Friday, April 19, 2013

The Story of My Life as told by Jesus Christ

(Seed Sowers Christian Book Publishing House. http://www.seedsowers.com/)

Friday, April 19, 2013        Several People Saw Me    

Page 321-322         Matthew 28:16; Mark 16:12-13, 14b; Luke 24:13-43;

John 20:19-25

NOTE: When the editors of The Story of My Life as told by Jesus Christ merged the four Gospels into one narrative, some of material was taken out of its original context and the result can be confusing. In the reading for today, inserting Mark 16:12-13, 14b between Luke and John is an example of this.  

The story of the two disciples on the road to Emmaus is a picture of the normal Christian life. Cleopas and his wife Mary, (if this is the same Cleopas mentioned in John 19:25), had despaired over the political, economic and spiritual conditions in Israel. They had encountered Jesus, and had hoped that he would be the one to set them free. Then that hope was destroyed by the death and burial of Jesus. They had not been able to grasp that Jesus was the fulfillment of their hope, because they had been looking at the scriptures with too narrow of a focus. As Jesus comes along side of them, he gives them a new perspective. Jesus’ revelation to them of God’s ultimate plan of redemption for all people, everywhere, prepared them to experience the presence of Jesus, anew, as Jesus broke bread with them.

The first meal recorded in the Bible is when Adam and Eve ate the forbidden fruit. Through their act of disobedience, sin and death entered the world. Here, in the first meal recorded after Jesus’ resurrection, Jesus, the victor over sin and death, is revealed.

Thus the core of the Christian life is revealed as the study of the scriptures, with Jesus as our guide, and with a celebration of his presence with us in the sacrament of Holy Communion.

When Jesus appeared to his disciples on the evening of the first day of the week, he gave them the responsibility for taking his message of God’s New Creation to the entire world. When Jesus breathes on them, it invokes memories of Genesis 2:7 where God “breathed the breath of life into the man’s nostrils, and the man became a living person.” Now the disciples have received New Life in Christ.

Jesus also gives his disciples the authority to forgive sins. This delegation of authority immediately follows the imparting of the Holy Spirit. It is not by their own power or wisdom that the disciples will forgive sins. It will be by and through the power of the Holy Spirit. If they are to be granted power to forgive, then they also have the power to not forgive. This is not the power to establish rules about what’s sinful and what is not, as the Pharisees had done with their legislation of Sabbath rules. Rather, this authority deals with cheap grace. “Cheap grace is preaching forgiveness without requiring repentance, baptism without church discipline, Communion without confession. Cheap grace is grace without discipleship, grace without the cross, grace without Jesus Christ, living and incarnate." (Dietrich Bonhoeffer, The Cost of Discipleship)

God’s establishment of His New Creation came by and through the crucifixion of Jesus. It is by the blood of Jesus that sin and death have been defeated. The issue of sin was not a trifling matter for God before Jesus’ crucifixion, and it is certainly not a trifling matter now.

Sē’lah

<><  <><  <><  <><

What word or phrase in today’s reading attracts your attention?

Reflect on that word or phrase.

What insights come to you?

How does this passage touch your life today?

<><  <><  <><  <><

(Selah is a word that appears in the Book of Psalms that I often use as the Complimentary Closing in my correspondence. Its meaning, as I use the word, is to pause and think about these things.)

These meditations are written by Alex M. Knight as he seeks the life in Christ as his way of life.  In addition to this BLOG they are distributed on the Constant Contact email server. You may subscribe to this email service by sending an email to: amkrom812@gmail.com. The BLOG is also available on Amazon Kindle, by subscription

The second edition of my book, First Think – Then Pray has been released as an e-book on Amazon Kindle. http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00BGQL5JC

The Story of My Life as told by Jesus Christ

(Seed Sowers Christian Book Publishing House. http://www.seedsowers.com/)

Monday, April 22, 2013      Thomas No Longer Doubted       

Page 327      Matthew 28:17; John 20:26-29