast of the Firstfruits, the wave offering
The day after the Passover is this feast. When ye be come into the land which I give unto you, and shall reap the harvest thereof, then ye shall bring a sheaf of the firstfruits of your harvest unto the priest: 11And he shall wave the sheaf before the LORD, to be accepted for you: on the morrow after the sabbath the priest shall wave it.
The sheaf that they harvest and waved by the priest comes from the seed that has been sown.
John 12:24-26 Verily, verily, I say unto you, Except a corn of wheat fall into the ground and die, it abideth alone: but if it die, it bringeth forth much fruit.
But we are also reminded that this sheaf is the firstfruit, of a new life. It speaks to us of the resurrection of our Lord, on the first day of the week (Sunday), the day after the Passover Sabbath. He is the firstfruit from among the dead.
The Passover and the Wavesheaf together reminds us of Romans 4: 25Who was delivered for our offences, and was raised again for our justification.
May we appreciate Christ more as we continue to study our Bible.
John 1:19-51
19And this is the record of John, when the Jews sent priests and Levites from Jerusalem to ask him, Who art thou? 20And he confessed, and denied not; but confessed, I am not the Christ. 21And they asked him, What then? Art thou Elias? And he saith, I am not. Art thou that prophet? And he answered, No. 22Then said they unto him, Who art thou? that we may give an answer to them that sent us. What sayest thou of thyself? 23He said, I am the voice of one crying in the wilderness, Make straight the way of the Lord, as said the prophet Esaias.
24And they which were sent were of the Pharisees. 25And they asked him, and said unto him, Why baptizest thou then, if thou be not that Christ, nor Elias, neither that prophet? 26John answered them, saying, I baptize with water: but there standeth one among you, whom ye know not; 27He it is, who coming after me is preferred before me, whose shoe’s latchet I am not worthy to unloose. 28These things were done in Bethabara beyond Jordan, where John was baptizing.
Behold, the Lamb of God
29The next day John seeth Jesus coming unto him, and saith, Behold the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world. 30This is he of whom I said, After me cometh a man which is preferred before me: for he was before me. 31And I knew him not: but that he should be made manifest to Israel, therefore am I come baptizing with water. 32And John bare record, saying, I saw the Spirit descending from heaven like a dove, and it abode upon him. 33And I knew him not: but he that sent me to baptize with water, the same said unto me, Upon whom thou shalt see the Spirit descending, and remaining on him, the same is he which baptizeth with the Holy Ghost. 34And I saw, and bare record that this is the Son of God.
Jesus Calls His First Disciples
35Again the next day after John stood, and two of his disciples; 36And looking upon Jesus as he walked, he saith, Behold the Lamb of God! 37And the two disciples heard him speak, and they followed Jesus. 38Then Jesus turned, and saw them following, and saith unto them, What seek ye? They said unto him, Rabbi, (which is to say, being interpreted, Master,) where dwellest thou? 39He saith unto them, Come and see. They came and saw where he dwelt, and abode with him that day: for it was about the tenth hour. 40One of the two which heard John speak, and followed him, was Andrew, Simon Peter’s brother. 41He first findeth his own brother Simon, and saith unto him, We have found the Messias, which is, being interpreted, the Christ. 42And he brought him to Jesus. And when Jesus beheld him, he said, Thou art Simon the son of Jona: thou shalt be called Cephas, which is by interpretation, A stone.
Jesus Calls Philip and Nathanael
43The day following Jesus would go forth into Galilee, and findeth Philip, and saith unto him, Follow me. 44Now Philip was of Bethsaida, the city of Andrew and Peter. 45Philip findeth Nathanael, and saith unto him, We have found him, of whom Moses in the law, and the prophets, did write, Jesus of Nazareth, the son of Joseph. 46And Nathanael said unto him, Can there any good thing come out of Nazareth? Philip saith unto him, Come and see. 47Jesus saw Nathanael coming to him, and saith of him, Behold an Israelite indeed, in whom is no guile! 48Nathanael saith unto him, Whence knowest thou me? Jesus answered and said unto him, Before that Philip called thee, when thou wast under the fig tree, I saw thee. 49Nathanael answered and saith unto him, Rabbi, thou art the Son of God; thou art the King of Israel. 50Jesus answered and said unto him, Because I said unto thee, I saw thee under the fig tree, believest thou? thou shalt see greater things than these. 51And he saith unto him, Verily, verily, I say unto you, Hereafter ye shall see heaven open, and the angels of God ascending and descending upon the Son of man.
Lets do some brainstorming before we go into the passage. I would like to give you a simple code of 1234 which I hope you will find it helpful to remember and analyse the passage.
One
We have to give 1 to our Lord. He is the purpose that John wrote his Gospel. John 20:31But these are written, that ye might believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God; and that believing ye might have life through his name. And so all the focus is given to the Lord, and John is careful to ensure that there is no misunderstanding in the roles of others ie John the baptist when compared to our Lord.
But observe another singular in vs 29: Behold the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world. The word sin is singular, and I want you to keep that in mind.
Two
Well, there are 2 Johns in this passage. John the baptist and John the disciple, the author of this gospel. Apart from sharing the same name, they are both the earthly cousins of our Lord. And they are both content to be the voice only. One said I am the voice of one crying in the wilderness, Make straight the way of the Lord. The other was equally happy to be invisible, indeed, if you are not a careful reader, you will miss him in our passage.
Then, in this passage, we have 2 dispensations. One is like the Old testament, where prophets were still prophesying and people were looking forward to the coming of the messiah. And then in vs 29, we enter a new dispensation, the prophesies have been fulfilled when John the baptist could point to the Lord and said Behold the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world.
And of course you will also notice there are 2 cries to Behold the Lamb of God, one is in vs 29, the other in vs 36. I want you to remember that they were not mere repetition, but different emphasis on what the readers should behold.
And then there are 2 baptisms, one with water, the other with the Holy Spirit. I am sure you can find a few more twos but we shall stop the twos here for the sake of time.
Three
I actually want to divide my talk into these 3 sections. What we have in our passage are 3 kinds of testimonies.
The first one is the testimony (or remaining testimony after last week) of John the baptist. This is unique, and cannot be repeated.
The second is the testimony of John and his fellow disciples, that is John the author of this gospel. Now this is the kind of testimony that we will find it more relatable especially when we go to testimony meetings, and you can sense excitement in some of the disciples, we have found Him!
The third is the testimony of John’s master Himself. Now in John’s gospel, our Lord speaks quite a few times about Himself. I am the way, the truth and the life. I am the good shepherd that lay down his life for his sheep. I am, I am. Here he did not quite use that language, but he is effectively declaring I am the Omnicient God, I am the ladder between heaven and earth. And you will notice that as much as the disciples could say we have found him, the truth is that He found the disciples before they were even called.
Four
There are 4 days in our passage.
Day1: vs 19-28
Day 2: vs 29 The next day John seeth -34
Day 3: vs 35 Again the next day -42
Day 4: 43 The day following Jesus – 51.
And so without further ado, lets jump into the passage. Like I said, I will divide this into 3 parts, according to the 3 types of testimonies.
The testimony of John the baptist
You would notice that the Pharisees asked the Baptist who are you in vs 19. Not only as David said last week that John is keen to make sure that people do not mistaken him as the Christ, even John the author of this gospel used a very careful language to emphasise that. vs20 And he confessed, and denied not; but confessed, I am not the Christ. Now that is a very Jewish way of writing, it is called antithetic parallelism. That means they use both positive, confessed, and negative, denied not, to emphasise an important point. And you will see this style of writing through the gospel. 3All things were made by him; and without him was not any thing made that was made. If you read some of the the modern bible translations that focus of translating the meaning without keeping the structure of the language, you will miss this kind of writing. Why is that such emphasis? Because people may follow the wrong person. It is important when we seek to introduce Christ to people that we do not get ourselves into the way. If people were to look unto us, they will be disappointed once they know us better.
John is obviously doing a good job, that he got many people come to his baptism of repentance, so much so that he received the attention of the Pharisees. And that’s a challenge for us, to live a life provokes others to ask, who are you? Who is your Master?
You will notice from the Pharisees that were to sent to him from their higher authority, that the Jews have 3 important figures that they regarded as having authority to have massive influence over the people. One is the promised messiah, another Elijah, and another ‘that prophet’? ‘That prophet’ refers to the prophet Moses talked about in Deut 18:15, The LORD thy God will raise up unto thee a Prophet from the midst of thee, of thy brethren, like unto me; unto him ye shall hearken; whom Peter confirmed in Acts 3 as the Lord Jesus. I always remember how when I first became a Christian that I did not know that the Son of God is God Himself. It’s just the same as the Pharisees did not know that the Messiah is ‘that prophet’. The bible talks about the unsearchable richness of Christ, it is only if we spend more efforts on the written word of God, that we get to know more about the Living word of God. Observe also how Elijah was put into the question. John the baptist indeed is Elijah in spirit and power, as the Lord himself said, Matt 17: 12,13 that That Elias is come already, and they knew him not, but have done unto him whatsoever they listed. Likewise shall also the Son of man suffer of them. 13Then the disciples understood that he spake unto them of John the Baptist. But he is not Elijah in person.
As they pressed for an answer of John’s identity, he quoted from Isaiah 40:3, He said, I am the voice of one crying in the wilderness, Make straight the way of the Lord, as said the prophet Esaias. I want to take this moment to consider John the baptist’ privileges: 1. He was a prophet that was prophesised in Isaiah 40:3. cf King Josiah. 2. I am the voice of one crying in the wilderness was quoted in all 4 gospels. 3. He knew the Messiah in a way that the Jews did not appreciate. He knew of the Lord’s eternality, vs 30This is he of whom I said, After me cometh a man which is preferred before me: for he was before me. He knew of His authority, whose shoe’s latchet I am not worthy to unloose. I only baptise with water, but the baptism by the Holy Spirit is at hand. 4. John was a privileged prophet to prophesise concerning the Messiah and then he saw Him and was able to point his finger to Him. He saw the end of one dispensation and the beginning of another. No wonder the Lord said in Matt 11:11: Verily I say unto you, Among them that are born of women there hath not risen a greater than John the Baptist: notwithstanding he that is least in the kingdom of heaven is greater than he. Did you catch that? We who live at the other side of Calvary has even greater privilege. Have you ever count your many blessings? OT saints only knew God the Jehovah, we know Him as our Father. The OT saints only had the Spirit of God momentarily, remember King Saul? We are blessed with the indwelling of the Holy Spirit as John spoke concerning the Messiah, the same is he which baptizeth with the Holy Ghost. Job could wish for a mediator, and we have one, the Man Christ Jesus. 1Peter 1: 10Of which salvation the prophets have inquired and searched diligently, who prophesied of the grace that should come unto you: 11Searching what, or what manner of time the Spirit of Christ which was in them did signify, when it testified beforehand the sufferings of Christ, and the glory that should follow. 12Unto whom it was revealed, that not unto themselves, but unto us they did minister the things, which are now reported unto you by them that have preached the gospel unto you with the Holy Ghost sent down from heaven; which things the angels desire to look into. I know as humans we can feel down, but I want to encourage and lift you up, whatever circumstances in your life that has dragged you down, you are most privileged.
Lets talk a little bit about John’s baptism. The Jews do not have practice of water baptism. The one that I can think of is Naaman the Syrian, who was also a leper, and Elisha healed him by getting him to wash in river Jordan 7 times. Extra biblical source tells us that The Jews do have the custom of baptising proselytes who wished to be converted to Judaism. But never did the Jews themselves thought that they would need cleansing, not to say that John’s baptism is able to cleanse, but that is how they perceived it. John’s baptism indeed is different from our baptism, it has done its job to prepare the people’s hearts for the Lord, but it never cleanse. Acts 19:1And it came to pass, that, while Apollos was at Corinth, Paul having passed through the upper coasts came to Ephesus: and finding certain disciples, 2He said unto them, Have ye received the Holy Ghost since ye believed? And they said unto him, We have not so much as heard whether there be any Holy Ghost. 3And he said unto them, Unto what then were ye baptized? And they said, Unto John’s baptism. 4Then said Paul, John verily baptized with the baptism of repentance, saying unto the people, that they should believe on him which should come after him, that is, on Christ Jesus. 5When they heard this, they were baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus. 6And when Paul had laid his hands upon them, the Holy Ghost came on them;
And so John’s baptism does not cleanse. As he was baptising the many people, he not only remember Isaiah 40:3, I am the voice of one crying in the wilderness, but the preceding 2 verses: 1Comfort ye, comfort ye my people, saith your God. 2Speak ye comfortably to Jerusalem, and cry unto her, that her warfare is accomplished, that her iniquity is pardoned: for she hath received of the LORD’S hand double for all her sins. The verse does not mean the Lord punishes His people twice for their sins, but that their sins have been paid in full. John must be wondering how can these sins be paid. Surely other verses of Isaiah came into his mind, But he was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities: the chastisement of our peace was upon him; and with his stripes we are healed. 6All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned every one to his own way; and the LORD hath laid on him the iniquity of us all.
And then the next day he saw the answer. John seeth Jesus coming unto him, and saith, Behold the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world. Now it has been said that this is the second time John the baptist has seen the Lord. That at least 40 days have passed between the 2 encounters. For John first baptised the Lord, and saw the Holy Spirit descended upon Him, which is how he recognised Him. Then we knew from elsewhere that The Lord was taken to the wilderness for 40 days and nights to be tried of the devil.
The first time John cried out behold the Lamb of God, he was pointing to His role as the Lamb of God which taketh away the sin of the world. The emphasis was on the role of the Lamb of God. As he was baptising and people were confessing their sins, John must be overloaded, what am I going to do with all these sins? How relieved he was when he saw the Lord. Now I mentioned that the word sin here is singular. It is different from the plural sins. It is a bit like the church of christ which is his bride vs the local churches. People who do not understand the difference tends o be people who say ‘Ah, we are all Christians, we can go to any churches’, not realising that a lot of new testament writings such as the 1 Corinthians was written to address how the local churches should meet. Sin, as singular is the master, the tyrant, the source, the power, the strongman. Sins as plural refers to the results. it is true that when Christ died upon the cross He died for our sins, 1 John 1 9If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. But Christ also freed us from the power of Sin. “No one can enter a strong man’s house without first tying him up. Then he can plunder the strong man’s house” The doctrinal importance is that there will be people who have never trusted Christ who will died in their sins. What about 1 John 2: 2And he is the propitiation for our sins: and not for ours only, but also for the sins of the whole world? It is said that this prophecy of John the baptist will only get its full fulfillment in the eternal state where sin is totally taken out of the new world.
And so John concluded his testimony: 34And I saw, and bare record that this is the Son of God. Isn’t it something for us to learn here re John’s testimony. It started by people asking who are you? It ends by John pointing them to Christ, the Son of God.
The testimonies of John and his fellow disciples
We have another day, a new day. 35Again the next day after John stood, and two of his disciples; 36And looking upon Jesus as he walked, he saith, Behold the Lamb of God! 37And the two disciples heard him speak, and they followed Jesus.
So we have the second cry: Behold the Lamb of God. Now this time the call is not to look at what He does, but look at Him, look at his walk. This is like the pass over lambs, they were kept from day 10 to14 to be scrutinised for any defects. Brothers and sisters, Christ our passover is sacrificed for us. But week after week we meet to behold the Lamb of God, and unless we come prepared, we are not going to have fresh appreciation of Him. The more we wonder and behold The Lord Jesus, the more we will worship God. And anyone who has his eyes open to see the Lamb of God in all his beauty will be naturally drawn to Him. And so we see here the 2 disciples left John the baptist, and followed Christ. We can point people to Christ, but they must be drawn to Christ themselves.
You would read that there were 2 disciples, and we are told one of them was Andrew, Simon Peter’s brother. The other disciple was John the author of this Gospel. That is his way of writing his Gospel, making himself anonymous and as inconspicuous as possible. And what we have here is John sharing his testimony of how he first met the Lord Jesus. John wrote this account at least 50 years later, and that moment was precious to him, he recorded the event day by day, and even to the very hour, about the tenth hour. John wrote his testimony so that ye might believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God; and that believing ye might have life through his name.
You can imagine these 2 youngters following a stranger and suddenly he turned around and asked what do you want? Can you sense both the embarrassment and excitement that conjured up this awkward answer: Where do you live? We can laugh about their answer, but what they were really saying was that we want to be with you. Our brother David spoke this morning of your life is hid with Christ in God. That is the place of attraction. Brothers and sisters, is Christ still the place of our abode tonight?
It is good to be with Lord. The Jewish leaders recognised that Peter and John have been with Jesus in Acts 4. If we have been with the Lord, our life will tell the effects. And one of the effects is that we would want more people to know this wonderful Saviour. And so we see here, Andrew went to find Peter. We have found the Messias, which is, being interpreted, the Christ. As I read this, I cannot but share and feel the excitement of Andrew’s tone.
And so Peter was brought to the Lord. And when Jesus beheld him, he said, Thou art Simon the son of Jona: thou shalt be called Cephas, which is by interpretation, A stone. One of our Lord’s usual practice is He changes His disciples names. And that is God’s practice as well. Abram became Abraham, Jacob became Israel. And so we see here Simon was renamed Cephas or Peter, a stone.
Now lets read another passage, Matt 16:
13When Jesus came into the coasts of Caesarea Philippi, he asked his disciples, saying, Whom do men say that I the Son of man am? 14And they said, Some say that thou art John the Baptist: some, Elias; and others, Jeremias, or one of the prophets. 15He saith unto them, But whom say ye that I am? 16And Simon Peter answered and said, Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God. 17And Jesus answered and said unto him, Blessed art thou, Simon Barjona: for flesh and blood hath not revealed it unto thee, but my Father which is in heaven. 18And I say also unto thee, That thou art Peter, and upon this rock I will build my church; and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it. 19And I will give unto thee the keys of the kingdom of heaven: and whatsoever thou shalt bind on earth shall be bound in heaven: and whatsoever thou shalt loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven.
So is Peter the rock upon whom the Lord shall build His church? Scholars have been divided in this matter but Peter himself has no problem clarifying who is the chief corner stone upon which the church is built.
Lets read 1 Peter 2: 4To whom coming, as unto a living stone, disallowed indeed of men, but chosen of God, and precious, 5Ye also, as lively stones, are built up a spiritual house, an holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices, acceptable to God by Jesus Christ. 6Wherefore also it is contained in the scripture, Behold, I lay in Sion a chief corner stone, elect, precious: and he that believeth on him shall not be confounded. 7Unto you therefore which believe he is precious: but unto them which be disobedient, the stone which the builders disallowed, the same is made the head of the corner, 8And a stone of stumbling, and a rock of offence,
So I prefers William Kelly’s comments, upon this rock of Peter’s confession that Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God will I build my church. We are all like Peter, a piece of stone of the universal church that the Lord is building.
The testimony of John’s Master
Until now, we get the impression that the disciples found the Messiah, and they were excited about it. Here we are going to see the truth of the matter. It is the Lord that calls, and He saw his sheep before they were even called.
And so we read of another day, Jesus would go forth into Galilee, and findeth Philip, and saith unto him, Follow me. The Lord confirms that in John 15:16 Ye have not chosen me, but I have chosen you, and ordained you, that ye should go and bring forth fruit, and that your fruit should remain: that whatsoever ye shall ask of the Father in my name, he may give it you.
You would remember how in other gospels, when the Lord called his disciples, they threw down their fishing nets to become fishers of men. Matt 6:24 No man can serve two masters: for either he will hate the one, and love the other; or else he will hold to the one, and despise the other. Ye cannot serve God and mammon. 2 Tim 2:4 No man that warreth entangleth himself with the affairs of this life; that he may please him who hath chosen him to be a soldier.
And then we read of Phillip would bring Nathaneal (also known as Bartholomew) to the Lord too. observe how Phillip described the Lord: We have found him, of whom Moses in the law, and the prophets, did write, Jesus of Nazareth, the son of Joseph. In this last section of this passage, we have quite a numbers of names and titles of our Lord. If Phillip has said to Nathaneal, that we have found Jesus of Bethelem, son of David, which he truly is, Nathanael would have no problem believing. But son of Joseph, of Nazareth, that is a problem. Apparently Nazareth is a despised place. Can there any good thing come out of Nazareth? The humility and grace of our Lord is beyond men’s comprehension. But we see Jesus, who was made a little lower than the angels for the suffering of death. 6Who, being in the form of God, thought it not robbery to be equal with God: 7But made himself of no reputation, and took upon him the form of a servant. But I am a worm, and no man; a reproach of men, and despised of the people.
22But when he heard that Archelaus did reign in Judaea in the room of his father Herod, he was afraid to go thither: notwithstanding, being warned of God in a dream, he turned aside into the parts of Galilee: 23And he came and dwelt in a city called Nazareth: that it might be fulfilled which was spoken by the prophets, He shall be called a Nazarene.
Isaiah gave a prophesy concerning this Nazarene, And there shall come forth a rod out of the stem of Jesse. The word Nazareth may come from the word netzer, which means a shoot. A shoot will come up from the stump of Jesse. The big tree of the house of David has been chopped down, and out of David’s root which is Jesse, a lowly shoot will come forth, and a Branch shall grow out of his roots and bear fruits.
The encounter between Nathanael and our Lord is most intriguing. Sitting under the fig tree usually refers to someone meditating. It has been speculated that Nathanael was thinking of God’s reassurance to Jacob when he was running away from Esau and had that dream at Bethel. Hence their conversation was a bit odd to people who cannot read their mind. The Lord first declared that he is the Omniscient God, He saw Nathanael before he was called by Phillip. Then He spoke something concerning his nature. If indeed Nathanael was meditating about Jacob’s dream, then Behold an Israelite indeed, in whom is no guile! would bring even more amazement to him, for Jacob was full of guiles, and the Lord converted him and blessed him.
So Nathanael confessed Christ in a very Jewish was: Rabbi, thou art the Son of God; thou art the King of Israel. But our Lord revealed that He has come for more than Israel. thou shalt see greater things than these. 51And he saith unto him, Verily, verily, I say unto you, Hereafter ye shall see heaven open, and the angels of God ascending and descending upon the Son of man.
12And he dreamed, and behold a ladder set up on the earth, and the top of it reached to heaven: and behold the angels of God ascending and descending on it. 13And, behold, the LORD stood above it, and said, I am the LORD God of Abraham thy father, and the God of Isaac.
The Lord has just replaced the word ladder in Gen 28:12 with the Son of man. What Nathanael saw was the reverse of Jacob’s vision in his dream. Jacob saw the ladder first, then the angels then the Lord, but Nathanael now see the heaven opens up, then the angels ascending and descending, and then the Ladder which is the son of man. This is probably the first time that this phrase, which became the ordinary title used by our Lord of Himself, fell from His lips; but it meets us more than seventy times in the earlier Gospels. The Son of man implies his taking up of manhood to represent all manhood beyond Israel. He is the connection between heaven and earth, heaven is now opened because He has come down, and angeals are able to minister to God’s people because of that ladder. In that great truth heaven was, and has remained, opened. From that time onwards messengers were ever going backward and forward between humanity and its God. The cry of every erring and helpless child to its Father for guidance and strength; the silent appeal of the wronged and down-trodden to the All-Just Avenger; the fears and hopes of the soul burdened by the unbearable weight of sin, and casting itself on the mercy of the Eternal Love—all these are borne by messengers who always behold the face of God, made possible by the ladder.
Giving and supporting other believers
Now the title of the talk is giving and supporting other believers. This is in the context of the series of talks regarding the local churches. I therefore will limit my talk to the local church. You can of course as an individual out of the church context give and support other believers personally, and it does not necessarily have to be giving of money, you can give your time and efforts. Tonight, I want to focus on the giving in the context of the local church and how that gift is then given to support other believers.
I hope you will at the end of this talk agree that this is not a dry topic, but that you will be encouraged and challenged to renew your devotion to God.
I will let the apostle Paul do the first part of the talk. I am going to take time to read through 2nd Corinthians ch 8 & 9. I will read in the New Living Translation, easy modern English, so that if you are not familiar with the passage, you can understand it easily even as we read through it. It is about Paul reminding the Corinthians of their pledge 1 year ago to give to support the poor saints in Jerusalem, and he tried to stimulate the liberality of the Corinthians by recounting that of the Macedonian churches. And he is sending people to come to collect the gift. I want you to concentrate, it will take 8 minutes to read through. Ready? 2 Corinthians chapters 8 & 9.
1Now I want you to know, dear brothers and sisters, what God in his kindness has done through the churches in Macedonia. 2They are being tested by many troubles, and they are very poor. But they are also filled with abundant joy, which has overflowed in rich generosity.
3For I can testify that they gave not only what they could afford, but far more. And they did it of their own free will. 4They begged us again and again for the privilege of sharing in the gift for the believers in Jerusalem. 5They even did more than we had hoped, for their first action was to give themselves to the Lord and to us, just as God wanted them to do.
6So we have urged Titus, who encouraged your giving in the first place, to return to you and encourage you to finish this ministry of giving. 7Since you excel in so many ways—in your faith, your gifted speakers, your knowledge, your enthusiasm, and your love from us/for us—I want you to excel also in this gracious act of giving.
8I am not commanding you to do this. But I am testing how genuine your love is by comparing it with the eagerness of the other churches.
9You know the generous grace of our Lord Jesus Christ. Though he was rich, yet for your sakes he became poor, so that by his poverty he could make you rich.
10Here is my advice: It would be good for you to finish what you started a year ago. Last year you were the first who wanted to give, and you were the first to begin doing it. 11Now you should finish what you started. Let the eagerness you showed in the beginning be matched now by your giving. Give in proportion to what you have. 12Whatever you give is acceptable if you give it eagerly. And give according to what you have, not what you don’t have. 13Of course, I don’t mean your giving should make life easy for others and hard for yourselves. I only mean that there should be some equality. 14Right now you have plenty and can help those who are in need. Later, they will have plenty and can share with you when you need it. In this way, things will be equal. 15As the Scriptures say,
“Those who gathered a lot had nothing left over,
and those who gathered only a little had enough.”
16But thank God! He has given Titus the same enthusiasm for you that I have. 17Titus welcomed our request that he visit you again. In fact, he himself was very eager to go and see you. 18We are also sending another brother with Titus.
moving to vs 20.
20We are traveling together to guard against any criticism for the way we are handling this generous gift. 21We are careful to be honorable before the Lord, but we also want everyone else to see that we are honorable.
moving to Chapter 9.
1I really don’t need to write to you about this ministry of giving for the believers in Jerusalem. 2For I know how eager you are to help, and I have been boasting to the churches in Macedonia that you in Achaia were ready to send an offering a year ago. In fact, it was your enthusiasm that stirred up many of the Macedonian believers to begin giving.
3But I am sending these brothers to be sure you really are ready, as I have been telling them, and that your money is all collected. I don’t want to be wrong in my boasting about you. 4We would be embarrassed—not to mention your own embarrassment—if some Macedonian believers came with me and found that you weren’t ready after all I had told them! 5So I thought I should send these brothers ahead of me to make sure the gift you promised is ready. But I want it to be a willing gift, not one given grudgingly.
6Remember this—a farmer who plants only a few seeds will get a small crop. But the one who plants generously will get a generous crop. 7You must each decide in your heart how much to give. And don’t give reluctantly or in response to pressure. “For God loves a person who gives cheerfully.” 8And God will generously provide all you need. Then you will always have everything you need and plenty left over to share with others. 9As the Scriptures say,
“They share freely and give generously to the poor.
Their good deeds will be remembered forever.”
10For God is the one who provides seed for the farmer and then bread to eat. In the same way, he will provide and increase your resources and then produce a great harvest of generosity in you.
11Yes, you will be enriched in every way so that you can always be generous. And when we take your gifts to those who need them, they will thank God. 12So two good things will result from this ministry of giving—the needs of the believers in Jerusalem will be met, and they will joyfully express their thanks to God.
13As a result of your ministry, they will give glory to God. For your generosity to them and to all believers will prove that you are obedient to the Good News of Christ. 14And they will pray for you with deep affection because of the overflowing grace God has given to you. 15Thank God for His gift too wonderful for words!
Now I am going to divide my talk into 5 headings: who, what, how, why and when.
Who. Who should be giving? Who should we collect gifts from? 8:5 for their first action was to give themselves to the Lord and to us. Paul was delighted to receive gifts from people who have given themselves to the Lord. I think that immediately means believers, saints. But more than believers, they are worshippers, to give yourselves to the Lord. Being a true believer is one who is in a continual state of worship, and you offer not just your money, your praises but your whole body as a living sacrifice. So I want you to appreciate that our worship has not finished on Lord’s day after we have partaken of the emblems, when the bags are being passed around, that is part of the worship. Lets pray that whatever we put into the bag may be acceptable to the Lord, that it may be used to bring glory to His name. So the people who give must be worshippers of God.
But not only they gave themselves to the Lord, they also gave themselves to us, that is Paul and company, to trust them with the gifts. Well, when we give the offerings, we leave it to the assembly led by the elders to decide how they are going to distribute the gifts. Of course they do ask us to nominate anybody that we have burdens on. I may be pushing too much from this verse, to give themselves to us, but I believe that means some sort of fellowship. I think it is only right that we collect from those who are in fellowship. Certainly I will have a problem if this assembly go to Tesco and perform a fund raising event to collect from the non-believers. This is what John wrote to Gauis in 3rd John: 5Dear friend, you are being faithful to God when you care for the traveling teachers who pass through, even though they are strangers to you. 6They have told the church here of your loving friendship. Please continue providing for such teachers in a manner that pleases God. 7For they are traveling for the Lord,c and they accept nothing from people who are not believers. And they accept nothing from people who are not believers.
Which bring us nicely to the next question of who should we give the gifts to? Of course we should do good unto all men, but let me quote the Lord, the poor ye will always have. And so Galatians 6:10 says: As we have therefore opportunity, let us do good unto all men, especially unto them who are of the household of faith. So our priority recipients of our gifts should be God’s people. But it is not just what we call the full time servants of the Lord, we should not also forget other believers that are in financial difficulty, as the principle laid down in our scriptures say, “Those who gathered a lot had nothing left over, and those who gathered only a little had enough.”
What? What is it that you are giving? I know we sometimes collect items of need and every Lord’s day we collect money. But we are really giving away the blessings of God. There is a spiritual exercise behind this physical act of giving. The spirit under which the believers give his offering matters and it has been likened unto a farmer’s seed. 6Remember this—a farmer who plants only a few seeds will get a small crop. But the one who plants generously will get a generous crop. If you give grudgingly that is to say you plants only a few seed, you will not receive much joy when you hear of how the gift has benefitted God’s servant and their works.
9As the Scriptures say, “They share freely and give generously to the poor. Their good deeds will be remembered forever.” Not that we should do it for the sake of rewards, but our God is no man’s debtor. He remembers even if a glass of water is given.
The beautiful things about the goodness of God is that when it is shared, it multiplies. Just like the feeding of 5 thousands and the feeding of 4 thousands by our Lord, the fish and the loaves just keep multiplying. You may ask like the disciples as you look at your little gifts, what are these among so many? Just give and let the Lord multiply His blessings. 9:10 he will provide and increase your resources and then produce a great harvest of generosity in you. I think there is exercise of faith involved here, not just that God will multiply His blessings through your gifts, but that He will meet your own needs and produce a great harvest of generosity from you. That is why you must give yourselves to the Lord first.
So remember, the ministry of giving is a spiritual exercise. It requires spiritual gift from above. Since you excel in so many ways—in your faith, your gifted speakers, your knowledge, your enthusiasm, and your love from us—I want you to excel also in this gracious act of giving.
Let us also not forget that what we give actually belongs to God. We are just stewards. Believers should not look at their bank balance and assets and think that this is how much I have. A nurse told me recently how a colleague of mine with a big private practice has managed to buy a holiday house and a porsche. We cannot do that as believers because one day we must all appear before the judgement seat of Christ, and if the Lord ask me what have I done with all the money that He has put under my temporary charge, I will struggle to answer if they have gone to purchase that. But the Lord did teach that as stewarts, we can make use of money, the unrighteous mammon. Make to yourselves friends of the mammon of unrighteousness; that, when ye fail, they may receive you into everlasting habitations.
How? How do we give? Remember our Lord once sat next to the treasury and beheld how people cast into the treasury? He is still watching how we put our offering into the bags.
We should give thankfully. The feast of the firstfruits is a good illustration. The ancient people acknowledged that it was the Lord’s blessings, the land, the rain, that enabled the harvest. So gratefully they offered the first sheaf of harvest. When we put the money into the bags, we should thank God for giving us our daily bread, and that this is a little token of appreciation.
Our reading tonight also reminds us that we should give joyfully, willingly, cheerfully, not grudgingly.
We should also give lovingly. You would remember the sinner woman who annointed our Lord with an alabaster of ointment. Wherefore I say unto thee, Her sins, which are many, are forgiven; for she loved much: but to whom little is forgiven, the same loveth little.
But think of the wave offering. The priest will take the firstfruit offering and wave it in the air. That speaks of scrutiny. Our offering must meet the scrutiny of God and men. 8:20We are traveling together to guard against any criticism for the way we are handling this generous gift. 21We are careful to be honorable before the Lord, but we also want everyone else to see that we are honorable. And so the money we offer must be clean, if you are in the business of money laundering or tax evasion, don’t offer to the Lord. He knows. But also, the local church must be clear in her handling of the account, 2 brothers count the money, countersigned, clear account.
We must also give sincerely. You know, the title of tonight’s talk, giving and supporting other believers can be a dangerous thought as it tempt the flesh within us to give glory to ourselves. Remember the birds in the air, the lilies on the field, they need no one to give and support, and yet our heavenly Father looks after them and Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed as such. How much more are God’s saints. God does not need you and I to support them. So no one should attempt to seek glory in giving. Remember what happened to Ananias and Sapphira. Let not your right hand know what your left hand is giving.
How much? 9:7You must each decide in your heart how much to give. And don’t give reluctantly or in response to pressure. It is said that the Lord actually does not look at how much you give, but rather how much you have left after you have given. Remember the poor widow who casted her two mites? For all these have of their abundance cast in unto the offerings of God: but she of her penury hath cast in all the living that she had. So, don’t be shy to give if you can only afford 50p or £1. The Lord will notice your offering.
Why, why do we give? I have actually covered many reasons already. It is a form of worship, to express our gratitude to God in return for His blessings. It is a test of our love. It is a test of our faith.
The Lord has said that it is more blessed to give then to receive. Interestingly you don’t read this statement in the 4 gospels but when Paul quoted it in Acts, it gave the impression that it is a well known saying of our Lord.
9:12So two good things will result from this ministry of giving—the needs of the believers in Jerusalem will be met, and they will joyfully express their thanks to God. When Stephen email us letters of appreciation from those servants of God who have received our gifts, read them. They always praise God, and they often share with us their work for the Lord. And so in 3 John, John commended Gauis, that in supporting the servants of God, we might be fellowhelpers to the truth.
When, when should we collect the offering? Lets read from NLT 1 Corinthians 16 1Now regarding your question about the money being collected for God’s people in Jerusalem. You should follow the same procedure I gave to the churches in Galatia. 2On the first day of each week, you should each put aside a portion of the money you have earned.
So there seems to be a NT practice of offering being collected on the first day of the week. And there is a very good reason for that. Have you ever wonder why Paul wrote the last verse of 2 Cor 9. Thanks be unto God for His unspeakable gift. It is only when a believer understand the depth of his sin, his hopeless state, the depth at which he was save from, that he can truly say like Paul Yea doubtless, and I count all things but loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord: for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and do count them but dung, that I may win Christ. There is no better time to give then having spent time together to remember the Lord, God’s unspeakable gift. When we compare Christ and the world.
Finally…re the early part of Acts when believers sold their houses and laid it at the apostles’ feet
- It was a special moment, a unique time at the beginning of the church age. Not everything happened then can be reproduced today. We don’t have apostles today. There was one moment when the universal church could be found in only 1 local church in Jerusalem.
- It was an answer to the high priestly prayer of the Lord. That the disciples be one, and those who heard their preaching. You read in early Acts how the phrase with one accord keep repeating.
- Not taught in the epistles. The epistles have many coverage of the topic of giving and there was no mention of selling your houses. The contrary was taught: And give in proportion to what you have, not what you don’t have. Of course, I don’t mean your giving should make life easy for others and hard for yourselves.
- There is no limits to what you decide to give.
The trial of faith
2My brethren, count it all joy when ye fall into divers temptations;
3Knowing this, that the trying of your faith worketh patience.
4But let patience have her perfect work, that ye may be perfect and entire, wanting nothing.
5If any of you lack wisdom, let him ask of God, that giveth to all men liberally, and upbraideth not; and it shall be given him.
6But let him ask in faith, nothing wavering. For he that wavereth is like a wave of the sea driven with the wind and tossed.
7For let not that man think that he shall receive any thing of the Lord.
8A double minded man is unstable in all his ways.
9Let the brother of low degree rejoice in that he is exalted:
10But the rich, in that he is made low: because as the flower of the grass he shall pass away.
11For the sun is no sooner risen with a burning heat, but it withereth the grass, and the flower thereof falleth, and the grace of the fashion of it perisheth: so also shall the rich man fade away in his ways.
12Blessed is the man that endureth temptation: for when he is tried, he shall receive the crown of life, which the Lord hath promised to them that love him.
James is a very practical book, some calls the theme of the book, a living faith, presumably referring to the famous verse, faith without work is dead. Here we have James talking about faith. What is the thing that you can guarantee God will do with our faith? He will put it to test. And so James said call it all joy WHEN you fall into divers temptations. The word temptation here refers to test, or trial, not the temptation that Satan provide, with the objective of triggering your failure to sin. vs3 the trying of your faith.
The temptations are divers, we may be strong in one aspect, but God want us to be more all rounded, and so the tests can come in different forms and shapes, to build us up as we shall see later.
James is asking his readers to call it all joy. He is asking his readers to see the benefits of trials and tribulation. Paul said a similar thing, we glory in tribulations. These are marvelous truth but often you can’t tell this to a fellow saint when he is going through sorrow and trials. The word here is fall, no one is ready before he falls. One minute you are walking, the next minute you are on the ground, with bruise and cuts on your hand and face, and even a fractured hip!
I am thinking of Job. How everything was fine to him and suddenly everything was taken away from him. There are sorrows that we cannot comfort, and how dare you go to tell the brother to count it all joy! If you have not suffered any trials of your faith, you are either a very new Christian or your faith was on something else. God is going to shake us, and all the things that we hold dear in life can be taken away from us, and what is left of the man or woman is how the faith is hanging on to God. Beloved, when you see a brother or sister going through tribulations, don’t think that it is because they have done something bad. It might be the opposite. Look at Job again, God was so delighted with him that He let the devil tested him. Job suffered because he delighted God, and he came through the suffering bringing honour and glory to God. Sometimes the person that pleases God the most suffers the most, and you will need no hint to think of our Lord. Remember the grace of our God, There hath no temptation taken you but such as is common to man: but God is faithful, who will not suffer you to be tempted above that ye are able; but will with the temptation also make a way to escape, that ye may be able to bear it. God will not allow us to suffer beyond what we can bear.
And so James said count it all joy. He actually gave 3 reasons why we can count it all joy.
First it makes us a better person. Indeed his words are that ye may be perfect and wanting nothing. When we fall into trials, often we want to get out of it immediately. But God’s refining process takes time, and so let patience has its perfect work. The word patience here means more than just time but endurance. There is no way we can learn endurance unless we go through pain and suffering.
Of course it is hard to fully understand the wisdom of God to let us go through the suffering. And so the second benefit of our trial is that it brings us to our knees to pray. There is no prayers as earnest as when a believer is brought to his knees. From such experience, may God help us to grow in His grace to know to pray unto Him earnestly, not just when we are in tribulations. And then he talked about how the prayers is to be like, it has to be prayed with faith. We don’t understand why things happen in our life, we don’t pray with faith that God will give us the answer we want, but we pray with faith knowing that And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose.
Thirdly, the trial and tribulations make us understand where our true treasure is. Let the brothers of low degree rejoice in that he is exalted. I know thy works, and tribulation, and poverty, (but thou art rich). Smyrna. He that is rich made low, sometimes a rich brother may think that God is good because of the material blessings that he is enjoying, and God uses tribulation to make them understand the true riches. Blessed is the man that endureth temptation: for when he is tried, he shall receive the crown of life, which the Lord hath promised to them that love him.
Nothing but leaves
Mark 11: 12And on the morrow, when they were come from Bethany, he was hungry: 13And seeing a fig tree afar off having leaves, he came, if haply he might find any thing thereon: and when he came to it, he found nothing but leaves; for the time of figs was not yet. 14And Jesus answered and said unto it, No man eat fruit of thee hereafter for ever. And his disciples heard it.
20And in the morning, as they passed by, they saw the fig tree dried up from the roots. 21And Peter calling to remembrance saith unto him, Master, behold, the fig tree which thou cursedst is withered away. 22And Jesus answering saith unto them, Have faith in God.
Good afternoon and welcome to the gospel meeting. I am going to divide my talk today into 4 sections. Firstly, I want to explain the meaning of the fig tree in the Bible. Then I want to talk about the state of this particular fig tree, it was found out to have nothing but leaves. And then I want to speak about the missing fruits. Finally, the curse of the fig tree.
God often portray Himself as a husbandman/farmer in the Bible, and the people He cultivates are referred to as plants or trees. There are 3 types of plants/trees used in the Bible to describe the nation of Israel. There is the vine which speaks of her past, the fig tree speaks of her present, and the olive tree speaks of her future.
There is the vine, which speaks of Israel’s past. God as husbandman has cultivated this vine by saving them from slavery in Egypt. God gave them His laws and they were supposed to live a life that is a testimony to the nations around them of how it is that people honouring God were supposed to live. Sadly, Israel as the vine has failed to produce that fruit that God was looking for.
Then there is the fig tree. The Lord Jesus Himself taught a parable about a barren fig tree, which the owner of the vineyard was going to cut down, because for 3 years He visited the fig tree but it has failed to bear any fruit. In that parable, the servant of the vineyard pleaded on behalf of the fig tree to be given more time and cultivation. It is a picture of how the nation of Israel has failed to response to God’s good work when He sent His Son, the Lord Jesus, into the land of Israel to save them from their sins. For more than 3 years, the Lord Jesus performed great works in the land, such as healing of diseases, raising the dead, rebuking the storm and calmed it down. These are works that beyond shadow of doubt, point to them that the Lord Jesus was the promised Messiah. God was cultivating the nation with extra-ordinary works through His Son, but they rejected Him. And so the fig tree is a picture of Israel now, which has rejected her Messiah and has become barren..
Then there is also the olive tree which in the Bible is used to speak of the future of Israel to when God will graft them back into His plan again.
So there you are, the meaning of the fig tree in the bible. Now you may ask ‘what has that got to do with me’?
That brings us into the second part of my talk. You see, when the Lord was hungry and He came towards this fig tree to look for fruit, He found nothing but leaves. That is a picture of not just the nation of Israel, but all of us. You see, in relation to us, God is our husbandman, and we are his fig trees. He cultivate us by giving us our daily bread, rains and sunlight on good and bad people. He is expecting fruit. The Bible says that God is looking down from heaven, to see if He can find any that is righteous, any that understands and seeketh God, and He found none.
But the fig tree here is not just a picture of fruitlessness, it is a picture of deception. It cannot produce fruit, but rather than letting this fruitlessness be obvious, it tries to hide the matter but covering the whole tree with leaves. That is us. All of us knows that we are not righteous, but do we ever admit it? We put up an outward show of righteousness and respectability. We cover ourselves with leaves. We can fool others, and even ourselves, but we cannot fool God. God looks beyond the outward acts right into the heart of men. There is no difference, whether you are a respectable man in the society, or a barbarian like of criminals, or a religious looking man that goes to church, for all have sinned and come short of God’s glory. We are sinners who fall short of God’s standard of righteousness. Sinners mean people who come short of the mark.
Not only are the fig leaves a picture of deception, before the eyes of the all knowing God whom we cannot fool, they become a picture of inadequate and pathetic cover. You have heard of Adam and Eve. How they were our first parents, and they sinned against God. And when they were found out, you know what is the experience of being found out? They felt so naked. And so the Bible told us that they tried to cover themselves up with fig leaves. A cover that is full of holes. God has mercy upon them and cover them up properly.
One day we are all going to stand before God. God has recorded every moment of our lives, and before the judgement of God, we are going to feel so naked. All those righteousness that we have displayed outwardly to others, they are going to be like the fig leaves, flimsy, full of holes. God will look beyond the outward acts, right into the true motives and the hearts of men. They are not going to cover us adequately. Your clothes of fig leaves of inconsistent human righteousness mixed with a life full of iniquities won’t do the job. If only we can understand the true righteousness of God, our righteousness is like dirty rags and we would not even dare to bring out our pathetic righteousness to defend ourselves before God’s judgement. So my friends, don’t carry on life the ways it has been, being full of nothing but leaves, fooling others, fooling your own selves, but you cannot fool God.
That brings us to the third part of my talk, the missing fruits. What do you think is the missing fruit then? You may say surely that is I shall live righteously before God from henceforth. I am not going to lie ever again, I am not going to get jealous of others, I am not going to be angry with anyone ever, I will be good and do good. Friends, if that is the missing fruit of our salvation, then this is not a gospel or good news meeting, because no one will be saved. Because I cannot possibly live that life with my own sinful nature. You see, we are not sinners because we sin, but rather we sin because we are sinners. You know, love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, self control, these are Godly characteristics of the fruit that we cannot produce, it comes from above. I cannot bring to God a life of righteous perfection to earn a place in Heaven. That is why God provides us another way, that by grace we may be saved saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God: Not of works, lest any man should boast.
You remember I said that Adam and Eve tried to cover themselves with fig leaves and God gave them a proper cover. Well, spiritually, God has provided that cover of righteousness for all of us, when the Son of God took upon humanity and became the only sinless man to live all His life with sinless perfection, and died a sinless man on the cross for us. For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.
So, what is the missing fruit? I want to be saved. Well, you heard of John the baptist? When he was baptising, the religious learders also came, but John would not baptise them. Listen to the passage in Matthew’s gospel: But when he saw many of the Pharisees and Sadducees come to his baptism, he said unto them, O generation of vipers, who hath warned you to flee from the wrath to come? Bring forth therefore fruits meet for repentance: And think not to say within yourselves, We have Abraham to our father: for I say unto you, that God is able of these stones to raise up children unto Abraham. And now also the axe is laid unto the root of the trees: therefore every tree which bringeth not forth good fruit is hewn down, and cast into the fire.
Fruits meet for repentance. Those are your missing fruits. What is repentance? It means to change one’s mind. We are not looking for emotional or remorseful response, as we present the Son of God dying on the cross for you. We are asking you to change your way of thinking, to look at life differently from what you have been brought up. The Pharisees have not changed their mind, they think that they are right before God because they are religious and they think they are OK because of their heritage as Abraham’s descendants.
I am going to suggest 3 fruits of repentance.
I have already mentioned the first fruit. That is don’t think that you are a good man. We may look good among our fellow human beings, but we are not good in the eyes of God. In other words, don’t try to cover yourselves with leaves anymore. It is not going to work. Take a good look at yourself, and recognise that you are a sinner. God, be merciful unto me, a sinner.
The second fruit of repentance is a follow on from the first. Don’t think that you are doing OK. Don’t measure your future with your current success. I am going to wake up tomorrow and life is going to be fine. We are so busy with life, we take care of every aspect of our life, our health, our wealth, our social life but do we ever care of our never dying soul? Remember, it is appointed unto men to once die, and then judgement. Where will your soul spend in eternity?
Finally, you need to change the way you look at the Lord Jesus. If before you came in to this hall, He is just a mystical figure in a distant past, whose relevance today is that people use His name to curse, I want you to understand that He is your God, your creator, your sacrifice, and then He can only be one of these two to you: your savior or your judge.
And the times of this ignorance God winked at; but now commandeth all men every where to repent. So, please, change your mind.
Finally, very quickly I want to talk about the curse of the fig tree. Of all the miracles that the Lord has performed, this is a unique one. Because it resulted in a judgement and death. It is unique because the Lord has said of His first coming into the world that He has not come to judge the world, but that the world through Him might be saved. The fig tree withered from the root. Friends, what if your heart stop pumping tonight, and the tomorrow that you assume will come, never come, and you wish you have another opportunity to bear fruits of repentance, but you hear the Savior’s voice: No man eat fruit of thee hereafter for ever.
Thank you
The cleansing of the leper
Matthew 8
2And, behold, there came a leper and worshipped him, saying, Lord, if thou wilt, thou canst make me clean. 3And Jesus put forth his hand, and touched him, saying, I will; be thou clean. And immediately his leprosy was cleansed. 4And Jesus saith unto him, See thou tell no man; but go thy way, shew thyself to the priest, and offer the gift that Moses commanded, for a testimony unto them.
The Lord is met by a leper. You know what a loathsome thing leprosy was. Notoriously, it was not only most offensive, but hopeless, as far as man was concerned. It is true that in Leviticus we have ceremonies for the cleansing of a leper, but who could give a ceremony for the cure of a leper? Who take away that disease after it had once infected a man? Luke, the beloved physician, gives us the notice that he was “full of leprosy;” the other Evangelists do not state anything but the simple fact that he was a leper. This was enough. Because, to the Jews, the question was whether there was any leprosy at all: if such it was, they could have nothing to say to him till he was cured and cleansed. The Spirit of God uses leprosy as a type of sin, in all the loathsomeness that it produces. Palsy brings out the thought of powerlessness. Both are true of the sinner. He is without strength, and he is unclean in the presence of God. Jesus heals the leper.
This at once illustrates the power of Jehovah-Jesus upon earth, and more than that; for it was not merely a question of His power, but of His grace, His love, His willingness to put forth all His might on behalf of His people. For the whole people of Israel were like that leper. But, whether few or many, let them only present themselves in all their vileness before the Messiah, and how would the Messiah deal with them? The Messiah is there. He has got the power, but the leper is not sure of His will. “Lord,” He says, if Thou wilt, Thou canst make me clean.” We may remember the distress of the king of Israel in the days of Elisha, when the king of Syria sent Naaman to him that he might be recovered of his leprosy: how, when he had read the letter, “he rent his clothes, and said, Am I God, to kill and to make alive, that this man doth send unto me to recover a man of his leprosy?” Only God could do it: every Jew knew this; and this is what the Holy Ghost is desirous of showing.
The leper is the first case, where we have, as it were, the microscope applied by the Spirit of God, that we may see clearly how the Lord carried Himself toward Israel; what ought to have been the place of Israel; and what was their real conduct. At once, when the leper acknowledges His power and confesses His person, “Lord, if Thou wilt, Thou canst make me clean;” when it was merely the question of His will and of His affections, immediately there comes the answer of divine love as well as power: “I will, be thou clean; and immediately his leprosy was cleansed.” He put forth His hand and touched him. It was not only God, but God manifest in the flesh — One who entered fully into the poor leper’s anxiety, yet proved Himself paramount to the law. His touch — it was that of Jehovah. God’s touch! The law could only put the leper at a distance; but if God gives a law, He is superior in grace to the law that He gives.
“See thou tell no man; but go thy way, show thyself to the priest, and offer the gift that Moses commanded for a testimony unto them.” There was no desire that He should publish what Jesus was: God might tell His works. He says, “See thou tell no man; but go, show thyself to the priest,” etc. Nothing could be more blessed. Had the man gone telling it to every one instead of to the priest, the great enemy might have found means to misrepresent the work, to deny the miracle, to try and make out that he was not the man who had been a leper. But Jesus says, “Go, show thyself to the priest. “Why? Because the priest himself would be the authentic witness that Jesus was Jehovah. The priest that knew the man was a leper before, that had pronounced him unclean, that had put him outside, would now see that the man was cured. Who had done it? None but God could heal the leper. Jesus, then, was God; Jesus was Jehovah; the God of Israel was in the land.
Psalm 49
1{To the chief Musician, A Psalm for the sons of Korah.} Hear this, all ye people; give ear, all ye inhabitants of the world:
2Both low and high, rich and poor, together.
3My mouth shall speak of wisdom; and the meditation of my heart shall be of understanding.
4I will incline mine ear to a parable: I will open my dark saying upon the harp.
5Wherefore should I fear in the days of evil, when the iniquity of my heels shall compass me about?
6They that trust in their wealth, and boast themselves in the multitude of their riches;
7None of them can by any means redeem his brother, nor give to God a ransom for him:
8(For the redemption of their soul is precious, and it ceaseth for ever:)
9That he should still live for ever, and not see corruption.
10For he seeth that wise men die, likewise the fool and the brutish person perish, and leave their wealth to others.
11Their inward thought is, that their houses shall continue for ever, and their dwelling places to all generations; they call their lands after their own names.
12Nevertheless man being in honour abideth not: he is like the beasts that perish.
13This their way is their folly: yet their posterity approve their sayings. Selah.
14Like sheep they are laid in the grave; death shall feed on them; and the upright shall have dominion over them in the morning; and their beauty shall consume in the grave from their dwelling.
15But God will redeem my soul from the power of the grave: for he shall receive me. Selah.
16Be not thou afraid when one is made rich, when the glory of his house is increased;
17For when he dieth he shall carry nothing away: his glory shall not descend after him.
18Though while he lived he blessed his soul: and men will praise thee, when thou doest well to thyself.
19He shall go to the generation of his fathers; they shall never see light.
20Man that is in honour, and understandeth not, is like the beasts that perish.
Introduction
This psalm is about the folly of trusting in worldly wealth. It describes how earthly wealth is utterly powerless before the giant called death. Dr Cohen called this psalm ‘Death the Leveller’. He explained that ‘the might of wealth is limited. It cannot ward off the oncoming of death, and at its advent the rich are reduced to the same level as the poor. If that truism were kept in mind, wealth would not breed insolent pride; and in that thought the poor in their disability may hope for the ultimate triumph of right.’
This is a wisdom psalm, v3. If the book of Job asks why should the righteous suffer, this psalm deals with the question why are the wicked prosper in this life. It shares with the Book of Ecclesiastes about the wisdom or more properly the folly of the vanity of earthly glory, man that is in honour perish like the beasts.
While a lot of psalms are a form of prayer or praise, this psalm is a sermon as you shall see from its opening. You can hear the Lord’s teaching echoing in the psalm, what shall it profit a man, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul?
It contains 2 selah, after v13 & v15, and 2 choruses, v12 & v20.
The psalm
1{To the chief Musician, A Psalm for the sons of Korah.} Hear this, all ye people; give ear, all ye inhabitants of the world:
Lets look at the superscription. This is one of the 55 psalms that were committed to the care of the chief musician. It was David who introduced music into the national worship, and the chief musician was the person appointed to lead it. But many people also say that God is the ultimate Chief Musician. In our public worship, the Holy Spirit is the unseen Conductor. Our Lord Jesus is the Chief Musician that make our cooperate worship acceptable to God.
The Sons of Korah. For the famous Korah’s rebellion, pls refer to Numbers 16. God almost destroyed the whole Israelite congregation. Yet not only were the majority of the Israelites spared, some of Korah’s descendants were also spared. Num 26:11. Perhaps the most famous son of Korah is the prophet Samuel, but he is not the person mentioned here. The sons of Korah referred to here are even later descendants of Korah, first appointed by King David to be musicians and singers during worship as well as gate keepers. It is hard to know if they wrote the psalms or the psalms were written for them to perform in worship.
Hear this, all ye people; give ear, all ye inhabitants of the world:
Unusually, this OT Jewish psalm extends its message to the whole world, and not just the Jewish audience. You can sense the earnest burden of the preacher. Hear this, all ye people. When we preach the gospel, we should have such burden. Paul said I am debtor both to the Greeks, and to the Barbarians; both to the wise, and to the unwise (with regards to the gospel). All ye inhabitants of the world, the word ‘world’ means lifetime, ie all ye inhabitants of this fleeting age, of this short life. Hence the urgency of the message.
2Both low and high, rich and poor, together.
His message, just like the gospel, is needy to all classes of people. If you are lowly and poor, you will be encouraged by this psalm, if you are highly exalted and rich, this psalm will bring your feet back to the ground, as you listen to its wisdom.
3My mouth shall speak of wisdom; and the meditation of my heart shall be of understanding. 4I will incline mine ear to a parable: I will open my dark saying upon the harp.
The preacher is not speaking of his own wisdom, but that which is revealed by the Spirit of God. All the wisdom of men is like darkness, hence vs 4 we have the phrase dark saying. We need the dark saying opened to us. Our Lord is the light of the world, and His words, the Bible is the source of light and wisdom. In this age of social media, my friends regularly send me words of human wisdom, about life. And majority of it is about wisdom for this fleeting age, this short life. When you put eternity into the context, these wisdoms become folly. The Bible is our only source of true wisdom and I hope you will realise that and enjoy discovering the wisdom by reading the words of God.
And the meditation of my heart shall be of understanding. Blessed is the man whose delight is in the law of the LORD; and in his law doth he meditate day and night.
I will incline mine ear to a parable. Before we can preach or teach, we ourselves need to listen. He who has ears, let him hear. I will open my dark saying upon the harp. It is beautiful when the wise words of God is being incorporated into hymns. Have you ever paid attention to many of the hymns and work out which parts of the Scripture the author of the hymns quoted it from?
vs1-4 was his opening, now we come to the psalmist message.
5Wherefore should I fear in the days of evil, when the iniquity of my heels shall compass me about?
The phrase iniquity of my heels refers not to the psalmist’s sin, but rather evil or evil doers around him. It reminds us of the first prophecy concerning our Lord, how the serpent shall bruise the heel of the seed of the woman, but the seed of the woman shall bruise its head. So we shall not fear because we belong to the Victor. All that evil men can do to us is just to hurt our heels. They may trip us to fall momentarily, upset us. That is all the Devil and evil men could do. The more important thing, our eternal security, our treasure, is locked up with Lord in heaven, where neither moth nor rust doth corrupt, and where thieves do not break through nor steal. The Lord said in Isaiah 51:12: “I, even I, am he who comforts you. Who are you that you fear mere mortals, human beings who are but grass. (NIV)
6They that trust in their wealth, and boast themselves in the multitude of their riches; 7None of them can by any means redeem his brother, nor give to God a ransom for him: 8(For the redemption of their soul is precious, and it ceaseth for ever:) 9That he should still live for ever, and not see corruption.
They that trusted in their wealth, what fools, to put your trust in wealth, for they are like a foolish man which build his house upon the sand. And the rain descended, and the floods came, and the winds blew, and beat upon that house; and it fell: and great was the fall of it. When death comes, all their wealth is useless. All their wealth could not save their loved ones like their brothers. God cannot be bribed, neither can death be. Let them weigh their gold in the scales of death, and see how much they can buy therewith from the worm and the decay or corruption.
Our soul is more precious than silver and gold, wealth cannot ransom it. For we are not redeemed by corruptible things such as silver or gold, but the precious blood of our Lord Jesus. I wonder if this psalm makes you ponder again the price that God has paid for our souls. Or what will a man give in exchange for his soul? But God gave us His Son.
In vs 7 we also learn about the persistence of folly. Because it was not the man trusted in his wealth who was dying, but his brother. He has already had one opportunity to learn the weakness of wealth, but he did not learn it. The next verse tells us that he has plenty more opportunities to learn but he did not. Then later on in the psalm you will see he did not learn it even in his dead bed, and indeed brought that folly into his grave and even passed on that folly to his next generation.
10For he seeth that wise men die, likewise the fool and the brutish person perish, and leave their wealth to others.
This is what Dr Cohen meant by death the leveller. Not just rich and poor are equal before death, the wise and the fool are the same before death. And leave their wealth to others. Thou fool, this night thy soul shall be required of thee: then whose shall those things be, which thou hast provided? So, not only he saw his brother died, he saw many around him died, and their wealth left behind. What did he do? He continue to trust in his wealth.
11Their inward thought is, that their houses shall continue for ever, and their dwelling places to all generations; they call their lands after their own names.
Here we come to the peak of the folly. There are two ways to interpret this verse. One is that they want to leave their wealth to their descendants.
But most people including other translations would interpret this as the tomb which people plan as their permanent home. NIV:Their tombs will remain their houses forever, their dwellings for endless generations, though they had named lands after themselves. Read an article from a Christian archeologist, Gordon Franz: At home in death. The best example of such peak of folly is the excavation of the terracotta army from the Chinese Emperor’s tomb. Men refuse to let go of the glory in their life and even seek to bring it to their graves. They even name a land after themselves, Spurgeon said you might as well write your name on water. Now in our modern days, such folly continues.
How foolish, how sad we are to trust in earthly wealth and success. And that sums up our next verse:
12Nevertheless man being in honour abideth not: he is like the beasts that perish.
13This their way is their folly: yet their posterity approve their sayings. Selah.
We come to a pause in the psalm. The psalmist needed a break as he contemplate the great folly, which is being passed on from generations to generations.
And now we come to the next section of the psalm, when the condition of the wicked and the upright are reversed.
14Like sheep they are laid in the grave; death shall feed on them; and the upright shall have dominion over them in the morning; and their beauty shall consume in the grave from their dwelling.
Like sheep they are laid in the grave; death shall feed on them. The meaning here is that death shall be their shepherd. If people refuse to seek God while He may be found, then they have chosen death as their shepherd. Observe how it is not the shepherd that feed the sheep, but the shepherd feed on the sheep. You can call vs 14 a tale of 2 flocks. One flack whose shepherd is Death, the other could go through the valley of the shadow of death, and shall not fear, because the Lord is my shepherd, because His rod and His staff comforteth me. The upright shall have dominion over them in the morning. The word morning here reminds us of our Lord’s teaching about the rich man and the beggar Lazarus. When they both died, a new morning comes, and Lazarus is in the bosom of Abraham while the rich man is tormented in hell. This morning is different from the word ‘world’ in vs 1. In vs1 it refers to the fleeting time on earth, here it refers to the new morning of eternity, which is endless, timeless, and more importantly changeless. We have a chance to change our eternity while we are still in this life.
15But God will redeem my soul from the power of the grave: for he shall receive me. Selah.
Another pause, as the psalmist wonder at God’s redemption and His power to raise him from the grave.
Then we come to the psalmist’ conclusion, which I think needs no further elaboration.
16Be not thou afraid when one is made rich, when the glory of his house is increased; 17For when he dieth he shall carry nothing away: his glory shall not descend after him. 18Though while he lived he blessed his soul: and men will praise thee, when thou doest well to thyself. 19He shall go to the generation of his fathers; they shall never see light. 20Man that is in honour, and understandeth not, is like the beasts that perish.
The psalmist answer his own question in v5 wherefore should i fear with v16 Be not thou afraid. If you are not doing well in this life as in the eyes of men, fear not. Remember, at the judgement seat of Christ, only what was done for Christ matters. If you are doing well in this life, be very worried, because you have very strong temptation in your daily life to put your trust in your worldly wealth and not in your God.
What is the difference between vs 12 and vs 20? understandeth not.
Jeremiah 9 23Thus saith the LORD, Let not the wise man glory in his wisdom, neither let the mighty man glory in his might, let not the rich man glory in his riches: 24But let him that glorieth glory in this, that he understandeth and knoweth me, that I am the LORD which exercise lovingkindness, judgment, and righteousness, in the earth: for in these things I delight, saith the LORD.
Appendix
We are studying psalms from Book 2 of the Psalms. People sometimes call the 5 books of Psalms as the Pentateuch of David, and so Book 2 is the Exodus equivalent. Each book has its own characteristics and themes. Nelson says the theme for Book 2 is deliverance and redemption. In this psalm, the psalmist asks God to deliver him from the iniquities of his heels and to redeem his soul from grave.
Now remember as much as we Christians can enjoy these psalms, they are written by the Jews and for the Jews. If you don’t appreciate it, you will struggle when you read the Imprecatory Psalms, where the psalmists curse his enemies.
The psalms were written for a historical occasion or reason which we cannot always know now, but they often also have a prophectic message.
Prophetically, the second book contemplates the Jews as driven from Jerusalem, and the house of God then in possession of His enemies both Gentile and Jewish. So they are the prophectic voice of the future regenerated remnant of Israel, a bit like Isaiah 53. The book 2 culminate in Psalm 72, the millenial reign of our Lord pictured as King Solomon in that psalm.
Now you can read the psalms as individual poetry, or you can read them as a series. Most people will regards Psalm 42-48 as a series, and people like Darby and William Kelly would include our psalm 49 into that series as a moral conclusion of the series.
Psalm 42-49 are attributed to the sons of Korah. This is a feature of Book 2. The sons of Korah will appear again to a lesser extent in Book 3 but not anywhere else in the Books of Psalms.
Very quickly I will go through Psalm 42-49 as a series, then you will see the collective message that you won’t see if you read each psalm in isolation.
Psalm 42, As the hart panteth after the water brooks, so panteth my soul after thee, O God. The author is crying from a far away land to worship God in Jerusalem, which has been taken by the Gentile enemy.
Psalm 43, Judge me, O God, and plead my cause against an ungodly nation. The ungodly nation is the Jews themselves. The enemy comprises of not just the Gentiles, but the ungodly nation of Israel. Was not our Lord being crucified by both Jews and Gentiles?
Psalm 44 the psalmist contemplate God’s help to their fathers in time past, lament their present poor condition, admitting their sins and ask God to save. We have heard with our ears, O God, our fathers have told us, what work thou didst in their days, in the times of old.
Psalm 45, My heart is inditing a good matter, the promised warrior King has come to their rescue. And there were joyful occasion.
Psalm 46, God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble. The mood of the psalmist is elevated. The heathen raged, the kingdoms were moved: he uttered his voice, the earth melted.
Psalm 47, O clap your hands, all ye people; shout unto God with the voice of triumph. Psalm 48, Great is the LORD, and greatly to be praised in the city of our God, in the mountain of his holiness.
Now Psalm 49 is sometimes called the moral conclusion of a mini series of psalms from 42 to 48. But I see some prophectic voice. As I was reading the book of Revelation, I tried to fit Psalm 49 into the Tribulation, the last week of Daniel’s prophecy. I read God’s remnant, 144000 was sealed to be His testimony, I read how the preaching was to the whole world and there shall be Gentiles saved, multitudes of all nations clothed in white robes. I read of great economic problems, A measure of wheat for a penny, and three measures of barley for a penny. Financial persecution, no man may buy or sell without the mark of the beast. And I read of how all classes of men, kings of the earth, and the great men, and the rich men, and the chief captains, and the mighty men, and every bondman, and every free man try to hide from wrath of the Lamb.
So, just to make it interesting for you as you read the bible.
Another thing I want to touch is the title of God. The Psalm follows the general feature of Book 2, where God is referred more often as God/Elohim (v7 & v15), rather than Lord/Jehovah. For this matter, I suggest you compare and contrast Psalm 14 (Book 1) and Psalm 53 (Book 2). The fool hath said in his heart, There is no God. It is almost as if there is a greater distance between the psalmist and his God in 53 than 14. See also Psalm 40 13-17 vs Psalm 70 1-5.
This is because in Book 2 the Jews regards themselves as not worthy of their covenantal relationship with God anymore, not knowing how they (and for this matter, us) stand before God has nothing to do with our faithfulness but rather God’s unfailing faithfulness. It is a bit like the prodigal son, who felt he was no longer worthy to be regarded as son, even though his father would immediately restore him. The practical significance of this title shift is that even when people feel that they have lost their standing before God, they can still rely on God’s intrinsic characters to call onto God for help. I think that is lovely. Have you ever backslided? I think if the prodigal son were to return to his father thinking that he is still worthy to be a son, he has not shown true repentance. If we have sinned and felt that our fellowship with our Father is disturbed, we can still turn to Him as the God that is ever faithful. If we are faithless, He remains faithful.
Logical service
1I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service. 2And be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God.
The first two verses of chapter 12 are the introduction to this entire practical part of the letter, based upon the revelation given in chapters 1-8. For we may very properly consider chapters 9—11 as a great parenthesis, occasioned because of the necessity of clearing the mind of the believing Jew in regard to the ways of God.
The opening words necessarily link with the closing part of chapter 8: “I beseech you, therefore, brethren” (12:1). The “therefore” refers clearly to the magnificent summing up of Christian standing and eternal blessing in the eighth chapter. Because you are in Christ free from all condemnation; because you are indwelt by the Holy Spirit; because you are sons by adoption, because you are eternally linked up with Christ; because you are the elect of God, predestined to be conformed to the image of His Son; because you are beyond all possibility of condemnation, since Christ has died and been raised again and sits at God’s right hand; because no charge can ever be laid against the believer that God will hear; because there is no separation from the love of God for those who are in Christ Jesus—“I beseech you [to] present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your [intelligent] service!” (v. 1).
As the Levites were afterward presented to God to live sacrificial lives in place of the firstborn, so each believer is called upon to recognize the Lord’s claims upon him and to present, or yield, his body as a living sacrifice, set apart and acceptable unto God, because of the price that has been paid for his redemption (see Num. 8:11-21; Dan. 3:28).
11And Aaron shall offer the Levites before the LORD for an offering of the children of Israel, that they may execute the service of the LORD. 12And the Levites shall lay their hands upon the heads of the bullocks: and thou shalt offer the one for a sin offering, and the other for a burnt offering, unto the LORD, to make an atonement for the Levites. 13And thou shalt set the Levites before Aaron, and before his sons, and offer them for an offering unto the LORD. 14Thus shalt thou separate the Levites from among the children of Israel: and the Levites shall be mine. 15And after that shall the Levites go in to do the service of the tabernacle of the congregation: and thou shalt cleanse them, and offer them for an offering.
28Then Nebuchadnezzar spake, and said, Blessed be the God of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, who hath sent his angel, and delivered his servants that trusted in him, and have changed the king’s word, and yielded their bodies, that they might not serve nor worship any god, except their own God.
Reasonable service
2As newborn babes, desire the sincere milk of the word, that ye may grow thereby: Logikos
Reasonable does not mean fair enough that we should offer ourselves to God as he has saved us but logical, intelligent service, Darby. In our life, we choose what to say, what worldly gain to lose, places we refuse to go to etc. Intelligently serving God, unlike OT sacrifice practice, they were told what to do. Link to the sincere milk of the word.
Our natural mind cannot follow God, we need to read God’s words so our mind may be transformed and renewed that we may know what is the good, acceptable and perfect will of God. Our Lord Jesus knew the will of God. Then said I, Lo, I come (in the volume of the book it is written of me,) to do thy will, O God.
Also translated as true and proper worship, spiritual worship. Our sphere of worship is beyond the church and Sunday morning. The altar of worship is everywhere. The unbelievers go to work, the true believers to worship. So he try to show peace by living peaceably if possible, he sees God as the true boss noticing his every action and every situation as God’s test of him.
Statistics
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Greener Pastures 