FROM YOUR PASTOR’S DESK:
August 17
CHRIST UPLIFTED: ‘BEHOLD THE SON OF MAN’ – NOT THE ‘MAN OF SIN’! (Part 4)
The additional overview of Nicodemus’ role, which appears as Part 5, tomorrow’s reading (so don’t miss it), reveals the significance of Nicodemus as a prototype of a certain prominent class of truth-seekers, thus, his unique place in Christ’s ultra brief yet completed three and-a-half year ministry from His baptism by John in the Jordan river and anointing of the Holy Spirit, 27 A.D., to His crucifixion, 31 A.D.
The latter was at the behest of and in the hands of the prototypical unholy alliance of the antiChristian union of church and state, religion and politics, church craft and statecraft between the JEWISH Sanhedrin and pagan ROME in the condemnation and crucifixion of the Son of man, Jesus Christ, God Creator in the flesh, the Anointed One, the promised Messiah, the Seed of the woman (Gen. 3:15)
The following lessons self-evident in the summary of Part 5, which are:
(1) Like the unidentified “seven thousand who had not bowed their knees to Baal” (the Phoenician sun-god) in the time of the northern kingdom of Israel’s greatest apostasy under the reign of king Ahab and his wicked, sun-worshipping wife Jezebel, during Elijah’s prophetic ministry, God has a “few good men” for a time unperceived and unknown, yet strategically positioned in the highest levels of government as well as in the halls of other institutions of power and authority in human society who will perform their part in God’s overarching plans at their appointed time and place.
(2) The darkness and secrecy provided by the night is a either a wonderful blessing or a terrible curse, depending on what it is used for. God designed the daytime for work and the nightime for rest. The winged fowl famously go to roost by sunset and the rooster announces the dawn with his trumpet-like crowing.
Fallen angels and wicked men plan and practice their evil arts and implement their unrighteous deeds and works under the cloak of darkness. Their guardian-recording angels, however, faithfully enter all these secret thoughts and hidden deeds in their book of records in heaven, to stand as a witness against them in their day of judgment (unless thoroughly repented of and forsaken by God’s empowering grace, while still alive and rational).
In stark contrast, the wise and prudent “make hay while the sun shines” but also find precious time after dark to do their homework of diligently searching the Holy Scriptures daily, i.e., nightly, to learn the pure unvarnished “truth as it is in Jesus” and grow correspondingly, intellectually and spiritually in it’s advancing light.
Paul commended the Bereans over the church in Thessalonika for doing so. Acts 17: 11. They literally and spiritually fall asleep with God’s Word as the last thing in their mind, not any of the “earthly things” and ideas or carnal thoughts and imaginations. If such persons die that night for whatever cause, they most likely “died in the Lord,” not “perished in their sins,” and therefore “rest from their labors and their works do follow them” to their judgment. Rev. 14: 13; Rom. 14: 10, 12; Eccl. 12: 13, 14.
Our last thoughts and state of moral character before we die are the same when we are resurrected, either in the first or second resurrection!
How important that all fully comprehend what Jesus meant when He told Nicodemus: “Unless you are baptized by water and the (Holy) Spirit, you CANNOT enter the kingdom of God!”
(To be continued). Bless all, NMF.