To Believe in Jesus – Part 22

 

ཡོ་ཧ་ནན། 4:25-26

25ཡང་བུད་མེད་ན༌རེ། ངས་སྐྱབས་མགོན་མཱ་ཤི་ཀ་སྟེ་ཁི་རིའི་སི་ཐོ་ཟེར་བ་དེ་ཕེབས་ངེས་པ་ཤེས༌ལ། ཁོང་ཉིད་ཕེབས་ནས་ངེད་རྣམས་ལ་དོན་ཐམས་ཅད་གསུང་བར་འགྱུར་ཞེས་སྨྲས་པ༌ལ། 26སྐྱབས་མགོན་ཡེ་ཤུས་འདི་སྐད༌དུ། ཁྱོད་ཀྱིས་གླེང་བཞིན་པའི་མི་དེ་ནི་ང་རང་ཡིན་ཞེས་གསུངས༌སོ།།

John 4:25-26

25 The woman said to him, “I know that Messiah is coming (he who is called Christ). When he comes, he will tell us all things.” 26 Jesus said to her, “I who speak to you am he.”

 

Jesus’ conversation with the woman at the well had reached a definite conclusion that Jesus explicitly revealed His identity that He is the Messiah she and her fellow Samaritans were waiting for!

We know from what John wrote that the Samaritans believed what Jesus said and received Him gladly. Here is a good example of believing in Jesus.

What happen here was a sharp contrast to the same contextual conversation about who is the Messiah between Jesus and the Jews in John 10 –

 

ཡོ་ཧ་ནན། 10:23-25

23སྐྱབས་མགོན་ཡེ་ཤུ་མཆོད་ཁང་ནས་སོ་ལོ་མོན་ཞེས་པའི་ཁྱམས་རར་ཞབས་ཀྱིས་བཅགས་ཤིང་། 24ཡ་ཧུ་དཱ་པ་རྣམས་ཀྱིས་ཁོང་གི་མཐའ་བསྐོར་ཏེ་ན༌རེ། ཁྱེད་ཀྱིས་དུས་ནམ་ཞིག་གི་བར་དུ་ངེད་ཅག་ལ་ཐེ་ཚོམ་སྐྱེས་སུ་འཇུག༌གམ། ཁྱེད་རང་སྐྱབས་མགོན་མཱ་ཤི་ཀ་ཡིན་ན་ངེད་ཅག་ལ་གསལ་པོར་གསུང་བར་མཛོད་ཅེས་ཞུས་སོ།། 25དེ་ནས་སྐྱབས་མགོན་ཡེ་ཤུས་འདི་སྐད༌དུ། བདག་གིས་སྔ་མོ་ནས་སྨྲས་ཀྱང་ཁྱོད་རྣམས་ཡིད་མ་ཆེས། བདག་གིས་རང་གི་ཡབ་ཀྱི་མཚན་གྱི་སྒོ་ནས་མཛད་པའི་ལས་དེ་དག་གིས་ང་རང་ལ་བདེན་དཔང་བྱེད༌པ་ཡིན།

John 10:23-25

23 and Jesus was walking in the temple, in the colonnade of Solomon. 24 So the Jews gathered around him and said to him, “How long will you keep us in suspense? If you are the Christ, tell us plainly.” 25 Jesus answered them, “I told you, and you do not believe. The works that I do in my Father’s name bear witness about me,

 

Jews who rejected Jesus as the Messiah were in the majority and those who believed had to keep low profile for fear of verbal assault, condemned as traitors of their Jewish identity, and being ostracized from the synagogue.

There was that collective systematic and organized public rejection of Jesus as the Messiah chosen of God among the Jews in the days of the Gospels.

 

What was the rejection about?

 

Remember the repeated theme through the Gospel of John – believe in Jesus – this was happening in the circumstance of systematic rejection of Jesus as Messiah chosen of God and serve to encourage those who believe.

Back in the opening message of the Gospel of John the author warned about an ongoing social-political predicament facing their Jewish identity –

ཡོ་ཧ་ནན། 1:9-13

9གཟི་འོད་དེ་ཉིད་འོད་ཟེར་དངོས་མ༌སྟེ།།

འཇིག་རྟེན་ཡོངས་སུ་འཕྲོས་ནས་མི་ཀུན༌གསལ།།

10དེ་ཡང་ཁོང་ཉིད་འཇིག་རྟེན་འདིར་བཞུགས༌ཤིང༌།།

ཁོང་ཉིད་བརྒྱུད་ནས་འཇིག་རྟེན་བསྐྲུན་ན༌ཡང༌།།

འཇིག་རྟེན་མི་ཡིས་ཁོང་ཉིད་ཤེས་མ༌གྱུར།།

11ཁོང་ནི་རང་ཡུལ་ཕྱོགས་སུ་ཕེབས་ན༌ཡང༌།།

རང་ཡུལ་མི་ཡིས་ཁོང་ལ་བསུ་བ༌མེད།།

12ཁོང་ཉིད་བསུ་ཞིང་ཁོང་གི་མཚན་ལ་ནི།།

དད་པའི་མི་རྣམས་དཀོན་མཆོག་བུ་ཕྲུག་ལ༎

འགྱུར་བར་མཛད་པའི་དབང་ཡང་ཁོང་གིས༌གནང༌།།

13དད་ལྡན་སྐྱེ་བོ་སོ་སོ་དེ་རྣམས༌ནི།།

མི་ཡི་ཁྲག་ལས་སྐྱེས་པ་མ་ཡིན༌ལ།།

མི་ཡི་འདོད་ཆགས་དབང་གིས་མ་སྐྱེས༌ཤིང༌།།

མི་ཡི་འདོད་མོས་བཞིན་དུ་སྐྱེས་པའང༌མིན།།

དེ་ནི་དཀོན་མཆོག་ཉིད་ལས་སྐྱེས་པ་ལགས།།

John 1:9-13

9 The true light, which gives light to everyone, was coming into the world. 10 He was in the world, and the world was made through him, yet the world did not know him. 11 He came to his own, and his own people did not receive him. 12 But to all who did receive him, who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God, 13 who were born, not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man, but of God.

 

The children of Israel had the privilege of receiving the Torah and the writings of the Prophets that revealed to them the coming Messiah and of God’s ultimate redemption for His chosen.

For a long time there has been ongoing debate about who are God’s chosen? And both Jesus and John the Baptist confronted the Jews about their misleading doctrine of Jewish Entitlement that assumed redemption based on race and nationality.

We can read from factual records in the Gospels, when Jesus extended God’s salvation and redemption to Gentiles, non-Jews, and those who were ostracized from the Jewish synagogue it trigged heated aggressive objection from the Sanhedrin to the extend they plotted to kill Jesus.

The Gospel of John’s message to believe in Jesus not only addresses God’s provision of salvation through Jesus but also of judgement through rejection of God’s moral laws revealed through Moses.

 

To believe in Jesus is to believe in both the judgement and salvation of God.

 

God has the authority to judge and He also provided the option for forgiveness and redemption based on His grace and mercy but within the condition of obedience to His words and teachings. Therefore God have the ultimate power and authority over life and death.

Jesus as the Messiah chosen of God revealed the ultimate redemption of God from sin and death offered to people of all race and nationality based on the same condition of trust and obedience to God’s teachings and moral standard.

To believe in Jesus is to obey God call to trust and obey His path of redemption.

To be continue

David Z

To Believe in Jesus – Part 21

 

ཡོ་ཧ་ནན། 4:24

དཀོན་མཆོག་ནི་ཐུགས་ཉིད་ཡིན་པས་ཁོང་ལ་བསྙེན་བཀུར་བྱེད་མཁན་རྣམས་ཀྱིས་དམ་པའི་ཐུགས་ཉིད་དང་བདེན་པ་ཉིད་ཀྱི་སྒོ་ནས་བསྙེན་བཀུར་བྱེད་དགོས་ཞེས་གསུངས་སོ།།

John 4:24

God is spirit, and those who worship him must worship in spirit and truth.”

 

In previous lessons we discussed how Jesus defines worship.

Jesus’ expectation when we worship God is about our sincere acts of obedience to God’s word and teachings. Jesus was indeed teaching and encouraging obedience to God’s words and to fulfill God’s will. Remember Jesus taught about serving and loving God with our hearts and minds completely.

In the context of the Gospel of John, the fundamental basis of believing in Jesus was contrasted against the systematic rejection of God’s truth and call for sincere repentance. The Sanhedrin comprising the Pharisees, Sadducees, and Rabbinic leaders of Judaism were persistently enforcing their man-made doctrines which goes against God’s call for true repentance. Man-made ideologies do not expose the wickedness of human’s acts of sins and teaches disloyalty against God who created all things. Therefore those who systematically rejected Jesus’s teachings and continue to harden their hearts in disbelieve in Jesus’ teachings fail to practice true worship that pleases God.

Let’s consider the following passage from Isaiah that speaks in the same context of true worship

 

ཡེ་ཤ་ཡཱ། 48:1

ཀྱེ་ཡེས་ར་ཨེལ་ཞེས་འབོད་པའི་ཡ་ཀོབ་ཀྱི་ཁྱིམ་རྒྱུད། ཡ་ཧུ་དཱའི་ཆུ་རྒྱུན་ལས་བྱུང་བ་དང་། དཀོན་མཆོག་ཡ་ཝཱེའི་མཚན་གྱི་སྒོ་ནས་མནའ་བསྐྱལ་ནའང་བདེན་པ་དང་དྲང་པོ་མ་ཡིན། ཡེས་ར་ཨེལ་གྱི་དཀོན་མཆོག་གླེང་པ་ཁྱོད་རྣམས་ཀྱིས་གཏམ་འདི་ལ་ཉོན་ཅིག

Isaiah 48:1

Hear this, O house of Jacob, who are called by the name of Israel, and who came from the waters of Judah, who swear by the name of the Lord and confess the God of Israel, but not in truth or right.

 

If you read up the historical context of Isaiah, you might understand how the prophet Isaiah by conviction of the Holy Spirit and speaking in the fear of God Almighty, exposed the hypocrisies of the Jewish people in those days going about their regular temple services presenting their offerings and sacrifices but God was not pleases with what was going on in their hearts and minds against the will of God.

In previous lesson we differentiated how pagans worship their false gods – for personal gains and profits and showing no regards for God’s moral law and having no perspective for God’s will. And that is not how God want us to worship Him!

Our sincere acts of worship towards God must be with consistence acceptance of God’s moral laws and ways of righteousness. Means we worship God through our practice of God’s teachings revealed in scripture truth. That is why Christian uses the Bible as reference for teaching and not any other religious books and not any inspirational writings by some self-proclaimed gurus!

Let’s look at the example of Jesus for true proper worship to God –

 

ཕི་ལིབ་པི་པ། 2:8

ཕལ་བའི་རྣམ་འགྱུར་བཟུང་ཞིང་དམན་ཚུལ༌གྱིས།།

དཀོན་མཆོག་ཉིད་ཀྱི་བཀའ་ལུང་ཇི་བཞིན༌དུ།།

རྒྱ་གྲམ་ཤིང་གི་རྩེ་ནས་གྲོངས་པར༌མཛད།།

Philippians 2:8

And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross.

 

ལོ་ཀུ 22:41-43

41ལག་རྡོ་འཕེན་ཐེངས་ཤིག་གི་རིང་ཚད་ཀྱི་གནས་ལ་ཕེབས༌ཏེ། པུས་མོ་སར་བཙུགས༌ནས། 42ཀྱེ། བདག་གི་ཡབ་ལགས། ཁྱེད་ཐུགས་དགྱེས་ན་བདག་ལས་ཕོར་བ་འདི་ཕྱིར་ལེན་པར༌མཛོད། འོན་ཀྱང་བདག་གི་བསམ་དོན་བཞིན་དུ་མི་འགྲུབ་པར་ཁྱེད་ཀྱི་དགོངས་པ་བཞིན་དུ་གྲུབ་གྱུར་ཅིག་ཅེས་གསོལ་བ་བཏབ། 43ནམ་མཁའི་ཞིང་ཁམས་ལས་ཕོ་ཉ་ཞིག་ཁོང་གི་དྲུང་དུ་སླེབས་ཏེ་ཁོང་ལ་མཐུ་སྟོབས་བསྩལ༌ཏོ།།

Luke 22:41-43

41 And he withdrew from them about a stone’s throw, and knelt down and prayed, 42 saying, “Father, if you are willing, remove this cup from me. Nevertheless, not my will, but yours, be done.” 43 And there appeared to him an angel from heaven, strengthening him.

 

That was how Jesus worships the Father in heaven, God Almighty creator of all things! And we are to follow the ways and example of Jesus.

The sacrifice of self for the will of God and this is something all Christians will struggle with.

Two difficulties that can hinder our worship towards God and if we could deal with it, that will help us a lot when we worship God –

 

1. 1. Our knowledge and understanding of the will of God.

We need to be taught and educated in the knowledge and will of God. This is why it is so important for Christians and believers to do consistent bible reading and studies, and we need good teachers who can help us see and understand the will of God.

Majority of Christians and denominations will continue to struggle with how to interpret what is written in the Bible and how to apply. This is where we need continuing expert learning and we need good bible teachers who are true disciples of Jesus Christ.

 

2. Our abilities to differentiate between what is the will of God and what is our own human intention.

It is only after we know the truth of God’s will then we can make clear differentiation between what is God’s will and what is our own human intention.

The words and teachings of God will cause division and separation – distinction between those who believe and those who do not, separation between those who acts in obedience to God’s will and those who do not.

Doing obedience to the will of God as a form of worship will cause us to be rejected by societies and communities that do not worship God –

 

མཛད་འཕྲིན། 5:29

པེ་ཏྲོ་དང་སྐུ་ཚབ་པ་གཞན་རྣམས་ཀྱིས། ངེད་རྣམས་ཀྱིས་དཀོན་མཆོག་གི་བཀའ་ལ་མཉན་པ་ལས་མིའི་ངག་ལ་མཉན་མི་འོས་སོ།།

Acts 5:29

But Peter and the apostles answered, “We must obey God rather than men.

 

To be continue

David Z

To Believe in Jesus – Part 20

 

ཡོ་ཧ་ནན། 4:23-24

23འོན་ཀྱང་། ཡབ་ལ་བསྙེན་བཀུར་བྱེད་པའི་དུས་ཤིག་སླེབ་ངེས་ཤིང་ད་ལྟའི་དུས༌ཡིན་ཏེ། བསྙེན་བཀུར་རྣམ་དག་བྱེད་མཁན་རྣམས་ཀྱིས་ཡབ་ལ་དམ་པའི་ཐུགས་ཉིད་དང་བདེན་པ་ཉིད་ཀྱི་སྒོ་ནས་བསྙེན་བཀུར་བྱེད་པར་འགྱུར་རོ།། ཅིའི་ཕྱིར་ཞེ་ན། ཡབ་ཀྱིས་བསྙེན་བཀུར་བྱེད་མཁན་མི་དེ་ལྟ་བུ་རྣམས་འཚོལ་བའི་ཕྱིར་ཡིན། 24དཀོན་མཆོག་ནི་ཐུགས་ཉིད་ཡིན་པས་ཁོང་ལ་བསྙེན་བཀུར་བྱེད་མཁན་རྣམས་ཀྱིས་དམ་པའི་ཐུགས་ཉིད་དང་བདེན་པ་ཉིད་ཀྱི་སྒོ་ནས་བསྙེན་བཀུར་བྱེད་དགོས་ཞེས་གསུངས་སོ།།

 

John 4:23-24

23 But the hour is coming, and is now here, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for the Father is seeking such people to worship him. 24 God is spirit, and those who worship him must worship in spirit and truth.”

 

Continuing Jesus’ conversation with the woman at the well on the subject of worship – how did Jesus define worship?

We discussed worship in the context of relating to God and scripture truth have been consistent in pointing out the way to relate to God is to obey His words His teachings and that will means sacrifices of our time, resources and even our-self.

As we approach God to worship Him the first thing God will address is human sin and this is where we need Jesus’ power and grace for atonement of our sin so that we can approach God in peace and acceptance.

This is also a fundamental basis of believing in Jesus – we believe Jesus’ death and resurrection is the infallible proof that Jesus is the Messiah chosen of God to atone for our human sin and that He (Jesus) conquered sin and death to grant us peace with God and the path to eternal life!

The Gospel of John started with identifying Jesus as the Word of God, and since Old Testament time there is that established pattern of trusting in the words of God for redemption and atonement for sin.

Let’s consider the background and development of Psalm 63

 

གསུང་མགུར། 63:1

1༼དཱ་བིད་ཀྱིས་ཡ་ཧུ་དཱའི་དབེན་སྟོང་དུ་བརྩམས་པའི་མགུར༌མ།༽ ཀྱེ་ཀྱེ་དཀོན་མཆོག་ཁྱེད་ངའི་དཀོན་མཆོག༌ཡིན། །བདག་གིས་སྙིང་རུས་བསྐྱེད་ནས་ཁྱེད་རང༌བཙལ། །ས་ཆ་སྐམ་ཞིང་ཉམ་ཐག་ཆུ་མེད༌སར། །བདག་གི་ལུས་སེམས་གཉིས་ཀ་ཁྱེད་ལ༌གདུང༌།།

 

Psalm 63:1

A Psalm of David, when he was in the wilderness of Judah. O God, you are my God; earnestly I seek you; my soul thirsts for you; my flesh faints for you, as in a dry and weary land where there is no water.

 

No doubt the composer of Psalm 63 is ascribed to King David of the Old Testament and the context did points to being pursued by his enemy and the two possibility were either his own son Absalom or Saul.

If Psalm 63 was with reference to Saul then it was before David officially rules as king of Israel and it was a period of time when he pursued God’s will with strong passion and knew of his many trials and testing before God.

But if Psalm 63 was with reference to Absalom it points to a dark history of David when he seeks repentance before God knowing he had fallen into judgement.

The reference to Absalom illustrated sever consideration over life and death by the will of God, to acknowledge one’s sin before God, and to acknowledge the present danger as the will of God for judgement to repentance before eternal condemnation.

 

Psalm 63 can be used for teaching about trusting the words and promises of God for grace and redemption in times of discipline and judgement.

 

When we do actually recognize the time and circumstance of discipline and judgement how do we want to response?

While David was fleeing Absalom, the remaining army that stood with him was still as formidable and could overpower those that switch camp to the enemy. But David choose to flee and withdraw in acknowledgement of his sins before God and received as punishment from God the present danger and pray if God would forgive and let him live another day.

It was a very embarrassing moment for David who was once a popular king of Israel, being put to shame and that sense of humiliation can be overwhelming.

 

Lesson to be learn – our God is an awesome God and also to be feared.

 

As we approach God to worship Him we learn of God’s grace and mercy and also of His justice that we must fear and honor.

Let’s look at what was written in Hebrews that teaches us to fear God –

 

ཨིབ་རི་པ། 12:28

དེའི༌ཕྱིར། བདག་ཅག་ལ་གཡོ་མི་ནུས་པའི་རྒྱལ་སྲིད་ཐོབ་པ་ཡིན་པས། བདག་ཅག་ནི་དྲིན་གཟོ་བའི་སེམས་དང་ལྡན་འོས་ཤིང༌། དཀོན་མཆོག་ཐུགས་དགྱེས་པ་བཞིན་དུ། དད་གུས་དང་འཚེར་སྣང་བཅས་ཁོང་ལ་ཞབས་ཏོག་བསྒྲུབ་འོས་སོ།།

 

Hebrews 12:28

Therefore let us be grateful for receiving a kingdom that cannot be shaken, and thus let us offer to God acceptable worship, with reverence and awe,

 

The message of Hebrews ought to strike a solemn note.

How do we make distinctions between worship that is acceptable to God and what is not?

The most obvious difference is that we do not worship God like pagans do with their false gods! Pagans worship their man-made gods with intention for personal gains and greed as according to one’s own desire, nothing concern with the will of God, and nothing concern for God’s moral law. So when pagan worshipers assume they don’t get any favorable response from one party they will be quick to pick another, therefore there are numerous and endless man-made idols of false gods. How pagans worship their idols and gods there are no permanent basis for loyalty and commitment.

But the foundation for true Christian worship must starts from our human will to relate to the one and only true living God who created the heavens and the Earth and all living creatures.

Our approach to God through worship must be of our willing hearts and minds to serve God through obeying His teachings and to live according to His will and especially in acknowledging God’s moral laws as fair and just. And it is God’s moral laws that deal with human sin.

Our Christian foundation of faith in believing Jesus is His God ordained appointment to atone for our sins!

 

To be continue ….

 

David Z