Pilgrims in Christ – Part 32

What we can learn from the letters of Peter about practice of faith in Christ in times of uncertainty.

 

པེ་ཏྲོ་གཉིས་པ། 1:16

16 ང་ཚོས་ངེད་རྣམས་ཀྱི་གཙོ་བོ་ཡེ་ཤུ་མཱ་ཤི་ཀའི་ནུས་མཐུ་དང་སླར་ཕེབས་རྒྱུའི་སྐོར་ཁྱེད་ཚོར་སྒྲོག་སྐབས་རྟོག་བཟོའི་སྒྲུང་མ་བཤད་དེ། ཁོང་གི་གཟི་བརྗིད་ང་ཚོའི་མིག་གིས་མཐོང་བས་བརྗོད་པ་ཡིན།

 

2 Peter 1:16

16 For we did not follow cleverly devised myths when we made known to you the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, but we were eyewitnesses of his majesty.

 

Peter’s message was clear warnings against false doctrines, misleading teachings, and mysterious religious groups that could induce disciples to stray from the purity of God’s word.

One of the key reason “false messiah” and “salvation” was a hot topic during the time of the Four Gospel and Acts was people’s expectations for a “savior”.

For a long time back in human history, people across the world, of different ethnic groups, are familiar with some sort of folklore and hear-say about “end of the world”, “judgement of God” and “coming savior”.

Furthermore the timing of Jesus appearance ties in very well with writings of the prophets preparing and warning the Jews of the coming Messiah. People knew and were expecting their Messiah at that time!

There were plentiful of speculations, different schools of thoughts, and prophetic interpretations about “who” will be the coming Messiah. And there were lots of debate who is real who is fake.

How do we make sure what we believe is not fairy tales and mysterious religious?

How do we know who is the real Messiah chosen of God?

 

Scripture Truth

 

The Holy Scripture from the times of Moses to the Prophets were preparing the people to receive the real Messiah chosen of God. Those disciples who were with Jesus knew what was written in scripture and testify to the truth that Jesus is the Messiah chosen of God.

Peter and those who followed Jesus in person could bear witness to what Jesus did and what happen to Jesus in fulfillment of scriptures that foretold of the coming Messiah.

The death of Jesus on Passover and His resurrection the third day followed by the outpouring of the Holy Spirit on Pentecost, all happened in line with what was written and foretold in scriptures by the prophets.

The Messiah chosen of God is our redemption and salvation.

Indeed many pagan folklore do tell of end time judgement, as does scripture truth also warns us of the coming judgement of God, but how do we escape judgement?

How can we be saved from sin and death?

Scripture truth revealed to us God’s redemption plan for Man to be fulfilled through the Messiah chosen of God.

Peter and those disciples who already knew scripture truth confessed and acknowledged that Jesus who died on the cross on Passover and rose from the dead the third day is the Messiah chosen of God.

Jesus the Christ will deal with sin and death and provide eternal life for us.

Salvation belongs to the Lord the Christ.

The Apostle Paul being an expert in Hebrew Scripture very often used scripture text as proof that Jesus is the Messiah

 

མཛད་འཕྲིན། 17:1-3

1དེ་ནས་ཕོལ་ལོལ་དང་སི་ལཱ་གཉིས་ཨམ་ཕི་པོ་ལི་དང་ཨ་པོལ་ལོན་ཡཱ་བརྒྱུད་ནས་ཐེ་སཱ་ལོ་ནེ་ཀེ་རུ་ཕྱིན་པ༌དང༌། དེ་རུ་ཡ་ཧུ་དཱ་པའི་ཆོས་ཁང་ཞིག་ཡོད༌ལ། 2ཕོལ་ལོལ་ནི་རང་གི་རྒྱུན་གྱི་གོམས་སྲོལ་ལྟར་ཆོས་ཁང་དེར་ཕེབས༌ཤིང༌། ངལ་གསོ་བའི་ཉིན་མོ་གསུམ་ལ་བསྟུད་མར་གསུང་རབ་ལ་བརྟེན་ནས་མི་དེ་རྣམས་ལ་རྩོད་གླེང་བྱས་པ༌དང༌། 3སྐྱབས་མགོན་མཱ་ཤི་ཀས་ངེས་པར་སྡུག་བསྔལ་མྱངས༌ཤིང༌། སྐུ་གྲོངས་པ་ནས་སླར་གསོན་པའི་སྐོར་འགྲེལ་བཤད་བྱས་པ་དང་རྒྱུ་མཚན་བསྟན་ཏེ་ཡང་འདི་སྐད༌དུ། ངས་ཁྱོད་རྣམས་ལ་སྨྲས་པའི་ཡེ་ཤུ་ཞེས་པ་འདི་ནི་སྐྱབས་མགོན་མཱ་ཤི་ཀ་ཡིན་ཞེས་གསུངས་སོ།།

 

Acts 17:1-3

Now when they had passed through Amphipolis and Apollonia, they came to Thessalonica, where there was a synagogue of the Jews. 2 And Paul went in, as was his custom, and on three Sabbath days he reasoned with them from the Scriptures, 3 explaining and proving that it was necessary for the Christ to suffer and to rise from the dead, and saying, “This Jesus, whom I proclaim to you, is the Christ.”

 

མཛད་འཕྲིན། 17:10-12

10དེ་ནས་སྤུན་ཟླ་རྣམས་ཀྱིས་མཚན་མོའི་དུས་ལ་སླེབས་མ་ཐག་ཕོལ་ལོལ་དང་སི་ལཱ་གཉིས་པུ་རེ་ཡཱ་རུ་འགྲོ་བར་བཅུག་གོ། ཁོང་གཉིས་གནས་དེར་སླེབས་པ་དང་ཡ་ཧུ་དཱ་པའི་ཆོས་ཁང་དུ་ཕྱིན༌ཅིང་། 11གནས་འདིའི་མི་རྣམས་ནི་ཐེ་སཱ་ལོ་ནེ་ཀེའི་མི་རྣམས་དང་བསྡུར༌ན་སེམས་རྒྱ་ཆེ་བ་དང་། དཀོན་མཆོག་གི་བཀའ་ལ་མཉན་པར་ཤིན་ཏུ་དགའ༌ཞིང༌། ཉིན་རེ་བཞིན་ཕོལ་ལོལ་གྱིས་གསུངས་པ་དེ་ནི་གསུང་རབ་དང་མཐུན་མིན་ལ་བརྟག་ཅིང་དཔྱོད་པ་རེད། 12དེ་བས་ཁོ་རྣམས་ལས་མི་མང་པོ་ཞིག༌དང༌། གྷི་རིག་གི་མི་རིགས་ལས་བཀུར་འོས་པའི་བུད་མེད་དང་སྐྱེས་པ་འགའ་ཤས་ཀྱང་དད་པར་གྱུར་ཏོ།།

 

Acts 17:10-12

10 The brothers immediately sent Paul and Silas away by night to Berea, and when they arrived they went into the Jewish synagogue. 11 Now these Jews were more noble than those in Thessalonica; they received the word with all eagerness, examining the Scriptures daily to see if these things were so. 12 Many of them therefore believed, with not a few Greek women of high standing as well as men.

 

Therefore it is so important for believers and disciples to study the scriptures and know the truth.

The consistency of Holy Scripture and the infallible proof Jesus is the Christ; we must not neglect our knowledge and understanding of scripture.

As Peter said “we did not follow cleverly devised myths” but we do know for sure who the real Messiah is.

 

David Z

Pilgrims in Christ – Part 31

What we can learn from the letters of Peter about practice of faith in Christ in times of uncertainty.

 

པེ་ཏྲོ་གཉིས་པ། 1:12-15

12 ཁྱེད་ཚོས་དོན་དེ་རྣམས་ཤེས་ཤིང༌། ཁྱེད་ལ་ཡོད་པའི་བདེན་པ་ལ་བརྟན་པོར་གནས་ཀྱང༌། ངས་རྟག་ཏུ་དོན་དེ་ཚོའི་སྐོར་དྲན་སྐུལ་བྱེད་པར་འདོད།

13 ང་ལུས་ཕུང་གི་གུར་འདིའི་ནང་ཡོད་རིང་ཁྱེད་ཚོར་དྲན་སྐུལ་བྱེད་པ་དེ་འོས་པར་སེམས།

14 གང་ཡིན་ཟེར་ན། ང་ཚོའི་གཙོ་བོ་ཡེ་ཤུ་མཱ་ཤི་ཀས་ང་ལ་གསལ་པོར་བསྟན་པ་ལྟར་ངའི་ལུས་ཕུང་གི་གུར་འདི་རྡིབས་པའི་དུས་ཉེ་བ་ཡིན་པར་ཤེས།

15 ང་འཆི་བའི་རྗེས་སུ་ཡང་ཁྱེད་ཚོས་རྟག་ཏུ་དོན་འདི་རྣམས་དྲན་ཐུབ་པའི་ཆེད་དུ་ངས་བརྩོན་པར་བྱེད་རྒྱུ་ཡིན།

 

2 Peter 1:12-15

12 Therefore I intend always to remind you of these qualities, though you know them and are established in the truth that you have. 13 I think it right, as long as I am in this body, to stir you up by way of reminder, 14 since I know that the putting off of my body will be soon, as our Lord Jesus Christ made clear to me. 15 And I will make every effort so that after my departure you may be able at any time to recall these things.

 

Peter received prior knowledge of his physical death as Jesus knew of His journey to the cross. The Holy Spirit through the word of God prepares His people for future events.

Although circumstances had been life threatening for Peter since Acts 2 after his sermon during Pentecost and the increasing hostilities from the Sanhedrin it had been a time of perseverance and standing by his faith in Jesus.

The Lord had kept Peter alive for the sake of shepherding the sheep for a period of time so that God’s people may learn to stand firm in their faith as Peter did.

We know in Acts 7 Stephen was the first known Christian martyr, and later in Acts 12 the apostle James, brother of John, was executed by Herod. Many disciples were shaken and scattered but they needed to be restored to faith in Christ.

Peter continued to serve the fellowships of disciples for about 30 over years before his execution by Nero. By that time the Lord had added to the numbers of disciples although they were scattered all over the Roman world.

What made Peter sure of his imminent physical death soon this time in his 2nd letter to the disciples?

 

 གང་ཡིན་ཟེར་ན། ང་ཚོའི་གཙོ་བོ་ཡེ་ཤུ་མཱ་ཤི་ཀས་ང་ལ་གསལ་པོར་བསྟན་པ་ལྟར་ངའི་ལུས་ཕུང་གི་གུར་འདི་རྡིབས་པའི་དུས་ཉེ་བ་ཡིན་པར་ཤེས།

“as our Lord Jesus Christ made clear to me”

 

Peter was in close relationship with God and living in godly sanctified life that he heard clear from Jesus! As Moses was in close relation with God and heard from God.

Peter perhaps received a vision from the Lord as he did before.

Peter in preparing for his departure was most concerned about the welfare of the sheep as that had been his duty and responsibility as instructed by Jesus in person.

 

v15 ང་འཆི་བའི་རྗེས་སུ་ཡང་ཁྱེད་ཚོས་རྟག་ཏུ་དོན་འདི་རྣམས་དྲན་ཐུབ་པའི་ཆེད་དུ་ངས་བརྩོན་པར་བྱེད་རྒྱུ་ཡིན།

v15 And I will make every effort so that after my departure you may be able at any time to recall these things.

 

Peter’s death was expected to have major problems for all fellowships across the Roman world because by that time James the brother of Jesus who was serving as leader of Jerusalem congregation was already martyred. There was some sort of leadership vacuum and transition at that time. And about the same time Peter was expecting Paul to put to death as well by Nero.

The longest surviving apostle would bad been John but by then the numbers of disciples had increased tremendously and scattered across the Roman world and the need for next generation leadership was urgent.

Furthermore the foreseeable Jewish Roman war would cause disciples’ faith to be shaken again.

Peter’s departure will have some sort of impact for that generation of disciples who witnessed the death and resurrection of the Lord and later the destruction of Jerusalem in Ad 70.

Here is the key point of Peter telling them of his imminent death

 

v12 ཁྱེད་ཚོས་དོན་དེ་རྣམས་ཤེས་ཤིང༌། ཁྱེད་ལ་ཡོད་པའི་བདེན་པ་ལ་བརྟན་པོར་གནས་ཀྱང༌། ངས་རྟག་ཏུ་དོན་དེ་ཚོའི་སྐོར་དྲན་སྐུལ་བྱེད་པར་འདོད།

v12 Therefore I intend always to remind you of these qualities, though you know them and are established in the truth that you have

 

What are the “qualities” of being a disciple of Jesus?

Salvation belongs to God and through the appointed Messiah Jesus.

We all knew that, but for that generation who will encounter the destruction of Jerusalem their faith would have been shaken very badly. Remember that generation of disciples who continued from Jesus to the apostles was accustomed to Temple worship services and keeping of Sabbath and God’s appointed feast at the Temple.

Like in the days of the prophet Daniel, together with fellow Jews who were exiled to Babylon, their faiths were shaken after the destruction of Jerusalem. Letters and instructions from the prophet Jeremiah helped provided godly guidance in waiting for God’s restoration.

The “qualities” of being a disciple of Jesus are first and foremost being a living witness for the death and resurrection of Jesus the Christ.

The “qualities” of being a disciple of Jesus speaks of our faith and trust in the redemption and restoration of God through His chosen Messiah Jesus.

Throughout the time of Acts the most debatable and controversial subject had to be the death and resurrection of Jesus the Christ!

ཀོ་རིན་ཐུ་པ་དང་པོ། 15

14སྐྱབས་མགོན་མཱ་ཤི་ཀ་སླར་གསོན་པ་མིན༌ན། ངེད་ཅག་གིས་ཆོས་སྒྲོག་པར་སྙིང་པོ་མེད༌ཅིང༌། ཁྱོད་ཅག་གིས་དད་པ་བྱས་པ་ལའང་སྙིང་པོ་མེད་དོ།། 15ད་དུང་གཤིན་པོ་རྣམས་སླར་གསོན་པར་མི་འགྱུར་ཞེས་པ་དེ་བདེན་པ་ཡིན་ན། དཀོན་མཆོག་གིས་ཀྱང་སྐྱབས་མགོན་མཱ་ཤི་ཀ་སླར་གསོན་པར་མཛད་པ་མིན༌ལ། དཀོན་མཆོག་གིས་སྐྱབས་མགོན་མཱ་ཤི་ཀ་སླར་གསོན་པར་མཛད་པ་ལ་ངེད་ཅག་གིས་བདེན་དཔང་བྱས༌པས། ངེད་ཅག་ནི་དཀོན་མཆོག་ལ་རྫུན་གྱི་དཔང་པོ་བྱེད་མཁན་ཡིན་པ་གསལ་པོར་མངོན། 16རྒྱུ་མཚན་ནི་གཤིན་པོ་རྣམས་སླར་གསོན་པ་མིན༌ན། སྐྱབས་མགོན་མཱ་ཤི་ཀའང་སླར་གསོན་པ་མ་ཡིན་པའི་ཕྱིར༌རོ།། 17གལ༌ཏེ། སྐྱབས་མགོན་མཱ་ཤི་ཀ་སླར་གསོན་པ་མིན༌ན། ཁྱོད་ཅག་གིས་དད་པ་བྱས་པར་སྙིང་པོ་མེད༌ཅིང༌། ཁྱོད་རྣམས་ནི་ད་དུང་སྡིག་པའི་ནང་དུ་ཡོད༌དེ། 18སྐྱབས་མགོན་མཱ་ཤི་ཀའི་དད་ལྡན་འདས་པོ་རྣམས་འཇིག༌པ་ཡིན་ནོ།། 19གལ༌ཏེ། བདག་ཅག་གིས་ཚེ་འདི་ཁོ་ནའི་ཆེད་དུ་སྐྱབས་མགོན་མཱ་ཤི་ཀར་སྐྱབས་སུ་བཅོལ་བ་ཡིན༌ན། མི་ཐམས་ཅད་ལས་ཀྱང་བདག་ཅག་སྙིང་རེ༌རྗེའོ།།

 

1 Corinthians 15:14-19

14 And if Christ has not been raised, then our preaching is in vain and your faith is in vain. 15 We are even found to be misrepresenting God, because we testified about God that he raised Christ, whom he did not raise if it is true that the dead are not raised. 16 For if the dead are not raised, not even Christ has been raised. 17 And if Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile and you are still in your sins. 18 Then those also who have fallen asleep in Christ have perished. 19 If in Christ we have hope in this life only, we are of all people most to be pitied.

 

Disciples were being persecuted and put to death because of their faith that Jesus rose from the dead and that was Peter’s message during Pentecost as evident of Jesus being the Christ.

Such “qualities” of being a disciple of Jesus would be in danger of perishing if disciples decided not to continue being living witness for the resurrected Lord.

Circumstances and situation may look depressing due to persecution and warfare and conflicts, but we need to look to the words and promises of God for hope.

Therefore Peter encouraged the disciples to stand firm in their “qualities” of being a disciple of Jesus even when faced with death threats.

Such “qualities” of being a disciple of Jesus will also help us to live godly sanctified life in preparing to meet the Lord when He return, amen!

 

David Z

Pilgrims in Christ – Part 30

What we can learn from the letters of Peter about practice of faith in Christ in times of uncertainty.

པེ་ཏྲོ་གཉིས་པ། 1:10-11

10 དེའི་ཕྱིར་སྤུན་ཟླ་རྣམས། ཁྱེད་ཚོ་དཀོན་མཆོག་གིས་བོས་པ་དང་བདམས་པ་དེ་བརྟན་པོར་འགྱུར་བའི་ཆེད་དེ་བས་བརྩོན་ཞིག དེ་ལྟར་བྱས་ན་ཁྱེད་ཚོ་ཐར་པའི་ལམ་ལས་ཁ་བྲལ་ནས་ནམ་ཡང་མི་ལྷུང༌།

11 དེ་ལྟར་ན་དཀོན་མཆོག་གིས་ཁྱེད་ཚོ་ང་ཚོའི་གཙོ་བོ་དང་སྐྱབས་མགོན་ཡེ་ཤུ་མཱ་ཤི་ཀའི་མཐའ་མེད་པའི་རྒྱལ་སྲིད་དུ་དགའ་བསུ་ཞུ་ནས་ཞུགས་པར་འགྱུར།

 

2 Peter 1:10-11

10 Therefore, brothers, be all the more diligent to confirm your calling and election, for if you practice these qualities you will never fall. 11 For in this way there will be richly provided for you an entrance into the eternal kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.

 

What is our “calling and election”?

Peter encouraged the disciples dispersed to “confirm your calling and election” means to persevere and sand firm on it.

As disciple of Christ we are first called to believe, acknowledge, and receive the redemption works of God established through Jesus the Messiah.

God redeem us from sin and death through Jesus the Christ.

Most people in this world are still confused about “sin and death” because they are living in darkness. But when the light of the Gospel, the truth of God’s words, shine in their path they begin to see their need for a savior.

We were once lost and blind in this world of darkness but when the light of the Gospel shine in us and we accepted Jesus as Lord and Savior we begin to walk in the light of God’s truth.

That explains the importance of preaching Jesus, sharing of the Gospel, calling people to receive the salvation plan of God.

After receiving Jesus as Lord and Savior we become born-again through the power of the Holy Spirit enabling us to live in newness of life.

This new life we have in Christ is the assurance of our eternal peace and fellowship with God in His kingdom.

This is our hope and calling in Christ, to be delivered from sin and death and to enter into eternal fellowship and peace with God in His kingdom.

Peter was communicating with a generation of believers who were under pressure to walk away from their calling in Christ due to sever persecution and in those days of political tensions between Rome and Jews which could boil over into a full scale war.

We have the benefit of hindsight Peter was addressing disciples who will be subjected to the historical Jewish Roman War. Disciples across the Roman world were affected.

Especially in times of wars and conflicts, people are under immersing pressure to do what they need for survival. There were people who gave up on their faith and confession for survival and for safety of families and friends.

Peter encouraged the disciples not to give up on their faith as the kingdom of God awaits them!

We need to stand firm in our faith when the world plunged deeply into spiritual darkness and turmoil.

Peter was addressing disciples who knew of or were informed of Stephen being martyred for his faith in Christ.

 

མཛད་འཕྲིན། 7:54-60

54དེ་ནས་མི་རྣམས་ཀྱིས་གཏམ་དེ་དག་ཐོས་པ་དང་ཤིན་ཏུ་ཁྲོས་ཏེ་སི་ཏེ་ཕཱན་གྱི་ཐོག་ཨམ་གཙིགས་བསྡམས༌པ་རེད། 55འོན༌ཀྱང༌། སི་ཏེ་ཕཱན་ལ་དམ་པའི་ཐུགས་ཉིད་ཀྱིས་ཁྱབ༌ཅིང༌། ཁོང་གིས་ནམ་མཁའི་ཞིང་ཁམས་ལ་ཅེ་རེར་བལྟས་པ༌ན། དཀོན་མཆོག་གི་གཟི་བརྗིད་མཐོང་ཞིང་སྐྱབས་མགོན་ཡེ་ཤུའང་དཀོན་མཆོག་གི་གཡས་ཕྱོགས་སུ་བཞེངས་འདུག་པ་མཐོང༌བས། ཁོ་ན༌རེ། 56ལྟོས་དང་། ནམ་མཁའི་ཞིང་ཁམས་ཀྱི་སྒོ་ཕྱེས་ཡོད༌ཅིང༌། མིའི་བུ་དཀོན་མཆོག་གི་གཡས་ཕྱོགས་སུ་བཞེངས་འདུག་པའང་བདག་གིས་མཐོང་ཞེས་གསུངས་པ༌ལ། 57མི་དེ་རྣམས་ཀྱིས་གཏམ་དེར་ཉན་འདོད་མེད་པར་སྐད་ཆེན་པོས་འུར་བརྒྱབ༌ཅིང༌། ལག་པས་རྣ་བ་བཀབ་པ་དང་མཉམ་དུ་སི་ཏེ་ཕཱན་གྱི་མདུན་དུ་བརྒྱུགས༌ཏེ། 58ཁོང་ཉིད་གྲོང་ཁྱེར་ཕྱི་རོལ་ཏུ་བསྐྲད་ནས་རྡོ་རུབ་བཏང་བ༌དང༌། དཔང་པོ་བྱེད་མཁན་རྣམས་ཀྱིས་ཀྱང་རང་གི་ཕྱི་གོས་ཕུད་དེ་སོ་ལོ་ཞེས་པའི་ན་གཞོན་ཞིག་གི་མདུན་དུ་བཞག་གོ། 59དེ་རྣམས་ཀྱིས་སི་ཏེ་ཕཱན་རྡོ་རུབ་གཏོང་བཞིན་པའི་དུས༌སུ། སི་ཏེ་ཕཱན་གྱིས། ཀྱེ། གཙོ་བོ་ཡེ་ཤུ༌ལགས། བདག་གི་རྣམ་ཤེས་ཁུར་དུ་བཞེས་པར་མཛོད་ཅེས་གསོལ་བ་བཏབ་པ༌དང༌། 60ཡང་པུས་མོ་སར་བཙུགས་ཏེ་སྐད་ཆེན༌པོས། ཀྱེ། གཙོ་བོ་ལགས། ཉེས་པ་འདི་ཁོ་རྣམས་ལ་མི་འགེལ་བར་མཛོད་ཅེས་གསུངས་པ་དང་གཟིམས༌སོ།།

 

Acts 7:54-60

54 Now when they heard these things they were enraged, and they ground their teeth at him. 55 But he, full of the Holy Spirit, gazed into heaven and saw the glory of God, and Jesus standing at the right hand of God. 56 And he said, “Behold, I see the heavens opened, and the Son of Man standing at the right hand of God.” 57 But they cried out with a loud voice and stopped their ears and rushed together at him. 58 Then they cast him out of the city and stoned him. And the witnesses laid down their garments at the feet of a young man named Saul. 59 And as they were stoning Stephen, he called out, “Lord Jesus, receive my spirit.” 60 And falling to his knees he cried out with a loud voice, “Lord, do not hold this sin against them.” And when he had said this, he fell asleep.

 

The “Saul” in v58 later encountered the living Christ, repented and became a fearless preacher for Christ. This “Saul” who thought Jesus was dead and gone because he was living in spiritual darkness until he met the resurrected Christ!

As disciples stand firm in their faith in times of danger and persecution, the truth of God’s words gets glorified! Therefore disciples who were scattered everywhere testify to the death and resurrection of Christ.

One of our “calling and election” is also to bear witness to the resurrected Christ and we all await the return of our King and Savior!

 

David Z