Greetings everyone and thanks for joining me for this edition of my Sunday School lesson commentary.  This Sunday’s lesson is entitled “Moses: Prophet of Deliverance” and is found in Deuteronomy 18:15-22. 

Much of what is considered the Western world, as well as many other parts of the world, considers to be normative, good, evil, acceptable and unacceptable comes from what are called the Law of Moses.  The Laws aren’t really Moses’s law.  They are God’s law that were given through or by Moses. 

Moses is a descendant of Abraham.  Abraham is the man the bible says God called and established a covenant with him which He promised to extend to his descendants.  The descendants of Abraham spent over 400 years in Egypt.  At some point in that 400 years, they were enslaved by the Egyptians. 

Moses is the man God called and sent to Egypt to lead Abraham’s descendants out from Egyptian bondage to the land of Canaan which He had promised to give to Abraham’s descendants.  Because of his leadership, Moses is called a Deliverer and a Savior of the Hebrew people. 

But more than that, Moses is called a Prophet and Lawgiver.  According to the bible, Moses had a relationship with God like no other before him.  To him God spoke face to face like a man.  It was this intimate relationship with God that allowed Moses to write the first five books of the Old Testament including the book of origin called Genesis. 

God gave His law to Moses to give to Abraham’s descendants whom God called His chosen people.  It was through this law and these people God would sanctify all people of the world.  Much of the world’s cultures and bases of morality have been and are still influences by these laws of Moses. 

Only one other person has eclipsed Moses’s influence of the aforementioned cultures.  The lesson today tells the people to expect this person whom God called a Prophet like Moses.  He was to be a lawgiver on the order of Moses and they were to listen and obey what He says like they were to listen and obey the law Moses gave them.  This person is of course Jesus Christ.

He is a Prophet from among them like Moses.  He will speak the words of God and represent the authority of God.  The words or law that He gives will supersede those of Moses.  Jesus would say “You have heard it said” referring to the law of Moses.  Then He would say “but I say” and give them or us the law that replaces the law Moses gave.  

Much of the Law of Moses is still the foundation from which morality and civil law is based.  Recently, however, there has been an effort to discount, erode and invalidate the parts of the law people find inconsistent with their preferred lifestyle choices.  

Nevertheless, Moses remains a Prophet of Deliverance.  He delivered the descendants of Abraham from bondage and gave them the laws of God designed to sanctify them and set the standard of holiness for the rest of the world. 

He prophesied that God would raise up another Prophet from among them like himself who would speak for God with the same authority he spoke with.  To Him they were to listen and obey.  That Prophet is our Lord Jesus.  

Other prophets God would also send but none with the statue of Moses.  Prophets who prophesied in the name of other gods or falsely in the name of God were to be put to death.  If what the prophet said doesn’t come to pass, God did not speak through that prophet. 

Well, I hope you will be able to attend SS this coming Sunday.  Invite someone to come and share your thoughts with the class.  Sunday School at Flag Branch will begin at 9:00 am and you are invited to join us at www.fbmbc.org and clicking the online services link. 

You and others can also join us by dialing 508 924-2890.  If you have any comments or questions before then, be sure to place them in the comment section of this preview and I will get back to you.  So, as always remember to fear God and keep His commandments.

 

Pastor Jordan

 

Comments

 

Greetings everyone and thanks for joining me for this edition of my Sunday School lesson commentary.  This Sunday’s lesson is entitled “Lydia: Called to Serve” and is found in Acts 16:11-15, 40; 1 Corinthians 1:26-30.  

For the last four weeks the lessons have been focused on the role and part of women in the spreading of the gospel.  In this fifth and final week of focusing on such, the spotlight is on a woman named Lydia. 

Lydia, the bible tells us, was from a place called Thyatira.  Thyatira is also the name one of the seven churches in the Book of Revelation.  Paul met Lydia in Philippi, while on his second missionary journey.  He was accompanied by several companions including Silas, Timothy and Luke. 

Shortly after their arrival, they went out on the Sabbath to a riverbank where several women had gathered for worship.  It is there Paul encounters Lydia.  Lydia and the others listened to Paul’s preaching.  Lydia believed the gospel and was baptized along with the rest of her household.

The bible says nothing about her marital status, but it does say that she was a seller of purple.  She had the means to offer Paul and his companions a place to stay while they were in Philippi.

While in Philippi, Paul and Silas were wrongfully beaten publicly and jailed.  Upon learning of their mistake, the city officials responsible urged them to leave the city.  Paul and his companions left Philippi, but not without going back to Lydia’s to encourage and say goodbye to the church that was connected with their house. 

A strong church was established in Philippi in part because of the hospitality of a woman name Lydia.  We can learn from Lydia to be willing to offer what we have for the sake of the church.  Everyone in the church has something to offer. 

But instead of offering what we have to the church, we will offer it somewhere else or in places and for purposes we expect to receive personal gain.  What did Lydia receive in return for her hospitality?  The bible doesn’t say.  Maybe they offered her something or paid her for staying in her house.  That wouldn’t surprise me because Christians aren’t taught to be freeloaders. 

What Lydia did and what we should do for the church shouldn’t be and wasn’t from a selfish or personal gain motive.  But it was and should be from a heart of gratitude for what God has done for us. 

There is nothing wrong for accepting and receiving compensation for what we do for the church.  But it should not be our motive from doing anything, but our love for the people, the church.  And if we do it for those reasons, any compensation for our services will always be secondary for giving and offering them. 

Well, I hope you will be able to attend SS this coming Sunday.  Invite someone to come and share your thoughts with the class.  Sunday School at Flag Branch will begin at 9:00 am and you are invited to join us at www.fbmbc.org and clicking the online services link. 

You and others can also join us by dialing 508 924-2890.  If you have any comments or questions before then, be sure to place them in the comment section of this preview and I will get back to you.  So, as always remember to fear God and keep His commandments.

 

Pastor Jordan

 

Comments

 

Greetings everyone and thanks for joining me for this edition of my Sunday School lesson commentary.  This Sunday’s lesson is entitled “Priscilla: Called to Minister” and is found in Acts 18:1-3, 18-21, 24-26; Romans 16:3-4. 

Priscilla, no last name, is always mentioned in conjunction with her husband Aquila.  Like Mary Magdalene last week, she was a silent partner who took on a supportive role to help those in the lead role to spread the gospel.  Mary assisted Jesus and Priscilla assisted Paul. 

Paul met Priscilla while in Corinth.  She and her husband were Jews who had been forced to leave Rome and decided to move to Corinth.  Like Paul, she, along with her husband, were in the tent making business.  

There appears to be something about this shared line of work that had a part in bringing them together.  They offered and Paul accepted from them a place to live and work.  Paul continued with this arrangement during his year and a half time he spent in Corinth teaching and preaching the gospel. 

When he left Corinth for Ephesus, Priscilla and Aquila, left with him.  Upon arriving in Ephesus, Paul continued to Syria and then Jerusalem in order to complete a vow he had made.  But before leaving he asked Priscilla and Aquila to remain in Ephesus and that he would return. 

While Paul was away, another Jew named Apollo from Alexandria came to Ephesus and was very eloquent and well versed in the scriptures.  He only knew however of the baptism of John and not of Jesus.  Once Priscilla and Aquila heard him, they took him aside and explained the gospel more fully to him. 

He went on to be a strong advocate for Jesus Christ because Paul mentions him as “one who watered” in his first letter to the Corinthians.  Some at Corinth had begun to divide themselves into sects of Paul, Apollo and Peter. 

It was Priscilla and Aquila who helped Apollo to become the advocate for Christ he became.  This is in part because of their relationship with Paul and being subjected to his teaching.  They in turn were able to instruct Apollo. 

One other thing we know about them is that there was a church meeting in their house.  What else they did to support the spreading of the gospel is unknown.  Paul calls them very helpful and supportive to the point that they put their lives at risk for his and the church’s sake. 

Throughout these last few lessons that have focused on the contribution of women I have tried to emphasize the importance of being supportive in our roles.  Priscilla is another woman who did not have a leading role. 

Her name is only mentioned a few times and always in conjunction with her husband.  But what she did was to do what she could to be a blessing to the cause of Christ and the kingdom of God.  Things we won’t know until God reveals the contribution of all saints. Our contribution will also be revealed. 

We should all learn from their actions.  Let us execute our role to the best of our ability.  Sometime it is a very small part of a whole that is needed to get the entire thing to work.  Regardless of how essential our role may seem or not seem to be, let’s be thankful we have one and faithfully execute it. 

Well, I hope you will be able to attend SS this coming Sunday.  Invite someone to come and share your thoughts with the class.  Sunday School at Flag Branch will begin at 9:00 am and you are invited to join us at www.fbmbc.org and clicking the online services link. 

You and others can also join us by dialing 508 924-2490.  If you have any comments or questions before then, be sure to place them in the comment section of this preview and I will get back to you.  So, as always remember to fear God and keep His commandments.

 

Pastor Jordan

 

Comments

 

Greetings everyone and thanks for joining me for this edition of my Sunday School lesson commentary.  This Sunday’s lesson is entitled “Mary Magdalene: A Faithful Disciple” and is found in Luke 8:1-3; Mark 15:40; John 20:10-18. 

Mary Magdalene is one of several women who are named in the gospel.  She is first mentioned in Luke 8:1-3 as someone Jesus healed from seven devils that possessed her.  She is not mentioned again until the end of Jesus’s ministry. 

She was there and a witness to his crucifixion and a witness to His resurrection.  While she does not appear prominently anywhere else in the gospel, by her presence at the crucifixion and the end after His resurrection she appears to have had more than a causal or informal connection with Jesus. 

In addition to the healing, the Luke text also said “they” meaning some women, of whom Mary Magdalene was one, travelled with and supported Jesus’s ministry.  Women, while not mentioned nearly as much as men in the scripture have always had a supporting role. 

And as I mentioned in an earlier commentary, a supportive role is no less important than a leading role.  Because many, if not most, leading roles are made possible by supportive roles.

Recently, Tom Brady, won his seventh Super Bowl title.  He had the leading role and everyone focuses on him. But without all the others who support him, he couldn’t win anything.  Many, if not most, of them that support him both on and off the field are never mentioned or known.

These women appear to have been with Jesus and the twelve and did many things for and with them that are not mentioned in the gospel.  In the end, it was they, not the men, who were by His side and watched Him die.  They followed Him to His tomb and went home to prepare spices to anoint His body. 

It was Mary Magdalene and some other women who rose up very early Sunday morning to anoint the Lord’s bloody and beaten body.  They wondered on their way how they were going to enter the sealed tomb.  They were the first to discover that Jesus had indeed risen as He said He would and the first to go and spread the news (evangelize) to the other disciples. 

They, and Mary Magdalene, demonstrated their devotion and love for the Lord by working without recognition and being there at the end to do what they could to be supportive to Jesus in His most trying hours.  They were and are indeed faithful witnesses. 

They should inspire all of us, male and female, in whatever our calling is and whatever our role.  No matter how large or small our role may appear to be to us or others, we need to be faithful in our support for the Lord and His mission. 

For it’s not the recognition we receive or will receive from men and others that matters.  What matters is the motivation for why we do what we do and the faithfulness in which we did it before the Lord that will lead the Lord to say “well done!”.  

Well, I hope you will be able to attend SS this coming Sunday.  Invite someone to come and share your thoughts with the class.  Sunday School at Flag Branch will begin at 9:00 am and you are invited to join us at www.fbmbc.org and clicking the online services link. 

You and others can also join us by dialing 508 924-2490.  If you have any comments or questions before then, be sure to place them in the comment section of this preview and I will get back to you.  So, as always remember to fear God and keep His commandments.

 

Pastor Jordan

 

Comments

 

Greetings everyone and thanks for joining me for this edition of my Sunday School lesson commentary.  This Sunday’s lesson is entitled “Called To Evangelize” and is found in John 4:25-42. 

Evangelize means to “spread the news” and in this case the “good news” of salvation in Jesus Christ.  The lesson text today is about a woman who spreads the news that she had encountered a man she believes is the Messiah or “the Promised and Anointed One” of God. 

The encounter began when she met Jesus at a well during a time of the day when woman would not normally be there.  Jesus began the conversation by asking her for a drink of water.  During their conversation, Jesus told her some things about herself that she thought no one would know. 

In addition to some other things He said, including that He is the Messiah, she was convinced that He may indeed by that Promised One.  This was something she felt that she must share with others. 

A question the becomes why did she feel the need to tell what she believed about Jesus to someone else?  The gospel says that she left her waterpot and ran into the city and told the men, not the women, to come see a man that she believed could be the Messiah. 

Her witness was so compelling that a number of those she told came out to meet this man for themselves.  That raises another question which is why were they interested in meeting a man who could be the Messiah. 

These people had a hope of a glorious future of a nation as God’s people as proclaimed by and through the prophets of Israel as well as for the Messiah who is to be the prominent figure in God’s perfected kingdom. 

The woman in the text believed she has met the person who was to usher in this kingdom of which she and the others she dwelt with were connected and desired to be a part of.  This is why she told others and why they came to see for themselves based on her enthusiastic testimony.

The text indicates that Jesus desire to fulfill His mission was like food to Him because of His response when His disciples urged Him to have something to eat.  Jesus came preaching and proclaiming the kingdom of God. He was spreading the news of salvation and deliverance that God is offering to mankind.  Others who believe what He says in turn spread that news to others and they do the same. 

This is what evangelism is.  This is what the church is organized to do.  This is what we as members of the church are to do.  Each of us are called to do what the woman in the lesson text did.  She believed Jesus to be the Messiah and wanted others to come and see for themselves why she believed Him to be so. 

No one told or made her to do this.  She did it because the Messiah and the kingdom was something both she and they had been waiting for and wanted to be a part of.  Today, what, if any, is our incentive to do what she did and to tell others about Jesus?  

Well, I hope you will be able to attend SS this coming Sunday.  Invite someone to come and share your thoughts with the class.  Sunday School at Flag Branch will begin at 9:00 am and you are invited to join us at www.fbmbc.org and clicking the online services link.  You and others can also join us by dialing 508 924-2490. 

If you have any comments or questions before then, be sure to place them in the comment section of this preview and I will get back to you.  So, as always remember to fear God and keep His commandments.

 

Pastor Jordan

 

Comments

 

Greetings everyone and thanks for joining me for this edition of my Sunday School lesson commentary.  This Sunday’s lesson is entitled “Prophesying Daughters” and is found in Luke 2:36-38; Acts 2:16-21; 21:8-9. 

Today’s lesson focuses on the “role” or part that all people have, but especially women in the redemptive plan of God for mankind.  Women comprise the other half of the human species.  Men and women are equally made in the image of God.  They are equally entitled to the salvation and life God has ordained and prepared for them before the world was ever made. 

With that understood, it must also be understood that men and women have been assigned or given “roles” by God that we should not pretend He has not done or dismiss as unimportant or irrelevant.  The lesson text highlights the roles of three women. 

The first is a widow who was at least 84 years in age.  This is also how long she could have been a widow which would make her age to be well over 100 years of age.  She may have lived in the temple and performed some duty there for her upkeep. 

It is clear she was a respected devout and godly woman.  She saw Jesus the day Mary and Joseph brought Him to the temple.  She praised God for Him and acknowledged Him as the Savior God had promised to all who would listen. 

The next woman is all women to whom God will pour out His Spirit upon who may be inspired to prophesy concerning Jesus and the kingdom of God.  The last woman in the lesson text are four daughters of the deacon Phillip who also prophesied.  In each of these cases, it is clear that God uses women to inform others of His redemptive plan. 

There are many other cases throughout the bible where women have had a pivotal role in forming the history of God’s redemptive plan.  Yet their roles can be for the most part be characterized as supportive.  The lead roles God has given to men. 

From the creation of Adam, the call of Noah, Abraham and Moses to the making of kings, to the work and writings of the prophets and the birth of Jesus, to the commission of the twelve apostles and the making of the first deacons these roles were filled by men. 

If there was no divine difference or distinction in their calling and roles, then we should have expected to see an equal distribution of women and men in these roles and certainly not the absence of them.  God made the distinction between men and women and has given us roles for reasons that may not always be clear to us.  

Supportive roles are what make leading roles possible.  There is hardly anything that is made that doesn’t have some supporting mechanism.  Without those mechanisms whatever is made would not work.  Are women less important than men because they have different roles?  Are children less important than their parents because they have different roles? 

Of course not.  Neither are women any less important or valuable to God than men.  Women have a valuable and essential role as do men in fulfilling God’s redemptive plan.  All I’m saying is to don’t be so quick to dismiss and undervalue the place of roles based upon sex and gender in the kingdom of God. 

The kingdom of God is not the world and the world is not the kingdom of God.  Because the world is increasingly saying there is no place for gender or sex or roles based upon them, they don’t and can’t speak for God and His kingdom.  God made us male and female and did it for a divine reason and has assigned us roles. 

But there are those who are attempting to lay aside what God has done and make no distinction between the two including in the church.  Jesus is equal with God yet His role was and is that of a servant.  A male, not female, servant.  For that is what God called for the role to be. 

Well, I hope you will be able to attend SS this coming Sunday.  Invite someone to come and share your thoughts with the class.  Sunday School at Flag Branch will begin at 9:00 am and you are invited to join us at www.fbmbc.org and clicking the online services link. 

You and others can also join us by dialing 508 924-2490.  If you have any comments or questions before then, be sure to place them in the comment section of this preview and I will get back to you.  So, as always remember to fear God and keep His commandments.

 

Pastor Jordan

 

Comments

 

Greetings everyone and thanks for joining me for this edition of my Sunday School lesson commentary.  This Sunday’s lesson is entitled “Called To Heal” and is found in Mark 2:1-12.

One of the major task Jesus had before Him was convincing people He is who He said He was.  Most people will not simply take a person’s word if they are making an unusual claim.  They want some proof of their claim.  This is why many places require everyday people to produce some identification that collaborates or authenticates their claim. 

In Jesus’s day, people didn’t have any form of picture ID to show others who they were.  Even if they did, how do authenticate a claim to be the Son of Man sent on a mission from God with the authority to forgive sins? 

Jesus on at least one occasion told the Jews who doubted His words to look at His works for the verification of His identity they seek.  It was the works that Jesus did that helped to establish His identity to the Jews and the world.  Jesus’s works includes all the things we call miraculous He did in the name of His Father. 

“Many works have I done in the Father’s name” He told the Jews.  “For which one of these works do you want to stone me” He asked.  They responded that it wasn’t for a good work, but for His claim of being One with God. 

Today’s lesson serves to make the case that Jesus is equal and One with God.  Jesus makes His case by the works He did.  On this occasion, a man was brought to Jesus who was crippled and couldn’t walk. 

There was a large crowd standing by.  So much so that this particular man was lowered down from the roof in order to get to Jesus by four others.  The bible said the man’s condition was called palsy. 

Palsy is characterized by extreme loss of the power of motion dependent on some affection either of the motor centers of the brain or of the spinal cord.  It is always serious, usually intractable, and generally sudden in onset.  It is a crippling disease. 

The bibles said Jesus saw their faith.  Their faith was visible because both the paralyzed man and those who broke up the roof to lower him to Jesus believed that Jesus was able to help him.  Jesus’s response to their faith was another opportunity for Jesus to establish His claim as the Son of God. 

First, He said to the paralyzed man that his sins were forgiven.  Those in the crowd who heard Him say that were offended because Jesus said and claimed to something that only God had the proper right or authority to do.  Jesus took the opportunity to link His claim, namely to do something only God could do making Him equal with God, with His works. 

When the tension was established, Jesus then proceeded to relieve the tension by linking His claim to His works.  He asked those who questioned His claim in essence, what is the difference between saying a man’s sin is forgiven or saying to a paralyzed man rise, take up his bed and walk.  

Jesus told the man to rise, take up his bed and walk to make His point and heal the man. Some may say that Jesus took an awful chance.  Suppose the man didn’t get up?  How would that have impacted His claim?  But Jesus was confident in who He is and the power of His word. 

The gospel of John closes by citing that there were many other miraculous things Jesus did that are not written in the gospel but the ones that are written are so that we may know and believe that Jesus is the Son of God. 

Today, mankind may possess the medical knowledge to heal a person in a similar condition as the man Jesus healed but not in the same manner.  Because we don’t know how to do something doesn’t mean it can’t be done.  Jesus knew and still knows something the rest of mankind still doesn’t know.  And what is that?  How to say to someone who is sick with any disease, be healed, and they shall recover. 

Well, I hope you will be able to attend SS this coming Sunday.  Invite someone to come and share your thoughts with the class.  Sunday School at Flag Branch will begin at 9:00 am and you are invited to join us at www.fbmbc.org and clicking the online services link. 

You and others can also join us by dialing 508 924-2490.  If you have any comments or questions before then, be sure to place them in the comment section of this preview and I will get back to you.  So, as always remember to fear God and keep His commandments.

 

Pastor Jordan

 

Comments

 

Greetings everyone and thanks for joining me for this edition of our Sunday School preview.  This Sunday’s lesson is entitled “Called To Significance” and is found in Luke 5:1-11.  

Significance is a word that means something that is worthy of notice, attention or respect.  Have you ever taken the time to consider what makes a person’s life significant or what makes your own life significant?  What makes you or another person worthy of notice, worthy of attention or worthy of respect.  It depends on who is being asked. 

What may be significant to one person may be insignificant to another person.  So significance depends on who is being asked.  Peter, Andrew, James and John were all fishermen.  They managed to feed themselves and their families from what they were able to do by fishing. 

Beside their fishing business, they may have had a family including a wife and children and worldly possessions they had been able to purchase with what they had earned or inherited.  The notice, attention and respect they gave to these persons and things are similar to what similar persons and things mean to us today. 

Everyone is significant to God.  Everyone is worthy of notice, attention and respect of our Creator.  This is why Jesus came.  In the lesson text, Jesus used one of Peter’s boats as a platform from which to preach to a crowd that was standing offshore. 

After He had finished preaching, He told Peter to take the boat out into the deep water and let the nets down for a catch.  Peter was skeptical because they had not long left fishing and had caught nothing. 

Nevertheless, there was something about Jesus that caused Peter to do what He asked.  Maybe it was something He had heard Jesus say or something someone said about Him or something he knew about Jesus. 

Whatever it was, Peter said even thought he thought it will be a waste of time, he will do it just because he respected Jesus and His word.  The bible tells us that they caught so many fish that the nets were breaking and the ships were sinking even with help for other ships. 

When Peter saw what happened, he felt like Jesus was someone special and that he was not worthy to be in His company.  Jesus told him that from now on he world be a fisher of men along with his brother Andrew and fishing partners James and John. 

Their life was about to take on a new significance.  For they were about to help make the difference between people living with God or dying without God. While all of us may be significant in our own eyes and in the eyes of our family, friends and others, God gives us the same opportunity to take on a new significance. 

We can affect the lives of an untold number of people by becoming fishers of men just as they did.  No matter what we may think and other may think of our significance and that of others, nothing can compare to the significance our lives will mean and have when we dedicate them to saving the eternal souls of our fellow human beings. 

By coming to us and doing what He said and did, God proved to us that we are all significant and can become more so.  Unfortunately, we are not all saved.   

Well, I hope you will be able to attend SS this coming Sunday.  Invite someone to come and share your thoughts with the class.  Sunday School at Flag Branch will begin at 9:00 am and you are invited to join us at www.fbmbc.org and clicking the online services link. 

You and others can also join us by dialing 508 924-2490.  If you have any comments or questions before then, be sure to place them in the comment section of this preview and I will get back to you.  So, as always remember to fear God and keep His commandments.

 

Pastor Jordan

 

Comments

 

Greetings everyone and thanks for joining me for this edition of our Sunday School preview.  This Sunday’s lesson is entitled “Called To Proclaim” and is found in Luke 4:14-22. 

In many faith traditions preachers believed they are “called” to preach the gospel.  They will announce their call and then begin their ministry by preaching what is called their “initial” or “trial” sermon. 

Today’s lesson is an account of what many consider the announcement of the call to preach of the Lord Jesus.  One Sabbath day, Jesus read a passage of scripture before the congregation.  The scripture He read was from the book of the prophet Isaiah.  In it, the scripture describes someone called or send on a mission for the Lord.  Jesus told everyone that He was called to fulfill that mission. 

The mission was specific as to what was to be done.  Let’s take a look at them.  The gospel or “good news” was to be preached or proclaimed to the poor.  The poor here are not those who have little or no money which may be true of them. 

But the poor includes all people who are the marginalized of society, including those who have no one to speak up for them or defend them and have little hope or means to rise much higher than their current station in life. 

His mission was to heal the “brokenhearted”.  Many of them are included in the “poor” group.  They needed someone to reassure them that their best days are ahead of them and help them to forget all the things that sought to take away their hope. 

Those who are the “captives” of circumstances and the consequences of sin, the mission was to let them know there is a way out.  Similarly, those who have been “bruised” by the evils of this world now will have a choice as to how they shall respond. 

And He was to give people the knowledge of salvation, grace and mercy of God that had been hidden from them.  All of these things Jesus proclaimed He was going to fulfill.  And from that time forth until He died upon the cross, He spent the rest of His earthly life fulfilling that mission.  He, unlike anyone before or after Him, was uniquely qualified to answer this calling. 

All of us today owe our salvation to Him and the work He did in accomplishing what He set out and proclaimed to do that day.  As Christians, we are all called to continue this mission to the degree we are able to do it.  Not one time did Jesus every mention what those He was sent to could do for Him.  It was and still is about what He and we can do for others. 

This is one of the primary reasons more people are not Christians.  Christianity begins with taking up the mantle of Jesus’s ministry and living to fulfill it just as He did.  Doing anything different reveals we still don’t understand our Christian purpose and calling. 

Well, I hope you will be able to attend SS this coming Sunday.  Invite someone to come and share your thoughts with the class.  Sunday School at Flag Branch will begin at 9:00 am and you are invited to join us at www.fbmbc.org and clicking the online services link.  You and others can also join us by dialing 508 924-2490.  If you have any comments or questions before then, be sure to place them in the comment section of this preview and I will get back to you.  So, as always remember to fear God and keep His commandments.

 

Pastor Jordan

 

Comments