In a small group that I am a part of, we have been listening to an audio recording of a lecture done by the late Prof. James B. Torrance back during the 90s. These JB Torrance audios have been divided into six parts and tonight, during our regular Wednesday night Discover the Word session, we will be listening to the third part.
I have heard these audio recordings countless of times but it never ceases to inspire me. I learned more when I listened to it again many times. About a year or two ago, when my 87-year old mother-in-law got sick until she died many months later, she listened to these audios during her last few months.
I have really been inspired listening to these audios ever since I got hold of it from the internet. I cannot now remember how or where exactly I got it but I do have copies of the 6-part audios.
The topic of the lecture is on Prayer and the Triune God of Grace. The focus is on prayer but as Professor James Torrance goes on explaining all about prayer, he gives a broad overview of what incarnational Trinitarian theology is all about and he introduces us to who the Triune God of grace is. The way he talks and explains things touches my heart not just my head. Christ through his Spirit has definitely been opening my mind slowly but surely through these JB Torrance audios. It is for this reason that I am inspired to share this as well with my fellow small group members and to everyone who may not be aware of it’s existence yet.
It is great, good news to know that in Christ the Beloved, we are also loved by the Father. It is good to know that Christ is our High Priest who stands in for us and brings us with him right into the Holy of Holies, into the inner sanctuary, to have fellowship and communion with and in the life and love of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit. This is really great, good news!
Last Sunday, September 16, I had the privilege again of giving a sermon in my home local church, the ReThink Community, a local congregation of my denomination, the Grace Communion International. Based on Mark 8:27-38, I spoke about who Jesus is and who we humans are in Jesus Christ — especially those who believe in Him.
Here’s my sermon outline. (Right below this text outline, I have also included the Facebook Live video of the message.)
A. Who is Jesus Christ?
At the beginning of the gospel of Mark, we the modern readers have the benefit of reading right away in Mark 1:1 as to who Jesus is. Mark tells us that Jesus Christ is the Son of God.
When Jesus baptized, God the Father said in Mark 1:11, “You are my Son, whom I love; with you I am well pleased.” God the Father identifies Jesus as his Son.
In Mark 1:23-24, an evil spirit identified Jesus and said, “I know who you are– the Holy One of God!” Jesus told him to keep quiet about his real identity. It was not yet time for Jesus to be revealed at that point in time. “Be quiet!” said Jesus sternly. “Come out of him!” (Mark 1:25).
When Jesus was alone with his 12 disciples and some others, “He told them, “The secret of the kingdom of God has been given to you. But to those on the outside everything is said in parables” (Mark 4:10-11).
Jesus always talked in parables publicly. “But when he was alone with his own disciples, he explained everything.” (Mark 4:33-34)
Jesus and his disciples went around Galilee preaching the good news and at one time they were in the middle of the lake. As Jesus was sleeping at the back of the boat, there developed a thunderstorm with strong winds. The disciples were terrified and woke Jesus up. “They were terrified and asked each other, “Who is this? Even the wind and the waves obey him!” (Mark 4:41).
The evil spirits called Legion identified Jesus as the Son of the Most High God (Mark 5:7-9).
At one time Jesus revived a 12 year old girl who was already dead. “He took her by the hand and said to her, “Talitha koum!” (which means, “Little girl, I say to you, get up!”). 42 Immediately the girl stood up and walked around (she was twelve years old). At this they were completely astonished. 43 He gave strict orders not to let anyone know about this, and told them to give her something to eat.” They were told to keep this a secret.
In his own hometown in Nazareth, Jesus was a nobody to his relatives and town mates. “Isn’t this the carpenter? Isn’t this Mary’s son and the brother of James, Joseph, Judas and Simon? Aren’t his sisters here with us?” And they took offense at him.” (Mark 6:3) Coming back to his hometown, Jesus was considered as just one of the ordinary guys. That is who Jesus was to them — just a nobody.
A lot of speculation developed as to who Jesus really was.
“King Herod heard about this, for Jesus’ name had become well known. Some were saying, “John the Baptist has been raised from the dead, and that is why miraculous powers are at work in him.” 15 Others said, “He is Elijah.” And still others claimed, “He is a prophet, like one of the prophets of long ago.” 16 But when Herod heard this, he said, “John, the man I beheaded, has been raised from the dead.” (Mark 6:14-16)
After miraculous feeding of the 5,000 Jesus told the disciples to go ahead on the boat going to Bethsaida. In the evening, they were already in the middle of the lake rowing hard when Jesus was about to pass them by walking on water! They were terrified thinking Jesus was a ghost! Same question: “Who is this man?” (Mark 6:44-52)
The deaf-mute whom Jesus healed was told to keep quiet, but I guess he was practicing his new skill in talking after being healed of being mute (Mark 7:35-36).
The Pharisees also came to question who Jesus was and asked him for a miraculous sign. But Jesus would not give them any sign at all (Mark 8:11-12).
So, Who was Jesus According to the People?
So, who was Jesus Christ according to people’s views about him? The disciples answered that people thought he was John the Baptist, Elijah or some other prophet. There were a lot guessing. (Mark 8:27-28)
But Who was Jesus According to his Disciples?
But then Jesus asked the disciples themselves for their opinion of who Jesus was. And Peter was quick to answer (Mark 8:29). And then they were told to keep quiet about it. (Mark 8:30)
Who Jesus is According to Jesus
And then Jesus told them who the real Messiah is in Mark 8:31. When Peter said, “You are the Christ,” he had the right answer, but he had the wrong concept of the Messiah. He thought of a conquering king like old times during the time of King David and Solomon.
B. Who Are we in Jesus Christ?
Who are we in Jesus Christ? We are his followers. We are his disciples. But does it entail when we claim to be a follower of Jesus? “The disciples were called Christians first at Antioch” (Acts 11:26). Greek, Christianos, meaning a follower of Jesus. A Christian is a disciple or a follower of Jesus.
What it means to be a follower of Jesus?
At this point in time, Jesus began to go public. He not only talked to his disciples, but he also invited the crowd — the public, to listen as well.
“Then he called the crowd to him along with his disciples and said: “If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross and follow me” (Mark 8:34).
Here Jesus begins to explain what it means to be a follower or disciple of Jesus: it’s self-denial and cross-bearing. Here we see where this road of discipleship will lead to: losing one’s life. And it’s going to be messy!
Deny Oneself
Denying oneself – not just moralistic changes in behavior or delaying satisfaction for future benefits. But a total change in our thinking. Be transformed by the renewing of our minds. Focused on Christ. Become Christ-centered, not self-centered.
Self-denial does not mean seeking or embracing abuse for its own sake, as if suffering is something we like. Jesus spent over seven chapters in Mark healing the sick and helping people. He was not promoting suffering. He was not endorsing suffering as something to look forward to.
The kind of suffering Jesus is talking about is in Mark 8:35, “For whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for me and for the gospel will save it.”
This kind of unjust suffering is because we are followers of Jesus and we are not ashamed of it. We don’t deny Jesus just like Peter denied him 3 times at one time in his life. This kind of unjust suffering is because we are living and sharing the good news of Jesus Christ.
But if we are suffering because we are sinning and doing wrong, being evil and causing harm to others, that’s not the suffering we are talking about.
Cross-bearing
Taking up our cross does not mean simply enduring unto the end. The cross meant death. It means giving up our own reputation and life.
Conclusion:
So, Who is Jesus Christ? He is our Savior and Lord. He is the Messiah. He suffered and died but was resurrected, ascended to heaven and will return.
And Who are we? We are God’s children. We are followers of Jesus Christ and we are ready deny ourselves, take up our cross and follow Jesus. And we are waiting for his return when we shall be changed and have glorified bodies just like Jesus has. That’s who we are my friends!
May this good news about who Jesus is and who we are in Jesus inspire us to carry on, deny ourselves, take up our cross and follow Jesus.
May I share this Facebook Live video of this message beginning at about 23:48.
Magandang araw po! Eto po si Pastor Len Joson. Alam nyo po ba na tayo daw ay patay na at si Kristo na ang nabubuhay sa atin? Pag-usapan natin ‘to saglit:
Sinabi ni Apostol Pablo sa Galatia 2:20:
“Namatay na akong kasama ni Cristo sa krus. Hindi na ako ang nabubuhay ngayon kundi si Cristo na ang nabubuhay sa akin. At habang ako’y nabubuhay pa sa katawang-lupa, mamumuhay ako sa pananalig sa Anak ng Diyos na umibig sa akin at naghandog ng kanyang buhay para sa akin.”
Ang sabi ni Apostol Pablo, kasama daw po siya ni Kristo na pinako sa krus. Nang mamatay si Kristo sa krus dahil sa ating mga kasalanan, kasama din daw po siyang namatay. Tayong lahat na mga tao ay nakasama rin kay Kristo sa kanyang pagkapako sa krus at tayong lahat ay patay na. Inako ni Kristo ang lahat ng ating mga kasalanan at siya ay namatay para sa atin.
Kaya daw po, hindi na tayo ang nabubuhay kundi si Kristo na — na nasa atin. Si Kristo na banal at matuwid ay siya nang nabubuhay para sa atin. Dahil dito, dapat lang na tayo ay sumang-ayon, sumunod at tumupad sa mga pagsusumamo, pag-gising, pagpukaw at pagpapa-alala sa atin ng Bahal na Espirito ni Kristo na nasa atin. Huwag po nating suwayin. Huwag po nating tanggihan. Huwag po nating kontrahin si Kristo sa pamamagitan ng kanyang Espirito na nasa atin na siyang gumagawa at tayo’y hinuhubog at binabago na maging katulad ni Kristo na banal at matuwid.
Dahil dito, sabi ni Apostol Pablo na siya daw po ay namumuhay na — na may buong pusong paniniwala at pananalig sa Anak ng Diyos. Buong-buo ang kanyang tiwala at pananalig na si Kristo na ang nabubuhay para sa kanya upang siya ay gawing ganap at kumpletong banal at matuwid. Lahat po ng eto ay ginagawa niya dahil sa laki ng kanyang pagmamahal sa ating lahat.
Eto po si Pastor Len Joson na nakikipagkuwentohan sa inyo tungkol sa Pagkakaisa at Pagkakasundo kay Hesu Kristo.
Pakinggan ang audio na mp3 dito po (2 min, 51 sec)
Background Music Credit: “What a Beautiful Sunset – radio mix!” Exzel Music Publishing (freemusicpublicdomain.com) Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/
Maayong adlaw kaninyong tanan diha sa Ipil, sa Zamboanga Sibugay, sa Zamboanga del Norte, Zamboanga del Sur ug sa uban pang mga lugar nga naminaw diha sa Radio Sangyaw. Kini mao si Pastor Len nga amigo ni Pastor Geoffrey, ang atong radio station manager sa Radio Sangyaw.
Miingon sa Apostol Pablo sa Galatia 2:20:
20 “Gilansang ako uban kang Cristo didto sa krus busa dili na ako ang nabuhi kondili si Cristo na nga ania kanako. Ug kining kinabuhi ko karon akong gikinabuhi diha sa akong pagtuo sa Anak sa Dios nga nahigugma ug nagtugyan sa iyang kaugalingon alang kanako.”
Miingon sa Apostol Pablo nga kauban kuno siya ni Kristo nga gilansang sa krus. Sa pagkamatay ni Kristo sa krus tungod sa atong mga sala, naapil na pod kuno siya nga namatay uban sa iyang mga sala. Kitang tanang mga tawo naapil na pod diha kang Kristo sa iyang pagkalansang sa krus ug kita patay na — uban sa atong mga sala.
Busa, dili na kita ang nabuhi kondili si Kristo na — nga anaa kanato. Si Kristo nga balaan ug matarong nagapuyo na diha kanato. Tungod niini, angay lang nga mooyon, mosunod ug motuman kita sa mga pag-awhag, pagpukaw ug pagpahinumdum kanato sa Balaang Espirito ni Kristo diha atong tagsa-tagsa nga mga kasing-kasing. Ayaw pagsupak-supak. Ayaw balibare. Ayaw kontraha si Kristo pinaagi sa Balaang Espirito diha kanato nga nagmani-obra ug nagtrabaho sa atong mga kasing-kasing aron kita mahisama niya nga hingpit ug matarong.
Si Kristo nga buhi mao nay anaa kanato ug ang atong karaang pagkatawo uban sa atong mga sala wala na — patay na. Si Kristo na ang naghari sa atong kinabuhi. Anaa siya diha sa matag-usa kanato. Ang iyang pagkabalaan ug pagkamatarong anaa na kanato. Wala na kitay sala sa atubangan sa Diyos Amahan tungod kay ang iyang makit-an si Kristo man ug dili ang atong pagkamakasasala. Maayong Balita kini!
Tungod niini, miingon sa Apostol Pablo nga siya nagkinabuhi na diha sa iyang pagtuo sa Anak sa Diyos. Mao pod ang atong angay ug maayong buhaton. Ipadayon nato nga motoo, mosalig sa pagtoo ni Kristo nga maoy makaluwas kanato. Dili nato supakon ug kontrahon si Kristo diha kanato pinaagi sa Balaang Espirito nga kita iyang gihinay-hinay ug bag-o hangtod kita mahisama niya ug makasulod sa iyang gingharian inig abot sa saktong panahon. Kining tanan gibuhat sa Ginoo tungod sa iyang dakung gugma sa atong tanan.
Hinaot pa unta nga kini nga pulong sa Diyos nakadasig kaninyong tanan karong adlawa. Maadyong adlaw kaninyong tanan.
Pwede paminawon ang mensahe diri: audio mp3 (4 min 9 sec).
Background Music Credit: “What a Beautiful Sunset – radio mix!” Exzel Music Publishing (freemusicpublicdomain.com)
Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/
Last June 17, I was invited to preach on Father’s Day at Grace Communion Crossway, a local congregation of Grace Communion International meeting at D’Cup Coffee Republic in Mandaluyong City, Metro Manila. Since it was Father’s Day, I decided to talk about appreciating and knowing our Father on that day. Aside from the video, here’s also my notes below:
Knowing Our Father
Happy Father’s Day! Thanks to Pastor Aron for inviting me to speak to you again.
Every day there are around 4,500 Filipinos who leave the country and work abroad. This is roughly 12.5 million Filipinos currently working or are residing abroad. This is about 10-11% of the total Philippine population. This is according to the data of POEA as of September 23, 2017 – last year.
It’s sad that in our Philippine society today, many fathers (including mothers) are far away from their families due to the need to earn money in a far country. It is a challenging and difficult situation.
Many children of OFWs are growing up without really knowing who their fathers are. For many of them, they long to be with their dad. They long to get to know their dad. It’s a sad situation for many – not all.
Let me focus our attention today on knowing our fathers. Let us get to know and appreciate our Father today.
Our relationship with our human fathers
More and more children worldwide are growing up without the blessing and presence of a loving father. Even here in the Philippines, we have a lot of children whose fathers (including mothers) are away from home working as OFWs. And that can be a challenging situation for some of us affected by this.
Make the Most and Appreciate our human fathers
But let’s make the most out of our present situation and celebrate, be thankful that many of us have experienced or are experiencing a father’s love. Many of us are enjoying the presence of and knowing our fathers.
We are all familiar with many sad stories of broken families due to this OFW phenomenon. A teenage son or daughter, without the guidance of parents may sometimes resort to drugs and end up in deep trouble. Without the guidance of loving parents, some resort to crime and wrong habits destroying their young lives. That’s the national situation now. But let’s talk closer to home.
Absentee father, overbearing father or ungodly father
Most fathers love their children. But in our fallen world, some fathers do not act like loving fathers as they ought to be. Some of you may have experienced or are experiencing a father that – a father who is cruel, unloving or worse, maybe a child molester. That can be very devastating for a young child. That’s a sad thing that could happen to a child. But that is the real world we live in – in this “present evil age” which Paul mentioned.
Reminder for fathers – do not exasperate
Here’s a good reminder for all of us who are fathers. This is how we ought to treat and deal with our children: NIV Ephesians 6:4 – Fathers, do not exasperate your children; instead, bring them up in the training and instruction of the Lord.
ESV Ephesians 6:4 – Fathers, do not provoke your children to anger, but bring them up in the discipline and instruction of the Lord.
Paul repeats the same reminder in Colossians: ESV Colossians 3:21 Fathers, do not provoke your children, lest they become discouraged.
Sometimes as fathers, we can be so overbearing, annoying, demanding, utos dito utos doon, becoming like a dictator forgetting that our children need our love and affection. If we are a hot-tempered dad, let’s cool down and not forget this reminder from Paul.
Father’s responsibility – training and instruction of the Lord
It is our responsibility as dads according to Paul bring up our children in the training, discipline and instruction of the Lord. Let’s not become so permissive such that the child becomes a rebel and a brat as he or she grows up. Have some time to study God’s Word together or pray together especially when they are young, so they will learn early on.
As fathers (and mothers too) let us not exasperate or provoke our children that leads him or her to eventually hate us – the parents. Let us not discourage our children but instead boost their morale, train them, discipline them and give them instructions about the Lord in a loving environment.
This is how we human fathers ought to be. A timely reminder for all of us parents from time to time I believe.
For children: Honoring our parents – despite their human faults and weaknesses
This is so important that it’s part of the commandments given to us. Honoring our parents, not disrespecting them, loving them despite or no matter how evil our parents might be, that is the right thing to do.
Children let us never disrespect our parents. We are told to obey our parents in the Lord.
NIV Ephesians 6:1 Children, obey your parents in the Lord, for this is right. 2 “Honor your father and mother”– which is the first commandment with a promise– 3 “that it may go well with you and that you may enjoy long life on the earth.” 4 Fathers, do not exasperate your children; instead, bring them up in the training and instruction of the Lord.
Now we have been talking about our human fathers up to this time. We have been talking about how we, the children ought to obey, love and honor our fathers and mothers and in return we fathers are reminded not to exasperate, discourage and shatter the spirits of our children.
Now let’s talk about our relationship with our heavenly Father.
Our relationship with our heavenly father
Distorted View of the Father due to bad experience with human fathers
Some have distorted view of the Father because of their bad experience with their human fathers. In such cases, it can be challenging to relate to God the Father. It can be a hindrance to knowing our father. But Jesus shows us who the Father really is and hopefully we can learn to love the Father more and more as we get closer to him through prayer and study of his Word daily.
Just last night I read this from one of my Facebook friends: “My Papa is the most selfless person I know! Always there to help, share and serve. <3 Happy Father’s Day Papa! It wasn’t difficult for me to understand God’s love because of you. Thank you, Papa Dear!”
In this example of a loving human father, the child will not have a hard time understanding who our heavenly Father is. The child can easily connect that God the Father must be very loving too because of his or her wonderful experience with his human father. The child will have no difficulty in knowing the Father.
Distorted view of the Father due to bad theology.
We are all familiar with what Jesus said on the cross when he was about to die at about 3pm. He said, “My God, my God why have you forsaken me?” From this verse, many have assumed that God the Father has abandoned his Son for a moment because Jesus became sin for us. The Father is pictured as being a harsh God of the Old Testament while Jesus is pictured as the loving God of the New Testament. We had that view before. Sad to say, that is the view of many. Maybe that’s your view too.
But that is a misunderstanding of the passage. It is quoted from Psalm 22:1. According to Jewish tradition, it was the title of the song or psalm. Literary context is important in Bible interpretation. When the title is mentioned, everybody knows what the message of the song is trying to convey. In this particular case, if we will read the whole of Psalm 22, we will find out that God the Father has not actually forsaken and has not abandoned his Son not even for one second. The Father and the Son are one as Jesus said. The Father has not actually abandoned the Son.
Who is God the Father?
Let’s pick out a few passages to show to us who our heavenly Father is. Let’s being knowing our Father more and more.
Psalm 68:5 5 A father to the fatherless, a defender of widows, is God in his holy dwelling.
If we no longer have a human father, we must remember that we always have a heavenly Father we can turn to all the time for all our cares and concerns.
Matthew 7:11 11 If you, then, though you are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give good gifts to those who ask him!
We can ask God’s provision and intervention in our lives when we are in trouble anytime.
Ephesians 1:3-6 — 3 Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in the heavenly realms with every spiritual blessing in Christ. 4 For he chose us in him before the creation of the world to be holy and blameless in his sight. In love 5 he predestined us to be adopted as his sons through Jesus Christ, in accordance with his pleasure and will– 6 to the praise of his glorious grace, which he has freely given us in the One he loves.
Romans 8:15 15 For you did not receive a spirit that makes you a slave again to fear, but you received the Spirit of sonship. {15 Or adoption} And by him we cry, “Abba, {15 Aramaic for Father} Father.”
We can call our heavenly Father as “Abba” or in our dialect, Tatay, Papa, Daddy – these are endearing words of a child who loves his dad. This is not blasphemy. We can call God the Father with an endearing word like the Aramaid word, Abba or in our dialect, Ama or Tatay!
Romans 8:38-39 38 For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, {38 Or nor heavenly rulers} neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, 39 neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.
It’s good to know that we have a loving and caring Father in heaven.
God is love. He is interested in a relationship with us – father and son.
Romans 8:35-39 35 Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall trouble or hardship or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword? 37 No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. 38 For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, 39 neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.
NIV 1 John 3:1 How great is the love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God! And that is what we are! The reason the world does not know us is that it did not know him. 2 Dear friends, now we are children of God, and what we will be has not yet been made known. But we know that when he appears, we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is. 3 Everyone who has this hope in him purifies himself, just as he is pure.
Conclusion
Our God is a God who is interested to have a relationship with us. From the foundation of the world he has already predestined us to be adopted as his children. And that is already our status now. Let us continue knowing our Father. He is already our loving Father – our Abba, our Papa or Daddy in heaven. Let us be thankful that he has given us our human fathers and let us be thankful that he has given himself as our loving, heavenly Father.
