Ep 12: Five Greek Words – Grace

Hi there, this is tom Mahairas with it’s all greek to me and we’re gonna be looking at these five greek words that are rooted all rooted in grace uh with the with the root hard X. A. R. It’s grace, it’s forgiveness. It’s a gifts, it’s joy and it’s thanksgiving and all of these words, if you listen to the greek words carries harry’s oh man, charisma, kara and f carry store you hear it in every word, the roots and then on the word hara. Uh it has to other words that are related to it. Herro, which means I rejoice. Uh sarah is joy, but hero means I rejoice and sing hero means we rejoice together. So there are two other words related to it. But we’re only going to look at the five words, the words that are they all flow from Grace and my wife and I are gonna be able to just uh talk together, have a little discussion chat on each program because she minored in greek straight A’s phenomenal uh Woman of God has been my partner for all these years. So, uh, I hope you enjoy the study of the word Grace, which is probably one of the key words in the whole bible. Hi there, this is thomas, Mahairas with Vicki to harass my wife. I want you to meet her as uh you know, I first saw her when she was 16 and when she came out of an italian background. She grew up in new york city in queens and she’s such a wonderful woman that I wanted you to meet her and find out about her a little bit before we get into these greek word studies. So you know who is speaking to you also. So Vicki give your story. Okay. I met tom when I was 16, it was on a spring break, it was, I was in uh high school and I was at Central Park Zoo back then we used to have elephants, everybody, there were animals everywhere in Central Park. And I spent a lot of weekends in Central Park with all my friends. It was a big time for the hippie movement. I decided I wanted to go to Greenwich Village, I wanted to be a hippie, I wanted to hang out with my best friends and I’m gonna let their names be anonymous at this time. But anyway, so I’m standing in front of the orangutan cage and I hear this little voice say, what’s that? And I turn and and I hear somebody go the orange you tang and I’m like, what? So I figured the person behind me was a foreigner, thank you. And he was, I turned around to correct the person and correct the name of the orange a king. Anyway, he then invites my best friend and I too smoke pot with him and here my life began and uh, for the next uh 2.5, 3 years tom and I basically were inseparable and we lived in Greenwich village on and off I left home um I broke the heart of my parents who were wonderful people and through some bad LSD experiences and uh just looking at people coming to a reality check on my own life. I didn’t grow up like that. I had wonderful parents, amazing family, amazing friends and I came to my senses after a very bad LSD trip that this was not what I really wanted and I really was searching for peace. You know, we were all at these peace demonstrations. I went to all the beings in Central Park, thousands, hundreds of thousands of people there. Um and I really was searching for peace and after a very difficult situation with tom uh taking so many drugs that he lost touch with reality. His parents had him signed a letter thinking he was going for group therapy. He was gonna let everybody know about, we thought we were spiritual, he was gonna let everybody know about God and how spiritual we were actually, we weren’t and he wound up in a mental institution and when he got out he disappeared and he gave me yes and he traveled up to the mountains to try to find God and he disappeared for two weeks. I didn’t know where he was. Um I went to jones beach that weekend and with my my best friend Joyce and we you know took the bus there and back and on the way leaving the beach a man ran after me and handed me this little yellow book. It said light on it And I didn’t know what it was. I was like, no, no. He said, oh read this, It’s, it’s good for you. It will help you. And I’m like, I’m not interested. He went after me, he said, but look at it, it’s about light, are you interested in the light? And I’m like, yes, you know, because I thought I was spiritual. And uh, so I read it all the way home on the bus that day, miraculously tom calls me from 250 miles away and reads to me john 3 16, which I had just been reading in the bus. It was the gospel of john an appointment by God. And so I said, I was just reading that and he’s like, what? How is you reading the Gospel of john? And he told me he’s on an island of love. I’m like, wow, a hippie commune, I can’t wait to get there, pack my bags up the next weekend and you know, there was no school. So I just went up there and when I got there I found out it was a christian camp word of life island in the Adirondack mountains. They put me in the cabin with all these girls I never met and then he just disappeared. I’m like, whoa, what am I doing here? But God had been working in my heart and prepared me after reading that gospel and the very next, that very weekend, I accepted christ as my personal savior. I was really weeping. I was like, oh God loves me. God wants to change my life. God wants to bless me. It was just amazing. So That was just a wonderful experience in 1968. Right, right. Yeah. So then we went to bible college together. I went for four years and graduated and my parents made me stay there. I couldn’t get married until uh, I had a graduate. My father said, you’re not going to get married and they allowed me to marry tom. And we’ve been together ever since now. The beauty of it is that we’ve been studying the bible in the original languages, especially greek. And that’s why we, this program is. It’s all greek to me. And you took three years of greek. I minored in it. Tell us a little bit about that journey. Um, I really enjoyed speaking greek in learning how to read greek because tom was greek obviously, and I really wanted to be a student and a teacher of the word of God After that you, you know, when you were studying the greek language and you were and you were getting into the greek and we started really digging deeper. We realized how incredible it is to really look behind the curtain and see the, uh, the impact of seeing the spiritual words. So what have you learned about this? Just this whole concept of this? We’ve been studying now. These five greek words rooted in Grace, that we’re going to go into. What have you? How how has that impacted your just in getting into the study? Well, the fact that they all begin with Grace, all these beautiful words, Grace, forgiveness, gift, joy, and thankfulness all come out of Grace and we’ll be sharing for the next four or five weeks about each one of these words together, you’ve just heard my lovely wife share her story, incredible story, how Vicky came to know, jesus christ as her personal savior. Actually, I was the one that I shared the gospel with her. She was weeping. And uh, and then she gave her heart to christ. It was so incredibly simple. We were ready. I don’t know how God did this as we went through the drug scene, Sex drugs and rock and roll. And then we heard the gospel and he liberated us. We received his Grace, we received his forgiveness. And then we immediately started. So, you’ve just heard her story. Now, we’re gonna go into the first word carries which we’re going to study. So we’re going to have a discussion on the primary word, which is Grace and the five Grace words that are rooted in Grace. We’re gonna talk about that. And in order to really properly understand this word Grace, which the greek word is hotties. And of course, we’re going to also look at Harry’s oh men, which is forgiveness that flows from grace. And we’re gonna look at hard Esma, the gifts that come from the grace that gives us forgiveness and the gifts. And also the word hara, which is joy. Again, they’re all rooted in the X A R har and then the final word, which is a factory store, which is today, Thank you. But in the corner it was gary stereo and we kind of cut it down a little bit and we just say, f carry store, which is thankful for grace. So we’re going to have a discussion. But before we do, we want to look primarily at the incarnation of the person of grace and that is the Lord jesus christ. So Vicky is going to read for us in john chapter one verse 14 through 18 on the incarnation of Grace, the the personification of God in the flesh and jesus bringing grace and truth. Listen to these words from john’s Gospel. Chapter one verse 14 through 17 through 18. And the word became flesh and dwelt among us and we beheld his glory Gloria’s of the only begotten from the father full of grace and truth, john bore witness of him and cried out saying this was he of whom I said, he who comes after me has a higher rank than I for he existed before me for of his fullness. We have all received Grace upon Grace for the law was given through moses. Grace and truth were realized through jesus christ. No man has seen God at any time. The only begotten god who is in the bosom of the father. He has explained him, wow, what a fabulous introduction to the incarnation of grace. It’s interesting in this passage of scripture we find three times Grace mentioned. Uh, it talks about grace in uh in verse uh 14. You see it there uh, the word was became flesh and dwelt among us and we beheld his glory glorious of the only begotten, the very unique one of the father full of grace and truth. So, and then it it also repeats again this concept of the grace and uh in verse 16 for of his fullness. Now this this is a little bit change uh change because fullness is play Roma, which was a concept that the uh the Knost IX had back in the first century of getting like to nirvana. But here it’s referring to jesus christ, the man in the flesh, God in the flesh. He had this blue Roma. This fullness which is the godhead in bodily form as colossians talks about. And it says here and of his fullness, we have all received. And what is that fullness? It is, it breaks out into grace. Notice what it says. Grace upon grace. And uh we we can talk about that in a moment with Vicki. But then it says in verse 17, it says um for the law was given through moses. There’s a contrast here between the law and grace. But Grace and truth. Again, it couples Grace with truth. Grace and truth were realized or manifest through jesus christ, phenomenal. So, I I just want to talk about a little bit about how jesus, the man In the Flesh, how he exposed and manifested the Eternal God, and when he came here and and this was the glory literally of God coming out in the person of Jesus Christ. And here in verse 16, it identifies, it says for his fullness play Roma, this incredible fullness of God, the father son and holy spirit is now manifest and made visible and physical in jesus christ. And then you hear these words Grace upon Grace and in the greek, it’s Hardee’s Andy hardy’s. So I wanna I wanna talk a little bit about that and what your thoughts are on that Vicki. Well, all the verses on Grace are always emphasizing God’s sufficiency. And on this part here, the grace anti means instead of or equal to everything that we need from God by his grace he has provided for us. We have gone through versus this whole week on grace, grace, grace, Grace, Grace is the bible is full of God’s grace and it describes it and gives many different adjectives about the fullness of his grace, the riches of his grace and there are just so many words that why don’t you take a few minutes and just show us some of the ones that you got? I thought they were fabulous, the ones that you pulled in. Maybe. Maybe that you could return all those verses. Yeah, there was a couple. I had studied the book of Ephesians for about two or three months this year and um I was so impressed with how many times it used obviously the word grace, but the word riches or inheritance or fullness about God’s grace. And this one is really a blessing. It says, What chapter is it Ephesians chapter one it just starts with grace to you and peace. So we know that grace proceeds peace from God and he’s so generous to give it to anybody who will just open up their heart and receive it. It says in him Ephesians 1 7. We have redemption through his blood. The forgiveness of our trespasses according to the riches of his grace which he lavished upon us in his wisdom and insight. That’s a pretty powerful verse and it’s extremely full of his riches, his forgiveness, his redemption. The the lavishing is like you can’t stop the grace of God unless you reject it. He always wants to give us enough grace and it’s to give us wisdom and insight. The other one that really hit me was Ephesians 2 7. And in order that he might in the ages to come, might show us the surpassing riches of his grace in kindness towards us. In christ, jesus. Not just Grace, not just the riches, but surpassing riches. And they come with the kindness of christ. So Vicky, you mentioned twice the word riches and surpassing riches. Well, that word in the greek is Pluto S and it’s just the overwhelming wealth of God and he lavishes it on us and it’s pouring out Cletus, it’s pouring out it’s personified in christ, but then he identifies that he doesn’t just give a little, he gives a lot of this uh word Grace. And we do have to define this Grace in a moment. And and how what this Grace is all about and how it’s connected to these five words. But you continue, go ahead and continue from Ephesians. I want to hear all those verses that you got. Okay, I’ll give you one more Ephesians 280, I love that one. For by Grace, you have been saved through faith and that not of yourselves. It’s the gift of God, not as a result of works that no one should both. And God’s gift. His greatest gift to us is christ himself. And we’ll be looking at the word gift in a little while. But again, his Grace has kindness with it. It has love, it has compassionate, has open arms to us and I always never fear going to God about praying and talking to him about my needs because I know he wants to supply all my needs according to his riches and glory. Okay, so in Ephesians 28 and nine, it identifies salvation is based on his Grace by Grace. We have been saved. It is on the basis of his grace through our faith. And it isn’t of ourselves. It does. It’s not rooted in how good we are, how rich we are, how smart we are, how pure we are. Because sometimes we think we’re good, but we don’t really see the way God sees and our judgments and our value system is not the same. So he says, it’s not of ourselves. It is a gift of God, not as a result of works less. We boast. So you have this juxtaposition. This contrast between works and grace between law and grace. Grace is God giving us his riches at his own expense. And not anything that we have done. That’s what he identifies that. I love that. So, let’s move on to a little bit of the definition uh, of caddis or of grace. Okay, so that’s the first word here are the five words. Maybe you can just give them to us in english and I’ll say them in greek. Okay, it’s the first word is grace, that’s caress and we have john 1 16 identified there for that forgiveness. That’s Carrizo may colossians 2 13. Gift Charisma, Romans 6, 13. Joy Cara, john 15 11. And thankfulness and f gary still today in modern greek. F gary stall. We dropped the first Thessalonians 5 18. So these are the five words that we’re going to really analyze and they’re all connected. You notice with the X A. R. In Mahairas, the X A. R in Carrizo may the X A. R. In charisma in the X A. R. And Sarah and also the X A. R. In the middle of the word in Afghanistan. So these words are Very much rooted in this whole concept of grace. Now, what is grace? We’re gonna look at that? Grace is uh the verse I chose was John 116 enough. His fullness, we have all received grace upon Grace. Do you want to say something about that? Upon Grace? What comes to your mind? What illustration comes to your mind when you think of God’s Grace saying it’s grace for grace instead of grace equal to grace. What comes to your mind? Any anything at all? Just that it meets every need, it meets every need, it’s sufficient enough for every situation we’re going to go through in our life. What I think about is the gps, I get lost. You know, I’m driving and I get lost and and I make the wrong turn. And guess what the gps tells me hoops, you made a wrong turn, go to the right and go straight down this way. It always leads me back home. I also think of the illustration of a compass. You know, you have a compass and you don’t, you’ve been in a boat. The boat was just tossed here and there or you’ve been in a forest. You don’t know which way north, south east or west is. But you look at that compass and the compass is telling you north is this way south is that way east and west. It I actually identifies which way to go. That’s the Grace of God. The Grace of God is fixed. It’s consistent and it has given us, it says grace for grace. Grace upon grace. Grace equal to grace. So you know what every one of us in this world has been given grace by God. In fact in titus chapter two and verse 11, it says the Grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation onto all men, jesus christ here in john chapter one, let’s look at it again in john chapter one what a fabulous uh promise. And the word became flesh. That’s the logos became flesh dwelt among us and we beheld his glory. Glory as of the only begotten from the father full of grace and truth, john bore witness of him and cried saying this was he of whom I said he comes after me has a higher rank than I for he existed before me. And then verse 16 for of his fullness we have all received. Now look, it’s not just for the Jews. It’s not just for the Greeks, it’s not just for the black, it’s not just for the white. It’s not just for the Chinese or the brand all have received. This is what it says here. End of his grace. We have all received. You see that word uh passing the greek. Language means everyone. This is why it’s so fabulous to be connected with the Grace of God. So what do you think about that? All Vicki that is for the Italians as well as for the Greeks For sure, for sure. So and Grace upon Grace. What a wonderful concept. Okay, for the law was given through moses all until uh you know the old testament? There were there were glimpses and there were uh sunshine rays of grace. But basically the law was given to help us see that we have broken God’s laws. We’ve violated God’s laws that God is a righteous holy pure God. And that if we’re going to have fellowship with him, we need to know who he is. But here in this passage, it says that jesus, the man when he became flesh when the logos became flesh came in order to manifest and reveal the father the character of the father. And what are the two qualities that we see here of the character of God that jesus christ is manifesting in this passage of scripture honey. It says Grace and truth. Grace and the truth. What a beautiful thought. I think we really need to define the hottest a little more. We were going to look at that. All right. All right, So, we’re gonna just go forward and and define this word hotties. All right, Here it is. You want to read it. It’s unmerited favor extended answers to the hebrew term of the old testament is the word E N. N. It’s grace extension toward both referring to God, freely extending himself his favor, his grace reaching and inclining to people because he is disposed to bless and be near them. Grace is God giving us what we don’t deserve mercy. God not giving us what we do deserve. Yeah. So the thing that I really like is that it it answers to that that word uh, in the grace extension towards and the best way to see this is in this. Well, first of all, look at the graphic that we have here of Michelangelo where the father in our in our panel back here in the artwork, you see God the Father extending his hand to man. That’s grace. You know, God is the one who took the initiative and coming to man. And then when you see the next one here where God from heaven is extending his hand. That really is a picture of grace that we’ve got all kinds of needs. We’ve gone away from God were broken. We are we are full of uh sinfulness and and selfishness and ego and pride and yet God is extending his hand towards us in spite of it all, that God demonstrated his love to us that while we were sinners christ died on that cross. So in the if you’re going to really define this word Vicki of paris, it’s really God taking the initiative of extending himself and coming to us to heal and meet the need to, to forgive to all the beautiful uh definitions of all the words carries which is grace and charism which is forgiveness and uh charisma which is gifts that we need to receive Ankara which is joy that we need in spite of all the junk in our life that God wants to provide joy and not punish us because jesus didn’t come into the world to condemn the world in john 3 17 but but to save us and then finally f Hristo that we could actually lift up our heart and say thank you to God the father. So maybe you want to share a little more about the definition here. Well there was an acronym where you had each letter representing uh g so we didn’t have it here but you go ahead and tell you it was God’s riches at christ’s expense. And christ paid the price of the grace that had to be paid in order for us to have forgiveness. He had to die on that cross for us in our place. He took all of our sins and you know when I watch any movie about christ and him walking to that crucifixion wow. Yeah it’s very moving because such love, such love drove him to be beaten and stripped and naked and and he took all of our sins and he paid for them so that we can have eternal life with God. Yeah. You’ve heard Vicky’s story, you’ve heard the first word carries or grace. You know God says by grace were saved through faith. It isn’t of ourselves. It’s a gift of God and you may just want to accept God’s gift and say God thank you for loving me and jesus for dying for me, please a spirit of God come in my heart and forgive me and save me and change me. And then you are on your way to growing and you can continue following so we can teach the word of God to you on a week to week basis, invite your friends to come and follow us on. It’s all greek to me with tom Mahairas. God bless you. Yeah.