From Sunday: June 19, 2011

In the morning we looked at 1 John 2:12-17. John first provides some words of comfort (12-14) in which he reminds us of our reception of all Christ's benefits by grace alone. Important to remember is that if John's audience needed to be reminded of the gracious benefits they have in Christ, we too must consider all we have is by the grace of God alone. Second, John builds upon his words of comfort with words of exhortation (15-17): we are not to love the world. More specifically, John describes what we are not to love as that which is set in opposition to God - our ungodly lusts, desires and pride. We must not do this because to love such things is to not love God (we cannot serve two masters!). Besides the obvious application of putting the love of the world to death in our lives, we also saw how John is reasoning with us: sin and rebellion is vanity, but in Christ we have received grace so that we might no longer live for ourselves, but for him who died for us. This last part echoes Paul in 2 Corinthians 5. As we looked to that passage, we saw that Paul uses the same ideas John is teaching to demonstrate why he is so passionate about outreach and evangelism.

In the evening, we looked at Deuteronomy 16. Here Moses reminds the Israelites of three major festivals. Passover (1-8) is all about remembering redemption - how God brought them out the fiery furnace of Egypt with a mighty hand and an outstretched arm. We saw that we, too, must reflect on our own need of redemption - every last individual is either redeemed from sin and misery or remains in need of redemption. The Feast of Weeks (9-12) was the celebration of a harvest just begun with great anticipation of the fullness of the blessing that God would provide. Also called Pentecost by Greek speaking Jews, we saw how Acts 2 magnifies the meaning of this feast as we see the beginning of a new harvest as the first fruits of the New Covenant are brought in to the church. The Feast of Booths (13-17) celebrated a harvest complete with thanksgiving and rejoicing. As Pentecost in Acts 2 magnifies Weeks, so too is there a greater Feast of Booths: the final gathering in of all of God's elect. Lastly, as we contemplated coming to the Table, we considered how the Lord's Supper acts as our focal celebration: looking back to all that Christ has done in redeeming us from sin and misery, how we are now enjoying the first fruits of that salvation and how we look forward to the final consummation of all things in him.