Hear the trumpet sounding….
Filed in NHL |Journal,
The title of this study is,? ‘Hear the Trumpet Sounding.’ It has to do with the Christian liberty that is found in Jesus Christ.?
Have you? wondered why the greater body of Christ has always attended worship on the first day of the week rather than? on the? Jewish Sabbath? This has been the case from the earliest moments of Christianity.? There are reasons? for this.
Let’s begin with some questions. — Did you know that Jesus arose from the dead on the first day of the week? Did you know that His first appearance to the disciples in? the upper room was on the first day of the week? Did you know that His second appearance? to the disciples one week later was also on the first day of the week? (As recorded in John.)
Did you know that the? day of Pentecost? always came the day after the? 7th day Sabbath, that is, on the first day of the week?
Did you know that the first day of the week held prophetic inferences under the Law of Moses; that the great day of the feast of tabernacles was always on the first day after the Sabbath? (There is much more on the ‘first day’ testimony? to be found in the former testament.)?
Interesting questions. But what does all this tell us? For one thing it? tells us that the new covenant of Christ is entirely new. It does not? bring with it anything from the Law of Moses,? including the 7th day Sabbath. The 7th day Sabbath was an intregal part of the Law. It cannot be separated from the Law of Moses as though it applied to Christians.
Jesus said that it is not good to? put new wine into old wine skins. The old wine skin was the Law of Moses. The new covenant has to have its own? embodiment.? The new covenant? is embodied? in Jesus alone.?
Jesus said, “Do not work for the food which perishes, but for the food which endures to eternal life, which the Son of Man will give to you, for on Him the Father, God, has set His seal.” (John 6:27)
When a person truly receives Jesus Christ as their own Lord and Savior, the seal of God is placed on their heart. It is called the seal of redemption. There are no conditions or strings attached. The reason is because the new covenant is a covenant of the heart, that is, a covenant of the Spirit. And when the seal of the Holy Spirit is placed upon a new believer, that believer’s heart belongs to the Lord. When God has a believer’s heart He has jurisdiction over the whole of his life.
But before we go any further,? let me share? a song? I wrote? years ago concerning the liberty that we find in Jesus. If you care to listen to it, go to http://www.christianchallenge.org/JubileeCD.html, and click on Song #1 - Year of Jubilee.
Or go directly to this mp3 recording:
http://www.christianchallenge.org/audio/music/01_Year%20of%20Jubliee.mp3
Here are the words:
HEAR THE TRUMPET SOUNDING
In the year of the Jubilee,
A trumpet sound would fill the land, declaring liberty.
From the mountain high to the fields below,
The trumpet sound would mean, Let your servants go!
Give the land its rest. Set the debtor free.
Open prison doors. Let the blind man see.
Sing the happy song. Let there be no need.
Hear the trumpet sound, the year of Jubilee.
-Chorus-
Hear the trumpet sounding, the year of Jubilee.
Listen to it’s message, a day that was to be.
For in the time that was to come, God would send His only Son.
He would be the Jubilee. Born to die to make men free.
And so the prophets told, in ages long ago,
That there would come, the holy One, sent from the Father’s throne.
Taking His place with men, in Him there’d be no sin.
Messiah He would be, the Lord of Jubilee.
Bringing in holy rest. Sealing up righteousness.
Glory of God we’d see. Fountain of liberty.
Then the redeemed would know, the song of long ago.
When God spoke of His plan, of Moses and the Lamb.
Now we are free indeed. Made free at Calvary.
Born of the Son, the holy One, giver of life is He.
Conquering sin and death, He rose in righteousness.
Setting the captives free, this Lord of liberty.
But then there’s more to this. Great news of happiness.
He brought us to the throne. And said, You are now My own.
I give you power to be, trumpets of liberty. Go set the captives free.
Sound forth the Jubilee.
I realize that there are a few Christian or Messianic groups who insist on keeping a 7th day Sabbath. I’ll have to leave that with them. But once the truth of “Behold, I am making all things new,” really strikes our hearts, perhaps first day worship will make much more ’spiritual’ sense.
One thing I need to make clear? is that there is no certain-day definitive commandment? for worshipping God in the new covenant, neither first day nor seventh day. The reason is because every day is to be holy for Christians. Yet why did the ancient Church from the very beginning take to themselves first-day gatherings as their tradition?? (This can be easily proven both by the Scriptures and by Christian and Jewish history. To the Jews ‘first day worship’ was ascribed to Jewish believers. Ancient Jewish writers called it ‘the day of the Nazarene.’ An anathema was placed on Jews who observed the Christian Jewish day.)
Without laboring this too much let me simply point out the number one struggle that took place among the early Jewish Christians. Jewish believers in Jesus? needed to come to? grips with how the law of Moses would fit into the new covenant.? Some thought that the new covenant was simply the law of Moses refurbished.
Then some were under the impression that because they were Jews, the new covenant could only apply to Jews, and? that to enter into the new covenant you had to become a Jew and a keeper of the Law.
It was a bit confusing. Was keeping the? Law of Moses? and believing in Jesus inseparable?? Even the apostles weren’t quite sure about this. The Holy Spirit would have to clear things up for them. (Keep in mind that all the early believers were Jewish.)
What began to? blow the cover off things? was when a Roman centurian named Cornelius and his whole household, that is, a people who were not Jews, nor did they adhere to the Law of Moses, were? given the Holy Spirit as sign and seal of their acceptance into the new covenant.
After Cornelius, Gentiles begin entering the new covenant like a trickle. Soon afterwards they became a? mighty stream. It is in the Council in Jerusalem that we? hear a clear answer for the Church at large, with regard to the Law of Moses. Listen and you will catch it:
Peter speaks — “Brethren, you know that in the early days [time of Cornelius] God made a choice among you, that by my mouth the Gentiles would hear the word of the gospel and believe. And God, who knows the heart, testified to them giving them the Holy Spirit, just as He also did to us;
“…and He made no distinction between us and them, cleansing their hearts by faith. Now therefore why do you put God to the test by placing upon the neck of the disciples a yoke which neither our fathers nor we have been able to bear?
“But we believe that we are saved through the grace of the Lord Jesus, in the same way as they also are.”
Did you notice how Peter referred to the Law of Moses as a yoke? The point is that the yoke of the Law and the yoke of Christ are entirely different and have no relationship one with the other. The Law was given to a fleshly people. It is not an extension of the covenant of Abraham. The yoke of Christ is given to a spiritual people who are governed by one law alone. The law of love.
In fact the covenant of Abraham is realized in Jesus Christ. John wrote, “For the Law was given through Moses; grace and truth were realized through Jesus Christ.” (1:17)
Paul wrote, “For you are all sons of God through faith in Christ Jesus. For all who were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ.
“There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free man, there is neither male nor female; for you are all one in Christ Jesus. And if you belong to Christ, then you are Abraham’s descendants, heirs according to promise.”? (Gal3:26-29)?
The Law of Moses cannot be broken into parts by saying one part belongs to Christians while the other part does not. The Law of Moses cannot be treated that way. It is an entire body of legislation designed for a particular people at a particular time. Its primary purpose was to serve as a school master in bringing the people to Christ. Once the people come to Christ there is no longer a need for a school master. (According to Paul.)
Jesus said, “Come to Me, all who are weary and heavy-laden [under Law of Moses and sin], and I will give you rest. Take My yoke upon you [walk with Me] and learn from Me, for I am gentle and humble in heart [not demanding], and you will find rest for your souls. For My yoke is easy and My burden is light.”
None of this could be said about the Law of Moses. There was nothing easy and light about the Law of Moses. It had a curse attached to it. It demanded full and perfect obedience. To disobey just one part of the Law called for the curse.
Where the Law of Moses could demand obedience it could not provide the wherewithal to accomplish it. Where the Law of Moses could condemn, it could not provide the freedom of life that only Christ could give. This is why the Law of Moses is called ‘the law of sin and death.’
The new covenant is a spiritual covenant where the ways of the Lord are enscribed in human hearts and not on tablets of stone. The new covenant is a covenant of the heart, and where the Lord has one’s heart, He has the total of that person’s life.
Of course this brings us back to the ancient tradition of first-day worship. The first day was also known as the eighth day among the Jews and among Jewish Chistians. The first day was the beginning of the original? creation of God. The first day was also called the eight day because the number eight was the symbol for new beginnings.?
So, why did the Lord choose to make his appearances on the first day rather than on the Sabbath? Why did the new covenant actually begin on the day of Pentecost, which always falls on the first day of the week? It was because the new covenant was to consist of a new creation. All? things would be made new. It was to be a new beginning.
Paul said, “Therefore from now on we recognize no one according to the flesh; even though we have known Christ according to the flesh, yet now we know Him in this way no longer.
“Therefore if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creature; the old things passed away; behold, new things have come. Now all these things are from God…” (2Co5:16-18)
In the covenant of Moses you had servanthood. In the new covenant you have the spirit of sonship. The Law treated Israel as servants. The? Father receives us as? His own ‘born-of-heaven’ children.
The covenant of Moses was a covenant of shadows, and types, and figures. In the new covenant we have the reality of God’s life given to us in Christ. (The real thing.) Think about it — No woman would wish to marry a man’s shadow. (Or vice versa. I’ll leave that to your imagination.)
Jesus said that the love commandment would set the tone and the boundaries for the people of the new creation. The issue is that a spiritual kingdom is not governed by ritualistic laws.
The end of the story is that believers are not to try and mix the Law of Moses with the covenant of Christ as though they belonged together. The Law contained a curse. Paul said that the only way we can view the Law of Moses is through the lens of the new covenant.
Paul wrote, “For as many as are of the works of the Law are under a curse; for it is written ‘Cursed is everyone who does not abide by all things written in the book of the Law, to perform them.’
“Now that no one is justified by the Law before God is evident; for, ‘The righteous man shall live by faith.’ However, the Law is not of faith …” (Cf. Gal3:10-12)
So — What is the test of discipleship? It remains forever the same. The test of discipleship is the walk of love. We are to live as sons and daughters of the living God, not under a yoke of slavery, but as those whom Christ has made free. Free to sin? Never. Freedom to live in the life of the Son!
What think ye?
Blessings,
Buddy
?
Awesome!
Another Awesome