Sunday May 7, 2017

Epistle: Acts 2: 22-28

22 You men of Israel, hear these words: Jesus of Nazareth, a man approved of God among you, by miracles, and wonders, and signs, which God did by him, in the midst of you, as you also know: 23 This same being delivered up, by the determinate counsel and foreknowledge of God, you by the hands of wicked men have crucified and slain. 24 Whom God has raised up, having loosed the sorrows of hell, as it was impossible that he should be holden by it. 25 For David says concerning him: I foresaw the Lord before my face: because he is at my right hand, that I may not be moved. 26 For this my heart has been glad, and any tongue has rejoiced: moreover my flesh also shall rest in hope. 27 Because You will not leave my soul in Hades, nor suffer Your Holy One to see corruption. 28 You have made known to me the ways of life: You shall make me full of joy with Your countenance.

Gospel: John 4: 5-42

5 He came therefore to a city of Samaria, which is called Sichar, near the land which Jacob gave to his son Joseph. 6 Now Jacob's well was there. Jesus therefore being wearied with his journey, sat thus on the well. It was about the sixth hour. 7 There came a woman of Samaria, to draw water. Jesus said to her: Give me to drink. 8 For his disciples were gone into the city to buy meats. 9 Then that Samaritan woman said to him: How do you, being a Jew, ask of me to drink, who am a Samaritan woman? For the Jews do not communicate with the Samaritans. 10 Jesus answered, and said to her: If you did know the gift of God, and who he is that said to you, Give me to drink; you perhaps would have asked of him, and he would have given you living water.

11 The woman said to him: Sir, you have nothing wherein to draw, and the well is deep; from where then have you living water? 12 Are you greater than our father Jacob, who gave us the well, and drank thereof himself, and his children, and his cattle? 13 Jesus answered, and said to her: Whosoever drinks of this water, shall thirst again; but he that shall drink of the water that I will give him, shall not thirst for ever: 14 But the water that I will give him, shall become in him a fountain of water, springing up into life everlasting. 15 The woman said to him: Sir, give me this water, that I may not thirst, nor come here to draw. 16 Jesus said to her: Go, call your husband, and come here. 17 The woman answered, and said: I have no husband. Jesus said to her: You have said well, I have no husband: 18 for you have had five husbands: and he whom you now have, is not your husband. This you have said truly. 19 The woman said to him: Sir, I perceive that you are a prophet. 20 Our fathers adored on this mountain, and you say, that at Jerusalem is the place where men must adore.

21 Jesus said to her: Woman, believe me, that the hour comes, when you shall neither on this mountain, nor in Jerusalem, adore the Father. 22 You adore that which you know not: we adore that which we know; for salvation is of the Jews. 23 But the hour comes, and now is, when the true adorers shall adore the Father in spirit and in truth. For the Father also seeks such to adore him. 24 God is a spirit; and they that adore him, must adore him in spirit and in truth. 25 The woman said to him: I know that the Messias comes (who is called Christ); therefore, when he is come, he will tell us all things. 26 Jesus said to her: I am he, who am speaking with you. 27 And immediately his disciples came; and they wondered that he talked with the woman. Yet no man said: What seek you? or, why talk you with her? 28 The woman therefore left her waterpot, and went her way into the city, and said to the men there: 29 Come, and see a man who has told me all things whatsoever I have done. Is not he the Christ?

30 They went therefore out of the city, and came unto him. 31 In the mean time the disciples prayed him, saying: Rabbi, eat. 32 But he said to them: I have meat to eat, which you know not. 33 The disciples therefore said one to another: Has any man brought him to eat? 34 Jesus said to them: My meat is to do the will of him that sent me, that I may perfect his work. 35 Do you not say, there are yet four months, and then the harvest comes? Behold, I say to you, lift up your eyes, and see the countries; for they are white already to harvest. 36 And he that reaps receives wages, and gathersh fruit unto life everlasting: that both he that sows, and he that reaps, may rejoice together. 37 For in this is the saying true: That it is one man that sows, and it is another that reaps. 38 I have sent you to reap that in which you did not labour: others have labored, and you have entered into their labours. 39 Now of that city many of the Samaritans believed in him, for the word of the woman giving testimony: He told me all things whatsoever I have done.

40 So when the Samaritans were come to him, they desired that he would tarry there. And he abode there two days. 41 And many more believed in him because of his own word. 42 And they said to the woman: We now believe, not for your saying: for we ourselves have heard him, and know that this is indeed the Saviour of the world.

Psalm 67/68

1 Unto the end, a psalm of a canticle for David himself. 2 Let God arise, and let his enemies be scattered: and let them that hate him flee from before his face. 3 As smoke vanishes, so let them vanish away: as wax melts before the fire, so let the wicked perish at the presence of God. 4 And let the just feast, and rejoice before God: and be delighted with gladness. 5 Sing to God, sing a psalm to his name, make a way for him who ascends upon the west: the Lord is his name. Rejoice before him: but the wicked shall be troubled at his presence, 6 who is the father of orphans, and the judge of widows. God in his holy place:

7 God who makes men of one manner to dwell in a house: Who brings out them that were bound in strength; in like manner them that provoke, that dwell in sepulchres. 8 O God, when You did go forth in the sight of Your people, when You did pass through the desert: 9 The earth was moved, and the heavens dropped at the presence of the God of Sina, at the presence of the God of Israel. 10 you shall set aside for Your inheritance a free rain, O God: and it was weakened, but You have made it perfect. 11 In it shall Your animals dwell; in Your sweetness, O God, You have provided for the poor. 12 The Lord shall give the word to them that preach good tidings with great power. 13 The king of powers is of the beloved, of the beloved; and the beauty of the house shall divide spoils.

14 If you sleep among the midst of lots, you shall be as the wings of a dove covered with silver, and the hinder parts of her back with the paleness of gold. 15 When he that is in heaven appoints kings over her, they shall be whited with snow in Selmon. 16 The mountain of God is a fat mountain. A curdled mountain, a fat mountain. 17 Why suspect, you curdled mountains? A mountain in which God is well pleased to dwell: for there the Lord shall dwell unto the end. 18 The chariot of God is attended by ten thousands; thousands of them that rejoice: the Lord is among them in Sina, in the holy place. 19 You have ascended on high, You have led captivity captive; You have received gifts in men. Yea for those also that do not believe, the dwelling of the Lord God. 20 Blessed be the Lord day by day: the God of our salvation will make our journey prosperous to us. 21 Our God is the God of salvation: and of the Lord, of the Lord are the issues from death.

22 But God shall break the heads of his enemies: the hairy crown of them that walk on in their sins. 23 The Lord said: I will turn them from Basan, I will turn them into the depth of the sea: 24 That your foot may be dipped in the blood of your enemies; the tongue of your dogs be red with the same. 25 They have seen Your goings, O God, the goings of my God: of my king who is in his sanctuary. 26 Princes went before joined with singers, in the midst of young damsels playing on timbrels. 27 In the churches bless God the Lord, from the fountains of Israel. 28 There is Benjamin a youth, in ecstasy of mind. The princes of Juda are their leaders: the princes of Zabulon, the princes of Nephthali. 29 Command Your strength, O God: confirm, O God, what You have wrought in us.

30 From thy temple in Jerusalem, kings shall offer presents to You. 31 Rebuke the wild beasts of the reeds, the congregation of bulls with the kine (herd of cows) of the people; who seek to exclude them who are tried with silver. Scatter the nations that delight in wars: 32 ambassadors shall come out of Egypt: Ethiopia shall soon stretch out her hands to God. 33 Sing to God, you kingdoms of the earth: sing to the Lord: Sing to God, 34 who mounts above the heaven of heavens, to the east. Behold he will give to his voice the voice of power: 35 give glory to God for Israel, his magnificence, and his power is in the clouds. 36 God is wonderful in his saints: the God of Israel is he who will give power and strength to his people. Blessed be God.

My Friends,

In our opening Epistle from the book of Acts we can see that today we are speaking of the victory of God over evil, (sin and death). We are shown that Jesus the Christ could not be held in death but that He was freed from death and overcame death so that we might live, this was in fact prophesied by King David in Psalm 15/16: 8 I set the Lord always in my sight: for he is at my right hand, that I be not moved. 9 Therefore my heart has been glad, and my tongue has rejoiced: moreover my flesh also shall rest in hope. 10 Because You will not leave my soul in Hades; nor will then give Your holy one to see corruption. You have made known to me the ways of life; You shall fill me with joy with Your countenance: at Your right hand are delights even to the end.

This is a time of great joy for all of mankind for all who believe and trust or entrust their entire life or being to the Lord Jesus the Christ. We all must remember that to simply believe that this Jesus existed is not a saving belief for even the demons believe and tremble. This believing for salvation means to trust in and on the Lord, everything in our entire life including our very life and the things that take place are entirely entrusted to Him. This is the belief that we are to have. Nothing short of this will be acceptable.

Remember Jesus said; not everyone who says to me Lord, Lord, will enter into the kingdom of heaven. We must give ourselves completely over to Him, period. No matter what happens in our life.

In today’s Gospel we see that all, every race, all of mankind is able to believe and gain heaven by this belief. There is no difference of mankind in the salvation of man’s soul. Believe, entrust your entire life to Him and live according to the commandments; if you love me, keep my commandments. The path is not easy, the tempter, Lucifer the devil never rests. We must be ever vigilant to keep ourselves from sin which is turning our back on God himself and doing that which is against Almighty God by either doing what we should not or by not doing what we should.

In today’s Psalm we see the Psalmist speaking prophetically regarding the Resurrection of Jesus the Christ. In verse 1 we see (unto the end) and in verse 19 we can see resurrection and ascension to the Father. (19 You have ascended on high, You have led captivity captive;) We can see this theme spoken of by the apostle Paul in the book of the Ephesians chapter 4 verse 8: 8 Wherefore he says: Ascending on high, he led captivity captive; he gave gifts to men. 9 Now that he ascended, what is it, but because he also descended first into the lower parts of the earth? Psalms 65, 66, and 67 are sung throughout the Paschal season including bright week, (the week following the Sunday of the Resurrection up to but not including the following Sunday, (Which is called Thomas Sunday)). At the Christ’s resurrection, death, the final enemy, was defeated, we can see here in verse 22 how He ‘broke the heads of his enemies: the hairy crown of them that walk on in their sins’.

This is a victory Psalm of God over His enemies.

May the peace of our Lord Jesus the Christ be with you throughout this day and the rest of your life. May the Holy Spirit fill us all to overflowing so that everyone in whose path we cross may receive a blessing from our Lord Jesus the Christ.

Blessings

In Christ.