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Category: 4 Gospels + Good News of the NEW Testament

What are the Gospels?

FOUR Gospels:

GOOD NEWS! (That’s what Gospel means.)

Matthew, Mark, Luke & John begin the New Testament proclaiming the Good News of Israel’s long-awaited Messiah and talk of JESUS Christ.

The four Gospels are first hand witness + proclaiming GOOD NEWS

by two Jewish Apostles of the Messiah JESUS, Matthew & John
Two gentile (non-Jewish) followers of THE WAY of Jesus Christ, Mark & Luke, who proclaim the GOSPEL recorded from witness of Peter, Paul and other Apostles and disciples of JESUS in the first century.

READ the Good News of the Messiah and Savior Jesus from accounts of His twelve Apostles & others witnessing the resurrection of the Lord Jesus from the four Gospels of the New Testament: Matthew, Mark, Luke and John.

SHARE the Gospel

with your Christian friends and those who do not yet believe in JESUS CHRIST.
Comment on a Talk of JESUS post and SHARE in your social media world.

12 Men Texting as their Messiah approaches – Part 1
If you could TEXT 12 men or women about Jesus Christ, would you? Do you SHARE the Good News of JESUS with a ‘christian’ friend or 12 men you know or dozens of men and women who have questions about the Gospel?

Worship of the Son of God!

You likely know the narratives of 21st century holidays such as Palm Sunday, Easter or even Passover [Pesach – פסח (in Hebrew)] all too well – perhaps too well to worship the Lord God in the context of a first century Jerusalem.

A dear Jewish friend of ours, one of many since my wife is a Messianic Jew, commented just last week on the troubling events of these last days. He said something to the effect that it looks like it could be getting close to the time of the return of the Messiah.

Perhaps our Jewish friend is right. Indeed, if you examine the context of the first coming of the Messiah Jesus you will see promise after His bodily resurrection of a return once more.

Yet I ask you to consider in my agreement with our Jewish friend (a social jew just like many “christians” have become social christians) a deeper look into Scripture – Jewish Scripture. What you read here I offer based on what Christians call, the “Old Testament” or the ‘former Covenant.’

The Former Covenant – בְּרִית

How many Christians OR Jews truly value the solemn witness of Covenant with the LORD our God?

Sadly, too few — and the LORD in these last days seems all-but forgotten in the hearts and lives of those ‘religious’ who claim covenant with the Lord our God. I trust that by your own study of my exposition of prophecy of the Messiah and especially all other Scripture (yes, christian, including the Old Covenant) you seek cleansing and redemption for your sins.

Although ancient writings of the Talmud & Mishna, (in various translations), the Apocrypha (with 14 books Jewish in origin) and other extra-Biblical teaching may be enlightening, these do not stand up to Scripture alone, the inspired word of the Lord God.

We might easily veer off course, sidetracked from the Lord’s application of Scripture in our own lives by even unintentional misdirection and misinterpretation by teachers of the past.

In this brief look of connection between the Old Covenant and New we will look back to two brief passages from three chapters of Daniel.

The New Covenant

Our purpose here is focused only on the Sacrifice of the Son of Man – the Messiah of Israel – and not specifically the broken covenant compared to a new and better covenant. If the Spirit of the Lord draws you to further study the following translations of the book of Hebrews may help.

Hebrews 9:
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Please note that you may LISTEN to three of these translations as well as READ it in Hebrew.
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Daniel 9:

… I, Daniel, observed in the books the number of the years which was revealed as the word of the LORD to Jeremiah the prophet for the completion of the desolations of Jerusalem, namely, seventy years.

24 …
- to finish the transgression,
- to make an end of sin,
- to make atonement for iniquity,
- to bring in everlasting righteousness,
- to seal up vision and prophecy
- and to anoint the most holy place.
What mere mortal, what man even a priest of the Lord can do this with permanence?

Only the Son of Man, the Holy One of Israel – the One Messiah Jesus!

25 Know therefore and understand, that from the going forth of the commandment to restore and to build Jerusalem unto the Messiah the Prince…

You with ears to hear, understand: Jerusalem does not surpass the Messiah the Prince of God our Father in importance. For by His Sacrifice worship of the LORD is sanctified and perfected in Jesus the Son of Man and Only Son of God.

… It will be rebuilt with a plaza and a moat,
but in difficult times.
26 After those sixty-two weeks
the Anointed One will be cut off
and will have nothing.
The people of the coming ruler
will destroy the city and the sanctuary…

Daniel 10: Vision of a Glorious One

Better-learned men than me have studied Daniel’s vision of the Messiah and understood more, but even the Prophet Daniel confessed that he did not understand its full meaning.

I will add one additional look at Daniel after deferring to Sir Isaac Newton.

On the Bible:

“I have a fundamental belief in the Bible as the Word of God, written by men who were inspired. I study the Bible daily.”

On atheism:
“Atheism is so senseless.

When I look at the solar system. I see the earth at the right distance from the sun to receive the proper amounts of heat and light. This did not happen by chance.”
TEXT COMMENTARIES :: SIR ISAAC NEWTON – BluedLetterBible.org

If you count in Judaic years commencing in autumn, and date the reckoning from the first autumn after Ezra’s coming to Jerusalem, when he put the King’s decree in execution; the death of Christ will fall on the year of the Julian Period 4747, Anno Domini 34; and the weeks will be Judaic weeks, ending with sabbatical years; and this I take to be the truth…

Daniel 12:

Many of those who sleep in the dust of the ground will awake, these to everlasting life, but the others to disgrace and everlasting contempt.
Daniel 12:2 NASB

7 Then I heard the man dressed in linen, who was above the water of the river. He raised both his hands toward heaven and swore by him who lives eternally that it would be for a time, times, and half a time.

When the power of the holy people is shattered, all these things will be completed.

8 I heard but did not understand…

Whether texting 12 men and women OR simply sharing the Gospel in person you can bet that THEY do not understand either. Why not start your Christian Social Witness here?

Comment on Scripture – Share the Gospel
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To be continued...
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April 2, 2020
Jesus – Traveling to and from Bethany

Departing Bethany

Jesus the Messiah has just given the Jews of Judea a sign proving that He IS the Son of God. For after traveling some distance on foot to Bethany the Lord arrived to find his friend Lazarus dead. Then to the amazement of all, Jesus calls Lazarus from the tomb.

The Messiah gives back to a man dead in the grave life itself!

We pause once more in the chronological events in Jesus’ journey to the Cross and His own resurrection to look back briefly at Bethany, the town of this miracle, from Luke’s Gospel.

Luke 10:

Now after this the Lord appointed seventy others, and sent them in pairs ahead of Him to every city and place where He Himself was going to come…

“Go; behold, I send you out as lambs in the midst of wolves.

This was Jesus’ caution to seventy disciples following Him. Do not be so innocent as to think that because God will save you that God’s enemies of this world will not harm you.

“The one who listens to you listens to Me, and the one who rejects you rejects Me; and he who rejects Me rejects the One who sent Me.”
Luke 10:16 – Commission of the Messiah Jesus to followers

Jesus travels these roads between Galilee, Samaria and Judea. The Lord’s disciples know the dangers of travel in these places.

“Who is my neighbor?”

Jesus tells the Parable of the Good Samaritan to listeners familiar with a distrust of other travelers. The villains, however, turn out to be just the type of religious officials we look up to at church!

Luke makes his point from Jesus’ parable most likely told to crowds coming to Jerusalem, then proceeds to introduce us to the family of Lazarus in Bethany.

Bethany

38 Now as they were traveling along, He entered a village; and a woman named Martha welcomed Him into her home. She had a sister called Mary, who was seated at the Lord’s feet, listening to His word.

But Martha was distracted with all her preparations; and she came up to Him and said,

“Lord, do You not care that my sister has left me to do all the serving alone? Then tell her to help me.”

But the Lord answered and said to her,

“Martha, Martha, you are worried and bothered about so many things; but only one thing is necessary, for Mary has chosen the good part, which shall not be taken away from her.”

Luke then moves on with another time and place without providing detail about their brother Lazarus, who presumably is at work somewhere away from this scene.

Returning now to the home of Lazarus, Mary and Martha on the Lord’s later journey witnessed by John.

John 11:

… Jesus said to them, “Unbind him, and let him go.”

45 Therefore many of the Jews who came to Mary, and saw what He had done, believed in Him.

The Apostle John proceeds to witness the motives of the Jews who sought to kill their Messiah.

Two paths leaving Bethany

(God-willing, we will return to this while considering Jesus’ final journey to Jerusalem, completing that for which He was sent by God the Father.)

A road through Bethany to the Cross

Now let’s depart Bethany with Jesus as the Lord left after healing Lazarus from death itself.

54 Therefore Jesus no longer continued to walk publicly among the Jews,

but went away from there to the country near the wilderness, into a city called Ephraim; and there He stayed with the disciples.

Returning to Bethany

Then as the Passover approaches many leave for Jerusalem with other pilgrims traveling to the Temple to purify themselves.

John 12:

Jesus, therefore, six days before the Passover, came to Bethany where Lazarus was, whom Jesus had raised from the dead.

2 So they made Him a supper there, and Martha was serving; but Lazarus was one of those reclining at the table with Him.

Then Mary took a pound of very costly oil of spikenard, anointed the feet of Jesus, and wiped His feet with her hair.

And the house was filled with the fragrance of the oil.

The Apostle John adds further description of the fragrance, adding the reaction of Judas with witness of his motives:

“Why was this fragrant oil not sold for three hundred denarii and given to the poor?”

“Let her alone; she has kept this for the day of My burial. For the poor you have with you always, but Me you do not have always.”

Dining with dear friends

Jesus and the Twelve have returned to Bethany from the small city of Ephraim in the hills to the north full-well knowing of the plot of Jerusalem’s religious leaders to kill them all.

Yet for a brief evening, they share precious mortal time together. No man knows the value of this more than Lazarus, their host and the Son of Man who must soon depart for Jerusalem one last time.

How they must have discussed the experience of DEATH.. and of RESURRECTION…

March 31, 2020
Lazarus – the Dead Man came out!
Witness of a Dead Man

What must it be like to be dead? (Have you ever thought about it?)

You get sick and perhaps pain increases. Your loved ones begin to look at you in a different way than when you participated in life with them.

Although John’s Good News focuses on Jesus, dear friend of Lazarus (who just happens to be the Messiah), the mourners present for this funeral now would see Lazarus in a new light. He becomes a dead man walking out of his own grave!

The Messiah Jesus, after having been to Jerusalem for a festival (and likely Bethany) receives a message from Mary and Martha asking for help. Jesus continues His mission while returning to Bethany, arriving four days after Lazarus’ death. The Messiah mourns publically the death of His friend.

But then a turn of events for the dead man unexpected by the mourners of Lazarus.

John 11:

38 Then Jesus, again groaning in Himself, came to the tomb.

It was a cave, and a stone lay against it.

Jesus said, “Take away the stone.”

One does not go into the place of the dead to pray for their soul. And what else can a mere man do to help one that has died?

Martha, the sister of him who was dead, said to Him, “Lord, by this time there is a stench, for he has been dead four days.”

40 Jesus said to her, “Did I not say to you that if you would believe you would see the glory of God?”

This goes back to their conversation about death and resurrection when Martha first spoke with Jesus as He and the Apostles approached Bethany.

“If only you had been here, Lord,” said Martha, “my brother would never have died… “Your brother will rise again,” Jesus replied to her.
John 11:21-23 excerpt PHILLIPS

41 So they removed the stone.

Witness of a prayer

Then Jesus raised His eyes, and said,

“Father, I thank You that You have heard Me.

I knew that You always hear Me;

but because of the people standing around I said it,

so that they may believe that You sent Me.”

Does God hear you?

If the Lord God hears you, then your public witness to the world around you had best be true.

43 After Yeshua had said this, he shouted as loudly as he could,

“Lazarus, come out!”

The Messiah Jesus (Yeshua) has just shouted into an open tomb to a dead man!

Does God the Father, Whom Jesus thanked for hearing Him, hear the Lord Jesus’ loud cry to Lazarus? Can a man dead for four days hear the loudest shout of earth or heaven?

Resurrection of a dead friend

“Lazarus, come forth.”

44 The man who had died came forth…

… bound hand and foot with wrappings, and his face was wrapped around with a cloth.

A dead man walking. This very sight of Lazarus bound in the wrappings of death must have terrified those present!

These sort of things do not happen.

“Now unbind him,” Jesus told them, “and let him go home.”

Some brave soul complied with the command of their Lord and Lazarus, a man dead in the grave, would walk weakly in amazement to the door of his own home, his sisters Martha and Mary at his side.

The Messiah Jesus, his friend, would accompany the one He had just saved from a death already experienced.

… for an hour is coming, in which all who are in the tombs will hear His voice, and will come forth;
those who did the good deeds to a resurrection of life,
those who committed the evil deeds to a resurrection of judgment.
John 5:28b-29 NASB– the words of the Messiah Jesus
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You with ears to hear, 
hear the voice of Jesus 
calling out to your dead soul...

To be continued...
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March 30, 2020