{"id":641,"date":"2020-03-09T13:50:00","date_gmt":"2020-03-09T13:50:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.stpeterschestersprings.org\/wordpress\/?p=641"},"modified":"2020-03-09T17:52:21","modified_gmt":"2020-03-09T17:52:21","slug":"second-sunday-in-lent-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.stpeterschestersprings.org\/wordpress\/2020\/03\/09\/second-sunday-in-lent-2\/","title":{"rendered":"Second Sunday in Lent"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

John\n3:1-17<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Grace to you and peace\nfrom God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The\nPeople of God started out as a family, actually an elderly couple, Abram and\nSarai. God changed their names to Abraham and Sarah and because they were\nfaithful to God\u2019s request, for them to move away from their people and their\nland, God promised them a son and that the family of his son would grow to\nbecome a nation and a special land would be provided for them. As outlandish as\nthese promises were, God made them possible; first God made it possible for\nSarah to conceive and bear a son, Isaac. Isaac then had two sons, twins, but it\nwas from just Jacob that the People of God would grow. Jacob was not opposed to\ntaking advantage of others and he wrestled with his faith in God and God\u2019s will\nfor him, but Jacob eventually reconciled with God; Jacob had twelve sons and it\nwas these sons who gave the names to the twelve tribes of Israel, who, for the\nmost part, remained faithful to the one true God. The People of God grew as a\npeople over the generations, as they resided in the foreign land of Egypt. They\nheld to the promise of the Lord their God, the promise of a land to be theirs,\na land of milk and honey. Egypt, however feared them because of how they were\ngrowing in number and so Egypt enslaved them, but the People of God continued\nto pray and hope for the Promise to be fulfilled. It was Moses who brought word\nfrom God, that he was about to fulfill this promise; it was Moses who brought\ndown upon Egypt God\u2019s plagues until the Pharaoh let them go. And God set before\nIsrael a cloud to lead them and when needed the cloud moved behind them to\nprotect them, and when Egypt\u2019s armies attempted to harm God\u2019s People, the Lord\nsent them into the sea, the sea that first provided escape for the People of\nGod.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

You\nwould think that the People of God would have been happy and secure in God and in\nGod\u2019s promises after experiencing such a magnificent escape from Egypt and a new\nbeginning. But fear and complaint took over among the People of God, they\ndisobeyed God and they turned to the god\u2019s of Egypt, even after seeing the\nEgyptian army fall to the power of God. God punishing the People of God, but\neven as God was punishing them, God was planning to give to them the Law that\nwould help them to live in peace and find prosperity in the Promised Land. And so\nit was, that Moses went up the Mountain of God to receive this Law. I\u2019m not\ngoing to go into all the ups and downs of God\u2019s People, of Israel and Judah\n(the two kingdoms of God\u2019s People). It should be enough for me to say that they\nwent through many times when God sent to them prophets to lead them back to their\nGod and the Law, and there were times when God punished Israel (or it could be\nsaid, when God left the People of God to the protection of the other gods they turned\nto and left them also to their own abilities just as they wanted), and they\nwere in those times over-run by their enemies and suffered greatly. But still\nwe can see that God never abandoned his people and God always restored Israel. I\nvery much believe that today God continues to care for Israel, as he had\npromised.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But\nbecause of the, up and down nature of God\u2019s People, in their keeping up with\ntheir relationship with God, God did also a new thing. God sent his Son into\nthe world. God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, or for\nthat matter to condemn Israel or the Jewish people. God sent his Son into the\nworld to save the people of the world, Jews and Gentiles alike. God did not, so\nmuch, go back on God\u2019s promise, as God extended his promise to everyone, though\nI often wonder of the hurt that God must still suffer because of the many, Jews\nand Gentiles, who continue to deny Jesus. But, as Abram and Sarai had to\nsacrifice for God\u2019s promise, so it would be that God through God\u2019s Son, Jesus,\nwould need to sacrifice. God\u2019s Son, Jesus\u2019 sacrifice would not be a sacrifice like\nAbram and Sarai\u2019s and it would not be like the sacrifices of God\u2019s People, who with\ndonations of animals and other earthly goods stood before the altar of God, or\nwith a life style of righteousness gave up some life opportunities for God, but\na sacrifice of himself. Jesus would give his life in service to all God\u2019s\npeople, healing and preaching, feeding and teaching. Jesus would travel during\nhis years of ministry, living as though he had no home, depending on the\ngenerosity of others, often sleeping out beneath the stars and going without\nmeals. But this kind of sacrifice was not new, many of the prophets and leaders\nof Israel had suffered such. Jesus also lived a life without sin; if that is\nnot a sacrifice it is surely an amazing act; I can\u2019t leave my house in the\nmorning without doing, thinking or saying something wrong. Jesus sacrifice, and\nI must add, pretty much the reason that we have the season of Lent, was his\nwillingness to suffer abuse and lashes with a whip and be nailed to a cross and\nbe treated and crucified with and like a common criminal, and then die for\nhumanity. It is hard for us to fathom, but we believe that Jesus took on for\nall humanity the punishment deserved for our sins. I can\u2019t imagine the physical\npain of all that he was put through, but to endure suffering he did not deserve,\nsuffering that was deserved by me for my sins, by you for your sins and by so\nmany others who care nothing about righteousness and or about God. I find\nmyself at a loss, unable to describe it or explain why God would even allow it.\nYet I am thankful, and along with so many who do not truly understand the\nmeaning, I say with thanksgiving and joy, \u201cGod so loved the world that he gave\nhis only Son, so that everyone who believes on him may not perish but may have\neternal life.\u201d   <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

John 3:1-17 Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ The People of God started out as a family, actually an elderly couple, Abram and Sarai. God changed their names to Abraham and Sarah and because they were faithful to God\u2019s request, for them Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-641","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-sermons-and-services"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.stpeterschestersprings.org\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/641","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.stpeterschestersprings.org\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.stpeterschestersprings.org\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.stpeterschestersprings.org\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.stpeterschestersprings.org\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=641"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.stpeterschestersprings.org\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/641\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":642,"href":"https:\/\/www.stpeterschestersprings.org\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/641\/revisions\/642"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.stpeterschestersprings.org\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=641"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.stpeterschestersprings.org\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=641"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.stpeterschestersprings.org\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=641"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}