1 ST DRAFT FOR THE NT PASSAGES
Subject: The consequence of deficiency of commitment to God
Thesis: The thesis of this paper is that a deficiency of commitment to God impairs people’s ability to prosecute in the mission of God, and as such, God employs unconventional agencies to impact mission on his people. ( this is the subject I am following in these transitions )
New TESTAMENT PASSAGES
Matthew 12: 1-21
Jesus was accused in this transition of profaning the Sabbath by mending a adult male with a shriveled manus and allowing his adherents to tweak maize and eat on the Sabbath twenty-four hours. The Pharisees considered this a misdemeanor of the jurisprudence which provoked them and they denounced Jesus seeking agencies to eliminate him. Though the ‘ plucking of grain” were permitted by the Law and the Jews commanded non to work on the Sabbath ( Deut. 23: 25 ; Exo 20: 8 ) but the Pharisees and other spiritual religious orders took this jurisprudence farther by ascribing their ain tradition to the given Law. Based on this, ‘ reaping’ and ‘ threshing’ on the Sabbath twenty-four hours was prohibited so the disciples’ tweaking maize ears was considered reaping and rubbing them considered threshing ( “ Matthew 12 Commentary – People’s New Testament” 2014 ) . They elevated the jurisprudence more than the giver of the jurisprudence. Their dedication to the jurisprudence is revealed clearly in the plants of Milman, “ If on the Sabbath a Jew puts out a lamp from fright of the Gentiles, or robbers, or on history of an evil spirit, he was innocent ; of to salvage oil, he was guilty” ( Milman’s Jews, Vol. 2. 480 ) . It is their deficiency of commitment to God that is reflected in their quest to continue the jurisprudence without cognizing the Giver. It is besides their deficiency of commitment to God that led to their rejection of Jesus whose jurisprudence they claim to continue. This confirms the possibility of people prosecuting in the work of God without holding commitment to God ( Mat. 7: 21 ) . Some of our churches today invest tonss of money in mission outreaches and church planting activities in the name of mission but with commitment with God. No admiration those activities become futile.
This explains accurately why the Pharisees and the Judaic leaders rejected Jesus even when he had been prophesied about by their Prophetss. They lacked commitment with God even though they knew the Law and taught it. They were acquainted the jurisprudence and its outward purification believing that redemption is found at that place in. They believed that the Messiah is for the Jews entirely and should non tie in with the heathens, and neglecting to understand that he is for the whole universe ( John 4: 42 ) .
In response to their accusal, Jesus cited the instance of David with his work forces who ate the consecrated staff of life which was non lawful for him and his work forces. He besides cited the history of the Priest that desecrated the Sabbath yet remained guiltless ( 1 Sam. 21: 6 ; Lev. 24: 5 ; Ex. 29: 32 ) . Jesus cited several prognostications familiar to them which described the ministry of the Servant of God ( Jesus ) ( vv. 18-21 ) in support of his actions on the Sabbath, yet they remained hardened and determined to kill him. Their rejection of Jesus is portrayed clearly in the Gospel of John, which states, “ He came to that which was his ain, but his ain did non have him” ( 1: 11 ) . This rejection demonstrates their deficiency of commitment to God and their backslidden province because the coming of Christ was predicted long ago by their ain Prophetss. And their main priests and Scribes were besides acquainted with this. This is portrayed in the response of the main priests and the Scribe when Herod inquired of them where the Christ was to be born ( Matt. 2: 4-6 ; Mic. 5: 2 ) .
When people become unpatriotic to God, they become disillusioned and hardened to God’s word despite how frequently they hear it. Their deficiency of commitment to God led to their dull heads, heavy ears, and blind eyes that they did non recognize that Jesus was the long anticipated Messiah ( Isa. 6: 9-10 ) . This possibly explains the self-satisfied attitude of the modern-day church towards God’s missional call. They invest resources and energy on irrelevant undertakings that do non advance the mission of God. Their heads are dull, ears heavy, and eyes blind that they do non see God’s missionary purpose in the Bible nor the demand to prosecute in it.
The rejection of Jesus may non come as a surprise because it had been prophesied that “ he was a adult male despised and rejected by men…” ( Isa. 53: 3 ) . Jesus was rejected for assorted grounds: ( 1 ) the spiritual leaders and swayers had a repute of defying the Holy Spirit, as Stephen pointed out to them during his slaying ( Acts 7: 51 ) . He pointed out that their male parents had besides killed the Prophetss who revealed the coming of Christ ( 2 Chron. 16: 16 ) . They are merely reiterating the actions of their male parents – like male parent, like boy. ( 2 ) The Jews wanted a human male monarch to present them from the Roman Empire which they did non see in Jesus. Jesus was non interested in earthly land instead he wanted the Gospel preached to all states ( Mt. 28: 18-20 ) . ( 3 ) Jesus’ low birth and life caused proud Jews to reject him. They addressed him as the carpenter, boy of Mary, and he even grew up in lowly Nazareth ( Mat. 13: 54-57 ) . He was cipher to be reckoned with. ( 4 ) His unconventional attitude and mode caused choler among the spiritual leaders. Jesus associated and ate with evildoers and tax-collectors, those the holier-than-thou Pharisees and Scribes would non tie in with ( Luke 15 ) . Despite this, Jesus remained committed to his mission, which is to seek and salvage the doomed. An thought the Judaic leaders were non interested in ( Luke 19: 10 ) . ( 5 ) Envy and Jealousy caused the Jews to reject Christ. They were provoked at his sound instruction and jealous of his legion followings. Even Pilate noticed their green-eyed monster when they handed Jesus over to him ( Matt. 27: 18 ) . ( 6 ) They every bit rejected Jesus because of his crucifixion. The cross was excessively black a manner for their male monarch to decease. Paul described this better in his authorship that Christ’s crucifixion is a faltering block to the Jews ( 1 Cor. 1: 23-24 ) . Jesus in no manner measured up to their ain apprehension of the Messiah but all that Jesus taught, did, and experienced were already prophesied and written in the Old Testament they read on a regular basis in the temple. Jesus’ “ humility was an offense to their sophistication and pride ; His sanctum character was a reproof to their wickedness ; His religious instruction was a reproof to their formality ; and His life of benevolence was a reproof to their selfishness and haughtiness” ( “ Pulpit Commentary, Volume 17: John by H. D. M. Spence” 2014, 56 ) .
Though they rejected Jesus and their missional call due to the deficiency of commitment it was to their ain hurt this offered chance for the Gentiles to engrafted in ( Rom. 11: 11-17 ) . Their rejection brought redemption to other states. This is vividly demonstrated in the Acts of the Apostles where Bar-Jesus ( a Jew ) used his black magic to impede the proconsul from accepting the religion. At the word of Paul he became blind and the proconsul accepted the Lord ( Acts 13: 4-12 ) . Elymas’ rejection of Christ was damaging to him while it opened the door of redemption and forgiveness for the proconsul. In God’s program there is ever a intent for everything that happens, all things work together for his good ( Rom. 8: 28 ) . This correlativity between the Jews’ rejection and the Gentile’s credence exemplifies this. We must non believe we are making a favor to God when we answer his missional call, instead we must see it a privilege because he could hold used person else in our topographic point. The Jews’ disloyalty to God affected impaired their ability to prosecute in his mission as demonstrated in the transition.
Peoples still reject Jesus today. Disciples can turn their dorsum on Christ and trusters may go disbelievers particularly with the spread of unbelieving instructions in found some seminaries. The impossible pursuit for philistinism among the Christian leaders triggers rejection of Christ. This may account for some Christians change overing to other faiths because of stuff wealth it promises. Some reject Jesus because they intentionally determine non to believe merely as it was in Jesus’ twenty-four hours as a consequence of their animal mindedness ( Rom. 8: 5-8 ) . From my finds from this survey, it is evident that the Christians who convert to other faiths ne’er had commitment to God or they lost it at a point. This is what occurs when people lack committedness to God. It impairs their commitment to God every bit good as his mission.
Acts 13: 13-52
One subject I have observed running through these transitions is that deficiency of commitment to God impairs people’s engagement to God’s missional call. People’s rejection of God opens the door for the redemption and credence of others. God’s mission is unstoppable with or without man’s commitment to him.
The narrative in this transition reveals how rejecting God opened door for the redemption of the heathens. Paul and Barnabas were identified by the Holy Spirit and asked to be set apart for the particular work he has for them. After the seniors prayed for them, they sailed to Perga in Pamphylia every bit far as Antioch where they were invited to prophesy in the temple. He recounted how God had blessed Israel in several ways, one of which was the sending of the message of redemption to them through Jesus, the predicted Messiah, and a descendent of David. Though the Judaic people and their spiritual swayers rejected Jesus ( like their predecessors ) and demanded that Pilate annihilate him, God still demonstrated his power over all by raising him from the dead. God’s missionary purpose can ne’er be truncated or aborted by man’s rejection. He will ever plan other manner ( s ) of put to deathing his mission. At the terminal of the discourse, many Gentiles received Jesus, which instigated green-eyed monster and choler among the Jews and they rejected Paul by inciting the governments against them ( vv. 48-52 ) . The sarcasm here is, the Hebrews who were expected to be light for the states became stumbling block. It had been foretold in Isaiah 42: 6 and 49: 6 that there will be light for the states, but in world they failed. This sarcasm buttresses my subject that deficiency of commitment to God affects commitment to his mission. How else could we explicate their rejection of the heathens alternatively of accepting them and demoing them the visible radiation? The New Testament Jews saw Isaiah 49: 6 to be an mandate addressed straight to them merely every bit certainly as the audience of Isaiah’s twenty-four hours understood it ( Kaiser 2000, 61 ) , yet they failed to follow.
The rejection of the Gospel by the Jews opened the door for the heathens. There are cases that God hardened Israel’s Black Marias so that gentile universe would be blessed. We see God’s promise to Abraham being fulfilled here, that through him the states shall be blessed ( Gen. 12: 1-3 ) . This approval implies that Abraham and his descents ( Jews ) are to be a beginning or agent of blessing to all states of the Earth ( Okoye 2006, 47 ) , but the Jews did non hold this missionary apprehension which impaired their ability to take part in God’s missionary intent.
LUKE 15: 1-32
This chapter of Luke contains 3 different fables ( parable of the lost sheep, of the lost coin, and of the lost boy ) of Jesus with the same range and focal point, which is to demo that God does non care for the decease of evildoers, instead he desires their penitence and this brings him joy ( Ezek. 18: 23 ) .
The tavern keepers ( v. 1 ) are the revenue enhancement aggregators of the Roman testimonial, by and large corrupt, universally despised, and normally Hebrews by birth ( “ Luke 15 Commentary – People’s New Testament” 2014 ) . The Jews hated them with passion because they collected extra revenue enhancement and bagged the difference. This is buttressed in the penitence call of John the Baptist, he warned the revenue enhancement aggregators to abstain roll uping extra revenue enhancements ( Luke 3: 12-13 ) . They were equated with prostitutes and other evildoers ugly detested and disregarded ( Matt. 9: 10 ; 11: 19 ; 21: 31 ) . Conversely, revenue enhancement aggregators were non irreclaimable because Luke narrated the history of Zacchaeus, a revenue enhancement aggregator, who had climbed a tree in order to see Jesus. He became a transformed adult male after his brush with Jesus ( Luke 19: 7-8 ) . Sinners on the other manus are classified by the Pharisees as “ all who failed to detect the traditions of the seniors, and particularly their traditional regulations of purification” ( “ Luke 15 Commentary – The Fourfold Gospel” 2014 ) . It was non every bit much their evil that made it incorrect for Jesus to eat with them, but their legal dirtiness ( Gal. 2: 12-3 ; Mk. 2: 16 ) .
The Pharisees and the Scribe, the great theologists of the Torah, were ferocious that Jesus being a Jew could fall so low to eat with the dirty people. Merely as Jonah was angry at God for placing with the Nenevites, so the Pharisees and the Scribes were angry at Jesus for placing with the tavern keepers and evildoers ( Jonah 4 ; Lk. 15: 2 ) . It is a admiration how the Scribes and the Pharisees detested the Gentiles so despicably when the Bible, which they expound, has shown that they were to be light to states ( Isa. 49: 6 ) . The full significance of “ light to the states, ” when interpreted in relation to Isaiah 60: 1-3 is that of missional evangelization among the states ( Okoye 2006, 143 ) . It was predicted that Israel will cite the states they know non, they will ask for states to take part in the worship of God ( Isa. 55: 5 ) . Why so did they fail in transporting out this assignment even when the states ( evildoers ) came to ( non they traveling ) to them to hear about their God ( v. 1 ) ? They must hold read and understood the Bibles merely messianically alternatively of missionally as good which made them centripetal in associating to gentiles. Wright is accurate when he asserts that the Bible should be read both messianically and missionally ( Wright 2006 ) . If the Pharisees and the Scribes had understood their missional function in God’s mission, their attitude to evildoers would hold been different. Anger and rejection would be replaced with credence and exultation as Jesus did. The bottom line is that they had no commitment to God whom they claim to belong to. This necessarily impaired their ability to prosecute in God’s mission.
The Jews’ ego righteousness is adequately portrayed in the attitude of the large brother in the fable of the lost boy ( vv. 27-32 ) . Merely as the large brother grumbled that the male parent had welcomed the extravagant boy, so the Pharisees and the Scribes grumbled that Jesus received evildoers. The son’s charge that he ne’er transgressed against his male parent reflects the really spirit of Pharisaism, a holier-than-thou spirit and holier than thou attitude. Though he claimed to be obedient to his male parent, but he was far off from him in spirit – no relationship. This appears to be attitude of the church to God’s mission. They participate in the hebdomadal activities of the church, fast for 40 yearss and darks as Jesus did, read and prophesy the Bible, gives all the regulations and ordinance of the church, but lacks relationship with God. This deficiency of relationship with God rubs off in their carelessness of their missional call.
Jesus’ allusion to the extravagant boy be givening the swine depicts the deepness of the ugly province of the tavern keepers and evildoers, which should actuate Jews to prosecute in mission. To a Jew, be givening the swine is the underside of debasement ( “ Luke 15 Commentary – The Fourfold Gospel” 2014 ) . Their hatred for hog is profound that they refuse to call them, yet it is God’s mission that such people be saved. The lesson here is that God yearns for evildoers no affair how evil and iniquitous they are. Many Christians have given up on some Muslims, particularly the extremists, because they consider them irreclaimable, but it is God’s missionary purpose and our missional call to make them. This mission can be accomplished when the church is loyal to God if non the church is wholly incapacitated to make because the bravery to witness and derive consequence depends to a great extent on devoted trueness to God.
The mode in which the adult female searched for her lost coin depicts the mode in which God expects us is to seek for the doomed. She lit a lamp, swept the house, and sought diligently until she found it ( v. 8 ) although it was merely one really little coin, God desires the redemption of evildoers no affair how debauched and unimportant that individual might be including kids. We must seek for them diligently, using every agency to make them. However, this can non be accomplished in the absence of commitment to God, when we are ethnocentric the opportunities of seeing the demand of others is slender. This is reflected in the attitude of the Jews though they claimed to be God’s cherished ownership and the seed of Abraham, yet they have no basic commitment to God or committed to their missional call. On the contrarily they were faltering block to the redemption of the pagan.
The joy of the shepherd, the adult female, and the male parent at the determination of their lost properties demonstrate God’s joy over the redemption of the doomed ( vv. 7, 10, 23-24 ) and he calls us to portion in this joy. The failure of the large brother to joy at the return of his brother demonstrates the Pharisees’ and the scribes’ failure to portion in Jesus’ joy over redemption of the doomed. This vividly shows their deficiency of commitment to God and his mission. This deficiency impaired their ability to both take part in this mission and rejoice for the redemption of the doomed.
Mention
Kaiser, Walter C. 2000. Mission in the Old Testament: Israel as a Light to the States . Grand Rapids, Mich: Baker Books.
“ Luke 15 Commentary – People’s New Testament.” 2014. BibleStudyTools. com . Accessed March 25. hypertext transfer protocol: //www. biblestudytools. com/commentaries/peoples-new-testament/luke/15. html.
“ Luke 15 Commentary – The Fourfold Gospel.” 2014. BibleStudyTools. com . Accessed March 25. hypertext transfer protocol: //www. biblestudytools. com/commentaries/the-fourfold-gospel/by-chapters/luke/luke-15. html.
“ Matthew 12 Commentary – People’s New Testament.” 2014. BibleStudyTools. com . Accessed March 26. hypertext transfer protocol: //www. biblestudytools. com/commentaries/peoples-new-testament/matthew/12. html.
Okoye, James Chukwuma. 2006. Israel and the States: A Mission Theology of the Old Testament . American Society of Missiology Series no. 39. Maryknoll, N. Y: Orbis Books.
“ Pulpit Commentary, Volume 17: John by H. D. M. Spence.” 2014. LibraryThing. com . Accessed April 2. hypertext transfer protocol: //www. librarything. com/work/6313848.
