J'shua - Jesus Series

Jesus – Y’shua

Bored, Tired, and Desperate

One of the songs which impacted me as a young man was a hit song sung by Peggy Lee in 1969. It was called "Is that all there is?". It’s mostly spoken and is really a cry for help in a time of quiet desperation.

After expressing great disappointment in life - seeing a fire as a little girl, a circus at age 12, and then falling in love as a young woman - the last verse goes like this:

I know what you must be saying to yourselves,

if that’s the way she feels about it why doesn’t she just end it all?

Oh, no, not me. I’m in no hurry for that final disappointment, for I know just as well as I’m standing here talking to you, when that final moment comes and I’m breathing my last breath, I’ll be saying to myself...

Is that all there is, is that all there is

If that’s all there is my friends, then let’s keep dancing

Let’s break out the booze and have a ball.

If that’s all, there is...

Pretty sad isn’t it.

The name Jesus means simply, “Jehovah is salvation”. Here is the answer to the question sung by Peggy Lee in an age of young men drafted and sent to fight in Vietnam, long haired hippies, and flower children who were all seeking some meaning to life.

Here was the answer to the question that had been asked since Adam and Eve were turned out of Eden – What will become of people? Will they be born, live out their lives and then die? Will they cry and whisper “if only” to a darkened room? Will they party hardy and “go out with a bang”? Is that all there is?

No! There is so much more

Light in the darkness

Isaiah 9:2 (NIV)

2 The people walking in darkness have seen a great light; on those living in the land of the shadow of death a light has dawned.

Who is this light?

Joshua the slave.

God spent many years preparing Joshua for his calling. He was born into slavery in Egypt and was given the name Hoshea (Num. 13:8), which means “salvation.”Moses later changed it to Joshua (v. 16, NIV), “Jehovah is salvation,” which is the Hebrew form of “Jesus” (Matt. 1:21; see Acts 7:45 and Heb. 4:8). When his parents gave the baby the name “salvation,” they were bearing witness to their faith in God’s promise of redemption for His people (Gen. 15:12–16; 50:24–26).Joshua belonged to the tribe of Ephraim and was the firstborn son of Nun (1 Chron. 7:20–27). This meant that his life was in danger the night of Passover, but he had faith in the Lord and was protected by the blood of the lamb (Ex. 11–12)[1]Joshua’s life foreshadows the Messiah

The light drives out the darkness of sin

Jesus came to save us from our sin

The name of Jesus was not given him at random, or fortuitously, or by the will of man, but was brought from heaven by an angel, as the herald of the supreme decree;256 the reason also being added, “for he shall save his people from their sins,” (Matt. 1:21). In these words attention should be paid to what we have elsewhere observed, that the office of Redeemer was assigned him in order that he might be our Saviour.Christ appeared to take away our sins (vv. 4–6).There are several definitions of sin in the Bible:

“Whatsoever is not of faith is sin” (Rom. 14:23).“The thought of foolishness is sin” (Prov. 24:9).“Therefore to him that knoweth to do good, and doeth it not, to him it is sin” (James 4:17).“All unrighteousness is sin” (1 John 5:17).But John’s epistle defines sin as lawlessness (1 John 3:4).It views sin as defilement (1 John 1:9–2:2), but here it views it as defiance.The emphasis here is not on sins (plural), but on sin (singular):

“Whosoever practices sin.” Sins are the fruit, but sin is the root.

The root of sin is defiance

Poem "Invictus," by William Ernest Henley

distributed by Oklahoma bomber Timothy McVeigh at his execution. The title is Latin for ’unconquerable.’

Out of the night that covers me,

Black as the Pit from pole to pole,

I thank whatever gods may be

For my unconquerable soul.

In the fell clutch of circumstance

I have not winced nor cried aloud,

Under the bludgeonings of chance

My head is bloody, but unbowed.

Beyond this place of wrath and tears

Looms but the horror of the shade,

And yet the menace of the years

Finds, and shall find me, unafraid.

It matters not how strait the gate,

How charged with punishments the scroll,

I am the master of my fate:

I am the captain of my soul.