The Messiah's Secret - A Heart/soul Transformed - body, soul and spirit.    
A wild rose to illustrate the body of Christ.

   In  Song of Songs 2:1 in the RSV Bible there is a reference to the Christ as a rose ‘the rose of Sharon.’  Roses we use as a symbol of love. The cultivated rose was developed by the Chinese 200 years ago.

This morning if we can imagine that our church St Marys is like a rose and we are the petals, each petal is a member of St Marys and each and every one of us has been given gifts that contribute to the whole function of the body of our church.

In Paul’s letter to the Romans he mentions seven of the many gifts: prophecy, serving, teaching, counsellor, contributes, gives aid and acts of mercy.

 (place the name of a gift on each petal )

At the centre we have the stamens these bear pollen that are collected by the bees and in the process transfer pollen from one rose to another.

Jesus is at the centre of our church and his word and Spirit ministers to us and the good news is spread by us to people who we meet.

The beauty of a rose with its’ five petals, each joined at the centre When the petals individually begin to fall and die, the rose is transformed into a rose hip. (the pollen is removed and the petals are taken off, the rose hip is put in place.)

As Christians we find that Jesus calls us individually to faith in him and as we make that commitment we find the cross is where we die to self and to sin. As a result we are transformed within our hearts and minds we are a new creation in Christ.

The Rose Hip its' benefits are well known: rose hip syrup contains an abundance of vitamin C, the seeds are used to produce rose oil, soap perfume and more rose plants.

St Mary’s Christians.

Like the rose we are beautiful in the eyes of God and the Lord our God has transformed our lives so that we produce the seeds of faith in Jesus that are full of goodness and bring forth new life as we tell our friends and family about Jesus.

Readings: Romans 12: 1-8.   Matthew 16: 13- 20

Jesus was born the Christ, he did not develop into becoming the Christ, he was born the Christ, just as he was born a king.

In Matthew’s Gospel we read God himself had revealed to Peter that Jesus was the Christ, it was not by him working it out from his own thinking, he was given thoughts coming to his mind from God the Father.

For St Paul it took a vision of Jesus on the Damascus Road for him to come to realise that Jesus was the Christ. Before he had been totally opposed to Jesus and his disciples and followers.  In his letter he wrote from his own experience that he had been conforming to the world’s thinking when he opposed Jesus, he was blind to the truth of his own scriptures until the veil was removed and the transformation, the renewing of his mind took place, as the Holy Spirit revealed to him that Jesus was the Christ. Acts 9.  

Paul and our transformation goes much deeper than a person changing their mind as to what they believe. We can’t transform ourselves, it happens through faith by God’s gift of grace.

On Tuesday a man came in church conspicuous by his dress and from his conversation he was of a religious group. Before he left he gave us a book Edited by Nathan Eddy and the Foreword was written by Archbishop Emeritus Desmond Tutu, I researched it and found it was the product of Christian Science ‘New Thought.’ A teaching that trains the conscience by divine science.           

But from what I have observed over the years, the training when it ceases the person like the cultivated rose will revert to their old self. A cultivated rose left alone over a period of time will revert back to being a wild rose.

Many religions use techniques to bring to obedience, to control the body, soul and spirit:  transcendental meditation, yoga, Tie chi etc. They produce a calm, tranquil state of mind.

There are three things that make up a person: The body, soul and spirit. Thessalonians 5: 23.

The body has senses and emotions: touch smell hearing and sight. Emotions consist of a mixture of what makes us happy and content and what makes us sad and discontent.

The soul is quite often referred to as the 'heart' the part of our SELF our personality, will, conscious and our mind. Everything that comes to our mind, will and conscious goes through the soul. Every person’s soul is corrupted by our knowledge of good and evil since the fall. 

The spirit every one of us has been created with the human spirit, is the part of us were we have an awareness of God and have a desire to worship God. Archaeologists find artefacts associated with worship going back thousands of years.

Everything changed when people heard and believed in Jesus. God’s Spirit activated with our human Spirit and at the same time our soul was renewed and our body became aware of the holiness of God, so our body, soul and spirit are now one with God our Father, Jesus and the Holy Spirit.

Paul in his letter to the Ephesians wrote, “We are made alive together with Jesus Christ and we are saved.” Ephesians 2: 5. John Newton wrote of God’s amazing grace, “Amazing grace how sweet the sound that saved a wretch like me, I once was lost but now I’m found was blind but now I see.”

Christians have been changed like a car that has a new engine, the appearance of the car is the same, but with a new engine. Our appearance is the same, but the old state of mind has gone. 

              

Now we find that our own concerns take a back seat and we begin to think and feel about what concerns God our Father.

We will at times sarcoma to temptation, but when we do fall into sin through repentance we are forgiven and not brought under condemnation of Adam’s sin as we used to be. 1 John 1: 8.9.

The Holy Spirit distributes the gifts among God’s people. Each gift is linked with heaven where Jesus is and where we are ascended with him

Love triggers the gifts into use and our prayer enters heaven to the throne of God’s grace where we are seated with Christ. “Made us alive together with Christ. (by grace you have been saved;) And raised us up with him, and made us sit with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus.” Ephesians  2: 6.

Tom Wright Study on James puts it this way, “Prayer must surround everything we do, whether we’re sad or happy, suffering or cheerful. Prayer that is based on the fact that the Christian stands at the overlap point of heaven and earth.” “The person praying stands with one foot on earth in the place of trouble, sickness and sin and with the other foot in the place in heaven of healing, forgiveness and hope.”

Tom Wright has given us an example that we can visualise of how it works, but we don’t have to attain this knowledge for our prayers to be answered.

The other Tuesday at the Bible study June witnessed her prayer being answered. It took place when her daughter rang and in their conversation her daughter mentioned about wanting to move house. June said she immediately thought of the empty house next door and later the same day she bumped into the Landlord outside her house and she asked him about her daughter moving into next door. He said, ‘ yes’ and also mentioned two other houses that she might like to consider nearby. June gave God the glory.

It’s the abundance of God’s grace.

Recently my sister told me of a man at her church who was unemployed and try as he did he could not even get an interview, so he asked the Pastor at my sister’s church to pray for him and within a week he had employers contacting him and more than one offer of a job. This man gave God the glory.

Getting our prayers answered does not depend on how we feel whether we’re in a good mood or a bad mood or how much we know (Gnosticism)about the Bible.

It simply depends on our love for and faith in Jesus.

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The Messiah’s Secret Revealed continuing Matthew 16: 18-20

In our reading Jesus gave Peter the leadership of the church and confirmed his calling when John the disciple recorded Jesus' words, when he said to Peter ‘feed my lambs’.  John 21: 15.

Simon Peter’s name meaning ‘rock’ Jesus chose him to lead the disciples beginning at Pentecost,  with one key Peter opened the door of Christ’s kingdom to the nation of Israel. Peter stood and addressed the crowd as ‘men of Judea’ and ‘men of Israel’. Acts 2: 14, 22.

Peter with another key had opened the door to the Gentiles.

Peter was staying at Joppa with Simon the tanner, the Lord gave him a vision of a sheet coming down from heaven and on the sheet where all kinds of creatures. 

The Lord in the vision told Peter to kill and eat. However, some of the creatures where unclean to a Jewish person. Peter cried out that he was forbidden by the law to eat anything regarded as unclean and he would not break the law. But the word came again telling him not to call anything common or unclean. Under law food had spirituality, a Jewish person was not allowed to eat blood and certain creatures. But here in this vision Peter was being taught by the Lord that food was clean and the Gentile people were not unclean. Two groups in the Bible The nation of the Jews and the nation of the Gentiles. Matthew 21: 43. Acts 1: 6.

Following this vision two men came to the house asking to speak with Peter. They informed him that they had been sent by Cornelius a Centurion who lived at Caesarea. In a vision an angel told him to send for Peter the disciple of Jesus.

Peter accompanied the men and when he arrived at Caesarea, he found Cornelius and his whole family had gathered. Peter told them about Jesus and as he spoke the Holy Spirit fell on them just as he had on the disciples. Acts 10

When the men of the circumcision Party heard that Peter had been eating with Gentiles he was summoned to give an account of his behaviour. Peter shared with them the vision and the how the Holy Spirit filled the Gentiles when they heard about Jesus and afterwards they were baptised. 

Peter brought Cornelius and his family into the body of believers through faith and grace. Paul wrote that we are strengthened by the Spirit and our energy is in Christ. Ephesians 3: 16. Colossians 1: 29. 1 Peter 4: 11.

Peter’s vision fulfilled Jesus’ words that food had no longer any spirituality.

Mark recorded Jesus’ words, “Do you not see that whatever goes into a person from outside cannot defile him, since it enters not the heart, but the stomach, and so passes on? (Thus he declared all foods clean)” Mark 7: 18, 19.                                 

“Do not be carried away by all kinds of strange teachings; for it is well for the heart to be strengthened by grace, not by regulations about food, which have not benefited those who observe them.” Hebrews 13: 9.

Jesus words the bread of life, “Truly, truly, I say unto you, unless you eat of the flesh of the Son of man and drink his blood, you have no life within you.” Jesus’ sacrifice was the final sacrifice for food laws. Jesus went on to say “It is the Spirit that gives life, the flesh is of no avail; the words that I have spoken to you are Spirit and life.” John 6: 53. 63. Jesus’ risen body is a spiritual body, without blood. Luke 24: 39, 40.