Bible Study Service in Malang, August 23, 2012 (Thursday Evening)

Peace and grace in the Lord Jesus Christ.
The whole Matthew 27 refers to seven sprinklings of blood upon the Ark of Covenant.
Now it means the suffering Jesus experiences up to His death on the cross to save, purify, and perfect us.

We are learning the fourth, namely Jesus is crucified and dead[Matthew 27:32-50].

Verse 45-50 is about the crucifixion time.

There are some things that happen at the crucifixion time as follows.

1. Darkness [verse 45].
2. Jesus is left alone [verse 46-47].
3. Jesus drinks the sour wine [verse 48-49].
4. Jesus dies on the cross [verse 50].

We are learning the fourth thing, namely Jesus dies on the cross.

Matthew 27:50
27:50. And Jesus cried out again with a loud voice, and yielded up His spirit.

Generally, human becomes useless or meaningless in their old age with many diseases, even when the death comes, but Jesus is always meaningful for us with His death, resurrection, and glory.
Thus, we always have meaning in our life up to our old age and gray hairs. Moreover, we keep on having the meaning when we die.
Thus, we have to give meaning to our life, do not live carelessly.

There are three kinds of the meaning of Jesus’ death for us as follows.

1. Jesus dies to deliver us from sins with His precious blood, so we can live in righteousness.
   Revelation 1:5
   1:5 and from Jesus Christ, the faithful witness, the firstborn from the dead, and the ruler over the kings of the earth. To Him who loved us and washed us from our sins in His own blood,
   
   How great a human is, he is contemptible, meaningless and has no value before God. If we are delivered from sin by the precious blood of Jesus, we will be able to live in righteousness and our life becomes meaningful and valuable before God.
   
   There are three stages of righteousness as follows.
   
   
   • Righteousness because of the forgiveness done by Jesus’ blood from our sin.
     The process is through confessing sin to God and other people. Afterwards, the blood of Jesus forgives and covers our sin until there is no remnant anymore as if we never do it.
     
     
   • Righteousness because of deliverance from sin.
     It means one does not want to sin anymore although there is advantage, threat, force, et cetera. The forgiveness is cancelled if he does the sin again.
     
     
   • Righteousness as Jesus has.
     Meaning we cannot sin anymore.
     
     
   Proverbs 16:31
   16:31. The silver–haired head is a crown of glory, If it is found in the way of righteousness.
   
   We live in righteousness up to our old age or silver hair and we reach the end line, namely we die or Jesus comes a second time.
   
   Proverbs 11:4
   11:4. Riches do not profit in the day of wrath, But righteousness delivers from death.
   
   As a result, we have salvation and beauty in our life up to our descendants. It is the life which is meaningful.
   
   
2. Jesus dies to lift us up as the priests and kings by His blood.
   Revelation 1:6
   1:6 and has made us kings and priests to His God and Father, to Him be glory and dominion forever and ever. Amen.
   
   The priest is a holy one who bears the ministry or serves and ministers to God.
   
   Exodus 29:9
   29:9 " And you shall gird them with sashes, Aaron and his sons, and put the hats on them. The priesthood shall be theirs for a perpetual statute. So you shall consecrate Aaron and his sons.
   
   God lifts us up to become the priests forever, meaning we minister to God until our old age or gray hairs and the end line, namely we die or Jesus comes a second time. Moreover, we become priests forever in Paradise and the throne of heavenly kingdom.
   
   Revelation 20:6
   20:6 Blessed and holy is he who has part in the first resurrection. Over such the second death has no power, but they shall be priests of God and of Christ, and shall reign with Him a thousand years.
   
   Revelation 22:3,5
   22:3 And there shall be no more curse, but the throne of God and of the Lamb shall be in it, and His servants shall serve Him.
   22:5 There shall be no night there: They need no lamp nor light of the sun, for the Lord God gives them light. And they shall reign forever and ever.
   
   Ephesians 4:8-12
   4:8 Therefore He says: " When He ascended on high, He led captivity captive, And gave gifts to men."
   4:9 (Now this, " He ascended" ––what does it mean but that He also first descended into the lower parts of the earth?
   4:10 He who descended is also the One who ascended far above all the heavens, that He might fill all things.)
   4:11 And He Himself gave some to be apostles, some prophets, some evangelists, and some pastors and teachers,
   4:12 for the equipping of the saints for the work of ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ,
   
   Jesus dies on the cross to give us the ministry and the gifts of Holy Spirit, namely miraculous abilities to minister to God in building the body of Christ.
   The ministry we get from God is very firm, so nothing may shake or overthrow it as long as we remember the sacrifice of Christ or Jesus’ blood.
   
   There are some things we have to remember in the ministry of building the body of Christ as follows.
   
   
   • Unity and ministry.
     Beginning from the unity in marriage, shepherding, inter-shepherding, up to the international body of Christ between the house of Israel and the Gentiles. It is the unity with one Head, one teaching, and one heart. Afterwards, we can serve one another.
     
     
   • Sacrifice.
     All things must be sacrificed for the building of the body of Christ, namely time, energy, thought, money, et cetera, but the true teaching Word.
     Do not become as Judas who counts too much until he is not counted by God.
     
     Whatever we sacrifice in the ministry of building the body of Christ will not give us disadvantage because we are placing Jesus as our Head. God will never fool us.
     
     
   The proof of Jesus’ being our Head is as follows.
   
   
   • We are faithful and fervent in spirit whatever hindrance we face.
   • There is obedience whatever risk we have to face.
     
     
   1 Peter 1:22
   1:22 Since you have purified your souls in obeying the truth through the Spirit in sincere love of the brethren, love one another fervently with a pure heart,
   
   If we are faithful and obedient, we will be sanctified and able to love one another.
   
   The priest who is faithful, fervent in spirit, and obedient has more meaningful and precious life before God and he becomes the apple of His eye.
   Jesus is of full responsibility as the Head upon our life.
   
   Zechariah 2:7-8
   2:7 " Up, Zion! Escape, you who dwell with the daughter of Babylon."
   2:8 For thus says the LORD of hosts: " He sent Me after glory, to the nations which plunder you; for he who touches you touches the apple of His eye.
   
   The result is as follows.
   
   
   • We are protected from Babylon.
     We will not enter the building of Babylon’s body and we are protected from the sins of Babylon up to the peak, namely sins concerning eating-drinking and marrying-being given in marriage.
     
     
   • God always touches our life to provide all things and He does all things we cannot do because of limitation we have.
     
     
   Not serving God or leaving the service and ministry means placing wolves and birds, referring to evil and unclean spirits, as the head. Consequently, such life becomes very meaningless and perishes forever.
   
   
3. Jesus dies, resurrects, and ascends to heaven to pour out Holy Spirit.
   John 16:7
   16:7. "Nevertheless I tell you the truth. It is to your advantage that I go away; for if I do not go away, the Helper will not come to you; but if I depart, I will send Him to you.
   
   How great a man is, he is only dust or clay if there is no Holy Spirit. Meaning carnal man who lives according to the lust of flesh, ambition, and emotion until he resists God and the true teaching Word. Such life has no meaning at all.
   
   Genesis 3:14
   3:14. So the LORD God said to the serpent: "Because you have done this, You are cursed more than all cattle, And more than every beast of the field; On your belly you shall go, And you shall eat dust All the days of your life.
   
   The dust only becomes the food of serpent or Satan. It means the life is useless and meaningless even perishes forever.
   
   Romans 8:26
   8:26. Likewise the Spirit also helps in our weaknesses. For we do not know what we should pray for as we ought, but the Spirit Himself makes intercession for us with groanings which cannot be uttered.
   
   Holy Spirit helps us to worship God and we become the house of prayer as the peak of our ministry. In such condition, we have the most meaningful and precious life before God.
   
   The worship prayer means as follows.
   
   
   • Giving all praise, honor, glory, up to our whole life to God.
   • Only seeing Jesus’ face, not others. As a result, we can feel the warmth of the light of the sun of God’s love, so our face is always bright.
   • Believing and fully entrusting our life to God as if we lift up our two hands to Him.
     
     Isaiah 46:3-4
     46:3 "" Listen to Me, O house of Jacob, And all the remnant of the house of Israel, Who have been upheld by Me from birth, Who have been carried from the womb:
     46:4 Even to your old age, I am He, And even to gray hairs I will carry you! I have made, and I will bear; Even I will carry, and will deliver you.
     
     Afterwards, God stretches His merciful hand to embrace us up to our old age or gray hairs. The result is as follows.
     
     
     1. He is responsible to preserve our life although we are powerless in the midst of difficulties or impossibilities in the world.
     2. The merciful hand of God protects us so that we do not fall or stumble but we keep on following and ministering to Him forever.
     3. He bears all heavy burdens and weariness, so we find peace for our soul and all things become easy and light. The merciful hand of God is able to solve all problems, even the impossible one.
        
        
     4. The merciful hand of God is able to sanctify and renew our life until we are perfect as Jesus is. It is the most meaningful life that we become the Bride of God and we can be lifted up on glorious clouds to welcome Jesus’ second coming.

God blesses you.