Crossing The Jordan.
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Stan Josephsen preached this morning from Numbers, Chapter Thirty-two, continuing our evaluation of the story of the two and one-half tribes that settled on the East Bank of the Jordan River. He emphasized that what the two and one-half tribes valued about the land that was good for their cattle was not necessarily wrong so much as not being willing to accompany their brethren in the fight for the rest of the land that needed to be conquered. The hands of the men of war who had yet to obtain their inheritance were being weakened by those not willing to press on for the good of the whole. Nevertheless there were lessons to be learned by the remaining nine and one-half tribes, also.
(6/18/2006)
Many of God's blessings and promises can be obtained on the East bank of the River Jordan. But we are called to inherit more than His blessings and His promises. We are called to inherit God's fullness---Christ. Inheriting Christ Himself can only occur after we cross the Jordan. Between the blessings and promises of God and His fullness our selfish ambition must come to an end.
When we hear news that the Gospel of the Kingdom is increasingly being preached and understood by others who seemingly have not toiled in the effort as long as ourselves we run the risk of accusing the Lord wrongly as did the labourers who all agreed to work for a penny did as told in Matthew 20:1-16. If we question who God is going to use to preach this gospel of the Kingdom to the ends of the earth we are revealing that we have yet died to self, we have not yet crossed Jordan and left selfish ambition in its waters.
Also, we cannot cross the Jordan with the "elder brother syndrome" still operating within us. The elder brother in the parable of the prodigal son did not understand that by questioning his father's celebration of the return of his lost son, he himself was not fully comprehending the nature of his own inheritance. The father told the elder brother that all was his, whether he had remained at home and not left and wasted his part of the inheritance. We who have a grasp of the Gospel of the Kingdom should rejoice when the knowledge of it begins to spread to the rest of the Church. It will be God's business to reveal to them that they must not settle down on the east bank of the Jordan content with His promises and blessings instead of His fullness. If we do that we reveal that we ourselves are beginning to cross the Jordan, losing our self-interest in who joins us or when, and that we are maturing more in the Image of Christ.
At night Edward Reiter spoke about "the beginning of the gospel of Jesus Christ the Son of God" from Mark Chapter One.
This good news should begin afresh within us each new day. We should realize that the good news comes out from "a voice in the wilderness," the separation that exists between the best but limited religious efforts of mankind and the complete perfection resident in the sovereignty of God.
Often times the good news will ask us to do things that seem out of place, like John being asked to baptize the Lord Jesus. If we obey however the heavens will open and we and others will hear the proclamation that God is pleased with His Son. Obedience to Christ bears eternal witness.
When the good news comes to us it can separate us from our vocations and our family. Are we willing to leave our nets, our earthly fathers and follow Christ alone?
Jesus took His first disciples to minister the good news in the synagogues, among those who seemingly had all the right knowledge of God. In their midst, however, there was a man with an unclean spirit. Christ came to drive the unclean spirits of out the Church first, and then those that are in the world. Jesus ministered initially to the needs in the synagogue and then to the needs of His disciples (Peter's mother, sick of a fever) and then to the townspeople.
The good news does not tire. It ministers all day along and into and through the night like Jesus did in Mark One. But it does not stay around to receive accolades ("all men seek Thee"), it presses on to other synagogues and towns where more needs remain unmet.
(The above essay was written by Edward J. Reiter).
You can hear the morning sermon at morning. http://www.wor.org/audio/audio.htm