Can we take a moment to read the verses sandwiched between the ones read
earlier in Luke 23; those were verses 41 and 44. In vv. 42 & 43, we see the
thief on the cross: “And he said unto Jesus, Lord, remember me when thou
comest into thy kingdom. And Jesus said unto him, Verily I say unto thee,
To day shalt thou be with me in paradise.” Something struck me recently, as
I have been reading in Deuteronomy. Moses is speaking to the children of
Israel, and he says, “This day, God says such and such.” An old writer said
that “this day” was a solemn idiom of urgency; and it appears 42 times in
Deuteronomy. These are the same words used by the Lord here on the cross.
Yet this time, it is not what men should, but what this blessed One would
make possible in the next verses in the darkness. Think, the very one who
witnessed to the Lord’s holiness was to be the first subject in
paradise—that very day! Oh, beloved, can we see ourselves in the sense of
that thief? How good to know that we have access to paradise as soon as we
leave here, only because of His work. May He get all the glory!
Children’s Meeting—Philip Burgess
EG Hymn 341 – Jesus bids us shine
Prayer
Last time we looked at snow and learned some lessons on the Christian life
from it. I want to look into the skies once again and see if we can have
another lesson on Christian living. About a week ago, we had a lunar
eclipse, and after it was over, there was a full moon. Does anyone know
where the moon gets its light? It reflects it from the sun. We could think
of ourselves as the moon, reflecting the Lord. Let’s see how this works.
We’ll start by reading John 1:1, 4, & 14. We can see that what we reflect
isn’t actually light (like Moses did); it is the light of the Lord. John
8:12 tells us more; it is the love and kindness the Lord showed while here
on earth that we should reflect. That life was unlike anything the people
of His day had ever seen. The end of the verse holds the key to our
subject: we can lead the kind of life the Lord led too. Read Luke 11:33 &
So our purpose as Christians is to shine God’s light into the world.
But what if we are blind in this area? It doesn’t matter how the Lord
shines, we can’t reflect any of His goodness unless our eyes are focused on
Him. Read v. 36. When we reflect the Lord’s light, others who don’t know
the Lord might see. I heard a story about a young Christian girl who went
to a birthday party at which they were to stay the night. During the course
of the evening, the hostess announced that they were going to have a
seance. The girl realized this was not right, so she told the woman that,
since she was a Christian, she could not participate. Her hostess was very
nice about it and decided not to have the seance. But a few days later she
went to the girl’s parents and said, “Whatever your daughter has, I want
too.” That’s an example of being a light in the darkness. In closing, read
Matthew 5:14 & 16. We are the light of the world; the question is, are we a
full moon or only part full?
Reading Meeting
Hebrews 13:15-21
• Verses 15 & 16 are about sacrifices. V. 15 starts with “By Him,” meaning
the Lord. What makes this interesting is that this is written to Hebrews
Christians. They had been in Judaism, where there was a special tribe and
family who did the sacrificing (we see this in Exodus and Leviticus). But
now the writer says that we, Christians, can offer sacrifices. But we
don’t use the book of Leviticus as a handbook. Why don’t we have animal
sacrifices? Because the Lord did it all; there is no need for anymore.
But if there are still sacrifices, there must be priests. Read I Peter
2:5 & 9. All true believers are priests today. These verses mention both
a holy and a royal priesthood. As holy priests, we offer up sacrifices of
praise; as royal priests we show forth His praise. But are we functioning
as priests? So now, what is praise? It is the overflow of a full heart
for the Lord; and if so, then we need to keep it full. Deuteronomy 26
gives us some helpful insight on this topic; we will look at it briefly.
V. 1 – The Israelites were just about to go into the land. We
find ourselves in the same position; Canaan for us is the
enjoyment of heaven before we get there (not Heaven itself); it
is part of our inheritance. In order to enjoy Heaven, we have to
possess and dwell “in the land of our inheritance” right now.
V. 2 – Once they got into the land, they were to gather the
first fruits of their crops and bring them to the place God had
set His name. We should collect into our baskets things of the
Lord. We don’t come to meeting with a prepared sermon; we come
with our hearts full.
Vv. 5-6 – We were once in the bondage of sin (Egypt).
Vv. 7-8 – That’s repentance.
Vv. 9-11 – This gives you a picture of bringing your basket
full; it all starts with the enjoyment of a risen Lord. This is
what tops off our hearts to overflow with praise to God.
But even with all we can bring, “Christ adds His sweet perfume.” We
probably would not recognize our praise when it reaches God!
“Continually”—doesn’t that challenge you? Read Exodus 29:38-40. This
talks about the continual burnt offering; in the next chapter, we read
about the perpetual offering of incense, an offering inside the
tabernacle. Now, one interesting thing here is that we have two different
sides to our worship. V. 15 gives us the praise, the overflow of a full
heart. In v. 16, we have the other side: “But to do good and to
communicate forget not: for with such sacrifices God is well pleased.”
Read Philippians 4:18. We usually think of a sweet savour as praise, but
here, Christians are giving Paul financial help; that is considered the
same thing. We do both of these on a Lord’s Day Morning. These two types
of worship are the main point of the Christian life. It is also
interesting to see that praise to God comes first; it is of more
importance. It is to be done “continually,” while doing good is just,
“forget not.” Praise is our opportunity to give back to God, Who has
given so much to us.
EG Hymn 290 – Praise the Saviour, ye who know Him,
Prayer