THE MAN STOOD OVER AGAINST HIM
Text: JOSHUA 5:13-15; MARK 15:33-39
“And it came to pass, when Joshua was by Jericho, that he lifted up his eyes and looked, and, behold, there stood a man over against him with his sword drawn in his hand: and Joshua went unto him, and said unto him, Art thou for us, or for our adversaries? And he said, Nay; but as captain of the host of the LORD am I now come. And Joshua fell on his face to the earth, and did worship, and said unto him, What saith my lord unto his servant? And the Captain of the LORD’S host said unto Joshua, Loose thy shoe from off thy foot; for the place whereon thou standest is holy. And Joshua did so.”
JOSHUA 5:13-15
“And when the sixth hour was come, there was darkness over the whole land until the ninth hour. And at the ninth hour Jesus cried with a loud voice, saying, Eloi, Eloi, lama sabachthani? which is, being interpreted, My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me? And some of them that stood by, when they heard it, said, Behold, he calleth Elias. And one ran and filled a spunge full of vinegar, and put it on a reed, and gave him to drink, saying, Let alone; let us see whether Elias will come to take him down. And Jesus cried with a loud voice, and gave up the ghost. And the veil of the temple was rent in twain from the top to the bottom. And when the centurion, which stood over against him, saw that he so cried out, and gave up the ghost, he said, Truly this man was the Son of God.”
MARK 15:33-39
Introduction:
Exactly how we know our God. What have we come in for in his very place now? The triad attributes of Him: Omni-present, Omniscient and Omnipotent, that often we heard within theological-schooled circles and effortfully articulated such jargon to convey a favorable impression? Sunday has finally come to express and show our admonition and gratitude for Our Creator.
Let us come now to the altar His Holy Place together we pray….
Knowing and Being,
These two entities definitely inseparable.
But let’s break it down with some adjectives: are interchangeable, infinite, proportional, rational, systematic, personal, scientific, hierarchical, and always two-way symmetrical model, simply requires others.
In my not-to-so philosophical theological understanding,our existence must be pre-empted by a certain degree of “knowing” (ie. The birds have wings, hence, they can fly; Iron’s hot when I touched it so it burns; Doctors and Nurses on scrubs I must be in the hospital; and etc.)
In the realm of TEACHING, learning is but the flowing flimsy veil of its ultimate purpose if not simplified and that is, a distinct change of behaviour, neither it is the
Brothers and sisters in Christ, we gather round here to remind us of none other than the ultimate divine purpose.
This afternoon we will be hearing His word excerpt from the account of Joshua particularly in Chapter 5 with its reference to the gospel according to Mark 15. I called this sharing today,
THE MAN STOOD OVER AGAINST HIM:
(KNOWING AND TRUSTING GOD)
- Living by the Word of God (Study the Bible):
- Submission and Building relationship.
- Growing in fellowship and in true Worship.
Living by the Word of God:
In the latest poll (Pre-Covid), Only six per cent of British adults read or listen to the Bible, while 55 per cent of Christians in this country never do so. Though quite a number of variances to consider to get its accuracy and reliability ie, age, literacy status, nationality, geographical, christian denominations, and the likes. But the impact is somehow pretty clear among this small fraction among
Christians’ faith and integrity in fruition and service has been fully shaken and sadly deteriorating.
Recently following with the work-related group chat, it prompted automatically invites from your current and previous contact data base. A familiar profile on the random mobile number popped up and greeted me with such poignant and sentimental and exchange texts followed. At the unholy hour, a text pinged asking for a humble cash for a family emergencies, without question liaise with my mom locally to send off the said monetary plea. Little did I know after the successful transaction, it was a CON! Would you trust the person or anyone one the phone, family, friends,….or pure strangers.
Right in the very beginning, God spoke to Adam and Eve; God reveals Himself through dreams and visions mainly to the prophets nearly 4,000 years ago, God send His Son to His people in Israel over 2,000 years ago and ministered closely with His 12 disciples and now revealed through Holy Scripture. How can we say God hasn’t spoke or reveal unto us today. Our Triune God is living, active and progressive. “All scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness: That the man of God may be perfect, throughly furnished unto all good works.” 2 TIMOTHY 3:16-17
Knowing God:
“Yada”Hebrew word: verb, “to know”= Genesis 4:1 (KJV) “And Adam knew Eve his wife, and she conceived and bare Cain…”
Septuagint (Greek) “Ginoskos” vs. “Oida”
Ginosko –which is most often translated as “know” or “known” is a word that means so much more than that. In English the best way to translate it would probably be to personally, intimately, and experientially know something. As you can see it doesn’t really just mean to know about something but to have known it through personal experience.
In light of this Ginosko could have times where it should not be translated to know at all but rather to experience but most of the time it indicates the knowledge that comes from experiencing something in an intimate or personal way. In this way it does exhibit times where it would ocupy part of what we in English call love. There are places both in the New Testament (like in Mathew 1:25) and the Septuagint where this word is used in ways that implies physical intimacy of which produced children. One can see that this doesn’t mean to have head knowledge or understand something but to know something through intimate experience and there for this word could also inhibit and mean a part of what our English word love would mean. However, at its base this word should be translated to know some through intimate personal experience. It would be important to translate it in this way also because Gnosko should be distinguished from another Greek word Oida.
Oida – Is another word that most translators also translate as to “know” in most English Bibles. However, this word means something altogether different than Ginosko’s personal or experiential knowledge but instead Oida means head knowledge or perhaps better said to “understand” something through observation. With this in mind it could probably be better understood as scientific knowledge, things that are able to be known scientifically through observation and therefore could be translated as “observe” or “understand” to signify the type of knowing represented in the word
Ginosko vs Oidamen
Having said this another way to distinguish ginosko from oida is that ginosko is relational, its knowing something because of an experience that allows you to intimately and personally know it. Meanwhile oida has nothing to do with relationship but a knowledge about something through observation.
The amazing and fascinating thing to understand is that it is ginosko knowledge (that relational , personal, intimate, experiential knowledge) that Paul is constantly praying that we grow in throughout his letters. When we are exhorted throughout the New Testament to know God it is not Oida that is used (we aren’t called to understand God) but instead much more we are called to Ginosko Him (to experience Him in an personal and intimate way). Amazingly this means we are not called to observe Him and know things about Him but instead to experience Him personally and intimately. Oh what an amazing God He is! How far beyond our understanding (Oida) and yet he wants us to know and experience Him in a personal and intimate way (Ginosko).
2 PETER 3:18
“But grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. To Him be glory both now and forever.”
Submission and Building relationship with Him
Didn’t we say earlier on that the KNOWING AND LIVING IS ALWAYS A TWO-WAY PROCESS, OR SYMMETRY MODEL?.
Paolo Coehlo, author of The Alchemist. The whole theme reverting 360 degrees God reveals Himself rather man searching for truth.
Ephesians 1:4-5
“According as he hath chosen us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before him in love. Having predestinated us unto the adoption of children by Jesus Christ to himself, according to the good pleasure of his will,”
Joseph the dreamer was in the pit, in the prison, in the pure darkness where the world was in the total blackout. Nicodemus distinguished member of Sanhedrin went to Jesus at NIGHT time. Apostle Paul scale on his eyes. Jonah inside the sea-monster’s belly. Job left alone by himself with agonizing boils day and night.
God has speaking to us clearly by His vastness and beauty beyond words through His creation; we never only ignore but abuse it…until COVID plagued us. On fetal position I ent back crying out my mom’s “himas” at least as I thought my last breath. God all along was the one reaching out and now a speck of grace has poured out on me.
Have we got the pattern beloved? The world has blinding us from His glory.
PSALM 100:3
“Know that the Lord Himself is God; It is He who has made us, and not we ourselves; We are His people and the sheep if His pasture.”
GROWING IN FELLOWSHIP AND WORSHIP WITH HIM
Communication is the umbilical cord of the relationship. In our christian living, Prayerful life marked of our faith that draw us closer to Our Loving Father.
Colossians 3:16 Let the word of Christ richly dwell within you, with all wisdom teaching and admonishing one another with psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing with thankfulness in your hearts to God.
Though Joshua related to “Jesus” as the name implies “Yeshua”= “Saviour” and very much acquainted in the triumph in the battlefield and been in the close relationship with Moses as his predecessor. God revealed Himself not only in you as the Lord of Omniscience and Omnipotence “Never will I leave you nor forsake you” , “Be strong and of a good courage.”….but as the Captain of the Host. Sovereign grace and power.
Created in HIS OWN IMAGE.
As we are created in His image, the highest form of His creation. The capacity to love mainly as we continue to acquire and be like the mind of Christ , we then have this divine expression of our worship.
Right before we were born, God designed us to worship Him.
It’s no accident that the longest book in the Bible, Psalms, is all about praising and worshiping God. When we get to the end of the Bible, we see the saints and angels in heaven falling on their faces and worshiping God (Rev. 4:10-11; 5:8-14; 7:9-11). Since worship will be our ceaseless activity and greatest joy in heaven, we ought to be practicing it now.
Martin Luther King
“ Take the first step even when you don’t see the whole stairs.”
Conclusion
Two men of either stand over against THIS MAN, of great faith, strength and valor. Joshua, the successor of Moses led God’s people finally to the promised land.
And the centurion. The very man standing over against the man for three hours staring at every drop of blood and at the last gasp of breath. We don’t know much about him other a mercenary higher than common foot soldiers working for the Roman authority, Pilate.
The Man stood over against Joshua was now The Man suffered and dying on the cross. Yet he then said…
(SILENCE)
…Truly He must be the Son of God.
In worship, are we likely seeing this Man and give thanks when we’re in darkness, midst of suffering, pain, devastation, and in the nick if death?
The Man that we expect Him to be standing opposite us, watching over us with sword as the captain of the host, ….is now dripping with blood, sweat, bowing down onto you for the intense exhaustion,…gasping, ..dying…that could have been you was and is the Man standing for us.
The Son of God.
Colossians 1:10
“So that you will walk in a manner worthy of the Lord, to please Him in all respects, bearing fruit in every good work and increasing in the knowledge of God.
