The Messiah’s Secret – A Stone Rolled Away
Evening Lectionary Matthew 28: 1-10, 16-20. Zephaniah 3: 14-end. Revised Standard Bible. Picture – A typical tomb with a huge stone to cover the entrance.
Evening Lectionary Matthew 28: 1-10, 16-20. Zephaniah 3: 14-end. Revised Standard Bible. Picture – A typical tomb with a huge stone to cover the entrance.
Seeking Jesus.
Matthew wrote that the women wanted to see the sepulchre, they were grieving and probably wanted to be near Jesus. When Mary Magdalene and Mary arrived at that tomb, an earthquake occurred and at the same time an angel rolled the stone away from the entrance to the tomb. Matthew 28: 1-10, 16-20
Stony Hearts.
We can have a stone covering our heart, until it is removed by the operation of God. John Wesley heard a reading of Martin Luther’s preface to the Epistle to the Romans, and penned the now famous lines “I felt my heart strangely warmed”. His heart of stone had become a heart of flesh. John Wesley had made the connection were his head knowledge became heart knowledge. His heart, his soul transformed by the operation of God. Luther taught that salvation is not earned by good deeds but received only as a free gift of God’s grace through faith in Jesus Christ as redeemer from sin.
Paul made the connection with Ezekiel’s prophecy in his letter to the Corinthians and his own experience, “And I will give them one heart and put a new spirit within them; I will take the stony heart out of their flesh and give them a heart of flesh.” Ezekiel 11: 17-20. How he must have rejoiced in realizing that this prophecy was being fulfilled when he wrote to the Corinthian church.
“Are we beginning to commend ourselves again? Or do we need, as some do, letters of recommendation to you, or from you? You yourselves are our letter of recommendation, written on your hearts, to be known and read by all men; and you show that you are a letter from Christ delivered by us, written not with ink but with the Spirit of the living God, not on tablets of stone but on tablets of human hearts.
2 Corinthians 3: 1-3.
The letter contains the life in the Holy Spirit taught by Paul and each Christian evangelizing the personal knowledge of the resurrection in Christ.
Paul knew that Ezekiel’s word was referring to a person coming out from under the law to being under grace. From being motivated by doing things by a set of rules, to the rules becoming part of us, the law written in the heart. The law encourages us to be self righteous by looking to ourselves to fulfill God’s laws, but we fail we can’t keep the law, the system breaks down and we are convicted of our sin by our conscious bearing witness of our creator’s laws.
Smith Wigglesworth in his book “Ever Increasing Faith” wrote, “There is a great difference between a pump and a spring. The law is the pump, the Baptism is the spring. The old pump gets out of order, the parts perish, and the well runs dry. But the spring is ever bubbling up and there is a ceaseless flow direct from the throne of God. There is life.”
The cross is where Jesus changed us from working like a pump unable to keep God’s law, to being able to keep God’s law through the nature of God being at the centre of our being.
God’s love for us payed the cost, the price for our sin in Jesus’ death, and changed us from being under law to being under grace in his resurrection. The new order of life in Jesus’ resurrection; we are constantly being filled with the spring of eternal living water straight from God’s throne.
God’s love for us payed the cost, the price for our sin in Jesus’ death, and changed us from being under law to being under grace in his resurrection. The new order of life in Jesus’ resurrection; we are constantly being filled with the spring of eternal living water straight from God’s throne.
Jesus’ Baptism of the Holy Spirit pointed to in the Hebrew Scriptures.
“Then Moses led Israel onwards from the Red Sea, and they went into the wilderness of Shur; they went three days in the wilderness and found no water. When they came to Marah, they could not drink the water of Marah, because it was bitter; therefore it was named Marah. And the people murmured against Moses, saying, “What shall we drink?” And he cried to the Lord; and the Lord showed him a tree, and he threw it into the water, and the water became sweet.” Exodus 15: 22-25. Baptism
The desert with its desolation of life it is like having a knowledge of God but not knowing him. The dryness that seeks to quench its thirst is like a person that is seeking Jesus.
The bitter water represents the sin that weighs us down, like a stone.
The bitter water represents the sin that weighs us down, like a stone.
The tree represents the cross were Jesus’ death on the cross pardons us from all our sin against God.
The sweet water representing forgiveness and the receiving of the Holy Spirit.
From having a distant coldness between ourselves and God, to having a loving heart for God, with his nature, his way of doing things in our hearts. The Lord’s concerns being ours, we will to do the will of God.
The new life in the Spirit that Paul taught and from the Holy Spirit’s indwelling presence, we love to do the things that are right, pure and holy and we shudder at the things that are wrong. The devil will tempt us and we may fall, but he that is in us is greater. In falling we learn how to stand against the principalities and powers.
The new life in the Spirit that Paul taught and from the Holy Spirit’s indwelling presence, we love to do the things that are right, pure and holy and we shudder at the things that are wrong. The devil will tempt us and we may fall, but he that is in us is greater. In falling we learn how to stand against the principalities and powers.
Faith and Grace in receiving the Good News about Jesus.
The angel was a messenger of good news telling the women that Jesus was risen from the dead. And he asked the women to tell the disciples “Go and tell the disciples that Jesus will meet them at Galilee.”
The angel was a messenger of good news telling the women that Jesus was risen from the dead. And he asked the women to tell the disciples “Go and tell the disciples that Jesus will meet them at Galilee.”
The women became the messengers
The disciples went to Galilee to the mountain where he had directed them. When they saw him they worshiped him, but some doubted.
Today we are messengers of the Good News, God can change the hearts of the doubters.
Moody’s Stories.
“On his visit to Scotland Moody met a man who wanted the people who he employed to be reached with the Gospel, so he invited them to go and listen to Moody. One of his employees who he invited declined, as he did not like what he had heard about Rev Moody.
Moody wrote: “Several times this man was asked by his employer but every time he refused, until after we left town and went away up to Inverness, the employer had some business up there, and he sent this employee to attend to it, in the hope that he would attend some of our meetings. One night I was preaching on the bank of a river, I happened to take for my text the words of Naaman, I was trying to show the difference between men’s thoughts and God’s thoughts.
This man happened to be walking along the bank of the river he saw a great crowd, and heard someone talking, and he wondered to himself what the man was talking about. He did not know who was there, so he drew up to the crowd, and listened. He heard the sermon, and became convicted and converted right there. Then he inquired who was the preacher, and he found out it was the very man, that he said he would not hear – the man he disliked. The very man he had been talking against was the very man God used to convert him.”
Moody was trying to show through the true story about Naaman the difference between men’s thoughts and God’s thoughts. God used someone who was his enemy to be the means of his healing of his leprosy.
Israel under Assyrian occupation were enemies of Syria. ( Syria had recently rebelled against Assyrian rule and had gained their independence.) Naaman the Syrian Commander had captured an Israeli girl on one of his raids into Israel, and she became his servant and was one of the messengers to Naaman, from her he heard of great healing taking place at the hands of Elisha. 2 Kings 5: 1-16.
God acted on Naaman’s faith and by grace he would be healed through the prophet Elisha’s ministry to him.
In faith Naaman sought permission from his King to make contact with Elisha. The Syrian King could have pointed out that they were enemies with Israel, but that stone was removed by grace.
The King sent Naaman bearing great gifts of gold, silver and festal garments along with a letter to the King of Israel asking him to heal Naaman of his leprosy. Even though the King of Israel was affronted by this request, by grace Elisha hearing about it, stepped in, convincing his King that it would be good to let the Syrians know that there was a prophet in Israel.
In faith Naaman went to Elisha’s home he expected to speak directly to him, but instead Elisha sent his servant to him with a message. (another messenger to Naaman.) He was instructed to go and bathe in the river Jordan seven times and his flesh would be made clean. Naaman was angry and at first and refused to do as Elisha suggested. However, he relented persuaded by a servant and he went down to the Jordan and dipped seven times. To his amazement he was healed. Naaman offered a gift to Elisha but he refused to accept it. By grace Naaman was blessed by his enemy, who wanted nothing in return.
I knew a man who had a wonderful Jesus -like gift of healing, I thought of him as a walking Bible, he used to say often to me,“The power’s in the Word Dorothy.” I used to ring him up when I wasn’t well and he would pray for me over the phone and it always worked, as I had faith in his ministry, just like the girl who told Naaman about Elisha.
Mr Oldham died in the late 1990’s, then I had to look to the cross for my healing as I didn’t know anyone with the gift of healing. I take the words that Matthew recorded from Isaiah 53, “He took our infirmitives and bore our diseases”and also he bore the sin of humanity that nailed him to the cross and more importantly Jesus winning the victory over them by God raising him up from the dead. By my faith I expect, my healing through the operation of the Holy Spirit working with the Word, as God my Father loves me and wants to restores my well being.
Today we are messengers of the Good News, God can change the hearts of the doubters.
Moody’s Stories.
“On his visit to Scotland Moody met a man who wanted the people who he employed to be reached with the Gospel, so he invited them to go and listen to Moody. One of his employees who he invited declined, as he did not like what he had heard about Rev Moody.
Moody wrote: “Several times this man was asked by his employer but every time he refused, until after we left town and went away up to Inverness, the employer had some business up there, and he sent this employee to attend to it, in the hope that he would attend some of our meetings. One night I was preaching on the bank of a river, I happened to take for my text the words of Naaman, I was trying to show the difference between men’s thoughts and God’s thoughts.
This man happened to be walking along the bank of the river he saw a great crowd, and heard someone talking, and he wondered to himself what the man was talking about. He did not know who was there, so he drew up to the crowd, and listened. He heard the sermon, and became convicted and converted right there. Then he inquired who was the preacher, and he found out it was the very man, that he said he would not hear – the man he disliked. The very man he had been talking against was the very man God used to convert him.”
Moody was trying to show through the true story about Naaman the difference between men’s thoughts and God’s thoughts. God used someone who was his enemy to be the means of his healing of his leprosy.
Israel under Assyrian occupation were enemies of Syria. ( Syria had recently rebelled against Assyrian rule and had gained their independence.) Naaman the Syrian Commander had captured an Israeli girl on one of his raids into Israel, and she became his servant and was one of the messengers to Naaman, from her he heard of great healing taking place at the hands of Elisha. 2 Kings 5: 1-16.
God acted on Naaman’s faith and by grace he would be healed through the prophet Elisha’s ministry to him.
In faith Naaman sought permission from his King to make contact with Elisha. The Syrian King could have pointed out that they were enemies with Israel, but that stone was removed by grace.
The King sent Naaman bearing great gifts of gold, silver and festal garments along with a letter to the King of Israel asking him to heal Naaman of his leprosy. Even though the King of Israel was affronted by this request, by grace Elisha hearing about it, stepped in, convincing his King that it would be good to let the Syrians know that there was a prophet in Israel.
In faith Naaman went to Elisha’s home he expected to speak directly to him, but instead Elisha sent his servant to him with a message. (another messenger to Naaman.) He was instructed to go and bathe in the river Jordan seven times and his flesh would be made clean. Naaman was angry and at first and refused to do as Elisha suggested. However, he relented persuaded by a servant and he went down to the Jordan and dipped seven times. To his amazement he was healed. Naaman offered a gift to Elisha but he refused to accept it. By grace Naaman was blessed by his enemy, who wanted nothing in return.
I knew a man who had a wonderful Jesus -like gift of healing, I thought of him as a walking Bible, he used to say often to me,“The power’s in the Word Dorothy.” I used to ring him up when I wasn’t well and he would pray for me over the phone and it always worked, as I had faith in his ministry, just like the girl who told Naaman about Elisha.
Mr Oldham died in the late 1990’s, then I had to look to the cross for my healing as I didn’t know anyone with the gift of healing. I take the words that Matthew recorded from Isaiah 53, “He took our infirmitives and bore our diseases”and also he bore the sin of humanity that nailed him to the cross and more importantly Jesus winning the victory over them by God raising him up from the dead. By my faith I expect, my healing through the operation of the Holy Spirit working with the Word, as God my Father loves me and wants to restores my well being.
A month ago at our evening Communion service I brought a problem that I had to the Lord. I waited until the receiving of the tokens, the bread and the wine I visualized Jesus bearing my problem on the cross and as I handed it over I thanked the Lord for my healing through the victory in Jesus’ resurrection and it worked problem resolved.Matthew 8: 17
This reminds us of Zephaniah’s prophecy. Zephaniah 3: 14 end
“The King of Israel, the Lord, is in your midst, a warrior who gives victory; he will rejoice over you in gladness, he will renew you in his love. . . . “At that time I will bring you home, at that time I will gather you together; yea, I will make you renowned and praised among all the peoples of the earth, when I restore your fortunes before your eyes,” says the Lord.”
Zephaniah prophesied that God would gather together the Jews under the King, the Messiah. Their king having such love for them. It was expressed in his ministry, in being mighty to save.
At the time of Jesus Jews from every nation where dwelling in Jerusalem. Those who came to faith and joined the community in Jerusalem, after the dispersion of the Christians Peter wrote to the exiled Jews of the Dispersion in Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia and Bithynia, encouraging them in their suffering as they looked forward to Jesus’ return.
Acts 2: 5, 8-10. 8:1. 1 Peter 1 :1. Zephaniah 3: 14-end.
“Go therefore and make disciples of all nations.”
Zephaniah had prophesied that their King would be praised among the nations. For the last 2,000 years the message of the good news about Jesus has been received among the Gentile nations. Every generation witnessing to the resurrection of Jesus. He is risen indeed.