What is it that you have heard about Our Lord Jesus Christ?
Observe the following verses:
Daniel 5:15-16
"The wise men and enchanters were brought before me to read this writing and tell me what it means, but they could not explain it. Now I have heard that you are able to give interpretations and to solve difficult problems. If you can read this writing and tell me what it means, you will be clothed in purple and have a gold chain placed around your neck, and you will be made the third highest ruler in the kingdom"
INTERLINEAR BIBLE
Audio files (free download)
For you who compared this English version with the original Aramaic text, there is a word to define, the "enchanters", coming from Aramaic "ashfayá", meaning "astrologers". Otherwise, the rendering is a very literal one. You can see that, even in his fallen condition and his spiritual aberration, king Belshazzar sought the prophet and asked him for help. Why? To start with, the text itself shows us that his mother talked to him about Daniel and recommended the prophet. The king himself declares, "...I have heard that you are able to give interpretations..."
What have you heard about Our Lord Jesus Christ?
In these Easter days when the Christian churches are celebrating the death and resurrection of Our Lord Jesus Christ, what is it which compels you to join the celebration - or to not join it? What do "Easter" means to you?
This photo, taken twenty years and twenty pounds ago, was given to me as a present the first time that the Lord gave me the privilege to preach a sunday message to the congregation. That message was about Easter and Passover. The service became a precious one in the hands of the Lord, and the Holy Spirit worked powerfully. My pastor and his wife were in charge of the praises, which they did with the most powerful anointing. I want to take today this same verse which was the issue of the message, and that we can find in the institution of the Passover:
"The blood will be a sign for you on the houses where you are, and when I see the blood, I will pass over you. No destructive plague will touch you when I strike Egypt"
Exodus 12:13
Let's remember the context of this promise. The Hebrew people had been living in slavery in Egypt for more that 400 years, and God called Moses to take them out of there. The prophet performed all the signs that God told him to do, all but one, the last plague which should come upon Egypt and should convince Pharao to let the people go free. "The blood" in the verse is that of the Passover lamb that they should eat before leaving. In this passage was commanded that they should mark the doorframe with the lambs blood, in order to show that there where Hebrews living in that house. The last plague should be the death of all the firstborn in Egypt, both of humans and animals. This should not act upon those who had marked their door with the lamb's blood.
When the people of Israel is celebrating Passover, they are celebrating that deliverance which God worked through Moses, to take them out from Egypt and lead them to the promised land, the Holy Land. Passover used to be an occasion for the Jews to make a pilgrimage to Jerusalem, and we can read in the Gospels about at least three times when Our Lord came to Jerusalem to take part in the celebration. The Last Supper which Our Lord ate with His disciples was a Passover supper, and it was in Passover He went to the cross, died and resurrected.
Now the death and resurrection of Our Lord added a new meaning to Passover. The apostle Paul calls the Lord Jesus "our Passover lamb", like John the Baptist called Him "the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world" (it should be better rendered as "who bears the sin of the world", because "airo", the Greek verb which is translated to English as "take away", means also "to bear" or "to carry", and this is exactly what Our Lord did in the cross with the sins of mankind) In the book of Revelation, the apostle John talks about Our Lord as "the Lamb who was slain" and calls Jesus union with the church "the Wedding of the Lamb".
The blood of Jesus has the same power and the same function of that of the Passover lamb. The plague of death would attack the Egyptians and should pass over without acting upon the Hebrews, with their doors marked with blood. In the same way, the terrible plagues which are prophesied in the book of Revelation, from the seven seals, to the seven trumpets and the seven bowls of the wrath of God, those plagues will flog every person on earth who hasn't received Jesus as Lord and Savior. Only those who have received the "Lamb who was slain" and trusted in the blood that was shed in the Calvary's cross, only they will be save from those plagues.
But there is even more power in Jesus' blood. That salvation which was operated in the cross, on Calvary's mount, doesn't start with the life after death or with the resurrection which will take place when the Lord comes back. Salvation begins when you receive Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior.
What have you heard about the blood that Jesus shed?
Take a look to this verses of the Word of God:
"For he himself is our peace, who has made the two groups one and has destroyed the barrier, the dividing wall of hostility, by setting aside in his flesh the law with its commands and regulations. His purpose was to create in himself one new humanity out of the two, thus making peace, and in one body to reconcile both of them to God through the cross, by which he put to death their hostility"
Ephesians 2:14-16
This "barrier" or "dividing wall" which separated those "two groups" can be understood in the light of verse 12, which says that the Gentiles (non Jews) were "separate from Christ, excluded from citizenship in Israel and foreigners to the covenants of the promise, without hope and without God in the world". The Gentiles didn't know Israel's God and therefore they had no hope in thie world. The blood of the cross "RECONCILES in one body both Jews and Gentiles".
This is very powerful. Everything that God is, everything He can do, was available for Israel - the only people which knew Him, worshiped Him and had His Word, the Holy Scriptures. The rest of mankind, the Gentiles, worshiped "other gods" - demons, indeed. The way to a relationship with God, the way of living conforming God's will, the way of being save and go to eternity with God, was known and kept only by the Jews, through the Holy Scriptures. The blood of Christ made possible that the Gentiles should become participants in "Israel's citizenship", in the "covenants of the promise" and in "the hope" of those who know God. Because of our faith in Jesus Christ, we Gentiles are " grafted" in Israel (the "cultivated olive tree" in Romans 11:24)
If you have not received yet Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior, then you are living in hostility against God. The blood of Christ, shed on the cross of Calvary, is the way of RECONCILIATION with God. Colossians 1:20 says, "and through him - Jesus Christ - to reconcile to himself all things, whether things on earth or things in heaven, by making peace through his blood, shed on the cross".
God has a wonderful plan for your life, so that it will be a blessing to you in the first place, and also for everyone else. And the gate to pass through and come in in this blessing is Jesus Christ, the One you have to receive as Your Lord and the Savior of your life. Any evil work which Satan has done in your life can be destroyed by Him! You can become a new being, created or "re-created" after God's way.
King Belshazzar was a hardened sinner, who was desecrating the holy vessels from Jerusalem's temple in an orgy with his officials, getting drunk and worshiping demons. The writing in the wall frightened him - because there is a spiritual "alarm" in our spirit which is called "conscience" and tells us when we are doing good or bad - and in his condition of extreme fear got information about Daniel's ability to help him; then he sought the prophet.
Have you sought the Lord?
The apostle Paul preached in Athens that God, "From one man made all nations... so that they would seek him and perhaps reach out for him and find him..." (you can read the whole message in Acts 17) The reason of our creation is TO SEEK GOD. If we live without Him, we have been living all the time "dead in our sins".
Certainly you could wonder, but... which was the point in seeking the prophet, if Belshazzar was anyway hit by the punishment that was prophesied in the writing on the wall?
Let me tell you what's written in Hebrews 11:6, "And without faith it is impossible to please God, because anyone who comes to him must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who earnestly seek him". King Belshazzar sought the prophet because he "had heard" about that he could do, but he didn't had the belief, the faith, the certainty that Daniel should be able.
Have you sought the Lord WITH FAITH?
Do you believe that there's a God which shall reward you when you seek Him?
In the beginning we were talking about the first Sunday message that the Lord gave us, after seeking Him in prayer on our knees. By that time, we were living as illegal immigrants, hidden and fearing to be deported back. Many "rewards" have come into our lives by seeking the Lord. We've got citizenship, a home, job, transport... only in the material side, without talking about many other messages, revelations and praises that the Lord has given us, and those souls which have been evangelized and ministered in these years, by travelling through all Sweden, by the radio station in Sollentuna or by Internet. All things that God has done with us, and he has done with millions of believers through the faith in the blood of His Son, the Lamb who was slain, same things He wants to do with you.
Do you believe it? Do you want to receive Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior? The only thing you have to do is to pray to Him, "Lord, I recognize that I've been living in sin, apart from You and apart that plan You have for me. Forgive me, cleanse me from all sins with that blood that was shed on Calvary's cross, and come in to my life. I want You, Lord Jesus, to be my Leader, my Savior. I want to hear you, to receive Your Word, to follow you. I want to go to eternity with You. In the Holy Name of Jesus. Amen". This decision for Christ, if you have done it wholeheartedly, is enough to deliver you from death and give you life, to allow you to enter the new life that God has prepared for you. Don't wait any longer! The Lord can come back anytime, and take those who belong to Him to heaven; then this earth will suffer the flog of a tribulation "...unequaled from the beginning of the world until now..." (these are Jesus' words) Today is the day of salvation and blessing!
May the Lord bless you. In the love of Christ, your brother
Israel Leonard
PS. Jesus is coming soon!
Inga kommentarer:
Skicka en kommentar