Showing posts with label true vine. Show all posts
Showing posts with label true vine. Show all posts

9.11.2013

Alcoholics Anon – SCJ teaching about Wine: Part 3

Wine of Adultery


We saw that Jesus’ word is the new wine God’s people waited for at the first coming and again at the second
Lk 22:18 “For I tell you I will not drink again of the fruit of the vine until the kingdom of God comes.”
We know that there is more than just God’s side in the spiritual realm, there is also Satan, who has been sowing his weeds (untrue words) since the beginning.

Satan’s words show up in Jesus’ prophecy in Matthew 13:14-30, the Parable of the Weeds and the explanation in Matthew 13:37-43. In this parable a man sows good seed and then went away and while everyone was asleep an enemy came and planted weeds (verse 24-28). In the last two verses Jesus explains that weeds will be in the field until the time of the harvest. This story of lies where there should be truth.
 
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This isn’t the first time God told this story. Using the prophet Isaiah God speaks of his vineyard (his people, Israel) where he had planted the best seed and expected good grapes but it yielded only bad (Is 5:1-7). We know through logic and the word that a good seed will only make good plants (Gn 1:11-12), and that good plants bear good fruit (Mt 7:17-18), so how did God’s good seed bear bad grapes? Because of Matthew chapter 13 we know why there are bad grapes! An enemy planted his weeds, his unwanted plants, his untrue words, in the hearts of the God’s people, and those words replaced God’s good word.

4169825395_d73c7ea482_zSkipping back a bit, the parable of the weeds and the wheat is a prophecy for the second coming, so we should see a similar message in Revelation (the book which gives the most detail for the second coming). In Revelation 18:3 we see a character giving out maddening wine. Wine made from bad grapes.
 Revelation 18:3 - For all the nations have drunk the maddening wine of her adulteries. The kings of the earth committed adultery with her, and the merchants of the earth grew rich from her excessive luxuries.
This wine represents the same as the bad seed and bad fruit, it is the words of untruth from Satan. These lies have been cleverly disguised as something so appetizing, but all the same we all drank them down… “for all nations”-  That means you, that means me, that means your neighbor down the street. We’ve all been fed lies, but they didn’t look that way at the time.

In Revelation 17 we see that they’re presented in a very appealing way, even though the contents are truly rotten,
She held a golden cup in her hand, filled with abominable things and the filth of her adulteries.”
Really, the “filth of her adulteries” is not something I would want near me. However, unless you’ve been told what they are, you’d never see it for yourself, all you see is a beautiful golden cup. And once you realize what exactly the lies are that’s when the real challenge begins. The most difficult choice is between staying with what is familiar and disgusting to God but perhaps acceptable to men, and stepping out to what is unfamiliar to men, but given to us by God.




 
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9.04.2013

Alcoholics Anon – SCJ teaching about Wine: Part 1

The ancient topic of wine has always brought on many a heated debate in society, especially religious society. Is drinking “Godly”? Didn’t Jesus encourage it at that one party? or was that not really the same kind of wine we know today? Was it really wine or was it grape juice?

SCJ True Wine
 
 
How much wine should we really drink? [Eph 5:18 , Prv 23:19-30] With the untrained knowledge [Job 32:83, Psalm 119:73, Prov 20:24] one could easily assume that we should just stay away from wine altogether, and I know many Christians who prefer to do this, as the line is so very blurred today as to what exactly is okay and what isn’t. However, instead of just avoiding the topic or the complications of having to answer clearly regarding what God’s word truly says, wouldn’t it be wise to understand fully. We are told in 1 Pet 3:15-16 that we should be able to give an answer to anyone who asks us about the reason for our faith – and that includes our actions and knowledge as well, as we know that faith, knowledge and actions are all directly related.

So, jokes aside, why did Jesus turn water into wine at a wedding celebration (Jn 2)? How does this line up with what it tells us about not drinking wine or being drunk?… Colossians 2:16 says: Therefore do not let anyone judge you by what you eat or drink, or with regard to a religious festival, a New Moon celebration or a Sabbath day – this raises another interesting side to the story.

The Lord clearly gives us warning against the dysfunctional problem of being “drunk”, but then in the same book, the book that he wrote to teach us about him, and to lead us back to him, he says that he himself will drink wine in God’s kingdom, Mt 26:29. Does this mean God is contradicting himself? Is God one to change his mind, is he a liar, or does he perhaps suffer from the human disease of amnesia? This is certainly not the case, as we all know (Num 23:19, 2 Tim 2:13, Mal 3:6, 1 Sam 15:29). Yet it still begs the question… what is God really telling us?

Let’s think about this logically for a moment, since our God is after all a God of order, and logic as clearly visible through this creation (Rom 1:20, Job 25:2).
Since God is love and his ways are higher than our (Is 55:8-9), we need to delve a little bit deeper into his word and obtain the true understanding of the meaning behind his teachings to become more like him.(Jn 1:1) We need to understand what Our Father God is showing us through his parables and promises, through the secrets that he has hidden in the word (Mt 13:11). Don’t you agree?
 
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 So, then what is WINE? and why is drinking such a controversial topic in Christianity…?
A good place to start when trying to understand wine, would be the looking at its origin. Where does wine come from?
GRAPES!! which, of course, are FRUIT that grow from the branches of a VINES.
Jn 15:1~6: I am the true vine, and My Father is the vine-dresser. Every branch in Me that does not bear fruit He takes away; and every branch that bears fruit He prunes, that it may bear more fruit. You are already clean because of the word which I have spoken to you. Abide in Me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, unless it abides in the vine, neither can you, unless you abide in Me.
“I am the vine, you are the branches. He who abides in Me, and I in him, bears much fruit; for without Me you can do nothing. If anyone does not abide in Me, he is cast out as a branch and is withered; and they gather them and throw them into the fire, and they are burned.
Jesus refers to himself as the TRUE VINE. First off How can a person be a vine? Also how can He bear fruit? Clearly this is figurative, but then what is the true meaning of it all? This is the time today in which we can come to understand these things clearly, just as jesus promised us we would be able to in John 16:25
“Though I have been speaking figuratively, a time is coming when I will no longer use this kind of language but will tell you plainly about my Father.”
Here are the questions… I’m sure you would have had no problem coming up with enough questions of your own, all on your own. But it is today, with the testimony of our promised servant of God, Chairman Lee Man Hee, that we can clearly understand the answers to all of our seemingly unending list of questions.

 Please check in again, as we will go through the answers to these questions, step by step. I pray that god would give us all eyes to see and ears to hear what he has to say to the churches and his children in this generation.  A good place to consider when answering these questions about wine is at the Parable of the Tenants in Matthew 21:33-46, Mark 12:1-12 and Luke 20:9-19. Give this parable some of your time and attention, read through it, and lets answer our questions concerning our Father in heaven, and his plan for us, by always using God’s word of truth.



 
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