June 24, 2012
Scripture:
Ministry:
Let us look at 1 Kings 8:7. Here we have Solomon dedicating the temple. He is speaking about the greatness and majesty of God. Now let’s go to Matthew 1:21. In another passage we read, “And the Word was made flesh and dwelt among us.” He did it to save people from their sins. We love Him for the cross that He bore for us, that we might be saved from all our sins!
Hymn 92 - Have you any room for Jesus
Prayer
Last time, we read about how Solomon built the temple. God promised him that if he built the temple according to His instructions, He would dwell among them, in the temple.
1 Kings 7
It had come time to bring the ark of God to the new temple. Solomon got together the elders and the priests for this event. Once inside the temple, they removed the staves from the ark. The staves are what they had used to carry the ark. This showed that it was there to stay.
Was God pleased with how Solomon built the temple? Yes, God was pleased and, just as He said, His glory came into the temple. In v. 27, Solomon’s heart was filled with emotion and awe. He was trying to comprehend how such a big God, Who occupied the heavens, could come and dwell in a small house.
It had been God’s desire to dwell with His people. He started with the tabernacle and then moved to the temple. He came to both these places as a cloud, but He finally became visible to man when he was born in Bethlehem. Read John 1:14. For 33 years, the Lord lived with His people. While He was on earth, He showed God’s love for man by dying on the cross for sin.
After Jesus rose from the dead, He ascended up into Heaven. In John 14:16, Jesus was trying to explain to His disciples that He was going to leave them. He told them that He would send a comforter (the Holy Spirit) after He had left. The comforter was to dwell within them. Read Acts 2:1. Shortly after Jesus returned to Heaven, the new believers were gathered together. While they were assembled, they were each filled with the Holy Spirit, as the Lord had promised.
The Lord sent the Holy Spirit to be a guide to his people. The Holy Spirit also works with our consciences; this is why we feel guilt when we do not do what we know is right.
Read Ephesians 3:17; here, Paul prayed that the comforter would dwell in their hearts. May all we do make the Lord welcome in our hearts. We can pray that the Lord would fill our hearts with kind and loving actions.
Luke 12:54-59, 13:1-10
The Lord stopped talking to just the disciples, and started addressing the crowd. They could look at the sky and see the indicators of the weather; and they should have been looking at Scripture and discerning the times, too. Because they didn’t, Jesus called them hypocrites. There was One among them that designated the time, but they didn’t recognize Him. He was the sign that they asked for, but they were too stupid to see that. Jesus showed them their mistake in verse 57: they were making Him their enemy! The One Who came as a friend to those in want and those needing a Saviour! We know that soon they would rise and call for His death.
V.58 shows that they should have befriended Jesus. God was going to judge them, and if Jesus wasn’t their friend, then the judge would deliver them to the officer and they would be cast into prison. It’s not much different today, except that the Lord’s work has now been accomplished, and there is no paying mites to get out of prison. If you fail to make sure that Jesus is on your side now, it will be prison for eternity.
We’re still trying to understand the signs of the times today. There are many who have said, “Based on this and this and this the Lord will be coming soon”, and yet those signs have come and gone. It’s not our job to figure out when Jesus will be coming because He told us that He would come at an hour we know not. It’s not our job to be out there with a sandwich board that says, “The End of the World is Coming!”; it’s our job to say, “Now is the accepted time, now is the day of salvation”. The Lord could come at any minute; do people have their court cases settled? Or will they have to go before the Great White Throne?
Jesus wasn’t telling the people to return to the law and sacrifices; so what was He telling them? The people walked right into the answer to that question by mentioning some current headline news to Jesus in Luke 13:1. We get His answer in verse 2-3: “Repent!”. We need to repent because of our sin condition. Jesus didn’t say, “God will only judge the really bad people, everyone else will get off.” No, He said to all:* “Except ye repent ye shall all likewise perish.”* He had the same message concerning those crushed under the tower of Siloam, He indited everyone. He didn’t preach adherence to the law for salvation, but rather He preached that grace would come if people would repent. He showed that things were different; people now had the opportunity to repent. It’s the same today. We need, *“Repentance toward God, and faith toward our Lord Jesus Christ.” *(Acts 20:21). That’s the Gospel story.
In Jesus’ day and country, things were Jewish, and verse 6 of Luke 13 brings before us the parable of the fig tree. The tree speaks of Israel, or Judaism, nationally; while the vineyard it’s in speaks of Israel spiritually. When presented with the gospel some Jews say, “I was born a Jew, and I’m going to die a Jew.” Of course you will, because it’s on your birth certificate; but are you a saved Jew? You are part of the fig tree (nationally a Jew), but are you part of the vineyard (a born again Jew)?
So, what will happen to the unfruitful fig tree? Will it be cut down? Next time we’ll find that the owner will give it another chance, and that is just what the Jews had in Jesus’ time: another chance to repent.
Hymn 261 - Lord Jesus are we one with Thee?
Prayer