A couple of verses from Hebrews chapter 2 announce what Christ came to do.  They give a death-centred view of salvation. They do not, as others do, highlight sin and forgiveness, Believers lose their fear of death when God gives them life.

Two necessary things

1. Render Satan powerless (Greek, destroy the one having the power of death)
2. Free the fearful

Therefore, since the children share in flesh and blood, He Himself likewise also partook of the same, that through death He might render powerless him who had the power of death, that is, the devil,

Hebrews 2:14

and might free those who through fear of death were subject to slavery all their lives.

Hebrews 2:15

Denying the purpose of God in the flesh voids faith

No condemnation in Christ
No condemnation from Christ
No condemnation according to Christ

Do not be intimidated by people who find that Satan has broken God’s handcuffs. Stop being insulted by people who say you need to live on fear street – fear of the law, fear of sin, and fear of death.

Did he bind the devil and free us?

John 3:11 may not shock you as it does me and I hope this look at one aspect of the Nicodemus encounter will bring home the impact of Messianic testimony in contrast to the testimony of the highest level of Jewish thought. Yeshua uses a very kind “we” to address the poverty of knowledge this ruler displayed. We know, we speak, we see, and we witness combines solidarity and diversity.  I understand you cannot witness to the things you have not seen, but you have no excuse for not knowing that people need a makeover.

Truly, truly, I say to you, we speak of what we know and testify of what we have seen, and you do not accept our testimony.

John 3:11

Learned ignorance

Sinai has to be primary reading for any Jew and the teacher – ο διδάσκαλος didaskalos – because  Moses’ five books are the core of Jewish learning.  The rehearsal of the Sinai events in Deuteronomy 5 brings to view the need for rebirth.  A doctor in Israel in New Testament times ought to have known that rebirth was the only way to have a lifesaving and golden relationship with God.  Nicodemus is on the record for venturing out to discover answers to his anxiety.

We cannot avoid the fact that Yeshua sees a great deal we do not.  Moses was not aware that the people’s refusal to hear God’s voice was fine.  The rash promise “We will do all that yhwh says” was not simply eagerness for the voice to stop.  It discloses the human problem of the incompatible heart.  The people were afraid of dying even though Moses survived the tempest of divine presence. Yahweh had come to speak with Israel and the people declined, shuttling Moses back and forth.

Oh that they had such a heart in them, that they would fear Me and keep all My commandments always, that it may be well with them and with their sons forever!

Deuteronomy 5:29

God had an encounter greater than Sinai and a covenant distinct from Sinai.  Jeremiah and Ezekiel predicted new hearts and new laws.  The don’t-know doctors of our days are out driving us back to Sinai instead of checking in with the Bishop of all Souls, even at night.

God gave the world to four empires in ancient times and the world’s leaders have all lost sight of their relative value since Rome lost its empire. Leadership seems to be getting ready to dupe the inhabitants of earth with a regime that spits on expert advice in the sciences and humanities. There is no new normal that can survive the influence of the historic record. We know that some of the beast’s allies are people who desperately cling to known lies and malice.

We will make sure that this deception and power grab happens with many eyes open. The new normal will be more of the same beastly greed and lust for dominance that made the earth’s inhabitants go gaga over technological and social wonders.

New low is not normal

The bad smell of racism and lynching is good for you. The virus will go away like magic. Obama is a criminal. Just take the drug, you have nothing to lose. Presidential power is absolute.

We who publish Yeshua’s kingdom news can fully expect to be betrayed – to be delivered over. This is frying pan and fire experience where the gold is tested, but not without the guarantee of success. Just so we know that in some circumstances God does not leave us to our own resources – as we are fond of being – the Lord commits to keeping our fingers off the switches, promising to speak through us.

When they deliver you over, do not be anxious how you are to speak or what you are to say, for what you are to say will be given to you in that hour. Matt. 10:19, For it is not you who speak, but the Spirit of your Father speaking through you. Matt. 10:20

Instructions from Jesus are usually challenging but sometimes they cross into the “do not try this without me” domain. Some believers are so convinced that their performance is all that matters now that they are saved this is a difficult pill to swallow. Some even forsee a time when they do not need the Saviour’s intercession (who could dream up such an outrage?) In the case of his prediction of betrayal and trial he commands:

do not even begin to be anxious about

• how one might speak
• what one might say/speak

Raising a ruckus for Yeshua

Imagine having an appointment and instructions require you not to think of the meeting and to refrain from planning how to say what you might want to say. The casual obesrver or the spectator believer may think that the mention of the name of Jesus at the key moment passes for lifting up his cause, but it it not so. Jesus is more “tack on at the end” than the all-in-all he really is.

It is obvious that picking up ones hat as one heads out the door on the day of the appointment highlights the last cascade of thoughts about the appointment, but as the day approaches and the last seven days pass the thoughts multiply and have to be kept at bay. However, in this instruction no one knows when that appointment is going to happen. In the final analysis this promise is a world apart if one is not raising any serpents on a pole for the world to see. This is not a promise for anyone who believes in God, nor is it for the followers of Moses or any other authority. The Father FATHER taking over the defence is for a select few.

Behold, I send you forth as sheep in the midst of wolves: be ye therefore wise as serpents, and harmless as doves.

Matt. 10:16

The year AD 2020 is a surprising work in prophetic scandals. A few short months we were wishing each other unprecedented prosperity and good health, and some dared to call this year a season of God’s favour. God’s season began when the Nazarene toured with his disciples all the vikllages of the land of Israel. Here we are, facing the end of the second quarter and our neighbours are dying at alarming rates. I keep watching the lists of things that must happen before the end of the age and a lot of death is in every phase, including the death of all marine life. The sign of upheaval that one needs to keep a close eye on is the anxiety that floods our consciousness when we lose control of eating, drinking and being together. We are not reaching for pie in the sky heroes, but we are satisfied to turn off the fear when it rises as it surely does for humans of every persuasion.

STOP BEING AFRAID

It is almost a sin to be a critic these days.
If you want to be a leader like Old Testament prophets you’ll have to know a lot about poop. If you want to be a mediator like the Old Testament priest you’ll have to deal with poop and blood.

If law is the foundation one will have to build a sin-removal thingy and eat a lot of sin and trespass offerings. That is meat- the flesh of animals. We have no such orders in the kingdom of God. The saddest slice of the old arrangement is the talking points about sin and its removal without a temple. How does that work? How does a pastor of a Christian church address sin in the camp with a straight face?

Can we deny that Moses and Elijah, the two witnesses who spoke with Jesus in glory about Jesus’ death, represent yesterday and the disreputable practice of killing people instead of saving lives?

And sent messengers before his face: and they went, and entered into a village of the Samaritans, to make ready for him. Luke. 9:52, And they did not receive him, because his face was as though he would go to Jerusalem. Luke. 9:53, And when his disciples James and John saw [this], they said, Lord, wilt thou that we command fire to come down from heaven, and consume them, even as Elias did? Luke. 9:54, But he turned, and rebuked them, and said, Ye know not what manner of spirit ye are of. Luke. 9:55,

Luke 9:52-55

Where did the sons of thunder learn that behaviour? They learned those attitudes from being drilled day and night, going and coming, rising and sitting, to obey the law and the prophets. It was trashy then; not good enough for kingdom spiritual in New Testament times. and still is substandard today. Where are you learning your inglorious talk?