The Big Question

The big question, the important question; what do people have to do to please God? The answer Jesus gave to this question was: "Believe in me, the messenger God has sent to you."

Do you do that? Do you believe that these things Jesus said about himself are true?
He claims to have come down from the Father in Heaven.
He claims that what he is teaching is teaching from God by God the Son.
He says that he will give his body for the life of this world.
That his flesh and blood body will become spiritual food for all people
That God in Heaven will draw certain individuals to union with Jesus
That Jesus will resurrect those individuals and they will live with him forever

If you believe this, it is because God the Father is calling you to unite with him. All that you have to do is respond with words that, ‘Yes you believe Jesus was telling the truth and yes, you want to partake of the spiritual food he makes available.’ The rest is God’s responsibility and he can be relied upon.

The Gospel of John chapter 6: verses 22 -59

Rowing in the dark

How do we know God? It is not because we found out. God is so different from man that had to show himself to us. He did this by mighty actions. The self-revelation of God to humanity happens through his speaking to, and acting on behalf of, people

In the same way, when Jesus, who is God-with-us showed himself to humanity he revealed himself by his mighty actions. Often the actions were followed by teaching. Sometimes the action alone was the teaching.

What happened on the dark and windy night when the disciples of Jesus were trying to sail across the sea of Tiberius is both a revelation through mighty actions and a teaching. That night, the wind carried the sail boat further away from their destination; the disciples lowered the sail and began to row, but the waves were rough. Rowing was toiling; after four or five miles, they dimly saw a person walking on the water, coming towards them. . They were terrified. The person called out to them, “It is me, do not fear” they knew the voice and although still overcome with fright, they allowed Jesus to get into the boat with them. Immediately the boat reached the shore.

The fisherman understood, and interpreted the action. They later taught the rest of us that whenever darkness and difficulties surround a person, Jesus is near. Although everything in life looks fearful, the one thing we do not need to fear is Jesus. He is for us. They remembered that when he entered the boat with them, the boat came safely to the shore.

How do people of this generation know God? Through his self revelation as God-with-us, and through his actions. Because the disciples ultimately wrote down their memories of the mighty acts of Jesus we learnt to believe but it is through our own experiences of Jesus with us in our every day lives at this present time that our faith is strengthened. We remember that when we let Jesus into our lives everything changed. It remains changed and changing until the day when we join him in the place that he is preparing for those who believe in him.

Gospel of John, chapter 6 verses 16 – 21
Isaiah chapter 43 verse 2

Reverse Taxation

Welcomed, taught and fed, and all without taxation. One small gift miraculously multiplied so that a meal for one becomes a meal for 5,000 men, women and children. There is a lesson here; the well-fed people still marveling at the size of the miracle they had participated in, learned the lesson – Jesus would make a wonderful ruler, they began to discuss how they could declare him king and Jesus hurriedly left them and got lost from view in the mountains.

What they had just experienced was a demonstration of the Kingdom of God. The kingdom that shall come, and already is.

The disciples had distributed to the seated groups, the broken bread that Jesus had blessed. The people had eaten all that they wanted, and still left over were 12 baskets full. Abundance – one of the spiritual laws of the kingdom.
Provision– what the government of the kingdom will do for the people, and all without taxation. Welcome – the entrance into the kingdom, Enlightenment – the condition of the population. The people who ate the bread experienced the nature of the Kingdom of God, It was this Kingdom of God that Jesus constantly preached as he traveled from place to place proclaiming what is called ‘the good news’

Jesus had planned this demonstration, he knew what he would do when he told the disciples to feed the people, and when Andrew told him that there was no food left in their baskets, and only one boy had food left to share. The people who ate the bread understood part of the lesson; Jesus was the appropriate person to be their leader, but they did not yet understand the Kingdom of God.

Jesus had come to earth not to become king but to become King of Kings. It is as King of Kings that Jesus will welcome all who come to him to another feast; the feast that inaugurates the reign of God, the Kingdom of God, and the good government that shall not subdue the people but shall share with them the work of maintaining justice equality and opportunity for all who have become citizens of the Kingdom of God.

Gospel of John chapter 6: verses 15-15
Gospel of Matthew chapter 14: verses 13-21
Gospel of Mark chapter 6: verses 30-44
Gospel of Luke chapter 9: verses 10-17
Psalm 104: second half of verse 28 When you open your hand they (the people and animals) are filled with good things.

Statement of intent

I know who I am, and what I’m going to do, said Jesus, to his distinctly hostile audience. It might be wondered if Jesus deliberately provoked a group of people to get an audience with them.

His audience was the rulers of the synagogue, and they had been provoked by that fact that Jesus healed a man who had been sick for 38 years; he had done this on their sacred Day Of Rest when no work was allowed. Worse still, he told the sick man, who had been lying on a sleeping pad, to get up, roll up his sleeping pad and walk. That made two people working on the Day of Rest, Jesus doing healing work and a healed man carrying his rolled up sleeping pad through the streets.

Jesus provoked them still further when they tried to rebuke him. “My Father is still working and I also am working.” He told them. Now the anger of the religious rulers knew no bounds Jesus must be killed, for the sin of blasphemy. He was making himself equal with God.

So Jesus had their attention. The very people who would not give him a hearing had to listen to him in an attempt to stop him doing what he was doing. Before their shocked and outraged faces Jesus declared who he is and what he intended doing.

Having identified himself as equal to God, Jesus now talks of the synergic relationship between himself and God. God the Father loves Jesus the Son and shows him what God wants him to do. Jesus has just healed a sick man but he says he will do even greater works than this, works that will astonish them. Jesus the Son, like God the Father, can raise people to life and will do so when the time is right. To dishonor Jesus the Son is to dishonor God. Jesus said this to the religious leaders who had a tendency to honor their religious laws more than they honored God.

Eternal life was one thing these people wanted; they searched the Jewish Bible eagerly looking for a way to survive beyond the grave and beyond the final judgment. Jesus tells them that it is his voice they will hear when they are in their graves, just as they are listening to him now; the same voice will call them to the resurrection. In that resurrection, says Jesus, some people will rise to eternal life and others to eternal condemnation. The way to avoid the judgment is to believe that God has sent Jesus, anyone who truly believes this has already received eternal life, even before he dies. These words of Jesus were a challenge; a man with nothing left to rely on will find it easy to rely on God, a man who has relied on his own goodness will be reluctant to give that up. Especially because putting trust in God means putting confidence in something the individual cannot control.

Jesus strove to convince the people listening to him: for their sakes, he pointed out that the miracles he was doing were evidence that God was working through him. He points out that His Father is witnessing to the validity of what he claims to be, God become human, so that humanity can see God and live. Jesus reminds them that Moses promised them a prophet and that he is the one Moses wrote about.

“You search the scriptures because you think that in them you will find eternal life, and it is the scriptures that testify about me, yet you refuse to come to me to have life.” When Jesus said this his heart was breaking, like the heart of a devoted friend who watches someone destroying himself and refusing all offers of help. To this day Jesus grieves about people who do not grieve about themselves.

The indignant religious leaders exercised their God given right: freedom of choice. they choose not to believe. Jesus told them there are two reasons why they have made this choice: 1 they don’t love God, 2 they are more concerned about what people think about them, than about what God thinks about them.

People ask; “What is faith?” They write books about it, and spend hours sitting on sidewalks drinking coffee or beer and asking, what is faith? Faith is a simple choice; a decision to believe that when said these words, Jesus was speaking the truth. Once that decision is made all the power of God rushes in, to confirm the correctness of the choice. The approval of God is experienced within a person, and the life of the ages begins.

The Gospel of John, chapter 5. verses 1 – 47

Moses: Deuteronomy chapter 18. verses 15 – 19

Difficult metaphors and thirsty conversation.

They are both a bit vulnerable. He is the wrong side of the border in a country that hates Jews, she is a woman alone.
He initiates the conversation, which is surprising; hatred for each other prevents Jews and Samaritans from speaking, and it is unusual for a man to address an unaccompanied woman. She reminds him of this when he asks her to draw some water for him; he is sitting by the well side but has no utensil to drink from.
The subject changes and the (still thirsty?) stranger begins to insert spiritual metaphors into the conversation. The woman seems to be a good match for him, reminding him that the well he is sitting by was given by Jacob to Joseph, his son. Does this stranger think he is greater than Jacob? She doesn’t fully understand the metaphor about water:
“Whoever drinks the water I give him will never be thirsty. The water I give him will become in him a spring of water, welling up to eternal life.”
She can’t imagine what that means, nevertheless she replies,
“Give me this water.”
Then Jesus, the stranger, turns the conversation towards her, he knows things about her that she has not told him. He speaks directly to the pains she has endured in her difficult life.
Now she turns the conversation back to spiritual things, “Where is the correct place to pray to God?”
The answer stresses spiritual over physical location; since God is Spirit the correct way to worship him is truthfully and spiritually.
Then the woman voices the longing of all humanity.
“I know that Messiah will come and he will explain everything to us.”
The man sitting by the well replies, “Messiah is the man who is speaking to you now. “
She believes him, puts down the water jug (at last Jesus can get that drink) and runs to the village, telling everyone,
“Come and see a man who told me everything I ever did. Could this be the Anointed Savior of the World?”
What convinced her? The fact that Jesus knew about her before she told him, convinced her. He understood the difficult life she had lived, and neither rebuked nor threatened her but offered her some spiritual gift that she scarcely understood, but felt the need of.
Did she ever understand the spiritual metaphor? Did she know what Jesus meant by talking about living water welling up inside a person?
I’m sure she did. I know because people who have developed trusting relationships with Jesus have this ‘water’ surging up in their spirits. It is placed their by the Spirit of God, and surges up without being drawn up. It is a profound confidence that God is for us, a sudden upsurge of joy, a deep sense of security.
Jesus still initiates conversations. Mostly these conversations happen after reading or hearing the Bible. Sometimes they come through the conversation of a preacher, sometimes they just happen in the mind of an individual as he/she reflects on what the Bible says. When this happens, hurry and believe. The pressure of the world will drown out the voice (Jesus’ disciples came back and were silently surprised about why he was talking to her)
The wise individual will understand that Jesus is the Savior of the world, and that he is asking entrance into each individual’s mind and heart. Hurry to speak to the Divine, saying something like, “Give me this water.” Thus begins a journey, full of adventure and challenge, a journey to a time and place where earthly kingdoms become God’s Kingdom, earth is re-created, justice is done and God lives among his people.

Gospel of John chapter 4, verses 4-42
The Savior of the World John chapter 4, verse 42

Conversation in the night

A man from the council that ruled over both the Jewish religion and the Jewish people wanted to talk to Jesus. He couldn’t be seen talking to Jesus in public, so he paid him a secret visit in the night. He began by explaining that, because of the miracles Jesus worked, he understood Jesus was a teacher sent from God. Don’t we all? All the great religions recognize Jesus as a teacher sent from God. Jesus said that wasn’t enough.

The Christian faith is about conversations with God. God visited the first created people and talked with them. He spoke to Moses, Isaiah talked to God in a vision. The recorded life of Jesus is full of conversations. Nicodemus initiated this conversation, but he wasn’t able to understand and didn’t want to accept what was said to him. We too initiate conversations with God whenever we pray and read the Bible with a willingness to believe. God speaks to us through the written word in the Bible, but presently if we trust and obey, Jesus speaks to us in our heart.

The record of the conversation takes up less than 1 page of the Bible, but is a clear explanation of why Jesus came, what his death would accomplish, and how people could be born spiritually, by God. Jesus talks about life and says that it is a choice between perishing (Because God is the source of all life, and apart from him people are dying) and living eternally (Because God’s spiritual birth of us has given us eternal life, even in this life.)

Jesus talked about two loves; God’s great love of all humanity and man’s love of secrecy. They can’t co-exist. God’s love dispels darkness, but most people prefer the darkness. They have something to hide and fear being stripped of their own delusions.

Jesus introduced the spiritual; Nicodemus was firmly grounded in the physical. Again the two could not co-exist. The possibility that God, who is Spirit, could give spiritual life to humans was too far out for Nicodemus. He wanted a ‘how’ and lacking a how, he was threatened. What he could not explain he could not control, and Nicodemus was a ruler of people.

Jesus said that he would be lifted up, and everyone who looked toward him in faith would be forgiven their sins. Very few people find this important; they prefer to ignore the sin issue. However when they hear the words of forgiveness then they are suddenly able to address the issue.

To believe in Jesus would cost Nicodemus his seat on the ruling council; he would loose respect, power and security. Jesus knew Nicodemus wouldn’t give up the things he loved. Yet it was to this man that he taught the basics of the Christian faith, and it was this man who heard the sentence that has changed lives in every part of the world and every era of history. (John 3.15)

Nicodemus remained on the ruling council. He tried to get a fair trial for Jesus but was derided. After the execution two men, neither of them known as disciples, helped to bury Jesus. One man was Joseph of Arimathea, a secret disciple, the other was Nicodemus. Nicodemus brought 100 pounds of myrrh and aloes to sprinkle into the folds of the linen cloth that they wrapped the body in. Three days later the shroud lay neatly folded in the empty tomb.

How do we know this story? Nicodemus came at night; it is unlikely that Jesus broke confidence with him. So how do we know? Is it because Nicodemus remembered the conversation clearly and recounted it to people when they gathered as disciples? It might be, there is no evidence of this. What I do know is that Jesus speaks today, to everyone who prepares him or her self to listen

Gospel of John chapter 3: verses 1-21
Gospel of John: chapter 7 verse 50
Gospel of John: chapter 19 verse 39

Transformation is what it's all about

Jesus has already called a band of men to ‘follow’ him and learn from him, but he has not yet started the public phase of his ministry. He traveles to Cana to attend a wedding bringing his disciples with him. Wedding celebrations usually lasted a week; hospitality was a social obligation and not having sufficient provisions for the guests would be a shameful disgrace to the host. It is under these circumstances that the mother of Jesus whispers to him, “They have no wine.” And Jesus responds that it is not yet time for him to begin his public ministry. Nothing daunted the Mother of Jesus finds the servers and instructs them to, “Do whatever he tells you.” Following Jesus’ instructions the servants re-fill the massive stone water pots. It was customary to neither eat nor drink without washing the hands frequently, so there was plenty of water on hand. “Now, draw out some water and take it to the superintendent of the banquet,” said Jesus. The superintendent tasted ‘the water that had become wine’, and remarked that it was usual to serve the best wine first, and inferior wine later, but this bridegroom had saved the best to the last.

John, who recounts this incident, tells us that no one knew about the water, except the servants who had filled the stone water jars to the top and then drawn water out of them. In the serving of the water it became wine. No one knew at that time, but today everybody knows. People who never go to church, people who have forgotten to read their Bibles, know this story.

Not only because it is a happy story, but because it has significance. John calls it a ‘sign’. Of course it was a miracle, but the miracles Jesus did were not like conjuring tricks done to confound people and convince them of the power of the miracle worker. Jesus’ miracles always had meaning, and pointed to something beyond the event.

People remember this story because it reassures them; it signifies that regular people, living everyday lives, are important to Jesus; that he understand the difficulties they encounter in normal living. It reassures people who, after asking God for help are looking into jars full of water and hoping it will turn into wine, it does! Whenever someone has the trust to draw water out of the water-pot and the courage to pour it out into wine glasses. .

The most significant part of the story is that the water changed into wine. We long for change; we want to change ourselves, our circumstances, our prospects. This story signifies that change is the work God had begun to do through Jesus. God changes us from what we are to what God intends for us to be. God will change everything including this earth that we have smogged and scarred, he will make a new city where he will live with the people who have trusted him. Our future is a journey towards the restoration of all things and everything. This change that has happened and continues to happen is the inner witness we have that the thing signified is true.
Gospel of John chapter 2 verses 1-11

Adult Sunday School Lesson August 12

Verse 10 Paul refers to his work of preaching as building a building, what is the building?

What happened in the historical building with this name? What was its identity?
When the building was destroyed, why didn’t God command the construction of a new building?

Verse 10. Paul refers to the church as a building he says he has laid the foundation but other people build on that foundation. What kind of materials were used then, and are still used to build great buildings? (verse 12)

Verse 16 Paul was talking about the congregation but the congregation consists of individuals, each believer in Christ has become this kind of building. What kind of a building are you? What happens in the building that you are?

Verse 13 What will reveal whether the building materials used are permanent or temporary?

Verse 15 What will happen to the persons whose materials do not stand the test?

The church Paul was writing to was imperfect, they had begun to quarrel about which kind of preaching they would shape their lives around. Does it surprise you that the church (or The Church) is imperfect?

Here are two views of what the church should be.
Pelagius said the church should be a fortress of righteousness, and the believers should be warriors in behalf of goodness and charity.
Augustine said the church was somewhat similar to a hospital with invalids and babies who were not able to defeat the worldly pressure but were utterly dependent on God’s grace.
After years of reflection the assembled congregations decided that one view was mistaken and the other correct. Which would you guess was the correct one?

Luther and Calvin said there was one thing above all, that they had to strongly resist. What was it? Is that view still held by Christians today?

Verse 21 At the end of the chapter Paul declares that the believer has received everything necessary to be the kind of building he is talking about, and to receive the activity carried on within the building. List the things he mentions.

What is Paul’s rational for such an audacious claim?

The church that this Sunday School class belongs to has a motto: Ecclesia reformata sed semper reformanda. Do you know what it means and does it alarm you?

Luther thought the Church was so sinful he was afraid it would not last till Jesus returned. Did Jesus say anything similar? (Luke 18:8) What do you think?

Is there any glory to God in an imperfect church? What is it?

When certain parts of The Church seem sick or weak or sinful shall we run from them or stay?

Note: this lesson is based on the address which Mark Achteimer delivered at the Gathering of Presbyterians 1V Dallas, Texas, September 28,1999 and has been printed and distributed by the PCUSA Office of theology and worship.

Where the water changed to wine

It is thought that one of the towns recently destroyed in the Israel-Lebannon war is the town where Jesus changed water into wine.

Oh God have mercy. Have mercy on the people who believe they are in the right and the other people who believe they are in the right. Have mercy on people who kill in your name, and have mercy on people who kill themselves in your name.

In the place where once you turned water into wine for a wedding celebration there is neither celebration nor joy. All the peace that we continually pray for is mocked by ever-escalating suffering. Forgive us if we have unwittingly helped neighbor to hate neighbor. Forgive us if we have unknowingly trained and equipped neighbor to kill neighbor.

Tortures happen where once you smiled, and bride and bridegroom are separated by death. There seems to be no hope. No hope. How can the ruins be rebuilt? How can life be bearable again? And if there cannot be healing then hatred will strut forever, and vengence will tear at the fabric of suceeding generations. Merciful God have you a miracle?

You are the God of grace, and Grace does not reward evil for evil, Grace gives kindness to all who call upon you. Raise up in both nations wise and courageous men; men who can hear your voice in their hearts and lead their nations into peace.

We need a greater miracle than the one Jesus did long ago in Cana. Indeed Jesus has promised that we shall see greater things and do greater things. We need a miracle. Grant us many miracles that the ruins may be rebuilt and the mourners comforted. Build us a future where you will be honored, and all people will love each other. Amen

The gospel of John chapter 2 verses 1-11 Jesus in Cana of Galilee

Conversation with a good man

“We have found him!” Said Philip to his friend Nathanael,
“We have found the one about whom the prophets wrote and about whom Moses wrote!”
Nathanael was skeptical and voiced his doubts, to which Philip replied,
‘Come and see.’
That is what I would like to say to every reader of this page. Don’t stay away and argue about it. Approach Jesus yourself and get to know him. For Nathanael this only involved a short journey, for people living today it involves a spiritual journey. The best way is to read Matthew, Mark, Luke and John in the Bible, accompanied by prayer to the supreme God.

What convinced Nathanael was the fact that Jesus knew him. Jesus greets him with the words, “Here is a genuine Jew who never lies or deceives.”
“How do you know me?” gasps Nathanael, who was amazed that a person he had never met before should know so much about the sincerity of his Jewish belief and life style.
Then Jesus says something that clinches it for Nathanael, “Before Philip called you, I saw you under the fig tree.” Philip is convinced, and declares that Jesus is the Son of God.

Let me stop the story at this point and speak directly to my readers. This is why Christians believe; not because we were raised this way, or because we selected a religion, but because we had proof that Jesus knows us individually and responds to our prayers. It is the same with the Bible, although a wealth of evidence is pouring in which shows that the Bible is a trustworthy religious document, we do not read and believe it for that reason. We believe what is written in the Bible because when we opened it and read, it was as though we were looking into a mirror; the Bible told us about the human condition, human hopes and human struggles. That is why we believe it.

Now many of my Christian friends would expect that Jesus would immediately explain to Nathanael that the Jewish religion had become corrupt and was blind towards God. But Jesus did not do that. He praised Nathanael for the way he sincerely lived the Jewish faith and affirmed that Nathanael was an honest and genuine person. There are many good and honest people in the world who practice another faith than Christianity and I believe God sees their sincerity.

What Jesus does promise Nathanael is that he shall see even greater things than he has already seen. Let me get earnest here, I believe it with all my heart, Jesus is the fulfillment of every good thing in all the world religions. It was that fulfillment that Jesus was promising Nathanael when he promised him greater things.

Jesus said that Nathanael would see heaven open and angels ascending and descending upon the Son of man. Nathanael became one of the disciples, and was with Jesus after his resurrection, if he had a vision we do not know, what we know for sure is that he understood that Jesus is the link between heaven and earth and through him the way to heaven is open.

I remember one person who was also convinced that Jesus is both stairway and door to Heaven; he wanted to believe, but his family and his friends did not. Sadly he said, “I can’t give up my own religion it means so much to me.” I am so glad to tell you that you don’t have to give it up, simply accept Jesus as the fulfillment of all that is good in your own religion. Become a Christian Moslem, a Christian Jew, or even a Christian Christian.


Vision of the Son of Man: Daniel 7 verse 13
After the resurrection: John 21 verse 2
Angels ascending and descending: Genesis 28 verses 10 -12
God hears good people: Acts 10 verse 2

conversation and investigation

Perhaps it was happening! Perhaps the event the nation of Judah had waited hundreds of years for was actually happening. There was a man preaching, and crowds were going out into the desert to hear him, perhaps he was the man they had waited for, the promised savior who would make everything right. A party of priests and lawyers were sent from the temple to make enquiries; they arrived at the river side and began to question the preacher, known as John. John’s father was a priest; his mother was a descendent of priests. So they were respectful when they questioned him.

“Who are you?” they said to John.

We do not know what the investigators thought as they began the investigation. Were they excited and hopeful, or fearful and threatened? Perhaps they were merely skeptical. I do not know them, but I know today’s people, especially the people who come asking questions about God. These modern people come sometimes yearning, hoping, longing; they want to find the way to know, and trust the Supreme Power. Then there are the people who come close enough to hurl a statement in the direction of the preacher, but are distrustful of religion. Uncertain how to react to a higher power, they are threatened but hopeful. They wish that perhaps God would pay them a special visit, in order to convince and reassure them, and all the while they are unaware that this is just what God has done. The skeptical ones never come at all; they are obsessed with their skepticism and guard it carefully from anything that might weaken it.

“I am not the Messiah,” replied John, and their hopes were disappointed.

“Then who are you, Are you Elijah?”

“I am the voice of a person crying out in the wilderness, prepare the way for the Lord God, and make straight roads for Him.”

The priests and lawyers returned to the temple, and reported that John was just a country preacher and should be watched because he had said that the national religion had become corrupt. John went on preaching that people should stop sinning, and be baptized for the forgiveness of the sins that they had committed. The priests themselves taught that people should stop sinning, but how could they, of all people, allow John to baptize them in order to signifying God’s forgiveness? To be baptized would mean acknowledging that they had sinned, how could the leaders of the people do that? Since that time there has been a big change, today all religious leaders confess that they are sinners in need of forgiveness.

So for the priests and the lawyers the excitement waned. They had not discovered the Messiah; they had simply discovered a country preacher who talked about sin. That never did discover the Messiah, even when he stood before them at his trial.

What about the people I meet today? The hopeful ones and the fearful ones, they have heard the news that the Messiah has indeed come and is going to make everything right. Some people respond with joy, their life has got so far out of their control that they are delighted to renounce sins and be baptized. Their lives bear evidence of dramatic change; they have stopped sinning and become new people.

Then there are the ones who do not respond joyfully, they are the virtuous people; people living helpfully in family and society, contributing to the cure not the sickness of humanity. All their lives they have conscientiously lived a moral respectable lifestyle. They have already forgiven themselves for their small lapses from the good life, but to renounce sin would be like saying they have been bad people, when they have in fact been good people.

I want to call after these people, ‘Don’t go away, you need another perspective. It’s not about you, it’s about God. Because of the sinless perfection of God he cannot be united with any degree of sinfulness, he can only unite with sinless perfection; this is what is offered to you.’
“How can I be made sinless, how can I be perfect?” they question, and their questions are rarely hopeful, usually they are just bewildered and disappointed...
‘That’s what Jesus does,’ the preachers respond, ‘the sinless perfection of Jesus will be transferred to you, God will see you as made perfect by his Son’s life and death and resurrection. Without that accreditation your good but imperfect nature would never survive union with the perfection of God.’

“Make straight the way of the Lord!” Said John the Baptist.
He says it to you also. Make it straight by renouncing sin and receiving baptism to signify your forgiveness, and receive from God the accreditation of perfection.

Gospel according to John Chapter 1 verse 19 - 24

Conversation from God to Isaiah

Adult Sunday School Lesson August 5

Isaiah was given a vision in the year that King Uzziah died, 742 B.C.

Due to the temporary weakness of the two world powers, Egypt and Assyria, the nation of Judah had enjoyed 50 years of relative peace, gradual expansion and prosperity. This had been accompanied by corruption. The king died when Assyria was again becoming more threatening, therefore this vision is seen during a time of national apprehension. It did not alleviate the fear. The vision announces that the cities of Israel would be made into waste lands and the inhabitants sent far away. 145 years after this vision the inhabitants were indeed marched into exile and the temple where God was worshiped beaome a ruin with goats wondering over the ruins.

Isaiah was in the temple when he received the vision. He says, “I saw the Lord.” He was on a high and lofty throne. Seraphs, covered to show reverence, flew around him crying, ‘Holy, holy, holy’. The hem of his garment filled the temple.

Isaiah becomes aware of his own sinfulness and fears that he will die in the presence of such holiness (Holy means totally other – separate from sin) Isaiah understands that because God is holy he cannot ignore the sins of his people. even though he loves the people, or even because he loves the people, he cannot ignore sin. This is one reason why people wish to deny God's existence, they themselves do not want to address the issue of sin.

The angel touches his lips with fire from the sacrificial alter and cleanses him.
God in conference with the heavenly servants, asks, “Who will go? Who shall I send? And Isaiah volunteers, “Here am I, send me.”

God commissions Isaiah to go and harden the people’s hearts! Because God has already decreed that the nation must be punished. This is the refining fire of God and the dreadful commission to Isaiah and other prophets of the time. God says’ the nation he loves has become like a vineyard of sour grapes, and he has decided to destroy it. The sins of God’s people were, among other things; religious ritual without spiritual sincerity, greed and lies, callousness, oppression of the poor and perversion of the law. God is just and patient; he forgives and transforms, but where right living is constantly resisted he acts in what we call redemptive punishment. The people would die, but the nation would endure in a changed form.

In the midst of his holy anger God remembers his promise that all nations shall be blessed. He declares that even though he is cutting down the tree (The nation of Judah) a seed will remain, and one day spring up again.

To whom does this apply in our time? It applies to all Christians, Jews and Muslims. The true, living and only God desires that we do justice, love mercy, and walk humbly with the Lord our God. Anything less angers him, and brings God’s redemptive punishment upon his people. Whoever we are, wherever we live it is important that we ask if our own nation is guilty of cruelty, callousness, oppression of the poor, lying and injustice. If such is indeed what is happening then no amount of attendance at churches, temples, and mosques will be sufficient to please God.

The vision: Isaiah chapter 6.
The terror of the Lord: Genesis 35.5. and 2 Corinthians 5. 11