Talk of JESUS . com

Tag: acts

  • Is the Evangelical Christian?

    Is the Evangelical Christian?

    What’s YOUR image of the evangelical christian?

    What is it that they do? Where do YOU hear about them?

    How do YOU become one? (Would you even want to add YOUR name to a list of evangelical Christians?)

    This all-American anomaly does seem more prevalent in certain months of certain years. It’s practically an insult, isn’t it?

    Who is calling out these evangelical christians so visible in the media?

    Good News – Bad News

    First, the Good News.

    εὐαγγελιστής – Evangelist (noun) – The Evangelist brings good news! It’s the name given to the NT heralds of salvation through Christ who are not apostles.

    Philip and the Ethiopian official in his chariot on the road from Jerusalem in Gaza, reading the scroll of Isaiah before he is baptized

    Then the Spirit said to Philip, “Go over and join this chariot.” And Philip ran up and heard him reading Isaiah the prophet, and said,

    “Do you understand what you are reading?”

    And he said, “Well, how could I, unless someone guides me?” And he invited Philip to come up and sit with him.

    Acts of the Apostles 8:26-40 Legacy Standard Bible

    GOOD NEWS: Philip is a Biblical example of an Evangelical Christian.

    Evangelicals are preachers – those who have received their Gospel from the angels of God!

    Christians are called to proclaim Jesus Christ, preaching His Gospel Good News to those drawn by God to eternal life.

    For indeed we have had good news preached to us, even as they also did, but the word they heard didn’t profit them, because it wasn’t mixed with faith by those who heard.

    Hebrews 4:2 – HNV

    Now the Bad News (and it is two-fold).

    Many evangelical christians do NOT follow Jesus Christ

    1. Many who hear the Good News proclaimed will not benefit.
    2. Some who claim to bring their good news to all do not preach Christ. (Listen with caution to where these so-called evangelicals would lead you and their loyal herds into the turmoil of this world.)

    Listen to the sound reasoning of the Apostle Paul as he encourages believers of the Church at Corinth:

    But if our gospel is veiled, it is veiled to those who are perishing. In their case, the god of this age has blinded the minds of the unbelievers to keep them from seeing the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God.

    For we are not proclaiming ourselves but Jesus Christ as Lord, and ourselves as your servants for Jesus’s sake. – 2 Corinthians 4:3-5 CSB

    A Christian Evangelical

    The authentic evangelical Christian claims no Lord other than Jesus Christ or agenda before the Gospel of Scripture.

    Roger@talkofJESUS.com

    The Gospel of Jesus Christ is foremost in the proclamation of the evangelical.

    • Political and cultural cause do not become a gospel for an authentic evangelical Christian.

    It is both true and troublesome that the label ‘Christians‘ was first used in Antioch (Acts 11:26) to malign followers of Jesus Christ compared to other religions and contemporarily used to claim or malign Jesus as a cause for or against culture unrelated to Christ.

    Not every evangelical is so, just because someone called them an ‘evangelical christian’ away from the context of worship.

    • The authentic evangelical worshiper will not ride every wave of contemporary culture or cling to cultural traditions of their past.
    • An authentic evangelical church does not blindly follow the vision of a pastor ahead of the Gospel which God has revealed in the Bible.
    • The authentic evangelical preacher does not substitute his own words for the true Gospel written in Scripture.

    What is it that authentic Evangelical Christians do?

    They evangelize good news of Christ.

    The Gospel is Good News for sinners saved from death and the judgement of God. But the NEWS of Jesus Christ is NOT a topic shared by the world set against God.

    Is the Lord Jesus Christ the HEADLINE of media?

    Hardly.

    What is it that Republicans do? They evangelize the good news of the republic (regardless of who they claim as their god).

    And what is it that Democrats do? They evangelize the good news of democracy (regardless of what universal religion of the masses they claim).

    Who is calling out these evangelical christians so visible in the media?

    The opposition – opponents both of each other and against Jesus Christ.

    So what is the business of media (including, of course, SOCIAL MEDIA)?

    NEWS that sells.

    Viral News that spreads through the unconsciousness of addicted consumers of culture.

    NEWS creates COVID

    – a Culture Of Viral Influential Destruction

    of its consumed viewers, readers, listeners and virtual audience.

    Whenever the world believes they can once again crucify the Lord God on their cross,

    the NEWS maligns evangelical christians as human examples

    demonstrating how God cannot save their world or their souls.

    From Tents to Stadiums & Community to MEGA-Church

    The Apostles of the first century Church appointed other men like Philip to serve their growing church and preach the Gospel. These men and women were evangelical Christians in the fullest sense, proclaiming Gospel Good News of salvation through Jesus Christ our Lord to all the world — men, women and children of every culture and nation.

    Their churches (some to which we have letters from the Apostles) were mostly house churches or gatherings of the saints in certain public places.

    Evangelism was by word of mouth and by their own example of Christ-like uniqueness from the cultures in which they lived.

    Peter, John, Paul, Philip, Barnabas, Luke and many others represent Christ as evangels of their first century lives. They traveled between communities, wrote letters, sent money and pastoral advice and stayed with these believers for a time when the Spirit led them to build up the Church.

    The Tabernacle was central to the Hebrew community as they traveled to the Promised Land

    Paul made tents for travelers, but by the days of the explorers of later centuries, larger tents became meeting places – a public square in the middle of nowhere as in the days of the Tabernacle of Moses.

    Evangelical Christians have gone into all the world in every century between the first and twenty-first an proclaimed the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

    a Glance at Evangelicalism Divided

    evangelical christians worshiping in church

    The impression of Christ by the evangelical of the twentieth century became tainted by evangelicals themselves, a trend which has multiplied into further contention in our cultural churches of the twenty-first century.

    We will continue our look at Evangelical Christian Churches NEXT TIME in a brief overview of 1950-2000 by Iain Murray.

    Stay tuned…

  • Breaking NEWS from ACTS 9!

    Breaking NEWS from ACTS 9!

    google earth map of the mediterranean under the influence of Rome and the world beyond
    Talk of JESUS .com

    Good NEWS (the gospel)

    Even in this 21st century in the year of our Lord, 2022, the Gospel of Jesus Christ has enemies. NO Good News where atheist leaders can prevent it.

    But any map of the world will reveal MANY roads – paths for Good News to Damascus or ANY other city in the world where the LORD commands the Gospel to be proclaimed.

    Gospel blocked by Russian Federation - READ Acts 8 anyway

    SO let’s travel as refugees to places of other languages (even IF it has been coerced by a path to suffer for the sake of Christ).

    Other roads for the Good News (TalkofJESUS.com) is one of them

    as we received mercy, we do not lose heart
εἰ δὲ καὶ ἔστιν κεκαλυμμένον τὸ εὐαγγέλιον ἡμῶν ἐν τοῖς ἀπολλυμένοις ἐστὶν κεκαλυμμένον
ἐν οἷς ὁ θεὸς τοῦ αἰῶνος τούτου ἐτύφλωσεν τὰ νοήματα τῶν ἀπίστων εἰς τὸ μὴ αὐγάσαι τὸν φωτισμὸν τοῦ εὐαγγελίου τῆς δόξης τοῦ Χριστοῦ ὅς ἐστιν εἰκὼν τοῦ θεοῦ

+ from the writings of Saul of Tarsus to the Church at Corinth, Greece 4:3-4 PROS KORINQIOUS BV (2 Corinthians) 4 :: Morphological Greek New Testament (MGNT)

    Our Talk of JESUS .com series from ACTS of the Apostles has brought us from Jerusalem to Damascus, Syria in ACTS 7-9.

    Damascus Road: Witness into all the World
    Saul, of Tarsus [Turkey] meets Jesus Christ, risen Son of God along a road to Damascus

    ACTS 9:

    “I am Jesus, the one you are persecuting,”

    ACTS 9:5b

    a History of the First Century Church and the beginning of persecution of the faithful

    Syria Cilicia Phoenice with Damascus as a road of witness into all the Roman world of the AD first century
    Gospel goes into Gaza then Syria

    CLICK HERE to READ Acts 9 in your language

    Comment on Scripture – Share the Gospel

    TRANSLATE our Posts from the Bible into YOUR language

    AND please COMMENT + SHARE your SOCIAL WITNESS with us

  • σκληροτράχηλος – a stiff-necked people

    σκληροτράχηλος – a stiff-necked people

    I must confess that one of my favorite phrases of conviction today comes from one of several sermons which was not well-received by its audience: Stiff-necked!

    “You stiff-necked people, uncircumcised in heart and ears, you always resist the Holy Spirit. As your fathers did, so do you.

    Acts 7:51 ESV – from Stephen preaching to the jews

    σκληροτράχηλος – stiff-necked

    Strong’s G4644 – sklērotrachēlos –

    Pronunciation
    sklay-rot-rakh’-ay-los

    (Has a rather guttural insulting tone to it, don’t you think?)

    We might easily dismiss this insulting word from Stephen in the New Testament of Jesus Christ.

    But not so fast; for Luke tells us in Acts that Stephen is full of the Holy Spirit.

    (If you or I were to say that to someone they might think us full of something other than the Holy Spirit, wouldn’t they?)

    girl looking in mirror What does it mean to be stiff-necked? Toi be so self-absorbed that you do not see God or others.

    To accuse another of being ‘stiff-necked,’ while making our ‘religion‘ an idol, may look like hypocrisy.

    Stephen: Witness and Martyr
    “This is that Moses who said to the children of Israel,
    ‘The Lord your God will raise up for you a Prophet like me from your brethren. Him you shall hear.’
    • σκληροτράχηλος, σκληροτράχηλόν (σκληρός and τράχηλος), properly, stiff-necked;
      • tropically, stubborn, headstrong, obstinate:
      • Acts 7:51; the Sept. for עֹרֶף קְשֵׁה, Exodus 33:3, 5; Exodus 34:9; (etc.)

    Stephen’s single use of ‘stiffnecked‘ people in the New Testament points to those who CLAIM the Old Covenant of the LAW of Moses.

    Roger@TalkofJESUS.COM

    Looking back to Moses – Stiff-necked Hebrews

    pillar of fire in the midst of Moses and the Hebrews

    קָשֶׁה

    אֶל־אֶרֶץ זָבַת חָלָב וּדְבָשׁ כִּי לֹא אֶעֱלֶה בְּקִרְבְּךָ כִּי עַם־קְשֵׁה־עֹרֶף אַתָּה פֶּן־אֲכֶלְךָ בַּדָּרֶךְ׃

    Go up to a land flowing with milk and honey; but I will not go up among you, lest I consume you on the way,

    for you are a stiff-necked people.”

    Exodus 33:3 WLC, ESV

    קָשֶׁה adjective hard, severe; — absolute ק׳ Exodus 18:26 +; construct Exodus 32:9 +; feminine singular קָשָׁה Deuteronomy 26:6 +; construct קְשַׁת 1 Samuel 1:15; masculine plural קָשִׁים 2 Samuel 3:39; construct קְשֵׁי Ezekiel 2:4; Ezekiel 3:7; feminine plural קָשׁוֺת Genesis 42:7, 30; —

    1. hard, difficult, of a legal question (דָּבָר) Exodus 18:26

    Stephen has proposed a legal question to you. Are YOU also a stiff-neck worshiper who will NOT listen to any, even the LORD your God?

    Roger@TalkofJESUS.com

    Stiff-necked?

    Now that I’ve shared MY Short Take on these Scriptures, WHAT’S YOUR SHORT TAKE on them?

    Hammurabi praying - source article from cover photo