New Testament – The Tao of Holy Orthodoxy

October 23, 2017October 23, 2017

23. What will you do?

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When the Apostle Peter spoke to the crowds on the day of Pentecost following the Holy Spirit’s descent, many of those who heard his words and witnessed the Spirit’s power asked, What shall we do? The Apostle told them all to repent and be baptized in the Name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins. About three thousand people believed in Jesus Christ and were baptized on that day alone. After this, the Church continued to grow daily.

Faith in Jesus Christ is the first step toward the fullness of Life. Listen to Christ’s own words:

For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life. For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through Him might be saved. (John 3.16, NKJV)

Believing in Christ is a response to Divine Love. It is a desire to be enlightened by the Light and shaped by the Truth rather than remaining enslaved to darkness and ignorance. Authentic faith is more than an intellectual acceptance of ideas. Real faith means trusting in Christ with your heart, believing in Christ Himself as your Lord, your God, and your Savior. He alone is the Physician Who can heal you from sin and death and bestow upon you the fullness of Life.

Faith in Christ requires authentic repentance. Repentance means turning completely toward God, which requires you to turn away from everything opposed to God. To repent means to change your mind, to change your heart, and to change how you live your daily life. The gates of Paradise have always been near, but you cannot see them until you turn around in repentance.

Christ calls you into His Church through the Mystery of Holy Baptism. Before His Ascension, Christ commissioned His Apostles saying,

All authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth. Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all things that I have commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age. (Matthew 28.18-20)

If you submit to Holy Baptism, which involves immersion into the water sanctified by God’s Grace, you will personally participate in Christ’s death and Resurrection. You will be buried with Christ under the water as in a tomb and you will be raised with Him to new life, emerging from the water as a purified member of God’s family. Your baptism will be your admission into His Holy Orthodox Church, wherein the whole comprehensive therapy for your soul shall be open to you. Baptism is the end of the journey toward the Church, but only the very beginning of your life within the Church.

Read: John 3.13-21; Acts 2.38-47

October 21, 2017October 22, 2017

21. Holy Pentecost & the Mystical Church

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Before His Ascension into heaven, Jesus Christ revealed to His Disciples that after He ascended from the earth, the Holy Spirit would descend to them on earth. Ten days after Christ’s Ascension (and fifty days after His Resurrection), the Holy Spirit suddenly descended in power upon the Twelve, gathered together.

A strong, roaring wind from heaven swiftly rushed into the presence of the Disciples. Fire in the form of tongues rested over each of them. They were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other languages as the Spirit enabled them. As Christ had promised, the Holy Spirit enlightened the spiritual intellect of the Disciples, leading them into all Truth, and empowered them to carry out their mission fully as Apostles throughout the world. (This is event is called Holy Pentecost.)

The Apostle Peter stood up and explained to a crowd of assembled people from all kinds of different countries and cultures that this event they were witnessing had been foretold centuries before by the Holy Prophets. Although Peter spoke in his own language, by the power of the Holy Spirit each person understood his words in their own native language. This miraculous sign showed that God called all humanity together, united in Truth and Love within His Church, that we might be healed and receive the fulness of Life.

Holy Pentecost is regarded as the birthday of the Church, yet the Church has existed since the beginning. The Church is like a tree that gradually stretched upward through the ages of history until it reached its height, stretching out its strong, broad branches, covering itself in bright flowers, and producing an abundance of sweet, nourishing fruit by the Life-Giving Power of the Holy Spirit.

What is the Church? The Church is a Mystery beyond comprehension. Its depth cannot be reached and its height cannot be measured. The Church is communion with God. It is the heavenly Paradise planted on earth with the Tree of Life at its center. Heaven and earth meet and mingle within the Church. The Church is the assembly of those who belong to Christ, the community of His disciples. It bears His Name: The Church of Jesus Christ. She is a nurturing Mother and a family that cares for one another as children of the ever-loving Father. The Church is the pure Bride of Christ, united with Him in love, and the Body of Christ, carrying out His work on earth. It is the Holy Temple of God, where the true and living God lives on earth. Inhabited and guided by the Holy Spirit, Who knows all things, the Church is the solid foundation of Truth and the Light of Truth in a world darkened by confusion and ignorance.

The Church is one. Only a single Church exists in the universe, uniting all its members. The Church is holy. It is pure and perfect, made sacred by God and lacking nothing. The Church is catholic. It is complete and whole, encompassing the entire Way of Life, containing the whole Truth, and embracing all those who belong to it in all places and all times. The Church is apostolic. Built upon the bedrock of the Holy Disciples and Apostles, every generation of the Church preserves, lives, and transmits the complete, undefiled Apostolic Faith entrusted to them. The Church is orthodox. It holds together correct belief, keeping the Truth that God has revealed, and correct worship, glorifying the true and living God well with a pure heart.

The Church is a gift of Love. When the Divine Physician ascended into heaven, He did not leave us to follow the Way alone, but gave us His Church for our salvation. The Church, filled with the Life-Giving Spirit, is the Hospital on earth that God Himself has established for us that we might be healed.

The healthy, perfected human being is someone who personally lives as a temple of God, whose heart has been enlightened by the Holy Spirit, who is moved and guided on the Way of Life by the Spirit, and whose daily life shows the transformative power of the Holy Spirit. As the Hospital for the soul, the Church contains the complete holistic lifestyle, therapy, and medicine each of us needs to fulfill our potential and purpose.

Now that you have seen what Christ has accomplished of us as human beings, it is time for you to learn exactly what this means for you personally.

Read: John 16.5-13; Acts 1.4-8; 2.1-47; 4.32-5.16; Luke 10.25-37; 1 Timothy 3.14-16; 1 Peter 2.1-9; Ephesians 2.19-22; 5.17-33; 1 Corinthians 3.16; 6.18-20; 12.12-26; Revelation 12

October 18, 2017October 18, 2017

20. The Holy Ascension & Future Return

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After His Resurrection from the dead, Jesus Christ said to His Disciples,

Forty days after Christ’s Resurrection from the dead, the Disciples witnessed their Lord being taken up into heaven. They watched Him go up until a cloud hid Him from their sight. (This is called the Holy Ascension.) Although as God, the Son had always been seated on the heavenly throne with the Father and the Holy Spirit, God loved us so much that after raising our human nature to immortality, He proceeded further to lift up our human nature to the heights of heaven. Having ascended into heaven, Jesus Christ sat down our human nature at the right hand of God the Father, that is, in the place of highest honor with God.

At the end of the present age, at the conclusion of time, our Lord, God, and Savior Jesus Christ will return to earth from heaven in all His radiant Glory. At His return, Christ will raise all the dead and judge the world as the Holy King. Our Divine Physician Who came to save the world from death and accomplished everything that we might be healed, will receive into eternal Life all those who have believed in Him and who have submitted to be healed by His Grace. Through His Holy Ascension, Jesus Christ has shown us our ultimate and never-ending potential and purpose as human beings.

Read: Luke 24.50-53; Acts 1.9-11; Mark 16.14-20; Matthew 28.16-20; Ephesians 1.15-21; Mark 13.24-27; Matthew 25.31-46; 26.57-68; Romans 2.1-16; Revelation 20.11-18; 21.23-27; 22.1-5

October 18, 2017October 18, 2017

19. The Holy Resurrection of Jesus Christ

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After He died, Jesus Christ’s pure body was taken down from the Cross, wrapped in fine linen with spices, and placed in a new tomb that was sealed with a large stone. After three days, an angel removed the stone door and announced that Christ was risen from the dead. The women reported what they saw to the skeptical Disciples. Peter and John ran to the tomb, discovering that the body of Jesus had vanished, but the grave clothes that had been wrapped around His body remained.

Three days after Christ’s death and burial, when His Disciples had gathered together behind locked doors, their Master suddenly appeared in front of them. He showed them the scars of crucifixion in His hands and side. Christ ate some food in order to prove that He was not a spirit or ghost, but physically alive.

The Disciple Thomas had been absent the first time Christ showed Himself to the other Disciples. After hearing his brothers talk about what they had witnessed, Thomas declared that He would not believe Jesus was raised from the dead unless he could investigate Christ’s wounds himself. A week later, Christ appeared again to the Disciples, including Thomas. When he saw Jesus Christ alive, the once-skeptical Disciple proclaimed, “My Lord and my God!” Over the course of forty days, Christ appeared at various times, showing Himself convincingly to be alive, the first-born immortal from among the dead.

Through the Holy Resurrection of Jesus Christ, God raised up our human nature to immortality. Christ did not exist the gave as a mortal, but was raised to immortality in a newly spiritualized physical body incapable of being touched by death again. Because Christ has brought immortality to the human nature we all share, at the end of time the soul of each human being will be reunited with the body, a body raised to immortality that is both spiritual and physical. Those who put their trust in Jesus Christ, the Immortal One, and follow His Way will live with God eternally in the kingdom of heaven after the general resurrection of the dead at the end of the age.

Every year at Pascha (called Easter in the West), we celebrate the Resurrection of Jesus Christ. During the celebration, we sing, Christ is Risen from the dead, trampling down death by death and upon those in the tombs bestowing life! This hymn proclaims with joy the reason that we follow Christ. Why does the Way of Holy Orthodoxy matter? Simply put, because “Christ is Risen!” As our Physician, Jesus Christ has conquered death in the soul and body on behalf of us all so that we too can share in His accomplishment and be completely healed from the disease of death with all its destructive effects.

Read: John 5.25-29; 20.1-21.14; Luke 24.1-12; Matthew 28.9-15; Luke 13-49; 1 Corinthians 15.1-28, 35-58.

October 15, 2017October 16, 2017

17. The Holy Transfiguration

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Jesus Christ said to His Disciples, “I tell you truly, there are some standing here who shall not taste death till they see the kingdom of God” (Luke 9.27, NKJV). Eight days later, Jesus took Peter, James, and John upon Mount Tabor to pray. As Jesus prayed, these Disciples saw His appearance change before their eyes. They saw His face radiating with Light like the sun and His clothes became white, shining with Light, like lightning. Suddenly, they found themselves witnessing a conversation between Christ and two ancient prophets, Moses and Elias, about Christ’s approaching death. As this happened, a cloud surrounded them and the Disciples heard a voice from the cloud say, “This is My beloved Son with Whom I am well pleased. Listen to Him!” Peter, James, and John fell on their faces, but Jesus approached and touched them, saying, “Get up. Do not be afraid.” When they looked up again, they saw Jesus standing alone.

On the mountain, the Disciples Peter, James, and John, saw Christ’s body transfigured by His own Divine Glory. (This event is called the Holy Transfiguration.) The Glory did not suddenly appear in that moment, but Christ opened the hearts of His Disciples so that they could see the radiance always present, yet hidden from the sight of blind human hearts. As God, Christ is the Source of Divine Glory. His Divine Presence shined through His human body as metal in hot fire glows brightly with light. He gave Peter, James, and John the gift of seeing the Glory for a moment, at least as much as they were able to withstand.

Through His Transfiguration, Christ showed His disciples that His suffering and death would not be imposed upon Him against His will by others, as though He were powerless, but that He willfully approached suffering and death with humility and love for the benefit of our humanity.

On Mount Tabor, Christ demonstrated His Power to heal and transform the human being. He showed Peter, James, and John what a healed human being looks like and what it means to be like Christ, united with the Divine Presence of God. Being the Son of God, Jesus Christ radiated with the brightness of His own Divine Glory. We are healed and perfected by personally participating in His Glory, the Uncreated Energy of God.

Read: Luke 9.21-39; Matthew 17.1-9; 1 Peter 1.1-18