Brown's Daily Word 4-22-11

Praise the Lord, it is Good Friday. Those of you who live in the area join us for our Good Friday Television Outreach this Evening at 7 PM on Time Warner Cable Ch 4. Many people often question why we call the day of crucifixion “Good Friday.” Many have said the word good used to have a secondary meaning of “Holy.” Some say God and good got switched around due to their similarity and one case was the phrase God be with you, which is today good-bye. So perhaps Good Friday was originally God’s Friday. But I think we call it Good Friday because in pious retrospect, all that tragedy brought about the greatest goodness there could be. Yet, despite its sadness, Good Friday is truly good. It is Godly sorrow. If it was an accident to make God’s Friday called Good Friday, I say it was not an accident at all. It was God’s own doing to give a sharp prophetic jab at time and culture obsessed by happiness. The commemoration of Christ’s death reminds us of that human sin that caused this death. At the same time of course, Good Friday recalls for us the greatness and wonder of God’s love that he should submit to death for us. No wonder in parts of Europe the day is not called “Good” but “Great” or “Holy” Friday. Good Friday has always challenged merely human goodness. Its sad commemoration reminds us that in the face of sin, our goodness avails nothing. Only one is good enough to save us. That person is Jesus; he did so is cause indeed and his goodness is cause for celebration.
Scripture records a number of supernatural phenomena that occurred while Jesus hung on the cross. Those events were God’s own supernatural commentary on the cross. They gave proof that the execution taking place that day was an event of cosmic importance.
The routes to the city that day were jammed with pilgrims coming and going as they prepared to celebrate Passover. Few if any of them realized what a monumental event was occurring at Calvary. God’s Lamb was dying on that very Passover to provide forgiveness for all the sins of all the redeemed of all time. But relatively few were taking notice. But then suddenly all nature seemed to stop and pay attention.
THE SUN DARKENED:
The first of the miraculous signs that accompanied Jesus’ death was the darkening of the sky. Matthew writes in Matthew 27:45, “Now from the sixth hour there was darkness over all the land unto the ninth hour.”
The sixth hour would have been noon. At the precise moment when the noon sun should have been brightest in the sky, darkness fell over all the land, and remained for three hours. This was probably not a total blackness, but rather a severe darkening of the normal daylight intensity of the sun. “Over all the land” is an expression that might refer to the land of Israel, or it could refer to the whole world. I’m inclined to think that the sun itself was dimmed, so that the darkness would have been universal, and not limited to the local area surrounding Jerusalem.
As a matter of fact, according to some of the Church Fathers, the supernatural darkness that accompanied the crucifixion was noticed throughout the world at the time. Tertullian mentioned this event in his Apologeticum—“At the moment of Christ’s death, the light departed from the sun, and the land was darkened at noonday, which wonder is related in your own annals and is preserved in your archives to this day.”
During Moses’ time, darkness had fallen in Egypt because a plague of locusts was so thick that the flying insects had blocked the sun (Exodus 10:14-15). In Joshua’s time the opposite had occurred, and the sun stood still over Israel for a whole 24-hour period (Joshua 10:12-14). In Hezekiah’s day, the shadows turned backward ten degrees, as the earth’s rotation seemed to reverse for about 40 minutes (2 Kings 20:9-11). The darkening of the sun is commonly mentioned in Scripture as an apocalyptic sign of the end times (Isaiah 50:3; Joel 2:31; Revelation 9:2). (Amos 8:9). Throughout Scripture, darkness is connected with judgment, and supernatural darkness of this type signifies cataclysmic doom (cf. Isaiah 5:30; Joel 2:2; Amos 5:20; Zephaniah 1:14-15). So the darkening of the sun at noon like this was certain to evoke widespread fear that catastrophic judgment was about to fall.
This darkness may well have signified the Father’s judgment against the sin Christ bore in His person on our behalf. In any case, the darkness is certainly an appropriate reminder that the cross was a place of judgment. In those awful hours of darkness, Christ was bearing the judgment meant for His people. He was standing in their place as the wrath of God was being poured upon Him for their transgressions. The culmination of the darkness is Christ’s outcry to the Father: “And about the ninth hour Jesus cried out with a loud voice, saying, ‘Eli, Eli, lama sabachthani?’ that is, ‘My God, My God, why has Thou forsaken Me?’” (v. 46). Shortly afterward, “Jesus cried out again with a loud voice” saying, “Tetelestai!” Then commending His spirit to God, He “gave up the ghost” (Matthew 27:50).
THE VEIL TORN. At the very moment of Christ’s death, a series of remarkable miracles occurred. Matthew writes, “Then, behold, the veil of the temple was rent in twain [torn in two] from top to bottom” (v. 51). The veil was a heavy curtain that blocked the entrance to the Holy of Holies in the Jerusalem Temple, the place where the Ark of the Covenant was kept, symbolizing the sacred presence of God. The tearing of the curtain at the moment of Jesus’ death dramatically symbolized that His sacrifice was a sufficient atonement for sins forever, and the way into the Holy of Holies was now open.
Another miracle also occurred at the exact moment of Christ’s death. “And the earth did quake, and the rocks rent” (Matthew 27:51). An earthquake powerful enough to split rocks would be a significant temblor. Earthquakes in Scripture are often used, like darkness, to signify a graphic display of
divine judgment.
THE DEAD RAISED
At that very same moment when Christ died, yet another miracle occurred:
Matthew 27:52-53 . “And the graves were opened; and many bodies of the saints which slept arose, [53] And came out of the graves after his resurrection, and went into the holy city, and appeared unto many.” Many of the tombs in and around Jerusalem to this day are hollow stone sepulchers, resting at ground level or just above. The earthquake was evidently powerful enough to split
sepulchers like these. That was not the miracle; that might have occurred in any earthquake. The great miracle is that those who emerged from the broken sepulchers were raised from the dead. Although “many . . . saints who had fallen asleep” were raised, not all were. These were select representatives of the multitude of saints buried in and around Jerusalem. Notice, in fact, that those who rose from the dead did not appear in Jerusalem until after Jesus’ resurrection.
Where these resurrected saints were in the days after they were loosed from the grave and before they appeared in Jerusalem is not specified. But the fact that they waited until after Christ’s resurrection to appear to anyone reminds us that He is the first fruits of those risen from the dead (1 Corinthians 15:20). These risen saints most likely came forth from the dead in glorified bodies already fit for heaven (rather than being restored to life in unglorified mortal bodies, as Lazarus had been). They “appeared to many” (v. 53). Again, how many is not specified, but there were enough eyewitnesses to verify the miracle! Their appearance proved that Christ had conquered death, not merely for Himself, but for all the saints. One day “all that are in the graves shall hear His voice and shall come forth” (John 5:28-29).
Christ was dead, but death had not conquered Him. On the first day of the week, He would burst forth triumphantly from the grave and show Himself alive to hundreds of eyewitnesses (1 Corinthians 15:5-8). He thus not only atoned for sin, but He demonstrated His Mastery over death in the process. Every believer’s deepest yearning should be this: Philip. 3:10
"That I may know him, and the power of his resurrection, and the fellowship of his sufferings, being made conformable unto his death…"
In Christ,
Brown
http://youtu.be/M_LLFfFXaUA

Saturday evening worship service.
Location: First United Methodist Church
53 McKinley Avenue
Endicott
Sponsored by the Union Center United Methodist Church, 128, Maple Drive, Endicott

Saturday, April 23, 2011
6 PM Coffee Fellowship

6:30 PM Worship Service
Worship Music: Winnie Miller, Dave Berry, Al Smith
Speaker: Rev Brown Naik


Easter services of celebration and worship will be held at the Union Center United Methodist Church, 128 Maple drive, Endicott, on Easter Sunday, April 24, at 8:30 and at 11:00 AM. There will be an Easter Celebration at the Wesley United Methodist Church, 1000 Day Hollow Road , Endicott, at 9:30 AM. Pastor Brown Naik will be preaching on: "Easter Faith in a Good Friday World".

Brown's Daily Word 4/21/11

Praise the Lord for this Maundy Thursday (also "Holy Thursday") It commemorates Christ's Last Supper. It's name of "Maundy" comes from the Latin word mandatum, meaning "command." This stems from Christ's words in John 13:34, "A new commandment I give unto you." The Last Supper took place in "the upper room" of the house believed to have been owned by John Mark and his mother, Mary (Acts 12:12). This room was also the site of the Pentecost. As the Lord instituted the celebration of the Lord's Supper, He commanded His disciples, “Do this in Remembrance of Me". Some people will go to great lengths to preserve the memory of another. We have monuments that dot our globe which were intended to preserve the memory of a worthy event or person. There is perhaps none so spectacular as the Taj Mahal. Most of us have seen pictures of this architectural specimen that has been labeled one of the seven wonders of the world This morning we open up the pages of scripture to another memorial which was given to us by the Lord Jesus himself so that we might remember his death. It is not an elaborate or expensive memorial quite the contrary it is simple and practical. I want to share with you from Mark’s Gospel the account of Jesus instituting this memorial we call the Lord’s Supper or Communion. Let us look at: Mark 14:12-26 " On the first day of the Festival of Unleavened Bread, when it was customary to sacrifice the Passover lamb, Jesus’ disciples asked him, “Where do you want us to go and make preparations for you to eat the Passover?”
13 So he sent two of his disciples, telling them, “Go into the city, and a man carrying a jar of water will meet you. Follow him. 14 Say to the owner of the house he enters, ‘The Teacher asks: Where is my guest room, where I may eat the Passover with my disciples?’ 15 He will show you a large room upstairs, furnished and ready. Make preparations for us there.”
16 The disciples left, went into the city and found things just as Jesus had told them. So they prepared the Passover.
17 When evening came, Jesus arrived with the Twelve. 18 While they were reclining at the table eating, he said, “Truly I tell you, one of you will betray me—one who is eating with me.”
19 They were saddened, and one by one they said to him, “Surely you don’t mean me?”
20 “It is one of the Twelve,” he replied, “one who dips bread into the bowl with me. 21 The Son of Man will go just as it is written about him. But woe to that man who betrays the Son of Man! It would be better for him if he had not been born.”
22 While they were eating, Jesus took bread, and when he had given thanks, he broke it and gave it to his disciples, saying, “Take it; this is my body.”
23 Then he took a cup, and when he had given thanks, he gave it to them, and they all drank from it.
24 “This is my blood of thea]"a] covenant, which is poured out for many,” he said to them. 25 “Truly I tell you, I will not drink again from the fruit of the vine until that day when I drink it new in the kingdom of God.”
26 When they had sung a hymn, they went out to the Mount of Olives.
This is an important passage for us to study. It deals directly with our relationship with Jesus Christ. One of the Spirituals we sing goes like this " Where you there when They crucified my Lord". The famous Dutch artist Rembrandt painted an interesting picture of the crucifixion of Jesus. It is a work which depicts the suffering of Jesus, the indifference of the soldiers, and the sorrow of the women at the cross. But the most unusual aspect of the picture is that if you look closely you will see that Rembrandt painted himself back in the shadows.
This is what the Lord Supper does for us, it helps us see ourselves at the foot of the cross, to remember the suffering of Jesus on our behalf. We come around this table in reverence, thanks giving, humility and awe.
In Christ,
Brown
http://youtu.be/Voawjjqg8zw


Saturday evening worship service.
Location: First United Methodist Church
53 McKinley Avenue
Endicott
Sponsored by the Union Center United Methodist Church, 128, Maple Drive, Endicott

Saturday, April 23, 2011
6 PM Coffee Fellowship

6:30 PM Worship Service
Worship Music: Winnie Miller, Dave Berry, Al Smith
Speaker: Rev Brown Naik


Easter services of celebration and worship will be held at the Union Center United Methodist Church, 128 Maple drive, Endicott, on Easter Sunday, April 24, at 8:30 and at 11:00 AM. There will be an Easter Celebration at the Wesley United Methodist Church, 1000 Day Hollow Road , Endicott, at 9:30 AM. Pastor Brown Naik will be preaching on: "Easter Faith in a Good Friday World".

Brown's Daily Word 4-20-11

Praise the Lord for this Wednesday of the Holy Week. According to Mark 14, Jesus is back in Bethany on Wednesday of the Holy Week. The event takes place in the house of Simon the Leper. This incident took place while Jesus was on his last journey to Jerusalem. While he was in Bethany, he was invited to the house of Simon the leper for a dinner in his honor. We don't know exactly who Simon the leper was. He obviously was a healed leper, or he wouldn't have been able to host a dinner party. Most likely, he is one of the many people Jesus touched and healed of that awful disease. I think it’s interesting that he was now “Simon the Cured,” but people were still calling him “Simon the Leper” because that’s how he had been known for so long.
Mary is the one on whom our story focuses. John tells us that she was the one who broke the precious alabaster jar and poured the perfume over Jesus.
Love always seems wasteful to those who don't love. Judas had witnessed an action of love and he called it extravagant waste. So much depends upon one’s point of view. One’s outlook is determined by what is inside of him.
Mary wanted to show some expression of her devotion for Jesus. For Mary, speech didn't seem to come easily. Hers was a silent nature, very much unlike her sister Martha. She probably felt that she would never be able to tell Jesus face to face about the depth of her feelings. So she took her most valued and expensive possession, the perfume that she had probably been saving for her own burial and the anointing of her body later on, and broke it and poured it over Jesus.
When Mary anointed Jesus, she wasn't looking for a place in the spotlight. She wasn't trying to win the applause of the crowd. What she did was done because of her overwhelming love for the Lord. But her act made her name immortal. In fact, had she performed this deed in order to be remembered, she doubtless would have been forgotten, because the Bible is not given to preserving the names of those who seek the spotlight.
But Mary was assured by Jesus of a permanent place in history because she performed a deed of such selfless love. He told her that she would never be forgotten. He said, "Wherever this gospel is preached throughout the whole world, what this woman did will also be spoken of as a memorial to her." (Mark 14:9). When Mary is forgotten by the world, it will be a late day in the history of mankind. When the world has forgotten her, then it will also have forgotten the story of him who was bruised for our iniquities and wounded for our transgressions.
Jesus commanded those of us who would come afterward to be sure to include this story in our proclamation. From the life and witness of Mary the Lord is provoking me to be less logical and more generous; Less analytic and more compassionate; Less self-centered and more Christ-centered; Less concerned about what somebody might think or say and more anxious to honor the one who first loved me. Unbelievers have always had a hard time figuring out the lifestyle of Christ’s disciples. When you think about it, you can understand their difficulty. They are guided by a life philosophy that promotes selfishness (the attitude that says, “You’ve gotta look out for ‘Number One’”), a philosophy that models greed (“Take what you can get!”), and a philosophy that assigns importance in dollar figures (how often have you heard someone ask, “What do you think he’s worth?”). Guided by such a philosophy, most folks see people trying to be selfless and generous as saps. Christ-centered people in a self-centered world are difficult to understand, and some people will never be convinced it could be anything other than an act to gain others’ confidence in order to manipulate, exploit, and victimize them.
Let us try to think about it from their perspective: Why would anybody choose to deny him or herself of any pleasure — no matter how tasteless or vulgar — when life is so short?
Why would people whose lives are at least as busy as theirs carve out time every week for worship, for Bible study, for service projects that do nothing to advance their careers? Why would Christians get involved in the lives of those who are poor and sick, and hurting?
Why would people who are carrying their load already as tax-paying citizens give ten percent or more of their income to the church?
People who don't know Jesus have a hard time figuring out why people would behave as Christians do! Our answer would be, of course, that we do these things because we love Him. He loved us first. He’s done so much for us and continues to do so much for us. And the more we understand that, the greater our love for him becomes.
And because we love him, there is nothing we wouldn't do for Him. He truly is our everything! May the Lord propel us to be extravagant and extra generous in our loving, in our giving, and in our serving.
In Christ,
Brown
http://youtu.be/MA_bo8DSOwg

Saturday evening worship service.
Location: First United Methodist Church
53 McKinley Avenue
Endicott
Sponsored by the Union Center United Methodist Church, 128, Maple Drive, Endicott

Saturday, April 23, 2011
6 PM Coffee Fellowship

6:30 PM Worship Service
Worship Music: Winnie Miller, Dave Berry, Al Smith
Speaker: Rev Brown Naik


Easter services of celebration and worship will be held at the Union Center United Methodist Church, 128 Maple drive, Endicott, on Easter Sunday, April 24, at 8:30 and at 11:00 AM. There will be an Easter Celebration at the Wesley United Methodist Church, 1000 Day Hollow Road , Endicott, at 9:30 AM. Pastor Brown Naik will be preaching on: "Easter Faith in a Good Friday World".

Brown's Daily Word 4-19-11

Praise the Lord for this Holy Week in the life of the Church. We had a service of death and resurrection for Dennis Lee yesterday. Dennis died on the 13th of April at the age of 68. It was a service of celebration of his life. In the face of death we proclaim the sure and the certain hope of Resurrection. Last evening I attended an Evening of worship as part of the Holy Week services at the Cornerstone Community Church in Endicott. Our daughter Laureen played for the worship. The theme for the week of service is "Pursuing the Passion". I am studying in the Book of Mark the events of the Holy Week in the life of our Lord. According to Mark, the event for Tuesday is recorded in Mark ch 11: 20 ff and ch 13 : 1-37. Tuesday was a day of discourses .The creative force behind all great art, all great drama, all great music, all great architecture, all great writing is passion. Nothing great is ever accomplished in life without passion. Nothing great is ever sustained in life without passion. Passion is what energizes life. Passion makes the impossible possible. Passion gives you a reason to get up in the morning and go, "I'm going to do something with my life today." Without passion, life becomes boring. It becomes monotonous. It becomes routine. It becomes dull. God created us with the emotions to have passion in our lives and He wants us to live a passionate life. Passion is what mobilizes armies into action. Passion is what causes explorers to boldly go where no man’s gone before. Passion is what causes scientists to spend late night hours trying to find the cure to a dreaded disease. Passion is what takes a good athlete and turns him or her into a great athlete where they're breaking records. You've got to have passion in your life.

One day a man walks up to Jesus and he says, "Lord, what’s the most important thing in the Bible?" And you know what the Great Commandment is. Jesus said, "I want you to love God with all your heart and soul and mind and strength. Nothing matters more than that. That’s the number one thing in life. I want you to love Me passionately." Nothing else matters in life if you don't love God passionately. God doesn’t want you to love Him half-heartedly. He wants you to love Him with all your heart and all your soul and all your mind and all your strength.

I love the paraphrase of that verse, Mark 11:30, from The Message "Jesus said, ’Love the Lord God with all your passion and prayer and intelligence and energy." Let us make a note of the word "passion". That word, in Greek, is the word "heart." God is saying I want you to put some muscle into it, put some energy, put some emotion into your relationship with Me. Don't be a wimp about your relationship with Me. Don't be namby-pamby. Don't be half-hearted. Give it all you've got. Jesus is saying, "If you're going to follow Me, you've got to do it with passion. You've got to give it some oomph, some spark, some zip, some enthusiasm, some zest. I want you to live passionately."

In fact, this truth is all through the Bible. The Bible tells us that we're to seek God passionately. We're to love God passionately. The Bible says that we're to serve and obey God passionately. We're to trust God passionately. Then as if you didn't get the message, in Colossians 3:23 He says, "Whatever you do, do it with all of your heart as unto the Lord and not unto men." He says I want you to do everything passionately when it comes to loving Me, serving Me, living for Me.
In Christ,
Brown
http://youtu.be/qaHmiFaX_pk
Saturday evening worship service.
Location: First United Methodist Church
53 McKinley Avenue
Endicott
Sponsored by the Union Center United Methodist Church, 128, Maple Drive, Endicott

Saturday, April 23, 2011
6 PM Coffee Fellowship

6:30 PM Worship Service
Worship Music: Winnie Miller, Dave Berry, Al Smith
Speaker: Rev Brown Naik

Brown's Daily Word 4-18-11

Good morning, Praise the Lord for this Holy Week. It is a brilliant and a very bright morning. The morning lighjt has dispelled all clouds. The Lord blessed us with a full weekend of serving, worshipping, and celebrating. Palm Sunday marks the day that Jesus made his triumphant entry into Jerusalem. It marked the beginning of the last week that He would spent as a man on this earth among His disciples. In Matthew 21:1-11, Matthew recorded concerning Jesus' road to Jerusalem. “Now when they drew near Jerusalem, and came to Bethphage, at the Mount of Olives, then Jesus sent two disciples, saying to them, 'Go into the village opposite you, and immediately you will find a donkey tied, and a colt with her. Loose them and bring them to Me. And if anyone says anything to you, you shall say, ’The Lord has need of them,’ and immediately he will send them.' All this was done that it might be fulfilled which was spoken by the prophet, saying, 'Tell the daughter of Zion, ’Behold, your King is coming to you, Lowly, and sitting on a donkey, A colt, the foal of a donkey.’" "So the disciples went and did as Jesus commanded them. They brought the donkey and the colt, laid their clothes on them, and set Him on them. And a very great multitude spread their clothes on the road; others cut down branches from the trees and spread them on the road. Then the multitudes who went before and those who followed cried out, saying: "Hosanna to the Son of David! ’Blessed is He who comes in the name of the LORD!’ Hosanna in the highest!" And when He had come into Jerusalem, all the city was moved, saying, "Who is this?" So the multitudes said, "This is Jesus, the prophet from Nazareth of Galilee." In this passage Jesus was at the beginning of the end for His earthly ministry. On that road to Jerusalem Jesus was traveling towards his death, burial, and glorious resurrection. While the road led Jesus to Jerusalem, the Jerusalem road will lead us to heaven, if we are willing to follow Jesus long that road. We must be willing to travel the road that Jesus traveled, that road to Jerusalem. Normally we like to see our heroes enter with a blaze of glory. We like it when the good guy makes a grand entrance. When we think of the King of kings and Lord of lords making an entry we would think that there should be all the pomp and pageantry befitting for such a king. As Jesus rode into in to the city of Jerusalem, I am sure that there were many people there who had similar thoughts in their heads. They were probably thinking, "Here is the one who will free us from Rome; Here is the one who will run these filthy Romans right out of town and set up the kingdom of David, with all it’s glory." The Kings of kings chose instead the road of humility. He did not come riding into town on white stallion, but on the back of the colt of a donkey. Furthermore, it wasn’t even his donkey but a borrowing one at that. This reflected the life of Christ which was a life of humility. Jesus did not come into this world with wealth, but he came in poverty. He did not in grandeur but with meekness. He was not one who had a lot of material fortune and fame, but came in humility. When Jesus spoke of his kingdom he spoke in terms of service, servanthood, and humility. It is interesting that on the last night that Jesus spent with His disciples, only hours before He was to die, his disciples were arguing over who would be greatest in the kingdom. Luke 22:24: “Now there was also a dispute among them, as to which of them should be considered the greatest.” After all they had been thought with Jesus they still not get it. They simply did not understand that the road Jesus had traveled on was a road of humility, and that He required His disciples to travel on the very same road. I think sometimes we lose thought of that ourselves. We love and desire the blessings of God, but do we really want to follow Jesus on this road of humility? To follow Jesus means going down that road, the road of the cross. It means giving up our selfish desires, it means denying ourselves, it means not only putting Christ, first in our lives, but putting others before ourselves as well. This includes our family, our friends, and even our enemies. The road of humility is the road that indicates a willingness to live as Christ lived, striving to be conformed to His image. The Jerusalem road is a road of humility, a road on which we are called to follow Jesus. In Christ, Brown http://youtu.be/rRil3T1Ey7A Saturday evening worship service. Location: First United Methodist Church 53 McKinley Avenue Endicott Sponsored by the Union Center United Methodist Church, 128, Maple Drive, Endicott Saturday, April 23, 2011 6 PM Coffee Fellowship 6:30 PM Worship Service Worship Music: Winnie Miller, Dave Berry, Al Smith Speaker: Rev Brown Naik For Information Call: 607-748-6329. You can visit our home page at Unioncenterumc.com