To Believe in Jesus – Part 115

 

ཡོ་ཧ་ནན། 10:27-30

27ངའི་ལུག་རྣམས་ཀྱིས་ངའི་སྐད་ལ་ཉན་པ༌དང༌། ངས་ཀྱང་ལུག་དེ་དག་ངོ་ཤེས་ཏེ་ལུག་རྣམས་ཀྱང་བདག་གི་རྗེས་སུ་འབྲང༌ངོ་།། 28ཡང་བདག་གིས་དེ་རྣམས་ལ་མཐའ་མེད་པའི་ཚེ་སྲོག་སྩོལ༌བས། དེ་དག་ནམ་ཡང་འཇིག་པར་མི་འགྱུར་ཞིང་སུས་ཀྱང་བདག་གི་ལག་ནས་དེ་རྣམས་འཕྲོག་མི་ནུས།

29བདག་གི་ཡབ་ཀྱིས་ལུག་དེ་རྣམས་བདག་ལ་གནང་ཞིང་ཁོང་ཉིད་ནི་ཐམས་ཅད་ལས་མཆོག་ཏུ་གྱུར་པ་ཡིན༌ཏེ། སུ་ཞིག་གིས་ཀྱང་བདག་གི་ཡབ་ཀྱི་ཕྱག་ནས་ལུག་དེ་རྣམས་འཕྲོག་པར་མི་ནུས། 30བདག་དང་ཡབ་ནི་ངོ་བོ་གཅིག་རང་ཡིན་ཞེས་གསུངས༌སོ།།

John 10:27-30

27 My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me. 28 I give them eternal life, and they will never perish, and no one will snatch them out of my hand. 29 My Father, who has given them to me, is greater than all, and no one is able to snatch them out of the Father’s hand. 30 I and the Father are one.”

 

Previous post I pointed out 5 key issues I believe Jesus was addressing in His conversation with a specific group of Jews who questioned if He is the Messiah –

1. Relationship between His sheep and Him
2. The promise of eternal life for His sheep
3. The assurance of eternal life
4. The power and authority of the Father to protect and preserve His sheep
5. Jesus’ relationship with the Father

Previously I covered the area of relationship between Jesus and His sheep and the guaranteed promise of eternal life for His sheep. This time let’s look at Jesus’ relationship with the Father.

I think most of us believers and followers of Christ today do already have a better perspective of Jesus’ relationship with the Father, compared to those Jews Jesus was speaking to here in John 10.

However, in this conversation recorded in John 10 we need to bear in mind Jesus’ message is delivered in particular to a specific group of Jews who were divided among themselves about the position and identity of Jesus, and the background event – the Feast of Dedication also known as Feast of the Maccabees in memory of the Maccabean Revolt – highlighted their expectation of the coming Messiah.

I also pointed out in previous posts that part of the reasoning for their divisions and disagreement had to do with how their religious establishments had corrupted scripture interpretation based on their sectarian doctrines and in particular those teachings and man-made propaganda that advocated the idea of a coming Messiah engaging in military campaign to liberate Israel from foreign rule, and in that circumstances referring to the Romans.

All this was happening before the death and resurrection of Jesus. Today we have the benefits of hindsight and we know the death and resurrection of Jesus as indisputable historical fact. And furthermore the resurrection of Jesus is a key foundation of our faith in the Messiah which all the apostles chosen of Christ preach and teach.

So it was in the context of this very important issue about who is the Messiah chosen of God that here in John 10 Jesus addresses His relationship with the Father.

And since Jesus was in John 10 addressing a group of Jews who were divided in onions themselves, I would like to point out another recorded conversation Jesus had with His Jewish audience which I believe is related and some of the Jews in John 10 may had knowledge of it.

Let’s look at Matthew 22

 

མད་ཐཱ། 22:41-46

41ཕ་རུ་ཤི་པ་རྣམས་གནས་དེར་འཛོམས༌དུས། སྐྱབས་མགོན་ཡེ་ཤུས་དེ་རྣམས་ལ་འདི་སྐད༌དུ། 42མཱ་ཤི་ཀའི་སྐོར་ནས་ཁྱོད་ཅག་གི་བསམ་ཚུལ་ཅི་ཡིན༌ནམ། ཁོང་ནི་སུ་ཞིག་གི་སྲས་ཡིན་ནམ་ཞེས་བཀའ་འདྲི་གནང་བ༌ལ། དེ་རྣམས་ཀྱིས་དཱ་བིད་ཀྱི་རིགས་སྲས་ཡིན་ཞེས་ཞུས༌སོ།། 43ཡང་སྐྱབས་མགོན་ཡེ་ཤུས་འདི་སྐད༌དུ། དེས་ན་དཱ་བིད་ཀྱིས་དམ་པའི་ཐུགས་ཉིད་ཀྱི་ངང་ནས་མཱ་ཤི་ཀ་ལ་གཙོ་བོ་ལགས་ཞེས་འབོད་པ་ཅི་ཡིན༌ནམ། དེ་ལ་ཇི་སྐད༌དུ།

44དཀོན་མཆོག་གིས་ནི་ང་ཡི་གཙོ་བོ༌ལ།།

བདག་གིས་ཁྱོད་ཀྱི་བསྟན་དགྲ་ཐམས་ཅད༌ཀུན།།

ཁྱོད་ཀྱི་ཞབས་ཀྱི་འོག་ཏུ་འཇུག་པའི༌བར།།

བདག་གི་གཡས་སུ་བཞུགས་ཤིང་སྒུག་པར༌བྱའོ།།

ཞེས་གསུངས༌ཤིང༌། 45དཱ་བིད་ཀྱིས་ཁོང་ལ་གཙོ་བོ་ཞེས་ཞུས༌ན། ཁོང་ནི་དཱ་བིད་ཀྱི་རིགས་སྲས་སུ་ཇི་ལྟར་གྱུར་པ་ཡིན་ནམ་ཞེས་གསུངས་པ༌ན། 46མི་སུས་ཀྱང་ཁོང་ལ་ལན་འདེབས་མ་ནུས༌ལ། ཉིན་དེ་ནས་བཟུང་སུས་ཀྱང་ཁོང་ལ་དྲི་བ་ཅི་ཡང་ཞུ་མ་ཕོད༌དོ།།

Matthew 22:41-46

41 Now while the Pharisees were gathered together, Jesus asked them a question, 42 saying, “What do you think about the Christ? Whose son is he?” They said to him, “The son of David.”

43 He said to them, “How is it then that David, in the Spirit, calls him Lord, saying, 44  “‘The Lord said to my Lord, “Sit at my right hand, until I put your enemies under your feet”’?

45 If then David calls him Lord, how is he his son?” 46 And no one was able to answer him a word, nor from that day did anyone dare to ask him any more questions.

 

I believe, and this is my person view, that some of the Pharisees who heard Jesus may had knew the answer but chose to keep silence due to the greater consensus among their own religious establishment that they should expect a Messiah who is of human origin and of the offspring of King David and one that should lead a military campaign to liberate Israel from foreign rule – the Romans of that time.

I believe these Pharisees and some of the scribes and Rabbis among them who heard Jesus would had been familiar with prophesy of Daniel about the “Son of Man” (Daniel 7:13 དཱ་ནེ་ཨེལ། 7:13) and there have been long time debate till today if this is human or angelic?

If you are using a bible with cross reference, Jesus conversation in Matthew 22:41-46 would refer you to Psalm 110. But there is another scripture which could be more important.

According to Hebrew tradition of scripture interpretation – I do not mean Jewish culture and customs but with reference to rabbinic scripture interpretation that are deem highly creditable – the most definitive, explicit, and clear, scripture record and prophesy about the Messiah chosen of God and about the kingdom of God, have to be Psalm 2.

 

གསུང་མགུར། 2

1ཕྱི་ཕྱོགས་པ་རྣམས་ཁོང་ཁྲོ་ཅི་ལ༌ལངས། །མི་རྣམས་དོན་མེད་ཇུས་ངན་ཅི་ལ༌བཤམས།། 2ཡ་ཝཱེ་དང་ནི་ཁོང་གིས་བྱུགས་པ༌ལ། །ས་གཞིའི་རྒྱལ་པོ་རྣམས་ནི་རྒོལ་བར༌བྱེད། །བློན་ཆེན་རྣམས་ནི་འདུས་ནས་གྲོས་འདེབས༌ཤིང༌།། 3ཤོག་དང་ང་ཚོས་ཁོང་གི་འཆིང་ཐག༌གཅོད། །ཁོང་གི་ཐག་པ་རྣམས་ནི་གཡུག་ཅེས༌ཟེར།། 4ནམ་མཁར་བཞུགས་པ་ཁོང་ཉིད་བཞད་པར༌འགྱུར། །གཙོ་བོས་མི་བུ་དེ་རྣམས་སྨད་པར༌མཛད།། 5དེའི་དུས་ཁྲོས་ཤིང་ཁོ་ཚོར་གསུང་གླེང༌མཛད། །ཁྲོ་གཏུམ་དང་བཅས་ཁོ་རྣམས་དངངས་པར་བྱ།། 6བདག་གི་རི་བོ་དམ་པ་ཛ་ཡན༌སྟེང༌། །བདག་གིས་རང་གི་རྒྱལ་པོ་བསྐོས་ཞེས༌གསུངས།། 7བཀའ་བསྩལ་དེ་ནི་ང་ཡིས་སྒྲོག་པར༌བྱ། །ཡ་ཝཱེས་ང་ལ་འདི་སྐད་གསུངས་པ༌སྟེ། །ཁྱོད་ནི་ངའི་སྲས་དེ་རིང་བདག་ལ་འཁྲུངས།། 8བདག་ལ་ཞུས་དང་བདག་གིས་མི་རིགས༌རྣམས། །ཁྱོད་ཀྱི་ནོར་སྐལ་དུ་ནི་ངས་གནང༌ཞིང༌། །ས་གཞི་ཡོངས་སུ་ཁྱོད་ལ་དབང་བར༌མཛད།། 9ལྕགས་ཀྱི་དབྱུག་པས་ཁྱོད་ཀྱིས་དེ་རྣམས༌གཅག །རྫ་ཆས་ནང་བཞིན་དེ་རྣམས་དུམ་བུར༌གཅག། 10དེའི་ཕྱིར་རྒྱལ་པོ་ཁྱེད་རྣམས་མཁས་པར༌མཛོད། །ས་གཞིའི་ཁྲིམས་དཔོན་ཁྱེད་ཚོས་གདམས་ངག༌ལོངས།། 11ཡ་ཝཱེར་གུས་ཤིང་འཇིགས་པས་ཞབས་ཕྱི༌སྒྲུབས། །སྐྲག་འདར་དང་བཅས་དགའ་མགུ་རངས་པར༌གྱིས།། 12སྲས་ཀྱི་ཐུགས་ཁྲོ་མྱུར་དུ་འབར་འོང༌ཞིང༌། །ཁྱོད་རྣམས་ལམ་ཁར་མེད་པར་མི་མཛད༌ཕྱིར། །ཁྱོད་ཚོས་ཁོང་གི་ཞབས་ལ་མཆུ་སྒྲོས༌གློན། །ཁོང་ལ་སྐྱབས་སུ་འགྲོ་བ་ཀུན༌ནི་བདེ།།

Psalm 2

Why do the nations rage and the peoples plot in vain?

2 The kings of the earth set themselves, and the rulers take counsel together, against the Lord and against his Anointed, saying,

3 “Let us burst their bonds apart and cast away their cords from us.”

4 He who sits in the heavens laughs; the Lord holds them in derision.

5 Then he will speak to them in his wrath, and terrify them in his fury, saying,

6 “As for me, I have set my King on Zion, my holy hill.”

7 I will tell of the decree: The Lord said to me, “You are my Son; today I have begotten you.

8 Ask of me, and I will make the nations your heritage, and the ends of the earth your possession.

9 You shall break them with a rod of iron and dash them in pieces like a potter’s vessel.”

10 Now therefore, O kings, be wise; be warned, O rulers of the earth.

11 Serve the Lord with fear, and rejoice with trembling.

12 Kiss the Son, lest he be angry, and you perish in the way, for his wrath is quickly kindled.

Blessed are all who take refuge in him.

 

Psalm 2 and 110 were written about the same period of time, and they both should be studied together as they address the coming Messiah and the establishment of the kingdom of God.

For a long time both Jews and Christians who believed in the appointment of the Messiah for the redemption of  Man and the establishment of the kingdom of God, have been trying very hard to figure out how exactly is all these prophesies going to happen and when, and where, and who will be involved. That’s basically where we fall into disagreements.

So, who is this Son of God mentioned in Psalm and Son of Man mentioned in Daniel?

 

We know the answer – Jesus the Christ.

 

There are important reasons why Jesus repeatedly speaks to His Jewish folks about His relationship with the Father and they knew Jesus is referring to God who created the heavens and the Earth, the same Yah·weh יְהוָֹה God who revealed Himself to Moses and redeemed the children of Israel from the bondage of Egypt, the same God who promised the coming Messiah and the establishment of the kingdom of God.

To be continue …

 

David Z

To Believe in Jesus – Part 114

 

ཡོ་ཧ་ནན། 10:27-30

27ངའི་ལུག་རྣམས་ཀྱིས་ངའི་སྐད་ལ་ཉན་པ༌དང༌། ངས་ཀྱང་ལུག་དེ་དག་ངོ་ཤེས་ཏེ་ལུག་རྣམས་ཀྱང་བདག་གི་རྗེས་སུ་འབྲང༌ངོ་།། 28ཡང་བདག་གིས་དེ་རྣམས་ལ་མཐའ་མེད་པའི་ཚེ་སྲོག་སྩོལ༌བས། དེ་དག་ནམ་ཡང་འཇིག་པར་མི་འགྱུར་ཞིང་སུས་ཀྱང་བདག་གི་ལག་ནས་དེ་རྣམས་འཕྲོག་མི་ནུས།

29བདག་གི་ཡབ་ཀྱིས་ལུག་དེ་རྣམས་བདག་ལ་གནང་ཞིང་ཁོང་ཉིད་ནི་ཐམས་ཅད་ལས་མཆོག་ཏུ་གྱུར་པ་ཡིན༌ཏེ། སུ་ཞིག་གིས་ཀྱང་བདག་གི་ཡབ་ཀྱི་ཕྱག་ནས་ལུག་དེ་རྣམས་འཕྲོག་པར་མི་ནུས། 30བདག་དང་ཡབ་ནི་ངོ་བོ་གཅིག་རང་ཡིན་ཞེས་གསུངས༌སོ།།

John 10:27-30

27 My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me. 28 I give them eternal life, and they will never perish, and no one will snatch them out of my hand. 29 My Father, who has given them to me, is greater than all, and no one is able to snatch them out of the Father’s hand. 30 I and the Father are one.”

 

Continuing with Jesus’ conversation with a specific group of Jews whom He said were not His sheep because of their disbelief and refusal to trust and obey as they did not accept Jesus’ authority from the Father at that moment.

I think it was the same group who rejected the baptism of John the Baptist.

From here Jesus pointed out

1. Relationship between His sheep and Him
2. The promise of eternal life for His sheep
3. The assurance of eternal life
4. The power and authority of the Father to protect and preserve His sheep
5. Jesus’ relationship with the Father

Obviously the first thing Jesus pointed out is

 

Trust and Obedience

 

The subject of trust and obedience is the core foundation of our faith in Christ.

Jesus talked about His sheep hearing His voice and follows Him, and that precisely address the issue of trust and obedience.

In our life as believers and followers of Jesus Christ, we need a clear understanding by ourselves first and foremost how do we actually follow Jesus?

It is about believing what Jesus teaches and preaches, and acting upon what Jesus instructed us to do.

This is what it means to be His sheep – Jesus’ sheep – to believe Him, to trust Him, and to follow His teachings.

Furthermore this trust and obedience we have in Jesus will result in us being recognized and known by our Master and that He knows we are His sheep.

The second important thing Jesus pointed out is the promise of eternal life.

This subject of eternal life is in fact a very important and complex matter that both Jews and Gentiles believers have yet to have complete understanding of because this is something of a future for us. And the background issue about eternal life is death and the afterlife. Means to say when we deal with the subject of eternal life, in the back of our mind we are thinking about if this can be the better option for us as an individual and how can we be sure we can have it.

 

We need to recognize the fact that we do not know the reality of eternal life until we have it. We are hanging on to a future promise yet to be fulfilled.

 

So the whole idea of eternal life have been very difficult to comprehend because we are hanging on future promises, and the guarantee of that future promise for us in Christ seems to be in the death and resurrection of Jesus!

The Jews themselves who have the teachings of God delivered to them through Moses on Mount Sinai are also waiting on a future promise, but a different kind of future promise from what we expect in Jesus the Christ.

Apparently the only clear explicit record about this subject of eternal life is back in Genesis in the creation of Man when Adam and Eve had access to the Tree of Life before they sinned against the warnings of God and were forfeited of the access to the fruits of the Tree of Life which would had allowed them to live forever.

 

Because of Adam’s sin, all of humanity is condemned to death.

 

Scripture of old points to the coming Messiah and the restoration of Man to life with God. Perhaps this is one reason Jewish rabbinic teachings do advocate the future revelation of a permanent Messianic Age here on Earth. This is in contrast to Christian theological perspective of a definite thousand year of reign by the Messiah.

So the subject of eternal life is not easy to comprehend and I think the apostle Paul had left us a better perspective of eternal life and about our promises and hope in Jesus the Christ –

 

ཀོ་རིན་ཐུ་པ་དང་པོ། 15:50-58

50སྤུན་ཟླ༌རྣམས། བདག་གིས་ཁྱོད་རྣམས་ལ་སྨྲ་བར་བྱ༌སྟེ། ཤ་ཁྲག་གི་ཕུང་བོར་དཀོན་མཆོག་གི་རྒྱལ་སྲིད་འཐོབ་མི་སྲིད༌ལ། ངེས་པར་འཇིག་སྲིད་པ་ལ་འཇིག་པ་མེད་པ་དེའང་འཐོབ་མི་སྲིད། 51ལྟོས༌དང༌། ད་ལྟ་བདག་གིས་ཁྱོད་རྣམས་ལ་གསང་བའི་དོན་ཞིག་སྨྲ་བར༌བྱ། བདག་ཅག་ཐམས་ཅད་འཆི་བར་འགྱུར་བ་མིན༌ཏེ། 52མཇུག་མཐའི་དུང་སྒྲ་གྲགས་པའི་དུས༌སུ། སྐད་ཅིག་མའམ་མིག་རྡེབ་དབང་ཙམ་ལ་བདག་ཅག་ཐམས་ཅད་ཀྱི་ལུས་པོ་འགྱུར་ངེས༌སོ།། དུང་སྒྲ་དེ་གྲགས་པ་དང་། འདས་པོ་རྣམས་སླར་གསོན་པར་མཛད་ཅིང་ནམ་ཡང་འཇིག་པར་མི་འགྱུར༌ཏེ། བདག་ཅག་གི་ལུས་པོའང་འགྱུར་ངེས་ཡིན། 53འཇིག་པར་འགྱུར་བའི་ལུས་པོ་འདི་ཡིས་ནམ་ཡང་འཇིག་པ་མེད་པ་གྱོན་དགོས་ཤིང༌། འཆི་བར་འགྱུར་བའི་ལུས་པོ་འདི་ཡིས་ནམ་ཡང་འཆི་བ་མེད་པ་གྱོན་དགོས་སོ།། 54ཡང་འཇིག་པར་འགྱུར་བའི་ལུས་པོ་འདི་ཡིས་ནམ་ཡང་འཇིག་པ་མེད་པ་གྱོན་པ་དང་། འཆི་བར་འགྱུར་བའི་ལུས་པོ་འདི་ཡིས་ནམ་ཡང་འཆི་བ་མེད་པ་གྱོན་པའི་ཚེ། གསུང་རབ་ཀྱི་མདོ་ལས་ཇི་སྐད༌དུ།

རྒྱལ་ཁས་འཆི་བ་ལ་ནི་ཁྱུར་མིད༌བཏང༌།།

ཞེས་གསུངས་པ་ལྟར་འགྲུབ་པར་འགྱུར༌རོ།། 55ཡང་ཇི་སྐད༌དུ།

ཀྱེ་མ་འཆི་བ་ཁྱོད་ལ་རྒྱལ་ཁ་ཡོད་སྲིད་དམ།།

ཀྱི་ཧུད་འཆི་བ་ཁྱོད་ལ་དུག་མདུང་ཡོད་སྲིད་དམ།།

ཞེས་གསུངས་སོ།། 56འཆི་བའི་དུག་མདུང་ནི་སྡིག་པ་ཡིན༌ལ། སྡིག་པའི་དབང་ཤུགས་ནི་བཀའ་ཁྲིམས་ཡིན། 57འོན༌ཀྱང༌། དཀོན་མཆོག་གིས་བདག་ཅག་གི་གཙོ་བོ་ཡེ་ཤུ་མཱ་ཤི་ཀ་བརྒྱུད༌ནས། བདག་ཅག་རྒྱལ་བར་མཛད་པས་ཁོང་ལ་ཐུགས་རྗེ་ཆེ༌ཞུའོ།།

58དེའི༌ཕྱིར། བདག་གི་སྙིང་ཉེ་བའི་སྤུན་ཟླ༌རྣམས། ཁྱོད་རྣམས་ངེས་པར་འགྱུར་མེད་བརྟན་པོར་སྡོད་པར༌གྱིས། གཙོ་བོའི་ནང་དུ་སྒྲུབ་པའི་ངལ་བའི་ལས་ནི་དོན་མེད་དུ་མི་འགྱུར་བ་ཤེས་པ་བཞིན། ཁྱོད་ཅག་གིས་གཙོ་བོའི་ལས་དོན་འབད་པས་སྒྲུབས་ཤིག །

1 Corinthians 15:50-58

50 I tell you this, brothers: flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God, nor does the perishable inherit the imperishable. 51 Behold! I tell you a mystery. We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed, 52 in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised imperishable, and we shall be changed. 53 For this perishable body must put on the imperishable, and this mortal body must put on immortality. 54 When the perishable puts on the imperishable, and the mortal puts on immortality, then shall come to pass the saying that is written:

“Death is swallowed up in victory.”

55 “O death, where is your victory?

O death, where is your sting?”

56 The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law. 57 But thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.

58 Therefore, my beloved brothers, be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing that in the Lord your labor is not in vain.

 

Paul was a Pharisee of the Pharisees, and schooled under Gamaliel the Elder, before he switched camp to follow Jesus. Therefore Jews, even till today, regarded Paul as a heretic because he believed and preached Jesus as the Messiah chosen of God.

The background of Paul meant he was an expert in rabbinic teachings and understood Hebrew traditions in scripture interpretations and he knew what kind of disagreements his fellow Jews had with Jesus especially about the kingdom of God.

Therefore Paul warned them, and us,

 

སྤུན་ཟླ༌རྣམས། བདག་གིས་ཁྱོད་རྣམས་ལ་སྨྲ་བར་བྱ༌སྟེ། ཤ་ཁྲག་གི་ཕུང་བོར་དཀོན་མཆོག་གི་རྒྱལ་སྲིད་འཐོབ་མི་སྲིད༌ལ། ངེས་པར་འཇིག་སྲིད་པ་ལ་འཇིག་པ་མེད་པ་དེའང་འཐོབ་མི་སྲིད།

“flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God, nor does the perishable inherit the imperishable”

 

In summary Paul explained the importance of our resurrection to inherit eternal life.

Please take note of Paul’s discourse in 1 Corinthians 15 about resurrection, the point of contention was not about Jesus’ resurrection but there were those who claimed to be believers and followers of Christ they believed in the resurrection of Christ which cannot be denied and they questions their own resurrection.

In other words there were believers who think and believe the resurrection of Jesus is an isolated incident for Jesus and nothing to do with them as individual!

Back to the message in John 10, Jesus talked about promise of eternal life for His sheep, and we must not missed out the connection between Jesus’ promise of eternal and our future resurrection in Christ.

 

To be continue …

David Z