Talk of JESUS . com

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.

Follow After Me – a series on Christian life in the 21st c.

Then Jesus told his disciples, “If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me.

– Matthew 16:24

Who do you follow?

It seems in this 21st century that following Jesus is NOT the thing to do. Worshiping GOD seems to be a thing of the past. Tolerance for other religions (even those with no tolerance for our beliefs) seems to be an inviolable standard for a post-modern morality without standards. Christianity is on the outs.

Those living in a European Union of atheist existence no longer challenge the communist for their opposition to God, but for their competition to our greed. Suppressed peoples of Africa, Asia and the Middle East are ignored for their needs, yet exploited for their resources.

In the United States, a nation founded after a great awakening to the glory of God and hope in Jesus Christ, freedom of speech has digressed into irresponsible sound bites. And in a post-Christian U.S., religion in our former nation under God, has fallen into a frenzy of preservation of a lost way of life. We are no longer a safe haven for the tired, the poor and huddled masses. Even the language of future leaders would gamble on a ban of immigrants.

Who in this world would you follow?

A strong dictator with guns and oil and young men who will die for him? A billionaire who would buy the Presidency of a powerful nation? A robed Arab prince who beheads Christians? Perhaps an autocratic zealous religious leader of a long-gone false and violent prophet? Who would you trust with your life and your family?

Who would you follow today? Who would you trust with your present and your future, even sins of your past and hope for your eternity?

Jesus Christ,

a Savior for every century, a Redeemer for every sinner

You probably don’t live in Israel. You are not likely the owner of a fishing fleet or dishonest tax collector. I know you don’t imagine that a dozen poor men, a few hundred common and poor Jews and women with no stake in a Roman district on the Mediterranean 21 centuries ago have anything in common with you.

In fact, if you believe in God; in fact, if you believe in Christ Jesus; in fact, if you live in this day as a follower of the Way of Jesus you don’t have much in common with those who compete with you in the workplace and challenge you in your everyday 21st century life.

You may only be looking for some answers to a life that matters – your life, even the souls of those you love. Where do you look? Who do you trust?

Who would you learn from? Whose example would you follow? After all, you and I are sinners – failed sinners in a fallen world which digresses quickly toward the destruction of all we value.

Why Jesus? Why do the words of the Gospel, the Good News of the Messiah of God coming to mankind, resonate with us?

Read the story of Jesus of Nazareth, the Son of Man of 21 centuries ago, who IS raised from the dead and rules over powers and principalities we cannot understand and you will see that He is the only man in history who IS exactly who He says He IS.

Jesus Christ IS God Incarnate!

He came to mankind in love for the cost of our sins. He came to save us from death and punishment. He will come again in judgment of those who have hated God and their fellow man. Jesus came to the world to establish His Kingdom in love. The LORD GOD, who has called for us to follow after Him in word and in deed, will celebrate the glory of His creation for all eternity in the fellowship of those who love and worship Him.

Challenges of a 21st c. Christian life

This NEW series will address our challenges of living as followers of Jesus Christ in a world of selfishness and obeying God in a world corrupted by godlessness. At any time in these last times, following Jesus in the footsteps of love through the darkness of days seems difficult at best.

The Name of Jesus and glory of God are maligned by the headlines of hateful souls and agendas of prideful sinners.

Yet read the Bible: understand the Law of God, praise the glory of the LORD, hear the writing on the walls, experience the hope of the Gospel, embrace the letters of love and heed the revelation of God’s will. Know the beginning and the end. See that the LORD has come to you and to me, because we are sinners in need of a Savior.

I pray that the encouragement of this series might help you to see yourself as a fellow sinner who would like to flee this world, yet by our witness to the light of eternal hope we choose to listen to the Son of Man, Christ Jesus, who calls out to each of us:

“Follow after me.”

To be continued…

NEXT: Hope for the Guilty

January 14, 2016
a Gift You Cannot Touch & a God You Can Embrace

What are your expectations for Christmas? What are your memories of gifts and special moments past seasons? What gift have you given? What gifts will you receive?

We hope anew for each Christmas to bring light into the darkness of our disappointments, discouragement of days past, present and future.

Cortland Roller Rink c.1955

What was it like when you were a child? What special gift remains in your memory in great detail, what special moment of Christmas yet warms your heart with love and joy?

Or perhaps your warmest memories are from a special moment of a gift you gave to your own child, hugs of a Pooh Bear or love overflowing through a well-planned shared moment of opening a Christmas gift.

So many of us rely on and turn back to our memories of Christmas. I remember Christmas pageants and little angels elbowing each other, as well as well-rehearsed Christmas carols bringing a chuckle of joy over an unplanned solo or lyric not just quite right.

In the year of our Lord, 2015, Christmas seems so out of reach…

We have ordered even more of our gifts from those online warehouses. We have sent less Christmas cards, made less phone calls, cancelled caroling and planned less dinners with others (at least that’s how it seems here).

I have ordered gifts that may or may not arrive on time to loved ones I may or may not see. I have missed the touch of picking out personal gifts and handling them; wrapping them in a carefully chosen paper and seeing the look on their faces when my gift is opened. Rather, I hope these too many untouched gifts make it to far away places by Christmas.

I have my Charlie Brown Christmas this year and Rudolph…

We have so many lights and a big tree (but it isn’t real & I didn’t cut it down myself as I once did).

Oh, and we do have a Nativity scene on the mantle. (We all get a little distracted by Christmas, don’t we?)

Our church has already had a wonderful Christmas program. We invited guests; about half of them came. Carolers were going to come to our neighborhood this year from the Christian school, but that got rained out. (Less than half of the homes here even have Christmas lights.)

Christmas is named for Jesus Christ

Why, I suppose most would wonder? Why have Christmas? Why does a busy world like ours even need Jesus Christ?

Of course our neighbors, rebellious family and unbelieving friends certainly don’t want to hear about the Cross of Jesus Christ and Easter. (More than enough violence in the world we would rather avoid.) But Christmas, that’s a holiday we can sell. (People like the lights and gifts and all. Makes us all feel good and remember nice stuff, right?)

Just as Christmas has become a time of sending gifts we cannot touch, Christmas has also become a time of Jesus most of us cannot share.

May I gently remind you here that I have shared Christmas messages with friends, family & strangers every year AND that so few of you have responded positively by even registering on my web site?

I do it all for the sake of the gospel, that I may share with them in its blessings. – 1 Corinthians 9:23

Very few of us SHARE anything about Jesus with others or have any COMMENT on the Christian Social Witness of our brothers and sisters in Christ our Lord.

We live in very impersonal times. Others wear headphones attached to their devices so that they will not have to hear us. The world is engaged in buying gifts for our selfish pleasures more than sacrificing things for the joy of a few others. Christmas is just another buying season, and a big one at that.

Yet when we silence the music, turn off the virtual visual distraction of the games and news and entertainment; when we sit silently for once, peering into the opened gift of our beating heart, we find a void for the Gift of God better understood as the Baby Jesus in a manger, than a fearsome Father God at the Throne of Judgment.

Fear Not!

Fear not! Do you fear a Babe in a manger? Certainly not.

Our GOD is a loving, compassionate and forgiving God, though He IS HOLY.

Mankind feared the Presence of Almighty God, even more than a Father looking over you. Man fears any spirit, which we cannot see and do not understand, let alone the Spirit of the Living God when the LORD has made Himself know in time and place.

Therefore, even angels, who worship and obey Almighty God; angels as messengers sent to the sons of Adam; powerful angels all men fear begin their announcement of the Messiah with: Fear not.

Luke 2:

10 And the angel said to them, “Fear not, for behold, I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all the people. 11 For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, who is Christ the Lord. 12 And this will be a sign for you: you will find a baby wrapped in swaddling cloths and lying in a manger.” 13 And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host praising God and saying,

14 “Glory to God in the highest,
and on earth peace among those with whom he is pleased!”

Is the LORD pleased with you this Christmas, in His year 2015?

You were made in the very image of God.

No man or woman can reflect the Perfect loving righteousness of the LORD. By our sin we openly rebel against our Heavenly Father, who has created all things. By the distraction of our misguided hopes and dreams of self-righteous accomplishment, we reject the Spirit of God and forget to number our days.

Even so, in His loving plan of redemption for those who will turn back to the LORD,

God sent His only Son to a Manger, that we might embrace HIM.

When Jesus’ beloved Disciple John once more beheld the Risen Christ in a Revelation of God’s plan, what were His first words of comfort?

Fear not,

I am the first and the last, and the living one.

I died, and behold I am alive forevermore,

and I have the keys of Death and Hades.

Revelation 1:17b-18

Perhaps you fear other men or circumstances. Maybe you fear your own death. You might even have reverence for God our Father and occasionally give Him a small portion of the glory God deserves.

Yet this Christmas, even by your confession, I adjure you to embrace Jesus as your Lord; embrace Christ Jesus just as you would lovingly hold a baby in a manger.

Merry Christmas, beloved.

Roger

December 24, 2015
A voice was heard in Ramah
A baby born in a manger.. What a peaceful scene to make us think of children.

What does Christmas, in the year of our Lord, 2015, have to do with the birth of Christ in a manger in Bethlehem?

Thus saith the LORD; A voice was heard in Ramah, lamentation, and bitter weeping; Rachel weeping for her children refused to be comforted for her children, because they were not.

– Jeremiah 31:15

Matthew 2:

Now after Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judea in the days of Herod the king, behold, wise men from the east came to Jerusalem, ²saying, “Where is he who has been born king of the Jews? For we saw his star when it rose and have come to worship him.” ³When Herod the king heard this, he was troubled, and all Jerusalem with him; ⁴and assembling all the chief priests and scribes of the people, he inquired of them where the Christ was to be born. ⁵They told him, “In Bethlehem of Judea, for so it is written by the prophet:

⁶“‘And you, O Bethlehem, in the land of Judah,
    are by no means least among the rulers of Judah;
for from you shall come a ruler
    who will shepherd my people Israel.’”

⁷Then Herod summoned the wise men secretly and ascertained from them what time the star had appeared. ⁸And he sent them to Bethlehem, saying, “Go and search diligently for the child, and when you have found him, bring me word, that I too may come and worship him.” ⁹After listening to the king, they went on their way. And behold, the star that they had seen when it rose went before them until it came to rest over the place where the child was.

What has war between the nations changed over the millennia, except the suffering of innocents by the hands of the sinful?

King Herod of Judea was a ruthless and savvy political leader, not unlike those who vie for power over the innocents in this post-modern day.

Herod had already executed his brother-in-law and High Priest Aristobulus III and also ended the rival rule of the Hasmonean kings of Judea by killing Hyrcanus II. source

After the three Wise Men from the East (Jews from former Seleucid lands) came with news of the Messiah, Herod did what any ruthless ruler does (then and even now). He sought to kill off any King who might come against him and take away his power. Herod ordered a killing of innocents.

Herod Kills the Children

¹⁶Then Herod, when he saw that he had been tricked by the wise men, became furious, and he sent and killed all the male children in Bethlehem and in all that region who were two years old or under, according to the time that he had ascertained from the wise men. ¹⁷Then was fulfilled what was spoken by the prophet Jeremiah:

18 “A voice was heard in Ramah,
weeping and loud lamentation,
Rachel weeping for her children;
she refused to be comforted, because they are no more.”
c. 5 B.C. at the time following the birth of Jesus Christ
- Best estimates of the number of children under two ordered to be killed by Herod was 20
IS – Voice of the Martyrs
December 2015
- 265 Children under age one have been killed in the war in Syria since 2011.
- One in eight babies are born in conflict zones, 16.6 million in all
- Violence has forced 60 Million people from their homes
- Victims of Muslim sectarian violence & Christians must flee or pay a tax to live in fear at home
- Up to 50% of IS & terrorist funding comes from forced taxes & they control all local trade
- More than 980,000 people have applied for asylum in EU countries this year alone!
Syrian, Saudi, Iranian and Russian despots are no less ruthless than King Herod. Yet the LORD God Almighty sent his only Son, Christ Jesus, into a place and time of danger – a humble manger in Bethlehem of Judea.

What has this changed for the world?

Did Jesus rule with an iron fist and the Power of Almighty God for a mere few acres of earth in the Middle East?

NO! A loving God our Father sent his Son, the Messiah of Israel and the hope of the Nations (including atheist and arab nations) to save beloved chosen individual souls from our sin and from eternal punishment and death. Jesus Christ did not fight for a homeland, but for Heaven above. Christ Jesus lived and died that you may have life eternal.

Joseph and Mary rescued baby Jesus from Bethlehem and Herod. They fled with the Messiah to Egypt.

The baby Jesus was a refugee.

Matthew 2:

19 But when Herod died, behold, an angel of the Lord appeared in a dream to Joseph in Egypt, 20 saying, “Rise, take the child and his mother and go to the land of Israel, for those who sought the child’s life are dead.” 21 And he rose and took the child and his mother and went to the land of Israel. 22 But when he heard that Archelaus was reigning over Judea in place of his father Herod, he was afraid to go there, and being warned in a dream he withdrew to the district of Galilee. 23 And he went and lived in a city called Nazareth, so that what was spoken by the prophets might be fulfilled, that he would be called a Nazarene.

Just two more thoughts: first about IS, Boko Haram & other evil men, and secondly, the refugees of 2015 who have fled from violent and powerful leaders of nations, from violent and powerful zealous misled Muslims:

Love Your Enemies

^{Matthew 5:43}“You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy.’ ⁴⁴But I say to you, Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, ⁴⁵so that you may be sons of your Father who is in heaven. For he makes his sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the just and on the unjust. ⁴⁶For if you love those who love you, what reward do you have? Do not even the tax collectors do the same?

Show your love to a child like Jesus

Matthew 25:37-38

Then the righteous will answer him, saying,

‘Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you drink?

And when did we see you a stranger and welcome you, or naked and clothe you?

When did you?

Help Syrian Refugees

To be contimued

This post is part of the continuing series of post for Christmas, in the year of our Lord 2015, by Roger Harned.
December 18, 2015