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

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March 19: Spiritual Discernment — What Is False, What Is True

March 18, 2023 by Ian Greig Leave a Comment

Setting sun behind distant trees in an early spring sunset
Setting sun behind distant trees in an early spring sunset

This is The Living Word for Sunday, March 19, 2023 based on the following Bible readings which are set for March 19 (Lent 4) in the interdenominational scheme.

Psalm 23

1 Samuel 16:1-13 — Samuel visits Bethlehem to find and anoint David

John 9:1-16, 28-41 — Messianic miracle restores a man born blind

Ephesians 5:8-14 — Choosing to live in the light and not darkness

Theme: Spiritual discernment: What is false, what is true


Psalm 23

1 The Lord is my shepherd, I lack nothing.

2-3 He makes me lie down in green pastures, He leads me beside quiet waters, He refreshes my soul. He guides me along the right paths for His name’s sake.

4 Even though I walk through the darkest valley, I will fear no evil, for You are with me; Your rod and Your staff, they comfort me.

5 You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies. You anoint my head with oil; my cup overflows.

6 Surely Your goodness and love will follow me all the days of my life, and I will dwell in the house of the Lord forever.

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1 Samuel 16:1-13 — Samuel visits Bethlehem to find and anoint David

• God seeks pure motive over persuasive presentation for partnership with Him

1 The Lord said to Samuel,”How long will you mourn for Saul, since I have rejected him as king over Israel? Fill your horn with oil and be on your way; I am sending you to Jesse of Bethlehem. I have chosen one of his sons to be king.”

“Jesse” — was the grandson of Boaz and Ruth, of Bethlehem.

2 But Samuel said, “How can I go? If Saul hears about it, he will kill me.”

“He will kill me” — Samuel had already told Saul that God had rejected his kingship.

2-3 The Lord said, “Take a heifer with you and say, ‘I have come to sacrifice to the Lord.’ Invite Jesse to the sacrifice, and I will show you what to do. You are to anoint for Me the one I indicate.”

“Invite Jesse to the sacrifice” — a reason for Samuel to go to Bethlehem and then follow what the Lord would show him; inviting Jesse was essential because in God’s plan one of his sons would succeed Saul.

4-5 Samuel did what the Lord said. When he arrived at Bethlehem, the elders of the town trembled when they met him. They asked, “Do you come in peace?”

5 Samuel replied, “Yes, in peace; I have come to sacrifice to the Lord. Consecrate yourselves and come to the sacrifice with me.” Then he consecrated Jesse and his sons and invited them to the sacrifice.

“Do you come in peace” — Saul’s unbalanced leadership was well known, and the response was out of fear of Saul.

“I have come to sacrifice to the Lord” — not the whole reason, but what the Lord had told him to say.

6 When they arrived, Samuel saw Eliab and thought, “Surely the Lord’s anointed stands here before the Lord.”

“Eliab” — looked the part, later serving in Saul’s army, but his true character came out in the David and Goliath story, 1 Samuel 17:28.

7 But the Lord said to Samuel, “Do not consider his appearance or his height, for I have rejected him. The Lord does not look at the things people look at. People look at the outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart.”

8-10 Then Jesse called Abinadab and made him pass in front of Samuel. But Samuel said, “The Lord has not chosen this one either.” Jesse then made Shammah pass by, but Samuel said, “Nor has the Lord chosen this one.” Jesse made seven of his sons pass before Samuel, but Samuel said to him, “The Lord has not chosen these.”

“The Lord looks at the heart” – not evident qualifications but character and spiritual disposition. Saul, tall and impressive, 1 Sam. 9:2, lacked stature in character.

• For further study, how actions flow from ‘heart values’, 2 Chron. 16:9; Ps. 51:10; Prov. 4:23; Mark 7:21–23; Luke 6:45; 1 Thess. 2:4.

11 So he asked Jesse, “Are these all the sons you have?”

“There is still the youngest,” Jesse answered. “He is tending the sheep.”

“Tending the sheep” — in ancient times, rulers were often compared to shepherds, Ezekiel 34.

Samuel said, “Send for him; we will not sit down until he arrives.”

12 So he sent for him and had him brought in. He was glowing with health and had a fine appearance and handsome features.

Then the Lord said, “Rise and anoint him; this is the one.”

“Anoint him” — a pivotal moment, see also v.14. The transfer of anointing from Saul to David begins a long period where Saul struggles and David waits for his time.

13 So Samuel took the horn of oil and anointed him in the presence of his brothers, and from that day on the Spirit of the Lord came powerfully upon David. Samuel then went to Ramah.

“The Spirit… came powerfully” — “rushed upon David” (ESV) in an empowering for kingship. The first mention of David.

Reflection

SUMMARY We start with a statement of the Lord having rejected headstrong Saul, and end with the Bible’s first mention of David, named as the youngest and therefore most insignificant son — but the Lord’s choice.

APPLICATION Even the wisdom and prophetic discernment of Samuel is tested in the Lord’s reminder that what matters to the Lord, now as it was then, is the heart, the character of the inner person and whether they are submitted to Him.

QUESTION How do we avoid judging superficially and gain spiritually-discerned wisdom?

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John 9:1-16, 28-41 — Messianic miracle restores a man born blind

• Legalistic Pharisees dispute the validity of Jesus’ Sabbath healing act

1-2 As He went along, Jesus saw a man blind from birth. His disciples asked Him, “Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?”

“Who sinned” — many rabbis taught that there is no suffering without iniquity. Death and suffering did enter the world as a result of Adam’s sin; however, as Jesus taught, it was wrong to extend it as a judgment on a person or their parents.

3-5 “Neither this man nor his parents sinned,” said Jesus, “but this happened so that the works of God might be displayed in him. As long as it is day, we must do the works of Him who sent Me. Night is coming, when no one can work. While I am in the world, I am the light of the world.”

 “Light of the world” — Jesus had made this claim while teaching at the Festival of Shelters, John ch. 7-8. Now He is giving light to a man who had lived in physical darkness.

6-7 After saying this, He spat on the ground, made some mud with the saliva, and put it on the man’s eyes. “Go,” He told him, “wash in the Pool of Siloam” (this word means “Sent”). So the man went and washed, and came home seeing.

“Siloam” — a double meaning; Jesus, who was sent, tells him to go and wash in the pool called “Sent” and the Pharisees argue about Jesus and where He came from.

“Came home seeing” — predicted as a Messianic activity, and further evidence that Jesus was the Messiah. He performed more miracles of this kind than any other.

• Further study on Jesus sent by God: John 4:34; 5:23, 37; 7:28; 8:26; 12:44; 14:24.

8-9 His neighbours and those who had formerly seen him begging asked, “Isn’t this the same man who used to sit and beg?” Some claimed that he was. Others said, “No, he only looks like him.” But he himself insisted, “I am the man.”

10-11 “How then were your eyes opened?” they asked. He replied, “The man they call Jesus made some mud and put it on my eyes. He told me to go to Siloam and wash. So I went and washed, and then I could see.”

12 “Where is this man?” they asked him. “I don’t know,” he said.

13-15 They brought to the Pharisees the man who had been blind. Now the day on which Jesus had made the mud and opened the man’s eyes was a Sabbath. Therefore the Pharisees also asked him how he had received his sight. “He put mud on my eyes,” the man replied, “and I washed, and now I see.”

“Brought to the Pharisees” — a request to the guardians of the rules of legal interpretation, to give an opinion on the man’s healing on the Sabbath.

“Jesus had made the mud” — kneading dough was among 39 classes of work forbidden on the Sabbath; was kneading the mud with saliva also forbidden?

16 Some of the Pharisees said, “This man is not from God, for He does not keep the Sabbath.” But others asked, “How can a sinner perform such signs?” So they were divided.

“Divided” — as to whether keeping minutiae of the law, or doing Messianic signs, was more significant.

28-29 Then they hurled insults at him and said, “You are this fellow’s disciple! We are disciples of Moses! We know that God spoke to Moses, but as for this fellow, we don’t even know where He comes from.”

30-32 The man answered, “Now that is remarkable! You don’t know where He comes from, yet He opened my eyes. We know that God does not listen to sinners. He listens to the godly person who does His will. Nobody has ever heard of opening the eyes of a man born blind. If this man were not from God, He could do nothing.”

“Listen to sinners” — his argument is based on a number of the psalms e.g. Ps. 34:15; 66:18; 109:7; 145:19

34 To this they replied, “You were steeped in sin at birth; how dare you lecture us!” And they threw him out.

“Threw him out” — from their assembly, or more likely, excommunicated him which would result in social isolation — persecution Jesus predicted for His followers, John 15:18-27; John 16:2.

35 Jesus heard that they had thrown him out, and when He found him, he said, “Do you believe in the Son of Man?”

36 “Who is He, sir?” the man asked. “Tell me so that I may believe in Him.”

37 Jesus said, “You have now seen Him; in fact, He is the one speaking with you.”

38 Then the man said, “Lord, I believe,” and he worshipped Him.

“Lord, I believe” — He has gained physical sight, and now spiritual sight about who Jesus is. 

39 Jesus said, “For judgment I have come into this world, so that the blind will see and those who see will become blind.”

40 Some Pharisees who were with Him heard Him say this and asked, “What? Are we blind too?”

“Are we blind too?” — spiritually blind, they maintain their claim to know God’s will.

41 Jesus said, “If you were blind, you would not be guilty of sin; but now that you claim you can see, your guilt remains.

“Your guilt remains” — as they proudly maintain that they are the ones with the light while rejecting Jesus. Had they accepted Him and admitted their need of revelation, they would be guiltless.

Reflection

SUMMARY A blind man healed becomes an object lesson to spiritually blind Pharisees unable to recognise God’s grace while objecting to this ‘work’ on the Sabbath.

APPLICATION Taking a rigid position on what is doctrinally correct is to become unteachable. True and false is more about discerning what Jesus is saying and doing.

QUESTION When the Spirit of Jesus does the unexpected today, how do we react?

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Ephesians 5:8-14 — Choosing to live in the light and not darkness

• When we’re not watchful we succumb to deeds of darkness that surround us

8-10 For you were once darkness, but now you are light in the Lord. Live as children of light (for the fruit of the light consists in all goodness, righteousness and truth) and find out what pleases the Lord.

“You were once darkness” —ignorant of God and His way, dominated by sin.

“Fruit of the light” — ethical actions of those who live in God’s light, Matt 7:16-20; Gal 5:22-23; Phil 1:11.

11 Have nothing to do with the fruitless deeds of darkness, but rather expose them.

“Expose them” — mainly by contrasting lifestyle.

12-13 It is shameful even to mention what the disobedient do in secret. But everything exposed by the light becomes visible — and everything that is illuminated becomes a light.

14 This is why it is said: “Wake up, sleeper, rise from the dead, and Christ will shine on you.”

“It is said” — possibly in a song alluding to “Arise, shine, for your light has come and the glory of the Lord has risen upon you”, Isaiah 60:1, also 9:2, 26:19.

Reflection

SUMMARY Young Christians especially, are exhorted to be single-minded about living in personal and everyday relationship with Jesus, not mixing it the new relationship with former traditions that belong to darkness, not light.

APPLICATION This is a reminder to live transparent lives, aware that nothing is hidden from God. We have a vital role as bearers of the Lord’s light to those who do not yet have it.

QUESTION What does “living as children of light” look like?

PRAYER Lord, in turning to You we became truth-seekers.
Help us to look at the heart of a person, situation or tradition, and not be led astray by appearances.
We ask for Your spiritual empowerment to live transparent lives, speaking for Jesus, walking in the revelation light You give us, and shedding Your light on the lives of others — for Jesus, Amen.

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• See also this week’s article on Falsehood vs Faithfulness and How To Tell The Difference, based on these Bible readings

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Filed Under: Lent, Year A

March 12: God’s sheer goodness to undeserving people

March 12, 2023 by Ian Greig Leave a Comment

Deep colours of an early spring sunset on England-Wales border
Early spring sunset on England-Wales border

This is The Living Word Bible Study for Sunday, March 10, 2023 (Lent 3)

Theme: God’s sheer goodness to undeserving people

Psalm 95

Exodus 17:1-7 — God shows grace giving water to the grumbling tribes

John 4:5-42 — The gift of God in Jesus is love for the Samaritans

Romans 5:1-11 — What Christ did for undeserving, ungodly sinners


Psalm 95 (excerpt)

1-2 Come, let us sing for joy to the Lord; let us shout aloud to the Rock of our salvation. Let us come before Him with thanksgiving and extol Him with music and song.

6 Come, let us bow down in worship, let us kneel before the Lord our Maker; for He is our God and we are the people of His pasture, the flock under His care.

7-9 Today, if only you would hear His voice, “Do not harden your hearts as you did at Meribah, as you did that day at Massah in the wilderness, where your ancestors tested Me; they tried Me, though they had seen what I did.

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Exodus 17:1-7 — God shows grace giving water to the grumbling tribes

• The people are not trusting God or their leader, but He delivers them again

1 The whole Israelite community set out from the Desert of Sin, travelling from place to place as the LORD commanded. They camped at Rephidim, but there was no water for the people to drink.

“No water” — with their animals, a big problem.

2 So they quarrelled with Moses and said, “Give us water to drink.” Moses replied, “Why do you quarrel with me? Why do you put the LORD to the test?”

“So they quarrelled” —  the underlying issue was not trusting in God’s provision of it. 

3 But the people were thirsty for water there, and they grumbled against Moses. They said, “Why did you bring us up out of Egypt to make us and our children and livestock die of thirst?”

“Grumbled” —  even after bitter water made pure at Marah, and finding food in the Desert of Sin, Exodus 15:23-26, 16:2-3.

4 Then Moses cried out to the LORD, “What am I to do with these people? They are almost ready to stone me.”

“Moses cried out to the Lord” — in prayer and dependence, unlike those who blamed him.

5 The LORD answered Moses, “Go out in front of the people. Take with you some of the elders of Israel and take in your hand the staff with which you struck the Nile, and go.

“Take… some of the elders” — some  were for him and he needed witnesses to what God would do.

6 I will stand there before you by the rock at Horeb. Strike the rock, and water will come out of it for the people to drink.” So Moses did this in the sight of the elders of Israel.

“Strike the rock” — for Paul, a sign representing Jesus, 1 Cor. 10:4. 

• For further study: the Lord  as “the Rock”, Deut. 32:4, 15, 18, 30; 1 Samuel 2:2.

7 And he called the place Massah and Meribah because the Israelites quarrelled and because they tested the LORD saying, “Is the LORD among us or not?”

“Massah and Meribah” — meaning testing and rebellion; they doubted despite God’s deliverance at the Red Sea, the pillar of cloud and fire, and manna, Psalm 95:7-8, Hebrews 3:7-8.

Reflection

SUMMARY A low point in the Israelites’ history of deliverance from Egypt. They had seen truly staggering signs and wonders, yet this latest test found them faithless and untrusting.

APPLICATION This is  the opposite of the relationship God seeks with us. It also underlines God’s grace. Such appalling behaviour made Him angry, but He helped them overcome this lapse and  learn from it.

QUESTION How good are we at seeking and trusting God in a difficulty?

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John 4:5-42 — The gift of God in Jesus is love for the Samaritans

• How revival came to a tribe of unbelieving, hostile and rejected people

5-6 So He came to a town in Samaria called Sychar, near the plot of ground Jacob had given to his son Joseph. Jacob’s well was there, and Jesus, tired as He was from the journey, sat down by the well. It was about noon.

“Sychar — village (with a 40m well) opposite Mt. Gerazim where Jacob had bought land, later giving it to Joseph, Gen. 33:18-19, 48:21-22.

7-8 When a Samaritan woman came to draw water, Jesus said to her, “Will you give Me a drink?” (His disciples had gone into the town to buy food.)

“A Samaritan woman came” — unusual; most women would not draw water in the heat of the day.

9 The Samaritan woman said to Him, “You are a Jew and I am a Samaritan woman. How can You ask me for a drink?” (For Jews do not associate with Samaritans.)

“How can You ask me” — Jesus was seeking to drink from a well used by (ritually unclean) Samaritans and addressing a lone woman.

10 Jesus answered her, “If you knew the gift of God and who it is that asks you for a drink, you would have asked Him and He would have given you living water.”

11-12 “Sir,” the woman said, “You have nothing to draw with and the well is deep. Where can You get this living water? Are Yyou greater than our father Jacob, who gave us the well and drank from it himself, as did also his sons and his livestock?”

“Living water” — God reproves the Jews for rejecting Him, “the fountain of living waters” in Jer. 2:13. 

• Further study: see also Zech. 14:8; Ezekiel 47:9.

13-14 Jesus answered, “Everyone who drinks this water will be thirsty again, but whoever drinks the water I give them will never thirst. Indeed, the water I give them will become in them a spring of water welling up to eternal life.”

“A spring… welling up to eternal life” —  the new life of the Spirit, John 7:37-39.

15 The woman said to Him, “Sir, give me this water so that I won’t get thirsty and have to keep coming here to draw water.” He told her, “Go, call your husband and come back.”

17-18 “I have no husband,” she replied. Jesus said to her, “You are right when you say you have no husband. The fact is, you have had five husbands, and the man you now have is not your husband. What you have just said is quite true.”

“I have no husband” — expressing shame for her immoral life while seeking this “living water”.

19 “Sir,” the woman said, “I can see that You are a prophet. Our ancestors worshipped on this mountain, but you Jews claim that the place where we must worship is in Jerusalem.”

21-22 “Woman,” Jesus replied, “believe Me, a time is coming when you will worship the Father neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem. You Samaritans worship what you do not know; we worship what we do know, for salvation is from the Jews.

“A time is coming” — with all temples and priests replaced by the “living stones” of the church, 1 Peter 2:5.

23 Yet a time is coming and has now come when the true worshippers will worship the Father in the Spirit and in truth, for they are the kind of worshippers the Father seeks. God is spirit, and His worshippers must worship in the Spirit and in truth.”

25 The woman said, “I know that Messiah” (called Christ) “is coming. When He comes, He will explain everything to us.”

26 Then Jesus declared, “I, the One speaking to you — I am He.”

“I am He” — showing why “salvation is from the Jews”, v.22, able to disclose His identity in Samaria free of political connotations.

27 Just then His disciples returned and were surprised to find Him talking with a woman. But no one asked, “What do You want?” or “Why are You talking with her?”

28-29 Then, leaving her water jar, the woman went back to the town and said to the people, “Come, see a man who told me everything I ever did. Could this be the Messiah?” They came out of the town and made their way toward Him.

“Could this be…” — she met Christ as a Jew, v.8, then a prophet, v.19,  now the Messiah.

31-33 Meanwhile His disciples urged Him, “Rabbi, eat something.” But He said to them, “I have food to eat that you know nothing about.” Then His disciples said to each other, “Could someone have brought Him food?”

34-35 “My food,” said Jesus, “is to do the will of Him who sent Me and to finish His work. Don’t you have a saying, ‘It’s still four months until harvest’? I tell you, open your eyes and look at the fields! They are ripe for harvest.

“My food” — or fulfilment, is carrying out the mission. Jesus’s sayings were often understood by the disciples only after the Spirit had been given, John 2:22.

“Fields… ripe for harvest” — sowing at the well was already resulting in a supernatural harvest in the village.

36-38 Even now the one who reaps draws a wage and harvests a crop for eternal life, so that the sower and the reaper may be glad together. Thus the saying ‘One sows and another reaps’ is true. I sent you to reap what you have not worked for. Others have done the hard work, and you have reaped the benefits of their labour.”

“Even now” — there is a foretaste of the Messianic age where “the one treading grapes” overtakes “the ploughman and the planter”, while remembering that we harvest what others have planted, Amos 9:13; Micah 6:15.

39-41 Many of the Samaritans from that town believed in Him because of the woman’s testimony, “He told me everything I ever did.” So when the Samaritans came to Him, they urged Him to stay with them, and He stayed two days. And because of His words many more became believers.

42 They said to the woman, “We no longer believe just because of what you said; now we have heard for ourselves, and we know that this man really is the Saviour of the world.”

“Saviour of the world” — also in 1 John 4:14. The Samaritan revival is the first sign of Jesus’ saving mission beyond the Jews, the pattern for the way the early church moved out to Judea, Samaria and the Gentiles, John 3:1-15, John 4:1-42, John 4:46-54, Acts 1:8.

Reflection

SUMMARY The Samaritans were not exactly hot favourites for revival. Early settlers returned from exile, they had changed Scripture to accommodate them worshipping on their own mountain and following their independent tradition.

APPLICATION Many Samaritans became believers and the movement gained momentum with the life of the Spirit, Acts 8:14, 9:31, showing God’s grace to the least, the lost and the last.

QUESTION  Where are the ‘unlikely’ places we know, where God might be working?

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Romans 5:1-11 — What Christ did for undeserving, ungodly sinners

• When we have trusted Jesus, the tough times grow our faith and expectation

1-2 Therefore, since we have been justified through faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have gained access by faith into this grace in which we now stand. And we boast in the hope of the glory of God.

“Justified through faith” — we are all under God’s judgment for humankind’s rebellion, which only believing, trusting faith can release.

“Peace with God” — free from the fear of judgment, with joy in a personal relationship with God through Jesus.

3-5 Not only so, but we also glory in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance; perseverance, character; and character, hope. And hope does not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured out into our hearts through the Holy Spirit, who has been given to us.

“Glory in our sufferings” — believers experience adversity with extra grace to grow in faith and character.

6-8 You see, at just the right time, when we were still powerless, Christ died for the ungodly. Very rarely will anyone die for a righteous person, though for a good person someone might possibly dare to die. But God demonstrates His own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.

“The right time, when we were… powerless” — as unregenerate sinners we cannot help ourselves —which magnifies what Jesus has done, dying for us who were utterly undeserving.

9-11 Since we have now been justified by His blood, how much more shall we be saved from God’s wrath through Him! For if, while we were God’s enemies, we were reconciled to Him through the death of His Son, how much more, having been reconciled, shall we be saved through His life! Not only is this so, but we also boast in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received reconciliation.

“Justified by His blood” — i.e.violent death, Leviticus 17:11.

“We were God’s enemies” — because we inherited Adam’s independence.

“Saved from God’s wrath… reconciled… having been reconciled… saved” — repetition to emphasise. Believers are declared not guilty by Christ’s blood poured out on the Cross and will meet God’s eternal love, not wrath.

Reflection

SUMMARY This attempts to put  into words one of the deepest and also most difficult truths about God — His undeserved grace , bias even, to the undeserving. It’s a big concept to grasp.

APPLICATION This spring of God’s life within us is what holds us and grows us, through good times and tough times.

QUESTION How do we praise God for His love when our feeling and experience say the opposite?

PRAYER  Lord, I thank You for loving me when I wasn’t even looking Your way and for dying for me before I ever came to believe and trust in You. As I learn how You delight to bless, beyond anything we could ever deserve, so grow me in this Lent season to be more generous-spirited and gracious to others — like You. Amen.

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  • Listen to the podcast This Is the Story of God’s Amazing Grace

This Is the Story of God’s Amazing Grace

Listen now (26 min) | We understand why God blesses obedience, but His loving grace bestowed on the lost, the last and…

thelivingword.substack.com

  • Read the article explaining God’s grace which came out of this study

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Filed Under: Lent, Year A

March 5: Knowing God’s Good Promises — by Faith

March 4, 2023 by Ian Greig Leave a Comment

Snowdrops give way to daffodils in this early spring churchyard scene
Snowdrops give way to daffodils in this early spring churchyard scene

This is The Living Word for Sunday, March 5, 2023, based on the following Bible readings set for this Sunday in the interdenominational scheme shared by many churches and chapels:

Psalm 121

Genesis 12:1-4 — God promises Abram to make a nation through him

John 3:1-17 — Even ‘the teacher of Israel’ needs to be born again

Romans 4:1-5, 13-17 — Like Abraham, faith makes us right with God

Theme: Knowing God’s Good Promises — by Faith

Psalm 121

1-2 I lift up my eyes to the mountains — where does my help come from? My help comes from the Lord, the Maker of heaven and earth.

3-4 He will not let your foot slip — He who watches over you will not slumber; indeed, He who watches over Israel will neither slumber nor sleep.

5-6 The Lord watches over you — the Lord is your shade at your right hand; the sun will not harm you by day, nor the moon by night.

7-8 The Lord will keep you from all harm — He will watch over your life; the Lord will watch over your coming and going both now and forevermore.

Genesis 12:1-4 — God promises Abram to make a nation through him

• Taking God at His word he set off in faith for a new and unknown land

1 The LORD had said to Abram, “Go from your country, your people and your father’s household to the land I will show you.

“The Lord” — Yahweh, explained later in Moses’ encounter, Exodus 3:14-15.

“Go from your country” — God spoke to Abram about leaving “while he was still in Mesopotamia, before he lived in Harran”, Acts 7:2. His name occurs in other ancient texts from 20th-19th centuries B.C.

2-3 “I will make you into a great nation, and I will bless you; I will make your name great, and you will be a blessing. I will bless those who bless you, and whoever curses you I will curse; and all peoples on earth will be blessed through you.”

I will make… I will bless…” — expanding the LORD’s original blessing of the whole human race, Gen. 1:28 into a sevenfold perpetual covenant which (unlike later covenants) is largely promises just on God’s side.

4 So Abram went, as the LORD had told him; and Lot went with him. Abram was seventy-five years old when he set out from Harran.

“Abram went” — with limited understanding of what God was saying; a model of faith which obeys, and trusts that understanding will follow.

Reflection

SUMMARY God speaks to Abram in Mesopotamia, giving him a faith challenge to leave his people and all he knows, to set out for a distant destination that He would show him.

APPLICATION Faith is how we relate to God and that always involves stepping into what we do not know. There was much Abram didn’t understand about his unique call — but in faith he was able to trust God with the details — and go.

QUESTION We trust people we know — how does this work with God?

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John 3:1-17 — Even ‘the teacher of Israel’ needs to be born again

• Nicodemus learns that spiritual regeneration is the way into the kingdom

1 Now there was a Pharisee, a man named Nicodemus who was a member of the Jewish ruling council.

“Nicodemus” — an influential, educated and genuine-hearted lay representative of the Jewish religious establishment. Other Jewish sources of the period mention a wealthy person of this name. 

2 He came to Jesus at night and said, “Rabbi, we know that you are a teacher who has come from God. For no one could perform the signs you are doing if God were not with him.”

“He came… at night” —- for a more private and longer discussion than crowds would allow and (John’s double meaning) coming out of the prevailing spiritual darkness.

“Rabbi” — remarkable respect from a renowned and high status teacher, v.10, to a Galilean without formal training.

3 Jesus replied, “Very truly I tell you, no one can see the kingdom of God unless they are born again.”

“See” — perceive, recognise, or simply enter.

“Born again” — also “born from above” (The Message) in a spiritual birth, a transaction by faith and choice in which the human spirit is kindled into spiritual life by the Holy Spirit, vv.5-6.

4 “How can someone be born when they are old?” Nicodemus asked. “Surely they cannot enter a second time into their mother’s womb to be born!”

“How…” — difficult to understand from human perspective.

5 Jesus answered, “Very truly I tell you, no one can enter the kingdom of God unless they are born of water and the Spirit.

“Born of water and the Spirit” — made clean, and made spiritually alive, a spiritual regeneration that comes about only as a result of an intentional decision to trust Christ. In Paul’s letter to Titus is the “trustworthy saying” describing rebirth as washing, Titus 3:4-7.

6 “Flesh gives birth to flesh, but the Spirit gives birth to spirit.

7 “You should not be surprised at My saying, ‘You must be born again.’

“You (singular) should not be surprised at My saying, ‘You (plural) must be born again.’ ” — Jesus is saying that Nicodemus and all the Jewish ruling council he represents need spiritual rebirth to see the kingdom of God, and grasp the nature of Jesus’ call — and applies this to all people.

8 “The wind blows wherever it pleases. You hear its sound, but you cannot tell where it comes from or where it is going. So it is with everyone born of the Spirit.”

“Wind blows wherever it pleases” — Heb. Ruach and Gk pneuma means both wind and Spirit. We cannot control how the wind blows; nor the new birth. Being born again is letting go of control to God.

9 “How can this be?” Nicodemus asked.

10 “You are Israel’s teacher,” said Jesus, “and do you not understand these things? 

“Do you not understand” —the new birth allusions in the breath (Spirit) entering the dry bones of Ezekiel 37, and the heart of stone replaced by a new spiritually living heart in both Ezekiel and Jeremiah.

• For further study, see Deuteronomy 30:6, Jeremiah 31:33, Ezekiel 36:26-27, Ezekiel 37.

11 “Very truly I tell you, we speak of what we know, and we testify to what we have seen, but still you people do not accept our testimony.

“We speak of what we know” — not hearsay. Jesus focuses on how believing faith, more than intellect, is needed to receive this teaching.

12-13 “I have spoken to you of earthly things and you do not believe; how then will you believe if I speak of heavenly things? No one has ever gone into heaven except the one who came from heaven — the Son of Man.

“Gone into heaven… came from heaven” — like Proverbs 30:4, “Who has gone up to heaven and come down… what is His name?” Only Jesus descended from heaven and then returned there (on His ascension, Luke 24:51, Acts 1:9).

14-15 “Just as Moses lifted up the snake in the wilderness, so the Son of Man must be lifted up, that everyone who believes may have eternal life in Him.”

“Lifted up” — the Israelites were commanded to look up at the bronze serpent and believe that God would save them from the snakes in the desert; so we look up at Christ, “lifted up” on the Cross to believe what He has done for us, and gain life spiritually and eternally.

For God so loved the world that He gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish but have eternal life.

“God… loved the world” — a truth at the foundation of Christian faith. God’s love is without condition and extends to “so loving the world”; this must include “whoever” does not know Him, or who opposes Him, before they come to believe: He loves us first, 1 John 4:9-10.

17 For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through Him.

“Not… to condemn the world” — Jewish people believed that the end of the age would bring both judgment and salvation with eternal life. But in Jesus, those promises start to take effect, with salvation and new life starting in the present, through new spiritual birth.

Reflection

SUMMARY Jesus explains to an older, renowned Bible teacher that knowledge of the Scriptures doesn’t change us, but a faith decision to believe and receive Him as Saviour does. It is the spiritual transformation of being reborn from above.

APPLICATION Keeping rules, following rituals, receiving sacraments and doing what God says are good — but none results in the renewal of new birth which brings intimate relationship with God.

QUESTION Have you experienced new birth? What is your story?

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Romans 4:1-5, 13-17 — Like Abraham, faith makes us right with God

• The gift of God comes only by believing, not by any merit from good works

1 What then shall we say that Abraham, our forefather according to the flesh, discovered in this matter?

“Abraham, our forefather” — now father of faith to all believers.

2 If, in fact, Abraham was justified by works, he had something to boast about—but not before God.

“Justified by [good] works” — over the centuries the faith of the patriarchs degenerated into a ‘works-righteousness’ of rule-keeping. In non-canonical Jewish writings known by Paul’s contemporaries, Abraham had been wrongly portrayed as justified by his good works.

3 What does Scripture say? “Abraham believed God, and it was credited to him as righteousness.”

“Abraham believed God” — quoting Genesis 15:6, where nothing is mentioned about works, Paul shows Abraham to be the example of righteousness to follow, because of his relationship with God. Abraham kept no law, carried out no service and performed no ritual but believed God in a close relationship.

4-5 Now to the one who works, wages are not credited as a gift but as an obligation. However, to the one who does not work but trusts God who justifies the ungodly, their faith is credited as righteousness.

“The one who works… the one who… trusts God” — wages received for work are earned, not a gift. By contrast, what God makes a gift of, is gracious, unearned and undeserved. Good works cannot count towards righteousness.

“Credited”— meaning to add to the account something that belongs to another. In God’s accounting He breaks the world’s rules and justifies — grants faith to —His ungodly enemies for turning to Him in faith.

13 It was not through the law that Abraham and his offspring received the promise that he would be heir of the world, but through the righteousness that comes by faith.

“Abraham… received the promise” — of Genesis 12:2-3 (above), not by fulfilling any condition, but by believing and acting on it.

14-15 For if those who depend on the law are heirs, faith means nothing and the promise is worthless, because the law brings wrath. And where there is no law there is no transgression.

“Depend on the law… [depend on] faith” — good works and believing faith are mutually opposed. Faith trusts in God’s work, not ours.

“Law brings wrath” — ‘wrath’ in the Bible means ‘God’s just judgment’. The law (unlike grace) flags up every transgression for judgment.

16 Therefore, the promise comes by faith, so that it may be by grace and may be guaranteed to all Abraham’s offspring — not only to those who are of the law but also to those who have the faith of Abraham. He is the father of us all.

“By faith… by grace” — faith and grace go together, as do the opposites, law and judgment.

“Of the law… also…those that have the faith of Abraham” — Abraham, historic father of the Jews and also all those who share his faith but not the law.

17 As it is written: “I have made you a father of many nations.” He is our father in the sight of God, in whom he believed — the God who gives life to the dead and calls into being things that were not.

“Gives life… and calls into being things that were not” — Isaac’s birth to Abraham and Sarah, two people well past childbearing; Christ crucified and dead, then called into being in resurrection; on those spiritually dead in sin, spiritual life is called into being in the new birth.

Reflection

SUMMARY Abraham trusted and knew God through many trials; he is the pattern for our believing God and taking God at His word today. This, not our efforts or works, is what counts with God as our righteousness.

APPLICATION Difficult though it is, we must root out any sense of entitlement; medieval religion emphasised earning salvation by religious actions and other good works, but we must remind ourselves that, by definition, a gift cannot be paid for!

QUESTION Is the church gathering our path to salvation or the place to celebrate it and give it away to others?

PRAYER Father, I thank You for Abraham, a giant of faith who continues to coach me by his example. And I thank You for giving us what we do not deserve and could never earn — by revealing who Jesus is and what He has done in our place.

Once again I surrender my unbelief and my pride and accept your gift, graciously given — for me to be able to invite Jesus to be my Saviour and my Lord. Amen.

///////

Filed Under: Lent, Year A

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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!).

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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.

 

 

 

 

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