Thought for the Day 10 7 13 Based on the Christadelphian Bible Reading Planner

Thought for the Day 8 7 13 Based on the Christadelphian Bible Reading Planner

‘FRESH WINESKINS’                                                                                                                                

    Those who do not read the Gospels regularly may be puzzled by many of the things Jesus said.  He often spoke in parables, simple stories, but they had deep spiritual meanings, a lesson for the ordinary folk “who heard him gladly” [Mark 12 v.37] but which the haughty religious leaders had no time for. Their religion was centred on observing the rituals they had developed out of the Laws of Moses, much of it went beyond the commands the Law contained. They failed to see the spirit of the Law – the need to come humbly before God, a lesson the last book of the Old Testament particularly teaches. (see Malachi 2 v.1-8; 3 v.16-18)

    We read today the words of Jesus that “No one puts a piece of unshrunk cloth on an old garment, for the patch tears away from the garment, and a worse tear is made.  Neither is new wine put into old wineskins.  If it is, the skins burst and the wine is spilled and the skins are destroyed.  But new wine is put into fresh wineskins and so both are preserved.” [Matt.9 v.16-17].

    This was a lesson for the disciples of John the Baptist as well as the scribes and Pharisees (v.3,14); the latter were critical that he ate with “tax collectors and sinners” (v.10) They were critical that the disciples of Jesus did not practice fasting like they did, indeed, as we read in Matt. 6 v.16,17 some, and he called these hypocrites, even disfigured their faces to exaggerate their fasting, they added to the Law to increase the times they could boast of their apparent spirituality.

    So what is the lesson of the “fresh wineskins”?  It would be tragic if his teaching was only seen as an extension of the ritual observances their human thinking had created; distorting the Laws God gave through Moses. .  True religion must flow out from a genuine spiritual “heart”. Much of the rest of the New Testament illustrates the endeavour of Christ and the Apostles to make this happen.  Yet in the centuries that followed the purity of the “new wine” has so often been diluted and polluted.  We must recapture the purity of the “new wine” if we are to be wondrously blessed in participating at the return of Jesus in “the marriage supper of the Lamb” [Rev.19 v.9] as we read last week..

Thought For The Day - 2nd May 2013 By The Christadelphian

“Preaching good news of peace”

(May 2)

Today we read of the perplexity of the Apostle Peter when he has a vision, while sleeping, of a great sheet lowered from heaven which contained a lot of animals that were unclean under the Law of Moses and therefore should not be killed for food. He is told to “kill and eat” and he refuses, but a voice says, “What God has made clean, do not call common” (Acts 10:13,15).

This happened three times and Peter is perplexed as the sheet is removed, but at that moment messengers arrive from the Roman Centurion Cornelius and ask Peter to come with them. He now perceives the meaning of the vision, he is to go and preach the message about Jesus to non-Jews. When he arrives he says to Cornelius, who has also gathered relatives and friends, that he now realises it is God’s will that “in every nation anyone who fears him and does what is right is acceptable to him. As for the word that he sent to Israel preaching good news of peace through Jesus Christ …” (verses 35,36).

Only the message of Jesus Christ is the message of peace; it alone offers peace of mind in a world of turmoil. Peace of mind because it creates a relationship with God as Paul told the Philippians, “the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus” (4:7).

Peter went on to say to his unexpected audience that Jesus “commanded us to preach to the people and to testify that he is the one appointed by God to be judge of the living and the dead” (verse 42). The time when he returns to judge by raising the dead who have accepted his name, or had faith in God as illustrated in the Old Testament, or heard him preaching, like the Pharisees did: this time cannot be too far in the future in this world of hopeless disarray – which significantly includes the unsolvable frictions among the nations surrounding and in the Holy Land about which there are many prophecies.

At that time, not only will there be peace of mind in the hearts of true believers, but peace will spread throughout all the earth. Our chapter concludes with Peter commanding “them to be baptised in the name of Jesus Christ” (verse 48). This command applies just as much today.

Thought For The Day - 1st May 2013 By The Christadelphian

“Why are you persecuting me?”

(May 1)

Most people have heard and read of the dramatic conversion of the Apostle Paul. Acts chapter 8 starts by telling us that Paul “approved of” the “execution” of Stephen and how he then “was ravaging the church, and entering house after house, he dragged off men and women and committed them to prison” (verses 1,3).

Chapter 9 starts by telling us that Saul (as he was then called) “still breathing threats and murder against the disciples of the Lord, went to the high priest and asked him for letters to the synagogues at Damascus” (verses 1,2). The account of what happened just before he arrived at Damascus is well known, even to those who do not read their Bibles regularly: “suddenly a light from heaven flashed around him. And falling to the ground he heard a voice saying to him, ‘Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting me?’ And he said, ‘Who are you Lord?’ And he said, ‘I am Jesus, whom you are persecuting’” (verses 3-5).

We must make sure we see the significance of how Jesus phrased his question, he did not say why are you persecuting those who believe in me, but “why are you persecuting ME?”. True believers are “in Christ” and he is in them! realise what that means! Paul told the Corinthians, “you are not your own, for you were bought with a price … your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit within you” (1 Corinthians 6:19,20). True believers represent Christ, just as Christ represented God (John 14:9-11).

Later this week we will read how Paul told the people of Athens “they should seek God … he is actually not far from each one of us, for ‘In him we live and move and have our being’” (17:27,28). In writing to the Hebrews, the point is made that “he has said, ‘I will never leave you or forsake you’” (13:5).

Christ was ‘in’ those Paul had been persecuting. Are we seeking God, have we established an intimate relationship with him? Paul in writing to the Romans challenged them as to what their lives should be like “if Christ is in you …” (8:10). Have we done what Paul did after he received back his sight? “Something like scales fell from his eyes and he regained his sight. Then he rose and was baptized. And immediately he proclaimed Jesus …” (verses 18,19).

“Time and chance happen to them all” Thought For The Day - 30th April 2013 By The Christadelphians

“Time and chance happen to them all”

(April 30)

In our Ecclesiastes reading today a verse occurs which has caused much discussion, “Again I saw that under the sun” writes Solomon, “the race is not to the swift, nor the battle to the strong, nor bread to the wise, nor riches to the intelligent, nor favour to those with knowledge, but time and chance happen to them all” (9:11).

The clue as to how it should be understood is at the start of the very next verse, “For man does not know his time”. This reminds us of the parable of Jesus about the wealthy man who built bigger barns and stored abundant crops and goods and said to himself, “Soul, you have ample goods laid up for many years, relax, eat, drink and be merry. But God said to him, ‘Fool! This night your soul is required of you … So is the one who lays up treasure for himself and is not rich toward God’” (Luke 12:19-21).

But those who are rich toward God, and serve Jesus as their Lord, do not necessarily think in terms of the accidents of time and chance. Paul said to the elders at Ephesus, “I do not account my life of any value nor precious to myself, if only I may finish my course and ministry that I received from the Lord Jesus Christ” (Acts 20:24). The time came when he wrote, “the time of my departure has come” (2 Timothy 4:7). His time had been in God’s hands.

Similarly in the Gospels it is recorded that John the Baptist said, “this joy of mine is now complete … I must decrease” (John 3:29,30). Those who are “working together with him” wrote Paul (2 Corinthians 6:1) know that their “time” is in his hands – not that of total chance.

What Solomon writes in Ecclesiastes should be understood as his perception of the Godlessness that sadly possesses the heart of most people: what he writes in verses 3 and 5 of today’s chapter is so true of today, “the hearts of the children of men are full of evil, and madness is in their hearts while they live, and after that they go to the dead … the dead know nothing, they have no more reward”. If we are “rich toward God” then our time is in his hands, so let us make sure we have committed our lives to him.

Thought For The Day - 26th April 2013 By The Christadelphians

Today's thought

“And in the last days it shall be …”

(April 26)

Today we read the familiar and oft quoted chapter 2 of Acts and pondered how to correctly understand and apply the quotation Peter made from the prophet Joel. The promise of Jesus to his disciples that they would receive a ‘Counsellor’, the Holy Spirit that would “be in you” (John 14:16,17) and would, among other things, “bring to your remembrance all that I have said to you” (verse 26) was given to the twelve that day of Pentecost when “they were all together in one place” (Acts 2:1).

The first effect of this was to enable them to speak in other languages (verse 11) and gain great attention and opportunity to witness. Peter stood up “with the eleven” (verse 14) and protested to those who mocked (verse 13) that “these men (obviously meaning the eleven) are not drunk” (verse 15) but this event was the fulfilment of “what was uttered by the prophet Joel: “And in the last days it shall be, God declares, that I will pour out my Spirit on all flesh …” (through to verse 21). It is evident that the disciples had a special dispensation of that Spirit, and had already received one portion of it (see John 20:22,23).

It seems obvious that only the opening part of the quotation was fulfilled on the day of Pentecost. These were “the last days” of the nation of Israel because they, as a nation, had rejected their Messiah. The rest of the prophecy Joel received, we conclude, applies to the last days of the Gentiles and that surely is our days! We read, “I will show wonders in the heavens above, and signs on the earth below, blood, and fire, and vapour of smoke; the sun shall be turned to darkness and the moon to blood, before the day of the Lord comes, the great and magnificent day” (verse 19,20).

An awesome time that we can parallel with God’s many messages through the Old Testament prophets, for e.g., Isaiah 2:12-21, Zephaniah 1:14-17, Malachi 4:1, etc. If they are not literal what do they symbolize? Surely they can only mean God intends a fearful time to come on human beings “in the last days” on a world that has become totally godless! But the verse that those seeking to be godly must note is the final verse (21) in Peter’s quotation. “And it shall come to pass that everyone who calls upon the name of the Lord shall be saved.”

But how can you call on the Creator if you have never established a relationship with him? Those who did so on the day of Pentecost, “devoted themselves to the Apostles teaching and fellowship, to the breaking of bread and prayers” (verse 42). May we follow their example