The Death and Resurrection of Jesus

At the age of 33, Jesus was condemned to the death penalty.  At the time crucifixion was the "worst" death.  Only the worst criminals condemned to be crucified.  Yet it was even more dreadful for Jesus, for unlike other criminals condemned to death by crucifixion, Jesus was nailed to the cross by His hands and feet, rather than tied...

Each nail was 6 to 8 inches long.  The nails were driven into His wrist.  not into His palms as is commonly portrayed.  There's a tendon in the wrist that extends to the shoulder.

The Roman guards knew that when the nails were being hammered into the wrist, that tendon would tear and break, forcing Jesus to use His back muscles to support himself, so that He could breathe.

Both of His feet were nailed together.  Thus He was forced to support Himself on the single nail that

impaled His feet to the cross.

Jesus could not support himself with His legs for long because of the pain, so He was forced to alternate between arching His back and using his legs just to continue to breath.

Imagine the struggle, the pain, the suffering, and the courage.  Jesus endured this reality for over 3 hours.

Yes, over 3 hours!

Can you imagine this kind of suffering?  A few minutes before He died, Jesus stopped bleeding.

 He was simply pouring water from his wounds.  From common images we see wounds to His hands

and feet and even the spear wound to His side...

But do we remember the many wounds made to his body.  A hammer driving large nails through the wrists, the feet overlapped and a nail hammered through the arches, then a Roman guard piercing His side with a spear.  And... before the nails and the spear, Jesus was whipped and beaten. The whipping was so severe that it tore the Flesh from His body. The beating was so horrific that His Face was torn and his beard ripped from His face.

The Crown of thorns (two to three inch thorns) cut deeply into His scalp.  Most men would not have survived this torture.  He had no more blood to bleed out, only water poured from His Wounds.

The human adult body contains about 3.5 liters (just less than a gallon) of blood.  Jesus poured all 3.5 liters of his blood; He had three nails hammered into His members; a crown of thorns on His head and, beyond that, a Roman soldier who stabbed a spear into His Chest.

All these without mentioning the humiliation He passed after carrying His own Cross for almost 2 kilometers, while the crowd spat in his Face and threw stones (the cross beam was almost 30 kg of weight, to which His hands were nailed).

Jesus had to endure this experience, so that you may have free access to God and that your sins can be "washed" away.

All of them, with no exception!

BUT WAIT!  There is Good News!  On the 3^rd day just as He predicted, Jesus arose from the dead.  We celebrate His resurrection by calling it Easter.  Jesus walked on the earth which was witnessed by skeptics, the disciples and more than 500 people over a period of 40 days.  Then He ascended into heaven, but He sent His Spirit to live in us and empower us to live an abundant life.  For Him to be your Savior, you must believe in Him and ask Him into your life to be your Lord and Savior.

Accept the reality, the truth, that JESUS IS THE ONLY SALVATION FOR THE WORLD.  

God has special plans for YOU !

Hope to see you here for our next study.

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1 Kings 7-8

It took Solomon 7 years to build the temple, but 13 years to build his own house.  The temple was glorious, but it seems that Solomon may have wanted his house to be more glorious.  The Bible never finds fault with him doing this.  It may have taken longer because he had none of the materials provided or prepared like that of the temple.  Plus perhaps there was more of an eagerness to build the Temple of the Lord than his palace.

Huram was half Israeli and half Gentile and was the best bronze craftsman around so Solomon brought him from Tyre to cast the temple furnishings in bronze.  When he and Solomon finished, Solomon had them brought to the temple.  Solomon then had the Ark of the Covenant brought to the temple by the priests where they set the ark in the Holy of Holies.  There was nothing in the ark except the 2 stone tablets that Moses had placed in it at Horeb, where the Lord made a covenant with the Israelites after they came out of Egypt.  When the priests left the Holy Place, the cloud which was the glory of the Lord filled the temple.  When the presence of God’s glory filled the temple, the priests couldn’t perform their services.  God is holy and the holiness of God made the priests feel they could no longer stand in His presence because of their sinfulness.

Solomon praised the Lord and offered a prayer of dedication.  He recognized the temple was the fulfillment of God’s plan and not his or his father.  He recognized that God was completely unique and no other gods could compare to Him.  He knew God as Maker and Promise Keeper.  The workers were only human instruments, but the work was God’s.  In his prayer he recognized the nature and character of God.   He asked God to dwell in this place and honor those who seek Him there.

Then Solomon blessed the people.  He prayed on his knees.  Ezra prayed on his knees (Ezra 9:5), the Psalmist called us to keel (Ps. 95:6), Daniel prayed on his knees (Dan. 6:10), people came to Jesus kneeling (Matt. 17:14; 20:20; Mark 1:40), Stephen prayed on his knees (Acts 7:60), Peter, Paul and also other early Christians prayed on their knees.  Jesus prayed on His knees (Luke 22:41).  The Bible doesn’t require us to pray on our knees.  There were many other times when prayer was offered when there was no kneeling.  There are many positions for prayer.  Some danced and sang their prayers (Ex. 15:20), bowing heads (Ex. 12:270), falling to the ground (Job 1:20), dancing and playing tambourine and harp (Ps. 149:3), lifting of hands (1 Tim. 2:8), etc.  All these actions are acceptable and appropriate in the worship of God, but it’s important to come to Him in humbleness and with a sincere heart.

When you pray and worship God, are you humble and have a sincere heart?

Solomon asked God to listen to the people’s prayers.  He prayed about many different types of trouble.  He prayed that God would be their judge.  He prayed God would forgive people.  He prayed that God would accept the prayers of foreigners.  He understood that God’s good news was for all people.  He asked the Israel be successful in wars.  He prayed that the people would turn towards Jerusalem to pray. 

Do you often pray for others, even those who have hurt you?

Do you praise God for what He has done for you?

Do you recognize Him for His character and who He is?

Do you know God as Maker and Promise Keeper?

Solomon blessed the people and told them to be completely loyal to God.  He reminded them how   God had helped them in the past and that they must obey.  He asked God to help them in their troubles.

Solomon dedicated the temple.  He offered sacrifices and burnt offerings to the Lord.  He held a feast and they celebrated before the Lord for 14 days.  This is called the Feast of Tabernacles.  This was the beginning of the daily sacrifices for sin at the temple.  Because of Jesus’ death as our sacrifice, there is no need for more sacrifices.  He was the one perfect sacrifice which was enough for all our sin for all time. (Heb. 7:27; 10:10-12).

Principle:  Jesus was our perfect sacrifice, once and for all.

Next time we will continue our study of 1 Kings.  Hope to see you here.

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1 Kings 5-6 – Solomon Builds the Temple

God made advance preparation before Solomon started building the temple.  God had given Solomon’s father, David the building plans and David had prepared a lot of the materials needed.  God had given Solomon rest from any military threats so he could now begin building the temple.

Hiram king of Tyre was as friend of David’s and had helped him build his palace.  Solomon asked if he would help build the temple.  The two made an agreement that Hiram would provide the wood and some craftsmen.  Solomon would supply wheat and oil for Hiram’s household.  Many other people also helped build the temple.  It was an honor to carry out this work for the Lord.   The temple was viewed as one of Solomon’s greatest contributions. 

Are you blessed with special skills?

How are you using them for God’s work?

In the 4^th year of Solomon’s reign he began to build the temple.  This was 480 years after the exodus of Israel from Egypt.  He built it on Mount Moriah.  This is not the only time we read about Mount Moriah.  In Genesis 22:1-8 God told Abraham to go there and sacrifice his son Isaac, but God intervened and spared Isaac by providing a lamb for the sacrifice.  In 2 Samuel 24:18-25 David built an altar there.  Jesus was crucified on that same mountain.  God provided a sacrificial lamb for Abraham and He provided Jesus as the sacrificial lamb for us.

Principle:  God always provides.

The temple was 60 cubits long, 20 wide and 30 high.  It had many rooms and floors.  Chapter 6 gives full details of the construction of the temple.  The most important room was the inner sanctuary called “The Most Holy Place” or Holy of Holies.  This was the resting place for the Ark of the Covenant and the place of annual atonement for the nation’s sin.  It was overlaid with pure gold which reflected God’s rich beauty and incomparable value.  The Most Holy Place was symbol of God’s reigning presence among His people.

They used only blocks dressed at the quarry meaning no hammer, chisel or any other tools were heard at the temple site.  Maybe this was because Solomon wanted it to be a place of reverence for the house of God’s building project making it relative quiet.  Pounding hammer noises would not show respect or reverence.  It’s the same today in our churches.  There should be an attitude of reverence and worship with only rejoicing and praising.

How do you show reverence when you enter your church?

I think we’ve lost reverence in our churches today.  I remember when women wore dresses, hats and even veils.  We definitely didn’t were flip flops and short shorts.  We dressed in our best not like we were going to play golf.   When entering and attending church we were expected to do it in a quiet respectful manner.  Men removed their hats when inside churches or any other building.  I know it’s may seem stuffy to some people to dress and act this way, but remember we are entering a holy place and we are meeting God’s Spirit.  So where’s the reverence and awe?  I’m not saying it’s all about our dress, because we can worship in any kind of clothing as long as we worship in sincerity and in truth. (John 4:24).  When we consider the sinfulness of the worshipers and the holiness of God, there’s no room for disrespect.  He is God and we are not.

“The Lord is in His holy temple:  let all the earth keep silence before Him.” – Hab. 2:20.

“Worship the Lord with reverence, and rejoice with trembling.” – Ps. 2:11.

Ways to show reverence in church –

Be punctual – don’t stroll in 15-20 minutes late.  This disturbs others as they worship.  Being on time shows respect not only to God, but to others.

Be prepared – worshipers need time and opportunity to prepare themselves for participation in worship.

Don’t bring food or drink into the sanctuary – surely you can go 1 hour without coffee.  Drinks get spilled and it’s disrespectful to God and other worshipers.

Dress for church – in our culture it seems we are dressing down instead of up.  The way we dress speaks volumes about who we are and how we view God and His house.

Keep quiet – it’s very annoying for the people around you if you are constantly talking during church.

I guess I’m on my soap box now.  There one other thing that really bothers me.  What about our habitual speech when we use God’s Name in vain?  It seems to be common today to say, “Oh my God” or “Jesus” as slang in our conversations.  God’s name alone is holy and should be reverend.  “You shall not misuse the name of the Lord your God, for the Lord will not hold anyone guiltless who misuses his name.” – Ex. 20:7

The Word of the Lord came to Solomon, if he followed the Lord’s decrees, carried out His regulations, and kept all His commands and obey them, the Lord would fulfill through him the promise given to David.  The Lord would live among the Israelites and not abandon them.  God knew the mistakes Solomon was about to make so this was a warning to him before he chooses to make those mistakes.

Solomon spared no expense in building the temple.  He wanted it to be great because God is greater than all other gods.  The foundation of the temple was laid in the 4th year.  In the 11 year it was finished in all its details according to its specification.  It took 7 years in total to build the temple.  Solomon was the temple’s architect, but the plans were not his own.  He used the plans David had already made through the Spirit of God (1 Chron. 28:11-12).  Hebrews 9:24 explains the reason for this arrangement.  It was a copy of the real temple in heaven. 

The period of Solomon’s temple lasted for 410 years until it was destroyed by King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon (2 Kings 25). 

The temple emphasized the presence of God in the midst of His people.  He was always there and accessible.  The Holy Place and the Most Holy Place emphasized God’s holiness and His inaccessibility due to the sins of the people.  When Jesus died on the cross, the curtain or barrier of the temple between the Holy Place and the Most Holy Place was torn in two.  This symbolized that God is now open to all through the death of Christ.  Now blood of an animal is no longer needed for forgiveness of sin.

The temple is called the house of the Lord.  1 Cor. 3:16 tells us that Christians are God’s temple.  God’s Spirit lives in Christians.  Eph. 2:19-22 tells us the church is the temple of God and Jesus is the foundation or the strong base.  Christians are like the stones of the temple where the Holy Spirit lives.  2 Cor. 6:12 reminds us that we should honor God with our bodies.  God has promised to never leave us.  We are to obey His commands and follow His decrees.  Remembering that His Spirit dwells in us helps us realize what an awesome privilege it is.

Where and what is the temple today?

·         Christ Himself is the true temple. 

·         Every believer is a living temple where the Spirit of God dwells.

·         The church is a temple enriched and beautified not with gold and precious stones, but with the Spirit’s gifts and graces. 

·         Heaven is the everlasting temple where the church will be fixed and no longer moveable.

Solomon finished the work that God gave him to do. 

Are you finishing the work God has given you? 

Are you committed to God’s work? 

How can you work and serve in a way that reflects the greatness of God?

Principle:  We are to finish the work God has given us.

Next time we will continue our study of 1 Kings.  Hope to see you here.

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