Sermon 28.04.2019
Focus Scriptures: Acts 5.27-32. Rev. 1.4-8. John 20.19-31.
This morning, all 3 readings come from the New Testament. The sequencing of our readings is also almost chronological. Acts was written about 67 AD., …some 34 years after the Ascension of Jesus. John the Apostle, wrote his Gospel around 86 AD., and some 6 years later, around 92AD., wrote The Revelation of Jesus Christ.
All readings look,‘to Jesus, the the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God.”
The two readings from John, are like spectra of light ricochetting awesome images of resurrected Christ, now glorified.
The Acts extract, testifies to the radical change that has taken place in Christ’s disciples since they scattered at His arrest.
From being a frightened, group scattering in panic from Gethsemane and hiding themselves, for fear of the Jews. ..To now Holy Spirit filled preachers courageously challenging the religious status quo. Bravely facing down the religious and political establishment…. that less than 2 months before had engineered execution of Jesus.
Now we have the Christ denying fisherman from the Galilee, the hot tempered, foul mouthed Peter…. forgiven and restored by Jesus… empowered by the Holy Spirit declaring in the face of the highly schooled administrators of Judaic Law.
”We must obey God rather than any human authority.
Life would test the truth-commitment of these apostolic witnesses to the resurrection of Jesus. Just like our fellow believers martyred last Sunday in Sri Lanka. Witnessing to the resurrexited Jesus, would also bring martyrdom to all the apostles with the exception of the beloved John who at 95 died simply of old age.
As I read our 3 readings I noticed that the number 3 was underlining many key their statements…not just once or twice ,but amazingly some 7 times. A tripartite structure occurs once in the Acts extract and 6 times in the extracts John. Important truths are being subtly underlined. More importantly can our regenerated spirit discern them and feed on their truths. ?
The number 3 in The Bible sympolises completeness, though to a lesser degree than 7. It occurs 467 times.
The 3 righteous patriarchs before the flood were Abel, Enoch and Noah. After the deluge there was the righteous “fathers” Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.
There are 27 books in the New Testament, which is 3 x 3 x 3, or completeness to the third power.
Jesus prayed three times in the Garden of Gethsemane before His arrest. He was placed on the cross at the 3rd hour of the day (9 a.m.) and died at the 9th hour (3 p.m.). There were 3 hours of darkness that covered the land while Jesus was suffering on the cross from the 6th hour to the 9th hour. Three is the number of resurrection. Christ was in the tomb 3 days.
Example
The God of our ancestors 1.raised up Jesus, whom you had killed by hanging him on a tree. God 2.exalted him at his right hand as Leader and Saviour that he might 3.give repentance to Israel and forgiveness of sins. We are witnesses to these things…”
Look at our brief passage from John’s Book of Revelation;(singular)
John to the seven churches that are in Asia: Grace to you and peace from him 1.who is and 2.who was and 3.who is to come,
and….from Jesus Christ, the 1.faithful witness, 2.the firstborn of the dead, and the 3.ruler of the kings of the earth.
To him who1. loves us and 2.freed us from our sins by his blood, and 3.made us to be a kingdom, priests serving his God and Father…”
Look!
He is coming with the clouds; 1.every
eye will see him, 2.even
those who pierced him; and 3.on
his account all the tribes of the earth will wail…
“I
am the Alpha and the Omega,” says the Lord God,
1..who is and 2.who was and 3.who is to
come,…”
These are the opening verses of the most puzzling of biblical books. A scene is being set; the great panoramic vista of the Divine Vison being communicated to John, This revelation seeks to translate itself for human understanding and communicate itself through words that can scarcely contain its intended message.
Early Christians believed that Jesus of Nazareth had become, in person, the place where heaven and earth met. Looking at him, and contemplating his life, death and resurrection gave insight into God’s world.
With deftly executed brushstrokes…4 verses… John sketches the terrain.
The opening invokes grace upon us….not the condemnation of ‘the law”…though Jehovah… I Am that I Am, of Sinai resonate in the tripartite phrase; ”from Him 1.who is and 2.who was and 3.who is to come”.
We are in the holy environs of the Cosmic Jesus Christ…faithful witness to the Father, Son of God, Defeater of Death, Firstborn from the dead, Liberator from sin, Pan-Creator of a New Kingdom, a New People, a New Nation of priests serving the Father. Jeshua Ha Mesiach, High King and Warrior, the ruler of the kings of all the earth and the created universe.
The Gospel extract 3 time reiterated the blessing ” Peace be to you”. This ‘peace’ is not the mere absence of war.. The Hebrew ‘Shalom’ is poorly translated with the English word ‘peace’. ‘Shalom’ is a living sacred word. It embraces all that makes life abundant, meaningful and worthwhile.eg…
To conclude I’d like to draw your attention to the closing verse of John’s gospel. It provides us with the crucial key for approaching the Sacred Scriptures.
But these are written so that you may come to believe that
1.Jesus
is the Messiah, 2.the
Son of God, and that through believing 3.you
may have life in his name.
In fact that tripartite phrase perfectly sums up the prophetic purpose of The Holy Writ….our library of Revealing Books that tell us in no uncertain term…that in the end…it’s God who wins.
”these are written so that you may come to believe that
1.Jesus is the Messiah, 2.the Son of God, and that through believing 3.you may have life in his name.”