Malcolm Cox

Today I answer a question from a friend.

“I have a hard time believing that God deserted Jesus when he was on the cross. It seems to contradict Gods very nature. The main reason people say he left Jesus is because of the phrase “my God my God why have you forsaken me “ from Psalms 22. But no one believes that God forsook David, so why do we assume he forsook Jesus?”

Let me bring you the views of Jürgen Moltmann. He claimed that if we really believe that Christ was human and God and that God exists in a trinity of persons, then Jesus’ ‘suffering’ for sins was NOT just the ‘human’ Jesus suffering; rather, in Jesus’s suffering, the second person of the Trinity, God was also suffering! Thus, God chooses NOT to be aloof from human suffering but rather really takes it on himself. Moltmann would say, if you are really trinitarian, you must believe this. His views received praise and cries of heresy.

Consider also Ex 10:21-22 where darkness descending is a sign of God’s judgment upon those who reject God. (See Amos 8:9)

“Darkness at noon, by its paradoxical nature, was a fitting sign for God the Creator to give to whose who had rejected the light of the world.” Cole, Mark, Tyndale, 325.

This is the only time in the Synoptic Gospels where Jesus addresses God without calling him ‘Father’. 

“Perhaps this cry tells us less of Jesus’ feelings at this point and more of the theological significance of the event, but it is hard to read it and imagine the event without seeing it as a personal statement of anguish caused by the reality of his impending separation from the Father.” (Hurtado, 268)

This is not a cry of nihilistic despair. Even at this point of anguish Jesus is still talking to God, believing in God and calling on God. Ps 22 is a cry of victory, not hopelessness, so it is reasonable to think that Jesus chose this scripture (as opposed to many that would express greater hopelessness) because of its victorious stance. It was a willing drinking of the cup his Father willed him to drink

Please add your comments on this week’s topic. We learn best when we learn in community.

Do you have a question about teaching the Bible? Is it theological, technical, practical? Send me your questions or suggestions. Here’s the email: [[email protected]](mailto:[email protected]).

If you’d like a copy of my free eBook on spiritual disciplines, “How God grows His people”, sign up at my website: http://[www.malcolmcox.org](http://www.malcolmcox.org/).

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“Worship the LORD with gladness; come before him with joyful songs.” (Psalms 100:2 NIV11)

God bless, Malcolm

The experience of my recent recognition as a Teacher left me glowing with an unexpected strength. Where did that come from? What might the lessons be for our times of quiet with God?

We take a look at the experience of Jesus's affirmation by God in Mark 1:9-11 and speculate about whether that was what gave him the strength for his subsequent activity.

One of the reasons for a daily time of quiet with God is to be refreshed in our acceptance of God’s affirmation.

Please add your comments on this week’s topic. We learn best when we learn in community. 

Do you have a question about teaching the Bible? Is it theological, technical, practical? Send me your questions or suggestions. Here’s the email: [[email protected]](mailto:[email protected]). 

If you’d like a copy of my free eBook on spiritual disciplines, “How God grows His people”, sign up at my website: http://[www.malcolmcox.org](http://www.malcolmcox.org/). 

Please pass the link on, subscribe, leave a review. 

“Worship the LORD with gladness; come before him with joyful songs.” (Psalms 100:2 NIV11) 

God bless, Malcolm

It is important a teacher is not too focused on the mechanics of theology or presentation.

“Whoever, then, thinks that he understands the Holy Scriptures, or any part of them, but puts such an interpretation upon them as does not tend to build up this twofold love of God and our neighbour, does not yet understand them as he ought.”

Augustine, Book One, Ch 36, “On Christian Doctrine, in Four Books”What is your way of checking your teaching classes and sermons evidence the love of God and the love of neighbour?

Accuracy is desirable, but it is not the ultimate goal.

Being an engaging presenter is highly desirable, but it is not the ultimate goal.

The ultimate goal is to communicate, as accurately and engaging as possible, the love of God for us, and how that might inspire us to love him, our fellow Congregational friends, and the world out there.

Please add your comments on this week’s topic. We learn best when we learn in community.

Do you have a question about teaching the Bible? Is it theological, technical, practical? Send me your questions or suggestions. Here’s the email: [[email protected]](mailto:[email protected]).

If you’d like a copy of my free eBook on spiritual disciplines, “How God grows His people”, sign up at my website: http://[www.malcolmcox.org](http://www.malcolmcox.org/).

Please pass the link on, subscribe, leave a review.

“Worship the LORD with gladness; come before him with joyful songs.” (Psalms 100:2 NIV11)

God bless, Malcolm

I enjoyed my birthday this year. Mostly because of nice kind messages from many people from various sources. My spirits were lifted.

People spent time, energy, money on helping me feel loved, and expressing their gratitude. 

Why can't every day be like my birthday? 

God loves me more passionately than any of the people who contacted me or gave me gifts. 

Daily - no matter what is going on, even if no one remembers me, he does! 

“I will remember my covenant between me and you and all living creatures of every kind. Never again will the waters become a flood to destroy all life. 16 Whenever the rainbow appears in the clouds, I will see it and remember the everlasting covenant between God and all living creatures of every kind on the earth.” Gen 9:15-16

He forgets my sins, “For I will forgive their wickedness and will remember their sins no more.” Jer 31.34, but remembers his love for me.

Please add your comments on this week’s topic. We learn best when we learn in community. 

Do you have a question about teaching the Bible? Is it theological, technical, practical? Send me your questions or suggestions. Here’s the email: [[email protected]](mailto:[email protected]). 

If you’d like a copy of my free eBook on spiritual disciplines, “How God grows His people”, sign up at my website: http://[www.malcolmcox.org](http://www.malcolmcox.org/). 

Please pass the link on, subscribe, leave a review. 

“Worship the LORD with gladness; come before him with joyful songs.” (Psalms 100:2 NIV11) 

God bless, Malcolm

“Meanwhile a Jew named Apollos, a native of Alexandria, came to Ephesus. He was a learned man, with a thorough knowledge of the Scriptures.”

Acts 18:24

Helpful teachers are familiar with the whole Bible. What is your plan to get more Bible into your life? Mine is to read Steve’s new translation of the NT. He says:

"Why do I call this translation the King Jesus Translation? The primary theme of the ministry of Jesus was “the Kingdom.” The gospels tell the story of King Jesus entering the world to establish, teach, grow, explain, and bring people into—his Kingdom. The word Christ (Christos in the Greek) means “Messiah” or “Anointed One.” Another way of saying that is—King. Jesus is King. King Jesus.

Why another translation of the New Testament? There certainly are plenty of great translations available in English. I offer this translation because I’ve always enjoyed reading different translations of the Bible. I find that when I read a new and unfamiliar translation, words and ideas jump off the page and grab my attention. This is why I read from different translations. I have dozens in my library.

Use the King Jesus Translation as a secondary Bible. Use it to get a little different flavor of how the Bible can be translated.

I hope you enjoy this translation. I don’t expect it to gain wide use, but if it helps one apprentice of King Jesus draw closer to him and his Kingdom through reading it, then I’m grateful and happy."

G. Steve Kinnard

Please add your comments on this week’s topic. We learn best when we learn in community. 

Do you have a question about teaching the Bible? Is it theological, technical, practical? Send me your questions or suggestions. Here’s the email: [[email protected]](mailto:[email protected]). 

If you’d like a copy of my free eBook on spiritual disciplines, “How God grows His people”, sign up at my website: http://[www.malcolmcox.org](http://www.malcolmcox.org/). 

Please pass the link on, subscribe, leave a review. 

“Worship the LORD with gladness; come before him with joyful songs.” (Psalms 100:2 NIV11) 

God bless, Malcolm

1. Jesus prepares his disciples for hospitality, vv13-16

Special occasions are often marked with special meals

Jesus is not a victim. He is in control, the master

The disciples lived by faith not by site

Roasting the lamb and providing unleavened biscuits, bitter herbs, sauce, water, and wine. The room itself would require special furnishings (such as couches and lamps).

Application

When you follow Jesus, you get more than you bargained for.

When you invite Jesus into your life, you invite his friends, and not only that, but all the other people he loved to hang out with that we don’t.

2. Jesus prepares his disciples for understanding, vv22-26

This meal explains what happens the next day.  

As the Passover is symbolic, so are these actions of Jesus.

All meals in this culture were to establish or perpetuate a relationship.  The way Jesus uses the bread and wine (“this is my person) make it clear that “to partake of the bread meant to join oneself to Jesus and his fate.”

The cup is always connected with suffering, hence a symbolic joining with the suffering of Jesus, a symbolic participating in the restoration of Israel, instituting the new covenant (Acts 2).

Covenants sealed with blood, Exodus 24:1-8.

Blood poured out is symbolic of dying a violent death. Nothing to do with literal drinking a blood.

He will die as a sacrifice and sin offering: Isa 53:10

Application

Following Jesus means eating his bread and drinking his cup - participating in his life.

3. Jesus prepares his disciples for failure, vv17-21; 27-31

“To betray a friend after eating a meal with him was, and still is, regarded as the worst kind of treachery in the Middle East”

“Even my close friend, someone I trusted, one who shared my bread, has turned against me.” Psalm 41:9

If “one of the twelve” v20 can lose it, so can we.

Better for him if he had not been born: this man's fate will be worse than that of Jesus. That's saying something!

Heb 6:4-9

Judas - greed

Failure of faith (loyalty), not courage

Peter - boasting

Failure of courage, not faith

C. Application

Be sober about your strength

Make a plan to be stronger

Trust that God will bring you through

The apostles were stronger after this, and endured severe persecution. Your past failures do not define your future.

What is God preparing us to do?

What is God preparing you to do?

Jesus not caught off-guard. Always in control

“Rom. 5:6 You see, at just the right time, when we were still powerless, Christ died for the ungodly. 7 Very rarely will anyone die for a righteous person, though for a good person someone might possibly dare to die. 8 But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.”

Please add your comments on this week’s topic. We learn best when we learn in community. 

Do you have a question about teaching the Bible? Is it theological, technical, practical? Send me your questions or suggestions. Here’s the email: [[email protected]](mailto:[email protected]). 

If you’d like a copy of my free eBook on spiritual disciplines, “How God grows His people”, sign up at my website: http://[www.malcolmcox.org](http://www.malcolmcox.org/). 

Please pass the link on, subscribe, leave a review. 

“Worship the LORD with gladness; come before him with joyful songs.” (Psalms 100:2 NIV11) 

God bless, Malcolm

We were asked to provide a spiritual perspective on what is going on in Ukraine at the moment. How do we handle our anxieties and what do we pray about?

Tim reminds us that God is sovereign, he has a plan somewhere in this, and that he cannot be opposed. He shares from Matthew 2:13-15 to show that a wicked ruler like Herod was ultimately thwarted by God.

Shevvy offers reassurance in our uncertainty by bringing us 1 Peter 5:7 and Philippians 4:6-7, reminding us that God cares about us and is able to give us a deep peace beyond human understanding.

I share some personal thoughts and some teaching about war and pacifism. Additional notes are attached for those who wish to look into this more fully.

Ten Peacemaking Practises: Stassen & Gushee, https://goodfaithmedia.org/revisiting-the-10-practices-of-just-peacemaking-theory/ 

1. Support non-violent direct action

2. Take independent initiatives to reduce threat

3. Use cooperative conflict resolution

4. Acknowledge responsibility for conflict and injustice; seek repentance and forgiveness

5. Promote democratic, human rights & religious liberty

6. Foster just & sustainable economic development

7. Work with emerging cooperative forces in the international system

8. Strengthen United Nations & other international organisations

9. Reduce offensive weapons and weapons trade

10. Encourage grassroots peacemaking groups and voluntary organisations

Augustine's just war conditions

1. Just cause

2. Last resort

3. Lawful public authority

4. Reasonable hope of victory

5. Balance towards potential good

6. Right conduct and means

Bonhoeffer - https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLvooTf8NEU5TiKytmCgWYKOnkkmfQ-_TP 

Are all or any types of war legitimate for a Christian to participate in? See “Slavery, sabbath, war and women", Willard Swartley

Here is the (current) link for donations to the Ukrainian crisis appeal: https://www.hopeworldwide.org.uk/ukraine-relief/  - choose "Ukraine Refugee Crisis" from the drop-down options.

- Douglas Jacoby Podcasts on war and pacifism. 

    - https://www.douglasjacoby.com/?s=pacifism

    - https://www.douglasjacoby.com/new-the-douglas-jacoby-podcast/ 

    - http://playpodca.st/douglasjacoby 

“Now inquiry is made about the point of whether a believer may enter into military service. The question is also asked whether those in the military may be admitted into the faith… A man cannot give his allegiance to two masters – God and Caesar.… How will a Christian man participate in war? …For the Lord has taken the sword away. It is also true that soldiers came to John [the Baptist] and received instructions for their conduct. It is true also that the centurion believed. Nevertheless, the Lord afterward, in disarming Peter, disarmed every soldier. Tertullian (c. 200, W), 3.73.

Dictionary of Early Christian Beliefs: A Reference Guide to More Than 700 Topics Discussed by the Early Church Fathers. David Bercot, https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/1565633571/ref=cm_sw_em_r_mt_dp_YKJJPCRHVP9V6P72GN9D    

Please add your comments on this week’s topic. We learn best when we learn in community. 

Do you have a question about teaching the Bible? Is it theological, technical, practical? Send me your questions or suggestions. Here’s the email: [[email protected]](mailto:[email protected]). 

If you’d like a copy of my free eBook on spiritual disciplines, “How God grows His people”, sign up at my website: http://[www.malcolmcox.org](http://www.malcolmcox.org/). 

Please pass the link on, subscribe, leave a review. 

“Worship the LORD with gladness; come before him with joyful songs.” (Psalms 100:2 NIV11) 

God bless, Malcolm

Today I share from an article I have failed to reference. Apologies for that. However, it pertains to how the enlightenment continues to have a limiting influence on the ways in which we relate to God.

"The Enlightenment forced evangelicalism into adopting approaches to spirituality which have resulted in rather cool, detached, and rational approaches to Scripture. The traditional Quiet Time' has been deeply influenced by this outlook."

"As Martin Luther constantly insisted, Christianity is concerned with totus homo, the "entire human person', not just the human mind. In this, Luther was doing nothing more than stressing the importance of maintaining a biblical understanding of human nature in every aspect of Christian living."

"The Australian writer Robert Banks points out the implications for spirituality of this biblical view of human nature when he notes that spirituality concerns 'not only our spirit - also our minds, wills, imaginations, feelings and bodies."

What do you think? Are your times of quiet still influenced by the enlightenment? How helpful is that, and how limiting is it?

Please add your comments on this week’s topic. We learn best when we learn in community. 

Do you have a question about teaching the Bible? Is it theological, technical, practical? Send me your questions or suggestions. Here’s the email: [[email protected]](mailto:[email protected]). 

If you’d like a copy of my free eBook on spiritual disciplines, “How God grows His people”, sign up at my website: http://[www.malcolmcox.org](http://www.malcolmcox.org/). 

Please pass the link on, subscribe, leave a review. 

“Worship the LORD with gladness; come before him with joyful songs.” (Psalms 100:2 NIV11) 

God bless, Malcolm

To be a teacher of the New Testament means to grow in a mastery of its themes and key ideas. Today I share how learning 100 memorable New Testament passages has helped me.

What is your plan to master the New Testament?

https://www.aimukandireland.com/home

Please add your comments on this week’s topic. We learn best when we learn in community. 

Do you have a question about teaching the Bible? Is it theological, technical, practical? Send me your questions or suggestions. Here’s the email: [[email protected]](mailto:[email protected]). 

If you’d like a copy of my free eBook on spiritual disciplines, “How God grows His people”, sign up at my website: http://[www.malcolmcox.org](http://www.malcolmcox.org/). 

Please pass the link on, subscribe, leave a review. 

“Worship the LORD with gladness; come before him with joyful songs.” (Psalms 100:2 NIV11) 

God bless, Malcolm

A sermon for the Watford Church of Christ in the series: "The Road to the Resurrection"

Handouts available here: https://www.malcolmcox.org/a-beautiful-thing-mark-141-11/ 

Please add your comments on this week’s topic. We learn best when we learn in community. 

Do you have a question about teaching the Bible? Is it theological, technical, practical? Send me your questions or suggestions. Here’s the email: [[email protected]](mailto:[email protected]). 

If you’d like a copy of my free eBook on spiritual disciplines, “How God grows His people”, sign up at my website: http://[www.malcolmcox.org](http://www.malcolmcox.org/). 

Please pass the link on, subscribe, leave a review. 

“Worship the LORD with gladness; come before him with joyful songs.” (Psalms 100:2 NIV11) 

God bless, Malcolm