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Category: Christian Social Witness

Christian Social Witness of Roger Harned and other Talk of JESUS .com authorsChristian Social Witness has increasingly become about SOCIAL MEDIA platforms & sharing live preaching & local Bible studies virtually. Stories in this category address 21st c. Christian issues of communication. Here’s where I need your help:
Would you email Roger@talkofJesus.com and tell us how, when & especially where you TALK to others online? Thanks for your COMMENTS & ideas. – Roger

  • The Way is Narrow & FEW find it

    The Way is Narrow & FEW find it

    The road is BROAD that leads to DESTRUCTION.

    Matthew 7:

    You with ears to hear, listen to this message below. 57:35

    Paul Washer – HeartCry Missionary Society – 2006 message to Youth Conference

    13 “Enter through the narrow gate. 
    For the gate is wide 
    and the road broad that leads to destruction, 
    and there are many who go through it. 
    14 How narrow is the gate 
    and difficult the road that leads to life, 
    and few find it.

     15 “Be on your guard against false prophets who come to you in sheep’s clothing but inwardly are ravaging wolves. 
    16 You’ll recognize them by their fruit. Are grapes gathered from thornbushes or figs from thistles? 
    17 In the same way, every good tree produces good fruit, but a bad tree produces bad fruit. 
    18 A good tree can’t produce bad fruit; neither can a bad tree produce good fruit. 
    19 Every tree that doesn’t produce good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire. 
    20 So you’ll recognize them by their fruit.

     21 “Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ 
    will enter the kingdom of heaven, 
    but only the one who does the will of my Father in heaven. 
    22 On that day many will say to me, 
    ‘Lord, Lord, didn’t we prophesy in your name, 
    drive out demons in your name, 
    and do many miracles in your name?’ 
    23 Then I will announce to them, 
    ‘I never knew you. 
    Depart from me, you lawbreakers!’

    JESUS IS THE LIFE!

    (not this life you claim on the broad path)

    What must you do?

  • About the Author John -2- Sons of Zebedee

    About the Author John -2- Sons of Zebedee

    Have you ever considered that Jesus may have called James and John the ‘sons of thunder’ because their father Zebedee, a businessman and owner of a Galilean fishing fleet may have best described as thunderous?

    And He appointed the twelve:

    Simon (to whom He gave the name Peter),

    and James, the son of Zebedee, and John the brother of James

    (to them He gave the name Boanerges, which means, “Sons of Thunder”)

    Mark 3:16-17 NASB

    Zebedee’s story

    In the introduction to our fictional story about this real father of two of Jesus’ Disciples, Zebedee had thoughtfully asked:

    “Where shall I send my sons to learn the faith of our fathers?”

    and

    “What is the will of the Lord God for my sons James and John?”

    Now we progress further into Zebedee’s first century considerations for his two beloved Jewish sons, both young men sent to learn more of the Lord God through known mentors of the faith.

    A History of our Faith

    Some thoughts of Zebedee

    I know that we no longer have the faith of Abraham and Moses. We’re just a reconstructed people, continually broken by our own unfaithfulness to the Lord. My daily life on the Sea of Galilee centers on trade with men from every direction and faith, including Jewish merchants from far away.

    Sea of Galilee, with port of Zebedee’s fleet in the north

    After Solomon’s sons separated Israel from Judah, many kings and most men refused to listen to God’s Prophets, so we became a divided people. Jerusalem’s two tribes distant to us now look away from our ten tribes of families here.

    Our Israel long ago cut-off from Judah, our own fathers and the generation of my father reap the consequences sown by Israel’s long forgotten faith in the LORD.

    10 Northern Tribes - Ephraim & Judah's Captivity with map of routes
    Assyria takes Samarian captives 722 BC & Babylon takes Judah’s captives 607-537 BC

    Between Two Temples

    Our faith remains, but never the same since Israel’s defeat some seven centuries ago and later in 586 BC when Nebuchadnezzar, the King of Babylon, conquered Jerusalem and destroyed our Temple.

    Few of the faith even remembered our Hebrew language and traditions, though at one time some of Jerusalem recovered the Law buried in the rubble of the Temple.

    In general, it is of the greatest importance to remember in regard to this Eastern dispersion, that only a minority of the Jews, consisting in all of about 50,000, originally returned from Babylon, first under Zerubbabel and afterwards under Ezra.

    THE JEWISH WORLD IN THE DAYS OF CHRIST – THE JEWISH DISPERSION IN THE EAST – ALFRED EDERSHEIM

    Ezra, a Scribe of the Law of Moses from Babylon, restored some of our faith to a new Temple in Jerusalem. But after later Prophets like Micah, our faith disintegrated into little more than discussion.

    This map shows the vast empire conquered by Alexander the Great in red highlight. The extent of the empire is an approximation of 320 BC.

    Alexander III of Macedon helped preserve our Hebrew Law in the great library at Alexandria. But because all the world has gone after their culture, philosophy and gods, our religion is translated into Greek. At least some Jews who know longer know Hebrew can hear some of the Law and understand it in our Synagogues.

    The Israel of Zebedee

    My dilemma instructing James and John really lies in the diverse schools of Judaism in our captive land ruled by Rome.

    When we had no Temple we practiced our faith without the LORD’s prescribed sacrifice. Now we learn the faith of our ancestors through study, obedience and prayer only.

    Many of my Jewish brothers speak only Aramaic and cannot even read Hebrew. Even our everyday language was imported from the east or Greek from the Roman language from the west.

    Who is King of the Jews?

    David and Solomon once sat on the Throne of the LORD in Jerusalem. We were then a United Israel under the King anointed by the LORD. Now the question of King depends on who you ask.

    Who is King of the Jews since the LORD dethroned our former kings of Israel and Judah?

    After King Josiah of Judah died Jerusalem became subject to Egypt. Then Nebuchadnezzar II defeated them and destroyed the first Temple.

    Babylonians took charge in the east, allowing some Jews to return to Jerusalem with their language and culture to rebuild our second temple. The Law was unearthed at the site of our Temple, only to have Jerusalem’s second temple destroyed once more.

    Now they have a third grand enough for a Roman Jerusalem, but here in the north we cling to a distanced faith in the LORD.

    Zebedee’s Galilee, Samaria & Judea

    Our forefathers who had remained in Samaria (as my ancestral lands were called by others) were hated by Babylonian Jews when they returned to Judea with their eastern ways.

    Three centuries ago Jerusalem and our land surrounding the Galilee capitulated to Alexander of Macedon. Our fathers were like the rest of the world around us now dominated by this man some still worship as ‘Alexander the Great.’

    But after Alexander died, Jews populating the entire world were still caught strategically in the middle of all the changing empires. Egypt ruled us again. Seleucids dominated our land just a couple of hundred years ago, before Rome defeated them.

    The Maccabees once led a revolt to retake Jerusalem from the Seleucid idolaters. Then we held a measure of independence for about four generations.

    But now that less-than-pure Herod has again rebuilt the Temple under the thumb of his friends in Rome.

    Zebedee’s family perspective

    My grandfather told us stories of Herod coming into power after the Roman Pompey appointed our High Priest.

    He sent more than eight Legions here then made our king his Syrian vassal. What right does Rome have to appoint our king or choose the LORD’s priests?

    Map of the Judea in 1st c.

    To this day, Rome remains ruthless against most ordinary Jews, especially national zealots. Their Prefects administer our so-called Syrian provinces and our king collects their taxes.

    Schools of Jewish Thought

    I have several school choices where I could send my sons James and John to learn our faith. Trouble is that they vary greatly in what Jewish worship of the LORD has become in this day.

    Pharisees, Sadducees & Essenes

    The Ḥasidim ha-Rishonim helped bring about the revolt against the Hellenists, but years ago their school faded into a sect of the Pharisees.

    I could send James or John to a well-known teacher of the Law, Philo, in Alexandria in nearby Egypt. Although there too, as with Rome and the Hellenists, they teach a different faith than that which spread back toward Galilee from the fertile crescent of Abraham.

    Some Sadducees descended from Zadok are Elders teaching strict adherence to the Law, but their rich lives reflect liberal interpretations when it comes to political compromise.

    In Jerusalem I have heard some good things about Gamaliel the new Elder descendant of Hillel, whose brother a trader from Babylon I have met. The religion of Jerusalem (and Herod) though are too tainted by politics away from which I hope to keep my sons.

    Beit Shammai most likely would never admit sons such as mine unworthy of Jerusalem’s religious elite. They seem to be Zealots of a sort without the sicarii concealed under their tasseled cloaks.

    And then there are the Essenes, who remain faithful to Scripture but hardly fit in to the day to day lives of merchants like us who must make a living by trade with others.

    Historical Differences

    Most jews have become proselytized Hellenists! Some four million of the seed of Abraham in the Empire now.

    I trade mostly with Jews from the diaspora to the east. They too debate this and argue that, so I’m not sure who to believe from conversations with merchant Jews from all over the Empire and beyond.

    ‘Houses of Instruction,’ as they are now called. In which school of Jewish thought should I raise my sons James and John?

    Zebedee’s Prayerful Choice of Schools

    John is very young but like when we work in our fishing fleet, John will be in the capable hands of my eldest son James. I have prayed to the LORD to place them both into His care and teaching.

    Alexandria and even Jerusalem seem to far from us in many ways. We still have to make our living on the sea.

    The quiet places seem less likely to draw my sons away from the LORD. So after much prayer I lean toward a rabbi preaching repentance among the Essenes. This John is quickly gaining in fame and followers all up and down the Jordan.

    John the Baptizer

    depiction of John baptizing a man at the Jordan river

    Mark 1 New American Standard Bible (NASB)

    4 John the Baptist appeared in the wilderness preaching a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins. 5 And all the country of Judea was going out to him, and all the people of Jerusalem; and they were being baptized by him in the Jordan River, confessing their sins. 6 John was clothed with camel’s hair and wore a leather belt around his waist, and his diet was locusts and wild honey.

    I had heard a story some time back from a merchant traveling back from a pilgrimage to Jerusalem. My wife had also heard rumors of the words of a prophetess well-known in Jerusalem.

    Prior to the Baptist’s Birth

    There was a priest named Zacharias who was performing his priestly service before God in the Temple. Many witnesses in Jerusalem, including the man who told this to me, supposed that this priest saw an angel of the LORD in the Holy of Holies.

    The people were waiting for Zacharias, and were wondering at his delay in the temple. But when he came out, he was unable to speak to them; and they realized that he had seen a vision in the temple; and he kept making signs to them, and remained mute. When the days of his priestly service were ended, he went back home.

    Luke 1:21-23 NASB

    My wife later told me of a story that she had heard of this priest’s barren wife.

    She was of the line of Aaron and even in her advanced years later had a son. And her husband commanded her to name their son, John.

    The second amazing thing about this is that Zacharias had not been able to speak since that day my friend told me about him in Jerusalem. But on the day he named his son John, his voice returned!

    Others have confirmed this story about John son of Zacharias, who his followers call “JOHN THE BAPTIST.”

    The Lord though my own prayer has directed me to send my sons to this rabbi in the wilderness of the Jordan. For John preaches to all a calling to all faithful Jews:

    “I am a voice of one crying in the wilderness, ‘Make straight the way of the Lord,’ as Isaiah the prophet said.”

    John 1:23 NASB, quoting Isaiah 40

    Zebedee’s Conclusion

    James and John followed John the Baptist and it was not long until the Lord confirmed our choice to send them to this great teacher, who Herod now as already killed. Both of our boys told us of their God-led calling while John still preached at the Jordan.

    I will tell it to you from my own son’s Good News of the Messiah.

    John 1:

    35 Again the next day John was standing with two of his disciples, and he looked at Jesus as He walked, and said,

    “Behold, the Lamb of God!”

    37 The two disciples heard him speak, and they followed Jesus.

    (Of course my son John was one of these and he immediately told his older brother James.)

    38 And Jesus turned and saw them following, and said to them,

    “What do you seek?”

    They said to Him,

    “Rabbi (which translated means Teacher), where are You staying?”

    39 He said to them, “Come, and you will see.”

    So they came and saw where He was staying; and they stayed with Him that day, for it was about the tenth hour.

    Zebedee – Father of Apostles

    My dear wife, mother to James and John, joined me in following our Messiah Jesus, whom our sons follow.

    I plea to you to hear John’s Gospel or this Good News through any others of the Twelve Apostles of Jesus the Messiah.

    Beloved brothers and sisters, chosen by the Lord God, I pray that the LORD will bless you and keep you and be gracious to you as He has done for me and my family.

    Amen.

    God willing, we will return to John's Gospel
from where we paused after the Holy Spirit 
in my next post.
Roger
  • A Priest, a Rabbi & a Stranger …

    A Priest, a Rabbi & a Stranger …

    A 21st Century Parable

    You know the old story (actually, several variations on a theme). Three men (but today you might have to include other designations) encounter the same situation and the third one gets the punch line.

    That’s not quite what happened to me recently as I witnessed the following story (which also includes a woman I don’t mention and a well-dressed black man I include).

    My story’s ending may be unexpected but to the best of my knowledge none of the three strangers were a priest, rabbi or a pastor. You may see some humor in it. Picture these strangers I encountered today.

    Which neighbor of the three might you have been?

    Stranded at our Neighborhood Kroger

    It was no emergency and I was prepared. Yet I was unprepared for what would follow when my car wouldn’t start.

    Yes, I had jumper cables in the trunk so I raised my hood and looked for some help.

    Stranger number one

    A man approached from the grocery store with just a few things in his bag. He headed for his car parked in the row just behind my stranded car with the hood up. I approached him as he entered his car.

    “Could you help me jump my car?”

    He rather reluctantly looked down and away from my glancing appeal from outside his door. “Sorry, but I can’t.”

    Okay, I thought. He’s dressed up and could be in a hurry. Someone else will help. So I walked to a car on the other side of the same row where my car sat helplessly with its hood up.

    Stranger number two

    Another kind-looking man had just entered his car with a soft-knit cross hanging from the mirror. My spirit lifted with hope that here was a brother who would help. So I asked.

    “Could you help me jump my car? I have battery cables.”

    He nodded his head gently saying, “My battery is really low. I don’t think it would help.”

    My heart dropped as I walked back to my car thinking of his cross on the mirror.

    Later I thought, “Gee, I should have asked him if he was a priest or Levite?” (Of course I would never do that and neither would you, but we all think those things.)

    So I called for road service, which could reach me in my local neighborhood grocery parking lot in something like forty minutes. It was then that Jesus’ Parable of the Good Samaritan came to mind. Even most non-believers know that one, but no good Samaritan here today, I thought. No big deal. I’ll just wait.

    Stranger number three

    As I sat in my car with the hood up for a bit more time in thought a man walked up to me and asked if I had help on the way.

    “Yes, I called a tow truck, but all I need is for someone to help jump my car.” He agreed to try and pulled his car up in front of mine.

    After connecting my jumper cables to both cars I got in my car and turned the key. Nothing.

    The man then said, “Let me get in my car and give it a little gas.”

    I reconnected the cables making certain to have the best contact possible then we both got in our cars and I tried again. This time, success!

    I thanked him, disconnected it all, drove home, unloaded groceries from my idling vehicle and drove to a neighborhood repair shop for a new battery.

    Just like one helped by a fictional hero of my youth, ‘I didn’t even ask this man his name.’ He was The ‘Lone Stranger’ helping someone in need.

    God knows the name of each good Samaritan and some praise their witness to a world steeped in self-righteousness, unlike a neighbor loved by the LORD.

    A Not so Funny ending

    Unlike the man in Jesus parable of the Good Samaritan, I was not on a distant highway, hurt and hopeless due to such a severe attack by robbers.

    Ok, you might laugh that I’m not exactly your helpless victim in peril here. And you may laugh just a bit more at the great irony of the man with the cross in the window not helping a brother in Christ. (It’s really kind of typical of our witness, isn’t it?)

    Yes, maybe there’s a lesson here too.

    So in our 21st century story I guess it’s the second guy who gets the punch line and the third guy’s no joke. In fact he’s just the kind of neighbor we all wish we had.

    The Good Samaritan

    Jesus’ parable could have begun with ‘a priest, a rabbi and a pastor’ scenario because in this same way His characters were just as familiar to the parable’s hearers.

    Three characters who could have helped

    A priest happened to be going down that road. When he saw him, he passed by on the other side.

    Luke 10:31 CSB

    To our many dear Jewish friends I might mention that the Messiah Jesus was considered a ‘lesser’ Jew from Galilee in the eyes of those proper Judean Jews who leaned on their status and the Law. After all, His parable was told to answer a question from the crowd mostly of Jews.

    This Priest is a Jewish Priest, a very pure and proper sort of guy. (We would not have much difficulty envisioning a Roman Catholic Priest or Orthodox Priest with all the robes, incense and the like.) The Priest of the LORD is a long-forgotten intermediary of Jewish worship.

    In the same way, a Levite, when he arrived at the place and saw him, passed by on the other side.

    Luke 10:32 CSB

    The Levites were a Priestly class of Jews better than everyone else by their nearness to religious duties. (Of course nobody in charge of ‘christian’ churches would ever feel like that.)

    We get it (and so did the Messiah’s crowds). A second man also could have helped, but didn’t. (The crowd awaits the Rabbi’s punch line.)

    So everyone knows that the next one will help. (Perhaps they will be of a different religious school of thought.)

    A Samaritan Stranger

    Samaria, on the other hand, had a bad rap in Judah due to long-established cultural prejudices.

    Those who followed the best religious practices expected a Jew to be the hero (just like we might expect a ‘good christian’ to do the right thing). Nobody expected a “Samaritan” to be ‘the good guy.’

    But a Samaritan on his journey came up to him, and when he saw the man, he had compassion… He went over to him… and took care of him… [paid an innkeeper] and said, ‘Take care of him. When I come back I’ll reimburse you for whatever extra you spend.’

    Luke 10: excerpt from Jesus’ parable of The Good Samaritan

    Questions from Lawyers

    Those who know a little more about the parable where two ‘religious’ guys (yes, Jews) didn’t help a man in need may know what prompted the Messiah’s parable.

    Jesus was answering another question from a lawyer. (You probably know his question.)

    But wishing to justify himself, he said to Jesus, “And who is my neighbor?”

    Luke 10:29 NASB

    Don’t falsely assume that the Samaritan was not a religious man with good and godly principles (just as Jesus points out that we cannot conclude that everyone who claims obedience to the Law will do what is right).

    Prior to this question, most of us know Jesus confirmed the lawyer’s restated validity of the Law of Moses, which even Samaritans likely followed.

    But then the lawyer went a step further by asking, ‘How does this apply in this contemporary case?’ (Who is my neighbor?)

    A Contemporary Contention

    By now most of us tire of endless questioning by contentious legal minds. They demand the right of their differences.

    Who did right and how should we judge the failures of others?

    They play to the crowds who expect more from religious and political leaders than the ordinary people they represent.

    Careful, though. I tend toward this ‘phariseeism;’ and likely, beloved Christian brother, faithful Jew and misled Muslim, so do you.

    Jesus said, “You judge according to the flesh; I judge no one.

    And yet if I do judge, My judgment is true; for I am not alone, but I am with the Father who sent Me.

    John 8:15-16 NKJV

    Ordinary powerless Jews and gentiles loved Jesus’ leading because He has an answer to the endless questioning of others by self-righteous men. It is God’s answer to an all-important question.

    The Questioning before the Law

    So the lawyer in the crowd standing in the spotlight of the crowds surrounding Jesus restates the Law. (Moses had reiterated it so many times.)

    Deuteronomy – Devarim, “the words [of Moses]”.

    וּמָ֨ל יְהוָ֧ה אֱלֹהֶ֛יךָ אֶת־לְבָבְךָ֖ וְאֶת־לְבַ֣ב זַרְעֶ֑ךָ לְאַהֲבָ֞ה אֶת־יְהוָ֧ה אֱלֹהֶ֛יךָ בְּכָל־לְבָבְךָ֥ וּבְכָל־נַפְשְׁךָ֖ לְמַ֥עַן חַיֶּֽיךָ׃
    source:
    30:12  לֹא בַשָּׁמַיִם הִוא לֵאמֹר מִי יַעֲלֶה־לָּנוּ הַשָּׁמַיְמָה וְיִקָּחֶהָ לָּנוּ וְיַשְׁמִעֵנוּ אֹתָהּ וְנַעֲשֶֽׂנָּה׃

    5:20 ‘You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor.

    15:2 “And this is the form of the release: Every creditor who has lent anything to his neighbor shall release it; he shall not require it of his neighbor or his brother, because it is called the LORD's release.

    27:24 ‘Cursed is the one who attacks his neighbor secretly.' “And all the people shall say, ‘Amen!'

    Thou shalt not avenge, nor bear any grudge against the children of thy people, but thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself: I am the LORD.

    Leviticus 19:18 KJV

    Do ‘christians’ know the question Jesus answered with this parable?

    ANSWER: The lawyer had asked Jesus this leading question:

    “… what must I do to inherit eternal life?”

    The Good News of Luke 10:

    Recall that Doctor Luke is a gentile disciple of the first century church, who would have been an outsider to ‘God’s chosen.’

    The Parable of the Good Samaritan

    25 Then an expert in the law stood up to test him, saying, “Teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?”

    26 “What is written in the law?” he asked him. “How do you read it?”

    27 He answered, “Love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your strength, and with all your mind,” and “your neighbor as yourself.”

    28 “You’ve answered correctly,” he told him. “Do this and you will live.”

    Do you as well have yet another question?

    “Do this and you will live,” the Messiah Jesus tells us.

    What must I do to receive eternal life? …

    This is the question Jesus answered with the parable of The Good Samaritan.

    Do you have a ‘Jesus’ bumper sticker on your car? (Didn’t you just cut me off in traffic? And you were on your cell, right?)

    You don’t really want to know more than what the LORD has commanded us, do you?

    Who’s right?

    So Jesus seems to pick on the Jews (rather than pick the Jews).

    Can a stranger actually inherit eternal life?

    Christians often treat Jews and Muslims who worship the One God as Samaritans, even though some follow custom and righteousness without grieving the Holy Spirit of the LORD.

    We all see and judge those Catholic Crosses and Protestant Jesus symbols. Yet what do these witness to others?

    Can anyone but the Lord God judge a man’s heart or draw one to repentance and eternal life?

    Some who do not fully believe that Jesus IS the only way to eternal life may be destined to see the Light of Truth on the path of righteousness.

    Even some secretive believers must hide their faith in the Living Messiah of the Lord God. Christians traveling the road between this temporary earthly home and the Jerusalem of true worship must go into all the world with Good News (and not false witness).

    Do you have a question for Jesus?

    You can take the LORD at His Word. Or ask a brother or sister truly following Christ as their personal Lord and Savior, “What must I do?”

    Beloved wounded man of flesh, fallen into the pit of sin along the dust of this dry and temporal life in failing flesh, I pray for your restoration to life, a recharging of your soul into the beginning of a true witness for the Messiah Jesus, One with the Father and Holy Spirit of the Most High God.

    Along this busy quick highway of life, before its end what must you do?

    Jesus told him, “Go and do the same.”