BFS #126 - Can You Hear Me Now? (Verizon Wireless)

Posted By MrsNancy on March 24, 2009

Memory Verse: Mark 12:28-34

28 And one of the scribes came up and heard them disputing with one another, and seeing that he answered them well, asked him, “Which commandment is the most important of all?” 29 Jesus answered, “The most important is, ‘Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one. 30 And you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.’ 31 The second is this: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ There is no other commandment greater than these.” 32 And the scribe said to him, “You are right, Teacher. You have truly said that he is one, and there is no other besides him. 33 And to love him with all the heart and with all the understanding and with all the strength, and to love one’s neighbor as oneself, is much more than all whole burnt offerings and sacrifices.” 34 And when Jesus saw that he answered wisely, he said to him, “You are not far from the kingdom of God.” And after that no one dared to ask him any more questions.

Intro: When Jesus starts his response with “Hear O Israel”, he’s referencing back to the Shema - from Deuteronomy 6-4 - Hear O Israel, the Lord is our God, the Lord is One and Only, Blessed Be his Glorious Sovereign Name for ever and ever. Jesus says this is His greatest commandment.  Like.. if you asked your child(ren) to clean a room.. and it wasn’t done.. they responded to you and said.. I heard you. What good is it if they heard you.. but didn’t DO it. So for us to say, we heard God.. but ignored his instructions.. that’s not good enough.

Assignment: What does God mean when he says HEAR.. he says it often.. if we don’t have an auditory reception of His voice. why is he saying HEAR.. what does it mean, what are we losing in translation? The word Shema doesn’t just mean Hear.. like what your ear receives.. it means more. Tell in your assignment what you think Shema means whether it’s active hearing or auditory hearing.  I’m very anxious to read your thoughts on this.  I hope you will all enjoy doing this assignment, as we are trying to dig deeper into the Word and have a better understanding of what the Bible really is about.

No photo opps this week.

Shema-ing took me by storm some 4.5 years ago.  I found myself really confronted with scripture.  Lets back up a second.  16 years ago I became a Christian.  I was told to start reading in rhe book of John.  That was strange to me, why start in the middle of the book? why not start at the beginning?!?  I did, started with Gen 1, and soon found myself confronted with something my mind couldn't figure out - Methuselah - he was 969 years old. WHAT?  how could that be? I called my mom, who is not a believer, and she said it was because they counted things differently back then, by months or seasons. I did the math, it still didn't work out to 969.  I decided to give it up, give it back to God, Trust that His word was right and my understanding was fallible, I would trust that Methuselah really was 969 years old and wait for God to lead me to understand HOW that could be possible.

IN that moment, as a month old Christian, I decided I would SHEMA God, not man, even if I didn't understand.

TIme went by and new challenged cropped up.  I was taught that perfection had already come, therefore we no longer needed the gifts of healing, prophecy and tongues.  Another red flag went up, that didn't sit right with my spirit - but I was a 2 year old Christian, how could I possibly know more than the pastor who'd been teaching this stuff for decades?

Then came the issue of Passover.  Passover was my catalyst for change.  My pastor 5 Passover's ago told me that we no longer do sacrifices because Jesus is our ultimate sacrifice.  Again, I had no idea what the real answer was, but I didn't feel that was right.  I bet you're all reading this and agreeing with what my pastor said right.. that's what we're all taught. Jesus was the ultimate sacrifice, no sacrifices are nessary now... Not a sacrifice of Thanksgiving, because Jesus was that sacrifice, nor a sacrifice for Joy, not any sacrifices right.. Jesus did it all?

But that's a false teaching. Jesus didn't fulfill ALL the sacrifices, just the sin sacrifice.  How do I know that?  Well.. that's where this Shema-ing thing comes in.   4.5 years ago I was introduced to this idea that God didn't change when Jesus died on the Cross, he's the same today as He was at Creation, the same as He was at Mt. Sinai.  You're saying OF COURSE He is.  So you agree with me on that point, but at what point then.. do we agree that if He said to keep Passover, that at some point He said to stop keeping Passover and keep Easter?  We'll not agree, because He never said it.   How do I know?  Well, Paul kept Passover, and Paul is the example of the Christian we follow.. Paul was post-crusifixion, post -ressurection - Paul has been our teacher - teaching us to keep God's Word. And so what did Paul do?  Well, Paul was a Nazirite and Paul renewed his Nazirite vows at the Temple, offering sacrifices. His actions were sanctioned by James (Ya'akov) and the other Elders

Acts 21:15-26

15 So at the end of our stay, we packed and went up to Yerushalayim; 16 and with us went some of the talmidim from Caesarea. They brought us to the home of the man with whom we were to stay, Mnason from Cyprus, who had been a talmid since the early days. 17 In Yerushalayim, the brothers received us warmly. 18 The next day Sha'ul and the rest of us went in to Ya'akov, and all the elders were present. 19 After greeting them, Sha'ul described in detail each of the things God had done among the Gentiles through his efforts. 20 On hearing it, they praised God; but they also said to him, "You see, brother, how many tens of thousands of believers there are among the Judeans, and they are all zealots for the Torah. 21 Now what they have been told about you is that you are teaching all the Jews living among the Goyim to apostatize from Moshe, telling them not to have a b'rit-milah for their sons and not to follow the traditions. 22 "What, then, is to be done? They will certainly hear that you have come. 23 So do what we tell you. We have four men who are under a vow. 24 Take them with you, be purified with them, and pay the expenses connected with having their heads shaved. Then everyone will know that there is nothing to these rumors which they have heard about you; but that, on the contrary, you yourself stay in line and keep the Torah. 25 "However, in regard to the Goyim who have come to trust in Yeshua, we all joined in writing them a letter with our decision that they should abstain from what had been sacrificed to idols, from blood, from what is strangled and from fornication." 26 The next day Sha'ul took the men, purified himself along with them and entered the Temple to give notice of when the period of purification would be finished and the offering would have to be made for each of them.

Sorry, I previously stated that Paul kept Passover.. let me retract that.. I don't have scriptural proof that he kept Passover.. but I do have scriptural proof that he kept the Feast of Atonement. (Yom Kippur)

Acts 27: 7 For a number of days we made little headway, and we arrived off Cnidus only with difficulty. The wind would not let us continue any farther along the direct route; so we ran down along the sheltered side of Crete from Cape Salmone; 8 and, continuing to struggle on, hugging the coast, we reached a place called Pleasant Harbor, near the town of Lasea. 9 Since much time had been lost, and continuing the voyage was risky, because it was already past Yom-Kippur, Sha'ul advised them, 10 "Men, I can see that our voyage is going to be a catastrophe, not only with huge losses to the cargo and the ship but with loss of our lives as well." 11 However, the officer paid more attention to the pilot and the ship's owner than to what Sha'ul said.

Deuteronomy (D'varim) 16:1-17

1 "Observe the month of Aviv, and keep Pesach to ADONAI your God; for in the month of Aviv, ADONAI your God brought you out of Egypt at night. 2 You are to sacrifice the Pesach offering from flock and herd to ADONAI your God in the place where ADONAI will choose to have his name live. 3 You are not to eat any hametz with it; for seven days you are to eat with it matzah, the bread of affliction; for you came out of the land of Egypt in haste. Thus you will remember the day you left the land of Egypt as long as you live. 4 No leaven is to be seen with you anywhere in your territory for seven days. None of the meat from your sacrifice on the first day in the evening is to remain all night until morning. 5 You may not sacrifice the Pesach offering in just any of the towns that ADONAI your God is giving you; 6 but at the place where ADONAI your God will choose to have his name live - there is where you are to sacrifice the Pesach offering, in the evening, when the sun sets, at the time of year that you came out of Egypt.

Notice God did add something in this scripture... He said You may not sacrifice the Pesach offering in just any of the towns that ADONAI your God is giving you; 6 but at the place where ADONAI your God will choose to have his name live. That means we don't slaughter (Sacrifice is the same word in Hebrew) a lamb here in Saskatchewan.. but I'd have to do it at the Temple in Jerusalem. Well, Paul offered sacrifices (offerings) at the Temple after the death and ressurection of our Messiah - for nothing had changed.. but - BUT - now there is no Temple,  - that changed - so we can't do this part of Passover. Instead, we now have a Seder plate that has the symbolic lamb shank to represent the lamb we would have sacrificed. You see, the point is, I didn't go my own way, I persued God's Word and found the answers in HIS Word.  Oh, and that' was my answer to my question 5 years ago - We haven't stopped offering sacrifices because Jesus was the ultimate sacrifice, we have stopped because there is no more Temple.