The Gospel is Good News to all who will humbly accept Jesus and listen to His teaching.
We refer to the four books of the Bible which tell the story of Jesus Christ as the Gospels. These books are named for their authors: Matthew, a Jewish Apostle; Mark, a disciple of the first generation who recorded accounts of Peter and the Twelve; Luke, a gentile Physician and disciple of the first century; and John, one of the Twelve Jewish Apostles chosen by Jesus.
Jesus Christ came into the world to save those He loves. John’s letters also encourage a growing church (in the first century) who increasingly face challenges of the self-reliant contemporaries of their world. (Sound familiar?)
Some of today’s Scriptural Rerun from John also focuses on The Revelation of Jesus Christ to John – an apocalypse about THE END.
You have heard this day called Easter Sunday, Resurrection Sunday or perhaps Pascha. But today, on the 17th day of April in the year of our Lord, 2022, I would simply like to look back at celebrating ‘the Lord’s Day’ as followers of Christ Jesus have done since His resurrection.
CLICK the link above to read some of what I have said before about Holy and weeks and festivals.
ALSO, Feel free to comment on anything from my fiery EDITORIAL which I have moved to Comments to get to my perspective about the Lord's Day of the first century Christ followers. - RH
LENT, we once set aside as preparation of repentance preceding the death of Christ for our sins.
Yet in this NOT so HOLY time, now universally referred to as, the “COMMON Era” (as opposed to years we once called, Before Christ, now known as Beforethe Common Era); HOW intolerant are we who insist that JESUS IS LORD (and no other), as the world continues in its most common and ordinary daily sin! HOW insensitive of followers of CHRIST to PROCLAIM: JESUS CHRIST IS RISEN TODAY!
In the Holy Week of our Lord, A.D. 2022
(In case you missed these posts which lead us to this Lord’s Day Sunday)
This epistle was most likely written in the first half of A.D. 55 from Ephesus (16:8, 9, 19) while Paul was on his third missionary journey.
John MacArthur :: Bible Introductions – 1 Corinthians via BlueLetterBible.org
Easter: a narrowed narrative that missed the Church
Why do I start with a Scripture about the Cross, rather than a traditional narrative of Resurrection morning from the Gospels?
(Think about this, now…)
The Gospels were NOT written as an immediate message from the pulpit of A.D. 30.
Yes, that’s about when the Lord Jesus was crucified, buried and rose in body and spirit from the grave!
But the Apostles Matthew and John, and later disciples Mark and Luke recorded their GOOD NEWS of JESUS’s Resurrection for a much later following of the Church.
On this Lord’s Day, in the year of our Lord 2022, we glance at just a few events of THEIR Church life.
Why the Gospel was Good News on the Lord’s Day
A.D. 32 – Stephen martyred & Saul persecutes Christ followers
A.D. 37 – Caligula declares himself a god
A.D. 44 – the Apostle James, brother of John, is martyred
A.D. 46 – Julian calendar changes the year
A.D. 49 – the jews expelled from Rome
A.D. 50’s (~20 years after Jesus’ Resurrection)
+ Mark writes his Gospel;
+ Matthew writes his Gospel
A.D. 54-68 – Nero is Emperor
A.D 64-68 Nero persecutes Christians after burning Rome
A.D. 60 + Luke writes his Gospel
A.D. 62 – James, brother of Jesus and head of the Jerusalem church martyred
A.D. 66 – Jewish revolt against Rome
+ Apostle Peter martyred in Rome
+ Paul, Apostle to the gentiles, martyred in Rome
A.D. 70 – Jerusalem falls to Rome and is burned
A.D. 80’s + John wrote his gospel ca. A.D. 80–90, about 50 years after he witnessed Jesus’ earthly ministry. – J.M.
The saints of the A.D. first century church gathered each Lord’s Day to worship the Lord God by the grace of Christ Jesus and though the power of the Holy Spirit.
Do YOU?
For many centuries the Lord’s Day was set apart as Holy to the Lord for morning and evening worship, as well as study of doctrine from the Bible, as the business of the world (reluctantly) remained CLOSED on Sunday.
They gathered frequently in each others homes to hear the Gospel and receive the letters of the Apostles.
These saints (small ‘s’) of the church, “Christians” (as Christ followers came to be known), delighted to serve one another in Christ-like love.
The saints of THE WAY, knowing that as one of the Lord’s SAVED and REDEEMED ones, suffering in a world violently opposed to JESUS CHRIST and the LORD GOD, endured for these brief times because of HIS DEATH AND RESURRECTION.
We have begun eternal life and need not suffer the WRATH of GOD’s punishment for our many, many sins against God and against man.
A.D. 90, The Lord’s Day
The aging Apostle, lone survivor of many trials for Christ among those who Jesus first chose some sixty years ago, concludes his Gospel; a fourth, following that which has already been proclaimed to tens of thousands throughout a world of Rome’s temporary ownership by Matthew and two faithful gentile servants of The Way.
The Apostle John writes of that glorious day:
Now when it was evening on that day, the first day of the week, and when the doors were shut where the disciples were together due to fear of the Jews, Jesus came and stood in their midst, and said to them, “Peace be to you.” And when He had said this, He showed them both His hands and His side.
The disciples then rejoiced when they saw the Lord. So Jesus said to them again, “Peace be to you; just as the Father has sent Me, I also send you.”
Now there was a man in Caesarea named Cornelius, a centurion of what was called the Italian [~600 man] cohort, a devout man and one who feared God with all his household, and made many charitable contributions to the Jewish people and prayed to God continually.
Who do we see here?
A Roman soldier in a navy town built by Caesar.
A devout humble worshipper of God.
A family man, leader of his household as well.
A generous man who gave to the Jews subjected to Roman rule, taxes and its army.
This is the Italian Centurion Κορνήλιος [Cornelius].
We have already read about the Angel he will encounter in ACTS 10:3
Learn more about angels by clicking on our previous post below.
“Now dispatch some men to Joppa and send for a man named Simon, who is also called Peter; he is staying with a tanner named Simon, whose house is by the sea.”
ACTS 10:5-6 [NASB20] of an Angel of God instructing Cornelius with his gospel message
Obedient immediate response to the gospel
7 The angel who spoke to Cornelius left.
Then Cornelius called two of his servants and a soldier. The soldier was a religious man, one of his close helpers.
8 Cornelius explained everything to these three men and sent them to Joppa.
NEXT: A most unlikely lunch meeting in Joppa
Comment on Scripture in our series from ACTS + Share the Gospelof Jesus Christ our Lord
Used to monitor number of Google Analytics server requests
10 minutes
__utmb
Used to distinguish new sessions and visits. This cookie is set when the GA.js javascript library is loaded and there is no existing __utmb cookie. The cookie is updated every time data is sent to the Google Analytics server.
30 minutes after last activity
__utmc
Used only with old Urchin versions of Google Analytics and not with GA.js. Was used to distinguish between new sessions and visits at the end of a session.
End of session (browser)
__utmz
Contains information about the traffic source or campaign that directed user to the website. The cookie is set when the GA.js javascript is loaded and updated when data is sent to the Google Anaytics server
6 months after last activity
__utmv
Contains custom information set by the web developer via the _setCustomVar method in Google Analytics. This cookie is updated every time new data is sent to the Google Analytics server.
2 years after last activity
__utmx
Used to determine whether a user is included in an A / B or Multivariate test.
18 months
_ga
ID used to identify users
2 years
_gali
Used by Google Analytics to determine which links on a page are being clicked
30 seconds
_ga_
ID used to identify users
2 years
_gid
ID used to identify users for 24 hours after last activity
24 hours
_gat
Used to monitor number of Google Analytics server requests when using Google Tag Manager
1 minute
_gac_
Contains information related to marketing campaigns of the user. These are shared with Google AdWords / Google Ads when the Google Ads and Google Analytics accounts are linked together.
90 days
__utma
ID used to identify users and sessions
2 years after last activity
Marketing cookies are used to follow visitors to websites. The intention is to show ads that are relevant and engaging to the individual user.
