The Emotions of Easter - Disgust of Thursday

Part 3 of 5 Emotions of Easter posts is Disgusting Feet
Part 2 on Tuesday was the Fear of the Pharisees
Part 1 on Sunday was the Joy of Palm Sunday.  This post also included an introduction to the Emotions of Easter posts.

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The Bible reading for today is the Upper Room account from John 13, specifically the foot washing section.   


Here are some thoughts to consider as you reflect upon John 13.

Feet are disgusting.
Let me rephrase that. 
My feet are disgusting.  I know that because my sister has always reminded me of that fact.

In an article entitled "The Humility of Love," John MacArthur writes  "Normally, foot washing was the duty of the lowliest slave. When guests came, he had to go to the door and wash their feet—not a pleasant task. In fact, washing feet was probably his most abject duty, and only slaves performed it for others. Even the disciples of rabbis were not to wash the feet of their masters—that was uniquely the task of a slave."

Through his incarnation, Jesus humbled himself (Philippians 2:6, 7).
Through his words, Jesus taught humility (Matthew 20:26, 27).
Through his washing the disciples feet, Jesus modeled humility.
Through his obedience to God, Jesus humbly died (Philippians 2:8).

Feet are disgusting.
Washing feet is disgusting.
Yet, there is Jesus, the one who is given the name that is above every name and the name at which every knee should bow (Philippians 2:9, 10), on bended knee washing his followers' feet.

Here is the truly disgusting moment at this dinner.  In the parallel passage of Luke 22 a dispute arises among the disciples about who is the greatest.  
Jesus institutes the Lord's Supper.
Jesus washes the disciples' feet.
The disciples argue over who is the greatest (Luke 22:24-26)

In the same article, MacArthur writes "What a sickening picture this is! They were bickering about who was the greatest. And in an argument about who is the greatest, no one is going to get down to the ground and wash feet. The basin was there, the towel was there, and everything was ready. But no one moved to wash the others' feet."

John 13:1 tells us that Jesus loved them to the end.

This Resurrection Sunday, let's remember that the one who rose victorious from the grave and ascended with glory into the heavens, humbly washed his bickering disciples' feet.

Here are some questions to think through and talk about.

Humility can be shown in many different ways, not just washing feet; what are some others ways you can demonstrate humility?

What is the difference between Jesus' humility and our humility?
Here are two statements to help you think through this.

• Regarding Jesus' humility, think about who he is, where he came from and what he did.
• Regarding our humility, think about this definition of humility:  "To pursue humility means choosing to accept the fact that your knowledge and abilities are limited and in light of that, you are regularly seeking help and graciously receiving advice and correction."

Sing for God

You were hardwired for love, so everything you decide, desire, think, say, and do 

is an expression of love for someone or something.

March 28, New Morning Mercies Devotional

This devotional includes 1 John 2:15-17 and reminders over and over again that we all are lovers and we were created to love God.

Today's Fighter Verses devotional reminds that God made us to be worshippers and to sing songs.

God made us to sing songs.  But left to ourselves we often sing to be praised.  Psalm 96 urges us to use our voices not in order to earn praise, but in order to give it.  Three times David tells us to "sing to the Lord."  This repetition signals, "Pay attention!"  God created vocal cords to give praise to him.

This week's Fighter Verses and Fighter Verses devotional, along with today's New Morning Mercies devotional remind us of the biggest fight each and every one of us has each day - Who will I worship?

The two main questions we discussed in tonight's Fight Night study were

1. What is the singular focus of Psalm 96:1-3?
2. What is a "new song?"

The very strong singular focus of Psalm 96;1-3 is the Lord.  This is very obvious for several reasons

1. We are told to "sing to the Lord" three times.
2. We are to proclaim what He has done all the time ("day after day").
3. We are to proclaim what He has done to everyone.

This "new song" is not necessarily the idea of replacing the old with something new.  It has a new "fresh" everyday idea to it.  Lamentations 3:22 - 23 says "But this I call to mind, and therefore I have hope:  The steadfast love of the LORD never ceases; his mercies never come to an end; they are new every morning; great is your faithfulness."

All of this is an important reminder for churches, church leaders, and church members this Easter weekend.
It is very easy to forget the focus and the audience of Easter.  
The focus is Jesus Christ and his victory of sin, death and the devil.
The audience is God himself.  

Here are two articles that have challenged my thoughts about Easter Services:
Seven Critical Issues Easter Services
6 Ways to Manage Easter Expectations

The Emotions of Easter - The Fear of the Pharisees.

Part 2 of 5 Emotions of Easter posts.
Part 1 was the Joy of Palm Sunday.  This post also included an introduction to the Emotions of Easter posts.

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Our motivation in this life needs to be the God we have faith in.
Not the people we don't need to fear.

The Bible reading is the Withered Fig Tree and the Temple Debates

The Withered Fig and the questioning of Jesus' authority probably happened on the Tuesday of Passion Week.  Both of these accounts are found in Matthew 21:18-27

Here is a reading based on the motives and desires of Judas and the Pharisees.

HERE is an article about the escalating conflict on the Tuesday of Holy Week.

The following quotes are from another article entitled What Would Judas do? which deals with Judas' betrayal on Wednesday but also connects with the Pharisees 

The Pharisees loved money (Luke 16:14), feared men (Matthew 26:5), and hated Jesus (Matthew 26:4). That formula may be lived out before you more than you realize.   

The love of money often looks merely practical.  The fear of men can hide behind masks.  But the Bible is clear: If you love money and fear men, you cannot love God or escape Hell (Luke 16:13; John 5:44) — and you become a card-carrying member of the crowd who crucified the Author of life (Acts 3:15).  The cross — that horrifying drama of hatred — was only a symptom of the Pharisees’ craving for money, approval, and power. It was as if they bought a billboard to advertise their love for money, and set it on a hill for all to see.  But they would never do something so obvious. What would the people say? They “feared the people” (Luke 22:2). In fact, the people’s love for Jesus was half the reason the religious leaders hated him so much. 

The authorities were cowards with cravings. They had to find a way to kill him quietly (Matthew 26:3–5). They had to find a way to murder an innocent man without losing any esteem or influence.

While the Pharisees and Judas were both parts of God's great salvation plan, the motives behind their actions demonstrate a lack of trust in God and His plan.

Mountain-moving, God-trusting faith, not man-centered, money focused fear, is what we need.

Here are some questions to think through and talk about.

What are some things you are afraid of?How does the fear of people impact the way you live your life?
What are some truths you need to remember that will help you focus more on faith in God than fear of man?

Chapter 20 Holiness

Welcome to the 20th week of reading the book Holiness.

This week's chapter is "Christ is All"

I want to encourage you to continue reading this great book 

or to start reading it today.

For general info about the reading schedule go to 

http://drodgersjr.blogspot.com/p/t4g2018.html

Here are the questions for this seventeenth chapter.

GENERAL (Questions for each chapter)

1.  What is a quote or two from Chapter 19 that stood out to you?

2.  What was something this chapter said about God the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit?

3. What was something this chapter said about man?

4.  What was something this chapter said about how a Christian is to live?  

Think general and specific applications.

FINAL QUESTION
5.  What is the most significant thing that you learned from this chapter?

The Emotions of Easter – Joy of Palm Sunday!

Introduction to the 5 days of readings.

Throughout this week (Sunday, Tuesday, Thursday, Friday and Saturday), there are going to be five posts with Bible reading, quotes and some questions  for you and your family with the theme of "The Emotions of Easter!"

The five emotions are joy, fear, disgust, anger, and sadness.   These emotions also correspond to the emotions in Disney’s Inside Out.  One of the reasons I originally decided to write the post with these emotions is because of an article entitled “Talking About ‘Inside Out’” by Jeremy Pierre.  In the article Pierre writes “Emotions reveal desires.”  It is my prayer that ultimately the Holy Spirit and God’s Word would draw you and your family even closer to God.  These posts are a collection of resources that will hopefully help you look into God’s Word and examine your motives and desires.

The Bible reading is the Triumphal Entry.

On Palm Sunday, Jesus entrance into the city is filled with joy!  Branch waving, coat dropping, Hosanna shouting joy!  Take time to read the Triumphal Entry account in Matthew 21:1 – 11; Mark 11:1 – 11; Luke 19:28 – 44; John 12:12 – 19. 

Here are some questions to think through and talk about.

What is joy?

Christian joy is a good feeling in the soul, produced by the Holy Spirit, as he causes us to see the beauty of Christ in the Word and in the world.

Now understand, describing joy as a good feeling is not a bad thing.  You don't necessarily have control over your feelings.  When you think about what God has done for you through Jesus Christ it should make you joyful.

What brings you joy?

What do you do when you are joyful?

Here are some additional readings about the joy of Palm Sunday.

Here are some quotes regarding the Joy of Palm Sunday from an article entitled "The Strange and Wonderful Ride."  Click HERE for the entire article.

“Joy shines on Palm Sunday — a joy, as we now know, that anticipates a supernova of gladness coming on the following Sunday. In the thrill of hope, the crowds rehearse the praises of Psalm 118, pining that perhaps this is, at long last, the great 'Son of David,' the promised royal rescuer, riding into the Holy City to definitively save his people.”

“Hosanna to the Son of David! Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord! Hosanna in the highest!” (Matthew 21:9).  Hosanna— a Hebrew declaration of adoration and delight — is the refrain for this triumphal entry."

“The joy of Palm Sunday is a shadow of the joy to come.  Yet the joy of Palm Sunday forecasts the unrivaled euphoria to come on Easter morning.”

“In Jesus our joy comes from the most unlikely place.”

“The long-awaited Messiah comes not in human glory, but peculiar glory — the glory of strength in weakness, the glory of indomitable joy in excruciating pain, the glory of the Lion of Judah who gives himself as the Lamb of God. He comes on a donkey’s colt to be the stone the builders will utterly reject on Friday, and that God himself will unveil as the very cornerstone on Sunday morning.” 

WDJD? What did Jesus do?

This week's Fighter Verse is Hebrews 12:2.

This verse reminds us of what Jesus did for us and how we are to live.

Here is the video we watched last night.

I want to make a quick note before watching the video.
In the timeline of the video
Piper says he believes the proper interpretation is the Greek phrase translated "for the joy..." is "in order that."
He then plays Devil's advocate with the idea of it being translated "instead of" because that is how the Greek word is mostly translated, as a replacement term.
Piper then returns to the proper interpretation "in order that."

There are at least two reasons I think it is important to understand, or at the very least be aware, of what is going on with this verse.  One is Bible study/translation related and the other is everyday living related.

I posted more about these reasons after the video.




There are at least two reasons I think it is important to understand, or at the very least be aware, of what is going on with this verse.  

One is Bible study/translation related and 
The New Living Translation interpretation of Hebrews 12:2 has the following footnote "12:2b Or Instead of the joy." 

Instead of the joy awaiting him, he endured the cross, disregarding its shame. Now he is seated in the place of honor beside God’s throne.

There is a translation of the Bible on Biblegateway, Jubilee Bible 2000, that is translated as

with our eyes fixed on Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith, who having been offered joy, endured the cross, despising the shame and was seated at the right hand of the throne of God.

In reading from and choosing translations it is important to be aware of these kinds of things.  

The second thing is these two different translations show very different ways to handle suffering.

• "Instead of joy" causes us to think it is either joy or the pain of the cross.
• "For the joy" causes to remember that through the pain and suffering there is joy with when our hope is in Christ.

Chapter 19 Holiness

Welcome to the 19th week of reading the book Holiness.

This week's chapter is "Wants of the Times"

I want to encourage you to continue reading this great book 

or to start reading it today.

For general info about the reading schedule go to 

http://drodgersjr.blogspot.com/p/t4g2018.html

Here are the questions for this seventeenth chapter.

GENERAL (Questions for each chapter)

1.  What is a quote or two from Chapter 19 that stood out to you?

2.  What was something this chapter said about God the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit?

3. What was something this chapter said about man?

4.  What was something this chapter said about how a Christian is to live?  

Think general and specific applications.

SPECIFIC (Questions specific to this chapter)

5.  After reading this chapter, what is something you need to do because God has ordained you to live in this specific time?

FINAL QUESTION
6.  What is the most significant thing that you learned from this chapter?

1 John Lesson 6

Three Rights of a Christian:

1. Right Belief
2. Right Love
3. Right Behavior

Audio of 1 John (Total: 14 minutes 42 seconds
  1 John 1 - 1:21
  1 John 2 - 4:02
  1 John 3 - 3:17
  1 John 4 - 3:02
  1 John 5 - 2:53

 Twenty-two things we can know from 1 John 1 through 5:

1. We can know that we know God (2:3, 13,14, 4:7)
2. We can know that we are in God (2:5)
3. We can know that it is the last hour (2:18)
4. We can know that the truth (2:21; 3:19)
5. We can know that Jesus is righteous (2:29)
6. We can know that we will be like Jesus (3:2)
7. We can know that Jesus came to take away sins (3:5)
8. We can know that Jesus is sinless (3:5)
9. We can know that we have out of death into life (3:14)
10. We can know that no murderer has eternal life (3:15)
11. We can know love (3:16; 4:16)
12. We can know that God abides in us (3:24; 4:13)
13. We can know the Spirit of God (4:2)
14. We can know the Spirit of truth and the spirit of deception (4:6)
15. We can know that we love God's children (5:2)
16. We can know that we have eternal life (5:13)
17. We can know that God answers prayer (5:15)
18. We can know that we will not practice sin (5:18)
19. We can know that we belong to God (5:19)
20. We can know that the Son has come (5:20)
21. We can know that the Son of God has given us understanding (5:20)
22. We can know Him who is true (5:20)

My study notes for 1 John 5.

A Great Cloud of Not So Great Witnesses

This week's Fighter Verse, Hebrews 12:1, refers to a "great cloud of witnesses," and these witnesses are the faithful saints referred to in chapter 11. 

MacArthur's New Testament Commentary: Hebrews contains an interesting thought-provoking note about Hebrews 12:1b.

I do not believe that the cloud of witnesses surrounding us is standing in the galleries of heaven watching as we perform.  The idea here is not that we should be faithful lest they be disappointed, or that we should try to impress them like a sports team trying to impress the fans in the bleachers.  These are witnesses to God, not of us.  They are examples, not onlookers.  They have proved by their testimony, their witness, that the life of faith is the only life to live. (375)

Hebrews 11 contains "so great a cloud of witnesses" who are far from perfect.  
The chapter is filled with those who lied, got drunk, killed, deceived, committed adultery and even more.
The chapter is also filled with those who trusted God and were not perfect.
This not so great, "great cloud of witnesses" give testimony of what their great God has done.

Part of last night's Fight Night study was talking to your children about those Bible stories that are hard to talk about with children.  The reason we did this as part of the study was because the PrimeTime kids' study was looking at Jephthah during their Bible time.

Two of three stories I want to mention in this story are individuals in Hebrews 11.

The first is David, who had an adulterous relationship with Bathsheba and had her husband killed in battle.  This "man after [God's] own heart" (Acts 13:22) was not perfect.  Here is a graphic that shows how to talk about this story to children of different ages (not cited because I cannot remember where I found it).  Click on the graphic for a better view.

In each account, the story focus on David sins, repentance and God's forgiveness.

The second individual was Jephthah, the individual the PrimeTime kids studied last night.  
I referenced two Answers in Genesis article about Jephthah:

• Jephthah's Vow
• Unacceptable Offering?

Here is an extended quote from the Jephthah's Vow article.

As I wrote in the footnote of the original article, “Jephthah is listed in Hebrews 11, which is often called the ‘Faith Hall of Fame,’ but it is important to notice that he is listed with Gideon, Barak, and Samson (Hebrews 11:32). When they trusted Him, God used these men to win important victories in the book of Judges, but each of them had serious problems, such as idolatry (Judges 8:27), cowardice (Judges 4:8), and infidelity (Judges 16:1), respectively. So we should not necessarily hold them up as examples of godliness.

Hebrews 11 certainly includes some of the incredible heroes of the faith, but many of these people also committed some pretty heinous acts (as many believers since then have also done). Abraham and Isaac lied (or at best misled others) about their respective wives. Jacob deceived his father. Moses murdered a man. Rahab was a harlot. David also appears in this chapter and is elsewhere called a man after God’s own heart (Acts 13:22; cf. 1 Samuel 13:14), yet he committed adultery with Bathsheba, tried to cover it up, and then arranged for the murder of her husband. Were David’s actions any better than child sacrifice in fulfillment of a rash vow?

The Big Reminder in all of this is the Bible is, first and ultimately, about God and His glory.  


The third narrative which is not in Hebrews 11 and we did not talk about in the study is the story of Achan.

One of the lessons for Emmanuel Baptist Church's Vacation Bible School was Achan.
This story of a disobedient person and his family being swallowed up by the earth is a difficult story for children and for adults.

To help the teachers tell this scary story in a God-glorifying way, I shared a part of Jack Klumpenhower's Show Them Jesus in a blog post. 
ekidzministry.blogspot.com/2017/06/achan-scary-vacation-bible-school-story.html

HERE is a review of the book.

HERE is where you can purchase the book at Amazon and don't forget LifeWay on Talmadge will price match Amazon.

1 John Lesson 5

Throughout this study of 1 John, we have taken the time to read an extended passage of scripture and then discuss it.  It is my prayer that attempting to model a One-to-One Bible Reading Model in class might motivate others to read passages of the Bible with someone else.

SPECIFIC WORDS IN CHAPTER FOUR:

Two words from 1 John 4:9, "In this, the love of God was made manifest among us, that God sent his only Son into the world so that we might live through him."
Manifest:

• clear or obvious to the eye

• display or show by one's acts

• be evidence of; prove

"In" and "through"

• "in" appears in verse 12

• Fixed position; rest.  Check out www.blueletterbible.org

• We are told to rest in, trust in God's love and God.  

• "through" appears in verse 9

• A primary preposition denoting the channel of an act.  Check out www.blueletterbible.org.

• The verse says we might live "through" Jesus not "like" Jesus.  Jesus is the source of real life.  We need to do God's work God's way which is through the power of Jesus Christ.  

The second usage of a unique word:  Propitiation

• This word appears in 1 John 2:2 and 4:10

• It is the appeasement of God's wrath

• This word appears a co"Propitiation" through Jesus Christ doesn't just remind us that God loves.  It is necessary for a right relationship with God the Father.

VERY BASIC OUTLINE OF CHAPTER FOUR:

1. Confession of Jesus' Deity (4:1-6)
2. Actions of Love (4:7- 
1. Love of God
• Worship
2. Love of other Christians
• Equipping and training
• Service
3. Love of the world
• Evangelism
• Service

Chapter 18 Holiness

Welcome to the 18th week of reading the book Holiness.

This week's chapter is "Unsearchable Riches"

I want to encourage you to continue reading this great book 

or to start reading it today.

For general info about the reading schedule go to 

http://drodgersjr.blogspot.com/p/t4g2018.html

Here are the questions for this seventeenth chapter.

GENERAL (Questions for each chapter)

1.  What is a quote or two from Chapter 18 that stood out to you?

2.  What was something this chapter said about God the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit?

3. What was something this chapter said about man?

4.  What was something this chapter said about how a Christian is to live?  

Think general and specific applications.

SPECIFIC (Questions specific to this chapter)

5.  According to this chapter, what should preaching be?

FINAL QUESTION
6.  What is the most significant thing that you learned from this chapter?