Watch Your Tongue

At Christ the Rock we have many teaching pastors. Together, we plan out our annual preaching calendar and then divide up the teaching responsibilities. We are currently in a teaching series called ‘That’s Not My Family’, which focuses on what the bible teaches about healthy family relationships.

This has been an extremely fun series to share. The first week I taught on ‘Spiritual Leadership in the Home’. The second week, Pastor Kris preached on the ‘Portrait of a Godly Mother’. This last week, we keep the children in the service and Kris and I, along with my daughter and one of my sons, taught on ‘Honor Your Father and Mother’. This service was awesome! We even used a Cow Tongue as an illustration. What a crack up.

You can see the message at ChristTheRockBoston.org. Click on the See Latest Teaching link.

The Healing of a Demon-possessed Man

Mark 4:35-5:20 says,
35 That day when evening came, he said to his disciples, “Let us go over to the other side.” 36 Leaving the crowd behind, they took him along, just as he was, in the boat. There were also other boats with him. 37 A furious squall came up, and the waves broke over the boat, so that it was nearly swamped. 38 Jesus was in the stern, sleeping on a cushion. The disciples woke him and said to him, “Teacher, don’t you care if we drown?” 39 He got up, rebuked the wind and said to the waves, “Quiet! Be still!” Then the wind died down and it was completely calm. 40 He said to his disciples, “Why are you so afraid? Do you still have no faith?” 41 They were terrified and asked each other, “Who is this? Even the wind and the waves obey him!” 1 They went across the lake to the region of the Gerasenes. 2 When Jesus got out of the boat, a man with an evil spirit came from the tombs to meet him. 3 This man lived in the tombs, and no one could bind him any more, not even with a chain. 4 For he had often been chained hand and foot, but he tore the chains apart and broke the irons on his feet. No one was strong enough to subdue him. 5 Night and day among the tombs and in the hills he would cry out and cut himself with stones. 6 When he saw Jesus from a distance, he ran and fell on his knees in front of him. 7 He shouted at the top of his voice, “What do you want with me, Jesus, Son of the Most High God? Swear to God that you won’t torture me!” 8 For Jesus had said to him, “Come out of this man, you evil spirit!” 9 Then Jesus asked him, “What is your name?”
“My name is Legion,” he replied, “for we are many.” 10 And he begged Jesus again and again not to send them out of the area. 11 A large herd of pigs was feeding on the nearby hillside. 12 The demons begged Jesus, “Send us among the pigs; allow us to go into them.” 13 He gave them permission, and the evil spirits came out and went into the pigs. The herd, about two thousand in number, rushed down the steep bank into the lake and were drowned. 14 Those tending the pigs ran off and reported this in the town and countryside, and the people went out to see what had happened. 15 When they came to Jesus, they saw the man who had been possessed by the legion of demons, sitting there, dressed and in his right mind; and they were afraid. 16 Those who had seen it told the people what had happened to the demon-possessed man-and told about the pigs as well. 17 Then the people began to plead with Jesus to leave their region. 18 As Jesus was getting into the boat, the man who had been demon-possessed begged to go with him. 19 Jesus did not let him, but said, “Go home to your family and tell them how much the Lord has done for you, and how he has had mercy on you.” 20 So the man went away and began to tell in the Decapolis how much Jesus had done for him. And all the people were amazed.

The bible tells us that Jesus traveled across the Sea of Gallilee and when he landed this demon possessed man approached him. Jesus casts the demons out of the man and allows them to go into some pigs that were nearby, causing the herd to wildly throw themselves off a cliff into the waters below. When the people of the town heard that their unkosher business of raising pigs was sinking to its death, they came out to ask Jesus to leave. When they arrived at the lake shore they were amazed by the appearance of the demoniac. The towns people found him fully clothed and in his right mind.

Where did the demon possessed man get his clothes?

At the end of chapter 4, Jesus was asleep in the boat and was resting his head on a pillow. In those days a traveler would put his extra clothes for a journey into a sack that he would take with him. This is kind of like an ancient backpack. He could use this sack as a pillow at night during his journey.

Jesus actually spoke about this sack when he sent his disciples out- he told them not to take anything for your journey, ie. the sack. He wanted to build their faith that the Lord would provide for them during their journey. In the boat, Jesus was probably asleep and resting his head on his own sack in the boat.

After the evil spirits were cast out of the man, he came into his right mind and he realized that he was dressed inappropriately. He was naked, outside, in front of strangers, and could hear many townspeople coming from a distance. How embarrassing!! What was he to do?

Should he run and hide back among the tombs? No, he had been down that road. There was nothing there for him, now. What should he do?

Jesus has the answer. Jesus just so happened to have his sack. The “pillow” that he was asleep on in the boat. In that sack was his extra tunic and under garments. The clothes that the demoniac were dressed in came from Jesus. Jesus gave him his own clothes.

Jesus clothed him, spiritually, in righteousness and then, he clothed him physically, by providing a new set of clothes for the man as well.

When we trust Christ, he provides not just our spiritual needs, but he already has in his possession the provision of our physical needs as well.

In the beginning God created THE…

Genesis 1:1 says, “In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth.”

We know that God spoke all things into existence. In the Latin, the term is ex nihilo – out of nothing. He spoke and it was. But how did he speak without the being a language to speak. Before he created the heavens and the earth, God had to create a language with which to speak all things into existence.

When we visited Qumran, the sight of the discovery of the Dead Sea Scrolls, our tour guide, Tony, shared this thought. The word ‘the’ in Hebrew is made up of two hebrew letters…the first letter in the alphabet and the last letter in the alphabet. When these two letters are together, they represent the entire Hebrew alphabet. Therefore, the implication in the verse is that the first thing God created was the language.
Cool thought. What is cooler is to know that Jesus, who is called the Word of God, was the one creating this language. Colossians says “all things came into existence by him”.

The Word created words.

Caiaphas’ House

We had another unbelievable day touring the holy land. We saw the Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem; Golgotha, where Jesus was crucified; and we saw the garden tomb. But, I think the highlight of my day was Caiaphas’ house.

Caiaphas was the high priest at the time that Jesus was crucified. He was the religious leader of the nation. When Jesus was arrested in the garden they took him to Caiaphas’ house. It was there that Peter denied knowing Jesus three times. This is one of the only definitively authentic sites here in Jerusalem.

Being the high priest, Caiaphas had the task of punishing all those who were found breaking the Jewish religious law. There was a prison in the lower floors of his home that would be used, at times very violently, for that purpose. Torture took place here on a regular basis.

Because of his crime, Jesus was believed to be taken to the prison there, and thrown into a deep pit for holding till his case was heard. That pit was away from all the other prisoners, and would have been very dark. Today I stood in that pit, in the very room where the suffering of my Lord began.

While there, we read Psalm 88 together, which gives a glimpse of what Jesus must have felt like in the pit. It says,

¹ LORD, you are the God who saves me;
day and night I cry out to you.
² May my prayer come before you;
turn your ear to my cry.

³ I am overwhelmed with troubles
and my life draws near to death.
⁴ I am counted among those who go down to the pit;
I am like one without strength.
⁵ I am set apart with the dead,
like the slain who lie in the grave,
whom you remember no more,
who are cut off from your care.

⁶ You have put me in the lowest pit,
in the darkest depths.
⁷ Your wrath lies heavily on me;
you have overwhelmed me with all your waves.
⁸ You have taken from me my closest friends
and have made me repulsive to them.
I am confined and cannot escape;
⁹ my eyes are dim with grief.

I call to you, LORD, every day;
I spread out my hands to you.
¹⁰ Do you show your wonders to the dead?
Do their spirits rise up and praise you?
¹¹ Is your love declared in the grave,
your faithfulness in Destruction?
¹² Are your wonders known in the place of darkness,
or your righteous deeds in the land of oblivion?

¹³ But I cry to you for help, LORD;
in the morning my prayer comes before you.
¹⁴ Why, LORD, do you reject me
and hide your face from me?

¹⁵ From my youth I have suffered and been close to death;
I have borne your terrors and am in despair.
¹⁶ Your wrath has swept over me;
your terrors have destroyed me.
¹⁷ All day long they surround me like a flood;
they have completely engulfed me.
¹⁸ You have taken from me friend and neighbor—
darkness is my closest friend.

We know about the beatings that followed, but I had never thought about Jesus’ incarceration between the garden prayer, and the beginning of his 6 illegal trials. Jesus suffering began with him being separated from his friends, and imprisoned in total blackness. All he could focus on was the punishment that was soon to come.

I wish you could be here to see the things we are seeing. What a moving experience.

Galilee to Jerusalem

What a day today!

This is our second full day in Israel and one historic sight is starting to blur into another. We went to see a 2000 year old boat that was unearthed from the mud along side the Sea of Galilee. It was preserved because of the mud. It is dated back to the time of Christ. Because there was over 6000 fishing boats on the lake at that time, it is probably not the one that Jesus taught out of, but it would be cool if it was.

We also saw the location of the Sermon on the Mount and the location of the Feeding of the Five Thousand. Then we went to what is one of the highlights to me, the ancient ruins of the city of Capernaum. Capernaum was Jesus’ base of operations once he started his ministry. There we saw the ruins of what was very probably the Apostle Peter’s house. The ruins of the house are  under what was the earliest known Christian church. The church is incredibly unique with eight sides and fashioned after the Temple with an outer court and an inner court. We also stood in a synagogue that was built on top of the synagogue that Jesus taught in.

To top it all off, we entered Jerusalem this evening. We stopped at the Hebrew University overlook and had a devotional time. I learned that King Solomon had prayed for me about 3000 years ago. In 1 Kings 8:41, during his Temple Dedication prayer, he prayed, “As for the foreigner who does not belong to your people Israel but has come from a distant land because of your name…when he comes and prays toward this temple, then hear from heaven, your dwelling place, and do whatever the foreigner asks of you, so that all the peoples of the earth may know your name and fear you, as do your own people Israel, and may know that this house I have built bears your name.”

What a prayer!! So on the basis of the prayer of Solomon, I prayed and asked for big things for God’s Kingdom in Boston.

 

We are in Israel

Tony the tour guide

Well we made it to Israel. Our flight from Boston to Newark was very frightening. The flight to Tel Aviv was great. We are on the bus heading to Nazareth for the night. We really lucked out- our tour guide is a man named Tony. Kris and I met him the last time we were here. He is one of the most knowledgeable people I have even met in regard to Israel’s history.

Tony gave a lecture on ‘Why Israel is a Miraculous Country – Unlike Any Other Country’. The outline was…The Seven R’s of Israel

1. The Return of the People- they came back home after being
dispersed for 1900 years since the fall of Jerusalem in AD 70. In 1948 Israel became a nation again. No other nation has ever gone into non-existence and then came back.

2. The Rebuilding of the Cities- Israel has rebuilt many of its cities. Eight out of every 10 cities has been rebuilt on the site it originally was on and is called by the same name.

3. The Reclaiming of the Land- Before 1948, the land would not yield crops for the inhabitants. Since the re-establishment of the nation, the land has yielded an abundance of crops. The land knows to produce great amount for its rightful people. Ezekiel 36:1-26 says, “the land is for you.” On average Israel produces 4 times the amount of crops that we produce in the U.S.

4. The Reforestation- The land had been destroyed – barren – from the cutting down of all the trees by the various groups who have used the land through the years. There were barely any trees left. The forests are being replanted. The only nation in which green land is increasing and not decreasing.

5. The Revival of the Hebrew language- The language was out of use every where except in synagogues. In 1912, the language that was used in the technology university in Palestine was German. Since then, the people began to contemporize and revive the language for use as the official language.

6. The Re-securing of the Biblical Laws- Some of the OT laws are personal laws (or laws pertaining to individuals). These laws are considered spiritual laws and not necessarily to be followed today. The other laws are considered national laws. The national civil laws like the observance of the Sabbath day has been established as national law.

7. The Re-building of the Temple- the only R yet to take place. But we know it will take place since the bible tells us so.

No other country has seen such miraculous happenings take place.

First 15 Insight- January 17- The Great Fixer

Daily Reading- Exodus 3:1-4:17

I was reading the First 15 reading today and started to laugh when Moses began to make excuses to God for why he couldn’t go lead the people of Israel out of Egypt. God had appeared to Moses at a burning bush that wasn’t being consumed, and he gave Moses two miraculous signs that he is all powerful. But Moses still wasn’t getting it. In verse 10, Moses said to the Lord,
“O Lord, I have never been eloquent, neither in the past nor since you have spoken to your servant. I am slow of speech and tongue.”

I love the Lords response! The Lord said to him,
“Who gave man his mouth?

Do you hear any sarcasm in his tone? “But God, my mouth doesn’t work right!”
God says, “Moses, I think I know how to fix that!”

God had given Moses a mission to accomplish and Moses immediately looked for reasons that he was not suited to carry out the mission. He had is eyes on the problems and not the God who he was standing before. God had just turned a staff into a snake and made his hand leporous and then restored it to health, and yet Moses didn’t understand that God is the Great Fixer. God can fix it!!!

Maybe Moses thought that since he had studdered all his life, this was a design flaw he was meant to have. God said, “I am the designer, I can fix that.” If God has given you a mission, don’t focus one the reasons you can’t carry it out. God is the Great Fixer. He will fix it when you are being obedient to him.

First 15 Insight- A Fathers Approval

Jan 9- reading in Genesis 27:1-28:6

During the First 15 reading on Sunday, I read something that struck me. Isaac had two sons named Esau and Jacob, Esau being the elder. As young men, Esau surrendered his birthright to his brother for a bowl of stew. I’m sure. His lack of concern for his future upset his father when he found out.

Here in Genesis 27, Jacob goes one step further. He steals his elder brothers blessing from his aged and confused father by impersonating Esau. Esau devalued his birthright, but he did value the blessing that had been stolen from him. The bible tells us that he had decided to kill Jacob.

When Jacob’s mom finds out, she influences Isaac to send Jacob away to find a wife among her relatives. Isaac goes along with her and calls for Jacob. He instructs him to go find a wife among his mother’s relatives as the Canaanite women that live around them would not make acceptable wives.

Here is the part of the story that got me, in 28:6 it says,
6 Now Esau learned that Isaac had blessed Jacob and had sent him to Paddan Aram to take a wife from there, and that when he blessed him he commanded him, “Do not marry a Canaanite woman,” 7 and that Jacob had obeyed his father and mother and had gone to Paddan Aram. 8 Esau then realized how displeasing the Canaanite women were to his father Isaac; 9 so he went to Ishmael and married Mahalath, the sister of Nebaioth and daughter of Ishmael son of Abraham, in addition to the wives he already had.

Esau, even though he had forsaken his birthright, and even though the blessing that his father had for him went to his brother, and even though his father’s final words over him were harsh, he still desired his father’s approval. When he found out that the Canaanite women were displeasing to Isaac, he went out and took a wife from amongst his cousins, the Ishmaelites, even though he was already married to at least two Canaanite women.

He was trying desperately to gain his father’s approval. Even after everything that had happened, he wanted his father to validate his manhood and recognize his value. How important it is for us fathers to give our approval to our sons. They are craving it. They want it so bad that some seek it by overachieving. They want it so bad that sometimes they misbehave. They want it so bad that sometimes they through temper tantrums. They need our approval.

This year we started a new tradition in the Zinnanti home. Every Saturday morning I am taking one of my boys to breakfast. It will be a time for that child to have my undivided attention. During that meal there will be nothing to interrupt my attention to him, or his train of thought in what he wants to share with me.

My sons need my approval of who they are. I intent to give it!!

First 15 Insight – Jan 5th

Scripture Reading of the Day – Genesis 11:1-9

The bible tells us that Noah’s son’s did a good job of repopulating the earth after the flood. Many nations are listed in Chapter 10 of Genesis that all traced roots back to Shem,Ham, and Japheth. In Genesis 11, we see the story of the Tower of Babel. Even though there were many nations the whole world still had one language. As men moved eastward, the came to a flat of land in Shinar and began to settle there. They build a society together and no longer followed God’s command to spread out and fill the earth (Gen 1:28, Gen 9:7).

In addition, this society that they were trying to build was intentionally void of God. They didn’t want to follow God commands. Genesis 11:4 says,  Then they said, “Come, let us build ourselves a city, with a tower that reaches to the heavens, so that we may make a name for ourselves and not be scattered over the face of the whole earth.” The people no longer wanted to spread out through the whole world. They also were determined to ‘build a tower that reaches the heavens’ thinking that this will help them make a name for themselves in the earth. By God’s command, man was to spread out and fill the earth so the earth would reflect who God is. Now, by determining to not spread out any further, they desired to bring glory to themselves.

But why build a tower?  Well, it would be a great feat showing the unity of the people. It would be seen from far off. It would be very imposing so as to scare away invaders. But maybe there is a more insidious reason. Perhaps the people wanted to build a tower so high that even though they chose not to follow God’s commands, they were protected against any retaliation God might make. Perhaps they thought if God wanted to bring judgement again by flooding the earth, they could enter their tower and rise above the judgement of God.

This was truly the first humanistic society. Mankind held all the solutions. Problems could be solved by working together in unity. The greatest goal was to exalt the achievements of man. And, there is no accountability outside of ourselves.

God saw this endeavor to exclude him from their lives and thought he would stir things up a bit. God confused their languages so they no longer understood each other.  And watch the result:

^11:8 So the Lord scattered them from there over all the earth, and they stopped building the city. ⁹ That is why it was called Babel—because there the Lord confused the language of the whole world. From there the Lord scattered them over the face of the whole earth.

Back to his original plan!

First 15 Insight – Jan 4th

Scripture Reading of the Day – Genesis 8:1-9:17

When Noah and his family came out of the ark after the flood, God gave them an instruction. In 9:1, God says to Noah, “Be fruitful and increase in number and fill the earth.” This is the identical command that God gave to Adam and Eve in Gen 1:28. God had created man in his image and wanted that image to fill the earth. The original intention of God was for the earth to  reflect who he is through his people.

Now, after the flood, that same intention is re-established by God’s command to Noah and his sons. Be fruitful. Increase in number. Fill the earth. This was not just about repopulation of the world, but it was supposed to be about the earth reflecting who God is through his people. God repeats this same command in 9:7, adding emphasis to the importance of the command.

Noah and his sons are obedient to the Lord’s command to fill the earth. In Genesis 9:19, it bible tells us that from “…the three sons of Noah… came the people who were scattered over the earth.” They did their job in regard to filling the earth. Unfortunately, because to the sinful nature of man, the earth will never be able to truly reflect who God is, at least until Christ comes back.