WEEK 17 (BONUS)

UPCOMING EVENTS

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UPCOMING EVENTS

February 2: Live Hangout On Zoom at 8 PM ET

February 22: Live Ash Wednesday Sessions (7 AM & 8 PM ET)

March 2: Live Hangout On Zoom at 8 PM ET

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1. LORD’S PRAYER 

“Our Father in heaven,
hallowed be your name,
your kingdom come,
your will be done,
on earth as it is in heaven.
Give us today our daily bread.
And forgive us our debts,
as we also have forgiven our debtors.
And lead us not into temptation,
but deliver us from the evil one.
For yours is the Kingdom,
and the power,
and the glory forever.
Amen!”

The Lord’s prayer can be found in Matthew 6:9-13 except for the final line. You can learn more about that final line in this article here.

2. TEACHING

Are There Timeless vs. Cultural Commands/Sins?

Let’s talk a little bit about how this plays into timeless and cultural commands. When we think about sins being subjective, we also need to look at things that were commands for a specific time and a place vs. commands that were timeless. And if you remember last week, there are 613 commands in the Torah alone! So when we read about these laws, we have to discern what was cultural and what was timeless. And of course, Paul is dealing with a lot of cultural ideals in 1 Corinthians 8 around dietary restrictions. And really what he’s dealing with is this idea of being clean and unclean. 

We obviously don’t have time to go into all things dietary laws and all the commands for being clean, so there are two really great resources in your session guide. One is from My Jewish Learning about the Dietary Restrictions and the second is a podcast from the Bible Project that goes in-depth on purity laws and what it means to be clean and unclean. 

(PAUSE VIDEO IF NEEDED): This is just a warning, we’re going to talk about something you may not feel comfortable wanting kids to hear. I’ll give you a moment to pause if you need. 

So what does it mean to be unclean? To be unclean essentially meant that you could not approach God while you were in that state, BUT it was not always a sin to be unclean. For example, when a woman is on her period, she was ceremonially unclean. If anyone touched her they were unclean AND anything she touched during that time would become unclean. Here being unclean lasted for 7 days and as we see throughout history, eventually required a ritual bathing process to become clean again. In his commentary on Leviticus, John Hartley says,

“Being clean does not make something holy, but what is holy is always clean. The one who is clean may encounter the holy without danger. Nevertheless, there is no harm in becoming unclean inadvertently or from normal behavior. Becoming unclean is not a threatening situation.”

I’m going to say this over and over here: This is why Jesus as the Messiah – as fully God and fully human is so important. Before Jesus, Only the High Priest could approach God in the Temple in the Holy of Holies and only once a year after many rituals. But now, Jesus has bridged that gap between us and the Father. Now we can approach God’s throne without fear of being unclean BECAUSE Jesus has become our mediator. Jesus has washed us clean and because of His life, death, and resurrection, our sin and unclean habits no longer have to separate us from God. This is the tension we live in as we see with Peter in Acts 10-11 and Paul in 1 Corinthians 8 – ALL people are now welcome into the Kingdom BUT God still calls His people to holiness – God always calls us to be set apart from the rest of the world. 

Here’s what Jesus had to say on this matter. In Mark 7 we find this whole chapter is about Jesus giving his thoughts about food and purity laws. Apparently the disciples were eating food but never went through the traditional hand washing ceremony. If you watched last week and stayed through the end, you know we actually went through this portion. So the Pharisees go to Jesus and ask him why the disciples were eating food with defiled hands. Jesus, as you probably know, would have none of it. I encourage you to reach this whole chapter, but let’s get to the heart of it.

Jesus said this, “Listen to me, everyone, and understand this. Nothing outside a person can defile them by going into them. Rather, What comes out of a person is what defiles them. For it is from within, out of a person’s heart, that evil thoughts come—sexual immorality, theft, murder, adultery, greed, malice, deceit, lewdness, envy, slander, arrogance and folly. All these evils come from inside and defile a person.”

What in the world is all of this coming to? It’s coming to the realization that there are differences between timeless commands and cultural commands. There are timeless commands that God gives us in the Torah because they deal with our love for God and our love for others. But then there are cultural commands, designated for a time and place that are no longer relevant today because not only are they in a different part of the world, but they were for people living 2,000 or 3,000 years ago! Think about how much our culture has changed just in the last 5-10 years. There were actually several times in Scripture, and probably more that we don’t even know about, where Jesus would have been ceremonially unclean according to the Torah. And yet, Hebrews tells us He didn’t sin. Immanuel came and set the record straight noting, “You have let go of the commands of God and are holding on to human traditions.” In other words, the Pharisees cared more about their traditions and looking good on the outside, rather than focusing on the heart of the matters. Our traditions don’t make us holy, our God makes us holy.

Jesus quotes Isaiah here saying, “these people honor me with their lips but their hearts are far from me. They worship me in vain; their teachings are merely human rules.” (Isaiah 29:13)

To wrap this up, we sin when we dishonor God and/or dishonor God’s creation. Jesus was clear that there are timeless commands against sexual immorality, theft, murder, you know the list. And for good reasons. All of those commands are BOTH dishonoring God and dishonoring others. And disobeying those commands will absolutely hinder our relationship with God and with others. However, thanks to Jesus we are forgiven completely and made clean. The process of baptism in water is a very clear and direct representation of becoming ceremonially clean. Thanks to Jesus, we only have to enter those waters once. 

We love God not only by keeping his timeless commands, but also by protecting our hearts, minds, and souls from things that will truly defile us. Not because God is a killjoy, but because He wants what is best for us and knows all of those things Jesus listed will eat away at our lives on bite at a time until we become a shell of ourselves and a shell of who we were created to be. We love others not only by being nice to them, but by putting their needs and concerns above our own. And when we do preform rituals, such as a blessing over a hand washing, we are reminded of the covenant we have with God and the standard of life he calls us to.

“Blessed are you, LORD our God, King of the Universe, who sanctified us in his commandments, and commanded us to wash our hands.” 

Some commandments are timeless, some commandments are cultural, but the command to be holy and love God and others are absolutely and always timeless.

Want To Get Involved?

Thank you so much for being a part this week! If you’d like to help us out, here’s what was need: 

1. We’re in need of people who love worshipping and can record worship music. Or have their own music already recorded that they would be willing to let us use in these sessions.

2. We’d love for you to lead some of the sections (For example, you would film yourself using your phone blessing and lighting the candle, or saying the Lord’s prayer. And we’re open to other spiritual practices that help you grow with Jesus).

3. If you know how to edit videos, use WordPress sites, and/or love social media and would like to help out, please reach out!

You can email us at [email protected] or use the form on the website here.