Sunday night REVOLVE! Student Ministry was priviledged to share in the worship service at Cottondale Community Church. We were really glad to be there and everyone was great to us. The REVOLVE! college band got to lead worship... Aaron, Cameron and Joseph did such an excellent job! I was glad they got to be there... and made me proud!
I shared a message entitled, "Binding"...
The theme of the message was basically, "what are you tied to?" I contrasted our ties to this world and our tying ourselves, or binding ourselves to God. God instructed the Israelites coming out of slavery in Egypt to bind His words to their hands and foreheads. and to teach them to their children day and night. This Jewish practice is referred to as "wrapping the straps", "laying tefillin," "black leather boxes", or by the Greek word, phylacteries.
These phylacteries contained four texts of scriptures, 2 from Exodus and 2 from Deuteronomy. And, the Jews made it a practice, as instructed, to wrap these black leather boxes around their arm up to their biceps and around their foreheads. While they wore these phylacteries they were to pray the prayers contained in the little black leather boxes that were bound to their hand and forehead. This practice literally bound them to Torah and in essence to God. It also bound them to prayer, as the word tefillin is the plural form of another word from which it is derived called tefillah. This word means prayer... so in essence the Jews who wrapped the straps were binding themselves to prayer. The Talmudic rabbis taught that anyone who recited and prayed the prayers that were contained in the tefillin without actually wearing tefillin were in fact liars.
Then, in Revelations 14:9, John tells of the Beast's plan to have his followers bind to themselves on their hands and foreheads his own symbol. You see this is Satan's plan. To have us bind ourselves to his ways instead of God's ways... to follow his program and not God's program. The mark of the beast then becomes an affront and an offense to God. First century Jews who converted to Christianity would have recognized this picture John was making while reading the Revelation of Jesus Christ, and could have identified exactly what it meant to take the mark.
We also looked at Paul's question in Romans 7:24, where he says, "Wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death?" Some believe here, after Paul transparently outlines the spiritual struggle that he found himself in - which is the struggle we all find ourselves in - that his statement body of death was an allusion to a Roman form of punishment for murder. According to Valerius Maximus in his "Deeds and Sayings" he details a form of punishment where the Romans would tie living people to rotting corpses, squeezing them tightly together at every point possible, face-to-face, and allowed them to rot away together. If this is the picture Paul is trying to paint to the Roman Christians, then what a beautifully morbid picture he paints of our struggle between flesh and spirit that takes place in the Christian.
What stinking, rotting corpse is it that we are bound to in life and that we struggle to get free from, but for some reason to no avail? Do we bind ourselves to some corpse and have chosen to live with the corpse of lust, greed, lying, pride or any such thing that we've not chosen to deal with in the spirit? It becomes this pet that we protect and hide in our lives all the while its rotting stinch is slowly destroying us? We think no one sees it, no one will ever know, but the truth is He who sees all does see... and this corpse we try to hide and protect is going to be our end.
Paul announces in verse 25 of chapter seven that the only relief, the only One able to deliver him from this rotting corpse is Christ Jesus our Lord! He alone can set us free, and He alone is whom Paul revered and served so radically. Jesus alone is the answer... so I ask, "What's binding you?" Do you bind yourself daily to God, taking up your cross or have you settled on binding yourself to this world? Think about it...
I shared a message entitled, "Binding"...
The theme of the message was basically, "what are you tied to?" I contrasted our ties to this world and our tying ourselves, or binding ourselves to God. God instructed the Israelites coming out of slavery in Egypt to bind His words to their hands and foreheads. and to teach them to their children day and night. This Jewish practice is referred to as "wrapping the straps", "laying tefillin," "black leather boxes", or by the Greek word, phylacteries.
These phylacteries contained four texts of scriptures, 2 from Exodus and 2 from Deuteronomy. And, the Jews made it a practice, as instructed, to wrap these black leather boxes around their arm up to their biceps and around their foreheads. While they wore these phylacteries they were to pray the prayers contained in the little black leather boxes that were bound to their hand and forehead. This practice literally bound them to Torah and in essence to God. It also bound them to prayer, as the word tefillin is the plural form of another word from which it is derived called tefillah. This word means prayer... so in essence the Jews who wrapped the straps were binding themselves to prayer. The Talmudic rabbis taught that anyone who recited and prayed the prayers that were contained in the tefillin without actually wearing tefillin were in fact liars.
Then, in Revelations 14:9, John tells of the Beast's plan to have his followers bind to themselves on their hands and foreheads his own symbol. You see this is Satan's plan. To have us bind ourselves to his ways instead of God's ways... to follow his program and not God's program. The mark of the beast then becomes an affront and an offense to God. First century Jews who converted to Christianity would have recognized this picture John was making while reading the Revelation of Jesus Christ, and could have identified exactly what it meant to take the mark.
We also looked at Paul's question in Romans 7:24, where he says, "Wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death?" Some believe here, after Paul transparently outlines the spiritual struggle that he found himself in - which is the struggle we all find ourselves in - that his statement body of death was an allusion to a Roman form of punishment for murder. According to Valerius Maximus in his "Deeds and Sayings" he details a form of punishment where the Romans would tie living people to rotting corpses, squeezing them tightly together at every point possible, face-to-face, and allowed them to rot away together. If this is the picture Paul is trying to paint to the Roman Christians, then what a beautifully morbid picture he paints of our struggle between flesh and spirit that takes place in the Christian.
What stinking, rotting corpse is it that we are bound to in life and that we struggle to get free from, but for some reason to no avail? Do we bind ourselves to some corpse and have chosen to live with the corpse of lust, greed, lying, pride or any such thing that we've not chosen to deal with in the spirit? It becomes this pet that we protect and hide in our lives all the while its rotting stinch is slowly destroying us? We think no one sees it, no one will ever know, but the truth is He who sees all does see... and this corpse we try to hide and protect is going to be our end.
Paul announces in verse 25 of chapter seven that the only relief, the only One able to deliver him from this rotting corpse is Christ Jesus our Lord! He alone can set us free, and He alone is whom Paul revered and served so radically. Jesus alone is the answer... so I ask, "What's binding you?" Do you bind yourself daily to God, taking up your cross or have you settled on binding yourself to this world? Think about it...
sweet post. Very true.
ReplyDeleteThat was an inspiration to me, thanks.
I'll be visiting this blog again!
Thanks T for visiting. I'm glad you found this inspiring... that's not something I get accused of often! :)
ReplyDeleteAnyway, stop by often... be sure to say "hi" when you do!
Hey it's Michelle S. this is a cool blog!
ReplyDeleteGlad you checked it out... finally!!! Check back often as I update it every day or so. Later!
ReplyDeleteJ
hey Jeremy, this is Kristen, Jared's wife. I read your blog almost everytime I get on here. It's very inspiring. I am sure you are an awesome youth pastor! It feels good to know Jared works around christian men! Keep him in line for me!
ReplyDeleteHey, Kristen! Thanks for checking it out... I'm glad you enjoy it! You know keeping Jared straight is a full time job, so be praying hard for us here! :) I'm also glad Stella is doing so much better and coming home soon. I will keep praying for her and you guys as well.
ReplyDelete