Lent Season: Living the Baptised Life

In these six weeks leading up to Good Friday and Resurrection Sunday, through the gospel readings, we fix our eyes on Jesus of Nazareth and his life of obedience to God the Father, especially the last few weeks of his ministry as he journeys to Jerusalem as Israel’s Servant-King. And through Him, we catch a sense of Our Creator’s deep concern to redeem and restoring his fallen first Creation and bring forth New Creation. The New Testament letters deepen our understanding of the significance of Jesus’ life, death, resurrection, and ascension, while the Old Testament readings and the Writings (mainly the Psalms), help us explore the journey of the people of God in finding and living out their place for the generations of their time as well as the tension of holy living in a fallen world. As for our personal reflections, we focus on what it means to live the baptised life - as sons and daughters of God, following Jesus, empowered by the Holy Spirit in our various spheres of life, living in a way that glorifies our Heavenly Father.

reading for: Tuesday Night, 27 february

john 2:13-22

• READ

  Scripture Reading: John 2:13–22

  13 The Passover of the Jews was at hand, and Jesus went up to Jerusalem. 14 In the temple he found those who were selling oxen and sheep and pigeons, and the money-changers sitting there. 15 And making a whip of cords, he drove them all out of the temple, with the sheep and oxen. And he poured out the coins of the money-changers and overturned their tables. 16 And he told those who sold the pigeons, “Take these things away; do not make my Father’s house a house of trade.” 17 His disciples remembered that it was written, “Zeal for your house will consume me.” 18 So the Jews said to him, “What sign do you show us for doing these things?” 19 Jesus answered them, “Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up.” 20 The Jews then said, “It has taken forty-six years to build this temple, and will you raise it up in three days?” 21 But he was speaking about the temple of his body. 22 When therefore he was raised from the dead, his disciples remembered that he had said this, and they believed the Scripture and the word that Jesus had spoken.

  Commentary

  The Passover is an important Jewish festival, and it commemorates the deliverance of Israel from slavery in the hands of the Egyptians. On Passover night, the Israelites were commanded to slaughter a lamb as a family and feast on the lamb with the blood of the lamb smeared on the door posts. The fact that this story is set with the backdrop of the Passover being at hand is highly significant. This story is found in the synoptic gospels also but with one significant change in the Gospel of John. This story in the Gospel of John is placed at the start of the gospel where in the other gospels it is placed nearer to the end.

  Jesus went up to Jerusalem and into the temple. He found those who were selling oxen, sheep and pigeons and the money changers. He made a whip of cords and drove them all out of the temple. One might get offended at Jesus, for we may see him as being violent. Jesus, why you hit people? Maybe this sellers and money changers was offering the people a service so that they could offer sacrifices in the temple? Why was Jesus so angry?

  Jesus was angry because they had turned God’s house into a house of trade. The focus was on the worship of God. This animals and money were just a tool but now it was no longer a tool but a very lucrative trade. Jesus was concerned for his Father’s house.

  The Jews asked Jesus for a sign for doing this things. Jesus told them to destroy this temple and in three days he will raise it up. The Jews thought he was referring to the physical temple. Jesus, however, was not speaking of the physical temple but his body. Jesus was saying that the Jews will destroy and kill him and in three days he will rise again.

  This is precisely what happened 2 over years later when Jesus went into Jerusalem and was the true Passover lamb dying on the cross and rising again three days later. The disciples did not understand the significance of this story until Jesus rose from the dead. Only then did they believed the Scripture and the word that Jesus had spoken.

• REFLECT

Jesus is the servant of God who was destroyed, killed, and rose again from the dead three days later. This is the confession of the Christian faith.  It is in Jesus that we have life and can worship and honour the Father.

What is our picture of Jesus? Is this picture of Jesus what we believe in, or do we have other ideas of Jesus that are different from this. Do we search the Scriptures to see Jesus? This season of lent, let us seek to spend time regularly to immerse ourselves in the land of Scripture to see Jesus.

reading for: Wednesday Night, 28 february

Exodus 20:1-17

• READ
  

  20 And God spoke all these words, saying,

  2 “I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery.

  3 “You shall have no other gods before me.

  4 “You shall not make for yourself a carved image, or any likeness of anything that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth. 5 You shall not bow down to them or serve them, for I the Lord your God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children to the third and the fourth generation of those who hate me, 6 but showing steadfast love to thousands of those who love me and keep my commandments.

  7 “You shall not take the name of the Lord your God in vain, for the Lord will not hold him guiltless who takes his name in vain.

  8 “Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy. 9 Six days you shall labor, and do all your work, 10 but the seventh day is a Sabbath to the Lord your God. On it you shall not do any work, you, or your son, or your daughter, your male servant, or your female servant, or your livestock, or the sojourner who is within your gates. 11 For in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that is in them, and rested on the seventh day. Therefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath day and made it holy.

  12 “Honor your father and your mother, that your days may be long in the land that the Lord your God is giving you.

  13 “You shall not murder.

  14 “You shall not commit adultery.

  15 “You shall not steal.

  16 “You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor.

  17 “You shall not covet your neighbor's house; you shall not covet your neighbor's wife, or his male servant, or his female servant, or his ox, or his donkey, or anything that is your neighbor's.”

   

  Commentary

  Why are the Ten Commandments or ‘Ten Words’ appropriate reading for this Lent season? How does it connect with Christ’s death and resurrection which we will soon be celebrating?

  Firstly, the Ten Commandments are given in the context of God’s covenant-making with His people on Mount Sinai, from Exodus chapters 19 to 24. Through the Exodus event, God is taking the Israelites on a journey out of slavery in Egypt into freedom in Canaan, transforming them from slaves without hope or future into a nation of sons and daughters with their own land and inheritance (verse 2).

  They had been slaves in Egypt for about 430 years, since after the time of Joseph and only life they knew was that of slavery and subjugation, fighting for survival and living in desperation and hopelessness.

  If they were to become God’s covenant people, a new and united nation under God, if they were to return to the land of Canaan that God had given their ancestor Abraham and return to being the children of Abraham - blessed to be a blessing to others (Gen 12:1-3), they first had to have their lifestyle, values, practices, desires and dreams totally transformed. In other words, they needed a renewal of their identity and a renewed way of life. Hence the Ten Commandments were the essence of the ‘Law’ by which the new nation was constituted. And as readers, if we continue to read the remaining chapters (21- 24), we will see the goodness of God’s character shining through the just and fair stipulations he gives his people, and His desire for them to become His representatives in the world. So understood correctly in their context, the Ten Commandments are not merely moral principles and absolutes to live by, they are a means by which God desires his people to relate to Him (v3-11) and to one another (v12-17). If they live this way, they will truly truly His people who shine His light for the other nations living around them.

  In chapter 24, Moses reads this Book of the Covenant to the people, and they say, “Yes” to God’s proposal. Moses then sprinkles sacrificial blood of bulls on them and the covenant is sealed (Ex 24:3-8). This is the moment where the Old Covenant (Old Testament) is confirmed and sealed.

  But what does this all have to do with Lent and Jesus going to the cross? Everything! Hebrews 10 helps us see the connection. In the first few verses the writer says that the ‘law’ is a shadow, pointing to Christ, that it is “impossible for the blood of bulls and goats to take away sins” (v4). Further down in verses 12-15, he writes that Christ’s death on the cross is the sacrifice for sins for all time and this is the New Covenant (New Testament) we now have with God. This is the great significance of Christ’s death on the cross. This New Covenant is for the Jews as well as gentiles (all of us non-Jews). Anyone who follows Jesus and is baptized into Christ, is dead to sin and free from slavery to his old life and through the baptism of the Holy Spirit, he is ‘born-again’ into a new life (Romans 6:3-18). This is the ‘baptised life’ we live in the Spirit because of what Christ has accomplished on the cross. As we follow Christ closely through this season of Lent, and keep our eyes on Him, and we continue to walk in obedience to His voice through our lives, we become who we truly are and were always meant to be – sons and daughters of God who serve Him in the world

• rEFLECT

  How is your daily walk with the Lord? Are you making room in your life to spend time in the Scriptures to get to know God, his character, desires and activity? What is His invitation to you this season? To let go of something of your old life? To walk boldly in the new life He has given you? 

reading for: Thursday Night, 29 february

1 Corinthians 1:18-25

READ

Christ Crucified Is God’s Power and Wisdom

18 For the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God. 19 For it is written:

“I will destroy the wisdom of the wise;
    the intelligence of the intelligent I will frustrate.”[a]

20 Where is the wise person? Where is the teacher of the law? Where is the philosopher of this age? Has not God made foolish the wisdom of the world? 21 For since in the wisdom of God the world through its wisdom did not know him, God was pleased through the foolishness of what was preached to save those who believe. 22 Jews demand signs and Greeks look for wisdom, 23 but we preach Christ crucified: a stumbling block to Jews and foolishness to Gentiles, 24 but to those whom God has called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God. 25 For the foolishness of God is wiser than human wisdom, and the weakness of God is stronger than human strength.”

Commentary

One of the primary themes across this week’s readings is that of us being temples. Jesus, in our Gospel reading this week said, “Destroy this temple (emphasis mine) and I will raise it up… he (Jesus) was speaking about the temple of his (Jesus’ own) body (John 2:20-21)”. This statement was said in the context of the cleansing of the physical Jewish temple where Jesus zealously cleared out people who had made the temple into a place of trade (John 2:13-17). Jesus corrected them saying “My house of prayer shall be called a house of prayer but you make it a den of robbers (Matt 21:13)”.

In the Old Testament, the temple was designated as the house of God where God chose to meet with His people (cf. Ezra 5:2, cf. Ps 132:13-14). As such, the temple represents God’s holy presence. And since prayer is about approaching the presence of God there is a very close relationship between the temple and prayer (cf. 1 Kings 18:29-30, 38; Luke 1:10; 2:37-38; 18:10; Acts 3:1). Prayer, including adoration, thanksgiving and praise were all part of Old Testament temple worship.

By referring to Himself as a kind of temple, Jesus was revealing a deep truth that we all as fellow human beings made by our Creator God are all temples intended to host God’s holy presence. One of the quintessential questions then that Jesus was answering was regarding the kind of temples we ought to be as sons and daughters of the most high God. And by extension the kinds of fruits that we would bear if indeed our temple belongs to God.

This is one of the main truths that anchor Pauls discourse in today’s reading. In fact, Paul would say the following later on in the same letter, “Do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit, who is in you, whom you received from God?” (1 Cor 6:19).    

REFLECT

With the above as our lens for today, what kinds of temples will God destroy? And what kinds of temples will God save and glorify with Himself?

What kinds of temples do we observe in the world around us? What kinds of temples does the world urge us to be?

As people who were created to bear the image of God as His children and servants (Genesis 1:26-27), we all hunger for true wisdom and power because we are meant to be such. The world invites us to look for certain kinds of power and wisdom while Jesus invites us to find true power and wisdom in Him – I am the way, the truth, and the life (John 14:6).

In closing the difficult question that remains to be asked is this: what kind of a temple are you? Does your temple resemble the foolishness of Jesus’ cruciform life or that of the world’s glory? How does the internal space of your human temple look like? Is it filled perhaps filled with the hustle and bustle worldly transactions and pursuits? And are the courts of our hearts filled with the cares of this world? What kinds of philosophies, precepts, thoughts, and truths dominate these spaces of your heart?

Paul’s counsel here is not one of condemnation but rather a loving invitation to consider the state of our ‘temple’ and who we are hosting. Jesus will come again and with Him will come His everlasting reign. With His coming all ‘temples’ of this world will be destroyed and will pass away, but the ‘temples’ committed to Him will be preserved and raised up again on that day.

How does the life (internal and external) of a temple that belongs to our Father in Heaven look like? And what rhythms, habits, or actions do you think will be helpful towards getting your temple in rightful order? Discuss with your LG and spiritual friends about how these will look like tangibly in each of your own contexts. Pray with one another and commit to take action with your fellow brothers and sisters in Christ.    

reading for: FRIDAY Night, 1 march

Psalm 19

• READ
  
  19:1 The heavens are telling the glory of God; and the firmament proclaims his handiwork.

  19:2 Day to day pours forth speech, and night to night declares knowledge.

  19:3 There is no speech, nor are there words; their voice is not heard;

  19:4 yet their voice goes out through all the earth, and their words to the end of the world. In the heavens he has set a tent for the sun,

  19:5 which comes out like a bridegroom from his wedding canopy, and like a strong man runs its course with joy.

  19:6 Its rising is from the end of the heavens, and its circuit to the end of them; and nothing is hid from its heat.

  19:7 The law of the LORD is perfect, reviving the soul; the decrees of the LORD are sure, making wise the simple;

  19:8 the precepts of the LORD are right, rejoicing the heart; the commandment of the LORD is clear, enlightening the eyes;

  19:9 the fear of the LORD is pure, enduring forever; the ordinances of the LORD are true and righteous altogether.

  19:10 More to be desired are they than gold, even much fine gold; sweeter also than honey, and drippings of the honeycomb.

  19:11 Moreover by them is your servant warned; in keeping them there is great reward.

  19:12 But who can detect their errors? Clear me from hidden faults.

  19:13 Keep back your servant also from the insolent; do not let them have dominion over me. Then I shall be blameless, and innocent of great transgression.

  19:14 Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be acceptable to you, O LORD, my rock and my redeemer.

  Commentary

  Psalm 19 can be broken down into 3 main parts. The first from verses 1-6, speaks about God speaking through creation. The second, from verses 7-11 speak about the law, precepts and decrees of the LORD. And finally the third part, verses 12-14  is the Psalmist David’s response and prayer in light of both of these.

  Who is David? David wasn’t just a king, he was God’s appointed and chosen king. A man who was after God’s heart. A man who is God’s servant. A man who served and lived out God’s purposes in his life.

  And it is apt to conclude that David, being God’s servant, could truly see the purpose and glory of creation. The heavens wasn’t just an idea or teaching that David learnt, he literally could see the heavens, the skies, declaring, painting, proclaiming the glory and beauty of God (v.1).

  It wasn’t just a moment nor a season, it was every day. Day after day, just as the tides of the waters wash over the sea shore, so does the light in the day and night speak and make God known to us (v.2)

  It might seem like they are mute or silent, yet the skies and heavens speak so loudly and clearly (v. 3-4).

  The sun, the bright and glorious sun, bursts forth each morning and lasts through the day. So glaringly in your face like a bridegroom after the wedding (v.5).

  And as the sun rises from one end of the earth and ends its journey on the end each day, nothing can escape its heat (v. 6).

  In summary, creation served as God’s mouthpiece. And just as the creation, the heavens, the skies, the sun speak so clearly and so beautifully about God, so does God’s laws, his instructions and commandments. They too have their purpose.

  They are perfect, reviving the soul. Its worthy of trust, making wise the simple (v. 7).

  They are right and clear, bringing joy and insight to our hearts and lives (v. 8).

  The laws of God is true and righteous. Even more desirable than gold and sweeter than honey (v.9-10).

  For servants of God  are warned, kept in check by them. They are rewarded for their obedience (v. 11).

  How then should a servant of God live in light of God’s beautiful and majestic creation? How then should a servant live in light of God’s law that is life?

  By allowing the law to cleanse and clarify the sins and darkness in his own heart (v. 12).

  By following the law as it is life and outside of it, lies a sinful, fleshly living. Full of guilt and transgression (v. 13).

  Therefore the only right response is a cry and plea to have the deepest meditations, the meditations of his own heart, to be pleasing to the LORD, His Rock and Redeemer.

• REFLECT

  Do you ever think about God’s creation as serving God’s purposes in this world? Or do you think that it was merely created by God by accident?

  Thinking now about the law, the decrees, the stories of God in the Old Testament, do you think of them as life giving, pure and right? Or do we see it as merely burdens and standards that we cannot help but failing.

  David, God’s servant who was after God’s own heart, could see so clearly and beautifully God’s handiwork and word in BOTH creation and the Word.

  The description of both God’s creation and the Law is very elaborate in Psalm 19. Can you write 2 separate lists of what is said of each of them?

  Write them down and share it with your LG.