Bethel Mennonite Church - Gladys VA

I Corinthians 11:24 reads, “This is my body which is broken for you,” but in the Gospels, Jesus’ statement reads something like, “This is my body which is given for you,” and has the idea, “This is my body which is for you.” Hebrews 9 and 10 say that one difference between the Old Testament offerings of bulls and goats and Christ’s offering is that Christ’s body represents Christ’s willing person. A major point in these verses is that Christ willingly offered His body for us—that He willingly gave His body/person as a sacrifice and shed His blood unto death for the forgiveness of sins, for the cleansing of the conscience. Christ’s body is for us in the sense that He gave His body, life, and life blood for our forgiveness of sins.

1 Peter 2:24 teaches that Jesus’ body is for us because He took our sins and human frailty into His body, and all of that died with Christ on the cross. This historical reality becomes a reality for us and in us when we trust in Christ as Savior and Lord. When we partake of the bread, we are acknowledging that we would be hopelessly bearing the guilt of our sins without Christ’s death and resurrection. In our acknowledgment of need, Christ’s redeeming power is present to us and working for us, in our person.

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What kind of person was Jacob? In comparing him with Job, they were both very wealthy. Job was also very invested in his family and in his relationship with God. In comparison, Jacob seems more invested in material gain. He doesn’t seem to be around much with his family. The story as told in Genesis 29-32 tells us more about his wives and their feelings than Jacob.

The story of Leah is one of the saddest in the Bible. She felt very unloved but seemed to have a relationship with God. The names of her sons portray that relationship. Some examples: Reuben – “The Lord has surely looked on my affliction, now therefore, my husband will love me.” Simeon – “Because the Lord has heard that I am unloved.” Levi – “Now this time my husband will become attached to me.”

There was tension between Leah, Rachel, and Jacob. There was also tension between Jacob and Laban. Jacob felt he had been cheated by Laban, Leah felt unloved, and Rachel was devastated because she had no children. Jacob worked so hard to get things he wanted, but God was going to bless him anyway.

What can we learn from this? Passive men are problems. Jacob was passive; he was not present in rearing the children. There is a window of time where we have an opportunity to speak into our children’s lives. The opposite of passive men are men who invest themselves in the lives of their families. They are present for all the stages of their children’s lives.

The pursuit of money does not satisfy. It gives no long-term satisfaction. If we treasure the things around us, it will be devastating to us when we lose them. Jacob gained what he did through God’s blessing and not through his personal efforts.

Haggai 1:6: “You have sown much, and bring in little; you eat, but do not have enough; you drink, but you are not filled with drink; you clothe yourselves, but no one is warm; and he who earns wages, earns wages to put into a bag with holes.”

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Psalm 36:7-9 – God wants to satisfy us with the fullness of His house, but we are often interested in a lot less.

In the John 4 story of the healing of the nobleman’s son, Jesus was concerned about the shallow faith of the people of Galilee. The nobleman, however, exhibited the kind of faith that Jesus is looking for.

In the John 5 story about the healing of the lame man, Jesus shows concern that the lame man had only changed outwardly; his healing experience was shallow.

We need to be on guard against our tendency to have a shallow experience with God.

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Jacob was fleeing from his home, traveling to his Uncle Laban’s place in Haran. Officially, he was going to find a wife, but he was also fleeing from his brother’s anger. He stopped for the night under the stars, with a stone for a pillow, and as he slept, he had a dream. In his dream, he saw a ladder with angels going up and down. The Lord spoke to him in the dream, blessing him with many descendants and land. Jacob poured oil over the stone he had used and called that place Bethel.

Jacob made a vow with God, telling Him that he would give God a tenth of whatever he made if God would be with him on his journey to Haran and someday bring him back to his own people. Jacob had met God at Bethel, but when he left Bethel, he also left behind a string of broken relationships.

He reached the land where Laban and his daughters lived. He met Rachel there when she came to water her sheep, and then he met Laban and made a deal with Laban concerning Rachel. He would work seven years for Rachel. But when the time was up, Laban deceived Jacob and gave him Leah for a wife. Jacob had met a deceiver like himself. Jacob had been tricked by Laban, just as Jacob had tricked his own father.

His experience in PadanAram with Laban’s family wasn’t any better than it was in his home community. It is easy to think that our life may be different and better if we move to a new community or change churches, but we will face the same challenges no matter where we go. We are the same people.

The law of sowing and reaping is still in effect. Jacob sowed deception and reaped deception. God puts people in our paths that we need, not who we want. We can learn from them, and possibly they can learn something from us.

God is the master potter. How long will it take Him to get us molded the way He wants us?

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Life is filled with challenges; what kind of person does well during a crisis? James 1 tells us that those who have faith grow through trials, but those who are double-minded cannot rely on God.

Daniel is an example of James 1 applied—he faced trials and received wisdom and strength. Daniel’s hymn of praise in Daniel 2 shows his personal experience with God—the result of his faith and faithfulness.

Saul, Samson, and Solomon are examples of double-minded men who either became more unwise or did not grow from trials.

We should be inspired to have a faith like Daniel’s—patient, prayerful, and faithful.

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If you knew your life was about to change, would it make a difference?

Matt 24:36-46. We don’t know when Jesus is coming again, but we’re told that normal life will be going on… and then the unexpected happens, and He returns! If we knew when Jesus was coming, would we do anything different?

In James 4:13-15, we see that life is routine and mundane; we make plans for the future, weddings, seeing grandchildren, we expect to grow old with our spouses. We can get complacent about how we live our lives. We don’t plan for accidents, drownings, or hearing the word “cancer”! I don’t want to be morbid or depressing, just remind us that life is uncertain!

If you knew that life was going to change, would you do anything different?

When Michael and Cheryl experienced a health crisis together, they were told in the middle of a dark night that it was likely cancer! It was the unexpected… they thought back over their lives together, their memories… they cried together. Life looks different when we face the unexpected! But Michael said, it might have been the best thing that ever happened to us! Building a business suddenly wasn’t that important… it’s a time to examine the purpose of our lives.

Let’s look at four questions that times of crisis make us ask ourselves.

First, how is our relationship with God? What will it be like to stand before Him? Is our name in the Book of Life? It matters a lot if our name is there! Hallelujah if it is!

Secondly, what is our relationship with those in our families? What are things like at home, with our spouses, with our children? Would I have regrets? Do we have their hearts? Have we made mistakes? Have we made them right?

Thirdly, what about the church? The brotherhood matters. How is my relationship with my brothers and sisters? Are there offenses? Have there been apologies? Do I love our church, do I love Christ’s bride? In light of eternity, church matters!

And fourth, what about my community? Are there people we should talk to? Are there neighbors who are watching how we live our lives and act, in town and at home? If I knew that my life was about to change, would it make a difference in how I relate to my community?

So, life isn’t as much about our experiences and our vacations… it’s about people and relationships, and our own relationship with Christ! We have opportunities on this side—opportunities to heal, to mend, to do the bidding of Jesus. That’s what really matters when we’re faced with crossing over, and life is about to change.

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Why do we do what we do? People around us may think we are weird. Even if the culture around us changes, that does not mean that we need to change. We must never elevate our practices to be equivalent with the Bible, but they can still be beneficial.

Some Biblical mandates for Biblical practices:

John Waldron: “I am an Anabaptist because I believe the Bible teaches the things we practice. By saying this I am not trying to promote legalism, nor am I saying that we never make mistakes or are better than everyone else.”

We want to express the spirituality Menno Simons spoke of: “True evangelical faith is of such a nature it cannot lie dormant, but spreads itself out in all kinds of righteousness and fruits of love; it dies to flesh and blood; it destroys all lusts and forbidden desires; it seeks, serves, and fears God in its inmost soul; it clothes the naked; it feeds the hungry; it comforts the sorrowful; it shelters the destitute; it aids and consoles the sad; it does good to those who do it harm; it serves those that harm it; it prays for those who persecute it; it teaches, admonishes, and judges us with the Word of the Lord; it seeks those who are lost; it binds up what is wounded; it heals the sick; it saves what is strong (sound); it becomes all things to all people. The persecution, suffering, and anguish that come to it for the sake of the Lord’s truth have become a glorious joy and comfort to it.”

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The book of Nehemiah is the account of the Jews rebuilding the walls of Jerusalem 280 years after the Assyrians had deported the 10 northern tribes and scattered them over the known world. Nehemiah was a cupbearer for the king of Persia when he heard about the challenges his people were experiencing in Jerusalem, so he asked the king for permission to return to his homeland to help in the rebuilding of the wall around Jerusalem. The king agreed and gave him letters of endorsement and resources with which to build. In the midst of many challenges and opposition, Nehemiah identified what needed to be done and inspired his people to do the work, and the wall was built in 52 days.

This story is applicable to our personal and church life. We all have experienced personal challenges in which we felt confused and overwhelmed. The same is true for us in church life, especially the last 5-10 years. I am not sure how to describe where we are emotionally, spiritually, and physically. It’s possible that we feel a variety of ways. Some of us are tired, discouraged, and maybe confused. Maybe some of us are frustrated or angry, or maybe feel like no one is listening to our deep concern. Maybe some of us feel hopeless. Here is a call to each of us to evaluate our challenging circumstance, to evaluate what God is calling us to, what God has placed in our hearts, what our options are, and to make a decision and move forward with courage, wisdom, persistence, and hope in God.

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A good question to ask ourselves is: Why do we attend our church? Hopefully, it’s not just because it’s where we grew up, but because we see something worthwhile here.

The emphasis of the Great Commission is discipleship, not just conversion.

Our focus shouldn’t be on what is the bare minimum to get to heaven or only doing the things that make sense to us. Instead, we should ask: What does Jesus want from me today? And will Jesus give me the power to do what He wants?

Dirk Philips listed seven ordinances: Biblical teaching, scriptural use of sacraments, feet washing, separation of sinners, love for one another, keeping the commandments of Christ, and the expectation of persecution and suffering.

Anabaptists are different from other denominations in their beliefs about salvation, eternal security, baptism, view of scripture, and relation to the state.

When Jesus gave the parable of the house built on the rock, the “rock” was following the teachings of Jesus; that needs to be our focus as well.

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