Sermon Notes

The Yeshua in Context Podcast

Wed, 8 Jul 2009 20:51:41 -0400

You can hear short talks about Yeshua here at the Yeshua in Context Podcast.

Learning in Moshe's Shop

Sat, 20 Dec 2008 16:53:59 -0500

Every year we visit a little shop near the Cardo in Jerusalem.
Moshe, the owner, is an Orthodox Jew, yet friendly to Christians and MJ’s.

Every year Moshe gives a speech.
He gives us a delightful interpretation of prophecies and Israel and people.

Moshe says he sees Zephaniah 3:9 coming true now:
For then I will change the peoples,
so that they will have pure lips,
to call on the name of ADONAI, all of them, and serve him with one accord.

Moshe says, Since the tower of Babel we have been speaking different languages, both physically and spiritually. . . HaShem is bringing us closer to speaking one language.

Why does he say this?
He says it because group after group of Christians are coming into his shop and seeing things the same way Moshe does, as an Orthodox Jew.
Christians and some Jews are seeing prophecy in the same way.

Moshe told a story…
...standing in Poland where the Soviets made a big memorial…
...gathered the ashes and bones from Auschwitz in a large mound…
...Someone told Moshe, “These are the bones that will live, the bones Ezekiel spoke of.”

The bones are from WWII, the Shoah, the Holocaust.
The prophecy is Ezekiel 37:
The hand of the LORD was upon me, and he brought me out by the Spirit of the LORD, and set me down in the midst of the valley; it was full of bones. 2 And he led me round among them; and behold, there were very many upon the valley; and lo, they were very dry. 3 And he said to me, “Son of man, can these bones live?” And I answered, “O Lord GOD, thou knowest.” 4 Again he said to me, “Prophesy to these bones, and say to them, O dry bones, hear the word of the LORD. 5 Thus says the Lord GOD to these bones: Behold, I will cause breath to enter you, and you shall live. 6 And I will lay sinews upon you, and will cause flesh to come upon you, and cover you with skin, and put breath in you, and you shall live; and you shall know that I am the LORD.”

When Moshe told that story, it opened my eyes.
I usually think of Ezekiel 37 as mostly being future.
Israel is not yet fully alive.
Most do not love God.
So I have discounted the miracle that has already come true.

The bones were laid in crematoria all over Eastern Europe.
And God raised from the bones a nation.

This is evident when you go through Yad VaShem...the Holocaust Memorial.
You walk through the sad displays.
At the end you walk out into the light overlooking a great valley.
On the mountains across the valley are the new neighborhoods of Jerusalem.

And in the 1990’s another thing happened. Hundreds of thousands of Jews came into Israel.

Moshe reminded us that Jeremiah said:
Therefore,’ says ADONAI, ‘the day will come when people will no longer swear, “As ADONAI lives, who brought the people of Isra’el out of the land of Egypt,” 15 but, “As ADONAI lives, who brought the people of Isra’el out of the land to the north and out of all the countries where he drove them”; for I will bring them back to their own land, which I gave to their ancestors.

These Jews in the 1990’s came out of the former Soviet Union.
And Moscow is due north of Jerusalem.

And as we walked through the old city of Jerusalem we saw children, Jewish and Arab, playing in the streets.
We saw little Jewish kids, some as young as 4 or 5, running around with little kippahs.
Some in our group said, How can parents let such little children run around unattended in a city like this?

And Moshe reminded us what Zechariah said:
ADONAI-Tzva’ot says, ‘Old men and old women will once again sit in the open places of Yerushalayim, each one with his cane in his hand, because of their great age. 5 The city’s open places will also be full of boys and girls playing there.’

And Moshe sees Christians from all over.
They come to his shop from the U.S. and from Europe.

A Swedish pastor visited Israel and got a new perspective.
He said, “I was dumbfounded and overwhelmed when I finally understood and realized that the Zion that God spoke of was not Christendom or heaven, but was indeed Zion and that his people Israel were really the Jewish people.”

Moshe is seeing Christians catch a vision for Israel’s renewal and restoration.
And this is not like the Crusades.
This is not Christians wanting to build churches and make the Jews quit being Jews.
This is Christians excited about seeing Jewish renewal.

Of course, the Christians hope this will all lead to Jews knowing Jesus.
And Moshe cannot go there.

But still, it is like the Tower of Babel is reversing.
And it is encouraging.

I learned from Moshe’s shop to be encouraged anew about all of this.

And both Moshe and I see a great future ahead.
Moshe doesn’t know it yet, but the true son of Israel who is coming has already been here.
He is Yeshua.

And all the children dancing in the street in Jerusalem now, maybe they are the ones Yeshua talked about.
Maybe they are the generation that will say, Blessed is He who comes.

I saw that standing on the Mount of Olives.
The Catholics built a church on a certain spot there.
The dome of the church is shaped like a tear.
I never knew why until this year.
It is because it commemorates the place where Yeshua said something very important:
Luke 19
As he was now drawing near, at the descent of the Mount of Olives, the whole multitude of the disciples began to rejoice and praise God with a loud voice for all the mighty works that they had seen, 38 saying, “Blessed is the King who comes in the name of the Lord! Peace in heaven and glory in the highest!” 39 And some of the Pharisees in the multitude said to him, “Teacher, rebuke your disciples.” 40 He answered, “I tell you, if these were silent, the very stones would cry out.”
Luke 19:41
And when he drew near and saw the city he wept over it, 42 saying, “Would that even today you knew the things that make for peace! But now they are hid from your eyes. 43 For the days shall come upon you, when your enemies will cast up a bank about you and surround you, and hem you in on every side, 44 and dash you to the ground, you and your children within you, and they will not leave one stone upon another in you; because you did not know the time of your visitation.”

We are drawing nearer to speaking one language.
But I believe with all my heart, Yeshua is the key.
And a day is coming when all Israel will be saved.

I rejoice with Moshe, I am almost certain he will realize it too.
There is a giant tear still today on the Mount of Olives.
It is Yeshua’s tear.
And it must be ours as well until that day comes.

The Thanksgiving Benediction

Sat, 31 May 2008 16:38:46 -0400

Birkat Hoda’ah
Derek Leman

Psalm 92 says, “It is good to give thanks to ADONAI and sing praises to your name.”
It is good to GIVE THANKS,
טוֹב לְהוֹדוֹת

How seriously do we take the call to thank God? What things do we regularly enjoy without thanking him? As I wrote this message I was sitting in a Borders Cafe enjoying English Breakfast tea with cream and sugar. I realized I had not bothered to thank God.

I thought of all the things I regularly enjoy and rarely thank God for.
• A beautiful landscape.
• A cool, sunny day.
• Lamb ribs grilled on a Big Green Egg.
• The smile on my daughter’s face.
• A hug from my wife.
• A check that comes in the mail.
• A verse of scripture.

Did you know that one of the rabbis in the Talmud said the truly righteous will utter at least 100 blessings of thanksgiving a day?

Did you know another famous rabbi described pagans this way: they do not glorify him as God or thank him.

This same rabbi said to some people he loved: I thank my God always for you.

He summed up his whole philosophy of thanksgiving this way: In everything give thanks, for this is what God wants from you who are united with the Messiah Yeshua.

Did you recognize the rabbi?
It is Paul of Tarsus, the apostle Paul.

Thanksgiving is not just for the holiday called by that name.
Thanksgiving is not a waste of time.
Thanksgiving is not a minor commandment.

Thanksgiving is a rather simple, accessible, easy way to worship God throughout the day.
Thanksgiving is a MITZVAH even for busy people.
Thanksgiving may be the SPIRITUAL PRACTICE that you need to add MOST to your life.
.............

We’ve been in a series, with interruptions, for some time now in the central prayer of Judaism, the Amidah.
This week we are taking a look at the 18th benediction:
the Birkat Hoda’ah
The Blessing of Thanksgiving.

We give thanks unto you, Lord our God and God of our fathers for all eternity.
You are the Strength of our lives, the Shield of our deliverance.
In every generation, we will thank you and declare your praise,
for our lives which are entrusted to your hand,
for our souls that are in your care,
for your miracles that are daily with us,
and for your wondrous deeds and goodness that occur at all times, evening, morning, and noon.
You are the Benevolent One, for your mercies never cease.
You are the Compassionate One, for your deeds of kindness do not stop.
Always we have placed our hope in you.
For all this, Our King, may your name be blessed and exalted forever and ever.
All the living will forever thank you and praise your name in truth, O God, our eternal salvation and help.
Blessed are you, Lord, whose name is goodness; it is pleasing to give thanks to you.

One of the first things this blessing thanks God for is strength.

I used to have a problem with thanking God for strength.
My reason is that I know those who do not believe in God have strength and weakness ...
... and also those who do believe in God have strength and weakness.

I thought, “I have not seen greater strength among God’s followers than among those who do not follow him.”
I thought, “God does not give extra strength to his followers.”

And except for certain miraculous situations, I believe this is true.

But any human being who endures hardship can thank God for strength.
All ability comes from God.
When you get through a hard time, an illness, a loss, or whatever, you can thank God for strength.
There is no strength that does not come from him.
He made us well, he made us strong, he made us to be able to endure the hardships of this broken world.
Thank you, God, for strength.

This wonderful prayer says that God is the Shield of our deliverance.
It is not always his will to deliver us.
Sometimes we do experience what we fear.
But God is our deliverer and when we are delivered how can we not thank him?
And even if we are not delivered in a particular circumstance, will he not deliver us into the World to Come?
Thank you God, our Shield of deliverance.

This prayer says that our LIVES & SOULS are entrusted into God’s care.
Do we really believe that?

Do we understand how precarious our standing in life really is?
Do we believe that the THREAD that holds us over the fire can snap in a second?

One day you may be enjoying the finest of life and the next a paramedic may be driving an eight inch needle into your chest to save your life.
One day you may enjoy time with a loved one and the next he or she may be gone.
I don’t want to depress you, but do you realize how much you depend on God?

And when nothing bad happens, do you thank him?
Is there a blessing for a day free of troubles?

Miracles.
Sometimes I have a problem with the way people use the word miracle.
There are ordinary miracles and outstanding miracles.
Sometimes people will call something a miracle and I will shudder.
I’d rather the word be saved for big things like the PARTING OF THE RED SEA or the RESURRECTION OF YESHUA.

But I believe in ordinary miracles too.
This prayer blesses God for them.
The birth of a child is a miracle, perhaps the greatest of the ordinary miracles.
It is natural, we say.
There is nothing miraculous about it.
Oh really, can you do it without God?

Life is a miracle.
Surviving is a miracle.
Thinking is a miracle.
Love is a miracle.

Yes, they are ordinary miracles.
They are not as OUTSTANDING as a blind person being healed.
They are not as TOUCHING as a dead girl being returned to life at the Master’s touch.

But shouldn’t we thank God for ordinary miracles too?
......................

The rabbis have a wonderful teaching about thanksgiving.
They have a way of explaining thanksgiving that helps me understand why this is no minor commandment.

One of the first steps in understanding thanksgiving is Genesis 1:31
God saw everything that he had made, and indeed it was very good. So there was evening, and there was morning, a sixth day.

Why is this so important?
Some people, under the influence of Greek philosophy or similar ideas, think the spiritual is good and the physical is bad.
The Bible does not call pleasure bad.
The Bible enjoins you to enjoy food and drink and sex.
It is not that there are two realms, the spiritual and the physical, which are separate.
They are together.

The next thing to understand is that the whole world is God’s temple.
Exodus 40:34
Then the cloud covered the tent of meeting, and the glory of ADONAI filled the tabernacle.

Psalm 72:19
May His glorious name be praised forever;
the whole earth is filled with His glory.

What is the place that is filled with his glory?
It is the temple and yet it is the whole earth.
Thus, the whole earth is God’s temple.

The final piece of the puzzle is from God’s regulations for the temple.
Leviticus 5:15
If anyone acts improperly and inadvertently sins in regard to the holy things of ADONAI, he is to bring as his guilt offering...

We are forbidden to mistreat the holy things of God.
But the whole world is God’s temple.
Thus, everything we enjoy is, in a sense, a holy thing of God.

What can we do not to violate them?
What can we do to enjoy them appropriately?

The rabbis say that blessings of thanksgiving are our appropriate response.
When we thank God, we offer him a sacrifice.
We REDEEM God’s holy things so they can be enjoyed without profaning them.
We ACKNOWLEDGE God’s ownership.
We EXPAND the precincts of God’s temple.

Thanking God often throughout the day for the many blessings we enjoy is temple worship.
Now, in addition to the thanksgiving prayer in the Amidah, there are blessings in Judaism to recite over God’s good things.

All of the blessings begin the same way:
Blessed are you, O Lord, Ruler of the World, who . . .

I read a useful and memorable explanation of the traditional Hebrew blessing in a paper by Reuven Kimelman called “The Rabbinic Theology of the Physical,” in the Cambridge History of Judaism.

He explained that each Hebrew blessing has three parts:
1. Blessed are you
2. O Lord our God
3. Ruler of the World

These three parts help us find our place in God’s world.

Blessed are you -- puts our SELF in relation to God.
O Lord our God -- puts us in the context of COMMUNITY.
Ruler of the World -- puts us in the context of HUMANITY.

When we say, “Blessed are you,” we become aware of ourselves and God in relationship.

When we say, O Lord OUR God,” we remember that God is for the whole community of his followers.

When we say, “Ruler of the World,” we remember that all humanity belongs to God, even those who do not follow him.

And so 100 times a day we can thank and bless God.

When we see lighting the traditional blessing is:
Blessed are you, O Lord our God, Ruler of the World, who makes the work of creation.

When we hear thunder:
Blessed are you, O Lord our God, Ruler of the World, for his strength and power fill the universe.

When we see the might ocean:
Blessed are you, O Lord our God, Ruler of the World, who made the great sea.

When we eat bread:
Blessed are you, O Lord our God, Ruler of the World, who brings forth bread from the earth.
......................

I’m glad that this sermon series forced me to study this prayer from the Amidah.
I’m glad it forced me to think about Thanksgiving.
I don’t know about you, but I know I have been far too sporadic in my thanksgiving.
I know I have waited for really unusual things before I would thank God.
I almost needed to see angel’s wings and hear the voice of the Almighty before I would acknowledge that God had done something.

I was blind to the divine power and goodness all around me.
Oh sure, I saw it in some ways, especially as a foretaste of the World to Come.
But practicing the MITZVAH of thanksgiving will increase my sense of the Divine.
I will be more aware of God and his goodness all around me.

And the MITZVAH of thanksgiving is not difficult.
This is not the spirituality of the mystic or the hallowed saint.
This is the spirituality of the ordinary person--you or me.

And I needed to hear that the whole world is God’s temple.
It is wrong for me to appropriate God’s holy things without sanctifying them.
Blessing God is sanctifying the ordinary and seeing in it the holy.

So I will say many more Blessed are you’s than before.

And I have an increased appreciation for the full prayer of thanksgiving from the Amidah.

Will you pray it again with me?

We give thanks unto you, Lord our God and God of our fathers for all eternity.
You are the Strength of our lives, the Shield of our deliverance.
In every generation, we will thank you and declare your praise,
for our lives which are entrusted to your hand,
for our souls that are in your care,
for your miracles that are daily with us,
and for your wondrous deeds and goodness that occur at all times, evening, morning, and noon.
You are the Benevolent One, for your mercies never cease.
You are the Compassionate One, for your deeds of kindness do not stop.
Always we have placed our hope in you.
For all this, Our King, may your name be blessed and exalted forever and ever.
All the living will forever thank you and praise your name in truth, O God, our eternal salvation and help.
Blessed are you, Lord, whose name is goodness; it is pleasing to give thanks to you.

Why the New Covenant is Great

Fri, 16 May 2008 20:58:37 -0400

When you read a lot of blogs and especially if you follow threads of comments on blogs, you have to resist getting caught up in a lot of arguments. And in certain types of blogs you will find a lot of people with an axe to grind against Christianity. Really they have a problem with the particular experiences they have had in churches and Christian groups.

Just this week, I found that a friend had quoted me at length on their blog and opened it up for comments. I don’t take comments on my blog anymore, and for good reason. But I thought it would be interesting to see what comments this quote from my blog would draw.

The first woman who quoted wrote a thoughtful piece. She supported both Christianity and Israel and had some good questions about how the two relate. At the end she asked about certain scriptures which make it seem as thought Torah is obsolete.

Then came the really disturbing comment, by a man who wanted to answer her question. He advised her to question everything she had ever been taught and to read the New Testament from scratch with an eye for Jewish issues.

So far so good.

But then he said, that by the time you get to the end of the NT you will realize something.
The only person who doesn’t fit in with the theology of the rest of the NT is . . . Paul.

That is, the NT reads just fine on Jewish issues if you are just willing to take Paul out of it.

I’ve seen before that some people feel the best thing is to get rid of Paul. I see people who feel they owe an allegiance to the Israel/Jewish/Torah side of the Bible and they struggle with how to accurately interpret the grace/universal/in Christ side of the Bible.

Many people fail to see that the two are in perfect harmony. There has been so much bad teaching on all sides and in all denominations over the centuries, it’s no wonder people can get confused.

But I have believed something since the early days when I started following Yeshua and I have found it to be true ever since. When read properly, the Bible will be internally consistent.

It really shouldn’t be hard to believe that. God’s chain of revelation went, essentially, from Abraham to Moses. There should be no disagreement between Abraham and Moses.

Then from Moses God passed the chain of revelation on the Sages and Prophets. They based their work on Moses. So we should be surprised if we were to find contradictions and problems.

Then Yeshua came as a man of the Bible. He quoted it to Satan, to enemies, and to disciples.
He sought the deeper meaning of it. He taught the true message of Moses and the prophets and psalms.

And so the disciples who taught in his name carried on the tradition. They did not intend to overturn Moses, the prophets, and Yeshua. They intended to uphold these and apply them to their readers in their new situation.

So why should we worry at all that the Bible is internally inconsistent? It ought to be a collection that agrees internally, building its ideas in a progression from beginning to end. And it is.

You don’t have to abandon the centrality of Israel to believe in grace or be skeptical about the Paul’s understanding of grace to believe in Israel and Torah.
.....................

I was thinking about all of these things when I came to my topic for today...the New Covenant.

Handled improperly the New Covenant can be a tool for misunderstanding, a bludgeon used against Judaism and against Torah.

But the New Covenant is something beautiful. Rather than bringing all the previous promises of God to an end, which is sadly what many think, the New Covenant sums them all up and adds to them. The New Covenant is the highest form of all the promises of God.

Hebrews 8:6:
But Yeshua has now obtained a superior ministry, and to that degree He is the mediator of a better covenant, which has been legally enacted on better promises.

What does this verse mean? Does the work of Yeshua bring all that came before to an end? Did God start all over with Yeshua? Were all the promises to Abraham, Moses, and Israel null and void?

Of course not, though many read verses like Hebrews 8:6 that way. The truth is, and I mean this, most people don’t even know what the New Covenant is.

For starters, the New Covenant is not another way of referring to the New Testament. They are different things. The New Testament is a collection of writings, the writings of the apostles. But the New Covenant is something much bigger.

WHAT’S SO GREAT ABOUT THE NEW COVENANT?

To really explain to you what is so great about the New Covenant, I need to start by explaining it from the human point of view.

Consider what Abraham learned about God. One day, he believed like everyone else in the unpredictable, immature deities of Mesopotamia. Then he heard a voice and he discovered a God who promised him a blessing, a people, and a land.

Abraham discovered he was part of something bigger. The universe is not random, cruel, and meaningless. There is a God who rules over history and peoples and nations. Abraham called him the Judge of all the Earth.

With Abraham, God instituted a relationship with a man that would:
-Affect his future
-Create and multiply a people
-Establish a land and a nation
-And save the whole world!

How’s that for a promise? And so it passed on to Isaac and Jacob and through them to their descendants. Now, on a day to day basis, it might have been hard to be excited about the Abrahamic covenant.

Fields still had to be worked. Wars and violence still happened. Sin was right there ruining so many things. Life was hard. And the Abrahamic promise did not really make it easier.

Rather, it gave something to look forward to. It gave meaning to life. It gave the people knowledge of a God worth worshipping.

And so it went until Abraham’s family was in slavery. With each generation the stories of Abraham’s God grew fainter and fainter.

Then, along came Moses, claiming that he had heard again from the God of Abraham. And there were miracles. And there was redemption. And there was freedom.

And then came Sinai. Now God did more than he had done with Abraham. He gave the people a teaching, the Torah. And he increased the relationship between God and men.

Now the nation from Abraham would have a much deeper relationship. There were commandments to learn, memorize, and teach to children. And there were WARNINGS and PROMISES.

God WARNED that if the people did not follow the Torah, their nation would be overrun and destitute. God PROMISED that if they did observe it, they would have plenty and blessing.

A man or woman’s purpose for living increased. God became more than a promise. He became also a way of life.

But still, on a day to day basis, things were hard. And with each generation life got more disheartening.

The people were not following the Torah. If you believed with all your heart in Torah, you had to be grieved. If you were not sure about Torah, you had to wonder why bother to follow it. Most people aren’t following it. What good will it do if I follow it?

It could be depressing.

BUT ALL ALONG THERE WERE HINTS OF SOMETHING BETTER.

Moses spoke of a great future when all Israel would have circumcised hearts. Ezekiel spoke of new hearts and a new spirit placed inside. Isaiah spoke of a Redeemer who would set the prisoners free. Jeremiah put it into the clearest context of all: a NEW COVENANT.
.....................

Now, this is where it gets confusing. You see, in a minute, I am going to affirm that we are living in the days of the New Covenant. But right away you are going to see that not all of the New Covenant promises have come true.

THIS IS A PRIMARY SOURCE OF CONFUSION ABOUT THIS ISSUE.

The New Covenant is now and not yet, here but not fully, inaugurated but not yet consummated.

To see what I mean, let’s read the New Covenant promise:
Jeremiah 31:31-34
Look, the days are coming”—|this is| the LORD’S declaration—“when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah. 32 |This one will| not be like the covenant I made with their ancestors when I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt—a covenant they broke even though I had married them”—the LORD’S declaration. 33 “Instead, this is the covenant I will make with the house of Israel after those days”—the LORD’S declaration. “I will place My law within them and write it on their hearts. I will be their God, and they will be My people. 34 No longer will one teach his neighbor or his brother, saying: Know the LORD,a for they will all know Me, from the least to the greatest of them”—the LORD’S declaration. “For I will forgive their wrongdoing and never again remember their sin.”

Notice the promises of the New Covenant:
1. It is with Israel and Judah.
2. It will be different from the Sinai Covenant.
3. Yet the Torah from the Sinai Covenant will be included in this New Covenant--written on hearts.
4. Israel and Judah will be my people.
5. No one will have to teach people to believe in God anymore.
6. God will forgive sins.

There are two things in the New Covenant that have not yet happened: 1. We still have to teach people to believe in God.
1. The Torah, God’s law, is not yet written on the hearts of God’s people. When it is written there, we will stop sinning.

But it is with the last promise, that sins will be forgiven, that we should now turn to.

This is no light promise for God to make. To forgive sins is no small thing. How will God do that?

Will he declare a blanket amnesty, just forgive all sins for all people? Or will he just declare amnesty for those who believe in him?

If so, what will be the basis of forgiving sin? Can he just overlook it? If he just overlooks sin, what will sinners say? Will they say, “God, I guess sin was never any big deal after all”?

We should not be surprised that the next time we hear about the New Covenant, it is from the lips of Yeshua.

It happened on the last night of our Messiah’s life on this earth. Just hours before he was arrested and less than twenty-four hours before he was killed, our Messiah said:
This cup is the New Covenant, ratified by my blood, which is being poured out for you.

Shortly after that, his blood was poured out on a Roman cross. And after he rose, Yeshua’s followers understood what it had all been about. Yeshua died as a sacrifice to bring forgiveness for sins.

That’s the part of the New Covenant that is already here. It is the part where your sins and mine are forgiven.

Nothing more and nothing less. But there is a lot more to come.

So what has changed?

Our relationship to God has changed. There is no barrier between us. If the world is wicked, still we know where we stand with God. And our life has even more purpose than before.

But the even better part is that we know that Yeshua is coming back. We know that he will bring the rest of the promise.

And so we have more to look forward to than ever before. Peter, who was very close to Yeshua, says it beautifully:
1 Peter 1:13
...fix your hopes fully on the gift you will receive when Yeshua the Messiah is revealed.

WHY IS THE NEW COVENANT SO GREAT?

We have something Abraham only dreamed about. We have forgiveness and an unbreakable relationship with God. We have seen God act in history through Yeshua and we know that the rest of the promise is coming.

And that is the key point: We know about the World to Come.

We know a day is coming when all people will know God, as the New Covenant foretells. And we know some details. We know God will dwell with us.

Abraham didn’t know that. Moses didn’t know that.

We know a little about what sort of world the World to Come will be. We know about our vine and fig tree. We know about deserts blossoming like a rose. We know about lions and lambs. We know about the end of pain and tears. We know that evil will be gone for good.

We know everything good in this world will be better in the World to Come. We know everything unworthy in this world will not exist then.

So, we can agree with Hebrews 8:6:
But Yeshua has now obtained a superior ministry, and to that degree He is the mediator of a better covenant, which has been legally enacted on better promises.

These words were uttered to some Messianic Jews who were thinking of denying Yeshua. They thought, “Who needs Yeshua if we just have Judaism?”

The writer of Hebrews understood that Judaism is good and Yeshua is good. But Judaism without Yeshua is giving up the New Covenant. It is giving up forgiveness of sins. It is giving up the certain hope that Yeshua brought through his death and even more through his resurrection.

THE NEW COVENANT IS GREAT BECAUSE OF THE PROMISES.
Peter says this also:
2 Peter 1:4
he has granted to us his precious and very great promises, that through these you may escape from the corruption that is in the world because of passion.

Let’s hold fast to God’s great promises.

Let’s see the Old contained in the New -- and God’s way as one way, not two.

Let’s BELIEVE and escape the corruption of this world.

Passover - Journey

Sat, 19 Apr 2008 18:37:27 -0400

Passover as a Spiritual Journey
Derek Leman

Passover. Redemption. Freedom. Exodus.

Experience the first Passover night.
An angel of death. Holy terror.
Blood on the door.
Wailing mothers and dead sons.
Wailing mothers whose sons were saved.

Deadly silence across the land.
Egyptian neighbors come to the door.
“Here, take these gold things,
Go and worship your God,
he has taken our sons.”

Jewish mothers hold their sons.
And they cry.
“Who cried for our sons
enslaved and mistreated?
Cruelty has begotten cruelty,
sin has precipitated death.”

And from this dreadful night
Israel fled.
Witless and afraid.
Would Pharaoh cut them down?

Carts and oxen.
Burdens and animals.
Children and elderly.
A hard journey ahead.

Passover. Redemption. Freedom. Exodus.
Journey.
.....................

The Bible is a book very realistic about life.
When we read the stories, sometimes we sugarcoat them.
Passover is about freedom and redemption.
But there is a lot of pain in it too.

If we are very blessed, and so far we have been, we will not endure suffering like the Israelites or Egyptians did.

But Passover is like life.
It is a journey that goes through pain and mistreatment.
It is a journey that hopes against hope.
Passover is a spiritual journey.
Even Israel’s physical travels suggest a spiritual journey.
Beginning in slavery and despair, the people cry out and find God’s redemption.
Redemption begins with an act of mighty power and God rescuing from death.
Redemption continues with a journey.

It is a hard journey.
It goes through a body of impassable water.

Water to the ancients represented two things: cleansing and the power of death.
The waters were wild, untamable.
Floods could destroy and the ocean was even more to be feared that a river or lake.

For Egypt, the Red Sea was death.
For Israel, the Red Sea was a cleansing.
Israel passed through the waters in the first baptism.
The Torah would later legislate immersion in water as cleansing ritual.
Israel endured a terrifying baptism.
And the horses and chariots of Pharaoh were drowned in the very same water.

And the hardships of the journey were not over after redemption and baptism.
Israel’s journey continued to be hard.

The goal was the Promised Land.
The place God had promised long ago to the Patriarchs.
Israel could see it, could long for it, could taste the milk and honey.

But along the way, the usual happened.
People failed to trust.
People complained of hardship.
People rebelled against authority.
People preferred former comforts in the land of slavery.
People lost sight of the Promised Land.

Their journey was a lot like ours.

Passover is a spiritual journey.
.......................

All of us are on a spiritual journey, even if we don’t want to be.
Even if we think we have arrived, the truth is we’ve only begun.
Finding Yeshua was the beginning.
Following him is the journey.

We have our redemption.
We have our baptism.
But we are not yet in the Promised Land.

Along the way, the usual will happen.
We will fail to trust.
We will complain.
We will hurt.
We will prefer the former comforts of our spiritual slavery.

This year, as we celebrate Passover, I encourage all of us to think of our spiritual journey.
In the Haggadah we read that each generation should think as though God personally led us out of Egypt.

Let me read you a story from one of the Hasidim.
It is a story in which a part of the Haggadah is taken very seriously.
Instead of just reading the Haggadah, in this story you will someone who has personalized it.
You will see someone reflecting deeply on its meaning...

Whenever Rabbi Levi Yitzhak came to that passage in the Haggadah that deals with the four sons, and in it read about the fourth son, about him “who knows not how to ask,” he said, “‘The one who knows not how to ask,’ that is myself, Levi Yitzhak of Berdichev. I do not know how to ask you, Lord of the World, and even if I did know I could not bear to do it. How could I venture to ask you why everything happens as it does, why we are driven from one exile into another, why our foes are allowed to torment us so. But in the Haggadah, the father of him ‘who knows not how to ask’ is told: ‘It is for you to disclose it to him.’ And the Haggadah refers to the scriptures, where it is written: ‘And thou shalt tell thy son.’ And, Lord of the World, am I not your son? I do not beg you to reveal to me the secret of your ways -- I could not bear it! But show me one thing. Show it to me more clearly and more deeply: show me what this, which is happening at this very moment, what it means to me, what it demands of me, what you, Lord of the World, are telling me by way of it. Ah, it is not why I suffer that I wish to know, but only whether I suffer for your sake.”
[From Martin Buber’s Tales of the Hasidim, excerpted in Schocken Passover Haggadah, (New York: Schocken Books, 1996 edition), pg. xx]

If you know the Haggadah’s story of the Four Sons, you know there is a Wise Son, a Simple Son, a Wicked Son, and a Son Who Does Not Know to Ask.

We’d all like to think we are the Wise Son.
And sometimes maybe we are.

But I like how Rabbi Levi Yitzhak identifies with the Son Who Does Not Know to Ask.
Aren’t we all like that son?

What questions are you asking God in your life experience?
What lessons are you learning?
The story is told of some Jews in the concentration camp at Bergen-Belsen.
Passover came and they had no Matzah.
They had only regular bread.

Jewish law is clear: you do not die to keep one commandment when by living you can keep all the rest of them.

So they had to break the law against leaven.
They had to eat bread.

And they prayed, “Our Father in heaven, behold it is evident and known to thee that is our desire to do thy will and to celebrate the festival of Passover by eating matzah and observing the prohibition of leavened food. But our heart is pained that the enslavement prevents us and we are in danger of our lives. . . . We pray to thee that thou mayest keep us alive and preserve us and redeem us speedily that we may observe thy statutes and do thy will and serve thee with a perfect heart.”

The truth is, we should not expect our lives to be better than theirs.

Following Yeshua does not mean we will have it easy.
Following Yeshua is following the Crucified One.
Tonight is the Eve of his death.
He was crucified in the early afternoon on Passover day, the day after the Seder.

We face a different danger than the Israelites in Egypt or the Jews in Hitler’s camps.

While pain is not absent from our experience, our greater problem is comfort.
There is so much milk and honey, we feel entitled.
We forget too easily about Messiah and the World to Come.
The leeks and onions of Egypt have seduced us too thoroughly.

We could actually imagine for a moment that this is as good as it gets!!
We could be satisfied with entertainment and riches.
We could think that things are not so bad.
Who needs an Exodus?

But that is a temptation too.
That is a kind of suffering.
We have become comfortably numb.

Let me read you a story about slavery and how to pray to God.
This story also comes from WWII.
It is also a story from the concentration camp.
This is about some Jews who struggled to pray, “Thank you God, for not making me a slave.”

In the Kovno ghetto in the early 1940’s an extraordinary scene took place one morning in the makeshift synagogue. The Jews in the ghetto had begun to realize the fate that lay in store for them. They knew that none of them would escape, that the work camps to which they would be transported were in fact factories of death. And at the morning service, the leader of prayer, an old and pious Jew, could finally say the words no longer. He had come to the blessing in which we thank God for not having made us slaves. He turned to the congregation and said: “I cannot say this prayer. How can I thank God for my freedom when I am a prisoner facing death? Only a madman would say this prayer now.”
Some members of the congregation turned to the rabbi for advice. Could a Jew in the Kovno ghetto pronounce the blessing thanking God for not making him a slave? The rabbi replied very simply: “Heaven forbid that we should abolish the blessing now. Our enemies wish to make us their slaves. But though they control our bodies they do not own our souls. By making this blessing we show that even here we still see ourselves as free men, temporarily in captivity, awaiting God’s redemption.”
[From Jonathan Sacks, Faith in the Future, excerpted in Schocken Passover Haggadah, pg. xxv]

Are we in captivity -- maybe to comfort?
Let’s wake up this Passover and see.
Messiah and the World to Come await us.
We have a journey to take.
And we follow Yeshua all the way there.
....................

Passover is about a spiritual journey.

Think for a moment about yours.
Where are you on the journey?
What traps have you been caught in?
How do you need God’s rescue?
Do you see how God has been preparing you?
Does God have your attention most of the time?
Do you see life with God’s eyes?
Or does life make you sometimes blind to God?

What about the Promised Land? What about Messiah? What about the World to Come?

Do you long for milk and honey?
Are you making the journey?

A poem for Passover by Primo Levi...

Tell me: how is this night different
From all other nights?
How, tell me, is this Passover
Different from all other Passovers?
Light the lamp, open the door wide
So the pilgrim can come in,
Gentile or Jew;
Under the rags perhaps the prophet is concealed.
Let him enter and sit down with us;
Let him listen, drink, sing and celebrate Passover;
Let him consume the bread of affliction,
The Paschal Lamb, sweet mortar and bitter herbs.
This is the night of differences
In which you lean your elbow on the table,
Since the forbidden becomes prescribed,
Evil is translated into good.
We will spend the night recounting
Far-off events full of wonder,
And because of all the wine
The mountains will skip like rams.
Tonight they exchange questions:
The wise, the godless, the simple-minded and the child.
And time reverses its course,
Today flowing back into yesterday.
Like a river enclosed at its mouth.
Each of us has been a slave in Egypt,
Soaked straw and clay with sweat,
And crossed the sea dry-footed.
You too, stranger.
This year in fear and shame,
Next year in virtue and justice.

[Schocken Passover Haggadah, pg. xxviii, “Passover,” by Primo Levi, 1982]