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Tag: Gospel

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.

  • What is the Gospel? What are the Gospels?

    What is the Gospel? What are the Gospels?

    Ask five Christians,

    What is the Gospel?

    And you may hear THREE different answers, see an empty puzzled look and perhaps hear an honest, “I don’t really know; how do you define the gospel?”

    Go ahead: EMAIL ME your definition BEFORE you read the following OR add your definitive COMMENT at the bottom of this Christian Jargon post.

    Gospel & Gospels – Two Definitions

    photo of earth from the moon

    You have probably heard from one version of this Scripture:

    “Go into all the world and preach the gospel to all creation.

    Gospel of Mark 16:15b NIV

    I mention ‘Gospel‘ in two different contexts here:

    1. Gospel from a quote of the risen Lord Jesus Christ
    2. Gospel identifying the written account of the disciple John Mark

    Four Gospels recorded by four witnesses

    Briefly:

    1. Matthew
    2. Mark
    3. Luke
    4. John 
    We've quoted these four writers of the Gospels many times AND we cross-reference these Scriptures in other accounts as well.

    TalkofJESUS.com treats the GOSPELS as a single category due to the connected importance of the Good News of Jesus Christ reported LIVE and IN PERSON from different perspectives.

    manger of a timeless Christ "I will be with you always even to the end of the earth

    Gospel of Matthew 28:30 – Quote of JESUS after the Lord’s resurrection.

    that you may have certainty concerning the things you have been taught.
    Gospel of LUKE 1:4
    John Mark (mentioned above) and Luke, the physician who continued his detailed account of Jesus and the early Church with Acts of the Apostles, were both gentile (non-Jewish) believers who interviewed the Twelve and other witnesses of JESUS. 

    Matthew (quoted above) and John are two of the Twelve Apostles. Jesus includes John and his brother James along with Simon Peter in the Lord's inner circle of closest confidants and friends.
    about the Author the Gospel of John - photo of quill and pen & computer talkofJesus.com
    The GOSPEL of JOHN

    Luke also introduces himself in both volumes of his accounts Luke-Acts.

    The Gospel: Definition

    εὐαγγέλιον

    Strong’s G2098 – euangelion

    a reward for good tidings

    good tidings

    And Jesus went about all Galilee, teaching in their synagogues, and preaching the gospel of the kingdom, and healing all manner of sickness and all manner of disease among the people.

    Topical Encyclopedia

    The term “Gospel” originates from the Old English word “godspel,” meaning “good news” or “glad tidings,” which is a translation of the Greek word “euangelion.”

    In the context of the Christian faith, the Gospel refers to the message of salvation through Jesus Christ, encompassing His life, death, resurrection, and the promise of eternal life for believers.

    gos’-pel (to euaggelion): The word gospel is derived from the Anglo-Saxon word which meant “the story concerning God.”

    The Gospel is simple really, yet with the mysterious depth of God proclaimed as the good Word of saving sinners. 

    I have written topically about the Gospel at least twice:
    Go into all the world (and SHARE the Gospel) – 1

    (Go into all the world and) SHARE the Gospel – 2

    Further Study

    Vine’s Expository Dictionary of NT Words offers a deeper study of biblical words used in the English language. English entries are mapped to each applicable Greek root according to the Strong’s reference numbers, and include biblical usage, main occurrences in the Bible, English transliteration, and definitions.

    εὐαγγελίζω – euangelizō – verb

    Strong’s Number: g2097

    Gospel (Noun and Verb: to Preach):“to bring or announce glad tidings” (Eng., “evangelize”), is used

    (a) in the Active Voice in Rev 10:7 (“declared”) and Rev 14:6 (“to proclaim,” RV, AV, “to preach”);

    Some claiming Christ, christians or even churches, will claim the Gospel without understanding.

    OR worse, pulpits may proclaim the Gospel while hiding behind it.

    AND some christians and churches take no action at all in evangelization or preaching the Gospel to our own personal need of Christ Jesus for salvation.

    Good News before our inevitable end

    death — and the JUDGMENT of ALMIGHTY GOD!

    2025 of the Common Era seems to have begun with story after story and yet more of the continuing BREAKING NEWS of our fallen world.

    Common Era NEWS begins with the same old sins of the world wrapped in the false idolatry: MOTHER NATURE and a world out of control * and a human-created environmental apocalypse – impending DISASTER out of reach of all their hand-holding gods.

    God as provided a paradise for man but the Lord will take vengeance who will not fear the fire of His wrath and judgment. Maui fires of AD 2023 are not the Lord's first warning to the idolaters of the earth
    Fire Maui Hawaii US
    A Kurdish Syrian woman walks with her child past the ruins of the town of Kobane, also known as Ain al-Arab, on March 25, 2015. (Yasin Akgul/AFP/Getty Images)
    1945 dead slave labors
    Tens of thousands of protesters marched through the driving rain (Pic: Andrew McGowan)
    prepare for Judgment! Revelation 8:2 KJV apokalypsis of the 7th seal pictured 2 (of seven trumpets) shofars - Prepare, Christians, for Jesus' return on the clouds!
    And the seven angels which had the seven trumpets prepared themselves to sound…

    .. but in the days of the voice of the seventh angel, when he is about to sound, then the mystery of God is finished, as He proclaimed G2097  good G2097  news G2097 to His slaves, the prophets.

    The Revelation of Jesus Christ to John 10:7 LSB

    WHAT NEWS TODAY?

    How many died THIS TIME? And how many were SAVED for nothing more than BAD NEWS? (And for how long until the inevitable return of each broken body into the dust of the grave?)

    Does the world’s news end with a feel-good story? *Do YOU feel good about YOURSELF now?

    What percentage of us will die sometime soon?

    What does the Gospel of JESUS CHRIST mean to your eternal soul

    — your deeper human created in God’s image — the YOU by which so many souls you love in this world (or perhaps just a few) know you well as more than flesh and blood?

    DON’T YOU think, mere mortal, that God in his Only Son Jesus Christ enbraces and knows your soul more than any?

    Of course! the GOSPEL proclaims.

    Repent therefore, and turn back, that your sins may be blotted out - Acts 3: Peter preaching repentance
    Repentance!

    and BELIEVE the Gospel.

    “Many false prophets will arise and will deceive man.

    And because lawlessness is multiplied, most people’s love will grow cold.

    But the one who endures to the end, he will be saved.

    Gospel of Matthew 24:11-13

    Talk of JESUS .com

    “And this gospel of the kingdom shall be proclaimed in the whole world as a witness to all the nations,
    and then the end will come.

    Matthew 24:14 Legacy Standard Bible

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  • Son-Man Risen!

    Son-Man Risen!

     “Are you the King of the Jews,” the Prefect Pilate had asked JESUS just three days ago?

    βασιλεύς King ?

    Jesus answered, “My kingdom is not of this world. If my kingdom were of this world, my servants would have been fighting, that I might not be delivered over to the Jews.

    But my kingdom is not from the world.”

    Gospel of John 18: ESV 36 [in context John 18:28-40 AKJV]
    Case dismissed! This Man is NO threat to Rome or Jerusalem, Pilate COULD have said (had the Governor cared more about the Truth than public opinion.)
 
SO instead HE WAS CRUCIFIED UNDER PONTIUS PILATE and THREE DAYS AGO was BURIED in a GUARDED TOMB!

    The Jews had wanted a king more powerful than the Herod. Now these powerful pastors can celebrate THEIR Passover and finally dismiss this prophet JESUS saying,

    The King is DEAD! Long live the King.

    “Everyone who makes himself a king opposes Caesar,” these Elder accusers of JESUS had taunted. The hereditary Chief Priests might no longer need to limp around the bloody temple sacrifices in order to please the multitudes.

    YET since the rising of the sun three days later, some witnesses now report the RISING of the SON-MAN, JESUS!

    Resurrection witnessed

    The leaders of Herod’s temple (for it had been rebuilt by the Great Herod who left many of the common areas of the courts unfinished) did NOT need any interruption of their indulgences and ceremonial place of authority over worshipers of God obligated to come to THEIR temple twice yearly.

    BUT even before THEY managed to convict and crucify the Christ so many followed the leadership of Jerusalem also sought to kill Jesus’ Apostles and most of all Lazarus.

    When the large crowd of the Jews learned that Jesus was there [Bethany], they came, not only on account of him but also to see Lazarus, whom he [JESUS] had raised from the dead.

    So the chief priests made plans to put Lazarus to death as well, because on account of him many of the Jews were going away and believing in Jesus.

    Gospel of John 12:9-11 ESV
    The Temple leadership, however, failed to seize and kill Lazarus (again) but seemed satisfied to crucify the Christ said to raise Lazarus from the grave. 

(But how could such a thing as that have really happened, those many men who did not believe in the resurrection questioned?)

    Jesus knew how these would REJECT Him not only because they did NOT believe Scripture, but also because these religious leaders could never envision their Messiah (the Christ, of whom the gentiles spoke) would be given the authority to raise the dead.

    For the Father judges no one, but has given all judgment to the Son, that all may honor the Son, just as they honor the Father.

    Whoever does not honor the Son does not honor the Father who sent him.

    Truly, truly, I say to you, whoever hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life. He does not come into judgment, but has passed from death to life.

    Gospel of John 5:22-25 ESV

    “Truly, truly, I say to you, an hour is coming, and is now here, when the dead will hear the voice of the Son of God, and those who hear will live. 

    26For as the Father has life in himself, so he has granted the Son also to have life in himself. 

    And he has given him authority to execute judgment,
    because he is [the] Son of Man. Do not marvel at this, for an hour is coming when all who are in the tombs will hear his voice and come out,
    those who have done good to the resurrection of life,
    and those who have done evil to the resurrection of judgment.

    Gospel of John 5:27-29 ESV – Jesus claiming the Authority of the Son-Man Messiah

    Jesus certainly had demonstrated this Authority of the Christ by raising Lazarus from death!

    The LEADERS of JUDAH knew rejected the Truth they knew; but even the most faithful worshipers sometimes doubt the veracity of Holy Scripture.

    Does this sound familiar?

    Son-Man, can these bones live?

    + Note: Lit. “son man” – the Hebrew does not use articles bēn ‘āḏām – בֶּן־אָדָם 

    Picture yourself standing near Golgotha, where rotted bones of the crucified eventually fall to the dust. See any scene of a low valley of graves where flesh and bones decay in the dust and loved ones lament over the lifeless souls of their past..
    Ezekiel 37: KJV

    And he said unto me, Son of man, can these bones live? And I answered, O Lord GOD, thou knowest.

    Again he said unto me, Prophesy upon these bones, and say unto them, O ye dry bones, hear the word of the LORD. Thus saith the Lord GOD unto these bones; Behold, I will cause breath to enter into you, and ye shall live:

    Then said he unto me, Prophesy unto the wind, prophesy, son of man, and say to the wind, Thus saith the Lord GOD; Come from the four winds, O breath, and breathe upon these slain, that they may live.

    So I prophesied as he commanded me, and the breath [רוּחַ]came into them, and they lived, and stood up upon their feet, an exceeding great army.

    Resurrection Prophesied

    And at that time Michael the great prince shall stand up, that stands over the children of thy people: and there shall be a time of tribulation, such tribulation as has not been from the time that there was a nation on the earth until that time: at that time thy people shall be delivered, even every one that is written in the book.

    And many of them that sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake, some to everlasting life, and some to reproach and everlasting shame.

    Daniel 12:2 Brenton Septuagint Translation

    Christ holds His priesthood permanently

    The problem of the High Priests Annas and Caiaphas is no different than that pointed out by the author of the book of Hebrews.

    And the former priests, on the one hand, existed in greater numbers because they were prevented by death from continuing, but Jesus, on the other hand, because He continues forever, holds His priesthood permanently.

    Therefore He is able also to save forever those who draw near to God through Him, since He always lives to make intercession for them.

    Hebrews 7:25-27 LSB
    AND don't miss this about the necessity that the CHRIST should become the Perfect Sacrifice for our sins.

    For it was fitting for us to have such a high priest, holy, innocent, undefiled, separated from sinners and exalted above the heavens; who does not need daily, like those high priests, to offer up sacrifices, first for His own sins and then for the sins of the people, because this He did once for all when He offered up Himself.

    What must you do to be saved?

    The Son-Man, JESUS (SAVIOR) Son WHO IS One with the Father and the Holy Spirit — Messiah [Christ] prophesied in Scripture IS the Very WORD of the LORD God!

    THE THIRD DAY HE ROSE FROM THE DEAD AND IS SEATED AT THE RIGHT HAND OF GOD THE FATHER ALMIGHTY?

    Good News!

    Spurgeon on Lazarus and resurrection

    Charles Spurgeon, the renowned English preacher of the 19th century provides us with further thoughts about what happened to Lazarus and those who already had mourned over his death.
THOUGH HE WERE DEAD - 14 September, A.D. 1884, Metropolitan Tabernacle, Newington G.B.
John 11:24-26
    • here is the comfort which we may each one safely take, namely, that when Jesus comes the dead shall live.
    • Then we are also told that when Jesus comes, living believers shall not die. After the coming of Christ there shall be no more death for his people.
    • Resurrection with Jesus is resurrection indeed. Life with Jesus is life indeed.
    • I think that Jesus meant that even now His dead are alive. Again, even now his living do not die.

    Beyond these few brief points of comfort for the bereaved Spurgeon continues with a notable Scriptural truth WE tend to avoid:

    Methinks, first, this text plainly teaches that the Lord Jesus Christ is the life of his people.

    We are dead by nature, and you can never produce life out of death: the essential elements are wanting..

    .. The life of a Christian in its commencement is in Christ alone, not a fragment of it is from himself, and the continuance of that life is equally the same; Jesus is not only the resurrection to begin with, but the life to go on with.”

    Charles Haddon Spurgeon

    The multitudes of Jerusalem loved Jesus’ teaching and loved Jesus’ humility. YET many who yearned to gather in the Temple REJECTED the greater love of a Savior willing to die on the Cross rather than life the life of a great teacher.

    the resurrection and the life

    Spurgeon pleas with those with ears to hear teaching on the power of Jesus raising Lazarus and what the Christian disciple must do:

    “I tell you you must learn that Jesus is the resurrection and the life.

    Hearken to that great “I,” that infinite EGO! This must cover over and swallow up your little ego.

    “I live, yet not I, but Christ liveth in me.”

    WHAT ARE YOU?

    Less than nothing, and vanity; but over all springs up divine, all-sufficient personality, “I am the resurrection and the life.”

    .. further [Spurgeon points out],

    “he that believeth in Me”: that is it.

    He does not say, “He that loves me.”

    my Lord and my God!

    The GOOD NEWS of the RESURRECTION OF JESUS CHRIST!

    Jesus *said to him, “Because you have seen Me, have you believed? Blessed are those who did not see, and yet believed.”

    Gospel of John 20:29 LSB

    Alleluia!

    Talk of JESUS .com

    Christ IS Risen!

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  • King for a Common Era Holy Week 5

    King for a Common Era Holy Week 5

    KING jesus! KING jesus! The Prophet who drove the money changers out of God’s Temple HAS RETURNED!

    Holy Week in the year of our Lord 30

    Without noting several significant private events and conversations of this holy week, including Jesus' celebration of the Passover meal with the Twelve;
 
let's look once more at the witness of PUBLIC encounters of the Lord Jesus in the Temple through actual and FICTIONAL witnesses.

    And he [Jesus] taught daily in the temple.

    Gospel of Luke19:47a  Καὶ ἦν διδάσκων τὸ καθ᾽ ἡμέραν ἐν τῷ ἱερῷ 

    Gospel of Matthew 21: New King James Version

    23 Now when He came into the temple, the chief priests and the elders of the people confronted Him as He was teaching, and said,

    “By what authority are You doing these things? And who gave You this authority?”

    “I also will ask you one thing, which if you tell Me, I likewise will tell you by what authority I do these things:

    The baptism of John—where was it from? From heaven or from men?”

    No Elder could answer Him.
The Prophet from Nazareth then taught us with parables.

    Parables in the Temple

    28 “But what do you think? A man had two sons.. ‘Son, go, work today in my vineyard.’ He answered and said, ‘I will not,’ but afterward he regretted it and went. .. the second .. said, ‘I go, sir,’ but he did not go.

    31 Which of the two did the will of his father?”

    33 “Hear another parable:

    There was a certain landowner who planted a vineyard and set a hedge around it, dug a winepress in it and built a tower. And he leased it to vinedressers and went into a far country...

    .. Then last of all he sent his son to them, saying, ‘They will respect my son.’ 

    Every listening soul knew that Jesus was speaking of the Shepherds of Israel AND knowing that this teacher from Nazareth called Himself a 'Son.'

    But when the vinedressers saw the son, they said among themselves, 

    ‘This is the heir. Come, let us kill him and seize his inheritance.’ 

    So they took him and cast him out of the vineyard and killed him.

    Gospel of Matthew 21:28-29 – New King James Version
    So is this JESUS the coming KING about to conquer Jerusalem from the Herod's (as when HE rode into the city like DAVID)? 

Will this Teacher also turn the tables on OUR corrupt religious leaders, we wondered?

    OTHERS in the TEMPLE also heard Jesus challenge EVERY false philosophy, teachings obligating US to pay indulgences to support their own well-healed corruptness among regular worshipers.

    “He will destroy those wicked..

    “Have you never read in the Scriptures:

    ‘The stone which the builders rejected
    Has become the chief cornerstone.
    This was the Lord’s doing,
    And it is marvelous in our eyes’?

    the Good News of Matthew 21:42 – New King James Version – The Lord JESUS in the Temple, quoting MANY Scriptures to Jewish leaders

    In that day, saith the LORD of hosts, shall ye call every man his neighbour under the vine and under the fig tree.

    Zechariah 3 :: King James Version (KJV)
    3:10 בַּיּוֹם הַהוּא נְאֻם יְהוָה צְבָאוֹת תִּקְרְאוּ אִישׁ לְרֵעֵהוּ אֶל־תַּחַת גֶּפֶן וְאֶל־תַּחַת תְּאֵנָה׃
    • Hab 1:5
      • Behold ye among the heathen, and regard, and wonder marvellously: for I will work a work in your days, which ye will not believe, though it be told you.
    JESUS IS PREACHING GOOD NEWS TO EVERYONE IN THE TEMPLE -- JEWS AND GENTILES -- BUT NOT SO GOOD for the entrenched rulers of Jerusalem.

    Good News of Matthew 22:

    And Jesus answered and spoke to them again by parables and said:

    “The kingdom of heaven is like a certain king who arranged a marriage for his son..

    “For many are called, but few are chosen.”

    Gospel of Matthew 22:14 NKJV – Jesus’ parable of the wedding feast
    Of the Pharisees (who teach of the resurrection, although some it seems would have us pay them to have Yahweh overlook our sins to earn our way to it) Jesus challenged:

    “Why do you test Me, you hypocrites? .. “Render therefore to Caesar the things that are Caesar’s, and to God the things that are God’s.” 

    The Pharisees also tried to test HIM on the LAW.

    36 “Teacher, which is the great commandment in the law?”

    Now I was immediately thinking 'FIRST COMMENDMENT'

    5:7 לֹא יִהְיֶה־לְךָ אֱלֹהִים אֲחֵרִים עַל־פָּנָיַ׃

    ‘You shall have no other gods before Me. 

    The Teacher of the teachers however went straight to the Shammah:

    שְׁמַע יִשְׂרָאֵל יְהוָה אֱלֹהֵינוּ יְהוָה אֶחָד׃

    Hear, Yisra’el: the LORD is our God; the LORD is one..

    “‘You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind.’

    This is the first and great commandment.

    And the second is like it: 

    ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ 

    On these two commandments hang all the Law and the Prophets.”

    And just like us, He didn’t think much of the Sadducees either.

    “You are mistaken, not knowing the Scriptures nor the power of God.. God is not the God of the dead, but of the living.”

    Some who witnessed Jesus’ miracles thought that He might be John the Baptizer risen from death. And other who know Lazarus seemed certain that HE held the power over death because HE IS the Promised One of Israel.

    Jesus had asked the Pharisees (who believe the Scriptures about the resurrection):

    “What do you think about the Christ? Whose Son is He?”

    Matthew 22:42 NKJV

    The Pharisees’ very Judaic response about “The Son of David” Jesus proved as quite insufficient. The Pharisees did NOT know who the Christ would be.

    Woe to the Scribes and Pharisees and …

    Then spake Jesus to the multitude, and to his disciples

    Matthew 23:1 King James Version

    SO YOU WANT A ‘KING’ JESUS, ALL OF YOU WHO LOVE TO SHOUT OUT ‘HOSANNA‘ WHEN HE ENTERS THE TEMPLE TOWARDS YOU?

    * Some quotes below updated for awoke Common Era [christian] hearing.

    “But woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you shut up the kingdom of heaven against men; for you neither go in yourselves, nor do you allow those who are entering to go in.

    Woe to you, ..[who] for a pretense make long prayers.. travel land and sea to win one [*new visitor to your church and life], and when [*they are] won, you make [*them] twice as much [*sons and daughters] son of hell as yourselves.

    “Woe to you, blind guides..

    For which is greater, the gift or the altar that sanctifies the gift?

    He who swears by the temple, swears by it and by Him who dwells in it. And he who swears by heaven, swears by the throne of God and by Him who sits on it.

    “Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you pay tithe of mint and anise and cummin, and have neglected the weightier matters of the law: justice and mercy and faith..

    “Woe to you [*church leaders & priests]! For you cleanse the outside of the cup and dish, but inside they are full of extortion and self-indulgence. 26 Blind [*Popes and Pastors], first cleanse the inside of the cup and dish, that the outside of them may be clean also.

    “Woe to you.. hypocrites like whitewashed tombs.. beautiful outwardly, but inside are full of dead men’s bones and all uncleanness.. outwardly appear righteous.., but inside you are full of hypocrisy and lawlessness.

    “Woe to you, Because you build the tombs of the prophets and adorn the monuments of the righteous, and say,

    ‘If we had lived in the days of our fathers, we would not have been partakers with them in the blood of the prophets.’

    Are YOU of the multitudes? OR one of His disciples?

    JESUS had hundreds of disciples [followers] and thousands from the crowds in the Temple, multitudes who heard Him preach in this holiest of weeks.

    ARE YOU ONE OF THESE? WOULD YOU have been one of the MULTITUDES who shouted, ‘HOSANNA, KING JESUS!’ who tomorrow might side with ‘leaders‘ denying Him, saying with all the world, CRUCIFY HIM! ‘WE have NO KING but Caesar‘?

    OR are you NOW a disciple of the Lord Jesus Christ – Jesus the Pascal Lamb of God slaughtered for sinners — a follower who will believe and take up His Cross?

    “O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the one who kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to her!

    How often I wanted to gather your children together, as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, but you were not willing! See! Your house is left to you desolate; for I say to you, you shall see Me no more till you say, ‘Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord!’ ”

    Matthew 23:37-39 NKJV

    Communion with His Apostles

    Jesus is about to have some private moments with His closest friends and Apostles — a last meal — Communion… followed by betrayal, prayer, arrest… then a trial of injustice under the veil of darkness.

    WHAT WILL YOU SAY IF A FRIEND FROM YOUR LIFE IN THE WORLD ASKS YOU ABOUT JESUS?

    IS HE THE CHRIST SENT TO SAVE US?

    SAVE ME FROM WHAT?

    Talk of JESUS .com

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