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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.

  • Fully Trained – 2

    Fully Trained – 2

    The gospel of Luke carefully records truth from eyewitness accounts of numerous historical citizens of the first century.

    The following is a fictional representation continued from our previous episode of such eyewitness of one of Jesus’ first disciples.

    As I said before, we followed Jesus when the angry crowd drove him from our hometown Nazareth. Some of my friends accompanied us hoping to hear more of Jesus preaching like in our synagogue. I brought my wife along and our young daughter. Others brought their families as well.

    It was evening of the Sabbath (you will recall). A group of us with Jesus settled in for the night in nearby hills, safe from robbers and the like.

    Early Sunday morning Jesus prayed with us, talked with a few of the men and then we set off to the east. He led us down a familiar road through the hills descending toward the Sea of Galilee, then north along its western coastline. Most of the men among us had traveled this road to Capernaum before, about a nine or ten hour journey without women and children.

    Jesus teaching by shore

    Jesus in Capernaum

    Luke 4:

    31 And he went down to Capernaum, a city of Galilee.

    A week later on the next Sabbath some of our friends came to Capernaum. Of course some of us had returned to Nazareth to work during the week, but once again made a return trip hoping to hear Jesus in their synagogue. Of course our tradition is to welcome rabbis from other towns and tribes to speak in our local synagogues. Everyone especially wanted to hear this great new teacher of Israel – in Capernaum, in Chorazin, in Nain. Word about the Messiah spread quickly.

    And he was teaching them on the Sabbath, 32 and they were astonished at his teaching, for his word possessed authority.

    Jesus taught these Capernaum Jews from a different scripture, also from the Prophet Isaiah, given to him by the head rabbi. Jesus’ teaching had the same authority with which He had taught in Nazareth. But this time something happened that interrupted Jesus’ teaching.

    33 And in the synagogue there was a man who had the spirit of an unclean demon, and he cried out with a loud voice, 34 “Ha! What have you to do with us, Jesus of Nazareth? Have you come to destroy us?

    Now we had all seen crazy people before, but no man dared to speak out in such a manner in a place of worship. It was what came out of this man’s mouth that amazed all:

    “I know who you are—the Holy One of God.”

    Confirmation. Even a crazed man with a demon witnessing that this is the awaited Messiah!

    35 But Jesus rebuked him, saying, “Be silent and come out of him!”

    And when the demon had thrown him down in their midst, he came out of him, having done him no harm.

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    The mad man was no longer the same. Now he had peace – a smile on his face, thanksgiving in his eyes and muscles still as a windless sea. The man now sat still on the floor of their synagogue as we looked at him and then to Jesus with unfathomable awe.

    36 And they were all amazed and said to one another, “What is this word? For with authority and power he commands the unclean spirits, and they come out!”

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    We all witnessed it: the Messiah ordered unclean spirits to silence. Jesus ordered the demons to come out of the man… and out of the man they went, as he now sat before us in great peace.

    37 And reports about him went out into every place in the surrounding region.

    To be continued…

  • Fully Trained – 1

    Fully Trained – 1

    …everyone when he is fully trained will be like his teacher.

    – Luke 6:40b

    What do these followers of Jesus look like? Would you recognize a disciple in a crowd?

    When the Lord, Christ Jesus began His three-year teaching mission He called disciples and from them appointed twelve Apostles, an inner circle of leaders among many disciples to be sent out with the gospel.

    Jesus immediately glorified as a teacher of Galilean Jews

    Luke 4:14 And Jesus returned in the power of the Spirit to Galilee, and a report about him went out through all the surrounding country. 15 And he taught in their synagogues, being glorified by all.

    The gospel of Luke carefully records truth from eyewitness accounts of numerous historical citizens of the first century.

    The following is a fictional representation of witness of one of Jesus’ first disciples. 

    “I was in our synagogue the day our rabbi handed the scroll of the prophet Isaiah to Jesus. He read part of a passage so familiar to most of us:

    Luke 4:18 “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me,
    because he has anointed me
    to proclaim good news to the poor.
    He has sent me to proclaim liberty to the captives
    and recovering of sight to the blind,
    to set at liberty those who are oppressed,
    19 to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.”

    Isaiah had prophesied even more of what we had prayed for through many generations:

    To appoint unto them that mourn in Zion, to give unto them beauty for ashes, the oil of joy for mourning, the garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness; that they might be called trees of righteousness, the planting of the LORD, that he might be glorified. – Isaiah 61:3

    How we all hoped that this radiant new rabbi before us would offer such hope.

    Perhaps He would be the one to save us from our captivity by the Romans. And do you know what He said?

     “Today this Scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing.”

    – Luke 4:21b

    Yes! Of course this Jesus seems in every way to be our promised Messiah.

    But then He said some things which were not too nice about Israel (our former country before we were defeated). Most everybody got angry. Some of them even tried to run him out of Nazareth where we all grew up with him. But not me… and not some of my friends.

    No, we knew Jesus was much more than just a carpenter; really, we always saw that anytime we encountered Him. You could tell. Jesus was pleasantly unlike no other man, yet so much like us… like the men we wanted to be.

    So Jesus of Nazareth (as the Judeans would later call Him out of disrespect) slipped out of town right through the middle of the crowd near me and my friends.

    We looked at one another and right then decided we needed to hear more of Jesus’ teaching.

    What did He mean when in the synagogue Jesus said, “Today this Scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing?”

    So some of us gathered our families together to follow this promised Teacher of Israel into the mountains to hear more and later into nearby towns like Capernaum. We just had to hear what Jesus had to say.

    holy-land--mount-tabor-munir-alawi (1)

    To be continued…

  • Days of Despair

    Days of Despair

     In Christ we have a Light of hope in a season of our dark despair.

    Job 30:

    16 “And now my soul is poured out within me;
        days of affliction have taken hold of me.
    17 The night racks my bones,
        and the pain that gnaws me takes no rest.

    Have you ever had a bad time in life like this?

    18 With great force my garment is disfigured;
        it binds me about like the collar of my tunic.
    19 God has cast me into the mire,
        and I have become like dust and ashes.
    20 I cry to you for help and you do not answer me;
        I stand, and you only look at me.

    IF you even ask, do you sometimes feel like God does not answer you?

    21 You have turned cruel to me;
        with the might of your hand you persecute me.
    22 You lift me up on the wind; you make me ride on it,
        and you toss me about in the roar of the storm.
    23 For I know that you will bring me to death
        and to the house appointed for all living.

     

    Does despair, inward pain and silence from God turn your Christmas joy into a longing for the gift of hope?

     

    26 But when I hoped for good, evil came,
        and when I waited for light, darkness came.

    27 My inward parts are in turmoil and never still;
        days of affliction come to meet me.

    28 I go about darkened, but not by the sun;
        I stand up in the assembly and cry for help.

    Bible trivia: Job is the oldest of any book of the Bible written approximately 2100-1800 B.C.

     

    Job was a righteous man who had some big troubles test his faith. Perhaps you think that you are a righteous man or woman as well. You do mostly good. You live like you should (for the most part).

    You cry out to God for help… and nothing…

    Job could not help himself, except to pray to God. Often, neither can you or I.

    This time of year you may hear the familiar Christmas nativity story told by either Luke or Matthew. If we were to read on in Matthew to a time thirty years later when Jesus first began His teaching, we would read how our Lord heals the afflictions of mankind.

    Matthew 4:

    23 And he went throughout all Galilee, teaching in their synagogues and proclaiming the gospel of the kingdom and healing every disease and every affliction among the people.

    24 So his fame spread throughout all Syria, and they brought him all the sick, those afflicted with various diseases and pains,those oppressed by demons, epileptics, and paralytics, and he healed them.25 And great crowds followed him from Galilee and the Decapolis, and from Jerusalem and Judea, and from beyond the Jordan.

     

    Are you just one in the Christmas crowds who follow Jesus just to see if He will heal someone else?

    Jesus Christ IS the balm for your wounded soul and the salvation of your sinful flesh.

    Hear these words of encouragement from the Apostle Paul to the church at Corinth:

    2 Corinthians 4:

    But we have this treasure in jars of clay, to show that the surpassing power belongs to God and not to us. 

    We are afflicted in every way, but not crushed;

    perplexed, but not driven to despair; 

    persecuted, but not forsaken;

    struck down, but not destroyed;

    always carrying in the body the death of Jesus,

    so that the life of Jesus may also be manifested in our bodies.

     

    To be continued…

    This look at the afflictions of Job is the third installment in my Christmas series in the year of our Lord, 2015.