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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.

  • PK’s, EK’s, DK’s: Our kids; God’s kids

    PK’s, EK’s, DK’s: Our kids; God’s kids

    The purpose of my instruction is that all believers would be filled with love that comes from a pure heart, a clear conscience, and genuine faith.  – 1 Timothy 1:5 NLT

    If you haven’t guessed, our focus is on ‘Preacher’s Kid’s, Elder’s Kids and Deacon’s kids and the focus of scripture is Paul’s letter to Timothy, Paul’s son in the faith and pastor of a church. So as to not get entangled in particular setting and certain persons, here it is in part.

    1 Timothy 1

    Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus by command of God our Savior and of Christ Jesus our hope…

    To Timothy, my true child in the faith: Grace, mercy, and peace from God the Father and Christ Jesus our Lord.

    To begin, note Paul’s greeting to this preacher’s kid (of a sort). Note Paul’s endearment of Timothy as not only his colleague in the faith who happens to be the pastor of an important church, but his public building up to the congregation (or gathering of his church) of Timothy as: “my true child in the faith.” Although Timothy was not a biological child of Paul, certainly the church would acknowledge him as a disciple of the Apostle, just as in an earlier time the Prophet Elisha would have been known as a disciple of the Prophet Elijah.

    The church would be watching this ‘preacher’s kid’ to see how he would get about when the preacher was no longer present. He would soon be as a Joshua after Moses in leading the church through the difficult territory of the place of faith after the Apostles were martyred for Christ Jesus.

    Paul continues:

    I urged you… to … remain … so that you may charge certain persons not to teach any different doctrine,  nor to devote themselves to myths… rather than the stewardship from God that is by faith.

    5 The aim of our charge is love that issues from a pure heart and a good conscience and a sincere faith.

    Certain persons, by swerving from these, have wandered away into vain discussion,  desiring to be teachers … without understanding either what they are saying or the things about which they make confident assertions.

    Paul, by this introduction to the church, sets up a structure of leadership and accountability for the leaders chosen by the church. We have many names for these (in our different traditions): Pastor, Reverend, Rector, Father, Bishop, Brother, Elder, Deacon, Minister. 

    Although Paul, Peter, James, leader of the church of Jerusalem in the first century and John, only surviving Apostle to the churches who though not martyred was persecuted, tortured and exiled – although the Preachers of the early church entrusted the Gospel into the hearts of faithful disciples of their teaching; these prescribed neither hierarchy nor anarchy of committee for the direction of the church.

    Rather, the Apostles and early leaders of the church agreed in the Spirit to continue in preaching Christ crucified, died, resurrected in the body and present in the Spirit for continuation of the Gospel to all the ends of the earth. It is never: Peter’s church or Paul’s church, Apollos’ teachings or John’s churches, John Mark’s writings or Timothy’s preaching.

    For no leader or over-seer is of ANY importance in the light of the Gospel of Christ Jesus.

    The church is no longer – in the sense of the Jews being the chosen family of God through Abraham, Isaac, Joseph, Moses, David (and oh, did I mention Jacob, who God renamed: Israel?) – the congregation or gathering of the believers of God to worship is no longer a family in the sense of genealogy and ancestry; but a holy family in the true relational sense of being part of the household of God the Father and a brother of the Son of God, King and heir of the Throne of Glory, of which He IS a part, along with the Father and the Holy Spirit.

    Neither is the church to regard a holy family of Jesus in the worship of earthly ancestry. Worship the LORD only in the light of the Gospel of Christ Jesus, who together with the Father and the HOLY Spirit is glorified. No angel, no departed saint and no ancestry of example of faith is worthy of the worship deserved ONLY by God Incarnate, in the Person of Christ Jesus.

    In a true sense of our family connected by the grace of Christ Jesus and the gospel of our certain hope by faith in the resurrection and our own eternal life, we are children living in witness of the Living God, a preaching member of the Royal Household of our Heavenly King, Christ Jesus, who IS and will return to this temporal earth once more in victory over sin and death.

     To be continued… (Saturday, 28 June, 2014, God-willing)

     

  • The Gospel of the Kingdom – 2

    The Gospel of the Kingdom – 2

    Matthew 24:14 And this gospel of the kingdom will be proclaimed throughout the whole world as a testimony to all nations, and then the end will come.

    • “Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. – Matthew 5:3
    • “Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness’ sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. – Matthew 5:10

    Your kingdom come,
    your will be done,
    on earth as it is in heaven.

    Matthew 6:12

    • “… But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you. – Matthew 6:33
    • “Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. – Matthew 7:21

    Returning to the witness of the Gospel by Stephen, for a moment, and a thread of Scripture between Moses and Jesus:

    Acts 7:

    35 “This Moses, whom they rejected, saying, ‘Who made you a ruler and a judge?’—this man God sent as both ruler and redeemer by the hand of the angel who appeared to him in the bush. 36 This man led them out, performing wonders and signs in Egypt and at the Red Sea and in the wilderness for forty years. 37 This is the Moses who said to the Israelites, ‘God will raise up for you a prophet like me from your brothers.’

    38 This is the one who was in the congregation in the wilderness with the angel who spoke to him at Mount Sinai, and with our fathers. He received living oracles to give to us. 39 Our fathers refused to obey him, but thrust him aside, and in their hearts they turned to Egypt, 40 saying to Aaron, ‘Make for us gods who will go before us. As for this Moses who led us out from the land of Egypt, we do not know what has become of him.’

    Was not Christ Jesus, Redeemer of the world from our sins, rejected in this same way?

    Then for our sin, He became the Very Sacrifice before God the Father for our sins!

    Jesus proclaimed the Good News for sinner at the beginning of these last days. Jesus will proclaim the Day of the sound of the Trumpet at the final hour of these last days.

    His Kingdom come.

    His will be done

    On earth as it is in Heaven.

    “I and the Father are One.” – John 10:30

    “Whoever has seen me has seen the Father. – John 14:9b

    Matthew 24:

    3 As he sat on the Mount of Olives, the disciples came to him privately, saying, “Tell us, when will these things be, and what will be the sign of your coming and of the end of the age?”

    4 And Jesus answered them, “See that no one leads you astray.

    5 For many will come in my name, saying, ‘I am the Christ,’ and they will lead many astray. 6 And you will hear of wars and rumors of wars. See that you are not alarmed, for this must take place, but the end is not yet. 7 For nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom, and there will be famines and earthquakes in various places. 8 All these are but the beginning of the birth pains…

    27 For as the lightning comes from the east and shines as far as the west, so will be the coming of the Son of Man. 28 Wherever the corpse is, there the vultures will gather.

    The Coming of the Son of Man

    29 “Immediately after the tribulation of those days the sun will be darkened, and the moon will not give its light, and the stars will fall from heaven, and the powers of the heavens will be shaken.

    30 Then will appear in heaven the sign of the Son of Man,

    and then all the tribes of the earth will mourn,

    and they will see the Son of Man coming on the clouds of heaven with power and great glory.

    31 And he will send out his angels with a loud trumpet call,

    and they will gather his elect from the four winds, from one end of heaven to the other…

    “Even so, come Lord Jesus.

    The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you all. Amen.

    Revelation 22:20b-21 KJV

     

     

  • The Gospel of the Kingdom

    The Gospel of the Kingdom

    Matthew 9:35 And Jesus went throughout all the cities and villages, teaching in their synagogues and proclaiming the gospel of the kingdom and healing every disease and every affliction.

    What is the gospel?

    More specifically, what is the gospel of the kingdom which Jesus proclaimed?

    To begin, look back to the centuries and millennia at the role of kings in general.

    Kings do not rule a republic. Kings do not rule a democracy. The power of a king is absolute and those who rule in the king’s domain (territory, dominion, lands) tell the king’s people (subjects) what to do and because they are subjects of the king the people must do what their king demands.

    The message is NOT one from a common subject to other subjects of the king. No, a proclamation is written and spoken by the authority of the king and ruler of his subjects. This is true of the Kingship of God, as well as that of a mortal king.

    The ‘proclamation, qara‘ is spoken to the subjects of the king with the expectation of obedience by the king’s subjects. Someone (in the Bible, sometimes an angel or a Prophet) has met with the king (or with God our Heavenly King), heard the message or news to be heralded or proclaimed and by authority of the king, he tells everyone.

    Most are familiar with the first announcements of the gospel of the Kingdom of God.

    Luke 2:10-11 KJV  And the angel said unto them, Fear not: for, behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy, which shall be to all people. For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Saviour, which is Christ the Lord.

    The announcement by an angel from God is that the King has been born, a King of the Jews, as Jesus will come to be known as He becomes the sacrifice for our sins on a Cross.

    God is NOT like any other mortal king and God has proclaimed Himself through Scripture.

    Exodus 19:7 So Moses came and called the elders of the people and set before them all these words that the Lord had commanded him.

    Moses is proclaiming the gospel of God. Moses has met with the King of Creation and proclaims the good news to the captives of Pharaoh.

    8 All the people answered together and said,

    “All that the Lord has spoken we will do.”

    The Hebrew slaves of Pharaoh might as well have said, “We accept the LORD as our King in the place of Pharaoh our king.”

    And Moses reported the words of the people to the Lord.

    9 And the Lord said to Moses, “Behold, I am coming to you in a thick cloud, that the people may hear when I speak with you, and may also believe you forever.”

    Again, God! our King and Leader and Ruler and Sovereign, and Creator of all things, judge of all souls!

    Christ Jesus IS God incarnate; that is: Jesus Christ is GOD in the flesh!  He has set the captives of this world free from sin and the ruler of this world.

    What had happened earlier, when God our Heavenly King challenged the king of Egypt (Pharaoh) with plagues and curses on the lands Pharaoh ruled, a land where the Hebrew people had been subjects of the lowest caste as slaves below every man and woman of Egypt?

    Why had God chosen to take His own subjects, chosen by His covenant through Abraham, Isaac, Jacob and Joseph?

    (Here is God’s proclamation to Pharaoh, a mere mortal king of men, through Moses.)

    Exodus 9: ‘Thus says the Lord, the God of the Hebrews,

    “Let my people go, that they may serve me. 14 For this time I will send all my plagues on you yourself, and on your servants and your people, so that you may know that there is none like me in all the earth. 15 For by now I could have put out my hand and struck you and your people with pestilence, and you would have been cut off from the earth.

    16 But for this purpose I have raised you up, to show you my power, so that my name may be proclaimed in all the earth.

    And from the days of Moses until this day the Name and Power of God is proclaimed in all the earth and the miracles the LORD did for His people of Israel in the desert at Sinai, as they were led from the slavery of Pharaoh to God’s promised land.

     Set Me Free – Castings Crows

    To be continued…