5 A WATERFALL OF WEALTH AND WISDOM

When I was a young disciple, maybe a few weeks old, I found a book on prayer in the town library that encouraged me to memorize this Scripture:

“Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts;
the whole earth is full of his glory.” Isaiah 6.3

So I did. I would recite it over and over and over. Then, with my trusty King James Bible still in hand — the only version I knew of at the time — I decided to memorize the first Psalm. Beautiful. Encouraging. Serious. This small act of devotion brought so much joy to my life, I decided to memorize the book of James. Then Ephesians. I walked around reciting these books over and over, in my mind and with my mouth. I was the Town Mumbler. Ephesians in particular brought me a heightened sense of wonder. Although I was still less than a year old as a Christian, my understanding of Ephesians increased exponentially. The book became alive — on fire. I went from thinking these were just simple words that were dutifully dictated by Paul, to thinking that Ephesians was a masterpiece of inspired literature. I went from thinking Paul wrote the book by rote or quasi-mechanically, to seeing the text as a thoughtful, intelligent and masterful expression of the grace and glory of God. Every word became pregnant with meaning. Every word seemed to be the precise word needed for Paul to make his point. Every word was set in a perfect sequence to complete this divine portrait, this divine puzzle, this matrix of inter-locking ideas.

I saw a host of recurring patterns and themes and words: fullness, grace, riches, glory, in Christ, unity, and praise.

I saw the bodily postures Paul evoked: “seated” in chapter 2; “walk” in chapter 4; “stand” in chapter 6.

I saw the church as a “building” in chapter 2; a “body” in chapter 4; and a “bride” in chapter 5.

I saw that Paul referred to himself as a prisoner of Christ and not of Caesar.

I saw the entire plan of God unfold in Ephesians 1.3-14. Paul writes of our being chosen by God before creation, and then he shifts to the present moment and then to the future. The emphasis is first on the Father, then on the Son, then on the Spirit. And each segment ends with the call to praise the glorious grace of God, etc.

I saw how precious unity is to God. Unity between us and God. Unity of Jew and Gentile. Unity of individual believers. Unity of the Spirit. Unity of all things in heaven and on earth.

I saw how all these blessings are found in Christ alone. And that in Christ we possess “all the fullness of God.”

I saw all this as a very young Christian, with no help from sermons, teachers or commentaries. Just from carrying the word of God in my heart and mind.

Not too long ago, I had the opportunity to hear J. I. Packer give an excellent, two-hour exposition on Ephesians 6.10-18. The topic was “the whole armor of God.” After thirty-five years of thinking and hearing, I heard him share new insights, as if the passage was brand new to me. Amazing.

This past Friday I printed up Ephesians 1.3-14 on a sheet of paper and handed it out to our discussion group. In the original Greek this passage is one long, uninterrupted sentence. It’s as if Paul couldn’t stop himself from declaring the grace and goodness of God. His words are like a waterfall of wisdom and praise that simply must gush forth. He’s like a happy puppy on a leash that won’t stop charging forward, even when the leash is strained. Paul was overwhelmed by God’s grace and wisdom, and chose, with the help of the Holy Spirit, to convey that sense of wonder to us.

We spent Friday evening enjoying – no — revelling in the grace and goodness of God. The gratitude expressed to God by those present made this one of the most wonderful discussions I’ve ever been a part of. We stayed on the phrase “every spiritual blessing” for a long time. What more can God do for us besides “every”? What does the word “every” mean, if not every? Paul was very familiar with this breath-taking idea: We possess “all things” Romans 8; “everything” 1 Corinthians 3; “the whole estate” Galatians 4. God can do no more for us than he already has or plans to. Wrap your mind around that. Whatever good thing he can conceive on our behalf, that he has done and will do!

How should we then live? Why should we ever be discouraged? Why should we ever be discontent? Why should we ever grumble or complain about anything? So many good insights, new insights, were shared on Friday night. After all these years, more treasure is still being revealed to me, through the Spirit and through the minds and mouths of other saints. God’s word is beautiful. God’s promises are precious .Pure and simple.

“To the praise of his glorious grace which he has freely given us in the One He loves.”

1 WERE THESE MEN REALLY AT THE TRIAL OF JESUS?

What a plague is the family of Simon Boethus; cursed be their lances! What a plague is the family of Ananos; cursed be their hissing of vipers! What a plague is the family of Cantharus; cursed be their pens! What a plague is the family of Ismael ben Phabi; cursed be their fists! They are high priests themselves, their sons are treasurers, their sons-in-law are commanders [captains], and their servants strike people with staves [thus verifying the words of Josephus about the servants of Annas] [Talmud, Pesahim 57].

For more than a decade, I have been working on a screenplay on the life of Christ called, simply, Messiah. If I could have just one thing granted in my life, one wish, one longing – my prayer and heart`s desire,  stemming back to late 1988 — it would be to produce the most visually realistic, Biblically exact, historically authentic, dramatically complex and architecturally accurate movie ever made of the life of Christ. If such a thing is even possible! I guess what I’m saying is, in spite of all the attempts made so far, this has never been done. Not even close. And don’t get me started on how Jesus looks in Mark Burnett’s Bible Mini-Series. He looks more like Fabio than “the undesired one.” Gross. Go ahead; call me a Jesus movie snob. Guilty as charged.

That said, I am determined that every character in my movie — no matter how small the role, speaking part or not — be based on Biblical and historical realities. This would include, of course, the dynamic influence of Tiberius, and especially Sejanus, on the course of Pilate’s character and destiny.

So, last year while I was studying the trials of Christ and doing research on the key religious and political figures of that time, I came across this absolutely fascinating study on the Sanhedrin, which includes a very intelligent guess as to who was actually at trial of Jesus. Culled from a vast collection of ancient Jewish sources, N.L. Kuehl makes a powerful argument in his work, A Book of Evidence. Although the entire chapter (4) is excellent and informative, if you simply want to read his educated guess as to whom the 23 members of the Sanhedrin presiding over the trial of Christ were, you can find them on pages 5-10 of the PDF. I promise it will be worth it. I am amazed that this kind of stuff can be pieced together from the historical record. Make sure you tell me what you think about this!  Click to read: From A Book of Evidence

By the way, it’s shaping up to be a great script. If you know anyone who has $ 250,000,000 they’d like to invest, please let me know!

One more thing: before you read the paper — that is if you want to — please check out this awesome video rendering of the Temple Complex in Jesus’ day. The temple grounds were vast. The temple itself was beautiful and awe-inspiring. From a distance, it looked like a snowy jewel covering Mount Zion. Besides their mafia-like control of power, this is what the Chief priests were fighting to preserve, along with the taxes and offerings and wickedly corrupt Bazaar of Annas – where the money changers habitually fleeced the people of God.  This is the complex that Jesus ‘overturned’ and ‘would not allow anyone to pass through’. What courage! These are the structures – including the temple — Jesus said would be levelled when the apostles ‘marvelled at the buildings.’ (The opening image is from the Arch of Titus — a relief of enslaved Jews carrying temple articles through the streets of Rome after the destruction of Jerusalem.)

6 THE HOUSE OF GOD — Ed Gaglardi

Let me share a very beautiful shadow (or biblical type) and show you how they can bring added intensity to the teachings of the church. Shadows are like time capsules, buried in the Old Testament for future discovery. The people that formed them, or lived through them, had no idea what they meant or even that they had any future meaning at all. It is only since the formation of the church that we can decode their true meaning. Their very existence is a wonderful proof that the Bible was written by God.

Consider the old temple. David was the one that first thought to build a permanent house for the ark of God, but because his hands had shed too much blood, God wouldn’t let him do it. The daunting task fell to his son, Solomon. David prepared him for the work by subduing all Israel’s enemies so that the temple could be built in peace. He amassed immense amounts of gold, silver, bronze and iron, as well as timbers of cedar and much stone. All these he gave to Solomon, along with the plans God gave him for every detail of the temple.

So where should the temple be built? God had spoken repeatedly to the Israelites, before they ever entered the Promised Land, about a place where He would choose to place His name. Now, about 300 years later, that place would be revealed to David. God was punishing Israel because David had numbered their fighting men. After destroying many in the land, the angel of God came and stood over the threshing floor of Araunah (Ornan), the Jebusite. In a dramatic scene, God stopped the angel who already had his sword drawn, from shedding blood at that location. David would build an altar to God there and that is where he would declare “This is the house of the LORD God…”

We recall another scene in that very same spot, but more than a thousand years earlier. Back then it was called Mount Moriah, later to be known as Mount Zion. Here, just as with the angel, another one had his knife raised over his head ready to shed blood. Abraham was about to take the life of his young son Isaac, but there also God stopped him and told him to put his knife away. It seemed that this location was very special and that it was to be a place of peace, not bloodshed. Abraham named the location, “The Lord Will Provide” (YHWH-jireh).

One other story confirms that God intended this location to be a place of peace. The somewhat mysterious king Melchizedek lived there in the days of Abraham. It was then called Salem, which means peace. If we join the two old names for the place where the temple would be built, “YHWH-jireh” and “Salem”, it begins to sound like Jerusalem. Jerusalem means God-Will-Provide-Peace.

When the temple was built, it immediately became a hub of activity for Israel. There were sacrifices every day – sometimes many. The fire on the altar never went out. The lampstand kept light in the temple continuously. Incense was burned perpetually, morning and night. All the sacrifices and offerings were presented to God there and it was there, three times each year that every male had to come to appear before God and celebrate their feasts.

God promised peace forever if Israel would obey only Him. But Solomon’s heart turned to other gods, and the peace that should have perpetually characterized Jerusalem was abruptly ended. Jesus would lament over the holy city, “Jerusalem, Jerusalem, who kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to her! How often I wanted to gather your children together, the way a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, and you were unwilling.” Jerusalem had become anything but a place of peace.

That first house would disappear, but Jesus has built another House, which has an enduring peace– and this peace really has no end. We are now part of that house, as Heb. 3:6 says, “Christ was faithful as a Son over His house—whose house we are, if we hold fast our confidence and the boast of our hope firm until the end.” This house is no longer a physical one like the old temple, but rather a spiritual one, as 1Peter 2:5 says, “…you also, as living stones, are being built up as a spiritual house for a holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ.”

Now, like digging up an ancient time capsule, we can understand all the history of the old temple. It was foreshadowing the real temple that we are now part of – the House of God. Remember the extravagant wealth that went into the temple. God was telling us that we are very precious. Remember the two drawn swords that God stopped over Jerusalem on separate occasions. He was telling us that when we come to Him we will find peace. Recall Abraham’s drawn sword to offer up his son Isaac. God was telling us that He would one day offer up His only Son to save us from our sins. The lampstand tells us that Jesus is our light; the incense tells us we need to pray continually. As we recall all the myriad offerings that were presented there, we see that we also need to have continual communication with God about all those same things as were in the temple: sometimes taking care of sin in our lives, sometimes thanking and praising God for His goodness to us, and sometimes just acknowledging Him as Lord of our lives. He has provided peace.

Ah, God’s house. How awesome it is to be part of it! “…For He Himself is our peace, who made both groups into one and broke down the barrier of the dividing wall, by abolishing in His flesh the enmity, which is the Law of commandments contained in ordinances, so that in Himself He might make the two into one new man, thus establishing peace…” (Eph. 2:13-17)

Ed Gaglardi — March 6 — 2013

3 HOW ONE EARLY CHRISTIAN ANSWERED HIS BULLIES

In 1857, between the Circus Maximus and the Coliseum, the earliest depiction of the crucifixion of Jesus was discovered on a wall in an ancient Paedagogium on the Palatine Hill in Rome. The emperor Caligula acquired the building for the imperial palace, to be used, presumably, as a boarding school for the children of imperial servants, or perhaps for imperial page boys.

The crudely etched image — the way a young hand might write on a bathroom stall — depicts a man on a cross with a donkey’s head, the cross and ass’s head being extremely insulting to Roman sensibilities. The image is sometimes referred to as the graffito blasphemo because of the sacrilegious depiction of Christ.

What is especially touching about this image is the way a young man is being taunted for his devotion to Christ. His name is Alexamenos. The image depicts him as a worshipper of Jesus and the words, written in Greek, simply say, “Alexamenos worships his god.”

We can sympathise with Alexamenos for the habitual taunting he must have received. For the insults and ostracization. For the public bullying. Would he eventually renounce his faith? Would he succumb to the humiliation and daily teasing? Would he fall? What would become of Alexamenos?

We don’t know.  But we are given a simple and beautiful clue: On the wall in the next chamber, etched in Latin, by a different hand, are the words, “Alexamenos fidelis” — Alexamenos is faithful! So, I strongly suspect we’ll see him in heaven : )

Let this image inspire us to never shrink back, falter, or fall away, no matter what kinds of pressure the world may place on us. In particular, those of you who are disciples of Christ and attend middle school or high school.  It’s tough, we know.  That’s why you, and not just Alexamenos, are among our heroes.