The Living Word

Bible study on the set readings widely used by various churches and chapels and a weekly storytelling video. Also at www.medium.com/the-living-word and https://thelivingword.substack.com

Powered by Genesis

Archives for June 2020

July 5: Freedom and rest in the Lord

June 24, 2020 by Ian Greig Leave a Comment

Red kite flying high
Image credit: Ian Greig

Bible study based on the Revised Common Lectionary readings for Sunday, July 5 that are used by churches of many denominations. It is recommended you read the passage first and allow the Holy Spirit to begin to reveal it to you, before digging deeper with the notes.

Sunday, July 5, 2020

Theme: Finding freedom and rest in the Lord

Zechariah 9:9-12 — God’s promise of freedom for those that are His

Zechariah 9:9-12 NIV text

Zechariah 9:9-12 verse by verse notes

Matthew 11:16-19, 25-30 — The burden imposed by Jesus is light

Matthew 11:16-19, 25-30 NIV text

Matthew 11:16-19, 25-30 verse by verse notes

Romans 7:14-25 — Delivered through Jesus from the law of sin

Romans 7:14-25 NIV text

Romans 7:14-25 verse by verse notes

GO TO BOTTOM


See also article on separate page on this theme: Understanding… The Freedom that is ours in Christ

Zechariah 9:9-12 — God’s promise of freedom for those that are His

The Messiah will come proclaiming peace in a new just rule for all

9 Rejoice greatly, Daughter Zion! Shout, Daughter Jerusalem!

See, your king comes to you, righteous and victorious, lowly and riding on a donkey, on a colt, the foal of a donkey.

“Your king comes” – many sayings in chapters 9-14 apply to Jesus, like this one fulfilled in His entry into Jerusalem, Matthew 21:5, John 12:15.

“Riding on a donkey” – riding on a humble animal signified coming in peace, unlike the military conquests of Assyria, Babylonia and Persia.

10 I will take away the chariots from Ephraim and the war-horses from Jerusalem, and the battle-bow will be broken.
He will proclaim peace to the nations. His rule will extend from sea to sea and from the River [Euphrates] to the ends of the earth.

“Take away the chariots” – Israel’s need for instruments of war ended.

“From Ephraim… from Jerusalem” – ending the historic conflict between the northern kingdom of Israel and Judah.

“From sea to sea” – meaning universally.

11 As for you, because of the blood of My covenant with you, I will free your prisoners from the waterless pit.

“Prisoners from the waterless pit” – dry cisterns were of ten used used as a place to keep prisoners.

“Because of the blood of My covenant” – underlining the covenant commitments, sealed in blood sacrifices: between God and Abraham, then Moses.

• For further study, read Genesis 15:1-10, Exodus 24:4-8.12 Return to your fortress, you prisoners of hope; even now I announce that I will restore twice as much to you.

“Return… prisoners of hope” – the remaining Jewish exiles in Babylon blessed in returning.

REFLECTION

Many of Zechariah’s words, especially in these later chapters, are applied in the gospels to Jesus. This one finds fulfilment in Jesus’ final entry into Jerusalem on a donkey, part of the Easter story.

What did Zechariah, a post-exile prophet, bring to people of his time? Looking back to the history of rivalry and war between the northern kingdom of Israel (sometimes called Gilead) and the southern kingdom of Jerusalem and Judah, his message is freedom and hope for broken people who have known a lot of restriction.

Today, this tells us that God wants us to be free, enjoying a relationship with Him without emotional and spiritual baggage getting in the way. And it delivers a broad hint that God is always working for our freedom.

Invariably with Him there is partnership – the mention of covenant in v.11 reminds us of this – so there is a part that we do, to match and work with what He is doing in our lives.

QUESTION

What does the thought mean to you, that God is always working for our freedom (vv.11-12)?


Matthew 11:16-19, 25-30 — The burden imposed by Jesus is light

Recognising who Jesus is and accepting His rule is a revelation

16 “To what can I compare this generation? They are like children sitting in the market-places and calling out to others:

17 ” ‘We played the pipe for you, and you did not dance; we sang a dirge, and you did not mourn.’

“We played the pipe…. we sang a dirge” – many responded to John the Baptist calling people to mourn in repentance, and later many found joy in Jesus’ ministry. But some were too hard-hearted to perceive God in either approach.

18 “For John came neither eating nor drinking, and they say, ‘He has a demon.’

19 “The Son of Man came eating and drinking, and they say, ‘Here is a glutton and a drunkard, a friend of tax collectors and sinners.’ But wisdom is proved right by her deeds.

“Neither eating nor drinking” – John’s radical desert lifestyle, and Jesus’ freedom to share meals, were both criticised.

“Wisdom is proved right” – God’s purpose was fulfilled in John’s and Jesus’ different ministries.

25-26 At that time Jesus said, “I praise You, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, because You have hidden these things from the wise and learned, and revealed them to little children. Yes, Father, for this is what You were pleased to do.

“Hidden… from the wise and learned” – the kingdom of God is more revealed than learned. Over-emphasis on cerebral understanding, the Pharisees’ weakness, is a barrier to the revelation by the Holy Spirit which needs child-like openness.

27 “All things have been committed to Me by My Father. No one knows the Son except the Father, and no one knows the Father except the Son, and those to whom the Son chooses to reveal Him.

“Committed to Me” – three strands of Jesus’ authority (1) entrusted to Him by the Father, (2) through association as One related to the Father, and (3) recognised by those to whom Jesus chose to reveal Himself as the way to God, John 10:14-15, John 14:6-7.

28 “Come to Me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest.

“Weary and burdened” – by rules and observances the Pharisees insisted on, Matthew 23:2-4.

29 “Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls.

“Take My yoke” – different and restful, unlike the harness of the Pharisees’ religiosity. Living Jesus’ way brings His peace.

30 “For My yoke is easy and My burden is light.”

“My burden is light” – Jesus’ yoke does restrain and guide but with the ‘power assistance’ of the Holy Spirit it becomes intuitive, not a struggle.

REFLECTION

Jesus, heralded by John the Baptist, came to give His people salvation. Salvation, deliverance and healing are three translations of the same word and they are all forms of freedom. Some who encountered Him were eager to accept Him, and to embrace all that He brought.

But many were suspicious: John’s stern challenge to change didn’t reach their hearts and neither did Jesus’ Good News of the kingdom. They didn’t know they needed freedom – the tragedy of the religious mindset.

Jesus consistently confronted the legalistic way the Pharisees and teachers of the law presented righteousness. “That’s not the burden I’m putting on you, ” He told them. “My burden is light, and being led by Me is easy.”

Mankind finds a list of propositions, to be learned and practised, easier to grasp than working on a relationship. That’s like trying to react to other drivers while thumbing through the highway code – not the acquired intuition of an advanced driver. The life of the Spirit, which Jesus introduced, moves ‘commandments’ into an intuitive following of His way, helped by the gentle coaching of His Spirit.

The emphases of recent decades, away from rigid orders of service and recitation, to freer forms of worship, reinforce the lifting of the load of obligation and enjoying the lighter burden which Jesus spoke about.

QUESTION

Jesus’ words to all who are burdened, “Come to Me…”, have been interpreted many different ways, from buying favour by a medieval indulgence, to losing ourselves in charismatic worship. What does Jesus actually want from us when He says, “Come to Me…”?


Romans 7:14-25 — Delivered through Jesus from the law of sin

The pull of the old flesh nature is like a war going on in the mind

14-15 We know that the law is spiritual; but I am unspiritual, sold as a slave to sin. I do not understand what I do. For what I want to do I do not do, but what I hate, I do.

“The law is spiritual” – it had its origins in God and it exposes sin.

“I am unspiritual… a slave to sin” – Paul is contrasting “the old way of the written code” with the freedom of “the new way of the Spirit”, Romans 7:6. Before teaching more on the freedom of the “Spirit who gives life”, Romans 8:2, he needs to explain the struggle of the old way and the flesh nature which is part of it.

16 And if I do what I do not want to do, I agree that the law is good.

“I agree that the law is good” – as a Jew and a Pharisee Paul wants to obey the law perfectly, v22.

17 As it is, it is no longer I myself who do it, but it is sin living in me.

“No longer I myself” – Paul draws out the conflict between two natures, the sinful nature and the new, regenerated nature of the Spirit-empowered life “in Christ Jesus”, Romans 8:1

• For further study: read Romans 8:1-13, Ephesians 4:22-24; Colossians 3:9-10.

18 For I know that good itself does not dwell in me, that is, in my sinful nature. For I have the desire to do what is good, but I cannot carry it out.

“Good…does not dwell in…my sinful nature” – the problem is the flesh, the selfish part of us. The believer in Jesus, regenerated and open to the Holy Spirit, is in a lifelong process of sanctification (being made holy) by the Holy Spirit who influences our flesh, helped by our good choices.

19 For I do not do the good I want to do, but the evil I do not want to do — this I keep on doing.

“The evil I do not want to do” – Paul is not excusing attitudes and actions independent from God but explaining that flawed human nature wants to pursue its own sinful course.

20 Now if I do what I do not want to do, it is no longer I who do it, but it is sin living in me that does it.

21 So I find this law at work: although I want to do good, evil is right there with me.

“This law at work” – meaning here principle, rather than the Law of Moses, v.22.

22-23 For in my inner being I delight in God’s law; but I see another law at work in me, waging war against the law of my mind and making me a prisoner of the law of sin at work within me.

“Another law” – the “law of sin” working through the sin, or flesh, nature seeks to draw us away from following the leading of the Spirit and “God’s law”.

24 What a wretched man I am! Who will rescue me from this body that is subject to death?

“Rescue me from this body” – meaning fallible and perishing humanness.

25 Thanks be to God, who delivers me through Jesus Christ our Lord!

“Who delivers me through Jesus Christ” – the answer Paul finds about wanting to do good, wanting to follow the law as a good Jew but finding himself unable to do so. Looking ahead to Romans 8, it is as though he has been describing his journey, brought up as a good observant Jew in the Pharisee tradition, but with the struggles and tensions and failures that legalistic religion produces – then having an transforming encounter with Jesus and finding freedom in his new identity in Christ Jesus.

In a dozen verses Paul racks up many more than a dozen expressions of ‘doing’: what he does, or avoids doing.

REFLECTION

In a way he is telling the story of his journey from formal religion as a zealous Jew who was born again in an extraordinary experience involving a vivid and blinding vision. His whole way of looking at sin and avoiding it had to change, a thought he develops in chapter 8. Here he teaches the reasons for needing the change.

We see ourselves in his descriptions of struggle, because sin is always an influence pulling us off course, like the weighting of a ten-pin bowl or the unpredictable camber of a winding country road. For us, our regular church attendance with the Ten Commandments and the Beatitudes are “the good I want to do” of v.19 leave us with a sense of failure.

Paul almost gives up, before turning to the truth that changes everything – the deliverance that comes through Christ Jesus (v.25). In other words, it’s not what I do, but what Jesus has done that I could never do!

Knowing Jesus, rather than knowing about Him, gives us a new nature and a new empowering to live for Him.

Having it impressed on us that we are sinners, makes it all too likely that we will live up to the description! Knowing that Jesus has paid our debt, and counted us as debt-free in Him, sets us up, not to fail, but succeed in following His way. We still need to make the right choices, but somehow they come a lot easier when we have the relationship which sets us free.

QUESTION

If the starting point for becoming free from sin’s grip is what God has already done, what is our part?

PRAYER

Father, as we come to You in Jesus, we are reminded that Your eternal purpose is our salvation, and Your desire is to free us from the sin that entangles. 

And You want us to live free from the guilt that prevents us growing in You, and which gets in the way of the relationship You long to enjoy with us 

Jesus, You have come to give us abundance in life. Thank You for reminding us that it does not come as a result of our ‘doings’ but as the result of what You have done, and our being free to receive it. Amen.

=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=

And in addition: Psalm 145:8-14

8 The Lord is gracious and compassionate, slow to anger and rich in love.

9 The Lord is good to all; He has compassion on all He has made.

10 All your works praise you, Lord; Your faithful people extol you.

11-12 They tell of the glory of Your kingdom and speak of Your might, so that all people may know of Your mighty acts and the glorious splendour of Your kingdom.

13 Your kingdom is an everlasting kingdom, and Your dominion endures through all generations.

The Lord is trustworthy in all He promises and faithful in all He does.

14 The Lord upholds all who fall and lifts up all who are bowed down.

-=-=-=-===-===

GO TO TOP


Download print edition as 4pp A5 folder, prints as two sides of A4

TLW26A-July-5-final-BookletDownload

July 5: Freedom and rest in the Lord – The Living Word

Bible study based on the Revised Common Lectionary readings for Sunday, July 5 that are used by churches of many denominations. It is recommended you read the passage first and allow the Holy Spirit to begin to reveal it to you, before digging deeper with the notes. Sunday, July 5, 2020. Theme: Find…

Filed Under: Pentecost to Advent, Year A

June 28: Hear the word of the Lord

June 17, 2020 by Ian Greig Leave a Comment

Image credit: Ian Greig

The Living Word for Sunday, June 28, 2020. A Bible study on the Bible readings from the Revised Common Lectionary common to all major denominations.

Jeremiah 28:5-9 — God’s word may go against popular opinion
People don’t always want to take on board what is true
Jeremiah 28:5-9 NIV text
Jeremiah 28:5-9 verse by verse notes

Matthew 10:40-42 — To look after the messenger is to welcome Jesus
There’s a blessing for receiving the person the Lord has sent
Matthew 10:40-42 NIV text
Matthew 10:40-42 verse by verse note

Romans 6:11-23 — Be free from sin’s pull and fervent about God
To stay on the sinful path leads to death and denies the gift of life in Jesus
Romans 6:11-23 NIV text
Romans 6:11-23 verse by verse notes

And also: Psalm 89:1-4, 14-18

Theme: When the Lord’s message comes, choose to hear it

Link to article on this theme, Understanding… The difference between reacting and responding to God


Jeremiah 28:5-9 — God’s word may go against popular opinion

People don’t always want to take on board what is true


5 Then the prophet Jeremiah replied to the prophet Hananiah before the priests and all the people who were standing in the house of the LORD.

“Replied to the prophet Hananiah” – a false prophet who claimed to speak with the same authority as Jeremiah and directly refuted what Jeremiah had said and the prediction of 70 years, Jeremiah 25:11, Jer. 27:16-22,

6 He said, “Amen! May the LORD do so! May the LORD fulfill the words you have prophesied by bringing the articles of the LORD’S house and all the exiles back to this place from Babylon.

“Fulfill the words” – a test of true prophecy, Deuteronomy 18:20-22.

7 “Nevertheless, listen to what I have to say in your hearing and in the hearing of all the people:

“Nevertheless, listen” – Jeremiah would have liked Hananiah’s prediction to be true but knows that this is a deception.

8 From early times the prophets who preceded you and me have prophesied war, disaster and plague against many countries and great kingdoms.

“The prophets who preceded” – Hananiah’s predictions of peace and prosperity were not consistent with the proven Hebrew prophets like Amos, Hosea, Micah, Joel, and Nahum.

9 “But the prophet who prophesies peace will be recognised as one truly sent by the LORD only if his prediction comes true.”

“If his prediction comes true” – a popular message was easy to give and so had particular need for testing. Hananiah died shortly after, vv.15-17.

REFLECTION

There were always so-called prophets at court who had a ‘better’ message than Jeremiah, and we know the frustration he struggled with at times. It wasn’t just the full-on rejection of the words from the Lord he had heard and considered carefully. It was the destiny of his people who seemed bent on their own destruction – and it was as if he was the only person to see it.

Still, his call was to be faithful to God, and to what he heard God say. He had to be that mouthpiece – and persuade his hearers to consider the truth, even if it wasn’t what they wanted to hear.

In the OT those anointed to speak out for God were a select and small number, even counting in the unnamed or unrecorded prophets who we come across in the stories. Today, post-resurrection and with the Holy Spirit known and welcomed in today’s church, we are all learning to hear God’s “now” word and we may find ourselves sharing our understanding with others.

Who hasn’t known the temptation to change the message a bit and tell people what they want to hear? But the right way, honouring God, is to gently and lovingly share what He has given you. And be prepared to be wrong, allow space for disagreement – and don’t take it personally.


QUESTION

We remember the OT prophets mainly for their predictions. What else did they bring?


Matthew 10:40-42 — To look after the messenger is to welcome Jesus

There’s a blessing for receiving the person the Lord has sent


40 “Anyone who welcomes you welcomes Me, and anyone who welcomes Me welcomes the One who sent Me.

“Welcomes you welcomes Me” – the amount of respect for an ambassador was a measure of the respect for the sender. Christ lives in His people, who go out in His name. How they are received or rejected, is how Christ is received.

• For further study, see Matthew 18:5, 25:45; Luke 9:48; 2 Cor. 5:20.

41 Whoever welcomes a prophet as a prophet will receive a prophet’s reward, and whoever welcomes a righteous person as a righteous person will receive a righteous person’s reward.

“Whoever welcomes a prophet” – those who support and look after God’s people are welcoming not just them but the Good News itself – and will receive spiritual blessing.

42 And if anyone gives even a cup of cold water to one of these little ones who is My disciple, truly I tell you, that person will certainly not lose their reward.”

“One of these little ones” – Jesus’ followers were mostly not of much social standing.

• For further study, see Matthew 5:3, 18:1-5, also 6:5, 23:5-12.

REFLECTION

Honouring the people the Lord brings across your path is an important kingdom principle. Jesus states it plainly here.

We dare not be disdainful of a Christian brother or sister sent to us, because to do so is to dishonour the One who caused someone to visit, or another to move into the neighbourhood with their gifts.

In the first century, the church’s teachers moved around to share their teaching, and to be welcomed and put up safely was vital.

The way they were treated said a lot about the way the message would be received — and the same holds true today.

QUESTION

Who has the Lord brought to where I live or work, or my church fellowship? And what is the Lord bringing through them?


Romans 6:11-23 — Be free from sin’s pull and fervent about God

To stay on the sinful path leads to death and denies the gift of life in Jesus

11 In the same way, count yourselves dead to sin but alive to God in Christ Jesus.

“Count yourselves dead to sin” – first step in living free from sin’s pull is thinking about ourselves in a new way, recognising that sin’s power was broken the moment we gave our life to Jesus. The old self, that liked its own independent and selfish way of living, has died, vv.2-7.

“In Christ Jesus” – Paul’s way of expressing our oneness with Christ. An enabling, practical description, not just a theological one.

2 Therefore do not let sin reign in your mortal body so that you obey its evil desires.

“Do not let sin reign” – second step in defeating sin is being intentional about practising right attitudes and actions, free to choose and able to say ‘no’ to temptations, judgments and resentments that don’t fit with new life in Jesus.

13 Do not offer any part of yourself to sin as an instrument of wickedness, but rather offer yourselves to God as those who have been brought from death to life; and offer every part of yourself to Him as an instrument of righteousness.

“Offer yourselves to God” – third step is to resolve before God every day not to help the author of sin e.g. not offering ears to hear or entertain gossip, nor the tongue to participate in it.

14 For sin shall no longer be your master, because you are not under the law, but under grace.

“Not under… law but… grace” – the law of Moses under the Old Covenant was an external, rule-based system. It pointed out sin, without any help in dealing with it. The New Covenant in Jesus puts the sense of right and wrong in a regenerated, sensitised heart, or inner guidance, where the Holy Spirit enables good choices.

15 What then? Shall we sin because we are not under the law but under grace? By no means!

16 Don’t you know that when you offer yourselves to someone as obedient slaves, you are slaves of the one you obey — whether you are slaves to sin, which leads to death, or to obedience, which leads to righteousness?

17 But thanks be to God that, though you used to be slaves to sin, you have come to obey from your heart the pattern of teaching that has now claimed your allegiance.

“Come to obey from your heart” – early church believers knew the life of the Spirit and its freedom. They practised a different sort of obedience, an intuitive “from the heart” kind which was responsive to God.

“Used to be slaves to sin” – Paul, writing to the church in Galatia, warned them against constructing a religion of rules which cancelled out the freedom of choosing to live for God, and relying on His leading. This is returning to a system that condemns, rather than growing in what is lifegiving.

18 You have been set free from sin and have become slaves to righteousness.

“Set free from sin” – rather than slaves to sin, v.16. Slavery in the ancient world was about being owned, and the obligations of who (or what) owned you, whether rebel-against-God sin, or the obligation, or motivation, that came from being ‘owned’ by righteousness.

19 I am using an example from everyday life because of your human limitations. Just as you used to offer yourselves as slaves to impurity and to ever-increasing wickedness, so now offer yourselves as slaves to righteousness leading to holiness.

“Human limitations” – a fair paraphrase of sarx, flesh. Paul is attempting to describe in everyday human life terms, something discerned spiritually, which he knows is inadequate. The believer in Jesus is released from the bondages of the old life, now free to make good choices and grow in Christ and holiness, or sanctification.

20 When you were slaves to sin, you were free from the control of righteousness.

21 What benefit did you reap at that time from the things you are now ashamed of? Those things result in death!

“Result in death” – our choices, influenced by the Holy Spirit or not, are either upbuilding and lifegiving, or the opposite, spiritually deadening.

22 But now that you have been set free from sin and have become slaves of God, the benefit you reap leads to holiness, and the result is eternal life.

“Result is eternal life” – eternal life is an unearned gift of God (v.23) that comes simply and plainly through faith in Christ; the transformation of being born spiritually, John 3:3, 16. Our destiny is settled then, but something which is not a condition for new birth nor an instant change in new birth, but set in progress, is sanctification, as the Holy Spirit has more and more of us. Those who have been justified will increasingly show it in their lives by growing in holiness, Hebrews 12:14.

23 For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.

“Wages… gift of God” – the two allegiances contrasted, one building up the debt of sin that brings progressive spiritual death, the other a one-time release into eternal life which comes as a gift.

• For further study read Ephesians 2:8-9, Titus 3:5-7.

REFLECTION

Christianity is all about the relationship with God which gets us living His way, not a religion with a set of rules which show us when we’re not. That means it’s about freedom to make good choices, rather than having to follow a framework where the choices have been made for us, which is how formal religion sets it out.

That’s what Paul means when he says you are not under law (vv.14-15) – not trying (and often failing) to keep to an external framework – but under grace, set free from sin (vv. 18 and 22) and free to choose to “obey from the heart” as we follow Christ in our new allegiance.

Feeling compelled to live selfishly and independently, with all the moral blurring of the lines that implies, is not freedom. But neither is being held by rules and religious requirements. That is also a bondage and a form of rebellion, because it denies the priority of knowing the Father though Jesus who has made this new way of life for us through taking on Himself our sin.

If we live as though the institution has made it right for us, we are saying we don’t need Jesus and we don’t need to work at that relationship and daily seek the Spirit’s guidance in making good choices. That, says Paul, is a path that leads to death and a slavery we need to renounce, to choose to live in the freedom Christ has won for us.

QUESTION

This is an anxious, confusing time when many are asking spiritual questions and wondering where God is in it. How would you explain God’s grace in your life, and being able to make good choices for Him?

PRAYER

Lord, as we come to You in Jesus, we admit confusion from the many voices speaking, news and opinions and daily briefings. And, if we are honest, we may seek hope in these things first, rather than trying to hear Your voice in the clamour. Help us to hear You afresh, to make good choices for you – and to honour those you bring across our path who are speaking Your word and bringing Your truth at a time we so badly need it. Amen.


In addition…

Psalm 89: 1-4, 14-18
1 I will sing of the LORD’S great love forever; with my mouth I will make Your faithfulness known through all generations.
2 I will declare that Your love stands firm forever, that You have established Your faithfulness in heaven itself.
3 You said, “I have made a covenant with My chosen one, I have sworn to David My servant,
4 ‘I will establish your line forever and make your throne firm through all generations.’ ”

14 Righteousness and justice are the foundation of Your throne; love and faithfulness go before you.
15 Blessed are those who have learned to acclaim You, who walk in the light of Your presence, LORD.
16 They rejoice in Your name all day long; they celebrate Your righteousness.
17 For You are their glory and strength, and by Your favour You exalt our horn.
18 Indeed, our shield belongs to the LORD, our king to the Holy One of Israel.


Download TLW print edition as 4pp A5 folder to print as A4

TLW25A-June-28-final-BookletDownload

Filed Under: Pentecost to Advent, Year A

June 21: New life in Christ has its cost

June 10, 2020 by Ian Greig Leave a Comment

Conflict and God’s providence symbolised      Image credit: Ian Greig

Three facets of new life: providence, promise and also persecution

Jeremiah 20:7-13 – Jeremiah faithfully speaks God’s truth and endures hatred in return

Jeremiah 20:7-13 NIV text

Jeremiah 20:7-13 verse by verse notes

Matthew 10:24-39 — Living for Christ will bring oppression and conflict but God’s providential care is over it

Matthew 10:24-39 NIV text

Matthew 10:24-39 verse by verse notes

Romans 6:1-11 — Reborn into new life in Christ and dying to the old, kills off sin’s grasp

Romans 6:1-11 NIV text

Romans 6:1-11 verse by verse notes

BOTTOM


See article in the ‘Explaining’ series linked to this theme,
Explaining conflicts that arise as a result of our faith


Jeremiah 20:7-13 – Jeremiah speaks truth and laments the hatred he encounters

He is scorned because what he faithfully speaks out has not yet happened

7 You deceived me, Lord, and I was deceived [or persuaded]; You overpowered me and prevailed. I am ridiculed all day long; everyone mocks me.

“You deceived’ me… and I was deceived” – a word play on two forms of the same word meaning entice or seduce. Jeremiah feels coerced into a ministry which provokes hatred, most recently the bullying of Pashur the priest, vv.1-6.

8 Whenever I speak, I cry out proclaiming violence and destruction. So the word of the Lord has brought me insult and reproach all day long.

“Proclaiming violence and destruction” – an unpopular and as yet unfulfilled forecast made Jeremiah a target for mocking, v.7 (above).

9 But if I say, “I will not mention His word or speak any more in His name,” His word is in my heart like a fire, a fire shut up in my bones. I am weary of holding it in; indeed, I cannot.

“A fire shut up” – a classic description of what it feels like to carry a word from God to hostile hearers.

• For further study, compare Jer. 1:6-8; Amos 3:8; Acts 4:20; 1 Cor. 9:16.

10 I hear many whispering, “Terror on every side! Denounce him! Let’s denounce him!” All my friends are waiting for me to slip, saying, “Perhaps he will be deceived; then we will prevail over him and take our revenge on him.”

“Terror on every side” – mocking Jeremiah’s prophetic naming of his persecutor ‘The man who lives in terror’, v.3.

“I hear many” – the prophet’s struggle is, typically, three-fold; from God’s enemies, from others who are envious and waiting for him to slip up; and with a burden from God to convey.

11 But the Lord is with me like a mighty warrior; so my persecutors will stumble and not prevail. They will fail and be thoroughly disgraced; their dishonour will never be forgotten.

“But the Lord” – Having poured out his heart in lament Jeremiah declares his trust in God’s response, recalling earlier promises, Jer. 1:8, 18, 15:20-24.

12 Lord Almighty, You who examine the righteous and probe the heart and mind, let me see your vengeance on them, for to You I have committed my cause.

“You who… probe… heart and mind” – God knows the true motives behind every action. The vengeance he asks for is not personal but in the context of the survival of the nation.

13 Sing to the Lord! Give praise to the Lord! He rescues the life of the needy from the hands of the wicked.

“Give praise” – Jeremiah’s faith that God will come through for him.

REFLECTION

Our view of how God is experienced shifts from Old Testament, in the NT pre-resurrection, and then to the Spirit-led church learning to work out their new life in Christ.

However, one experience is consistent — the inevitable opposition that comes. Sinful men, stirred up by an active devil, cause Jeremiah a lot of pain, and he pours out his heart, before praising God for His faithfulness which he knows will sustain him.

The lesson for us is along the lines of ‘no pain, no gain’ and being prepared for opposition to our witness, when it comes.

QUESTION

If we find that what we share, however lovingly, provokes hostility, how do we handle it?


Matthew 10:24-39 — Living for Christ brings pain but also provision

Oppression and conflict come with the territory but God’s care is over it

24-25 “The student is not above the teacher, nor a servant above his master. It is enough for students to be like their teachers, and servants like their masters. If the head of the house has been called Beelzebul, how much more the members of his household!

“Beelzebul” – a name derived from a Philistine deity and used by the Pharisees for the prince of demons, Matt. 12:24-28. It came to mean Satan himself, Matt. 9:34.

26 “So do not be afraid of them, for there is nothing concealed that will not be disclosed, or hidden that will not be made known.

“Do not be afraid of them” – refers back to persecutors, Matt:10:22-23: “You will be hated by everyone because of Me”. Believers live aware that what the world has called the Lord, it will call us.

27 “What I tell you in the dark, speak in the daylight; what is whispered in your ear, proclaim from the roofs.

“Proclaim from the roofs”– above the noisy, crowded streets, rooftop to rooftop was a good way to spread a message. The time is now coming to make the Good News generally known.

28-29 “Do not be afraid of those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul. Rather, be afraid of the One who can destroy both soul and body in hell. Are not two sparrows sold for a penny? Yet not one of them will fall to the ground outside your Father’s care.

“Destroy… in hell” – not annihilation but ruination. Only God has the authority to condemn to hell.

30-31 “And even the very hairs of your head are all numbered. So don’t be afraid; you are worth more than many sparrows.

Don’t be afraid” – a command resonating through the Bible. If sparrows and small details are subject to God’s providence, persecution will not compromise His plan or disciples.

32-33 “Whoever acknowledges Me before others, I will also acknowledge before My Father in heaven. But whoever disowns Me before others, I will disown before My Father in heaven.

“Whoever acknowledges Me” – an astonishing claim that could only be made by the One who shares divinity with His Father in heaven.

34-36 “Do not suppose that I have come to bring peace to the earth. I did not come to bring peace, but a sword. For I have come to turn ‘a man against his father, a daughter against her mother, a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law — a man’s enemies will be the members of his own household.’

“I did not come to bring peace” – of a social or political kind. Jesus did come to make a way of peace with God, John 14:27, Romans 8:6. However, His demand that people make a decision about Him will always divide people of the light who belong to Him from those of darkness under the influence of the devil.

37 “Anyone who loves their father or more than Me is not worthy of Me; anyone who loves their son or daughter more than Me is not worthy of Me.

“Loves their father or mother more” – asking for uncompromising devotion; for many Jews, honouring father and mother was tantamount to the greatest commandment.

8-39 “Whoever does not take up their cross and follow Me is not worthy of Me. Whoever finds their life will lose it, and whoever loses their life for My sake will find it.

“Take up their cross” – we read back from knowing about Christ’s death, but this was the first mention of the cross by Matthew. The cross, death by torture, stood for the opposite of self-preservation; to be a disciple of Jesus was to follow Him regardless of consequences.

REFLECTION

The immediate context is Jesus preparing His disciples for a factional time in the aftermath of His death and Resurrection.

The Good News of Jesus and His kingdom, the new life received by faith alone and the nature of the gospel have all been divisive at times, especially where church power has been threatened. John Wesley, a short man, found himself locked out of churches even though he was a Church of England minister, and he resorted to finding an impressive tomb to climb up on and preach to whoever gathered in the churchyard. That was his version of proclaiming the message from the rooftops.

He experienced God’s providence in seeing thousands turn to Christ and gathered in an early form of home groups, and later, able to build chapels free of pew rents that they could attend.

QUESTION

Jesus says (twice) that we must not be afraid although we should be ready to face difficulty and trouble. How do we reconcile those two things?


Romans 6:1-11 — Dying to the old life kills off sin’s grasp

Christ was raised from the dead and we are reborn into new life in Him

1-2 What shall we say, then? Shall we go on sinning, so that grace may increase? By no means! We are those who have died to sin; how can we live in it any longer?

“Shall we go on sinning” – Paul’s earlier statement: “Where sin increased, grace increased all the more” raises the logical, but morally flawed, question of whether a person justified by faith alone can live however they want. His response was, “What a ghastly thought!” (J B Phillips). The believer’s relationship with sin is different, having died to its allure.

3-4 Or don’t you know that all of us who were baptised into Christ Jesus were baptised into His death? We were therefore buried with Him through baptism into death in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, we too may live a new life.

“Buried with Him through baptism into death” – Paul’s audience would all have been baptised by immersion following their decision to believe in, and live for, Jesus. Going down into the water was symbolic of the death and burial of the old sinful and self-centred life. Similarly, rising out of the water was an identification with Christ’s resurrection, and entering into new life in Him.

5-7 For if we have been united with Him in a death like his, we will certainly also be united with Him in a resurrection like His. For we know that our old self was crucified with Him so that the body ruled by sin might be done away with, that we should no longer be slaves to sin – because anyone who has died has been set free from sin.

“Our old self” – often rendered as “the old man” bringing out more clearly who we were in the natural state, represented by Adam. All human beings were born “in Adam”, 1 Corinthians 15:22.

“No longer slaves to sin… set free” – Paul is not saying that Christians no longer sin, but the rule or compulsion of sin belonged to the old person and was decisively broken when that old person died with Christ. A believer is not the same person as they were before receiving Christ, but a new creation, 2 Cor. 5:17.

8-10 Now if we died with Christ, we believe that we will also live with Him. For we know that since Christ was raised from the dead, He cannot die again; death no longer has mastery over Him. The death He died, He died to sin once for all; but the life He lives, He lives to God.

“If we died with Christ… we will also live with Him” – in eternal life but also in a new quality of life here and now. As Christ went through an irreversible transformation, so do we in being born again, free from the fear of death and living in new life aware of Jesus with us.

11 In the same way, count yourselves dead to sin but alive to God in Christ Jesus.

“Count yourselves” – the new life and new relationship with both sin and God, call for thinking about ourselves in a new way, deadened to the pull of sin and enlivened to God “in Christ Jesus” – the first use of this important phrase much used by Paul.

REFLECTION

The challenge Paul writes about is not opposition from men (although he had plenty of that) but the more subtle confusion that the enemy sows.

Having grasped that God delights in treating us better than we could possibly deserve, forgiving us for everything where we have messed up, and granting us a new start in a new way of living when we turn to Christ, confusion comes. A deception begins to twist the truth – if faith alone is the path to salvation, then does it matter how we live afterwards?

There will always be the temptation to sin, but Paul points out that the desire to live independently and selfishly belonged to the old life, the one that was put to death with Christ and buried by us in baptism.

We can say a firm ‘no’ to that desire because it doesn’t belong in our new life. That is part of learning to see ourselves as the new, regenerated people that God sees – which will help us to live up to it.


QUESTION

If we have died to sin, why is it that we still battle with attitudes that don’t belong and need to put them right with God?


PRAYER

O God our Father, I thank You for Your Son Jesus and for His sacrifice in shedding His blood for me on the Cross – so that in Him I could know freedom from sin and condemnation.

I receive Jesus Christ as my Saviour again now. I invite Jesus to be Lord of my life. And I respond to Your call to be a worshipper, a witness and one who works with You in Your mission.

I recognise that the path will not always be easy and that obedience has a cost. I trust in Your foresight and providential care as I depend on You and seek to live by Your guidance. In Jesus name. Amen.

TOP


Download this TLW as a four-page A5 folder to print out

TLW24A-June-21-final-BookletDownload

Filed Under: Pentecost to Advent, Year A

  • 1
  • 2
  • Next Page »

Search TLW

RECENT POSTS

  • March 19: Spiritual Discernment — What Is False, What Is True March 18, 2023
  • March 12: God’s sheer goodness to undeserving people March 12, 2023
  • March 5: Knowing God’s Good Promises — by Faith March 4, 2023
  • Feb. 26: Jesus’ Integrity and Victory overcomes Adam’s Sin February 27, 2023
  • Feb. 19: Mountain-top encounters are a powerful testimony to others February 17, 2023
  • Feb. 12: Loving God is living a transformed life in Jesus February 11, 2023
  • Feb 5: What a True Worshipper and Disciple Looks Like January 31, 2023
  • Jan 29: What the Lord Really Requires from Us January 28, 2023
  • Jan 22: Light in a dark place — the kingdom of God revealed January 22, 2023
  • Jan.15: God’s Grace of Renewal in Jesus January 13, 2023

Categories

Pages

  • ‘Cancel culture’ has ancient roots
  • Jesus tells us to exercise our lazy faith
  • A short prayer to receive Jesus as Saviour and Lord
  • A story of three ‘opposites’
  • Apprentice — You’re chosen!
  • Are You a Disciple on Mission with Jesus — or a Church Club Devotee?
  • Be prepared! God’s plan of salvation is going ahead!
  • Be Real, Be Attentive, Be Ready In Faith…
  • Being Authentic — God loves relationships that are real
  • Blessing others with God’s wisdom, not our opinions
  • Bringers of God’s Glorious Presence
  • Called and then sent
  • Called to respect God’s way
  • Choose Life
  • Choosing God’s Way
  • Does God Really Have My Heart?
  • Don’t let spiritual pride become your downfall!
  • Encountering God for ourselves
  • Explaining… Salvation. Who chooses who?
  • Explaining…. How we experience God
  • Faith on Trial
  • Falsehood vs Faithfulness and How To Know The Difference
  • For All of us Trapped by Historic Sin, God Has a Way Out
  • From Mistakes to Mission
  • Getting Better at Faith — Learning to Live in Partnership with God
  • God Is Always Doing a New Thing
  • God Is Calling Others To Walk With Him
  • God Says Those Who Seek Me Find Me
  • God’s Gracious Exchange — New Life for Old
  • God’s heart and ours
  • God’s presence comes with heaven’s brilliance
  • God’s Word — Catalyst for Change
  • God’s Heart of Love for Those Who Are Distant from Him
  • God’s word comes through God’s words
  • Growing in Hearing and Trusting God
  • Having God’s Heart — the Heart of the Gospel
  • Help! Learning to trust God in sticky situations
  • Holy Dissatisfaction Gets Us Reaching for God’s Freedom
  • How big is your God?
  • How Can God Change My Life?
  • How Do we Understand God’s Grace?
  • How Does Revival Come? It’s Not About Us
  • How entering God’s kingdom is the way to find His righteousness
  • How faith comes: by hearing and believing what God says
  • How God calls the imperfect to achieve the impossible
  • How God Gave Us His Nature To Live His Way
  • How God Guides Us In His Way
  • How God helps us to know Him personally (May 17)
  • How God is glorified
  • How God lights up our dark places with His presence
  • How God Offers Us the Gift of Being Made Right with Him
  • How God Works His Purpose In Our Lives
  • How God’s repeated works of salvation give us confidence
  • How salvation comes
  • How the Fellowship of the Holy Spirit is gained — and lost
  • How the Holy Spirit Restores God’s Order
  • How to be in the flow of God’s love and compassion
  • How to Keep an Eternal Perspective Amid Life’s Urgencies
  • How to speak life into dry bones
  • How We See God’s Glory
  • Jesus — sight unseen
  • Jesus is Lord for all who turn to Him
  • Jesus, The Inclusive Saviour
  • Keeping a true course
  • Knowing Jesus and making Him known
  • Knowing the Good Shepherd — it’s personal
  • Learn What Being Spiritual Really Means
  • Learning to be impartial
  • Learning to honour God in His gifts to us
  • Love and joy that transforms
  • Loving God also means loving others
  • Made new and still being renewed
  • One thing that sets us apart
  • Our Faith in God Shines Through How We Live
  • Partners in Mission
  • Partnership, God and Us
  • Pictures of heaven’s future purpose
  • Removing three barriers to God in our lives
  • Renewal — How Jesus Enables Us to Live the Best Version of Ourselves
  • Renewed and restored
  • Right and wrong sources of power
  • Seeing through the Pain to the Promise
  • So, who is this Jesus?
  • Spiritual Confidence is Yours with a Little Practice
  • The Big Story
  • The call to kingdom life and values
  • The Grace and Glory of God Appear — and Our Part In It
  • The Great Realisation
  • The Jesus Prayer
  • The reality of Jesus’ lordship
  • The spiritual battle: truth and deception in the church
  • The tests of life and God’s justice
  • The Tests of the Heart
  • Three Common Pitfalls to Avoid
  • To know Jesus is to have fellowship in Him
  • Trust, believe and honour
  • Understanding God’s grace + our faith = new life in salvation 
  • Understanding God’s gracious generosity
  • Understanding the kingdom of God
  • Understanding the new covenant in Jesus
  • Understanding… How we learn to see where Jesus is present
  • Unexpected — The King Who Serves
  • Watchmen of God’s way
  • We Celebrate God Made Man — How Much Do We Trust Him?
  • What God speaks, endures
  • When Jesus Comes Near It Changes Everything
  • Who Has Your Heart?
  • Who is Jesus? Where is Jesus? How Mystery Leads Us to Revelation
  • Who Is The Jesus We Know?
  • Why as Christians We Never Get to Stand Down
  • Why God’s Grace Is Too Good To Be Untrue
  • Willing to change?
  • Wisdom with humility is the path to true greatness
  • About…
    • The pros and cons of the lectionary format
    • A personal guide through the maze of Bible versions
  • About TLW print edition
  • Explaining…
    • Explaining… Christmas: the call to worship
    • Explaining… God’s call to all
    • Explaining… How God works beyond our boundaries
    • Explaining… How God’s grace doesn’t work by our rules
    • Explaining… How to see ourselves as God sees us
    • Explaining… How too easily we can be frustrating God’s plan
    • Explaining… Our assurance in the kingdom of God
    • Explaining… Revitalisation — God’s kingdom vs our control
    • Explaining… the ‘review and renew’ that God is doing
    • Explaining… Why the good news is good
    • Understanding… The danger in our complacency
    • Explaining the kingdom of God 1
    • Explaining conflicts that arise as a result of our faith
    • Explaining Pentecost
    • Explaining the Trinity
    • Explaining our identity as Christians — royal priesthood
    • What Jesus’ mountain top encounter with God means for us
    • Explaining the covenant with Abraham
  • Understanding…
    • Understanding… Holiness and the Great Commandment
    • Understanding… how deception undermines God’s truth
    • Understanding… How we raise our expectation
    • Understanding… Revival
    • Understanding… Stepping out in faith
    • Understanding… the difference between reacting and responding to God
    • Understanding… The freedom that is ours in Christ
    • Understanding… the generosity of God
    • Understanding… The invitation we must respond to
    • Understanding… The need to be ready for the Lord’s return
    • Understanding… The way agreement and conflict play out in the kingdom of God
    • Understanding the Good News – God’s grace
    • Inexpressible and glorious joy
    • The need to be reborn from above
    • Understanding the Trinity of God
    • First-century gnosticism

PREVIOUS POSTS

  • March 2023
  • February 2023
  • January 2023
  • December 2022
  • November 2022
  • October 2022
  • September 2022
  • August 2022
  • July 2022
  • June 2022
  • May 2022
  • April 2022
  • March 2022
  • February 2022
  • January 2022
  • December 2021
  • November 2021
  • October 2021
  • September 2021
  • August 2021
  • July 2021
  • June 2021
  • May 2021
  • April 2021
  • March 2021
  • February 2021
  • January 2021
  • December 2020
  • November 2020
  • October 2020
  • September 2020
  • August 2020
  • July 2020
  • June 2020
  • May 2020
  • April 2020
  • March 2020
  • February 2020
  • January 2020
  • December 2019
  • April 2019
  • March 2019
  • February 2019
  • January 2019
  • December 2018
  • November 2018
  • October 2018
  • September 2018
  • August 2018
  • July 2018
  • June 2018
  • May 2018
  • April 2018
  • March 2018
  • February 2018
  • January 2018
  • December 2017
  • November 2017
  • October 2017

Download TLW in A4/A5 booklet form

TLW49A-Dec-11.final-Booklet

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Welcome to The Living Word

You get a lot more out of the Sunday service readings if they are already speaking to you. TLW is about reading and re-reading these Scriptures with some commentary to bring out what is hidden and make connections with cross references. This is different from liturgy because it is a Bible study, putting the Bible passages in sequence from OT, through the NT gospel era, and then through the lens of the post-resurrection, early church in the power of the Spirit. Enabling this progressive revelation points to a theme.  The translation used is the readable and widely-used 2011 edition of the New International Version (NIV) Bible. Commentary is drawn from a wide range of sources and is Bible-centric and theologically neutral. As we read and reflect and allow the Holy Spirit to help us hear God through His word during the week, we prepare ourselves to hear afresh and receive the Sunday sermon in church or chapel.

For convenience, use the ‘Subscribe’ box below to receive a short email with the Bible passage and notes for each weekday (and that’s all!).

Unsubscribing is just as easy.

A little about me and my vision for The Living Word

I live in the Marches, a green and beautiful expanse of hills between England and Wales where churches and chapels share duty to the Christian faithful in every valley, and churchgoing is still part of the community life. However, there are few Bibles to be seen in these buildings, and home-based groups for fellowship and Bible study are rare.

I want to encourage Sunday worshippers in churches and chapels to enjoy reading the Bible during the week, to get used to hearing God for themselves through His word, and to be  spiritually prepared for the message they will hear on Sunday from the lectionary readings they all share. It is no substitute for meeting and worshipping together, nor for Holy Spirit-inspired preaching. It supports both by encouraging the personal growth of church and chapel members of any denomination. It offers faith encouragement for those no longer able to, or no longer wanting to take part in, formal physical church.

My background is not in churches that use the lectionary and I bring a breadth of tradition and spiritual understanding to the writing.  I have pastored a number of churches and been involved in a variety of other missional initiatives with a ‘kingdom of God’ agenda.

As well as The Living Word and its weekly video I also post regularly on www.freshbread.today and www.thelivingword.substack.com with a podcast as well as video and written content. There is also a Facebook page at fb.com/TLWbiblestudy

Revd Ian Greig BD (Hons), DPS

SEE ALSO other Living Word Publications

Substack newsletter and podcast (free subscription) — audio podcast, video and written content all in one place

Fresh Bread Today — the freshest bake, with a bit of a tang, unpackaged and uncut. His word to live by, today.

Believe the Good News – finding the good news and encouragement all through the Bible

GLOW – God’s Love Over Weobley, encouraging prayer and spiritual fellowship. With a local flavour for this NW Herefordshire village.

 

 

 

 

Loading Comments...