Fellowshipmtz

Assorted Scriptures

Christianity Today Magazine carried an article in May 1998 by Barbara Brown Taylor entitled: "The Day We Were Left Behind."  The article is particularly well written and it has always intrigued me.  Let me quote a small sample:

"Luke ends his gospel by telling us that the disciples returned to Jerusalem with great joy.  But you have to remember that it had just happened for them, that they had just been with Him, and the memory was fresh.  They were still running on adrenaline; you can see it in the pictures.  Almost every church with stained-glass windows has an ascension window tucked away somewhere.  In it, Christ generally hovers in the air, His hands upraised in blessing, while the disciples look up at Him with something between awe and delight.  But He is there with them — He is in the window — and if they went away joyful, then I cannot help but thinking that it was because they thought He would be back in a day or two, next week at the latest.

"Two thousand years later, we tend to see the whole thing a little differently.  We need a new window to describe our own situation: a window with just us in it — no angels, no Jesus, no heavenly light —just us, still waiting, still watching the sky, our faces turned up like empty cups that only one presence can fill.  But He is not present anymore, not the way He used to be.

"Ascension Day is the day the present Lord became absent, which may be why it is the most forgotten feast day of the church year.  Who wants to celebrate being left behind?  Who wants to mark the day that Jesus went out of this world, never to be seen again?  Hungry as we are for the presence of God, the one thing we do not need is a day to remind us of God's absence."

How should we understand the Church's relationship to Christ's Ascension?  Was the Church left behind?

GUEST SPEAKER: Dr. Paul Kissling is a professor of Old Testament at Lincoln Christian University. He has taught graduate and undergraduate courses and lectured in more than 40 countries on four continents.

Lessons from Rahab - Joshua 2 (and others)

Rahab is just one of many believers recorded in Scripture who seems (to religious types) as especially unlikely to ever be a recipient of saving grace.  Dr. Kissling summarizes her story and provides several points of application.

No particular text in today's topical (doctrinal) teaching.  Building on text from "Easter" Sunday, John 20:1-18, we are doing our best to grasp what the Bible teaches concerning Christ's Ascension -- and why it's so important.  So important that Saint Augustine said:

"The Ascension festival 'is that festival which confirms the grace of all the festivals together, without which the profitableness of every festival would have perished. For unless the Saviour had ascended into heaven, His Nativity would have come to nothing… and His Passion would have borne no fruit for us, and His most holy Resurrection would have been useless.'"

John 20:17-18

Last week we looked at the disciples' lack of understanding.  This week we look at Mary's lack of understanding.  Jesus' resurrection is not going to be a return to the way things were; rather, there will be a progression in GOD's overall purposes of salvation -- i.e. the Ascension, and Pentecost!

John 20:8-9

Early on that first resurrection Sunday morning the terms of the investigation changed sharply.  Beginning with John and later with others of Jesus' disciples -- they "believed".  That is, they were convinced they were no longer looking for a missing body (corpse), but a risen Messiah!  Nevertheless, verse 9 tells the reader, "For as yet they did not know the Scripture, that He must rise again from the dead."

John 20:1-18

John's Gospel is uniquely written (inspired!) to provide details not found in the Synoptic Gospels (Matthew, Mark, and Luke).  Today's message surveys the happenings of the first Resurrection Sunday, but we pay particular attention to Mary Magdalene's encounter with Jesus (whom she initially supposes to be a gardener!)  It is something of a mystery why Jesus forbids Mary from grasping (touching) Him.  The teaching will conclude next week, April 28.

Ezekiel 11

Sunday evening's Bible study gets bumped to "prime time" on Palm Sunday 2019.  The teaching begins by resetting the context and themes for Ezekiel.  Eventually, as chapter eleven closes, we see how the LORD's glory has incrementally departed from the Most Holy Place, from the Temple, from Jerusalem, and from the Mount of Olives.  Ichabod, the glory has departed . . . until more than 600 years later, when the glory returns from the same Mount, and riding on a donkey!

Isaiah 12

Chapter 12 marks the close of Isaiah's first collection of prophecies in chapters 1-11.  Isaiah's psalm is a proclamation of magnificent praise among the redeemed Israelites.  From their praise I think we can rightly extract some crucially important and universal principles concerning faith, salvation, and the gospel.

I love history, and I especially love church history!  There are valuable lessons to be learned from the Church history that is already of tremendous benefit to us (though you may not have realized it!)  You likely are familiar with the quote: "Those who don't learn from history are doomed to repeat it" (George Santayana, 1863-1952) -- so let's consider the role of LITURGY in the Church Universal and our own local churches.

2 Corinthians 13

Paul's instruction in 2 Corinthians 13:5 -- "Examine yourselves, to see whether you are in the faith. Test yourselves. Or do you not realize this about yourselves, that Jesus Christ is in you? — unless indeed you fail to meet the test!" -- commonly serves as the basis for a topical sermon on assurance of salvation.  There IS some value for self-examination (in light of the Bible's teaching).  All too often salvation is presumed by persons for a wide variety of (religious and/or cultural) reasons.  In this final teaching from 2 Corinthians, we will examine (pun intended) the context and terms of Paul's command.