Rev. Obias Kilagwa
(SEPTUAGESIMA) GOD’S GRACE SAVES US
Psalm 147:7 – 13; Romans 2:17 – 27; John 6: 37-40
I welcome my fellow Pastors to this 3rd Bible Study; let us cooperate to enrich each other with the message of Tar Sunday 1/2/2026. I believe that if each of us contributes to what comes to you as the Spirit of God gives you the message of this lesson, then we will enrich each other in the Spirit. Since we are moving into another new season of the Church’s liturgy, I will start with the INTRODUCTION and THEN I WILL BRING THE STIMULANTS FOR ALL THREE READINGS.
We were in the season of Revelation (Epiphany) for about 4 days (January 6-31). The Bishop in the explanations of the Sunday lessons has been explaining the concept of Epiphany in detail, even the Bible Study of Tar 18/ with Dr. Mgaya and of 25/1 with the Bishop, continued to discern on the Revelation of Jesus and his concept in life, faith, discipleship and our salvation in Christ.
Today we enter a small season of three weeks. It is between EPIPHANY … and…. LENT. This small liturgical season is 30 days, divided into 3 Sundays. And each Sunday has its own name.
Sunday, Tar 1/2 is called SEPTUAGESIMA. Sunday, Tar 8/2 is called SEXAGESIMA and Sunday Tay 15/2 is called QUINQUAGESIMA / ESTOMIHI After these three weeks will follow Ash Monday which brings us into the season of Lent of 40 days not counting Sundays.
Let’s start with the Sunday of Tar 1/2 called Septuagesima (Latin), which means, “seventieth” or 70 days. It is a theological and liturgical word that introduces Christians to the period of preparation for the Lenten season (the ancient Catholic liturgy was 70 days before Easter). The purpose of Septuagesima is to prepare believers to begin the process of reflection, preparing hearts for repentance, self-control, seeking and turning to God so that He may guide us and introduce us to a deeper reflection during the Lenten season. That is why even the organizers of the Calendar have given us the idea of a week that begins to introduce us to reflecting on our SALVATION, (“GOD’S GRACE IS ON US”), and we have been given the song TMW 418 that tells how we were redeemed by Jesus with His Blood at the price of His Death, where the second verse pierces the truth that, it is ONLY by HIS LOVE that we have been redeemed and made His children.
The second Sunday in this small season is called Sexagesima which means “sixtieth” which liturgically is 60 days before Easter, and is completed by the third Sunday called Quinquagesima (fiftieth). For three weeks Christians are prepared to enter and immerse themselves in the contemplation of GOD’S GREAT LOVE AND GRACE for us through the Passion of our Lord Jesus Christ for the 40 days of Lent.
Now let us briefly look at the Three Readings for Sunday of Tar 1/2
PSALM 147:7-13
This is one of the Hallelujah Psalms or songs of praise and thanksgiving to God the LORD. The purpose (work) of these Psalms is;
It glorifies the name of GOD, for the Majesty, Power, Greatness, Goodness, Love, Help of God that gives us the perfection of our whole life (Life, Health, Balance, Protection, Salvation, and Sustenance that satisfies us for our lives. The life we have, “is God.” It is by His grace that we are given life, it is by His grace that we are and are saved.
Our fellow worshipers (Israelites) were coming before Him to witness the great deeds of God, His wonders and His goodness. We see this with the seriousness of the words of the song of this Psalm 147
Such gatherings, to know God and His greatness and to give God glory; For us of the New A/C, they deserve to be magnified more because we have witnessed the Great Redemption through the Cross and the washing of the Blood of Jesus, to be reconciled and become the Sons of God. This is immeasurable love (Jn 3:16; 2Cor 5:17-19).
The verses given to us of Psalm 147 are part of the Verses 20 of this Psalm, which the Worshipers (Israelites) sang after being returned to Jerusalem from exile. They reflected and saw how God carried them and fought for them, how He blessed them and did great things for them, and that without God they would not be the same.
The message of the entire Song can be divided into three main parts that describe God and His uniqueness.
Chapters 1-6 God heals, makes or revives or rebuilds.
Chapters 7-11 Praise to God; for the power and dominion of all He has made.
Chapters 12 -20 God’s blessings and how He leads His people in a special way.
The verses given to us of the Psalm, fall into the second and third parts respectively (Verses 7-13). Where;
Verses 7 – 9 are a call for the Believers to praise and thank God for His works of God for us to take care of us, to grant us a life with the satisfaction of all needs, such as the grace of food, life and protection. Verse 10, Let us beware of relying on other things instead of relying on God. Our strength and help is in the Lord alone. Verse 11-13 It is clear that God loves those who fear Him, He blesses and protects them in all circumstances.
This Psalm reveals the power and love of God in doing good to us only by His grace or mercy. For God’s work in us, as our response, we truly owe Him, thank Him, praise Him, worship and serve Him, because our lives are in His hands all our time. And He does all this for us by His grace without us deserving it.
ROMANS 2:17-29
This letter is even taught separately in Bible colleges because of its uniqueness. Bible scholars say; The Letter to the Romans is a summary of the entire Bible, that is, the history of salvation is explained in detail about the condition of people in the Old Testament until the completion of Salvation in the New Testament. Some have dared to say, it would be called; The Gospel of the Apostle Paul to the Romans, according to the uniqueness of its Content, is specific in explaining how we have obtained our salvation and have been justified by grace through Faith.
The lesson given to us falls within Rom 1:18 – 3:20 on the STATE OF SIN AND ITS CONSEQUENCES, but it also falls within a large part of chapters 1-8 concerning the PROBLEM OF THE WAY OF JUSTIFICATION. Let us see
Verses 17-20 this concerns the Jews and the Torah and how they had the pride of life, considering themselves better than the Gentiles. Paul sees how they were lost and became blind teachers and were in ignorance of God’s plan of salvation for mankind.
Verses 21-24 Paul condemns the hypocritical behavior. He asks 6 questions to think about their hypocrisy in preaching, teaching and rebuking others, while they do not live what they say, (Meditate on Verses 21-24). Paul sees, even if we teach good things without living them, that is to despise and blaspheme God.
Here I remembered my Sermon Teacher, who said, if you prepare a sermon, if it does not begin to criticize and touch you yourself, even your listeners will not be touched or changed. He said, pointing fingers at others while you yourself are doing that, that sermon will not bring about change or spiritual growth of believers.
He emphasized to us that, a sermon that touches the soul, is that which comes from a repentant heart, and that what is said is proven in the daily life of the preacher. If we emphasize that people leave sin, have I who preach left it? I emphasize that people read the word, do I read? I emphasize prayer, do I have a prayerful attitude? I emphasize love, forgiveness, do I, the preacher, live that? Here I see Paul is shocking us with something very important for us who stand and lead people.
To preach to the congregation things that we do not live ourselves, is to be like the one who said, “Hear what I say, but do not do what I do.” In short, our service and the positions we have in the Church are very important in building the kingdom of God, but if we do not repent and live the truth of Christ, then it is of no use.
Since we are leaders of the Church, we have a greater task, because our lives, our attitudes, our testimonies, our actions, are even more powerful than the words we emphasize.
SERMON READING – JOHN 6:37-40
Brief Introduction: The Gospel of John is presented in a unique way different from the 3 Synoptic Gospels (Matthew, Mark and Luke).
Since John was the last to write the Gospel (80-95 AD), he knew what was lacking in both unity and answering the questions or needs of his first readers. In this way, John saw fit not to write the history of the things that Jesus did because they had already been written by his fellow Evangelists. He saw fit to explain and convey the message and meaning of those great deeds of Jesus. Some have justified calling it a spiritual Gospel because it does not just tell the story, but it explains the spiritual meaning to the listeners, and its goal is to want people to move forward in faith, and in their belief they may have eternal life. John’s emphasis is “Faith.” He has even been able to say; The work given to us humans is one, to BELIEVE in JESUS whom GOD sent, he says, “….. this is the work of God, that you believe in him whom He sent (6:29). Even in the lesson given to us, he has spoken about the question of “faith,” he has written, “… Everyone who looks to the Son and BELIEVES in him may have Eternal Life; “And I will raise him up at the last day” (v. 40).
John 6:37-40
The lesson given to us today is part of Jesus’ discourse; whose main theme is “JESUS IS THE BREAD OF LIFE” (6:22-59). This is the fourth of the seven discourses of Jesus in John, which are; birth and new life 3:1-21;.. The Water of Life 4:4-42;.. The Divine Sonship of Christ 5:19-47; Jesus is the Bread of Life 6:22-59;… The Life-Giving Spirit 7:37-52, The Light of the World 8:12-30 and Jesus is the Good Shepherd 10:1-21.
John uses the number 7 a lot in his Gospel to show the completeness of things. Here we have seen 7 Sermons, but he has 7 Signs that are arranged according to their importance and carry the completeness of the ministry to humanity. The function of a sign is to draw people to believe, that is why in John, you will find that whenever Jesus performed a sign, people believed in him, unlike the miracles in the Synoptic Gospels, healing and saving those who were in prison, whether they believed or not is up to them.
Now let’s go to the verses given to us (6:37-40). Please read those verses, look at the main words in this lesson.
- To do the will of God
- Not one of those who received him and believed in him would perish
iii. To give eternal life to those who believed in him and to raise them up on the last day.
These verses are in the continuation of the explanation of the event of Jesus feeding the 5,000 people as in the Synoptic Gospels. But John’s uniqueness, he sees eating bread and fish as a spiritual, theological and salvational matter.
He interprets the event of eating bread and fish as eating the body of Life; ; the Body of Jesus. Jesus gives His Body for eternal life for mankind. Here it was like a prediction of the event of Jesus coming to die and giving His body. Even on Holy Thursday, Jesus spoke of eating His body while they were at the Passover meal.
First. Jesus was born in Bethlehem (Hebrew) which means House of Bread. By the way, Jesus comes from the house of bread, in that way, He Himself is bread. This means that His whole body is bread, and this bread has come down from heaven to God to give life to the world. Jesus Himself has explained this point very clearly, take some time to reflect on 6:47-58, there is something serious there.
Jesus IS the bread of life, ….whoever eats His flesh and drinks His Blood, has eternal life, and will be resurrected on the last day.
Second. I will not be able to write here, but, the translation of the word Fish in Greek each first letter has a meaning and if we combine we get this meaning, Jesus Christ the Son of God the Savior. (Jesus Christ the Son of God is the Savior or the bringer of Salvation).
This is the same as saying;
- Salvation began with God Himself. It is the Great Plan of God Himself to save us Humans.
- God in Christ came in the Flesh, and in the Flesh the Blood was used to wash us and reconcile us humans (cf. 2Cor 5:17-19).
- God wants every human being to be saved and live by faith in Christ.
- There is eternal life for those who believe in Him and follow Jesus (Jn 14).
- All these actions have been done out of His Mercy, Love, goodness and Grace towards us.
All the processes of finding us humans and saving us, no human has contributed anything to achieve our Salvation. It is all the work of God himself alone. That is where we see, all the attributes belong to God, greatness, majesty, authority, power, honor, majesty, glory belong to the Most High God our God. The creatures in Revelation have sung that.
But also, that is where we see that our God is full of goodness, mercy, love and grace for all that we have and receive (Refer to the Catechism on its meaning, How we were created in the Apostles’ Creed).
Jesus, our Savior, is the only one whom all people are called to receive, believe in, follow and serve, and Jesus has promised us, no one will be lost or abandoned or forgotten. We will remain in his hands until we reach eternal life. We have the word to guide us, we have the Holy Spirit to guide us, it is up to us to cling to our God, for He has already saved us by His grace and placed us in His hands, lest a person himself decide to leave and follow his own ways, where the end is not good.
Rev. Kilagwa
May we all be blessed.
@2026