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Tag: apostles

  • Acts of ALL with one accord

    Acts of ALL with one accord

    The Holy Spirit Promised

    While he was with them, he commanded them not to leave Jerusalem, but to wait for the Father’s promise.

    Acts 1:4a CSB

    But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come on you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.”

    Acts 1:8 CSB

    9 After he had said this, he was taken up as they were watching, and a cloud took him out of their sight. 10 While he was going, they were gazing into heaven, and suddenly two men in white clothes stood by them.

    Pretty EXCITING AND AWESOME STUFF!

    Luke begins ACTS with Christ Jesus taken up into heaven, then ‘two men in white’ (we know they are angels) ask:

    “Men of Galilee, why do you stand looking into the sky?

    This Jesus, who has been taken up from you into heaven, will come in the same way as you have watched Him go into heaven.”

    Acts 1:11 NASB
    https://talkofjesus.com/acts-of-the-holy-spirit/

    AWESOME! JESUS ascending..

    AND angels…

    What could possibly be next?

    Ten days of the Apostles we may have missed

    As Christians, now that we have begun Luke’s prologue in Acts and read his account of the AWEsome ascension of Jesus into the clouds, we can hardly wait for the powerful bestowing of the Holy Spirit in Jerusalem.

    BUT WAIT! Like you I was ready to read ahead to the anointing of the Apostles by the Holy Spirit and the beginning of their ‘acts,’ Then I thought about those TEN DAYS (more than a week) between Jesus’ ascension and Pentecost. (I had always merged these two amazing events together in the historical timeline I conceived in my mind.)

    Of course the eleven Apostles would have rather fled to their homes from the relatively remote Mount of Olives just a stone’s throw from the walls of Jerusalem; but now the Lord Jesus has commanded them to wait.

    So what happened while the eleven Apostles waited?

    Luke tells us (and we may have matter-of-factly dismissed it).

    Meanwhile, back in Jerusalem..

    Luke records those present:

    • 11 Apostles (by name)
    • ‘the women’
    • Mary, the mother of Jesus (the last mention of Mary by Luke)
    • Jesus’ brothers (Jude & James, but not named here)

    12 Then they returned to Jerusalem from the mountain called Olivet, which is near Jerusalem, a Sabbath day’s journey away. When they had entered the city, they went up to the upstairs room where they were staying, that is, Peter, John, James, and Andrew, Philip and Thomas, Bartholomew and Matthew, James the son of Alphaeus, Simon the Zealot, and Judas the son of James.

    These all continued with one accord in prayer and supplication, with the women, and Mary the mother of Jesus, and with his brethren.

    Acts 1:14 KJV

    ὁμοθυμαδόν – ‘with one accord’

    We will soon see this again in Luke’s account of the Acts of the Apostles, so lets take a quick look at his description of this gathering.

    ὁμοθυμαδόν

    • with one mind, with one accord, with one passion

    A unique Greek word, used 10 of its 12 New Testament occurrences in the Book of Acts, helps us understand the uniqueness of the Christian community. Homothumadon is a compound of two words meaning to “rush along” and “in unison”. The image is almost musical; a number of notes are sounded which, while different, harmonize in pitch and tone. As the instruments of a great concert under the direction of a concert master, so the Holy Spirit blends together the lives of members of Christ’s church.

    Outline of Biblical Usage – G3661 – BlueLetterBible.org

    Christ Ascends

    WAIT in Jerusalem

    & then Pentecost

    Our glance at this scene in a first century upper room in Jerusalem will look different from famous paintings of the Italian Renaissance or an illustration from our Children’s’ Bible.

    We observe eleven Jewish men (the Apostles), a large group of women (some wives of the Apostles) plus more followers and witnesses to the risen Christ Jesus, including our Lord’s mother and brothers.

    All these were continually devoting themselves with one mind to prayer.. (Acts 1:14a NASB)

    A Crowded upper room: Christians ALL with one accord

    The Apostle Peter is about to speak to those present.

    But as we have noted of these past ten days, MANY have gathered in this upper room in Jerusalem.

    These men and women from many places throughout the Empire had witnessed the cruel crucifixion of Jesus. Yet now they have obediently returned to the same Jerusalem which had crucified their now-risen and ascended Christ Jesus.

    Jesus’s promise has not yet been fulfilled; so as commanded, they ALL WAIT.

    At this time Peter stood up among the brothers and sisters

    (a group of about 120 people was there together),

    and said, “Brothers, the Scripture had to be fulfilled, which the Holy Spirit foretold by the mouth of David..

    Acts 1:15-16a NASB

    One Hundred Twenty (120) with one accord (all together)

    The Apostle Peter addresses well over a hundred men and women in this room.

    And ALL have been together praying with one accord. (See all the instances Luke uses this to describe these saints of the early Christian Church.)

    And when the day of Pentecost was fully come, they were all with one accord G3661 in one place.

    Acts 2:1 KJV – Strong’s G3661 linked

    Is your Christian gathering of 120 like this?

    Here is how the first century Church ‘acted:’

    • And they, continuing daily with one accord G3661 in the temple, and breaking bread from house to house, did eat their meat with gladness and singleness of heart
    • ..they lifted up their voice to God with one accord, G3661 and said, Lord, thou art God, which hast made heaven, and earth, and the sea, and all that in them is:
    • And by the hands of the apostles were many signs and wonders wrought among the people; (and they were all with one accord G3661 in Solomon’s porch.

    But I’m getting ahead of myself in Luke’s ACTS of the Apostles (and others).

    NEXT: Peter’s speech to the 120

    To be continued...
  • Acts of the HOLY SPIRIT

    Acts of the HOLY SPIRIT

    “The wind blows where it wishes, and you hear the sound of it, but you do not know where it is coming from and where it is going; so is everyone who has been born of the Spirit.”

    Gospel of John 3:8 – Jesus Christ teaching on the Holy Spirit

    Introducing the Third Person of the Trinity:

    Acts 1:

    Luke tells us that his first book, the Gospel, was about Jesus Christ and that this second account, Acts, will be about what Jesus accomplished through the Apostles AFTER His ascension into heaven.

    We look for the actors (so to speak) who Luke records doing the crucial early works of the Church. Peter immediately comes to mind as well as Paul.

    What most Christians may have missed in Luke’s chronicles of the first three decades of Church history is that mysterious Person we first met in the Gospels, the ungraspable Image of God in the Holy Spirit.

    Luke tells us that during forty days after His resurrection Jesus appeared to many (in addition to the Apostles).

    4 Gathering them together, He commanded them not to leave Jerusalem, but to wait for what the Father had promised, …

    Here, mentioning the Father and the Person of the Son, Luke records the words of Jesus to the Apostles as they must have testified to our author of Acts:

    “Which,” He said, “you heard of from Me; for John baptized with water,

    but you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit not many days from now.”

    Acts 1:4b NASB
    God is spirit, and those who worship him must worship in spirit and truth.” – Gospel of John 4:24 ESV

    Baptism

    And I remind us that baptism [baptizō] ‘produces a permanent change.‘

    The Apostles and others are about to be overwhelmed by a permanent change of the Spirit, a baptism receiving the third Person of God, the Holy Spirit. Luke records this cleansing baptism like no other, more that a baptism of water for repentance only.

    Ascension of the Lord Jesus

    The palpable tension of the Apostle’s encounters with the risen Christ, their beloved friend and Master which concluded Luke’s Gospel now builds once again. Luke records what happens next with this risen Jesus (who they could touch, who shared bread and wine with the Eleven), even the same Jesus who now continued to teach them more for the past forty days.

    Christ Jesus again establishes the providence and authority of the Person of God the Father.

    He said to them, “It is not for you to know times or periods that the Father has set by his own authority.

    Acts 1:7 CSB

    but you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you shall be My witnesses G3144 ..

    Acts of the Apostles 1:8a NASB20

    μάρτυς – Witness – (to the ACTS which Luke is about to unfold)

    • martys [gk.] [Strong’s 3144] Definition:
    • a witness
      1. in a legal sense
      2. an historical sense
        • one who is a spectator of anything, e.g. of a contest
      3. in an ethical sense
        • those who after his example have proved the strength and genuineness of their faith in Christ by undergoing a violent death

    Luke is witness through the Apostles not only of the Ascension of Jesus Christ, but a convincing witness to the Holy Spirit as Luke records God’s great acts of power only possible by the Holy Spirit of Almighty God.

    Roger@talkofJESUS.com

    Jesus was taken up as the Apostles watched!

    Luke records that this Son of Man, risen in flesh and blood from the grave, had been with them — forty days — and then powerfully and mysteriously Jesus rises into the clouds as they look on (actually, up) in awe!

    The Holy Ghost – In AWE of the Spirit!

    How would your have reacted to this powerful, yet unexplainable rising of the Lord Jesus into the clouds?

    You may find Luke’s account from the King James Version of the Bible helpful in describing your FEAR and AWE of this historical event which also includes angels of God.

    The Holy Ghost in Acts – KJV

    The former treatise have I made, O Theophilus, of all that Jesus began both to do and teach, Until the day in which he was taken up, after that he through the Holy Ghost had given commandments unto the apostles whom he had chosen:

    To whom also he shewed himself alive after his passion by many infallible proofs, being seen of them forty days, and speaking of the things pertaining to the kingdom of God:

    And, being assembled together with them, commanded them that they should not depart from Jerusalem, but wait for the promise of the Father, which, saith he, ye have heard of me.

    Luke records what fear and expectation Jesus planted in their hearts prior to the Lord’s ascension. Jesus compares this power with what they had received from John the Baptist.

    For John truly baptized with water; but ye shall be baptized with the Holy Ghost not many days hence.

    Acts 1:5 KJV – Jesus promising the Apostles a baptism of the Spirit of God (the Holy Ghost)

    ἁγίου  πνεύματος – hagios pneuma – the Holy Ghost

    Unless you have a question for me by way of comment, we cannot get into some of the more mysterious depths of discussion about that which we cannot see and understand even less, the Person of the Holy Ghost. For to speak of the Spirit yields little fruit in the hearts of those ‘christians’ who have not yet received the Holy Spirit.

    So allow me to define BOTH GREEK WORDS and you can take it from there.

    hagios – HOLY

    • from ἅγος hágos (an awful thing) (compare G53, G2282); sacred (physically, pure, morally blameless or religious, ceremonially, consecrated):—(most) holy (one, thing), saint.

    pneuma  – spirit

    KJV translate this as:

    GHOST

    people receiving the Holy Spirit descending like a dove
    (May I just add that our imagery of the Holy Spirit descending sometimes obscures the awesome power of the third Person of the Trinity, that is, the Holy Ghost.)

READ just some of these definitions from Strong's G4151 for Pneuma below:

    Outline of Biblical Usage 

    1. the third person of the triune God, the Holy Spirit, coequal, coeternal with the Father and the Son
      1. sometimes referred to in a way which emphasises his personality and character (the “Holy” Spirit)
      2. sometimes referred to in a way which emphasises his work and power (the Spirit of “Truth”)
      3. never referred to as a depersonalised force
    2. the spirit, i.e. the vital principal by which the body is animated
      1. the rational spirit, the power by which the human being feels, thinks, decides
      2. the soul
    3. a spirit, i.e. a simple essence, devoid of all or at least all grosser matter, and possessed of the power of knowing, desiring, deciding, and acting
      1. a life giving spirit
      2. a human soul that has left the body
      3. a spirit higher than man but lower than God, i.e. an angel
        1. used of demons, or evil spirits, who were conceived as inhabiting the bodies of men
        2. the spiritual nature of Christ, higher than the highest angels and equal to God, the divine nature of Christ
    4. the disposition or influence which fills and governs the soul of any one
      1. the efficient source of any power, affection, emotion, desire, etc.
    5. a movement of air (a gentle blast)
      1. of the wind, hence the wind itself
      2. breath of nostrils or mouth

    ACTS in the Spirit

    Luke will have much more to say about this mysterious Person of the Trinity and crucial character in his historical account of Acts.

    • And when they had prayed, the place was shaken where they were assembled together; and they were all filled with the Holy Ghost, and they spake the word of God with boldness.
      • Acts 4:31

    And we are his witnesses of these things; and so is also the Holy Ghost, whom God hath given to them that obey him.

    Acts 5:32
    • And God, which knoweth the hearts, bare them witness, giving them the Holy Ghost, even as he did unto us
      • Acts 15:8
    • And when Paul had laid his hands upon them, the Holy Ghost came on them; and they spake with tongues, and prophesied.
      • Acts 19:6

    Although contemporary ‘christianity‘ characterizes the Holy Ghost less fearfully, in order to see his emphasis on the Person of the Holy Spirit let’s close Luke’s AWE–filled [awesome] introduction to ACTS from the KJV:

    • Then Peter said unto them, Repent, and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins, and ye shall receive the gift of the Holy Ghost. – Acts 2:38
    Acts Apostolos - Acts of the Apostles - the chronicles of Christ's Apostles - a history of Christ's Church

    to be continued..

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  • The LORD God speaks – Doctrine of the Bible – 3

    The LORD God speaks – Doctrine of the Bible – 3

    GOD SPEAKS! And who heard Him? What did the LORD God say to a man? Where can we see what the LORD said when God speaks?

    pillar of fire in the midst of Moses and the Hebrews

    “And you said: ‘Surely the LORD our God has shown us His glory and His greatness, and we have heard His voice from the midst of the fire. We have seen this day that God speaks with man; yet he still lives.

    Deuteronomy 5:24 NKJV– the man Moses to the leaders of Israel

    What is the ONLY BOOK where one made in the image of God can discern the TRUE words of WHAT GOD HAS SAID?

    girl reading Bible - God's Personal Love

    The HOLY Bible

    IF you missed Part 1 on Bible Doctrine, you may want to take a look now at some of the history of the Bible, scholarly research AND IMPORTANT Definitions.

    A pre-requisite Part 1

    The BIBLE is HOLY

    Introduction to this post

    Did God really say..? – DOCTRINE of the BIBLE – 2
    What choice would YOU have made in Eden?

    The Bible unveils the word and purposes of God.

    • Some refuse to believe Scripture
    • While others will never consider its truth.

    It is written…

    blueletterbible.org references

    THE LORD GOD SPEAKS!

    The Word of God, The Word of Man & The Work of the Holy Spirit

    The entire Scripture of God is divided into two parts: commandments and promises.

    Martin Luther

    1. The Word of God

    God is HOLY. The LORD God speaks, but to whom? The Word of God speaks to all creation and is revealed to man, in His own image the LORD created us.

    So God created man in His own image, in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them.

    Genesis 1:27

    The LORD God created us to:

    • Love Him as God loves the world of His creation.

    .. “Let Us make mankind in Our image, according to Our likeness..”

    Genesis 1:26

    Love Him with all your heart.

    AND YOU SHALL LOVE THE LORD YOUR GOD WITH ALL YOUR HEART, AND WITH ALL YOUR SOUL, AND WITH ALL YOUR MIND, AND WITH ALL YOUR STRENGTH.’

    Mark 12:30 – answer of the Messiah Jesus to “What commandment is the foremost of all?”

    “And now, Israel, what does the LORD your God require of you, but to fear the LORD your God, to walk in all His ways and love Him, and to serve the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul.

    Deuteronomy 10:12

    Do what the LORD commands

    J.I Packer points out in KNOWING GOD, four categories of God’s direct utterances to mankind (Adam & Eve):

    1. command,
    2. testimony,
    3. prohibition with sanction appended,
    4. and promise both favorable and unfavorable (blessing or curse).

    The LORD God planted a garden toward the east, in Eden; and there He placed the man whom He had formed.

    Out of the ground the LORD God caused every tree to grow that is pleasing to the sight and good for food..

    Genesis 2:8-9a
    • .. the tree of life was also in the midst of the garden,
    • and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.

    but do what He would do; that is, to do good.

    NOW where will we find the truth of good and evil?

    Have we considered these truths from the Bible?

    You are good and You do good;
    Teach me Your statutes

    Psalm 119:68

    OR from the hissing of those who oppose the Lord?

    Keeping in mind those categories just mentioned from ‘KNOWING GOD,’ may I again remind us and suggest the ONLY answer:

    All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, equipped for every good work.

    2 Timothy 3:16-17 ESV

    2. The Word of a Man of God

    Moses recorded the LAW as SPOKEN by the LORD.

    YOU may have imagined that the LORD spoke to you in Paradise or walked with you in your daily life. Before SIN, we knew what was good because God spoke to us face to face.

    So how does a man know what God said now that man has been separated from the Holy Presence of the LORD?

    Moses holding up ten Commandments

    וַיֹּאמֶר אֱלֹהִים אֶל־מֹשֶׁה אֶֽהְיֶה אֲשֶׁר אֶֽהְיֶה וַיֹּאמֶר כֹּה תֹאמַר לִבְנֵי יִשְׂרָאֵל אֶֽהְיֶה שְׁלָחַנִי אֲלֵיכֶֽם׃

    And God said to Moses, “I AM WHO I AM”;

    and He said, “This is what you shall say

    to the sons of Israel: ‘I AM has sent me to you.’”

    Exodus 3:14 – I AM – YHWH, rendered LORD, which is derived from the verb HAYAH, to be;
    H834 matches the Hebrew אֲשֶׁר (‘ăšer), who, which, what, that; also (as an adverb and a conjunction) when, where, how, because, in order that, etc.:

    Yᵊhōvâ (I AM THAT I AM) Y H W H the existing ONE whose NAME IS too Holy to be spoken – יְהֹוָה

    Do you believe the Law of Moses?

    “For if you believed Moses, you would believe Me; for he wrote about Me. But if you do not believe his writings, how will you believe My words?”

    John 5:46-47 NASB20 – a question of the Messiah Jesus

    Authority of the Word after the Law

    Besides Eden witnessed in the first book of Moses, I could also reintroduce you to the LORD in an awesome place above the heavens and earth in a place such as that revealed to the Apostle John by the risen and victorious Christ Jesus!

    Witness from the Prophets like Elijah, Ezekiel and Daniel where the God brings created beings such as us, beneath the glorious Throne of the Almighty Lord God! And the LORD confirms His Word to men of flesh, Prophets who served Him faithfully on the earth.

    Now Samuel grew, and the LORD was with him, and He let none of his words fail. .. And the LORD appeared again at Shiloh, because the LORD revealed Himself to Samuel at Shiloh by the word of the LORD.

    1 Samuel 3:19,21

    David and others record personal conversations, leadings of the Lord and prayers and songs worshiping God.

    Then Solomon began to build the house of the LORD in Jerusalem on Mount Moriah, where the LORD had appeared to his father David, at the place that David had prepared on the threshing floor of Ornan the Jebusite.

    2 Chronicles 3:1

    On occasions before and after David and after the resurrection of Jesus, man has received the Words of God and recorded them in Scripture.

    Do you believe these men to whom God speaks?

    3. Breathed out by the Holy Spirit

    and the Spirit of God moved above the face of the waters Genesis 1:26 picture of sun over clouds
    And the earth was a formless and desolate emptiness, and darkness was over the surface of the deep..

    וְהָאָרֶץ הָיְתָה תֹהוּ וָבֹהוּ וְחֹשֶׁךְ עַל־פְּנֵי תְהוֹם וְרוּחַ אֱלֹהִים מְרַחֶפֶת עַל־פְּנֵי הַמָּֽיִם׃

    Bereishit (Genesis) 1:2 Masoretic text
    • The earth was a formless, desolate emptiness, complete darkness, a deep void lifeless and separate from God.
    • And the SPRIRT OF GOD — the Other and ONLY LIFE separated from lifelessness and nothingness — Created!

    God is HOLY! (Other.. Separate from HIS creation, even man.)

    SO HOW does the Lord God communicate with MAN?

    The Holy Spirit

    THE LORD GOD IS OTHER!

    (God is not a man. Unlike man He was not created — GOD IS that HE IS.

    • Not like man and beast, not like plant or planet, not like the heavens which were void or the earth which was not yet.

    “God is not a man, that He would lie,
    Nor a son of man, that He would change His mind;
    Has He said, and will He not do it?
    Or has He spoken, and will He not make it good

    Numbers 23:19

    God Speaks. A Man hears.

    Then the LORD said, “My Spirit will not remain with man forever, because he is also flesh; nevertheless his days shall be 120 years.”

    Genesis 6:3 – Moses records God’s words – בְּרֵאשִׁית

    And since the days of Moses, the Holy Spirit of God commands certain men to record God’s HOLY WORD as SCRIPTURE.

    (Write it down and tell other men what GOD HAS SAID.)

    Spirit-filled men

    Then the LORD came down in the cloud and spoke to him; and He took away some of the Spirit who was upon him and placed Him upon the seventy elders. And when the Spirit rested upon them, they prophesied. Yet they did not do it again

    Numbers 11:25 – the LORD gives the Holy Spirit to 70 elders of the Hebrews

    Scripture records when God speaks to a Man given the Holy Spirit

    Scripture reveals the words of the LORD which He spoke to Moses and recorded in the first five books of the Bible. Joshua, various Judges and scribes, David and various kings, several prophets before Christ and Apostles after our Lord Jesus Christ ALL confirm the spoken and written HOLY Word of God we collectively refer to as The HOLY BIBLE.

    “I and the Father are one.”

    gospel of John 10:30

    Jesus Christ — He Himself Other — testifies by the Holy Spirit to the truth of Scripture with the Authority of God the Father in ways no man could.

    Gospel of Luke 3:

    21 Now when all the people were baptized, Jesus also was baptized, and while He was praying, heaven was opened,

    and the Holy Spirit descended upon Him in bodily form like a dove, and a voice came from heaven: “You are My beloved Son, in You I am well pleased.”

    SUMMARY: GOD SPEAKS

    Therefore, the DOCTRINE of the THE HOLY BIBLE teaches that SCRIPTURE IS:

    1. The Word of God
    2. Written by a Man of God and
    3. Breathed out by the Holy Spirit of God

    All Scripture is inspired by God and beneficial for teaching, for rebuke, for correction, for training in righteousness

    2 Timothy 3:16

    DOCTRINE is teaching (for rebuke, for correction, for training in righteousness IF we choose its Truth.) Where will you find absolute truth, if not in the Holy Bible?

    How much of the BIBLE must we believe?

    We will begin to address this in my next post on DOCTRINE.
To be continued..

    Please COMMENT or ask your question about this Doctrine.

    Thank you, dear saint of our Lord Jesus Christ.

    Roger