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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.

  • God’s Love Through John: Jesus Loves You

    NEW: Introduction to September 2018 series on talkofJesus.com Christian Social Witness by Roger Harned. 

    God’s Love Through John: Jesus Loves You is one of several series & more than 650 searchable posts published since 2013 . Please add your comments & share via social media.  Blessings. Roger

    John, Messenger of God’s Love

    This is the disciple who testifies to these things and who wrote them down. We know that his testimony is true. – John 21:24
    True? You could ask to know about the Lord God or about the Messiah Christ Jesus, but some will always ask of the Gospel, “Who says?” It’s a fair question, since many deceivers have gone out into the world making false claims about God. For our best answer we need to think of John in two entirely different contexts. First as the youngest Apostle of Jesus Christ and lastly, much later as an Elder. The one testifying to the Truth is the last surviving Disciple of the Lord Jesus Christ.

    Who is John and why does he give us Good News about Christ Jesus?

    Our visualization of Jesus and John shows an unparalleled love of a father or teacher for His nearest follower. Therefore, we cannot think of John without thinking of love in the Person of Christ Jesus. John, son of Zebedee and his older brother James, son of Zebedee, both follow Jesus, as do Simon Peter and others. ‘Zebedee and Sons’ could have been the sign for their family fishing business. Simon also made his living as fishermen, perhaps even as a foreman for Zebedee and sons.
    And Jesus said to them, “Follow me, and I will make you become fishers of men. Mark 1:17

    His Closest Friends

    Who knows Jesus best among the Disciples? And which Disciple remains nearest to the rabbi who claims to be the Truth? His inner circle, comprised of Peter, James and John. True to the nature of the Lord, Jesus chooses humble followers. This Disciple is humble like Moses and a young man like the anointed David. This younger son of Zebedee the fisherman fits the role of an eager servant who loves his Lord and Master.
    Young John learns the heart of Jesus and shares his love with us.
    So the Lord calls these managers of a Galilean fishing cooperative to become ‘fishers of men.’ He includes Peter, James and John the younger brother in His inner circle of the Twelve. The gospels also reveal that Salome, mother of John and James, followed Jesus. They all love Christ Jesus with an interpersonal familial love.

    The Great Commission of Love

    One of his disciples, the one Jesus loved, was reclining close beside Jesus. – John 13:23
    Jesus then asks of His friends:
    “As the Father has loved me, I have also loved you. Remain in my love. – John 15:9
    After Jesus’ crucifixion and death all of them return home to their fishing business.
    The disciple, the one Jesus loved, said to Peter, “It is the Lord! ”
    John 21:7 
    When Simon Peter heard that it was the Lord, he tied his outer clothing around him (for he had taken it off) and plunged into the sea. – John 21:7 John would have still been a young man and Simon Peter alive, of course, before the days of his own martyrdom.

    Evidence of Truth

    The truth and testimony of John’s Good News would have been recorded over several years during his own ministry well into old age.
    Most scholars say it was written in the early 90’s. This means that the time span between the original writing of John and its earliest copy (fragment) is approximately 35-45 years. Christian Apologetics & Research Ministry
    The writer of the gospel of John was obviously an eyewitness of the events of Christ’s life since he speaks from a perspective of having been there during many of the events of Jesus’ ministry and displays a good knowledge of Israeli geography and customs. The John Rylands papyrus fragment 52 of John’s gospel dated in the year 125-135 contains portions of John 18, verses 31-33,37-38. This fragment was found in Egypt. It is the last of the gospels and appears to have been written in the 80’s to 90’s.

    John, Letters from the Elder

    XVI. John The “beloved disciple,” was brother to James the Great. The churches of Smyrna, Pergamos, Sardis, Philadelphia, Laodicea, and Thyatira, were founded by him. From Ephesus he was ordered to be sent to Rome, where it is affirmed he was cast into a cauldron of boiling oil. He escaped by miracle, without injury. Domitian afterwards banished him to the Isle of Patmos, where he wrote the Book of Revelation. Nerva, the successor of Domitian, recalled him. He was the only apostle who escaped a violent death. Fox’s Book of Martyrs
    John’s three letters to the churches he fathers [mentioned above] are thought to have been written around in about AD 65, some than thirty years after Jesus’ crucifixion and resurrection. Research [cited above] indicates that John’s Gospel, recorded on scrolls over a period of years, was likely completed later than John’s letters. Prior to completion of his Gospel, letters would have been delivered to each church (in modern day Turkey). They in turn would be read to the congregation then delivered to the next church on the evangelical circuit. When you want a brief, partial explanation of the Gospel the Disciple John, look to any of his letters.  His letters convey the same great hope through the love of Christ Jesus, sometimes in the very words John later with record in his Gospel.

    Christ will have the last Word

    Île de Patmos, 1854 de Ivan Aivazovsky
    Île de Patmos, 1854 de Ivan Aivazovsky 
    The Revelation of Jesus Christ to John may have been written as late as the year 100, when John may have been 70-80 years old.
    Jan Massijs – The Apocalypse of Saint John the Evangelist (1563)
    I ask you, what demonstration of God’s love could be more encouraging to those who suffer for our faith than witnessing His judgment of evil? John encourages believers in the churches, the same believers he had encouraged by letter. Yet he also warns against many sins. Consequently those who suffer read of a terrible apocalypse to come! For they will be saved by the Lamb of God.
    4:4 After this I looked, and there in heaven was an open door. The first voice that I had heard speaking to me like a trumpet said, “Come up here, and I will show you what must take place after this.”
    An Elder in heaven converses with John, encouraging believers who have been wronged. Revelation 7:14 Then he told me: These are the ones coming out of the great tribulation. They washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb.
    He will guide them to springs of living waters, and God will wipe away every tear from their eyes. The Revelation of Jesus Christ to John 7:17b HCSV
    God IS love. Jesus loves. John is the Disciple of love who best conveys God’s own love for you, for me and for those yet to be born again in spirit.

    God’s Love Through John: Jesus Loves You To be continued…

  • That you may have Certainty – 7 – An outsider’s view from a Gentile

    That you may have Certainty – 7 – An outsider’s view from a Gentile

    That you may have Certainty in these Uncertain Times

    Our post-resurrection series is witness from the introduction of Luke-Acts and Jesus’ assurances to followers. In our previous post we pointed out: “The ultimate outsiders were Gentiles, and Luke emphasizes that God’s salvation extends even to them.” We began with a Hebrew view of a Gentile, noting that Prophets compared Jews who turned from the Lord to the Gentiles.

    Today we will view the meaning of Gentile in the first century context of Luke. Judea, Samaria and other Roman-ruled provinces had all spoken Greek since Alexander’s rule in third century before Christ. Therefore we’ll take a cultural view of the Gentile from a Hellenist or Greek usage.  (After all, most Greeks were considered Gentiles by Jews living in any land.)

    We ourselves are Jews by birth and not gentile sinners – Paul’s letter to the Galatians 2:15

    A Gentile in the time of Christ

    Luke, of course, was born a Gentile. Yet Luke does not refer to any person as “a gentile” and Christ’s only naming a person as a gentile makes connection to a groups of people.

    Matthew 18:17 ἐὰν δὲ παρακούσῃ αὐτῶν εἰπὲ τῇ ἐκκλησίᾳ ἐὰν δὲ καὶ τῆς ἐκκλησίας παρακούσῃ ἔστω σοι ὥσπερ ὁ ἐθνικὸς καὶ ὁ τελώνης

    If he refuses to listen to them, tell it to the church. And if he refuses to listen even to the church, let him be to you as a Gentile and a tax collector.

    Matthew (a Jew and a tax collector) quotes Jesus’ instructions to the church (plural) about differences with individuals. Gentiles is a plural reference to nations not of Jewish heritage.

    ἔθνος – ethnos

    • a multitude (whether of men or of beasts) associated or living together
    • a multitude of individuals of the same nature or genus: the human family
    • a tribe, nation, people group
    • in the OT, foreign nations not worshiping the true God, pagans, Gentiles
    • Paul uses the term for Gentile Christians

    Strong’s Definitions 
    ἔθνος éthnos, eth’-nos; a race (as of the same habit), i.e. a tribe; specially, a foreign (non-Jewish) one (usually, by implication, pagan):—Gentile, heathen, nation, people.

    Refer to someone as a gentile and we may not get it, but ethnos or ethnic we understand as culture.  Luke’s gospel is clear witness of the importance of Jesus to both Jew and Gentile.

    Luke 2:

    30 for my eyes have seen your salvation
    31 that you have prepared in the presence of all peoples,
    32 a light for revelation to the Gentiles,
    and for glory to your people Israel.”

    Luke expounds further on Jesus’ importance to the Nations (other ethnicities) in the Acts of the Apostles. Mathew’s gospel also addresses the ethnos of the Messiah and like Luke, also quoting a Prophet.

    Matthew 4:

    … he went and lived in Capernaum by the sea, in the territory of Zebulun and Naphtali, 14 so that what was spoken by the prophet Isaiah might be fulfilled:

    15 “The land of Zebulun and the land of Naphtali,
    the way of the sea, beyond the Jordan, Galilee of the Gentiles—
    16 the people dwelling in darkness
    have seen a great light,
    and for those dwelling in the region and shadow of death,
    on them a light has dawned.”

    17 From that time Jesus began to preach, saying, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.”

    A Gentile not like us

    Therefore, gentiles (ethnos) are those not like us. Different skin color, different language, different food, a different culture and yes, different gods.

    The following excepts are take from International Standard Bible Encyclopaedia

    Gentiles – jen’-tilz (goy, plural goyim; ethnos, “people,” “nation”): Goy (or Goi) is rendered “Gentiles” in the King James Version in some 30 passages, but much more frequently “heathen,” and oftener still, “nation,” … commonly used for a non-Israelitish people…

    Under Old Testament regulations they were simply non-Israelites, not from the stock of Abraham, but they were not hated or despised for that reason, and were to be treated almost on a plane of equality, except certain tribes in Canaan…

    But as we approach the Christian era the attitude of the Jews toward the Gentiles changes, until we find, in New Testament times, the most extreme aversion, scorn and hatred. They were regarded as unclean… All children born of mixed marriages were bastards.

    If we inquire what the reason of this change was we shall find it in the conditions of the exiled Jews, who suffered the bitterest treatment at the hands of their Gentile captors and who, after their return and establishment in Judea, were in constant conflict with neighboring tribes and especially with the Greek rulers of Syria. The fierce persecution of Antiochus IV, who attempted to blot out their religion and Hellenize the Jews, and the desperate struggle for independence, created in them a burning patriotism and zeal for their faith which culminated in the rigid exclusiveness we see in later times.

    A Centurion’s Faith

    Perhaps the best illustration of Jesus’ love for the Gentiles comes from Luke’s story of an encounter initiated by genuine love of a Roman official for his Jewish servant. In it Jesus highlights an exemplary example of faith in this Gentile Roman.

    Jesus returns home to Capernaum after teaching the people in other places. A Roman Centurion had messengers waiting to see Jesus. The local Jews in Capernaum understand both the message and the reason for this Gentile Roman soldier wanting to see Jesus. They had been asked to have Jesus come to heal this man’s servant.

    Luke 7:

    6 And Jesus went with them.

    When he was not far from the house, the centurion sent friends, saying to him, “Lord, do not trouble yourself, for I am not worthy to have you come under my roof. 7 Therefore I did not presume to come to you. But say the word, and let my servant be healed. 8 For I too am a man set under authority, with soldiers under me: and I say to one, ‘Go,’ and he goes; and to another, ‘Come,’ and he comes; and to my servant, ‘Do this,’ and he does it.”

    9 When Jesus heard these things, he marveled at him, and turning to the crowd that followed him, said, “I tell you, not even in Israel have I found such faith.”

    10 And when those who had been sent returned to the house, they found the servant well.

    Jesus heals a Jewish servant of a Gentile (without even enter the servant’s room). Faith of the Roman Centurion illustrates the love of Jesus also, His great compassion. For the Jews of Capernaum had told Jesus of this man, ” “He is worthy to have you do this for him, 5 for he loves our nation, and he is the one who built us our synagogue.”

    The local Jews praise a Roman Gentile for building a place to worship to the Lord. Think about it. A Gentile man of faith has already stood before Capernaum as an example of a man who loved others. This Gentile meets the Lord Jesus, who heals one he loves.  Consequently Jesus says, “I tell you, not even in Israel have I found such faith.”

    Our Gentile faith

    Jesus doesn’t look much like a Roman. For that matter our Lord does not look European or African or American. In so many ways Jesus does not look like other Jews or even Galileans. Yet He comes to you and encounters you personally.

    Will the Lord find such faith in me or in you, even though we differ in so many ways?

    In personal encounters with His followers for forty days Jesus has so much to tell Disciples now sent to all the nations. After His victorious Resurrection from the Cross of Sacrifice the Gospel is sent out not only to a faithful remnant of the Jews, but to the world.  Gentiles of the generations have this same faith until His certain return that we are chosen by the Lord, Christ Jesus.

    Isaiah 42:

    The Lord‘s Chosen Servant

    42 Behold my servant, whom I uphold,
        my chosen, in whom my soul delights;
    I have put my Spirit upon him;
        he will bring forth justice to the nations.
    2 He will not cry aloud or lift up his voice,
        or make it heard in the street;
    3 a bruised reed he will not break,
        and a faintly burning wick he will not quench;
        he will faithfully bring forth justice.
    4 He will not grow faint or be discouraged
        till he has established justice in the earth;
        and the coastlands wait for his law.

    5 Thus says God, the Lord,
        who created the heavens and stretched them out,
        who spread out the earth and what comes from it,
    who gives breath to the people on it
        and spirit to those who walk in it:
    6 “I am the Lord; I have called you in righteousness;
        I will take you by the hand and keep you;
    I will give you as a covenant for the people,
        a light for the nations,
    7     to open the eyes that are blind,
    to bring out the prisoners from the dungeon,
        from the prison those who sit in darkness.
    8 I am the Lord; that is my name;
        my glory I give to no other,
        nor my praise to carved idols.
    9 Behold, the former things have come to pass,
        and new things I now declare;
    before they spring forth
        I tell you of them.”

    Faith’s Certainty in Christ

    Jesus will send the Holy Spirit of the Lord to dwell with men and women of faith. He sends out disciples, Jews and Gentiles, in faith. The Lord IS the Good News, the Gospel of Light to those with eyes to see. 

    A Day of His return, the judgment of all flesh and restoration of all righteousness draws near. Shall His wrath not justify making the end of all sin and death?

    Beloved believer, your sin and mine did cause His suffering and Sacrifice. Does your love for Jesus and faith anticipate the grace of His return?

    Jesus IS LORD! 

    May He draw us together into the glory of His eternal love.

    Amen.

  • That you may have Certainty in these Uncertain Times

    That you may have Certainty in these Uncertain Times

    Certainty? Who has Any Good News?

    Luke addresses uncertainty in uncertain times with a comforting witness:

    .. many have undertaken .. a narrative .. from eyewitnesses .. 

    .. it seemed good to me also, having followed all things closely for some time past, to write an orderly account for you,

    .. that you may have certainty concerning the things you have been taught. – Excerpt Luke 1:1-4

    Consider events of this past week or most recent months? Any good news of consequence other than feel-good fluff? Uncertainty seems to rule the day.

    We live in a world filled with  headlines of hopelessness and endless debates of speculative fear. And as I consider unexpected wars between rich rulers I sense only uncertain futures in these times. 

    Yet do not despair, beloved friend; for we proclaim a gospel of hope in times of hopelessness.  We preach a gospel of certainty in uncertain times, life eternal in Christ Jesus.

    What Gospel after the Resurrection?

    Transitions bring uncertainty even to those comfortable with trusting God. Jesus’ disciples had just fifty more days to learn to trust in a new and certain covenant with the Lord. Then upon His ascension into the clouds the Holy Spirit would confirm their new certainty. 

    The opening words of the meticulous physician historian Luke affirm his purpose:

    ‘that you may have certainty concerning the things you have been taught.’

    Jesus taught the Disciples, who subsequently taught others with His authority. Like Paul and Mark,  Luke was a follower of The Way who had access to the Jesus’ Disciples.

    Luke records their certain witness near the  end of the first century, A.D. in Luke-Acts, a two-scroll history.

    More to Come

    In this next series we will examine the transitional time of uncertainty just a few years after the ascension of Jesus. We will also take a look back to Joshua, who led the Hebrew people through another transitional time after the death of Moses.

    Conquering the Promised Land in many ways parallels the uncertain task of Jesus’ followers proclaiming the Gospel to the entire world. The old and new commissions both depend on the Lord. And lest we forget, our own uncertain times in this 21st century after Christ require much faith. 

    Trust in the LORD forever,
    for the LORD GOD is an everlasting rock.

    Isaiah 26:4

    To be continued…