2 Maccabees 7 1: It happened also that seven brothers and their mother were arrested and were being compelled by the king, under torture with whips and cords, to partake of unlawful swines flesh. 2: One of them, acting as their spokesman, said, What do you intend to ask and learn from us? For we are ready to die rather than transgress the laws of our fathers. 9: And when he was at his last breath, he said, You accursed wretch, you dismiss us from this present life, but the King of the universe will raise us up to an everlasting renewal of life, because we have died for his laws. 10: After him, the third was the victim of their sport. When it was demanded, he quickly put out his tongue and courageously stretched forth his hands, 11: and said nobly, I got these from Heaven, and because of his laws I disdain them, and from him I hope to get them back again. 12: As a result the king himself and those with him were astonished at the young mans spirit, for he regarded his sufferings as nothing. 13: When he too had died, they maltreated and tortured the fourth in the same way. 14: And when he was near death, he said, One cannot but choose to die at the hands of men and to cherish the hope that God gives of being raised again by him. But for you there will be no resurrection to life! Psalm 17 1: Hear a just cause, O LORD; attend to my cry! Give ear to my prayer from lips free of deceit! 5: My steps have held fast to thy paths, my feet have not slipped. 6: I call upon thee, for thou wilt answer me, O God; incline thy ear to me, hear my words. 8: Keep me as the apple of the eye; hide me in the shadow of thy wings, 15: As for me, I shall behold thy face in righteousness; when I awake, I shall be satisfied with beholding thy form. 2 Thessalonians 2 16: Now may our Lord Jesus Christ himself, and God our Father, who loved us and gave us eternal comfort and good hope through grace, 17: comfort your hearts and establish them in every good work and word. Chapter 3 1: Finally, brethren, pray for us, that the word of the Lord may speed on and triumph, as it did among you, 2: and that we may be delivered from wicked and evil men; for not all have faith. 3: But the Lord is faithful; he will strengthen you and guard you from evil. 4: And we have confidence in the Lord about you, that you are doing and will do the things which we command. 5: May the Lord direct your hearts to the love of God and to the steadfastness of Christ. Luke 20 27: There came to him some Sadducees, those who say that there is no resurrection, 28: and they asked him a question, saying, Teacher, Moses wrote for us that if a mans brother dies, having a wife but no children, the man must take the wife and raise up children for his brother. 29: Now there were seven brothers; the first took a wife, and died without children; 30: and the second 31: and the third took her, and likewise all seven left no children and died. 32: Afterward the woman also died. 33: In the resurrection, therefore, whose wife will the woman be? For the seven had her as wife. 34: And Jesus said to them, The sons of this age marry and are given in marriage; 35: but those who are accounted worthy to attain to that age and to the resurrection from the dead neither marry nor are given in marriage, 36: for they cannot die any more, because they are equal to angels and are sons of God, being sons of the resurrection. 37: But that the dead are raised, even Moses showed, in the passage about the bush, where he calls the Lord the God of Abraham and the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob. 38: Now he is not God of the dead, but of the living; for all live to him. I think the best way to start is to say thank you to Fr Bryan for the great sermon today, particularly clarifying the different Jewish sects of Sadducee and Pharisees. Secondly, the book of Maccabees may not be in Your Bible, it is a Deuto-canonical book, which was in the Catholic Canon of Scripture, but some of the protestant reforms dropped it and 5 other writings that were in Greek, rather than Hebrew. Resurrection is the topic today. The Gospel is correcting the narrow-minded view that Heaven will be like this world, and finished with a proof of the resurrection from Scripture - I am, not I was. The power of the resurrection to overcome death is amazing enough, but when we read the bravery of the sons in Maccabees we see another power: power over fear. Here is this son who has been tortured and threatened, forced to go against God, but he unflinchingly puts himself forward because he has absolute faith that the God who gave him what he has (right to his very life) will return it all; so he wasnt really going to lose out. What a great encouragement, to see to that faith, to say there is no need to worry about anything. Conviction is golden. It sets you on solid group to stand firm. I want to increase my steadfastness, so I can be confident to show God to people. Lord, increase my faith, help my unbelief. Amen.
Posted on: Sun, 10 Nov 2013 23:18:43 +0000
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