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10-8-2017 Weekly Message

The contemplation of the week: Psalm 22: 1-31

Text: Isaiah 50: 5-11

Word Title: Are You Living As Christian?

           Through the prophet Isaiah, God sent Jesus, the only Begotten Son of God to this world to prophesy about what kind of suffering he would receive from sinners:

” I gave my back to the smiters, and my cheeks to them that plucked off the hair: I hid not my face from shame and spitting..” (Isaiah 50: 6)

          He foretold that Jesus God the Word   will make his face like a flint, knowing that he will not be put to shame in the end by the help of his Father, the Lord God, even though he is insulted and afflicted by those who do not recognize him.

          Also, those who do not believe in Him are going to be worn out like clothes, and that moth shall eat them, and their soul will lie in grief surrounded by flames in Hell.

           Seven hundred years later, when Jesus appeared in the land of Judaea, he suffered tremendous insults and sufferings from his people. The apostle Matthew testified:

” Then did they spit in his face, and buffeted him; and others smote him with the palms of their hands,

68Saying, Prophesy unto us, thou Christ, Who is he that smote thee?

….. And they stripped him, and put on him a scarlet robe.

29And when they had platted a crown of thorns, they put it upon his head, and a reed in his right hand: and they bowed the knee before him, and mocked him, saying, Hail, King of the Jews!

30And they spit upon him, and took the reed, and smote him on the head. “(Matthew 26: 67,68; 27: 28-30)

           The Lord Jesus Himself testified of Christ   speaking to His disciples before He died after suffering all these afflictions and was raised to life again:

” Behold, we go up to Jerusalem; and the Son of man shall be delivered unto the chief priests, and unto the scribes; and they shall condemn him to death, and shall deliver him to the Gentiles:

34And they shall mock him, and shall scourge him, and shall spit upon him, and shall kill him: and the third day he shall rise again. “(Mark 10:33-34)

            Apostle Paul, who was baptized with the suffering and death of the Lord Jesus, urged all Christians to have the thought in Christ:

” Let nothing be done through strife or vainglory; but in lowliness of mind let each esteem other better than themselves.

4Look not every man on his own things, but every man also on the things of others.

5Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus:

6Who, being in the form of God, thought it not robbery to be equal with God:

7But made himself of no reputation, and took upon him the form of a servant, and was made in the likeness of men:

8And being found in fashion as a man, he humbled himself, and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross.

9Wherefore God also hath highly exalted him, and given him a name which is above every name:

10That at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of things in heaven, and things in earth, and things under the earth;

11And that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.  “(Phil. 2:3-11).

           Apostle Paul confessed that he was rather pleased with the suffering he had as a apostle:

  ” Therefore I take pleasure in infirmities, in reproaches, in necessities, in persecutions, in distresses for Christ’s sake: for when I am weak, then am I strong.

11I am become a fool in glorying; ye have compelled me: for I ought to have been commended of you: for in nothing am I behind the very chiefest apostles, though I be nothing. “(2 Corinthians 12: 10-11)

           The Lord Jesus spoke clearly to his disciples what is Christian life:

” If any man will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow me.

25For whosoever will save his life shall lose it: and whosoever will lose his life for my sake shall find it.

26For what is a man profited, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul? or what shall a man give in exchange for his soul?

27For the Son of man shall come in the glory of his Father with his angels; and then he shall reward every man according to his works. “(Matthew 16: 24-27)

             That is correct! Anyone who has been saved by the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ will be a follower of Christ from then on. At this time, we are no longer just a person, but a Christian, one who has become one with Christ. From this moment on, we must live ourselves denying ourselves. Christ Jesus showed himself as an example first, and asked  his disciples also follow him.

            Apostle Paul encouraged others to do just as he would follow Christ Jesus:

” Be ye followers of me, even as I also am of Christ…. Brethren, be followers together of me, and mark them which walk so as ye have us for an ensample. 18(For many walk, of whom I have told you often, and now tell you even weeping, that they are the enemies of the cross of Christ:19Whose end is destruction, whose God is their belly, and whose glory is in their shame, who mind earthly things.)

20For our conversation is in heaven; from whence also we look for the Saviour, the Lord Jesus Christ:

21Who shall change our vile body, that it may be fashioned like unto his glorious body, according to the working whereby he is able even to subdue all things unto himself. “(1 Cor. 11:1, Philippians 3: 17-21)

           That is correct! We must not forget the word of warning given to us through Apostle Paul. It is a warning to those who act with the enemies of the cross. They testify that they are the ones who fill their fleshly lusts, not the things in heaven, but those who think only of things on the earth. Also, those who act with the enemies of the Cross are not the world, but witness to false Christians in the Church.

              Long ago Asaph also testified of such thing:

” They set their mouth against the heavens, and their tongue walketh through the earth.” (Psalm 73: 9).

          The Lord Jesus spoke to the self-proclaimed Christians:

” And a man’s foes shall be they of his own household.

37He that loveth father or mother more than me is not worthy of me: and he that loveth son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me.

38And he that taketh not his cross, and followeth after me, is not worthy of me. “(Matthew 10:36-38)

          Christian is no longer an individual, but an eternal helping hand of  the Lord Jesus Christ. Adam, who saw Eve who was  made one of the ribs of Adam, said, “Now this is the bone of my bones, and the flesh of my flesh, and she shall be called a woman, for she was taken from man” (Genesis 2:23) As we have said, all Christians are spiritually already members of Christ Jesus, the last Adam, and the flesh of his flesh and his bones. (Ephesians 5:30) Therefore, through the Holy Spirit, we have  to deny ourselves and submit ourselves and follow him in the mind of Christ.  . Amen! Hallelujah!